Professional Ethics

Key words: profession, ethics, integrity, training, obligations

Profession is a vocation based upon education and training and professionals are those who have got specialized training and can take decisions of their own and can act accordingly which ordinary persons can’t do. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Ethics are values and beliefs of an individual or a society as a whole. Ethical principles  are:  honesty, integrity, being fair and open minded, respect for dignity and accountable for one’s decisions and their consequences.

It is reported that Chanakya wrote “Arthashastra” in fourth century BC during Chandra Gupta Maurya’s rule. It is a treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy. Professional ethics refer to the ethical obligations to be followed by professionals. Every profession has got its own obligations - Engineers have got their own values and beliefs, doctors have their own, lawyers their own and teachers their own obligations.

The main question that crops at this juncture is who decides what is ethical?  What is good at one point of time need not be good all the times. Each profession has got its own code of ethics. A code of ethics prescribes what a professional should do so that he can  do the best at the minimum cost. It also helps a professional to choose what to do when faced with a problem.  A professional has obligations towards his employer, client/customer   and society.

Ethics plays an important role in the workplace. General public are unlikely to do business with an unethical company. When a company is caught doing something unethical, that company often faces  different problems. Consumers may  boycott their products.  Ethics and work should go hand in hand. Maintaining ethics should be an integral part of the workplace.

 

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       Our Environment

Environment  is  the surroundings in which the organisms live. The environment has two components – abiotic (non living) and biotic (living).

The abiotic environment includes the air (atmosphere), water (hydrosphere) and land lithosphere). The biotic environment includes the plants, animals and the microbes.

The basic needs of all living beings are: oxygen, food, clothing and shelter. Man depends on the natural resources for all his needs.  Maintaining the natural resources of the environment and their careful use is very much essential so that the present generation as well as the future generation can live in this world comfortably.

Our earth is getting deteriorated day by day due to a variety of environmental problems like  global warming, air pollution, acid rain, and so on. Population explosion   coupled with major industries contribute a large extent to the environmental pollution. Individuals and governmental agencies have an important role in reducing the after effects of pollution.  Economic use of electricity,  reducing carbon dioxide and managing waste are the important steps to be taken  to create a healthy environment.  The large scale use of vehicles on the road also contributes to a large extent of air pollution.

Polluted waters from industries are directly fed into natural rivers and streams with out proper  treatment causing water pollution. Use of artificial fertilizers for agriculture lead to soil pollution. Thus preventive steps should be taken to reduce pollution in all spheres.

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Web site for a writer

Tags: web site, profile, services offered, comments

Just like email and mobile telephone, now a days website for each individual has become almost a necessity, part and parcel. of present day life.
It depicts the profile of the individual along with the services that he can give. In other words it shows the presence of a person in the cyber world. Just like any other professional, a writer can also  showcase his writing contributions through his personal web site. In other words it serves as an advertising display board.
 The web site helps:
 -        To remain in touch with the readers. The writer can share his views,        stories and articles.
-         It shows the list of  writer’s publications.
-         The readers can give their comments after reading the writings. They can seek further clarifications if required.

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                                         Human Relations                                         

Key words – human relations, work place, productivity, employees

Man, it is told, is a social animal. Man can’t live in this world all alone. He has to maintain relations with his family members, with his colleagues in his work place, with the members of the society with whom he is associated.

In a work place (office) there must be cordial relations between the employees, between the employees and the employer. Also there must be cordial relations  between the employee and his family members. Then only the worker will be able to put all his energies and attention on his job. This is very essential for the overall progress of the company. It is necessary to have a healthy and peaceful environment in the work place. An employee should take interest in the welfare of his colleagues. Egoism should not come in the way. On the other hand the employee should be sympathetic towards his colleagues.

If the relations among employees are not healthy, the employees will like to quit  the job at the earliest opportunity. This is a big loss as far as the management is concerned, because training a new employee is time consuming and expensive. Also the productivity will be hampered which in turn cause great loss to the company.

For enhancing the productivity, employees must be motivated. As such employees must be rewarded for initiating new techniques and also for suggesting improved methods. The management should conduct opinion surveys and get employees reactions and suggestions for increasing productivity.

