Human anatomy and physiology Essay

The cardiovascular disease has been one of the most fatal diseases in the world. And nowadays, it has been categorized into one of the wide ranging and investigative illness in the world. It is a disease merely composed of various individual disorders mainly in the heart and in the organs building the circulatory system. For many years, this disease has been one of the chief causes of death not only in the United States but also in the other parts of the world. And for that, this disease has been one of the challenges that still on top of the challenges that are being faced by the experts in health and medicinal tasks. The coronary heart disease and the cerebrovascular disease are two of the several diseases that compose the cardiovascular disorders. Though experts have already tried easing down the death rates caused by this disease, still the cardiovascular disease along with many of its components haunts the bodies of the persons of their next victims. One million deaths which are mostly rooted on the cardiovascular diseases have been recorded during the year of 1997 and up to this year is still increasing and heaving up with it a huge amount of expenditure not only of the victims but also of the persons preventing and thinking ways on how to prevent and treat the disease. However, not long before this disease of the heart and of the circulatory system had come into view, there were also other diseases that had bothered the health of the United States. Diseases like the pneumonia, diarrhea, tuberculosis and others have been the main illness that the United States have been battling with. It was not until 1963 that the deaths caused by coronary heart disease have took over in having the highest record. Over the years of the deaths caused by the cardiovascular diseases, experts all over the world began studying on the primary causes of this disease. According to the studies, the factors affecting the occurrence of this disease can be categorized to two: the modifiable and the not modifiable factors. The second one, the not modifiable factors are the ones that are mostly of the genetic preferences. Examples of these factors are gender of the person and family background regarding the disease. On the other hand, the first factor, the modifiable factors are the factors that can still be controlled or managed by the person in order not to have the disease. High blood pressure, fat or cholesterol level in the body, smoking, and pressure of the person’s blood, blood sugar, obesity and physical inactivity of the person are cases of the modifiable factors of the cardiovascular diseases. Reaction The cardiovascular system is one of the various systems in the body. This system is the one responsible for the transport of the following: hormones, food, gases and metabolic wastes. The system is composed of three major components: the blood, the blood vessels and the heart. The blood is composed of plasma and cells and serves as the transport vehicle of the ones transported by the system. The blood vessels on the other hand are grouped into two: the arteries and the capillaries. These blood vessels are the passageway of the blood to and from the different organs of the body. The arteries are channels that carry blood away from the heart and the capillaries are the ones that transmit blood from the different organs back to the heart. And finally the heart; this is the component of the cardiovascular system that drives the blood into motion. Definitely the cardiovascular system is one of the systems needed by the body to sustain life. If not for this system, there would be no transport of blood therefore the body would not be provided with the proper nutrients and gases and thus leading to death. Cardiovascular disease as stated in the article by William T. Friedwald is a disease composed by many other individual diseases either in the heart or in the other parts of the body mostly on the circulatory system. For one, the coronary heart disease is one of the various disorders that compose this cardiovascular disease. And like the other components of the said disorder, the coronary heart disease is also one of the leading causes of death and expenses in the world. Coronary Heart Disease The coronary heart disease is a problem in the heart which is caused primarily by a disorder in the coronary arteries. The coronary arteries are the channels which sustains the heart with sufficient blood that provides the needed nutrients and oxygen. A problem in the coronary arteries causes the heart to have less or even none of the needed average blood in the heart. A deficiency in the supply of blood in the heart is the main reason for the occurrence of this disease. The deficiency of blood in the heart which supplies the nutrients and the needed gases is also known as ischemia that is why this disease is often referred to as the ischemic heart disease. Like any other diseases, the coronary heart disease has its own causes. One of the reasons for the existence of this disease is due to heredity. Coronary heart disease can be present in the blood that runs through the veins of your family. And so, if one of the ancestors of a person has exhibited the signs of this disease in the past, it would not be a wonder if the person too would have the possibility of having the disease. A high level of cholesterol in the body also aids in the development of the disease. These are also accompanied with the high blood sugar, high blood pressure and intense amount of excess fat in the body. These along with the abuse of tobacco, lack of regular physical activities and stresses brings about coronary heart disease. Lessen Tobacco Intake Smoking as a major cause of this disease should be definitely be lessened or most accordingly be brought to a stop. Too much intake of tobacco serves as grounds for the accumulation of fatty substances in the arteries. This build-up of fats in the arteries causes the narrowing of the arteries of these vessels therefore diminishing the deliver of nutrients and oxygen to the heart leading to heart attack. A gradual decrease in the intake of tobacco in the body may help in preventing the disease. Though it may sound unusual and that it is far from the existence of the disease, dieting can be an aid in preventing coronary heart disease. Dieting reduces the not only the cholesterol and sugar but also diminishes the blood pressure of the person. Researches conclude that the consumption of fish is better than eating meat. Researchers recommend the eating of fishes over meat for the reason that most of the meat especially red meat has a greater quantity of cholesterol than fishes. Moreover, certain fishes contain omega-3 which reduces the occurrence of irregular heartbeat which is the mere cause of loss from coronary heart disease. Be Physically Active Physical activities such as swimming and biking are recommended by most of the experts in order to prevent coronary heart disease. Being physically inactive is a big risk for the existence of coronary heart disease. Experts say that adults should engage themselves into activities with moderate intensity everyday. Cardiology Exam Everyone on Earth has the possibility of having the disease in their family history. Hence, a cardiology exam is advised for an early prevention and treatment program may be executed in case there is a positive result after the exam. Hormone Replacement Though not for everyone, researches have already concluded that estrogen has the ability to protect the blockage on the passageways of the blood. This has been formulated because of the observation that it is uncommon for women to experience heart attacks on pre menopausal stages of their lives. Though deadly and fatal as it may seem, the coronary heart disease can also be prevented in any ways like other diseases. Moreover, given the incurable and terminal effects of this disease, there is really a definite reason to know the ways of preventing this disease. Cardiovascular disease is a general diagnostic category consisting of several separate diseases of the heart and circulatory system. Cardiovascular diseases have been the major health problem and the leading cause of death in the United States for several decades. Despite impressive and sustained declines in the mortality rates from these diseases, the magnitude of the problem is still staggering. In 1997 alone, nearly 1 million people died of cardiovascular disease, which was about 40 percent of all deaths. The two most important components are coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, with 460,390 dying of coronary heart disease and 158,060 dying of cerebrovascular disease in 1998. In 2000, it was estimated that cardiovascular diseases carried a direct heath expenditure cost of $186 billion and additional indirect costs of $190 billion, making these diseases a continuing major contributor to the escalating cost of health care in the United States.

Historical Perspective Essay Essay

As per Elizabeth Ann Manhart Barret â€Å"Nursing science is the substantive, abstract knowledge describing nursing’s unique phenomenon of concern, the integral nature of unitary human beings and their environments. The creation of this knowledge occurs through synthesis as well as qualitative and quantitative modes of inquiry. Nursing science-based practice and research is the imaginative and creative use of nursing knowledge to promote the health and well-being of all people.†(Kalisch. 1986) The theorist who I believed had the most tremendous impact on nursing research and the profession of nursing as it stands today is Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale, originally from England was a great visionary and pioneer of nursing in the 1870’s. Her focus and teachings in nursing were on patient care and hygiene to enhance healing. Florence Nightingale did not consider herself a theorist however her documentation of her practice have guided the science of nursi ng and nursing research for decades. Nightingale’s Environmental theory is an integral part of healthcare today. Her principles are better adopted in an educational setting but can be applied to a clinical setting. Nightingale’s Environmental theory was based on the concept that the environment could be altered to improve conditions so that the natural laws could allow healing, and that the environment is capable of suppressing, preventing or causing disease and illness in the individual. Her theory also stated that a poor environment leads to poor health and disease. Core concepts or metaparadigms are the tenants of nursing and their role is to define how patients should be treated. The concepts are the person, the environment, health and nursing. (Avant. 2011). All of the concepts are interrelated and each concept builds upon the concept that precedes it. Nightingale’s definitions of the metaparadigms have been utilized by many of the theorist that have followed her and are still widely  used today. She defined them as followed: The human was seen as the person or the individu al. The role of the nurse is to alter the environment to place the individual in the best condition for nature or the environment to act upon them. The environment was defined as all external and internal factors that can affect the health and wellness of the individual and health was defined as the process of getting well In conclusion research and nursing science has greatly evolved through the years and will continue to do so over time with the continued contributions from nurses such as Florence Nightingale and the continued advancements in research and medicine. As the needs of the patients continue to grow so will the quest for more nursing knowledge, and the science of nursing will continue to develop.

