Positive Male Role Models Essay

The Key to the Success of the African American Male March 11, 2007 For the majority of African American males, the path to success is a challenging one. Young African American males in today’s society face major challenges to their growth and security. The lack of opportunity and motivation stems from preceding obstacles set before the pathways of their ancestors. Therefore, the crisis faced by present day African American males is nothing new. Having unchanged outcomes in the social aspect of present-day African American males, Black youth should take the unsuccessful paths of their predecessors as lessons learned. Nevertheless, there can not be any type of change expected without adequate opportunities as well as appropriate motivation. From an early age, it has become increasingly apparent that Black males are confronted with a series of obstacles in their attempts to attain academic, career, and personal-social success (Lee, 1992). Being that children are very impressionable, young black males need to be inspired with confidence by a positive example or influence in the beginning stages. The prior stages of adolescence are the most important to the development of successful African American males. This is where the need for positive male role models becomes affective. Most would agree that the key factor of role models is greatly needed. Within the article, Wanted: A few good men, the importance of role models to increase opportunities for African American males were emphasized. Pointed out was a specific period in which a defining moment takes place in the young black male’s life. This was noted as the second of several defining moments, â€Å"When individuals assert their independence and often engage in high-risk behavior† (Simms, 1991). This was seen in many black males, but particularly in those whose lives lacked a successful role model. In many cases, this is the key setback in the development of successful black males. The concern for the lack of successful role models is not the only factor, but the lack of realistic models for African American males is an issue also. In the article, Fighting the failure syndrome, it speaks of rescuing African American males from a future of self-destruction and an absence of positive male influence. The fact of the matter is, the majority of black youth grow up in female-headed, poor, and negative influenced environments (Simms, 1991). Now, with the lack of a father or father figure, the stereotypical negative branding, and no other inspiring influences, Black youth are left with a limited choice of models to follow. It is stated that successful celebrities are too distant to offer realistic models of reliable maturity. â€Å"The adult males whom many black boys try to emulate come from their own neighborhoods, and in tough urban areas, these â€Å"models† are all too often involved in drugs and crime† (Tifft, 1990). With that being said, there needs to be an empowering of young Black males. And coincidentally, Empowering Young Black Males, is an article that covers a variety of problems and possible solutions to the major challenges young Black males are faced with today. This article deals with African American males in schools, psychosocial development, as well as actions for intervention. The acknowledgement that young Black males are sufferers of negative attitudes and lowered expectations further enhances the need for empowerment schemes. Such initiatives must focus on helping Black male youth develop attitudes, behaviors, and values necessary to function at optimal levels at school and in the world (Lee, 1992). Black male empowerment can play a major role in sponsoring a positive-based developmental program. The articles used provide good supporting facts of why positive male role models are needed as well as how much of a factor they are in the path to success. The process of developing young African American males goes through many stages. Having to find the right man for the job, the effort in being effective in breaking the negative cycle, to the overall empowering of Black youth is a task.

