Elementary School Students Essay

In learning a new language, students face a difficult transition and often times, frustration and pain (Ybarra and Green, 2003). To avoid this, English language learners must be provided with scaffold and a variety of flexible language learning experiences such as language hearing, writing, speaking, and reading. According to M. L. Liaw (1997), language teachers should provide language-rich environment to learners and actively involved them in every activities which involve language practices (cited in Ybarra and Green, 2003). These learning activities establish a good flow of communication among students through their interactions. Based on researches, individuals learn mostly through their own style of learning. Felder and Henriques (1995) defined learning style as the individual’s unique means of acquisition, retention, and retrieval of information. Different learning styles of students require teachers to tailor their way of instruction in such way that it meets the learners’ needs and preferences. For instance, teachers who are not fond of music, may not incorporate chants and songs in their instruction, thus, the learning preferences of musical learners are not given emphasis (Procter, n. d. ). Teachers, therefore, must be flexible enough in learning new strategies in order to bring the best out of their students. Learning Styles and Teaching Strategies Felder and Henriques (1995) stated that students may learn in a number of ways including seeing, hearing, reflecting and acting, logical and intuitively reasoning, and memorizing and visualizing. Teachers, on the other hand, typically employ demonstration, lecture or discussion in giving academic instruction. The students’ performance is affected by their adaptive ability, preparation, and their compatibility with the teacher’s style of giving instruction. A mismatch between learning style and teaching style, as foreseen, is a cause of poor academic performance. Butler (1988) classified learning styles into cognitive, affective, physiological, and psychological (cited in Lamboy, 2003). A student’s way of perceiving and ordering information or ideas belongs to the cognitive style while the affective domain speaks of social and personality traits in learning. The physiological dimension, on the other hand, refers to the senses which include auditory, visual, or kinaesthetic, and environmental factors such as light and temperature. Inner strengths and individuality pertains to the psychological aspect while auditory learners love to play with words and their sounds through listening and storytelling. For Procter (n. d. ), problem solving and numbers are very appealing to logical children. They enjoy puzzle, pattern, sequence, and card games activities. Intrapersonal learners, on the other hand, are generally shy but have a good sense of self. Learners of this type prefer personalization activities such as drawing and writing about one’s family and experiences. Drawing, painting, or coloring activities are often preferred by visual learners. Most of the time, they enjoy the teacher’s facial expression in storytelling and readily understand stories through pictures. Moreover, kinesthetic learners prefer learning through physical activities such as games and hands-on exercises while musical type of learners, learn best through chants and songs. Lastly, cooperative activities such as group works, interviews, projects, and surveys are best means of learning for interpersonal learners. Researches and Implications Ehrman and Oxford (1990) found the preferences of students in respective learning styles through an intensive language training (cited in Felder and Henriques, 1995). Sensing learners used a variety of memorization strategies like internal drills and flash cards; prefer practical materials and highly structured or well-organized classes. Intuitive learners, on the other hand, favor basic vocabulary and grammatical rules, linguistic concepts and translations. Visual learners like visual presentation of information through pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstration while verbal learners are fond of spoken and written explanations. Also, active learners are inclined towards physical activities and experimentation as compared to passive roles of reflective learners such as listening, observing, and taking down notes. Further, sequential learners better absorb small and connected chunks of information as contrasted to the holistic preference of global learners. Felder and Henriques (1995) concluded that an effective language instruction then caters to the different learning styles of students. This means that language instruction must contain the elements that are appealing to all types of learning styles. It should be a concoction of concrete information such as definition and grammatical rules; and concepts like syntactical and semantic information, and linguistic and cultural background details. Conclusion In planning for a language instruction, educators must consider the heterogeneous learning styles of the students. In doing so, they may creatively select learning activities that are appealing to different types of learners. In addition, educators may properly guide and give necessary aid to students for learning strategies appropriate to their learning styles. Moreover, despite the amount of research that has been done with regards to learning styles over the last few years, there is no clear evidence proving that a particular learning style is generally better over the others. This is perhaps due to the human mind’s flexibility and individual differences. Thus, it is much better then, that learning strategies be given emphasis in every learning situation. References Felder, R. M. and Henriques, E. R. (1995). Learning and Teaching Styles In Foreign and Second Language Education. Retrieved November 5, 2008, from http://www4. ncsu. edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/FLAnnals. pdf Lamboy, C. L. (2003). Using Technology in an English as a Second Language Course to Accommodate Visual,Kinesthetic, and Auditory Learners to Affect Students’ Self-Efficacy About Learning the Language. Retrieved November 5, 2008, from http://www. des. emory. edu/mfp/DissertationLamboy. pdf Procter, S. (n. d. ). Gogo Loves English Fits Many Learning Styles. Retrieved November 5, 2008, from http://www. gogolovesenglish. com/Articles/Stanton1. asp Ybarra, R. and Green, T. (2003). Using Technology to Help ESL/EFL Students Develop Language Skills. Retrieved November 5, 2008, from http://iteslj. org/Articles/Ybarra-Technology. html

