Category: Uncategorized

Introduction

The present manual offers key information about the formation of a psychotherapeutic group that is focused on addressing the problem of alcohol addiction. The manual features the type, topic, and target population of the group and justifies them as relevant and appropriate. Furthermore, a description of the groups advertising, setting, dates, structure, and phases of formation is provided with related explanations. An example advertisement, informed consent document, selection criteria sheet, ground rules list, and pre- and post-intervention instruments are offered as ready-to-use tools. The manual is based on the research evidence presented in the current literature on the related topics, including articles and books.

Type of Group

The project is going to involve a psychoeducational group; it is planned to support it with the help of pharmacological treatment. The latter is not used very commonly for alcohol addiction, but it is a promising possibility (Thompson, Ashcroft, Owens, Staa, & Pirmohamed, 2017). As well as with other substance use disorders, a combined approach that incorporates both medication and psychotherapy is usually shown to be more effective and, therefore, preferable (Sessa, Higbed, & Nutt, 2019; Subodh, Sharma, & Shah, 2018; Thompson et al., 2017). Furthermore, psychoeducational group interventions are shown to be effective in helping patients to achieve addiction-related goals, including those of people with alcohol addiction (Yeh, Tung, Horng, & Sung, 2017). Therefore, the chosen solution is reasonable and can be recommended.

The following features of a psychoeducation group are noteworthy. Psychoeducation is generally focused on informing participants (Palli, 2017; Pessagno, 2014). It is an approach to interventions, including group interventions, that transfers relevant knowledge to patients while addressing motivational and behavioral aspects to ensure the development of skills that would enable a person to effectively adhere to the studied treatment (Ekhtiari, Rezapour, Aupperle, & Paulus, 2017; Pessagno, 2014). Psychoeducational groups offer both support and relevant information to the individuals who share the need to resolve a particular problem (Santos, & Cutcliffe, 2018; Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, 2014). This approach to addressing the problem of alcohol addiction is justified since people with this issue need both the knowledge and motivation to resolve it.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the group will be homogenous and use the closed group formation approach. The former feature refers to the group consisting of the people who appear to share important characteristics, including gender and age. This method of group formation is used to help participants to interact with the people who are likely to have similar experiences (Koukourikos & Pasmatzi, 2014). Closed groups do not change members for the entirety of their duration, and this method is helpful in facilitating cohesion (American Psychological Association, 2019; Ezhumalai, Muralidhar, Dhanasekarapandian, & Nikketha, 2018). Also, closed groups are easier to assess for effectiveness. Thus, the group type was chosen to reflect the needs of the target population and facilitate its formation.

Topic/Theme of the Group

The theme of the group is alcohol addiction, which is a major issue in many countries, including the US (Grant et al., 2017; Rehm et al., 2014). Alcohol abuse is dangerous for human health and can result in social issues for the afflicted individuals (for example, the deterioration of personal or work-related relationships) (Rehm et al., 2014; Sessa et al., 2019; Thompson et al., 2017). In addition, alcohol abuse has been linked to certain antisocial behaviors, and the treatment of alcohol abuse, as well as its health-related consequences, is an economic burden for the country (Rehm et al., 2014; Sessa et al., 2019). Finally, addiction is difficult to treat; often, even the interventions that result in abstinence fail to ensure its maintenance (Khan et al., 2016). In summary, alcohol addiction is an issue that is difficult to resolve but that can be addressed through psychotherapy and psychoeducation (Gür et al., 2017; Khan et al., 2016; Yeh et al., 2017). Therefore, the choice of the theme for the group is justified.

Target Population and Age of Participants

The target population consists of men aged 21-35 who are struggling with alcohol addiction. The focus on the men is explained by the prevalence of alcohol addiction among men, which is persistent and can be observed in many countries (Grant et al., 2017; Rehm et al., 2014). For example, in the US, the prevalence of alcohol use disorder was 12.4% in 2001, and it grew to 16.7 percent by 2012; for women, the numbers were 4.5% and 9% respectively (Grant et al., 2017). These figures do demonstrate that women are becoming increasingly affected by the issue, but men are still more likely to develop alcohol addiction, which is why the group will be aimed at helping them.

The focus on young adults is concerned with the prevalence of alcohol addiction in young men, as well as group organization concerns. In particular, the group uses the homogenous approach to ensure that the people involved in it are more likely to have shared experiences (Koukourikos & Pasmatzi, 2014). As a result, a more specific group out of the general target population of people with addiction was chosen. Furthermore, younger people are generally more likely to develop an addiction (Grant et al., 2017). Therefore, it is logical to recruit young adult men for the described group.

Population and the Group Relevance

The group is relevant for the target population because evidence indicates that psychotherapy is important for positive outcomes when substance use disorders and addictions are considered. In particular, due to the focus on alcohol addiction, it is important that research consistently suggests that combined treatments can be more effective in reducing addiction than individual approaches (Gür, Can Gür, & Okanl1, 2017; Khan et al., 2016; Subodh et al., 2018; Thompson et al., 2017). Therefore, psychotherapy is a significant tool in addressing addiction. Furthermore, it can also be noted that psychoeducation is among the methods that can be helpful in working with people with alcohol addiction (Gür et al., 2017; Khan et al., 2016; Yeh et al., 2017). Particularly, they can help participants to develop abstinence, although they do not always ensure its maintenance (Khan et al., 2016). Therefore, the proposed group will offer an effective, evidence-based service to the population that needs it.

Setting

This manual is developed for a group that will negotiate the settings in which the meetings are going to occur. This approach to determining appropriate settings is aimed at making the participants as comfortable as possible and allowing them to make choices about the group. Still, several options have been considered, including public and private spaces. One of the first solutions is using a public space, specifically the Miami-Dade Community Services clinic. It is preferable for multiple reasons; first of all, the developer of the manual has access to the clinic, which is why some space for a six-member psychotherapy group can be arranged. Secondly, this setting will allow for reasonable privacy. Thirdly, it is preferable because it is a neutral ground; nobodys personal space is being invaded. Overall, it is the most reasonable and feasible choice. However, in case the participants object to the proposal, private spaces can be used, particularly that of the group leader.

Dates and Times

The dates are not currently set; rather, the participants and the group leader will negotiate to ensure that the most convenient solution is found. However, the duration and frequency of meetings for the group have been determined. It is planned that the group will proceed to meet for nine weeks; weekly sessions are going to take two and a half hours during one day of each week. Thus, there will be nine sessions that will take place once a week when it is most convenient for everybody involved. The participants will engage in counseling (one and a half hours) and psychoeducation or psychotherapy (one hour). This approach is evidence-based; research indicates that interventions which combine psychoeducation with other methods, including counseling, are effective in encouraging abstinence (Khan et al., 2016). At the end of the ninth week, the participants will be offered another period of group activity if they find it interesting.

Qualifications for the Group Leader

The role of the leader is central to a psychoeducational group (Ezhumalai et al., 2018). While it is technically possible for a person without relevant education to lead one, in this manual, it is suggested to employ a professional (Pessagno, 2014). It should be noted that different kinds of professionals can perform the role; licensed professional counselors and registered nurses are common candidates. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, the developer of this manual is qualified for the task.

Advertising

Advertising is significant for a group since it will determine the members who are going to participate (Corey, 2015). Given the projects targeted population, it requires reaching out for young male adults who have been diagnosed with alcohol addiction. To do that, the Miami-Dade Community Services clinic will be supplied with advertisement flyers. The reasons for choosing Miami-Dade Community Services are predominantly concerned with convenience. On the one hand, the developer of this manual has access to the clinic; on the other hand, the clinic offers services to many populations, and people with addiction are among them. Therefore, some of the patients of Miami-Dade Community Services may be interested in the described group, and the developer of the manual can deliver the flyers with the advertisement to this location.

The flyers will be placed in practitioners offices, as well as the receptionist area. This way, the participants who might need the service will be informed about it and will be able to make a decision about whether or not they want to contact the group leader. The practitioners will be informed that endorsing the group and especially coercing patients into participating is not ethical. Rather, the flyers may be offered in case a patient can benefit from considering the sort of intervention that the group provides, but he or she should be allowed make the decision based on the information provided in the flyer. An example flyer is provided below; it will be used to simultaneously identify and attract eligible people while providing them with the contact information that will help them to find their way into the group.

Advertisement Example

A psychotherapy group for people with alcohol addiction starts recruiting. Men between the ages of 21 and 35 who have been diagnosed with alcohol addiction can join.

In a group of six people, we will work to reduce addiction by meeting every week for two and a half hours for the duration of nine weeks. A psychiatric nurse practitioner will facilitate the meetings.

The group will use psychoeducation to provide important information about addressing addiction and help its participants to develop thinking and behavioral skills that can assist in achieving this goal.

If you are interested in learning the details about the group, use the contact information below.

Commentary on the Advertisement

As can be seen from the example, the advertisement will avoid coercive language and calls for action; it will simply present the information about the service for consideration to avoid misleading people. The content of the advertisement will include the key information about the group (in particular, its type and the planned duration of meetings). Furthermore, it will specify who is being recruited by mentioning the participant selection criteria. Finally, it will offer contact information (email), which will be used by potential participants to contact the group leader. Upon contact, the participants will be screened and selected using the criteria below.

Participant Selection and Interviewing

Given that the number of participants is not very large, the screening will not take much time. The maximum number of group members is going to result in quotas for participants; basically, the first six eligible men are going to be recruited. Potential participants will be interviewed individually using several steps of selection. First, a participants general eligibility will be considered: it will be established that he is a man of appropriate age who is diagnosed with alcohol addiction. Second, it will be necessary to ensure that the participant is ready and willing to participate in a group.

In order to perform the selection, a personal meeting (an interview) with the potential participant will be carried out, in which he will be provided with the informed consent document. A discussion of the informed consent, which will contain all the key information about the group, will help to answer all the questions the potential participant has while determining if the group would be the best solution for him. In addition, the interviewer will use the Simple Screening Instrument for Substance Abuse to determine if alcohol abuse is exhibited by the participant. The tool can be found in the materials published by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (2005); it is free for use, valid, and reliable (Boothroyd, Peters, Armstrong, Rynearson-Moody, & Caudy, 2013). In summary, the selection process is determined by the needs of both the group and participants. On the one hand, it is geared towards ensuring that the members of the group correspond to its selection criteria; on the other hand, it takes into account the different needs of the potential participants.

Screening Sheet

Below is an example screening sheet which will be used by the group leader during the initial interview in addition to the Simple Screening Instrument for Substance Abuse.

1. The participant is eligible (male, 21-35, addiction diagnosis).
2. The participant understands the specifics of the group and finds this approach suitable for himself.
3. The participant understands what psychoeducation is and finds it suitable for himself.
4. The participant understands the ground rules and confidentiality concerns and agrees with them.
5. The participant can benefit from participation.
6. The participant is interested in the group and wants to participate.

An Informed Consent Document

The informed consent document is required to ensure that the participation is informed and voluntary; since the group does not involve children, only the consent forms for adult participants are required. The creation of the example below was guided by the general premise of what an informed consent is: it is a document that contains all the information that is required to make an informed decision and offers a mechanism of obtaining consent (in this case, signature). In addition, the informed consent documents of other manuals were reviewed to check for general structures, appropriate language, and topics to be considered (Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, 2014). Below is the proposed text that provides details about the group, participants rights, and invites potential participants to ask questions if required. The contact information at the end of the document is not added since this is an example of an informed consent.

Informed Consent

Please read this document to the end. If you have any questions, make sure to ask them. You can ask the group leader directly or use the contact information at the end of the document. Sign this document only if you understand and agree with everything presented below.

Group description

This is a psychoeducational group for people struggling with alcohol addiction. Psychoeducation is an approach in psychology that exists to help people learn more about their health conditions and the ways of dealing with them. The main feature of psychoeducation is that it uses psychotherapy to motivate people to solve their problems. Basically, you will be provided with the information about alcohol addiction and solutions to it, taught the skills that will help you deal with the problem, and instructed on how to motivate yourself to stick to your chosen solution. Resolving the problem of addiction is not easy, but it is possible, and we will do our best to improve the situation.

Note that this is a psychotherapy group. You will be meeting with six other people (one of them the psychiatric nurse who will oversee the process), discussing your experiences, and practicing your skills with them. Psychotherapy groups are an effective solution for alcohol addiction, but they might not be for everyone. If you are not comfortable with working in a group, another approach may be better for you.

Eligibility

If you are reading this document, you have already been interviewed, which means that you can participate in the group. This group focuses on men aged 21-35 who struggle with alcohol addiction. The other members of the group will be able to share experiences that are similar to yours, which is the point of this approach to psychotherapy.

Process

If you sign this document, you will become a part of a six-member group (it will also include the nurse). You will be meeting with them once a week for nine weeks; each weekly session will take up two and a half hours. The first hour and a half will be dedicated to counseling; then, psychoeducation and psychotherapy will take place. Participation requires some time commitment; please keep that in mind. The settings and time will be chosen by all the members during the first meeting, which will take place at the Miami-Dade Community Services clinic. The group leader will contact you once the group is formed to negotiate the time for the first meeting.

In order to see the results, you will need to participate in more or less every session. The following list contains the rules that are established for the members of the group; please make sure that you understand and agree with them.

1. The meetings must be confidential; you cannot disclose any information about the participants anywhere.
2. The meetings must be safe. They cannot involve alcohol or drugs, and there can be no violence or threats of violence.
3. The meetings will be civil, respectful, and supportive. You should respect other participants, which, among other things, means that you need to be punctual and attend each session in time.
4. There will be boundaries. You do not have to share anything you do not want to share, and you can keep any information to yourself. Whenever you feel unsafe, pressured, or just uncomfortable, make sure to comment on it. Respect others boundaries as well.

Failure to follow the rules can end your participation in the group.

Confidentiality

You have the right to confidentiality, and we will respect it. No confidential information about you will be disclosed at any time outside of the group. However, during psychotherapy, certain information may come up which a health professional has to disclose. That includes the instances of abuse and neglect directed at vulnerable groups (especially children, the elderly, and people with disabilities) and the cases of self-harm or harm to others. If this sort of information is brought up during sessions, your group leader might have to disclose it. However, in every other instance, your personal, confidential information will not be provided to anyone outside of the group. You will not be required to use your real name during sessions, and you will be expected to also support the confidentiality of other participants.

Fees and canceling participation

It is best to avoid canceling participation since you will need all the nine sessions for the best effect. However, if you want to cancel, please make sure to do so beforehand (at least 24 hours before the session). The costs of sessions are covered by insurance.

Consent

Re-read this document and check if this group fits your needs and if you agree with the described processes and confidentiality requirements. Do not be afraid to ask questions; perhaps, you want to learn more about psychoeducation or counseling or their proven impact on alcohol addiction. If you understand everything in this document, agree with it, and want to participate, please sign the form below to indicate your consent.

Ground Rules

The ground rules that are proposed for the group are common ones; their primary goal is to ensure that the group functions effectively without too many conflicts and that there are the means of resolving conflicts. The sources that were consulted to develop the rules include the manuals by DeMarce, Gnys, Raffa, and Karlin (2014) and the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (2014), which were used as examples. Also, some academic sources were consulted, including those by Alle-Corliss and Alle-Corliss (2009), Corey (2015), Ezhumalai et al. (2018), and Koukourikos and Pasmatzi (2014).

1. Confidentiality. The participants will be instructed to preserve the confidentiality of each other. Given that it is a common concern for group therapy (Ezhumalai et al., 2018), this rule is very important.
2. Safety. No drugs or alcohol will be present during the meetings. Any violence or threats of violence will be strictly prohibited.
3. Civility, inclusivity, and support. Participants will be encouraged to behave in a civil, supportive, and respectful manner. This rule includes punctuality; not being punctual is disrespectful toward other members.
4. Respect for boundaries. Participants will be invited to set boundaries and respect them with oneself and others.

Structure for Eight Sessions

The group will consist of nine sessions; the first one will function as a pre-group session, and it will be used for organizational purposes. The rest of them will be aimed at achieving positive outcomes for the participants. While psychoeducation groups are structured and have a schedule and a curriculum, it is typical for them to adjust to the needs of the participants, allowing the latter to make choices about the discussion topics that they are interested in (Pessagno, 2014). This approach is intended to maximize the usefulness of psychoeducation, which aims to inform participants about the things that they do not know and teach them the skills they do not have. Other than that, the structure was informed by existing manuals, for example, that by DeMarce et al. (2014), as well as information on group interventions from academic sources like that by Corey (2015).

The initial, pre-group session is going to be different from the rest of the meetings since it will focus on organizing the processes of the group. Its structure is presented below; it is informed by the need to establish ground rules, goals, and explain it to the participants what they can expect from the intervention.

1. The participants and the leader welcome each other and introduce themselves.
2. The leader provides an explanation of the goals of this session (organizing the group activities).
3. The leader provides an explanation of the goals of the group (assisting the participants in dealing with alcohol addiction).
4. The leader provides an explanation of the methods of the group (psychoeducation, counseling, as well as their effectiveness in dealing with alcohol addiction).
5. Questions about the group and its methods are invited by the leader.
6. Ground rules are established and explained by the leader.
7. Confidentiality concerns are introduced by the leader.
8. Questions about rules and confidentiality are invited. The participants agree to follow the rules and maintain confidentiality.
9. Organizational questions (settings, dates) are addressed.
10. Pre-intervention assessment is carried out.
11. Any remaining questions are invited. The leader ends the session with a recap of the session.

The following sessions are going to have a different structure that is based on the general goals of the group, as well as the phases of group formation and development. Furthermore, the second session will be used to provide participants with the information that is required for them to choose the content of the remaining sessions. This approach will be in line with ensuring that the psychoeducational intervention offers new and useful information and skills (Pessagno, 2014). As a result, it makes sense to consider the structure of the second session separately.

1. Welcoming and greetings.
2. Recapping the rules.
3. Recapping the goals of the group.
4. Explaining the goals of the session (providing some information for future choices).
5. The content of the session: providing information about alcohol use and abuse, alcohol addiction, and solutions to it.
6. Questions.
7. Explaining how psychoeducation can help with the issue. Proposing content for the future activities.
8. Making joint decisions about the topics that are most important or interesting for the group.
9. Questions.
10. Finishing the session with a recap.

For sessions 3-7, the following structure will be used. It will be aimed at ensuring the continuity of the sessions while also covering all the topics that the participants are interested in (DeMarce et al., 2014; Pessagno, 2014). These sessions constitute the core of the groups activities.

1. Welcoming and greetings.
2. Recapping the rules if needed.
3. Recapping the previous session and connecting it to the current one.
4. Laying out the goals of this session.
5. Questions if needed.
6. The counseling element of this session.
7. The psychoeducational element of this session.
8. Planning home assignment if applicable.
9. Questions and planning the next session.
10. Closing the session with a recap.

The two final sessions will follow the same basic structure, but they will also include activities aimed at successfully overcoming the termination stage of the group, which can be especially difficult (Maples & Walker, 2014). As a result, the content of these two sessions will include the reminders of the upcoming end of the group and activities aimed at assessing the outcomes of participation. In summary, the nine sessions are going to be structured in a way that would ensure the achievement of the groups goals while taking into account the group development stages.

Stages/Phases in the Sessions

There are several stages that are relevant to group therapy. While different theorists propose various approaches to the topic, the present manual considers the five-stage one and uses it to structure the sessions (Ezhumalai et al., 2018; Kumar, Deshmukh, & Adhish, 2014; Pessagno, 2014). Logically, the stages follow one after the other; the first one is characterized by uncertainty (forming); the next one is associated with conflicts (storming). The norming and performing stages enable the group to become cohesive and work toward the set goals. Finally, the termination stage results in disbanding the group.

For the described group, the deadline is set at nine weeks. As a result of the short period that is available, as well as the limited time the participants will spend together, the norming and performing stages need to be achieved very quickly. The first session includes the determination of goals and establishment of ground rules; with their help, the group will be able to determine the direction for their performance while receiving the discipline and structure required for the reduction of uncertainty and conflicts. The same session, as well as the one after it, will also be used to build trust and rapport between the participants and the group leader. Specifically, the ground rules of respect and the leaders demonstration of the appreciation of each participant will be used to this end (Lacerenza, Marlow, Tannenbaum, & Salas, 2018). The rules of this group aim to ensure positive, healthy interactions within it, which makes them appropriate for the task.

In addition, the leaders behavior will be a crucial factor in advancing the group formation. Indeed, the leader should remain objective and neutral, as well as just: nobody should be treated preferentially, and all participants need to feel that they, their contribution, and their progress are recognized and appreciated. Mistakes and inappropriate behaviors or ideas do require correction, but they should not be the focus to ensure that the leader remains supportive. Cultural competence can help to improve a leaders ability to understand the personalities of members, which is necessary for effective group management (Palli, 2017). The leader also needs to lead by example; the leader is the one who ensures the communication of group values to the members (Ezhumalai et al., 2018). Finally, the leader cannot be defensive and has to make sure to recognize his or her mistakes. It should also be noted that the leader will be the one to ensure effective resolution of conflicts (Kumar et al., 2014; Lacerenza et al., 2018). This type of leader behavior will be used to inspire trust and promote mutual respect between the participants; by following the rules, the leader will promote rule adherence in the rest of the group.

It should be noted that each session will contribute to the cohesion and commitment of the group. Research suggests that group activities can have an impact on trust (Lacerenza et al., 2018), and every session will incorporate them. In summary, the rules, leaders actions, and multiple elements of different sessions will be aimed at achieving the performing and norming stages of the groups development as quickly as possible. In the best case, the first and second sessions will mostly resolve uncertainty and conflicts, and the third one will already belong to the norming or working phase.

During the norming and working (or performing) stage, the group makes progress. The members benefit from the process (Corey, 2015). Throughout this stage, it is important to continually evaluate and promote member participation, as well as their work on planning future sessions. This approach will help participants to feel appreciated,

Introduction

Information governance (IG) is a special and unique strategy that allows one to manage, control and use particular data in the right direction following the regulatory requirements. It is also worth considering that information governance in contrast to information management has a broader scope of application. IG incorporate structured and unstructured information; its tactics imply categorization, lifecycle, access to data, and its definition of use and purpose. For the most part, this applies to internal aspects of a firm and activities to optimize the management of necessary information. In general, IG includes a more improved, integrated, multidimensional approach to goals, objectives, methods, and means of controlling organizational affairs and responsibilities. Brown and Toze (2017, p. 582) state that information governance is a relatively new concept, which to some extent continues to be at the stage of definition and identification. According to Mullon and Ngoepe (2019, p. 103), the concepts essence, characteristics and features do not have sufficiently precise and objective facts, judgments, and assessments by specialists and professionals in a certain field and area. Nonetheless, at the moment, there is a unique opportunity to attempt a more explicit definition of IG.

Even though the strategy is fresh, it has recently gained popularity in many countries and states. Since information-related activities have always been, remain and will be relevant and actual. Furthermore, IG appears and manifests itself in new guises and meanings (Mullon and Ngoepe, 2019, p. 104). For instance, in Proença et al. (2017, p. 128) view, information governance (IG) is a set of rules and rights for implementing certain phenomena. Introducing strategies of this kind allows one to organize the automation of information management processes (Szczepaniuk et al., 2020, p. 1). Furthermore, this help to achieve the intended results when creating, using, storing and deleting data relying on the laws and thereby increasing operational efficiency.

The concepts directions and mechanisms are reflected in a systematic, integrated and purposeful approach to government information. It is necessary for further data management during their life cycle to fulfil specific goals and objectives (Brown and Toze, 2017, p. 582). As a rule, IG promotes technologies and innovative processes, identifies risks and losses, and applies rules, norms and standards governing knowledge practice (Daneshmandnia, 2019, p. 19). In addition, the fundamental principles of this idea are to implement a unique information culture through the prism of creating motivation and encouraging the activities of employees and institutions (Brown and Toze, 2017, p. 582). Consequently, information governance consists of special opportunities aimed at using data resources and technologies.

Information Security

Information security (IS) is the preservation and protection of information and its most essential elements, including systems and equipment designed to use, save and transfer data. In other words, it is a set of technologies, standards and management methods that are necessary to protect knowledge. Szczepaniuk et al. (2020, p. 1) approve that IS covers a wide range of activities aimed at smoothly implementing the institutions mission, efficiency, reliability, productivity and quality of implemented service. Its tactic and tools help ensure the continuity of a company or institution. According to Da Veiga et al. (2020, p. 1), high-quality data protection minimizes and prevents potential threats from intruders and hackers. No one wants to disclose information about their personnel, clients, incomes and outcomes, and a companys work. The leak of such information will deal a severe blow to a firms image or, much worse, will cause financial damage. Thus, in order to protect the organization from the loss of funds and intellectual property, it is necessary to pay more attention to information security. This is possible due to the means of information protection in the face of advanced technologies.

It is also worth noting that several institutions and their divisions have a reasonably close, inextricable connection and, as a result, the data they store is even more at risk (Haqaf and Koyuncu, 2018, p. 166). In particular, cybercrime is clearly expressed against the background of COVID-19 and various events associated with the spread of the coronavirus (Tang et al., 2021, pp. 1-2). Thus, effective information management and security are prerequisites for ensuring and maintaining competitiveness and survival in modern realities. Only a systematic and integrated approach to protection can ensure data safety. In the information security system, it is necessary to consider all current and probable threats and vulnerabilities. This requires continuous monitoring in real-time that should be carried out 24/7 and cover the entire life cycle of information  from the moment it enters the organization to its destruction or loss of relevance. Especially those associations for which specific data is a valuable and vital asset need these actions (Haqaf and Koyuncu, 2018, p. 165). Hence, using principles and mechanisms of information security, a corporations facts and details are in safe hands.

The Concepts Importance in Information Management

The importance of these concepts in information management is expressed in the following way. First of all, effective, high-quality and productive IG is the key to the success and prosperity of a company among digital technologies and innovations. The implementation and development of this concept are essential that even in many companies, it has become the prerogative of top management. IG principles make it possible to implement a more thorough, comprehensive, modern and secure management system for information resources and assets. In this way, the available knowledge acquires a reliable and objective character, being under the wing of a particular division. Having specific knowledge, the organization has the opportunity to fully unleash its potential in cooperation with other companies, as well as in business analytics. Information governance offers data to those who can transform it in more right direction. This makes it possible to select necessary information from undesirable. In this vein, the carriers, systems and sources of such knowledge that are not relevant to the company are also defined here. Furthermore, the introduction of information governance ideas makes it possible to reduce operating costs and save resources through practical information storage.