The Roles of Tonal and Segmental Information in Mandarin Spoken

Assignment 1 – Article Summary In their article, â€Å"the roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study†, Malins and Joanisse investigate how suprasegmental features affect on-line auditory word perception. Current speech perception models have fallen short in accounting for suprasegmental features because all have been based on Indo-European languages. In this study, Malins and Joanisse extend the potential of suprasegmental features by examining the role of tone in auditory word recognition.Preliminary studies on which Malins and Joanisse based their study show that features of stress alone could not account for word constraint activation. One of the reasons that stress was a poor candidate for word constraint during lexical priming tasks was that they were situated within polysyllabic structures. Tone features, on the other hand, are situated within monosyllabic structures. Listeners of tonal languages are require d to make distinctions based on these features alone. In addition, these preliminary studies showed that tonal information was processed after segmental information.However, these propositions were brought into question as Liu and Samuel (2007) discovered that most of the preliminary studies in speech perception did not utilize contextual constraints. More recent studies seem to show that tonal features are more effective in constraining word activation when in a sentential context and segmental features more effective in word constraint in a lack of contextual information. Malins and Joanisse set out to examine the role of tonal features in Mandarin word recognition by employing the visual world paradigm.This would allow the use of eye tracking which would measure the on-line auditory processing among four competitor categories – segmental, cohort, rhyme and tonal. The segmental category shared all phonemic features except for tones, the cohort shared all but word final phon emes, the rhyme differed in onset consonant, and the tonal shared only tone. The following was hypothesized: tonal and segmental information would be accessed at very similar points in time and share equal potential for word recognition constraint.Additionally, rhyme competitors would be viewed more than unrelated items and that tonal categories would produce little interference effect with target items. Twenty-four native Mandarin speakers were chosen as participants in this study. The mean age was 28, although seven were excluded from the study due to excessive use of peripheral vision (lack of eye movement data). Experimental stimuli comprised of 27 monosyllabic Mandarin words. The unrelated distractor tones were comprised of phonologically unrelated segments.A picture array was shown on screen for 1. 5s followed by a . 5 second transition at which point the central fixation point appeared. Participants focused on the fixation point while selecting the correct target picture for the spoken utterance. When the auditory stimulus was provided, the time course was measured through observing eye movements. If there were significant interference between tone and segment, then processing times would be increased therefore suggesting comparable roles in constraining word activation.The pictures in the array provided conceptual constraint. This ensured that sub-lexical access was being observed. This visual word picture matching task was used to create an environment that demanded lexical access using conceptual constraint. This method would supplement the hypothesis by leading participants to utilize tonal information. In the tasks, the act of pressing a button demanded lexical access and the four competitor pictures provided the conceptual constraint. There were 280 experimental trials.The experimental setting was kept monolingual as to eliminate the potential for confounding effects of bilingual interference. The results of this study show that the competition be tween target words and competitors was greatest for the segmental and cohort categories. This is crucial because the segmental category diverged from the cohort in tonal information only and the cohort category diverged in segmental information. This supports the hypothesis that both tonal and segmental information show an equal role in word recognition.Furthermore, the time course information for both cohort and segmental categories were similar. This seemed to indicate that segmental and tonal information are both accessed at the same time. There were no data supporting the claim that rhyme competitors would be looked at more than the distractors. This went against the second hypothesis and was likely a result of a discontinuity between rhyming features in Mandarin compared to English. This study could help improve existing models of speech perception by providing a firmer basis for tonal processing in auditory word recognition.This might raise the question of how tonal informatio n should be represented in a speech perception model. Ye and Connine (1999) have proposed the use of ‘tonemes’ since they act as contrastive units that can be categorically perceived like their segmental counterparts. Through summarizing, I have come to a better understanding of how this study would influence the TRACE model. Particularly, how different levels of word representations are shaped by spreading activation — tonemes possibly being the newest.By accounting for suprasegmental features, a speech perception model would be much more robust and functional. One particular thought that has arisen as a result of this study is how tone recognition contrasts between the modalities of speech vs. music. Do they share overlapping neurological locations and functions? Also of interest is whether individuals with amusia (tone deafness) are able to utilize tones as contrastive units in a language? References Liu, S. , & Samuel, A. G. (2007).The role of Mandarin lexica l tones in lexical access under different contextual conditions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22(4), 566–594. Malins, G. M. & Joanisse, M. F. (2010). The roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: an eyetracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 62(4), 407-420. Ye, Y. , & Connine, C. M. (1999). Processing spoken Chinese: The role of tone information. Language and Cognitive Processes Special Issue: Processing East Asian Languages, 14(5–6), 609–630.

How young children pay attention to directionality, shape, size, Essay

How young children pay attention to directionality, shape, size, spatial orientation in producing different writing scripts - Essay Example the reason why as they grow up, their primary school teacher may choose to stick to one or two writing scripts depending on the child so as to eliminate the chances that the child may be caught up in the mix of these writing scripts. Based on that, the aim of this research essay is to gain more knowledge about bilingual learning and/ or script writing in young children; emergent literacy; the issues related to the acquisition of literacy in young children; how children learn different writing systems; writing different scripts and the design of symbols and embodied knowledge. In a study that was conducted by Kenner et al. (2004), children who had bilingual capabilities always had the capability to communicate in between â€Å"two worlds† or â€Å"multiple worlds† for the case of those who were highly talented. In addition to that, these children had the capability to determine their unique and/ or distinct differences in their specific writing systems, other writing systems and graphic representations. From the same study, the young children involved showcased that they were not only capable of incorporating different writing scripts into their learning experience, but they were also capable of determining the fact that they were in actual fact using different writing scripts and/ or directionalities so as to communicate efficiently. A good example is that of the Chinese children who were in a position to determine that their language involved the use of symbols and not alphabetical letters when compared to other languages such as English. In addition to that, the Arabic children were able to determine that their language was different in the sense that they wrote from right to left and not vice versa as compared to the English language. Lastly, the Hispanic children were able to determine that their language vowels were different from the English spoken vowels (Kenner et al., 2004). Based on these results, it was determined that these children were highly

List a phobia and explain the systematic desensitization of a phobia Essay

List a phobia and explain the systematic desensitization of a phobia - Essay Example ty disorders, and consists of teaching those who suffer from it coping strategies, establishing a hierarchy of stimuli that cause the phobic fear and then progressively and gradually exposing them to the thing they fear (Wikipedia, n.d; Rainey, 1997). When people suffer from irrational fear such as height, they tend to avoid the thing they fear. Since theyre avoiding it, their anxiety level reduces and the reduction of the fear is reinforced by negative reinforcements. Instead of this, the systematic desensitization first teaches how to reduce the levels of anxiety and fear by cognitive strategies that help control the fear rather than letting it build up inside until it becomes unbearable. These strategies can be meditation, thinking happy thoughts, concentrating on breathing and more. Having been taught how to relax and reduce their anxiety, the phobic person will be exposed to the object of his fear gradually, by first being able to talk about it, then seeing a picture illustrating the situation or thing he fear, then experiencing something similar, and finally by experiencing it. One common fear is the fear of flying. Many people think it is extremely dangerous to fly airplanes since it is high in the air and the plane can crash. These people view the experience of flying as terrifying and something which they can never do, seeing as how it completely paralyzes them. Accordingly with the systematic desensitization, the therapist will first teach the patient different ways to relax, like the ones previously mentioned. Relaxation is very important when discussing this fear, because unlike other fears from animals or other objects, flying a plane can last hours, and in this case, it is crucial to be able to fully relax. Then, having established the stimuli which cause the phobic episodes, the therapist will start with the least anxiety-provoking stimulus and gradually move on to the next one, until all of the items listed on the anxiety hierarchy have been

Statement of purpose 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Statement of purpose 2 - Essay Example I always desired to be of great help as well to the young people in the building of a good future they can be proud of and be a part in freeing them from ignorance therefore, from passion in criminal acts, helping them lead their skills and strengths to productivity rather than destruction. Being from Kuwait and mostly taught by my countrymen, I have discovered the advantages of being able to speak another language especially that which is used internationally, English. Speaking only one language limits a person’s opportunities like employment and continuing one’s studies overseas. This is a problem which abounds in our country because of the communication constraints to those who are not able to speak English fluently. The inability of a person to express himself well in an international language does not always mean the person is stupid or has nothing good to say. The thing is, most bright people meet the problem of effectively bringing their thoughts into a state whe re they are well understood. This situation usually brings some problems with it like the use of an ineffective English speaker’s ideas by others who are more apt to the use of the language. Such atrocities are among the reasons why I like to empower myself with the learning I can get from my post-graduate studies. I have been blessed to have acquired a good deal of information and training in verbal and written English communication skills as most of my professors have observed in the recommendation letters they provided me. However, I know there is still a wide room for me for improvement so that as an educator, I would like to let myself be further trained. This is the very reason why I would like to enroll at your prestigious school, the University of Sussex as I also know that this school is internationally recognized, providing a high quality of education. As an educator, I value the quality of education that I provide to my students so I also seek such education becaus e I believe I can never give what I do not have. I am currently teaching English at the Ministry of Education in Kuwait exclusively for boys and it is here that my passions have been inflamed again to affect the lives of such young minds, to learn another language and not be satisfied in their comfort zones. I now see myself in them when I was a student myself. My elementary and high school days have been quite easy because most of our teachers were our fellow countrymen. However, when I went to college, everything turned out to be all different in many aspects. First of all, I struggled with my English communication skills because most of our teachers are foreigners. I really had to work hard in improving my communication skills because I so much desired the education that would really lead me to the life that I like. Secondly, the school was bigger in area and number of students. This made me see what I have missed and those which I have been blessed with. One of the things that I observed was the superiority of my fellow students who are able to speak English fluently. I envied them and turned my envy to a passion for learning. The diversity of the educational backgrounds of college students opened my eyes to what I can achieve and what I can do to help other people succeed. I learned that education can do wonders to a person especially when one is able to speak in English fluently. With this, I have decided that I have to become a good example not just in words but in action as well.

Corporate Fundraising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 2

Corporate Fundraising - Essay Example As can be observed with reference to the case scenario presented, The Green Coffee Company Ltd is aiming at investing in Vietnam which requires a substantial amount of funds. It is worth mentioning in this context that corporate fundraising options available to a particular business depends on various factors including the size of the company which further signifies its certification as a public or a proprietary company as per the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (â€Å"A Practitioner’s Guide to Corporate Law†, 2007). To be noted, as per the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) Section 45A, a proprietary company can be limited or unlimited with share capital. Another type of company identifies as per the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) is the public company wherein the Section 195 of the Act specifies that â€Å"public company means a company other than a proprietary company† (â€Å"Corporations Act 2001† 2005). Also, the corporate name of a proprietary company is distinct to that of a public company, i.e. ... With reference to this context, The Green Coffee Company Ltd can be identified as a public limited company which shall further determine its fundraising obligations when attempting to invest in an international expansion venture to Vietnam. One of the major differences and opportunities for The Green Coffee Company Ltd in fundraising, being a public limited company, is that it can issue equities or sell its debentures or shares to â€Å"more than 50 non-employee shareholders† through the obligatory issuing of prospectus where proprietary companies (either limited or unlimited) are exempted from such permits (â€Å"Corporate Law† 2011). From a managerial concern, fundraising activities performed by organisations such as The Green Coffee Company Ltd will quite essentially give rise to company liabilities and thus will seize the risk of affecting shareholders’ or investors’ interests. It is in this context that The Green Coffee Company Ltd must ensure its com pliance with the norms prescribed in the Chapter 6D of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). It is worth mentioning in this regard that The Green Coffee Company Ltd is planning to offer shares to the public with the intention to obtain a capital of around $7 million and $15 million owing to which the company must ensure the disclosure of all the required and lodged documents prior to offering securities as per the provisions mentioned in Section 727 (1) of Chapter 6D in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (â€Å"Corporations Act 2001, 2005†). It is mandatory on this note to lodge the disclosure document to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as per Section 709 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (â€Å"Better prospectus disclosure† 2006). Contextually, any identification of forging in the

Hip Hop and Race Portrayal in News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Hip Hop and Race Portrayal in News - Essay Example The paper "Hip Hop and Race Portrayal in News" analyzes gender portrayal in hip hop and race portrayal in news. Hegemony in gender usually follows a pattern in which men indirectly dominate women in society. Through discourses perpetrated through various ways especially in the media, such positions appear ingrained in the society and unquestionable. Douglas explores the issue of hegemony arguing that there is meaning, context and representation of various sociological aspects with most of these being used to perpetrate hegemony. Dyer discusses the establishment of stereotypes in detail and explains that stereotypic images portrayed in media forms are widely believed and agreed upon as being right. As Douglas states, analysis of hegemony involves historical socio-cultural inquiries into how culture and various social institutions from the media have been used to facilitate domination on rather broad social and political ends. Thus, in order to determine whether the media’s powe r is increasing or decreasing, this discussion shall seek to establish hip hop’s perpetration of gender hegemony and the counter-efforts to break these hegemonic discourses based on a time series analysis. The hip hop genre is known to perpetrate gender hegemony and misogyny and has, in fact, come under heavy criticism for this in the past. Perpetration of gender hegemony in hip hop involves using lyrics and videos to portray women as sex objects, trivializing them, marginalizing them and using derogative terms to refer to them.