Conformity and Obedience

Conformity and Obedience. In order to answer the question it is first necessary to define conformity and obedience. According to Woods, (2001 p. 107): ‘ We often adjust our actions or opinions so that they fit in well with those of other people. This is known as social conformity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ’ And Gross, (2001 pg. 392) stated that: Obedience is affected by direction (from somebody in higher authority). This essay will explore circumstances in which we are likely to conform; or obey others. This will be done by drawing on research carried out by Milgram, Asch, Crutchfield and Zimbardo.There are many ways in which we conform; some are useful others are not. For example, if we did not conform and adhere to the Highway Code there would be absolute chaos on our roads and lives would be at risk. At the other end of the scale we have the horrific example of ‘blind’ obedience in relation to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s – 40’s. In this situation Hitler’s soldiers obeyed and carried out their orders without question because their orders came from a legitimate authority. (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999, pp. 79-80).In 1963 Stanley Milgram carried out a psychological experiment to try to discover why so many people co-operated and committed such atrocities in the concentration camps. This experiment involved groups of two people one – a confederate – played the part of a student trying to remember different words. The other person who was the subject played the role of a teacher and gave him the test. The teacher was told to ‘shock’ the ‘student’ every time he missed a word. Milgram thought that most people wouldn’t shock another human being and especially not all the way up to deadly levels of electricity.However, I transpired that 63% were obedient to their instructor (since he was the one in a position of power) and went all the way up to 450v which was lethal ( Hayes, 2000 pp. 50-51). Experiments carried out by Solomon Asch (1995) showed how easy it is to make people conform. In one of his experiments Asch used groups of 6-8 people who were told they were participating in a study on visual perception. He presented these subjects with 2 cards. On one card was a single ‘standard’ line; on the other were 3 ‘comparison’ lines. Participants were asked to judge which of the comparison lines were equal in length to the ‘standard’ line.Each of Asch’s groups only contained one real subject – the rest were confederates. Asch instructed each of the confederates to give the same wrong answer. There was a 75% conformity rate of the participants, meaning that they gave the same answer as the confederates, showing that people do not want to ‘appear different’ (Gross, 2001 pg. 382). However, researchers discovered that if the participants were alloed to give their answers away from the grou p, then conformity decreased. If people were allowed to give their answers in private, then it is found that they will be less likely to be swayed by other people’s opinions.Again, in experiments, researchers like Asch (1955) have discovered that if the task is ambiguous or the problem made harder, then conformity levels are likely to increase. Under conditions where the problem is less obvious, then people are likely to go with the majority of the group (Gross, 2001 pg. 383). An experiment carried out by Crutchfield (1954) found that pressure to conform can also occur without face to face communication. In this particular study each participant was placed in a separate booth facing a screen which displayed questions and what they believed were answers of the other participants.The questions were simple and the answers obvious. In around half the cases the answers were incorrect. Each participant was led to believe they were the last to answer having seen the other answers. C rutchfield in fact placed the answers there. This experiment suggests that in certain situations people will conform to avoid being the ‘odd one out’ and labelled as a social outcast. In addition, the fear of rejection by peers helps to assure that conformity is guaranteed. Crutchfields’ experiment found that 37% of the participants conformed all the time which shows that conformity can occur even without face to face contact.Both these experiments show that people will go with a group norm and conform to other people who they might not even know (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 73). Clearly, there are several reasons why we conform i. e. we don’t want to be seen as troublesome or a nuisance – the psychological term being ‘compliance’. Perhaps we simply wish to be accepted into a group ‘normative influence’ (Gross 2001 p. 386). We may also feel that we are amongst people who are more knowledgeable than us and that we have no rig ht to argue, which is termed ‘information social influence’ (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 4). It could be argued that conformity studies are often designed to illustrate the dangers of conformity, and the following study could be seen as an example of this. ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ was carried out in 1973 by Zimbardo. It involved taking at random 24 men who responded to a newspaper advertisement asking for volunteers to take part in a psychological study on prison life. A mock prison was created and the volunteers were given ‘roles’ of either guards or prisoners.This experiment found that the guards conformed to the roles expected of them in that they took charge of the prisoners and treated them cruelly and the prisoners conformed to their roles in that they allowed this to happen and did not say that they wanted to stop the experiment. Some even asked for parole instead of requesting that the experiment be terminated. The level of confo rmity in this study was exceptionally high to the extent that the ‘prisoners’ became very distressed and the experiment had to be aborted on day 6 – it was planned to last 2 weeks (Class notes, March 2005).Research also shows that levels of conformity are likely to increase if the status of the people in the rest of the group is high. Low status people are likely to conform more to high status people, especially if those people are in some form of authority (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 77). Without doubt all societies require a certain level of conformity in order to function as a society. If social norms are not adhered there would be confusion and disorder. However, what research has shown is that anyone is capable of conforming/obeying under the right circumstances or situations.It is also evident that the circumstances in which we conform or obey can be seen as positive or negative and although it is not always the case, it is usually a positive social influen ce. In the UK today we live in a society which places great value on the individual: ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. there is a great emphasis on individual responsibility to contribute to society. ’ (Alcock et al, 1999 pg. 41) we are expected to contribute, conform and obey. Following like sheep may be regarded s weak, however, the fact remains that many of us conform i. e. religion, fashion, politics.In addition to these factors it is important to mention that non-conformity also has its place in society because if there were total conformity there would be no change, no improvement, or new ideas. For many, life may well be a struggle – battling with the desire to be an ‘individual’ and also having to ‘conform’ to how society expects them to be, think and do. It could be argued that conformity and obedience are necessary elements of society as conformity and obedience helps create a stable society. From an early age we have been instructed to obey a nd conform as we grow up we continue to be exposed to these pressures i. . our parents demand obedience, friends require us to be ‘part of the crowd,’ teachers demand homework, our religion tells us what to believe and the government expects us to obey the law and pay our taxes. Culturally too we are expected to conform i. e. arranged marriages, customs, traditions and dress. In conclusion, with regard to the experiments that have been discussed in this essay it is important to remember that they are just that – experiments, and it is difficult to know for certain what would actually happen in the ‘real world. References. WOODS, B. Basics in Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. GROSS, R. 2001. PSYCHOLOGY. The science of the mind & behaviour. 4th edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. MCILVEEN, R & GROSS, R. 1999. Social Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. HAYES, N. 1994. Principles of Social Psychology. East Sussex. Psychology Press Ltd. ALCOCK, P. , ERKSINE, A. , MAY, M. 1998. The Students Companion to Social Policy. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Conformity and Obedience Conformity and Obedience Assignment In this assignment I intend to evaluate Stanley Milgrams studies of obedience and in particular the ethical issues broken. I hope to determine whether the knowledge gained justifies his experiments. After the destruction and atrocities committed in World War II many historians argued that there must be some sort of character defect that made the German people more obedient. Mailgram’s study was an attempt to test ‘the Germans are different’ hypothesis. The hypothesis states that Germans are more likely a person or people in authority regardless of what the act is. Social psychology handbook pg. 8) Milgram conducted an experiment into the nature of obedience in 1963 at the prestigious Yale University. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the level of obedience participant would go to in giving electric shocks to another person when ordered to by an authority figure. (Social psychology handbook pg. 8) Milgram issued an adv ertisement in a local paper requesting people aged 20-50 from all walks of life, excluding students to take part in an experiment at Yale University. The experiment would last an hour and the pay was four dollars fifty.The participants were told they were getting paid for coming to the laboratory regardless of the results of the experiment. (Gross, 2010, pg. 416) 40 male participants were selected; they arrived at Yale university psychology department and were greeted by a young man dressed in a lab coat. He introduced himself as Jack Williams, the experimenter. He was to appear stern and emotionless throughout the experiment. There was also another participant introduced as a likeable and mild-mannered man named Mr Wallace, he was a confederate and everything from here on has been pre-planned except the results of course. Gross, 2010, pg. 416) The participant were given a short introduction and told the aim of the experiment was to assess the effects of punishment on learning. The participant was then asked to pick a piece of paper out a hat to determine who would be playing the role of the teacher, and who was to play the learner. This was rigged in order for the experiment to work; Mr Wallace was always the learner and the participant the teacher. Next they were all led into an adjoining room and the learner (Mr Wallace) was strapped in full view of the participant into the electric chair and electrodes were attracted to his arms and legs.The teacher (the participant) was told that the electrodes were attracted to the shock generator next room. The generator was a convincing fake created by Milgram. The participant and the experimenter went into the next room where the generator was. The teacher gave a 45 volt shock to convince them that it was real. The volt was battery power and not attached to the mains. The generator switches were labelled with voltage levels and verbal descriptions from: 15-60 slight shock up in intervals of 15 volts to 435-450 XXX. Gr oss, 2010, pg. 416) The learner was asked to memorise a series of paired words. The teacher was to then test the learner by giving him one the words in a pair along with four different words. The learner then had to answer which of the four words had originally been paired with the first one. The learners answer was indicated by one of the four switches which lit up one of four lights on the generator machine. If the learner gave the correct answer, then they moved onto the next question.If the answer was wrong the teacher had to tell the learner the correct answer, and then say that they were going to give them a shock which went up higher 15 volts each time an incorrect answer was given. . (Gross, 2010, pg. 216). In the first experiment known as the ‘remote-victim condition’ the leaner was to give vocal response until 300 volts was used, then the learner was scripted to start pounding on the wall and after 315 volts were administrated to stop. In the second experiment the responses were voice recorded ‘voice feedback’ and the teacher was to believe these were the reactions of the learner from being shocked.For example at 75 volts he made a grunt, at 150 he cried out and refused to be part of experiment asking to be set loose, at 315 he screamed out in pain and finally after 330 volts no sound could be heard. The teacher was instructed that if an answer was not given then it was to be treated as an incorrect answer and a shock was still to be given. If the teacher was to turn to the experimenter for guidance on whether to carry on giving shocks or indicate that they didn’t want to go on the experimenter would reply with a series of ‘prods’.The ‘prods’ were responses such as ‘please continue’ ‘the experiment requires that you continue’ or ‘It’s absolutely essential that you continue’. These ‘prods’ were to be repeated in a sequence for example if ‘prod 1’ was unsuccessful then only could ‘prod 2’ be used if the learner disobeyed after the fourth ‘prod’ the experiment was to end. There was also a special prod used in case the participant was concerned on the physical state of the learner, which was ‘although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on. ((Social psychology handbook pg. 11/12). After experiment the participants were introduced to the victim again to prove that he was unharmed. They were debriefed using open ended questions and psychometric measures were used to make sure the participants left the experiment unharmed. Milgram found the results quite shocking and unpredictable. In the first ‘remote victim’ experiment all participants went up to at least 300 volts when the learner pounded on the wall, 65 per cent went all the way to 450 volts.In the second ‘voice feedback’ condition 62. 5 per cent went to the lethal 450 volts. He also found even though the participants hesitated and objected they still continued with the experiment. Although many were observed to tremble, stutter, dig their nails into their palms and even laugh, one participant had a seizure. (Gross, 2010, pg. 416/417). Milgram evaluated his own experiment and devised nine factors that could explain the reason why such high levels of conformity were visible. To test the factors he devised further versions of his experiment.I believe that this strengthens the experiment the amount of control that Milgram was able to give and the different variations helped to strengthen Milgrams conclusion as to why we obey people in authority. (Gross, 2010, pg. 417). A weakness of the experiment is the sample used is not representable to the rest of the American population and can’t be generalised. Only males who read the advert and were prepared to take part in a laboratory experiment were used Milgrams have been accused of d eliberately using an ethnocentric sample. Class notes) I also believe that the experiment was not ecologically valid as laboratory is not considered a normal situation and this could contributed to the experiment having demand characteristics as the participant might have thought that they were in an controlled safe environment and were also encouraged to do so by the experimenter. Another big weakness of the experiment and one that Milgram has been heavily criticised on is ethics. Ethical guidelines are necessary to clarify the conditions under which psychological research is acceptable. British psychological society) (Ethics PowerPoint Moodle). Baumrind (1964) argued that Milgram’s participants had been abused, their feelings not taken into consideration, and not enough was done to protect them from emotional and psychological stress. (Gross, 210, pg. 779) Part of the reason ethical guidelines were brought into force was because of Milgram’s experiment. In my opinion certain ethical guideless were broken, such as no deception should be used, and participants should be informed of all aspects of the experiment unless there is no alternative.Milgram clearly didn’t tell the participant that the learner was an actor and the ‘shock generator’ a fake. I’m sure that this breaks another ethic which is protection, meaning that the participants must not suffer any physical of psychological damage. I believe the participants did receive some emotional stress from the experiment to begin with. It’s argued that Milgram did not take suitable measures to ensure this didn’t happen, but Milgram argues that didn’t predict his results and they were unexpected.That could be believable that Milgram believed the participants would not need protection, but after seeing the distress caused in his first experiment why continue repeating it 17 more times? The participant’s right to withdraw was also breached. All pa rticipants must be informed of their right to withdraw without losing any payment and the results from these must be removed from the records. This wasn’t made clear and the ‘prods’ used strongly suggest to the participant that withdrawal isn’t possible.There is also another important issue broken; consent was not given as the participants were not fully informed of what was happening in the experiment. However milgram argues that the participants were shown that Mr Wallace was unharmed after experiment and a debriefing was issued. A year after the experiment an independent psychologist interviewed the participants used, and found that no evidence of any lasting psychological damage was apparent. He also argues that the experimenter didn’t make the participant shock anyone, they choose to do it themselves milgram wanted everyone to have free will. Social psychology handbook pg. 14/15) To answer the question is Milgrams experiment justified the answe r I believe is yes. Although certain ethical issues are apparent such a situation was unavoidable, and as Milgram says â€Å"the central moral justification for allowing my experiment is that it was judged acceptable by those who took part in it† (â€Å"The Individual in a Social World†, Milgram 1977) Its seems that it was necessary to brake certain rules in order for the experiment to be completed and more real to life.If Milgram’s participants were to be fully informed his results would not be real to life and his experiment a failure. I believe the experiment was very powerful and although unethical the results were important in the study of obedience. Bibliography Ethical Guidelines and Social Research, PowerPoint Presentation on Moodle available @ https://moodle. lincolncollege. ac. uk/AAE/course/view. php? id=361 Gross, R. (2010) Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour, sixth edition, London, Hodder Education. Social Psychology Unit Handbook handed o ut September 2011 by Lynn Train-Brown. Conformity and Obedience Conformity and Obedience. In order to answer the question it is first necessary to define conformity and obedience. According to Woods, (2001 p. 107): ‘ We often adjust our actions or opinions so that they fit in well with those of other people. This is known as social conformity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ’ And Gross, (2001 pg. 392) stated that: Obedience is affected by direction (from somebody in higher authority). This essay will explore circumstances in which we are likely to conform; or obey others. This will be done by drawing on research carried out by Milgram, Asch, Crutchfield and Zimbardo.There are many ways in which we conform; some are useful others are not. For example, if we did not conform and adhere to the Highway Code there would be absolute chaos on our roads and lives would be at risk. At the other end of the scale we have the horrific example of ‘blind’ obedience in relation to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s – 40’s. In this situation Hitler’s soldiers obeyed and carried out their orders without question because their orders came from a legitimate authority. (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999, pp. 79-80).In 1963 Stanley Milgram carried out a psychological experiment to try to discover why so many people co-operated and committed such atrocities in the concentration camps. This experiment involved groups of two people one – a confederate – played the part of a student trying to remember different words. The other person who was the subject played the role of a teacher and gave him the test. The teacher was told to ‘shock’ the ‘student’ every time he missed a word. Milgram thought that most people wouldn’t shock another human being and especially not all the way up to deadly levels of electricity.However, I transpired that 63% were obedient to their instructor (since he was the one in a position of power) and went all the way up to 450v which was lethal ( Hayes, 2000 pp. 50-51). Experiments carried out by Solomon Asch (1995) showed how easy it is to make people conform. In one of his experiments Asch used groups of 6-8 people who were told they were participating in a study on visual perception. He presented these subjects with 2 cards. On one card was a single ‘standard’ line; on the other were 3 ‘comparison’ lines. Participants were asked to judge which of the comparison lines were equal in length to the ‘standard’ line.Each of Asch’s groups only contained one real subject – the rest were confederates. Asch instructed each of the confederates to give the same wrong answer. There was a 75% conformity rate of the participants, meaning that they gave the same answer as the confederates, showing that people do not want to ‘appear different’ (Gross, 2001 pg. 382). However, researchers discovered that if the participants were alloed to give their answers away from the grou p, then conformity decreased. If people were allowed to give their answers in private, then it is found that they will be less likely to be swayed by other people’s opinions.Again, in experiments, researchers like Asch (1955) have discovered that if the task is ambiguous or the problem made harder, then conformity levels are likely to increase. Under conditions where the problem is less obvious, then people are likely to go with the majority of the group (Gross, 2001 pg. 383). An experiment carried out by Crutchfield (1954) found that pressure to conform can also occur without face to face communication. In this particular study each participant was placed in a separate booth facing a screen which displayed questions and what they believed were answers of the other participants.The questions were simple and the answers obvious. In around half the cases the answers were incorrect. Each participant was led to believe they were the last to answer having seen the other answers. C rutchfield in fact placed the answers there. This experiment suggests that in certain situations people will conform to avoid being the ‘odd one out’ and labelled as a social outcast. In addition, the fear of rejection by peers helps to assure that conformity is guaranteed. Crutchfields’ experiment found that 37% of the participants conformed all the time which shows that conformity can occur even without face to face contact.Both these experiments show that people will go with a group norm and conform to other people who they might not even know (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 73). Clearly, there are several reasons why we conform i. e. we don’t want to be seen as troublesome or a nuisance – the psychological term being ‘compliance’. Perhaps we simply wish to be accepted into a group ‘normative influence’ (Gross 2001 p. 386). We may also feel that we are amongst people who are more knowledgeable than us and that we have no rig ht to argue, which is termed ‘information social influence’ (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 4). It could be argued that conformity studies are often designed to illustrate the dangers of conformity, and the following study could be seen as an example of this. ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ was carried out in 1973 by Zimbardo. It involved taking at random 24 men who responded to a newspaper advertisement asking for volunteers to take part in a psychological study on prison life. A mock prison was created and the volunteers were given ‘roles’ of either guards or prisoners.This experiment found that the guards conformed to the roles expected of them in that they took charge of the prisoners and treated them cruelly and the prisoners conformed to their roles in that they allowed this to happen and did not say that they wanted to stop the experiment. Some even asked for parole instead of requesting that the experiment be terminated. The level of confo rmity in this study was exceptionally high to the extent that the ‘prisoners’ became very distressed and the experiment had to be aborted on day 6 – it was planned to last 2 weeks (Class notes, March 2005).Research also shows that levels of conformity are likely to increase if the status of the people in the rest of the group is high. Low status people are likely to conform more to high status people, especially if those people are in some form of authority (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 77). Without doubt all societies require a certain level of conformity in order to function as a society. If social norms are not adhered there would be confusion and disorder. However, what research has shown is that anyone is capable of conforming/obeying under the right circumstances or situations.It is also evident that the circumstances in which we conform or obey can be seen as positive or negative and although it is not always the case, it is usually a positive social influen ce. In the UK today we live in a society which places great value on the individual: ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. there is a great emphasis on individual responsibility to contribute to society. ’ (Alcock et al, 1999 pg. 41) we are expected to contribute, conform and obey. Following like sheep may be regarded s weak, however, the fact remains that many of us conform i. e. religion, fashion, politics.In addition to these factors it is important to mention that non-conformity also has its place in society because if there were total conformity there would be no change, no improvement, or new ideas. For many, life may well be a struggle – battling with the desire to be an ‘individual’ and also having to ‘conform’ to how society expects them to be, think and do. It could be argued that conformity and obedience are necessary elements of society as conformity and obedience helps create a stable society. From an early age we have been instructed to obey a nd conform as we grow up we continue to be exposed to these pressures i. . our parents demand obedience, friends require us to be ‘part of the crowd,’ teachers demand homework, our religion tells us what to believe and the government expects us to obey the law and pay our taxes. Culturally too we are expected to conform i. e. arranged marriages, customs, traditions and dress. In conclusion, with regard to the experiments that have been discussed in this essay it is important to remember that they are just that – experiments, and it is difficult to know for certain what would actually happen in the ‘real world. References. WOODS, B. Basics in Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. GROSS, R. 2001. PSYCHOLOGY. The science of the mind & behaviour. 4th edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. MCILVEEN, R & GROSS, R. 1999. Social Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. HAYES, N. 1994. Principles of Social Psychology. East Sussex. Psychology Press Ltd. ALCOCK, P. , ERKSINE, A. , MAY, M. 1998. The Students Companion to Social Policy. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

