Informative Speech Caffeine Essay

Caffeine Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the history of caffeine, how the body processes caffeine, and possible side effects of excessive caffeine consumption. Central Idea: Caffeine has been around for centuries and has been used for it energizing effects on the body . Introduction I. It’s the night before your chemistry exam and you decide to learn three weeks worth of material in one night. II. When 1:30 comes around and you can feel your eyes starting to get heavy, what do you grab to give you that extra energy to keep going? Is it coffee? Is it a Red Bull? III. Why do these types of drinks help us keep our eyes open long enough to get through that last chapter on combustion reactions? IV. The answer is caffeine. V. As college students, most of us consume caffeine every single day, so today I am going to share with you the history of caffeine, how the body processes caffeine, and possible side effects from excessive caffeine consumption. (Transition: Before I get into the many affects of caffeine on the body, lets go back in time to see where caffeine came from.) Body I. The appreciation of caffeinated beverages dates back tens of thousands of years. a. What is caffeine anyway? i. Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance that forms as an end product of nitrogen metabolism in plants. ii. It is found in more than 60 different plants species around the world, including coffee beans, tea leaves, and coco beans. b. The wild coffee bean plant originated in Ethiopia and according to Reginald Smith, author of the book A History of Coffee, cultivation of caffeine containing food and beverages from the coffee bean may have begun as early as AD575.† c. Centuries passed before coffee would reach Europe by the 17th century, but then spread uncontrollably to all parts of the world, including America. d. Coffee was brought to America in the mid 1600s. i. At this time, most Americans still preferred to drink tea, another caffeinated beverage, even though coffee houses were being built all over the country. ii. Coffee did not become America’s favorite beverage until the Boston Tea Party, when Americans revolted against Britain’s heavy tax on tea. (Transition: Now that you know where coffee came from, lets look at how the body processes it.) II. How does that morning cup of coffee wake you up and give you that added energy to get the day started? a. Well, caffeine is known to boost the effects of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, and serotonin. i. For example, dopamine is a neurotransmitter known to affect concentration. ii. Dopamine is also responsible for signaling your brain when it is time to go to bed, but when caffeine is introduced to the body, this signal is blocked. b. Caffeine also causes your body to release more adrenaline, which causes faster heart beat, more blood being pumped to muscles and organs in y our body, and adrenaline tells your liver to release sugar into the blood stream. c. When caffeine is in the blood stream, it encourages the release of more calcium ions, which in turn causes muscle to contract faster. d. The professor of nutrition at Tufts University, Susan Roberts, says that, â€Å"Research studies broadly document favorable changes such as increases in metabolic rate, increased fat oxidation, and a perception of increased physical and mental energy.† i. With all of these energy-boosting effects, it’s easy to see why we love caffeine so much. ii. Even though caffeine can make us feel invincible, consuming too much can have negative effects on our health. (Transition: Lets take a look at how much caffeine we should be consuming and what could happen if we consume too much.) III. Many people don’t know, but there are negative side effects of the overuse of caffeine. a. According to the article â€Å"Selected Health and Behavioral Effects Related to the Use of Caffeine† published in the Journal of Community Health, â€Å"Over 80% of adults consume caffeine daily in the form of coffee, tea, or soft drinks.† i. Since we consume caffeine daily, the amount we consume is important. ii. J.J Barone, author of â€Å"Caffeine Consumption†, which was published in the book Food and Chemical Toxicology, states that people should only consume 5 oz. of ground roast coffee, 5 oz. of tea, and 6 oz. of cola only a daily basis. iii. For a lot of people, this is not enough caffeine to feel the energizing  side effects, which leads to overconsumption. b. The many side effects of the overconsumption of caffeine include insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, dizziness, nausea, fast heartbeat, and muscle tremors. i. Caffeine interferes with your body’s internal signal that it is time for bed. So, caffeine causes sleep loss and decrease in quality of sleep, which in turn contributes most of the negative side effects. ii. These negative side effects can easily be stopped when the person returns to a normal routine. Conclusion I. Today we have learned where caffeine originated, how it affects the body, and side effects of overconsumption of caffeine. II. Next time you grab a cup of coffee, weather it be to wake up in the morning or so you can pull an all-nighter, thank the Ethiopians, I know I will. III. Thank you for listening.

Critique on Mm Theory Essay

It does not matter what the firm’s dividend policy is (Modigliani and Miller 958). The basic assumptions of MM theory are: 1 . The company only has the long-term bonds and common stocks, both bonds and stock trade in the complete capital market with no transaction cost; 2. The individual investors and corporate investors could gain the same interest rate with no liability risk; 3. The companies with similar operating conditions have the same business risks; 4. Investors hold the same expectations on the average business profit in future; 5. All cash flows are perpetual annuities, including EBIT (Earnings before interest and tax) etc, that is, the growth ate of the enterprise is zero (Modigliani and Miller 1958). The development of MM theory mostly experienced three stages: 1 . No-tax model. The first MM model takes no account of corporate taxations; 2. Corporate tax model. Modigliani and Miller (1963) published Corporate Income Taxes and the Cost of Capital: A Correction, which loosened its initial assumptions, introduced corporate tax into MM theory(Modigliani and Miller 1963); 3. Miller model. Merton H. Miller (1976) proposed to consider corporate tax and individual tax in estimating how the debt leverage impacts the value of firm (Miller 1977). During the past 50-year, MM theory has made tremendous academic achievements for western companies in exploring the optimal capital structure and reducing capital costs etc. Firstly, it provides a research frame of reference and theoretical basis. Since that, most of the capital theories are base on MM theory, such as Pecking-order Theory, Trade-off Theory, and Agency Theory etc. Secondly, MM theory makes the capital structure theories systematic and builds a framework for the development of capital structure theories. Secondly, MM theory makes the capital tructure theory systematically, as there was not a system of traditional capital structure theory. Last, but not least, it is only a general description of the traditional capital structure theory. While MM theory uses modern analytical methods, such as partial equilibrium, mathematical analysis etc, therefore, it makes MM theory become reliable. Despite tremendous achievements, there are still limitations in MM theory. First, the assumptions are too harsh, and most of them cannot be achieved in reality. To illustrate, MM theory assumes that individuals and corporations could borrow at the ore than what corporations do, as well as bear a higher risk. Furthermore, MM theory also assumes there is no transaction cost, which extremely differs from the real transaction process. Second, the assumptions are beyond the reality, although the logic derivation is correct, the conclusions still differs. Both corporate tax model and Miller model suppose that corporation should raise the liability as much as possible in order to maximise the value of the firm, in extremity, up to 100% liability. However, none of enterprises adopt this point. Third, MM theory stands at a static erspective, and does not consider the external economic environment and the impact on capital structure by changing enterprise’s production and operating conditions. In fact, many factors, which affect the capital structures, are variable. For example, companies should cut down their liabilities appropriately in order to reduce business risks, when the socio-economic experiences a recession. According to MM theory, the value of tax saving is associated with the corporate income tax rate. That is, the higher corporate income tax rate, the more tax deductible the corporation could achieve from financing by liability. In other words, corporations are inclined to finance by liabilities rather than equity financing in relative higher corporate income tax rate countries, and vice versa. Under the actual situation in China, the corporate income tax is much higher than other countries in the world; corporations should prefer financing from debt theoretically (Huang and Zhang 2007). However, actually, the capital structure of Chinese enterprises runs counter to the MM theory and other capital structure theories. The proportion of liability financing in China is far less than the proportion of equity financing (Huang and Song 2006). First of all, there is merely no mechanism in applying MM theory. In accordance with the MM theory, both individual and institutional investors can process arbitrage actions freely in the capital markets. In western well-developed capital markets, there is a wide range of fund-raising channels and other financing options, the arbitrage mechanisms usually affect the markets. However, at present, the market mechanism is not fully developed in China, as well as capital market is under-developed. Thus, these limit the financing options and forms; make it difficult to carry out arbitrage activities. Generally, MM theory cannot be applied.