Effective Team and Performance Management Essay - 7

Effective Team and Performance Management - Essay Example P.1). Tuckman theory of team formation and development is the most acknowledged model of team development and occurs in four stages which are forming, storming, norming and performing (Johnson 2010, P. 17). After the performing stage Tuckman developed another stage and named it as the adjourning stage (Edison 2008, P. 14). Meredith Belbin’s team theory analysis the roles played by team members depending on their characteristics and behaviors as well as interpersonal styles. Team performance is affected by its characteristics in regards to size, team norms, team cohesion, management styles, conflict resolutions approaches and feelings among the team members towards each other. Effective management is important for the success of the team. An effective team manager adopts different management styles depending on the arising situation in the workplace (Efere, 2003). There are several team management styles namely authoritarian style, democratic style, laissez-Faire Style, paterna listic, concertive style among others which a manager or a company can adopt (Efere, 2003). This paper will critically evaluate theories on team dynamics, formation, conflict resolutions, factors affecting team performance and offer recommendations for the management to improve teams in Electron Company if adopted. Introduction An effective team may is able to move to and from one stage to another. A company may change its strategy and therefore form different teams. Electron Company changed its management structure and team management to increase performances. Electron is a manufacturing company dealing with telecommunication components and is situated in United Kingdom, established in 1997 as a department and sold out ten years later in 2007 as the original company opted to subcontract its manufacturing department and that is why up to today the company is still the leading client of electron. The management structure was not changed. However the company did not perform as expecte d and this necessitated change in its production practices by escalating productivity, improved client services and improved team performance. A new management approach was introduced to help the different teams achieve productivity objectives in a period of two months and in addition the teams that were to meet their objectives, to all members were paid additional benefits. In the restructured format, new employees were employed on temporary basis while the old employees were distributed to all the teams to help the new members adapt into the company. The teams had the authority to establish their working norms which they would follow and the new team members we supposed to comprehend and follow the teams’ norms and values and therefore the teams were affirming concertive control on the newly employed. Team formation In an organization employees of a specific department work as a team or in some cases teams are established to perform a specific task. Evaluations of the teams are conducted periodically to determine their performance or set new goals after the team is formed it takes time to grow and mature to an efficient team. Several theories explain team dynamics and development and most sociologist point to relationship and personal characteristics of the members involved (Nazzaro and Strazzabosco 2009). Tuckman’s model of team development Tuckman's group development model pays

A report in the context of the audit of public companies listed on the Essay

A report in the context of the audit of public companies listed on the London Stock Exchange regarding the two issues that the committee decided against implementing - Essay Example auditor’s bringing a fresh perspective and greater skeptism that would be lacking in the long-standing auditor-client relationship, the opponents maintain that because the auditor’s lack of familiarity with the industry and client, audit quality would suffer under such a regime (AICPA 1992). In late 2001, the Enron debacle followed by its high-profile collapse now focuses attention on the profession’s effectiveness in protecting the interests of the public. Thus, Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 mandated the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a research on the potential effects of mandatory audit rotation as required by law. The study concluded that mandatory audit rotation would not necessarily strengthen auditor independence (G.A.O. 2003). The arguments for and against mandatory audit firm rotation contend whether the auditing firm’s long-term client-customer relationship and the profitable desire to maintain the client adversely affects the public accounting firm’s independence during the auditing of a company’s financial statements. Furthermore, reservations about the likely effects of the audit firm rotation include the fear of losing company-specific information gathered by an audit firm over years of experience as an auditor, and whether the intended benefits are likely to outweigh the costs. Additionally, the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (as applied in the United States) has raised question as to its effectiveness of reforming the intended benefits of mandatory audit firm rotation. Furthermore, research studies and other publications specifically show that the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory audit firm rotation touch on auditor independence, audit quality, and increased costs. Interference with auditor independence or audit quality can result in failure and adversely affect the parties relying on the fair representation of the financial statements in conformity with established accounting standards. Proponents of audit

The role of scientific paradigms in the assessment of thought Essay Example for Free

The role of scientific paradigms in the assessment of thought Essay Thomas Kuhn, in his work entitled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, discusses the very nature and necessity of what he calls scientific revolutions. In this particular work, Kuhn sees an apparent parallelism between political revolutions on the one hand, and scientific revolutions on the other. Kuhn writes, â€Å"Scientific revolutions†¦ those non-cumulative developmental episodes in which an older paradigm is replaced in whole or in part by an incompatible new one† (2000, p.503). On a preliminary note, paradigms are frameworks in and through which we approach phenomena, in general. They are models, so to speak. The idea is rather simple. Let us consider the choice of models in epistemological theory. The traditional epistemological schools of thought [rationalism and empiricism] have different models. The model adopted by the rationalists was pure mathematics, whereas the empiricists adopted experimental or empirical science. As one may have already noticed at this point, it is not difficult to see why rationalism and empiricism stand as rival epistemological theories. The choice of model is significant to their fundamental disagreements. Naturally enough, different models employ different methodologies, different methodologies in turn, generate different types of knowledge, which, consequently, have different criteria of proof or validity. Scientific development, as Kuhn contends, may appropriately be characterized by paradigm shifts and this he calls scientific revolutions. It is important to note that scientific developments do not occur in a vacuum. For the aforementioned reason, there is a felt need to situate scientific developments in the historical context within which they are conceived, proposed and ultimately, institutionalized and integrated as part of society’s shared knowledge. This is to say that scientific revolutions are also proper objects of historical analysis and discourse in as much as political revolutions are. Kuhn contends that there is a parallelism between political and scientific revolutions. As pointed out earlier, it is important to note that he characterizes scientific revolutions as â€Å"those non-cumulative developmental episodes in which an older paradigm is replaced in whole or in part by an incompatible new one. † Kuhn’s characterization emphasizes two important points. First, â€Å"that there is a replacement of an old paradigm by a new one†. Second, â€Å"that the new paradigm is not merely something new; it is also incompatible with the old paradigm†. This is to say that the incompatibility or the irreconcilability of the new paradigm with the old paradigm serves as warrant for the necessity of such a revolution. Although there are significant differences in both scientific and political developments, Kuhn argues that one may be justified in using the notion of revolution as a metaphor for understanding them. He writes, â€Å"Political revolutions are inaugurated by a growing sense often restricted to a segment of the political community, that existing institutions have ceased adequately to meet the problems posed by the environment that they have in part created. In much the same way, scientific revolutions are inaugurated by a growing sense, again often restricted to a narrow subdivision of the scientific community that an existing paradigm has ceased to function adequately in the exploration of an aspect of nature to which that paradigm itself had previously led the way† (2000, p.503). Kuhn’s parallelism is thus, founded on the idea that in both cases, a sense of malfunction [in our institutions as for the case of the political, and in our paradigms as for the case of the scientific] necessitates for the occurrence of a revolution. References Kuhn, T. (2000). â€Å"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. † The Philosopher’s Handbook. Ed. Stanley Rosen. Random House: New York.

