Monday, September 30, 2019

Communication Styles Worksheet Essay

You spent the past few days exploring the resources available to students at University of Phoenix, and you want to share what you learned with a friend who is interested in enrolling. Write a 150- to 200-word e-mail to your friend summarizing the resources available to students. Hi,  I would like to continue with our conversation from earlier today on your interests in attending the â€Å"University of Phoenix†. This university has many resources to lend you a hand in reaching your goals. The Center for Writing Excellence has an abundance of information and guides to help you with your punctuations and grammar in your writing. There is also the program Riverpoint Writer. This program is designed to take your information and properly format your document. It will even assist with quotes and references and cite them correctly for you. The University also has the plagiarism checker. The checker will analyze your papers and tell you what your percentage of plagiarism you may have in your paper which allows you to go back and fix your mistakes to avoid plagiarism. The final program I want to introduce to you is WritePoint. Before you submit your papers, you can send your papers to WritePoint and they will proofread and check your papers for you at any time. Giving ideas or suggestions and making changes to improve your paper are some out of many skills that this program has to offer. Once you enroll into the â€Å"University of Phoenix† you have complete access to all of these magnificently helpful programs. I am anxious to hear your thoughts and maybe even your decision on becoming a Phoenix yourself! You asked your facilitator to review your e-mail draft. She liked what you wrote and asked you to write a summary to post in the class forum for the other students to read. Write a 150- to 200-word summary for your class of the resources available to students. Remember to write using an academic tone. The â€Å"University of Phoenix† has numerous resources accessible to students attending and furthering their education. For example, in the University’s online library you can find the Center for Writing Excellence or CWE. For those who want to improve their writing or become better writers then this is the tool for you. The Plagarisism Checker is another program that evaluates your paper to make sure you have not plagiarized and ensures that you turn in a clean and unique paper of your own. WritePoint and RiverPoint are two different types of programs so be sure not to get mixed up. WritePoint is used to assess your paper and gives you ideas, suggestions, or comments to aid in improving your paper. Riverpoint writer, on the other hand, properly formats your papers in the APA format which is the style used at this University. For those who have trouble in the math area, the Center for Mathematics Excellence is your destination. This program is also found in the University’s online library. It has helpful tutorials, step-by-step problems that you can use for practice and videos when you need them. Starting your first math class after months or even years without going through it can be quite scary but luckily for you, this university has a program to help you. The building mathematics confidence is an amazing program that helps you get over that first initial scare of getting back into your mathematics class.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Panipat Cotton

The slump in cotton price from Rs 4,800 per quintal last season to around Rs 4,000 this season has become a blessing in disguise for Panipat-based home textile exporters. It is helping them to contain their input cost by around 5 to 6 per cent. Home-grown textile companies have increased their trade volumes and are passing this margin to consumers in Latin America, Middle East and African markets.Pawan Kumar, a Sonipat-based innovative farmer dealing in cotton said, â€Å"Last season, we had sold our cotton at around Rs 4,600 per quintal to around Rs 4,900 per quintal. But, in current season, the return has been in the range of Rs 3,900 to Rs 4,100 per quintal, down by around 20 per cent. † JUMP IN VOLUME Prem Sagar VI], president of Panipat Exporters Association said, â€Å"The export market of Panipat has been hit by around Rs 1,000 crore in last financial year due to the Euro Zone crisis. This sliding cotton prices are giving us (textile exporters) tab our input ost by aro und 5 to 6 per cent. However, lowering price of cotton does not result in increasing the profitability of the Panipat home textile exporters. He said that overseas clients are well aware about this new development in the domestic market as they do while following the rupee- dollar convertibility. â€Å"It is helping us to compete against Pakistani and Bangladeshi products (which are cheaper than Indian home textile products by around 15 per cent to even 20 per cent in some cases) and we are able to dent in their market, especially in Venezuela,Panama, Brazil, IJAE, Syria, South Africa. These are the major countries which have shown interest in pursuing business with us this year by shifting their loyalty from Pakistan and Bangladesh. † Prem Sagar VIJ said that these markets have the potential to generate around Rs 500 crore-Rs 600 crore per annum (around 15 per cent of the net export turnover in 2012)

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Political sciences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Political sciences - Essay Example Before the start of the year, Israel and Palestine resumed their armed conflict, killing thousands of innocent civilians on both sides and displacing thousands of people in Gaza Strip. Armed conflicts resumed as Israel and Palestine unleashed their military offensives to weaken each other’s hold to the embattled territory formerly occupied by the Palestinians. Both warring countries sent regular armies and launched paramilitary groups, an action that alerted the international community. As the international community clamored for the pacification of the region, the Israeli government under the regime of its current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestine Liberation Organization under the political leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, have been conducting a number of negotiations to ease the two-party conflict. Based on historical accounts, the Israel-Palestine conflict started when the United Nation intervened, giving the Jewish people the right to the war-stricken territory. This action resulted in numerous wars, which largely involved international actors, particularly the United States. There are a number of reasons why an Israel-Palestine peace accord that would probably result in the end of armed conflict in the region is hard to achieve. In order to understand why regional peace is far from being achieved in the Middle East, it is important to look at the many obstacles that hinder a final and peaceful cooperation between Israel and Palestine and conclusion to the two-party armed conflict. One of the biggest obstacles to a final and peaceful conclusion to the Israel-Palestine armed conflict is the intensifying Israel lobby in the United States. Israel Lobby is a term being used to describe an absurd alliance of groups, organizations and powerful individuals who vigorously attempt to maneuver American foreign policy that is favorable to Israel (Wittkopf & McCormick 87). Instead of bringing peace to

Friday, September 27, 2019

Obama signs order on minimum wage Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Obama signs order on minimum wage - Assignment Example This move would be of great assistance for these citizens as it would improve their income annually and improve the economy of the country. Even though, this order has been positively accepted by the masses, it has also received negative criticism. Economists have argued that this implementation would harm the economy rather than bringing any benefit. They believe that employers and large firms would reduce the number of employees to cope up with the rising salaries and thus lead to unemployment. This would be a blow to the economy as unemployment rates would raise and dissatisfaction amongst the common man would increase. Though economists have presented their views and fears, but this decision taken by the President is a very bold one which is for the betterment of the Americans. It aims to improve the pay scale of the workers and to improve the income of the poor households. The bill would achieve its desired result if it is implemented with effective policies and a strong check is kept on the

Thursday, September 26, 2019

The Christian Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

The Christian Life - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that throughout the scriptures, God is referred to as Holy and His holiness provides the motivation for sanctification – a process by which God has chosen to create a people for Himself. God is not only the â€Å"motivation for holiness, He is also the agent of holiness†. Since God is holy, He requires His children also to be holy and it is He who enables them to become holy with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is therefore the sanctifying agent that enables believers to be transformed. It is of vital importance that believers cooperate with and obey the Holy Spirit to experience Christ like living. Even though the Holy Spirit empowers the believers, the transformation into Christ like living will not manifest unless they willingly surrender and cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is important as the goal of every conversion is for believers to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. This is cl early stated in Romans 8:29 (New International Version) which says, â€Å"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.† Holiness involves putting to death the sin nature which God has already sentenced to death on the cross and living the new life that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In the book of Romans, Paul introduces two aspects pertaining to holiness – justification or positional sanctification (Rom 1-5) and experiential sanctification (Rom 6-8). ... w he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.† Holiness involves putting to death the sin nature which God has already sentenced to death on the cross and living the new life that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.2 Thesis Statement Accepting the scriptural truth that a believer is united with Christ and has the power to walk the victorious Christian life by surrendering to the indwelling Holy Spirit is the key to be transformed into the image of Christ. Justification and Sanctification In the book of Romans, Paul introduces two aspects pertaining to holiness – justification or positional sanctification (Rom 1-5) and experiential sanctification (Rom 6-8). Justification is the legal title declaring that a believer is now holy and righteous and is accomplished by the believer simply placing their trust on the finished work of Christ at the cross, whereby God’s holiness and righteousness is imputed on the believer. Experiential sanctification is the process of being made holy to align with the new legal identity of the believer and is manifested by the believer’s surrender and obedience to the Holy Spirit. It is therefore an important aspect of God’s redemptive plan and the primary work He does to develop godly character in His people. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is central to Paul’s theology. Throughout his writings, Paul emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is granted to all believers in Christ. He underscores that being a Christian is not just accepting certain truths about Christ but rather to have an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is clearly recorded in Rom 8:9 which reads, â€Å"You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Why are they there; Incarceration Rates Research Paper

Why are they there; Incarceration Rates - Research Paper Example States such as Iowa, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Illinois have had an increasing number of incarcerations. The South holds historical record high rates of incarceration, and Louisiana tops in sentencing criminals in jail. The less educated Blacks and Hispanics have a higher incarceration rates than their white counterparts. The incarceration rates for the men of African American descent have been increasing. In 2010, the rate of the blacks aged between twenty-five and twenty-nine years without a high school diploma was about thirty-five percent (Gao, 2014). In contrast, the rate of the whites with the same level of education and age bracket was less than seven percent of all the inmates. Notably, the likelihood of the black men to face incarceration was approximately six times that of the white counterparts in 2010. The recent statistics indicate that the incarceration rates for the White Non-Hispanic and Black non-Hispanic was 454, 100 and 526, 000 (DrugWarFacts.org). The same statistics indicate that the incarcerated Hispanic men were 314, 600 of the total 1, 412, 745 male incarcerations. Carson (2014) asserts that the number of the persons in the correctional institutions in 2013 increased by 4,300 from that of 2012. The non-Hispanic blacks constituted approximately 37 percent of the total inmates i n 2013 (Carson, 2014). The national data shows that the rate of incarceration was higher for the Black Americans than the whites. Rosich (2007) contends there are high chances to incarcerate the young blacks. Louisiana has the highest number of the incarcerations according to the statistics of 2013. In 2012, approximately 1,673 were in the correctional institutions in Louisiana (Carson, 2014). Similarly, Louisiana recorded 1,633 of inmates. Likewise, Mississippi had 1,370 and 1,328 incarcerations in 2012 and 2013 respectively (Carson, 2014). The rate of incarcerations for Oklahoma and Texas were 1,191and

