Surveying and the Role of the Surveyor

Surveying and the Role of the Surveyor In its broadest sense, the term surveying encompasses all activities that measure and record information about the physical world and the environment. The term is often used interchangeably with geomatics which is the science of determining the position of points on, above or below the surface of the earth. Humans have been undertaking surveying activities throughout recorded history. The oldest records indicate that the science began in Egypt. In 1400 BCE, Sesostris divided the land into plots so taxes could be collected. The Romans also made significant developments in the field with surveying a necessary activity in their extensive building works across the empire. The next period of major advancement was the 18th and 19th centuries. European countries needed to accurately map their land and its boundaries, often for military purposes. The UK national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey was established at this time and used triangulation from a single baseline in the south of England to map the entire country. In the United States, the Coast Survey was established in 1807 with the remit of surveying the coastline and creating nautical charts in order to improve maritime safety. Surveying has progressed rapidly in recent years. Increased development and the need for precise land divisions, as well as the role of mapping for military requirements, have led to many improvements in instrumentation and methods. One of the most recent advances is that of satellite surveying or Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), more commonly known as GPS. Many of us are familiar with using sat-nav systems to help us find our way to a new place, but the GPS system also has a wide range of other uses. Originally developed in 1973 by the US military, the GPS network uses 24 satellites at an orbit of 20,200 km to provide positioning and navigation services for a range of applications such as air and sea navigation, leisure applications, emergency assistance, precision timing, and providing coordinate information when surveying. The advances in air, space, and ground-based surveying techniques are in part due to the great increase in computer processing and storage capacity that we have seen over recent years. We can now collect and store vast amounts of data on the measurement of the earth and use this to build new structures, monitor natural resources and help develop new planning and policy guidelines. Types of Surveying Cadastral Land Surveys: These are related to land surveys and are concerned with establishing, locating, defining or describing the legal boundaries of land parcels, often for the purpose of taxation. Topographic Surveys: The measurement of land elevation, often with the purpose of creating contour or topographic maps. Geodetic Surveys: Geodetic surveys locate the position of objects on the earth in relation to each other, taking into account the size, shape, and gravity of the earth. These three properties vary depending on where on the earths surface you are and changes need to be taken into account if you wish to survey large areas or long lines. Geodetic surveys also provide very precise coordinates that can be used as the control values for other types of surveying. Engineering Surveying: Often referred to as construction surveying, engineering surveying involves the geometric design of engineering project, setting out the boundaries of features such as buildings, roads, and pipelines. Deformation Surveying: These surveys are intended to ascertain whether a building or object is moving. The positions of specific points on the area of interest are determined and then re-measured after a certain amount of time. Hydrographic Surveying: This type of surveying is concerned with the physical features of rivers, lakes and oceans. The surveys equipment is on board a moving vessel with follows pre-determined tracks to ensure the entire area is covered. The data obtained are used to create navigational charts, determine depth and measure tide currents. Hydrographic surveying is also used for underwater construction projects such as the laying of oil pipelines. Working as a Surveyor At present, the UK suffers from a shortage of qualified land / geomatics surveyors and many organizations have struggled to recruit over recent years. In the UK, a graduate surveyors starting salary usually ranges between  £16,000 and  £20,000. This can rise to  £27,000 -  £34,000 ($42,000-$54,000) once chartered status is achieved. Chartered status is gained from either the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or the Chartered Institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors. A Masters degree is useful but not essential. Postgraduate qualifications also allow the opportunity to specialise in a specific area of the industry such as geodetic surveying or geographical information science. Entry to the industry with a foundation degree or Higher National Diploma is possible at lower levels such as assistant surveyor or in a related technician role.