Value Chain System Essay Example for Free

Value Chain System Essay The value chain concept was created by Michael Porter and explained in his book â€Å"Competitive Advantage†, published in 1980. The value chain is a series of activities that create and build value- culminating in the contribution of total value to the organization. Porter used the concept of value chain as a systematic approach to examining the development of an organization’s competitive advantage in the marketplace. In using the value chain concept, the total activities undertaken by a business are split into Primary Activities and Support Activities. Primary activities relate to inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Support activities include procurement, technology development, human resource management, and firm infrastructure. Intel  No doubt, Intel has emerged as the market leader in the design and manufacture of microprocessors, having an almost unbeatable advantage over its competitors. Yet Intel has realized that the best way to retain its market position is to make it easy and efficient for people to do business with the company. Since 1998, Intel has developed and used an e-business strategy to maintain relationships with its customers, employees and suppliers. The company’s goal is to become a 100% ‘e-business enabled’ corporation. In terms of the value chain concept, Intel has made remarkable progress and reaped tangible benefits in the volume of business it does on the Web, as well as created savings of time and money for both itself and its customers. (Pallato, 2001) Let us analyze Intel’s strategy in terms of the primary value chain activities: Inbound Logistics Prior to implementation of its e-business initiative, Intel used the traditional methods of pen, paper and telephone to place and track its supplies and suppliers. Furthermore it ordered supplies only in response to customer orders. Consequently the company lost out on many business opportunities, where it could not meet emergency demands, changing customer needs or large orders for want of adequate stock. However this all changed with the launch of its e-business initiative in 1998. Today, Intel uses the Internet to speed the flow of information between itself, its suppliers and customers. By tracking its deliveries and supplies over the Web, the company has reduced its order and manufacturing lead times. It tracks its supplies from various countries all over the world. Intel’s goal is to move towards a 100% automated system for its supplies and purchases. Operations Intel uses its Web based e-business system to aid in the quick exchange of details and queries pertaining to customer orders, design specifications and proprietary information. Design specifications and models can change every 6 months. Intel has many made-to-order deals with big volume direct customers and this almost instantaneous system can shave off a week or two in design and delivery of the final product, enabling the product and its suppliers to take full advantage of its novelty and price in the market. Outbound Logistics Intel uses its web based system to track deliveries to customers and resellers. It can thus expedite delivery by noting friction points, ascertaining the reasons and smoothing shipments there. Using its ‘vendor driven’ inventory management system, Intel can maintain its inventory levels to respond to fluctuating customer demand, make reliable forecasts and shipments on time. Marketing Sales Intel has also improved time to market for its products to customers. By putting its customer order entry system on the Web, it has reduced errors by 75%. It can take orders round the clock, where more than 25% of its transactions occurring after normal business hours. Its ability to establish links with over 75,000 system resellers worldwide has led to considerable increase in its sales volumes. Online sales doubled from US$ 1 billion to US$2 billion a month. Hundreds of Intel suppliers use the Web to check the status of inventory levels, payments and shipments. Service Intel focuses on many areas of support and service for all its products. From advanced data centers, application platforms, architecture planning, integration of business applications, e-commerce applications and solutions, system migration and server consolidation. Employing a set of highly skilled consultants having considerable technical expertise in designing, building, implementing and optimizing solutions on Intel architecture. Intel provides a variety of services in the areas of wireless, hardware design, networking and communications, software development, business strategies and solution providers. Intel has established alliances with other leading software technology providers and solutions such as Oracle and SAP to give added value to its customers. It has a variety of solution blueprints on its website advertising its successful applications from a variety of industries. A database of solution providers and resellers of Intel products and solutions has been provided on a technological, geographical and language basis for ease of access and use. Intel Website). The success of Intel’s value chain can be judged by the fact that it helped the company earn revenues of US$30. 1 Billion in 2003. The company has over 78,000 employees worldwide, with 294 offices and facilities for its 450 odd products. Intel was ranked 53 in the list of Fortune500 companies in 2003. By converting from its EDI systems to one using its RosettaNet business process standards with XML forms, Intel is expected to make further giant strides in the way it does business. (1) Spectrum Pharmaceutical Porter’s five force analysis is used to analyze Spectrum Pharmaceutical in the pharmaceutical industry. Porter’s five forces analysis is a method of analyzing an industry and a company’s business strategy. It uses five fundamental forces that determine competition within an industry and how a company functions within that industry. These five forces involve market forces and pricing power of the business, suppliers and customers. The first force that a company must deal with is the bargaining power of customers. In relation to Spectrum Pharmaceutical, the customers have very little power to bargain prices with the company. The products that Spectrum provides are unique niche products that the customer cannot obtain anywhere else. This gives the customers little bargaining power with the company. This makes the products that Spectrum produces more profitable for the company, but more expensive to the customer. This makes the products more expensive however, which makes them more profitable for the company. There are few substitutes for these products, which reduces the buyers leverage to negotiate lower prices. The buyers have little concentration which reduces their ability to negotiate lower prices. Due to lack of alternative products there are few substitutes for Spectrum’s products. All these reasons combined together give the buyer of the products little force to negotiate lower prices, but give the company a lot of power to maintain their high prices. The second force in the analysis is the bargaining power of suppliers. In this instance, the suppliers to Spectrum have little power to affect the price of the final product. There are several different firms that can supply Spectrum with the necessary products for spectrum to manufacture their products. This gives the suppliers little leverage to boost prices to Spectrum, which in turn helps to keep the price of supplies low. There are usually several alternative products on the market that Spectrum can use to manufacture the necessary goods. Due to the lack of concentration of suppliers, they have little leverage to negotiate higher prices which would squeeze the profits of Spectrum. In addition, the cost of inputs in the price of Spectrum’s products is very low compared to the final cost of the product. The regulatory process is a much more expensive input to the final cost of goods than the raw material inputs. All these reasons combined give suppliers little force to raise prices to Spectrum, and have little influence on the price to the consumer. The next force in the analysis is the threat of substitute products. Several different substitute products allow the consumer to switch to other products and lower price products. This price elasticity keeps prices lower for the consumer and limits the ability of the company to raise prices. There are few substitute products for drugs that Spectrum manufactures. Consumers have little alternative choices for Spectrum products. This reduces the ability of the consumer switch to lower cost products. This keeps the product prices high and reduces the leverage of the consumer has to keep prices lower. All these reasons combined, keep reduce the force of the consumer to exert little ability to keep prices low and allow Spectrum to charge higher prices for its products. The next force in the analysis is the threat of new entrants into the market. If it was easy to enter the market with new and competing products, the ability to keep prices high would be reduced. This however, is not the case with Spectrum. It is extremely expensive for new entrants to get into the pharmaceutical market. It is costly in both money and time to get new drugs to market. The regulatory process insures that new products to the market have been tested at several levels. This testing is expensive in time, money and expertise. It takes several years to get new products through the regulatory process and new products to market. This high cost limits the number of new entrants into the market. There are many barriers to entry into the market. In addition, Spectrum holds patents that limit market competition for several years. Even though the pharmaceutical business is highly profitable, there are few competitors in the marketplace due to the high entrance costs and other barriers. The capital costs to enter the marketplace limit the number of competitors in the marketplace. The high capital, labor and other costs limit the force of new entrants to compete against Spectrum in the marketplace. The barriers to entering the pharmaceutical business limit competition and ensure that drug companies can maintain higher prices. The last force in the analysis is the intensity of competitive rivalries. Industry rivalries can increase the competition for the consumer’s money. This can keep costs down and reduce profitability. Even though there are several companies in the pharmaceutical business, the total business is extremely large. The high costs of entering the market reduce competition. The high capital costs, the regulatory process and the barriers to entry, reduce competitive rivalries within the industry. The industry has a high growth rate, especially as the older population grows. In most cases there is little over production and over capacity. It takes a lot of technical expertise in many different areas to get into the pharmaceutical business. There are advertising campaigns in the few areas where there are substitute products, but this mostly limits the size of the market and not profitability. Due to the extremely high profits, most companies have a strong incentive to innovate, market and remain in the business. All these reasons combined limit the competitive rivalry that would reduce the profitability of firms in the pharmaceutical industry. In summary, the Porter’s five force analysis of Spectrum Pharmaceutical show few limits on its ability to compete. Customer’s have little ability to bargain lower prices with the firm. Suppliers to Spectrum have little ability to raise prices to the company and have little influence on the cost structure of the final product. There are few substitute products to the drugs that Spectrum produces, this reduces the ability of consumers to switch to alternative lower price products, and ensures the ability of Spectrum to keep prices high. The high capital costs and the regulatory rocess restrict the number of new competitors in the pharmaceutical industry. This reduces competition for companies in the drug business and helps to reduce completion and keep prices high. The last force in the analysis is threat of competitive rivalries. This is relatively low for Spectrum. The high capital costs to enter the business and the barriers to entry into the market help keep competitive rivalries low. Due to the size of the industry and few competitors that can overcome the entrance barriers, limit the rivalry and allow the industry to by highly profitable.

