How parents most influence behavior Essay

How did your parents most influence your behavior growing up? Was it through classical conditioning? What about operant conditioning and social learning theory? Which theory had the biggest impact? Why? Give an example and state how it has impacted the person you are today. Make sure to briefly define what the type of conditioning is and cite the text (unless you invented: Classical, Operant or Social Learning theory). Try to use the terms the textbook authors use. If someone does not use a term or uses it incorrectly, feel free to tactfully correct them (they will need to know these terms for the upcoming Online Quizzes) (1st post) Classical conditioning is learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response (Carpenter &Huffman, 2010, p. 144). Operant conditioning is learning in which voluntary responses are controlled by their consequences (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 49). My parents influenced me best by operant conditioning. When I did well and work hard on something they used reinforcement; a consequence that strengthens a response and makes it more likely to recur (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 149) to encourage me to keep doing well. When I did something I wasn’t supposed to do or just straight out misbehaved they used punishment; a consequence that weakens a response and makes it less likely to recur (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 49) to get me to act right and do what I was supposed to do. (2nd Q) Give the text definition of what â€Å"negative reinforcement† is in Operant conditioning (cite the textbook APA style). Differentiate it from punishment. If you can, give an example of negative reinforcement in your own life. (Hint: most people don’t have a clue of what negative reinforcement is). Feel free to correct students who make cognitive errors in a response post where you correct them and cite the correct text passage to back you up). I will be lurking in the background to keep everyone on track (2nd post) Negative reinforcement takes away (–) and strengthens behavior (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 150). Negative punishment is the taking away (–) of a reinforcing stimulus, which decreases (or weakens) the likelihood of the response occurring again behavior (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 153). The two concepts are actually completely opposite. Reinforcement (either positive or negative) strengthens a behavior, where as punishment weakens a behavior (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010, p. 152). The best example I can think of how my parents used negative reinforcement on me was if I made all A’s on my report card I didn’t have to do my chores for a week. (3rd post) This video explains difference between operant conditioning & observational learning. This video give a good definition in the difference of the two and better understand them.

The Scarlet Letter Study Guide

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century that was dedicated to the belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere, particularly in the natural world. It also advocated a personalized, direct relationship with the divine in place of formalized, structured religion. This second transcendental idea is privileged in The Scarlet Letter. After marrying fellow transcendentalist Sophia Peabody in 1842, Hawthorne left Brook Farm and moved into the Old Manse, a home in Concord where Emerson had once lived.In 1846 he published Mosses from an Old Manse, a collection of essays and stories, many of which are about early America. Mosses from an Old Manse earned Hawthorne the attention of the literary establishment because America was trying to establish a cultural independence to complement its political independence, and Hawthorn's collection of stories displayed both a stylistic freshness and an interest in American subject matter. Herman Melv ille, among others, hailed Hawthorne as the â€Å"American Shakespeare. † In 1845 Hawthorne again went to work as a customs surveyor, this time, like the orator of The Scarlet Letter, at a post in Salem.In 1850, after having lost the Job, he published The Scarlet Letter to enthusiastic, if not widespread, acclaim. His other major novels include The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithered Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). In 1853 Hawthorn's college friend Franklin Pierce, for whom he had written a campaign biography and who had since become president, appointed Hawthorne a United States consul. The writer spent the next six years in Europe. He died in 1864, a few years after returning to America.The majority of Hawthorn's work takes America's Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to greatest effect. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the sass under the leadership of John Winthrop (w hose death is recounted in the novel). The religious sect was known for its intolerance of dissenting ideas and lifestyles. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the repressive, authoritarian Puritan society as an analogue for humankind in general. The Puritan setting also enables him to portray the human OLL under extreme pressures.Hester, Timescale, and Chlorinating, while unquestionably part of the Puritan society in which they live, also reflect universal experiences. Hawthorne speaks specifically to American issues, but he circumvents the aesthetic and thematic limitations that might accompany such a focus. His universality and his dramatic flair have ensured his place in the literary canon. MORE HELP Read No Fear The Scarlet Letter Buy the print The Scarlet Letter Soapstone on BAN. Com Buy the eBook of this Soapstone on BAN. Com Download the PDF of this Soapstone on BAN. Com

ESL learners feel anxious when doing reading comprehension tests Essay

This paper will explore in depth all the implications of the claim that ESL learners feel anxious when doing reading comprehension tests. First of all, the psychological and social causes of anxiety in ESL speakers during reading comprehension assignments will be explored and analyzed. Secondly, the level of anxiety will be assessed. Finally, the paper will suggest several ways to reduce negative feeling associated with performing reading comprehension tests by ESL speakers. Psychological causes of anxiety in ESL students partially mirror the experience of any other school related anxiety. Students are unsure of their abilities under the conditions of internal (i. e. a desire for self-affirmation) and external (i. e. a desire to please parents) pressure. Presently, students feel an incredible pressure to achieve and be at the top of their class, since the realization that school grades determine their future comes very early. Therefore, the joy of learning is often transformed into a struggle to excel (DeNoon, 2007). High expectations and competitive environment contribute greatly to the experience of anxiety and even panic. As concerns the severity of anxiety experienced by ESL speakers, it might range from slight psychological discomfort to serious physical symptoms. For example, short-term memory loss might be the result of extreme anxiety (the feeling of suddenly ‘remembering’ the correct answer immediately after turning in the test). Physical expressions of anxiety may include rapid pulse, a feeling of breathlessness, trembling, sweaty palms, dry mouth, chest pains, digestive problems such as nausea or diarrhea, loss of appetite, headache, sleeplessness, and stomach ache (BUPA’s Health Information Team, 2004). Anxiety may also result in undesirable social consequences, such as loss of trust between parents and students, since the latter sometimes tend to conceal the difficulties they encounter, as well as test results. Such behavior eventually results in unfavorable family atmosphere. The practical values of this research lies in the field of practices and methods aimed at eliminating the causes of anxiety and helping students benefit fully from the learning process. Negative thoughts about possible failure discourage active learning and, taken to extreme, can produce a generally devastating effect on personality development. Furthermore, anxiety during the testing process can distort result, since students who are able to control their emotions better will tend to get higher score, despite the fact that their knowledge might be less complete as compared to students who suffer from extreme anxiety. Together with exercises aimed at increasing students’ self-confidence, relaxation exercises might be very helpful for those who suffer from anxiety. It is also of paramount importance to teach students to plan their time for taking the test so that they would not feel lost and experience a state of panic. The methods of research will be qualitative and will include questionnaires and interviews. At one hand, questionnaires will help to gather statistically significant data and understand the pervasiveness of the problem. From another perspective, interviews will help to research the problem in depth by analyzing students’ perceptions, emotions, and experiences. Therefore, the combination of these research methods will provide the most accurate picture of anxiety in ESL speakers during reading comprehension tests.

WORLDVIEWS Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WORLDVIEWS - Coursework Example A co-worker or a neighbor who follows the Islamic way of life should be understood in terms of what he/she stands for, and also be ready to embrace the differences between him/her and the other party. Presenting the Christian gospel to an Islamic person would be faced by religious differences. Islamic and Christian beliefs are significantly different. Countering one’s Islamic beliefs must be accompanied by outstanding evidence of the arguments being made. On the same note, faith in involved in the process. Faith and religious superiority would pose substantial barriers to presenting gospel to an Islamic person (Quá ¹ ­b & Rami, 2006). Personally, I uphold respect for other religions and the different forms of worldviews. In this respect, presenting the gospel must account for Islamic views and the Muslim beliefs. The idea is to present the gospel without tarnishing one religion over the other. Personally, balancing these two aspects poses substantial challenges to presenting the gospel to a person from Islamic worldview. The parties involved would have to be considered, and the efforts in presenting the gospel would not have to present Muslim religion or Islamic practices as inferior to

Poster presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Poster presentation - Essay Example a. Competitors – competitors are other companies who are offering the same product or services or an alternative to the product or services offered by a particular company. Competitors can either be direct or indirect competitors. Direct competitors are those companies who could offer the same product and services while indirect competitors are companies who could offer an alternative product or services. The political environment is the regulatory atmosphere of which Starbucks operate as a business. The political environment could determine whether Starbucks can open a franchise in a certain country or if its bean can be had without any regulatory issue (issue of quota, banned goods, taxation etch.,). Economic environment determines the financial capacity of its market. In the case of Starbucks, economic environment made Starbucks reconsider its position in the market when the financial crisis hit in 2008-2010 that companies were compelled to adapt to the new market realities to stay afloat as a business. Along with the financial crisis is also the changing economic behaviour of Starbucks customers whose purchasing habits changed dramatically along with their choices of coffee products. The â€Å"premium coffee† preference suddenly became less a priority and convenience and affordability moved to the forefront. The â€Å"prestige orientation† of Starbucks is no longer applicable in the changing behaviour of its customers. The use of technology is one of the advantage s of Starbucks from its competitors. Despite the crisis, it still managed to keep in touch with its customers with its web platform where customers can discussed about coffee. This became an online community where Starbucks reinforce with its own ingenuity of sending greetings during the customer’s important personal events such as birthdays. In addition, its Gold Card Holder facility through a cellphone helped maintain customer loyalty during the

Medical law and ethics discussion questions Essay

Medical law and ethics discussion questions - Essay Example Physician’s duty in the medical field is to conduct diagnosis, offer referral services and update patients on their treatment procedures alongside articulation of the intended results. In the society, they have the role of counseling and advising parents, writing medical articles to enlighten the public and providing professional testimony on behalf of victims of torture seeking asylum. Their role has gradually changed from that of a director to that of the controller and health instructor (Stoddard et al 1). In addition to assessment of diseases and injury, healthcare providers treat the patients accordingly, provide care for them and enlighten them on the preventive measures associated with various ailments. Moreover, they run the facilities that offer the healthcare services (Stoddard et al 1). Managed care may affect one’s career through controls on the professional independence. Physician dissatisfaction is bound to arise if managed care infringes upon the physician’s relationships, practice approaches, decision making or controls for income (Stoddard et al 1). MCOs can only manage to offer the required form of care by ensuring the physicians, or medical professionals are satisfied since dissemination of care is upon them (Stoddard et al 1). They can only achieve this by revising the limits imposed on clinical autonomy, boosting patient confidence on physicians and involving physicians work schedule set up processes. Stoddard, Jeffrey, Lee Hargraves, Marie Reed and Alison Vratil. â€Å"Managed care, Proffessional Autonomy, and Income: Effects on Physician Career Satisfaction.† J Gen Intern Med 16.10(2001): 675-684.