Decision Support and Business Intelligence systems Essay

Decision Support and Business Intelligence systems - Essay Example ta hub, storing not only current data, but also historical data to be used for developing trending reports so that the management can use the reports for comparisons, even if it the comparisons are annual, quarterly or even semi-annual. Subject oriented implies that data warehouse is utilized when examining specific subject field. For instance, in business, production can be the specific filed of examination. Integrated implies that a data warehouse incorporates data from a number of data source, for instance, from sales department and production department identify product A differently, however, the data warehouse will incorporate the two to identify the product in a single way. Time invariant implies that data, whether kept for 2 months, 7 months or even after a year is retrievable. Non updatable implies that once the data is entered into the database, it will not be mutilated and would not be changed, and, as a result, the historical data shall never be altered. Text mining refers to the unearthing and extraction of interesting, non trivial knowledge free from free and unstructured text (Kao & Poteet, 2007). The process encompasses information retrieval, and that is, document and website retrieval and even to classification and clustering of text. Natural language Processing, on the other hand, implies the endeavor to extract a complete meaning representation from such free text (Kao & Poteet, 2007). Natural Language processing has been developed to conform to a number of techniques that are naturally syntactically parsed utilizing information from proper grammar and lexicon, thereafter the ensuing information is then deduced semantically and thereafter applied to produce data. NLP can be profound, spanning every corner of the sentence, or even thin , straddling just few passages or phrases within sentences, and even utilize statistical ways to remove vagueness in word senses of the same sentence. The unassuming challenge posed to the development of NLP

Do journalists have an ethical responsibility towards future audiences Essay

Do journalists have an ethical responsibility towards future audiences as producers of the first draft of history - Essay Example Ethics and journalism have always had an uneasy relationship, James Carey (1987) states that ethics were introduced as an attempt to control journalists, he is of the view that ethics reflect status and class conflict between the owners of the press, the readers and the reporters. Other theories surrounding the emergence of ethics in journalism state that it was an attempt to stop large corporations from giving freebies and junkets to journalists in return for a favourable piece in the press (Christi 1989). In the modern world, journalism ethics are fundamentally governed by the Human Rights; which includes the right to freedom of expression, the right to privacy and the right to information. Society’s expectations of the press and mass media also contribute towards deciding of journalistic ethics. Journalists and the mass media have influential power, which is inherent in their role as informers to the general public. It is their fundamental duty to provide complete informati on, and not distort the picture in any way; however it is easier said than done. Not only are journalists reporters; but they are also human beings, with an opinion. They have a particular view of circumstances,and do not always see the truth; therefore it is important that they carry out their task as objectively as possible and not involve their own opinion- for their opinion can distort the facts . As Wolfgang Donsbach (1992) points that ethical journalism consists of the efforts of finding out complete information, and present the facts in a neutral way. Journalists who state their opinion, and influence facts to back up their opinion are not only unprofessional, but also un-ethical. An opposing view is expressed by Malcom (1989) where he states every journalist... Do journalists have an ethical responsibility towards future audiences as producers of the first draft of history? Information is an increasingly important resource and journalists play a crucial role in producing and disseminating that information. Technology has made broadcasting information easier, which makes information more powerful, and therefore makes journalists the carriers of this power. Journalists have influential power on the public; their views can shape decisions and recollections of past events. Given the freedom of expression, journalists now have the power to hold the government accountable for their misgivings, they are able to raise questions on behalf of the public and subsequently force the government to correct their mistakes. They can make history, alter how we remember history and choose what not to include in history. Journalism, Ethics and Society In a democratic world, journalist have the responsibility of reporting corruption, abuse of power and any other item of information that the public has the right to know. They have a special political purpose to seek the trut h, and resist the pressure to convey distortions. Journalism is indeed a first draft of memory, as Zarecka (1994) states, thatthe elements of the past that are remembered are worth knowing about. Hence journalists must seek to solidify the pieces of information that are deemed to go down in history books, and to conceptualize them by depicting them through mass media.