Catalogue Of Christian Herasie Essay Research Paper

Catalog Of Christian Herasie Essay, Research Paper St Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, called the Council of Nicea to cover with some of the unorthodoxies of the clip, such as Arianism and Novatianism. This council lasted 2 months and 12 yearss, and had 318 bishops in attending. The benefits from this council were of import to reaffirming the religion. It stated that all people could be forgiven of their wickednesss, no affair how bad the wickedness is, every bit long as the individual was genuinely regretful for what he has done. The Nicene Creed is besides a merchandise of this council. The Nicene Creed is a announcement of our beliefs as Catholics. Council of Ephesus ( 431 ) The Council of Ephesus was called to cover with the unorthodoxies of Nestorianism and Pelagianism. There were over 200 bishops present, under the counsel of St. Cyril, who was stand foring Pope Celestine. The major parts to faith brought Forth from this council was that Mary is genuinely the female parent of God ( Theotokes ) , and that Jesus was both God and adult male in one being. Council of Chalcedon ( 451 ) The Council of Chalcedon was called by Pope Leo the Great to manage the unorthodoxy of Menophytism. The Emperor Marcian was in attending, along with over 150 Bishops. This council denounced Menophytism, and stated that Christ had two natures, Godhead and homo, which were both in one being. Fourth Lateran Council ( 1215 ) . Pope Innocent III held the Fourth Lateran Council as a call for religious reform. Over 1,200 of the universe s taking clerics were in attending at this council. This council did many things to confirm the religion. It brought about a reform in clerical life, spiritual direction in slang, condemned many of the unorthodoxies traveling on at the clip, seal of confession ( priests can non let go of what you confess during rapprochement ) , one-year confessions and Eucharist at Easter clip, and reaffirmed the seven sacraments and transubstantiation. Council of Constance ( 1414-1418 ) The Council of Constance was called during the Western Schism to make two things. The first was to stop the separation of the church, and the second was to declare who would be the Catholic Pope out of the 3 Catholic Popes who were claiming pontificate. This council did two of import things. It ended the Schism that had 3 cabals of the church controversy over whose positions were right, and whose Catholic Pope was the rightful Catholic Pope. Second, it named Pope Gregory XII as the rightful Catholic Pope, but he steps down and hands the place over to Pope Martin V. Fifth Lateran Council ( 1512-1517 ) The Fifth Lateran Council was called by Pope Julias II to set and stop to the corrupt patterns in the church. There were around 95 high members of the church nowadays at this council. This council put an terminal to many of the corrupt patterns of this clip period within the Catholic Church. Council of Treant ( 1545-1563 ) The Council of Treant was called by Pope Paul III to conflict the Protestant beliefs and clearly lay out the Catholic beliefs. There were over 450 people present at this council over the 18 old ages it was held. Besides, 5 Catholic Popes presided over it during the clip it was held. This council affirmed 12 philosophies on the church, apostolic domination, godly disclosure consists of Bible and tradition, Faith and good plants are necessary for redemption, reaffirmed transubstantiation, the mass is a true forfeit, Penance is the manner in which wickednesss are forgiven, reaffirmed the seven sacraments, Purgatory exists, psyches in purgatory benefit from our supplications, indulgences have a true religious value, condemned superstitious utilizations of relics and indulgences. First Vatican Council ( 1869-1870 ) The First Vatican council was called by Pope Pius IX to reaffirm apostolic authorization and to clear up church learning to onslaughts from enlightenment minds. There were 803 in attending, including 46 from the United States. The major part to faith from this council is the philosophy of Papal Infallibility, which means the Pope can non do mistake when learning church philosophy or on the religion. Second Vatican Council ( 1962-1965 ) The Second Vatican Council was called by Pope John XXIII to regenerate the church spiritually, and to reconsider the church s topographic point in the modern universe. This council made many alterations to the Holy Eucharist, such as doing it common so the common individual could understand God s message. It besides allowed for more engagement in mass by the common individual.

Human Resource Management (COSTCO) Research Paper

Human Resource Management (COSTCO) - Research Paper Example Outside US it operates in the UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Canada and Mexico. The company is undeniably the leader in its field. It is very strict to maintain its quality in every dimension of its business and always give value to its business policies and ethics. Though it is a big company with a great international business expansion, it still has maintained a healthy, cultural and homely work environment, which is very essential for the flourish and success of its employees. The company gains through its employees through â€Å"a loyal, productive and efficient cadre of employees† (American Rights at Work) The compensation package including the benefits have been negotiated such that they are positioned to the best in the business. All these factors have worked to make the company to be identified as one of the top three company of Washington as declared by the Washington CEO Magazine. (Did you Know?). The paper analyses the role of the compensation structure provided to the employees towards its betterment and current state of flourish. It is well known that COSTCO provides great benefit and very liberal compensation to its employees. A cashier of the company having work experience of four years earn above $40,000 along with all the other benefits in the company. Beside the benefits such as medical allowance, disability, dental check up facility etc., the person can also take a part in the 401K program of the company and can buy the stock options. If we minute analyze these benefits we can notice that these benefits are almost the top in the industry. If we compare the company with its counterpart in the industry Wal-Mart, we see that both these two companies follow the price oriented sales policy as their strategy. But when the Wal-Mart is highly criticized for its low pay and benefit strategy to its employees, the COSTCO is appreciated

Creating High Performance Organization-course Project Proposal Case Study

Creating High Performance Organization-course Project Proposal - Case Study Example This has led to online marketing channels that have caused an increase in organizational revenues. The company has online customer services and integrated collaboration with forecasting systems from customers. The company uses customized contents to delivery to the targeted audiences. This entails coordination of systems and different human factors in the entire company (Bogetoft 23). The company has invested in interface management system to deliver excellence to the clients. Web services have enabled the company to deliver an integration legacy and business process execution. I was a web administrator in the company. My role was to ensure that web hosting management systems were functional and effective. I was coordinating a team of IT experts who were had direct contacts with customers. This enabled me to assess the effectiveness of the organizational management practices and systems in the company. The company has been suffering from inadequacy in facilitating quick introduction to new services. The company has been struggling in automating business processes. The company has been emphasized on collecting information without the need to manage the content. This has caused system failures through overload. The company has suffered from late human interventions. The management lacks an understanding of the unique needs of the user groups. This has causes the management solutions to be ineffective. The management has invested in formal learning efforts as the only means of learning. Research shows that 70 percent of learning happens successfully through informal channels. The knowledge management of the organization fails to target the suppliers and customers. This has caused the company to have poor customer retention and revenue enhancement. Technological companies are faced by the challenge of rapidly changing external environments. The management has focused on external competition and environment

Keeshig-Tobias's and his love for boxing Research Paper

Keeshig-Tobias's and his love for boxing - Research Paper Example   Boxing was his life as he sought to beat the world. Nevertheless, boxing meant something else for Keeshig-Tobias. She knew of her father boxing at a young age and she was not convinced as to why her father was into boxing despite his age, family commitments, and lack of earnings from the sport. Keeshig-Tobias's father was a young man who struggled with his family and was loved and hated by his family in equal measure. His family and especially his daughter Keeshig-Tobias struggled to understand him to no avail. He was a man of mixed feelings and his love for boxing was a mystery.Keeshig-Tobias learnt something as he grew more mature that changed her relationship with her father. She learned that her father was actually fighting the world and had nothing to mistreat them. She learned that it was out of struggles that he behaves in an undefined manner and that she cannot engage him behind his back but must face him (Lanette 285). After learning this, their relationship changed trem endously in that she started practicing boxing also, they started talking, they opened up to one another, and they understood and trusted each other. It is arguably true that what Keeshig-Tobias experiences with her father are not unique. Indeed, many families are in the same situation where children cannot understand the lives of their parents as they struggle to sustain their families. However, as seen in this story, with time, it all comes out clear and families can relate at ease when the children mature.   

VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

VISUAL ANALYSIS PAPER - Essay Example Thesis statement: The stylistic features in the artwork named as Fox Games, by the renowned artist named as Sandy Skoglund, prove that the artist combined different elements of art (composition), provided importance to the usage of contrasting colors (color), the decision to use light/shadow determines the artwork’s visual beauty, perspective provides depth to the theme, figures help the viewers to evaluate the differences among different figures, pose elevates the artwork from predictability to originality, and gestures provide charm to the work as a whole. One can see that unity is the basic element of composition within visual art. As this term (composition) is superimposed into the scenario of the artwork-Fox Games (see appendix-1), is evident that the artwork can be easily detached as animate objects (fox and human beings) and inanimate objects (chairs, tables, chandelier, table cloth, food etc) and enjoyed differently. Still, there is a symmetrical connection among these visual elements in general. Similarly, the sense of movement is visible in the artwork because the foxes dominate the artwork as a whole. For instance, the presence of foxes is symbolic of fast movement, and the human images/figures in the artwork are symbolic of slow movement. On the other side, the chandelier is the focal point of the artwork and this is symbolic of the division between two worlds in general. The basic pattern within the artwork proves that the artist is obsessed with curved and straight lines. For instance, the basic proportion of the room is s ymbolic of straight lines and the table cloth (curved lines) and other elements are symbolic of the wise usage of pattern within the artwork. Similarly, Skoglund provides ample importance to proportion and the same is evident in the proportionate alignment of objects in the artwork. So, it is evident that the artist provides ample importance to composition, and the

