Research Proposal Essay Example for Free

Research Proposal Essay This research project is entitled ‘Safe pedestrian practices: the perception of children in Sri Lanka’. Road traffic accidents are one of leading causes of death amongst child pedestrians in low-income countries. Despite this, little research has been done into effective interventions to reduce child mortality in these countries. This study aims to provide original and useful data from Colombo, Sri Lanka which will help in the development of new or existing road safety interventions and education, particularly in relation to child knowledge and perception. The method of research involves recruiting school children aged 8-9 years from the Holy Family Convent and St. Peter’s College schools situated on Galle road, Colombo. These schools have been selected as they have similar location, one being a girls school, the other a boys school. The first part of the study involves a draw and write technique where the children will be asked to draw a picture of themselves crossing Galle road, the main road by their school. They will then be given a piece of paper with the instruction ‘tell me what you have drawn and why’. Six children from each class will be then purposively selected to take part in a focus group. Content analysis will be used when analysing this section of the results. Finally I will carry out a two day observation of child pedestrian behaviour on Galle road. Behaviour of the children will be compared using the UK’s Green Cross Code. It is estimated that the research will take approximately four weeks to complete. This includes, recruiting and gaining consent from the participants, carrying out the draw and write activity, completing two focus groups and carrying out the observational study. The estimated cost of this research  £1163. Background Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with 86% of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries despite accounting for only 40% of motor vehicles[i]. RTAs are the overriding cause of child injuries killing approximately 180 000 children under 15 each year. Children are rarely the cause of road traffic accidents but suffer as pedestrians, cyclists and passengers[ii]. Lack of research in low-income countries has meant a slow introduction of effective intervention strategies to reduce the mortality rates. Many factors are accountable for the high RTA rates in low-income countries including impaired driving, lack of enforcement and vehicle type. However the most significant differences found in low-income countries are the wide variation in road vehicles and the high number of vulnerable road users. The mixture of road users including pedestrians, bicycles, handcarts, mopeds, rickshaws, motorcycles, vans, cars, trucks and buses means that schemes to combat this problem have not been required in the same extent in high-income countries and therefore local research is needed[iii]. Child pedestrians account for a large proportion of vulnerable road users. The high number of pedestrian and cyclist casualties in these countries reflects not only their inherent vulnerability but also insufficient attention to their needs in policy-making3. A study in Pakistan observed 250 pedestrians in the top 10 risk areas for pedestrian RTAs in Karachi. They observed walking and crossing the road and walking on the pavement. Only 60% of the pedestrians looked left and right before crossing. 52% crossed the street less than 2 seconds before a vehicle passed the point they had just crossed. 35% caused the traffic to swerve to avoid the observed pedestrian. Of the 250 pedestrians observed walking on the street edge, 82% had a pavement available to them but were not using it[iv]. Of the pedestrians using pavements 28% encountered an encroachment and 84% of these stepped on to the street to avoid it. Among those who were observed stepping on the road from the sidewalk, 66% did not look out for oncoming traffic4. Possible study limitations were that only pedestrian behaviour was studied, not actual accidents and the study sites were the top ten risk sites for RTAs in Karachi so may not be transferable to other situations. The advantage of this data is that it was carried out in a low-income country which means the findings can be drawn on for other settings. Policy changes such as restricting the amount of pavement space being used by stalls or shops and publicity to highlight the danger of such behaviour along with the important of observation when crossing roads may make a large difference to fatality rates. Risk perception has been widely studied as a risk factor for injuries however literature relating to child pedestrian safety is seriously lacking. Zeedyk et al[v] carried out research on children who had been taught a programme of road safety. They carried out two studies, both focussing on the skill of finding a safe place to cross the road. Firstly they tested the effect of the programme in improving knowledge and secondly whether the children transferred their knowledge to change their behaviour in a traffic environment. Initial results encouragingly showed that the interventions were effective in increasing the children’s knowledge of safe and dangerous places to cross roads and that this information was retained for six months. The second study however showed that this knowledge did not influence behaviour and that those children who had received knowledge on safety when crossing roads behaved no differently from those children who had receive no information whatsoever. That is the children were not applying the knowledge they had displayed during pre-testing5. The study’s main limitation is that it does not allow any further information on why the children didn’t apply their knowledge in the real situation, only that they didn’t. Research in Australia[vi] into the parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety found that cultural risk factors significantly affected risk perception and safety behaviour. The results showed that Chinese and Arabic speaking parents perceived the road environment to be significantly less risky to their children than parents from the other two language groups. One significant limitation of this study is that assumptions were made that the language spoken by an individual was closely linked to their cultural make-up. Since the main finding was the differences between perceptions from different cultural groups it seems important that this factor is reliable. Despite this, this study reinforces the need for local research from which local interventions can be implemented. As described there is very little research on road safety in low-income countries, particularly regarding the safety of child pedestrians. Intervention strategies to help reduce child pedestrian mortality can only be implemented if the factors underlying the increasing rates are established. It is hoped this study will help to describe the behaviour and perceptions of children in a named area in Sri Lanka regarding safe pedestrian practice. The study will help build on existing knowledge of child pedestrian safety but provide an original and detailed description of the behaviour and perceptions of Sri Lankan children in a defined area. The data produced from this study will identify the knowledge and behaviour of child pedestrians, what they perceive to be safe practices and why they think this. This study anticipates highlighting the importance of child perception in safety behaviours. Child perceptions should be taken into account when considering the design of safety education programmes and road safety interventions. Research Question The background literature shows a clear gap in research into the behaviour, knowledge and perceptions of child pedestrians in low-income countries. The research question for this study is: Child pedestrian fatalities: the accountability of child perceptions in Sri Lanka The aim of this study is to discover the perceptions children in Sri Lanka have regarding road safety and specifically related to their own safety as pedestrians which may influence their risk of being involved in a RTA. The results of this study will enable a greater understanding of how a defined group of children in Colombo, Sri Lanka use the local roads, what they know about road safety, how they perceive it and therefore whether they generally behave in accordance to their knowledge and perceptions. This was discussed above by Zeedyk et al5 who found the knowledge of the children in their study did not affect their behaviour. The objectives of this study are to: Observe and record the road behaviour of children in the local area Identify what the children know about pedestrian safety Discover whether the children know why certain practices are safe Make comparisons between what the children know about road safety and say they are aware of and how they behave in the real situation Detailed Research Proposal pedestrian injury Children are particularly vulnerable to pedestrian death because they are exposed to traffic threats that exceed their cognitive, developmental, behavioral, physical and sensory abilities. This is exacerbated by the fact that parents overestimate their children’s pedestrian skills. Children are impulsive and have difficulty judging speed, spatial relations, and distance. Auditory and visual acuity, depth perception and proper scanning ability develop gradually and do not fully mature until at least age 10. Method RTA death rates in Sri Lanka totalled 11 per 100 000 population in 1995[vii] with pedestrian accidents accounting for 45% of the total fatal accidents, one of the highest rates in Asia[viii]. The research will be carried out among children in Sri Lanka. The selected site is Galle Road, Colombo which is the main road from Colombo to Galle along the west coast of Sri Lanka and is the location of a number of schools. The assumption will be made that the majority of child pedestrians walking alongside and crossing that particular road are from one of the local schools. The study population will be girls and boys aged 5-15 years old attending schools in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Research shows RTAs predominantly affect those under the age of 15 [ix]. Schools in Sri Lanka are commonly single sex which means children will be selected from 2 schools, St Peter’s College, a boys’ school and Holy Family Convent, a girls’ school. Worldwide, boys are more likely to be affected by RTAs than girls so studying boys and girls may highlight important differences which could account for such a difference between them[x] [xi]. I was unable to find any research indicating which children are most at risk of RTAs only that those under 15 are an increased risk compared to the rest of the population. Research from Canada suggests children aged 6-9 years are most at risk and in a survey on children’s road safety practice several countries including the UK, New Zealand and the US identified those under 10 as most at risk[xii]. Research such as this in low income countries is scarce. Consequently I have decided to select the age groups 7-8 and 9-10 years as my sample. The methods being used in this study have been deemed inappropriate for children under 6 to carry out. Two classes of children, aged 7-8 and 9-10 from each of the schools mentioned year group will be studied, giving a total of 4 classes. Variations in ages might allow for difference in safety knowledge due to age to be identified. For example if the younger children perceive a certain dangerous practice to be safe and the same results are found in the older children this may indicate a problem with safety education or local road dangers rather than naivety due to age.