Secondly, information security is one of the essential aspects of integrated protection on the national, industry, corporate or personal level. Thus, destruction of important knowledge, theft of confidential data, interruption of work due to failures result in significant material losses and damage a corporations reputation. The integrity and stability of operational actions and information management systems are violated. In addition, information is exposed to more and more diverse risks in an increasingly interconnected environment. Furthermore, growth in the number of attacks is not the most significant nuisance because new vulnerabilities in the software are constantly discovered, and new types of invasions appear. In such conditions, information security systems should withstand various attacks, both external and internal, automated and coordinated attacks. Periodically a seizure lasts for a fraction of a second, and sometimes, probing vulnerabilities is slow and stretches for hours, and suspicious activity is almost invisible. Therefore, implementing IS in a company will save the technologies and information assets by preventing, detecting, and responding to several threats. This practice protects an organizations ability to function, ensure the safe operation of applications implemented in IT systems, and defend the data and technologies that a firm uses.

The Second Question  A Case Study Analysis

The Role and Responsibilities of Senior Management in Procter and Gamble

The role and responsibilities of senior management and leadership in information governance in the context of Procter and Gamble are expressed as follows. Most often, these people combine both organizational and IT-technical tasks. According to Davenport et al. (2013, p. 1), the authorities official obligations consist of the complex collection of the necessary information, subsequently analyzed, synthesized, generalized, abstracted, and classified in a single key.

The heads acquire, manage, study, transmit facts and details, as well as develop information and communication systems for specific purposes. For example, due to the high competencies, exciting ideas and hard work of the superiors in information governance, an excellent system for solving difficulties and removing obstacles was built through the joint efforts of each worker. Indeed, as one of the practising aspects in Procter and Gamble, centralization influenced the adoption of these decisions. From now on, the firms staff, to some extent, facilitated and simplified their work, making it more efficient and productive (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 5). Employees actively share experience, knowledge, opinions and judgments about operating moments. Such elements unite the team, creating the decision-making and action procedure well organized and compelling. Consequently, teamwork and the transfer of experience and valuable details to colleagues and superiors is a rudimentary phenomenon in ensuring continuity of work.

Information governance managers receive and evaluate information, prepare it for storage, and develop or operate information processing systems. As a rule, their responsibilities and role are to provide appropriate solutions for the effective management and use of information. To do this, they design database concepts or special programs. For example, Decision Cockpit serves as an auxiliary tool for tracking up-to-date and necessary data and news that could be useful for each employee (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 5). Hence, with the help of the improved functionalities, the collected data makes it possible to view detailed and precise indicators for the brand, manufactured products, sales, retailers, and individual stores (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 1). Such strategic analysis and planning methods as SWOT, PEST(LE), SNW and many others would not be difficult to compile and issue. The company will anticipate possible risks and identify positive aspects to minimize and eliminate the issues in the present time mode.

Moreover, one of the main tasks of the bosses in information governance at Procter and Gamble is the development of unique algorithms that contribute to the reasonable organization, processing and evaluation of managed data. The managers maintain and support the current state of affairs and complement, develops, and improve the adjacent components. They determine where and how information and communication technologies can be used, improve information management technically or organizationally, and monitor whether these strategies are used effectively. Thus, the heads at Procter and Gamble manage the development, design, formulation and creation of many modern and relevant systems and processes. Such people focus on those aspects and parts that could allow the business to work together and centrally (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 5). Such elements are recommended to implement, develop, and execute in several markets simultaneously. In addition, the bosses actively integrate modern technologies and exciting ideas. The technologies permit Procter and Gamble to look at the picture of the situation broader and more profound, to make more objective conclusions and assumptions about the current moments and long-term plans.

Nonetheless, as practice shows, the management concentrates on analytics and statistical data as the driving force of the companys development. Undoubtedly, technologies and information are complementary and, in some way, interchangeable parts in the spectrum of analytics. The administration directs all efforts to automate, systematize and integrate a reasonably broad scope of processes and systems. It is necessary for creating an operating environment and atmosphere for making the best and fast decisions in favor of the company (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 4). At the moment, there is no need to spend more time and effort on solving some tasks because the available opportunities immediately give unambiguous answers to questions about what, why, and why.

Furthermore, the administrators receive data relevant to the firm, conduct research in specialized databases or on the Internet and evaluate media. For example, these people can quickly determine the causes and consequences of falling sales of certain products. They reveal whether this was because the general market for the brand or a specific product fell (Davenport et al., 2013, p. 5-6). They take into account many aspects at the same time  region, culture, customer wishes and preferences, and much more. The specialists study the companys image with a client, review and analyze competitors offers and marketing efforts, use surveys and statistics to identify new points of sale and track market trends. This information is found, researched, and structured for various purposes, such as a basis for operational decisions. These professionals prepare information according to the target group, present it, and create marketing strategies to attract new customers and increase sales of products.

In brief, it is precisely such clearly defined job responsibilities and well-chosen managers that move the company forward into the future. At large, Day and Shea (2021, pp. 2-7) claim that Procter and Gamble, as one of the innovative companies, was able to introduce completely different, fresh views and approaches to the formation of effective business practices and activities. The enterprises leaders put all possible efforts and actions to implement large-scale projects, programs and risky but long-term bets. Based on these criteria and concepts, any obstacles and difficulties only harden Procter and Gambles personnel on the way to achieving goals and desires.

The Third Question  A Critical Analysis of the Organizations Information Systems

The organization of my choice is Hauser & Partner  the company in which I currently work and fulfill my official duties. It is one of the leading design studios in Switzerland, with many rapturous reviews and opinions from clients. Hauser & Partner is the agency specialized in large corporate events, stockholder meetings, and creating spaces. The firm keeps up with the times, using the most advanced trends in implementing their thoughts, views and concepts from the point of view of modernity, freshness, and creativity in notions and ideas.

The Organizations Information Systems and Technologies

Indeed, Hauser & Partner applies several innovative, advanced technologies and progressive techniques, mechanisms and tools in practice. Thus, this firm uses several main, basic components in its business at once from the point of view of information systems and technologies. These elements include hardware and software, data, people and processes. The companys employees actively interact with devices that allow them to perform work quickly and efficiently. Computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, servers, workstations, and other hardware are involved in their work activities.

Special software is installed on the equipment, which, literally speaking, explains to the hardware what needs to be done. Hauser & Partner uses operating system software and application programs on its computers and tablets to efficiently manage resources, production, operations, as well as develop and implement design solutions and ideas. Operating systems are based on Mac OS on laptops and desktop computers and iOS on tablets and phones.

Moreover, the company integrates several programs for the better performance of duties, management and control of the organizations system, interaction with customers, invention, development and creation of a design. For example, in this case, unique and individual ERP System based on FileMaker perfectly cope with business process management, combining finances, supply chains, operations, trade, reporting, production, and personnel. They are designed for resource planning and acceleration of procedures conducted in the enterprise. In addition, the personnel of Hauser & Partner use the programs and software such as E-Mail, Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Cinema 4D and many others. Hauser & Partner has a cloud service by Apple and uses several accounts on social networks such as Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

It should be noted that the company has a sufficient amount of essential data about the organization itself, its structure and processes, employees and customers, some of which are located on iCloud servers. The service contains not only personal information about individuals and businesses but also logins and passwords from all pages in social networks. Certain information helps Hauser & Partner weigh the pros and cons, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages, and think about further steps and develop competitive strategies.

In addition, such knowledge is under security managers sensitive and vigilant control. They have direct access to accounts, logins, passwords, and the right to manage, save, delete, update, modify and distribute them. People involved in information systems and processes are responsible for the equipment containing the facts and its maintenance, safety, and integrity. Data security is maintained with the help of an external company, Snowberg, which monitors traffic, signals and eliminates potential threats. Data storage is organized on NAS Systems with a backup solution for warehouse, accounts and ERP-Server.

An equally important aspect of information systems and technologies is processes and a series of steps aimed at achieving specific results. Hence, in this case, the intended goal and purpose of Hauser & Partner are to provide systematic and comprehensive management of all departments, including information elements and transmissions. For instance, the actions taken related to information governance and security, together with methods, tactics and means for organizing high-quality, continuous work of all units and divisions, detecting and eliminating risks and threats.

Impact on Staff Development

Undoubtedly, there is a reasonably close and deep relationship between information systems, technologies and human resource management, recruitment and development of the organizations personnel. Hence, technological progress in data and knowledge processes and phenomena allows Hauser & Partner to improve its internal elements and organizational structure, as well as the critical competencies of employees corresponding to the labor market. Information technologies and systems play a key role in developing the efficiency and effectiveness of human resources in a dynamic environment.

The above aspects improve the service of administrators and other staff. Today, the Hauser & Partner team can solve the problems and obstacles to the businesss prosperity with the knowledge and experience of working with IT tools and technologies. Information elements are essential for analyzing forecasts regarding future business requirements. In addition, managers, considering current tendencies, can determine whether to train existing employees, prepare them for promotion, or recruit candidates with higher skills. Contemporary and modern management models involved in ERP systems complement administration, employees work and increase efficiency and productivity, leading to success in stable and unstable environments. Furthermore, data management has become more accessible; from now on, the work is paperless, and there is no need to do all the work manually. The organizations activities have increased due to proximity to customers, operational efficiency and advanced technologies. Consequently, information technologies and innovations have positively affected the work of leaders and their subordinates in terms of efficiency and productivity.

Impact on Effective Flows of Communication

Furthermore, modern information technologies and systems significantly increase communication effectiveness between colleagues, employees and management in Hauser & Partner. Communication and information exchange between the firms staff is no longer limited by time or space. Innovations have contributed to a radical change in contact and information relations between organization members. Colleagues can easily exchange the necessary data, and the manager can monitor the performance of groups or individual employees, increasing the speed of decision-making and information exchange.

The development of electronic means of communication and their connection with computer technologies displaces physical contact as a means of horizontal coordination, replacing it with electronic flow control. Means of communication make it possible to attract experts and exchange opinions between people, which is often impossible outside of electronic communication. For instance, telephone conversations, business correspondence via e-mail, communication via social networks, or video conferences provides convenience and comfort in ensuring the best contact. Moreover, E-mail becomes an excellent means of coordinating and quickly sending documents to all interested parties.

Technologies lead to the expansion of horizontal connections by increasing the number of people involved in decision-making. The ability for top management to receive timely and reliable information reflecting the state of affairs in all areas of executive activity helps managers to make more informed decisions. This allows them to react more quickly to changes, solve tactical issues, and consider the organizations overall strategy. In brief, the development of information technologies has made it possible to qualitatively change the process of processing, storing and distributing information, mainly in digital form with the help of electronics.

Impact on Decision Making in the Organization

Information and innovation aspects similarly act as a fundamental basis for the implementation of balanced and deliberate decisions in Hauser & Partner. Hence, thoughtful moves, decisions, tactics, and strategies implemented within the organization result from integrating IT projects, technology, and information space, especially with the help of ERP System. An orderly and systematized database, qualified distribution, management, and control of incoming and outgoing information flow play an essential, critical role in the careful organization of management concepts, principles, and mechanisms. Information flows ensure the development of a cooperative solution, and all essential elements interact with each other. In other words, the gain lies in the fact that the manager, at the moment, needs to spend much less time, effort and other resources on making verdicts regarding the business.

Therefore, using the operational information obtained during the functioning of the automated information system, the leader gets the opportunity to plan and balance the enterprises resources (material, financial and personnel). In addition, this person can calculate and evaluate the results of decisions, monitor the plans progress and the use of resources. Technologies make it possible to conclude at different levels of administration and other structural divisions, improving management efficiency by promptly obtaining knowledge from a single source (database or data storage). Such innovations provide complete well-structured details, enhancing the companys economic performance (for example, increasing labor productivity and reducing non-production losses). Furthermore, the right choice of decision support tools facilitates the systematization of government tasks. Management personnel play a vital role in the decision-making process; judgments are often subjective.

The Fourth Question  Possible Improvements to the Organizations Use of Information Systems

Possible Improvements

At the moment, Hauser & Partner is working steadily, performing its services efficiently and pleasing customers. However, even despite the seemingly positive effects, some internal elements of the company still require drastic changes. For example, the ERP system needs more significant improvements and redesign by both the organizations needs and the requirements established in the design industry. Moreover, it is recommended to change the message transmission and communication system at the root. There is a need to integrate, connect and implement new technologies that allow personnel to work on different devices simultaneously. Shifts towards centralization, as in the case of Procter and Gamble, would enable employees and management to understand and perceive current phenomena comprehensively, consider them from different angles and sides, as well as draw certain conclusions and verdicts.

Furthermore, it is worth highlighting the situation directly related to the data security system separately. For example, at the moment, a single PW is used on all devices and techniques, and there is no particular security protocol for accounts. In this vein, there are many pitfalls, risks and dangers. Modern attackers and cybercriminals are not asleep, and it will not be difficult for them to hack the central, primary system and adjacent parts. Hauser & Partner needs special antiviruses and other software to quickly identify threats and eliminate them. It is also necessary to focus on improved information protection, more frequent change of passwords, usernames and other equally essential data. Thus, remote workers connect to the system via VPN, and there is no cloud access to the ERP system. Hence, it is required to provide admission to a single space for all employees, regardless of work format.

Emphasis on Staff Development

One should emphasize that the above possible changes would help improve the communication processes of messages, opinions, judgments, and assessments. The staff would share their experience and knowledge with each other and help everyone both in word and deed. There is a possibility that employees would significantly improve their competencies, skills, talents and would be able to direct them in the right direction  to implement the design, communicate with customers and competently conduct business projects.

Emphasis on Effective Flows of Communication

Undoubtedly, as indicated earlier, the proposed implementations in information systems would improve the interaction between colleagues and superiors. Hence, both remote and full-time employees would be able to perform their official duties hand in hand without breaking away from the work processes. For example, if there were a single space where everyone could contribute, the cases would go uphill, and several decisions would take a slightly different turn.

Emphasis on Decision Making in the Organization

The changes would make it easier for the enterprise heads to work and increase their efficiency. These modifications would significantly accelerate the solution of business problems and facilitate the establishment of interpersonal contacts. Moreover, improvements in information systems will increase control over the organizations activities. The presence of a well-functioning system, in this way, gives great advantages over competing structures. The proposed changes open up new approaches to solving every day and non-standard tasks.

The Fifth Question  The Importance of Security in Information Management

Security in Information Management in Hauser & Partner

To date, information technologies and innovative options have covered almost all spheres of public life, without which it becomes challenging to imagine everyday life. Following this, for Hauser & Partner, as for any modern company, information becomes one of the primary resources. The preservation and proper disposal of this are crucial for business development and reducing various risks. Whoever owns information owns the world, and whoever owns someone elses data is much better prepared for competition than their rivals.

Consequently, confirming information security becomes an urgent problem for the enterprise. The safety and protection of knowledge is an integral aspect of providing Hauser & Partner life, structure, and content. Therefore, the importance and significance of security in the organizations system are quite challenging to overestimate. For example, hacking of internal devices and theft of personal and confidential information can negatively affect the firms reputation and its staff and bring a lot of losses and financial penalties. For example, one can cite the leakage of the customer base to a competitor company and employees. The alleged actions of the attackers can lead to an outflow of customers, possible lawsuits and, of course, a blow to Hauser & Partners good name.

Moreover, insider risks prevail in the list of the most dangerous threats. Thus, the greatest danger rating falls on the leakage of confidential information. However, the most relevant and significant, unfortunately, are the threats, the source of which is the systems users and its maintenance personnel, that is, employees of companies. Due to this circumstance, the organization needs to monitor security systems carefully and constantly improve them. Ensuring security at all levels interconnected with the information space will help eradicate potential troubles and smooth out acute problems.

Information security (IS) helps protect the enterprises data and information infrastructure from adverse impacts. Such effects may be accidental or intentional, internal or external. The result of such interventions may be the loss of necessary knowledge, its unauthorized modification or use by third parties. Therefore, IS is essential for protecting business and ensuring its continuity. Providing such protection is an urgent need, the neglect of which can have devastating consequences for the company. The wide range of tools and solutions available today to protect information can make it difficult for an enterprise to choose. A specific set of tools allows one to ensure the security of the IT infrastructure, which must be selected individually. This will enable implementing a multi-level information protection system to ensure reliable neutralization of current threats.

Reference List

Brown, D. C. and Toze, S. (2017) Information governance in digitized public administration, Canadian Public Administration, 60(4), pp. 581-604. Web.

Day, G. S. and Shea, G. P. (2021) Innovating how innovation works at Procter & Gamble, Strategy & Leadership, 49(6), pp. 2-8. Web.

Daneshmandnia, A. (2019) The influence of organizational culture on information governance effectiveness, Records Management Journal, 29(1/2), pp. 18-41. Web.

Da Veiga, A., Astakhova, L. V., Botha, A. and Herselman, M. (2020) Defining organisational information security culturePerspectives from academia and industry, Computers & Security, 92, pp. 1-23. Web.

Davenport, T.H., Iansiti, M.

Introduction

This paper is dedicated to the development of an online four-item tool (see Appendix A) that is meant to evaluate binge drinking (BD) in patients visiting a particular mental health clinic. It will include the definition of its construct, the discussion of its methodology, and the consideration of various steps that need to be taken to ensure its validity, reliability, and ethical nature. In addition, the implementation issues will be considered. Finally, the tools current features will be discussed, and suggestions for improvement will be included. The paper demonstrates the complex questions that need to be answered when developing a tool.

Definition of the Construct

For the development of an instrument, it is necessary to define a construct and determine the ways in which it is measured. BD refers to the consumption of large amounts of alcohol within a limited timeframe, and it has historically been difficult to outline (Hingson, Zha, & White, 2017; Kuntsche, Kuntsche, Thrul, & Gmel, 2017). This issue is partially associated with the fact that the reaction to alcohol, including the level and speed of intoxication, may differ for individuals. However, the more important issue is that people do not track their drinking in terms of pure ethanol most of the time.

Indeed, it would be most convenient to define BD with the help of ethanol, but for a survey instrument, this approach is not very feasible since most people cannot report how much ethanol their drinks contain. As a result, drinks are frequently used as a BD measure, even though this method is not very specific (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017). It is usually assumed that taking four to five drinks (for women and men, respectively) within 2 hours would constitute BD (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017; Lovatt et al., 2015). It is especially appropriate for the US, which uses relatively large drinks when compared to, for example, the UK.

Indeed, according to Kuntsche et al. (2017), five US drinks may contain up to 70 grams of ethanol, which likely qualifies as binge drinking due to the possibility of negative effects (Kuntsche et al., 2017). Given that this instrument focuses on the US participants, this definition appears appropriate. As for the aspects of BD that are typically measured, they include the amount of alcohol (in drinks) and frequency (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017). The significance of the proposed tool is associated with the prevalence and dangers of alcohol use and abuse, as well as alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Significance

Problematic alcohol use is evidenced to be associated with multiple negative outcomes. For BD, the consequences of intoxication are the most acute problem, but alcohol use has also been linked to important long-lasting effects, for instance, cirrhosis and stroke (Grant et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017). BD and alcohol use may also be a cause of risky behaviors and injuries. Alcohol-related accidents, especially those associated with driving, are not unlikely to be connected to BD (Grant et al., 2015; Kuntsche et al., 2017). BD and other drinking patterns can result in an individuals alienation from their community, friends, and family (Grant et al., 2015).

For younger people, alcohol use, including BD, may lead to worse academic achievements (Kuntsche et al., 2017). Some evidence indicates that BD also increases the likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (Kuntsche et al., 2017). The costs that are associated with such issues are also apparent. In general, high-risk drinking, including BD, is a danger to a persons well-being and even life, and it can be a burden for the healthcare system.

Alcohol use has a very high prevalence, which makes this problem even more acute. Based on the US data for 2012-2013, which was gathered as a part of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III (NESARC-III), over 12.6% of Americans had exhibited high-risk drinking habits within the 12 months before the survey was conducted (Grant et al., 2015). The combination of the data from NESARC-III and NESARC-I (a similar survey performed between 2001 and 2002) demonstrates that alcohol use is becoming more widespread (Grant et al., 2017). The tendency is especially common among marginalized populations (for instance, indigenous people), as well as the populations that had previously been affected to a lesser extent, for example, women.

Regarding BD, its prevalence varies rather significantly in terms of geography and individual populations (Kuntsche et al., 2017). The 12-month prevalence for the US was 23% for years 2001-2002 and 33% for years 2012-2013 (Hingson et al., 2017). This pattern of alcohol use is especially common among youngsters, but it is present in other demographics as well (Delker, Brown, & Hasin, 2016). Also, BD is becoming more prevalent in quantity and frequency, especially among pregnant women (2.3% by 2013) (Delker et al., 2016). NESARC-III reports that alcohol abuse is not very often treated and is typically associated with stigma (Grant et al., 2015). Thus, it is clearly a very significant problem for modern-day healthcare professionals.

Finally, it should be pointed out that the study of alcohol use epidemiology reveals important disparities. With the exception of women, minorities tend to be affected by AUD to a greater extent (Delker et al., 2016; Grant et al., 2015). Such minorities include people with mental disorders; for example, AUD is currently evidenced to be comorbid with major depressive and bipolar disorders, as well as other substance use disorders. From this perspective, the investigation of the prevalence of BD, as well as other problematic alcohol use, among the patients of mental institutions is a relevant topic for a quantitative, survey-based study.

Summary

The importance of investigating BD is defined by several factors. First, it is a drinking pattern that can have very significant immediate and delayed consequences. Second, its prevalence is varied, especially among different populations. Third, AUD and other types of problematic alcohol use remain undertreated, even though they are particularly likely to affect minorities, including people with mental health problems. Therefore, the investigation of BD within the population of a particular mental clinic may help its professionals to learn more about its prevalence among their patients, which would be a step toward developing improved services for them. On the other hand, the lack of investigation would mean that the clinic would have to apply the generalized prevalence rates to its policy decisions, which may be a problem because of BDs variable prevalence.

Method

Participants

The proposed tool is meant specifically for the patients of an individual clinic. The clinic (and, therefore, the studied population) is not very big, which is why the sample is not going to be very large either; most likely, about 50 patients will be surveyed. The clinic is located in the US; it serves a rather diverse population of people who have different mental disorders. The most frequent diagnoses include substance use disorders, different types of depressive disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. A notable portion of the served population consists of older people.

For the proposed tool, it is assumed that the researcher has a sufficient amount of resources to perform probability sampling. Since the clinic is small, and so is its population of patients, probability sampling can indeed be feasible. This approach is preferable since it is more likely to result in a representative sample (Polit & Beck, 2017). As a simple and cost-effective approach, which is well-suited for a survey, systematic random sampling is planned (Trochim, Donnelly, & Arora, 2016).

The researcher will get access to the patients database, determine the sampling interval (based on the total population and desired sample), and proceed to choose every patient who corresponds to the interval. It is very important to obtain the necessary approval of the site and other review boards to ensure the existence of an ethical oversight over the project. Patients with cognitive impairments will not be recruited to avoid ethical issues.

The selected patients will be contacted (using phone or e-mail) and provided with information about the project. Interested patients will be given detailed information, informed consent, and a link to the survey. The phone-based interview option will be available as well for reasons that are explained below. A waiver of consent documentation might be successfully applied for, which is possible due to the minimal risks and the lack of identifying information in the tool (Polit & Beck, 2017). If so, all the consent-related information will be within the survey form, which means that the consenting participants will not have to provide any documentation of their consent. The people who respond to the survey in full will become the final sample.

Instrument and the Procedure of Its Creation

The specifics of the provided instrument are associated with the considerations that were made while preparing it. Before the tool was created, the existing literature on BD and the tool developed was studied to define the construct and determine the best ways of measuring it(Polit & Beck, 2017). The goal of this project was to create a short tool, which is why the presented instrument (see Appendix A) has only four items. It was designed to provide information about BD. As a result, it includes questions about the amount of BD alcohol and the frequency of binges; those are the aspects that are most commonly considered for BD (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017).

In addition, one of the questions directly asks if a person engages in BD or not. This question was included because it is possible to discontinue an online or phone-based survey upon receiving a negative response to this question. This way, the participants who do not binge drink do not have to wait through the rest of the questions.

The survey includes different types of questions, which are mostly meant for participants convenience. Thus, the respondents can use multiple-choice and closed-ended questions to select the option that fits them quickly, but when they need to provide specific, individual information, they may use the open-ended question field (Polit & Beck, 2017). Due to its shortness and the use of multiple-choice or closed-ended questions, the survey should not take a lot of time (Mrug, 2010; Pew Research Center, 2019). This decision was made on purpose since retaining respondents may be difficult, especially when a survey discusses a stigmatized topic.

Finally, the tools language needs to be considered. It is common practice to use an easy-to-read language, including sentences and vocabulary, especially when the level of education for participants is not known (Mrug, 2010; Pew Research Center, 2019; Trochim, 2006). Furthermore, it is unreasonable to assume that all the participants are familiar with peculiar terms or that they can define them similarly to the researcher (Trochim, 2006).

BD is difficult to define, as well as the concept of one drink, which may vary for every person (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017). As a result, the tool includes the definitions of BD and drinks to ensure that responses are consistent. Thus, the content, format, and language of the tool were chosen to ensure participant retention, their ability to provide correct answers, and the tools ability to produce the required information, which is the data on BD and mental health status.

Steps

Reliability and Validity

In this paper, the completion of the necessary analyses is presumed to have been performed. Certain validity and reliability methods are associated with administering the tool to a sufficiently large number of people, and other ones require the recruitment of experts (Polit & Beck, 2017). It is assumed that these procedures are carried out after the development of the relevant methodology and with all the necessary reviews completed.

Multiple options are available for testing validity and reliability, which is also connected to the fact that there are different types of both validity and reliability. Thus, content validity is commonly determined through the creation of an expert panel who provide their feedback regarding the relevance and usefulness of each item, as well as the tools ability to measure the studied construct (Polit & Beck, 2017; Shirali, Shekari, & Angali, 2018).

It should be noted that the presented tool did receive some feedback, which assisted in improving its face validity. However, for content validity, the procedure would include a more detailed and structured analysis and more experts. It would use a questionnaire that would enable rating each item and the entire tool. The ratings would be used to calculate the validity index, which is determined by dividing the number of high ratings by the number of raters (Polit & Beck, 2017). The average index would be applied as the content index to the whole tool.