Employees Performance & Assessment system used in your organization Assignment

Employees Performance & Assessment system used in your organization - Assignment Example This has thus forced organizations to ensure proper training and support for those conducting the assessment, and assessing the risk possibilities to reduce legal liabilities. A job performance evaluation system is only considered effective if it can clearly show employees responsibilities, motivate them, show their contribution and give information that can be useful in making personnel decisions. This essay will evaluate the forced distribution system of performance evaluation, its advantages, disadvantages and ways of improving the system. In a forced distribution evaluation system the managers are expected to distribute ratings for the evaluated employees, into a pre-specified performance distribution ranking as described in Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management by Cooper & Argyris. Meisler defined forced distribution performance evaluation as; It's a workforce-management tool based on the premise that in order to develop and thrive, a corporation must identify its best an d worst performers, then nurture the former and rehabilitate and/or discard the latter. It's an elixir that in these slow-growth times has proved irresistible to scores of desperate corporate chieftains - but indigestible to a good many employees (44-49). Just like the name suggest this system forces the managers to ensure that the performance evaluation reflects the true performance of each member within the organization. This system aims to improve overall productivity within the organization. Most organizations have developed their own criteria of ranking, which functions by developing the criteria and employees and ranked according to it. The performance criteria can either be in terms of goals or expected behavior expected of the employees. Microsoft organization rates its employees using a unique scale. Their 5 point scale ensures that employees also get a ranking for being either the most valuable or the least valuable in terms of performance. Through lifeboat discussions man agers will decide on the rankings by choosing the employees that they consider as the most valuable (Abelson,1). This form of ranking allows for determination of the least performing employee, because of this some organizations use the same system as a means of determining which employees are to be laid off. This ranking that allows for firing of workers has led the forced distribution system to be termed as ‘rank and yank’ system (Osborne & McCann, 6- 9). This system though employed by some organizations has both positive and negative features. It is imperative when considering an evaluating system to use in an organization to look at both of these features. This enables an organization to decide on which best fits the organization and will ensure that the employees feel secure in the workplace and promotes effectiveness and productivity. One of the advantages of fixed distribution performance evaluation system is that is that the use of this type of system can help to ensure that common errors that occur during performance evaluation are eliminated. These errors include; poor rating of the employees, or leniency errors whereby the employees are rated questionably well. The latter is the most common, and it is found in most cases that an employee is

Two essay question Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two essay question - Research Paper Example Considering the above artwork of Picasso of a standing before a mirror, it shows the actual condition of the girl and the pretending sense of the girl. On the face of the girl, two different features are frontal image and side profile that have different implications on real time. One side of the girl shows the daytime when the girl has make-ups on her and the other half of the face indicate the nighttime when the girl has no make-ups on her. The girl has no self-esteem without the make-up and therefore, she needs to add something different from her actual nature. However, when the girl looks herself on the mirror, she feels that she is old and therefore the need to make her appearance young. The picture of the girl does not depict a particular girl but targets not only girls but also opposite gender as well. It only tries to show challenges that individuals face but try to cover the problem by impressing other people in the society. The fact that the art is not real it tells the truth about the actual happenings in the society. Therefore, taking the writing of Picasso, art is the lie that tells the truth, there is a direct relationship between the art of the girl and the meaning that Picasso implies. Art is a provocative medium, and the challenge in analyzing art may often be to evaluate and define the artists techniques and choices, which, according to the viewer intellect and perception, arouse interest and convey meaning. This involves translating the visual, into a language. In order to do this, one will have to be attentive to the aspects of the work which means that description will include a large portion of the analysis. Formal analysis involves the formal parts (e.g., symmetry, framing etc.) of a work of art and their correspondence to create new and exciting ways of evaluating and understanding the work in as a whole. It is through this criterion that the

Project management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Project management - Coursework Example According to Snedaker & Rogers (2006), for a project to be successful, it needs to have carefully designed programs, which provide a direction for the achievement of the project goals and objectives. In this regard, a program can be described as a series of different items, events or performances that guide the project’s implementation. Another important aspect of effective business management is portfolio management, which combines management activities for projects and programs. Portfolio management can be defined as the process of central management for one or many portfolios (Bonham 2005). These portfolios include such aspects as identifying, giving priority, authorizing and later management and controlling of programs, projects and different tasks that are linked towards achieving the broad goals of the business. As a manager in ABC Company, I have been tasked with ensuring that the company becomes successful in its operations. To achieve this, I have had to identify smaller projects that can be managed effectively in achieving the company’s mission and vision. Being a company that deals in software development, the staff has been grouped according to their professional experience and specialization into teams that manage certain projects (Bonham 2005). One of the projects being undertaken involves development of websites and online tools for our client. This project is undertaken by a team of technology experts, who come up with programs that guide the implementation of strategies in mangling the projects. A series of projects being undertaken in the company make up its portfolio. As a manager, my responsibility of often empowering the particular project managers to be successful in their projects, thus making the company successful. Each of these elements have people that head them, with a hierarchical structure of leadership that aids in communication and information flow vertically or horizontally for the success of the company. Wide

Explain the Concept of Ideals in Plato’s Writings Essay Example for Free

Explain the Concept of Ideals in Plato’s Writings Essay â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living† according to Plato. He argued that we should always pursue knowledge and ask questions to do this. A key part of Plato’s philosophy is epistemology – his theory of how we know things. His concept of Ideals, also known as Forms, is Plato’s explanation of how true knowledge can be sought. Plato understood that there are concepts that we can all recognise in various things, for example the concept of beauty. We all recognise beauty in art, nature, people, or music, and we all understand the idea when we hear the word used. Although we can all recognise beauty, our opinions of what classes as beautiful are widely varied and subjective. The conclusions Plato drew from this is that beauty must exist, otherwise we would not know it at all. This is the Perfect Form of Beauty. However, we must have only partial knowledge of it or we would not have subjective opinions. Forms are absolute versions of concepts and ideas. They are perfect ideas of everything and therefore they do not change – perfect things cannot change for the better and would not change for the worse. They are also eternal as to begin or to stop existing is a change. They cannot live in this world as it is constantly changing and forms are unchangeable, so they can only exist in the Realm of the Forms. The form of Beauty is absolute and true; it is not an opinion but an idea or concept, therefore no-one can know the real meaning of Beauty as it cannot exist in this world and it is eternal. We will never know forms fully as we are imperfect. Forms give us knowledge and allow us to have some understanding of the truth. Although, we know that we do not know them fully as we can form our own opinions on things, e.g. what is beautiful and what is not. Forms are in the Realm of the Forms, we can recognise them as this is where our soul originates from, however because they come from there and not from where we are, we do not know them fully. Also as they are perfect we cannot understand them fully. In the Realm of the Forms there are Ideals of everything we have a concept of such as Beauty, Justice, Truth, and the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good is the highest of the forms and is the foundation and essence of everything. The Form of The Good represents Plato’s idea of goodness and is what you should most want. For Plato this was eudaimonia, living a good and fulfilled life. All other forms such as beauty, justice or truth are part of eudaimonia and so part of Good. The Form of the Good is therefore the most important Form as it gives us full and true knowledge of what we should pursue. It is our ultimate goal and the source of all truth and goodness. In this way, it has influenced the development of the Christian idea of God. Plato uses the Cave Allegory to present his ideas about Forms. He does this by using symbolism, by representing the Forms as objects outside of the cave. He then represents the Form of the Good as the sun; the sun shines light onto the objects outside, allowing us to see them. The light represents knowledge and the objects represent Forms – the Sun shows us the Forms and gives us knowledge. The prisoner’s journey illustrates Plato’s concept of Ideals or Forms – they provide truth but must be pursued individually and by looking away from things that keep us ignorant.