Victim Likelihood Age

Victim Likelihood Age Introduction: Studies indicate that the aged are more vulnerable to criminal activities, as compared to other age groups. This is because these people are socially isolated, always tend to live in rural areas, and have predictable behavioral patterns. The aged are also mentally and physically weak, and this is a great contribution to their visibility, making them vulnerable to crime (Fisher and Lab, 2010). Other scholars further denote that the elderly are vulnerable to crime, in circumstance when they leave their homes, and as a result, they are exposed to people who have a criminal intention. Contrary to the belief of many people, the aged are people who are least victimized when it comes to index crimes, as compared to other age groups (Rothman, 2000). However, the aged are always vulnerable to robbery, fraud, and purse snatching. On the other hand, older people, who are under the care of home facilities, are vulnerable to emotional and physical abuse (Payne, 2000). This is because family members might fail to visit them occasionally, or the staff of home care organizations might defraud them of their belongings. One of the major problems that old people suffer from is fear of crime. This problem is accelerated because of the various criminal reporting by the media, which always makes older people to have a perception that there exists higher rates of crime, while in the real sense, the crime rates are low (Fisher and Lab, 2010). Due to these perceptions in crime rates, and fear of crime amongst the elderly, the government is forced to fund studies on victimization, victim services, and prevention programs. Most prevention programs that the government always funds, includes neighborhood watches, public security education, external lighting, community policing, and home security services (Rothman, 2000). Vulnerability of the aged People: Physical Crime: Because of a decrease in physical ability, and an increase in physical frailty, the aged are always vulnerable to physical injuries (Fisher and Lab, 2010). It is based on this fact that the aged are vulnerable to the crime of purse snatching. The aged will be unable to follow after the purse snatcher, who is most likely to be a young person. This is because, the purse snatcher might have more speed, as compared to the aged, and chances are high that the aged might get injured in case they resist the robbery attempt, and this is mainly because they do not have the strength to fight back (Fisher and Lab, 2010). Other physical crimes that the elderly are vulnerable to includes, Rape Murder Home robbery/burglary Fraud or scams. Financial Crime The aged are always vulnerable to financial crimes, such as theft of their financial products. This normally occurs by people that the aged trust, or close family members. Other may be forced to create and sign a will, against their expectations and desires. The aged are vulnerable to these crimes, because they normally survive on a fixed income, which always does not reflect the rising standards of living (Fisher and Lab, 2010). Due to poor vision also, the aged are unable to read or write, and on this basis, they may rely on a close relative or friend, who might defraud them, in case they bare writing a will, a cheque, or seeking to buy a product whose value they are unaware of (Payne, 2000). Psychological Crime The aged are always vulnerable to abuses from those people who are in charge of caring for them (Payne, 2000). The aged are vulnerable to these abuses because they are always weak, and do not have money. The aged are also vulnerable to these abuses, because they are dependent on family members for financial and physical support. This dependency makes them vulnerable to these abuses (Payne, 2000). It is important to understand that statistics prove that the aged are always emotionally abused by their family members. It is important to denote that physical abuses will always lead to stress and depression amongst the elderly (Rothman, 2000). This is because they are unable to contain emotional and physical abuses, and hence return their mentality and psychology to a pre-stress level. Programs of protecting the aged: The Triad Program: The Triad program began in 1987, when senior members of the police force, national sheriffs, and retired members of the American association came together for purposes of discussing methods and means of preventing crime (Payne, 2000). A triad is formed, when the police department in a given locality agrees to cooperate with the elderly in combating and preventing the victimization of the aged population in the given locality. These three groups are engaged in sharing resources, and ideas that would help remove the fears of the elderly. They also provide training programs that help the elderly to acquire skills that can help them gain protection from criminals, and those seeking to exploit them (Payne, 2000). On this basis, a Triad program encompasses the police, the department of the sheriff, and the association of retired individuals (Rothman, 2000). It is important to denote that the main intention of the Triad system is to prevent crime, and offer assistance to the victims of crime, who are the aged. Community Awareness Programs Community awareness programs are aimed at creating a mutual relationship between law enforcement agencies and the surrounding communities. Under these programs, the community is responsible for providing information to law enforcement agencies, regarding any criminal activity that occurs within the locality (Fisher and Lab, 2010). The criminal activity under consideration is not only limited to a crime against the aged population. Law enforcement agencies on the other hand will train members of the community on how to protect themselves, against criminals. Community policing is under these programs, and this is because the police and the members of the community cooperate in crime prevention strategies (Fisher and Lab, 2010). It is also important to denote that the American Federal government has established a criterion whereby one police officer, is supposed to serve five hundred people. This is a criterion that most state governments meet, and hence it helps in effectively preventing crime, as well as apprehending people responsible for committing crimes against the aged (Rothman, 2000). Other Programs: Establishing neighborhood watches: This involves creating neighborhood groups, responsible for looking after the community, and reporting any signs of crime within the community (Fisher and Lab, 2010). Home Security Programs. Training the elderly on how to make their homes secure, and the measures they need to undertake for purposes of becoming secure. Vial for life programs: This is a program aimed at taking crucial information to emergency medical personnel, regarding the health status of the aged. Scams and Fraud programs: This is a program that informs the aged on the various scams, and frauding techniques. Conclusion: In conclusion, the aged are a very vulnerable group, and they require great protection by law enforcement agencies. These people are always unable to protect themselves, and this is because their physical bodies are always weak. It is important to understand that in as much as the aged are vulnerable to criminal activities, the actual rate of crimes targeting the aged is smaller as compared to the actual rates of crime targeting other age groups. However, despite a low crime rate targeting this age group, it is important for policy formulators to create a system that will effectively prevent crimes against the aged, and at the same time successfully prosecute criminals who are accused of committing crimes against these people. However, to achieve success in this issue, there is a need of the entire society involved in community policing, and collaborating with the police to identify criminals who pose a threat to the aged. References: Fisher, B., Lab, S. P. (2010). Encyclopedia of victimology and crime prevention. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. Payne, B. K. (2000). Crime and elder abuse: an integrated perspective. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, Publish Rothman, M. B. (2000). Elders, crime, and the criminal justice system myth, perceptions, and reality in the 21st century. New York: Springer Pub..