Quality Management Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Quality Management Systems - Essay Example Organisations apply various strategies and techniques for quality. Excellence is sought as a product of quality, or excellence is attained along with quality. Organisations seek Total Quality Management, used in the professional world of education, government, industries and in many other fields. Over the years, organisations have come to form the ISO 9000 Standards. This is a result of the unification of various organisations and federations throughout the world. It is a set of rules and procedures, or simply standards, for organisations to follow in their quest for excellence and quality management. Many organisations use the Standards as basis for self assessment and excellence. There are steps to follow in self-assessment. Accreditation for the ISO 9000 is an initial step, then organisations go for self-assessment, and furthermore. The steps are enumerated and explained further as we go along in this paper. The details of the ISO 9000:2000, how it evolved and is now practiced by organisations all over the world, are also explained. This study is about ISO 9000:2000 in relation to quality management systems and excellence models. ISO 9000 emphasises a supportive Quality Management Systems and excellence models, i.e. that many organisations go for ISO 9000 registration, take this as a base. ... that many organisations go for ISO 9000 registration, take this as a base. Consequently, their quality managers carry on the program of self-assessment measures using excellence models. This study researched on books and the internet about ISO 9000:2000. We focused on quality management and the goals of organisations and businesses for applying the Standards and the emphasis on Total Quality Management and excellence models. 1 Introduction This paper is based upon the power point presentation about ISO 9000:2000 Standards and its supportive relationship on quality management system and excellence models. ISO 9000 series and excellence models have specific concepts of total quality management, but as to the level of Total Quality Management maturity, they are different. We will deal in this paper the gap of the levels of TQM defined in ISO 9000 series and the excellence model. For organisations seeking for an excellence award, ISO 9000 series can become a base, and then go on with the eight steps approach, as espoused by A. van der Wiele, A.R.T. Williams, and B.G. Dale in their paper entitled, ISO 9000 Series Registration to Business Excellence: The Migratory Path. The paper itself (in pdf format) is an excellent analysis with recommendations for organisations seeking to make a base in ISO 9000 then proceed on for an award for excellence. 2 Literature Review Excellence is defined as the outstanding practice in managing the organisation and achieving results. Emphasis is on the organisation's goals and objectives in line with customer satisfaction, needs and specification.Excellence Models Many organisations adopt the concept of total quality management with self-assessment using

Power Analysis in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Power Analysis in the Workplace - Essay Example He commands within 230 employees under his department. Pratt is responsible for company production, supervises employees under him, order productions materials of the company, and he liaises with top management. Interpersonal power The power that head of production in Coca Cola company has is positioned based power owing to the position he hold in the company. Head of production uses legitimate power to influence workers serving under his command to complete various task as per the company requirement. He is able to exercise the powers conferred in his office to bring positive or negative results in company’s production. Workers serving under his docket are answerable to him. He schedules various production activities in the production line as deemed best. He grants permissions and leaves to employees after reviewing their demands. The head of production had legitimate powers to exercise coercive power in the company. He could fire an employee who fails to uphold standards of the company after several warnings. Coercive power is evident when head of production has to make tough decisions, which would influence the life of an employee serving under him. It is not surprising to see some employees granting in the company following measures taken against them. When a worker fails to discharge his duties as expected in the company, the head of production would sound a warning depending on the amount of wrong committed by the employee. Sometimes a worker may commit a felony, which warrants suspension. In this case, the head of production reviews the file of the worker, identifying the workers attitude and out put to the company. When the file of the worker indicates that he is not prone to such kind of felony, the head of operation gives a warning. Head of production exercises reward power in the company by influencing promotion of employees in the company. Head of production uses his reward power to appreciate hard working employees in production departmen

Denim (Jeans) Market in the U.K Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Denim (Jeans) Market in the U.K - Essay Example Consumers can now find jeans at  £3 in many outlets including Tesco and Matalan. The supermarkets however, have shifted away from selling the discounted brands and concentrate on building their own labels. Prices in the mass market have fallen due to cheaper imports especially from China, and because other retail brands like Marks & Spencer, Next, and Burtons have reduced their prices. The premium brand jeans are struggling to justify their price tags against the own-label brands at  £20-40. Jeans in the UK market are trying to differentiate themselves with cult connotations, lifestyle images, and distinctive details (Mintel 2005). At the same time, below-cost pricing methods by the super markets and their increasing presence in the convenience store sector have prompted government intervention (BBC 2006). In the clothing industry and in the jeans industry in particular, several factors like innovation and new products have to be introduced frequently. Recently, when there was a shift from bootleg jeans to narrow skinny styles, sales went up remarkably high. This has caused the denim market to reach sales of $15.26 billion ( £8.79 billion) in 2005, an increase of 9.3 percent from the year before (FashionUnited 2006). .At the same time, research suggests that brands continue to play an important role for the purchase of jeans (Jeans1 2006). Standard clothing seems to the major market, with fashion wear taking only about 15% of all sales (Keynote n.d.). Standard women’s wear has the largest share and national players dominate these sectors while fashion clothing also have strong but regional chains. The growth in the recent years has been in the discount clothing market. Jeans are ageless and not outrageously youthful in design, which effectively means that men, women and children of all ages use it. Consumers expect low prices, and increasing incomes are the key to increased economic activity. According to Jones and Hayes

Student Learning Essay Example for Free

Student Learning Essay Student learning can be identified as seven types of learning which are competence, self-regulation and control of behavior, sharing, individuation, goal planning, challenge, and self-change, may function at different times where and when appropriate, and serve to balance and reinforce student learning (Sharon, Coulter). Significance of Study Students who live in poverty need instruction that leads them toward constructing knowledge, first through their strength of observation and then from their strong sensory background. Because students rely heavily upon how they have been socialized in their culture, during the learning process at school, student engagement might look as though it is lacking. Instruction for these students needs to be centered on their strengths and attention given to their weaknesses in regards to providing an accepting atmosphere for learning. The greatest cause of failure with students in generational poverty is the attempt by many teachers to remain seemingly neutral and accepting of the noticeable failure rates with regards to the student’s inability to connect with the curriculum and learn as other students are able to do. How can we understand why so many students fail to learn what the mainstream schools think they are teaching unless we can get a perspective from the learners and see the world through their eyes? The intentions of this study were to provide educators with an understanding of student learning in generational poverty. Finally, the results have provided a framework for understanding what types of instructional practices are effective with impoverished students. Teacher education programs, educational leaders and policy makers that are in the market for tested strategies that increase the academic prowess of impoverished students can utilize this framework to bring about significant changes in how educators, policy makers, business people and the general public view the ability of the disadvantaged to learn. Chapter 2-LITERATURE REVIEW One goal of education is to ensure that every student has a chance to excel both in school and in life. There are factors that prevented education from serving this role. Too many children enter school with significant barriers to achieving their full potential. According to Lee and Burkam (2002), children from poverty may especially have early educational lags. They describe students from families of low socioeconomic status with significant gaps in school readiness as they began kindergarden. These economically disadvantaged children lagged behind their more advantaged peers in skills and exposure to language (University of California, 2002). In fact, economically disadvantaged children score significantly lower on reading, math, and vocabulary tests when compared with otherwise similar non-poor children (Sherman, 1998). As a result, there is an increasing number of children in school who face challenges, such as coming to school hungry, sleepy, depressed, abused, or angry. These conditions affect their engagement in the learning process which can ultimately affect their academic progress (Lawson Briar-Lawson, 1997). In Clark’s (1983) intense study of ten poor African-American families and their children, he discovered that neither family income level, nor family educational level determines a child’s school performance. He concluded that â€Å" . . . it is the overall quality of a family’s life style, nor the composition, or status, or some subset of family process dynamics, that determines whether children are prepared for academically competent performance in the classroom† (p. 1). According to Lawson and Briar-Lawson (1997), students of economically disadvantaged parents experience challenges in school. Specifically, these children usually do not reach their full potential in school because they disrupt classrooms and are eventually labeled at-risk. This can lead to a transfer to special classes. Their issues have the potential to get progressively worse as many students become truant, suspended, and eventually drop out of school. According to the Children’s Defense Fund (2005), there is little relief in sight. Since reaching a low point in 2000, the number of children living in poverty in the United States has grown by 12. 8 percent exceed 13 million. Poor families and children are being left behind as the benefits of a steadily growing economy fail to trickle down. Poverty is officially measured by the family’s annual income. The determination of the poverty thresholds is based on a model created during 1960s that estimates the cost of an adequate family food budget. Poverty can result in several disadvantages for children, including alack of health insurance, inadequate education, and poor nutrition (Children’s Defense Fund, 2005). The negative influence that low socioeconomic status has on academic achievement can be devastating (Brooks-Gunn Duncan, 1997, Duncan, Yeung, Brooks-Gunn Smith, 1996). This impact may be strongest during children’s earlier years (Duncan, Yeung, Brooks-Gunn Smith, 1996), Bradley, Corwyn, Burchinal, Pipes-McAdoo and Garcia-Coll, C. 2001) According to the National Center for Education Statistics, (2000), only 19 percent of children from families of low socioeconomic status have the requisite pre-literacy skills when entering kindergarten. Of fourth-graders from the same socioeconomic background, only 2 percent scored as advanced readers and 12 percent as proficient readers on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2000) evaluation. Numerous factors contribute to the connection between low socioeconomic status and educational outcomes including birth weight, nutrition, and access to health care (Bradley Corwyn, 2002). These factors can also impact a child’s cognitive functioning an, in turn, educational achievement (Brody, G. H. , Flor, D. L. , Gibson, N. M. , 1999). Children from low-income families struggle academically, especially with early reading skills (Tivnan Hemphill, 2005). On the most recent national assessments of fourth grade reading, 54 percent of children who were eligible for free and reduced lunch scored at the lowest performance level in comparison to 23 percent of non-poverty children (Grigg, Danne, Jin, Campbell, 2003). A press release, The State of Children from The Children’s Defense Fund, attempted to articulate the growing development poverty and demonstrated the lack of progress in this area. In his January 20, 1937 inaugural speech, President Francklin Roosebelt stated,†I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth on natural resources. But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see millions of families trying to live on income so meager that pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day† (The Library of Congress, 2005). According to the Children’s Defense Fund (2004), over 37 million people, including over 12 million American children, live in poverty. The State of Children from The Children’s Defense Fund (2004) indicated that there are too many poor and minority students who confront significant barriers to achieving their fullest potential. Several examples of the disparity between children with opportunity and without opportunity based upon poverty include: in writing, only 15 percent of those fourth graders eligible for free and reduced lunch can write at grade level compared to 42 percent of those who are not eligible (U. S. Department of Education, 2003b). The Condition of Education 2004 (U. S. Department of Education, 2004b), reported â€Å"In addition to being more likely than White students to be from low- income families, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty schools† (p. 4). In 2003, as the proportion of the number of students eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Corruption in Judicial Systems Essay Example for Free