Effects of food on the brain

Effects of food on the brain Abstract Throughout the world, it is a common knowledge of the significance of a healthy diet. Not only does it effect body image and physical health, but mental health as well. Nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid, and choline increase synaptic plasticity. In order to show that healthy foods are better for the mind, this study collected qualitative data on brain function after receiving healthy food and unhealthy food. The purpose of this study was to find out do healthy foods increase brain activity? It is hypothesized that if mice are given healthy and unhealthy meals, and instructed to run a maze, the mice given the healthy meals will complete the maze at a faster rate. The null hypothesis is that there will be no difference between mice given healthy and unhealthy meals. This, in turn, promotes the creation of new membranes, which allow new memories to be formed. When performing this study, mice were instructed to run a maze and the times of completion were recorde d. Depending on the group they were placed in, they were given either a healthy or unhealthy meal instructed to run the maze once more. Again, the times of completion were recorded. After completing the study, data collection showed that the mice in the group receiving healthy food had a greater change in time from the race without food to the race with food. To insure that there were no unfair advantages, nutritional values, such as carbohydrates and proteins. Research Problem Foods high in omega-3, such as walnuts, kiwi, and salmon, support the elasticity of the synapses within the brain (Good diet, 2008). Neurologist Fernando GÃ ³mez-Pinilla showed that a healthy diet could not only increase mental function, but protect against aging and damage to the brain (Wolpert, 2008). Literature Review Omega- 3 Studies show that omega-3 fatty acids are crucial to brain health (Wolpert, 2008). Psychology Professor GÃ ³mez-Pinilla found that foods rich in omega- 3, such as flaxseed, walnuts, kiwi, and salmon, aid in the production of the brain cell membranes that nerve signals pass through. As humans learn and create new memories, new membranes must be developed in order to hold that information. Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science, researched the idea that there are outside factors that affect brain activity. His study gives way to the question, Do healthy foods increase brain activity? Previous researchers showed that factors such as diet, exercise, and sleep patterns can noticeably impede the function of the mind (Wolpert, 2008). To support this theory, approximately 200 students were used as test subjects in a research study. In conclusion, researchers stated, Several gut hormones that can enter the brain, or that are produced in the brain itself, influence cog nitive ability (GÃ ³mez-Pinilla, 2008). Researchers detailed how foods such as salmon contain nutrients beneficial to the brain. One of the nutrients found in salmon is omega-3. Omega-3 fatty acids support synaptic plasticity and seem to positively affect the expression of several molecules related to learning and memory that are found on synapses, GÃ ³mez-Pinilla said. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for normal brain function. GÃ ³mez-Pinilla conducted a study in Indonesia and Australia in which he gave a drink high in nutrients to children. After receiving the drink, the children were given performance tests focused on verbal skills and memory. The childrens test scores improved greatly after consuming the drink (Wolpert, 2008). Another study, performed by Oxford University students, compared two groups of students on math and spelling tests. One group of students received omega-3 and the other group received a placebo (Henry, 2002). The students receiving the placebo had dra stically lower test scores. Docosahexaenoic acid Docosahexaenoic acid, DHA, is another nutrient beneficial to the to the mind. Docosahexaenoic acid is shown to reduce oxidative stress and promote synaptic plasticity by preventing the establishment of free radicals. By doing so, learning and memory are also enhanced. Oxidative stress can cause damage to cellular proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. Berries have been observed to counteract oxidative stress and have been shown to improve coordination and memory as well (Henry, 2005). Synaptic Plasticity Synaptic plasticity is the term used for the ability for change during synapses. This means that the reaction of the synapses to the release of neurotransmitters is not constant. The reaction can be stronger or weaker and the time of the reaction may vary. The strength of the reaction becomes greater or weaker in response to the reaction of receptors to their stimuli. As the length of time the receptor to stimuli reaction occurs or the amount of receptors present changes the synaptic strength fluctuates. The increase of synaptic strength that lasts is referred to as long term potentiation. Long term potentiation is known to play a role in neuron communication, which in turn plays a role in the creation of new memories. Opposite long term potentiation is long term depression. Long term depression is the phrase used to describe a lasting weakness in synaptic strength. Low frequency stimuli create long term depression, while long term potentiation is caused by high frequency stimuli. To learn new things and create new memories the neurons within the brain must communicate in different ways. This also is synaptic plasticity. Neurons in the perirhinial cortex respond to things we see and then tell the brain if it is new to us or if we have seen it before. The greater the response of the neurons, the less we recognize whatever we are seeing. As we continue to see that object, the neuron response decreases. This is how memories are processed. Omega-3 and Synaptic Plasticity Omega-3 fatty acid can act as an inhibitor for the activity of protein kinase C in cells. The in vitro activities of protein kinase C was inhibited by omega-3 as well as the mitogen-activated protein kinase. This implies that the double bond in omega-3 is neccesary for quality inhibitions. Omega-3 could prevent serotonin receptor-induced mitogen-activated protein kinase activation in hippocampal slice preparations. In hippocampal long term potentiation, omega-3 showed to blocked the force of it, without inhibiting basal synaptic transmission. Fats and Calories Many assume that all fats are bad, and should be avoided. Research stated that many of the foods with a bad reputation actually can be helpful when eaten correctly. Marano shows that nutrients in different forms can cause different results in the body. The right food can enhance mental capabilities-help you concentrate, tune sensorimotor skills, keep you motivated, magnify memory, speed reaction times, defuse stress, perhaps even prevent brain aging, (Marano, 2007). Fats have been shown to not only benefit the mind, but can be detrimental to it as well. Omega-3 fatty acids make up the brain cells that the nerve signals must travel through. The human diet must be rich in omega-3 so as to continue to produce cell membranes. Many dietitians and nutritionists promote the use of oils such corn, safflower and sunflower. These are better for the heart, but not so good for the mind. Instead of being rich in omega-3, they are rich in omega-6. Canola oils and walnut oils are better for the brain usage. Choline has been shown to increase memory and reaction time. Sugar is known to keep the mind sharp, though the right amount is yet to be found. Carbohydrates are known to soothe the mind (Marano, 2007). An over-abundance of calories counteract omega-3 by reducing the flexibility of synapses. Trans fats and saturated fats have been studied to have a similar affect. Regulating calorie consumption can help the brain by blocking potential damage to vital cells, proteins, and chemicals (Wolpert, 2008). Weight In a study, statistics were calculated concerning the link between obesity and brain function (Volkow, Wang, Telang, Fowler, Goldstein, Alia- Klein, Logan, Wong, Thanos, Ma, Pradhan, 2008). Brain metabolism during cognitive stimulation was measured to determine whether body mass index (BMI) affected brain glucose utilization during cognitive performance. Verbal memory was tested as well. Twenty students participated in the study. They measured the association between BMI and regional brain glucose metabolism in healthy individuals at baseline and during cognitive stimulation. Baseline regional brain metabolic measures have been shown to be a sensitive indicator of brain function/dysfunction that is associated with neurocognitive performance. These results relate to my research in that it details how food intake relates to brain function. In obesity, both preclinical and clinical studies have documented impairments in brain DHA activity. Observations in obese subjects have reported an inverse relationship between BMI and D2 receptors (Haltia,m Viljanen, Parkkola, Kemppainen, Rinne, Nuutila, Kaasinen, 2007). They found that BMI is not what is detrimental for prefrontal activity, but that decreased prefrontal activity and reduced executive function may increase the risk to overeat. The prefrontal cortex is involved in regulating impulse control, self-monitoring, and goal-directed behaviors. Purpose In order to show that healthy foods are better for the mind, this study collected qualitative data on brain function after receiving healthy food and unhealthy food. The purpose of this study was to find out do healthy foods increase brain activity? It is hypothesized that if mice are given healthy and unhealthy meals, and instructed to run a maze, the mice given the healthy meals will complete the maze at a faster rate. The null hypothesis is that there will be no difference between mice given healthy and unhealthy meals. Methodology In order to show that healthy foods are better for the mind, this study investigated brain function after receiving a meal of either healthy or unhealthy food. Six mice were used as test subjects. Three mice were given healthy food while the other three received unhealthy food. The food were the independent variable, the mice were the dependent variable, and the maze was the constant. The mice were grouped randomly. The healthy meal consisted of walnuts and spinach. These foods contain omega-3 fatty acids. The unhealthy mice were given guinea pig food. After eating, each mouse ran a maze with cheese as the reinforcement at the end of the maze. The time of completion was recorded. Caution was taken to ensure that the events before testing were similar, so that stress didnt play a factor. Also, the nutritional value was matched in the healthy and unhealthy meals to prevent any unfair advantages. These value include carbohydrate and proteins, which are known to provide energy. The nutri tional values were the controls. Results and Discussion During the experiment, the mice averaged 10.33 seconds change in time, from before the meal and after the meal, for the mice given healthy food, and 18.67 seconds for the mice given unhealthy food. The results of this data display that the meals high in nutrients are better for the brain. It was hypothesized that if mice were given healthy and unhealthy meals, the mice given healthy meals would complete a maze in shorter time. As expected, the mice in the healthy group moved at a significantly quicker pace through the maze. The hypothesis was accepted. Previous study showed that foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids increased brain productivity. Brain productivity is enhanced because of the synaptic plasticity that goes on in the membranes (Wolpert, 2008). The data found in this study compares to that of neurologist Fernando Gomez-Pinilla. Both studies support healthy eating for optimal performance. Although the hypothesis in this study was supported, there are aspects not taken into account that could affect data accuracy. Though the ages of the mice are unknown, this plays a role in how the food may affect the brain. In younger mice, when the brain is still in the developmental stage, short term effects on the brain may occur. A brain that is more mature may take several meals to react to the nutrients (Bozarth, 2009). To further this study, it would be efficient to increase the length of exposure to the change in diet. This would allow a greater amount of change for mice that are older. Also, other foods could be used. Fish and fish oils are known to carry a significant amount of DHA and EPA (Kindblade, 2009). If possible, the same foods could be used with a nutrient supplement added into one of the diets. References (2008, July 9). Good diet, exercise keep brain healthy. Retrieved August 25, 2009, from Live Science Web site: http://www.livescience.com/health/080709-food-brain.html Bozarth, M. (2009, Nov) Re: Michael Bozarth [Electronic mailing message]. GÃ ³mez-Pinilla, F (2008, July 1). Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Nature Reviews Web site: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n7/full/nrn2421.html Haltia, LT. Viljanen, A. Parkkola, R. Kemppainen, N. Rinne, JO. Nuutila, P. Kaasinen, V.(2007). Brain white matter expansion in human obesity and the recovering effect of dieting. Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Endojournals Web site: http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/8/3278 Henry, J. (2005, May 22). Heres food for thought. Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Telegraph.co.uk Web site: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1490492/Heres-food-for-thought.html Kindblade, B. (2009, Nov) Re: [Beve Kindblade, Nutritionist] Contact from Kiana Spencer [Electronic mailing message]. Marano, HE (2007, Feb 7). What is good brain food? Retrieved August 20, 2009, from Psychology Today Web site: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200310/what-is-good-brain-food Volkow, ND. Wang, GJ. Telang, F. Fowler, JS. Goldstein, RZ. Alia- Klein, N. Logan, J. Wong, C. Thanos, PK. Ma, Y. Pradhan, K. (2008, Oct). Inverse association between BMI and prefrontal metabolic activity in healthy adults Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Obesity Web site: http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v17/n1/full/oby2008469a.html Wolpert, S (2008, July, 9). Scientists learn how what you eat affects your brain- and those oyour kids. UCLA Newsroom, Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/scientists-learn-how-food-affects-52668.aspx

Till Death Do Us Part :: essays research papers

The status quo of marriage in American society, in some cases, is a moderately complicated issue. I do know, however, that before the marriage takes place there is an interlude called the dating period. In this dating period the two members of the couple attempt to get to know one another. This is the period where many people fall in love. This is also the period where many people realize that they are with the wrong person and have to start over with someone new. The dating process, which lasts for a sporadic interval of time, ends when one person in the couple offers a marriage proposal to the other. This agreement to marriage is a sacred bond of love and trust that proves to one's significant other that one will enter into an exclusive relationship with that person until they are parted by death. If the marriage proposal is accepted, the couple is pronounced engaged, or betrothed to one another, and they set a marriage date. During the engagement the couple exchanges rings as a sign of devotion. Once the wedding date reaches its destination, the couple then performs the marriage ceremony, which is a gathering of close friends and family to witness the marriage. This ceremony is performed in a church at the hand of a priest who then pronounces the marriage as holy matrimony. During the wedding ceremony there is another exchange of rings that show a symbol of the couples undying love for each other. After the wedding, the couple usually takes a trip called the honeymoon where they consummate the marriage by making love. This process is the norm for how people are married in American society. The problem with this system is that most people enter into the marriage for the wrong reasons and end up getting a divorce. A divorce is a legal dissolution of a marriage contract. The problem with divorce is that the marriage is supposed to be a contract that is supposed to last until someone in the couple dies; only then is the sacred vow broken. Otherwise, the couple is going against God's will. Defying God is not the only detrimental effect, however. More marriages in the United States end in divorce than in any other country in the world, and it can be seen throughout America's history. There is consensus that the overall U.S. divorce rate had a brief spurt after World War II followed by a decline. It started rising again in the 1960's and even more quickly in the 1970's, but leveled off in the 1980's only to begin a fluctuating increase that has lasted to the present. It is said that 40 or possibly even 50% of marriages will end in divorce if the current trends continue. Divorce would not be such a terrible thing