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Limits of Sympathy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Limits of Sympathy - Essay Example Notably, Gregor's father hates him, beats him, throws apples at him, and reprimands him to his room. Nevertheless, Gregor Samsa continued to struggle in adapting to his new physical form until he dies. Grete Samsa is Gregor Samsa’s younger sister who takes up the responsibility of taking care of Gregor after the metamorphosis. In the beginning, the two had a close relationship where Grete sympathizes with him and voluntarily feeds him and cleans his room (Johnston 24-28). In addition, Grete would play violin outside Gregor’s room to console him. She would also dream of going to the conservatory. She also assumed the role of providing for the family after Gregor's transformation where she started working as a salesgirl. However, her sympathies faded with time as the burden became too much for her (Johnston 44-45). As a result she stopped cleaning Gregor’s room and even suggested to her parents that they get rid of Gregor. We can see the Samsa’s parents bein g more concerned about Grete’s well-being at the expense of Gregor’s condition. Ultimately, the unsympathetic nature of Grete and her parents led to Gregor’s death (Johnston 54-56). How the Character’s Past Shaped Grete Samsa and Gregor Samsa Life Notably, Gregor’s boss never accepts any excuses or explanation from the employees regardless of how hard they worked (Johnston 3). This prompted Gregor to work extra harder, observe time, and persevere in his challenging work as a travelling salesman (Johnston 8-9). Indeed, Gregor was never late for work. As a result, the incapability to provide for his family disturbed him so much. We can also establish that Grete and Gregor have always had a passion for each other and this led them to developing concern for each other in their lives. Gregor had huge dreams foe her sister and the incapability to achieve them weakened him (Johnston 28). Additionally, Grete’s past shaped her life and that of Gregor as she gets concerned of Gregor’s lateness in waking up (Johnston 4), removes the furniture from Gregor’s room to create some space for him, feeds and takes care of him. Moreover, Gregor’s father was always harsh to him (Johnston 19). As a result, Mr. Samsa hated Gregor, beat him, and threw apples at him after the transformation. Unfortunately, one of the apples got stuck in a sensitive part in his back for about a month which infected him and paralyzed his movements for life (Johnston 39-40). We can also see Mr. Samsa agreeing to get rid of Gregor a situation which terminates Gregor’s life. On the other hand, having been the youngest child, Grete was not used to challenges and lived a happy life. As a result, she easily gave up on taking care of Gregor and suggests that his family gets rid of him (Johnston 52). Ultimately this led to Gregor’s death. In his past, Gregor avoided conflict with anyone and worked hard to achieve what he had. This moti vated him to continue struggling to adapt to his new physical form which he became comfortable with after some time. What the Relationships of Grete and Gregor Reveal About Characteristics The relationship between Grete and Gregor reveal the kind nature of Gregor and Grete as they sought to take care of one another. They also reveal the loving and caring characteristics of the two characters (Johnston 10). Moreover, the relationships reveal the hardworking nature of Gregor as he sought to support his family especially Grete (Johnston 28-29).

Monday, September 23, 2019

Developing a Shared Vision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Developing a Shared Vision - Essay Example g the healthcare industry, healthcare leaders are changing and adjusting to new measures to enable them lead the healthcare organizations they are leading. Healthcare leaders in the modern healthcare industry face a vast array of challenges, from layoffs because of reducing revenues, staff shortages, re - organization in response to merging of consolidation services, poor job satisfaction rates resulting in Turnover to poor performance outcomes leading to a reduction in Medicare Reimbursement Dollars. In the past, healthcare leaders have not faced so many issues as now. Due to these issues, healthcare leaders have resulted to certain skills, individual features and leadership features to enable them mitigate the challenges faced. As the manger of an ancillary service department at a large, 500 + bed hospital, several challenges have affected the ancillary service department. These challenges include staff shortage and layoffs due to declining revenues. This paper describes a proposal directed to staff to address the two issues. Staffs are a vital component of a healthcare’s system unit. Hence, it is important to keep them informed regarding issues that are affecting the hospital so that they are not caught off guard on mitigation measures put in place by the hospital’s management to solve the challenges. Informing staff makes them feel part of the hospital. It boosts their morale in spite of the challenges. The hospital faces two challenges that are staff shortage and layoffs due to reducing revenues. These challenges are not a call to panic or give up. However, they are a call to unity, cohesiveness and adaptation in order to overcome them as valuable contributors to the day-to-day running of the hospital and healthcare in the country. As you all know, both of these challenges are not unique to the hospital. They are nationwide issues. However, as a hospital, the management would like to take its own initiative to mitigate these issues. Staff shortage in

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Using cognitive learning theory to explain what is involved in Essay

Using cognitive learning theory to explain what is involved in learning in particular learning activity - Essay Example This paper briefly analyses the cognitive learning theory and various cognitive functions with respect to a learning activity; â€Å"using a computer application†. I960’s have witnessed the incorporation of cognitive skills to the learning theories. Edward Tolman was the first one who proposed the importance of cognitive functions in learning activities. Even though he was a behaviourist, he has given more preference to the internal mental phenomena and postulated that; Behavior should be studied at a local level; Learning can occur without reinforcement, Learning can occur without a change in behavior; Intervening variables must be considered; Behavior is purposive; Expectations of fact behavior; Learning results in an organized body of information (Cognitive Learning Theory, n.d) Gestalt psychology, Piagets developmental theory, Vygotskys developmental theory etc are some of the well known cognitive learning theories. Gestalt psychologist emphasized the importance of organizational processes of perception, learning, and problem solving. They believed that individuals were predisposed to organize information in particular ways Piaget considered people as active processors of information. In his opinion, knowledge can be described in terms of structures that change with development and cognitive development results from the interactions that children have with their physical and social environments. Vygotskys developmental theory emphasized the importance of social activities in mental development. He believed that children can often accomplish more difficult tasks when they have the assistance of other people more advanced and competent than themselves. (Cognitive Learning Theory, n.d) The propositional knowledge is the knowledge of facts that such and such is the case. For example, the knowledge that MS word is a product of Microsoft (which is evident from the name itself) is a propositional knowledge. Propositional

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Hong Kong Education Essay Example for Free