Damages to Mammalian Neural Activity Treatment

Damages to Mammalian Neural Activity Treatment Utilizing Prokaryotic Channels, Organic Biometric Neurons and Mammalian Target of Rapamycin to Reverse and Repair Damages to Mammalian Neural activity Stephen Shay Introduction One of the most detrimental conditions that a patient can acquire is damage to the nervous system. Major damages can include vascular disorders, congenital, degenerative disorders and trauma. These damages and disorders often involve abnormal neurochemical and electrical signaling (Purves et al. 2012). There are currently many treatments available for patients suffering damage to the nervous system. These possible treatments can range from surgery, physical therapy and medications for autoimmune diseases which can help a patient adapt to or possibly provide a small fix for their individual situation but the underlying problem may still subsist. The damages caused to mammalian axons in the central nervous system (CNS) fail to regenerate or repair after injury with issues such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or demyelinating conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) leading to affected nerve fibers which will no longer work correctly as shown by Mierzwa et al. (2015). This can leave s ites of injury in patients unmanageable and without a clear path to recovery. To remedy this, a toolbox has been proposed utilizing a series of recent research. Nguyen et al. (2016) describe a method which would allow for direct enhancement of electrical excitability in human cells through the overexpression of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSC). Simon et al. (2015) developed an organic electronic biometric neuron, which has the capacity to integrate within a malfunctioning signaling pathway. Lim et al. (2016) present that through stimulating neural activity and the cell-growth-promoting pathway of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in mice which their visual neurons silenced would see RGC axons regenerated and re-innervated. Utilizing these tools; engineered prokaryotic channels to increase tissue excitability, organic electronic biomimetic neurons to mimic the function of physiological neurons and bridge the affected zone to the rest of the nervo us system, and utilizing visual neural stimulation along with activation of the mTOR pathway to stimulate axon regeneration, it opens up the possibility to reverse and repair conditions caused by damages and afflictions to the nervous system. Prokaryotic Channels Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) are fundamental to cell-to-cell communication in the nervous system, and their loss of function can lead to a variety of different disorders (e.g. neuronal, cardiac and skeletal muscular). These VGSCs, in electrically excitable tissues, allow for the firing and spread of action potentials. Ren et al. (2001) along with Koshi et al. (2003) had provided novel insight into the structure and biophysical properties of VGSCs and a large bacterial family of VGSCs called BacNav. Utilizing this bacteria Nguyen et al. (2016) established a platform to enable stable conversion of primary human fibroblasts into action potential conducting cells which can slowly recover conduction in tissues with pathological conditions. Versatility was shown as Nguyen et al. with applying this technology to human ventricular fibroblasts (HVFs), human astrocytes (Has) and HECK293s into engineered electrically excitable cells (E-HVFs, E-HAs and E-HEK293s, respectively) (Nguyen e t al.). Though this study only focused on the alteration of specific amino acid residues in BacNav, E43 and D60, a variety of possible combinations can be explored to further expand the possibilities of this approach. Organic Biometric Neurons Currently most neurological therapies are based in and rely on medication and electrical stimulation. Larsen et al. (2013) presented how a newer class of technology called iontronics, which is based on polyelectrolytes and à Ã¢â€š ¬-conjugated semiconducting polymers, can work as organic electronic electrophoretic transport devices. Iontronics exhibit a unique combination of ionic and electronic properties, enabling transduction between electronic impulses and biochemical signals. Applying this, Simon et al. (2015) presented an organic electronic biomimetic neuron or artificial neuron with the hopes it can be used to restore use to malfunctioning signaling pathways. These artificial neurons are based on the basic chemical-electrical-chemical signal transduction like projected neurons use in communication with one another hoping to find a potential for long-range neuronal signaling. Simon et al. had concluded their results offered a novel means for auto-regulated neuromodulation bas ed on endogenous substances, enabling malfunctioning neuronal signaling pathways to be restored or augmented, thus returning the damaged area to a chemically and electrically balanced healthy state. The artificial neurons also present a conversion of glutamate-induced descending neuromuscular signals into acetylcholine-mediated muscular activation signals may be obtained, applicable for bridging injured sites and active prosthetics (Simon et al.). Neural Activity Combined with Activated Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Focusing on the eye-to-brain pathway which consists of RGC connections to subcortical targets [as] a widely used model for studying vertebrate CNS regeneration (Vidal-Sanz et al. 1987) (Park et al. 2008), Lim et al. (2016) shows how that the stimulation of RGC activity leading to their axons regeneration and by looking at axon damage in the CNS they observed avenues in which they can regenerate and restore correct connectivity patterns. Lim et al. had found that enhancing neural activity and mTOR signaling in RGCs, we observed long-distance, target-specific RGC axon regeneration in adult mice showing a mechanistic combination that can lead to axon regrowth and repair. This research may prove informative for devising treatments for the damaged visual system, spinal cord or other CNS regions in patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases or physical trauma (Lim et al.). Proposed Method of Combination Therapy and its Prospect of Neuromodulation Through its Application/Discussion There are important functional implications for the anatomical regeneration of the different parts of the nervous system. Utilizing a combination of these tools that these research teams worked on, its possible to come up with a possible combination therapy to reverse or repair serious damages when it comes to the nervous system. A treatment involving these tools would be a personalized therapy requiring costume gene editing for the prokaryotic channels, specialized artificial neurons for the site of damage and while using out-patient or in-patient therapy to stimulate neural activity and enhance mTOR. If done together the possibility is open for neuronal regeneration and chemical and electric stabilization, for affected tissue and site of injury. References Koishi, R., Xu, H., Ren, D., Navarro, B., Spiller, B. W., Shi, Q., Clapham, D. E. (2003). A Superfamily of Voltage-gated Sodium Channels in Bacteria. Journal of BiologicalChemistry, 279(10), 9532-9538. doi:10.1074/jbc.m313100200 Larsson, K. C., Kjà ¤ll, P., Richter-Dahlfors, A. (2013). Organic bioelectronics for electronic-to chemical translation in modulation of neuronal signaling and machine-to-brain interfacing. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) General Subjects, 1830(9), 4334-4344. doi:10.1016/j.bbagen.2012.11.024 Lim, J. A., Stafford, B. K., Nguyen, P. L., Lien, B. V., Wang, C., Zukor, K., . . . Huberman, A. D. (2016). Neural activity promotes long-distance, target-specific regeneration of adult retinal axons. Nature Neuroscience, 19(8), 1073-1084. doi:10.1038/nn.4340 Mierzwa, A. J., Marion, C. M., Sullivan, G. M., Mcdaniel, D. P., Armstrong, R. C. (2015). Components of Myelin Damage and Repair in the Progression of White Matter Pathology After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Neuropathology Experimental Neurology, 74(3), 218-232. doi:10.1097/nen.0000000000000165 Nguyen, H. X., Kirkton, R. D., Bursac, N. (2016). Engineering prokaryotic channels for control of mammalian tissue excitability. Nature Communications, 7, 13132. doi:10.1038/ncomms13132 Park, K. K., Liu, K., Hu, Y., Smith, P. D., Wang, C., Cai, B., . . . He, Z. (2008). Promoting Axon Regeneration in the Adult CNS by Modulation of the PTEN/mTOR Pathway. Science, 322(5903), 963-966. doi:10.1126/science.116156 Purves, D. et al. (2012). Neuroscience. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Ren, D. et al. (2001). A Prokaryotic Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel. Science, 294(5550), 2372-2375. doi:10.1126/science.1065635 Simon, D. T., Larsson, K. C., Nilsson, D., Burstrà ¶m, G., Galter, D., Berggren, M., Richter-Dahlfors, A. (2015). An organic electronic biomimetic neuron enables auto regulated neuromodulation. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 71, 359-364. doi:10.1016/j.bios.2015.04.058 Vidal-Sanz, M., Bray, G.M., Villegas-Pà ©rez, M.P., Thanos, S. Aguayo, A.J. (1987). Axonal regeneration and synapse formation in the superior colliculus by retinal ganglion cells in the adult rat. J.Neurosci. 7, 2894-2909.

Graduation Speech: Act on What is Righteous :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

The world we live in is growing more distant and uncaring every day. Technology lures us in with promises of convenience and proceeds to separate us from personal attention, and the personal attention that we do get is often cold and indifferent. ATMs, Internet shopping and electronic checkout at the supermarket, all designed so that we can go through an entire day without having to face anyone. Even school research projects can be done entirely in front of a computer screen. While downloading music, checking your e-mail and instant-messaging your friends, you can find all that latest information on poverty, starvation and worldwide- epidemics. Every time we come together as a class we defy this new trend, and we have flourished in our adversity of it. A wealth of humanity, we share our ideas, our stories, our hopes and our dreams. We make lasting friendships and we clash in heated disagreements. We learn to listen to one another, building on our understanding of literature and history through others' observations and reactions. Why is it that we always start talking when the teacher turns their back? Why is it that we stay out in the hall chatting with one another until the second that - or a few minutes after - the bell rang? Why do we all know the story line to Dawson's Creek, even though only a few of us watched it? Why is it that Ms. Callaghan congratulated our class on keeping up lively discussion and a high energy up to the very last days of the school year? We crave contact, we crave each other's company, because more and more it is being taken away by what is convenient. All of us have helped each other evolve by taking part in human experience, sharing our differences. We have state-bound athletes and we have state-bound mathletes. We have Nate- squared, el Presidente and a human Swan. Our class has individuals who have already devoted themselves to a profession: kindergarten teachers, doctors, veterinarians, and in our Salutatorian's case: a door-to-door salesman. Because we are so diverse and because we love sharing this diversity, we have become strong. Soon many of us will be taking part in the formation of new classes. Despite what your parents may have said, the most important thing you will do at college will not be hitting the books or acing a test. It will be strengthening your personality - your individuality - through new friendships, new disagreements, new environments and new experiences.

The Consumer And The Gimmick :: essays research papers

The Consumer and the Gimmick Today there are many factors that hurt the music industry. One factor involves the way we push musicians into allowing the industry to popularize one good song thus forgetting the rest of the album.   We the consumers have somehow been satisfied with just one good song from one mediocre band.   Perhaps there is a simple formula for disaster.   First the song is played on the radio and then the video is constantly on MTV, thus causing us to get tired of the music.   It's as easy as that! We sit and whine about not hearing enough from our favorite band, but once they come out with new music we smother ourselves in it. We then get sick of it and are left looking for something new to fulfill our cravings. This is when we, the monster consumers of music, decide to take our interest to the next hit song. It's not all our fault. You have to put at least some blame on the bands themselves. They feel that it is part of their job to indulge our wants.   We as lovers of what these songwriters do are appalled and disgusted by hearing anything but the best from our favorite bands.   Once we have what we want it's not long before we want more.   This is because we consume the musicians' talents like a fast food happy meal.   We open the box, take out the toy, throw away the contents, and then bitch about being hungry.   When we do this we always say, "It's a cool song, but they are a one hit wonder."   We the hungry consumer do not give the bands a chance to show their true musical talents. One example involves the group Verve Pipe and their hit song "The Freshman." This songs LP was out in December. No one noticed it until halfway through the month of March.   "The Freshman" was played every thirty minutes on the radio and fifteen times a day on MTV. This in my opinion results in the complete overplay of one bands hit song.   Now we consider them a "One hit wonder."   The Verve Pipe has more good music, but who is to say that anyone will ever hear it? Another thing that hurts the industry is the reliance on gimmicks. Finding  Ã‚   talent in a band that relies on gimmicks is as easy as lifting a three-hundred pound man above you head.   Sure for some it is easy, but for others it's damn near impossible.   A few bands that rely on gimmicks are Marilyn Manson and basically any rapper you can think of off the top of your head.

Closer to a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis Essays -- Proteasomes Cystic Fibr

Overcoming Proteasomes: One Step Closer to a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis Take a deep breath and consider how easy it was to do so. Now picture struggling and gasping for air everyday; normal, easy tasks to the average person prove to be quite challenging to a patient of cystic fibrosis. Scientists have always been daunted by this fatal genetic disease that affects the body by excreting a â€Å"thick mucus† in the lungs, making breathing difficult and blocking the â€Å"ducts† leading from the pancreas, causing â€Å"poor digestion of food† (1). Until recently, there was nothing that scientists could do to provide a long-term cure, but even though scientists cannot cure patients one hundred percent, they can increase their life expectancy. Despite having discovered the cystic fibrosis gene’s location in 1989, numerous underlying obstacles prevent complete success (2). The primary obstacle that prevents scientists from making gene therapy an effective cure is the placement of the healthy genes into long-term cells, the cells that remain long enough to be replicated. The replacement of the healthy gene into long-term cells is necessary because these cells make the new cells, thereby distributing the healthy DNA throughout the body. The properly functioning gene is attached to a vector or â€Å"carrying molecule† that will transport â€Å"the therapeutic gene to the patient’s target cells† (2). Currently, the most common vector is a virus because it can easily capture the gene and deliver it into the cell; the virus infiltrates the corrupt cells and places the healthy gene into the nucleus which then transforms the corrupt cell into one which operates properly (2). The only difficulty is that the body’s natural immune system provides many b... ...t-education/tips/ccysfibr.html>. 2. Institute NHGR. Gene Therapy [Internet]. 2007 [2007 September 18]; Available from . 3. Stefano Ferrari DMG, Eric WFW Alton. Barriers to and new approaches for gene therapy and gene delivery in cystic fibrosis. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 2002;64: 1373-1393. 4. J Kim C-PC, KG Rice. The proteasome metabolizes peptide-mediated nonviral gene delivery systems. Gene Therapy 2006; 12: 1681-1690. 5. Neil Campbell, and Lawrence Mitchell (1999). Biology. New York, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 6. Institute NHGR. Learning About Cystic Fibrosis [Internet]. 2007 [2007 September 18]; Available from: . 7. U Griesenbach DG, and EWFW alton. Gene therapy progress and prospects: cystic fibrosis. Gene Therapy 2007; 13: 1071-1077.