Corruption in Judicial Systems Essay Corruption in judicial systems is threatening the protection of human rights, a United Nations independent expert said, urging governments to implement policies to strengthen the rule of law to combat this practice. â€Å"The pervasiveness of corruption in the judiciary and the legal profession, whether one off or endemic, is very worrying because it directly undermines the rule of law and the ability of the judiciary to guarantee the protection of human rights,† the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, told the General Assembly while presenting it with her latest annual report. â€Å"A judiciary that is not independent can easily be corrupted or co-opted by interests other than those of applying the law in a fair and impartial manner,† she said. â€Å"Strengthening the judiciary from within, as well as providing all the safeguards for its independence vis-à  -vis other public officials and private actors, is essential in combating and preventing instances of judicial corruption.† Ms. Knaul noted that corruption in the judiciary has the potential to victimize those that do not have the means to play by the informal rules set by a corrupt system. â€Å"Corruption in the judiciary discourages people from resorting to the formal justice system, thereby diverting dispute settlements towards informal systems that more than often do not abide by the basic principles of impartiality, fairness, non-discrimination and due process,† she said. Mechanisms of accountability, the Special Rapporteur underlined, should be put in place to investigate acts of corruption and they should be developed with the full participation of the actors concerned. â€Å"I strongly believe that the existing international principles and standards on human rights and corruption provide adequate guidance on how to tackle judicial corruption while respecting the independence of the justice system and human rights,† she said. Ms. Knaul also emphasized that judges, prosecutors and lawyers are in a unique position to tackle the wider phenomenon of corruption in other instances of the public and private sectors, and that â€Å"anti-corruption bodies should be established or developed to effectively assist judicial actors to combat corruption and to implement and strengthen transparency within the public sector.† Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes.

Concepts of Space in Art

Concepts of Space in Art In his book Space, Time and Architecture, Sigfried Giedion noted that through developments made during the Renaissance, the conception of space comes to fruition. This conception of space in art was expressed with the discovery of perspective. Through the use of perspective he says every element is related to the unique point of view of the individual. In linear perspective -etymologically clear seeing- objects are depicted upon a plane surface in conformity with the way they are seen, without reference to their absolute shapes and relations. The whole picture or design is calculated to be valid for one station and observation point only. To the fifteenth century the principle of perspective came as a complete revolution, involving an extreme and violent break with the medieval conception of space, and with the flat, floating arrangements, as its artistic expression. Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,  1967, first published 1941, pp. 30-31 During the Renaissance, fields of study particularly in the arts were closely intertwined with traditional models. In architecture, buildings were designed with reference to past examples. At around about the early nineteenth century, there came a shift in the conception of space that broke free of the rigidity associated with antiquity. Relativity in our conception of space came about through the development of cubism. Cubism introduced a new dynamic to visual representation. The framed view is coupled with different points of view of the same object, his brings in a factor of time. Joan Ockman professor and the director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the  Study of American Architecture at Columbia University. Here will be cited her essay The  Way Beyond Art published in Autonomy and Ideology, ed.Somol, R.E., the Monacelli Press,  New York, 1997, pp.83-120 matter ceased to be understood as opaque mass. The viewer now envisaged different aspects of space simultaneously, inside and outside, convex and concave at once. Matter was decomposed into simple surfaces and lines (as in Mondrian) or became transparent and interpenetrating (as in Lissitsky). With these developments, space came to be understood as a crossing of movements and energies. The change in the conception of space is said to be the demolition of pictorial space by Cubist techniques and substitution of a relative point of view for an absolute one Along with Ockman, Sigfried also wrote about a new conception of space from the traditional. He claims that classical conception of space is related to the notion of perspective and this notion was the primary element in painting since the Renaissance up until the 20th Century. For Giedion, the new method of visual representation after the formation of cubist techniques coincides with a shift in the conception of space and develops form giving principles of the new space conception After Cubism, space conception changes from the static perception of the Renaissance. Giedion claims that the classic conceptions of space and volumes are limited and one sided. For Giedion, the possibilities of this new space conception is like Cubism with its many perspectives that extract the essence of the subject, give it an infinite potential for relations within it. Giedion claims that the dawn of cubism is an anonymous principle just like the discovery of perspective. That cubism is the expression of a collective and almost unconscious attitude and for him, this expression is also closely related to scientific advancements of that period. As Giedion says. Cubism breaks with Renaissance perspective. It views objects relatively: that is, from several points of view, no one of which has exclusive authority. And in so dissecting objects it sees them simultaneously from all sides from above and below, from inside and outside. It goes around and into its objects. Thus to the three dimensions of the Renaissance which have held good as constituent facts throughout so many centuries, there is added a fourth one time: In stage design, the stage itself can become a medium for the exploration and the experimentation of different concepts in vision and space conception. The stage is the manifestation of the relationship between performers and audience. In her book, Theatres, Gaelle Breton makes reference to ancient theatres. She says that the Greek theatres of antiquity sought to create a unity between the stage and audience areas and combined them under an open air space. This principle she states becomes the model for Elizabethan theatres which she identifies with the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Breton states that during the Renaissance, theatre design undergoes an increasing separation from the outside world, and within creates an ever increasing divide between stage and spectator who sit in a fix position for an optimum static perspective. This resembles the painting of the time. The way theatres were designed during the Renaissance was challenged by Richard Wagner. Together with architect Otto Brukwald, they collaborated to design theatre which sought a reversal in the separation of and stage. The theatre of the Renaissance was concerned with the audience with the perspective of the audience. No balconies and a darkened auditorium focused the audiences attention to the stage. Theatre no longer sought to create the illusion of reality but sought to express the essence of a play. Breton also claims that the necessity for creating the illusion of reality became less relevant with the advent of cinema and the innovation of cubism which shattered the traditional perception space and style of spatial representation Antonin Artaud (1862-1928) was a famous stage director and the author of Theatre and its Double. He describes the architectural space that he seeks for his productions as a single, universal locale without any partitions of any kind His proposal was to abandon the architecture of his time and set about producing production that could be held in a barn or a hanger for performance. The notion of flexible space such as this can also be seen in the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe around this time. The concept is for a performance space as a total space which can be redesigned and reorganized for different productions. The sculptor and painter Oscar Schlemmer, conducts experiments for stage space at the Bauhaus. Roselee Goldberg state that the work at the Bauhaus was to achieve a synthesis of art and technology in pure form The studies conducted included the problems of performance space such as the opposition of visual place and spatial depth Schlemmers experiments demonstrated a new conception of space on stage. In the 1920s, the discussion of space centred on the notion of felt volume Schlemmer explained that out of the plane geometry, out of the pursuit of the straight line, the diagonal, the circle and the curve, a stereometry of space evolves, by the moving vertical line of the dancing figure. The relationship of the geometry of the plane to the stereometry of the space could be felt if one were to imagine a space filled with a soft pliable substance in which the figures of the sequence of the dancers movements were to harden as a negative form Up until the twentieth century, the criteria for stage design was a framed view and theatres based on the relation of the proscenium. In the early twentieth century, revolutionary stage designers such as Edward Gordon Craig challenged this two dimensional approach to stage design with three dimensional concepts and experiments. For his first production, Craig had to design his own stage as the only available space was the Hampstead Conservatoire. This concert hall was 44ft wide with a series of stepped platforms at one end to house the orchestra. The comprises made by Craig became a characteristic of his work. The ceiling height was level throughout and Craig incorporated Herkomers technique of over head lighting and sky effects. A low proscenium was constructed to facilitate frames and a bridge above the stage for the lighting man. To facilitate a cast and chorus of 75, the full width of the stage was utilized. This created a strikingly panoramic effect. In later production in Coronet and Great Queen Street theatres, Craig lowered the proscenium by as much as 12ft to create the impression of great width. He also found that creating stepped platforms allowed for three dimensional groupings and movement. Craig wanted the spectators to have the same perspective of the plays so no side galleries, or boxes were used, instead a single level seating was used. Another characteristic of Craigs productions which challenged the viewers imagination were, although the sets were openly theatrical, with everything from imitation vine leaves to crude papier-mà ¢chà © boars head, on the other hand there was a deliberate avoidance of realistic detail and simple effects of colour were used, leaving the imagination free and achieving a suggestiveness that one viewer had commented reminded him of the delicate friezes of Pompeii. For these surfaces, Craig explains they stand on the stage just as they are, they do not imitate nature, nor are they painted with realistic or decorative designs Craig studied the theatrical work as it was in ancient Greece, Rome, from the Renaissance to the Elizabethan. He noted that Once upon a time, stage scenery was architecture. A little later it became imitation architecture, still later it became imitation artificial architecture. The two elements which became central to Craigs concept of a new theater were lighting and movement. The two elements which became central to Craigs concept of a new theater were lighting and movement. The great days of painted scenery belonged to the era of dim lighting from gas-few footlights or candles, which flattened the performer so that he an the picture became one. The day the first spotlight was on the side of the proscenium, everything changed. The actor now stood out, was substantial, and a contradiction suddenly appeared between roundness and the two dimensional trompe loeil behind his back. The great innovators in the art of scenic design, Adolphe Appia and Gordon Craig, knew this before the First World War. Peter Brook, Threads of Time, Methuen Publishing Limited, London, 1999, p.48 In 1923, Fredrick Kiesler presented his concept for the Endless Theatre. The theme of this space was the structure did not have any frame, but could still maintain its form. In the 1920s architecture had a strong tendency to interpret space from a functional point of view. Buildings where traditionally of a rectangular shape, however there were no corners in Kieslers endless concept. This implies a meaning of time and space simultaneously which one can interpret as without and en, or in another sense an eternity of time. While this theatre expressed Kieslers concept of space, it was in 1958 when he presented the Endless house that his concept had manifested itself into a space that responded to human sensibilities as well as a functional space acting as a home. An installation architecture piece by Bernard Tschumi called the Glass Video Gallery was constructed in the Netherlands. It is a glass structure which contains 6 banks of video monitors. The projects intention was to challenge our preconceived ideas on the act of viewing. The monitors act as an unstable faà §ade, unlimited space is suggested through mirror reflections. The reflective surfaces which can be interpreted as a modern day equivalent to Edward Gordon Craigs walls. The immateriality presents an ambiguous surface. The architect presented a challenge to the permanence of buildings. The multiplying layers act to dissolve the surface of the glass. Lighting at night acts to transform the space. For Tschumià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The endless reflections of the video screens over the vertical and horizontal glass surfaces reverse all expectations of what is architecture and what is event, of what is wall and what is electronic image, of what defines and what activates. Tschumi also claims that his glass box challenges the ideas of television viewing and about privacy. The transparency of the glass walls acts as an opposition to an enclosed private space it also acts as an extension to the street. Within the structure, a person watches and is watched at the same time.