The following actions will help in maintaining good relations:

-       Be friendly and helpful

-       Take genuine interest in others

-       Have a smile on face and greet others

-       Call people by their names

In short, relationships are the very foundation of our lives. whether personal or professional. The ability to understand others’ feelings and communicate effectively with the people around will  help in mitigating others problems to a large extent.

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Soil Nailing

 

Soil Nailing

Key words: soil nailing, construction of wall, rail road

Soil nailing is a construction technique in which steel bars are inserted in the holes driven on ground slopes. The purpose of  nailing is to stabilize natural slopes, excavated slopes or retaining walls.

 One of the first applications of soil nailing was in 1972 for a railroad widening project near Versailles, France, where an 18 m (59 ft) high cut-slope in sand was stabilized using soil nails (Rabejac and Toudic 1974). Clouterre’s  research program, (Schlosser 1983; Clouterre 1993) is another step in this direction..

 In Germany, the first use of a soil nailing   was for construction of a wall in the year  1975 (Stocker et al. 1979). The first major research program onn soil nail walls was undertaken in Germany from 1975 through 1981 by the University of Karlsruhe and the construction company Bauer. (Gassler and Gudehus 1981; Schlosser and Unterreiner 1991).

  In US, the first FHWA document on soil nailing was issued through FHWA’s Office of Research and Development (Elias and Juran 1991). Updated version of above FHWA soil nailing manual was made public in 2003 (Carlos et al. 2003).

 In India use of soil nailing technology is gradually increasing and guidelines have been made by IRC( Indian Road Congress) with the help of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

 

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Laughter - best medicine

                               Laughter- The Best Medicine

               Tags: laughter, medicine, sorrow, tests

It is recognized all over the world that  laughter  is the best medicine! Researchers have found that  positive  emotions  have a beneficial impact on a person's health. It has been observed  that watching comedy films boosts blood flow to the heart.

It was  found that artery blood flow was reduced after watching movie clips that caused distress; but  was increased  after watching movie clips that elicited laughter. The difference in flow between sad and happy responses exceeded an astonishing 50 percent.

The study was conducted on 20 healthy young adults after asking them to  view 15 to 30 minutes of  tragic / comic films. For the analysis 160 measurements of artery blood flow were taken before and one minute after exposing to phases of laughter or sadness.

Source: British Medical Journal - Specialty Journals / Kate Melville

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Be Young in Old Age

 Quite interesting to hear. But is it possible to remain young in old age? Difficult to believe. Hours roll into months, days into months and months to years. The old saying "Time and tide wait for no man" is perfectly apt. We can't stop time ticking off. As days pass on, we get older. Our thinking changes, our attitude changes and our physical body changes. Ageing is a natural process. We can't completely change the effects of old age; but we can, of course retard the deterioration of the body to a certain extent by leading a healthy and positive life style.

Effects of Aging:

As we get older, changes take place both in the physical and mental levels. Increased blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, cholesterol, cancer - are some of the major common problems of old age. The body cells start deteriorating and function less effectively; the skin loses elasticity, tissues break down, muscles weaken, eye sight reduces, hearing becomes weak, decayed teeth, increase in degenerative disease - all manifestations of old age. The absence of care, love and affection from children and other close relatives and friends further add chances for depression and increased mental tension. 

Causes of Ageing 

As discussed earlier, aging is a natural process and we can't completely reverse the process of aging. The main causes of aging are: 

Faulty Life style: 

Improper food, lack of physical exercise, increased mental tension- these all come under the category of faulty life style. 

Heredity 

The genes inherited from parents have got an important effect on aging. However one can't do anything to influence the genes.

Free Radicals

 Free radicals are highly corrosive oxidizing molecules. It is considered that free radicals are the main cause of aging and to a certain extent to cancer. The causes of these free radicals are : poor nutrition, cigarette smoking, strong sun light and air pollution. 

Aging Process

The aging process can be reversed to a certain extent by taking the following steps.

 - Have balanced ,nutritious food - 

- Take anti oxidants : Vitamins A, C & E and the mineral selenium

 - Proper physical exercise

 - Sufficient rest and sleep

 - Avoid mental tension and worry 

- Engage in some sort of mental activity

 - Have a positive attitude

 - Involve in creative social activity 

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