For construct validity, it would be helpful to determine the convergent validity (the comparison of the tool to other tools that measure BD) and discriminant validity (the ability of the construct to measure BD and not a similar drinking pattern). The multitrait-multimethod matrix method (MTMM) is the common approach to determining these two features (Polit & Beck, 2017), and it could involve using existing BD scales, as well as those aimed at heavy drinking, which is a similar pattern that is more prolonged than BD (Grant et al., 2017; Lovatt et al., 2015). Factor analysis would also be performed to determine the ability of the tool to measure the dimensions of BD (frequency and amounts), although Polit and Beck (2017) point out that this method is best applied to large tools. From the perspective of reliability, it would be necessary to ensure that the tool is capable of yielding the same results by re-administering it to the exact same sample.

Alternative validity and reliability tests could also be considered, but they might be insufficiently suitable. For example, it would be possible to apply the tool to a group of people with AUD and a group without AUD. In fact, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that alcohol use patterns between the two samples would differ, which may serve as evidence in support of construct validity (Hulland, Baumgartner, & Smith, 2018; Polit & Beck, 2017).

However, the MTMM approach, according to Polit and Beck (2017), maybe more useful. Similarly, the coefficient alpha approach to measuring internal consistency (a reliability assertion approach) would be difficult to apply to a short tool, in which no score summing is performed (Hulland et al., 2018; Polit & Beck, 2017). Thus, the proposed procedures should help in determining the tools validity and reliability, although another researcher might consider different steps instead.

Avoiding Bias

There are numerous bias-related threats to surveys that need to be taken into account. Common issues include the non-response bias (Hulland et al., 2018; Karlsen et al., 2018; Mrug, 2010). To control it, non-response rates need to be calculated and reported; the removal of respondents from the final sample is not advisable. In addition, the use of the online (contact-less) survey method is likely to increase response rates (Hulland et al., 2018). However, it also excludes the people who do not use computers, which is a form of bias (McInroy, 2016). Within the chosen project, people who do not have access to computers may be offered offline survey options if they request to participate in response to the initial contact.

Another issue is the social desirability bias; participants might find BD-associated stigma a barrier to honestly reporting it. The use of nonjudgmental language and online anonymity is supposed to assist with this issue. Furthermore, there exists the possibility of participants failing to remember their drinking patterns correctly or, possibly, having an incorrect impression of them (recall bias) (Polit & Beck, 2017). The inclusion of the measurements and definition of BD should resolve the problem, but it must also be acknowledged with the report.

Several biases have been avoided while preparing the tool and planning for its study. Order effects are not likely to be a problem since there are only five items that are ordered logically and have different responses (Pew Research Center, 2019; Polit & Beck, 2017). Acquiescence bias is unlikely to be a problem since there are no assertion-based items or even items that encourage a particular response (Karlsen et al., 2018; Pew Research Center, 2019). Still, the named biases require reporting and consideration during the data interpretation.

Following Ethical Guidelines

The ethics of online research are not too different from those of offline studies. In general, the protection of the rights and confidentiality of participants is the primary goal. Consent is necessary to establish, even if its documentation is waived; the consent forms (or notices) are supposed to be easy-to-read and understand (with translation options if necessary) (McInroy, 2016). For the described project, the responses will not be traceable to participants, which makes its use simpler from the perspective of ethics. Still, it is important to check the security of the online platform chosen for the project since some of the exiting options might not offer sufficient protections (Halim, Foozy, Rahmi, & Mustapha, 2018).

In the case of the studied tool, however, confidentiality is relatively easy to protect since complete anonymity is a major advantage of online tools (McInroy, 2016). Thus, the advantages of online surveys will be exploited to the benefit of participants, and potential weaknesses will be checked and controlled.

Issues

While administering the survey, a researcher might experience certain difficulties, which may differ for online and offline surveys. Here, the issues that are common for the latter type will be considered since they are most likely to be applicable. First, reaching participants can be an issue, especially for a project that focuses on a sensitive topic. Potential participants may be reluctant from the very beginning, or they might be unwilling to finish a survey they started because they are uncomfortable with the topic. Non-response rates are also a bias issue, which is why avoiding this concern is very important. To facilitate participant engagement and retention, the specifics of the tool design included non-judgmental language and simple, short questions with multiple-choice answers.

The use of online tools may help to address non-response as well. Indeed, with online surveys, participants remain completely anonymous and do not have to spend any time or money on getting to a meeting location (McInroy, 2016). However, this issue also implies the exclusion of the participants who do not use technology or are not entirely comfortable with it. To overcome this issue, a phone interview will be offered to participants. While this option is more personal than an online survey, it is still rather detached (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007), and participants may feel safer during it than during an actual meeting. Therefore, the problem of participant engagement and retention is resolved by accommodating them through different options that ensure their safety and comfort.

The instructions for participants are of the utmost importance. It should be clear for them what they are expected to do and how to use the survey. Preferably, a platform with an easy-to-use interface should be chosen, and they are rather numerous nowadays (Halim et al., 2018). The instructions may be located in the link-containing e-mails, but it is also necessary to repeat the instructions before the items of the survey. If the survey is programmed to show one item at a time, the instructions can be displayed separately before any other item, which will increase the likelihood of participants reading them. Instructions can also be used to encourage participants to be honest.

Technical issues that may arise need to be considered as well. The link to the survey should be functional; it is reasonable to check the survey regularly, monitor any problems with the platform that hosts it, and ensure the continuation of its subscription (if needed). Options for participants who experience technical issues should be offered as well; if any complaints are filed, the same option of phone interview should be available. The monetary concerns may become acute if many participants prefer phone interviews; the budget of the project needs to account for the possibility. Finally, the ethical concerns that are described above remain important during the administration period; the protection of participants rights and confidentiality is an ongoing task. In summary, the issues of administration may be rather diverse, which highlights the significance of their consideration before the projects implementation.

Results

Type of Analysis

As an epidemiology project, the proposed survey could employ the methodologies used by other similar studies. Their examples include the articles by Grant et al. (2015), which is based on NESARC-III, and Grant et al. (2017), which also considers NESARC-I. As is relatively common for epidemiology research, both of them employ descriptive statistics (including means and frequencies). They also use cross-tabulation for representing the data. Furthermore, the correlations between demographics and alcohol consumption are determined in these reports with the help of multiple logistic regression.

This approach would fit the described project perfectly. While the primary aim of the tool is to determine the prevalence, it includes a demographics question with the general intent to check for correlations. Therefore, it can use cross-tabulations with frequencies for the former goal and regression for the latter one. As can be shown by some reliable literature that reviews survey and correlational designs (Polit & Beck, 2017; Trochim et al., 2016), these types of analyses fit the task.

Certain aspects of the example articles are not applicable to the current tool. Thus, NESARC is a US-based project that surveyed the non-institutionalized adult population while oversampling minorities and this feature led to the authors adjusting their findings to this oversampling. For the proposed tool (in its current form), this step is not required. However, if the tool includes a more extensive demographics section in the future, it might be reasonable to perform adjustments based on the over-and under-represented populations.

It is also noteworthy that as a part of the steps aimed at improving the quality of the project, additional data will have to be included in the report. Thus, the description of the projects sample will involve the summarization of its demographics. Furthermore, the response rate will need to be reported (Hulland et al., 2018; Karlsen et al., 2018). The number of fully completed surveys will be used to calculate the final sample, and it will be compared to the number of links that will have been sent. These steps will be taken to convey the generalizability and applicability of findings, as well as the potential sources of bias.

Results

The existing literature and some additional data can help to predict some of the findings of the project. First, the sample and its possible features can be reviewed. It is not unlikely that some patients will refuse to respond, but it is hoped that significantly over half of them will participate. To achieve that, the initial contact with the patients will involve stating that the survey is very short and completely anonymous. Hopefully, the rate of non-response will not exceed 30%. Furthermore, it is apparent that all the participants will have a disorder to name; based on the current knowledge of the investigator, most of them will probably report a form of substance disorder and depression, although anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder will also be named.

From the perspective of prevalence, up to 46% of the general population may report engaging in BD (Kuntsche et al., 2017), although more modest figures have also been reported, including 23% in the US in 2001 and 33% in 2013 (Hingson et al., 2017). However, the numbers are likely to be different for the studied population, which is people with various mental disorders. Thus, alcohol use, in general, is associated with mental issues, which is especially true for depression, but it may also be possible for various anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (Grant et al., 2015). AUD is shown to be a factor in BD as well (Hingson et al., 2017). Therefore, it is reasonable to expect higher rates within the studied population, especially if the people with AUD end up being overrepresented.

Finally, when correlations are concerned, it is likely that the already demonstrated patterns will be found. Grant et al. (2015) report that correlations with alcohol use are strong for depression, as well as other substance use, but for other types of disorders, they may be moderate, weak, or non-existent. However, it should be noted that the project will not have a large sample and will not be able to adjust the findings based on ethnicities, gender, and age (at least, not in its current form). Therefore, it might not be able to replicate the NESARC studies fully. Since its goal is not to replicate the data but assess BD in a particular population for tailored interventions, this fact is not a problem.

Discussion

Instruments Properties

The constructed survey tool consists of four items, including multiple-choice, open-ended, and closed-ended questions. It is dedicated to measuring one variable (BD), and it includes one demographic question (mental health), which enables it to collect data for both prevalence and correlation investigation. In other words, the survey can gather the general prevalence data for BD in the patients of the selected clinic, but it can also show it within more specific groups (people with specific disorders) and check for statistically significant correlations between these variables.
The tools choices have certain negative and positive implications.

First, the limited features of the data provided by the tool need to be mentioned; one of the primary issues is that it includes few demographics questions, which makes the prevalence of BD in them impossible to determine with this tool. However, these demographics were not a target of the tool, which was also supposed to be short, which explains the issue. Second, online distribution is associated with limited access to some populations.

However, the tools topic is relatively sensitive, which is why it is meant to be administered without any direct contact, that is, through online options. As an alternative for the interested participants who cannot use computers, phone interviews will also be offered. The fact that the survey is short is also a benefit; it might make its completion simple and quick, which may improve response rates. In general, the tools features and properties are reflective of a series of trade-off decisions, which were meant to make it suitable for the task that it is supposed to accomplish.

Revision and Improvement

The tool has already received some feedback, which was mostly positive. The only comment, which was used to revise the tool, required the consideration of the terminology of BD and its reflection in the response options. Specifically, the term was initially determined as over five drinks in its second question, but the instrument also included the option of five drinks in its third question, which is dedicated to the amount of alcohol consumed by participants. This option was added to the third question because the studied literature includes five drinks into BD (Hingson et al., 2017; Kuntsche et al., 2017). Basically, in this case, the problem was in phrasing BPs definition incorrectly, and the latter was revised to include five drinks.

In addition to that, the third question was revised as well. Instead of proposing options for the number of drinks, it was transformed into an open-ended question. Aside from the inconvenience of listing all the possible options, this solution allowed avoiding a potentially uncomfortable situation in which a respondent would have to insert the number of drinks greater than the largest number in the list. Alcohol problems, especially when they can be related to excessive drinking, are stigmatized (Grant et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important to keep the instrument from appearing judgmental in any way.

Regarding future improvements, the current version is very short on purpose; it only includes four items. It is highly advisable to include a demographics section that includes items for sex, age, and race or ethnicity; as it was mentioned, BD prevalence is dependent on these factors (Kuntsche et al., 2017). In addition, for sex, the amount of alcohol that constitutes BD may also differ. As a result, to be able to describe the extent to which the respondents exceed the BD threshold, including a sex item would be necessary. For the present item, however, the goal was limited to providing sufficient data for BD prevalence and its correlation with mental health conditions, which determined the type of demographic information collected by it.

Finally, while the instrument has already received some feedback, it did not involve the target demographic. As a result, it is possible that some flaws might be found in the readability of the instrument, the accessibility and neutrality of its language, and the convenience of its items (Polit & Beck, 2017). The correction of such flaws would further improve the tool, and from this perspective, future study recommendations should be considered.

Further Study Recommendations

As shown above, certain reliability and validity tests might not provide the most helpful data, but they might still be useful. For example, testing the tool with groups that are likely and not likely to exhibit BD (the known-group technique) could be a way of demonstrating validity. Depending on how the process of tool validation progresses, it may be a viable option. Furthermore, target population feedback is a common tool for instrument improvement (Polit & Beck, 2017). It might not provide data on validity and reliability, but it would be very helpful in determining the potential flaws of the tool, especially as related to the usability and accessibility of the tool. In general, additional research is the primary method of the tools improvement.

Conclusion

The presented tool and its analysis illustrate the various considerations that need to be studied while creating such an instrument. The paper was guided by the literature on tool development and examples of similar studies on BD. The topics of construct operationalization, validity, reliability, ethics, and practical concerns were the most prominent ones. The tool is a simple one, but it can be enhanced, especially with suitable validation research and pilot studies.

References

Delker, E., Brown, Q., & Hasin, D. S. (2016). Alcohol consumption in demographic subpopulations: an epidemiologic overview. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 38(1), 7-15.

Grant, B. F., Chou, S. P., Saha, T. D., Pickering, R. P., Kerridge, B. T., Ruan, W. J.,& Hasin, D. S. (2017). Prevalence of 12-month alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and DSM-IV Alcohol Use Disorder in the United States, 2001-2002 to 2012-2013. JAMA Psychiatry, 74(9), 911-923. Web.

Grant, B. F., Goldstein, R. B., Saha, T. D., Chou, S. P., Jung, J., Zhang, H.,& Hasin, D. S. (2015). Epidemiology of DSM-5 Alcohol Use Disorder. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(8), 7

The modern system of education in the USA aims at meeting the needs of every student and offers a high quality of knowledge. However, these options are available not to every learner included in the public school system. Many students belonging to minority groups do not relish the opportunity to obtain equal treatment to those belonging to majority groups. One of such underserved learner populations is one of African American students. These young people suffer from racial disparities of various kinds, including discipline, achievement, and college readiness. Moreover, the concept of school segregation adds to the negativity of the situation. The present paper aims at disclosing the currently prevailing racial disparities within the public school system. Apart from discussing the disparities and equalities governing school education, the paper covers other significant dimensions of the issue. Particularly, there is an analysis of the challenges associated with recruiting and retaining teachers. Also, there is a series of recommendations for colleges and universities that are likely to enhance the process of educating future teachers. Overall, the paper offers a multidimensional analysis of the racial disparities problems in U.S. schools.

Current Racial Disparities within Public School Districts

Access to equal opportunities for school students is the principal factor affecting their future careers and lives. Unfortunately, the present situation regarding this matter is not satisfactory in the USA. Disparities within public school education mainly focus on students race. According to nationwide statistics, the likelihood of White learners being in an advanced placement class is 1.8 times higher for White students than for Black ones (Groeger, Waldman, & Eads, 2018). At the same time, the probability of African American students being suspended is between 2.5 and 11.7 times higher than that of White students (Groeger et al., 2018). Racial disparities within public school districts prevail in various dimensions, including discipline, academic achievement, college readiness, and resource allocation.

Discipline

The problem of disparities in discipline is rather acute in U.S. public schools. Morris and Perry (2016) emphasize the effect of disciplinary inequalities on students academic achievement. Scholars note that racial disparities in adulthood, including health, employment, and incarceration, have a rather close connection to inequalities in academic achievement, which arise from unfairly distributed disciplinary measures. According to researchers, one of the core difficulties of the US system of education in this respect is that such disparities do not gain sufficient acknowledgment. Carter, Skiba, Arredondo, and Pollock (2016) argue that despite numerous attempts to counteract bias and stereotypes at schools, activists have not been much successful. A specifically negative factor that prevails in modern education is the Black male stereotype (Carter et al., 2016). Due to continuous processes of color-blindness, micro-aggression, and implicit bias, African American students all over the country suffer from unfair treatment and more severe disciplinary measures than White students. Therefore, the first step in eliminating racial inequalities in discipline is recognizing their existence.

Statistics on discipline segregation available from a nationwide report are alarming. Even in the states with the smallest difference between Black and White students likelihood of suspension, the level of inequality is distressing. In Florida and Maine, the probability of suspension among African American students versus White ones is 2.4 times higher (Groeger et al., 2018). Unfortunately, these are only the lowest statistics, hence the best. Meanwhile, the highest degree of disparity prevails in the District of Columbia with the distressing 11.7x likelihood divergence (Groeger et al., 2018). In many states, the difference varies between three and six times as much for Black students as opposed to White ones (Groeger et al., 2018). Since researchers have found evidence connecting the rate of suspension to the level of academic achievement, it is crucial to pay more attention to this problem.

Scholars working on the investigation of disparities in school discipline note that a variety of negative consequences may arise as a result of such a gap. Skiba, Arredondo, and Rausch (2014) report that persistent racial disparities in suspensions lead to a low rate of graduating and increase the likelihood of entering the school-prison pipeline by Black youths. Furthermore, researchers remark that a longitudinal study of African American learners in Florida indicated that 39% of them underwent suspension in comparison to the 22% rate among White students (Skiba et al., 2014). The situation becomes further aggravated by gender disparities within the racial groups. Notably, the most vulnerable group of all is that consisting of Black male students. These individuals are at the highest risk of being excluded or arrested.

Researchers conclude that racial inequality in the discipline has not emerged recently but has been evolving for many centuries due to a variety of historical events and processes. Carter et al. (2016) mention that the damage caused by slavery, forced migration, and other factors that promoted the unfair treatment of Black people created social and economic disadvantages for this population group. Racial disparities are hard to resist because of the unwillingness of many Americans to admit their existence. Hence, to eliminate the prevalence of discipline inequalities, society in general and the system of education, in particular, should, first of all, engage in a conversation about the problem. Upon doing this, it will become possible to look for solutions to the challenge in question.

Academic Achievement

The second significant aspect under the influence of racial disparities in education is students academic achievement. Researchers report that racial segregation and student achievement are closely linked (Reardon, 2016). African American students, as well as other minority group representatives, frequently become isolated in schools where socioeconomic and racial segregation prevails (Flashman, 2014). Over 80% of Black students attend majority-minority schools, with more than 60% of their classmates living in low-income families (Flashman, 2014). Scholars associate such segregation patterns with the increasing achievement gap.

According to statistical data, the rate of academic opportunity is much higher among White students than among Non-White ones. Particularly, White learners are 1.8 times as likely as African Americans to be in the advanced placement class (Groeger et al., 2018). Furthermore, as Grissom and Redding (2016) note, high-achieving Black students are underrepresented in gifted programs. As the U.S. Department of Education reports, in 2009, Black students constituted 16.7% of the general student population, but only 9.8% of Blacks were participants of gifted programs (Grissom & Redding, 2016). Such a disparity attracted the attention of researchers since they indicated both the unfair treatment of minority groups and a reduced possibility of high academic achievement.

The underrepresentation of African American students in gifted programs relates to generally lower achievement among this learner group. However, the unfair distribution of students in such programs occurs as a result of other negative issues. For instance, Black students families are less likely than white ones to obtain information about processes of identification for gifted programs (Grissom & Redding, 2016). What is more, African American families rarely can afford a visit to a private psychologist or some other specialist who could assess their childs abilities. Data available on elementary school students indicates that only 83% of Black children attend schools with gifted programs in contrast to 93% of Hispanics, 91% of Asians, and 90% of Whites (Grissom & Redding, 2016). At the school level, African American learners are more likely to remain unnoticed as compared to White students.

One of the core determinants in the process of selecting children for participation in gifted programs is teachers. Educators are the ones who make referrals, thus playing a gatekeeping role in the process of allocating students to gifted programs (Grissom & Redding, 2016, p. 1). Seeing such discrimination, Black students frequently tend to lose interest in gaining better results since they realize that their efforts will remain unnoticed.

Another viable reason why African American students achievement is lower than that of White learners is the circle of friends and acquaintances that includes the child. As Flashman (2014) notes, young people whose friends have higher grades tend to improve their results. Meanwhile, Black students most often communicate with individuals from their racial group, which eliminates their opportunity to increase their academic achievement. Therefore, scholars argue that to enhance the likelihood of Black students gaining better academic outcomes, schools need to put an end to segregation and bias. If every child receives equal chances for developing their skills and participating in gifted programs, the nationwide results will be more optimistic.

College Readiness

Academic achievement is the factor that predicts students ability to enter a college upon graduating from school. As Bryant (2015) remarks, the attainment of a college degree is a fundamental solution to eliminate poverty and cover the wealth gap between Whites and Blacks living in the USA. In modern society, the acquisition of postsecondary education has become a prerequisite for success in the job market. Researchers predict that by 2020, nearly 66% of jobs will demand a college degree, 30% of them calling for at least a bachelors degree (Bryant, 2015). Thus, it is evident that under these circumstances, more and more young people should complete a college degree to be able to find a well-paid job. Still, the majority of Black students leave high school without a proper level of preparation to enter college.

The insufficient readiness to obtain a college education by African American students is one of the burdens of the modern educational system. What is more, due to a demographic shift, the major part of US students are Non-Whites (Bryant, 2015). Therefore, the failure of these individuals to complete their school education successfully may have crucial negative outcomes for the countrys economy and labor market. Society prefers to focus on Black students low achievement, family issues, and communities. Furthermore, it is common practice to attribute this population groups poor performance to cultural and environmental divergences (Bryant, 2015). However, there is a far more important factor which, unfortunately, does not receive substantial attention. This issue involves the deficiencies of school systems, especially the ones with minority populations prevalence (Bryant, 2015). Thus, it is necessary to analyze these flaws to find out how the US system of education might focus on them.

Scholars identify three principal educational problems that play an essential role in students readiness to enter a college. These difficulties are access to preparatory courses, school counselors, and experienced educators (Bryant, 2015). The first aspect concerns the need for rigorous courses where students could improve their content knowledge and enrich their higher-order thinking skills. As a result, participation in such courses can enhance students college readiness. However, as Bryant (2015) notices, minority students do not have sufficient access to such an opportunity. The second aspect relates to the role of school counselors, who constitute an important advantage for those seeking a college education. School counselors serve as learners advocates and encourage students to pursue their cherished academic dreams. However, as Bryant (2015) reports, school counselors frequently discourage Black students from pursuing a college degree by demonstrating no interest or belief in their knowledge and skills. Lastly, experienced teachers can promote students knowledge and college readiness. However, African American students rarely have access to schools with teachers who are interested in inculcating knowledge and establishing positive relationships with students.

Apart from the three main factors affecting students college readiness, there is one more aspect that deserves consideration concerning the present discussion. The problem with Black students readiness to enter a college is that many of them are first-generation college students (Black, Cortes, & Lincove, 2015; Bryant, 2015). This fact, along with racial inequality, poverty, and belonging to a minority group, plays a detrimental role in establishing learners college preparation. Therefore, to increase the readiness level of African American students who desire to enter a college, it is necessary to alter the system of education. Specifically, it is crucial to eliminate this population groups access to schools with experienced teachers and increase their possibilities to cooperate with counselors.

School Segregation

Discipline, academic achievement, and college readiness are three of the four racial disparities issue prevailing in the current educational system. The last one on the list is school segregation, which relates to resource allocation. In the past, scholars used to consider school segregation and resource allocation intertwined (Gamoran & An, 2016). Particularly, there existed an opinion that schools attended by African American students did not receive adequate resources. However, further research indicated that the connection between the two factors was not self-evident. Still, the problem of Black students attending segregated schools prevailed.

The politics of school segregation presupposes that students belonging to minority ethnic groups attend particular types of school that typically do not attract socially and economically advantaged populations. According to Munk, McMillan, and Lewis (2014), it is typical to consider low-income and minority learners as those with poor learning outcomes. Researchers distinguish between several problems related to the issue of school segregation. Firstly, schools with the prevailing number of Black students have to deal with a larger number of needs, such as emotional, educational, medical, and physical (Munk et al., 2014). Secondly, such schools often do not have sufficient non-commercial resources. Next, there is also difficulty hiring and retaining qualified teachers. Another issue is that there may exist a disagreement between the dominant school culture and those of minority students (Munk et al., 2014). Furthermore, segregated schools may suffer from low student and teacher engagement levels.

Since segregation has a direct effect on students achievement, it is vital to analyze the types of this negative phenomenon and the reasons for their emergence. Reardon (2016) offers an elaborate classification of school segregation types, including school and residential segregation, between-school and between-district types, and students exposure to Black and poor neighbors or classmates. Also, the difference between White and Black learners exposure to poor and African American classmates and neighbors constitutes an important dimension of segregation.

There are two main ways of measuring segregation: exposure and unevenness. Exposure, or isolation, measures indicate the average socioeconomic or racial structure of schools or neighborhoods of the students (Reardon, 2016). For instance, the median rate of Black students in an African American childs school or neighborhood represents the measure of racial isolation. Meanwhile, the unevenness measure explains the disparity in the median socioeconomic or racial school arrangement between students with different racial backgrounds (Reardon, 2016). Therefore, while exposure measures characterize the context of students of some race, unevenness measures express the varieties in average circumstances between the two racial groups. Simply put, unevenness measures are the varieties of exposure measures.

Segregation is partially responsible for the achievement gap existing between White and Black students. According to Gamoran and An (2016), the No Child Left Behind project, which was initiated to set guidelines for performance, revealed dramatic statistics regarding many schools. Specifically, a growing number of schools could not meet the standard. One of the principal reasons for such a failure was that schools with a high degree of minority students demonstrated low scores. Therefore, it is evident that segregation produces a negative effect on Black students achievement. To eliminate the prevalence of such outcomes, it is necessary to reduce the level of school segregation in the US.

Challenges with Recruiting and Retaining Teachers

One of the most problematic issues associated with racial disparities in schools is that of hiring experienced and highly effective teachers for work in segregated schools and making them remain at their workplaces. According to Partee (2014a), there is a lower possibility for Black students to have an effective teacher than for White learners. Schools with the majority of African American students usually employ inexperienced educators. As a result, it is not possible to expect high achievement from Black students.

However, a much deeper problem lies not in teachers experience but their race. Statistical data indicate that by 2020, Black children will compose about half of all the K-12 students (Jackson & Kohli, 2016). Meanwhile, the percentage of Black teachers is highly incomparable to this number. As Bryan and Ford (2014) report, there are only 6% of Black female teachers and 1% of Black male educators. Compared to White teachers, these numbers are rather low since there are about 75% of White female and 10% of White male educators (Bryan & Ford, 2014). There are several major implications of the underrepresentation of Black teachers in US schools.

