The text will review an article about a civil legal issue that took place in Adelaide. Previously, it was suspected that the multiple holes in this location were made by a metal detectorist. They were dug into both the oval and the athletic track on the territory of Stirling East Primary School. A couple of days later, small holes were made on the oval in Uradla. Fortunately, no one was hurt, considering the Hills Football League had started the previous weekend. The Uradla District secretary stated that the person might have been searching for coins, in spite of finding only the sprinkler system (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022). As a result, a 38-year-old man from Stirling was arrested and charged with six counts of property damage and will face court in June.
I have chosen this article as it touches on a rather simple property damage case. The context and the reasons for the misconceptions have been explained. As mentioned earlier, the holes in the areas could have led to people getting injured (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2022). This did not happen; however, law enforcement took immediate action. I agree with the article, for this situation could have escalated more drastically than it did. While the person may have been looking for coins, the locations he had chosen were inappropriate due to the former being a school and the latter being the place where a sporting event had started taking place. It is currently unknown how the court case will end. However, most of the evidence, including the license plate taken down by a member of the senator’s organization, proves that he is guilty. This means that the man will most likely face punishment for the crime.
Reference
Harmsen, N. (2022). Suspected metal detectorist pinged by police over holes in footy oval. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Web.
Choice Of Paper Or Plastic In Environmental Context
Introduction
Nowadays, governments of many countries strive to make a transition to renewable energy. Due to the harmful nature of paper and plastic, many natural habitats become unsuitable for living for many species, and air and water become more polluted. This necessitates the authorities to implement different strategies to alleviate the negative impact and limit the consequences. Yet, paper and plastic are still produced and are popular among many people due to their convenience. Still, while both of them are immensely detrimental to wildlife, the environment, and people, out of both options, plastic is less dangerous.
Nature of Paper vs. Plastic
First, before emphasizing the differences between the two sources, it is vital to see their standard features. The first common feature is that both plastic and paper need a significant amount of energy to be manufactured. Water is constantly required in considerable quantities in the production process, but organic resources typically require more. In order to create one thousand of plastic bags, roughly 250 liters of water are needed (Plastics: Material-Specific data). As for the paper, approximately 4000 liters of water are required (Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data). Such detail makes the production of plastic less costly from environmental and financial perspectives.
Another similarity that needs to be emphasized is the amount of both paper and plastic in the landfills where these sources occupy large areas. For example, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018, there were almost 30 million tons of plastic in landfills (Plastics: Material-Specific data). Additionally, there were nearly 18 tons of paper waste in the landfills (Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data). As a result, the negative impact of both sources stems from the slow rate of decomposition, which accelerates pollution.
When it comes to the differences between the two types of sources, it is vital to evaluate the efficiency of recycling and combustion. For instance, paper and cardboard products made up the majority of solid waste generated in 2018. That year almost 50 million tons of paper were recycled, which was the biggest amount of solid waste recycled (Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data). Furthermore, nearly 5 million tons of paper paper-related products were burned altogether. This amounted to 12.2% of all waste burned that year (Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data). In comparison, the volume of recycled plastics is modest, being only three million tons in 2018, which accounted for an 8.7% recycling rate (Plastics: Material-Specific data). However, that year, there were almost six million tons of plastic items combusted. That amounted to 16.3% of all solid waste combusted, which is more efficient than paper combustion.
The next point to consider is the generation amount of both paper and plastic, which might result in different scope of influence. In 2018, the overall waste generation of paper-related products was almost 70 million tons, accounting for 23.1% of the entire solid waste generation (Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data). In comparison, plastics and plastic-related items are an increasingly important part of solid waste that is less prevalent. Plastics manufacturing in the U.S. totaled almost 36 million tons in 2018, accounting for 12.2% of solid waste production (Plastics: Material-Specific data). Due to the amount of plastic, it can be said that this might lead to fewer environmental consequences than from paper.
Conclusion
Hence, both plastic and paper play an integral role in modern society due to their ubiquitous nature. However, while both types of sources have certain similarities, such as the requirement of significant quantities of energy for production and the prevailing in landfills, there are specific differences. For example, while paper recycling exceeds the rate of plastic recycling, the latter is still more efficient in terms of combustion rate. Moreover, the generation rate of paper waste is much higher than the generation rate of plastic, which can be more dangerous to the environment.
Works Cited
“Paper and paperboard: Material-Specific data.” United States Environmental Protection Agency.
“Plastics: Material-Specific data.” United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The Issue Of Artificial Intelligence Integration In Private Health Sector
Overview of the Issue
It is possible to develop a particular insight into the perspectives of Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in the private health sector. The range of options through which AI-driven robots can enhance healthcare delivery is broad. An instance is AI machine learning that serves replacement for traditional machine learning in precision medicine. This opportunity to predict the chances for particular treatment procedures to succeed is a breakthrough. AI also can help nurses with structuring clinical notes on patients due to natural language processing features. Moreover, AI can fulfill an administrative function, significantly improving efficiency in hospital administrative areas. In contrast, integration of Artificial Intelligence can be a substantial issue and challenge for the private health sector, and in particular, for Ramsay Health Care. On the one hand, rapid development and gradual integration of AI in the private health care sector potentially minimize the number of workplaces and reduce work hours. Attempting to gain maximal profit from this intervention, business owners may even renounce some job types currently done by employees. On the other hand, AI integration into the health care system may impact human behavior. For instance, AI-driven bots may become better at modeling conversations, and most interactions of patients would be done with robots instead of actual medical specialists. It would negatively impact social experience resulting in deterioration of communication skills of the entire population.