Show Choir

Show Choir Learning Design Information Project Title: Show Choir Developer(s): Amy Hanson Development Date: 06/15/1998 Revised By: Amy Hanson Revision Date: 10/19/1998 Organization: Shawano-Gresham School District Department: music Instructional Area: Music & Arts Instructional Level: 6-8 Total Credits: 0 Target Population 6th-8th grade students Course Description Show Choir is an elective class that integrates choreography into the choral experience. A varied repertoire of 2 and 3 part music is memorized, choreographed and then performed in a concert setting.Vocal technique, developing the ensemble and dance are the main emphasis of this class. Various public performances are presented by this group. Target Exit Learning Outcomes Core Abilities 1 Make informed choices based on global connections due to the interdependence of the world o learner recognizes cultural differences in order to promote understanding for a cooperative work and social environment o learner demonstrates aware ness of current world events o learner describes political, economic and social systems different from one's own o learner demonstrates geographical literacy learner recognizes difference in world measurements 2 Utilize informational resources for life-long learning o learner augments and values learning o learner is open to new ideas o learner has avocational interests o learner understands the need for ongoing education o learner searches for knowledge to satisfy curiosity o learner sets goals and makes plans to achieve them o learner takes risks 3 Communicate effectively through speaking and writing in all areas o learner applies the English language correctly (spelling, grammar, structure) o learner writes so others can understand learner speaks so others can understand o learner gives instructions o learner expresses empathy o learner checks for accuracy o learner writes legibly o learner applies effective listening o learner uses acceptable language o learner provides necessar y detail o learner describes problems accurately o learner understands the impact of nonverbal communication 4 Use problem solving skills in real world situations o learner identifies the problem learner clarifies purposes and goals o learner identifies solutions to a problem and their impact o learner employs reasoning skills o learner evaluates options o learner sets priorities o learner selects and implements a solution to a problem o learner evaluates results of implemented option o learner organizes workloads 5 Practice citizenship skills based on democratic principles o learner accepts responsibility of membership in society o learner knows the ole and impact of social and organizational systems and operates effectively with them o learner performs community service o learner assumes leadership or supporting roles as appropriate o learner practices behaviors that promote the basic values of our democracy o learner is informed about current issues o learner respects the rights of others o learner understands political and economic global interdependence o learner practices environmental stewardship o learner participates in the political process Appreciate past and present cultures and the impact of those groups on individuals and society o learner describes the importance and influence of cultural diversity and equity on educational planning and transition from school to work o learner validates the importance of cultural diversity and equity by behaviorally demonstrating respect for diversity and equity in school, work, and community environments o learner analyzes the historic effect of cultures, including inequities and biases Performance Expectations Goals 1.Sing alone and with others a varied repertoire of 2 and 3 part music 2. Develop individual vocal technique, ensemble skills and dance 3. Demonstrate creativity in music 4. Demonstrate music literacy 5. Create a knowledge of musical theatre 6. Cultivate relationships between music and other discip lines 7. Promote community involvement through performance 8. Investigate musical careers and life applications 1. Develop a repertoire of 2 and 3 part vocal music Properties Domain: Cognitive Level: Synthesis Difficulty: Low Importance: Essential Linked Core AbilitiesMake informed choices based on global connections due to the interdependence of the world Utilize informational resources for life-long learning Communicate effectively through speaking and writing in all areas Criteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner sings a variety of 2 and 3 part songs Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o teacher observation o concert performances Learning Objectives a. Distinguish between 2 and 3 parts Procedure b. Sing both melody and harmony parts Procedure c.Sing music representing diverse cultures and genres of music Process 2. Enhance individual vocal development Properties Domain: Cognitive Level: Synthesis Difficult y: Medium Importance: Essential Linked Core Abilities Utilize informational resources for life-long learning Communicate effectively through speaking and writing in all areas Use problem solving skills in real world situations Criteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner practices proper posture and breath support o learner displays ability to match pitch learner produces full, open and supported sound Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o teacher observation o student critique o solo & ensemble competition Learning Objectives a. Develop ability to sing and dance alone and in a group Procedure b. Sing accurately and with proper breath control Procedure c. Match pitch accurately Procedure d. Demonstrate correct singing posture Process e. Perform music expressively Concept f. Participate in solo and ensemble alone or in a small group Procedure 3. Sing with technical accuracy PropertiesDomain: Psychomotor Level: Pr actice Difficulty: Medium Importance: Essential Linked Core Abilities Utilize informational resources for life-long learning Communicate effectively through speaking and writing in all areas Use problem solving skills in real world situations Criteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner sings correctly alone and in their section Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o teacher observation Learning Objectives a. Match pitches accurately Procedure b. Sing accurately and with proper breath controlProcedure c. Read rhythms and pitches correctly Procedure d. Practice proper vowel production Procedure 4. Exhibit ensemble skills Properties Domain: Affective Level: Internalizing Difficulty: High Importance: Essential Linked Core Abilities Make informed choices based on global connections due to the interdependence of the world Utilize informational resources for life-long learning Communicate effectively through speaking a nd writing in all areas Use problem solving skills in real world situations Practice citizenship skills based on democratic principlesCriteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner can sing part alone and in their section Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o teacher observation Learning Objectives a. Differentiate between melody and harmony parts Procedure b. Be aware of the individual's roles within their section Principle c. Sing and dance expressively as a section and as part of an ensemble Concept d. Perform music from memory Procedure e. Evaluate musical performances of other groups Principle 5. Develop expressive qualities of musical elements PropertiesDomain: Cognitive Level: Synthesis Difficulty: High Importance: Essential Linked Core Abilities Make informed choices based on global connections due to the interdependence of the world Utilize informational resources for life-long learning Communicate effect ively through speaking and writing in all areas Use problem solving skills in real world situations Criteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner performs a piece with the correct interpretation and style of selected piece o learner displays understanding of standard musical symbols of pitch, rhythm, dynamics and articulationConditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o student critique o teacher observation Learning Objectives a. Differentiate between different styles and genres of music Process b. Demonstrate correct dynamics, phrasing and style Procedure c. Evaluate performances Principle 6. Prepare public music performances Properties Domain: Cognitive Level: Application Difficulty: Medium Importance: Essential Linked Core Abilities Practice citizenship skills based on democratic principlesCriteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner performs in a winter concert & spring concer t Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o teacher observation o student critique of performance Learning Objectives a. Perform music in a public concert Procedure b. Practice music and concert ettiquette Process c. Perform memorized music Procedure d. Evaluate performances by other groups Principle 7. Investigate other areas of the arts including musical theatre, dance and visual arts Properties Domain: Cognitive Level: ApplicationDifficulty: Low Importance: Useful Linked Core Abilities Appreciate past and present cultures and the impact of those groups on individuals and society Criteria – Criteria – Performance will be satisfactory when: o learner participates in group discussions o observes various examples of the fine arts Conditions for Assessment – Competence will be demonstrated: o written exam o teacher observation Learning Objectives a. Discuss the importance of music in the arts Concept b. Study musical theatre, dance and visual arts Procedure c. Investigate careers in musicConcept d. Compare musical works by era, composer and style Process Show Choir R&S Standards NATIONAL STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE FOR SHOW CHOIRS Original authors:   Diana R. Spradling and National R&S Jazz & Show Choir Committee Revision authors: Ken Thomas and National R&S Show Choir Committee (2006) Purpose The purpose of these standards is to provide choral directors and choral educators (choreographers, arrangers, set designers, costumers, etc. ) with a foundation upon which to build their show choirs as a viable and contributing part of a total choral program.For the beginning show choir, these standards should serve as starting points upon which to build. For the developing show choir, these standards should serve as goals to strive to attain. For the experienced show choir, these standards should serve as a measure of evaluation for the effectiveness and viability of their ensemble. Premise Recognizing the complexity of the world in which we live and particularly that of the educational system in today’s society where much of the body of choral literature is taught and performed, we create these standards believing in certain fundamental premises.Foremost, the show choir is not a replacement for a traditional choral program but an enhancement of the existing program. The show choir experience is designed to build upon the experiences of a traditional choral program, to provide opportunities for the exploration of additional literature, to expose more people to experiences in choral singing and to attract more listeners to the beauty and joy of choral music. Furthermore, it must be the essential mission of ach choral director and choral educator to maintain a level of excellence and a dedication to integrity in the stylistic performance of choral music of all types, idioms, historical periods and styles. Standards I. Singing Performing alone and with others, the members of the show choir should d emonstrate the ability to sing a varied repertoire of music from the popular culture and musical theatre genres with appropriate and healthy vocal technique, musical accuracy, technical accuracy, expression, ensemble skills and stylistic integrity. II. Movement/DancePerforming alone and with others, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the ability to add movement to their performance that compliments the music through technical accuracy, appropriate ensemble technique, expression and appropriately varied styles of dance. III. Instrumental Accompaniment When performing with instrumental accompaniment, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the ability to create a total ensemble performance integrating the skills of all the performers into a stylistic, entertaining and educational package for both audience and participants.The use of live accompaniment is strongly encouraged. Directors of the show choir should work toward this achievement. IV. Integrating Art For ms While experiencing the rigors and complex demands required in combining the individual disciplines of music, dance and theatre into a single performance medium, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the skills of the complete artistic performer. V. Interpreting Music ElementsIn reading and notating well-crafted music, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the ability to read a vocal score of varying parts appropriate to the ability level of their ensemble, describe the elements of music being used and expressively interpret the markings within the score. VI. Stylistic Awareness After listening to analyzing and rehearsing the music, the members of the show choir should demonstrate stylistic awareness in the music they perform through appropriate vocabulary, the performance of appropriate articulations and phrasing and critical evaluation.VII. Performance Practices and Evaluation By evaluating performances, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the ability to objectively review both their performances and the performances of others utilizing the accepted standards of excellence incorporated by the disciplines of music, dance and theatre along with the ensemble approach to the combination of these disciplines.The members of the show choir should recognize that performance practices in this genre do allow for more individualized interpretation than that of traditional choral literature. VIII. Creativity of the Individual As a means of encouraging the development of a variety of individual competencies, the members of the show choir should be given the opportunity to demonstrate their individual talents and abilities as solo performers, as composers and arrangers of repertoire for the ensemble, as choreographers and designers and as production leadership team members.IX. Entertainment as Art Recognizing the relationship between the three disciplines of music, dance and theatre in the performing arts, the members of the show choir should demonstrate their concept of entertainment as an art form through the elements of performance, appropriate rehearsal etiquette, continuous practice with attention to detail and respect for the contributions of others. X. History and Pop CultureUnderstanding the genre of popular music and theatrical music in relationship to history and culture, the members of the show choir should demonstrate the ability to classify repertoire or performance by style, type or historical period and explain the reasoning behind their classification as well as identify the role that this music and its performers have played in the historical and cultural development of society. DYNAMICS 1. The competition is open to  all SFC members. 2. There should only be  one (1) entry per BIG SECTOR.All big sectors should confirm their entry with the lyrics of the songs on or before  June 18, 2011. (The official list should be signed by the  SFC Cluster and Sector Couple Coordinators  to ensure tha t they are certified SFC members). Changes will be entertained until  July 2, 2011. 3. A  Show Choir  is defined as a group of people who combine choral singing with dance movements, sometimes within the context of a specific idea or story. 4. Each BIG SECTOR has an assigned genre from which they can choose their song/s for the performance. a. NORTH – Motown . WEST – Latin American c. CENTRAL –  Ã‚  Boy Band/Girl Band d. EAST – Movie Sountrack e. SOUTH – Broadway 5. Each group must be composed of at least 30 members. They can be a combination of singers, dancers and instrumentalists. Three (3) points  will be deducted for every person in deficiency of the provision. 6. Entries must also be composed of MIXED performers – brothers and sisters (there should be more than 10 brothers or sisters in the group). 7. The members of the show choir  should demonstrate the ability to sing  their chosen music. . The members of the show choir   should demonstrate the ability to add movement or choreography to their performance  that complements the music. 9. The members of the band/instrumentalists in the show choir  should demonstrate the ability to arrange, mix and play their musical score. 10. Use of props is highly encouraged to develop the visual aspect of the performance. 11. The group is  responsible for bringing their own musical instruments. 12. Lyrics should be wholesome and not sexually suggestive or vulgar.The song can be in the form of fast-paced or slow-paced pieces. 13. The song rendition or medley should not exceed five (5) minutes. There will be a one-minute grace period for entrance and another minute for the exit. 14. Costumes are highly encouraged to add up to the total performance however, it must be decent and proper for the performance. The COMPETITIONS COMMITTEE deserves the right not to allow the performance of a group due to costume technicalities. I. CRITERIA FOR JUDGING MUSICAL RENDITI ON †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5% Voice Quality  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15% Choreography  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15% Blend and Balance  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15% SHOWMANSHIP †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦30% Stage Presence  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10% Synchronization and Movements  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10% Costume/Props  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10% MESSAGE AND CONTENT †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5% TOTAL †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 100% Theme Assignments NORTH MANILA (Motown) WEST MANILA (Latin America) CENTRAL MANILA (Boy Band and Girl Band) EAST MANILA (Movie Soundtracks) SOUTH MANILA (Broadway) Color Scheme: NORTH:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   YELLOW WEST:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   RED CENTRAL:   GREEN EAST:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   BLUE SOUTH:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ORANGE