Hong Kong Education Essay The pre-school education voucher scheme was launched by the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in September 2007. The scheme was meant to introduce reforms in education in efforts to promote good early childhood education as the foundation for a child’s lifelong learning (Education Department, 2000). Based on this scheme, every parent who has a child aged between 3 and 6 years should be given a voucher worth $13,000 every year (HKU Faculty of Education, 2008). Out of the $13,000, $10,000 can be used by the parents to pay tuition fees in the kindergartens. The remaining $ 3000 should then be used for the professional development of the teachers in pre-school institutions. The pre-school education voucher should be used under certain conditions. These conditions are, that the voucher should not be used for generating profit, pre-school institutions such as kindergartens must make sure their accounts are open for inspection, the school must attain the set Education Bureau benchmarks within 5 years based on the pre-school quality of education, and tuition fees need to be under $24,000 for half day and $42,000 for full day programs per student, per annum. Due to the restrictions that accompany the pre-school education voucher scheme in Hong Kong, stakeholders in the education sector have shown concern for the impact of the imposed restrictions. This has resulted to a debate that has involved the government and the stakeholders. Since its introduction in the 2007/2008 years, the voucher scheme has been very important for parents with children attending kindergartens. The scheme has provided parents with direct fee subsidy and this has eased their financial burden. It is estimated that a total of 820 kindergartens which represents 85 per cent of the total number of kindergartens in Hong Kong have joined the scheme. In addition, 117,000 pupils are enjoying the benefits from the pre-school education voucher scheme fee subsidy. Since 1997, pre-school institutions in Hong Kong experienced reforms that considered internal effectiveness in schools to be important (Vickers, 2003). According to the Hong Kong government, the implementation of the voucher scheme is an indication of its commitment and support to pre-school education. In addition, the schemes are a positive response to the demands that have been made by the kindergarten principals and teachers. This has become possible through the financial support that the schemes provide for the professional development of the teachers and the principals. It is very important to note that the primary objective of the pre-school education voucher scheme in Hong Kong is to provide parents with direct fee subsidy. It is estimated that over 80 percent of the total number of kindergarten teachers have managed to obtain the Certificate of Early Childhood Education(C (ECE)). Some teachers have enrolled in the courses or have managed to obtain qualifications equivalent to (C (ECE)). To evaluate whether the voucher scheme has been successful in achieving its objectives, the Education Bureau (EDB) in Hong Kong continues to conduct Quality Review studies. By May 2009, the Education Bureau is estimated to have conducted survey on more than 320 kindergartens. The government of Hong Kong acknowledges that pre school teachers experience pressure at work and they need to develop in their profession. The scheme is considered to be one of the ways through which the teachers’ professional development can be promoted. Impact of the Pre-school education voucher scheme on teacher’s professional development Teachers at pre-school institutions have shown their full commitment and dedication to education in Hong Kong . One of the ways through which the pre-school education voucher scheme has impacted positively on the teacher’s professional development is by trying to reduce the workload of the teachers and the principals. Since one of the primary objectives of the scheme is to promote professional development of the teachers, the Education Bureau has continued to enhance communication between the school administration, teachers and other stakeholders in the sector (Andrew, 2008). This has resulted to efficient and continuous implementation of programs that are aimed at improving the teachers’ professional development. The quality review mechanism that has been adopted by the Education Bureau ensures that school self evaluation is done to encourage continuous improvement in education and the teachers professional development. Teachers have been concerned about the pressure at work that results from the quality review done by the Education Bureau as well as the work load at school. However, the quality reviews that are supported due to the implementation of the pre-school education voucher scheme have promoted professional collaboration between teachers. Pre-school education in Hong Kong has for a long time been provided by the private sector and non-profit making institutions. This demands that all pre-school institutions such as kindergartens to be well placed in a manner that the market forces are used to determine the teachers’ salaries at discretion. The launch of the pre-school voucher schemes has increased financial resources for the kindergartens and schools’ management activities (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, 2007). In addition, these resources have been used to finance efforts that aim at providing a working environment that attracts and retains qualified and well performing teachers. The financial resources injected by the voucher scheme have also been very vital in facilitating the payment of good salaries to the teachers. These benefits have acted as a motivation for the teachers to improve their skills and abilities hence their professional development (The Education Bureau, 2009). The Hong Kong government has reaffirmed its commitment in promoting high quality education at the pre-school level by encouraging schools or kindergartens to provide the teachers with qualification allowances. Research studies that have been conducted to determine the impact of pre-school voucher schemes in Hong Kong show that over 52 per cent of parents, principals and teachers agree that the scheme is a fair policy that promotes excellence in early childhood education. The teachers satisfaction with the scheme has been due to the opportunities the schemes have offered to them to improve their professional skills. Teachers consider the voucher scheme to have a positive influence on the schools and their staff. By improving the quality of education offered at the kindergarten, it has become necessary for teachers qualifications to be improved. This has played an important role in the teachers’ professional development. A large number of parents with children in pre-school institutions assert that the schemes have promoted the qualifications of the teachers as well as the improvement made on the school facilities. The schemes have encouraged teachers to pursue higher education or to undertake more education courses. At the pre-school level, extra curricular activities are very critical for children development and learning (Sweeting, 1990). Teachers compliment learning in class by extra curriculum activities. By participating in the coordination and implementation of extra curricular programs in school, the teachers’ ability to lead and teach is improved. The voucher scheme has increased financial resources to be spent for the extra curricular activities in school. By being involved in the activities, the teachers’ professional ability to use the activities in educating the children is improved. By September 2008, about 30% of teachers at the pre-school level had enrolled and attained good qualifications after enrolling for (C (ECE)) courses which are recommended and supported by the Education Bureau. The pre-school principals who are also teachers have had an opportunity to pursue higher education . For example, about 61 per cent or a large number of principals have been enrolled to undertake the Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education (B Ed (ECE). A program to certify the qualification of the principals were put into place in January 2008 . By March 2009, about 300 principals who served in the pre-schools had taken a certification course. For continuous professional development in the teachers, many kindergartens have adopted teacher development subsidy (TDC) to offer the teachers’ school based training programs. The pre-school education voucher scheme provides support services that are offered to develop language skills, cognitive abilities and physical development in children. Teachers gain from this by being engaged in creating a good learning environment, proper children learning, portfolio planning as well as curriculum planning and organization. Being engaged in these activities has been vital in improving the professional skills of the teachers when it comes to planning for good learning at school (Bray and Koo, 2005). The Hong Kong Education Bureau participates in promoting the teachers professional development under the voucher scheme by commissioning a professional training course for their principals. By improving the principals’ leadership and management skills, the teachers are able to get good guidance and effective leadership that relate to the teacher’s work (Ranson, 2003). The principal training course is characterized by an offshore programme and provides an on-spot consultative visit to the principal who participates in the course. About 130 principals are estimated to join the training programme. The principals have given positive feedback about the benefits of the programmes. To support the implementation of the pre-school curriculum revised guide, the Education Bureau organizes professional development programmes which relate to school based curriculum knowledge, leadership, curriculum management and pedagogical knowledge in various areas of learning. This effort has promoted the professional development of the teachers through capacity building. Transparency in pre-school institutions has been promoted by the requirements set by the Education Bureau when it comes to the management of the financial resources . The resources provided by the scheme promote the smooth running of the schools, good remuneration for the teachers and provide a good learning environment. These have gone a long way to increase accountability of the principals and the teachers and this has motivated teachers to embrace good values that are important in professional development. Some of the questions that have been raised about pre-school voucher schemes in Hong Kong is whether the schemes can minimize the overall work pressure on the teachers and improve the staff ratio. The pre –school education voucher schemes have promoted professional upgrading for both the principals and the teachers. For those who serve at PEVs-NPM-KGs, a teacher development subsidy is provided in each voucher. The subsidy is utilized for teacher training and development courses. Furthermore, the teachers and the principals who serve in non PEVs-NMP-KGs can claim a reimbursement from the Education Bureau to cater for up to 50 percent of the fees for a degree or diploma course that has been approved in early childhood education. By the year 2011/2012, all teachers serving at pre-school level are expected to have obtained a certificate in Early Childhood Education (LegCo panel on education, 2009). This together with the demand by the scheme that all kindergarten principals who are appointed from 2009 to have a BEd (ECE) have encouraged teachers to pursue higher education. In addition, the requirement for principals to have a one year post qualification experience and a certification course has encouraged principals and teachers to get engaged in professional development activities and programs. All kindergartens under the scheme have put into place measures that ensure there is continuous professional development by providing school based training programmes under the teacher development subsidy program. Areas of school work that are covered include children’s’ development, learning and teaching, management and organization, and children and school culture support. The quality reviews carried out by the Education Bureau assists the teachers to invest their energy and time in professional development as a way of promoting sustainable school improvement. For example, local non-profit making schools starting 2012-2013 will be able to redeem the education voucher if they are able to meet the prescribed standards of the Quality Review framework (Education Department, 2007). The requirements specified in the Education ordinance (Cap 279) ensures that teachers’ professional development can occur when they meet the set educational standards. The first batch pf 130 Quality Review planned visits began in the 2007-2008 school year (Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, 2008b) and an increase in ratio of graduate teachers in 2008/2009 has raised the professional standards and status of the teachers. The Quality Review Framework promotes transparency and accountability in schools which promotes a culture that is good for professional development of teachers. The Hong Kong government is committed and dedicated to the improvements made in education and the professional development of teachers. The development and implementation of the Pre-school Education Voucher Scheme in Hong Kong is one of the ways through which the government has managed to improve the quality of education and to promote professional development in teachers and principals. High quality education at the pre-school level can be attributed to the pre-school education voucher scheme, classroom inspection and quality reviews in schools. In conclusion, the pre-school education voucher scheme has been promoted through the 2007/08 school year Training Activity, Teacher Development plan for 2008/09 school year, Four-year Teacher Development plan and the professional upgrading of Kindergarten principals and teachers.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Multi-Campus ICT Equipment Virtualization Architecture