Dukes of T-Town :: essays research papers

Dukes of T-Town   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Yo, Balls, that sheriff is following you pretty close, how drunk are you?† Chris asked me just before I looked in my rearview mirror to see if anyone was following us. I saw that a sheriff was about two city blocks behind us. Looking at my speedometer to check my speed and sure enough, I was speeding. We were going 51 in a 45 so I slowed down to give him one less reason to pull us over. All we wanted to do was get home safely without any tickets for a DUI or minor having Consumed (MHC), and my turn was just up ahead. When I got in the turning lane, I saw the sheriff take a quick turn behind me on a road that would lead to county road 116 that goes straight to the county 127 which I was turning on. So with some quick thinking we turned onto county 127 and then took an immediate right that led to another dirt road that couldn’t be seen by the sheriff.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’m gonna ditch this fucking pig,† I said, as I turned off the lights in the Subaru that I had borrowed from my blind grandma. I was now trying to drive â€Å"blind† on a dirt road, and to make matters worse I was going about 65 mph. We hit big potholes; the shoulder, along with most of the road, was washboard. The road was hard enough to drive on straight while sober, let alone drunk.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Holy shit this is fun as hell! Hey, Balls, that was one bad-ass party don’ cha’ think?† I hear Brionne yell as I slam on my breaks to shop behind a tree on a bend in the road so that we were not visible from any road. The three of us watched with our breath held as the sheriff shined his spotlight all around, but it never made it to us. We were too far away and hidden much too well. Then he hit his other spotlights on top of his truck and they made it to about 50 yards out in front of us, but still he can’t see us. During all this time, we could hear the fleas jumping off Chris’ nuts. Not a word was spoken, even when the lights went off and the truck pulled away.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Still we were silent and still careful not to make any quick movements; half from fear of the sheriff and half from the fear of rolling into the narrow dry ditch that the car was now teetering on.

In The Stag Hughes seems to comment on man’s relationships with nature

In The Stag Hughes seems to comment on man’s relationships with nature With reference to The Stag and one other poem in the section discuss the poet’s treatment of conflict between man and nature. â€Å"In ‘The Stag’ Hughes seems to comment on man’s relationships with nature† With reference to ‘The Stag’ and one other poem in the section discuss the poet’s treatment of conflict between man and nature. The Stag was written by a poet named Ted Hughes and is similar to the poem Roe-Deer in many respects because they feature many similar ideas. The poem is about the distant relationship between humans and nature, in this case it is a Stag the represents the natural side and its actions compared to the humans and their actions. The whole story of the poem is portraying a negative image as it is about horsemen hunting the stag with hounds. The hunting of such a beautiful creature just shows us how cruel we are as a race and how unnecessary it is for us to be hunting such an animal and this poem helps us realise that this is going on all the time and it is just a reminder. ...

Dilemma: African American and Nonviolence Essay

The omnivores dilemma is a modern problem for all human beings. These days, there are many options for a person to eat, but not all are healthy. Every day people go to supermarkets and feel totally lost because there are so many choices. Source #2 â€Å"Louis Armstrong. † Grolier. Web. 1 Jan. . Source #3 â€Å"Armstrong,Louis. † Grolier. Web. 1 Jan. . Source #4 â€Å"Louis Armstrong. † Facthound. Web. 1 Jan. . Source #5 Raum, Elizabeth,ed. Louis Armstrong : Jazz Legend. 2007. Protesting Nonviolently Did you know that three major figures used the method of nonviolence to change the world? Nonviolence has been a successful way to protest for many years and has provided major changes in life for people. Nonviolence is the best way to protest and make a major point. Gandhi was one of the first people to use nonviolence in a major way. A book tells how Gandhi went to jail instead of others because he did not fear a jail cell and proved he was nonviolent. When Gandhi organized a march officers beat the protesters and injured them severely, but they did not raise an arm to fight back. Gandhi sent a letter to Lord Irwin saying how british rule is a curse and he will stop at nothing to free his people from british rule. Gandhi initiated the first acts of nonviolence and won freedom for the people of India. Martin Luther King Jr. used nonviolent acts to fight against segregation. When MLK was part of a boycott he took full responsibility when he was arrested and said he wasn’t going anywhere or going to fight back. Martin was picking up more volunteers for protesting and said that it was hard not to fight back but they still had to lay down their weapons. The time MLK led the bus boycott he was arrested, people who had participated in the boycott actually walked down to the sheriff’s office to be arrested and to see if their name was on the list. Martin Luther King Jr. used nonviolence to get rights for colored people and followed Gandhi’s example. Nelson Mandela worked fighting racial segregation in South Africa, or apartheid, using nonviolence. Mandela’s organization started out using violence but soon converted to Gandhi’s way of nonviolence which was better morally and tactically. Nelson Mandela took lots of his time recruiting helpers for the cause. Although the work was dangerous, he was convinced that nonviolence was the way to win. Mandela talked about how if he was put to a death sentence his work work and actions would live on. Nelson Mandela adapted Gandhi’s work to help free the people of South Africa from racial oppression. Nonviolence worked to help lots of different kinds of people throughout history and proved major points. Gandhi started nonviolence and became a major figure for lots of people. Martin Luther King Jr. used nonviolence to gain rights for colored people in america and became a pivotal figure in american history. Nelson Mandela became the first South African president and is also a major figure in history. Nonviolence has changed the world majorly and next time you see a picture of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. , or Nelson Mandela you might think a little more about them.