Hospitality Industry Essay

Hospitality Industry is now-a-days, one of the major industries in many countries of the world. This comprises operation of hotels, motels, resorts, guesthouses, rest houses, picnic and recreation spots etc. while industrialists, businessmen, professionals, working people and of course tourists are the principal customers. In fact in many countries, hospitality industry is the principal source of foreign exchange earning. Tourism indicates touring activities by local inhabitants and foreign visitors throughout the country. In order to develop tourism many preconditions have to be fulfilled, such as proper infrastructure, abundant, cheap and secured commuter facilities road, rail, water and air abundant, cheap and secured staying places viz. hotels, motels, resorts etc. furnished with recreational and entertainment facilities; abundant and secured tourist spots viz. historical places, beaches, parks, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, hills and hill tracts etc. and lastly a peaceful political and administrative atmosphere in the country. Hospitality industry and tourism are closely related, one cannot thrive without the development of the other. Hospitality industry cannot march forward without the foreign visitors and tourists, the local inhabitants form only a portion of the customers. Foreign exchange cannot be earned without influx of tourists and visitors from abroad. On the other hand tourism cannot thrive without first constructing the hotels, motels, resorts, guesthouses etc. So the two sectors are very closely interdependent. National infrastructure and facilities: No country can develop without necessary infrastructure viz roads, highways and bridges; sea ports and airports; rivers and coastal waters worth navigation; airways and rail roads etc. These infrastructures are essential and should adequately connect the trade-centres as well as all important spots and resorts worth visitation by tourists and the local people.

Analysis of Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† by author James Baldwin tells the tale of two brothers; one good and one evil. The narrator paints the two brothers as â€Å"light† and â€Å"dark†. The author James Baldwin writes about his relationship with his brother Sonny whom was the â€Å"dark† brother. In essence, this story is about the struggle of two black brothers growing up in Harlem. This essay incorporates the struggles that Black men and women go through on a daily basis. Though both brothers were from the ghetto, the narrator seems to have assimilated into the larger society/culture; he was a school teacher doing generally well in what we call life. Sonny on the other hand turned to drugs (heroin) to escape from the pain and suffering he endured growing up a black man in the 1950’s. â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† also tells the reader about how art and music was a huge part of Black people’s lives in Harlem. Many looked towards music for an escape; Sonny turned towards Jazz to release his pain and anguish. This story does have a Biblical theme behind it. Like the story of light and darkness in the Bible, Baldwin uses these phrases to reference the life or the characters. One critic agrees with this Biblical interpretation; author James Tackach actually wrote a criticism called â€Å"the biblical foundation of James Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. Tackach’s interpretation was based on Baldwin’s real life. He expressed that Baldwin was born in the Church and therefore knew the Bible intimately. Tackach fells as though Baldwin uses his vast knowledge of Biblical stories to help tell the tale of Sonny and his brother. In Tackachs critical analysis of â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, he writes that no other critical analysis has identified the two main biblical texts that form the foundation of Baldwin’s story; the Cain and Abel story and the story of the Prodigal Son. In accordance with Tackachs criticism, I believe that that story did have a Biblical undertone like the two stories listed above. Both stories, Cain and Abel and The Prodigal Son, have the same plot as â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†. All of these stories are brothers fighting with one another and each brother in all of three stories has the â€Å"good† and the â€Å"bad† qualities about them. Like previously stated, Sonny was the good brother; so were the Prodigal son and Cain. Tackach also talked about the â€Å"cup of trembling† which was a Biblical term that symbolizes sinners that were now redeemed. When the narrator sends Sonny a drink at the end of the story, he claims that it is like the â€Å"cup of trembling†. This is another term taken from the Bible to symbolize the relationship between the two brothers. Tackach seems to use biographical and historical criticism when breaking down the story of â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†. Like Tackachs, Michael Clark’s criticism ‘Light and Darkness in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ also uses the â€Å"light† and â€Å"darkness† to describe the story. The â€Å"light† being the ‘good’ and the â€Å"dark† being the ‘bad’ qualities. Unlike Tackachs, Clark uses these terms to refer to the emotions felt by Sonny when he was on drugs, thinking about his life or when playing his piano; his jazz music. In â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, the narrator writes â€Å"I feel like a man who’s been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside. † Clark uses the â€Å"funky hole† to describe the darkness and â€Å"the sun† to describe the light. To Clark, the whole story is about how Sonny feels and how his music portrays his emotions, his despair and finally his joy. I agree with Clark, It seems as though Sonny is always in pain or joyous. There seems to be no in between with him. Most of the time, Sonny is depressed or melancholy. He only finds real happiness in the last few sentences of the story. Sonny only expressed his joy when he is clean and playing his beloved piano. This did occur in the beginning of the story too, when Sonny moved into Isabelle’s house. Isabelle had a piano inside and Sonny seemed very happy to know this. Sonny played jazz music all the time until Isabelle and her family received a note saying that Sonny was missing school. After Sonny was scolded, he stopped playing the piano and began his journey through the darkness. He continued this until the end of the story when he finally kicked his habit. The â€Å"light† and the â€Å"darkness† analogy Clark used were perfect for this story because it captured the struggles Sonny went through, throughout the short story.

Case on Industrial Dispute Essay

Road Transport Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Corporation’), has been constituted under the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950. The respondent which is a Trade Union of the appellant-Corporation, filed an Application before the Labour Court, Dehradun under Section 11-C of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 read with Section 13A of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, praying for a declaration that the 15 persons who were appointed on contract basis as ‘drivers’ and ‘conductors’ as shown in the annexed chart, be declared as regular and substantive workmen of the Corporation. It was also prayed in the said Application that the concerned workmen be given all the benefits and facilities of regular employees. The aforesaid Application was allowed by the Labour Court, Dehradun by its order dated 19. 9. 2001. The Labour Court directed that the concerned workmen be given the minimum wages admissible to the regular employees in the pay scales of ‘drivers’ and ‘conductors’. The Labour Court also held that the said workmen are employees of the Corporation. It is not disputed that the concerned workmen were appointed on contract basis. Before the Labour Court, the Corporation had contended that Rule 2 of U. P. S. R. T. C Employees (Other than Officers) Service Regulations, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Regulations’) clearly mentions that these regulations shall not apply to employees working on contract basis. The persons working on contract basis filed Writ Petition No. 41349/1999 Kanchi Lal and others vs. U. P. S. R. T. C before the Allahabad High Court for grant of same benefits as the regular employees of the Corporation, but the said writ petition had been dismissed. However, the bjection of the Corporation was rejected by the Labour Court. It filed a writ petition thereafter before the High Court which was dismissed by the impugned judgment. It was contended in the writ petition by the appellant that the concerned workmen had not been selected in terms of the process of selection required for appointment of regular employees and hence they cannot be directed to be given minimum pay scales of regular employees. It was also contended that the Labour Court acted beyond its jurisdiction by passing the impugned order dated. In our opinion, the Labour Court could not have granted the relief it granted by the order dated 19. 9. 2001, as that could only have been granted on a regular reference under Section 4-K of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act or under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act. A perusal of the order of the Labour Court dated 19. 9. 2001 shows that it has not referred to any standing order of the appellant. On the other hand, paragraph 3 of the said order refers to Rule 2 of the 1981 Regulations which clearly provides that the Regulations do not apply to employees engaged on contract basis. In our opinion, the Labour Court cannot amend the Regulations while hearing an application under Section 11-C of the Industrial Disputes Act. As already stated above, the scope of Section 11-C is limited to decide a question arising out of an application or interpretation of a standing order and the Labour Court cannot go beyond the scope of Section 11-C of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act. For the reasons given above, the appeals are allowed. The impugned judgment of the High Court as well as the order of the Labour Court dated 19. 9. 2001 are set aside. However, it is open to the concerned workmen to raise their grievances before the concerned authority under Section 4-K of the U. P. Industrial Disputes Act or under Section 10 of Industrial Disputes Act, as the case may be, and if the State Government refers such a dispute to the Labour Court or Tribunal, we hope that the same will be decided expeditiously. No costs

