Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Explaining a Misdemeanor and Why It Can Be a Big Deal

Explaining a Misdemeanor and Why It Can Be a Big Deal A misdemeanor is a lesser crime in the United States with less severe penalties than felonies, but more severe punishments than infractions. Generally, misdemeanors are crimes for which the maximum sentence is 12 months or less. Many states have laws that establish different levels or classifications for misdemeanors, such as Class 1, Class 2, etc. The most severe classes are those that are punishable by jail time, while the other classifications are misdemeanors for which the maximum sentence does not include incarceration. Misdemeanor sentences of incarceration are usually served in the local city or county jail, while felony sentences are served in prison. Most misdemeanor sentences, however, usually involve paying a fine and doing community service or serving probation. Except in a very few states, people convicted of misdemeanors do not lose any civil rights, as convicted felons do, but can be prohibited from getting certain jobs. Classifications Differ by State It is up to each state to determine specifically which behaviors are criminal and then classify the behavior based on a set of parameters and the severity of the crime. Examples of how states differ when determining crimes and penalties are outlined below with the marijuana and drunk driving laws in different states. Marijuana Laws There are significant differences in laws governing marijuana from one state, city or country to another and from state and federal perceptions. While Alaska, Arizona, California and 20 other states have legalized (or decriminalized) the personal use of medical marijuana, other states including Washington, Oregon, and Colorado have legalized recreational and medical marijuana. A handful of states including Alabama (any amount is a misdemeanor) and Arkansas (less than 4 oz. is a misdemeanor) consider the possession of (specific amounts) of marijuana as a misdemeanor. Drunk Driving Laws Each state has different laws governing drunk driving (driving while intoxicated - DWI or Operating Under the Influence - OUI) including the legal limits, the number of DWI offenses, and the penalties. In most states, a person who receives their first or second DUI is charged with a misdemeanor while the third or subsequent offense is a felony. However, in some states, if there is property damage or someone is hurt, the penalty jumps to a felony. Others states, for example, Maryland, consider all DUI offenses as misdemeanors and New Jersey classifies DUIs as a violation, and not a crime. What Is the Difference Between Infractions and Misdemeanors? Sometimes people will refer to their crime as, just a misdemeanor, and while being charged with a misdemeanor is less serious than being charged with a felony, it is still a very serious charge that if found guilty, could result in jail time, heavy fines, community service, and probation. There are also legal fees that should be considered. Also, failure to follow any of the court-ordered conditions of a misdemeanor conviction will result in more misdemeanor charges and even heavier fines, possibly more jail time and extended probation and legal fees. Being charged with an infraction is a lot less serious than a misdemeanor and the penalties usually involve paying a ticket or small fine and never result in jail time unless there is a failure to pay the fine. Also, people found guilty of an infraction are not ordered to perform community service or attend problem-specific programs such as Alcoholic Anonymous or anger management. Criminal Record Misdemeanor convictions appear on a persons criminal record. It also may be legally required to disclose the particularities of the crime during job interviews, on college applications, when applying for the military or government jobs, and on loan applications. Infractions may appear on a persons driving record, but not on their criminal record. Misdemeanor Penalties The penalties for a person convicted of a misdemeanor depends on several factors including the severity of the crime, if it is a first-time offense or if the person is a repeat offender and if it was a violent or non-violent offense. Depending on the crime, misdemeanor convictions will rarely result in more than one year in the city or county jail. For petty misdemeanor convictions, the jail sentence could fall between 30 to 90 days. Most misdemeanor convictions also result in a fine up to $1,000 although for repeat offenders or for violent crimes the fine can increase up to $3,000. Sometimes a judge may impose both the jail time and a fine. If the misdemeanor involved property damage or financial loss to a victim, then the judge may order restitution. The restitution can include court costs.  Also, a court may suspend the sentence and place the defendant on probation.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Air Pollution Affects Us More Than We Think Professor Ramos Blog