Conditioning Procedures in Shaping Children’s Behaviour Essay

A child is repeatedly exhibiting inappropriate and unwanted behaviour (e.g. hitting sibling), which conditioning procedures could be used to most effectively stop this? Behaviours that produce favourable consequences are repeated and become habits, but those that produce unfavourable consequences tend not to recur (Ouellette and Wood, 1998 as cited in Martin et.al, 2006). Experience changes the probability of repeating certain behaviours indicating that learning involves adaptation. As time goes on, old behaviours are eliminated and new behaviours are learned. Pavlov discovered and formalized many of the most important laws of classical behaviour, B.F.Skinner (1938) investigated and formalized may of the basic laws of operant behavior. (Sheppard & Willoughby, 1975). Habituation and classical conditioning taught us the stimuli in the environment where we learn to ignore unimportant stimuli and learn those that predict occurrence of the important ones. (Martin et.al, 2006). Operant conditioning involves the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behaviour. Operant conditioning was first discovered by Edward L. Thorndike where he placed a hungry cat in a small chamber called puzzle box with food placed outside as a stimuli where the car need to performed an appropriate response to open the door of the puzzle box. The cat become less random and more efficient until it open the latch without hesitation after several random attempt. Thorndike called this relation between a response and its consequences the law of effect. (Martin et.al, 2006). Although Thorndike discovered the law of effect, B.F Skinner was the one who brought the study of operant conditioning into the lab and devised objective methods for studying human behaviour. He invented the operant chamber which is also known as the Skinner box where animal’s behaviour can be easily observed, manipulated, and automatically recorded. Operant conditioning allows us to learn association between behaviour and outcome. It teaches children to modify their behaviour to maximise the possible rewards they can get and taught them to learn from previous experience. When a child is repeatedly exhibiting inappropriate and unwanted behaviour, operant conditioning can be used to correct the behaviour of the child. There are four basic principles used in the operant conditioning, which can be described as positive reinforcement (reward), negative reinforcement (escape), punishment and omission. (Rachlin, 1976) Positive reinforcement and punishments referred  as environmental events that may affect on individuals. Reinforcement Is neither an environmental nor a behavioural event but a relationship between two which tends to increase responding by either positive or negative means. Whereas punishment is a relationship that tends to decrease responding by either positive or negative means. Operant behaviour is modified by its consequences and the consequences which modify behaviour are called reinforcers. Consequences Positive reinforcement is where there is an increase in the frequency of response behaviour that is regularly and reliably followed by a positive stimulus. Positive reinforcement can also be considered in terms of reward. The principle of reward was stated in Thorndike’s â€Å"law of effect† – a reward tends to increase the probability that the response to which it is related will recur. (Rachlin, 1976) The effect of the reward will be pleasant and reinforce the behaviour of children. For example candy or attention can serve as rewards for children if they behave properly. This might encourage them to stop the inappropriate behaviour as behaving properly will give them something nice. Negative reinforcement involves the avoidance of an aversive stimulus, also known as escape. Negative reinforcement work in two ways, either it decreases the frequency of occurrence of operant behaviour that it follows or it increases the frequency of occurrence of operant behaviour that removes or terminates it. (Sheppard & Willoughby, 1975) The consequences are often painful and the effects are unpleasant. Because of the nature of aversive stimuli of negative reinforcement, it is usually difficult to program long intervals between negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement might be effective if the aversive stimuli is used wisely. One of the commonly used procedures for weakening operant behaviour is punishment. Punishment refers to a decrease in the frequency of the response that is regularly and reliably followed by an aversive stimulus. (Martin et.al, 2006). The principle of punishment is the inverse of Thorndike’s law – an aversive, or noxious, stimulus tends to decrease the probability that the response to which it is related will occur. (Rachlin, 1976) In operant conditioning, reinforcement is neither an environmental nor behavioural event, but a relationship between the two that tends to increase responding by either positive or negative means. Punishment, likewise, is a relationship that tends to decrease responding by either positive or negative means. Parents will often  choose punishment such as scolding or sometimes some physical punishment if the children exhibit inappropriate behaviour. Punishment has an immediate effect on unwanted