First three chapters to edit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8750 words

First three chapters to edit - Essay Example The anxieties over quality, on the other hand, have necessitated the need to design online courses that meet the set minimum standards of quality and industry demands. It is on this basis that faculty-designers have emerged as critical a component in the development of online courses. Given the importance of faculty-designers, there is a need to ensure that these faculty-developers possess requisite skills and competencies that are crucial in maintaining the quality of online courses. This chapter presents the issues surrounding the skills, competencies and best practices for designing online courses. In addition to these issues, this chapter will also present the purpose of the research, research questions and hypotheses, justification and significance of the research, as well as limitations and assumptions for the research. Faculty designers try to employ the principles of instructional design that uses those tenets to design course materials. However, they are often made responsible for the creation, development, and management of online classes without any formal preparation for performing these tasks (Carliner and Driscoll, 2009). This can result in a practice where faculty-designers tend to create certain courses without possessing the basic instructional development skills and competencies in these areas. This problem is compounded since the professional and scholarly community has not yet identified the basic instructional design skills and competencies that the faculty-designers should possess before they are assigned the task of designing various courses. Such competencies and skills for faculty-designers developing online courses are embedded in instructional design theories related to the content expertise as well as their understanding of the concepts of education and instructional design (R eigeluth, 2012). These ideas are also associated with the conceptualization of how learning theories support adult learning. The rapid growth of online

Case Study Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case Study Review - Essay Example Criminal activities and drug usage have adverse effects on both the user and the citizens of a nation. A good example of the negative effects is poor judgment as evidenced in the case study of Mike. Mike is a 20-year-old. His age is sufficient indicator that the youth are most susceptible to drug abuse addiction. Involvement in such activities leads one to a jail term of a specified period. On the case of Mike, his release from prison is quickly followed by strict supervision implying he was on probation or trial periods. According to Shifter (2012), drugs and crime have a great relationship as can be identified from the case of Mike who has been involved in crime to a great extent and is also a suspect of drugs usage. The drug used by Mike is cocaine and is an expensive drug. It is worth noting that the need for drugs triggers the involvement in criminal activity (Shifter, 2012). Using the case of Mike, he uses an expensive drug meaning he needs money to acquire the drug. As a result, he is involved in a criminal activity of stealing a car. Individuals suspected to use drugs can be tested after which the result can either be positive or negative. For Mike, on running the test the probation department finds out that he was positive and that he required counseling. Unfortunately Mike’s issues were beyond drug addiction. It is worth noting, that Mike had a personality disorder. In other words, he was self-obsessed such that he had unstable emotions. As a result, he had little regard for the feeling of others. The use of drugs especially cocaine causes anxiety and irritability (Shifter, 2012). Inevitably, this makes Mike more sensitive to the comments of others. Consequently, this triggers the relationship between the people around you. For example, in the case of Mike her fiancà © did break up with him since he only cared about himself. Mike had impaired judgments that, as a result, made

Apple Case study (Strategic brand Management assignment) Essay

Apple Case study (Strategic brand Management assignment) - Essay Example At a garage in Los Altos, California, this team came up with a computer circuit board which they named Apple. Several months later they had come up with around 200 units, over and above bringing on board another partner A.C Markkula Jr. who played a big role towards creating a center of attention in the market as the experienced businessman in the team. Job succeeded in bringing user friendly computer into the market, and Apple II was released in April 1978. It made Apple an industry leader with sales shooting up to 100,000 by the end of 1980. In December the same year, it was launched as a successful IPO. D OGrady, 2009 argues that, Apple has a long history of competitive advantages, since its launch in 1980. Its desktop market was driven due to its superior software like Adobe PageMaker and peripherals like laser printers. Moreover, it has thrived in the education sector by seizing more than half the market, over and above, being one of the most profitable PC company globally. It was in a position to give its customers a complete desktop solution that included hardware, soft ware and peripherals that allowed them to work with the computer in an easier way as plugging and playing. It stood up in the market for having designed products from scratch and the use of unique chips, disk drives and monitors. Additionally, loyal customers for the Macintosh gave permission to the Apple company to sell its products at a best price. Consequently, it paid up for more research to be done, where more invention emerged in respect to the market demand. It is evident that Apple had the first usable personal computing devices. It was brought in by IBM in 1980, and by early 1990 a new standard by the name Wintel dominated the industry. Several manufactures such as Dell Computers built PCs around standard building block from Microsoft and Intel. Growth was driven by lower prices and expanding

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IS FUNDERMENTAL DISCUSS Essay

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IS FUNDERMENTAL DISCUSS - Essay Example The uncertainties brought about by globalisation and technology have reduced business performance, challenged information systems management, ‘and making the selection of new IS all the more critical’ (Raymond et al., 1995; Choe et al., 1998 as cited in Newkirk et al., 2008, p. 198). Firms have to design operational plans and structures to reduce the effects of risks and uncertainties. Managers and employees must be involved in the process of change. The activities and complexities involved in change are large and if these are implemented late, they can lead to disaster for the firm (Black & Gregersen 2002, p. 5). Effective implementation of strategic change requires a combination of several factors, like an application of values and principles along with change in the organisation’s culture. It is said that ‘culture is a barrier to change’ (Robbins 2001, p. 516). The business environment is continuously changing, and so people in the organisation hav e to change. Continuous learning and knowledge management must be introduced in organisations. Activities in strategic change involve large group meetings across many departments of the organisation, which should cooperate to craft a collective future. If large groups are involved, change can happen faster than expected as the entire organisation is involved. Plans and activities should be aligned with the overall strategy wherein everyone has to work for change. Small and large organisations can work for strategic change and the fundamental framework is to get everyone in the organisation provide talents and capabilities. (Jacobs 1997) Planning is an important factor in strategic change, and time comes with planning which is too often overlooked. A plan structure is a key to a successful change. (Newkirk et al. 2008) Definition and concept Change occurs every day for firms, but change is not all the time bad. Change can provide a window of opportunity for firms. Successful firms to day were battling the forces of change before and they emerged successful, like Microsoft, Apple, Wal-Mart, and many others (Pasmore 1994, p. 4). Business change is defined as ‘the rate of product/series obsolescence and the rate of product/services technology change’ (Miller & Friesen, 1983 as cited in Newkirk et al, 2008, p. 200). Technology and expertise help in the process of business change. There are catastrophic consequences for not meeting the challenge of change. Established companies experienced the negative impact, like Xerox, Lucent, and Kmart in the United States, and other companies in Europe and Japan. These companies assigned new managers but still failed. Only when they realised the lessons of their failures did they get things straight and they became successful. There are other thousands of managers whose careers were severely affected because of ineffective change measures. No matter how good are managers’ experiences in leading change, they m ay falter because of the many barriers to change. People resist change. Business environments are dynamic and may change anytime in the course of business. (Black & Gregersen 2002, p. 5) A principle in meeting the challenges of change is that a leader must not force to meet change right away, or he/she may encounter a strong force of resistance. Instead, the leader must have a map or a plan, conceived as mental maps, in order to be effective in battling the

A report on your own IMC for the launch of a Renault car into a Essay

A report on your own IMC for the launch of a Renault car into a country of your choice - Essay Example The total German auto market improved to 832,222 cars in the Q1 of 2014, which was an increase of 6.8%, while the registration of new passenger vehicles increased by 5.6% in the same period (autonews.com, 2013: p1). This report details the marketing communication mix design and implementation for the launch of the Renault Clio in Germany. The objective of Renault’s advertising in Germany will be to communicate a repositioning message regarding the stylishness and safety of the Renault Clio. The Renault Clio has novel designs, coupled with vibrant colours (autospeedmarket.com, 2010: p1), which other safety cars in Germany lack. Because the German market has preferences for other brands of safety cars, it will be important to effectively target the audience by generating top-of-the-mind recall for the car in the safe passenger car category. The Renault Laguna II vehicle was one of the first cars to pass the safety test, which enhanced its popularity in the German market where the consumer trends have shown a preference for safety cars (ixpos.de, 2013: p1). The Renault Clio was voted among the most trustworthy, credible, and safe cars in Europe, while also being praised for its comfort. Moreover, the Renault Clio is more novel and trendy compared to German made cars like BMW. The increase in the registration of n ew passenger cars by 5.6% in 2014, coupled with safety-status accorded to the Clio in Europe, provides an opportunity for Renault in a safety-conscious country (autotrader.co.uk, 2013: p1). Given the safety-concept trend in the German car industry, in the recent past by consumers of passenger vehicles, Renault should communicate the safety message for the Clio to build brand conviction. The company should also position its car in a way that shows its suitability for young families, which will mean targeting the young German mother aged between twenty five and thirty five years

Environmental Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental Management - Essay Example More over, the water based sports that are part of tourism activities are affected by the presence of waste. Hotels may lose clients as they move to the unpolluted areas. The waste water could be of use to the hotels if it is treated and used for sanitary purposes, thereby lowering the water expenses. On the other hand, hotels can avoid breaking government regulations regarding discharge of waste in to the environment, which may lead to legal action being taken against them. High electrical energy consumption also leads to the depletion of water resources especially where hydro-electric power is used. Other electric generation plants also have an impact on the environment, which may lead to the migration of organisms such as birds due to the emission of toxic gases. Such phenomena adversely affect the hotel and tourism industry. Hotels would on the other hand be at an advantage if they conserved energy in their operations and hotel rooms. The most important is lowering their energy costs, which translates in to reduced operation costs, hence higher profitability (Gibson et al 2003). This can be accomplished through sensitizing the staff and the visitors regarding leaving the lights off when not in use, ensuring that refrigerators and other electrical appliances are not switched on unnecessarily. The wood fuel that is used for cooking leads to the destruction of forests, which serve as an essential carbon sink. The greenhouse gases emitted from burning fuel have been a major contributor to climate change. This has adversely affected the hotel industry as water bodies dry up and land being transformed in to a desert. Wild life is becoming depleted in many countries where tourism is a major economic activity, which has led to the closure of many hotel businesses. It is therefore necessary for hotels to engage in the control of green house gases emission, no matter how little they may be contributing to