First of all, Black students, especially boys, lack role models from whom they could learn and whose positive characteristics they could imitate. Currently, the lowest achievement among American students belongs to African American males (Bryan & Ford, 2014). A probable explanation of such a tendency is that schools do not meet learners needs by not hiring Black teachers. Hence, Black teachers could serve as role models for children, which would increase the performance of minority students. Another positive aspect of recruiting teachers of color is that they reduce the shortage of teachers in minority schools (Jackson & Kohli, 2016). Finally, these educators have a deep understanding of African American cultural values, so they are well-suited for the job. Unfortunately, however, the level of representation of Black teachers does not correspond to the need in them. Almost all of the states have a considerable teacher diversity gap (Partee, 2014b). Therefore, recruiting and retaining such specialists has become a burden of the modern educational system.

The recruitment procedure for teachers is complicated due to several reasons. Firstly, there is a pay gap between White and Black teachers earnings. Secondly, these educators constantly experience bias and distrust from their Non-Black colleagues. Thirdly, there is a high responsibility and low resource allocation in public schools (Bland, Church, & Luo, 2014). The most dramatic outcome of a low number of Black teachers lies in the emergence of racial disparities among high school students, including academic achievement and discipline. Ingersoll and May (2016) consider the shortage of minority teachers a major civil rights issue (p. 1). Goings and Bianco (2016) further develop this thought by stating that the prospects of African American students to become teachers are rather low due to the lack of positive examples. Statistics indicate that over 40% of U.S. schools do not employ a single Black teacher (Jackson & Kohli, 2016). To improve the situation, researchers recommend enhancing the hiring process, bolstering teachers preparation, and improving educators working conditions (Podolsky, Kini, Bishop, & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Still, teacher shortages prevail in the US system of education.

Currently, the demand for teachers is higher than the supply. There are several possible explanations of this fact, the first one being the increasing student enrollment (Berry & Shields, 2017). The second reason is that many schools are struggling to restore the positions of teachers that underwent severe cuts during the Great Recession. Thirdly, the number of people entering the profession is constantly dropping. According to statistical data, there has been a 35% drop in teacher preparation program enrollment between 2009 and 2014 (Berry & Shields, 2017). Finally, the US loses about 8% of its educators yearly, with the attrition level being nearly two times higher than in top-performing countries, such as Singapore or Finland.

There are several steps that authorities should take to improve teacher retention. Scholars consider initiating paid teacher residency projects as a viable approach to promoting the supply of professionals (Barth, Dillon, Hull, & Higgins, 2016). Also, a suggestion to return a part of student loans may sound like a productive idea. What is more, creating effective peer teams of minority teachers is a promising trend (Dee & Goldhaber, 2017). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that while recruiting teachers involves numerous difficulties, retaining them might gain a considerably improved rate under certain circumstances.

Issues with Teachers Cultural Competence

There is another problem that aggravates the issue of racial disparities in schools. The insufficient cultural competence of teachers is what makes students of color lag behind their peers and not feel any satisfaction with their achievements. The growing number of multiple identities, including ethnicity, has made it difficult for school teachers to meet the needs of different students (Alismail, 2016). As Goldenberg (2014) notes, the common phrase closing the achievement gap involves much more than educational issues (p. 112). Thus, the scholar argues, it is crucial to reframe achievement in terms of opportunity (Goldenberg, 2014, p. 112). The problem of low cultural competence of many teachers relates to school segregation and an inadequate number of Black teachers in schools.

Hardly anyone doubts the idea that students achievement depends on the role of the teacher. However, it is also highly relevant to take into account cultural differences between the majority culture and the minority one. Teachers that are involved in their students experiences are more likely to build a positive perception of learners academic potential (Dilworth & Coleman, 2014). Researchers note that the underrepresentation of teachers of color makes things more complicated since these professionals have a more favorable opinion of African American students. As a result, the lack of such educators leads to the impossibility to gain the best outcomes of the educational process. According to Dilworth and Coleman (2014), Black teachers have a higher degree of social consciousness and are more committed to educating African American students. What is more, research indicates that teaching same-race students bring a more positive effect than when a teacher and students are of different races (Dilworth & Coleman, 2014). Taking this evidence into consideration, one may conclude that currently, students of color have no or poor opportunity to become involved in the process of learning to the full extent.

Teachers cultural competence plays an important role in the process of education. As Vázquez-Montilla, Just, and Triscari (2014) remark, educators beliefs about learners cultural backgrounds influence all of the learning aspects. Therefore, with the number of culturally diverse students constantly increasing, it is necessary to boost teachers conscious approach to the question of students culture. African American students constitute a minority group, but this group is continuously expanding in number. At present, the level of achievement of minority students is lower than that of majority learners (Hachfeld, Hahn, Schroeder, Anders, & Kunter, 2015). Such a situation prevails not only in the USA but also in many other countries (Hachfeld et al., 2015). Research shows that despite being dedicated to their work, most teachers cannot cope with supporting minority students to an adequate extent. As a result, scholars deduce that the preparation of teachers to work in culturally diverse classrooms requires more attention (Hachfeld et al., 2015). Since learners spend much time at school interacting with their educators, it is obvious that the latter has a great effect on the former in terms of how and what they learn.

One of the suggested approaches to enhancing cultural diversity is colorblindness. Some researchers believe that the best way of meeting diversity problems is treating all students in the same way, without paying attention to their racial dissimilarities (Hachfeld et al., 2015). However, it is hardly possible to view this method as a successful one. Most frequently, when colorblind teachers claim to treat every student equally, they choose to treat them by the cultural values of White learners. Research demonstrates that White educators are prone to agreeing with colorblind beliefs (Hachfeld et al., 2015). On the contrary, teachers of color tend to choose multicultural approaches. Hachfeld et al. (2015) report that multicultural-oriented educators demonstrate more pedagogically effective problem-solving tactics and choose less harsh disciplinary measures for their students. Therefore, the colorblindness approach seems not to be effective since it can lead to negative outcomes for learners.

A viable approach to mitigating the problem of cultural diversity is increasing the number of Black teachers in schools. As Jackson and Kohli (2016) note, teachers of color are well-suited for African American students since they have a deep understanding of the cultural experiences of these learners (p. 1). Teachers of color have the potential to challenge racial inequality through a deep understanding of Black students culture. As a result of including more Black teachers in the system of education, it will be possible to cope both with cultural and achievement gaps in the U.S. schools. The prevailing situation urges substantial change in the system of educators cultural competence formation and expression.

Recommendations for Colleges and Universities with Teacher Preparation Programs

Education of future teachers and the formulation of their professional views start in colleges and universities, so it is viable to suggest several changes that the teacher preparation programs should consider. First of all, based on numerous arguments from the research literature, it is necessary to increase opportunities for Black students, especially males, to become teachers. That way, such educators could serve as role models for African American school learners. Sealey-Ruiz and Greene (2015) call this situation educational genocide and emphasize the importance of eliminating it (p. 55). Hence, the programs should be race-friendly and must not allow cases of scapegoating of Black students (Jackson & Kohli, 2016). The second recommendation is to change the strategy of colorblindness to multiculturalism in the teacher preparation programs (Sleeter, 2016). Current programs focus on White teacher preparation, which leads to the emergence of cultural diversity problems as early as at the level of obtaining an education. Hence, when one starts working as a teacher, he or she is already disposed toward the unequal treatment of different student groups.

Since African American students suffer most of all, it is necessary to increase the opportunities for Black teachers to implement their knowledge and cultural experience in schools. Thus, the recommendation to improve the possibilities of future teachers of color emerges out of the principles of the critical race theory (Milner & Laughter, 2014; Sleeter, 2016). Milner and Laughter (2014) suggest three policies that are likely to alleviate racial disparities in schools. The first policy involves reforming teacher education programs to focus on a deeper study of race. The second policy recommends the inclusion of a more profound analysis of poverty. Finally, the third policy outlined by Milner and Laughter (2014) presupposes the addition of investigating the connection between race and poverty to teacher preparation programs. With the implementation of these changes, future teachers are more likely to realize racial disparities between students and mitigate the risks in their practice.

Another viable approach to improving teachers professional readiness is focusing on identity-based motivation. As Oyserman and Lewis (2017) argue, this strategy has the potential to reduce racial disparities in academic achievement. Hence, it is necessary to educate future teachers about the necessity of such a method. Identity-based motivation will make it possible to eliminate stigmatization and increase ambition among Black students. Hence, Oyserman and Lewiss (2017) suggestion offers benefits for minority students that will emerge in case teachers are aware of them and employ them in their work. Gregory et al. (2016) also consider that it is possible to alleviate some of the most significant racial disparities by altering teachers practice. Based on a two-year teacher-coaching program, scholars conclude that teachers can reduce the racial discipline gap if they change their practices (Gregory et al., 2016). Therefore, the next recommendation for colleges and universities is to include such teacher-coaching programs in the curriculum.

Adding diversity to teacher preparation programs is another solution that may improve the situation. King and Butler (2015) note that the cultural competence dimension does not hold the necessary level of attention in current teacher preparation programs. Meanwhile, instructing future teachers on cultural diversity can eliminate a series of adverse outcomes in the future. Haddix (2017) also asserts that the lack of teachers of color relates to the low degree of diversity-investigatory measures taken during the process of preparing teachers. Therefore, multicultural pedagogy should occupy one of the prominent places in teacher preparation programs.

One more recommendation concerns reforming educator preparation programs in colleges and universities. Banks (2015) notes that it is crucial to add more cultural experiences to the curriculum so that future teachers could be multicultural. By doing this, higher educational establishments will promote equal opportunities for all school children under the guidance of unbiased teachers. Additionally, the education community should take collective ownership of the recruitment, preparation, and support of new teachers (Banks, 2015, p. 60). Finally, colleges and universities should alter their teacher preparation programs so that they would match the needs of young educators. As Dilworth and Coleman (2014) remark, currently, many programs do not offer a sufficient degree of mentorship, which is one of the core elements of teacher retention. Thus, there are many ways in which colleges and universities could change their teacher preparation programs so that they would match both teachers and students needs. It is essential to introduce change to the educational system to alleviate racial disparities in US schools.

Conclusion

The problem of racial disparities prevailing in US schools is rather acute. Each of the dimensions of this challenge is interconn

Introduction

In the World Economic Forums list of the most significant global risks for humanity over the next ten years, in terms of potential impact, the problem of lack of drinking water comes out on top (McNally et al. 2019). It has confidently circumvented failed attempts to mitigate climate change, leaving the problem of increasing extreme weather far behind and threats to food security. However, most of the risks that may appear in an organization are interrelated (Lee et al., 2018). The world is experiencing an increasing shortage of water, which is explained by climate change and the increase in production in individual countries. The risk of water scarcity in Africa is not due to meteorological or hydrological drought alone (Bischoff-Mattson et al., 2020). Mainly water is scarce in African countries, but this problem has affected states on most continents. The most acute water supply problem is Nigeria- Africas most populous country. Nigeria ranks seventh in the world regarding oil reserves, about 3 billion tons, which is 2% of the proven world reserves (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020). At the beginning of its independence 60 years ago, this country was considered an African showcase of democracy and economic stability.

However, in the 21st century, news comes from Nigeria to match the ethnographic reports of tribal communities: nomads and farmers are fighting for access to water and fertile lands. According to Olivier and Xu (2019), the primary water sources in Africa are surface and groundwater and water reuse. Nigeria is one of the most populous and fastest growing countries with a population of 218 million (Macrotrends, 2022). The enmity between nomads and farmers is a biblical conflict, considered the first in human history, and in the high-tech world, it should have become archaic. With Africa experiencing the worlds fastest population growth, water scarcity in this region is particularly dangerous (Niasse and Varis 2021). Water demand continues to skyrocket as water resources are depleted. The available amount of safe water is declining due to rapid population growth, urbanization, misuse, and mismanagement of water resources, climate change, and extreme weather events exacerbate water scarcity (Foster et al., 2019). Due to water problems, complications in the health system began during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a big problem (Anim and Ofori-Asenso 2020). Easy access to safe water is an essential factor in public health, whether water is used for drinking, domestic use, cooking, or recreational purposes.

The water crisis significantly complicates the implementation of sanitary and hygienic standards, even in medical institutions (Szymanski 2021). Introducing improved water supply and sanitation systems and improved water use efficiency can boost economic growth in countries and significantly reduce poverty. In addition, African climate change also dramatically affects the water situation in the region. There may be more of it in certain places and none in some places (Dube and Nhamo, 2020). Everyone has the right to an adequate, uninterrupted, safe, satisfactory, physically accessible, and affordable water supply for personal and domestic needs.

So far, we have considered water-related conflicts, the main reason for which is that technological development is ahead of the level of organization of social relations. After all, both in Hindustan and in Central Asia, imported irrigation technologies and the construction of dams were artificially introduced into a virtually medieval society, which, as it turned out, was not yet ready for such a level of responsibility (Yusuf et al., 2021). As Africas most populous and largest economy, Nigeria faces various water-related challenges, from water scarcity in the north to water pollution in the south. The water crisis is particularly acute in the Lagos metropolitan area of about 21 million people. However, the city is built around a lagoon, and it is difficult for people to find potable and sanitary water. Providing any locality in Africa with drinking water can lead to flourishing and advancing sustainable development (Bishoge et al., 2018). A tiny number of people have access to tap water, which is a significant threat to the hygienic and epidemiological situation. Nigeria also has one of Africas highest child mortality rates from waterborne diseases (Obiezu, 2022). This is one of the main reasons why it is worth fighting the problem of lack of water. In 2016, the Government of Nigeria finalized the National Water Resources Bill, the primary purpose of which is to create a regulatory framework for the equitable and sustainable development, management, use, and conservation of Nigerias surface and groundwater resources (Adeniyi, 2022). At the same time, it is necessary to use water resources wisely, as they can be quickly depleted.

Skills Involved in Project Management in a Health and Social Care

A person must have specific skills to implement a project in the social and health sector successfully. In order to properly implement such a complex project, it is essential to know how to properly manage the available resources (Govender et al., 2022). One of these abilities should be the ability to lead, which is essential for projects. This means that the people responsible for the project must be able to lead and manage teams, set the vision, motivate and serve employees, and educate and inspire all team members (Picciotto, 2020). Effective project managers lead from a strategic and operational perspective, communicating the vision, evaluating performance, and ensuring that all team members are provided with the powerful tools, money, and other necessary resources to succeed (Nally & Waters, 2022). Leading people means taking responsibility for making the teams life better and projects more successful. Zuo et al. (2018) argue that soft skills can significantly influence organizational performance in a positive way. The critical skill in project management is leadership, not just management. The manager must provide a vision and project plan to empower the team (Hakim & Fidsa, 2019). Fundraising is also an essential aspect of the initial stage of project development. However, relying solely on the help of donors and charitable organizations is not worth it (Boyatzis et al., 2019). The lack of funding often leads to the closure of projects, the disappearance of certain services, and the reduction of the workforce (Turajo et al., 2019). That is why specialists in public organizations should not only build relationships with donors and improve fundraising skills but also develop a partner network, look for investors and, in general, develop an entrepreneurial attitude toward fundraising. A great opportunity can be social entrepreneurship, which allows public organizations not to depend on grants and earn money for their activities.

The ability to communicate well, understand, and be understood is also vital for people involved in project management. A critical factor in successfully completing a project is the relationship between the manager and subordinates (Burrell, 2018). Effective communication is a project managers skill that impacts not only the team but also clients and all stakeholders. Poor communication jeopardizes the successful outcome of a project, while clear communication is mostly about understanding and maintaining a dialogue rather than one-way communication (Muhula et al., 2018). Therefore, project managers need to choose a high-quality collaboration tool and select individual keys for each employee. Decisions can be strategic or emergency, routine or operational.

Each project manager has a set of criteria to help guide their decision. It is also crucial for the project manager to find the right person to replace him in an emergency (Hefley & Bottion, 2021). This may be rare or not needed at all, but the project should always have a leader who knows what needs to be done. In their decision-making process, they should consider how it will affect others and consult with their colleagues when necessary (Shestakevych & Volkov, 2021). Any project can go beyond the plan. Sometimes it is challenging to anticipate and prevent risks before they become a problem. However, managers should try their best to stay on top of the projects by controlling risks and proactively mitigating them as much as possible (Horning, 2018). Risk management is an essential managerial skill in order to protect the project from unforeseen dangerous situations.

The Role of Project Management Techniques in Health and Social Care

A healthy society is a factor in the economically active working-age population, which affects the growth of labor productivity and the countrys economic development rate. The need for health becomes a system-forming criterion in a socially oriented market economy (Koliopoulos et al., 2018). The free medical care guarantee system provides all citizens with an equal opportunity to meet the demand for medical services. Health promotion processes should be carried out at the level of the child population, which lays aspects in the formation of a sustainable workforce.

Project management in the healthcare system is a priority area for developing public medical institutions located on the territory of subjects of economic relations. The project is viewed as a set of interrelated activities aimed at achieving extraordinary results in the face of time and resource constraints (Hidalgo, 2019). At the same time, project activities are understood as activities related to the initiation, preparation, implementation, and completion of projects. The state of the health care system in a separately considered economic entity affects the development of the national economy through the preservation of the health of the population, including the reduction of morbidity and the adaptation of the population in childhood and adolescence with disabilities (Saleem et al., 2020). Thus, the project to create a childrens specialized rehabilitation center in the direction of habilitation will restore impaired and absent functions in patients and ensure their social adaptation for their whole life.

For the successful implementation of the project, it is crucial to be able to operate with appropriate managerial techniques. A reliable manager cannot only carry out a project but also improve it (Serra et al., 2021). The projects life cycle begins with the idea of following the challenges of a transforming society. At the same time, the project implementation is carried out with limited labor and financial resources, which is why the share of costs should be based on the highest requests of the institution and the approved schedule of activities (Gitamo, 2018). The specifics of project implementation in the public health system are the difficulty in finding and selecting qualified medical personnel in conditions of limited human resources.

Methods to Optimize Communication amongst Various Stakeholders

There are several principles of stakeholder management. Clarkson outlined the basic rules that should be followed when communicating with stakeholders (Goldsby et al. 2018). Managers must be aware of and care about the status of all formal stakeholders and take their interests into account when making management decisions. Managers must take into account stakeholders views and engage in an open dialogue with them on emerging issues and ways to resolve them in the process of building relationships in the company (Cooper & Sommer, 2018). Managers are required to modify processes and behaviors to suit the interests and capabilities of the companys stakeholders. Managers must be aware of the close causal relationship between the results of their actions and their impact on stakeholders (Atolagbe & Floyd, 2020). In addition, they should strive to achieve a fair distribution among stakeholder of benefits and responsibilities directly related to the activities of the corporation, taking into account all risks and the degree of vulnerability of stakeholders. Managers should consider and establish cooperation with other organizations to reduce the risks and damage from the possible results of the companys activities or to increase potential compensation for damage (Kim et al., 2020). Managers have a responsibility to exclude activities that violate fundamental human rights.

Managing Potential Conflict and Challenges

Conflict management involves the ability to manage the process of resolving a conflict situation before it develops into an open confrontation. How it started plays a significant role in resolving a conflict (Caputo et al., 2018). Conflict management is the ability of a leader to see a conflict situation, comprehend it, and take guiding actions to resolve it. Critical management can be divided into categories depending on the conflict situation (Chen et al., 2019). These types are 1) perception of the conflict and initial assessment of the situation; 2) the study of the conflict and the search for its causes; 3) search for ways to resolve the conflict; 4) implementation of organizational measures. The conflict in the organization is almost always visible, as it has specific external manifestations: a high level of tension in the team, a decrease in working capacity; deterioration of production and financial indicators; changing relationships with suppliers and customers (de Rezende & Blackwell, 2019). It should be taken into account that the objective level of the conflict and its perception must be adequate. Otherwise, pseudo-conflicts, overestimation or underestimation of the significance of the conflict, non-perception, and ignoring the existing conflict may occur (Levy, 2018). In developing a project designed to help people make their lives easier, there must be a critical approach in combination with the latest technologies (Ngo & Hwang, 2022). In crisis situations, the manager begins his work with an express analysis of the state of the system, after which he develops an approach and implements measures to stabilize the situation. At this stage, all available resources are mobilized, and special attention is paid to increasing staff loyalty to ongoing events (Mavi & Standing, 2018). The most crucial element in managing a large project is the implementation of soft skills (Tahir, 2019). They can provide better communication with employees and other people. In addition, this approach sets the attitude of employees positively toward the manager, which speeds up the work process (Ensari, 2019). When the critical situation has been successfully stabilized, a detailed diagnosis is carried out in order to identify the fundamental problems and causes of the crisis, as a result of which the best way to overcome the crisis situation as a whole is determined.

Potential Water Reserves

Groundwater is located in the rock mass of the upper part of the earths crust and makes up about 99 percent of all fresh water in a liquid state. Over time, scientists are discovering more and more new sources of groundwater in Africa that can be used for drinking (Ayodele and Munda, 2019). Groundwater resources in sub-Saharan Africa are sufficient to develop agriculture and provide people with enough clean water for drinking and hygiene. Most African countries have found a way to survive a drought lasting at least five years, and some more than 50 years, using their groundwater resources (Healy, et al., 2020). In addition, each sub-Saharan African country can supply 130 liters of drinking water per capita per day from groundwater, yet most use only about ten percent (Hamed, 2018). This is a fantastic water resource that, unfortunately, is still not used. Water reserves underground are 100 times greater than on the surface, and the researchers write (Carrard et al., 2019). However, scientists urge not to rush into large-scale drilling of wells: it will not immediately solve the problems of 300 million Africans who, according to statistics, do not have access to clean drinking water. Every year, the use of drinking water becomes less and less, which can soon lead to a catastrophe (Minke et al., 2021). Demand for water will only escalate in the coming decades as the continents population grows and agricultural land needs to be irrigated in arid climates.

Due to climate change, which for several centuries has turned the Sahara into a lifeless desert, the replenishment of underground water reservoirs has ceased. Some of them were last filled more than 5 thousand years ago (Goni, 2019). At the same time, scientists are constantly working to find the actual location of water resources. The scientists collected data from hydrogeological maps held by African governments and from 283 aquifer surveys (Bukar, 2021). A new detailed map shows that many of the states now labeled waterless actually have vast freshwater reserves. Simply drilling thousands of powerful wells and pumping water from there through pipes, like oil, on an industrial scale will not work.

Organization of the Borehole Project

In the Sahara and Sudan, artesian wells and wells are the only sources of water. Construction projects in Africa have their own characteristics and requirements that must be taken into account (Chepkemoi, 2020). Various objects are concentrated around natural and artificial reservoirs: watering places for livestock, oases where crops are grown, and fruit trees are planted. Recently, hydrogeological laboratories have been paying more and more attention to the study of groundwater, the deposits of which are located under the mainland (Owor et al., 2022). According to hydrogeologists, water reserves in aquifers on the African continent are two orders of magnitude greater than in surface water bodies (Dungus, 2022). However, scientists fear that traditional drilling of wells, exceptionally high-performance wells, may backfire. Hydrogeologists believe that due to the insignificant replenishment of groundwater due to precipitation and inflow from surface water bodies, the water flow will exceed their possible resource (Ward et al, 2020). Scientists propose to drill shallow wells and install manual pumping equipment to extract water, thus reducing the load on aquifers.

The most significant supply of groundwater falls on the northern territories of the African continent: Libya, Chad, and Algeria. Improving the supply of good quality water can have a significant impact on the well-being of African citizens (Yeh et al., 2020). The organization of such a complex project as drilling a well will require a lot of human resources. First of all, geologists should be involved in the project, who will be able to accurately examine the drilling area and tell about the features of the soil and groundwater in Maiduguri. In addition, a team of engineers will be essential to design a unique well system, as the flow of water should not be too fast or too weak (Danert et al, 2020). Also important will be the staff responsible for communication with the local population. This should be a person who understands their language and culture well. The organization of team activities is one of the most critical aspects of the implementation of management in projects related to health (Troutman, 2019). Thus, a team of qualified personnel is able to cope with this task in a timely manner.

Conclusion

A critical component of any project is the people who participate in it, so a lot depends on the choice of staff. In addition, further study of the proposed project site is vital in order to ascertain its full potential. When implementing the action plan, the manager must take into account the opinions of the stakeholders of the project and its sponsors. This can be helped by management and communication skills that must be at a high level. Only under such conditions can the project be completed without additional difficulties.

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McNally, A., Verdin, K., Harrison, L., Getirana, A., Jacob, J., Shukla, S., Arsenault, K., Peters-Lidard, C. & Verdin, J. P. (2019). Posted in Uncategorized

High problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) will exhibit higher levels of information seeking behavior than low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to Air Force religion guidelines.

Abstract

Organizations are consistently in a search for ways of interpreting, analyzing, classifying, and categorizing, among other things, the characteristics of their people (publics). This research has tapped in the merits of the Situational Theory of Publics propounded and developed by Professors James E. Grunig. The situational theory of Publics posits that publics can be explored and categorized in the conceptual precincts of the extent too; and the context in which they are conscious of the problem and the levels of efforts they will put in towards addressing the problem.

The theoretical framework outlines aspects relating to when and how the public communicates and the manner in which the communication processes targeted at the public are must be expected to be feasible and effective. This conceptual framework has been applied in this study on the explorations of the surmised relationship between identified air force personnel job roles (descriptions) and their communicative patterns. The explorations are done the conceptual and theoretical premise of the Situational Theory of publics variables of information seeking and problem recognition. The research thrust has enlisted the merits of both qualitative to add quantitative research model tenets in which air force employees are probed to draw a clear understanding of how committed they are to the variables of problem recognition and information seeking. The research questions are tailored to be strategically quantitative in order to get clear nuances on the communicative nuances of the personnel. The research also entails a qualitative thrust where-in data is gathered from the communicative traits related to personnel appraisals. All these will help to refute or support claims that High problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) will exhibit higher levels of information seeking behavior than low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to Air Force religion guidelines. The results of the study have indicated that organizations publics communication traits and patterns can be categorized in accordance with the ranks or job descriptions of the air force personnel.