behaviour. When a parents spanks a child for hitting their siblings or yells at them for their misbehaviour, the immediate decrease in the punished response negatively reinforces the parent’s spanking response. Many parents rely heavily on punishment to terminate the aversive behaviour of their children without fully understanding the effects of punishment. However, Punishment can produce a number of undesirable effects. First, punishment can results in emotional trauma such as fear, anger, anxiety and depression. It might cause the disruption of learning and performance of the children. Secondly, punishment sometimes might lead to suppression of all behaviours, not only the misbehaviour being punished. Furthermore, punishment requires continual monitoring of the individual’s behaviour in the real world. The use of punishment might try to encircle the rules of escape from the situation entirely. Mazur (1998) held that if the teacher used punishment as his primary method of behavioural control, a child might try to hide the proof of their misbehaviour. It might not help to correct the misbehaviour of the child. Another problem associated with punishment is that it can lead to aggressive behaviour by the punished child. This aggression might be directed against the punisher or another individual. With the numerous disadvantages above, parents should be using punishment wisely and with great care as it might influence the behaviour of children in the future. A negative punishment or an omission of reward occurs when the absence of a reward, otherwise present in the environment, is related to the response. Like punishment, the omission of reward tends to decrease the probability that the response will recur. (Rachlin, 1976) Example of omission is that parents may confiscate the child’s favourite toy or grounding the child for his misbehaviour. In operant conditioning, extinction consists in the removal of the conditioning relationship between response and reward or punishment. (Rachlin, 1976) Behaviour that is not longer being reinforced will then decrease in frequency. Example is that a child will stop crying and shouting if the parents choose to ignore him. However, extinction is not the same as forgetting. Forgetting takes place when a behaviour is not rehearsed for a long time. Extinction takes place when a person makes a response that is no  longer reinforced. (Martin et.al, 2006). Another procedure where parents can stop the child from exhibiting inappropriate behaviour is by using a technique developed by Skinner called shaping. It involves reinforcing any behaviour that successively approximates the desired response. (Martin et.al, 2006) Parents can teach children about behaving properly and praises children for their good behaviour. Rewards will be given and children will reinforce their good behaviour. Successful shaping requires that the right step size be selected and that each approximation be reinforced only enough times to allow the criterion to be increase while still maintaining the behaviour at each step. (Sheppard & Willoughby, 1975) However, there are some limitation to the Reinforcement is mainly studied in terms of primary reinforcers and primary punishers. Primary reinforcers are the biological positive (appetitive) unconditioned stimuli such as food and water. Primary punishers are the biological negative (aversive) unconditioned stimuli such as pain and illness. Other than that, behaviour can also be reinforced with wide variety of stimuli. These stimuli are called conditioned or secondary reinforcers. It is the stimuli that have acquired their positive and negative values through conditioning. Examples of positive value might be money and negative values might be fines. Similarly, conditioned punishers acquire their punishing effects through association with aversive events. (Martin et.al, 2006). Example of this is children get lecture or even grounded for their misbehaviour. Conditioned reinforcement and punishment are very important in permitting an organism’s behaviour to be affected by stimuli that are not biologically important in themselves but that are regularly associated with the onset or termination of biologically important stimuli. (Martin et.al, 2006) Conditioned reinforcers and punishers allow for behaviour to be altered by a wide variety of contingencies. In conclusion, when a child exhibit an inappropriate or unwanted behaviour, parents should consider using appropriate conditioning methods to effectively stop the wrong behaviour of the child. Positive reinforcement is a better option than punishment in altering behaviour as positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioural modification, whereas punishment only temporarily changes behaviour and presents many detrimental  side effects. Reference: Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., & Bukist, G.N. (2007). Psychology, 3rd Edition. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. Mazur, J.E. (1998). Learning and Behaviour, 4th edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Sheppard, W.C.,& Willoughby, R.H.(1975). Child Behavior: Learning and Development. Rand McNally College Publishing Company. Walker, S. (1984). Learning Theory and Behaviour Modification. Methuen. Rachlin, H. (1976). Behavior and Learning. W.H. Freeman and Company.

Nacl and cellular respiration Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Nacl and cellular respiration - Coursework Example State of the cell determines the type of energy transformed from the available nutrients. Even though, the cell may contain salts like NaCl, the most important aspect is the locality of the cell. Working cells like root have a higher rate of respiration as compared to dormant ones like the seed cells due to extra energy stored (Meldrum 25). Nutrients in a given food substrate contain different compounds and, therefore, not only sodium chloride. Therefore, the availability of different types of nutrients results in different amounts of energy produced during respiration. This explains why energy content from carbohydrates id different from proteins and fats (Meldrum 33) One of the primary requirements of cellular respiration is oxygen availability in the breakdown of food substrate to yield energy. The oxygen has no salt component, and this, therefore, means the process can take place in any environment that has an adequate supply of oxygen (Meldrum

Market rate of return Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Market rate of return - Assignment Example If it is observed that the returns are consistently below the SML line, it will mean that the stock is expected to rise, while if the returns are seen to be consistently above the line, then it will mean that the stock is due for a drop. Graphing the SML for a particular stock requires a stock with a beta that is higher than 1 and this usually outperforms the market, while a beta that is less than 1 implies that it underperforms the market (Shanken, 56). The y-intercept of the SML is equal to risk-free rate. The SML slope is equal to market risk premium and it usually reflects the return trade of a given time. Beta is termed as non-diversifiable or systematic risk. Basing on the generated regression line the equation created is=8.375x-0.166 Going by beta values, the security market line indicates that the relationship between return and risk is linear for the individual securities. For instance, increased return= increased risk. Essentially it indicates what return someone needs to e arn on an investment for it to be worth taking, and this is seen to increase with the investment riskiness. The Security Market Line formula is as below: Required Return = Risk Free Rate + (Beta x [Market Return - Risk Free Rate]) Calculate 95% confidence intervals for the slope and y-intercept. SUMMARY OUTPUT Regression Statistics Multiple R 0.997314 R Square 0.994636 Adjusted R Square 0.992848 Standard Error 0.005276 Observations 5 ANOVA Â   df SS MS F Significance F Regression 1 0.015486 0.015486 556.2975 0.000167 Residual 3 8.35E-05 2.78E-05 Total 4 0.01557 Â   Â   Â   Â   Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0% Intercept 0.020428 0.004799 4.256403 0.023776 0.005154 0.035702 0.005154 0.035702 X Variable 1 0.118761 0.005035 23.58596 0.000167 0.102737 0.134786 0.102737 0.134786 RESIDUAL OUTPUT Observation Predicted Y Residuals 1 0.04418 0.00582 2 0.079809 -0.00481 3 0.109499 -0.0045 4 0.162942 0.002058 5 0.19857 0.00143 Look up t he current return on one-year Treasury bills/notes as your risk-free rate. Two good sources. In your report, please state your source and the date used. http://fxtrade.oanda.com/analysis/economic-indicators/united-states/rates/yield-curve Date used; November 29, 2013 My risk free rate is 0.05 Given the current risk-free rate, is the regression estimate of your risk-free rate match the actual current risk-free rate? Use confidence intervals to help answer this question. Basing on the confidence interval calculation above, the regression estimate of my risk free rate does not match the actual current risk-free rate because it falls outside the interval or range of 0.10273 and 0.13478 What is the current expected market rate of return (based on your regression)? Basing on my regression, the current expected market rate of return is as below; Using the equation generated from the regression; Y=8.375x-0.166 The current expected market rate of return is equal to X Therefore X=(y+0.166)/8. 375 But we are given Y which is 0.05. The X will now be (0.05+0.166)/8.375=0.02579 Therefore, the current expected market rate of return is 0.02579 Works Cited Shanken, J.On the Estimation of Beta-Pricing Models,"Review of Financial Studies, 5(1), 1{33,1992. Print Shanken, J.,and G.

Numeracy in Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Numeracy in Action - Essay Example This shows that he can visually discriminate one object from another. Nathan can not do the same with numbers. He cannot even recognize which are numbers and which are letters. For him they just look like squiggles and strange marks. Support: Introducing numbers to children should expose them to the visual appearance of each number, the quantity it represents and even the strokes used when writing it down. Flashcards of numbers may be used to imbed the appearance of the number to the child’s mind while its name is repeatedly said. An effective method is teaching counting songs and when the number is mentioned, up comes the flashcard of that number. Children love singing and movement and incorporating these in their learning a concept becomes interesting and fun for them. A story that focuses on a particular number (ex: 2 friends found 2 birds eating 2 apples) is likewise interesting to listen to. A teacher may provide a coloring sheet with a big print of the specific number discussed. These methods may be used with Nathan. The strategies address various learning styles that may suit any child. The variety of activities address the needs of the visual (flashcards and story pictures), auditory (songs and st ory), kinesthetic (movements to songs) and tactile (coloring sheet) learners. Resources/ Materials used: number flashcards; CD’s of number songs (Five Little Monkeys; Five Green Speckled Frogs; There were 10 in the Bed.. etc.); number storybooks; number coloring sheet focusing on 1 number at a time, box of crayons. Case: Hannah has mastered identifying numbers up to 10 and visually comparing sets with more objects or less objects if the quantities are obvious (like comparing a set of 2 buttons with a set of 10 buttons). However, when asked to match a number with its quantity, she wouldn’t know what to do. She has mastered

Is it free market or regulated financial systems that underpin Essay - 2

Is it free market or regulated financial systems that underpin long-term economic success and effective corporate governance - Essay Example A divide exists in the global business within the context of financial systems as each economic giant strives to catapult its ideology over the others. Of note, however, is the argument that economic and fiscal strategies are country specific in terms of level of growth, such that bank-based financial systems best suit the transitioning economies such as China. The report presents an analysis of how economic systems affect corporate governance with insights from various countries. A great diversity exists in both the current status of corporate economic systems and the measures to enhance them in most countries. Presumably, the stated diversity is a reflection of the variegated circumstances of every country (Comelli, 2014). The circumstances include the development state of a nation, the relation between government and business, the financial structure inclusive of funds procurement structures, the shareholding structure and the market for talent among others. Of interest are the commonalities that surface in the direction of system improvements. So as to say, the direction of enhancement in governance via mutual supervision and the improvements in mechanisms to this end is a typical feature in most countries with most countries endeavouring to enhance corporate systems. All this aim at maximising long-term corporate value based on the perspective of an array of stakeholders (Leijonhufvud, 2012). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the approaches to enhanc ing corporate governance differs in relation to a countrys economic ideology as earlier mentioned. For instance, a capitalistic economy would approach governance from a different viewpoint compared to a command-based economy. From theory, it is widely known that command economies dictate that the government makes the decision on the goods and service to be produced, coupled with their

The Globalisation of Logistics and Supply Chains Coursework

The Globalisation of Logistics and Supply Chains - Coursework Example This paper illustrates that every business needs to have an effective strategy that enables it to be strategically ready to deal with the effects of globalization. There are some scholars who believe that globalization only causes problems; contrastingly, some believe that it has both challenges and opportunities that businesses can exploit. Those who are anti-globalization are usually concerned that the phenomenon will cause economic catastrophe and that it should, therefore, be avoided. Anti-globalisation individuals look at globalization from a political point of view and argue that it will have a negative effect on economies around the world (because politics affect economies, so those who are against the globalization believe that globalization makes it easier for international politics affect economies negatively). However, globalization can also be examined from a business point of view. The 19th century was the dawn of globalization. According to Rugman and Collinson, if the right strategies are implemented, firms—and especially big firms, such as multinationals—can benefit a great deal from globalization. According to Worthington and Britton, the firms that have been able to develop an effective global strategy have also been able to advance their interests and increase their global market share while improving their sales and profit margins. A very good example of this is Coca-Cola, which was one of the first multinational firms to begin formulating and implementing a global business strategy even before the debate on globalization was ignited. Because of this, the company was able to come up with ways to take over the global soft drink market, and today, the firm’s products are available and adored all over the globe, even in the least developed regions. This has made Coca-Cola the leader in its industry. Market participation refers to the ways in which firms are able to participate in strategic markets around the world. The worl d consists of more than 200 countries, and even the most globalized firms have been unable to reach all these countries.

Unit 6, Chapter 13 & 14 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unit 6, Chapter 13 & 14 - Coursework Example The major key to address this issue is to provide all the employees a holistic view of the organization, which they are all part of and they are working for. Involvement and extensive communication is a crucial factor to providing a holistic view of the organization. The major structural issue to identify is on how to minimize these conflicts resulting from massive compartmentalization of jobs, while maintaining operating efficiency and productivity of employees by still utilizing specialization in some areas. In many years, successful corporations have used the concept of cross-functional work teams in order to address the issue. A cross-functional work team is a team organized to perform a task, usually to work on a certain project within the organization. It is cross-functional because the members of the teams come from different specialized functions of the organization—research and development, marketing, finance, human resources, operations, etc. While the team focuses on things ranging from solving a certain problem in the company, to working on a new product a company decides to launch, specialization is used according to the demands of the project. The diverse set of individuals from different specialized jobs, working together also provides a multitude of insights for brainstorming. The utilization of cross-functional teams provides a more flexible approach to adapting to a company’s business environment. By focusing on a certain project with experts from each of the department, coordination is ensured which cuts costs in terms of time and cutting down processes. This will help the company bring excellent products in the market before any competitor does, which can give it a definite advantage if it can match its offerings with the consumers’ changing preferences the earliest in the market. Because cross-functional