Multi-Campus ICT Equipment Virtualization Architecture Multi-campus ICT equipment virtualization architecture  for cloud and NFV integrated service Abstract- We propose a virtualization architecture for multicampus  information and communication technology (ICT)  equipment with integrated cloud and NFV capabilities. The  aim of this proposal is to migrate most of ICT equipment on  campus premises into cloud and NFV platforms. Adopting this  architecture would make most of ICT services secure and  reliable and their disaster recovery (DR) economically  manageable. We also analyze a cost function and show cost advantages of  this proposed architecture, describe implementation design  issues, and report a preliminary experimentation of NFV DR  transaction. This architecture would encourage academic  institutes to migrate their own ICT systems located on their  premises into a cloud environments. Keywords; NFV, Data Center Migration, Disaster Recovery,  Multi-campus network I. INTRODUCTION There are many academic institutions that have multiple  campuses located in different cities. These institutions need  to provide information and communication technology (ICT)  services, such as E-learning services, equally for all students  on each campus. Usually, information technology (IT)  infrastructures, such as application servers, are deployed at a  main campus, and these servers are accessed by students on  each campus. For this purpose, each local area network  (LAN) on each campus is connected to a main campus LAN  via a virtual private network (VPN) over a wide area  network (WAN). In addition, Internet access service is  provided to all students on the multi-campus environment. To access the Internet, security devices, such as firewalls and  intrusion detection systems (IDSs), are indispensable as they  protect computing resources from malicious cyber activities. With the emergence of virtualization technologies such  as the cloud computing[1] and network functions  virtualization (NFV)[2], [3], we expected that ICT  infrastructures such as compute servers, storage devices, and  network equipment can be moved from campuses to  datacenters (DCs) economically. Some organizations have  begun to move their ICT infrastructures from their own  premises to outside DCs in order to improve security,  stability, and reliability. Also, there are a lot of contributions  to archiving DR capabilities with cloud technologies [4], [5], [6]. Active-passive replication or active-active replication are  expected techniques that archive DR capabilities. In these  replications, a redundant backup system is required  dedicatedly at a secondary site. With migration recovery [4],  these backup resources can be shared among many users.   These studies mainly focus on the application servers. While,  integrated DR capability for ICT infrastructures, both  application and network infrastructures, are still immature.   We propose a multi-campus ICT equipment virtualization  architecture for integrated cloud and NFV capabilities. The  aim of this proposal is to migrate entire ICT infrastructures  on campus premises into cloud and NFV platforms.   Adopting this architecture for multi-campus networks would  improve access link utilization, security device utilization,  network transmission delay, disaster tolerance, and  manageability at the same time.   We also analyze the cost function and show cost  advantages of this proposed architecture.   To evaluate the feasibility of our proposed architecture,  we built a test bed on SINET5 (Science Information  NETwork 5) [7], [8], [9]. We describe the test-bed design,  and preliminary experimentation on reducing the recovery  time of VNF is reported. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II  shows background of this work. Section III shows proposed  multi-campus network virtualization architecture. Section IV  shows an evaluation of the proposed architecture in terms of  cost advantages and implementation results. Section V  concludes the paper, and future work is discussed   II. BACKGROUND OF THIS WORK SINET5 is a Japanese academic backbone network for  about 850 research institutes and universities and provide  network services to about 30 million academic users.   SINET5 was wholly constructed and put into operation in  April 2016. SINET5 plays an important role in supporting a  wide range of research fields that need high-performance  connectivity, such as high-energy physics, nuclear fusion  science, astronomy, geodesy, seismology, and computer  science. Figure 1 shows the SINET5 architecture. It provides  points of presence, called SINET-data centers (DCs), and  SINET DCs are deployed in each prefecture in Japan. On  each SINET DC, an internet protocol (IP) router, MPLS-TP  system, and ROADM are deployed. The IP router  accommodates access lines from research institutes and  universities. All Every pairs of internet protocol (IP) routers  are connected by a paier of MPLS-TP paths. These paths  achieves low latency and high reliability. The IP routers and  MPLS-TP systems are connected by a 100-Gbps-based  optical path. Therefore, data can be transmitted from a  SINET DC to another SINET DC in up to 100 Gbps  throughput. In addition, users, who have 100 Gpbs access  lines, can transmit data to other users in up to 100 Gbps  throughput.   Currently, SINET5 provides a direct cloud connection  service. In this service, commercial cloud providers connect  their data centers to the SINET5 with high-speed link such as  10 Gbps link directly. Therefore, academic users can access  cloud computing resources with very low latency and high  bandwidth via SINET5. Thus, academic users can receive  high-performance computer communication between  campuses and cloud computing resources. Today, 17 cloud  service providers are directly connected to SINET5 and more  than 70 universities have been using cloud resources directly  via SINET5. To evaluate virtual technologies such as cloud computing  and NFV technologies, we constructed at test-bed platform  (shown as NFV platform in fig. 1) and will evaluate the  network delay effect for ICT service with this test bed. NFV  platform are constructed at four SINET-DCs on major cities  in Japan: Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka. At each site,  the facilities are composed of computing resources, such as  servers and storages, network resources, such as layer-2  switches, and controllers, such as NFV orchestrator, and  cloud controller. The layer-2 switch is connected to a  SINET5 router at the same site with high speed link,  100Gbps. The cloud controller configures servers and  storages and NFV orchestrator configures the VNFs on NFV  platform. And user can setup and release VPNs between  universities, commercial clouds and NFV platforms  dynamically over SINET with on-demand controller. This  on-demand controller setup the router with NETCONF  interface. Also, this on-demand controller setup the VPN corelated  with NFV platform with REST interface.   Today there are many universities which has multiple  campus deployed over wide area. In this multi-campus  university, many VPNs (VLANs), ex hundreds of VPNs, are  desired to be configured over SINET to extend inter-campus  LAN. In order to satisfy this demand, SINET starts new  VPN services, called virtual campus LAN service. With this  service, layer 2 domains of multi-campus can be connected  as like as layer 2 switch using preconfigured VLAN rages   (ex. 1000-2000). III. PROPOSED MULTI-CAMPUS ICT EQUIPMENT  VIRTUALIZATION ARCHITECTURE In this section, the proposed architecture is described.   The architecture consists of two parts. First, we describe the  network architecture and clarify the issues with it. Next, a  NFV/cloud control architecture is described.   A. Proposed multi-campus network architecture   Multi-campus network architecture is shown in Figure 2.   There are two legacy network architectures and a proposed  network architecture. In legacy network architecture 1 (LA1),  Internet traffic for multiple campuses is delivered to a main  campus (shown as a green line) and checked by security  devices. After that, the internet traffic is distributed to each  campus (shown as a blue line). ICT Applications, such as Elearning  services, are deployed in a main campus and access  traffic to ICT application is carried by VPN over SINET  (shown as a blue line). In legacy network architecture 2  (LA2), the Internet access is different from LA1. The  Internet access is directly delivered to each campus and  checked by security devices deployed at each campus. In the  proposed architecture (PA), the main ICT application is  moved from a main campus to an external NFV/cloud DC.   Thus, students on both main and sub-campuses can access  ICT applications via VPN over SINET. Also, internet traffic  traverses via virtual network functions (VNFs), such as  virtual routers and virtual security devices, located at  NFV/cloud DCs. Internet traffic is checked in virtual security  devices and delivered to each main/sub-campus via VPN  over SINET. There are pros and cons between these architectures.   Here, they are compared across five points: access link  utilization, security device utilization, network transmission  delay, disaster tolerance, and manageability.   (1) Access link utilization The cost of an access link from sub-campus to WAN is  same in LA1, LA2 and PA. While, the cost of an access link  from a main campus to WAN of LA1 is larger than LA2 and PA because redundant traffic traverses through the link.   While, in PA, an additional access link from a NFV/cloud  DC to WAN is required. Thus, evaluating the total access link  cost is important. In this evaluation, it is assumed that  additional access links from NFV/cloud DCs to WAN are  shared among multiple academic institutions who use the  NFV/cloud platform and that the cost will be evaluated  taking this sharing into account. (2) Security device utilization LA1 and PA is more efficient than LA2 because Internet traffic is concentrated in LA1 and PA and a statistically multiplexed traffic effect is expected.  In addition to it, in PA, the amount of physical  computing resources can be suppressed because virtual  security devices share physical computing resources among  multiple users. Therefore, the cost of virtual security devices  for each user will be reduced. (3) Network transmission delay Network delay due to Internet traffic with LA1 is longer  than that with LA2 and PA because Internet traffic to subcampuses  is detoured and transits at the main campus in LA1,  however, in LA2, network delay of Internet to sub-campuses  is directly delivered from an Internet exchange point on a  WAN to the sub-campus, so delay is suppressed. In PA,  network delay can be suppressed because the NFV and cloud  data center can be selected and located near an Internet  access gateway on WAN. While, the network delay for ICT application services  will be longer in PA than it in LA1 and LA2. Therefore, the  effect of a longer network delay on the quality of IT  application services has to be evaluated.   (4) Disaster tolerance   Regarding Internet service, LA1 is less disaster tolerant  than LA2. In LA1, when a disaster occurs around the main  campus and the network functions of the campus go down,  students on the other sub-campuses cannot access the  internet at this time. Regarding IT application service, IT services cannot be  accessed by students when a disaster occurs around the main  campus or data center. While, in PA, NFV/cloud DC is  located in an environment robust against earthquakes and  flooding. Thus, robustness is improved compared with LA1  and LA2. Today, systems capable of disaster recovery (DR) are  mandatory for academic institutions. Therefore, service  disaster recovery functionality is required. In PA, back up  ICT infrastructures located at a secondary data center can be  shared with another user. Thus, no dedicated redundant  resources are required in steady state operation, so the  resource cost can be reduced. However, if VM migration  cannot be fast enough to continue services, active-passive or  active-passive replication have to be adopted. Therefore,  reducing recovery time is required to adapt migration  recovery to archive DR manageability more economically   (5) Manageability LA1 and PA is easier to manage than LA2. Because  security devices are concentrated at a site (a main campus or  NFV/cloud data center), the number of devices can be  reduced and improving manageability.   There are three issues to consider when adopting the PA.   Evaluating the access link cost of an NFV/cloud  data center. Evaluating the network delay effect for ICT services.   Evaluating the migration period for migration  recovery replication. B. NFV and cloud control architecture  For the following two reasons, there is strong demand to  use legacy ICT systems continuously. Thus, legacy ICT  systems have to be moved to NFV/cloud DCs as virtual  application servers and virtual network functions. One reason  is that institutions have developed their own legacy ICT  systems on their own premises with vender specific features.   The second reason is that an institutions work flows are not  easily changed, and the same usability for end users is  required. Therefore, their legacy ICT infrastructures  deployed on a campus premises should be continuously used  in the NFV/cloud environment. In the proposed multicampus  architecture, these application servers and network  functions are controlled by using per-user orchestrators.   Figure 3 shows the proposed control architecture. Each  institution deploys their ICT system on IaaS services. VMs  are created and deleted through the application interface  (API), which is provided by IaaS providers. Each institution  sets up an NFV orchestrator, application orchestrator, and  management orchestrator on VMs. Both active and standby  orchestrators are run in primary and secondary data centers,  respectively, and both active and standby orchestrators check  the aliveness of each other. The NFV orchestrator creates the  VMs and installs the virtual network functions, such as  routers and virtual firewalls, and configures them. The  application orchestrator installs the applications on VMs and  sets them up. The management orchestrator registers these  applications and virtual network functions to monitoring  tools and saves the logs outputted from the IT service  applications and network functions. When an active data center suffers from disaster and the  active orchestrators go down, the standby orchestrators  detect that the active orchestrators are down. They start  establishing the virtual network functions and application  and management functions. After that, the VPN is connected  to the secondary data center being co-operated with the VPN  controller of WAN. In this architecture, each institution can select NFV  orchestrators that support a users legacy systems.   IV. EVALUATION OF PROPOSED NETWORK ARCHITECTURE This section details an evaluation of the access link cost  of proposed network architecture. Also, the test-bed  configuration is introduced, and an evaluation of the  migration period for migration recovery is shown.   A. Access link cost of NFV/cloud data center  In this sub-section, an evaluation of the access link cost  of PA compared with LA1 is described.   First, the network cost is defined as follows.   There is an institution, u, that has a main campus and nu  sub-campuses. The traffic amount of institution u is defined as follows  different sites can be connected between a user site and cloud  sites by a SINET VPLS (Fig. 7). This VPLS can be dynamically established by a portal that uses the REST  interface for the on-demand controller. For upper-layer  services such as Web-based services, virtual network  appliances, such as virtual routers, virtual firewalls, and  virtual load balancers, are created in servers through the  NFV orchestrater. DR capabilities for NFV orchestrator is  under deployment. C. Migiration period for disaster recovery   We evaluated the VNF recovering process for disaster  recovery. In this process, there are four steps.   Step 1: Host OS installation Step 2: VNF image copy Step 3: VNF configuration copy Step 4: VNF process activation This process is started from the host OS installation because  there are VNFs that are tightly coupled with the host OS and  hypervisor. There are several kinds and versions of host OS,  so the host OS can be changed to suite to the VNF. After  host OS installation, VNF images are copied into the created  VMs. Then, the VNF configuration parameters are adjusted  to the attributions of the secondary data center environment  (for example, VLAN-ID and IP address), and the  configuration parameters are installed into VNF. After that,  VNF is activated. In our test environment, a virtual router can be recovered  from the primary data center to the secondary data center,  and the total duration of recovery is about 6 min. Each  duration of Steps 1-4 is 3 min 13 sec, 3 min 19 sec, 11 sec,  and 17 sec, respectively. To shorten the recovery time, currently, the standby VNF  is able to be pre-setup and activated. If the same  configuration can be applied in the secondary data center  network environment, snapshot recovering is also available.  In this case, Step 1 is eliminated, and Steps 2 and 3 are  replaced by copying a snap shot of an active VNF image,  which takes about 30 sec. In this case, the recovering time is  about 30 sec. V. CONCLUSION Our method using cloud and NFV functions can achieve  DR with less cost. We proposed a multi-campus equipment  virtualization architecture for cloud and NFV integrated  service. The aim of this proposal is to migrate entire ICT  infrastructures on campus premises into cloud and NFV  platforms. This architecture would encourage academic  institutions to migrate their own developed ICT systems located on their premises into a cloud environment. Adopting  this architecture would make entire ICT systems secure and  reliable, and the DR of ICT services could be economically  manageable. In addition, we also analyzed the cost function, and  showed a cost advantages of this proposed architecture  described implementation design issues, and reported a  preliminary experimentation of the NFV DR transaction/

