1.8 End of section questions Information on the different albedos of various types of surface was given in Author(s): 2.2 Environmental pragmatism: positioning expert support I believe that the principal task for an environmental pragmatism is not to reengage the … debates in environmental ethics but rather to impress upon environmental philosophers the need to take up the largely empirical question of what morally motivates humans to change their attitudes, behaviours, and policy preferences toward those more supportive of long-term environmental sustainability. (Light, 2002, p. 446) 1.1 Framing nature using language tools By framing, I mean the structures and pre-assumptions that we consciously or unconsciously apply to a situation in order to make sense of it. So are there any differences between the way in which we frame nature in caring for environment and the way in which we frame it to provide accountability? What significance might this have, and what tools might be used to bridge the responsibilities of caring and accountability? Caring for environment makes manifest the informal aspects of 1.2.3 Activity 2 Before you read on, I would like you to dwell for just a moment on the significance of this shift from direct investment by Western firms to the establishment of subcontracting ties with overseas partners. Aside from outside firms being able to pa 4.2 'Biological control' We are also guilty of importing exotic species, some of which, like the rhododendron (imported from Asia to Europe), have run riot in the absence of natural predators or primary consumers, and so have tended to out-compete native plants. Sometimes introductions have been accidental; rats and many disease-causing organisms have spread around the world via relatively modern transportation such as sailing ships. However, deliberate introductions, such as the rhododendron, have been made with wor 5.2 Human rights in the international arena The UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserted that the ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. It further affirmed that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, that they were ‘essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations’, that these fundamental human rights include the equal rights between men Approaches to software development 3.2 Sub-state forms of nationalism The advancement of democracy in contemporary Western nation-states and the intensification of globalisation processes have encouraged the re-emergence of nationalist movements representing oppressed or silenced nations that demand the right to self-determination. In the case of ethnic groups formed by people of immigrant origin, democracy has provided them with the tools to pursue the right to develop and practice their indigenous culture and language alongside those of the host country. One 5.2.2 Owning problems Problem ownership is a tricky issue. It's also an issue that good leaders get right instinctively, and poor leaders get wrong consistently. The point is that there are two distinct classes of problems faced by leaders. The first consists of problems which are owned by the group members. Examples include when some additional resources are required, when instructions are not understood or when members complain that something is wrong. Under these conditions the leader's function is to provide p 4.5 Conclusions There are many different types of projects; all have specific objectives, constraints (such as budgets and schedules) and a group or team responsible for the completion of the project. Project teams are effective when both task and relationship behaviours are competently handled. The main task-oriented behaviours are: estimating and planning; assembling a team; reporting a 4.2 Project life cycles Earlier I said that a project is: 'a unique venture with a beginning and an end' (Boddy and Buchanan, 1992, p. 8). But it must have a middle, too. We say that a project has a 'life cycle'. This is based on an analogy with living things which are born, live for a period of time, doing things like consuming food and water, breathing, moving, etc., and then finally end (die). There is much discussion about whether there is only one 'true' model of a project life cycle or many, and whether any of 3.2.2 Group size Another significant feature of a work group is its size. To be effective it should be neither too large nor too small. As membership increases there is a trade-off between increased collective expertise and decreased involvement and satisfaction of individual members. A very small group may not have the range of skills it requires to function well. The optimum size depends partly on the group's purpose. A group for information sharing or decision making may need to be larger than one for prob 4.3 Optical networking DWDM improves the utilisation of optical fibre for point-to-point links, but a further step in exploiting the potential of optical fibre comes from optical networking in which routeing or switching is done optically. Optical networking is in its infancy, but the concept of the optical layer based upon wavelength channels is emerging. The optical layer effectively sits below the SDH layer in the network, and provides wavelength channels from one location to another. An analogy can 2.4.1 Multimode distortion With multimode fibre, the main cause of pulses spreading is the multiple paths that signals can traverse as they travel along the fibre. This phenomenon of multimode distortion is illustrated in Figure 5. 7 Summary This course presents an understanding of ‘ethics’ as something related with ‘good’ and ‘bad’. There are other derivative words like ‘optimal’ that might also be used, and there are parochial words which are related to particular communities. When we talk about ethical things, we are liable to confront cultural differences that are reflected in differences in vocabulary. But there are other kinds of differences too. Things have different properties; for example, ‘appearance†5.10 Conscience Ned responds with the use of another ethical concept. He feels what he is proposing is ‘right’, regardless of any relationships at play, and he refers to his ‘conscience’. This is perhaps a way of saying, firstly, that he feels very strongly that he is right and, secondly, that any speculation about signing away the IP gives him a great deal of discomfort. This appeal to a ‘conscience’ is an interesting rhetorical move because it neither requires nor provides any reasoned justific 5.2 Material comparisons I want to depart from the specific example of the bicycle to make some more general points. In most simple structural analysis the self-weight of the structure is ignored, as it is considered to be small in comparison with the loads carried. However, as an illustration of engineering practice in the search for efficient structures to employ in product design, it is worth examining how the strength and weight of particular materials compare. These comparisons are illustrated throug 5.1 The development of the bicycle Section 4 has looked at how we can follow a logical route or map, from the expression of a need, to arrive at possible solutions to a problem. In Sections 5 and 6 we look in more detail at two quite different examples of engineering problems. Our first example is the historical development of the bicycle frame; the second concerns a vital component of a car's airbag system. The weight of a bicycle frame is a major burden that the cyclist has to bear. There have certainly been times when 4.9 Final implementation The line you take here obviously depends on the problem you set out to solve. If you were creating a new product for retail or industry, then the final step of the process would be to put that product into manufacture and watch it go off into the world to begin its life cycle (Figure 20). If the s 4.3 Possible solutions According to Figure 7, our map of the problem-solving process, once we've defined the problem according to the need the next step is the creative bit – to look for 'possible solutions', Author(s):
Question 5
This free course, Approaches to software development, presents an engineering approach to the development of software systems – a software engineering approach. The course pays particular attention to issues of software quality, in terms of both product (what is built) and process (how we build it). First published on Mon, 18 Jun 2018 as Author(s):