Status of Women in India Essay Example for Free

Status of Women in India Essay in indiaâ€Å"When one boy is educated, one person will be wise. When one girl is educated entire family will be wise.† This is famous quote by girl education pioneer Mahatma Phule. This underlines the importance women in society. From the time of independence our constitution concentrated to give enough right for women. But the problem is that women are facing many problems in this modern age of gender equality. The structure of Indian society is different and unique than any other. Indian society believes in epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata more than anything else. Society wants that a woman should be like Sita the ideal Indian woman, who surrendered all her desires and followed Rama to the forest. Girls are brought up to follow the footsteps of Sita. In today’s modern world this expectation continues. A woman should go for work, earn money and must do house hold works also. Society expects that a woman should be like superwoman who can do everything. This is totally injustice for women. From the time of independence we as nation tried to create a society where women have equal rights as men. Our constitution, Government worked sincerely in that way. The Laws like The Hindu Marriage act (1955), The Hindu Succession Act (1956), The Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), The Maternity Benefit Act (1961), The Equal Remuneration Act (1976), The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) act (1986) have paved the way for bringing about major positive changes in the lives of women. Despite of such constitutional weapons women are facing lot of problems like 1) Feticide: Feticide is the largest problem for today’s society. As technology developed, people are using it to kill girl fetus. Feticide is today’s biggest problem Indian society. Till 2001, there are only 933 female births per 1000 male birth. This is dangerous situation for the balance of society. In spite of act against girl child abortion people are finding escape for abortion. As of March 2001, the female population stands at 495.4 million out of total 1,028 million Indian populations. Thus, in the present population of 1.03 billion, there ought to be 528 million women. Instead, estimates show only 496 million women in the population today. This implies that there are some 32 million missing women in India. Some are never born, and the rest die because they do not have the opportunity to survive. Sex-ratio (number of female per 1,000 male) is an important indicator of womens status in the society. In 1901 there were 972 females per 1,000 males, while by 1971; the ratio has come down to 930 females per 1,000 males. In 1981 there has been only a nominal increase in the female sex ratio within 934 females to 1,000 males. There were only 926 females per 1000 males in India according to 1991 census. The 2001 census indicate that the trend has been slightly arrested with the sex ratio at 933 females per 1000 males, with Kerala at 1058 females. The sex ratio of the 0-6 age group has declined sharply from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. According to UNFPA State of world population 2005, Punjab (793), Haryana (820), Delhi (865), Gujarat (878) and Himachal Pradesh (897) have worst child sex ratio. Facing this problem is not easy at all. We have to make families aware about the importance of girl child for the balance of society. 2) Harassment: Harassment is the common in country like India. Probably it is for the reason of Dowry. Police records for the country as a whole show that a woman is molested every 26 minutes. A rape occurs every 34 minutes. Every 42 minutes, an incident of sexual harassment takes place. A woman is kidnapped every 43 minutes. And every 93 minutes, a woman is killed. When a woman is harassed she doesn’t come for the complaint against it due to fear. She fears the disgrace in society and shuts her mouth. We have to provide fear free environment, so that a woman come for complaint and demand justice. 3) Lack of Health Awareness: As mother, family care taker a woman always ignores her own health and concentrates on the family health. This is age long habit of traditional Indian woman. As individual she must break this. Government as well as social wale fare communities must arrange proper health education and cheap health facilities for woman. 4)Woman Literacy: In 2001 the total literacy rate in India is 65.8. The woman literacy rate is 54.16 while male literacy rate is 75% this shows that woman literacy rate is low, In spite of many schemes for girl education. We have to make minds of girl child parent to send them school.These are the random problems and many are under curtains. The one perfect remedy is the proper implementation of laws and schemes for woman. Though significant improvements are have taken in the position of woman in the 50 years following independence, women continue to suffer from the problems like violence, illiteracy and ill health Together we have to work in the way of gender equality, woman wale fare so that a woman can live proudly as human being and not as servant nor as goddess.

