Transportation by Sea Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transportation by Sea - Assignment Example A busy seaport should therefore be viewed as a powerful yardstick for measuring the development in the region in particular and in the country in general. But, the overall development of a port depends on several factors including that of having the port in a geographically advantageous location. The locational advantage, among other factors, plays a prominent role in the growth prospects of a port as it would naturally make the port accessible to the shipping lines of several countries. Apart from the locational advantage, a port should internally posses certain technical advantages too for efficient handling of port operations. and strictly prefer seaports that would reduce transportation costs and time. Port location is therefore one of the prime determinants of its development. The growth of a port also depends on the depth of water, warehousing facilities and the total area. These requirements, along with the importance of location, should be properly studied for port designing and construction depending on the type, size, number and frequency of vessels that would call at the port, type and volume of cargo that would be handled and needs of the warehousing facilities and terminals. ... agoon, in a deep natural bay or river would naturally attract the attention of shipping lines and develop very fast (Internet, Port Planning, Factors influencing sea port locations). Locational advantage When a port is located in a geographically convenient location joining several shipping routes and providing accessibility to several countries, it undoubtedly attains the geographically locational advantage. Such a superior port conspicuously draws the attention of the shipping lines and attracts huge demand for its services. If the port is also located in a deep water zone, it would facilitate the docking of the bigger ships (Internet, A new port in Shanghai, 20 miles out to sea, Para 9). Because of the innumerable advantages of having deep water ports, several countries, including India, have drawn up big plans in this regard (Internet, Ambitious growth plans for Kakinada deep water port, 3 2001). The main advantage of such a port is that its services are generally useful not only for the country but also for its neighbouring countries. Different countries, operating their shipping lines for the transportation of their different commodities and goods, would crave for utilising the facilities of such a port to meet their growing demands. When the advantageous location is effectively aided by the presence of industrial growth in the region, it adds magnificently to the port development (Internet, The fundamentals of ports management, function and role of an international port). Infrastructure While the locational advantage is the nature's gift for a port and serves as the basic ingredient for its development, the port location should be fortified by the presence of excellent infrastructural facilities to render quality services at reduced costs to various

A literature review of gifted sutdents Dissertation

A literature review of gifted sutdents - Dissertation Example The paper tells that despite its wide usage, experts, scholars, academicians and scholars have yet not agreed on a single definition of the term â€Å"gifted†. In fact, they have even failed to develop a consensus on outlining a set of characteristics or behaviours relating to of giftedness, which is just another manifestation of the intensity to which this topic in debatable and undecided in educational, psychological, sociological, anthropological and other similar fields of study. Since the earliest human civilizations, the progress and accomplishments of humankind have been mainly dependent upon persons who have performed extraordinarily in their fields. These people have accounted for the bulk of accomplishments forcing the governments, administrations and local authorities to focus on exploring and developing to take charge of their respective fields. In fact, â€Å"as early as in the 2200 BC, evidence reveals that the Chinese authorities had developed a system of compe titive examinations for children to explore the gifted or extraordinary ones and groom them for taking the government positions in the later years. This fascination with giftedness remained there, in one form or the other, in Greek and Roman civilizations as well. However, it was Sir Francis Galton, a well-known scientist and researcher of the 19th century and the cousin of Charles Darwin, who used the term gifted for the first time in order to refer to people who showed exceptional and extraordinary talent in a particular field, such as a gifted writer or a gifted singer (Sternberg & Wilson, 2004, pp. 310). Furthermore, Galton also called the children who show the potential of becoming a gifted adult as gifted children. It was Lewis Terman, the guru of educational psychology and one the leadings American psychologists in the 20th century , who widened the scope of the research and provided some sort of platform and meaning to the term â€Å"gifted† (Sternberg, 2003, pp. 360) . Terman added the criteria of high IQ in order to determine the giftedness of any individual. The fact is that Terman was very much inspired with the ideas of Alfred Binet in this field that never became public because of his early death (Janos & Robinson, 1985, pp. 259). However, Alfred’s invention of the first useable IQ test gave the inspiration to Terman in order to look for and understand the students who have an IQ of 120 or more. In the 1920s, Terman selected almost 1500 students from different schools in California, which satisfied the IQ criteria. Over 1350 students out of this sample were white and a significant majority belonged from the upper and middle class families. The aim of Terman was to prove that most of the common stereotypes held about gifted children such as physically weak, socially misfit, unhealthy and others were incorrect (Treffinger & National Association for Gifted Children, 2004, pp. 145-149). After selecting the sample in 1920, Terman did seve n follow-ups with his â€Å"termites†, as he liked to call these gifted children. He followed the educational progress, interests, personalities, families and other related variables from their childhood to deep adulthood and found out that these gifted children were just as socially apt, physically strong, and tall and fit as others compared at their age. Even after the death of Terman, the study is still underway with many follow-ups by the students of Terman, making it longest running longitudinal study ever (Davis & Rimm, 1989, pp. 23-24; Sternberg, 2003, pp. 360). In addition, there have been some serious criticisms on this longest running longitudinal study. First, the sample that Terman selected in 1921 is highly unreliable and looking at the technique of