Tourism and the media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tourism and the media - Essay Example Tourism works unlike other industries in the fact that the industry depends a lot on the media for the success of the industry as a whole. The media is one of biggest drivers of tourism because the media serves the role of creating awareness about different places that are attractive for tourist to visit. The media influences tourism in a lot of ways. The role of media on tourism is a two-edge sword because the media can affect tourism in both a positive and negative way. One of the largest industries the media controls is the movie industry. A lot of movies showcase tourism spots indirectly in the plots of movies. Take for example the movie The Beach. This movie was filmed at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The movie was filmed on Thailand’s Maya Beach (Thailandlogue, 2011). After the movie was released the Maya Beach region received a huge influx of tourists due to the free promotion Maya Beach received. Movies are just one of many ways the media can influenc e tourism. There are television channels that are solely dedicated to promoting tourism worldwide. A channel that has done a great job promoting tourism is the Travel Channel. The purpose of the Travel Channel is to connect people to the power and joy of human journey that inspires, surprises, and entertain humans across the world (Travelchannel, 2011). The written press is another media channel that has lot of power and its actions influence tourism. Most national newspapers have a section dedicated to travel. The travel section of a newspaper showcases different tourism spots across the world. When people read and see pictures about different parts of the world they get motivated to save money in order to visit these places. There is valuable information in newspapers that can help tourism once they reach their destination. Information such as the current currency exchange rate and weather information can be obtained by reading a local newspaper. A lot of countries advertise thems elves through magazines. The efforts of the media play a vital role in the promotion of tourism. One of the most important aspects about tourism is that it promotes economic development. There are countries in the world such as many of the Caribbean inlands that are extremely dependent on tourism dollars to support their national economies. â€Å"Tourism is highly dependent on media reporting because the vast majority of travel decisions are made by people who have never seen the destination first hand themselves† (Un, 2007). The exposure the media can provide to a region can help generate tourism. One of the ways the media can help tourism as a whole is by teaching people about other cultures. Television programs can help people get accustomed to the idea of visiting a new location. For example the television series â€Å"Outsourced† produced by NBC showcases a cast of actors of Indian descent (Sidereel, 2011). Through the program people can learn about the culture of India which can help raise a person’s interest in visiting such a location. Another type of program that directly influences the tourism prospects of a country are documentaries. A documentary can be defined as media that presents a non-fictional story that incorporates music, pictures, video clips, emotion, camera angles, and lighting to enhance a story (Blogspot, 2007). When documentaries are used to showcase a country potential tourists get a chance to get an in-depth view a country. Documentaries

Comparative Politics Midterm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparative Politics Midterm - Essay Example The answer to this question is simple and straightforward. This is the most popular pattern of democracy, practical from the functional point of view of the government in power. In a democracy, the political party that wins the election, turns to be the powerful chair and the party/parties those are defeated turn to be chair-less powers! Elucidating this issue further Arend Lijphart writes, â€Å"The majoritarianism-consensus contrast arises from the most basic and literal definition of democracy-government by the people or, in representative democracy, government by the representative of the people—and President Abraham Lincolns famous further stipulation that democracy means government not only by but also for the people—that is government in accordance with the peoples preferences.†(1) From the technical point of view, and going the by the rule book of democracy, the issue is clear. The party in majority, rules the country and its decisions are final and legal ly binding on the people. The Consensus Model is to accommodate for the viewpoints of the other party /parties, even though they have lost the election are obliged to sit in the opposition benches. In this model, there is always room for the others. They believe, two heads are better than one. Lijphart throws more light of the functioning of such democracies and he comments, â€Å"The alternative answer to the dilemma is: as many as possible. This is the crux of the consensus model. It does not differ from the majoritartian model on accepting that majority rule is better than minority rule, but it accepts majority only as a minimum requirement: instead of being satisfied with narrow decision-making majorities, it seeks to maximize the size of these majorities.†(2) Working as per the guidelines of this model, the majority party does not believe that whatever it decides is correct; rather it is willing to believe and implement, whatever correct is there, belongs to all. The French system of

Digital Smell Technology Essay Example for Free

Digital Smell Technology Essay We all are aware about todays technology evidence, how far it resembles with our day to day life. Everything around us is changing so rampantly. Basics needs in this era of technology are not just limited to three i.e. food, shelter and clothes, people are expecting a lot than this three basic one. If you observe carefully technology mainly focused on our sense of sight and sound, you will find it more interesting and incredible. Now it’s time to add one more sense into the list and that is nose and tough. We all are very quantize with the online shopping through internet, while buying some product on the internet we can see the image of the product. This online shopping is just limited for some products like clothes, mobiles etc. But now you can buy those products which have smell like perfumes, cakes etc. Anything which you will decide to buy from its smell. Means you will be able to smell the object just sitting in front of your computer by using this digital smell technology. Now you might be thinking that how it will be possible ?. California based Dig scents Inc. has developed this technology. A small device connects through your computer or laptop via serial port and has its own driver which produces the smell related to your product in your room. The idea of this technology came from one perfume making company for the advertisement of his perfumes products. This digital smell technology can be used for the security purpose in public places like theaters or some auditorium etc for detecting the odd flavor of some explosive materials. There is USB device which need to connect to your computer via. USB device is called ismell. Which contain some chemicals to produce the all types fragrance using different combinations. For each smell there is some code for respective smell. When user click on that product link client request  the ismell device and the device recognized the coding according to that the respective smell will be escaped from the device and spread into the room.