Introduction

The domains of communications and communication behaviors and patterns in organizations have developed be a complex domain. Responses and adaptation from the researchers and scholars have seen the surge of conceptual models and designs tailored to better explore the dynamics of the complexes of organizational communication behavior and patterns. The situational theory of Organisational Publics can be used to project communication performance and dynamics in line with the theoretical three independent variables which are problem recognition, constraint recognition as well as level of involvement. The theory was propounded and developed by Grunig (1878). The thrust of the research endeavor seeks to utilize the merits of this communication analysis conceptual and theoretical framework to validate or refute the hypothetical position that high problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) exhibit higher levels of information seeking behavior than the low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to recently released religion guidelines. High problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) will exhibit higher levels of information-seeking behavior than low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to Air Force religion guidelines. The study will make use of the theoretical framework dependent and independent variables to establish dominant communication behavior patterns. In conclusion, the study will culminate in t a discussion of the outcomes as well as chart a way forward for related future researches.

The US Air Force Directorate of Personnel recently released guidelines with regards to the conduct of air force personnel on the aspect of religious respect. The guidelines come after an extensive review at the U.S Air Force Academy showed that there is a need for complementary guidelines regarding religious respect among air force personnel. The study is thus premised in the outlined background. The thrust of the study is to explore the dynamics of the Air force personnels communicative traits. The study will leverage from the conceptual and theoretical tenets of the situational theory of publics in an attempt to classify the air force personnel in the categories of high problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) who exhibit higher levels of information seeking behavior than low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to Air Force religion guidelines.

Literature Review

This research exercise is not being conducted in a vacuum. The research exercise fits into a broad body of knowledge that has had numerous contributions from various scholars, researchers, professionals, and students who have carried similar or related research exercises. Also; the scope and objectives of this research endeavor occur within related and implied theoretical, ideological, and philosophical frameworks which largely influence the disciplines of business. As such the researcher is spurred to consider the other contributions relevant and related to this research endeavor. The researcher will present a literature review conducted in locating the object of this study within the broader confines of the bodies of knowledge in focus.

The aim of this paper, through selective reference to some of the major literature on the situational theory of publics, is to gain a clearer understanding of a major public relations theory and how it may apply to government strategic communications processes. The theorys variables and several research studies applying its conditions are reviewed and discussed.

This literature review is divided into four sections. In the first section, the situational theory of the public and its independent and dependent variables are defined. Next, three studies that applied the situational theory of publics variables are explained and discussed. The remainder of the paper is devoted to a consideration of applying the situational theory of publics to government public relations or communications and its need to understand problem recognition and the role media plays in the theory.

The situational theory of publics says that publics are identified and grouped based on how familiar they are with the issue and the extent to which they put forth effort about the problem (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Developed from J. Deweys concept that active public forms when individuals recognize a problem and organize to solve the problem, situational publics are defined by three principal independent variables (Grunig & Hunt, 1984).

The first variable, problem recognition, denotes the extent to which individuals recognize a problem or issue and comprehend the need to do something to improve the situation (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). As referenced in this concept people do not stop to evaluate situations until they feel that there is a special need for situational improvement (Witte & Allen, 2000).

The second variable, constraint recognition, refers to whether or not the individual believes that he or she can do something to solve the problem (Grunig, 1997). Constraint recognition is the limit to which people see their behaviors as limited by various forces and factors that are out of their own control. Constraints have been described as psychological which could relate to an individuals understanding of his inability to deliver a desired outcome for a situation (Witte & Allen, 2000). Other forms of constraints include physical which may include distance or inaccessibility of a needed tool to attain a goal.

Level of involvement, the third independent variable, measures the relevance of a problem to an individual (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Pavlik (1988) suggested that involvement may increase or decrease the possibility of an individual to attend to or understand a message. Dervin (1989) added that a problem or given information may be attended to after the benefits or dangers they bring have taken on some kind of personal reality or usefulness for the individual (p. 68). And in order to create involvement, it is therefore necessary that issues and messages have clear or strong arguments (Heath, Liao, & Douglas, 1995).

The two dependent variables in this study are information seeking and information processing. Information seeking, also called active communication behavior, is defined as those communicating members of the publics who look for information and attempt to understand it when they get a hold of the information (Grunig, 1997). Thus, publics who search for information become aware publics more than publics who do not communicate or who only route information.

Information processing is the actions taken from the instant a message is sent and received up to the time actions are resolved. Information processing, is also known as passive communication behavior (Grunig, 1997). Inactive communicating members of a public will not seek for information, but they will frequently observe information that comes at random, that is, without any exertion on their part.

Clarke and Kline (1974) suggested that information seeking is premeditated, planned scanning of the environment for messages about a specified topic (p. 233) but information processed is unplanned discovery of a message, followed by continued processing of it, (p. 233). In addition, Clarke and Kline proposed that information seeking and processing behaviors lead individuals to use different communication media, a behavior of casual process that often takes place randomly, (p.240) through the use of news media sources such as radio, newspapers and television, and today the internet.

Three Studies of Situational Theory of Publics

Study one

In Majors (1998) paper posing the need for public relations program to educate people who live in communities at risk, government officials and public affairs directors are urged to develop public communication programs for the purpose. In this instance, the situational theory provides as framework for examining three sets of variables in the risk-assessment process that have been found to influence public response to disaster warnings. It used the New Madrid 1990 earthquake prediction of Iben Browning, then called a climatologist. In all, 624 news stories came out after the prediction was announced in 1989 and after the predicted date which was December 2-3, 1990.

Majors (1998) study found four publics in the situation: the problem-facing public think about the earthquake problem and believe they can do something to protect themselves from the earthquakes; the constrained public acknowledge the earthquake problem but they can see constraints in protecting themselves from the problem; the routine public ignore the problem although confident that they could protect themselves in the event of an earthquake; the fatalistic public report that they do not think about the problem and that they could not do anything to protect themselves in case of an earthquake.

Major (1998) acknowledged that situational theory explains not only communication behavior but also a number of cognitive variables in risk assessment process. The three sets of risk assessment variables are: believability of information and personalized risk both related to problem recognition; second is personal and social factors associated with high problem recognition; and third is societal-level constraint recognition that was closely related to personal constraint recognition. In conclusion, the study also pointed out that, All too often communication programs rely predominantly on the news media to disseminate information about preparedness (p. 503).

Study two

Grunig (1989) proposed that members of active publics who join activist groups help to create constraints on organizational autonomy that become major reasons for public relations problems and programs to solve them. His study focused on members of the Sierra Club designed to provide a link between two theories of public relations: a situational theory of publics and an organizational theory of the relationship between environments and the public relations behavior of organizations.

The situational theory was used to identify actively communicating publics who are most likely to develop organized cognitions about issues and to engage in behaviors related to those issues (Grunig, 1989). Grunigs paper asked whether members of some publics with regards to all-issues, apathetic, single-issue, or involving-issue-only publics have the deeper propensity to join an activist group than members of other publics. It also probed on what incentives such as material, solidarity, purposive, or selective incentives, motivate members of active publics to become activists.

Results showed that members of the most active public, the all-issue public, are most likely to join an activist group as well as participate actively in that group (Grunig, 1989). Members of the active, all-issues public also join an activist group for purposive, political actions and policies.

Study three

In a study that applied the situational theory examining the extent of citizens recognition of bioterrorism as a social issue, their level of involvement with it, and how their perception affected communication and protective behaviors, Lee and Rodriguez (2007) found that problem recognition is positively related to information seeking and processing. Further, constraint recognition was negatively related to information seeking and processing, and that involvement was positively related to information seeking (Lee & Rodriguez, 2007). This is consistent with previous findings that people who recognize bioterrorism as a serious social problem or a high problem situation and perceive fewer obstacles that limit their ability to solve this problem are more likely to increase active information seeking and passive information processing (Lee & Rodriguez, 2007). Involvement also results to active information seeking instead of passive information processing.

The study further noted the strong link between the publics communication behavior specifically the intensity of seeking information as well as the publics behavioral intentions before, during and after related terrorism attacks. The publics were more likely to assemble an emergency supply kit, develop a family communication plan, warn others about the dangers, keep water and food supply for emergency reasons, and contact government officers for assistance during bioterrorist attacks (Lee & Rodriguez, 2007).

Involvement with an issue can affect peoples susceptibility to social influence through mass communication persuasion, conformity pressures, suggestions as well as face-to-face discussion (Lee & Rodriguez, 2007). It suggested for the need to invest in public information to enhance peoples problem recognition and involvement with the issue and trigger more information seeking from audiences (Lee & Rodriguez, 2007).

The variables of situational theory of publics: problem recognition, constraint recognition, level of involvement, information seeking and information processing, are constant among all the studies presented here. Among the studies, there is also a constant presence of the use of media as a message conveyor or information channel. Clarke and Kline acknowledged the role of media as fundamental, while Majors work provided a sweeping role of media as a main source and processor for information itself. Nevertheless, Major was able to identify three variables that provided a deeper understanding on information dissemination as well as reactions of the differing publics. However, it was Lee and Rodriguez who provided another link between the role of media and information officers with regards to information of problem or message that is needed for public comprehension, understanding and action.

Applying Situational Theory of Publics to Government Communication

In all, there is the necessity to address public processing of problem or information dissemination of problems. There is a need for governments and its policy-makers and officials to consider if not reconsider their planning and strategies when it comes to public information campaigns.

It is of note that information dissemination has evolved into another level of speed and variation with the introduction and proliferation of internets streaming media. Written, video and audio materials converge in one to onslaught the different kinds of global publics so that certain precautions and strategic intervention of countries governments are needed to both safeguard local security and individual rights, but at the same time, need to be proactive to promote the needed information they intend to be reached by their publics.

The situational theory of publics is dependent on proper and strategic communications processes. Communication ways and means have shown through the literature review its effect on different publics and how it could actually influence recognition, involvement, change and conviction. Governments and policy-makers need to be adept in understanding current media cultures in order to properly utilize communications and information means. While there is a need to control these means, a certain degree must be carefully evaluated and implemented which must consider its publics. Thus, there is also a need for recognizing limitations on the part of governments and officials as it implements public information guidelines and campaigns. From here, it can be recommended that governments and policy-makers should be at least a step-ahead of the public when it comes to problem recognition as well as dissemination of information concerning their publics. This is necessary to provide ample information and arouse public involvement where a problem may cause major issues or influence and effects.

This discussion has painted a clear picture of the benefits of using situational theory of publics in information campaigns. The theory states that publics are identified and grouped by how familiar they are with an issue and how involved they become in solving the problem. The paper highlights and defines the theorys independent and dependent variables, and looks at studies that applied these variables. The variables  problem recognition, constraint recognition, level of involvement, information seeking and information processing  are constants in all the studies discussed. The situational theory of publics has proven to be a valuable theory is dissecting the communications from and for key publics.

The resource captures conceptual and theoretical aspects relating to the ways in which people communicate and when the communication is highly likely to accomplish desired effect. The resource outlines the ways in which the situational theory can be used to project communication performance in line with theoretical three independent variables which are problem recognition, constraint recognition as well as the level of involvement. The resource also entails the further development of the theory by the propagators of the theory Grunig (1978) and the contributors Repper et al (1992). The source captures that the three outlined variables of the situational theory of the publics predictor variables were illuminated after the September 11 attacks in the US. According to the scholar the theory then provided a feasible basis for researches into the reaction of the tourism industry following the terrorists attack. Grunigs core theoretical perspectives entailed in the resource hold that problem recognition is the level to which people get conscious of the ways in which issue and events are a problems. From another perspective constraint recognition is outlined by Grunig as the degree to which people regard their behaviors as restricted by impediments beyond their capabilities. The third aspect which is the level of involvement deals with the ways in which a problematic issue is particularly and personally relevant and pertinent to individuals.

The other resources consulted on the theoretical framework entail three variables as the independent variables in situations theory of publics models. Krugman, H.E. Hartley, E.L. (1970) have outlined the two categories of the dependence variables of the situational theory of publics. The first aspect in the dependent variables category is the information seeking aspect which relates to the ways in which active individuals of publics seek information in an attempt to interpret it and make use of it. The scholars outline that publics members who search for information become the conscious individuals than reluctant members who do not communicate but only process received information. According to the scholars, information seeking can be termed active communication behavior. The second dependent variable outlined by the scholars is the information Processing variable.

This category can also be termed passive communication behavior. This dimension can be applied to individuals within publics paradigm who do not seek information. The members activity is limited to processing information that comes to them randomly. As such these passive communicators apply no significant efforts on the aspect of obtaining information.

Limitations of Literature review

The research exercise has endeavored to solicit as much detail as possible under the scope and objectives defined and implied in the thesis statement. Nonetheless the research exercise has not been in any way exhaustive and the researcher herein acknowledges the limitations of the research exercise owing to its encompass and goals among a host of other factors. The focus of the research, and as such the literature review, is thus limited to the time-frame, conceptual scope and objectives defined and implied in the thesis statement.

Research ideology and methodology

To meaningfully frame the ideological, theoretical and conceptual platform for the research into it is imperative to consider the employ various research models that will enable the researcher to bring a considerable proportion amount of research detail into perspective. The research thrust will adopt the two salient research theoretical frameworks, the positivist and non-positivist research paradigms. (Barker E: 2003) contends that the positivist theory entails the economic, behavioral, cognitive, motivational/trait/attitudinal, and situational viewpoints. According to the scholar the viewpoints are treated as the conventional perceptions as they came before the crafting of the non-positivist model.

In the views of the scholar, the positivist model which is still the principal framework reinforces the superiority of human reason and stresses that there is one objective reality which can be unearthed by scientific means. As such this design renders the world as an ordered and coherent environment with a well defined past, present and future. The tenets of the theory are clearly underpinned on the suppositions of rationalism.

On the other end the contrasting non-positivist model holds the interpretive and post-modern viewpoints. Tenets of this model entail that the world be view as s composite social and cultural world contrary to the viewpoints of the positivist paradigm which hold the world in a rationality view that supposes a homogenous social fabric.

Leveraging on the theoretical and principal tenets of largely, the non-positivist research theory, this research exercise will provide new perspectives, findings and insights that will assist in the exploration of the dynamics the communication patterns of the air force personnel.

This is based on the supposition that high problem recognition publics (Air Force officers) exhibit higher levels of information seeking behavior than low problem recognition publics (enlisted airmen) with regards to Air Force religion guidelines. The research exercise will not be exclusive to any research thrust and will thus employ various research tenets where deemed relevant to gather and collate data germane to arriving at meaningful positions on the research matter and subjects under probe.

Quantitative Analysis versus Qualitative Analysis

James Neil outlines, Qualitative research entails the analysis of data such words, pictures or objects gathered in the research drive. The gathered elements are evaluated in subjective and relative manner toward the making of conclusion and recommendations in tandem with research scope and objectives. On the other end quantitative research involves a scientific evaluation of numerical data. The research thrust will leverage predominantly on the quantitative model of data gathering and analysis.

Research model rationale

The design of this study has been modeled in the frame of quantitative research as outlined above the research thrust can not be limited to the quantitative research thrust as the scope and objectives of the research require that a broad approach be applied to effectively zero in on the patterns perceivable in the air force communication patterns.

Dependent variables

In the category of dependent variables Grunig has outlined that information seeking which has also been termed active communication behavior is attached to the way in which publics members search for information and go on to attempt meaningful interpretations of obtained information. This category of the publics becomes the aware lot compared to the inactive members that do not make efforts to obtain information and only go as far as processing the information they receive randomly.

Independent variables

Propagators of the situational theory of publics contend that problem recognition related to the degree to which individuals identify a problem that faces them. (Grunig & Hunt, 1984) have expressed that, Human beings do not cease to think unless they understand something that can be done to for the betterment of a particular situation

The dependent and independent variables become handy conceptual frameworks elements to be used in the exploration of the communicative patterns and dynamics of the air force personnel.

The independent variables enlisted in this study entail the problem recognition dynamic. The following five-point Likert scale (demonstrated in the diagram below) questions were used to obtain nuances regards the air force personnel inclines towards the aspect for problem recognition.

• Have you experienced any problems in the aspect of religious respect in your interaction with other personnel?
• What problems do you anticipate to be alleviated by newly released air force religion guidelines?

The second independent variable drawn from the Grunig theory is the Information Seeking dynamic. To obtain data for their variable the research ahs made use of quantitative yes/no typical answer questions to establish if target research respondents are seekers of information or not. Below are the Questions made that have been used.

• Have you taken steps to obtain information with the recently released Air force religion guidelines?
• If the answer to the first question is yes; do you take steps to act on the obtained information?

Subjects

The subjects and participants of this study are the employees of the US Air Force. The study will use the insights and facts gathered from air force personnel responses to the presented research question to establish the patterns perceived to exist with regards to the workers communication characteristics and performances upon the aspect of the supposed differences between the commutation traits and tendencies of the organisations publics; the air force officers and the enlisted airmen.

Material

A bulk of material used in this study is made up of the complaints log of religious respect related problems among the US Air Force personnel.

The material used in this study also constitutes personnel appraisals of the air force personnel by management. The appraisal have provided handy data on detailing the manner in which the personnel communicative traits come up as the employees function and operate I various facts of the organisation. This has enabled to study to trace workers communication patterns and a characteristics.

Design and procedure / data treatment

The design and procedure thrust of the research entails the evaluation and of individual air force personal commitment levels towards obtaining information and enlightenment of the released religious respect guidelines. With support of the qualitative thrust the study has managed to quantify and classify results in tandem with the communicative performance in the conceptual precincts of the research scope variables.

The research exercise also involved the collection of quantitative data on an identified air forces employees problem-solving related communicative traits related appraisals. The study made use of 190 such appraisals and also entailed an evaluation of qualitative data made available on the employees communicative abilities and also in relation to their tendency towards the information seeking aspect.

Results

The outcomes of the evaluation of the results both qualitative and quantitative have indicated that Situational theory of publics is well applicable in the identification of communicative behaviors of organisation publics. The applications of the theory enabled the classification air force employees as either the aware or the passive. In response to the core research questions and hypothesis it can be mentioned that the research outcomes indicate that the majority of air force officers are high problem recognition publics. A majority of these indicated that had taken step to obtain information and enlightenment of the newly released guidelines on religious respect. These showed higher levels of information seeking behavior than the enlisted airmen who indicated nominal levels in the aspect to recognizing exist and potential problems. The qualitative thrust also shows that the aware lot by extension take preemptive measures to curtail looming problems related to religious respect I the workplace.

Discussion

Results obtained from the evaluation of research data have prompted the presentation of the following as discussion focus areas in light of the implications of the research outcomes. As Buchanan, R. et al (1990) note, It is wise that service providers clairvoyantly improve their client-oriented service practices and avert imminent activism and protests emanating from the ever evolving environment which is becoming more dynamic owing to factors such as globalisation and stiffening of competition in various industries.

The other area of discussion pertains to the importance of getting publics members to be active information seekers as this is perceived to galvanize them to be cognizant of existent and potential problems. This will embolden their sensitivity to the crucial aspect of problem recognition and potentially problem resolution. These are crucial aspects for the improvement of clientele service in order to meet customer satisfaction goals and gain the desired merits of customer retention resultantly.

Research Limitations

The research has been limited in its thrust at exploring the communicative patterns of air force personnel. The presentation of results also implies that the communicative patterns of the air fo

Introduction

It is ironic that in a world that is clamoring for gender equality, the fair sex is still discriminated against in many matters. One of the main areas where this discrimination exists is the compensation received by executives, especially when the posts get higher. The education system in the United States, like in most parts of the world, is aimed at creating employees and not entrepreneurs. Hence, for most of those who enroll in colleges (including business schools), the options open to them would be to study hard and get a good job with a fat pay check. In such an instance, the compensation they receive will be very important to them since the quality of their lives depend on it. In spite of being equally qualified and even capable, one can find many instances where men outperform women when it comes to the size of their paychecks. There are a few reasons for this, some of which can be solved by the women themselves. But there are reasons like issues of feelings of male supremacy where women find themselves helpless in getting equal compensation.

This paper attempts to study the salary differences of male and female executives and analyze the main reasons for this state of affairs. After a brief review of compensation itself, the paper will briefly discuss the salary differences, after which an analysis will be made. A discussion on relevant compensation theories like Human Capital Theory, Signaling Theory, social capital theory, social bias etc will also be present. A section on how these theories affect salary differentiation will also be included. The paper will end with an appropriate conclusion summarizing the whole situation with appropriate suggestions based on published scholarly literature.

Salary difference among male and female executives

There is enough evidence to suggest that there exists a gender gap with regard to pay among executives in the country. Other issues like promotion opportunities, lack of involvement in decision making etc also are seen. Another prominent fact is that the percentage of women executives in gets lower as the climb up the corporate ladder takes place. Another factor is that the compensation gap gets bigger with regard to the top managerial posts in an organization. Most of the information given in this section has been basically sourced from reputed magazines like Fortune or news sites like CNN. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 bars employers from compensation discrimination on the basis of sex. An excerpt from the Act is given below. No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex&. (Sec 206, [Section 6] (d) (1), Minimum Wage, The Equal Pay Act of 1963). The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). But this has not yet been implemented uniformly even after forty four years of its passing. The 2005 issue of Fortune magazine states that women are paid less than men across all job sectors and positions. This appears to be the case in all the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. The average difference is more than 15% and exceeds 20% in some countries  in the US, men earn 22% more. (The Glass Ceiling: Will We Ever Break Through? Address by The Honorable Ambassador Constance A. Morella, U.S. Mission to the OECD, Gender Mainstreaming and Regional Aspects of the Labor Market Conference May 17 & 18, Bratislava, 2007, Department of State, United States of America). But it is heartening to see that many women executives and employees are now suing their employers for many discrimination issues, including salary differences. According to Fortune magazine, Boeing had to pay 72 million and Wal-Mart 1 billion USD to settle law suits initiated by female employees of both companies. The magazine also states that mothers in the country too are discriminated against both in terms of finding a job as well for compensation. The number of children also had a negative effect on compensation as mothers with more children were offered a lower pay. A survey conducted by International Survey Research in 2007 also confirms that pay inequity exists between the sexes holding executive positions. However, when asked to judge internal pay equity (i.e., fairness of pay), the similarities between female and male executives end. Senior females are significantly less confident than are senior males that they are paid fairly compared to others in their department (62% vs. 72%) and to people in other departments (46% vs. 57%). (Gender differences among senior managers: pay, Press release, ISR  International Survey Research). The situation is similar for executives and CEOs in not for profit organisations also according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, dated September 2006. Women CEOs got 26% less salary than their male counterparts. In another study on the accounting profession, women executives were found to earn 12,500 USD less than men executives. (Discussion, Page 33, Bruce M. Bird, J Harrison McCraw, John R. OMalley, Enterprise Accountants, Managerial Status And Gender Salaries, Journal of Diversity Management, Vol 2, No 3, 2007). It can be seen that women executives are paid less than males in all sectors and at all levels of jobs. The next step is to discuss relevant theories and to analyze the main reasons for this disparity.

Human Capital theory

A review of literature has shown that the most discussed theory with reference to compensation in general and also with regard to pay difference among male and female executives in the human capital theory. The human capital theory, which had its roots in the 1940s, basically states that the earning potential of an employee can be increased with education. In other words, the income of an employee is directly proportional to the quality and level of education he or she holds. The theory originally focused on school education as a means of increasing the earning capacity of wage earners. But later additions and ideas came to the conclusion that it is just not school education that mattered. This was because the complexity of jobs had increased over the years and the importance of management had become more prominent. The general belief now is that human capital is now directly related to continuous improvement, lifelong learning, organizational learning etc. So, human capital can be defined as the stock of knowledge, skills and abilities, which can potentially help increase productivity and performance at work and also life in general. (The Concept of Human Capital, Page 2, Kari Hietala, Ministry of Labor, Human Capital, Published by the European Commission).

Human capital, like other forms of capital is subject to aging or being obsolete. This can be technical aging or economic aging. Technical aging occurs when a persons technical knowledge becomes obsolete or when he or she is unable to cope with the technical changes required for the job. Economic aging refers to keeping up with the fast changes that happens in the job environment. A person must learn and run fast enough to keep up. Otherwise he or she runs the risk of premature aging. The female executive must be at risk more here since she plays multiple roles (other than being an employee). This factor is discussed in more detail in the coming sections. Anyway study of literature has proven that in equal circumstances, the human capital theory holds good in terms of equal pay for both men and women. That is to say that there is no significant salary difference between the pay scales of both sexes. This has been discussed in more detail in the section of theories and income discrimination. There have been criticisms as to the effectiveness of human capital theory in some quarters. According to the paper, the signaling theory is could be more relevant in understanding productivity and quality of an employee. The theory states that it is the actual productivity and the quality that matters and not his education and learning. The latter is only an job pre-requisite or an additional qualification. It could be that a person without too much education may excel himself in the field of sales when compared to another that holds a business degree.

Social Capital theory

Social capital theory is loosely based on the well known cliché of Its not what you know, but who you know that matters. In short, the benefits that advantages that person has is largely dependent on his network of friends, relatives, associates and superiors. If a person has a large network of the above categories and maintains good relationships with them, he or she may be a more advantageous position when compared to a less networked person. Some of the factors that are important to the concept of social capital are given here. A persons social capital increases when he or she participates more in voluntary activities. This also holds good for the level of networking that is developed and maintained over a period of time. The level of mentoring, interaction and mutual support within an organisation is also crucial in increasing this asset. Higher social capital will give a person more bargaining or negotiating power. A person with high social capital will find greater equality with others in the organization. He or she will also find it easier to solve any problems or issues. A person will low social capital will need to exercise authority, rules, and regulations to control things. with regard to job prospects also they are at an advantage. Specifically, they are more likely to be promoted faster, receive higher salaries, be favorably evaluated by peers, miss fewer days of work, live longer, and be more efficient in completing assigned tasks. (What is social capital? How does it differ from human capital and social capability? Page 5, Michael Woolcock, (2001) The place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes, Isuma: Canadian Journal of Policy Research Volume 2, No1, Pages 1-17). (Please remove web link after citation and show as journal). The argument here is that women executives are hindered by many factors in developing social capital when compared to their male counterparts. The relevance of social capital in pay difference among males and females is discussed in the coming sections.