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Interview with William Golding Essay -- English Literature

Interview with William Golding BBC Studio. Present: Leanne Le Poidevin and William Golding Leanne Le Poidevin is interviewing William Golding about his book, Lord Of The Flies. Leanne: Good afternoon Mr. Golding. Mr Golding:Good afternoon to you. Leanne:As we all know, Lord of the flies is about lots of boys trapped on an island. What was the reason of putting just boys on the island? Why were there no girls? Mr Golding:At the time of the book, it was the war. Fighting and arguing was going on around us, and it seemed as though nobody was really sane anymore. It started off as being happy and positive, and ended up being complete madness. Women were at home, doing the housework, cooking food, you know? They didn't really have a choice in anything. To be fair, they didn't really have much of a part in everyday life. This is the image that I tried to portray on the island. I felt that if I'd have put girls on the island, the book would not have been so action-packed. Girls have a strange habit of making the atmosphere a lot calmer, and I did not want this. I also felt it would be hard to know the characters of girls. As a writer, I feel it is essential to know your characters well, and because I was a little boy, I do not know how a little girl would have felt at that age. I wanted my characters to be believable, and by putting girls on the island, I don't think I would have achieved this. I also realised that girls go through many problems when they are growing up, and I wanted my story to be an action one, not one full of relationships, I e boys and girls. I don't think that the island I wanted to create would have catered for their teenage needs, shall we say. Leanne:Yes, I understand. Th... ...ph is his only friend. Leanne: Ah. Poor Piggy! Why did you put the Beastie idea into their heads? Mr Golding: Well I figured that by having young boys on an island, there would be an element of fear. The most important part of the chapter is when young Simon stands up and tells the group that the Beastie is them. They are scared of themselves because of what they have slowly turned into. The boys would obviously have been scared in the night, but I specifically wanted the reader to know that the older boys were turning into terrifying monsters that the little boys couldn't handle anymore. They were bloodthirsty scavengers, who just wanted to kill. This was making the young boys insecure. Leanne: Well, Thankyou very much Mr. Golding. That was both very interesting and informative. That's the end of our questions, so Thankyou very much. They exit.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

A Comparison of God and Satan in Paradise Lost Essay -- comparison com

Comparison of God and Satan in Paradise Lost      Ã‚   In this essay I shall be focusing on the characters of G-d and Satan from 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton.   Within the essay I shall be attempting to elucidate on the themes of ambiguity of the two characters as well as the uncertainty of moral integrity of each, characterized by John's Milton's use of sentence structure, private thoughts and symbolism.    Foremost I would like to look at the way the way in which Milton characterizes the characters of Satan in particular.   Milton specifically presents different elements of Satan's character by his interaction with those around him. For example it may seem ultimately that Satan (even by his very name) is a creature of great evil.   However, Milton shows elements of self doubt and an almost pitiful nature, forming a contradiction of the stereotypical image of what Satan represents.:    'Which way I fly is hell: My self am hell'    The repetition of the word 'hell' exaggerates a sense of futility now that he has come to Earth for the first time.   The questioning tone implied by the use of the word 'which' further empathises this.   The reader no longer needs to label the morality of such a character; Satan defines himself with the use of the pronoun 'my' and the preceding definition and assessment that 'My self am hell'.   Furthermore through Satan's own assessment the distancing technique by the word 'my' appears to exaggerate the notion of the definition of himself, the natural pause due to the unusual syntax further accentuates this.  Ã‚   The use of Milton's alliteration in 'Racked with deep despair' when describing Satan's countenance only empathises this pitiful nature.    However this sense of self dou... ...ng that G-d deliberately leads Satan into greater evil.    From the outset it appears that G-d and Satan remain in opposition together, an important characterisation of Milton.   'Paradise Lost' states that Satan was acting;    'Against the throne and monarchy of G-d.'    Weston continues this theme by saying that:    'In a fundamental sense, then, the 'hell' of human struggle can be said to have produced the 'heaven' of peace and harmony.'    In other words without the intensity of one character, in 'Paradise Lost' we would be without the other.      Works Cited and Consulted: Bush, D. 'John Milton'  Ã‚   Weidenfeld & Nicolson,   Ã‚  London, 1964. Empson, W. 'Milton's G-d'  Ã‚   Penguin, London, 1973. Milton, J. 'Paradise Lost'  Ã‚   Penguin, London, 1955. Weston, P. 'Paradise Lost- A Critical Study, Penguin   Middlesex, 1984.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

B & Q Marketing Environment

As competition increases in the retail consumer markets, it becomes increasingly necessary for businesses to examine the marketing environment.The following explores B & Q brand, which is a home improvement retailer in the UK. The company functions as a subsidiary of the larger Kingfisher Plc. The report covers the history of B & Q as a company. A macroenvironment analysis and a microenvironment analysis follow this. The analysis models are critiqued based on their application to the market needs, with recommendations for improvement.B & Q CompanyBack in 1960s, home improvement was a pastime for the minority. Professional building supplies were mostly located at builder’s merchants and service provided by large stores was intimidating to the average DIY’er. The first B&Q was opened by Richard Block and David Quayle (whose surname initials later provided the company name) in Portswood Road, Southampton, in Hampshire in 1969. Its mission was to bring value, longer opening hours and a broader product range to everyone (B & Q PLC 2007). By 1979, B&Q had a total of 26 stores (B & Q PLC 2007).Through the early 1980s, B&Q grew rapidly and became part of the Kingfisher Group (B&Q’s parenting company), and by the end of the decade B&Q had expanded to 280 stores and offered customers larger stores and even greater product range (B & Q PLC 2007). In 1995, the first larger format B&Q warehouse store opened and B&Q began opening for business on Sundays (B & Q PLC 2007).The first store outside the UK was opened January 1996, in Taiwan. In 1998, B&Q merged with France’s leading home improvement retailer, Castorama, to become the largest home improvement retailer in Europe (B & Q PLC 2007).B&Q adapted a click-and-mortar approach to stay up to date with technological changes. B&Q’s Web site, www.diy.com, has been transactional since early 2001, providing access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, offering products, expert advice, inspirational room ideas and ‘how to’ guides, as well as general information on stores (B & Q PLC 2007).The average visiting number on the site has increased tenfold since that date. Their research shows 60,000 to 600,000 visitors a week, 90% of whom visit a store, and 12% of store visitors have already used the site for research prior to their visit (B & Q PLC 2007). This demonstrates a good cross over between the virtual and physical stores (B & Q PLC 2007).B&Q is continuing to evolve its product offer, providing the broader range of products needed to complete home improvement projects and the associated finishing touches, along with existing core DIY products. A wider range of products are available through special order, where goods can be ordered in-store, from a catalogue or online and delivered directly to the consumers home.Macro-Environment (PEST)The marketing macro-environment (Kotler and Keller p 77 2003) is understood as the major forces that exist outside the business domai n. These are the forces that the company must function within, but may have little control over. Kotler and Keller (2003) identify the macro-economic forces as the PEST analysis, which is compromised of political, economical, social and technological forces that place pressure on the business.PoliticalOrganizations today are subject to an increasing number of regulations that entail compliance. Government regulations are sometimes threatening mechanisms for value representation and virtually no support to communication processes that create win/win situations where multiple stakeholder and shareholders can successfully pursue their mutual interests (Deetz, 1995).In addition to various national and international regulations, there are many more rules that stem either from regional or local governments or industry oversight committees. A recent major local political-legal struggle for B & Q is the â€Å"government planning policy that allowed bulky goods retailers to plant themselves in out-of-town parks is being abused by the clothing brands, whose consumers have plenty of space on the high street to swing carrier bags† (Cockram p 58 2003).This resulted in an increase of â€Å"more than  £1m in rent to the cost of a large store† (Cockram p 58 2003). This exemplifies Deetz (1995) contention that government regulations can behave as a threatening mechanism for business.Economical The DIY Industry has maintained high, positive international growth over several decades. In 2006, however, the UK DIY market suffered a profit decline (Horne 2006). This resulted in disappointing financial performance of B&Q and the decline in parent company Kingfisher's profits[1] to  £208 million (Horne p 3 2006).The force of economics has impacted the trends in the do-it-yourself market and increased the cost of building materials industry in the country (Horne 2006). This profit decrease is a direct result of 2005 cost increases, where competition rivalries were co mpeting for a smaller home owners market (Wilkinson p 9 2005). The impact of the housing market is significant because the DIY market caters to homeowners, thus higher cost of living expenses combined with increases in interest rates have a constricting impact on the market, which in turn creates a customer shortage for the UK DIY market (Wilkinson 2005).See Appendices A, B and C for an overview of Housing Market and Kingfisher Stock Value