Lack of Morals and Ethics in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death Salesman essays

Lack of Morals and Ethics in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Much of a person's personality is derived from his or her parents or the people with whom they live.   One's behaviors are a reflection of his or her up bringing.   All actions of others in one's environment have an impact in one's behaviors.   That is especially true of parent's influence on a child.   Nearly all morals and ethics are learned from parents. Sociologists have indicated that as time progresses American ethics have decayed immensely.   Parents in America have become more lax with their children, and the strictly enforced code of ethics seems to have diminished.   Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the consequences of the laxity of parents with regards to ethics through the relationship of Willy Loman and his two sons, Biff and Happy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rather than having played a positive role model for his sons Willy Loman, established a poor standard of morality.   For example, when Biff was in high school he was the star of the football team.   One afternoon he stole a football from the locker room.   When Willy became cognizant of Biff's actions, Wily did not punish Biff.   Instead, he told Biff that the coach was likely to congratulate Biff for his show of initiative (29, 30). Similarly, at another point in the play Biff and Happy stole lumber from a nearby construction site.   Instead of teaching the boys a lesson in ethics Willy was proud of his sons.   In fact, he bragged about the amount of construction materials the two stole (50, 51).   Willy allowed the boys to steal, which could be considered an immoral act, worse yet, Willy's praise for their actions prohibited Biff and Happy from knowing stealing was an immoral act.   Studies have shown that at a very young age children were extremely impressionable.   Teaching the difference between right and wrong would give hope for a moral future.   In the play there was little hope for Biff and Happy because Willy continued to show poor standards of morality in a positive light.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In addition to stealing, being dishonest also surfaces as an unethical behavior that was practiced and thus promoted by Willy Loman. Willy was a salesman who had a rocky past few months.