Human Factors in Maintenance Essay Example for Free

Human Factors in Maintenance Essay Nationair DC-8 Flight 2120 took the lives of 247 passengers and 14 crew members; 261 in all; during takeoff on July 11, 1991. The jet was owned by Canadian airline Nolisair, and was being operated by a Nigerian company to transport Nigerian pilgrims in and out of Mecca. The DC- 8 caught fire during take-off from Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Pilots noticed problems during early stages of take-off and only made it 671 meters in elevation before attempting to turn around for a emergency landing. It was too late; the under inflated tires had overheated began to catch fire. The fire grew and blew out the hydraulics which made the emergency landing impossible. This was the worst wreck a DC-8 had ever experienced and has held the record for many years following. The NTSB concluded that the fire could have been handled by leaving the landing gear extended and away from the plane. Although the pilots failed to make the right decision, and added just one more human error to the equation, it was the obvious neglect by the maintenance team that caused this horrific accident. There are many human factors which played a vital role in the crash. The maintenance team failed to inflate the #2 and #4 main gear tires after recognizing the pressure during the pre-flight. An attempt to inflate the tires failed because there was no nitrogen available at the location. Further investigation shows later that the maintenance team recognized and had written up the tires during a previous A inspection but was signed off and overlooked more than twice before the incident. Human Factors Involvement There are many human factors that caused the Flight 2120 crash, and most of them are maintenance related. There was a Liveware-Liveware problem with the lack of communication between the lead mechanic and Director of Production. The Director of Production never questioned the lead mechanic and was said to have little contact with the him prior to this happening. Liveware-Hardware issues developed because of lack of qualified personnel amongst the maintenance team. The maintenance team did not have a qualified person to sign off the jet, leaving the task to the flight engineer who was not in tune with the maintenance team. The responsibility should have landed in the lead mechanics hands to sign off the maintenance write ups and the Director of Production should have been more involved by communicating with the lead mechanic and being more involved. There was a break down in maintenance even in the early stages of this TDY. The tires had been already recognized and written up during prior inspections, but pressure from the Project Manager to make the mission influenced the maintenance team to overlook minor maintenance issues at that time. Although seemingly minor at the time, the issues would later be the ultimate downfall and failure of the mission. Lack of communication and pressure caused the maintenance team to not see the importance of inflating the tires to the standard before going on a long mission. The minor task of inflating the tires to the standards before going on the long sortie would have negated the tires overheating and causing the plane to catch on fire and crash. The maintenance team was not the only factor which added to the human factors. The air crew is also responsible for some bad decision making skills also. During take-off one crew member was recorded stating that he thought he heard a main landing gear tire blow. The pilot failed to act upon and acknowledge this and carried on with the task. Pilots failed to recognize warning lights designed to inform the pilot of landing gear issues. While taking off the crew failed to use proper radio procedures regulations that kept them in contact with the tower. The night before the crash the pilots were out shopping and eating and not returning home until hours before take-off. The lack of crew rest could have played a role in decision making abilities amongst the crew. The crew showed up to the aircraft late which pushed maintenance to hurry and complete the pre-flight, giving them no time to perform a good complete inspection. Lack of leadership in the cockpit added to the advancement in takeoff. If the copilot trusted his own judgment and realized there was a problem in the main gear he could have stopped the aircraft from taking off. Safety Nets The crash of flight 2120 could have easily been avoided by simply following standard procedures set by international and local organizations. The maintenance holds the bulk of the responsibility in terms of human factors. The communication between the lead mechanic and AME could have been solved by following the chain of command. The director of production had very poor communication with the lead mechanic. This caused for a lack in communication from the there up the chain. The communication was broken at this given point in the chain of command and gave little information which is vital in aviation. The AME had direct responsibility to sign off the final for flight and it was handed over to the flight engineer whom had little knowledge of the maintenance operations. The maintenance team failed to complete given checklists and follow standards set by the FFA and international organizations. With the lack of communication, personnel, and leadership, along with added pressure, the aircraft was not mission ready and should have been better managed from top to bottom. The maintenance crew has very stringent tire pressure requirements and the responsibility lies in even the lowest level of operations to complete the task. The warning lights indicated to the cockpit flight crew that problems have arouse and they chose to ignore them. By receiving proper crew rest the night before, they might have had better decision making skills and could have made the right decision at the given moment. They also became complacent and did not use the communication procedures with the tower. Conclusion Human factors is the cause of most aircraft accidents and this one is a major example of how many human factors can play such a vital role. Flight 2120 shows the importance and how human factors can directly affect everything involved. The importance of being alert and aware of your environment can come down to one decision which can be the determining factor in any situation. The maintenance and air crew failed to follow written guidelines and standards of operation to protect the lives of those on board. The mission was doomed from the start by the maintenance communication breakdown. The lack of qualified personnel should have been one of the first red flags. The decision to not fix the problem and over look it several times put them in an environment where the tools needed for the job was not present. The lack of leadership from the bottom level of the maintenance crew to the pilot was a major issue. The lowest level maintenance personnel could have stepped up and brought about the problem. The flight of Nigerian Airway 2120 was that caused by human error. The horrific event shows the importance of following set standards and regulations. The crash exposes the vital role in the chain of command and how human error and lack of communication can break down at any level. References Aviationsafetynetwork.com American-bankruptcy.us.gov