Air Pollution Affects Us More Than We Think Did you know that air pollution does not just affect our environment and health, but that it also affects us psychologically? When someone says air pollution people usually tend to think of factories putting chemicals in the air, forest fires, or old cars. What they do not think of is all the problems that come out of air pollutions. When getting to know about pollution it is important to know other countries who have gone through it such as china, the type of health problems that it causes, the psychological issue, and the solution.Since 1982 China has dealt with the problem of air pollution. A majority of the pollution in China comes from the four major cities Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Shanghai that have an air quality level of PM 2.5. PM stands for particulate matter which is the particles found in the air such as dust, dirt, smoke, chemicals, etc. PM 2.5 means that the particles in the air are 2.5 micrometers. Our bodies are able to breath in and exhale PM10 particles and we will be fine, but for PM2.5 it â€Å"is much more dangerous to our health as it can penetrate deep into our lungs and enter our bloodstream.† (Health and safety, 7). The air quality in China has gotten so bad that it has contributed to 1.6 million deaths in 2014. To help solve the air pollution, China has many air quality monitors that monitor on the ground daily. The monitors have found out that â€Å"a wide variety of factors may influence the PM2.5 level, which may be closely related to environmental and industrial factors, we focus on inferring statistical dependence and causal relations between four major cities in China based on the PM2.5 measurement data as observational evidence.† (Min Kim, 6). Due to the monitors they are not certain that it is the factories that are the main source causing the bad air quality, but they are working on making the chemicals coming out of factories better.The type of health issues that air pollution can cause are nausea, diffi culty in breathing, skin irritation, or even cancer. It could also cause health problems such as birth defects, serious developmental delays in children, and reduced activity of the immune system. What happens is that heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, dioxins, etc. goes into the nervous system and causes those types of problems. â€Å"Moreover, there exist several susceptibility factors such as age, nutritional status and predisposing conditions.† (Kampa, Castanas, 11). Memory and attention are another common health problem that comes from air pollution. A study of air pollution exposure during children’s first year at life found that it associates â€Å"with reduced psychomotor development, as well as with autism spectrum disorder, and impairment in cognitive development.† (Rivas, 4). How they did this study is they got a group of kids between the ages of seven through ten from Barcelona, Spain and New York, New York to take three tests. The ns of th is is that people feel like if they are in a more polluted area, they can lie a lot easier. That they could do things to benefit them more if the air quality and the environment is not that healthy because in a polluted place, they already see the earth going downhill and think that telling the truth is unethical. If the air quality gets any worse and people do start lying more because they feel like it a common/acceptable thing to do than the world could spin into mayhem and become a more deceiving world. â€Å"Air pollution may increase individuals consideration of and desire for behavioral outcomes, especially material ones, and lead them to transgress rules to reach such outcomes.† (Wu, 5). Air pollution can also raise people’s anxiety and depression. Gloomy skies tend to make some people feel sadder and have the feeling of being sluggish. While for anxiety air pollution can cause the person to feel uneasy and worried about the environment and nervous of what this will cause.To help solve the problem of air pollution one thing that commoners can contribute to is the type of cars a person has. To reduce the air quality and meet the legal limits a way to fix cars outtake on pollution is a new combustion processes for internal combustion engines. A new combustion that we are trying out is called the HCCI combustion. â€Å"The HCCI combustion process is a form of low temperature combustion [1] and has the advantages of lower emissions of NOx, compared to both compression ignition and spark ignition (SI) mode of operation, and at the same time of high efficiency (diesel like efficiency numbers).† (Vucetic, 2). A problem with the HCCI is the sensitivity to the intake air temperature. The intake of air can go up to 200 degrees Celsius; if the temperature goes any higher the exhaust will go out. There are still studies on it and making the engine better for cars, so that we can reduce the air pollution.It is important to acknowledge this probl em because it will not only affect our environment and make the world a gloomier and more polluted place, but that it will affect our health in a negative way causing things such as asthma, skin dieses, cancer, etc. It will also make the world a more chaotic place when it starts affecting our behaviors such as lying, depression, and anxiety. That’s why we need a plan of action, even something as small as fixing engines of our cars, so that we are not spreading chemicals around the world.Castanas, Elias. Kampa, Marilena. Science Direct. 10 June 2007. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.465.5144rep=rep1type=pdf Health and Safety in Shanghai. 2019. https://www.healthandsafetyinshanghai.com/china-air-quality.html Min Kim, Jong. PLOS ONE. 14 March 2019. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6sid=5c5a3c67-eab7-49da-b552-a2afd415fbf7%40pdc-v-sessmgr02 Rivas, Ioar. Environmental Health Perspectives. 9 May 2019. https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10. 1289/EHP3169 Vucetic, Ante. Department of IC Engines and Transportation Systems. 15 March 2018. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4sid=efa52648-0080-49a6-b8b7-ce55591f86c6%40pdc-v-sessmgr01 Wu, Song. Wang, Tingbin. PLOS ONE. 29 April 2019. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5sid=a51dba5c-09a0-4156-8024-e411fd2c9654%40sessionmgr4007

Thursday, November 21, 2019

E-marketing affect consumer behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

E-marketing affect consumer behavior - Essay Example E-marketing offers a very cost effective way to reach a large potential market with a diversified range of users using the Internet actually forming a kind of subculture within the population, each of which with certain characteristics such as income and educational levels, with more users in urban and metropolitan rather rural areas. E-marketing has 4 P’s:1) Permission, 2) Privacy,3) Profiling and 4) Personalization. Permission is considered the key to successful E-marketing, which involves receiving and maintaining permission from customers. Permission based E-marketing is considered good business practice. Privacy mainly concerns what E-marketers do with the personal data once they receive it and how they can keep it from unwarranted attention. With identity theft on the rise and the average person becoming more concerned with privacy matters, those marketers that can safeguard their customers’ sensitive details will be a better position to win more loyal customers. E-marketing is also considered an effective promotional tool because of its inherent profiling ability. This refers its ability to collect and accumulate demographic, psychograp hic, and historical data and implement promotional programmes to accommodate and satisfy this information. Personalization is what makes E-marketing most powerful. In addition it is also important for the right marketing person to fully understand his customers’ needs and desires and his own industry before launching any offerings ... web. The internet as a contemporary data highway on which the global information society may be built is known for many security risks. Thus the vast development of new information infrastructures will increase our dependability and might lead us to a vulnerable information society based on insecure technologies. Many consumers worry about online security. They fear that unscrupulous snoopers will eavesdrop on their online transactions or intercept their credit card numbers and make unauthorized purchases. In turn, companies doing business online fears that other will use the Internet to invade their computer systems for the purposes of commercial espionage or even sabotage. There appears top be an ongoing competition between the technology of internet security systems and the sophistication of those seeking to break them.Online privacy is perhaps the number-one e-commerce concern. Most e- marketers have become skilled at collecting and analyzing detailed consumer information. Marketers can easily track Web-site visitors and many consumers who participate in the Web site activities provide extensive personal information. These may leave consumers open to information abuse if companies make unauthorized use of the information in marketing their products or exchanging databases with other companies. Many consumers and policy makers worry that marketers have stepped over the line and are violating consumers' right to privacy. The key issue of privacy, which is concerned with human rights, data protection and the use of E-marketing and security to protect online personal information is clearly built on the pillar of trust, and is