Stakeholder Groups and Their Perspectives
With respect to types of stakeholders, the perspectives of the three most essential groups can be examined. Investors are the ones most concerned with minimizing costs and increasing profit obtained from a private health care sector. It is not in their interest that growth of shares value, net profit, or another form of financial return is limited by the necessity to fulfill social responsibilities. That is why it is possible to expect investors to argue for the maximal integration of AI. Then it is customers, as another vital group of stakeholders. They are concerned with service quality, safety, and cost. As mentioned above, AI-driven bots may deteriorate the social communication experience. However, the moderate and gradual integration of AI is cost-effective and improves services quality from the perspective of customers. Employees are ones who can be both benefited and be negatively affected by AI integration in the private health care sector. They may expect robot-driven applications to facilitate them in their responsibilities fulfillment. It may enhance the quality of service and reduce work-related stress. However, it is also possible that the complete integration of AI would increase the unemployment rate. Some workers may lose their jobs, or work hours would be reduced. It is likely that without having strong social policies in the private health care system and established ethical guidance, employees would become the most vulnerable and unsatisfied group of stakeholders.
The Challenges and Opportunities
Challenges to the private health care sector presented by the integration of AI are substantial. From the infographics, it is possible to see that the healthcare and social assistance spheres are most endangered. 11% of jobs would become automatable in the next 15 years. It would affect all the people employed in this sector. Other industries are less influenced, but changes in their operation would cause indirect influence on the functioning of the private health care system as well, which is detailed in the next slides. The other issue presented by the integration of AI in the health care system is the change in social behavior. The prevalence of chatbots and reduction in interaction between specialists and patients results in the gradual deterioration of communication skills. Infographics show that patients have favorable experience using applications for coping with severe events. It may indicate a gradual increase in the popularity of AI-driven digital applications. Such tendency leads to lowering the number of everyday social interactions overall. It may negatively impact the behavior of humans because of inevitable adapting to communication with bots. On the other hand, the number of opportunities presented by the integration of AI in the private health care system is impressive. It includes but is not limited to improving treatment outcomes through machine learning and rule-based systems intended for diagnosing and treating disease. A variety of administrative applications may reduce the scope of duties of healthcare workers, while natural language processing may assist nurses. AI integration would also optimize expenses, making the private health sector more profitable. Other industries may also become more cost-effective, resulting in more affordable medical equipment available.
Ethical Responsibilities
With respect to ethical responsibilities in relation to the AI integration in the private health care system, there are some implications and respective measures to be discussed. As it was outlined in previous slides, the possibility of reduction in the number of workplaces and even extinction of some jobs is a significant challenge. The respective ethical responsibility of employers, with the support of investors and customers, is to ensure that workers are protected from job loss. It is also vital to replace types of positions that would become obsolete with new ones, fully compatible with AI-driven opportunities. The other crucial concern to discuss is the ethical responsibility of employers and investors to maintain humanity or prevent potential changes in people’s behavior because of the spread of machines’ in most spheres. Replacement of administration and customer services roles leads to making humans addicted to technologies. Employers should ensure that patients always have access to conversations with a respective specialist in case AI-driven applications are not a solution. Employers also should limit the daily interacting of people with bots.
Recommendations for a Strategic Response
It is possible to suggest a set of recommendations for a strategic response to the adverse consequences of integrating AI in the private health care sector. First, there should be a focus on capital-intensive strategies of care. It would enable to prevent the reduction in the number of jobs while not depriving AI of its usefulness as the complementary tool for some processes’ facilitation. Moreover, continue enabling people to provide some services AI can also do not only limits the negative influence on human behavior but may be beneficial for companies that intend to show their superior care to customers. The other potentially useful strategic response is a direct limitation of influence AI has on people’s behavior and unemployment rates. It can be done by banning the complete automatization of processes in the private healthcare sector. Also, should be ensured equal access to AI-based and labor-based services. The additional recommendation is to consider replacing positions that would become obsolete with ones compatible with AI-driven solutions. It would ensure an unchanged number of types of jobs and reduce unemployment rates. Finally, it is possible to suggest a vital solution to address ethical implications. It is the rise of private clinics’ social responsibility. It should be done by the promotion of stakeholders to establish ethical guidelines to ensure the protection of workers from unemployment regardless of the level of AI’s development. This intervention is less likely to influence the deterioration of behavior that AI might cause directly, but it is rather beneficial for the sense of humanity overall. Business ethics is a crucial part of the functioning of both society and corporations. The simultaneous effect of all three strategic responses would address existing threats and challenges.
References
Davenport T, Kalakota R. (2019) ‘The potential for artificial intelligence in healthcare’, Future Healthc, 6(2), pp. 94-98.
Davidson, J. (2020) The robots are coming: 2.7 million Aussie jobs to disappear. Web.
Inkster, B., Sarda, S. and Subramanian, V. (2018) ‘An empathy-driven, conversational artificial intelligence agent (Wysa) for digital mental well-being: real-world data evaluation mixed-methods study’, JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6(11). Web.
Korinek, A. and Stiglitz, J. (2021) ‘Artificial Intelligence, Globalization, and Strategies for Economic Development’, National Bureau of Economic Research, w28453. Web.
Matjaz, P., Mahmut, O. and Janja, H. (2019) ‘Social and juristic challenges of artificial intelligence’, Palgrave Commun, 5(61).
University of Bern and Inselspital Opens the Center for artificial Intelligence in Medicine (2020) Web.