Boundaries of the I-Function in Twins :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Boundaries of the I-Function in Twins Identical, conjoined, and half-twins are all examples of intrinsic variability in humans. Intrinsic variability exists in all animals and is an adaptive mechanism built into the nervous system in response to input. This mechanism allows humans to distinguish the same inputs as different from one another and therefore, the possible outputs vary with time. It is possible that due to identical genetic input, the twins could share identical neural pathways and identical I-Functions. This hypothesis could explain the identical behaviors and inter-connectedness of feelings and thoughts that twins share. Differences that are seen in twin behaviors could simply be due to intrinsic variability causing differing output or behaviors. During ovulation, when a woman releases an ovum, three different processes can occur. First, the ovum can remain in one piece all the way to the uterus where, if not fertilized, it will be shed out of the body along with the unused endometrium. Second, the ovum, if fertilized, can develop into a single embryo, which is the most common type of pregnancy in humans with about 99% of all births being singletons (1). Finally, the ovum can split into two separate halves resulting in genetically identical twins. The three types of twins previously mentioned are identical, which are created when the fertilized ovum separates into two complete, identical parts, conjoined, which occur as a result of a fertilized ovum not completing the equal separation resulting in two fetuses fused together in some way, and half-twins or polar body twins, which are made when an unfertilized ovum splits into two complete, identical parts and is then fertilized by two different sperm. The frequency of identical twins is 3.5 per 100 births (1) and the frequency of conjoined twins is 1 birth per 50,000 with only 100 known cases surviving their first year (5). There is no scientific explanation for why an ovum splits into two or more parts. It has been observed that ovum splitting can be hereditary but can also occur spontaneously. This spontaneity or unexplained divergence from normal egg growth and fertilization could be due to intrinsic variability. This intrinsic variability could also be connected to certain differences in behavior of two genetically and culturally identical twins. Ideally, one could say that twins with identical genetic information and environments would have extremely similar, if not the same neural pathways and central pattern generators (CPGs).

Violence :: social issues

Violence The last five years have seen an increase in the stand on violence in movies. As action movies with their big stars are taken to new heights every year, more people seem to argue that the violence is influencing our country’s youth. Yet, each year, the amount of viewers also increases. This summer’s smash hit Independence Day grossed more money than any other film in history, and it was full of violence. The other summer hits included. Mission: Impossible, Courage Under Fire, and A Time to Kill. All of these movies contained violence, and all were highly acclaimed. And all, with the exception of Independence Day, were aimed toward adults who understood the violence and could separate screen violence from real violence. There is nothing wrong with having violence in film. If an adult wants to spend an evening watching Arnold Schwartzenager Save the world, then he should have that right. Film critic Hal Hinson enjoys watching movies. In fact, he fell in love with movies at the same time that he remembers being afraid for the first time. He was watching Frankenstein, and, as he described in his essay â€Å"In Defense of Violence,† it played with his senses in such a way that he instantaneously fell in love with movies. . The danger was fake, but Hinson described that it played with his senses in such a way that he almost instantly fell in love. Hinson feels that most movie lovers were incited by the same hooks as himself. Movies were thrilling, dangerous, and mesmerizing (Hinson 581-2). Hinson says that as a culture, we like violent art. Yet this is not something that is new to today's culture. The ancient Greeks perfected the genre of tragedy with a use of violence. According to Hinson, they believed that "while violence in life is destructive, violence in art need not be; that art provides a healthy channel for the natural aggressive forces within us" (Hinson 585). Today, the Greek tragedy is not often seen, but there are other shows movies that embody and use violence. Tom and Jerry, The Three Stooges, and popular prime time shows including the highly acclaimed NYPD Blue and ER are all violent. There is a surplus of violent movies in Hollywood. Usually, the years highest moneymakers are violent. Even Oscar winning movies, those movies that are "the best of the year," have violence in them.