Social Bias

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines bias as an inclination of temperament or outlook ; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment. This indicates that the view is inclined towards something and could be unreasonable. Hence existence of bias could mean not being balanced or just. Bias can happen in many fields including the society we live in. It could be based on race, class, color, religion, money etc. Literature regarding pay difference among the sexes indicate that it is the under-representation of women especially among the top positions. This type of bias could be classified as in-group bias. This type of bias happens when members of a particular group extend preferential treatment to members of that particular group. In such situations, thethe members value their qualities as higher than those of the out-group or outsiders. They may also perceive their products or services as superior to the out-group. The third factor is that they apportion rewards so as to favor themselves and to disfavor outsiders, even when it costs them some portion of the reward to create the inter-group difference in apportionment. (Sociality and ethnicity, Page 14, Donald L. Horowitz, Structure and Strategy in Ethnic Conflict, 1998, Paper prepared for the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, Washington, D.C., 1998). In this case, one group will be the men executives and the other the women executives. If the men who are obviously superior in terms of numbers see themselves as a particular group and start to have this in-group bias, then there is a strong chance that they may perceive themselves as mentioned above. A study of literature shows that this social bias is also one of the reasons for salary inequality. This will also be reviewed in the coming sections.

Social Bias, Human Capital Theory and income discrimination

According to the Human Capital Theory, (mentioned earlier), there should be no pay discrimination between male and female executives if their human capital is similar or equal. Hence a male executive and a female executive have similar qualifications, skills and experience, both of them should get similar compensation. In this case, it is assumed that both are working in similar-sized organizations (or in the same organization) where pay scales are similar. The social bias theory assumes that bias is significant if the total number of persons biased against is very small when compared to others. So it assumes that pay discrimination could be due to the lesser number of women in executive positions in the country. A significant study, The Gender Gap in the Boardroom: Are Women Executives Underpaid? involving 25,876 executive-year observations (which included 1171 female executive-year observations) of top executives in the USA, examines the relationship between gender bias with reference to both the social bias theory and the human capital theory. The paper readily admits that there is a pay gap of 27% among male and female executives in the country. The study then attempts to analyze this difference and attribute it to either of the above theories mentioned above. The paper states that (quoting from various other studies) human capital and compensation with regard to pay differences was not relevant prior to the 1990s since top positions held by ladies was very low. A study conducted in 2001 shows that pay difference was as high as 45% by the late 1990s, but the gap was coming down gradually. Even though there was a difference in pay scales (mentioned earlier) between men and women executives with the same social capital, it was concluded that the human capital theory is applicable in this case. The difference of 27% mentioned above arose due to some significant variables which are given below. (Results, Page 14, Mark Anderson, Rajiv Banker, Rong Huang and Jiangxia Liu, Paper Presented at the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 2008).  (Please do not show as website). The number of women executives was still very low when compared to their male counterparts. The figure only comes to 4.5% of the total. The majority of the women were employed in smaller companies even though they held the same or similar positions. In case of positions in similarly sized companies, the pay difference if any was negligible.. Other factors include shorter careers, male ability to interact more with the various components in the organization as well as the society, longer working hours available to men, the multiplicity of roles played by women etc. (McBrier, D. B. (2003). Gender and career dynamics within a segmented professional labor market: The case of law academic. Journal of Social Forces, Volume 81, Pages 1201-1266, University of North Carolina Press). (not a website) The paper also mentions that due to these reasons, employers are not able to exploit the capabilities and qualifications of women to the same extent as men. So in a sense, their social capital contribution is lower when compared to the contribution by men executives. But these are not issues that can be solved easily due to the inherent biological and social differences that exist. Hence if these factors were taken into account, the human capital theory is applicable to both men and women. In other words, with similar qualifications, experience, post, and organization, there was no significant difference in the pay scales of both men and women executives. On the other hand, it was found that the social bias theory is more relevant in this instance. The pay difference was significant because the representation of women as top executives in organizations across the country was very low in terms of numbers. Men outnumbered women to a huge extent. The authors hypothesis that the pay gap differences come down significantly in the case where the number of women and men executives was equal is proved correct. It could also well be the case where female executives outnumber men.

Social capital theory and income discrimination

Another relevant study considers the social capital theory as a reason for gender discrimination in pay. The journal article appeared in the 2007 issue of Advancing Women in Leadership online journal. The study refers to other research work on the topic, but also goes a step further by the hypothesis that pay discrimination can be reduced if women employees were able to make use of the social capital theory with reference to their clients as well as with their colleagues. As mentioned earlier, social capital theory deals with the effectiveness of networking with people in the organization and the society and the benefits that can be derived out of it. This paper also states what has been mentioned in the earlier section, namely that even though the number of women in top executive positions has increased, men still outnumber women to a great extent. This is an indirect reference to the social bias theory. Referencing from other studies, it has been found (as in the previous study) that income difference is substantial between men and women of equal positions. It also states here that men were promoted more frequently than women and also that the latter had less autonomy and involvement in decision making. There were other factors like women having less social capital, especially at the beginning of their careers than men. Opportunities for development were also significantly more for men. But these observations were made during the 1990s and hence not given importance here. The paper also states that there is no significant difference for capable women executives to hold top posts when compared to similarly qualified men. In fact, previous studies have even indicated that no substantial difference exists in opportunities available to men and women for advancement to the top of the firm in areas of professional practice, such as law, accounting, architecture, engineering consultancy, and advertising. (Gender and the Network Structures of Social Capital in Professional-Client Relationships, Yuliani Suseno, Ashly H. Pinnington, and Dr. John Gardner, Advancing Women in Leadership Online Journal, Volume 23, 2007). Even if this is the case, the authors argue that there is still a glass ceiling that prevents women executives to be on par with men with regards to compensation. Another factor of difference in compensation was that men were more likely to switch jobs and were likely to get better salaries with each change of jobs. Family and social obligations prevent women from taking such a move. There is very little evidence from these studies to show that the pay difference is due to gender discrimination. That is to say that women are not paid any less just because they happen to be women.

The main focus of this paper is networking and interaction. The paper gives many results from studies which show that interaction and social networking among colleagues can in fact, increase social capital, thereby leading to increased pay as well. What is important in increasing social capital is to know the right persons. If a person has more networking when compared to another (with the same attributes and qualifications), the former will have a better chance of increasing salary (also through bonus and other benefits). The problem with women is that they cannot develop the same level of interaction and intimacy as men can, especially with other men. They are disadvantaged in this respect.

There are two significant factors in social capital theory namely centrality and non-redundancy. Centrality refers to the importance that a person holds in the network he/she has built up. The network positions that usually offer high levels of social capital are positions with a high degree of centrality. (Structured social capital of groups: A social network perspective, Page 121, William L. Gardner, Bruce J. Avolio, Fred O, Authentic Leadership Theory and Practice, Published by A1 Books). (Pl show as book source) Hence, higher the centrality, higher the social capital. Non-redundancy refers to maintaining close relationships with all the contacts developed by the networking. This will also help in increasing the social capital. Increasing social capital with regard to clients will also be helpful in increasing social capital and also the compensation received. The particular journal article that is being discussed in this paper argues that female professionals can increase their total compensation if they see to it that their centrality in the organization is increased. They have to increase their non-informal networks more which will help in this endeavor. They should also see to it that they keep their clients non-redundant. For this to be possible, the employers themselves should analyze existing networks of its female professionals and facilitate more formal and informal networking with their male counterparts as well as clients. The authors admit that more study is required in this area. But they propose that increasing social capital (of female professionals) through networking and non-redundancy with their colleagues and clients will go a long way in bringing about equality in pay and promotion.

The factor of negotiation

Like any business deal, compensation and salary can also be negotiated. This is a common practice which is accepted both by employers and employees. If the current compensation policy is felt inadequate by an employee, he/she can negotiate with their bosses for better pay. There are many factors that will determine the outcome of such negotiations. The demand in the industry for a particular talent or qualification is the most important factor. Another factor would be the state of the industry itself or, to put it in other words, whether a particular industry is healthy or unhealthy. If the industry is healthy and booming, negotiation can have positive outcomes for the employees because of the surplus cash available with companies. The reverse will be true in case the industry or the economy is unhealthy. The negotiation factor is discussed here in some detail because a review of literature has revealed that men and women perform differently as negotiators under certain circumstances. This will have a direct bearing on the income-earning potential of the employee. A research report titled When Gender Changes the Negotiation published by Harvard Business School states that even though there is no direct evidence as to the difference of negotiating abilities among the sexes, men perform better under certain conditions. However, certain types of negotiation can set the stage for differences in outcomes negotiated by men and by women, particularly when:

• the opportunities and limits of the negotiation are unclear;
• situational cues in these ambiguous situations trigger different behaviors by men and women. (Dina W. Pradel, Hannah Riley Bowles, and Kathleen L. McGinn, When Gender Changes the Negotiation, Research and Ideas, Working knowledge, Harvard Business School, 2006).

The authors say that such ambiguity occurs in job positions in what are known as high-ambiguity industries. The first point in the above quote indicates that the negotiation terms will not be clear. For example, the duties performed by the employee may not be easily quantifiable or when compensation standard for the job varies from one company to the other. Another example would be asking for a raise when the company itself or the economy is performing poorly. The paper also gives examples of high-ambiguity industries. They include telecommunications, real estate, health services, and media sectors. A study was conducted for this purpose involving MBA graduates. The paper also adds that in low-ambiguity industries, salary levels and negotiating outcomes were similar were more or less equal among both genders. The study found that men were able to negotiate a higher average salary to the extent of 10,000 dollars per annum. This is even when the job performance of both men and women were similar. The paper refers to another study which states that men and women increase their performance levels in order to increase their paychecks in situations where competition with colleagues is not a factor. But when performance is increased in order to outperform colleagues, men seem to be able to increase performance levels much better than women. Another interesting factor with regard to negotiation prowess is that women excel in this regard when acting on behalf of others. In other words, if women negotiate compensation on behalf of a colleague or subordinate, they perform as well as or even better than men.

There is more literature on this issue of negotiation. A book titled Women Dont Ask takes the stand that women do not even ask for a pay raise even if they feel entitled to it. An example of graduate students in Carnegie Mellon University was given. It was found that most of the male students got to teach courses on their own while a large majority of female students got to be only teaching assistants. The dean in charge of assigning jobs replied that men got the jobs because they specifically asked for it. A study was conducted about the starting salaries of students who had completed their graduation. It was found that males received on an average 4000 dollars more than females. The difference was due to the fact that 57 percent of males had negotiated for better compensation, whereas only 7 percent of females did so. It should be noted here that the females who negotiated for better compensation received roughly the same amount as male negotiators did. The point to be stressed is that it is due to non-negotiation that females receive a lower salary in many cases. To drive home the point between the attitudes of both men and women, an experiment was conducted at the University. Students (of both sexes) were asked to play a board game and would receive ten dollars on completion. They were only paid three dollars, and the balance was handed over only if they asked for it. Out of ten male students, nine asked for the balance to be pain while only one in ten females asked for the balance. A larger internet study involving several hundred people also concurs with this behavior. The participants in the study were asked the time when they had took part in the most recent negotiation (initiated by them and not by others). It was found that the average time for men was two weeks prior to the (internet study) while the figure for the women were one month. For the second most-recent negotiation, the figures were seven weeks and twenty four weeks for men and women respectively. (Introduction, Page 3, Linda Babcock, Sara Laschever, Women Dont Ask  Negotiations and the Gender Divide, Princeton University Press). This indicates that men take part in a larger number of negotiations than men and can also include salary negotiations. This is despite the fact that women play multiple roles (that of employee, homemaker, mother, wife, caring for parents etc) and have to negotiate with others on a wider range of issues when compared to men. They need to negotiate constantly with doctors, nurses, care taking agencies, insurance companies etc. This level is increased in the case of divorced or single parents.

The book also states that the percentages of women who are members of trade unions have also reduced drastically. It is quite well established that unions have the power to negotiate many things including compensation on behalf of its members. The figure has fallen from 20 % in 1983 to just 13.5% in 2001. The book states that the scenario has not changed much even though attitudes about gender equality have changed for the better during the years. Moreover, organizations are also more open and less formal with lower levels of bureaucracy. This enables women to be more open and positive about negotiating for a pay rise.

It can be seen that negotiations play an important part in the amount of compensation a person gets. The studies have not shown any significant difference between the abilities of males and females, especially in the low-ambiguity sectors. The problem lies firstly on the reluctance of female employees to even ask for a raise. This trend is seen even at graduation levels. The second reason is that they lag behind their male counterparts when the terms and conditions of compensation to be negotiated become ambiguous. With regard to negotiation, it can be concluded that females will get better compensation than at present if they engage themselves more in the this process.

Conclusion

It has been clearly understood that women executives do not receive the same status with regard to pay (as well as many other factors). The issue was analyzed with respect to many theories, and it was found that the human capital theory, the social capital theory, and social bias were the most common ones discussed in literature about the issue. After studying several relevant studies, it was found that human capital theory holds good in this case. In other words, women and men executives do receive equal pay based upon their human capital. But it is to be noted that several variables were removed in order to arrive at such a conclusion. For example, women executives were not able to put in the same number of hours as men. They could not also develop professionally as men because of several constraints like their physical, social and family obligations. It was also found that women executives tend to have short

One of the most dramatic and fascinating ways that psychology and spirituality come together is in the case of UFO. A UFO (unidentified flying object) is only classified as a UFO after a thorough investigation where no plausible answer resulted from the investigation. Everything else is an IFO (identified flying object). This Editorial Paper brings the integral model to bear on the issue of UFO in the hopes of bringing some theoretical order and clarity to this puzzling experience. This editorial paper also includes the present and past opinions of the numerous high status people about UFO, their experiences or quotes about sighting UFO is also available here.

For the large number of scientists, opening to spiritual experience is a welcome and easily integrated process. But, for a small minority, spiritual experience occurs so rapidly or forcefully that it becomes destabilizing, producing a psycho-spiritual crisis.

During more then 50 years, experts of every kind have tackled the UFO mystery, but to no avail. All of them have failed in their attempts to give a plausible answer to the question what are UFOs? Every answer given to date has been hypothetical and never proven. I think there is a big part of the problems lies in the fact that UFO investigations are always backward looking. We have dealt with the problem as a story, not a reality. And nothing is going to change until we become proactive rather than reactive in our approach.

I conducted a detailed evaluation to find that the technology observed in most of the sightings was just a bit ahead of what was available in that era. The objects (UFO) were bigger than the balloons of the day, appeared as airships which were not yet a reality only a hypothetical mystery, had bright lights unlike anything in use, were observed over cities hundreds of miles apart, were investigated by scientists and lay people in the manner of current investigations, and when observed closely, exhibited technology that was definitely ahead of that time period. It was like to say from somewhere else someone came to earth and manufactured exploration vehicles that appeared like they could belong in that era, but were operating with systems and equipment that was more advanced than our equipments. All the reports about UFO since 1940s seemed to be similar, in that the technology involved is always ahead of the time in which it is occurring. But still there was a problem about reality because our investigations were based on what has been, not what will be. For this reason, we have great information about what has happened, but we do not seem to be any appropriate answer about what is reality.

Some experts have observed surprising facts. But still there is an unsolved mystery. I think to solve this puzzle we need to change our way of looking at the evidence. There are many observations serve to show the breadth of problem, some of them are listed below:

• UFO sightings come in waves or flaps
• Some locations have more sightings those others
• UFOs may appear and disappear in clear air
• Emit various kinds of electromagnetic radiation
• Injure humans
• Fly without observable motive power
• Damage plants
• Fly on collision course with aircraft, veering at the last minute
• Leaves ground trace patterns
• Affect aircraft avionics
• Affect car motors, radios, lights, etc.

Throughout the history of the UFO mystery, people have claimed to interact with UFOs. While it is difficult to prove whether or not this really happened because some claims they can go to a hot spot and meditate and the UFOs respond by appearing, Earth disruptions seem to call UFOs. When the nuclear power plant was being built at Bay City, Texas, the earth moving went on around the clock. Heavy equipment operators reported UFO activity there on a frequent basis. In the 1950s and 1960s UFOs were reported in abundance over nuclear facilities.

Now we should start with the question, who sees UFOs?

UFO sightings, which recently appear to be on the increase around the world, can involve various equipments that have clearly defined shapes or may appear to be shapes surrounded by a burred appearance. That appearance may be related with the propulsion system of the UFOs.

How often UFOs are flying around the skies totally undetected by observers or radar tracking systems? Unfortunately, we have no definite answer of above question, which is one aspect of the larger question of who sees UFOs, but amazing work has been done over the past several years in detecting and recording images of UFOs which are emitting infrared radiation, making them invisible to human observers. During the day shape of the UFOs is often readily determined, and those shapes can vary widely. Although in broad categories of shapes such as disks, spheres, eggs, triangles, boomerangs, rectangles, teardrops, and diamonds are commonly observed. The sizes of the objects can vary from the size of a basketball to craft thousands of feet across. We cant say clearly anything about the different shapes of UFOs but there are some hypothetical approaches for that: ET species visiting our planet, each using various makes and models of transportation devices, reflecting the same preference for variety and utility that we humans express in our transportation vehicles. Not one model or size fits all uses. In nighttime observations the problem is that one can often only infer shape from light configurations unless the observation is made at very close range less than a few thousand feet away. In night the EMF effects around craft frequently make them appear as bright vague spherical objects, even at close range. The problem with the term UFO is that it is equated in the popular mind with extraterrestrial critters. Of course there are UFOs  objects observed in the sky that are not identified. As the evident says, explanations are found for 95% of them. The other 5% simply lack sufficient knowledge to draw any important conclusions and 0% has evidence of intelligent non-terrestrial origin.

10 most important dates in Ufology on the bases of Paul Kimball documentary on 10 best UFO cases

Here we will not be talk about personal opinion on these dates, but only the effect they had on our awareness and opinion of the subject. Here I am trying to give all the 10 most dates of ufology in chronological order.

1. 1897  Mystery of the Great Airship What were people seeing in the skies back then? Sure, there were a lot of the stories gave by the bored newspaper editors, but now I am a core of sightings that were probably real. I think the flying machines were described as something just ahead of the technology of the time is most interesting about this. What I have always thought is that witnesses took a unusual experience and forced it into something that they could understand in terms of their period. Ghost hunter Richard Senate recently said, I look into the subject and decide that it is possible but not very probable that there indeed could have been a secret group of inventors at the time, doing just what is reported. Bill Moore and others have probed into the history of a shadowy group of just this type that called itself The Sonora Aero Club. But no one has been able to verify its existence.
2. June 24, 1947  Kenneth Arnold Sighting I think there is no need to rehash this one because it is very popular incident that gave birth to our hobby.
3. July 2-8, 1947  Roswell Incident I think there is no need of this so I am not going to rehash this.
4. September 24, 1947  According to the incredibly disputed Eisenhower Briefing document, MJ-12 is possibly created. Possibly because of the fallout from Roswell MJ-12 was created by President Truman. While we have been escaping this issue back and forth for years, there do remain various references in leaked documents and un-confirmable personal recollections to some kind of group who is working on this issue at the highest levels to solve the mystery of UFO question. Since we know about MJ-12, its probably not that one. California breathed new life into Ufology after the announcement of the Eisenhower document at the 1987 NUFOC in Burbank. I think even your uninterested friends have heard about this group which working for UFO.
5. September, 1949  Project Sign Report Also referred to by its actual name Estimate of the Situation. This was the very first conclusion reached by a group of scientists and a U.S. Air Force personnel was that the UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin. Either studying far ahead to the ETH debate, or the more likely the fact that he couldnt handle the thought about this; General Hoyt Vandenburg rejected the findings as having no conclusive proof. He ordered to destroy the all copies of the report. Some may have survived well into the 1960s and possibly beyond, but none have ever surfaced publicly, leaving the Project Sign report in the same basket with the UFOs themselves. Ufologists have boasted on this one ever since Ed Ruppelt revealed its existence.
6. July- August, 1952  UFOs over Washington, D.C. Lights which were moving quickly and suddenly in a particular direction came in three waves, the first on July 19-20, the second from the 26-27, and the third from August 2-3. The lights flew over the Capitol, the White House, and also near Air Force bases in that area. (One of them, Bolling AFB, later became the Air Forces clandestine intelligence clearing house for UFO reports.) Military and civilian radar operators confirmed the targets and became a huge embarrassment until General John Samford, AF Intelligence Chief Major, organized a press conference to explain that the sightings were due to temperature inversions. Although this condition is similar, but probably impossible, the inversion explanation is still trotted out sometimes only.
7. November 20, 1952  George Adamski meets Orthon George picked a good year to have his CE3K. According to database 1952 was the biggest flap year on record. Although it is commonly believed that Adamski tried to make the whole thing up, this event was the beginning of the Contac tee movement, which has pleased the public and dogged serious Ufology ever since. I dont think that the Contac tees made everything up, but I tried to cover that in brief.
8. 1952-53 Robertson Panel Wanting to get in on the UFO action, The CIA ordered its own Estimate Of the situation with an ad-hoc committee (including J. Allen Hynek) who met for a total of 12 hours before submitting its report. Result of this committee said that about 90% of sightings about UFO were misidentifications so can not be explained but remaining 10% cases could be explained if given enough time to study. They also said that the Air Force should start a debunking campaign to keep a check on public hysteria in case the Russkies decided to use the panic for psy-war purposes or to hide military action and any other invasion. It should also be noticed that they were more concerned with national security than keeping the real extraterrestrials secret. I think they didnt even accept that aliens existed.
9. September 19, 1961  Hill Abduction When Barney and Betty Hill driving for home from Montreal they sighted a strange light in the sky near Lancaster, New Hampshire. After hearing a beeping sound, they felt dizzy and disoriented or very unusual, but continued the rest of their trip. Upon arriving at home in Portsmouth, they found that the trip had taken almost 2 hours longer than it should have. They met from a Boston psychologist for help because of months of lost sleep, ulcers, and not stopping nightmares. What was revealed under hypnosis was to affect the Hills and the entire abduction phenomenon forever.
10. April 24, 1964  Lonnie Zamora Sighting Police Officer Lonnie Zamora drove up to investigate after seeing something fly over the road and into a nearby arroyo near Socorro, New Mexico. He saw something very unusual so probably that day was to become one of the best UFO sightings on record. As he approached over a rise, about 150 yards away, he saw there was an approx egg shaped object can say craft and about the size of a car sitting on the ground on girder like legs. There were also two human like figures in white coveralls stood near to the object. Perhaps they may be alien or whatever. When they saw him, one of them jumped as if startled and the both two figures went around behind the object. It lifted off with a high sound and a blue colored flame and was lost from sight in a few seconds. Project Bluebook and J. Allen Hynek were on the scene within 24 hours and declared publicly that the case is truly unexplainable.

The night of March 13, something happened in the skies over Arizona. But any one was not sure what it was, but thousands saw it, dozens photographed and videotaped it and people all over the state are haunted by it still.

After a few years, a retired senior aerospace expert from NASA-Ames Research Center and formerly NASAs Chief of the Space Human Factors Office, Dr. Richard Haines, introduced a report containing over one hundred cases of pilot encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) that raise safety concerns, including fifty-six near misses. Haines had studied about thirty years developing a approx 3,400 case, international database of first hand sightings by commercial, military and private pilots and others. His independent work Aviation Safety in America  A factor which was Neglected Previously also draws on FAA, NASA and NTSB files. An international team of aviation specialists and scientists, they recently founded the National Aviation Reporting Center on 12 unusual Phenomena (NARCAP), which facilitates pilot reporting and studies a huge number of aerial phenomena affecting aviation safety. Many serious UFO investigators have noticed a striking similarity between some of the aliens described in UFO reports and the demonic spirits described in the Bible. Although it may not be possible to know whether some aliens are actually demons (and I certainly do not claim to know this myself), the well-documented connection between UFO phenomena and the occult cannot be denied.

Pilots reported the worlds most convincing and experienced observers of air traffic with great amount of specialized training. In the study for this field, they report sightings of varied geometric forms displaying colors and lights and conducting high-speed maneuvers that are unusual with known aircraft or natural phenomena. Pilots and other crew members working on aircraft report that the objects approached and paced their aircraft at relatively small distances, affecting on board instrumentation. They report, occasionally objects moving with very high speed narrowly avoided a head-on collision by a sudden, 90-degree turn. On other occasions, crew members made unexpectedly, evasive changes in their flight paths probably due to the proximity or dynamic behavior of the object. Cockpit distraction is always a concern when the crew is faced with an extremely weird, unexpected and prolonged bright in color and/or solid phenomena cavorting near their aircraft, says the report. According to Haines that the hundreds of UAP reports he has studied, some dating back to the 1940s, seem to provide knowledge that they are associated with a very high degree of intelligence, advanced energy management and planned flight control. The study material the ridicule and psychological negative feedback system that pilots have faced since the 1950s due the official debunking policy. Most pilots never file reports at all. Veteran Japan Airlines Captain Kenju Terauchi and his crew, In 1986s, encountered a huge craft over Alaska reported in the media and then investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Two space ships, unexpectedly, stopped in front of their face, shooting off lights, reported Terauchi. The inside cockpit shined brightly and he became hot in the face. The incident reported by Terauchi resulted in his temporary dismissal, despite the FAA determination that he was stable, not incompetent and professional. Former Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations Branch of the FAA in Washington, John Callahan, D.C., has in his owing the radar recorded data, FAA report, air traffic control voice transcripts, and computer printouts of the Terauchi event. He says he joined a meeting about the incident with the CIA, the FBI, and President Reagans scientific investigation team in which he was told, this event never happened, we were never here and you are all sworn to secrecy. On radar I saw a UFO chase a Japanese 747 across the sky for more than half an hour. And its faster than anything that he know of in our Government, said the high level FAA official in 2001. Till now It bothers me that Ive seen everything related to this, I know everything related to this, and I have answer for all the question, but nobody seems to interested to ask the question to get the answer.

In the air Kucinich saw something that he could not identify should neither major news nor cause for amusement or alarm. If had said he was abducted by little grey humanoids that probed his butt, then Id be worried for him, figuring either he is crazy, or sharing a bathroom stall with Larry Craig.

Sightings on 1^st October approx 7 pm in western Sydney area

According to observers that was like a HOLDEN BLIMP, but the Blimp does not shoot out to outer space! As some has not seen the blimp could anyone else shed some light on what to expect?

Sighting One

On 01/10/06, Sunday at Lidcombe Station around 19:16-19:18 someone saw a UFO. He was working for Pizza Hut Home Delivery. After he delivered a pizza to a family at Lidcombe, for going back to Pizza Hut he got into his car. At that time, he saw in the sky there was a very bright light, like somewhere there was a fire or something had blown up. After seeing this he became a little bit nervous. Then he heard a loud noise, like an aero plane hovered or moved slowly over them or taking off. He thought there was an air crash. But through the window inside his car, he could not see anything.