Monday, September 16, 2019

Effect Of Catalase On Hydrogen Peroxide

My aim is to see how the effect of catalase has on the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. 2H202(aq) 2H20(l) + 02(g) My prediction is as you increase the concentration of hydrogen peroxide the catalase will break it down faster and therefore the time will be quicker The Independent variable is hydrogen peroxide I will use an appropriate range including the concentrations of 0. 1%, 0. 2%, 0. 5%, 1%, and 2% The dependant variable will be the time taken in seconds to measure how long the catalase takes to breakdown the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.There were a few controlled variables. The amount of hydrogen peroxide used was kept at a constant 10cm3. This allows for a fair test as the filter paper would have to travel the same distance. I repeated the experiment an extra 3 times, allowed me to calculate a mean time. There is always a need for a repeat as it improves the reliability of the experiment done. It also allows us to remove any anomalies in our res ults which h gives us a good rough estimate of the average. I carried out a suitable control experiment to prove that it was the enzyme in fact breaking down the hydrogen peroxide.In this experiment I boiled the enzyme â€Å"catalase† to denature it so it wouldn’t be able to function properly. I then tested this enzyme by dipping the filter paper in it and then into the concentration of 2% hydrogen peroxide. As the enzyme was denatured it could not break down the hydrogen peroxide and could not get the filter paper to rise from the base of the test tube. There were many hazards with this experiment. Hydrogen peroxide is an irritant that can cause irritation if left on skin.Boiling water is another hazard as that can cause scolding of the skin. There is also the risk of smashed glass on which anyone could cut themselves on. Another danger is the Bunsen burner on which someone could quite easily burn themselves. There are procedures in place to prevent these problems, we aring eye protection and washing hands after the use of hydrogen peroxide. Another prevention is keeping glass wear, boiling water and the Bunsen burner away from the edge of the table to prevent anything being knocked and falling off.ANALYSISMy data shows that what I predicted to be true, as you increased the concentration of hydrogen peroxide the time taken for the filter paper to reach the top of the test tube is smaller. This data is also shown in my graphs. The reliability of my results are good as they are shown to be accurate looking at other data that has been accumulated. The accuracy of my results seem high as they correspond to other results although improvements could be made by making sure that the level of hydrogen peroxide is accurate and more repeats are taken.My aim was to see the how catalase would breakdown hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen and to conclude following my data and results it clearly shows that my aim was very well reached as an appropriate targ et. I could do further work by changing the independent variable changing the pH. The controlled variables would be the level of hydrogen peroxide and level of water used. In this result I would notice that as the pH decreased the enzymes would denature and the breakdown of catalase would slow down.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 11