The analysis of the text “From: W.S.” Essay

The text under study is taken from the book â€Å"The Complete Short Stories of L.P. Hartley† written by L.P. Hartley. Leslie Poles Hartley, an English novelist and the son of a solicitor was educated at Oxford’s College and for more than twenty years he was a fiction viewer for magazines. He wrote a lot of novels and made a great contribution to English fiction. â€Å"W.S.† was published posthumously in 1973. The genre chosen by the writer dictates the adoption of the certain style. The genre of this text is the short detective story. When we read this story, we learn everything from the author, so here we can observe the author’s point of view. This excerpt is very interesting from the form of narration: it is not homogeneous because the narration is often interrupted by the inner monologues and by the elements of description. Because of the big amount of such elements, the form of narration is descriptive. Also we can observe non-personal direct speech. The main character of the story – Walter Streeter – gets one after another four postcards with messages from anonymous and starts thinking them over. His reaction on these postcards changes from the first to the last one. At first he was glad not to answer because he had a lot of things to do and the answering on such postcards required too much time and energy. But he was shocked and astonished about it, so he got rid of the first and the second one. Moreover, these postcards lingered in his mind and he pondered over the anonymous. He couldn’t understand who it was – a woman or a man because the handwriting and style of writing were extremely different. If the first postcard was about Walter Streeter’s personal features of character about his grip with people, the second one told that he was on the border of something. Walter Streeter had the difficulties with his work and he needed a new source of inspiration. After the receiving the third postcard he paid an attention on the initials of the sender. T hey were like his own. Walter Streeter even thought that it was he by his own who sent these postcards. The man went to his friend to ask for advice and after the conversation he felt reassured for a moment. He thought that it was a woman, who had somehow taken a fancy to him and she was a lunatic. Walter Streeter couldn’t destroy this postcard as the previous one, because they became the leading factor in his life. But after the fourth postcard the wave of panic surged in him and he even wanted to go to the police to protect himself. The author depicts very peculiar characters. The main hero is Walter Streeter, a novelist. While reading this excerpt we get the information about him and it may be said that the author tries to thrust his opinion on the readers. We feel some sympathy to Walter Streeter from the author’s descriptions. About some features of this character we learn only from these anonymous postcards. Mr. Streeter is usually friendly but sometimes critical. He is interested in Scotland and cathedrals. This man is conscientious, he is not a man to experiment with acquaintances and he is ready to escape into an ambiguous world, where the conscious mind didn’t have things too much its own way. These facts we know from some inner monologues, thoughts and feelings which are imperceptibly interwoven with the narration. The author uses such device for us to better understand this particular character and to show his full portrait. The next character is W.S. Only from the very end of the story we find out that W.S. is William Stainsforth, the character of Walter Streeter book. Walter Streeter didn’t endow him with some good features; he got some fun of this character and made him just nasty as he could. While writing the book about W.S., Mr. Streeter unloaded all his self-dislike on him. So W.S. decided to kill his creator. The author uses a gradation to create tenser atmosphere and to show that W.S. is coming nearer to Walter Streeter. This gradation can be observed in the end of the text of the postcards with word â€Å"handshake†. From the first till the last the â€Å"handshakes† were â€Å"A handshake, a firm handshake, a hearty handshake, a hard handshake†. It shows the significance of these postcards. This extract is full of stylistic devices. First of all, there are many interrogative sentences and it shows the hesitation and anxiety of the character. We can observe here such stylistic devices as zeugma – â€Å"took up the time and energy†, metonomy – â€Å"faint strings of curiosity†, personification – â€Å"growing pains†, periphrasis – â€Å"conscious mind†, â€Å"little mouse-like creature†, â€Å"poison pens†, a lot of examples of inversion. Also the author uses a lot of anaphoras. It is used widely to improve emphasis on some facts: â€Å"Perhaps they didn’t have their feet on the ground. Perhaps he was ready to escape†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Another type of repetition which is called anadiplosis is used: â€Å"†¦into an ambiguous world, a world where the conscious†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Besides we can meet such epithets in the text: â€Å"November fire†, â€Å"other-wordly†, â€Å"handshake from W.S.†; some metaphors such as â€Å"fruitful conflict†, â€Å"I’ve been re-reading your novels, living in them†, â€Å"a borderline case†, â€Å"lingered in mind†. A beautiful antithesis as â€Å"perfection of ordinariness† doesn’t let us calm to Walter’s style. As we see the language of the writer is very rich and full of various kinds of stylistic devices. It makes the story vivid, bright, interesting and picturesque. In conclusion I want to say, that this story tells us about the life of writer but it is unusual because of its mysterious detective plot. This story was interesting for me because of exciting plot, specific characters, incomprehensible end and lively language of the writer.

Analyze Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Analyze - Essay Example It worth noting, that the film explores the theme of sexual relationships in the context of exploitations, despite such relationships having moments of happiness (Alaa 70). The film presents a scandalous and shocking homosexual relationship between Le Caire’s editor, Hatim, and Abduh, who is a Nubian officer married (Hamed Film). Hatim is depicted as having an affluent background. Hatim’s father was an intellectual and rich Egyptian, while his mother was a French national. It is noted that Hatim was introduced into homosexuality at a tender age of nine by their family’s Nubian servant. The film also indicates that Hatim made the first move to seduce Abduh. Hatim later fondled and offered money to Abduh to keep the relationship despite Abduh’s displeasure with the relationship as he tries to end it. Abduh’s reasons for attempting to end the relationship are the religious guilt (Alaa 70). The film indicates that Hatim sexually enslaved Abduh. Hatim offered monetary rewards to Abduh and employment promises to enable him support his family. The film further indicated the tragic end of the homosexual relationship between Hatim and Abduh, when Abduh killed Hatim in rage over the guilty-conscious feeling he had after the death of his son, whom he believed was because of God’s anger over their homosexual relationship (Hamed Film). The film depicts how the Egyptian parliament seeked to ban the Yacoubian Building terming it as possessing obscene scenes â€Å"..that needed to be deleted† (Kate 110). This indicates that there were certain ills in the Egyptian society that were kept away from the public by the government. The film also explores the sexual relationship between Hagg Azzam and Souad Gaber. A Sheikh also depicts this relationship as a rather exploitative one as the Hagg Azzam, an old man, decides to marry an attractive young woman Gaber after an approval. The exploitative nature of this relationship depicts the selfish nature of Azzam (Alaa

Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States Essay

Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States - Essay Example Only 81% are able to eat the kinds of foods they want but majority also have to travel a far distance to reach the grocery stores of supermarkets (Larson, Story and Nelson, 2009). Research indicates that 8% of African Americans lack access to food while only 41% of the whites have access to food (U.S Department of Agriculture, 2009). The problem as indicated above is caused by food deserts. The other cause for these statistics are the fact that the supermarkets and groceries are not stocked with the kind of food people want and hence they end up not purchasing anything or just enough to eliminate their hunger but not get satisfied. Lastly is the main reason which is the socio-economic status of people. People fail to access food not because it is unavailable but simply because they cannot afford it. The healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables are expensive and hence they rely on unhealthy risking diseases. Over 46% of low income neighbors have limited household access to healthy foods dues to their high prices (Larson, Story and Nelson, 2009). When there is food desert in any neighborhood, the only people who will be able to purchase the desired and affordable food are those with readily available transportation and money for the food which means those in middle and high level of socio-economic status. Transportation in the rural areas is hard to come by and hence they lack access to healthy food. Majority of the city dwellers also face similar problem as their neighborhoods are filled with convenience stores and fast food joints and very few, sparsely spaced supermarkets and grocery stores. This translates to people within that neighborhood eating unhealthy foods majority of the time. The lack of access to healthy foods due to lack of access to supermarkets and grocery stores as well as the disparity in healthy food as a result of affordability calls for a policy to improve these low statistics if the US citizens are to start being healthy people and

A growth strategy for Fifers Bakery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