Jealousy and Self-construal Essay -- Psychology, Emotions

Jealousy is an intrinsically relational phenomenon that is regarded as a multidimensional experience, consisting of cognitive, emotional and coping behaviors (Aylor, 2004; Fleischmann et. al, 2005; Pfeiffer and Wong, 1989; Theiss, 2006). Jealousy typically occurs when there is a potential threat to or an actual loss of a valued relationship between oneself and another due to a real or imagined rival for one’s partner’s attention (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996; Fleischmann et. al, 2005; Pfeiffer & Wong, 1989; White, 1981; White & Mullen, 1989). These real or perceived threats cause individuals to experience and respond to jealousy differently, as most researchers believe jealousy to be not a single emotion, but a combination of internal and external negative emotions. Some people may internally experience hurt, anger, and fear of loss or deterioration of an important relationship (Aylor, 2004; Pfeiffer & Wong, 1989; Strom & Aune, 2008; White & Mullen, 1989); while other peopl e may experience external displays of jealousy, such as crying, retaliating, departing, using surveillance or even becoming aggressive (Fleischmann et. al, 2005). Although jealousy appears in a variety of forms and levels of intensity, it always results from an interaction between predispositions and a triggering event. An individual’s response to jealousy may be either direct or indirect depending on the severity of the relational threat posed by a potential rival (Bevan & Tidgewell, 2009; Theiss & Solomon, 2006). Severe problems in relationships often call for direct communication to resolve the issue. Direct responses often include accosting the partner or rival in face-to-face communication. For instance, a jealous partner might approach the rival to altercat... ...e relationship and creates feelings of uneasiness or anxiety, both of which may lead to decreased intimacy. Consequently, individuals may take measures to reduce uncertainty and improve their relationship with their partner. A fourth goal is re-assessing the relationship which occurs when individuals experience discontent in their relationship, thus they may re-examine the relationship by weighing the costs and benefits attributed to the relationship. The last cognitive goal provided is restoring equity through retaliation and transpires when partners in inequitable relationships participate in behaviors prompted by the need to restore equity in the relationship (e.g., tactics that even the score). Understanding how these cognitive goals impact the experience of jealousy is an essential first step in understanding how an individual will express jealous behaviors.

Transition in Stanley Kubricks Full Metal Jacket Essay -- Film Movies

Transition in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket "These are great days we're living, bros. We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns. These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting." In Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick's portrayal of the Vietnam War and the US Marines is immense. His "Boys to Men" theme brought forth the transition these young men had gone through in order to achieve that "Man" status. The beginning of the movie takes place at the Marine boot camp on Parris Island in South Carolina. The Marines, as always, were looking for a few good men. On this day, they received a group of wide-eyed teenagers, and some adults, but mostly teenagers. Obviously unaware of what will await them in boot camp and more importantly on the frontline, their Senior Drill Instructor Sergeant Hartman played by R. Lee Ermey greets them. Sergeant Hartman plays a different role in the film depending on the perspective you take. To me, he is my coach. They have been through similar situations I have been through and are there in guidance. However, contrary to Hartman's intentions, he forces them to learn quickly and efficiently because this is not a game that they ar e practicing for. This is life and Death. Sergeant Hartman had seen Vietnam personally. A hardened veteran of the US Marine Corp, Hartman demands to see the fear in his recruits so, in a bullying manner, he can take it. "It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool; it is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and st... ...o a callous creature. He has to conflict with himself to become this but at the end of the movie, he seemed more calm and understanding. He had in fact, defeated himself by realizing he was his own enemy and is no longer afraid. He had finally found someone worth killing. Works Cited Jung, Carl G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1969. Oberdorfer, Don. Tet: who won? Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Magazine 2004 Rambuss, Richard. Machinehead: The technology of killing in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Indiana University Press. 1999 Crowley, Vivianne. Jung: A Journey of Transformation: Exploring His Life and Experiencing. Quest Books. March 15, 2000 Downs, Frederick. The Killing Zone: My Life in The Vietnam War. W.W. Norton & Company. November 1, 1993

Assisted Suicide Essay -- Assisted Suicide Death Essays

Writing the fifth assignment for the English class was by far the hardest essay I have had to write. Constantly was I running into problems, and this ended up taking me much longer than I had originally planned. Writing about the opposing side of this topic was very hard, as I usually caught myself writing things that I couldn’t make work in my paper. The writing was very tough to keep on track because it isn’t actually how I feel. This essay helped me to better understand the argument that is presented from both sides. Originally I knew my own opinion, which is an advocate of euthanasia, but I did not know the side that the opponents argue. All in all, I was able to learn more than I thought I would. Since ancient times, many people have contemplated the concept of a merciful and acceptable death. However, individual choice in dying did not become a widespread social issue and legal concern until recently. As technology advances, the medicines have enabled doctors to keep patients alive for longer periods of time. This has caused the development people to legally be allowed to ignore medical intervention. Although a mentally competent patient’s right to refuse treatment is widely and obviously accepted, doctors, in most cases, assume control over the patient’s length of hospitalization and type of treatment. A patient who refused a life-sustaining treatment was considered to have requested something that could not be done. This view changed during the 1970s, when the right to refuse treatment was established by various court cases. Today the dispute over patient autonomy extends beyond the right of treatment refusal to issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Most people who believe that assisted sui... ... to death, because they can not even decide if they want the treatment. Assisted Suicide, more than many other things, gives opponents the fear that doctors will become less committed to saving lives, that families may respond to financial pressures by encouraging suicide, and that limitations in the resources of the health-care system might dictate decisions of life and death. All in all, assisted suicide has been a large topic for debate and discussion for many years. Ever since the incident with Dr. Kevorkian, very much attention has been brought to the topic of euthanasia. All in all, the act in itself is morally, ethically and obviously wrong. People should not be able to take their lives from themselves with aid from a doctor, because it is not good for a society or community. Assisted Suicide should not be condoned in any situation or at any time.