Elena hung up the phone. She and Bonnie had discussed everything that was going on, from the mysterious appearance of Celia's and Meredith's names to Margaret's upcoming dance recital. But she hadn't been able to bring up what she had real y cal ed to talk about. She sighed. After a moment, she felt under her mattress and pul ed out her velvet-covered journal. Dear Diary, This afternoon, I talked with Caleb Smallwood on the front lawn of my house. I barely know him, yet I feel this visceral connection with him. I love Bonnie and Meredith more than life itself, but they have no idea what it's like to lose your parents, and that puts a space between us. I see myself in Caleb. He's so handsome and seems so carefree. I'm sure most people think his life is perfect. I know what it's like to pretend to have it together, even when you're coming apart. It can be the loneliest thing in the world. I hope he has a Bonnie or a Meredith of his own, a friend he can lean on. The strangest thing happened while we were talking. A crow flew straight at us. It was a big crow, one of the biggest I've ever seen, with iridescent black feathers that shone in the sun and a huge hooked beak and claws. It might have been the same one that appeared on my windowsill yesterday morning, but I wasn't sure. Who can tell crows apart? And, of course, both the crows reminded me of Damon, who watched me as a crow before we even met. What's strange – ridiculous, really – is this dawning feeling of hope I have deep inside me. What if, I keep thinking, what if somehow Damon's not dead after all? And then the hope collapses, because he is dead, and I need to face that. If I want to stay strong I can't lie to myself. I can't make up pretty fairy tales where the noble vampire doesn't die, where the rules get changed because it's someone I care about. But that hope comes sneaking up on me again: What if? It would be too cruel to say anything about the crow to Stefan. His grief has changed him. Sometimes, when he's quiet, I catch a strange look in his leaf green eyes, like there's someone I don't know in there. And I know he's thinking of Damon, thoughts that take him somewhere I can't follow anymore. I thought I could tell Bonnie about the crow. She cared about Damon, and she wouldn't laugh at me for wondering whether there were some way he might still, in some form, be alive. Not after she suggested the very same thing earlier today. At the last minute, though, I couldn't talk to her about it. I know why, and it's a lousy, selfish, stupid reason: I'm jealous of Bonnie. Because Damon saved her life. Awful, right? Here's the thing: For a long time, out of millions, there was one human Damon cared about. Only one. And that one person was me. Everyone else could go to hell as far as he was concerned. He could barely remember my friends' names. But something changed between Damon and Bonnie, maybe when they were alone in the Dark Dimension together, maybe earlier. She's always had a little crush on him, when he wasn't being cruel, but then he started to take notice of his little redbird. He watched her. He was tender with her. And when she was in danger, he moved to save her without a second thought as to what it might cost him. So I'm jealous. Because Damon saved Bonnie's life. I'm a terrible person. But, because I am so terrible, I don't want to share any more of Damon with Bonnie, not even my thoughts about the crow. I want to keep part of him just for me. Elena reread what she had written, her lips pressed tightly together. She wasn't proud of her feelings, but she couldn't deny they existed. She leaned back on her pil ow. It had been a long, exhausting day, and now it was one o'clock in the morning. She'd said good night to Aunt Judith and Robert a couple of hours ago, but she didn't seem to be able to make it into bed. She'd just puttered around after changing into her nightdress: brushing her hair, rearranging some of her possessions, flipping through a magazine, looking with satisfaction at the fashionable wardrobe she hadn't had access to in months. Cal ing Bonnie. Bonnie had sounded odd. Distracted, maybe. Or perhaps just tired. It was late, after al . Elena was tired, too, but she didn't want to go to sleep. She final y admitted it to herself: She was a little afraid to go to sleep. Damon had been so real in her dream the other night. His body had felt firm and solid as she held him; his silky black hair had been soft against her cheek. His smooth voice had sounded sarcastic, seductive, and commanding by turns, just like the living Damon's. When she had remembered, with a sickening horror, that he was gone, it had been as if he had died al over again. But she couldn't stay awake forever. She was so tired. Elena switched off the light and closed her eyes. She was sitting on the creaky old bleachers in the school gym. The air smel ed of sweaty athletic shoes and the polish they used on the wooden floor. â€Å"This is where we met,† said Damon, who she now realized was sitting beside her, so close the sleeve of his leather jacket brushed her arm. â€Å"Romantic,† Elena replied, raising one eyebrow and looking around the big empty room, the basketbal hoops hanging at each end. â€Å"I try,† Damon said, a tinge of a laugh coloring his dry voice. â€Å"But you chose where we are. It's your dream.† â€Å"Is it a dream?† Elena asked suddenly, turning to study his face. â€Å"It doesn't feel like one.† â€Å"Wel ,† he said, â€Å"let me put it this way. We're not actual y here.† His face was serious and intent as he gazed back at her, but then he flashed one of his sudden, bril iant smiles and his eyes slid away. â€Å"I'm glad we didn't have gymnasiums like this when I did my studies,† he said casual y, stretching out his legs in front of him. â€Å"It seems so undignified, with the shorts and the rubber bal s.† â€Å"Stefan said that you played sports then, though,† Elena said, distracted despite herself. Damon frowned at Stefan's name. â€Å"Never mind,† she said hastily. â€Å"We might not have much time. Please, Damon, please, you said you're not here, but are you anywhere? Are you al right? Even if you're dead†¦ I mean real y dead, dead for good, are you somewhere?† He looked at her sharply. His mouth twisted a little as he said, â€Å"Does it matter that much to you, princess?† â€Å"Of course it does,† Elena said, shocked. Her eyes were fil ing with tears. His tone was light, but his eyes, so black she couldn't tel where the iris ended and the pupil began, were watchful. â€Å"Everyone else – al your friends – this town – they're al okay, though, aren't they? You have your world back. There are such things as col ateral damages you have to expect if you're going to get what you want.† Elena could tel from Damon's expression that what she said next would matter dreadful y. And, in her heart of hearts, hadn't she admitted to herself the other day that, as much as she loved Damon, things were better now, that everything could be good again with the town saved and her returned to her old life? And that she wanted it that way, even if it meant Damon was dead? That Damon was what he said: collateral damage? â€Å"Oh, Damon,† she said at last, helplessly. â€Å"I just miss you so much.† Damon's face softened and he reached for her. â€Å"Elena – â€Å" â€Å"Yes?† Elena murmured. â€Å"Elena?† A hand was gently shaking her. â€Å"Elena?† Someone stroked her hair, and Elena nuzzled sleepily into the touch. â€Å"Damon?† she said, stil half dreaming. The hand paused in its stroking and then withdrew. She opened her eyes. â€Å"Just me, I'm afraid,† said Stefan. He was sitting next to her on her bed, his mouth a straight, tight line, his eyes averted. â€Å"Oh, Stefan,† said Elena, sitting up and throwing her arms around him. â€Å"I didn't mean – â€Å" â€Å"It's al right,† Stefan said flatly, turning away from her. â€Å"I know what he meant to you.† Elena pul ed him toward her and looked up into his face. â€Å"Stefan. Stefan.† His green eyes had a distant expression. â€Å"I'm sorry,† she said pleadingly. â€Å"You have nothing to apologize for, Elena,† he said. â€Å"Stefan, I was dreaming about Damon,† she confessed. â€Å"You're right, Damon was important to me, and I†¦ miss him.† A muscle twitched at the side of Stefan's face, and she stroked his jaw. â€Å"I wil never love anyone more than I love you, Stefan. It would be impossible. Stefan,† she said, feeling like she might cry, â€Å"you're my true love, you know that.† If only she could reach out and show him with her mind, make him understand what she felt for him. She'd never ful y explored her other Powers, never ful y claimed them, but losing their telepathic connection felt like it might kil her. Stefan's expression softened. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† he said slowly, and wrapped his arms around her. â€Å"I miss Damon, too.† He buried his face in her hair and his next words were muffled. â€Å"I've spent hundreds of years fighting with my only brother, with us hating each other. We killed each other when we were human, and I don't think either of us ever got over the guilt and the shock, the horror of that moment.† She felt a long shudder go through his body. He sighed, a soft, sad sound. â€Å"And when we final y started to find our way back to being brothers again, it was al because of you.† His forehead stil resting on her shoulder, Stefan took Elena's hand and held it between both of his, turning it over and stroking it as he thought. â€Å"He died so suddenly. I guess I never expected†¦ I never expected Damon to die before I did. He was always the strong one, the one who truly loved life. I feel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He smiled a little, just a sad twist of his lips. â€Å"I feel†¦ surprisingly lonely without him.† Elena entwined her fingers with Stefan's and held his hand tightly. He turned his face toward hers, meeting her eyes, and she pul ed back a little so she could see him more clearly. There was pain in his eyes, and grief, but there was also a hardness she had never seen there before. She kissed him, trying to erase that hard edge. He resisted her for half a second, and then he kissed her back. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† he said thickly, and kissed her again. As the kiss deepened, Elena felt a sweet, satisfying sense of rightness sweep through her. It was always like this: If she felt distanced from Stefan, the touch of their lips could unite them. She felt a wave of love and wonder from him, and held on to it, feeding the emotion back to him, the tenderness between them growing. With her Powers gone, she needed this more than ever. She reached out with her mind and emotions, past the tenderness, past the rock-solid love that was always waiting for her in Stefan's kiss, and delved deeper into his mind. There was a fierce passion there, and she returned it, their emotions twining together, as their hands held each other harder. Beneath the passion, there was grief, a terrible, endless grief, and farther stil , buried in the depths of Stefan's emotions, was an aching loneliness, the loneliness of a man who had lived for centuries without companionship. And in that loneliness was the taste of something unfamiliar. Something†¦ unyielding and cold and faintly metal ic, as if she had bitten into foil. There was something Stefan was holding back from her. Elena was sure of it, and she reached deeper into his mind as their kisses intensified. She needed al of him†¦ She started to pul back her hair, to offer him her blood. That always brought them as close as they could possibly be. But before he could accept her offer, there was a sudden knock on the door. Almost immediately it opened and Aunt Judith peeked in. Elena, blinking, found herself alone, her palms stinging from the speed with which Stefan had pul ed away from her. She looked around hastily, but he'd vanished. â€Å"Breakfast is on the table, Elena,† Aunt Judith said cheerful y. â€Å"Uh-huh,† Elena said, distracted, peering at the closet, wondering where Stefan had hidden himself. â€Å"Are you al right, dear?† her aunt said, her forehead creased with concern. Elena had a sudden picture of how she must look: wide-eyed, flushed, and disheveled, sitting in her rumpled bed and looking wildly around the room. It had been a long time since Stefan had needed to use his vampiric speed for anything as mundane as not getting caught in her bedroom! She gave Aunt Judith a reassuring smile. â€Å"Sorry, I'm stil half-asleep. I'l be right down,† she said. â€Å"I'd better hurry. Stefan wil be here to pick me up soon.† As Aunt Judith left the room, Elena final y caught sight of Stefan, waving from the lawn below her open window, and she waved back, laughing, the strange emotions at the bottom of Stefan's mind put aside for the moment. He gestured that he was going around to the front of the house and that he would see her in a minute. She laughed again and jumped up to get ready for the picnic at Hot Springs. It was nice to be the kind of girl who worried about getting grounded. It felt†¦ pleasurably normal. A few minutes later, as Elena, now dressed in shorts and a light blue T-shirt, her hair pul ed back in a ponytail, headed down the stairs, the doorbel rang. â€Å"That'l be Stefan,† she cal ed as Aunt Judith appeared in the kitchen doorway. Elena grabbed her beach bag and picnic cooler from the bench in the hal . â€Å"Elena!† Aunt Judith scolded. â€Å"You have to eat something before you go!† â€Å"No time,† Elena said, smiling at the familiarity of the argument. â€Å"I'l grab a muffin or something on the way.† She and Aunt Judith had exchanged these words, or similar ones, most mornings of Elena's years in high school. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† Aunt Judith said, rol ing her eyes. â€Å"Don't move, young lady. I'l be right back.† Elena opened the door and smiled up into Stefan's eyes. â€Å"Why, hel o there, stranger,† she said softly. He kissed her, a sweet touch of his lips on hers. Aunt Judith hurried back into the hal way and pressed a granola bar into Elena's hand. â€Å"There,† she said. â€Å"At least you'l have something in your stomach.† Elena gave her a quick hug. â€Å"Thank you, Aunt Judith,† she said. â€Å"I'l see you later.† â€Å"Have fun, but please don't forget Margaret's dance recital tonight,† Aunt Judith said. â€Å"She's so excited about it.† Aunt Judith waved good-bye from the doorway as Elena and Stefan strol ed toward the car. â€Å"We're meeting the others at the boardinghouse and caravanning to Hot Springs,† Stefan said. â€Å"Matt and Meredith are both bringing their cars.† â€Å"Oh, good, we won't be as crowded as we were yesterday. Not that I minded sitting on your lap, but I thought I might squish Celia in the middle,† Elena said. She turned her face up and stretched like a cat in the sunshine. A breeze tossed her ponytail, and she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation. â€Å"It's a gorgeous day for a picnic,† she said. The world was alive with birdsong and with the rustle of trees. A faint tracery of white clouds underscored the bright blue of the sky. â€Å"Would it be jinxing ourselves to say it feels like the kind of day where nothing could go wrong?† she asked. â€Å"Yes, it absolutely would be jinxing ourselves to say that,† Stefan said, straight-faced, unlocking the passenger-side door for her. â€Å"Then I won't say it,† Elena said. â€Å"I won't even think it. But I feel good. I haven't been to Hot Springs for ages.† She grinned with pure pleasure, and Stefan smiled back at her, but Elena was struck once again by that certain something new – something troubling – in his eyes.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

The Relationship Between Speech Production and Speech Comprehension and Thought

The Relationship between Speech Production and Speech Comprehension and Thought 1. Is it possible for a child to have the ability to produce speech without having the ability to comprehend speech? * The child must first able to comprehend the meaning of the language before they themselves can produce it. The basic of all language is meaning and without that, children could not begin to produce language meaningfully. Children need to be exposed to utterances with a clear connection to articles referred to before they themselves can begin sat such utterances.They will not learn language if all that they are exposed to is speech sound, no matter how many times it is uttered. 2. Which part of the brain that is related to language comprehension? * The left temporal lobe is thought to be critical for language comprehension and production. Wernicke's Area is the name of the specific region of the temporal lobe that is associated with speech comprehension, whereas Broca's Area is a region of the temporal lobe associated with speech production. 3.Does experience play important rule to help children in language comprehension and speech production? * Children must first be exposed to utterances and it is also necessary that these utterances are related to objects, events and situations in their physical environment and subjective events in their minds (desire, pain and love). Child’s experience with the environment and the child’s experience of its own feeling are assigning the meanings of the word and sentences. 4. Does imitation help children to learn language? Imitation, copying and repeating words loud, is not the fundamental factor for learning a language by a child. It cannot be regarded as basic factor, because it has some limitation. The first limitation is that â€Å"imitation† can apply only to speech production but not to speech comprehension and the second one is that â€Å"imitation† is not involved in construction of sentences. So , we can conclude that imitation is limited to the development of the articulation of speech sounds and the sound pattern of sentences.