Kalabagh Dam And Hydroelectric Power In Pakistan Environmental Sciences Essay

The Kalabagh Dam was one of the proposed undertakings in Pakistan when it comes to hydroelectric power workss in the state. The proposed Kalabagh Dam was supposed to be built on Indus River. Government of Pakistan was the backing authorization in the building. Mianwali District was selected as the proposed site of the darn precisely situated at Kalabagh. The part was near to the boundary line of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The very origin of this undertaking was controversial and different authoritiess had a serious argument on the building of this reservoir. It was eventually in December 2005 when, so General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan announced that Kalabagh Dam will be constructed for the greater involvement of Pakistan. He made several agreements for the building every bit good during his government. It was back in May 2008 when Raja Pervez Ashraf, the Federal Minister for Water and Power of Pakistan called off the Kalabagh Dam undertaking. Raja Pervez Ashraf farther justified his determination by saying that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and other stakeholders involved in the undertaking were opposing badly and it was non executable. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani stated in one of his interviews post the 2010 Flood that desolation would hold been manner less if Kalabagh Dam was constructed. Kalabagh Dam was a multi-purpose undertaking in footings of nature and was expected to hold a storage capacity of 6.1 million acre pess ( MAF ) . The undertaking was expected to endorse the Water Apportionment Accord ( WAA ) that happened in 1991 harmonizing to which the irrigation system to states was to be streamlined. In add-on to this, the aim of Kalabagh Dam was the handiness of inexpensive hydropower. The National Grid was anticipating a rise of 3600MW in the production capacity. Kalabagh Dam was supposed to take up 110,500 sq. Miles of Catchment country in the Kalabagh Region in District Mianwali. Harmonizing to the statistical analysis, the location had a maximal inundation record of 1,200,200 cusecs of H2O back in 1929. The mean one-year H2O flow at the location is found to be an tremendous 91.4 MAF that best suits the location to be turned into a Dam. Kalabagh Dam was a mega undertaking with an expected gross capacity of 7.9 MAF and unrecorded capacity of 6.1 MAF. It was planned that Kalabagh Dam is traveling to hold power units each bring forthing 300MW, 12 in measure with the turbine caput design of 170 pess. The complete human dynamo was an indoor one and the production in the initial stage was expected to be around 2400MW and finally lift to 3600MW in the running stage. The expected cost of this undertaking back in 1997 was somewhat around Rs. 250 Billion when the US Dollar was drifting at Rs. 45. Kalabagh Dam was planned for the greater involvement of the state and its resources. Pakistan being one of the blest states around the universe has a batch of fresh H2O supplies round the twelvemonth. The geographics of this state is good suited for dikes and H2O storages both for storage intents and power coevals intents. Kalabagh Dam was proposed for settling down the irrigation system and had hydropower potencies as good. The greatest advantage of Kalabagh dike was that it was rendering great consequences on an highly low-cost monetary value ticket. Kalabagh Dam was the least expensive multi-purpose solution to both the irrigation and power outages. Both the irrigation and power coevals capacities of Pakistan were expected to lift well through the undertaking. It was expected to be the 2nd great irrigation system after the Indus Basin Project in the late 1960 ‘s with similar function of doing a good start towards a incorporate national H2O resource development-cum-management system. The undertaking was all set to get down in 1980 ‘s and the undertaking would hold been in the on the job status by twenty-first Century harmonizing to the engineering back so. The contention started developing from the really start of the undertaking and rose from the state of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The contentions were all wholly based on deficiency of information or hear say. There were reserves in the heads of many people around these states based on pure conservative ideas. There were many alterations made in the initial stage in order to do it look friendly to an mean head but that excessively, was of no usage. LITERATURE REVIEW As stated earlier, the building of Kalabagh Dam triggered a great contention amongst the four states of Pakistan. It was merely Punjab that favored the undertaking that is besides the strongest state amongst the four. The other three states expressed their reserves and dissatisfaction on the undertaking and their provincial assemblies passed declaration against the proposal. This places the undertaking into the consideration stage for a long clip until it was confirmed in 2005 and so rejected in 2008. WAPDA has already highlighted the fact that Pakistan is traveling to be confronting terrible H2O deficit in the hereafter if nil was done to make storages. The H2O handiness in 1951 was every bit low as 5260 three-dimensional metres while it fell to 1038 three-dimensional metres in 2010 whereas the population was 34 million and 172 million severally. Harmonizing to statistics, the least to keep the provinces of a H2O sufficient state is 1000+ three-dimensional metres of H2O. There are even premises that the building of dike is traveling to adversely impact the environment every bit good as any other big dike does. The building might besides displace a figure of people from the site locations. The building was planned to originate in 1984 but did n't get down even as yet. Punjab ‘s Point of Position: Punjab is the lone state in complete favour of the Kalabagh Dam as this undertaking was expected to provide both H2O and hydro-electric power for a really nominal cost. Water demands in Punjab are besides higher as the population here is great as compared to other parts of the state. The H2O that flows into the Arabian Sea is a pure waste for those life in Punjab where the H2O can be used to water lands that are sterile. Punjab is in desperate demand of two dikes apart from merely the Kalabagh Dam at Bhasha and Skardu. Kalabagh Dam ‘s site is best suitable and this would hold been built at the first topographic point harmonizing to the demands of the state. The dike was best suited to water Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar. Punjab is the state that will be affected to the maximal extent if the Kalabagh Dam is non built. The Water Treaty between Pakistan and India that initiated in 1960s set the royalty of Sutlej and Bias into the custodies of India. Ever since this pact was signed, the Ravi, Sutlej and Bias are used merely the season of inundations when India needs to let go of H2O. Electricity produced by H2O is the cheapest amongst all that is produced by other resources. The state even agreed that it is non traveling to claim any royalty despite the fact that the location of Kalabagh was situated in Punjab. Sindh ‘s Point of Position: The strongest of the oppositions of Kalabagh Dam is Sindh on evidences of â€Å" larceny of H2O by Punjab † . Sindh claims that Indus River belongs to it by virtuousness of the name and history. Sindh farther claimed that the building of Mangla and Tarbela was the greatest larceny of H2O that was used for irrigation in Singh. Sindh raised expostulation on the portion of Indus H2O that they receive. The claim was that Kalabagh Dam will water Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. Sindh besides claimed that the coastal countries of the state demand changeless supplies of H2O into the Arabian Sea so that the H2O from the sea does non irrupt into the land. This intruding would go forth a batch of country of Sindh into saline desert that will come up as an environmental issue. This will besides destruct the coastal Rhizophora mangles. The building of Mangla Dam and Tarbela Dam already turned the mighty Indus River turn into a watercourse station the Kotri Barrage in Hyderabad. They besides justified that large dikes can non do on H2O that comes chiefly from rain as it does non rain throughout the twelvemonth. If there was no rain, Sindh did n't see any H2O station the Kotri Barrage. The location is said to be unsuitable for such a building as there are legion breaks on the lowest point of the vale. There were a figure of other environmental jobs that were non addressed in the yesteryear. Silt is the greatest of the issues that can do H2O deficit impacting the capacity of Manchar Lake and Haleji Lake. The Sindhis were non convinced with the attempts of President Musharraf and the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz mentioning to the H2O larceny that took topographic point in 1991. Political Parties like Muttahida Qaumi Movement who was in favour of General Musharraf and was ally in the Federal Assembly were badly opposing the thought of Kalabagh Dam. Parties like PMLN retracted themselves from their stances saying that the Dam should be built for the greater involvement of the state. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ‘s Point of Position: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ‘s point of position is pretty different from that of other states. Their first claim was that Punjab was ne'er good at carry throughing promises. The state was non even believable for maintaining up the constitutional warrants. Another of their concern was with mention to the Ghazi-Barotha hydro electric power. They claim that the full canal system of Ghazi-Barotha system tally in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while the turbines lie 500 metres within the Punjab state but the royalty is rejected to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The royalty of coevals of Kalabagh dike became an issue even when the undertaking was finalized as people populating in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa expected the Federal Government to be unfair in giving royalty to the state alternatively expected them to travel for the favour of Punjab. They besides stated that the Nowshehra District will be submerged by the dike and there will be even more part of the state being affected from water-logging and salt. Balochistan ‘s Point of Position: Balochistan is non straight affected by the Kalabagh Dam instead there have been a figure of patriots Baloch Standards that consider that Punjab has been governing the smaller states in the yesteryear. Discussion Kalabagh dike has been a difference of all time since the really thought was incepted. There have been terrible resistance to the building of Kalabagh Dam through all times from three States of Pakistan and none apart from Punjab merely have favored the building of Kalabagh Dam. There were different evidences posed by other provincial authoritiess warranting that Kalabagh Dam should non be constructed. General Pervez Musharraf, ex-president Pakistan had elusive programs to build Kalabagh Dam in 2016 harmonizing to the feasibleness study ( Fulcher, 2006 ) . The dike site close to Kohat part and the Khewra salt mines was controversial from the really first twenty-four hours and the later was the largest operating salt mine around the universe. There was a immense hazard that the salt will leach in immense measures from the scopes into the river Indus and the overall hydrology of the part is traveling to alter drastically. This came up as another great concern to the oppositions who were non in the favour of Kalabagh Dam. The aforesaid literature reappraisal has set a batch of things clear to us including the advantages and disadvantages of Kalabagh Dam. The Water and Power Development Authority has suggested that the entire land that will be submerged as a consequence of Kalabagh Dam is about 14,000 hectares ( Fulcher, 2006 ) . There were certain independent appraisals as good some of which went high up to a monolithic 74,000 hectares. The ulterior appraisals were all overdone and were meant for nil but propaganda against the proposed developmental undertakings. Even the first portion of the appraisal did non account for the land that will be inundated in instance of a river inundation happening. It even does non account for the land that will be taken up in instance the degree of the river rose. The building of Kalabagh Dam has a figure of advantages apart from the few disadvantages excessively. There is no manner that we can disregard the disadvantages but we can surely look for ways to cut down the impact. There are advocated distributed all across the state apart from the oppositions. The major protagonism comes from the state of Punjab and from the technocrats of Khyber Pakhtoonkhuwah. They have a figure of claims to recommend that Kalabagh Dam is traveling to help the state acquiring rid of power and H2O deficit. The best protagonism lies in the H2O deficit. As mentioned above, Pakistan is traveling towards a province where H2O scarceness is traveling to predominate and the possibility of one dike on the Indus River ( Iyer, 2006 ) comes up as the best justification that sets Kalabagh Dam an of import undertaking. It is non merely agribusiness that Kalabagh Dam is associated with but besides electricity. There has been a serious power deficit for old ages now and the most appropriate solution to the deficit is hydroelectric power that Pakistan has the potency of bring forthing at a really sensible monetary value. The fabrication sector of the state needs Kalabagh Dam for the power issue for a sustainable advancement of the state ( Khan, 2009 ) . Mangla Dam, Tarbela Dam, Chashma Barrage were first-class undertakings that provided Pakistan with H2O for irrigation and power at the same topographic point but the siltation procedure has caused a batch of volume shortage. The deposit in the dike can non be dealt with until or unless an option is built and the best alternate possibly is Kalabagh Dam. Kalabagh Dam will come up as an add-on storage volume that will run into the H2O lack in the early Kharif period runing from the months of April-June. This has a critical value for the cotton harvest turning in Sindh. The Kalabagh Dam, on the whole will apportion H2O harmonizing to the WAA-1991 and will modulate high inundation hazards in the Indus river every bit good as bring forthing Hydro-Power to power the whole of Pakistan ( Khokhar, 2008 ) . In times when Tarbela was non build, the one-year mean H2O flight was 38 Million Acre Feet below Kotri that rose to 64 subsequently on. With the building of Kalabagh Dam, this can be brought back to 32MAF ( Al-Khobar, 2011 ) . Another 26MAF out of this 32 can be easy controlled and utilized to convey the backward countries of Pakistan into usage by utilizing the national H2O resources development attack. The primary energy beginning of Pakistan is oil and gas where the demand oil and gas in the state is estimated to be around 51 million metric tons of oil equivalent ( TOE ) ( The Nations, 2010 ) . Pakistan is bring forthing 34 million TOE yearly while the shortage is met through imports chiefly. As an option to this, the big graduated table hydropower incorporated with a multi-purpose storage can assist cut down the cost of electric supply within the range of a standard consumer. The best portion of Kalabagh Dam is the add-on of 2400 MW of electric power to the National Grid in the early stage and finally lifting to 3600 MW installed power ( WAPDA ) . This will greatly cut down the burden casting issue that the state is confronting as of now with the industry and production traveling in serious debt. A impersonal argument will acquire in a batch more so this into history and one can happen another set of advantages of Kalabagh Dam for the prosperity and unity of this state. The greatest of them is a decreased dependence on imported fuels that accounts for a immense amount of our foreign modesty. Kalabagh Dam can guarantee economic prosperity of Pakistan if the undertaking is handled with attention. It besides produces employment for 30,000 persons around the state during the building stage and there will be a batch more who will be employed after the undertaking is commissioned. Construction monetary value is another concern for Government of Pakistan while the direct benefits from Kalabagh dike suggest that the dike will pay 25 billion per annum therefore accounting for the whole investing in 9-10 old ages ( Khokhar, 2008 ) . The energy generated at Kalabagh Dam is expected to be around 20 million barrels of oil yearly. This will assist cutting short the import budget every bit good as the transit and handling charges that are charged for treating the imported oil. Apart from the economic point of position, the Kalabagh Dam Project has several societal benefits excessively out of which settling down of the grudge from Southern Punjab are the greatest of all. Kalabagh Dam is traveling to water major parts of Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar therefore a major grudge from the part will be settled down itself. In add-on, Punjab state does non claim any royalty on the coevals of resources from Kalabagh Dam, it is merely the lack of trust that does non allow this undertaking happen. Decision Pakistan is into a province where the lacks are at its extremums. Pakistan has long been known as an agricultural state and agribusiness is non possible without irrigation. The current state of affairs is traveling quickly towards H2O scarceness hence doing serious injury to the agricultural sector of Pakistan. In add-on to that, the electric power coevals beginnings have all been exhausted. Even Mangla Dam and Tarbela Dam have moved into the last phases of their lives, the demand of Kalabagh Dam this minute is critical to run into the demands of both irrigation and power. There are legion disadvantages of the building of Kalabagh Dam that has raised a serious resistance from other parts of the state chiefly from Khyber Pakhtoonkhuwah and Sindh Provinces. The overall resistance has been propagated so good that the common adult male life in these parts negotiations about the disadvantages of Kalabagh Dam and non about the advantages. This is non merely it: Punjab has long been known as the powerful ordering state that is another serious hinderance in the building of Kalabagh Dam. Kalabagh Dam, one time constructed will render a figure of advantages to the state both socially and economically cutting short the power shortage that prevails in the state. I am sitting in dark this minute due to power deficit here in Pakistan and there is no solution that seems to be apart from building of hydroelectric power that is both inexpensive and convenient..