Definition of fallacy Essay Example for Free

Definition of fallacy Essay The author tries to distract the audience from the original issue by bringing up related but irrelevant issues. Usually the evidence can be used to support a closely related or similar conclusion. Explanation The author is placing information within the article that is irrelevant to the case. He is talking about Mr. Iqbal and the fact he is seeking discovery, which is likely to be critical for his claims to go forward. And then talking about how the government officials aren’t involved, intercepts. Mr. Iqbal is the center of this article, and everything within it is not entirely about him. They deter and talk about how the Bush administration is arguing that these government officials are innocent. â€Å"The issue in the Supreme Court is whether these high-ranking officials are protected from having to answer questions of this kind. The Bush administration argues that the officials were not sufficiently involved in the detention policies to be responsible for them. It also maintains that if top government officials were required to comply with such discovery requests, it would interfere with their ability to do their jobs. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: Bush administration insists the officials are not really involved. Point Two: That complying with discovery requests would interfere with their ability to do their jobs. So, the Bush administration should not give a feeble excuse for the government officials to get out of the discovery requests. 2. Name of fallacy Slippery Slope Definition of fallacy When the conclusion rests on an alleged chain reaction, and there is not sufficient reason to think that the chain reaction will actually take place. Explanation of fallacy Here, one is jumping from one thing to another on what may or has happened. What’s to say it will happen again? People can change; people can learn from their mistakes and never commit such a thing again. â€Å"The construction state is in some respects akin to the military-industrial complex in cold-war America (or the Soviet Union), sucking in the country’s wealth, consuming it inefficiently, growing like a cancer, and bequeathing both fiscal crisis and environmental devastation, commented Gavan McCormack, a professor at the Australian National University. The stimulus plans had the opposite effect of what was expected. Appalled at the country’s new deficits, Japanese consumers closed their wallets. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: The construction state is akin to the military-industrial complex in cold-war America (or the Soviet Union). Point Two: The stimulus plans had the opposite effect of what was expected. So, we should not outright assume things will repeat as they did in the past before anything has even been tried. 3. Name of fallacy Straw Man Definition of fallacy Ignores an actual position and presents a distorted, oversimplified or misrepresented version to make it easier to attack. Explanation of fallacy The author is saying that while the financial chaos has ruined sleep, our physical and human capital is unscathed? What does that mean? It’s a distorted message. Then the fact they talk about if it hasn’t changed, we haven’t suffered any capital loss. What if we have suffered some capital loss and the government simply will not let the public know about it? â€Å"This financial chaos has ruined our sleep but left our physical and human capital unscathed. We have the same productive capacity today we had a year ago. And if our capital hasn’t changed, we’ve suffered no overall capital loss. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: Financial chaos has ruined our sleep but has left our capital unscathed. Point Two: Since we have the same productive capacity today we had a year ago, we should have suffered no capital loss. So, financial chaos happened. It affected us in more ways than one. That’s it.

Essay --

Behavioural Biases of Individuals/Analyst Traditional finance perspective theorist believes that individuals who have will to venture into investment activities does not allow their emotions to be guided by how investment information is presented to them. However, the same cannot be said for the behavioural finance perspective. Through psychological studies, researchers of behavioural finance have come to the understanding of how human behaviour and behavioural finance connected. This connection can create behavioural biases which can positively or negatively impact on the growth of investment opportunities. This research is on behavioural biases is categorized into two specific groups, cognitive errors and emotional biases. Cognitive Errors Cognitive errors are seen as basic statistical information processing, or memory errors that cause the decision to deviate from rationality. This may involve incorrectly updating or overlooking the prospects of investment information, which can be pertinent to growth of an investment. Additional, Cognitive errors are separated into two classifications types; Belief Perseverance and Information Processing Biases. Belief perseverance, with is relative to cognitive dissonance, is the mental discomfort that humans experience when recent information can contradict the previously held one. Information processing biases are considered as processing errors that are used irrationally in financial or investment decision making. Belief perseverance is spread across five sections; conservatism, confirmation, representation, illusion of control and hindsight. Conservatism is when individuals fail to incorporate new information as it becomes available, and continues to maintain their existing fore cast. Inve... ...s doing nothing to make positive changes to an outcome. This occurs when person are accustom to the way situations are. The endowment bias is where individuals place a greater value on an asset that they own than one that they do not own. This is, an individual may want to purchase a valuable item for less than it is being offered for, however, if they receive the purchase they will value it higher than the original asking price. The avoidance of decision making due to the fear of unfavourable decision outcomes is called regret-aversion. This consists of two types; error of commission and error of omission. Error of commission is when there is fear of taking an action whereas; error of omission is the fear from not taking an action. Here investments tend to be over conservatively made and there in more comfort in doing what the other players in the market are doing.