Function/S of Space in Sandra Cisneros’ the House on Mango Street

Function/s of Space in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street Space occupies a central role in Sandra Cisneros’ coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street. Using the example of the house shows this very plainly. This can be seen at the very beginning of the book, namely the title. Although it is a female Bildungsroman, the novel is not named after its protagonist Esperanza Cordero, but her residence. It shows that Cisneros attached much importance to the house on Mango Street and the reader also learns that it is of central significance for the development of the young girl. On Mango Street, she develops not only physically, but also in terms of her character and her own identity. That is why I will concentrate on the function of the house rather than on other different settings in the novel. Usually, the house is a symbol for warmth and shelter. It represents the place of the family and where one belongs to. But the first sentence of the initial vignette shows, that this does not apply to the house on Mango Street. Esperanza’s family has been constantly on the move and they lived in several apartments in different cities. The feeling of being rooted therefore never existed, just as little as the feeling of comfort. For Esperanza, the house on Mango Street does not symbolize shelter, but shame. In the first vignette Esperanza depicts the family’s house in a very negative way, run down and with cramped confines. It is neither â€Å"[†¦] the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket [†¦]†, nor â€Å"[†¦] the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed. † (Cisneros 4). The house on Mango Street is at last their own, but not the one Esperanza and her family have longed for. It symbolizes â€Å"[t]he conflict between the promised land and the harsh reality† (Valdes â€Å"Canadian Review† 57). Especially for Esperanza, who is in quest of her own identity, reality and hope (Spanish: esperanza) diverge here, which means that Esperanza has not found her personal reality yet. She wishes to have â€Å"[a] real house. One I could point to. † (Cisneros 5). This desire shows that the house also symbolizes the â€Å"American Dream† of having a comfortable home of one’s own, something the people of Esperanza’s community will probably never attain. Esperanza experiences that instead, they are often confronted with the fact that the house also functions as a symbol of female restriction. This proves the given traditional role of a Chicana, whose business concentrates on the household and on being wife and mother. In the novel, female restriction is also depicted in a more extreme way: Several women like Marin and Rafaela are restricted physically because they are locked indoors by their husbands. Esperanza clearly comes out against such a male-dominated home. Although she is not sure who she is and still searches for her own identity, she clearly knows what she wants: a house all on her own, â€Å"Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own. † (Cisneros 108). According to that, having her own house stands for her longing for a self-determined space as an independent woman, in which she can be free to be herself, unconfined by either a husband or a father and without any social expectations. There is something, Esperanza didn’t realize yet: the fact â€Å"[†¦] that the house she seeks is, in reality, her person. (Valdes â€Å"Canadian Review† 58). Thus, the house functions as a metaphor for Esperanza’s identity formation. Apart from its importance for self-identification, the image of the house functions as a synecdoche: it is part of the community, a place of one’s own amidst the whole community and barrio. By interacting with the community, meaning communication and observat ion, Esperanza learns that she can only define herself through her relationship to the other people of her community. She orientates herself by some positive role models like Aunt Lupe or Minerva, but she also distances herself from Sally or the â€Å"women sitting by the window† like her great-grandmother or Mamacita. Nevertheless, Esperanza learns through their experience. This shows Esperanza’s ability to distinguish between the different role models. She recognizes that she does not want to be a copy of somebody and this is why she sees others just as partial role models. The social interaction with the community actually is of utter importance for Esperanza’s identity formation. The fact that she defines herself through people she lives with shows the close interaction between community and Individual. The house stands for the community because it is part of it and thus functions as a synecdoche: pars pro toto – the term â€Å"community† is replaced by a narrower one, thus the â€Å"house†. This also works vice versa, totum pro parte means here that the house is used to represent the community. For Esperanza, the relationship between individual and community is a mutual one. She recognizes that there is a lot she learned and experienced while living in the house on Mango Street and in the ommunity. At the end of the novel, both what the three sisters and Alicia say to her â€Å"[†¦] induce Esperanza to acknowledge her indebtedness to the community and her role as mediator and negotiator between worlds. † (Rukwied 63). So she decides to give something back, to help others with her experience. In the vignette â€Å"Bums in the Attic† she states: One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask, Can I come in? I’ll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house. Cisneros 87) Esperanza shows great sympathy for other people who are, by some means or other, lost like she was when wondering who she is. She describes this state with the word â€Å"homeless† (Cisneros 87). Having no home means having no house or apartment. And as I argued before, the house is the central metaphor for self-identification. In the end, Esperanza finally finds her voice by beginning with writing. She now has a clear vision of how her promised house should be: â€Å"Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem. (Cisneros 108). This is another way of contributing something to the community: she writes about it. As I argued, the house is of central importance in The Ho use on Mango Street. Esperenza first refuses to accept that she belongs to Mango Street and thus to the whole community. But in the end she recognizes that it was there her identity fully developed because our environment always shapes our identity. I focused on the function of the house, but there are further reasons for the importance of space in general. In my opinion, one of them is â€Å"highly visible† indeed: The fact that Sandra Cisneros left a lot of space on the pages of the novel. In chapter 7 for example, there is both recto and verso in a large part unprinted. Works Cited List: Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. McCracken, Ellen. â€Å"The House on Mango Street: Community-oriented Introspection and the Demystification of Patriarchal Violence. † In: Horno-Delgado, Asuncion et al (eds). Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. 7-71. Rukwied, Annette L. The search for identity in two Chicana novels : Sandra Cisneros' The house on Mango Street & Ana Castillo's the mixquiahuala letters. Stuttgart: Universitat, Magisterarbeit, 1998. Valdes, Maria Elena de: â€Å"In Search of Identity in Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street†, Canadian Review of American Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1, Fall 1992. 55-69. Valdes, Maria Elena de. â€Å"The Critical Reception of Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. † Gender, Self, and Society. Ed. Renate von Bardeleben. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1993. 287-300. (7. 01. 2008) (7. 01. 2008)

Friday, September 13, 2019

Characteristics of civilized societies and civilization Assignment

Characteristics of civilized societies and civilization - Assignment Example â€Å"A Labyrinth that housed the Minotaur, a monstrous creature, half man and half bull, the product of the union of Minos’s wife Pasiphae with a bull. Minos exacted from Athens a regular tribute of seven boys and seven girls, who was sent to be devoured by the Minotaur. The Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to stop the grisly tribute. He went to Knossos with the new group of intended victims and, with the help of the king’s daughter Ariadne, killed the Minotaur in its lair in the middle of the Labyrinth. He then escaped with Ariadne and the Athenian boys and girls. Theseus later abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, but the god Dionysus discovered her there and comforted her† (Cunningham and Reich).What aspect of the first chapter most intrigued you?The civilization process/ stage among the Greeks. The process was slow but intriguing because the amount of technology was limited.   The architects came up with different design models including doric and ico nic.How did the physical geography of Greece affect the development of the states?The mountains separated the city states; hence the states were able to develop independently.What are the causes of the many contradictions in Classical Greek mythology?There is no concrete evidence that backs the events in the myths. Distortion of the original events is prone to happen, leading to contradictions.How did the Doric style differ from the Ionic style or order of architecture (consider the base, capital, frieze)? Hoplite- meaning an armed infantry.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

The Importance of Using Social Media in Business Research Paper

The Importance of Using Social Media in Business - Research Paper Example   Through social media, businesses are able to establish and use social marketing as a tool to expand. Social marketing is one of the key factors for making a business successful in terms of sales by increasing the market range. For marketing to become a success in social media by the use of social marketing, businesses must set up hierarchies that prove effective in marketing the business. At the bottom of the hierarchy, pyramid is blogging. It is a known fact that the internet has revolutionized the world. Using this view, it has been observed that blogging has seen to revolutionize the internet world. Blogs are online diaries, which help the business people reach their potential customers. Through blogs, businesspersons are able to air views to their customers and, using them as online dialogue, receive feedback. Through blogs, businesses are able to monitor the progress of their businesses and hence they are able to effectively market their business. From blogs, businesses are also able to make the necessary adjustments so as to achieve success through factors such as increased sales, which result in a higher profit margin in the business. Blogging comes as an aid in building customer loyalty. This is in the sense that a businessperson is able to keep his or her customers engaged with your business by keeping customers apprised of new products in the business and fluctuation of prices. New services in the business are also known to the customers through blogs due to their accessibility (Debono, 2012).

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Engineering ethics paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Engineering ethics - Research Paper Example This specific branch of Genetic Engineering is called Transgenics (Frewer, 2013). Even though Genetic Engineering has led to the emergence of very superb hybrid and chimeras species of animals and plants and, has also resulted to the discovery of vaccines for various diseases, it is still unethical scientific practice that has always violated the integrity and rights of many animals and the culture of man as well. Many people live in fear of this mysterious technology and a number of animals, both wild and domestic are at risk of being killed in the course of the several Genetic tests. In fact, much concern is on these victimized animals (Ormandy, 2011). Below are some of ethical issues. To the religious world, the Transgenic practice of isolating genes and tissues from one animal and inserting them into another is very immoral and unacceptable act. Such acts are unnatural practices that seek to dismantle the creation design of God. For instance, the harvesting of genes from human tumor and implanting them into tobacco plant has ignited a bitter disagreement religious culture of man and Science (Brad, 2009). During the transfer of genes and cells from an animal to human being, some zoonotic diseases (diseases that are found in both animals and human) may be carried along side. Such diseases include Nipah and Bovine, commonly known as the â€Å"mad cow disease†. These diseases are very lethal and can easily lead to sudden death of man if not diagnosed in good time (Conn, 2008). The genetically modified food has posed health threats to lay society which do not clearly understand how such foods were quickly manufactured in laboratories. It is very evident that genetically modified foods can interfere with normal functioning of the human body and has a long term health effect. Some individuals have rapidly gained weight after eating highly processed and hybrid products. Animal Welfare has been the main concern when it comes to ethical issues in Genetic