When he got out of his car, he saw there was something like fire breaking out from a rocket taking off! There were some people running out of their house and saw exactly the same thing. Then after about 30 seconds, it started to go very high in to the sky probably in to the outer atmosphere. Then he went into his car to get his mobile phone to take a photograph, but till that time, it was very far and very small probably like a fire ball. And after a few time it became a star in the sky and then disappeared.

Sighting Two

According to a South Asian guy living with his elder brothers family, close to the West mead Childrens Hospital. They thought they saw a UFO over the skies around West mead in NSW. They live on a top floor apartment of 3 storey building and were watching the NRL final. His brother saw this slow moving horizontal flame (probably orange colored) from their living room about 7:15 pm. He started shouting and called others to watch this amazing phenomenon. There was no sound. The original size of this flame was as big as the size of about 2 footballs and similar to the shape of Haleys Comet that appeared in 90s. This phenomenon remained continued for abut 5 seconds then disappeared for a second or two then again came back to for another 2 seconds. And, then same thing happened again as was in sighting first, the flame became the size of a star with an orange glove which continued on the same path at the same speed, changing direction with the time. It was traveling from a south easterly direction and not as north he initially said. It was traveling westerly direction when they last saw it. It was traveling around 5000kmh. It came from the direction of Parramatta Park and parallel to Railway Parade. Then it went around Westmead Hospital to form a large circle and stopped before disappearing. They kept watching and it was last seen moving towards a north westerly direction at a very rapid speed. All this happened during a 15 minute period and the sky was busy with some air traffic. There was one Qantas jet and this object crossed its path whilst it was moving towards the north westerly direction. I think the pilots of some of the planes must have seen something related to this. The flame lit up the sky and it was no way an Army Night Vision flash or anything similar. I am sure many others may have also seen this or at least the initial flame.

Sighting Three

On 1st of October 2006 about 7:20pm, someone with his family was driving home from the city when above the car they sighted something unordinary. It seemed oval shaped and hovering above a bridge. At the back of this object there suddenly was some fire, and then it got bigger. They heard the noise that created by the fire. It observed like it was a rocket going up, and then went into like what looked like a small bright star, and then it left the earth and disappeared in outer space. The fire seen by them was sufficiently large, probably like a missile, and the noise they heard was like a craft or equipment of some kind. There was also a smell like of burning nitro or something else. I think some other people who were present there must have seen something related to this fire.

Sighting four

On 1^st October 2006 at 7:06 PM, Mr. L, from Mount Pritchard, NSW observed a unusual thing about for 5 minutes. He was returning home from a day out and as he was turning into his car on his way, his wife and he saw, an uneven happening, a flare in the air. As they watched, it became to be an object burning up into the atmosphere. It hovered across the sky from left to right. He stopped his car in the middle of his way and both of them got off from the car and to watch this object burn away into nothing. It wasnt to be, as after the bright orange flame there was something with a dim light and then it converted into a bright flame again for a few more seconds and then stopped. Phenomenon that he witnessed was an object that started to fly like a conventional plane across the night sky with a dim light. After observing it for the last few minutes all he could think was that the object could be an experimental craft returning from the upper atmosphere because there was no unusual happening of the object but a controlled flying path going to whatever destination it was going to. There were neither sound nor did it have any shape. It was just like a dim light, probably white in color which had no weird flight path.

Lets concentrate at the questions of who sees UFOs and why only some people see them. On the surface, this question looks very easy to answer. We know on this planet all people can potentially have one or more observations during their lifetimes. People being at the right time at the right place could do this and other not. As real objects, UFOs offer the same vagaries of opportunity.

Some people seem to have frequent periodic sightings of UFOs. A number of observers report that a strong belief in ETs in craft visiting earth appears to result in their more frequent observations. To the viewpoint of believers is that of the skeptics and their nonscientific partners, the debunkers. It is clearly true that most skeptics and debunkers can make it through life without ever seeing what they believe to be a UFO. This case dramatically explained the strange aspect of UFO observation was the November 7, 2006 sighting by United Airlines ground and flight employees over Terminal C at the Chicago OHare International Airport. The ufology community and the mainstream media both reported this UFO sighting. It had the strange aspect because reported only by a select group of a dozen airline employees who had the access that allowed them to look directly above the terminal building over which a disk-shaped UFO hovered before making a dramatic exit by boring a clean-edged hole in the cloud cover some 1,900 feet above Chicago. This sighting was happened in the day. A question should arise there if on the airport terminal tarmac, one or more people could observe this craft 1,900 feet above them, then why did other not who may have been on other places near the airport, outside their nearby homes, going about their business in other ways, or driving to the airport see this large rotating disk-shaped UFO or photograph it, as at least one airline employee reportedly did? Were these people experiencing this sighting selectively because they were looking at right place at the right time and no one else was looking at the right place in the sky at that moment? Were they the only ones amongst many thousands of Chicago residents who had the opportunity to do so? Or whatever gives the idea about selective sighting of UFO. Sometimes the observers report they are very focused on the UFO and everything else doesnt seem to flow normally in time and space around them. On other occasions, number of observers in a city or a crowded interstate highway will report a huge UFO hovering or moving slowly over them.

About two dozen former pilots and government officials of an international panel called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about unusual flying objects like disks, glowing spheres and other strange sightings. Especially after the attacks of 11September, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns, which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters, In a news conference they released this statement. Former senior military officers and other panelists from seven countries said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into UFO phenomena.

In last month when Dennis Kucinich, a member of Congress from Ohio, said during a televised debate with other Democratic candidates that he had seen one, the subject of UFOs introduced itself in the U.S. presidential race. UFO sightings also claimed by both former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. A panelist who once worked for Britains Ministry of Defense said 5 percent of incidents cannot be explained. But UFO activists say most of the time UFO sightings are dismissed by relative authorities without proper investigations on the evidence. A question must arise here who is going to believe: your lying eyes or the government?, said John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation Administration investigator, in 1987, who said the CIA tried to hide the information of the sighting of a big lighted ball about four times the size of a jumbo jet in Alaska. The subject surfaces constantly on talk shows. And the army of people demanding answers has grown to the point that a Phoenix city councilwoman has launched an inquiry. The panel, organized by a group dedicated to winning authority for the study of UFOs, urged Washington to resume UFO investigations through the U.S. Air Force or NASA. Former Arizona Gov said, It would surely, I think, take a lot of feeling of anxiety and worry about this issue. In 1997, Fife Symington said that he was among hundreds who saw a delta-shaped craft with enormous lights silently traverse the sky near Phoenix. The Air Force investigated 12,618 UFO reports from 1947 to 1969 in what was known as Project Blue Book. Experts concluded that the incidents posed no threat and there was no evidence of space aliens or a super technology in operation. The sightings come in the picture at a time when interest in UFOs borders on a national obsession, saturating the movie industry, television and literature. After the surveying this month by Time magazine and CNN found that about 22% of adult Americans believe intelligent beings from other planets have been in contact with human beings. In last September it is also found by a Gallup poll 72% of Americans think on other planets there is life also. They think the U.S. government knows more about UFOs than its telling, said about 71% Americans.

Residual UFOs not only appear to be nonphysical and intelligent, they sometimes seem malevolent as well. Many of those claiming to have had a residual UFO encounter have suffered emotional, psychological, and/or physical injury. A few people have even died after such encounters. In light of these strange characteristics, many researchers have reached similar conclusions about the possible source of these phenomena. The idea that UFOs might produce some unique odors originally carried a touch of humor. According to a early survey of the literature turned up 18 cases where witnesses noticed peculiar odors and attempted to describe them. Comparisons with sulphur dioxide, as in rotten eggs, were the most numerous. Other descriptions referred to benzene and its derivatives. Finally, a number of descriptions almost certainly identified ozone. The fact is that more people are seriously interested in UFOs now than they ever have. Convincing the government may be an exercise in futility, but its not hard to find believers on the streets, says Don Ecker, research director and news editor at UFO Magazine.

Several tried to give explanation but neither has anybody else, according to Michael Tanner and Jim Dilettosa. They are two who own Village Labs, a Tempe, Ariz., firm that designs computerized special effects for the federal government for Hollywood and supercomputers. They moonlight as analysts of UFO tapes. They saw a computer analysis of videos shot by amateur observers, which comparing the mysterious lights to every other light on the Phoenix skyline videotaped that night. The lights overhead were not like the usual light but was were not like the usual light but was dramatically unique, according to them this was a perfectly uniform light with no glow and no variation from one edge to the other. They have ruled out lasers, flares, holograms and aircraft lights as sources. Dilettosa says, I have no idea what they were. Tanner has been videotaping witnesses and sorting out the chronology for this part. According to his present view: Including the V formation there were four objects, all arriving out of the north at about the same instant and leaving the same way they came. But unfortunately neither man is a scientist by training. All of them are businessmen who dependent on the sophisticated software of others. So while their work goes on, Frances Barwoo

Abstract

Various countries depending on their sizes adopt suitable information systems that help make sensible managerial frameworks. These information systems are vital in ensuring efficiency within the various organizations in respective through proper storage and access of data. As a result, gains are made both in terms of country reputation as well as financial benefits. However, with rapid changes taking place in the telecommunication sector, there are bound to be even more changes in the way criminal activities happen. It is therefore mandatory that governments develop adequate legislation to help protect their citizens from cybercrime in the case of the widening cyberspace.

This essay seeks to illustrate how three countries/states have put the principle of information and communication technology (ICT) legislation into use with the aim of combating cybercrime. These three countries are the United States, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The essay will follow a basic format where the development and application of cybercrime legislation in each country is analyzed independently starting with a brief history of how the legal frameworks came about. Various aspects of information systems will be studied including policies and the paper will narrow down to present similarities and differences between the cybercrime laws in UAE and the United States, and between the cybercrime laws in the UAE and India.

Finally, recommendations shall be provided as to how the UAE can improve its cybercrime laws to align with the countrys 21^st century desire to evolve into a free market. In the process of obtaining relevant data, this project will serve the very important role of putting theory into practice by linking information garnered in lectures to its practical application in real institutional setups. The final product is an essay that could be referenced to by peers in conduction of studies on cybercrime legislation particularly in the United Arab Emirates.

The development of cybercrime laws in the United States

In the year 2002 the United States House of Representatives passed a new legislation to deal with cybercrime. This act allowed the government and various selected bodies to carry out online surveillance and prosecute offenders. Another act, the Cyber Security Enhancement Act was also approved and it gave permission to authorities to carry out surveillance activities on phones and the internet without the mandatory court order (Schperberg, 2005).

Prior to the passage of these two acts individuals were punished depending on the financial damage of their acts with most of them receiving fines or a little time in prison (Goel, 2010). However, the legislation passed only covered traffic data such as Uniform Resource Locators and Internet Protocol addresses and not the contents on the internet. Internet service providers were required to store client data for a minimum of one month and reveal to the authorities content perceived to be detrimental to national security. However, the internet service providers were not allowed to intercept client e-mails unless they had a court order.

In the year 2003 the president of the United States legalized a national strategy to secure the countrys cyberspace (Schperberg, 2005). The primary objectives for this strategy were to prevent any attacks against the United States infrastructures, to reduce the countrys propensity to attacks over the internet and to reduce to the lowest levels possible the damage that occurred from cyber attacks (Blane, 2003).

The government at the time put in place criminal laws to allow for the investigation and prosecution of individuals suspected of partaking in cybercrime. Various institutions were set up to help with investigation of crimes that involve computers or computer networks with the United States working very closely with other nations in dealing with cybercrimes by setting up round-the-clock emergency contact networks (Goel, 2010). Other efforts aimed at a sustaining the collaborative effort between the United States and other nations included the signing of multilateral treaties such as the convention on Cybercrime. Such treaties have been heralded by the United States as very important tools in dealing with transnational cybercrime.

The state of cybercrime legislation in the United States

In order to counter terrorism activities over the cyberspace, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged with the responsibility of investigating the criminal activities occurring within or affecting the country. The prime responsibilities of the FBI include according protection to the United States from terrorist attacks and ensuring that the country is protected from internet based attacks and other criminal activities that require the input of advanced technology. Another institution that is directly linked with the prosecution of cybercrime and terrorism activities is the United States Department of justice (Yar, 2006).

In dealing with the element of cybercrime, this department prosecutes such acts as hacking and the denial of service attacks. For terrorism issues, the Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes individuals found guilty of providing material or other types of support to terrorists. The United States Department of Homeland security is also responsible for the protection of the countrys primary infrastructure including telecommunications and the internet (Schperberg, 2005). All the three government institutions mentioned above have established formal and informal relationships with both public and private sector groups to help deal with aspect of abuse of the cyberspace.

The United States has established rules and regulations to deal with cybercrime and these laws deal with such acts as hacking, fraud and propagation of terrorist information (Brenner, 2010). The laws established in this country generally have provisions for the investigation of various criminal activities conducted over the internet and the individuals or organized groups found guilty of such acts are prosecuted under the specifications of the law (Schinder and Cross, 2008). The united states law individuals maybe subject to multiple counts of charges as long as every single charge is manifest of a different aspect. Therefore, an individual who takes part in a cybercrime activity with the intention of providing information to a terrorist group maybe charged of various offences all emanating from the same action.

Under the established criminal law pertaining to crimes committed over the internet, individuals are liable for prosecution if they commit the crime themselves as well as if they directly or indirectly lend a hand in a criminal activity (Schinder and Cross, 2008). The rules also specify that an individual can be subject to prosecution if they are arrested in the process of conspiring or attempting to commit a cybercrime act. This provision is mostly applied in terrorism offence trials.

Persons who undergo conviction for the violation of the primary United states cybercrime statute can face prison sentences sometimes even life sentences if his/her actions lead to the death of individuals. Other sentences that can be imposed on individuals guilty of cybercrime include supervised releases or very hefty fines (Brenner, 2010). Other than this, some forfeiture statues maybe utilized in the seizure of state proceeds or properties used in carrying out the criminal activity.

In some instances, the domain name could be forfeited if an individual is found guilty of using it to propagate criminal offences. For instance the United States Department of Justice once brought a case before the courts pertaining to a well known international market place for criminals (Goel, 2010). Since this group had established an elaborate online community for its members, the government had to revoke the domain name for the institution in order to dislodge its international online presence.

In order to establish jurisdiction over criminal activities, the cybercrime title of the United States legislation has provisions to that can make it applicable both domestically and outside the countrys territory (Schinder and Cross, 2008). However, in both cases various considerations have to be made including the question as to whether the offence had any effect on interstate economy, the identity of the victim and the region where the crime was done (Goel, 2010).

This provision also considers the technical aspects of the crime including the registration details of the computer used to commit the crime (Blane, 2003). In this jurisdiction some computers are considered protected and these include those used in interstate commercial activities, machines registered solely for use in financial institutions such as banks or computers belonging to the government.

The development of cybercrime legislation in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been the disputable regional leader in the adoption of information and communication technology. The spread of the internet in the UAE grew from 36 percent four years ago to over 60 percent in the year 2008. The penetration of broadband manifested by the movement of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) cables was in the region of 11 percent (Karake-Shalhoub and Al Qasimi, 2010).

There are only two internet service providers in the region one being Etisalat which commands the greatest authority when it comes to telecom provision. The other internet service provider is named Du and its launch was facilitated by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority primarily in the pretext of maintaining a healthy competition (Karake-Shalhoub and Al Qasimi, 2010). Both companies offer voice and data transmission through broadband and mobile networks. However, due to Du not having the necessary infrastructure in place, the provision of broadband internet is under the monopoly of Etisalat and the former is only left to provide the service to only a few individuals who occupy the region around Dubai where it has established a landline network.

There is a plan in place by the government to aide in the operation of the regional internet in Arabic and this was confirmed last year when a proposal by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to have the country top level domain done in Arabic. As such, an increase has been seen in the flow of traffic to Arabic websites consequently strengthening the countrys identity (Kshetri, 2010).

The state of cybercrime legislation in the United Arab Emirates

Like in most Arabic countries, the freedom of speech expression in the UAE is to some extent limited (Deibert, 2008). There is no law that protects journalists from coercion into revealing their sources of information and human rights watchers have accused the state of oppression to the civilians by limiting free expression. The telecommunication industry in the country is under the control of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority which was set up seven years ago under the federal law and is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the services provided in the country were adequate (Adomi, 2008).

This authority is also responsible for the establishment of policies and frameworks aimed at guiding the flow of information through the various telecommunication channels available in the country. One of the ways in which the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has ensured control over content spreading over the internet is through the establishment of the Internet Access Management policy which basically lists illegal/prohibited online material for the internet service providers (Kshetri, 2010).

Under this policy, all websites and databases hosting pornographic material have been criminalized. Also prohibited are tools that can help circumvent blocked content, gambling websites, religious offensive material, material that is threatening to national security, provision of unregistered voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and spyware (Deibert, 2008).

A federal law has been established in the United Arab Emirates in an effort to deal with cybercrimes. Under this law, the destruction or revelation of secrets and the redistribution of personal/official information is a legal crime that can lead to imprisonment. Individuals can also be prosecuted for defaming elements of the Islamic religion such as the mosques or for insulting all worldwide recognized religions. This cyber-crime law no.2 also specifies that all persons that are found setting up websites or establishing databases that breach family values or public decency frameworks liable for prosecution.

In order to ensure that this law is observed, the government has set up committees which utilize electronic surveillance technology to assess the distribution and access of material over the internet (Salinger, 2005). For instance one such committee is charged with the responsibility of monitoring cyber cafes with the aim of ensuring that the internet setups in these establishments do not go around the filtration tools set up by the two nationally recognized internet service providers (Adomi, 2008). This committee was established after allegations that some cyber cafes were using virtual private networks to offer access to unfiltered material.

Another surveillance department was established by the police to study the internet around the clock while investigating several reported cases of breach of law. Some of the cases that have been presented before this committee include those involving fraud and other economic crimes, extortion, hacking, indecency and the propagation of defamatory remarks (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). Some of the charged individuals included women who were found guilty of marketing sex services over the internet. Also prosecuted were individuals who were found guilty of providing cheap and unregistered VoIP services from their residences.

Examples of the application of cybercrime legislation in the United Arab Emirates

Three years ago, the founder of the website www.majan.net was imprisoned for one year after he was found guilty of hosting defamatory statements again a certain government official on his website. A few months down the line he was again sentenced for a similar crime but was let out on bail. In two months the two sentences were revoked by the court of appeals after both officials decided to withdraw their accusations. The man was however to serve a one year sentence after a third public official lodged complaints of defamation against him.

In 2009, the Dubai police was accused of developing a list of 500 words that were considered objectionable and that it had ordered the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority to block the websites that published any of these words. The area police chief however refuted claims that his institution came up with the list and instead pointing an accusing finger at the regulations authority saying that the idea emanated from the latter and not the police force as had been reported.

In a different instance prior to this, the same chief of police had called for the shutting down of YouTube. At the time, he said that the website it was supported material that was religiously inappropriate. He accused the site of hosting content that was indecent and if not regulated, the website could lead the young people of the country into delinquency. According to him, the moral values of the Muslim nations were different from those of the Western countries and as such proper filtration of internet content had to be carried out in order to maintain the status quo.

The two internet service providers in the country have tried to operate within the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority by blocking sites offering free VoIP service. However, the ingenuity of individuals has seen them fail from time to time as people find ways to circumvent the ban by utilizing the internet to make inexpensive international calls.

The development of cybercrime laws in India

Of the over one billion people in India, approximately five percent (which loosely translates to about 48 million people) have regular access to the internet. Initially most of these individuals were concentrated in the urban areas but with the rapid spread of the town areas toward the villages, more and more people are starting to appreciate the importance of the internet (Kumar, 2009). It has been discovered that about 40% of all the individuals who use the internet in the country spend an average of 8 hours per week surfing and browsing the internet with most of these individuals being men. With over 150 internet service providers in the country, India is the fifth largest country in terms of the population of internet users.

With this kind of internet traffic, it has been of paramount importance that a method of ensuring secure and reliable means of data transfer across the world wide web are installed. Three years ago, the countrys Department of Telecommunications revealed that it was going to put in place filters at the countries international data entry points. These measures involved the selective filtering of websites and the blocking of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) providers which had not been authorized to offer these services in the country (Sreenivas, 2006).

The state of cybercrime legislation in India

Like with most sovereign republics, Indias constitution appreciates the freedom of speech and expression. However, there are clauses in the document which guarantee the state the supreme authority to put in place sanctions against acts that are regarded as threatening to the well being of the country (Broadhurst and Grabosky 2005). These measures are aimed at helping the state maintain healthy relation with other nations and they include provisions to sustain decent and moral structures of society as well as guides on the general observance of established laws. The basic media channels in the country are subject to individual regulatory frameworks with the Press Council of India limiting its authority over print media while the government holds control over film and broadcast media.

Before the year 2000, the central government held supreme authority over each and every element of the telecommunications department and it was in charge of creating policies and regulations that guided the operations. However, by the beginning of 1999, an internet policy was established and it came with provisions that allowed private enterprises to obtain licenses for internet service provision. With this policy in place, these private companies had the option of leasing transmission network capacity from the state or establish their own infrastructure (Broadhurst and Grabosky 2005). As the privatization of internet service provision took over, the parliament had to establish legal frameworks that would help reduce instances of cyber crime (Milhorn, 2005).

An information technology act was established to help govern the extents to which the internet could be used particularly in trade and commerce. This act also came around to offer regulations against hacking and the publishing of obscene material. The police force was granted authority to arrest and detain all individuals that were found contravening this law. This allowance accorded the police the power to carry out such missions without a warrant.

Under the guidance of the information technology act, a computer emergency response team was established and this was purposely to help implement the filtering provisions that had been set up. The provision that criminalized the publishing of obscene materials was stretched to also allow for the blocking of websites that hosted such materials (Milhorn, 2005). The emergency response team was the sole entity that was charged with responsibility of controlled assessment of web content and the blocking of websites that appeared to contravene the already established legal measures.

As such, it is only a few institutions that are allowed to file complaints or recommend investigative procedures to the computer emergency response team (Broadhurst and Grabosky 2005). By granting a single institution such supreme powers, there has been contention over the legality of the framework in relation to constitutional provisions. This is primarily because the blocking provision established by the act has no option for review and measures taken can only be appealed in a court of law (Andert and Burleson 2005). The emergency response team can therefore block websites without any communication whatsoever to the public.

In 2006 an amendment proposal to the information technology act was presented before the legislative assembly purposely to establish mechanisms of dealing with the numerous complaints about insecurity over the internet and constant lose of crucial state data to hackers (Sreenivas, 2006).

After debate, a few changes were implemented including the creation of guidelines for internet service providers including the requirement to constantly monitor client traffic and the tracking of deviant subscribers through their internet protocol addresses. To this end, the state demands that companies seeking internet service provision licenses have to agree to work hand in hand with the Department of Telecommunications in blocking websites and subscribers who partake in acts that threatening to national security or the transmission of objectionable material (Milhorn, 2005).

Examples of the application of cybercrime legislation in India

A good example of the various government and private entities working together in the implementation of the information technology act was the unilateral blocking of the Hindu Unity website www.hinduunity.org. The filtering of this website was carried out by all internet service providers under instruction from state police. This is because the website was seen to propagate extremist Hindu views and as such was regarded as a threat to national security. Another act of filtering was seen in the year 2006 when a group of individuals went to the streets protesting against certain content on the internet that appeared offensive.

This material was hosted in Googles Orkut networking site in page published under the We hate India community. The Bombay high court handled the matter and a notice was issued to Google to take off the community or risk a ban on the Orkut. Google heeded and took off the community. However, another complaint was lodged on an anti-shivaji community on the same website leading to a temporary ban of the site by police. Cyber cafes found to entertain the usage of Orkut at the time were shut down and crackdowns were held until the offensive community was dislodged from the website.

Comparison between the cybercrime laws in the United States and the United Arab Emirates

The internet in the United States is arguably more developed than in all other regions of world. With over 3500 registered internet service providers and over 220 million internet users, the number of activities being carried out on the cyberspace cannot be enlisted. It was therefore necessary of the government to come up with basic legislation to guide the general safe usage of the internet by establishing methods of identifying and dealing with criminal acts. The United States government has a well established document dealing with substantive cybercrime acts and this has 18 chapters covering all aspects of internet usage. Some of these sections include regulations aimed at countering fraud, sexual exploitation of children, distribution and access of obscene materials and copyright infringement among others.

The United Arab Emirates on the other hand has only two internet service providers covering the seven states that form the amalgamation. Access to the internet is not yet a critical national priority and it has remained a preserve of the individuals residing in the urban areas. The countries cybercrime legislation is not as elaborate as that of the United States and it is formed around the requirements of the Islamic religion. Interest groups whose practices go against the teachings of Islam are not tolerated and there are established government agencies to track and monitor online activities with the aim of arresting and prosecuting offenders.

Similarities between the United States and the United Arab Emirates cybercrime laws

From a basic perspective, the United States and United Arab Emirates legislations particularly dealing with cybercrime have a number of similarities. Top on the list is the inclusion of clause criminalizing terrorist activities. From both documents, it is illegal for anyone to produce, possess or distribute material that could aid terrorist groups carry out their missions. Government agencies have been given the mandate to track the traffic of data on the internet and any information found to contain instructional or basic communication to terrorist gangs is intercepted. The two governments have established punishment procedures to deal with individuals found guilty of committing such crimes and appropriate sentences are given including lifetime imprisonment.

The transmission and access to government documents is also considered a legal criminal activity by both pieces of legislation. Individuals who are tasked with the production and storage of state documents are expected to respect the confidentiality criteria of the job and as such cannot distribute the material without prior consultation with relevant state bodies. It is a criminal offence for state officials in both countries to give out government secret documents to individuals who intend to use it to jeopardize the security of the citizens or of the inhabitants of other nations.

The importance of maintaining cordial relationships with other countries has been appreciated both in the United Arab Emirates and the United States. With this in mind, the various state agencies are expected to ensure that all information targeted at abetting terrorist activities in other nations are blocked well in time.

The distribution of obscene and sexual content pertaining to children has been criminalized both in the United States and in the United Arab Emirates. Both constitutions have provisions for prosecution of individuals found guilty of production and distribution of pornographic material featuring individuals that have not attained the consenting age. Persons who subject minors to sexual practices for recording purposes can face multiple charges including committing of the sexual act itself and the distribution of such content on video.