Obama VS Chamberlain

When Chamberlain went to Munich on September 29th, 1938, to ask Hitler to discontinue, as he would have said, his plans to take over Poland, Chamberlain had good intention, but bad execution. He claimed that the appeasement was for, â€Å"The peace of our time,† and that his agreement with Hitler, that which Hitler biblically disregarded 7 days later, would allow Europe to continue war-free, sparing It from the trauma and anxiety associated with war. It Is well known that Chamberlain failed utterly to accomplish anything with the appeasement, and war did in fact break out he following year.Recently, President Obama went to Geneva to negotiate peace terms with Iran regarding them physically possessing nuclear weapons, and failed to accomplish anything. In fact, Iran slapped America in the face by completely undermining America's request, and this is the cause for much controversy and ill feelings toward Obama as of late. In comparison to Chamberlain's utter failure at Munich, B eam's inability to impose his country will Is far more severe than what happened in 1938.While It Is rue that both Britain and the US practically surrendered to Germany and Iran, respectively, Nazi Germany was much larger of a world power In its day when compared to modern day Iran. In addition, Brutal was In a weak state economically and militarily, while the united States, although Isn't In tip-top shape economically due to the recent recession, has one of, if not, the largest and most powerful militaries in the entire world. To have to surrender to a country whose inferiority on the world scale of sovereignty is an obvious step in the wrong direction.In defense of Chamberlain, he didn't have the power of hindsight in terms of WI. The same cannot be said for Obama and Iran. Obama had clear historical evidence and resources to show that appeasement, in large part, does not work. Ben Shapiro, who hosts his own radio talk show and is author of a bestseller, said â€Å"The deal with Iran Is Worse than Munich' in part because In 1938 Hitler had not made known his plans to exterminate European Jews, while Iran has explicitly expressed a desire to completely wipe Israel off the map.How, then, could Obama simply request that Iran hand over one of Its most prized possessions, that being nuclear weapons, which are clearly documented as present in the country, when America's greatest ally is at risk and is the direct victim of Iran's plans? This isn't acceptable, and is a clear sign that Obama, who was supposed to be America's FAD, is becoming America's Nixon. Obama VS. Chamberlain By Broadband disregarded 7 days later, would allow Europe to continue war-free, sparing it from the trauma and anxiety associated with war.It is well known that Chamberlain failed impose his country's will is far more severe than what happened in 1938. While it is respectively, Nazi Germany was much larger of a world power in its day when compared to modern day Iran. In addition, Britain wa s in a weak state economically and militarily, while the United States, although isn't in tip-top shape economically deal with Iran is Worse than Munich' in part because in 1938 Hitler had not made that Iran hand over one of its most prized possessions, that being nuclear weapons,

Culture Wars And Cultural Democracy Essay

Given that culture wars is a conflict of different cultures for example the traditional and the progressive, it is therefore safe to say that it has been present for a long time and will continue to be present for a long time to come. This is because there will always be conflicting cultures based on the various aspects of society like age, background and so on. It is important that people learn to deal with the culture wars for them to be able to live together despite their differences. Culture wars are a social problem and cultural democracy is required to deal with them. The major issues causing the culture wars currently will be discussed expansively and the various ways that they can be dealt with. Cultural democracy will also be discussed and how it will assist tin the future in the culture wars. As time progresses, the way in which the society deals with the cultural differences changes and the concern they have in the society changes with each generation. In the past, religion was a major issue alongside class and race. Although these are still issues of concern, there has been a shift towards other areas (Nolan 1996). Currently there are cultural wars based on politics, different denominations when it comes to religion, technology and its impact on the society, politics and how it deals with the social problems, the media and what should be allowed for general viewing and also the moral values of the people to name but a few. Cultural democracy allows people to practice what they believe in whichever society they are in and hence may tend to be seen as the only solution to the wars that are present in all societies of the world. Religion, technology, gender, media and the morality concept are very interesting and will be discussed in this paper and their role in the present day culture wars. Initially, the religion factor was based on whether one was a protestant or a Roman catholic but it has changed to which denomination one belongs to. However despite the denomination one may belong to, the value of religion has diminished over time especially among the developed countries whereby few people belong to any religion. This has led to bans in certain areas on the use of religion in schools and other public institutions (Zimmerman 2002). Religion is also being used to determine who is a terrorist and who is not especially in America since the bombings that occurred. Since the terrorists were Muslims, anyone belonging to the Islamic faith became a suspect since then. It also determines whether one will get into political office as was demonstrated in the campaign for American presidency with President Barrack Obama having his opponents propagate that he was a Muslim so that he may lose some followers. To avoid losing the seat he had to clearly show that he attends a Christian church and is not a Muslim. When it comes to technology, there is a conflict of how much technology is safe to use and how much is not. The major bone of contention is the issue of privacy since people no longer have privacy because all their data is stored somewhere in government files from medical records to the daily activities. While some people are against so much intrusion in their lives, others argue that it assists in keeping the society safe in view of the increased rate of crime. Although crime would reduce if it were possible to keep constant reliable surveillance, not many people would prefer the safety if it costs them their privacy especially in the homes. The media is another aspect of culture that has been a source of much conflict. When it comes to providing information, the media is the major informant of the society. However, some of the media sources will provide false information or speculated information in order for their form of media to make sales. This is therefore misleading the general population on what is happening in order to make profit. They betray the trust of the people and make the lives of others very difficult if the information provided is about an individual especially the prominent figures. The media especially the television is blamed for the many vices currently in the society. A lot of violence is depicted in the television and the children tend to think it is real and may actually go ahead and imitate what they see with the result being tragic outcomes. Constantly viewing the horrific scenes with blood, fatal wounds and constant death tend to diminish the horror of it thus desensitizing people on such issues. It becomes almost normal for someone to shoot another and wound them without being affected in any way. The media is also used in spreading culture and it usually shows western culture as superior to other cultures (Trend 1997). The younger generation is easily influenced to copy what they see as modern and this more often than not brings about a conflict between them and the older generation. One generation tries to conserve the culture as it has always been while another is trying to imitate what they tend to see as progressive. This disregard of culture brings about much conflict between the two generations. Gender is another important aspect of culture wars. The role of a woman in society in particular has led to a lot of conflict with the changing times and the women liberation. Women were initially supposed to be subject to men and their wishes and do everything to make the men happy. They would stay at home to nurture the family while the men provided everything that was needed and therefore the women were at their mercy. Nowadays, women do not stay in the house waiting for the men to provide and instead go out and get employment from which they earn and provide for the family. This change in roles brings about conflict when a man still expects the woman to play the role of a nurturer and cater to all his needs while the woman has been out working just as hard as the man. The woman in such a situation is therefore expected to play the role of a provider and that of a domesticated worker and nurturer. In other situations it is completely forbidden or the woman to try and take over the role of a man and should stay at home and show a good image of a man who is able to provide for his family. This is not acceptable to a woman who has gone through rigorous education and training to get to where she is and this causes conflict in the society. The final aspect of culture wars to be discussed here is the issue of morality and how it’s meaning changes with time. The most interesting issue her is the same sex marriages and relationships. In most traditional cultures and religions, homosexuality is forbidden and to practice it is going against all laws of nature and society. In present times however, some churches are even conducting wedding ceremonies and appointing church leaders who are homosexuals and this has caused a great division especially in the churches. The homosexuals are busy trying to get accepted in a society that is busy condemning them and their way of life. This causes conflict between the two groups of people that at times leads to physical harm individuals from either side. Cultural democracy therefore is seen as the only way to solve these problems. Taking its meaning to be the acceptance of the differences in culture, (Trend 1997), then it becomes obvious that for all people to be able to live with each other comfortably in the future, cultural democracy has to be embraced. It allows all people to practice what they believe in without fear that they will be punished or criticized for doing so. People are also more accepting to others when others are accepting to them without trying to change their way of life. Since it is impossible to get all the people to think alike especially in America where there are many different cultures represented in the society, there has to be a way that all people are able to live together and accept each other. Cultural diversity is to be celebrated and not ridiculed while attempting to change those from other different cultures. The only way this can occur is by embracing cultural democracy which allows all people to live in harmony while giving each other space to practice the culture that they have embraced. With increased technology that makes it possible for culture to travel far and wide, acceptance is the only way for the future (Nolan 1996). Although the position is that cultural democracy is the only way for the future, there are misgivings about it. As explained by Langa (2004), it started a long time ago and is oftentimes used to mask what is really going on. In the case of gender, very few women are given positions of leadership when compared to the men. People will change according to the situation as was seen during the world wars with women taking up the work of men but when the men came from the war everything was expected to go back to what it was before. Egocentrism is assumed to be ingrained in an individual and thus it is hard to assume that people will just ignore what they have been taught. However since these differences cannot be ignored, the only way that the society will be able to resolve these culture wars is by accepting each others presence without trying to change their way of life. The acceptance allows people to recognize the good in other cultures and appreciate the differences without necessarily trying to imitate or change it. Therefore, the only way for the future is to embrace cultural democracy and by so doing reduce the culture wars because there is no competition of cultures. References 1. Langa H. , 2004, Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930’s New York, University of California Press, California 2. Nolan J Jr. (ed), 1996, The American Culture Wars: Current Contests and Future Prospects, University of Virginia Press, Virginia 3. Trend D. 1997, Cultural Democracy: Politics, Media, New Technology, State University of New York Press, Albany 4. Zimmerman J. 2002, Whose America: Culture Was in Public Schools, Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Consequences of Indecision’s Essay

Consequences of Indecision’s The characters are affected by their mistakes in Feed by M.T. Anderson because these characters are all caught up in their indecision to choose what they want to do with their lives. Violet’s father is all caught up in protecting his daughter, Violet the main character, from the negative affects of the feed and how people take advantage of it in a poor manner. He didn’t want that to happen to Violet. The Feed is a device that people in the novel use in their everyday lives. The Feed is a computer chip that gets installed into the brain allowing internet access where ever they are, exposing people to unlimited knowledge. This chip also allows them to have the internet as a part of them so it becomes a part of the brain thus making them all in some since, part robot. He never wanted to get Violet the Feed because he thought it would be terrible for her. He then realized that she needed it in order to have a productive future and live a decent life. The outcome of his delayed decision of installing the Feed caused negative affects on Violet. Violet has similar to her father’s thinking when it comes to the Feed. She can’t decide if she does or doesn’t want to be a part of society. She claims that she loves the Feed because of the knowledge that it has to offer. Violet wants the feed because she also yearns to be accepted into society. She then turns around and says that the Feed is a horrible thing because it separates people from the real world causing them to become unaware of what’s really happening in the world. She also malfunctions in result of being hacked. This is the major issue that Violet and her father come across. Since these characters can’t choose what they actually want with society and the Feed only ends up leading them to their destruction. Violets father’s distraction with his thoughts is caused by his indecision on society with how people act. Many people would think that Violets father was doing the right thing by limiting his daughter to the technology, and they are wrong. If he was so against society then he should have left with Violets mother or just leave in general to get away. If they moved away and he never got her the Feed and she would have never gone to the moon. Apparently those thoughts never occurred to him. So he is living in a society that he strongly dislikes and refuses to become fully part of. His  problem with picking what he wants influenced him to get the Feed installed into her daughter’s brain late, because he realized that she would need it in order to live there and have a successful life. He realized this after he went to a job interview and he still didn’t have the Feed so he couldn’t get the job. This hesitation that he had was because he wanted his daughter to have real knowledge that you actually had in your head from memory and education. Not lazy artificial knowledge that she didn’t need to think to know something. He was being stubborn and thought he was doing something good for her. Many people would say that he just wanted to protect her. Well if he really wanted to protect her then why didn’t he just take her and leave that place? At the same time he wants to be around this great technology with its unlimited opportunities. Since he couldn’t choose a side that he wanted to be on he ran into issues because he cou ldn’t choose one or the other. Sadly Violet acts similar to her father. when it comes to Violet , it’s obvious that she is different from everyone else. She knows more then other people do because she had time to think and learn before she got the Feed, along with homeschooling. She has a larger vocabulary then the people that she lives around. Violet also doesn’t have as wide of a vocabulary as her father. She isn’t as intelligent as her father either. She is lonely to the point that she makes announcements into a trash can just to hear the echo of her own voice. She has no real close friends because of homeschooling, making her less exposed to other people in the world. Violet has similar indecision’s as her father, being against the society and with it at the same time just doesn’t work. it has to be one or the other. If not then they will have plenty of issues, because when they go against the way how things function and try to change it only caused them problems that they have to pay for all on there own. Violets i ndividuality and intelligence made her get into problems because she wanted to see if she could trick the Feed to prove that technology can’t over power humans. As Violet goes to the mall to create another profile on her Feed it only backfires. She called this her project. Her project was to create an account that the Feed could not give options to for items that she may like. She tried creating this account by looking at random and odd things at the mall  that had nothing to do with each other, pretending to like them so that the Feed would think she takes an interest in them. This makes the Feed think that she would consider purchasing these items. Violets project backfired because she never bought anything that she made the Feed think she liked. The Feed was offering her these items, expecting her to buy some of them. When she never did apply to purchasing anything, Violet got hacked everything started to malfunction and her father couldn’t pay for the care and FeedTech had no interest in helping her because she wasn’t a good investment to society. No one from FeedTech or the inverters of FeedTech wanted to sponsor for her health needs because of her poor shopping records. These records stated, that she had looked up information on items and she didn’t purchase any of them. Violets project was a horrible idea because her father couldn’t afford to pay for all the tests that she needed. The warranty had also expired years ago. There is nothing that they can do for her now but wait as her father regrets not getting Violets Feed late. When Violet got hacked, it somehow damaged her Feed and no one was sure why. While she was in the hospital she was told by the doctors that her Feed should stabilize over time, it never did. Her Feed only progressed to worsen as time went on. Even when she was working on her project in the mall Violet didn’t consider how her actions would affect her . She knew that attempting to mess with the Feed wasn’t supposed to be done and that didn’t stop her . She went and did it anyway, her indecision to go against the Feed failed because she only got worse in the end. Her body slowly stopped working over time. In the beginning she was losing all feeling in her foot. Similar to having a foot fall asleep. Of course this turned into her whole limbs losing feeling. This resulted in her losing all feeling in both of her legs causing her to fall down the stairs when she was home alone. FeedTech didn’t want to help her because she made a record that stated how she doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t buy anything that she takes interest in. All because she couldn’t make up her mind on what she wanted to do. She attempted to trick the Feed. Then she changed her mind when she was weak and tried getting help from FeedTech after she attempted to mess up the whole system. Since these characters can’t choose what they actually want with society. The Feed only ends up leading them to destruction. Violet and her father made so many mistakes that it came to the point where they couldn’t save her. They refused to cooperate with FeedTech so FeedTech wouldn’t pay for her repairs. When it came to her malfunctioning. They also refused to cover the cost because she messed up her Feed during her project at the mall when she was trying to trick the Feed so that it couldn’t predict or tell her what she would like. Since Violets father was so caught up in protecting his daughter he was protecting her to the point where his choices killed his daughter, destroying everything he has ever worked for because Violet is his life. Violet is all he has left because Violets mother ran away to Africa to escape the society that they claim to hate. When it turned out that them staying is a place that they dislike was all a mistake on it’s own. If they where going to stay they should have accepted the way things are. Violet and her father should have just given into the way of the Feed if they wanted to stay.

How to protect against 4 e-commerce security challenges Essay

Introduction Nowadays is the trends that trust the Internet commerce application where it can cause business operators. Some people will revert back to using the traditional method of doing business. The trust can be lost due to the situation where the hacker attack on e-commerce sites. According to the study done by Hammonds (2014) state that full-scale identity theft to web profiling come with various issues that been disturbed the consumer and vendor itself. That why, E-commerce also known as a form of buying and selling of product and services for the business and for the customer through the internet According to research done by Mukherjee (2016) state that online sale increasing day by day because customer take advantage of the low price product that offered by the wholesaler or the manufacturer in the online mood. Besides that, e-commerce also helps the customer and the organization in term of gaining the information through the technology that has been provided. Under Industry 4.0 concept, outstanding growth in advance and the information technology in social media network has been increasingly influencing human perception. That small enterprise that adopts e-commerce performs better than those which fail to adopt because of the catalytic effect on business performance (Wanyoike, et al. , 2012). This is because e-commerce adoption is not automatic due to the weaknesses of resources, for example, financial with e-commerce skill where the small enterprise have done it on the daily basis. It is shown that small enterprise can influence people to the business by using e-commerce by increasing the information about the social media network. The scope of study that has been done by Mihyun Chung & Jaehyoun (2014) Kim elaborate that the Industry 4.0 is the industrial revolution with the future of core technology trend is expected to result in an all-new era of automated industries. Furthermore, the internet devices significantly improve the quality of lives and in result will have a large impact on society. This has been proved with the development of small industry where they can go far in business by using the internet and apply the e-commerce business. Implementation of e-commerce is required high cost and need a strong economy-justification (Valmohammadi et al., 2016). This is because, in order to get the internet connection, there are a lot of things need build and upgraded in order to get the best connection. A poor connection can give the bad perception of the customer to the country and the nation and the ever-increasing growth of e-commerce in develop countries must be followed by the business policy and strategies that have bee fundamentally reconsidered as in the developing country. Acting as online marketplaces, e-commerce websites and mobile applications that facilitate online commercial transactions allow manufacturers, merchants, retailers and service and content providers to list their products, services or content online (Yen et al.,2015). To get success in e-commerce, there is some business model of e-commerce which it is has been structured in order to plan the activities more thoroughly to gain profit for an organization. The table below shows the key elements of e-commerce business model. ELEMENT DESCRIPTION VALUE PROPOSITION How a company’s products or services fulfill its customers’ requirements [14]. REVENUE MODEL How a company generates revenue and creates profit. MARKET OPPORTUNITY The marketplace that a company intends to enter, as well as the company’s potential financial opportunities in that marketplace. Many small market segments constitute a marketplace. MARKET STRATEGY How a company plans to enter a new marketplace and attract new customers. COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT Potential new entrants or other companies that offer similar products or services in the same marketplace. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE A company offers superior products or services at a lower price than its competitors do [23]. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT How a company organizes its work in a targeted, goal-oriented manner. MANAGEMENT TEAM. Leaders of a company’s business unit, responsible for the business model. Source: Adapted from Laudon, K.C., and Traver, C.G. E-commerce 2015: business. technology. society., 11th edition, pp58-68, Pearson [16]. Industry 4.0 is one of technology innovation after been through with the other three industry before. This industry is most modern where everything needs to use the internet in order to complete the task given. The information that available on the internet are not necessarily mean or lead to the success directly ( Kleindienst et al. , 2016). In contrast, the information usually gives some tools and methods and the right information is still needed in order to increase the effectiveness and lead the innovation. No wonder nowadays, it has been the topic that most frequent being discussed among the practitioners and academics in the German-speaking area (Dais, 2014, p. 625; Drath & Horch, 2014, p. 56).In this industrial revolution, it provides various opportunities to the company, especially in e-commerce fields. According to Zhou (2015) article state that industry 4.0 system is complex and flexible where there are involving). This is due to challenges that the industry facing by deali ng with big data issue in order to make a decision rapidly for making an improvement. Big data becomes a buzzword for everyone because data mining already been since human-generated content has been a boost to the social network. The development of an Internet of Things (IoT) framework and the emergence of sensing technology have created unified information that will be connected with the systems and human together ( Jay Ley et al. , 2014). This is because nowadays only use a database in order to get and save the information into the system. When the internet has been well developing, it can help human to work more effectively with the system and can help the human to save time use the technology wisely.