Rosa Lee Story

The Rosa lee story Rosa Lee gave dash full access to her and her family life for four years, because she thought someone could learn from it. Rosa was born in Washington and was living a low class life, and often looked down up on for it . Rosa lee was brought up in a single parent house hold and when she entered jr. high her dad died. Rosa mom often struggled to take care of her and her siblings. Her mother gave birth to twenty-two kids, but only eleven survived. Rosa and her mom never saw eye to eye and when she got pregnant at the age of thirteen it didn’t make their relationship any better.At the age of fourteen she had her first prostitution experience for five dollars, she told her customers at work that if they were going to have sex with her, they had to pay because she had eight kids at home. After Rosa third child she married into an abusive relationship with a man who was twenty one which made her sixteen she couldn’t take anymore so she moved back in with he r mom. Rosa and her mom relationship was filled with conflict. At a very young age Rosa started stealing from people. She stole to basically buy her some friends, she would take her friends to the movies and buy them candy.At the age of twenty Rosa had moved to the North East with her six kids and was on welfare by the time she was twenty one she had two more kids. Rosa just wanted to make sure her family was ok and that they had some of the things they needed. Rosa also did other jobs that paid under the table so she could still get her welfare check. So she became a dancer at night clubs and got paid for sex. Being brought up in a neighborhood like Rosa had several down falls. Her and her sibling didn’t really have anyone to motivate them to do the right thing. The girls were supposed to be domestic but Rosa rebelled against it.Rosa started selling drugs in the seventies and in fifteen years she was in jail a dozen times. Until Rosa was twenty-nine she got away with stealin g, she tried to steal a fur coat and had to do eight months in jail. Most of Rosa lee brother and sisters made it out of poverty and became middle class. They had honest jobs like bus driving and had their own cab services. Her brother and sister choose a different path because they seen and knew the struggle that their mom and sister Rosa had to deal with. Seeing Rosa life its self made you want to do right.Eight kids, having to steal, selling and using drugs and being back and forth in jail made you want to do right. Rosa didn’t start selling drugs with the intent to use them, it just happened, she thought selling marijuana and heroin was a quick way to get money and keep her welfare, but when she started she couldn’t quit she was using two fourty dollar bags a day. She said that when she used the drug it gave her courage. Rosa could do and say anything when she was high. Rosa and her siblings used drugs and broke the law because they were not taught any right from w rong .They had such a rough childhood and at this time they didn’t know any better, they were young when they started. Even Rosa kids started taking different paths at very young ages. They didn’t go to school because she didn’t make them. Rosa did drugs in front of her kids and it made them want it. Her one and only daughter Patty started using drugs at the age of thirteen and was rapped several times by relatives while Rosa was incarcerated, which is why she said she hated males and on top of that she was prostituted by her mom.Her son Ronnie started using drugs at the age of fifteen, she told him if he wanted to drugs he had to support his own habit, so he started selling marijuana with his mom. Her oldest son Bobby died of aids cause they all shared needles. At a very young age Rosa stopped going to church and didn’t start going back until she was about forty. She didn’t seek for religious ways to help her in her situation she thought that what she was doing was right for her and her kids.Even with Rosa taking the path she did she could have taught her kids the right from wrong. I think that Rosa had a choice to do well she just choose a different path. She lived in a single parent household, where drugs were being sold and welfare was the way to live. She wasn’t getting the attention that she needed so she explored and ended up finding out the hard way that wasn’t the life she wanted to live. If Rosa stayed in school and maybe had a better a male figure in her life she probably wouldn’t have been in all the trouble she was in.