Financial Accounting Exxon Shell Case Essay

Objective: Understanding the effect of inventory valuation assumptions on financial statements. Assignment summary: You are taking the role of a security analyst who recently started following the Oil and Gas industry. The analyst has a task to draw a comparison of several financial indicators for two industry leaders: Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, based on their income statements and balance sheets (attached at the end of this document) as well as the information from the notes to the financial statements summarized below. The two companies appear to be quite similar and are similar in size based on total assets. A private investor notes, however, that some financial ratios appear to be different. Your task is to guide an investor through the basic steps that will help them understand the effect of inventory valuation assumptions on the financial ratios. The following information is based on Exxon’s and Shell’s 2011 Annual Reports. Exxon Mobil Background information. Exxon Mobil Corporation was incorporated in the State of New Jersey in 1882. Divisions and affiliated companies of ExxonMobil operate or market products in the United States and most other countries of the world. Their principal business is energy, involving exploration for, and production of, crude oil and natural gas, manufacture of petroleum products and transportation and sale of crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Inventories. Crude oil, products, and merchandise inventories are carried at the lower of current market value or cost (generally determined under the last-in, first-out method – LIFO). Inventory costs include expenditures and other charges (including depreciation) directly and indirectly incurred in bringing the inventory to its existing condition and location. Selling expenses and general and administrative expenses are reported as period costs and excluded from inventory cost. Inventories of materials and supplies are valued at cost or less (i.e., lower of cost or market). The aggregate replacement cost of inventories was estimated to exceed their LIFO carrying values by $25.6 billion and $21.3 billion at December 31, 2011, and 2010, respectively (Convert LIFO to FIFO).

Tyco’s problem Essay

Tyco’s job was a consequence of top executives and members of the board non supervising what was legal and what wasn’t within their company. CEO’s Kozlowski and CFO Swartz failed to unwrap 1000000s of dollars of low involvement and involvement free loans they received from Tyco. The executives unethical behaviour resulted in stockholders benefits being written off which ended the company traveling into a monolithic debt. The top executives displayed greed for money. 1. What do you believe Kozlowski motive for seeking to avoid gross revenues revenue enhancements on his art purchases was? Kozlowski motive was power and greed for money. Kozlowski knew that he was in a top place of authorization. and most likely believed that no 1 was traveling to oppugn his place or the incorrect things that he was going involved in. There was besides no existent answerability nowadays or trueness to Tyco. Kozlowski realized that if he purchased the graphics with Tyco financess and so falsified the records. so he wouldn’t have to pay the revenue enhancements out of his ain pocket and took a great hazard that no 1 would happen out. He abused Tyco’s assets for his ain pecuniary addition. 2. Explain the construct of commingling assets with regard to the Tyco instance Commingling assets is and is the act of blending the financess belonging to one party with those of another party. particularly when one party has duty to maintain the financess separate for the other party. Tyco used this as a manner to travel around the system for its on personal additions. concealing the true purposes of its executives. Commingling personal with concern assets is overall a hapless concern determination. The executives treated the company’s money as if it were your ain. Besides. the executives used Tyco’s concern assets for their ain personal addition by buying graphics. multiple existent estate belongingss. jewellery. and other dearly-won points for personal usage. By commingling assets. the executives caused attending from revenue enhancement governments and SEC and other condemnable probes due to their delusory behaviours. 3. Would it hold been possible for the board of managers to see the accommodations taking topographic point in the different plans at Tyco? The board members could hold found the unlawful accommodations taking topographic point. but non really likely in this instance. In a sense. the board of managers is every bit much at mistake as the piquing executives because if they played a more proactive function in the concern operations. so the executives may non hold gotten away with every bit much as they did for the long period of clip. If they had taken a more active function. they would hold found deceptive paperss and fraud strategies that were go oning manner Oklahoman than when they were finally discovered. As a consequence of the board non taking an active function. the executive’s actions went on for some clip without any notice. The executives knew what they were making was incorrect and illegal. being involved in revenue enhancement equivocation. hyperbolic net incomes and commingling assets. The executives were besides passing out illegal unauthorised fillips. They besides become involved in paying off functionary to be quiet on the affair. Overall. the incorrect actors of the company knew that their actions were illegal. unethical. and dearly-won to Tyco. but they risked all of these things for their ain personal addition. They believed that no 1 would catch on to their actions. but like all offenses that condemnable commit. it finally catches up with them.