NHS on abortion is ethical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

NHS on abortion is ethical - Essay Example Over a period of time, the NHS has evolved strategy to deal with the critical issues linked with abortion. The major part of this strategy is communication. The NHS keeps its stakeholders informed regarding different aspects of the abortion and related procedures and risks. ... Abortion is a term used for the termination of pregnancy through procured or induced measures. In UK, Abortion is allowed under certain situations which are within the legal parameters of The Abortion Act, 1967 (Lipp & Fothergill, 2009). In the recent past, there have been various campaigns supporting foetus rights/ rights of unborn or rights of women. There have been certain cases, where father to be demanded for their rights over the unborn. However the issue is still unresolved. There are certain medical conditions where abortions become mandatory to save the life of pregnant women. The activists today are also opposing the use of abortion as a contraceptive measures to get rid of unwanted pregnancy. Abortions put the professionals performing it in ethical dilemma with their motive of medical practice. There have been voices raised for the social and ethical aspects linked with abortion. People supporting abortion as women’s right argue that women have right on their bodies and what happens in their bodies, whereas the others argue that the unborn who can not speak for themselves have right to live. There are various issues of debate over the abortions i.e. women’s health, psychological and emotional well being, support to raise the child and many others. There have been limited studies to understand the long term psychological impact on women who opted for abortions. The fact can not be ignored that even when abortion was not legal, it was being performed and putting women in health risk situations. It is statistically evident that legalising abortion has significantly reduced the number of abortions across the Eastern Europe (WHO, 2008). In such scenario of controversies, it is important how medical service providing

The Threat of Urban Cities of Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Threat of Urban Cities of Policing - Essay Example The cities become bigger around the Anthropocene, as the world population engages in the biggest ever urban migration. The geological timescale, however, illustrate that the cities are most probably temporary, just like any other human constructs. Majority of the cities will not withstand the disastrous humanity effect, which is combined with the natural upheavals (Michael 401). Historically, the urban environments were developed within fertile river valleys, and strategically at the river mouths. The rich agricultural sediments, nutrients and moisture available in coastal deltas greatly enhanced the food production. The favorable maritime environment and also effective river connections supported the trade and transportation activities. Thus, people found this environment very ideal to reside in. Further increase in the population led to the tapping and the diversion of the rivers for the purposes of irrigation, canal transportation and also industry applications. The rivers were also trapped for usage as reservoirs and dam, with the aim of energy generation and also water storage. But the diversion of the rivers leads to negative environmental consequences such as droughts. The sediments are not moving downstream in appropriate quantities because of river diversion and also tapping. The sediments are also inadequate to maintain the deltas that are require d for erosion control at the ocean shores (Albert 78). Rapid industrialization during the last century enhanced these processes. This is the reason why presently, several urban centers experience threats of the storm surges, and thus a lot of the economically significant areas on the planet are likely to be lost. Major world cities like New York and Bangkok have been adversely affected by the flood conditions. The other cities that are at risk from flood disasters are; Mumbai, Shanghai, Miami, New Orleans, Calcutta and Alexandria. Approximately three billion individuals

About physical therapy Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

About physical therapy - Personal Statement Example My father gave me a simple reply, â€Å"Because they need it.† My father was never a man of many words so I knew that I needed to seek the answer to my question from my cousin. His reply was to set the career path that I would eventually follow. He explained to me that the people in the clinic had all been physically injured either by playing sports, a work accident, or just a stroke of bad luck. Their injury damaged their body physically so they could not move like a normal person would. Pointing out the others who had their arms in slings or casts, and some people with amputated arms, he told me that â€Å"They all need help in learning how to move like a normal person. That is what I help them with.† Since we had time to spare before having to leave, I intently watched my cousin do his job. Trying to understand what exactly it was that he was trying to do for these people. When I asked him what he called what he was doing to them, he responded â€Å"Physical therapy†. I told myself that I would remember those two words because I wanted to be like my cousin when I grew up. So while I spent my time being a voracious reader, I made sure to read as many books as i could about the foundation of a physical therapists career aside from many other book genres that I liked to read. I made sure to spend as much free time as I could throughout my high school years observing my cousin in his workplace. Learning as much as I could and asking as many questions that I could about what he was doing to the patients. I will always be grateful to him for never tiring of answering the thousand and one questions that I kept asking him. I became such a regular fixture at his clinic that even the patients already knew me by name and some even considered me a friend already. When I was not observing at the physical therapy clinic, I spent whatever time I could doing volunteer work for the needy and less fortunate in my city. One of the places that I volunteered at

Weekly Journal #6 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Weekly Journal #6 - Assignment Example As described by Nichols (2013), stories told by people have great power to reshape their future. Additional point is that contrary to Systems and Psychoanalysis views, Narrative Therapy argues that family problems arise when people hold self-defeating views and experience. Furthermore, it is evident that Narrative Family Therapy concerns with impacts of problem(s) and not family members or solutions, as does Solution-Focused Family Therapy. As a counselor, one can find Solution-Focused Family Therapy an effective and reliable treatment technique. The fact that the model discourages concentration on problems of a family but encourages search for solutions makes it instrumental in providing emotional support to the troubled family members. A counselor can use the approach to empower family members open up and propose solutions to the underlying problems (Nichols, 2013). With Solution-Focused Therapy, a counselor can encourage and lead the client family members to talk positive about their situation, which influences positive emotions that can help in easing recovery. One of the insights that the readings of this week unveiled is that family members maintain problems with their negative views of the problems. This occurs when family members unsuccessfully used few strategies to resolve problems and never sought for alternatives. To treat such a family requires that a counselor encourage positive view and perception about the presenting problems. Another insight is that Solution-Focused Family Therapy is slightly similar to MRI in that both view family problems as failure of members to explore and try alternative strategies or measures in solving their problems (Nichols, 2013). Another insight is that Narrative and Solution-Focused Family Therapies cannot work interchangeably to resolve single-family problems. This is because, while Solution-Focused Therapy focuses on solutions, Narrative Therapy concerns with impacts of problem(s) on a given

Drivers Influencing SMEs in the UK Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Drivers Influencing SMEs in the UK - Term Paper Example To begin with, the UK is a developed country that is considered economically stable and highly competitive in the global market. In fact, in 2008 it was ranked in terms of nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the European region. In addition, it is the sixth largest economy globally in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009). The country is a member of some of the most prominent organisations in the world including the European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Security Council, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the G8 (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009). The country’s population was slightly below 50 million according to a census conducted in 2008 and ranked third in the EU (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009). The UK remains one of the proficient players in the global economy after recovering from the economic and political effects of the two world wars. Manufacturing is a key component of the UK economy however, it can be noted that it only accounted for approximately 13 percent of the output in 2003. The industry also contributes nearly half of the exports and ? 150 billion annually (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009). This trend has led to the increased levels of transfer of the UK manufacturing base and foreign ownership. In recent times, UK based companies are no longer the leaders in the manufacturing sector. Nevertheless, the UK still ranked sixth worldwide with regards to Gross Value Added (GVA) and manufacturing output (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009). Most conventional manufacturing companies have evolved into new activities such as silicon design, silicon design, in-flight refueling systems, and Bluetooth technology. Other manufacturers have engaged in the development of state of the art technologies in nanotechnology, information technology, and communication. In 2006, 25 percent of the exports were in the high technology class compared to 22 percent in the US and 15 percent in France (Excellis Business Consulting, 2009. Globalisation has both positive and negative impacts on SMEs. It poses numerous challenges such as increased competition and exposes the economy to pressures in the global economy such as recessions (Beise, 2004). Globalization allows for the free trade and global companies can trade in the UK market resulting in increased competition (Dicken, 2007:5). This affects the viability and competitiveness of SMEs. Owing to the fact that SMEs are in search of uncontested market space, globalization leads to an increase in the number of players in the market and this increases the level of competition faced by the SMEs thereby negatively affecting profitability. Through globalization, the global economy is viewed as one entity hence if there is an economic crisis in one economy it is likely to have a ripple effect on other economies. This means that SMEs are more e xposed to global economic crises owing to the rising trend of globalization (Dicken, 2007:5). These are the negative impacts of globalization on SMEs.