Philippa Foots Hypothetical Imperatives Essay - 1261 Words

Philippa Foots Hypothetical Imperatives Philippa Foot finds trouble with the arguments of Kant, who said that it was necessary to distinguish moral judgments from hypothetical imperatives. Although this may have become an unquestionable truth, Foot says that this is a misunderstanding. Kant defined a hypothetical imperative as an action that addresses what should or ought to be done. He believed that the necessity of performing a certain action was based on other desires. This particular action would only be important if it was beneficial for another reason. It is prudent that a man feel the responsibility to achieve his own wants. However, Kant speaks of a second group of imperatives known as categorical imperatives.†¦show more content†¦In addition, this man cannot argue that the moral advice he has been given is against his interests. This connection requires a different kind of support. There is a clear difference between moral judgments and hypothetical imperatives. In saying that moral judgments are categorical imperatives, Kant is signifying them as unique and special in nature. This is an area in which modern philosophers find accord with Kants ideas. These philosophers all agree that an unconditional requirement exists in moral judgments. In these types of judgments, there are pre-legislated right and wrong actions. These rules are absolute, and it is for this reason that moral judgments are distinguished from hypothetical imperatives. The trouble is found when one attempts to find the feature of moral judgments which gives them reason to be absolute and binding. The fault is that should is also used in a non-hypothetical way in non-moral statements, but in these statements there is no special dignity given to the statement. An example of this is the should of Etiquette. Rules of etiquette are common issues in which considering the use of the word should is helpful. Again, as in a moral judgment, the should is being used in a non-hypothetical form. For example, it is common etiquette that if a man receives an invitation in the third person, he shall respond to the invitation in the same form. Similarly to moral judgments, the rule is sustainedShow MoreRelatedThe Flaws Of Foots Moral System Essay1519 Words   |  7 PagesIn â€Å"Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives,† Philippa Foot argues that moral judgments are in hypothetical imperatives rather than categorical imperatives. For Kant, categorical imperatives are actions that are good in themselves and do not depend on desires, while, hypothetical imperatives are â€Å"actions that are good to some purpose† (306). According to Foot, hypothetical imperatives alone serve as the basis of moral judgments because categorical imperatives give us no reason to obey themRead MoreThe ory Of Morality As A System Of Hypothetical Imperatives Essay1540 Words   |  7 PagesCircular Reasoning in Foot’s Moral System In â€Å"Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives†, Philippa Foot argues against Immanuel Kant, that morality exists in hypothetical imperatives rather than categorical imperatives. For Kant, categorical imperatives alone serve as moral commands, and it would be impossible for a moral system to be based on hypothetical imperatives because such imperatives serve as means to ends and result from maxims that cannot be universalized into perfect duties. DespiteRead More Responses to the Challenge of Amoralism Essay example3571 Words   |  15 Pagesmoral considerations are reasons for everyone, including him, to act. Indeed, he knows that this tendency is so strong that we habitually use moral reasons and moral considerations interchangeably. But Alf also knows, perhaps from reading Philippa Foot, that to say that moral considerations are called reasons is blatantly to ignore the problem. The problem, as Alf sees it, is that he differs from other people. He has no goals or desires, or anything else, through which moral considerationsRead MoreJohn Stuart Mill, And The Deontological Theory Of Ethics1873 Words   |  8 Pagesdrawing attention to and/or raising awareness for various humanitarian crises, such as the massive destruction in Puerto Rico that has left the entire island in ruin or refugee Rohingya people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladesh, it is imperative to understand the logistics of possible relief efforts through a philosophical lens. Two well-developed theories that offer solutions to such problems are Utilitarianism, proposed by John Stuart Mill, and the Deontological Theory of Ethics, advocatedRead MoreAnalysing The Supreme Principle Of Morality1809 Words   |  8 Pagesdemonstrate the function of what Kant calls the â€Å"Categorical imperative†. The purpose of this essay is to first explain the conception of Kant’s Categorical imperative. It will then discuss the application of this within his Universal Law formulation, as well as within the formula of Humanity. Finally, it will investigate and critique the inconsistency of Kant’s Categorical imperative theory. Before one can discuss how the Categorical imperative works in its main formulations, it is important to understand