Such material is relatively easy to access particularly if posted on the internet and the regulatory authorizes from both countries come in to track down the origins of the material for prosecution purposes. Individuals who are found guilty of this crime are handed heavy sentences with most of the reported cases particularly in the United Arab Emirates being given life imprisonment.

Economic crimes have been given due attention by both the constitution of the United Arab Emirates and that of the United States. Provisions have been provided for dealing with fraud and other economic crimes either within the respective countries or across the territorial boundaries. The latter is a provision accorded by the international relations speculations that are aimed at helping the countries maintain strong goodwill relations with their neighbors and other countries across the regions.

In the United Arab Emirates, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is the primary institution that has been given the mandate to establish tracking systems on the various internet networks and put a hold to illegal economic activities. Its counterpart in the United States is the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Criminal Investigative Service. All the three regulatory bodies have the authority to assess data transmission across the internet without any form of court order and arrest offenders for criminal prosecution.

Differences between the United States and the United Arab Emirates cybercrime laws

The differences between the cybercrime legislation in the United Arab Emirates arise from the fact that the United States is a more cosmopolitan society and as such accepts the differences in the various people groups in the country. The United Arab Emirates on the other hand is primarily Islamic and it bases all its legislative elements on the religion. For instance, same gender relationships are generally accepted in the United States and therefore social networks linking individuals who drift to these kinds of sexual tendencies are not considered illegal. In the United Arab Emirates on the other hand, homosexuality is a vice outlawed by the religious doctrines of Islam. Individuals who are found of engaging in same sex relationships face the death penalty and this goes all the way to encompass the production, possession and distribution of material pertaining to homosexuality and lesbianism.

Another primary difference between the legislations of the United Arab Emirates and the United States stems from the fact that the latter has a well established protocol for the development of legislation. The various house assemblies are supposed to have a hand in the development of a given item for inclusion in the constitution. These bodies have to go through intense consultations with various stakeholders in order to ensure that the ideas presented are in tandem with views of the majority. In the United Arab Emirates however, a few members of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority have been given the authority to decide what is legally acceptable and enforce this as the law even without having to take it through the various stages of legislation formation.

This was the case recently when the heads of the regulatory body concluded that Youtube hosted material that was not appropriate as per the teachings of Islam and so it should be banned. Even though the process of totally banning the website has not been well effected, it is generally regarded illegal to use the website and crackdowns are held in public cyber cafes to ensure that individuals are not accessing un-Islamic content.

In the United States and by way of the already established legislation, individuals can make all types of calls over the internet provided they have legally obtained the connection from the parent internet service provider. Long distance calls via tools such as Skype are common and the investigative bodies are not concerned with arresting or prosecuting individuals found to use these cheap telecommunication avenues.

In the United Arab Emirates, the provision and usage of the internet to make cheap long distance calls is a criminal offence and the two internet service providers in the country have been instructed to ensure that filtration mechanisms are implemented to ensure that individuals do not break this law. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority officials are always under alert to ensure that individuals who use virtual private networks to bypass established filters are arrested and well prosecuted.

Comparison between the cybercrime laws in the UAE and India Similarities

Both India and the United Arab Emirates have well established legal frameworks to regulate the distribution and usage of information over the internet (Andert and Burleson 2005). One of the primary similarities in the regulations of both countries is the filtering provision demanded of all internet service providers to help curb the transmission and access to material considered offensive particularly to the various religions around the world. Under these laws, it is illegal for anyone to produce, possess or distribute material that either directly or indirectly attacks a given religion or practitioners of the said religion (Alexander, 2002).

Anyone found guilty of such crimes is liable to prosecution which can lead to jail sentences of upto ten years. The Indian Department of Telecommunications and its UAE equivalent the Telecommunications Regulations Authority have basically speculated t

Introduction

It has always been a problem determining the number of speakers required for a quality sound system especially in cases where speech separation of an individual speaker from a multispeaker signal is required. In this regard, various theoretical approaches such as the subjective threshold hypothesis for the detection of the number of sources whose mixed signals collect an array of passive sensors of the covariance matrix of the observation vector were proposed.

Also, on vocal source segmentation, various researchers suggest the use of wavelet transform as opposed to Fourier spectrum methodology in transienting signal representation. In concluding our literature review, researchers propose methodologies evidenced to increase speaker performance and provide critical analysis of the same. The proposed speaker recognition methodologies combined previous studies on the same topic, proposed for new approaches and suggested solutions to reduce the imbalances experienced by various applications.

Literature Review from Previous Studies

In automatic speaker recognition, Campbell (1997) employs a biometrics methodology in facilitating network access-control applications. Campbell (1997) specifically concentrates on verification and identification method in Automatic speaker verification (ASV) of voice machines. Automatic speaker recognition works by arranging speakers in different analogies which then identify who the person is and the group the person belongs to.

Routinely applied in encrypted smart card containing identification information for supervised visitations, Campbell (1997) argue that text dependent recognition can not be guaranteed for authentication. Here, the weak point of automatic speaker recognition is that the accuracy and content duration is not guaranteed. In replication of this analysis, Campbell (1997) states human and environmental factors contribute to accuracy errors, generally outside the scope of (p.2). These analyses conclude by adding that human errors such as misreading and misspeaking are likely to affect speaker performance despite the speaker quality (Campbell 1997, p.2).

Campbell (1997) proposed for ASV and ASI methodologies as the most natural and economical experimental design methods for solving problems. The detailed distinction of speaker classifications makes it difficult to make meaningful comparison between text independent approaches and difficult to perform text-independent tasks.

Further Campbell (1997) proposes for a new methodology as text-independent approaches such as Reynolds Gaussian Mixture Model and Gishs segmental Gaussian model to be applied in test materials to deal with problems such as sounds and articulation rather than applied in training (p.3). Lastly, areas that remained uncovered in this analysis were comparisons between binary choice verification task and the multiple choice identification tasks making it difficult to propose for future improvements (Campbell 1997, p.3).

Due to increased security problems with regard to speaker verification application, Campbell 1997 proposes for extensive research approaches on substantial speaker-verification applications that will reduce fraudulent transactions and crime. Also, automatic speaker-verification systems errors such as false acceptance of invalid user (FA or Type 1), acceptance of false user (FR or Type II) and false acceptance error were not extensively covered and limited speech collected in speakerdiscrimination criteria proving difficult in interpreting theoretical measures used (Campbell 1997).

Campbell (1997) mentions vector features applied in measuring speech signal sequence to include pattern recognition paradigms such as; feature extraction and selection, pattern matching, and classification convenient for designing system components. Though effective in segmentation and classification, Campbell (1997) points out that the components are prone to false demarcation that may subsequently lead to suboptimal designs when interacting with in real-world systems (p.9).

Campbell (1997) further proposes for the ROC straight line methodology as stated as the product of the probability of FA and the probability of FR is a constant for this hypothetical system (p.6). Evidently, ROC straight line method shows inconsistency in the sense that the product used could not be equal to the square of equal error rate (EER) (Campbell 1997). Another gap of this research is evident in the Campbell (1997, p.19) Fig 20 that demonstrates a complete signal acquisition stage which is indeed unnecessary since speech signal is already provided in digital from YOHO CD-ROM.

In multi-media application, audio segmentation based on multi-scale audio classification requires accurate segmentation and most convectional algorithms based on small scale feature classification. Audio segmentation here is applied to both audio and video content analysis. Zhang & Zhou (2004) classifies four scale levels as; (large-scale, small-scale, tiny-scale and huge-scale) and further splits them into two categories; training and testing. In this regard, the researchers group audio classification correctly and accurately resulting to good classification hence reliable results. On the other hand, Zhang & Zhou (2004) fail to provide of the same systems with a discriminator in cases of more audio classes and as a backup in improving performance on segmentation algorithm for effective audio, video and index content analysis.

Lastly, in simplified Early Auditory model with Application in Speech/Music Classification, Chu and Champagne (2006) use speech/music classification as a way of evaluating classification performance and uses a support vector machine (SVM) as a classifier.Evidently, Chu and Champagne (2006) present useful information on audio and video classification and segmentation. Previous studies have classified speech and music segmentations to include features as many as 13. To name just a few, Scheier and Slaney (1997) classify these features to include; ZRC, spectral flux, 4Hz modification energy and e.t.c. In doing classification and segmentation of audio speakers, Zhang and Kuo (2001) propose for an automatic approach of audiovisual data using energy function, ZCR, spectral peak attacks and fundamental frequency.

On the other hand, Lu and his colleagues (2002) use a different methodology by employing a two-stage robust approach capable of classifying audio stream into silence, speech, environmental sound and speech. To replicate this analysis, Panagiotakins and Tziritas (2005) propose for an algorithm methodology using mean signal amplitude distribution and ZCR features in classification and segmentation. In this regard, algorithm methodology employed clean test sequence training which was argued as ineffective in terms of actual testing sequence as its evidenced to have background noise with certain SNR levels. Another methodology proposed by Wang and Sharma (1994) that employed an early auditory model was also reported to be ineffective as it was evidenced to be experiencing self-normalisation effect, a defect property attributed from noise suppression.

Scheier and Slaney (1997) evidences that early auditory model has recently received excellent performance based on classification and segmentation. On the other however, Chu and Champagne (2006) argue that early audition model requires high computation compared to nonlinear processing. Conclusively, to reduce computational complexity and increase the performance of the proposed classification and segmentation methodologies mentioned here, Chu and Champagne (2006) proposes for a linear simplified version of early auditory model would be effective in noisy test cases (Chu and Champagne 2006, p.1,4).

In speaker recognition, Kumara and his colleagues (2007) address the issue of determining the number of speakers from multiple speaker speech signals collected from a pair of spatial microscopes. Constantly striving to provide optimum sound solutions, Kumara et al (2007) opinion on sound quality production is at odds with the desired aesthetic provided my various researchers on this particular topic.

Based on their comprehensive analysis, Kumara et al (2007) argue that spatial separated microscopes results in time delay in arrival of speech signals from a given speaker due to relative spacings from significant excitation of the vocal tract system. They link this time delay to be as a result of unchanged excitations in the direct components of the speech signals of the two microphones. Kumara et al (2007) point out the problem to be in signal spacing due to underestimated number of sources from multisensory data.

For high quality performance of multi-speaker data, Kumara and his colleagues (2007) argue that determining the number of speakers, then localising and tracking them from a signal collected using a number spatially distributed microphones is required to guarantee even coverage, speech intelligibility and high-quality sound. There has always been a challenge in determining number of speakers required for quality sound system.

Some of the problems experienced are Kumara and his colleagues (2007) to include; difficulties in separating speech of an individual speaker from a multispeaker signal and problems in collecting signal in practical environment, a room with background noise and reverberation of multi-speaker data. In solving this problem, Kumara and his colleagues (2007) propose a theoretical approach for detecting the number of sources whose mixed signals are collected by an array of passive sensors as eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of the observation vector. They use a nested sequence hypothesis test that employs subjective judgement for deciding threshold level i.e. the likelihood statistic ratio. The gap of this research is that the literature review introduces different methodologies without careful consideration of their impacts.

For example, a nested sequence hypothesis should not have been applied in estimating the number of sources as Kumara and his colleagues (2007) argue that this methodology employs a subjective threshold. They further recommend a testing hypothesis applied in minimum description length (MDL) in estimating the number of sources. To reaffirm their findings Kumara et al (2007) state that MDL can only be used as a test for determining the multiplicity of the smallest eigenvalues and therefore suitable for this kind of application (p.1). In my opinion, researchers should have carefully researched on the methodologies to be used by doing a test hypothesis.

Kumara and his colleagues (2007) also argue that the proposed method based application on multiplicity that concentrates on the smallest eigenvalues are not robust and therefore not suitable for tracking signals. They attribute the reason to be as a result of deviations from the assumed model of the additive noise process. They add that providing solutions to smallest eigenvalue problem would require exploiting prior knowledge and multidimensional numerical research of these systems. Kumara et al (2007) recommend providing a number of steering vectors and use of robust estimators in situations where sensor noise levels are spatially inhomogeneous.

Kumara et al (2007) also argue that methods used in estimating number of sources used in multidimensional speakers such as information theoretic criterion assumes mixed signal vector methodology that uses artificially generated mixed signals such as multispeaker signals that have more variability due to noise and reverberations causing delays and decay of direct sound as a result of increased distance of the microscope from the speaker (Kumara et al 2007, p.5).

In a multispeaker multimicroscophone scenario that assumes speakers are stationed with respect to the microphone, Kumara et al (2007) quickly points out fixed time delays often experienced in arrival of speech signals between every pair of microphones for a given speaker. In this regard, Kumara et al (2007) proposes cross-correlation function formular for calculating time delays of multispeaker signals.

Though effective in computing time delays, cross-relation function does not show unambiguous prominent peaks at the time of delays. Kumara et al (2007) states the reason for this miscalculation to be the damped sinusoidal components in the speech signal due to resonances of the vocal tract, and because of the effects of reverberation and noise since speech signal exhibits relatively high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high signal-to-reverberation ratio (SRR) (p.2). Kumara et al (2007) suggest a solution to reduce the effects of such imbalances to be done by exploiting the characteristics of excitation sources of the vocal tract and doing a pre-processing of multispeaker signals to re-emphasize the regions of high SNR and SRR.

Methods of estimating time delays

Normally vocal tract system becomes excited by quasi-periodic sequence of impulse-like excitation produced from voiced speech. The excitation occurs at glottal closure (GCI) with each pitch period and remains unchanged when microphones are placed at speech signals. The sequences can only differ as a result of fixed delays corresponding to the relative distances of the microphones from the speakers. Vicinity of the instants of significant excitations in speech display high SNR compared to other regions as a result of damping of the impulse response of the vocal tract system.

In order to highlight the high SNR region in speech signal, Kumara et al (2007) recommend using linear prediction (LP) methodology that uses autocorrelation method resulting to large amplitude fluctuations around the instant significant excitation. Another method suggested is the cross-correlation function that receives signals from two microscopes. Characterised by large amplitude fluctuations, cross-correlation function does not guarantee strong peaks due to random polarity around the GCIs (Kumara et al, 2007, p.2).

When determining numbers of speakers to be used in collecting signals from spatial microscopes, Kumara and his colleagues (2007) propose cross-correlation function of the Hilbert envelope (HE) and the linear prediction (LP) formulars as methodologies for collecting signals from multispeaker. However, this research fails to recognise relatively large number of small positive values used by Hilbert envelope (HE) that could result to spurious peaks in the cross-correlation function. In summary, the methodology used here attempts to equalise the number of prominent peaks to the number of speakers which is often not the case in real world application.

First, this methodology may not be practical since all speakers may not equally contribute to voice sounds in the segment used for computing cross-correlation function, secondly, spurious peaks in the cross-correlation function may not correspond to the delays due to a speaker. As stated earlier, quality of sound system performance relies entirely on delays due because the most prominent peaks occur in the cross-correlation function (Kumara et al, 2007, p.2).

Experimental analysis conducted using different multispeaker signals consisting of three, four, five and six speakers and data collected simultaneously using two microscopes separated by about 1m in a laboratory environment of a frequency range of 05-3.5 kHZ and a reverberation time of about 0.5s. Kumara and his colleagues (2007) gathered findings from these studies that concluded locations of peaks corresponded to time delays due to different speakers.

Therefore since direct component of signals are dominated over the reflected/reverberation components, the method applied for speech signals does not show specific or arbitrary distribution relative to the microscope position. To overcome this problem, Kumara et al (2007) suggest using pairs of several spatially distributed microphones, use of several microphones to reduce weak signals and ensure time delays are nearly constant. Conclusively, Kumara et al (2007) suggests tracking of time variation delays to determine the number of speakers required in a scenario where speakers are moving.

In speaker discrimination power, its evidenced that technology used here is predominantly based on statistical modelling of short-time features extracted from acoustic speech signals. Chan and his colleagues (2007) state that speaker discrimination power uses vocal sources related features and convectional vocal tract features in speaker recognition technology (p.1). On recognition performance, the effectiveness of statistical modelling technique and discrimination power of acoustic features are the most important components of speaker discriminating power. In a number of applications, the amount of training for speakers modelling and test data for recognition is limited.

Chan and his colleagues (2007) however suggest a test features performance to ensure good discrimination power of acoustic features regardless of the amount of speech data being processed especially in cases for speaker segmentation for telephone conversation, which often encounter short speech segments making statistical speaker modelling less reliable Chan et al, 2007, p.1).

Chan and his colleagues (2007) research analyses newly proposed acoustic features and their speaker discrimination power in regard to their training and testing conditions. They provide that automatic speech recognition (ASR) uses the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCS) and linear predictive cepstral coefficients (LPCCs) as the most common acoustic features. Their primary goal was to identify different speech sounds and provide pertinent cues for phonetic classification. Chan et al (2007) comprehensive analysis did however conclude that cepstral features extracted from a spoken utterance are closely related to their linguistic content.

On Vocal source, WOCOR uses Fourier spectrum methodology discredited inadequacy in computing time-frequency properties of pitch pulses in the residual signal. Chan et al (2007) rather suggests use of wavelet transform well known for its efficiency in transienting signal representation. They proposed WOCOR feature to employ extraction based on wavelet transform as opposed to the tradition Fourier transform of the residual signal. The second formular uses WOCOR features from a pitch-synchronous segment of residual signal with different values of k. Here, the signal is analysed with different time-frequency resolution.

Telephone conversations uses a frequency band of 300 to 3400 Hz , and for this case all the coefficients of a sub-band are combined into a single feature parameter that requires no temporal information detainment (Chan et al 2007). A large M used is also used and each coefficient acts as an individual feature parameter. Here, a lot of unnecessary temporal details are included, and the feature vector tends to be noisy and less discriminative. WOCOR features captures spectro-temporal characteristics of residual signal-very important for speaker characterization and recognition, however, the research fails to realise that speaker recognition performance would not significantly improve as M increased beyond 4 (Chan et al 2007, p.3).

MFCC in vocal tract features have widely been used for speech recognition and speaker recognition. When examining standard procedure of extracting MFCC on a short time frame basis, WOCOR may not as effective as MFCC in speaker recognition. Aiming at characterising two physiologically distinct components in speech production, WOCOR and MFCC contain complementary information for speaker discrimination (Chan et al 2007, p.4).

The major problem with speaker segmentation is the task of dividing an input speech signal into homogeneous segments and turning points in terms of time instants. Chan et al (2007) also classifies speech segments separated by turning points while speaker segmentations algorithms are commonly based on statistical modelling of MFCC. Here, little knowledge about the speakers is evident since researchers fail to establish speaker model first hand. Chan et al (2007) recommends that speaker models need to be built from preliminary hypothesised segments in the speech signal being processed while keeping in mind that WOCOR is more discriminative than MFCC as it has routinely been utilised in most speaker recognition applications.

Statistical models trained by MFCC describe speakers voice characteristics, at the same time, model the variation of speech. Here, content mismatch between test speech and the training speech is evident. The study also uses WOCOR as a representative of vocal source related features and demonstrates its effectiveness in speaker recognition. On the other hand however, Chan et al ( 2007) argue that WOCOR is discriminative when amount of training data is small as its built on limited amount of text-independent data, a characteristic this research fails to put into consideration (Chan et al 2007, p.5)

In pre-processing stage for speaker diarization, speaker diarization system attempts to assign temporal speech segments in a conversation to the appropriate speakers, and non-speech segments to non-speech. Literary, speaker diarization attempts to answer who spoke then? On of the major problem with system unable to handle co-channel or overlapped speech detection and separation. Guterman and Lapidot (2009) statement on algorithms argues that high computational complexity that consume both time and frequency domain analysis of the audio data (p.2).

Secondly, speaker diarization system attempts to assign temporal speech segments in a conversation to the appropriate generating source. One disadvantages of this system its inability to handle overlapped speech (OS) segments when multiple speakers take part. Normally, the current state of the art systems are assigned to one system in the conversation, thus, generating unavoidable diarization errors (Guterman and Lapidot 2009, p.2).

Audio segmentation addresses the problem of media series such as TV, movies and e.t.c. These segmentations are characterised with various segments of various lengths with quite portion of short lines. Yunfeng et al (2007) classifies unsupervised audio segmentation to include what they state as segmentation stage to detect potential acoustic changes, and a refinement stage to refine candidate changes by a tri-model Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) (p.1). Audio segmentation also known as acoustic change is stated by Yunfeng et al (2007) as one that detects partitions audio stream into homogenous segments by detecting of speaker identity, acoustic class or environmental condition (p.2).

Here, Yunfeng et al (2007) categorises audio segmentations as model based approach of acoustic classes. Yunfeng et al (2007) further add that its important to have pre-knowledge of speakers and acoustic classes (p.2), contrary to the application applied here. Therefore in this scenario, the model based approach is often unsupervised and lacks many applications. The second audio segmentation approach applied in this computation is the metric-based approach. Yunfeng et al (2007) states metric-based approach determines changes by threshold on the basis of distance computation for the input audio stream.

The distance measured comes from statistical modelling framework like the Kullback-Leibler distance, a generalised likelihood ratio (p.4). Audio segmentation incorporates metric-based method for computing segmentation and a clustering procedure to obtain training data, which is then followed by model based pre-segmentation. BIC operates as threshold and uses two-stage segmentation, first, segmentation audio stream by distance measure and secondly, refine changes by BIC sequentially (false alarm compensation).

However, the evaluated audio normally consists of relative long acoustic segments of >2s or 3s and short segments of 1-3s, which are often neglected in this type of segmentations because they are difficult to be detected. Short segments use unsupervised audio segmentation approach as an emphasis to detect the short segmentation. They are frequent in practical media such as movies, TV series, interviews and phone conversations. Therefore, detecting short segments becomes a challenge when applying audio segmentation into real applications (Yunfeng et al 2007).

In system frameworks, Yunfeng et al (2007) employs a model based approach consisting of five modules; refinement, post-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and pre-processing. Depending on the property of input audio data, pre and post-processing modules alternate, which is down-sampled into 16kHz. The methodology uses algorithm of recall rate (RCL), precision (PRC) and F-measure in determining the best segmentation performance.

Here, target-change that corresponds with one of the two boundaries employs a vigorous methodology in computing changes in false alarms gap. From this analysis, the process of detecting acoustic changes including silence seems insensitive and inaccurate, especially in the short segments. For example, Yunfeng et al (2007) illustrates that recall rates for short segments are between 30.9% and 37.6%, however the overall statistics presented here shows that recall rates could be near 75% if short segments are successfully detected.

Secondly, there is an average mismatch (AMM), which reflects the accuracy for the computed segment boundaries, which indicates that the approach used here does not have a very good resolution in segment boundary location. Aimed at processing real-word media such as broadcast news consisting segments of various durations, the study concludes that tri-model BIC approach shows better segmentation performance and higher resolution of segment boundary location and the refinement stage of the approach shows efficiency by experiments (DU).

In Speech/Music discriminator segment, Theodoros (2006) research states that speech and sound discriminator for radio recordings at segmentation stage to be based on the detection of changes in the energy distribution of the audio signal (p.1). He adds that automatic discrimination of speakers works on speeches, musical genre classification and speaker speech recognition (p.1). Theodoros (2006) concludes by stating that the task of discrimination of speech and music is distributed in the Bayesian Networks adopted in order to combine k-Nearest Neighbor classifiers trained on individual features (p.1).

This methodology has been successfully tested on real Internet broadcasts of BBC radio stations as a real time speech discriminator for the automatic monitoring of radio channels based on energy contour and Zero crossing rate (ZCR). The incremental approach of audio segmentation is divided into non-overlapping segments using segmentation algorithm. Normally, segments grow from one step at a time and when a segments extension is halted forcing it to reach predefined length, an abrupt transition from music to speech is experienced resulting into poor segmentation boundaries (Theodoros 2006, p.1).

Dutta and Haubold (2009) analysis on audio-based classification begins by stating that human voice contains non-linguistic features that are indicative to various speaker demographics with characteristics of gender, ethnicity and nativity (p.1). They further add that helpful cues for audio/video classifications help in content search and retrieval (p.1). In male/female classification using linear kernel support vector machine, automatic speech recognition (ASR) provides good content search cues conducted through filtering speech segments.

Experimental analysis conducted by Dutta and Haubold (2009) to filter out any short fixed audio sample window employed absolute maximum amplitude A methodology for a given speaker segment was noted to be affected by audio quality in an individual speaker use of microphones. It was also noted that in feature selection, the sample used in determining data was excess resulting to overfitting.

This unrestricted sample selection makes it hard to provide comparable classification accuracy and is in the long run more computationally expensive. Secondly, on the demographic experiment of multi-class classification where different classes of people were identified, the sample containing 600 samples for each group (African American, Hispanics, Caucasians and South East Asians) were too large to obtain accurate analysis. In addition, the linear kernel methodology did not provide effective classification accuracies. Classification accuracy in group classification was not determined since both native and non-native English speakers were not grouped according to their demographic class as researchers used different levels of features applied to classification of speech (Dutta and Haubold 2009).

Plumpe et al (1999) states in Hosseinzadeh and Krishnan (2007) special features in combining vocal source and MFCC features for speaker recognition to include Spectral band energy (SBE), spectral bandwidth (SBW), spectral centroid (SC),spectral crest factor (SCF), Renyi entropy (RE), spectral flatness measure (SFM) and Shannon entropy (SE) (p.1). Hosseinzadeh and Krishnan (2007) further add that to evaluate their performance in terms of spectral features, experimental analysis using Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) or LPCC using text-independent cohort Gaussian mixture model (GMM) speaker identification will be employed (p.1). Its however important to note that speaker identification is a biometric tool for resources that can be accessed via telephone or internet (Hosseinzadeh and Krishnan 2007).

Special feature recognition enhances performance by combining vocal sources and MFCC features by modelling the entire speech with time-varying excitement and a short time-varying filter. Speech signals are thereby modelled by linear convolution. MFCC and LPCC methodologies prove to be effective in speaker recognition but they do not provide complete description of the speakers speech system in terms of pitch, harmonic structure and spectral energy distribution (Hosseinzadeh and Krishnan 2007, p.4).

Secondly, the linear model used when calculating MFCC and LPCC is not entire accurate since vocal source signal may be predictable for certain vocal tract configurations and may not be applicable to others. Good recognition performance is proven by Hosseinzadeh and Krishnan (2007) experimental analysis to be achieved by GMM based systems. The research also adds that