A growth strategy for Fifers Bakery - Essay Example Fifers bakery is a large scale bakery supplying retailers with breads, cakes and other baked products. At present the company has no strategic plans for the next five year. To be able to develop a strategic plan the company should be aware of the key innovation trends and new product and category opportunities. A Growth Strategy should be planned to enable the company to anticipate the changes in the internal environment caused by the external environment in time. To start the process of selecting a market-dominating business and marketing strategy we must take the first four steps: Setting the vision for Fifers Bakery, gathering environmental and competitive intelligence, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the company.Fifers Bakery vision is to create business opportunities for both business owners and their employees to upgrade operations and increase both profits and wages. The company should be focusing on innovation that will lead the company into major growth. It i s also the company's focus to develop and produce new products that are not available in in-store bakeries and offer good customer service that has a personal touch in order to have customers coming back. The knowledge in information technology will be given importance since this will help the company to shorten its work from years to hours, minutes or seconds. Overall the vision of the company is to provide services that will benefit not only the company but its customers as well. To develop the best Growth Strategy for Fifers Bakery we must first understand the world outside the organization. Our focus will be our competitors, technology, market size and trends, our clients, availability of key resources (people and materials) and others that includes customer request and suggestions. Aside from the above mentioned external environment it also includes strategic implications for baking industry, category opportunities, new product opportunities and retailer and distribution drivers. Identifying the strength and weaknesses of Fifers Bakery includes the internal environment of the company. This includes the ability of the company to get new clients products and services, research and development , automation and equipments, knowledge and skills, employee diversity, capacity, training, company structure and culture, total Quality Management Systems, finance including cash flow, ROI leadership and others. From the above listed focus we will be able to start working on our Growth Strategy that will help Fifers Bakery survive or even lead the baking industry in the next five years. Topic The objective of this study is to be able to create a Growth Strategy for Fifers Bakery. The baking industry is complex, extremely competitive and fractious. The need for change and the focus for innovation are important. A Growth Strategy for Fifers Bakery will start at defining the company's goals. The attainment of such goal will mean that the vision has become a reality. It is best to identify first what markets we will do business. Since Fifers Bakery is a supplier for a retailer, then we will need to focus on those retailers who can cope up with the demand of the customers. We should not be only focusing on the orders; we should also overview the services being given to the customers. Baking industry has becoming very stiff that you need to improved or change some items in order to attract customers. We will be able to choose from being a marginal player with a small percentage or a big player with a significant portion of the market or we will dominate the market and crush all competition. It is important to identify which market we will focus. Customers play a vital role in the success of the organization. Fifers' bakery can make and bake the best cakes and bread in the world but if it is not what they need it would be a waste of time,

Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 22

Art - Essay Example rial space needs to be consisted and the logic of the linear perspective must be applied to each and every form that recedes into the distance and they include humans and also other animal forms. Still in the conservation process, the artists are required to work back and forth, Consequently, they are expected to look at the tip of the obelisk with their one eye opened. The atmospheric perspective refers to the final constituent of the optically based system that represents the whole world and was developed by the recovery and the Chinese and the Japanese have utilized it in making their suggestions for broad vistas of receding. Concerning isometric perspective, it has been observed that the converging lines of linear perspective are always on the basis of a fixed viewpoint to an earthbound viewer. The article also talks about time and motion and states that they have always been linked to works of art in the world because time as an element and motion is the very sign of life. It is until late in the 20th century that time and motion took their place as elements in western art by the simple reason of the advancement of technology and the dynamics of the real life situation. To conclude, the type of art that moves is referred to s kinetic art but the term motion is not fixed to the artworks themselves. As we make our move down through the spiral canyon of time, erecting walls to either side to lean outwards and then inwards and in the process continue modifying the space with which we live and the experience that we have on

URBAN GEOGRAPHY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

URBAN GEOGRAPHY - Essay Example According to Massey and Denton (1998) Geographical segregation can be described as spatial concentration of particular groups of population in separate areas. In simple terms, segregation means that certain groups of population get limited to different pockets of geographical areas. It can also be said that segregation is the level or extent to which particular groups reside separately from one another within the confines of a particular geographic area such as a city or state (Low, 2004). Segregation, in itself, is a complex phenomenon, where the groups are segregated in a number of ways. So, the spatial restriction of populations is based on a number of variables such as culture, income, ethnic origin, immigrant status or sexual orientation (Massey and Denton, 1998; Jackson, 1985). For example, people from a minority community are often overrepresented in some particular areas and underrepresented in some others (Yinger, 2001). In addition, a community may geographically restrict itself in way that its exposure to the other groups is minimized (Yinger, 2001). Johnston and Poulson add to Yingers theory by postulating that there are particular reasons because of which segregation takes place. These may range from legal restrictions as in the case of South Africa where Apartheid was in practice; to the social or economic status as in the case of rich people residing in the suburbs and the relatively poor residing in the downtown areas. However, the most prominent cause of segregation is found to be ethnicity or cultural background. This type of segregation can result from the emigrants’ need to find security in numbers which makes people from the same cultural or ethnic backgrounds to cluster together and segregate themselves from the rest of the society. Voluntary segregation is therefore where immigrants prefer to live in a

HIS 202 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HIS 202 - Essay Example In the two documents, Hamilton is seen to have drawn his arguments to Washington’s request much more deliberately than Thomas Jefferson (Hofstedter, pg. 164). Hamilton was capable of giving best answer because he had papers written from Virginians Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Randolph against the creation of the Bank of the United States. According to the American history regarding the Bank of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were the most studied and beloved figures. And today, standard bearers of conservatism, radicalism as well as liberalism are utilizing their complex views to legitimize their arguments. The study also shows that various laws, values and customs have shaped the development of banking institutions in the United States in a distinctive way; however, it is evident that none has done so more than the vicious debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over the development of the bank in 1791. Jefferson argues that, the issue on the constitutionality of the bank may be a question does not extend the power of the government beyond the prescribed limits given that it only affirms a power to incorporate specified powers (Hofstedter, pg. 168). ... 52)†. From this quote, it can be evident that Jefferson condemns the system of banking as being corrupt, and that the long-term government debt was going to swindle the future generations. He goes on and says that the incorporation of a bank, and powers assumed by the bill have not been and his opinions are that it has been delegated to the United States by the constitution (Heffnerer, pg. 54). He further argues that the circumstances that powers of sovereignty in America, the country will still remain divided between the national as well as the state government since they does not afford the distinction which is required (Heffnerer, pg. 55). Jefferson opinions were that, the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States were not among the powers specially enumerated since these were only a power to lay taxes for the purposes of paying the debts of the United States, but no debt was to be paid from the bill nor any tax levied and so, this was a bill to raise money hence it s origination in the Senate would condemn it by the constitution (Heffnerer, pg. 52). Thomas Jefferson continues to argue that the situation that the powers of the sovereignty are in the United States and are divided between the national as well as, the state governments does not necessarily afford the distinction which is required. For instance, this does not follow from each of portion o powers delegated to one or to the other is not sovereign in regard to its proper objects. Alexander Hamilton, Opinion on the constitutionality of the Bank Hamilton’s opinion on the bank laid classical arguments of the people who favored an effective central government as well as, a national power.

How Dickens uses language Essay Example for Free

How Dickens uses language Essay There is a variety of repetition in the passage. Phrases like ‘Dead and Buried’ are repeated to remind us, as readers, that most of Pip’s family is dead. The word ‘buried’, suggests that it happened some time ago and that he never knew them, which makes us feel pity and sympathy for the character. Pip talks about his life in the marsh country, where he resided by the river and near the sea. This could possibly highlight how Pip (small like a river), may be connected to something greater than he could’ve ever imagined (like the sea). Dickens also uses some interesting vocabulary, with fascinating imagery in this passage. For example he describes the sea as a ‘distant savage lair’. The word ‘distant’ tells the reader that there is an unknown, oncoming threat. The word ‘savage’ suggests it was over powerful and violent. Finally, the word ‘lair’ implies a dangerous place, where victims are taken to be devoured. This shows the reader that Pip is not safe, and seems to be in grave danger. Alliteration is another technique which Dickens has input in the passage. The phrase ‘low leaden line’, (which describes the river), is a good example of this. Rivers are supposed to be an aquatic blue colour, but Dickens describes it as ‘leaden’, which is a depressing grey colour, suggesting a bleak setting. Finally, Dickens uses third person in the passage, although this is questionable. In one sentence, Pip goes from narrating as an adult in the 1st person and then switches to the 3rd person, where he looks back at himself as a small child. This is because he is in utter disbelief at how lost he was, which is effective as the reader feels confused, just as Pip would have as a small child.

The Malaysian Tobacco Industry

The Malaysian Tobacco Industry CHAPTER 1 The Malaysian tobacco industry is a copious industry which comprehends leaf production and curing, product manufacturing to product marketing and distribution. Tobacco is the countrys most widely cultivated non-food crop (British American Tobacco Malaysia). Malaysia is not considered as a large tobacco leaf producer by world standards. Neither is a major contributor to the Malaysian economy. However, tobacco farmers are used politically by the tobacco industry. According to a study conducted by Ernst and Young in June 2005 for the Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers, the industry contributes extensively to the countrys economy with more than 190,000 people depending on it for employment in 2003. Tobacco production has increased due to a rise in the demand for tobacco from cigarette manufacturers. (See Table 1.0) 1.1 Impact of Tobacco Use Cigarette demand has long been a crucial issue and has become especially prominent in the wake of the recent colossal settlements between government and cigarette companies ( Huang and Chin, 2006). According to the press statement by the Minister of Health, the Hon Dato Chua Jui Meng on Tobacco Control in Malaysia on 7th November 1996, cigarette smoking is an avoidable addiction which hold responsible for a massive 25% of all deaths in Malaysia. Smoking is a deadly and expensive pastime which is dangerous to both smokers and the second hand smokers (Costa and Mossialos,2006). Studies showed that 30% of cancer deaths and 90% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Malaysia were associated to smoking (The Star). According to World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is going to be the biggest cause of death in the world if current pattern of smoking continue, with no changes in cessation rates or significant declines in initiation rates by 2020. There are more than one billion smoke rs in the world and 5.4 million people were killed by tobacco use a year. Moreover, smoking is not only destroying the health of the smoker but it is also an economic burden. These include primarily direct or indirect medical costs to the smokers and also productivity losses. Indoor places where smoking is allowed will incur a higher renovation and cleaning costs. The management will have to pay a lot to maintain the cleanliness in the workplaces. Furthermore, it increased the risk of fire and may acquire higher insurance premiums. Since the first report on tobacco by Surgeon General was released in 1964, awareness relative to the negative effects of tobacco use has increased. Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy can cause impromptu miscarriage, underweight babies and premature delivery. Most importantly, it will also cause sudden infant death (SID) syndrome. At the same time, it is also very dangerous for the people who do not smoke but breathing in a smoke-filled room. Second-hand smoke is a major source of indoor air pollution which can damage the health of both the children and adults. There are almost half of the worlds children breathe second-hand smoke today. In recent times, the smokers are increasing from day to day (See Table1.1). Despite of all the negative effects, smokers dont seem to be affected by the side effects. Teenage smoking is a severe problem in Malaysia and according to the World Tobacco Marketfile, the number of youth smokers are increasing (See Table 1.2). The risk of youth commencing tobacco use by socio-demographic, environmental and personal factors is increasing. Family with low socioeconomic status is an example of socio-demographic factor. There are more young people who smoke nowadays because tobacco products are easily accessible and available everywhere. Young people who are lack of parental guidance will be easily influenced by peers. These are the examples of environmental risks factor. While personal risk factors include low self-esteem and the belief that tobacco use provides an advantage which can help them to reduce stress. People who get older should understand the danger of smoking better than the youth . They should be able to experience the side effects if they have been smoking for quite some time. Some people may not be aware of the specific health risks of tobacco use as they are not exposed to the side effects. If the smokers are aware of the dangers of tobacco, most want to quit. 1.2 Governments Regulation towards Cigarette Demand The Malaysian government has done various efforts and implemented regulations restricting people to smoke. Government policy is divided into price and tax measures; and also non-price measures such as Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke; Regulation of contents of tobacco product; Regulation of tobacco product disclosures; Packaging and labelling of tobacco products; Education, communication, training and public awareness; Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and Tobacco cessation (Zain, 2007). National Tobacco Control Program is one of the strategies taken to reduce tobacco use. The general objective of this program is to provide comprehensive support and assistance to help smokers quit smoking. The programs include legislative control; health promotion and public advocacy; tobacco tax policy; smoking cessation services; research, monitoring and evaluation; multi-sectoral collaboration and capacity building. In legislative control, under the section on the Prohibition on Tobacco Product Advertisement of Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004 restricts printing, publishing or distributing of any tobacco product advertisement. It bans on cigarette advertisement on television and radio. Health warning messages are placed on every cigarette pack to raise peoples awareness. Furthermore, government has legislated smoke-free policy in Malaysia to curb smoking. There is total ban on smoking in government meetings. Places like health and educational facilities, governmental offices, public transport, shopping complex, cinemas and places of worship are smoke-free zone. Besides that, health promotion and advocacy covers campaigns such as Tak Nak Campaign; Healthy Lifestyle Campaign; Kempen Nafas Baru Bermula Ramadhan; World No Tobacco Day and also events by other agencies. On top of that, government also introduce excise duties on imported cigarette and further increase in sales and import tax . Increase tax will reduce the consumption on cigarettes without negative impact on revenue. At the same time, National Smoking Cessation Program was introduced to provide comprehensive support and assistance to help smokers to quit smoking. Under this program, it helps to inform and educate the smokers regarding the advantages of quitting smoking. Government has created a lot of awareness program to help people to quit smoking and the most effective strategy to reduce smoking is raising the price of the cigarettes. So as all these efforts and accumulation of knowledge are done, the demand for cigarettes and smoking should be reducing. 1.3 Problem Statement Tobacco use in Malaysia has escalated over the past years in spite of the numerous health warnings. Despite the various implementations of mass anti-smoking campaigns by the government, smoking is still a popular activity among the people. In the past there is a lot of domino effect of smoking leading to health problems yet it can seem surprising that some people still choose to smoke. Tobacco users still continue with it in pursuance of the risks or the expense because smoking is a habit hard to break for the reason that it contains an addictive drug called nicotine. In addition to that, the effect will be amplified this time around as the price of cigarettes increase simultaneously. Subsequently, the price affects the middle and lower income group of wage earner adversely because smoking is an expensive activity. The rising of cigarettes price will cause them to be overburdened by the rising living cost. People start smoking for a variety of different reasons. Although most of the people is aware that smoking is dangerous and harmful to the people around them but there are still 40-50 new smokers created everyday and the smoking popularity among the youth are increasing. There is about 9 out of 10 smokers start before the age of 18 years old (See Table 1.2). Most of the youth started to smoke as an act of rebellion and also because of peers pressure. The teenagers may not be conscious about the effects but it will become apparent later on in their life. Furthermore, survey has shown that the trend of young female smokers is increasing at such an alarming rate. According to the statistics by Healthy Living, it shows that there are 22% of smoker ages around 18 to 24 years old, 22.8% of smoker ages around 25 to 44 years old, 21% of smoker ages around 45 to 64 years old and 8% of smoker ages above 65 years old. 1.4 Research Question The questions arise in this study is: Will the people above the age of 65 years old decrease the consumption of cigarettes? Will the implementation of the government policy towards the cigarettes reduce the number of smokers in Malaysia 1.5 Objectives of the Study The general objective of this study is to determine the demand for cigarettes. More specific, this study tends to Determine the price and income elasticity towards the demand for cigarettes. Determine the impact of demand for cigarettes on aging population. 1.6 Significance of the Study This research on the aging population is important in the attempt to reduce the overall demand for cigarettes in Malaysia. This study will test the level of awareness of population of Malaysia on the impact of smoking between different age groups. Most of the diseases caused by tobacco use will only be noticeable when the users reach the later stage in life. This study will justify why policy makers should take into consideration people of all age groups when coming up with new policies regarding tobacco use, instead of focusing only on the younger population. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is to review the existing literature on the demand for cigarette. There is a large volume of published studies describing the price and income elasticity on cigarette consumption. Furthermore, there is also a large and growing body of literature has investigated the effects of taxes and anti-smoking regulations on the demand for cigarettes. So far, there are only a few studies regarding the relationship between aging population and the consumption of cigarette. 2.1 Theoretical Studies of Demand for Cigarettes The law of demand is an important law in microeconomic theory. In theoretical economics, economists develop models to explore economic activity and outcomes. Reliable statements about economic behavior enable the prediction of probable effects of specific actions. The law of demand is an economic law that states that, all other factors being equal, as the price of good increases, demand for the good will decrease. This law summarizes the effect price changes have on consumer behavior. The negative relationship between price and quantity demanded is caused by two reasons. One of the reasons is the income and substitution effects. Income effect means that for a lower price product, a consumer can buy more than they could at the higher price point. Other similar products now seem more expensive compared to the lower priced product is the substitution effect. The second reason is the diminishing marginal utility for the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. Consumers get less satisfaction from each additional unit of product they consume over a specified period of time. They will only continue to buy if the price is reduced at each point. By increasing the real price of tobacco, a tax increase has colossal potential to be an effective policy lever to decrease tobacco consumption. The impact of taxes on tobacco consumption depends on the extent to which changes in taxes are reflected in tobacco prices and the responsiveness of consumers to changes in prices. People tend to reduce their consumption on tobacco use as the price increase. The demand functions show that cigarette consumption is related to the price of cigarettes, prices of related goods, income, and individuals tastes. A general conclusion from the precious studies is that tobacco prices and the demand are inversely related. Marshall illustrated the law of demand with both a table and a demand curve by assuming that the period of time is sufficiently short to justify a ceteris paribus assumption. 2.2 Empirical Studies of Demand for Cigarettes Several studies conducted have reported that there is an inverse relationship between the price and cigarette consumption and positive effect of income. Franke (1994) reveals that Granger Causality is significant from price and income to cigarette consumption in the United States. No significant change is observed in the estimated demand elasticity which occurred during the period studied. In order to test a model of the demand for cigarettes in the United States from the period of 1961 to 1990, he uses quarterly data and multiple analyses. The outcome of the study illustrates a positive effect of income and negative effects on price. Likewise, Zheng, Zhu and Li (2008), in a separate study also finds that there is indeed a positive income elasticity but negative cigarette price elasticity based on the best fixed-effects spatial-temporal model. They construct a demand equation to study on the elasticity of per pack cigarette price and per capita disposable income in 2008. This is done by considering the cigarette demand in a spatial panel of 46 states of the United States over a period of 30 years which ranged from 1963 to 1992. They then propose a new spatial panel model and implement a fully Bayesian approach for model parameter inference and prediction of cigarette demand at future time points using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. Chaloupka et al. (2002) examines data from documents of the tobacco industry to discover what tobacco companies know of the impact that cigarette prices has on smoking among youth, young adults and also adults. They assess on how this understanding would affect their pricing and price related marketing plans. The tobacco company documents provides velar evidence on the consequence of change in cigarette prices on cigarette smoking habits, relating how tax and other increases in price led to significant decline in smoking, predominantly among the younger people. They conclude that future efforts towards tobacco control which targets to increase prices and limit price related marketing efforts are critical in achieving reductions in tobacco use and public health toll caused by tobacco. This view is supported by Fernà ¡ndez et al. (2004) which shows that between the period of 1965 and 2000, there is indeed an inverse relation between the prices and consumption of cigarette in Spain, wh ich indicates that involvement at the economic level, for instance real increases in price may have an important public health impact in control of tobacco. Correspondingly, Gallus et al. (2006) present a similar study to determine the influence that cigarette prices has on tobacco consumption in Italy. A survey is conducted on 3050 individuals aged 15 and above which suggests that prices had an intermediate to high influence on cigarette consumption in the young. Younger people as well as less educated smokers are more susceptible to an influence of prices. They conclude that cigarette prices have substantial influence on tobacco consumption in the younger people. On the contrary, Raptou et al (2005) argues that cigarette demand is extremely insensitive to changes in price. They employ data collected via questionnaires which was administered by personal-in-home interviews and estimate a two part model of cigarette demand (Cragg, J. G. B Some Statistical Models for Limited Dependent Variables with Application to the Demand for Durable Goods, Econometrica, 39, 5, 1971, pp. 829Y44). They conclude that cigarette price measures would not affect cigarette demand. However, it is discovered that smoking restrictions in workplace areas as well as educational establishments, and also most of the psychosocial variables will affect the demand of cigarette. According to Huang and Yang (2006), current estimates of the income elasticity to cigarette demand have shown a troubling result which is nearly zero or sometimes negative income elasticity. They engage in a four-regime panel model (dynamic fixed effect) which is use to predict the function of cigarette demand within the United States with intentions to investigate the nonlinearity embedded in the cigarette demand structure. They apply a multi-regime model to 47 states using data from 1963 to 1997. They claim that there is a nonlinear relationship between personal income and cigarette consumption. Evidently, as income rises, cigarette has become an inferior good. The results from the four-regime model suggest that income elasticity is negative when per capita income is greater than US$ 8,568 but become is positive though insignificant when income is above US$ 18,196. In the income ranging from US$ 8,568 and US$ 18,196, the income elasticity is significantly negative. There is a nonli near relationship which prevailed for the price elasticity. Furthermore, Martinez, Mejia, and Estable (2008) claims that the demand for cigarettes in Argentina over the long term is influenced by the changes in real average price and real income of the cigarettes in Argentina. They analyse the data based on monthly time-series data between the periods of 1994 to 2004. The results that they obtain show that when the prices are increased at 120%, a maximum of revenues from the cigarettes tax can be attained and also there is a big effect on the reduction of the total consumption of cigarettes within the country. Similarly, Abedian (2000) also states that there is an inverse relationship between the price and consumption of any good which include cigarettes. This negative relationship is further affected by other factors such as income levels and the degree of addiction. He argues that increasing tobacco consumption is a problem faced in a developing country and it could bring harm to the people. He also argues that there are no adverse economic consequences following such policy framework. In 2000, Joni Hersch in his studies states that smoking behavior relates to the changes in price, which is not unlike many other economic commodities. He finds that a higher price would reduce demand for cigarettes in both men and women with regard to smoking participation and cigarette consumption levels, with elasticity ranging from -0.40 to -0.60. In distinction to other studies, he finds that the price elasticity is alike for both men and women. Income also has negative effects on smoking behavior. He also states that excise tax policies can dissuade smoking, but their effects will be largely restricted to the low income segment of the population. This finding suggests that there might be constructive responses by smokers to informational efforts which warn about the dangers of smoking and also the environmental tobacco smoke poses to others, especially when it is a member of ones household. Further observations suggest that increase in taxes also play an essential role in reducing cigarette consumption. Following recent years, there has been a growing amount of literature on higher prices that result from increased tax leading to significant reductions in cigarette smoking. A recent study by Chaloupka et al (2010) which performs to supply empirical evidence on the consequence of the cigarette excise tax structure towards three outcomes which are the government revenue, cigarette prices, and cigarette consumption. A cross-sectional time-series data for 21 European Union (EU) countries is composed from year 1998 to 2007 out of various data resources. The estimates suggest that the greater reliance on the ad valorem excise tax leads to lower average cigarette prices and larger price gaps between premium and low-priced cigarette brands. In addition, these impacts from the tax structure are smaller in more concentrated or less competitive markets. They also propose that a la rger reliance on a specific tax will have a greater impact on cigarette smoking, but the impact lessens with the growth of manufacturers market power. In view of this, Peng and Ross (2009) estimates the Ukraine population in its sensitivity to prices of cigarettes and the cigarettes affordability using the macro level data with the aim to compute the efficiency of cigarette tax policy. They use a monthly time-series data from 1997 to 2006 in Ukraine to estimate the generalized least square (GLS) model with an AR(1) process. The result shows that the cigarette price is not significantly associated with legal domestic sale of cigarette. Higher household income and more active outdoor advertising have positive and significant impact on cigarette sales. There is also a positive relationship between the affordability for cigarette and legal domestic cigarette sales. Increasing the cigarette excise tax by 10% would increase the price of cigarettes by 3%. This shows that cigarette tax policy can be used to regulate cigarette price in Ukraine. The people are found to be relatively insensitive to cigarette prices and cigarette taxes, even t hough of low magnitude, but the effect of cigarettes affordability is significant statistically. Similarly, Lee et al. (2005) concludes that price elasticity of cigarettes is approximated to be less than one, which implies that the tax will have some result in reducing cigarette consumption, although it will also generate further tax revenues. Moreover, Hidayat and Thabrany (2010) study the demand for cigarettes in Indonesia using a myopic addiction model and uses it to analyse the price elasticity of cigarette demand. They use an aggregated panel data structured from three waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey over the period of 1993 to 2000. They claim that the short run and long run price elasticity of cigarette demand are estimated to be at -0.28 and -0.73 correspondingly. Price increases have a significantly negative impact on cigarette consumption. Increasing cigarette prices via excise taxes can control tobacco use and thus raise government revenue. They then conclude that excise taxes are more likely an efficient tobacco control rather than a key source of government revenue in the long run. Besides that, Lee (2008) conduct a study which analyses the readiness of current smokers to stop the smoking habit or reduce the consumption of cigarettes when experiencing an increase in tax of NT $22 per pack, which is a consequent rise of 44%. Lee uses cross-sectional study on 483 valid questionnaires conducted during a telephone survey from April to July 2004, targeting current smokers aging 15 years and above, around the 23 major cities in Taiwan. The methods that he uses to measure the elasticity in cigarette demand are the Tobit regression model and also the maximum likelihood method, and estimation results shows a price elasticity of -0.29 following the 44% increase in the cigarette price. Interestingly, the most significant response to the increase in price was found among women, smokers with low salary, smokers who are only moderately addicted, and smokers who purchase low priced cigarettes. Lee concludes that the smokers are relatively insensitive to a hike in cigarette pr icing, since the prices of cigarettes are low in Taiwan. Thus, a marginal increase in cigarette tax would consequently reduce cigarette consumption and thus also increase the cigarette tax revenue of the government and the income of cigarette merchants effectively. This result is consistent with the findings of previous studies by Townsend (1996) and Sissoko (2002) which reflects that the price has a major effect on cigarette consumption and consequently diseases caused by smoking, especially in low income groups. Progressive rise in cigarette tax rates offer a powerful contribution to policy for reducing cigarette consumption and generating extra government revenue. Consequently, when Ross and Al-Sadat (2007) evaluate income elasticity and the price on cigarette demand and also the effect of cigarette taxes towards cigarette demand and cigarette tax revenue within Malaysia, they find that income is positively connected to cigarette consumption. A 1% rise in real income boosts cigarette consumption by 1.46%. They use time series regression analysis for 1990 to 2004 applying the error-correction model. The per-capita consumption of domestic and imported cigarettes is calculated using the excise tax and import duties collected by the Malaysian government and the size of the adult population which are aged above 15 years old. The model estimates that a rise in cigarette excise tax from RM 1.60 to RM 2 per pack will effectively reduce cigarette consumption in Malaysia by 3.37%. They conclude that taxation is an effectual means for reducing cigarette consumption and deaths linked to tobacco while bringing up the revenue for the Malaysian government. According to Huang, Yang, and Hwang (2004), future cigarette consumptions will depend entirely on tax share, price and income elasticity of remaining heavy smoker. They use a panel unit root test to calculate the demand for cigarettes over the period of 1961 to 2002 for 42 states including Washington D.C. The cigarette data in this study is obtained from The Tax Burden on Tobacco published by the Tobacco Institute. They find that price and income elasticity are approximately -0.41 and 0.06. Other than that, a decrease in tax elasticity leads to decreasing price elasticity, and smaller tax shares seems to be interconnected to declining tax elasticity. This study shows an interesting implication, whereby cigarette consumption is a normal good to transfer payment recipients and wage earners, which however is an inferior good to the elderly population and stocks owners. In 2002, Hu and Mao examine a policy dilemma in China on public health against the tobacco economy through added cigarette tax. In order to analyse the impact of tobacco consumption and production towards government revenue and also to the entire economy, they use published data from 1980 to 1997. Imposition of cigarette tax increase will have a significant impact in generating extra central government revenue and reducing cigarette consumption. Therefore, increasing additional tax on cigarettes will be beneficial to the Chinese government from both the financial and public health perspective. Levy, Cummings, and Hyland (2000) use a simulation model to evaluate the effects of taxes on the smoking rate and smoking induced deaths. The method they use in their study projects the number of smokers and smoking attributable deaths from a baseline year of 1993. They find that increase in taxes is to reduce the percentage of the total population that smokes. Youth groups experiences greater effects. The effects of a tax hike tends to increase over time as younger individuals who are more responsive to price increase grows older, but federal and state taxes on cigarettes are currently set at a fixed amount per unit. Moreover, the price of cigarettes falls comparative to the purchasing power of the population as wages increase. These effects grow over time and lead to a substantial savings in lives and health care cost. Lanoie and Leclair (1998) investigate the relative ability of two anti-smoking policies which are taxes and regulations, in inducing a decline in cigarette consumption and in providing incentives to quit smoking. Based on a Canadian data over the period of 1980 to 1995, the results show that cigarette demand react to taxes with the elasticity of -0.28, not regulation. This result implies that the policies are both acting in a corresponding fashion to influence the incidence of smoking. In addition to that, Galbraith and Kaiserman (1997) analyses Canadian cigarette taxation and consumption within the period of 1980 and 1994. During that period, there is a large price rise and decline, and a dramatic increase in the consumption of the contraband tobacco products. In their study, they examine the elasticity of legal cigarette sales and total sales which include contraband with respect to the price of legal cigarettes and various other factors. They conclude that price elasticity regarding demand towards cigarettes tends to increase in absolute value over time, making taxation an increasing strong instrument with which to influence smoking behavior. In considering untaxed sales as well, it becomes clear that the sensitivity of total cigarette sales to the taxation instrument is much lower than would otherwise appear, and has fallen obviously. According to Meier and Licari (1997), a rise in federal tax is more successful than increases in state taxes in reducing tobacco use. Cigarette consumption drops when labels with health warnings were added. They use a pooled time-series analysis from the period of 1955 to 1994 with 50 states as units of the study. The effect of excise taxes on cigarette consumption for numerous different models and econometric techniques is asset to analyse the usefulness of state and federal taxes in bringing down the consumption of cigarettes and estimate the effect of government health warnings. Their study also shows how warnings and taxes interact. Tobacco control programs also has some impact towards the consumption of cigarettes as stated by Farrelly, Pechacek and Chaloupka (2003) that increase in tobacco control program expenditures reduce cigarette sales. Additionally, in reviewing the evidence on the effectiveness of comprehensive tobacco control programs, the recent Surgeon Generals Report on Reducing Tobacco Use concludes that comprehensive tobacco control programs work. Although these studies consistently suggest that state tobacco control programs decrease tobacco use, these studies can easily be confounded by changes in excise taxes, cross-border sales, and other factors. Nevertheless, Leu (1984) reveals that anti smoking advertisements in Switzerlands mass media has a significant permanent effect on cigarette consumption. It is a powerful instrument to reduce cigarette consumption. He claims that extended publicity, following the 1964 US Surgeon Generals Report, accompanying various tax increases which preceded by a public vote on an advertising ban for tobacco products, helps reduce consumption permanently by a total of 11%. It is also supported by Keeler et al (1993) who examine the impact of income, taxes, prices, and anti smoking policy on the consumption of cigarettes in California. They use a monthly time-series data throughout 1980 to 1990. He also declares that the effect of the increase in tax in the long run will be to decrease cigarette consumption. Anti-smoking regulations decreases cigarette consumption, and thus, it shows that consumers behave consistently with the model of rational addiction. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This chapter is to describe on the methods used in this study and the collection of data. It also explains the procedures used in collecting the data and the measurement of the variables. Thus, it provides a summary of expected result of the study. 3.1 Data types A time series data is used for the empirical analysis in this study. The data is collected annually over the period of 1998 to 2008. The types of data obtained are real price of cigarette, real income per capita, cigarette consumption, and also the aging population. 3.2 Data Source The secondary data is collected from the previous studies by other researchers. Mainly, the sources of data are from Departme

A Study On Cumene Plant Engineering Essay

A Study On Cumene Plant Engineering Essay The system considered for study, simulation and optimization is a cumene production plant. The process described by Peterson and Schmidt is taken as base for simulating the system. The process description of Turton et al. (2003) provides relevant and valuable data required for the simulation of the process. Raw materials fed to the plant are benzene and propylene (may contain propane as an impurity) in which benzene is in excess. Various unit operations and processes are required to be taken care of which are described in some detail below. The major units in the process plant are the reactor section and the separator section. 1.2 RELEVANCE Isopropyl benzene popularly known as cumene is the principal chemical used in the production of phenol and its co-product acetone on an industrial scale. It is also the starting material in the production of acetophenone, methyl styrene, diisopropyl benzene and dicumyl peroxide. Minor uses of cumene include as a thinner for paints, enamels, and lacquers; as a constituent of some petroleum-based solvents, such as naphtha; in gasoline blending diesel fuel, and high-octane aviation fuel. It is also a good solvent for fats and resins and has been suggested as a replacement for benzene in many of its industrial applications. Around 98% of cumene is used to produce phenol and its co-product acetone. However, the requirement of cumene is largely dependent on the use of phenol’s derivatives which have resulted in increasing requirement rates for cumene. The largest phenol derivative is bisphenol-A (BPA) which supplies the polycarbonate (PC) sector. PC resins are consumed in automotive applications in place of traditional materials such as glass and metals. Glazing and sheet uses, such as architectural, security and glazing outlets, are also important PC applications. The third largest use for PC is optical media such as compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs). Another phenol derivative is caprolactam which is used mainly to make nylon 6. It is mainly the resin sector of the nylon market that is seeing growth. [Schmidt, 2005] Cumene is produced by the alkylation of benzene with propylene over an acid catalyst like aluminium chloride, boron trifluoride, phosphoric acid, hydrogen fluoride, supported phosphoric acid (SPA) etc. The usage of the above catalysts poses a lot of problems like product quality, lower catalyst activity, environmental hazard, catalyst non-regenerability etc and has been replaced by zeolites in most of the processes. In the present work the cumene production plant is simulated using ASPEN PLUS  ® and the sizes, the temperature and other relevant parameters are obtained by optimization. MATLAB ®, MS Excel and Origin Pro 8.0 are used to plot graphs in the following simulation from which an optimum value is estimated. The optimized values obtained can provide a lot of insight before actual plant commissioning is done. 1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT Considering the importance of the present process, work was undertaken to design and simulate the cumene production process using ASPEN PLUS  ® software. The objectives of the present project are following. To design a zeolite catalyst based cumene production process and study the sensitivity analysis. To optimize the contents of the flow sheet for minimization of loss of material along with a greater production of cumene and low requirement of energy. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 CONVENTIONAL PROCESS Cumene is produced by the alkylation of benzene with propylene over an acid catalyst. Catalysts like aluminium chloride, boron trifluoride, hydrogen fluoride and solid phosphoric acid (SPA) are normally used. Over the years these catalysts have given way to zeolite based catalysts. There are some inherent problems associated with the conventional acid catalysts. Disadvantages of using solid phosphoric acid (SPA) Process Lower activity Catalyst non-regenerability Unloading of spent catalyst from reactor difficult Relative high selectivity to hexyl benzene Significant yield of DIPB Disadvantages of using Aluminium chloride as catalyst High corrosion Environmental hazard Washing step for catalyst removal. 2.2 CURRENT INDUSTRIAL PROCESS Cumene is an important chemical in the present industrial world and its uses are steadily increasing. The process followed for the production of cumene is the catalytic alkylation of benzene with propylene and now a days zeolite based catalysts are used in place of the normal acid based catalysts due to added advantages. Cumene production process has been greatly studied and the reaction mechanism and the reaction kinetics have been specified by many researchers. Both experimental as well as computer based simulation and optimization studies have been carried out by various researchers. The significant works of various researchers which have been helpful in my project are described in brief below. The Q-Max â„ ¢ process converts a mixture of benzene and propylene to high quality cumene using a regenerable zeolite catalyst. The Q-Max â„ ¢ process is characterized by a exceptionally high yield, better product quality, less solid waste, decrease in investment and operating costs and a corrosion free environment. The Q-Max â„ ¢ process developed by UOP uses QZ-2000/ QZ-2001 catalyst which is a variant of ß zeolite. [Schmidt, 2005] 2.2.1 PROCESS DESCRIPTION The Q-MAXâ„ ¢ process provides a very good cumene yield and quality. The QZ-2000 zeolite based catalyst used in the Q-MAXâ„ ¢ process operates with a low flow rate of benzene and hence investment and utility costs are reduced greatly. QZ-2000 is non-corrosive and regenerable, avoiding the significant maintenance and catalyst disposal problems associated with SPA and AlCl3 systems. Compared to other zeolite based cumene technologies, the Q-MAXâ„ ¢ process provides better tolerance of feedstock impurities, the highest cumene product quality and excellent stability. The Q-MAXâ„ ¢ process flow scheme is shown in fig 2.1 above. The alkylation reactor is divided into four catalytic beds present in a single reactor shell. The fresh benzene feed is passed through the upper-mid section of the depropanizer column to remove excess water and then sent to the alkylation reactor. The recycle benzene to the alkylation and transalkylation reactors is a drawn from the benzene column. This mixture of fresh and recycle benzene is charged through the alkylation reactor. The fresh propylene feed is split between the catalyst beds and is fully consumed in each bed. An excess of benzene helps in avoiding poly alkylation and minimizing olefin oligomerization. Because the reaction is exothermic in nature, the temperature rise in the alkylation reactor is controlled by recycling a portion of the reactor effluent to the reactor inlet to act as a heat sink. The inlet temperature of each downstream bed is further reduced to the same temperature as the first bed inlet by injecting a portion of cooled reactor effluent between the beds. Effluent from the alkylation reactor flows to the depropanizer column which removes the propane that entered with the propylene feed along with excess water. The bottoms stream of the depropanizer column goes to the benzene column where excess benzene is collected overhead and recycled. The benzene column bottoms stream goes to the cumene column where the cumene product is recovered overhead. The cumene column bottoms stream, predominantly diisopropylbenzene (DIPB), goes to the DIPB column. If the propylene feed contains excessive butylenes, or if the benzene feed contains excessive toluene, butylbenzenes and/or cumene are distilled out and purged from the overhead section of the DIPB column. The DIPB stream leaves the column by way of the side draw and is recycled back to the transalkylation reactor. The DIPB column bottoms consist of heavy aromatic by-products, which are normally blended into fuel oil. Steam or ho t oil provides the heat for the product fractionation section. The recycle DIPB from the overhead of the DIPB column combines with a portion of the recycle benzene and is charged downflow through the transalkylation reactor. In the transalkylation reactor, DIPB and benzene are converted to more cumene. The effluent from the transalkylation reactor is then sent to the benzene column. The new QZ-2001 catalyst is utilized in the alkylation reactor while the original QZ-2000 catalyst remains in the transalkylation reactor. Expected catalyst cycle length is 2–4 years, and the catalyst should last for at least three cycles with proper care. At the end of each cycle, the catalyst is typically regenerated ex situ via a simple carbon burn by a certified regeneration contractor. However, the unit can also be designed for in situ regeneration. The Q-Maxâ„ ¢ process typically produces near equilibrium levels of cumene (between 85 and 95 mol %) and DIPB (between 5 and 15 mol %). The DI PB is separated from the cumene and is reacted with recycle benzene at optimal conditions for transalkylation to produce additional cumene. [Schmidt, 2005], [Peterson and Schmidt, 2002] 2.2.2 REACTION MECHANISM AND KINETICS The following reaction mechanisms are proposed for the alkylation of benzene to cumene process. The major reactions taking place are alkylation and trans-alkylation. The other reactions involved include isomerisation and dis-proportionation. The reaction mechanism as well as the reaction kinetics may vary depending on the catalyst used. The reaction can proceed by with or without carbonium ion intermediate. [Ding and Fu, 2005] The rates of reaction data was obtained for different catalysts from the work done by various researchers. The kinetic data and the reaction conditions specified by Turton et al (2003) for a particular catalyst have been used in the present work. The reaction kinetic data is shown below Propylene + benzene à   cumene K = 2.8 Ãâ€" 107 E (kJ/kmol) 104174 Rate=kcpcb Propylene + cumene à   p-diisoproyl benzene K = 2.32 Ãâ€" 109 E (kJ/kmol) 146742 Rate=kcpcc (The unit for rates is kmol s-1 m-3) [Turton et al, 2003] Trans-alkylation reaction K= 6.52 Ãâ€" 10-3 exp (27240/RT) The equilibrium data for trans-alkylation reaction is obtained for modified zeolite beta catalyst, YSBH-01. [Lei et al, 2007] From various works on cumene production mechanism the overall reaction can be assumed to consist of the following stages. Alkylation Isomerisation Transalkylation Dis-proportionation 2.3 PROPERTIES OF CUMENE Description: Colorless liquid with a sharp, penetrating aromatic or gas-like odour [Budavari, 1989; Cavender, 1994] Boiling Point: 152.4 °C [Lide, 1995] Melting Point: -96.0 °C [Lide, 1995] Density: 0.8618 g/cm3 at 20 °C [Lide, 1995] Refractive Index: 1.4915 at 20 °C [Schulz et al., 1993]; 1.489 at 25 °C [Lewis, 1993] Solubility: Insoluble in water; miscible in acetone, benzene, and ethanol [Lide, 1995] Flash Point: 39 °C, closed cup [Budavari, 1989] Reactivity: Combustible [Lewis, 1993], not compatible with oxidizers, nitric acid and sulphuric acid. 2.4 PROCESS DESIGN BASICS Process design is a very important aspect before any project implementation as a proper design during the initial stages can save costs to a great extent. The cost involved in designing a project is very less compared to the construction cost and it can be greatly helpful in maximizing profits of the plant as well as providing a safe environment. The plot shown in Fig. 2.2 gives a brief idea of how proper plant design can cut costs to a great extent. The following points need to be taken care for a proper process design. Raw material cost reduction. Selectivity of reaction is increased by proper use of catalysts. Increasing selectivity can reduce separation and recycle costs. Capital-cost reduction. Better flow sheeting can reduce capital costs effectively Energy use reduction. Pinch point analysis is used for energy saving. Increased process flexibility. Process plant should be able to handle a range of feed compositions. Increased process safety. Nonlinear analysis can be done to make the process safer. Increased attention to quality. Reduction of by products and the effective use of process control equipment can lead to process safety. Better environmental performance. Minimization of harmful wastes to the environment. The order in which designing should be done follows a systematic procedure as shown in Fig 2.4. A process simulation diagram is drawn from the process flow diagram. The chemical components are specified. The chemical component properties are generally available in a standard data base. The input streams are specified. Thermodynamic modelling is done. Series of simulations are run for convergence of a particular variable. Sensitivity analysis which consists of varying the sampled variables as a function of the manipulated variables is normally done. The major parts of a cumene production plant are reactor system, separation system and they are optimized. CHAPTER 3 DESIGN: PROCEDURE, RESULT DISCUSSION This chapter is divided into two main parts as (i) Reactor and (ii) Separator. The reactor design involves design of equilibrium based reactor as well as kinetic based reactor. The separator system involves the design of flash tank and distillation column. As the product purity is increased by increasing the working cost of the reactor, the separation cost decreases and vice versa. The sequence of computation followed is shown in Fig. 3.1. 3.1 REACTOR DESIGN Reactor is the heart of a chemical process plant. Design of a reactor requires data from thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer and economics. A properly designed reactor can minimize the production of unwanted products and hence reduce the purification costs. The alkylation and trans-alkylation reactors are the main reactors in a cumene production plant and they need to be designed for optimum use of material and energy. In all the optimization work done Douglas Doctrine (the costs of raw materials and products are usually much larger than the costs of energy or capital in a typical chemical process. Therefore the process must be designed (investing capital and paying for energy) so as to not waste feed stocks or lose products (particularly in the form of undesirable products) is followed. [Luyben, 2010] Kinetic model can be considered if accurate kinetic data is available. But a plant involves industrial reactors that are very complex and hence a proper combination of stoichiometric and kinetic reactor needs to be used. Kinetic model can determine the production rate where as stoichiometric model can describe the formation of by products and impurities necessary for the design of separators. Equilbrium based reactors like RGIBBS in ASPEN PLUS ® can give a realistic idea about the maximum achievable performance. They work accurately for fast reactions. The RGIBBS reactor predicts the equilibrium concentration by Gibbs free energy minimization. [Dimian, 2003] Generally in reactor design an equilibrium model is prepared and then the kinetic model. The following reaction mechanism was proposed by various researchers for alkylation of benzene by cumene. 3.1.1 REACTIONS CONSIDERED FOR MODELING Alkylation propylene + benzene à   cumene (1) propylene + cumene à   p-diisoproyl benzene (2) Isomerisation p-diisopropyl benzene à   m-diisopropyl benzene (3) Trans-alkylation p-diisopropyl benzene + benzene à   2 cumene (4) m-diisopropyl benzene + benzene à   2 cumene (5) Disproportination 2 cumene à   p-diisopropyl benzene + benzene (6) 2 cumene à   m-diisopropyl benzene + benzene (7) 3.1.2 REACTOR DESIGN PROCEDURE IN ASPEN PLUS The feed is a mixture of benzene and propylene such that benzene is in excess. In general propylene is not available in the pure form and has some amount of propane as inert. The separation cost of propane is high and hence normally propane is not removed from the propylene feed into the reactor. A high conversion of propylene is desired and the unreacted propylene can be flashed off along with the inert propane. RGIBBS reactor works by Gibbs free energy minimization. Alkylation and trans-alkylation reactors need not be modelled separately as they can be combined into one equilibrium reactor. The reactant, products as well as the intermediates as seen from the reaction mechanisms are specified into the component list. SYSOP0 or Ideal property table is used. A temperature range of 300 to 400 degree Celsius is specified and a proper temperature chosen. Pressure of 25 atm is chosen from previous industrial research work. [Luyben, 2010] 3.1.3 EQUILIBRIUM STUDIES The equilibrium is affected by the temperature as well as the benzene/propylene mole ratio. The alkylation and transalkylation reaction is usually carried out at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, the effect of pressure on the equilibrium was not considered in the present study. Seven reactor models are available in ASPEN PLUS. The equilibrium based RGIBBS reactor is used to find the product composition at which the Gibbs free energy of the product is minimum. The restricted chemical equilibrium approach is used and the reactions mentioned above are specified. The temperature approach for an individual reaction is used. The feed stream mole flow is set as 1 kmol / hr and the feed stream consists of benzene, propylene and propane (inert mixed with the propylene stream). Amount of inert in feed is kept fixed. The reactor temperature is set to 3500C and the reactor pressure is set to 25 atm. (a) The selectivity of cumene and conversion of propylene (limiting reagent) is studied by varying the benzene/propylene mole ratio in the feed keeping the amount of inert fixed. The effect of temperature variation (300–4000C) on the selectivity and the conversion is also studied. (b) Again, the variation in the selectivity of m-DIPB and p-DIPB with temperature and b enzene/propylene mole ratio in the feed is studied. The conversion and selectivity were calculated using equations 8 to 11. %Selectivity of cumene = Fcumeneproduct /(Fpropylenefeed-Fpropyleneprod) ´100% (8) %Conversion of propylene = (Fpropylenefeed-Fpropyleneprod)/Fpropylenefeed  ´ 100 % (9) %Selectivity of m-DIPB = Fmdipbproduct/(Fpropylenefeed-Fpropyleneprod)  ´100% (10) %Selectivity of p-DIPB = Fpdipbproduct/(Fpropylenefeed-Fpropyleneprod)  ´ 100% (11) Where Fcumeneproduct = molar flow rate of cumene in product Fpropylenefeed = molar flow rate of propylene in feed Fpropyleneprod = molar flow rate of propylene in product Fmdipbproduct = molar flow rate of m-DIPB in product Fpdipbproduct = molar flow rate of p-DIPB in product RSTOIC reactor model was used to find the standard heat of reaction for different reactions 1 to 6 mentioned above. The standard heats of reaction have been tabulated in Table 3.1.1. The heat of reaction for isomerisation was found to be zero as expected. The all other reactions were found to be exothermic except trans-alkylation reactions as observed from the table. Table 3.1.1 Standard Heats of Reaction Reaction Number Standard Heat of Reaction (Kcal/Kg mol) 1 -23.670 2 -24.321 3 0 4 0.649 5 0.649 6 -0.325 7 -0.324 Effect of temperature and benzene/propylene mole ratio. The effect of temperature and benzene/propylene mole ratio on equilibrium conversion of propylene and selectivity of products, cumene, m-DIPB, and p-DIPB is shown in Fig. 3.1.1. The conversion of propylene was found to increase with increase in benzene/propylene mole ratio for a fixed temperature as observed from the Fig. 3.1.1(a). This is because of reduced proportion of propylene in feed. However, variation of conversion of propylene was found to be negligibly small above the benzene/propylene mole ratio in feed of 3. The conversion of propylene was found to decrease with increase in temperature for a fixed benzene/propylene mole ratio as observed from the Fig. 3.1.1(a). This is because of the fact that overall heat of reactions is exothermic as shown in Table 3.1.1. The selectivity of cumene was found to increase with increase in benzene/propylene mole ratio at a fixed temperature as the polyalkylation reactions are reduced because of excess amount of benzene present in the feed (Fig. 3.1.1(b)). Again, with increase in temperature, the selectivity of cumene increases for a fixed benzene/propylene mole ratio as transalkylation reactions (endothermic, Table 3.1.1) are dominant at high temperature. The distribution of m-DIPB and p-DIPB is shown in Fig. 3.1.1 (c). From the figure it was observed that selectivity of m-DIPB is significantly higher than p-DIPB. This is because of the fact that m-DIPB is thermally more stable compared to p-DIPB. Therefore, p-DIPB formed in alkylation reaction isomerises to more stable meta isomer. Effect of inert on equilibrium. The propylene stream used in alkylation process is usually obtained by pyrolysis of petroleum fractions that contains small amount of propane as impurity. Propane need not be removed from the propylene stream as it acts as an inert and does not take part in the reaction. Presence of inert has very slight effect on the conversion as well as selectivity as shown in Fig.3.1.2. The conversion of propylene decreases slightly with higher volume percent of inert in feed and increases slightly with the same. 3.1.4 KINETICS BASED REACTOR MODEL Kinetics based rate data was obtained from the work of various researches and is mentioned above. A RPLUG model is used in ASPEN PLUS to model the reactor. The design model specified in the book by Turton et al (2003) is used. The reactions occur in the vapour phase in the presence of a solid catalyst (assumed to have 0.5 void fraction and a 2000 kg/m3 solid density). The reactor is run at high pressure (25 bar) since the moles of reactants are more than the moles of product (Le Chatelier’s principle). A temperature of 360 degree C and a benzene/Propylene mole ratio of 6 is used. A flow rate of 330 kmol/hr is used for the simulation. The kinetic model generated few errors such as RPLUG exited because integration failed. index = (-1) probable cause is incorrect kinetics. check rate-constant parameters and molar volume calculations. 3.1.5 PRODUCT OUTPUT FROM REACTOR Assuming the RGIBBS model for the initial calculations for distillation columns can give a good idea about the distillation process in a cumene plant. RGIBBS model with an input feed rate of 100 kmol/hr and benzene: propylene feed ratio of 6:1 with an inert concentration of 5% in propylene stream, temp. of 360 degree C and a pressure of 25 bar is used. The flow rates obtained at the product side are noted.The non condensable components in the product side i.e. propylene and propane are removed in flash tank. These components have fuel value only as they cannot be completely purified. So the reaction conditions should be so adjusted that the propylene in feed is totally converted to the product. The concentration of non-condensable components from reactor is given in Table 3.1.2. This data is used for further designing. Table 3.1.2 Mole flow rate of components from reactor Component Mole Flow kmol/hr Benzene 72.85 Cumene 10.31 m-DIPB 1.77 p-DIPB 0.47 TOTAL 85.4 3.2 PREDICTING VLE CHARACTERISTICS Reactors and separators can be considered as the back bone of any chemical process plant. The cost optimization of any plant depends largely on the reactors and the distillation columns. The basis of distillation is phase equilibrium that may be VLE (Vapour liquid equilibrium) and LLE (Liquid liquid equilibrium). Before designing any distillation equipment the VLE characteristics need to be studied as they give a fair amount of idea about the ease of distillation. The Txy diagram or temperature versus liquid composition (x) and vapour composition (y) are plotted. A fat curve generally shows that the liquids in a mixture can be easily separated. The boiling point data of the three major components in the distillation column is shown in Fig. 3.2.1 below. Table 3.2.1 Boiling point of components Component Boiling point in degree Celsius Benzene 80.2 Cumene 152.4 DIPB 209.8 The product stream from a condenser tank is sent to a distillation column. RADFRAC model is used. In the industrial process three distillation columns are used i.e benzene column, followed by cumene column and DIPB column.The RADFRAC model is a rigorous model for various multistage liquid vapour fractionation operations and hence is used for the simulation Before going in for the design of the distillation column the VLE diagrams need to be considered. The industrial processes currently followed show that in the 1st column benzene and cumene need to be primarily separated and in the 2nd column cumene and DIPB need to be separated. The NRTL (non random two liquid) physical property package is used used to plot the vapour liquid equilibrium T-XY for Benzene-cumene and Cumene-DIPB systems. The VLE plots are shown in Fig 3.2.1 to 3.2.3 for different systems. It can be inferred from plots Fig. 3.2.1 to 3.2.3 that separation would be easy and a distillation column with fewer trays and a smaller reflux ratio can be used. Azeotrope is not formed. Flash distillation should be tried as separation is easier. 3.3 FLASH DISTILLATION TANK DESIGN Distillation is tried using flash tank as the cost of operation is very low. FLASH2 model is selected. SYSOP0 property method is selected, which works by ideal or Roult’s law. Pressure of the flash tank is set as 1 bar. The input flow rate is same as mentioned in Table 3.1.2. The minimum boiling point in the mixture is that of benzene at 80.2 degree C at 1 atm and hence a temperature of 85 to 97.5 is considered for flashing. The mole fractions of benzene and cumene in the bottom and top products are found out at various flashing temperatures and plotted in Fig. 3.3.1. Assuming a product purity of 95% benzene in the top product the flashing temperature is identified to be 92.5 degree C. The flow rates from the flashing tank is shown in Table 3.3.1. Table 3.3.1 Concentration of products from the flash tank 92.5 degree C Benzene Cumene m-DIPB p-DIPB BOTTOM Product 18.951865 7.89384963 1.68473832 0.45287993 TOP product 5.39E+01 2.41615031 0.08526167 0.01712006 The flow rates of Table 3.3.1 act as a feed to the benzene column. 3.4 BENZENE DISTILLATION COLUMN DESIGN 3.4.1 DESIGN PROCEDURE RADFRAC-1 is selected for designing the Benzene distillation column. SYSOP0 property method is selected and the flow rates from Table 3.3.1 are used. The pressure is kept fixed at 1.75 bar and the temperature is kept fixed at 90 degree Celsius. These two variables are obtained from the experimental data specified by Turton et al (2003). These temperature and pressure data have been used in the work by Luyben (2010). The variables that can be optimized are reflux ratio, number of feed trays, feed tray location and distillate rate. In the initial assumption the distillate rate is kept at half the value of the feed rate. A total condenser is used in the process and an equilibrium based approach is used. 3.4.2 REFLUX RATIO OPTIMIZATION The number of trays (including boiler and condenser as a tray) is kept fixed at any value say 15. The feed tray is varied keeping the number of trays fixed. Now for each different ratio of number of trays to feed tray a series of reflux ratio starting from 0.1 is considered. The process is run and the mole fraction of benzene in the top product as well as the reboiler heat load data are used and a graph is plotted as shown in Fig 3.4.1. Reflux ratio is optimized by the variable mole fraction of benzene in the top product. An optimum reflux ratio value of about 0.5 is identified from Fig 3.4.1. At higher values of feed tray location (close to reboiler) lesser reflux ratio is required. Note that condenser is considered as the first stage and the rebolier as the last. 3.4.3 FEED TRAY LOCATION OPTIMIZATION The reflux ratio is kept fixed at 0.5 and the number of trays is kept fixed at 15. The position of the feed tray is varied and its affect on the reboiler heat load and the mole fraction of benze