Mergers Of Abbey National And Santander Finance Essay

Mergers Of Abbey National And Santander Finance Essay As Watson Head (2007: 310-311) explained the terms Merger and Acquisition are used interchangeably but the differences are quite noticeable. The term Merger suggests the friendly reorganisations of assets into a new organization; the two similar sized organizations will then become one entity with both sets of existing shareholders. On the other hand, Acquisition or a Takeover suggests obtaining ones companys ordinary share capital by another one. In an acquisition the one of the organizations is larger in size and financial stability and has the dominant power over the other one. The Acquisition process is lengthy and very complicated in nature. Acquisition of any particular organization can have several motives, the acquirer may want to amplify their economies of scale, market share or to attain the financial synergy through declining the companys cost of capital. All these can be classified as: Horizontal Merger and Acquisition: Involves companies at the same stage of production in the same industry. i.e.: the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft in 2010 Vertical Merger and Acquisition: This involves companies at different stage of production but within the same industry. The vertical integration can either be: Forward movement towards the production process, i.e: A furniture manufacturer merging with a retail furniture outlet. Backward movement towards securing the suppliers, i.e: A furniture manufacturer merging with a wood supplier. Conglomerate Merger and Acquisition: involves companies in unrelated business lines. i.e.: A clothing company acquiring a jewellery company. Trends in MA activity 2004 to 2010 in Europe Banking Industry: Figure 1: One in Five companies plans to go for large scale Acquisition in 2010 some industries expect to be even more active. Source: USB and BCG CEO/Senior Management MA survey- 2009 on 166 European Companies. As from the Figure:1 and Graph:1 , The MA trend in Retail and Insurance industries are in inclining nature, but we can observe an inclining trend in the Banking industry MA in Western Europe compared to the global trend. The Western Europe Banking sector MA shows a parallel movement with the global MA trend, suggesting that the Western Market is very susceptible to the overall market movement. The inclining nature of the MA in the Western Baking Sector (from mid 2005- mid 2009) suggests the upturn of the MA trend in the during the current recession crisis, the banks were making profits with the global trends in M&A; as these banks are also earning fees from their advisory and other services, such as; syndicated banking facilities to support leveraged bids. The trend also suggests the wave of cross-border MA with the movement of the global trend in order to expand the business. Graph 1: Trend in Global MA activity (2004-2010), compared to Eastern and Western Europe banking industry MA. Source: Bloomberg In the current recession years; with low interest rate, poor bond yields and high level of liquidity- the banking industry within the Western Europe is embracing the MA opportunity as many corporations have pushed back the bidding deals.  [1]   Table 1: MA trend from 1/01/2010 to 29/03/2010. Source: Bloomberg Acquirer Region Target Region Average Size (GBP million) Global Global 110.63M Global North America 174.94M Global Europe 79.60M Global Asia Pacific 65.29M Global Latin America Caribbean 331.65M Global Middle East Africa 106.65M North America North America 159.79M North America Europe 114.29M North America Asia Pacific 48.36M North America Latin America Caribbean 47.84M North America Middle East Africa 17.54M Europe North America 546.90M Europe Europe 65.42M Europe Asia Pacific 636.53M Europe Latin America Caribbean 1.14B Europe Middle East Africa 95.87M Asia Pacific North America 128.86M Asia Pacific Europe 41.68M Asia Pacific Asia Pacific 46.56M Asia Pacific Latin America Caribbean 180.35M Asia Pacific Middle East Africa 94.18M Latin America Caribbean North America 183.26M Latin America Caribbean Europe 455.35M Latin America Caribbean Asia Pacific 73.86M Latin America Caribbean Latin America Caribbean 506.03M Latin America Caribbean Middle East Africa 11.21M Middle East Africa North America 10.50M Middle East Africa Europe 485.98M Middle East Africa Asia Pacific 21.17M Middle East Africa Latin America Caribbean 7.62M Middle East Africa Middle East Africa 134.77M From the table above, the MA trend is inclining more towards emerging markets as the target regions; although, emerging markets are also opting for MA activities in the same or different emerging markets to expand the business. An Acquisition CASE: Abbey national PLC acquired by Banco Santander SA: Background of Abbey National PLC: The Abbey National Building Society was formed following the merger of the Abbey Road Building Society and the National Building Society in 1944  [2]  . In July 1989, Abbey became a public limited company and floated on the London Stock Exchange. With 12 million customers and assets of  £ 177 billion, it is ranked the sixth largest bank in the UK by assets and the fifth largest by deposits (with a 9% share of the market). Reflecting its origins as a building society, it is the second largest mortgage provider in the UK, with an 11% share of the market. Furthermore, with 15% of the market, at the time of acquisition, it was the third largest provider of insurance protection products and has a large distribution network with more than 700 branches (EMCC, 2008). Abbey had two main business divisions, Personal Financial Services and the Portfolio Business Unit. Background of Banco Santander Central Hispano SA: Santander is a bank that has transformed itself: from being a middle player in the Spanish banking market 20 years ago, it is now a major global bank operating in Spain, Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as in Latin America. The group is currently the leading consumer bank in Europe and has over 10,500 branches globally (excluding those branches gained through the acquisition of Banco Real as a result of a deal with ABN AMRO). Santander is a technologically advanced bank, with an information technology platform that is regarded as a strong competitive advantage. Excluding Banco Real employees, the group currently employs approximately 130,000 people worldwide, of whom 50% are working in Latin America. There are also large numbers of employees working in the UK and Spain. (EMCC, 2008). Banco Santander was a small retail bank when it started its business in 1985, since then it initiated its local market growth through mergers and strategic alliances; and later implemented Low-scale cross-border expansion through strategic alliances and acquisitions. Gradually, the implementation of Large-scale cross border expansion took place. Chart 1: Banco Santander Acquisition Transaction Overview till January 2010. Source: Reuters Overview of the Acquisition: The objectivity of this particular acquisition/takeover was to diversify the business of Banco Santander PLC to mortgage and financial services; not to mention to explore the retail banking opportunities in the UK market. Therefore, the motive for this MA was to gain economies of scale through synergy and also to entering a new market in order to optimize their market share, hence; buying Abbey was a mean to enter into Europes second largest consumer financing market. In 2003 Abbey National PLC was pricey for Santander and in 2004, Abbey incurred losses from its entry into the money market and Santander decided to go ahead with the Acquisition plan in order to penetrate the UK market. Moreover, the secondary objective of this acquisition was to under-cut the local competition for Banco Santander with the hopes of obtaining higher profitability in the UK market. Moreover, Banco Santander already had the expertise in the retail banking and built a strategic alliance with the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1988. Therefore, Santander had already gathered banking knowledge and futuristic opportunities. As stated by Parada et al., (2009: 666-667) Acquiring Abbey National PLC would make Banco Santander the biggest bank in Europe and Latin America and dominating their business in the strong currencies- the Euro, US dollar and the Pound. The acquisition had boosted the companys operation in six segments: Retail Banking, Global Banking Markets, Corporate Banking, Private Banking, Group Infrastructure and Sold Life Businesses. After the acquisition Abbey National PLC became Santander UK PLC in January 2010.  [3]   Abbeys leadership position in the United Kingdoms mortgage lending market, together with its extensive branch network, represent for the shareholders of Banco Santander and of Abbey an opportunity to create value based on the application of the best business and technological practices of Banco Santander to Abbeys banking operations. Abbeys business heavily contributes to reinforce our pan-European franchise and provides the Group with a more balanced earnings stream.-(Emilio Botà ­n, Chairman of Banco Santander, July 2004).  [4]   Table 2: Overview of the Abbey National PLC acquisition. Source: Reuters As noted in Parada et al., (2009, 666-668) in 2004 Abbey was suffering from losses from entering in the whole-sale money market; therefore, Santander grabbed the opportunity to launch a friendly bid. Santander managed to overpower all the regulatory obstacles. Although the acquisition was initiated in 2004; but the tentative completion of this acquisition is expected to be at the end of 2010; given Abbey National PLC will be renamed as Santander UK PLC. Figure 2: The 3 steps of internationalization implemented by Santander in 2004. Source: Authors. Acquisition of Abbey National PLC Graph 2: The dimensions of Santander acquisition with its growth (2000 to 2004). Source: Bloomberg The graph above portrays the rising nature of Santander Share price after the Abbey acquisition at the end of year 2004. Defence Strategy implemented by Abbey National PLC: During the Acquisition offer, Abbey National PLC urged its rivals British banks to make counter-bid offer in order to push back the  £8.9 billion offer made by Banco Santander. Moreover Abbey spent out  £9 million worth of Legal documentation to its approximately 1.8 million shareholders in the hopes of bouncing off the Acquisition offer made by Banco Santander.  [5]   Valuation of the Acquisition: The asking price for the acquisition was  £10 billion and the sold price was  £8.9 billion. The terms of the Acquisition were based on the equity market capitalisation of the two companies over the three months prior to 23 July 2004. Based on the average closing market price for a Banco Santander Share on the Spanish stock market was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8.70 and the average closing mid-market price for an Abbey Share on the London Stock Exchange was  £4.69 at an exchange rate of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.5054:  £1, the terms of the represent a premium of approximately 28.4 % with a value of each Abbey Share at  £6.03 or 603 pence ( taking into account the 6 pence for dividend differential, see the financing section), and the entire issued ordinary share capital of Abbey at approximately  £8.9 billion.  [6]   Financing the Acquisition Bid: The acquisition was finance through the purchase of Abbey shares and Mixed Bid offer was initially offered to precede the acquisition; where, Santander (the largest bank in North American and Spain) offered one of its own shares and 31 pence in cash for each share of London-based Abbey shareholders.  [7]  The special dividend of 25 pence will be paid along with 6 pence (31 pence in total) worth dividend differential to compensate the Abbey National shareholders; as historically the dividend payment of Banco Santander was usually lower than Abbey National Dividend payment (Table:3). Later on, in November 2004, the acquisition was carried out through an exchange of one new Santander Share for each of Abbey share. 94.6% backing support (based on the share counting only 64.8 % shareholders agreed to the acquisition deal) was received from the Abbeys shareholders in order to proceed with the takeover. The deal was worth almost  £9 billion (or à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 13.5 billion to be exact; at the time of acquisition offer the exchange rate was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.5054 to  £1). The enlarged company would be 76%-owned by existing Santander shareholders, with the rest in the hands of Abbey shareholders.  [8]   Regulatory Framework: The acquisition took place under section 425 of UK Companies Act 1985. Moreover, Santander had to provide many paper-works and detailed plans to the European Authorities regarding the Abbey Acquisition (See Appendix, Illustration: 2). As a result of the acquisition, Abbeys remaining private shareholders became entitled to one Santander share and the shares are traded in Euros in the Madrid Stock Exchange.  [9]   Table 3: Capital Value estimated for the Abbey Shareholders, Source: http://www.vernimmen.com/ftp/sch-abbey.pdf Cultural Differences: Although, the Spanish culture and British culture vary in many ways they run business. In British Culture, organizations rely mainly on their Human Resource, whereas, Spanish Culture relies more on the technological upgrading. Abbey National PLC had about 33% back-office employees; whereas, Santander had about 6% to 10% employees as back-end personnel. Therefore, after the acquisition the employee number in Santander PLC came down to 16 thousands from 24 thousands in the UK. At the time of acquisition Santanders cost to income was 42%, whereas in UK it was on about 50% or more.  [10]   The acquisition may be affected by different tax incentives and regulations. Any change in the Spanish Banking policy will affect the Santander UK subsidiary both economically and financially. Moreover at the time of acquisition in 2004, the UK national savings rate is only 14.7% of GDP, compared with over 23% in Spain. Therefore, the spending and saving nature in the UK are very diverse than in Spain. As quoted in the Guardian (2005): Santander .. treats its Spanish shareholders to an unusually attractive range of perks, from discounted medical insurance and dental care to cut-price hams and crates of wine.  [11]  . Therefore, such treatments in the UK can be perceived as manipulative technique due to the variance in these two cultures. Performance in Share Price and Stock Market- Post Acquisition: Since Banco Santander is a Spanish bank, the shares was listed in Spanish Stock Market and the shareholders had to face exchange rate volatility since the dividend were being paid in Euros; nonetheless, the Spanish taxation issue can be quite complicated to the UK shareholders. The Abbey shareholders were given the option to sell the shares to any Spanish Organization in the UK, but Abbey shareholders who held on to their Santander shares over time have to pay tax on any dividends they get.  [12]  Banco Santander new shares after the acquisition were not admitted to the Official List or to trading on the London Stock Exchange during the post period of the acquisition.  [13]   In 2009 Santander 1.1 million new current accounts with our 25 million customers, and reported to deliver more than 30% profit in five successive years after the acquisition. Chart 2: The Overview of UK Competitors. Source: H1 09 Reports Data and BBA Abstract by HSBC Graph 3: Santander UK PLC share price performance. Source: http://www.h-l.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/s/santander-uk-plc10-38-non-cum-stlg-pre/charts The Santander UK PLC is in the second place after Lloyds Banking Group in the Mortgage market share in UK with relatively reasonable Market share in Retail Banking (Chart: 2). Moreover, The EPS of Banco Santander has been performing quite poorly after 2005, it has declined from 0.337 in 2005 to 0.27 in 2009 (See Appendix, Illustration: 3 ). The share price of Santander UK PLC has been rising from the year 2005 (Graph: 3), partly because the dividend was 15% higher than that paid in the mid of the year 2005. As of in 2006, 25% higher dividend was paid. In 2008, Banco Santander announced its agreement to take over Alliance Leicester PLC (AL). Under the terms of the agreement Banco Santander will offer one Company share for every three AL shares. The European Commission had approved Banco Santander  £1.3 billion takeover of Alliance Leicester Plc. Moreover, in year 2008, Banco Santander had agreed to buy Bradford Bingley PLC retail deposits and branch network. Santander had agreed to pay about  £400 million to acquire 2.7 million Bradford Bingley customer savings accounts containing some  £21 billion of deposits. Therefore, Santander UK PLC is still at its growth stage in the UK Market and it is focusing more on acquiring local financial institutions. Reuters reported in October 2009 that, Banco Santander SA planes to maintain its policy of paying half its net profit in dividends in 2010. Moreover, according to the Yahoo Finance (April, 2010), Banco Santander SA has higher Dividend yield of 6.80 % and global Foreign Money Centre Banks Industry has the rate at 1.96%, which suggest a favourable investment option to the potential shareholders. The Santander Group is working towards the policy of maximizing shareholders profit. Moreover, as reported in Bloomberg, Banco Santander SA is seeking to list its UK business in London Stock Exchange listing from February 2010 in order to raise funds for possible future buy-up opportunities, the listing offering may value at more than  £15 billion. Banco Santander is looking for funds to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland PLC network of 300 branches. On the other hand, Santander UK is willing to sell 25% of its stake in order to be listed in FTSE 100 and also to pay out about  £1 billion a year in dividends to construe an attractive deal to the investors (Source: The Times). Conclusion: Although, there were many speculation against the Abbey acquisition due to its cross-border nature, but all the speculations were proven wrong. Although, this particular acquisition was the most talked about topic in the UK financial market, and many believed the acquisition would not create any value for the Abbey Shareholders. With proper understanding of the local market, Banco Santander had utilized its previous acquisition knowledge when it came to this acquisition. Banco Santander knows what its UK shareholders want and trying to live up that expectation to serve their UK shareholders. Banco Santander is seeking to expand its business in the UK. Although, till date the Abbey bank transformation is still under progress, but Banco Santander had been patient with the UK market because they know- slow and steady wins the race. Bibliography: Huws, U. OKeefe, B. 2008. Managing Change in EU Cross-Border Acquisition, Case example Santander and Abbey: Expansion Enabling access to new markets. EMCC Company Network, 1-4. Mayer-Sommer, A. P. , Sweeney, S. Walker, D.A. 2005. Effect of Bank Acquisition on Shareholder Returns. Bank Accounting and Finance, 1-7, June-July. Lausberg, C. Stahl, T. 2009. Motives and Non-Economic Reasons for Bank Mergers and Acquisitions. The Icfai University Journal of Bank Management, 8(1): 1-25.