Notes on Cry Essay

The dance’s intent is to portray the struggle & strength of the African American women who were in the slave trade; how women so enslaved & trapped can still manage to be so free. â€Å"I heard about lynching’s, Having that kind of experience as a child left a feeling of rage in me that I think pervades my work† Alvin Ailey. â€Å"She rises again to wear the cloth as a shawl, then steps on its ends as if bound by it to the ground†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"The final posture mirrors the opening posture of the dance, suggesting a cyclical inevitable progression of frustration and despair†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Ailey has abstracted this narrative to portray the woman’s despair. BEEN ON A TRAIN The use of the percussive piano accents in relation to movement. For example, the dynamic emphasis of the gestures Ailey uses. â€Å"The power of Cry emanates from its defiantly shifting images of identity in its first section, the bottomless abyss of sorrow approached in its second section and the transcendent quality of ecstatic faith engaged in the third section.† â€Å" Cry became emblematic as an act of simultaneous defiance and release. As a depiction of contemporary African American  identity, the dance liberated audience and dancer in its  modernistic layering of movement genres, especially its  conspicuous use of neoAfrican  body part isolations.† In this work there are three distinct sections and for each new section, there is a new song that is played. The songs used in this work are ‘Something About John Coltrane’ by Alice Coltrane, ‘Been On A Train’ by Laura Nyro and ‘Right On. Be Free.’ by The Voices Of East Harlem. In a couple of these songs the word ‘north’ is used quite a bit. My personal  interpretation is that these slaves perhaps saw freedom and/or refuge in North America, wished to be there but something stopped them. She clearly demonstrated Ailey’s mother’s struggles as well as any other African American woman’s struggles at the time as a slave to their fight for freedom.

Blackberry Pest Analysis Essay

BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM),[3][4] is a Canadian telecommunication and wireless equipment company best known to the general public as the developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets, but also well known worldwide as a provider of secure & high reliability software for industrial applications and Mobile Device Management (MDM). BlackBerry’s software and hardware products are used worldwide by various government’s agencies and by car makers and industrial plants throughout the world, much of this activity being unseen by the public. The company is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Mike Lazaridis, who served as its co-CEO along withJim Balsillie until January 22, 2012; as of November 2013, Saad assumes the new title of â€Å"Lead Director and Chair of Compensation†.[5] In November 2013, John S. Chen took over as CEO. His strategy is to subcontract manufacturing to Foxconn, and to focus on software technology.[6] Originally a dominant innovative company in the smartphone market for business and government usage, with 43% US market share in 2010, the company’s dominance in the US smartphone market has in recent years declined precipitously, in part because of intense competition mainly from the current high US market share of Google’s Android brands and also from the lower share that Apple’s iPhone has of the market. Due to such competition, the company’s share in the US personal consumer market was reduced to 3.8% in 2013.[7] In markets other than the US personal comsumer market BlackBerry’s products have fared better. On September 23, 2013 the company signed a letter of intent to be acquired for US$4.7 billion, or US$9 per share, by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial which has announced its intentions to take the company private.[8] On November 4, 2013 the deal was scrapped in favor of a US$1 billion cash injection which, according to one analyst, represented the level of confidence BlackBerry’s largest shareholder has in the company.[9] The majority of BlackBerry’s remaining value lies in innovation, one aspect being its patent portfolio, which has been valued at between US$2 billion and $3 billion.[10] Research In Motion Limited was founded in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. At the time, Lazaridis was an engineering student at the University of Waterl oo while Fregin was an engineering student at the University of Windsor.[11] RIM’s early development was financed by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors in 1995  through a private placement in the privately held company. Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc. led the first venture round[12] with a C$5,000,000 investment with the proceeds being used to complete the development of RIM’s two-way paging system hardware and software. A total of C$30,000,000 in pre-IPO financing was raised by the company prior to its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in January 1998 under the symbol RIM.[13] The company worked with RAM Mobile Data and Ericsson to turn the Ericsson-developed Mobitex wireless data network into a two-way paging and wireless e-mail network. Pivotal in this development was the release of the Inter@ctive Pager 950, which started shipping in August 1998. About the size of a bar of soap, this device competed against the SkyTel two-way paging network developed by Motorola. In 1999, RIM introduced the BlackBerry 850 pager. Named in reference to the resemblance of its keyboard’s keys to the druplets of the blackberry fruit, the device could receive push email from a Mic rosoft Exchange Server using its complementary server software, BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). The introduction of the BlackBerry set the stage for future enterprise-oriented products from the company, such as the BlackBerry 957 in April 2000, the first BlackBerry smartphone. The BlackBerry OS platform and BES continued to increase in functionality—while the incorporation of encryption and S/MIME support helped BlackBerry devices gain increased usage by governments and businesses.[14][15] BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion Limited, incorporated on March 7, 1984, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing. The Company’s technology also enables an array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data and third-party support programs. Its portfolio of products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations and millions of consumers around the world and include the BlackBerry wireless solution, the RIM Wireless Handheld product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools and other software and hardware. Effective May 31, 2013,  BlackBerry Ltd acquired Scroon SA. On March 25, 2011, the Company purchased 100% of the shares of a company whose technology is being incorporated into the Company’s developer tools. On April 26, 2011, the Company purchased certain assets of a company whose acquired technologies will be incorporated into the Company’s products. In June 2011, the Company acquired Scoreloop. On March 8, 2012, the C ompany acquired Paratek Microwave Inc. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company purchased 100% interests of a company, whose technology will be incorporated into its technology; whose technology offers cloud-based services for storing, sharing, accessing and organizing digital content on mobile devices; whose technology is being incorporated into an application on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet; whose technology offers a customizable and cross-platform social mobile gaming developer tool kit, and whose technology will provide a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterprises and government organizations. On April 24, 2012, the Company launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in Indonesia. April 18, 2012, it launched BlackBerry 7 smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 9220, for customers in India. On April 17, 2012, it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone in Spain. On April 3, 2012, it launched BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, and launched four BlackBerry smartphones powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS) in Cambodia, which included BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380. On April 2, 2012, it announced the availability of BlackBerry App World, the official application store for BlackBerry smartphones in Brunei, and it announced availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones for Cell C customers in South Africa. On March 27, 2012, it launched of the BlackBerry solution in Benin Republic. On March 15, 2012, it launched of BlackBerry services in China. On March 7, 2012, it launched the BlackBerry service in Angola. The Company’s primary revenue stream is generated by the BlackBerry wireless solution, consists of smartphones and tablets, service and software. BlackBerry service is provided through a combination of its global BlackBerry Infrastructure and the wireless networks of its carrier partners. On February 21, 2012, it released the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software. It generates hardware revenues from sales, primarily to carriers and  distributors. During fiscal 2012, the Company launched the wireless fidelity (WiFi)-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in 44 markets around the world. On July 21, 2011, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet received Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certification. BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets BlackBerry smartphones uses wireless, push-based technology that delivers data to mobile users’ business and consumer applications. BlackBerry smartphones integrate messaging including instant messaging, email and SMS; voice calling; Webkit browser; multimedia capabilities; calendar, and other applications. During fiscal 2012, it introduced 10 new smartphones and launched software updates to both its smartphone and tablet platforms. BlackBerry smartphones are available from hundreds of carriers and indirect channels, through a range of distribution partners, and are designed to operate on a variety of carrier networks, including HSPA/HSPA+/UMTS, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA/Ev-DO, and iDEN. During fiscal 2012, its BlackBerry smartphone and tablet portfolio included BlackBerry Bold series, BlackBerry Torch series, BlackBerry Curve series and The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Its BlackBerry Bold series includes BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 and BlackBerry Bold 9790. The Company’s BlackBerry Torch series include BlackBerry Torch 9810 and All-Touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. The Company’s BlackBerry Curve series include BlackBerry Curve 9350/9360/9370 and All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphone. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. The BlackBerry PlayBook offers a seven-inch high definition display, a dual core one gigahertz processor, dual high definition cameras, multitasking and a Web browsing. History of the PEST Analysis  written by: Sidharth Thakur †¢ edited by: Linda Richter †¢ updated: 12/30/2010 PEST analysis has been in use as an external environment scanning tool for more than three decades. Still , there isn’t much information on how this technique has evolved. Here is an article that explores the history and evolution of this technique. slide 1 of 3 One of the popular environmental scanning tools used by businesses to analyze the macro-environment in which they operate is the PEST analysis. History of  this strategic planning tool is somewhat imprecise; although it may have evolved earlier, the first traceable mention of this tool goes back to 1967, by Francis Aguilar. Let’s take a look at how this tool was introduced and how it has evolved ever since 1967. slide 2 of 3 The First Trace of PEST Analysis As mentioned earlier, it is Francis Aguilar who can be credited with the origin of this strategic analytical technique. At that time, Aguilar talked about ETPS – Economic, Technological, Political, and Social environment — as the four environments that must be scanned when looking for analytical grounds to judge the strategic plans. Even in its current form, PEST revolves around these same four factors; however the term PEST came in much later. A few years later Arnold Brown emphasized these same four environmental factors with the only difference that he labeled it as STEP. This acronym, in addition to referring to each of the four environmental factors, stands for Strategic Trend Evaluation Process as well. There is no clear evidence about when PEST emerged from STEP or ETPS, but as of today the commonly used name for this external environment scanning technique is PEST. Apart from PEST, analysis history shows it is also popular in its extended form as PESTLE. PEST analysis (‘Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢) describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added Legal and rearranged the mnemonic to SLEPT; inserting Environmental factors expanded it to PESTEL or PESTLE, which is popular in the United Kingdom.[1] The model has recently been further extended to STEEPLE and STEEPLED, adding Ethics and Demographic factors. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research, and gives an overview of the different macro-environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. The growing importance of environmental or ecological factors in the first decade of the 21st century have given rise to green business and encouraged widespread use of an  updated version of the PEST framework. STEER analysis systematically considers Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors. Political factors are basically to what degree the government intervenes in the economy. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and services which the government wants to provide or be provided (merit goods) and those that the government does not want to be provided (demerit goods or merit bads). Furthermore, governments have great influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation.