Micro Economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Micro Economy - Research Paper Example Choosing one alternative requires giving up a number of other alternatives. There is an opportunity cost involved in making choices. Opportunity cost is considered to be the most important concept in economics. It is the value of the best alternative that is given up in order to make a choice (Rittenberg and Tregarthen 2011). It is on these ideas that the theory of comparative advantage is based. A country is deemed to have a comparative advantage in producing a good if it has a low opportunity cost n producing that good. Firms as well as countries have a comparative advantage in producing one good or offering one service over another. It therefore means that since resources – labor, capital are land are scarce they need to make a choice. The production possibility curve (PPC) is a graphical representation of the different combinations of goods and or services that can be produced in an economy with the resources and technology available. It brings together the three concepts of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost. The choice of producing one good instead of another or a particular combination of goods reflects scarcity of resources, making a choice between alternative options, and highlights the concept of opportunity cost. The slope of the PPC represents the opportunity cost of giving up one good or service for another – in the case of a simple two good/service model. It is this opportunity cost that is used to determine whether a comparative advantage exists. An economy is deemed to have a comparative advantage in the production of a good or service if the opportunity cost of doing so is lower for that economy than any other. Deardorff in his article entitled The General Validity of the Law of Comparative Advantage though making the point that the law does not hold in multi-commodity world indicates that the comparative advantage determines the form that international trade exhibits (941). This proposition, Deardorff indicates

We see and understand things not as they are but as we are

We see and understand things not as they are but as we are We see and understand things not as they are but as we are. Discuss this claim in at least two ways of knowing. When the theory of knowledge teacher asked a student in the class to examine and describe a paper flower, he boldly described it as soft, weak and small. I also examined the same paper flower and came up with an understanding that the flower is small, weak and soft. This was because we both were observing the same thing. This observation leads to a hypothesis that the existence of knowledge without human minds is not possible. If in that instant of time one of us would unfold the paper flower and make a paper boat to run it on the water surface in a bucket, we both would have mentioned the differences. This assertion points out our ways of acquiring knowledge. Is it worth saying that human mind understands the world and its phenomenon according to the knowledge being saved in to it earlier. Does culture has impacts in the way humans see and understand? Do people of different religions experience the same reality? Through this essay I shall try to look at the above mentioned problems of knowing and come up with an argument that humans do see and understand things not as they (things) are but as we (humans) are. Famously quoted by N. R. Hanson Two third of what we see is behind our eyes. I myself agree with the title of the essay that I see and understand things not as they are but as I am. But why? We wouldnt have any knowledge of the outside world without our perception. For example a person from a different culture than ours would misunderstand the purpose of a finger bowl with a flower petal at a dining table and perceive it as a bowl of soup. The main issue here is that a same thing is perceived differently by different observers due to various aspects in their lives. These perceptions are often strongly influenced by our experiences and memories, religion, personality, culture and even gender. Plato defined knowledge as Justified True Belief. According to the definition, the more justification we can provide for a particular belief, the knowledge constructed from the fact will be easier to understand. Mostly the knowledge human value primarily is based on cultural backgrounds and past knowledge. For example dogs will always scare a man if he has been bitten by dog in the childhood while some people on the other hand have dogs as pets and loves them as their own children. One of the main issues of knowledge in this context would be to explore the question that states that do emotions affect the way we see and understand things? First of all, I must mention that the ways of getting knowledge from emotions are facial expressions, tone of voice or tears. For example if I drag literature into the essay and take a look at the Slumdog Millionaire. There comes a point in the story when the character Jamal witnesses his girlfriend getting rapped. Jamal finds this act of violence more hurtful to himself instead of finding it hurting to his friend. Jamal sees himself as the victim because of the pain he is getting just by hearing the voices and runs from the scene. But in reality his refusal to help his friend makes him as accused of the crime as the perpetrator. The point of interest in this example is that Jamal saw the situation through his mind and his emotions did not let him see the actual reality. So he saw the whole situation as he was, not as the reali ty was. Another example in this context could be a student who is very intelligent but is held down in the class because he is deemed to be selfish. In his point of view he is strong and independent and has great integrity that is why he never bows to altruism. But other students criticize him because of this attitude. Sacrifice of self is highly appreciated in some cultures but in others self reliance is honored the most. This also points me back to the question of the essay and concludes that culture plays a significant role in what we see and how we perceive it. Religion also plays a part in the perception of people. For example Muslims are not allowed to eat pork and they have religious justifications to prove their belief but for the rest of the world it is quite normal to eat pork and they serve it both at their national and holy events. Therefore a same event in time and space cannot be perceived by same point of view by particular group of people. These three examples led me to concl ude that perception is so strongly influenced by emotions, culture and religion that people see the reality as they are not as the reality is. Sometimes one comes across knowledge that seems authentic but that is not true. I will quote the 4th century BCconcept that the earth is flat. Lack of equipment and modern technology lead ancient scientists to claim this hypothesis. The scientists justified this hypothesis by saying that if earth was not flat; rather sphere then the things on the curved surface of the earth would slide and fall down. Moreover they also justified that the earth appears to be flat even viewed from a high altitude. Since their conclusion (justifications) made sense to the people of that era, so they considered this knowledge valuable. But with the passage of time, scientists realized that earth is spherical instead of flat. They justified this belief by showing the fact that if earth was flat then all the bodies in the sky should be visible at the same time for all parts of the surface. Also when a ship disappears in the horizon justifies that the earth is sphere. These justifications were not enough fo r old believers of flat earth. Advancement in science and technology made humans land on moon. When astronauts showed pictures of earth taken from the surface of moon, people started believing the new knowledge. Pictures served as proof for the belief. Even in the presence of these strong reasoning some old religious scientists deny the fact and are still proving their old knowledge. They believe that in such cases pictures can serve as propaganda. Knowledge based on photographs could be biased or subjective. Thus this example shows that the knowledge that people value the most is the one with their own concrete justifications based on the circumstances or the previous knowledge. But how can we know what could be close to reality? Photographs are a ladder to reach knowledge, they dont serve knowledge. They can be manipulated for various purposes as in this example; photographs taken from moon can be a source of propaganda for the country first reached at moon. There also exists knowledge that has similar outcomes yet people do not agree with it. I will take ghosts as example. Spiritual scholars have played a key role in showing existence of ghosts. They showed religious references, pictures, videos and people who can approve their existence but majority of the people do not believe this because they are not able to show their justification to the rest of the world. If I consider myself, I personally believe in ghosts because my religion has strong justifications for that. But those justifications are very weak for the non believers. So when I see a person screaming at night or walking in sleep I consider it as influence of some ghost because this is what my religion and culture taught me. On the other hand modern science has showed evidence to many sicknesses in which a sleeping person might walk and even go to graveyard to remember the dead ones. So a doctor will see this situation completely differently than anyone from old South Asian s ociety. This is also an example of different perception of the same event. The whole discussion in this essay leads me to conclude than more the justifications, more reliable the belief is. But sometimes even justifications and proofs fail to convince people. Forexample we see a toothpick is embedded in chocolate dipped strawberries. A person with good socio economic background knows the purpose of this toothpick that is lifting the strawberry without getting hands dirty. On the other hand a person with less social status might see the toothpick as a cleaning tool that is used right after one has eaten the strawberries. So this whole discussion can be concluded by saying that knowledge that is most valuable depends on person to person. The knowledge that satisfies ones belief, emotions and actions is valued to him. Thus for him that particular knowledge is most valuable. But if we think logically, then there is no doubt that strong justifications (as in science) make the argument more valuable. As said by David Hume (1711-76) Reason is always and everywhere the slave of the passions

Journey into Self in Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite and Nancy Springer’s L

Journey into Self in Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite and Nancy Springer’s Larque on the Wing   Ã‚  Ã‚   Let your soul roam free. Discover your true self.   Play with your inner child.   Share the memories of your ancestors.   Understand your parents.  Ã‚   Have total self control. Open yourself up and peer inside.   These are accomplishments most humans will never achieve, but Nicola Griffith’s Marghe from her novel Ammonite and Nancy Springer’s Larque from her novel Larque on the Wing are able to do all of these things and more. They are accomplished not simply through careful, quiet reflection, but from action, adventure and danger which drive them to the point at which they must adapt and grow or lose themselves forever.   Both women are fully grown at the time of their respective adventures, both have struggled through puberty and young adulthood, and have already â€Å"come of age† in so many words,   and both are strong individuals who seem relatively happy with their work and their lives.   However, because of the conflicts they are thrown into, they receive the chance to understand themselves more fully.   Marghe and Larque’s adventures and misadventures open up possibilities for them to look deep within themselves and discover who they truly are-to remember their pasts, gain insights into their personalities, and to fully realize their potential as human beings.   All of these things combine to paint exciting stories which give the reader greater insight into the human mind and a chance to explore gender roles in ways unavailable to us in our day to day life.   Ã‚  Ã‚   For Marghe, her stay on Jeep was supposed to be short, a trip to study the people and their society, but once she realized that she would be spending the rest of her life there, sh... ...natural and healthy.   Both authors have presented a view of gender in which having specific â€Å"male,† or â€Å"female† qualities is unimportant, and what matters is exploring all of your potentially human qualities.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Marghe and Larque unexpectedly embark on quests to learn more about themselves, and what they discover is more than they had ever thought possible.   They connect with their pasts, discover hidden desires, and gain insights and abilities which cause them to grow exponentially.   They discover who they truly are.   Truth with a capital â€Å"T.†Ã‚  Ã‚   As Lark proclaims near the end of the novel as she battles her mother in a battle of the wills heightened by their psychokinetic powers, â€Å"I am ME!†Ã‚  Ã‚   (Springer, 1994)    Works Cited Griffith, Nicola. Ammonite. Toronto: Ballantine Books, 1992. Springer, Nancy.   Larque on the Wing. New York: Avon Book, 1994.

Enron collapse A look back Essay

               Enron was formed as a result of merging with another company and it became a successful corporate. The joy of the business owners is to see how it grows fast and to attract more investors. There are rules and regulation that governs the corporate financial report that is open for inspection by potential investors (Folger, 2011). The audit of these financial reports should disclose the accurate financial state of the company and this should be made known to the stakeholders of the company. The stakeholders of a company play an important role in progress of the business and the going concern of the company (Sterling, 2002). The company of Enron did not manage its debts and therefore looked for means of hiding the truth from its stakeholders so as to continue making profit.                The aim of a business is to make profit and be able to pay the debts of the creditors and also attract investors who are interested in the business. Most investor relay on the financial statement to determine whether to invest or not to invest (Folger, 2011). The Enron Company was a big company that was famous and successful before its fall. The corporate attracted many investors since they financial report showed how the business was growing at high rate (Bauer, 2009). However the corporate management did not disclose the true and fair view of the financial reports. The financial report of a company should not mislead the shareholders or its members.                Moreover, in the Enron scandal there were some cases in which it showed misconduct of its financial reporting since the corporate did not display true and fair financial accountings to its stakeholders. The corporate used financial fabrication and mark- market accounting to hide its actual debts and real financial situation (Folger, 2011). These reports made the investor believe that the corporate was making profit while it was making losses in real sense. It is also a form of fraud to stakeholders since it cannot meet all its debts and in case of winding up majority of the investors and shareholder would suffer greatly. The Enron scandal was deemed to be great since it had huge debts to settle and its assets could not settle these debts.                Indeed, financial misconduct affects a large group of stakeholder and leaves a great mark that cannot be erased (Sterling, 2002). For example the shareholders of Enron corporate were highly affected and suffered a loss of billions that were not recovered since the corporate went bankrupt and the assets of the business were also false in existence. The investors also suffered greatly from these financial misconduct, they lost their resources. In addition, the employees suffered greatly by losing billions of pension benefits due to the misconduct of financial reports which led to the bankruptcy of the Enron therefore could no longer pay them (Folger, 2011).                The financial statement of a company is very important to the investors, it gives an over view of the stability of the business and its ability to pay debts. The Enron corporate failed to disclose true and fair view financial statements by hiding its real financial reports and the investors were misled and also due to many investments made by the company lead to its bankruptcy (Sterling, 2002). The purpose of accurate financial reports is to help the investors and also the company to know to what extent they should contract or invest in other businesses. It also helps in managing of the company’s debt thus making profit but the Enron was only interested in making a lot of profits that led to their down fall.                  Ethics are rules that govern every business and its members on how to conduct their daily roles in the company (Brady, & Dunn, 1995). In other words, the managers of this corporate owe their loyalty to its stakeholders and their interest ought to be the interest of the business (Bauer, 2009). In deontology of the Enron corporate, the management had a duty and obligations to display the true statement of finance and also to operate the business in the interest of the stakeholders and not their interest. As the leaders they ought to make sure that the going concern of the business is kept and the assets of the company are secured. In addition, the duty of the Enron managers was to disclose the true and fair view of financial reports (Bauer, 2009).                  On other hand, utilitarian is a form ethic that is used to show the positive side of the organization, for example by disclosing the false statement to stakeholders thus blinding them of the real situation (Folger, 2011). The Enron leaders used different methods to conceal the truth about its debts and faked the profits. They made the business look attractive and therefore more investors invested in the business. At the end, the ethics rules were violated and the leaders had a role to play .Enron had a role to disclose the truth which could have rescued the company (Bauer, 2009). If at the beginning, the company revealed the truth it would not have ended bankrupt and the employees would have secured their jobs. Finally, the company had a duty to disclose the true financial statements and also save the company from falling and the scandals would have been avoided. The companies should put into practice the ethics governing the corporates. Therefore, to pre vent any future happenings such as the past frauds in the company, there has been an enhanced regulation as well as oversight in the company (Folger, 2011). References Bauer, A. (2009). The Enron scandal and the Sarbanes-Oxley-Act. München: GRIN Verlag. Brady, F. N., & Dunn, C. P. (1995). Business meta-ethics: An analysis of two theories. Business Ethics Quarterly, 385-398. Folger, J. (2011). The Enron collapse: A look back. Investopedia, December 1. Retrieved October 25, 2014, at http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1211/the-enron-collapse-a-look-back.aspx Sterling, T. F. (2002). The Enron scandal. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Source document

Modern approach to teen substance abuse help and management methodologies Essay

Teen drug and alcohol abuse management is aimed at arresting adverse indulgence that lead to clinical cases. Serological evidence on sub-clinical cases of depression and alcoholism show preventive counseling is effective in managing depression and alcoholism. About 51% of teens within a random cluster of 20 males and 10 females are actively involved in alcoholism. Clinical cases are on the rise within Hispanic and Black teens. Arresting the cases within their early stages is feasible with the institution level M. Rosenbaum (2003). Teachers should identify effective means for recreational and rehabilitative timetables. Alcoholism often takes place between 3pm and 7pm are on the rise among teen students (www. samhsa. gov). Students indulge outside the school compound or homestead, or in the most neglected and limitedly visited areas. The commonly abused alcohol is beer and spirits (www. samhsa. gov). Factors leading to alcoholism need to be identified so as to limit any sub-clinical measures. This will facilitate to find a consistent approach to arrest alcoholism in its early stages. Factors such as stress, abuse, stereotyping lead to depression. Aping friends, parents or some public figures. Also, interest in alcohol, searching identity in age mates and friends and proving maturity and sexuality lead to indulgence M. Rosenbaum (2003). Socio-economic backgrounds contribute to alcoholism. Teens from poor families are less aggressive in alcoholism while those from rich families are indulgent. A sample of six middle income families and six high level income families responded to a questionnaire about if their teenage children were involved in alcoholism. Only two of the middle level parents admitted to alcoholism in their teens while out of the six respondents from the higher income family five admitted their teens were into mild and profound alcoholism (www. nida. nih. gov). Teen alcoholics admit they drink due to peer pressure, to be identified and to fit in their peer groups and avoid isolation. Others admit they are aping the movie stars, their idols and role models, having fun, self redemption, thwarting stress and problems and seeking a unique position in the society. Social integration in this age level and addressing this plight in a concerted effort is necessary in school level and beyond. On a cross cultural-community approach, more black and Hispanic teens are engaging in alcoholism. Increased exposure to wages in the low level income families has upped the level of substance abuse and alcoholism in teenagers. Teenage girl alcoholics are on the rise within the low level income families. A certain portion of this group is involved in irresponsible sexual behavior and prostitution while some are working as young prostitutes. This constant rise in alcoholism and depression is seen in the context of declining literacy in the teens. Hispanic teens collectively have made less progress in graduating from high school compared to their Black counterparts. Up to 28% Hispanic teens are dropping out in comparison to 15% Blacks. Teen alcoholics have problems in the society. The creation of a positive social interaction environment in a friendly and unrestrictive atmosphere offers the proper environment for therapy and manageable counseling. It’s aimed at improving collective social behavior so as to inspire and correct the students. The school counselor should counsel based on teaching pedagogical approaches. This instills discipline and encourages the students to share their problems. Within the recreational context the teacher should initiate recreational activities like playing chess, bridge, and other in-house games (Ken & David 2007). Through a cognitive-control system the teacher manifests self analysis, self recognition, and self help so as to regulate behavior. The student reads materials wherein the teen reads her problem and follows a set of procedures like, playing with her pet, watching an inspiring video, etc. The procedure is used in the environment created by the school teacher (above). The objective is to create competing system within the brain and make adolescents lessen brain capacity to want physical engagement with substances. The counselor has a role to comparatively review the potential of the students and assess their capacity. Authoritatively, he should embark to make impact on their socio-academic well being. The perspectives borne within this context are purported to limit clinical interventions incase of adverse depression and alcoholism. Involvement of capacity building and establishment of more positive youth groups so as to build on youths’ strengths, (through advising on developing positive mental attitude towards their abilities in education and entrepreneurship). The school counselor should as often as possible make groups which consist of most disciplined students to act as the role models. These role model groups actively integrate incorporate the students who have depression or alcoholism problems M. Rosenbaum (2003). This makes these students sociable and gradually makes them feel acceptable in these groups and most important, desists from substance abuse. The teacher should invite the community to lead in playing a role of advisors while he is the active leader. These community members and the school counselors have the obligation to present appropriate role-models and opportunities for remediation for young people growing up in the school community. The message to young adults and their peers must be that they understand the dangers of substance abuse and make appropriate choices when confronted with opportunities of drug use. A school counselor should address the teen alcohol problem through an educative perspective; He gives complete clinical views on use and abuse of substances. He should comprehensively emphasize the importance of the context through giving cases study projections on serological outcomes and clinical intervention risks and impacts on human health. This perspective scope is on teenage cases who are supposed to actively attend and play roles in the education and during the classes. The concept is to keep these teens safe from alcohol and to stop substance abuse. The school counselor should give social and drug life education to enable teenagers to make responsible decisions by providing honest information. The novelty of the advice and counseling will discourage the teens from excessive or partial indulgence. The counselor is also supposed to advise the students to understand their place in the society and their future as citizens in the educative approach (Flannery, 2007). Students tend to have various social networks where they interact. The school counselor should integrate these networks as extracurricular activities by allocating time to be with the students. According to research, drug abuse takes place mostly after school and evening hours as stated above (Bachman, Johnston & O’Malley 1990). As a school counselor it is important to be involved in participating, and listening to what students express and how they relate with their peers. In a group setting, I would encourage the students to speak freely, express their views, thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. I will intervene only while asking them why they feel or think a certain way, then offer my support. Students can have a friend or family member participate in order to improve the advice being offered. The setting should be a homely, conducive, and well equipped with communication and research tools to help these students research their problem with guidance from the school counselor. This is a very effective method and creates a backbone for the gradual and even instant ceasing of alcohol habits. According to (Rosenbaum, 2003), the after school programs form the basis of a communal approach to the problem. The students are able to understand their problem through guidance. If a student’s drug use becomes a problem, the after-school drop-in program enables her to make informal contact with a professional, even if she is not ready for formal treatment. If problems escalate, a referral to the appropriate agency can be made (Rosenbaum 2003). Conclusion Safety and correction to reduce harm and to reconstitute behavior and perception in the teens is important. The school counselor can actively and consistently provide extra attention and consideration to the teens with the problem and follow up their recovery. Counselors should encourage discussion of trauma experience among the peers and the counseling group. Over weekends, they should refer these teens with the problems to active involvement in community recovery work, church and sporting activities. Counselors should urge participation in sports and athletics and encourage resumption of regular social-recreational activities like in-house games and sport. This way the traumatized and the recovering teens will become social figures who’ll be symbolic role models and successful and responsible people in the future. Sources (Ken & David 2007), Social-economic decline due to substance abuse by teens: An intelligence approach to teen physiology through counter brain measures. Goldman Intelligence, Nairobi p1-5 Barbra Flannery, (2007) International Research Institute, Baltimore Hser, Y-I. ; Grille, C. E. ; Hubbard, R. L. ; et al (2002). An evaluation of drug treatment for adolescents in four U. S. cities: Archives of General Psychiatry; Volume 17, pp 1 M. Rosenbaum, â€Å"‘Just Say No’ Wins Few Points with Ravers,† Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan. 2001: A13. M. Rosenbaum (2003) Safety first: A reality based approach to teen’s drugs and drug education. Drug Policy Alliance www. safety1st. org (J. G. Bachman, L. D. Johnston and P. M. O’Malley 1990), â€Å"Explaining the Recent Decline in Cocaine use Among Young Adults: Further Evidence That Perceived Risks and Disapproval Lead to Reduced Drug use: Journal of Health and Human Social Behavior 31. 2 (1990): 173-184 Texas drug and rehabilitation center http://www. drugfree. org www. samhas. gov www. nida. nih. gov

Exordium - Definition and Examples

Exordium s In classical rhetoric, the introductory part of an argument in which a speaker or writer establishes credibility (ethos) and announces the subject and purpose of the discourse. Plural: exordia. Etymology: From the Latin, beginning Observations and Examples: Ancient rhetoricians gave elaborate advice for exordia, since rhetors use this first part of a discourse to establish their ethos as intelligent, reliable, and trustworthy people. Indeed, Quintilian wrote that the sole purpose of the exordium is to prepare our audience in such a way that they will be disposed to lend a ready ear to the rest of our speech (IV i 5). However, in Book II of the Rhetoric, Aristotle contended that the main purpose of the introduction was to make clear what is the end (telos) of the discourse (1515a). Other functions of introductions, according to Aristotle, include making the audience well disposed toward the rhetor and the issue and grabbing their attention.(S. Crowley and D. Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, Pearson, 2004) Analysis of the Exordium of Dr. Kings I Have a Dream Speech The exordium [paragraphs 2-5] breaks down into two parts, both of which make a similar syllogistic argument while shifting its major premise. The syllogism takes the form of (a) America consists of a promise of freedom, (b) the Negro in America still is not free, therefore, (c) America has defaulted on its promise. The major premise of the first argument is that the Emancipation Proclamation constituted a promise of freedom for Afro-Americans. The major premise of the second argument is that the American Founding as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution constituted such a promise. In both cases, King argues, the promise has not be fulfilled.Kings exordium is essentially moderate. This is necessary because he must win the attention and trust of his audience before he can make his more militant plea. Having established his ethos, King is now ready for confrontation.(Nathan W. Schlueter, One Dream or Two? Lexington Books, 2002) Exordium of John Miltons Address to His Classmates (An Academic Exercise) The noblest masters of rhetoric have left behind them in various screeds a maxim which can hardly have escaped you, my academic friends, and which says that in every type of speechdemonstrative, deliberative, or judicialthe opening should be designed to win the goodwill of the audience. On those terms only can the minds of the auditors be made responsive and the cause that the speaker has at heart be won. If this be true (andnot to disguise the truthI know that it is a principle established by the vote of the entire learned world), how unlucky I am! What a plight I am in today! In the very first words of my speech, I am afraid that I am going to say something unbecoming to a speaker, and that I shall be obliged to neglect the first and most important duty of an orator. And in fact, what good will can I expect from you when in as great an assembly as this I recognize almost every face within eyeshot as unfriendly to me? I seem to have come to play an orators part before an utterly uns ympathetic audience.(John Milton, Whether Day or Night Is the More Excellent. Prolusions, 1674. Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. by Merritt Y. Hughes. Prentice Hall, 1957) Cicero on the Exordium The exordium ought always to be accurate and judicious, replete with matter, appropriate in expression, and strictly adapted to the cause. For the commencement, constituting the introduction and recommendation of the subject, should tend immediately to mollify the hearer and conciliate his favor. . . .Every exordium ought either to have reference to the entire subject under consideration, or to form an introduction and support, or a graceful and ornamental approach to it, bearing, however, the same architectural proportion to the speech as the vestibule and avenue to the edifice and temple to which they lead. In trifling and unimportant causes, therefore, it is often better to commence with a simple statement without any preamble. . . .Let the exordium also be so connected with the succeeding parts of the discourse that it may not appear artificially attached, like the prelude of the musician, but a coherent member of the same body. It is the practice of some speakers, after having p ut forth a most elaborately finished exordium, to make such a transition to what follows, that they seem solely intent upon drawing attention to themselves.(Cicero, De Oratore, 55 BC) Pronunciation: egg-ZOR-dee-yum Also Known As: entrance, prooemium, prooimion

Essay on The Open Boat

Essay on The Open Boat Free Online Research Papers In the span of your life time, you will certainly be sure to encounter some struggle against nature. Your struggle may be as little as trying to change a tire in the middle of a rain storm or as severe as expressed in Stephen Crane’s story The Open Boat. From the beginning of time man has pondered the question as to â€Å"Why was I placed here on Earth?† We tend to see ourselves as being important, that we have to leave our mark in order for life to have some sort of meaning. In this story, four men, known simply as the captain, the oiler, the correspondent, and the cook, become stranded in the sea in a small boat. Together they are forced to bare the torments of one of Mother Nature’s toughest challenges, the open sea. In this process these four men learn much about nature and just how little they are on Earth. One of the characters, the correspondent, comes to the realization that nature is indifferent despite the struggles of the individuals, â€Å"When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (para, 174). The captain, who is seen as a symbol of strength to the other men on the boat, has doubt as to whether they can make it to shore safely, â€Å"Then the captain, in the bow, chuckled in a way that expressed humor, contempt, tragedy, all in one. â€Å"Do you think we’ve got much of a show now, boys?† (para, 25). The men in the boat are still upset with what fate has dealt them and seem to have the same opinion that they are still in control of their outcome, â€Å"If I am going to be drowned-if I am going to be drowned- if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?† (para,142). The men are in a desperate situation, but nature continues to go on as if they were not there. This unsubstantial state is evident in the story when a shark swimming next to them doesn’t even take notice of their existence (para, 169). All four men in the boat are searching for some sort of miracle to happen, but neither nature nor fate sends anything their way. All they have to comfort themselves is each other. Throughout the story the men in the boat are working together for a common purpose, to get to the shore. The correspondent remembers a verse about a soldier of the Legion dying in Algiers (para, 178), and realizes that he and the other men in the boat are like the soldier, alone and they only have each other to get through their crisis. These men must work together to form a unity amongst each other, if they are to survive what fate has given them. This comradeship is evident throughout the story by the men sharing the chore of rowing the boat, â€Å"The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat† (para, 50). When the men of the boat came to the realization that they may parish, the will to live was stronger than what nature or fate had in store for them (para, 70). At this instance is when the men seem to come together, and through their companionship, they have the ability to make it thro ugh any obstacle fate or nature puts in front of them. At the conclusion of the story, the survivors in the boat feel they understand natures language, â€Å"When it came night, the white waves paced to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the men on the shore, and they felt that they could then be interpreters.†, (para, 235). When I read this I remember a saying my grandmother use to say, â€Å"When life gives you sour lemons, make lemonade.† This is true but it would be better if shared with another. In the end, no matter what life gives you, you always have your fellow man to share your experiences. Research Papers on Essay on â€Å"The Open Boat†Mind TravelThe Spring and AutumnHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenHip-Hop is ArtCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionOpen Architechture a white paper

History of the African Slave Trade

History of the African Slave Trade Although slavery has been practiced for almost the whole of recorded history, the vast numbers involved in the African slave trade has left a legacy which cannot be ignored. Slavery in Africa Whether slavery existed within sub-Saharan African Iron Age kingdoms before the arrival of Europeans is hotly contested among African studies scholars. What is certain is that Africans were subjected to several forms of slavery over the centuries, including chattel slavery under both the imperial Muslims with the trans-Saharan slave trade and imperial Christian Europeans through the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Between 1400 and 1900, close to 20 million individuals were taken from the African continent during four sizable and mostly simultaneous slave trading operations: Trans-Saharan, Red Sea (Arab), Indian Ocean, and Trans-Atlantic. According to Canadian economic historian Nathan Nunn, by 1800 Africa’s population was half of what it would have been, had the slave trades not occurred. Nunn suggests his estimates based on shipping and census data probably represent about 80% of the total number of people stolen from their homes by the various slave operations. Four Great Slave Trading Operations in Africa Name Dates Number Countries Most Impacted Destination Trans-Saharan early 7th–1960s 3 million 13 countries: Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Chad North Africa Trans-Atlantic 1500–1850 12 million 34 countries: Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, the Congo European colonies in the Americas Indian Ocean 1650–1700 1 million 15 countries: Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar Middle East, India, Indian Ocean Islands Red Sea 1820–1880 1.5 million 7 countries: Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad Egypt and Arabian peninsula Religion and African Slavery Many of the countries who actively enslaved Africans came from states with strong religious underpinnings such as Islam and Christianity. The Quran prescribes the following approach to slavery: free men could not be enslaved, and those faithful to foreign religions could live as protected persons. However, the spread of the Islamic Empire through Africa resulted in a much harsher interpretation of the law, and people from outside the borders of the Islamic Empire were considered an acceptable source of slaves. Before the Civil War, Christianity was used to justify the institution of slavery in the American south, with most clergy in the south believing and preaching that slavery was a progressive institution designed by God to affect the Christianization of Africans.  The use of religious justifications for slavery is not confined to Africa by any means. The Dutch East India Company Africa wasnt the only continent from which slaves were captured: but its countries suffered the most devastation. In many cases, slavery appears to have been a direct outgrowth of expansionism. The great maritime explorations driven by companies such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were financed for the specific purpose of adding land to European empires. That land required a labor force far beyond the men sent on exploratory ships. People were enslaved by empires to act as servants; as agricultural, mining, and infrastructure labor; as sex slaves; and as cannon fodder for various armies. The Start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic African coast in the 1430s, they were interested in one thing: gold. However, by 1500 they had already traded 81,000 Africans to Europe, nearby Atlantic islands, and to Muslim merchants in Africa. So Tomà ©Ã‚  is considered to be a principal port in the export of slaves across the Atlantic, this is, however, only part of the story. The Triangular Trade in Slaves For two hundred years, 1440–1640, Portugal had a monopoly on the export of slaves from Africa. It is notable that they were also the last European country to abolish the institution- although, like France, it still continued to work former slaves as contract laborers, which they called libertos or engagà ©s temps. It is estimated that during the 4 1/2 centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Portugal was responsible for transporting over 4.5 million Africans (roughly 40% of the total). During the eighteenth century, however, when the slave trade accounted for the transport of a staggering 6 million Africans, Britain was the worst transgressor- responsible for almost 2.5 million. (This is a fact that is often forgotten by those who regularly cite Britains prime role in the abolition of the slave trade.) Information on how many slaves were shipped from Africa across the Atlantic to the Americas during the sixteenth century can only be estimated as very few records exist for this period. But from the seventeenth century onwards, increasingly accurate records, such as ship manifests, are available. Slaves for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were initially sourced in Senegambia and the Windward Coast. Around 1650 the trade moved to west-central Africa (the Kingdom of the Kongo and neighboring Angola). South Africa It is a popular misconception that slavery in South Africa was mild compared to that in America and the European colonies in the Far East. This is not so, and punishments meted out could be very harsh. From 1680 to 1795 an average of one slave was executed in Cape Town each month and the decaying corpses would be re-hung around town to act as a deterrent to other slaves.   Even after the abolition of the slave trade in Africa, colonial powers used forced labor- such as in King Leopolds Congo Free State (which was operated as a massive labor camp) or as libertos on the Portuguese plantations of Cape Verde or So Tomà ©. As recently as the 1910s, about half of the two million Africans who supported the various powers in World War I were forcibly coerced to do so. Impact of the Slave Trade Historian Nathan Nunn has conducted extensive research on the economic impacts of the massive loss of population during the slave trade. Prior to 1400, there were several Iron Age kingdoms in Africa that were established and growing. As the slave trade ramped up, people in those communities needed to protect themselves and began procuring weapons (iron knives, swords, and firearms) from Europeans by trading slaves. People were kidnapped first from other villages and then from their own communities. In many regions, the internal conflict caused by that led to the disintegration of kingdoms and their replacement by warlords who could not or would not establish stable states. The impacts continue to this day, and despite great indigenous strides in resistance and economic innovation, Nunn believes the scars still hinder the economic growth of countries who lost large numbers of populations to the slave trade compared to those which did not.   Selected Sources and Further Reading Campbell, Gwyn. Madagascar and the Slave Trade, 1810–1895. The Journal of African History 22.2 (1981): 203–27. Print.Du Bois, W.E.B., Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Saidiya Hartman.  The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007.Gakunzi, David. The Arab-Muslim Slave Trade: Lifting the Taboo. Jewish Political Studies Review 29.3/4 (2018): 40–42. Print.Kehinde, Michael. Trans-Saharan Slave Trade. Encyclopedia of Migration. Eds. Bean, Frank D. and Susan K. Brown. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2014. 1–4. Print.Nunn, Nathan. The Long-Term Effects of Africas Slave Trades. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123.1 (2008): 139–76. Print.Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa. The American Economic Review 101.7 (2011): 3221–52. Print.Peach, Lucinda Joy. Human Rights, Religion, and (Sexual) Slavery. The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics 20 (2000): 65–87. Print. Vink, Markus. The Worlds Oldest Trade: Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century. Journal of World History 14.2 (2003): 131–77. Print.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The System Of Trial By Jury Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The System Of Trial By Jury - Essay Example Another reason behind having trials by jury is to protect the liberty of the accused – because crime is not only a legal subject, it is also social hence, it is important to ensure that the society also renders a certain act as a crime. The advantages of jury trial are numerous. First, it injects in insensitive system an element of humanity: the abstract impersonal trials become closer to reality with the inclusion of law people who judge only on the basis of social conscience, rather than stricto-senso law. This helps in decreasing the undue influence exerted by legal professionals in the adversarial system as Britain who tend to conduct business on strictly legal terms without paying heed to the opinion of the lay majority. Secondly, trial by jury is a manifestation of the right of an accused to be judged his own peers and hence this is also an expression of his liberty. According to Devlin (1956)1 ‘trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than the wheel of constitution; it is a lamp that shows freedom lives’. Therefore, trial by jury is an inherent right of an individual that opens one path for him to ensure that he gets a fair trial. Thirdly, trial by jury is reflective of contemporary social conditions and that helps the defendant in his fair trial. Also, the secret deliberations of the jury members in the jury room after which they arrive at certain verdicts are helpful because they are free from any outside influence; any investigation or interrogation is not allowed into how jury members reached a certain verdict. This helps the jurors to decide on a suitable verdict independently free from any pressure, or remorse from any party. This also ensures that no media intervention is... The advantages of jury trial are numerous. It injects in the insensitive system an element of humanity: the abstract impersonal trials become closer to reality with the inclusion of law people who judge only on the basis of social conscience. This helps in decreasing the undue influence exerted by legal professionals in the adversarial system as Britain who tend to conduct business on strictly legal terms without paying heed to the opinion of the lay majority. Trial by jury is a manifestation of the right of an accused to be judged his own peers and hence this is also an expression of his liberty. According to Devlin ‘trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than the wheel of the constitution; it is a lamp that shows freedom lives’. Trial by jury is an inherent right of an individual that opens one path for him to ensure that he gets a fair trial. Thirdly, trial by jury is reflective of contemporary social conditions and that helps the defendant in his fair trial. Also, the secret deliberations of the jury members in the jury room after which they arrive at certain verdicts are helpful because they are free from any outside influence; any investigation or interrogation is not allowed into how jury members reached a certain verdict. This helps the jurors to decide on a suitable verdict independently free from any pressure, or remorse from any party. This also ensures that no media intervention is allowed in the jurors’ room and hence, all the jurors can decide in an impartial and fair way.

Final Exam Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Final Exam - Speech or Presentation Example the three-week training program, and then were tested again.  The dataset also includes (1) a measure of participant confidence in knowledge and (2) a certification exam score. The data are discipline-neutral. Therefore, part of your final project is to create a context for the research that is associated with your discipline or area of interest (e.g., training to assess mental health status; training to work with special education children; training to become a technician or consultant).   This work is an investigation into the impact of a training program on the knowledge base of three categories of employees. The employees are classified as professionals, paraprofessionals and non-professionals. The objective is to evaluate the impact of the training on the knowledge base of the employees in the various categories and establish whether the training had significant impact on the performance of each category. There is high consistency among all variables with the assumptions of normality. For example, the absolute skewness values are all within the range 0

Petition for extension of deferred standing Essay

Petition for extension of deferred standing - Essay Example I am deeply concerned about my grades. I had prepared a schedule and was preparing for the exams according to it, but to control my illness during the exams was beyond my control and was something completely unanticipated. I would be very grateful to the committee if it could allow me to reappear in the exam. This course is extremely important to me. This can be estimated from the fact that this is the second time I am taking this course. I take complete responsibility for the fact that I did not make the best use of my time during my previous semesters, but I was under the effect of interplay of a range of personal factors and family issues that deterred me from focusing my mind on studies. I was determined that I would take a fresh start from this semester but my unexpected illness compromised my ability to do my best in the exam. These circumstances have had a very unfavorable impact on my academic record. Considering my past circumstances and my determination to do my best, I sin cerely request the petition committee to grant me a second chance. This is evident from my past grades as well as the grade I will secure after evaluation of my performance in Econ 2400. You may have a look at the physician’s statement that accompanies this petition letter to have a proof of my illness and serious headache from 10 May 2015 till almost a week later. My physician has consented to be available on phone call should it be necessary for the school nurse to talk to him. Moved by the realization of my poor academic record and the causal factors for it most of which were beyond my control, I request you to approve my

Lawyer regulations in Saudi Arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Lawyer regulations in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example The result of those events has made it necessary for the Saudi legal market to find ways to develop the profession and promote it. One such method was to create a law that discussed professional partnerships, which included all kinds of professions, whether it was lawyers, doctors, or engineers. In an explanatory note for the laws of professional companies, 4 issued by the Bureau of Experts, the Council of Ministers stated: â€Å"the difficulties surrounding individual professionals are many.† As such, it’s better for clients to deal with a group of professionals than to find themselves in front of a team of specialists at a high level of achievement.5 However, the legal profession and lawyer’s regulations in Saudi Arabia have gone through many stages 6 until the law has evolved into in the form that we see today.7 The present Saudi Code of law practice was released under the Royal Decree No. M/38, dated 15 October, 2001, and under the Council of Ministers Resolu tion, No. ... tThe Saudi Code of Law practice, article 10, states: â€Å"a professional partnership for practicing law may be formed by two or more of the lawyers whose names are registered in the list,8 but is subject to the requirements of the professional partnerships law.† The legislature here did not refer to the company law as the law that governs the relationships between partners, but points out the law of professional partnerships. The legislature made the differences very clear by stating that â€Å"it is appropriate to subject professional firms to the provisions of the General Partnership, organized by Title II of the Companies Law, where professional firms are â€Å"civilian companies† in their nature, as working in liberal professions does not make them merchants.† Thus, the differences are obvious between civil companies and commercial companies, either in their formality or substantively standards.9 So, a law firm partnership is governed by the Law of Professio nal Partnership and not the Company Law. Thus, the next topic will be devoted to discussing the Law of Professional Partnerships in regards to the provision of professional partnerships legality. 2. The Saudi law of Professional Partnerships a. General The law of Professional Partnerships considers a partnership between lawyers to be a civil company. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss what a civil company is before covering the partnership legalitypersonality under the Saudi law of Professional Partnerships. b. What is a Civil Company? i. Terminology: The best English translation for a civil company is a â€Å"Professional Partnership.† In French it is known as â€Å"societe civile professionnelle†

The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance Essay

The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance - Essay Example Commerce introduced the artistic ideas in the Northern Europe region.Both regions used the guild system, which was based on lessons on the craft. This involved painting and sculptures. According to Earls, the guild system was a regulatory system for any artistic work (34). In this regard, every artistic presentation had to be in agreement with the Guild. This is to make sure that the artwork produced was of high quality. Essentially, this meant that the rehearsals on various forms of art had to be tireless and time-consuming. After accepting the artworks, the Guild still continued to measure the artistic practices and standards. Another similarity is that both the north and Italy had unique artistic centers in their regions.   In this regard, the Italian’s center was the Republic of Florence while the center for the North was Flanders. This was a section of the Duchy of the Burgundy. The Florence City, which was the center of art for the Italian Renaissance was controlled by the Medici family. The members of Medici family were responsible for bringing wealth to Florence. According to Nici, Cosimo de’ Medici, established a library, which was full of the Greek and Roman manuscripts (Nici 47). This legend noticeably involved Italian artists and philosophers. This group helped in the changing of Florence to a cultural center. The Italian Renaissance was focused on individualism. An example of this was ‘Masaccio’s Trinity with the virgin’, which was highly recognized with the Italian Renaissance.   The other likeness of Italy and the North was their use of religion in their artistic works. Incidentally, religious scenes were always displayed to show the love of religion. The artworks of the religious scenes from the Italian Renaissance were â€Å"the last supper† and â€Å"the creation†. The northern Europe Renaissance examples are â€Å"Adam and Eve†, and the â€Å"Mystic Lamb†. Both renaissances were sharp in their artistic works.  

Broadcasting Culture in the U.K Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Broadcasting Culture in the U.K - Dissertation Example (2) suggest, closely related to wider controversies revolving around race, class and sexuality. The methodology of this study will be that of a careful examination of what the movie audience actually sees and further, how these images/sounds influence their changing interpretation of gender roles within the film. Thus an analysis somewhat similar to the close-analysis of literary theory will occur in which what Bert States calls "the thing itself" (the film) will be considered together with its catalyzing effect upon the thoughts of the audience (States, 1). Due to the fact that this close analysis will involve a fairly detailed examination of the movies, two representative movies will be chosen for each of the decades concerned: Tarantula and Psycho from the 1950's and Fight Club and Thelma and Louise from the 1990's. While other movies will be mentioned, a discussion of just four examples in detail might seem a decidedly flimsy framework on which to hang an analysis of gender roles in film, but the depth of analysis possible by choosing just a few examples enables a firm foundation for the ideas to be laid. If an analysis descends too much into generalities it is liable to become just that, generic; films are best examined as the viscerally simple and yet overwhelmingly complex "things" that they are. A skimming over multiple films does not enable this. CHAPTER 1 1. High Heels in the Lab: A Close Look at the Portrait of Femininity in the 1950's Classic Tarantula It is possible to watch the apparently generic 1950's "monster movie" Tarantula without discerning the message that is almost subliminally contained with it that a woman can pursue a career... This dissertation reveals that different constructions of the â€Å"masculine† and the â€Å"feminine† have occurred since the beginning of Western dramatic literature in Ancient Greece, and have been continued within that most modern of art forms: film. The camera is traditionally seen as â€Å"male†, and it has a â€Å"gaze† that supposedly dwells upon the outer features of the female body while ignoring the complex human being beneath. The opposite is meant to be true of the man, who enjoys the position of having his intellect admired and his body ignored. When the camera looks at this body and the actions of the human beings within them in a problematic and more ambiguous manner, as has been shown in the four films discussed here, a more complex interpretation of human gender roles is possible. Thus Steve in Tarantula is a sexy, voluptuous woman and also a potentially brilliant scientist. The heroine of Psycho is equally feminine but takes on the â€Å"masculine†, active role of the thief trying to abscond with the money. Norman Bates controls his own world, and in fact literally â€Å"gazes† at his future victim through a peep-hole, but reveals surprisingly feminine features and neuroses. Indeed, the role of â€Å"Mother† that he takes on to murder people might be seen as the spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to subsume this feminine side. These two films, the representative of the 1950’s, were written at a time when gender roles were fairly rigidly enforced, although the stirrings of the massive changes that would occur during the 1960’s were starting to occur.

The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance Essay

The Italian Renaissance and the Northern European Renaissance - Essay Example Commerce introduced the artistic ideas in the Northern Europe region.Both regions used the guild system, which was based on lessons on the craft. This involved painting and sculptures. According to Earls, the guild system was a regulatory system for any artistic work (34). In this regard, every artistic presentation had to be in agreement with the Guild. This is to make sure that the artwork produced was of high quality. Essentially, this meant that the rehearsals on various forms of art had to be tireless and time-consuming. After accepting the artworks, the Guild still continued to measure the artistic practices and standards. Another similarity is that both the north and Italy had unique artistic centers in their regions.   In this regard, the Italian’s center was the Republic of Florence while the center for the North was Flanders. This was a section of the Duchy of the Burgundy. The Florence City, which was the center of art for the Italian Renaissance was controlled by the Medici family. The members of Medici family were responsible for bringing wealth to Florence. According to Nici, Cosimo de’ Medici, established a library, which was full of the Greek and Roman manuscripts (Nici 47). This legend noticeably involved Italian artists and philosophers. This group helped in the changing of Florence to a cultural center. The Italian Renaissance was focused on individualism. An example of this was ‘Masaccio’s Trinity with the virgin’, which was highly recognized with the Italian Renaissance.   The other likeness of Italy and the North was their use of religion in their artistic works. Incidentally, religious scenes were always displayed to show the love of religion. The artworks of the religious scenes from the Italian Renaissance were â€Å"the last supper† and â€Å"the creation†. The northern Europe Renaissance examples are â€Å"Adam and Eve†, and the â€Å"Mystic Lamb†. Both renaissances were sharp in their artistic works.  

WalMart and Target Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

WalMart and Target - Essay Example So when WalMart enters local market it meets little competition. The opposite of cheap WalMart is an "elite" or high rate Target chain. Further I will compare these two retail companies in terms of general companies' achievements, level of services and the last point - prices. Wal-Mart entered retail market in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. Through the next eight years company incorporated and went on public on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1971 Wal-Mart set sales record for retail sales - 1 billion in sales per year. Up to 1991 Wal-Mart continued expansion on the American retail market: Sam's Club philosophy was developed and first mega stores were opened. And in 1991 Wal-Mart shifted to the international retail market, starting with retail center in Mexico City. According to the official press release of Wal-Mart, it is today the largest retail sales chain in the whole world with turnover around $285.2 billion in sales. The company employs 1.6 million associates worldwide through more than 3,600 facilities in the United States and more than 1,570 units in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom. More than 138 million customers per week visit Wal-Mart stores worldwide. (http://www.walmartfacts.com/newsdesk/wal-mart-fact-sheets.aspx) As well as Wal-Mart, Target appeared on the re... In 1979 Target gained position of the Company's revenue top producer, in 1982 revenue reached - 5 billion USD. In 2000 Dayton Hudson Corporation changed its name to Target Corporation. According to Target Corporation annual report the Company had 45 billion dollars in sales. The company employs 0, 87 million associates in the United States and has 1308 trading facilities. More than 60 million customers visit Target stores weekly. (http://www.targetcorp.com/targetcorp_group/investor-relations/annual_report.jhtml) Level of Services Level of services is defined by three major factors: purchasing conditions, employees, cleanliness. When purchasing clothing and other products of the same group one has to choose style, quality, price and the like, plus the comfort and ease of shopping. On the psychological level people prefer elegance, a feel of free time and space. The service of Target permits this plus it provides the cleanliness around, which ensure satisfaction of a customer. Your comfort zone is satiated. Thus you make better purchasing decisions without that compelling urge to postponing a purchase. WalMart in-store atmosphere creates feeling of rush, it has no space for inner world of a customer. Of course prices in WaMart are lower but a customer has little time for choice as other customers are rushing trough store looking for a bargain. Even brand new WalMarts often looks dingy and dirty. Very few Target stores give off the "dirty" feel a customer has walking around a Walmart. Employees attitude to the customers are in very close dependence to the conditions created by the companies. In our situation Target employees are more friendly and attentive than in WalMart. Prices. A price comparative

The Role Of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stroke

The Role Of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stroke INTRODUCTION Stroke is a rapidly developing clinical signs of focal disturbance of cerebral function, lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause other than that of vascular origin (Aho K Harmsen 1980). Stroke is a disease of developed nation and its the third leading cause of death and long term disability all over the world with an incidence rate of 10 million per year (Sudlow and Warlow 1996). Stroke occurs at any age but it is more common in elderly between 55 to 85 years of age (Boudewejn Kollen and Gert Kwakkel 2006). Stroke is classified into two types based on the pathology and cause, Ischemic stroke, occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is decreased, leading to dysfunction of the brain tissue in that area. The ischemia results when there is Thrombosis, Embolism, Systemic hypoperfusion and venous thrombosis. Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when there is accumulation of blood anywhere within the skull vault. These hemorrhage results when there is microaneurism, arterio venous malformation and inflammatory vasculitis (Capildeo and Habermann 1977). Normal cerebral blood flow is approximately 50 to 60 ml/100g/ Minutes and varies in different parts of the brain. When there is ischemia, the cerebral auto-regulatory mechanism will compensate for the reduction in the cerebral blood flow by local vasodilatation and increase the extraction of oxygen and glucose from the blood. When the Cerebral Blood Flow is reduced to below 20 ml/100g/min, an electrical silence occurs and synaptic activity is greatly diminished in an attempt to preserve energy stored. Cerebral blood flow of less than 10ml/100g/min results in irreversible neuronal injury. These neuronal injuries occurs when there is formation of microscopic thrombi, these microscopic thrombi are triggered by ischemia induced activation of destructive vasoactive enzymes that are released by endothelium, platelets and neuronal cells. These result in the development of hypoxic ischemic neuronal injury which is primarily induced by overreaction of some neurotransmitters like glutamate and aspirate. Within an hour of hypoxic-ischemic insult there will be ischemiec penumbra where auto- regulation is ineffective. This stage of ischemia is called window of opportunity, where the neurological deficit created by ischemia can be partly or completely reversed. After this stage is a stage of neuronal death, in which the deficit is irreversible (Heros 1994). Functional restrictions resulting from stroke are paralysis of upper limb lower limb function, cognitive deficit, visual disturbances, disturbance of gait and mobility, spasticity of muscle, loss of co-ordination and speech problems. The loss of upper extremity control is common after stroke with 88% of survivors having some level of upper extremity dysfunction. Basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) skills are compromised in acute stroke, with 67% to 88% of patients demonstrating partial or complete independence (Amit Kumar Mandall 2009). Muscle weakness, or the inability to generate normal levels of force, has clinically been recognized as one of the limiting factors in the motor rehabilitation of patients with stroke. Following stroke, some patients lose independent control over select muscle groups, resulting in coupled joint movements that are often inappropriate for the desired task. These coupled movements are known as synergies and, for the upper limb flexor synergy: shoulde r flexion, adduction, internal rotation, elbow flexion, wrist flexion and finger flexion. Upper limb extensor synergy: shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger extension. The rehabilitation of upper extremity is quite challenging. Many therapeutic approaches are currently available in the rehabilitation of upper extremity function. Most commonly used treatment approaches are ROODs approach, Sensory motor approach, PNF, Brunnstroms movement therapy, Bobaths technique and neuro developmental therapy. In this Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) is widely used in the rehabilitation of upper extremity function in stroke patients. (Amit Kumar Mandall 2009). PNF is a therapeutic intervention used in rehabilitation which was originally developed to facilitate performance in patients with movement deficits. PNF exercises are based on the stretch reflex which is caused by stimulation of the Golgi tendon and muscle spindles. This stimulation results in impulses being sent to the brain, which leads to the contraction and relaxation of muscles. When a body part is injured, there is a delay in the stimulation of the muscle spindles and Golgi tendons resulting in weakness of the muscle. PNF exercises help to re-educate the motor units which are lost due to the injury. A variety of methods fall under the rubric of PNF, including the exploitation of postural reflexes, the use of gravity to facilitate movement in weak muscles, the use of eccentric contractions to facilitate agonist muscle activity, hold relax, contract relax, rhythmic stabilization, rhythmic initiation and the use of diagonal movement patterns to facilitate the activation of bi-art icular muscles (Etnyre Abraham L D, 1987; Hardy Jones, 1986 Osternig, Robertson, Troxel, Hansen, 1987). Tomasz  Wolny, Edward  Saulicz and RafaÅ‚Â  Gnat in 2009 conducted a randomized control study on the efficacy of proprioceptive neuro-muscular facilitation in rehabilitation for activities of daily living in late post-stroke patients. In this study sixty four stroke patients were recruited from the neurological rehabilitation centre Subjects for this study were recruited based on some inclusion criteria. The patients with loss of sphincter control, loss of mobility, locomotion and communication were included in this study and patients with grade 5 or 6 Repty Functional lndex scale were included in this study. After the recruitment of patients, all the 64 patients were randomly divided into two groups, group A (control group) and group B (experimental group). Group A will receive conventional treatment like strengthening, gait training etc. Group B will receive PNF based exercise. A pre and post assessment of the functional status of the stroke patients was done using R epty Functional lndex scale. The treatment will be continued for 21 days for both the groups in the neurological rehabilitation centre. . The data were analyzed using chi-square test. Chi-square was used to study associations between the treatments and changes in the criterion measurements. ANOVA was used to compare the average changes among the two groups. The result of this study showed that PNF-based rehabilitation exercise of late post-stroke patients significantly improved in their ADL functional performance and in locomotion when compared to the control group treated with conventional therapy. Kuniyoshi Shimura.A, Tatsuya Kasai. B in 2002 conducted a study on Effects of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation on the initiation of voluntary movement and motor evoked potentials in upper limb muscles activity. In this study author investigated the effect of PNF limb positions and neutral limb positions on the initiation of voluntary limb movement and motor evoked potentials in upper limb muscles. In this experimental study the patients were divided into two groups, in experimental group 1 they investigated the effectiveness of PNF by considering the effects of limb position changes on the initiation of voluntary movement in terms of electromyographic reaction times. In experimental group 2 they investigated the effectiveness of no (neutral limb position) movement by considering the effect of limb position changes on the initiation of voluntary movement with electromyographic reaction times. After signing the consent the experiment was conducted on the patients. Two upper ar m positions used in this study, a neutral position (N) and a position facilitating activity of the upper extensor muscles (PNF). The effects of these positions are observed in the EMG. The subject could passively adopt the two upper arm positions using his right (affected) arm by means of especially made arm holders. For each arm position, six blocks of 10 trials were performed. All trials of the first block and the first trial of each of the following blocks were excluded from the analysis to eliminate start-up effects. In addition, a few trials were discarded because of obvious mistakes in the recording. EMGs were recorded simultaneously from three muscles (Brachioradialis, triceps brachii and deltoid) using 3 cm diameter, bipolar, silver surface electrodes connected to an EMG-unit. The result of this study showed that the EMG discharge order differed between the two positions. PNF position improves movement efficiency of the joint by inducing changes in the sequence in which the muscles are activated. Hence PNF has an effective role in the initiation of voluntary movement and motor evoked potential in upper limb muscle activity. Pamela Duncan and Lorie Richards et al., in 1998 conducted a study on the effect of Home-Based Exercise Program for Individuals with Mild and Moderate Stroke. In this randomized controlled pilot study, 20 individuals with mild to moderate stroke who had completed acute rehabilitation program and those who were 30 to 90 days after onset of stroke were randomized to a 12-week (first 8-week will be therapist-supervised program and the next 4-week will be independent program) rehabilitation program. After signing the consent form, patients were selected based on some inclusion criteria like (1) 30 to 90 days after stroke; (2) minimal or moderately impaired sensorimotor function (3) ambulatory with supervision and/or assistive device; (4) living at home; and (5) living within 50 miles of the University. The exclusion criteria for this study are (1) a medical condition that interfered with outcome assessments or limited participation in sub maximal exercise program, (2) a Mini-Mental State score The participants for this study were selected and evaluated by a therapist based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. If the subjects agreed to participate in this study, then the basic assessment is done after getting the informed consent. The severity of the stroke were assessed using Orpington Prognostic Scale (Sue-Min Lai and Pamela W. Duncan 1998) and Fugl-Meyer Motor Score (Pamela W Duncan 1982) that includes assessment of motor function of the arm, upper extremity proprioception, coordination, balance, and 10 cognitive questions. The functional assessments are performed using Barthel Index Activities of Daily Living (Fricke and Unsworth 1997) Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and Medical Outcomes Study-36 Health Status Measurement (Colleen and John 1992). Functional assessments of balance and gait of the participants were assessed using 10-Meter Walk, 6-Minute Walk (Kosak and Smith 2005) and Berg Balance Scale (Berg, Wood-Dauphinee and Williams 1995). Upper extremity hand function was evaluated with the Jebsen Test of Hand Function.The Jebsen is a standardized assessment to measure the time taken to perform hand activities. These includes: writing a short sentence, turning over 35 cards, picking up small objects, stacking checkers, simulated eating, moving empty large cans, and moving weighted cans(Jebsen, Taylor, Trieschmann 1969). After baseline assessment the subjects were randomly assigned into two groups, experimental group and control group. In experimental groups the PNF exercise were taught to the patients on day one as an home exercise and they were asked to continue the same exercise as an home program for eight weeks with three visits to the physical therapy department every week. The exercise includes assistive and resistive exercises using Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Patterns and Theraband exercise to the major muscle groups of the upper and lower extremities. Subjects in the control group received usual care as prescribed by the physicians. The subjects of this group were assessed by the research assistant. The demographic data of both the groups were statistically compared using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. The results of this study showed that there is no difference in the pre and post exercise treatment. There is no change in the upper extremity function and the functional health status in both the experimental group as well as in control group after the treatment interventions. Ruth Dickstein, Shraga Hochman, Thomas Pillar, and Rachel Shaham in 1992 conducted a study on Stroke Rehabilitation with Three Exercise Therapy Approaches. One hundred and ninety-six hemiplegic patients were randomly selected for this study. All subjects were referred to the physical therapy department of a geriatric-rehabilitation hospital over a period of 18 months were admitted to the study. All patients had a recent cerebrovascular accident and came for a rehabilitation program after an average stay of 16 days in a general hospital. Sex distribution was equal with a mean age of 70.5 years. Thirteen physiotherapists were enrolled in the study for exercise administration and the subjects were assigned randomly to each therapist. The data were collected in a separate form, which has two parts; first part was used to collect the basic information like age, gender, side affected and location of the damaged artery. The second part was used to record the variable data. Each therapist tr eated their first five patients with conventional method, next five with PNF method and the last five with Bobath method. All patients were treated for five days a week for six weeks, and each treatment sessions were last for 30 to 45 minutes. The outcomes of each patient are measured before the treatment and every week thereafter. The functional independence is measured with Barthal index. Muscle tone of the involved extremities was checked by passive movements of the extremities with the patients in supine position. Muscle tone was graded using an ordinal scale composed of five points: a) flaccid, b) low, c) normal, d) high, and e) spastic. Ambulatory status of the patient was assessed and classified with a nominal four category scale: a) patient does not walk, b) patient walks with an assistive device and persons help, c) patient walks with an assistive device, and d) patient walks independently. The treatment was continued for 6weeks in both the groups. The data were analyzed using chi-square test. Chi-square was used to study associations between the treatments and changes in the criterion measurements. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the average changes among the three groups. The results of this study showed that there is no significant difference in the improvement of activities of daily living and in the walking ability. But there is significant difference in the improvement of muscle tone in PNF group and in Bobath group when compared to the conventional treatment group. CONCLUSION: The poor quality of the trials reviewed severely limits the conclusions that can be drawn. However, it seems that currently there is no evidence, that interventions based on the Proprioceptive Neuro-muscular Facilitation (PNF) are more effective than other approaches. One Study done by Ruth Dickstein on PNF vs. Bobath concluded that PNF exercise given in conjunction with Bobath technique are more effective in improving wrist strength and upper limb function than giving PNF alone. But the outcomes used in these studies are ordinal rating scales, which may not be sensitive enough to differentiate the effect of the two techniques. The number of subjects recruited for these studies is very less. We cannot come to conclusion on the effect of PNF in upper limb function with these less number of studies. Stroke patients may vary widely on factors such as physical impairments, speech impairments, severity of impairments, cognitive impairments, and also in the individual personality and learning styles. So, we cannot assume that this PNF technique is superior to all other techniques, because we cannot say this technique can be used in individuals with stroke and at every stage of recovery. For example one approach may be effective in initial stage of stroke, but the same approach may not be effective for chronic stroke patients. Factors such as depression, spatial awareness, cognition, comprehension and sensory loss could also have an impact on the response of a technique. In most of the studies there is no exact clinical finding about the problem, size of lesion and the site of lesion. Characteristics of the lesion may explain the variability in responsiveness to the intervention. There is no ideal timing of the interventions, whether the technique should be given in the initial stage or late stage of stroke. In this review on the effect of PNF in upper limb function in stroke, evidence on the current practice is lacking. Because of the lack of evidence on current practice it is very difficult to make a conclusion. Evidence of support and treatment used in these articles is not standard to use in todays health care practice. It is suggested that further studies comparing the effect of PNF with other approaches using sensitive, reliable outcome measures and with homogenous sample size should be done. Therefore it is important that future studies clarify the analysis and interventions used within the PNF technique to enable accurate evaluation of the study. No studies on this review assessed the efficacy and the effectiveness adequately, so further studies should be done to get an effective and optimal approach in the rehabilitation of upper limb function in stroke patients.

Why President Truman Decided to Drop Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Naga

Why President Truman Decided to Drop Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki At 02:45 August 6th 1945, the B-29 Superfortress the Enola Gay took off from the specially lengthened North Field on the Island of Tinian in the Marianas. The plane piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets was 7 tons. At 0815 hours the bomb doors of the B-29 opened and flying at approximately 32,000 ft the uranium based atom bomb code-named â€Å"Little Boy† was unleashed upon the city of Hiroshima. Over 70,000 men women and children were killed by blast alone. And over the next half century approximately another 40,000 would die from related illnesses. With this 70,000 were wounded at Hiroshima. The co-pilot of the Enola Gay could see, â€Å"smoke and fires creeping up the side of the mountain†. Then again on August 9th a second holocaust was unleashed on Nagasaki. â€Å"†¦a giant ball of fire rose as though from the bowels and a giant pillar of purple fire†¦shooting skyward and with enormous speed† The effects of the bomb here were much less spectacular than at Hiroshima. There were only 80,000 initial casualties of which 40,000 were dead. Japan surrendered to the allied forces on August 14th, 1945. Emperor Hirohito made the announcement to a stunned nation, â€Å"I can not endure the thought of letting my people suffer any longer. A continuation of the war would bring death to tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of persons, the whole nation would be reduced to ashes†. Who had ordered this barbaric act, and for what purpose? To find the answer we examine the military situation surrounding the final stages of the war on Japan, Americas diplomatic rivalry with Russia, the need to app... ...ium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The USSR still held onto large areas of Eastern Europe and forced communism onto the held territories. The bombing showed the Russians what incredible power the new weapon had. If the USSR were to keep up the balance with America then they too must have one. This set the scene for the nuclear arms race between the US and the USSR, it was democracy against communism, an â€Å"iron curtain† descended across Europe and already the Cold War had begun. If the Cold War prevented a more conventional war between the two superpowers then the fact that they both had weapons of mass destruction acted as each others deterrent. And so if this is the case then the use of the bomb although unknown at the time has been justified, as it is the only time that a weapon of its kind has ever been used in anger.

Restoring the Balance :: Psychology Psychological Freud Essays

"Restoring the Balance" World War I was a war of new technology. There were machine guns, gas bombs, and trenches. Because of this new technology, World War I was also a war filled with atrocities. The men fighting in the war experienced horrors that no human being should have ever experienced. The novel Regeneration by Pat Barker addresses the question of how these soldiers were supposed to recover from these horrors. For Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, there was only one answer -- psychology. On page 29, a patient of Rivers' named Anderson tells Rivers, "That's what you Freudian Johnnies are on about all the time, isn't it? Nudity, snakes, corsets." Freudian therapy is also alluded to on pages 31 and 46, although Freudian methods of analyzing dreams, recognizing symbols, and understanding the unconscious are constants. Rivers helps to bring the traumatized soldiers back to a reality where they can accept life and the duties that they must fulfill through the use of a psychology which draws upon Freud's theories. The a ppearance of Freudian psychology in Regeneration helps to acknowledge the frailty of the human mind, body, and soul. Rivers' use of psychology is a way to restore the delicate balance of life, giving renewal to a life thought hopeless by its possessor. Sigmund Freud's life work as a psychologist and psychoanalyst has been very influential. Sigmund Freud (1856-1931) attended college in Vienna where he started writing his many treatises and theories on the psychoanalytical approach. In 1881, Freud got his doctor's degree in medicine. From 1885-86, Freud spent time studying the effects of hypnosis and studied hysteria. From 1900 to 1916, Freud wrote many of his most famous works, such as The Interpretation of Dreams, and gave many lectures. Of all his works and theories, Freud is most known for his theories on the unconscious and for the importance he puts on sex (Thornton). With the start of World War I, Freud began studying several patients suffering from hysteria and shell-shock. He died of cancer in England in 1931. Freud studied and wrote several theories on neurosis and the use of psycho-analysis as a form of therapy. Freud said that there were several forms in which neurosis appears, including repression, regression, and fixation. Freud felt that in order "to effect a cure, he must facilitate the patient himself to become conscious of unresolved conflicts buried in the deep recesses of the unconscious mind, and to confront and engage with them directly" (Thornton).

Principles of diversity, equality and inclusion Essay

1. Understand the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion 1.1 Define what is meant by: †¢ diversityIndividual differences. Includes many factors, eg. race, gender, religious and political belief, abilities and disabilities, age and culture †¢ equalityInstilling a balance of fairness and status to all individuals †¢ inclusionaccommodating every individual to be part of a situation †¢ discriminationthe treatment of a person due to prejudice of their individual differences see more:legislation and codes of practice relating to diversity 1.2 Describe how direct or indirect discrimination may occur in the work setting Direct discrimination may be only including a particular group of people who the carer considers appropriate by their personal opinion. Direct discrimination may occur therefore due to a carers personal belief or opinion which should not be relevant whilst working in a care environment. Indirect discrimination is the assumption that the carer knows about a person without obtaining relevant information. This may occur if the carers assumes the individual is unable to take part in an activity by their own assumption rather than by any particular knowledge 1.3 Explain how practices that support diversity, equality and inclusion reduce the likelihood of discrimination If practices are in place to help carers have a better understanding of diversity, inclusion and equality, such as training and employment of diverse individuals, discrimination will naturally be reduced. If carers are enabled to get to know the diverse backgrounds, and gain a better understanding, stereotyping should be reduced 2. Know how to work in an inclusive way 2.1 List key legislation and codes of practice relating to diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination in adult social care settings The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people Care Quality Commission compliance regulations Policies and procedures within the workplace 2.2 Describe how to interact with individuals in an inclusive way By getting to know the individual’s background you will be better equipped to encourage inclusion. They should feel comfortable in the environment to feel properly included. This may include treating them equally, without authority, listening and speaking with consideration and sincerity. The person should be encouraged to behave naturally in a way that is comfortable to them and does not challenge the individual to change themselves to fit into your own ideologies. 2.3 Describe ways in which discrimination may be challenged in adult social care settings Discrimination can be challenged by not tolerating and taking immediate action if it occurs. All individuals should be encouraged to challenge discrimination in a fair and calm way, this should be led by respect and consideration of others. When discrimination occurs, incidents should be reported and recorded. By making all staff, carers, service users and their carers/families aware of the discrimination policies and procedures, discrimination can be dealt with more swiftly and effectively. When carers are properly trained, they will have a better understanding of discrimination and be in a position to act positively to prevent and challenge the incident. 3. Know how to access information, advice and support about diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination 3.1 Identify sources of information, advice and support about diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination The workplace would be my first point of call for information. I would look to our handbooks, policies and procedures guidelines as well as management. I could also source information from government agencies and online support, and the Care Quality Commission for further information and support. Further still I could consider obtaining advice from related charities, organisations and private professionals. 3.2 Describe how and when to access information, advice and support about diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination I should access information, advice and support at all stages, from initial training to refresher courses and keeping up to date with policy and legislation changes. It should be my responsibility as a carer to be aware of current information at all times. When incidents of discrimination occur I would immediately make my colleagues and managers aware and gain guidance and  support from the offset. If I found the support and information insufficient, I would then look to further sources for information, support and advice until I received a satisfactory conclusion for all involved.

Hrm Practices in Aarong

Part-1 Introduction Organizational overview: â€Å"To provide a stable and gainful source of employment for the under privileged rural artisans, lift up the traditional identity and the commitment of quality service† The name of the organization Aarong is a Bangla word. It means â€Å"a village fair or market†. Aarong started its journey on the basis of this slogan. Now-a-days it is an established fashion and home decor in Bangladesh. Its’ dedication is to change the lives of the disadvantages , promoting traditional products from Bangladesh and opening the doors so their products can be exported.It has grown into a thriving international enterprise showcasing ethnic wear to beautiful crafts from silks, handloom cotton, endi to terracotta, bamboo, jute and much more. It is the handicraft marketing arm of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement committee), the largest NGO in Bangladesh. Aarong has created a village fair for the craftsmen of all trades come together to exhibit and sale their traditional handicrafts. it helps vitalize the traditional craftsmanship and find a wider market for their products nationally and internationally.Established in 1978, Aarong is a fair trade organization dedicated to bring about positive changes in the lives of disadvantaged artisans and underprivileged rural women by reviving and promoting their skills and craft. Reaching out to weavers, potters, brass workers, jewelers, jute workers, basket weavers, wood carvers, leather workers and more, Aarong embraces and nurtures a diverse representation of 65,000 artisans, 85% of whom are women.Today, Aarong has become the foundation upon which independent cooperative groups and family-based artisans market their craft, in an effort to position the nation’s handicraft industry on a world platform of appreciation and acknowledgement. Background of the Organization Aarong began as a cause – a means to an end for a quiet organization fighting to uphold the di gnity of the marginalized. In 1976, when BRAC- a Bangladeshi NGO dedicated to alleviating poverty and empowering the poor, first began encouraging sericulture for women in Manikganj, their only buyers were a few scattered retailers in Dhaka.Weeks, even months would pass between supply and payment, until BRAC intervened. Aarong was born out of a need to ensure that the penniless silk farmers of Manikganj were paid for their goods upon delivery, so that they could feed their families. Today, Aarong's reach has spread beyond Manikganj to the rest of the country. It has grown into a thriving international enterprise showcasing ethnic wear to beautiful crafts from silks, handloom cotton, endi to terracotta, bamboo, jute and much more.From a single shop, Aarong has grown into one of Bangladesh's biggest retail chains, with eight stores spread across the major metropolitan areas of the country – in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet and one in London, UK. Aarong symbolizes fairnes s in the global village. The organization has identified three basic constraints for gainful employment of the low income and marginalized people in the rural areas: lack of working capital, marketing support and opportunity for skills development.In order to bridge these gaps, Aarong provides a wide range of services to its workers and suppliers: Figure: The services Aarong provides to its’ customer and suppliers Aarong’s Mission Statement â€Å"To make Aarong the best in the world in providing a unique Bangladeshi lifestyle experience to empower people and promote Bangladesh while protecting our environment. † Vision of the organization Aarong has a vision to establish them as world’s one of the famous fair trade fashion house, and to remain market leader throughout its business. Aarong expanded its business in international arena.Aarong has a dream to develop more artisans of Bangladesh and make them self-dependent and attract more and more internation al customers towards Bangladeshi culture. Goals: †¢Empowering destitute rural women by providing opportunities for employment and income generation. †¢Ensuring commercial success of the enterprise of women producers. †¢Reviving traditional skills of rural artisans. Services: †¢Free Medical check-up including free eye treatment, eye-glasses and treatment costs for severe illnesses †¢Advance wage payments for employees in need †¢Day care services Workers retirement fund Twenty five thousand independent cooperative groups and traditional family-based artisans also market their crafts through Aarong. Potters, Brass Workers, Jewelers, Jute workers, Basket Weavers, Handloom Weavers, Silk Weavers, Wood Carvers, Leather workers and various artisans with specialized skills from all over the country come to Aarong for marketing and support services. Personality Test Result Human Metrics Jung Typology Test Based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myersâ€℠¢ Typological approach to personality I have been classified in the ENTP category.It refers that- I m Extrovert (67%) Intuitive (31%) Intuitive Thinking (25%) Perceiving (33%) More specifically — * I have distinctive preferences of Extraversion over Introversion (67%) * I have moderate preferences of Intuition over Sensing (31%) * I have moderate preferences of Thinking over Feeling (25%) * I have moderate preferences of Perceiving over Judging (33%) HR Planning of Aarong: Aarong is the one of the biggest fashion house in Bangladesh with ten outlets around the country. Behind the fashion house/lifestyle store Aarong has a corporate office and branches of Ayesha Abed foundation in several districts.Aarong & AAF has been employing a huge number of employees from all over the country and in some cases overseas employees. Here is the organogram of Aarong & AAF to have a look on the positions of the employees who are involved in different Human Resource activities: Figure: Organog ram of HR & Training Department of Aarong Recruitment and selection Process: Selecting and recruiting good employees for an organization is indeed one of the most crucial and critical aspects of running an organization as the decisions so taken to this respect can take the organization to the heights of success.In this respect, it must be borne in mind that each individual has a valuable contribution, irrespective of the position or status of the employee in respective organization. Staffing is the process of recruiting applicants and selecting prospective employees it is known as the key strategic are of Human Resource Management. Stated that an organization’s performance is a direct result of the individuals it employs. The specific strategies used and decisions made in staffing process will directly impact an organization’s success or lack thereof.Planning for recruitment and selection: The aim of the policy and the procedure is to support the recruitment and select ion of people with necessary ability, skills, qualification and competencies to contribute effectively to delivery of Aarong & AAF Recruitment and Selection Strategy: As Aarong has huge number of employees all around the country, they recruit different types of employees based on the nature of the jobs. Aarong recruits five types of employees, these are ?Regular ?Part time ?Temporary ?Contractual ?Project based Regular employee:Regular employees work five days a week from Sunday to Thursday, starting from 8. 30 am to 5. 15 pm. These employees will receive the entire compensation program (bonus, increment, overtime and insurance) and every other facility that are given by the organization. Part-time employees: Part- time employees are those who does not work on the regular working hours, they are given the facility of flexible work hours. Part time employees are recruited for the outlets for example – sales associates, store helper, guards etc. They are not given the facilitie s of the regular employees.However they will be given some facilities based on the contracts they have with the organization. Temporary employee: Aarong recruits temporary employees for different purposes. Some times when a position is vacant and the recruitment might take long to fill in that’s when Aarong & AAF goes for recruiting temporary employees. Temporary employees may work full time or part-time. The temporary sales associates for Ramadan work as part timer. On the other hand temporary employees for documentation work as long as full timer in Aarong. Contractual employee:Contractual employees are hired to work on certain projects or for a certain period of time. The sales associates for the Ramadan are under contract of one month whereas the interns have three months of contracts in Aarong. However depending on the nature of the job the organization may extend their contract with employees. Project based employee: Project based employees are hired for specific projec ts. The organization make contract with them to work on a certain project. To open new outlets in Mirpur and Uttara Aarong hired interior designers to design new outlets is under project based employment.Recruitment method: Aarong recruits its employee’s mostly on viva voce and they do not take any written examination of the candidates. But the interviews are conducted by several steps, which are, in first round if someone qualifies the interview then they are selected for the second round of the interview. These types of interviews are arranged for officer, executive and managerial level. But for the technical posts like IT department computer literacy is tested. But recently Aarong has stated taking written examination on computer for finance and accounts department and also for other departments as well.Only In case of design studio the applicants has to present their portfolio. The steps of recruiting the employees: To recruit the employees for different departments Aaron g goes through several steps, these are performed by the HR department: Figure: Recruitment Process in Aarong & AAF Requisition for Staff: In the beginning of the year all the departments’ head send their requisition in a fixed form to the HR department estimating the requirement of new staff for the whole year in their respective department, then HR collects the approval of the director.HRD would make yearly plan to recruit staff on the basis of the received approved requisition. According to the organizational chart, it is previously determined how many people are required to run a particular department or to do a specific kind of job. So with the resignation of an employee respective department needs to get approval for a new position, it forwards the form to HRD along with the detail particulars like educational level, experience, interpersonal skills and other skills that the job required of the deserving candidate. Check and Verify organizational Chart:Once the HR depar tment receives an approved job requisition, it is the foremost duty of the HR departments to check and verify the approval with the organizational chart. Next, the manager of HR prepares the job watch, which is to circulate for job announcement. This job watch contains job responsibility, objectives, number of vacancies of the department, educational background of the candidate, working experience and other interpersonal skills. The job watch basically asks the potential candidate to send their CV if they qualify the minimum qualification level. Sources of Recruitment:There are two kinds of sources Aarong & AAF uses for recruitment. They are ?Internal source ?External source ?Internal source: Aarong & AAF think that current employees are a major source of recruits for all but entry level positions. Whether for promotions or for lateral job transfer, internal candidates already know the informal organization and have detailed information about its formal policies and procedures. Prom otions and transfer are typically decided by responsible department with involvement by HR department. Employee references/ recommendation: Employee reference has universal application.Lower level and mid-level positions can, and often are filled by the recommendation of a current employee. In higher level positions it is more likely referral will be a professional acquaintance rather than a friend with whom the recommender has close social contacts. In jobs where specialized expertise is important, and where employees participate in professional organizations that foster the development of the expertise, it can be expected that current employees will be acquainted with or know about individuals they think would make excellent contribution to the organization. External sources: Aarong & AAF believe in innovative inspiration so HR department use to look outside of the organization for applicants. The external source starts with the job advertisement on different media. Job Advertisem ent: Aarong gives their advertisement mostly on the major newspapers and internet to collect applicants for all the departments and posts. Through the advertisement they declare the posts of the jobs and the job description which includes duties and responsibilities along they also mention the facilities Aarong provides.In the advertisement they mention the required qualification of the applicants, age and experience etc. Collecting & Screening: After the advertisement for a particular job the HR department starts collecting the bio data. The bio data are collected from sources, for example the bio data dropped in the application box in the head office are collected, online applications are downloaded and printed, some are collected from the outlets by post and some are through references. After collecting the applicants’ bio data the qualifications, experience and age are matched.The applicants are selected and prioritized based on their education such as applicants from rep uted universities and year of experience they possess. While screening them qualified applicants for the specified jobs are found, but sometimes applicants with fewer years of experience are kept separately. And some time these candidates’ bio data are used when there is lack of candidates for interview. Short listing the potential Applicants: After going through the bio data that matches the qualifications, applicants who are well qualified for the positions have to be put on a short list.Following completion of short listing process, HR personnel should give them priority in calling for interviews. Schedule and Arrange the interview: After short listing the bio data, the arrangements of the interview starts. The shortlisted candidates are to be called and they should be well informed about the interview method, date, time and venue etc. For these responsible personnel has to make a schedule for interview. HR manager and respective departments’ managers, sometimes pro gram head altogether decides a convenient time for the interview.After scheduling the applicants are informed of the time date venue of the interviews and if appropriate, be asked to bring photographs for further identification. Conduct interview: Interviews must be fair, objective and structures to allow the maximum amount of information to be obtained from the applicants. The person specification and outline job description should form the basic questioning . which should be relevant to the recruitment of the post. In the interview panel there are two personnel from Aarong most of the time, one person from the HR department and another person should be from other department.For example recruiting a marketing officer the representative from the HR department is either a senior HR officer or an executive and the other interviewer in this case would be marketing head or marketing manager. In the interview panel the judges are given an interviewer appraisal form to keep the record of applicants’ personal attributes and their educational and professional qualification. From officer and above there are two rounds of interviews taken. The candidates selected from the first round interview are to be interviewed by the director of Aarong.Compile interview results: At this stage HR compiles the interview results. In order to compile the result, average score of the interview is calculated. Usually, the candidate that matches with hiring departments requirements is called for the second round of interview. After the interviews the candidates are selected by analyzing their qualifications by the director mostly and then it is the responsibility of HR to inform applicants about the result. But for but for entry level jobs it is the responsibility of an HR officer to finalize the selection.Background Check/ candidates’ verification: The selected candidates will provide copies of their educational and professional certificates ant the HR department will make arrangement for verifying these records by calling their references checking the copies of certificates with the original ones. Inform the selected candidate: After verification of the papers submitted by the candidates, HR department will call them for further formalities that are to be carried out like negotiation of salary, confirmation of joining date, fitness certificate, releasing order etc.Appointment: After completion of the introductory training sessions, the candidates are asked to come with their certificates, releasing order from previous employer, experience certificate, reference letter etc. The regular employees are required to fill-up several forms on the day of their appointment. These are †¢ Personal information form †¢ Insurance form †¢ Joining form Training: Training department of Aarong is a part of Human Resource department. Training personnel are responsible for all the necessary training sessions for the new employees.As they are to be acquaint ed with the new organization, working environment, people and job responsibilities. The training officers train the new employees to be introduced with the job and organization and make sure they are able to perform effectively. As the training section is very small and yet they are responsible for training employees all over the country, the training session lasts for one day. In mid-level and higher positions the employee gets on the job training. But positions like Sales associate, store helper and maintenance workers are mostly trained about their job. Orientation or induction:Generally the HR department arranges employee’s orientation or induction which provides new employees with basic background information about the organization, information they need to perform their job, their job description or so on. It is called a socialization process. it helps to cope with new environment very easily and it minimizes reality shock. Performance Appraisal System: Performance appr aisal system is defined as a systematic process of performance planning, organizing, monitoring, appraising, and guiding & rewarding individual employee’s performance by using standard tools.This is a formal management process being conducted through participation. The system does not merely represent an annual event rather it represents a systematic processed viewed from the standpoint of total perspective. The essence of performance appraisal system is that the employee’s perform the best of their abilities to attain individual standard and achieve the organization goals. Aarong and Ayesha Abed Foundation has a performance appraisal system closely similar to an amalgamation of â€Å"Behavioral anchored ratings scale (BARS)† and â€Å"key performance indicator (KPI)† performance Appraisal mechanism.The present performance is done using: a) Appraisal by Achievement against certain behavior b) Competence profile in current job, which includes rating or lea dership quality, resource management, business development, communicative etc. The organization views the system as year round process. Every employee at Aarong is being evaluated once in a year. And employees are evaluated when their working period is more than six month. Aarong has three types of performance appraisal form, these are – top level, mid-level and entry level, as all the employees cannot be evaluated in same manner.The reason for having the performance appraisal system is to evaluate them from different aspects and find out their strengths and weakness and provide them chances to improve them in order to perform more effectively. There are different component of the performance appraisal system namely performance planning, performance monitoring and performance development and annual appraisal each of those are inter related and integrated with each other having several sub- component under each of those components. The Annual performance Appraisal format:In th is study, focus has been given on the performance appraisal system of the management executive. The elements of the performance appraisal form are a) Performance planning b) Career growth & development c) Performance competences d) Overall performance evaluation e) Review and comment by appraiser, appraisers’ manager and appraise her/himself. In Aarong has four types of Performance Appraisal formats, Form-A, for top level employees, PA Form- B, for mid-level employees, PA Form-C, for lower level employees, and the last one is Performance Appraisal or Sales Associates. Aarong mainly uses customized software developed for carrying out the specificfunctions involved in the various functional departments. The Key In-HouseSoftware used by Aarong is as follows: Part-2 IT in HRM The IT used in Aarong: 1. Central Office Management System (COMS): COMS also used by the export department for handling export orders. The retailing department uses COMS to check inventory levels and maintai n re-order levels by analyzing data such as amount sent to outlet, amount in display and amount in the warehouse. 2. Point of Sale (POS):Point of sales software is used in all the outlets of  Aarong. When a sales staff scans the barcode of any product, the software records the transaction. This database enables the organization to identify the demand of the product and adjust their inventory level accordingly. 3. Ayesha Abed Foundation Software (AAFS): Ayesha Abed Foundation, which is the primary manufacturing unit of Aarong, uses this Software to check product levels. 4. Customer Relationship Management: This software enables Aarong to identify the most loyal customer and to retain them.Customer databases are maintained with the help of this software. It also enables Aarong to provide special services, such as â€Å"My Aarong Rewards†, to loyal customers. With the buying and contact information of all loyal customers, Aarong is able to notifythem whenever products that sui t their taste are available Figure: HRIS department at Aarong The Human Resource Department of Aarong is responsible for managing , controlling and the employment of the total employees, staff, and managers. The firm maintains some IS function with its HRM department.These functions have been given in the upward diagram and described here: Employee Database: All the information of the employees is saved in the database following the Microsoft access. This database includes the information of the employees from the joining days to the last days. Performance Tracking: Sales representatives are given a percentage of commissions on the sale that is why performance tracking is an important issue. The sale per day is tracked by using bar code readers and time punch machine.Pre specified reports: Based on the database maintained at the central office managers are allowed to access pre specified reports on the company’s employees and the key performance indicators. Company Intranet: The intranet provides managers to extract data on employees personal records and qualifications, sales performance, and past reports on sales and managerial activities using the online. Part-3 Biography of Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder & Chairperson, BRAC was born in Bangladesh in 1936.He was educated at Dhaka and Glasgow Universities. The 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh had a profound effect on him, then in his thirties, a professional accountant who was holding a senior corporate executive position at Shell Oil. The war dramatically changed the direction of his life; he left his job and moved to London to devote himself to Bangladesh's War of Independence. There, he helped to initiate a campaign called â€Å"Help Bangladesh† to organise funds to raise awareness about the war in Bangladesh.When the war over, he returned to the newly independent Bangladesh, finding the economy in ruins. Millions of refugees, who had sought shelter in India during the war, s tarted returning to the country and their relief and rehabilitation called for urgent efforts. It was then that he established BRAC to rehabilitate returning refugees in a remote area in north-eastern Bangladesh. He directed his policy towards helping the poor develop their capacity to better manage their lives.Thus, BRAC's primary objectives emerged as alleviation of poverty and empowerment of the poor. Under his leadership, in the span of only three decades, BRAC grew to become the largest development organisation in the world in terms of the scale and diversity of its interventions. Sir Fazle has received numerous national and international awards for his achievements in leading BRAC, including the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2008), the Inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award (2007), the Henry R.Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Social Development and Poverty Alleviation (2007), Gates Awa rd for Global Health (2004), UNDP MahbubulHaq Award for Outstanding Contribution in Human Development (2004), Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award (2002), Olof Palme Award (2001), UNICEF's Maurice Pate Award (1992) and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1980). He is also recognised by Ashoka as one of the â€Å"global greats† and is a founding member of its prestigious Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship.In 2010, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Eminent Persons Group for the Least Developed Countries. Sir Fazle has received several honorary degrees including Doctor of Humane Letters from Yale University in 2007, Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in 2008, Doctor of Letters from the University of Oxford in 2009 and Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bath in 2010. In February 2010, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St.George (KCMG) by the British crown in recognition of his services to reducing poverty in Bangladesh and internationally. He was awarded WISE Prize, the world's first major international prize for education by Qatar Foundation in November 2011. Comparative analysis Illustrated profile of Fazle Hasan Abed I can imagine my to be career as an entrepreneur. I am graduating from Dhaka University in BBA and I would prefer being an entrepreneur. For this I have to be- 1. More patient as I see it is less in me 2.I am enthusiastic but in some matter I easily loose my enthusiasm for this I have to work a lot Part-4 Recommendation * Greater use of MIS, DSS and ESS for effective decision making. * Adoption of fully automated supply chain management system to ensure greater quality and flexibility. * Streamlining the Designing and approval process into one workstation. * Automation of the Demand projection and Trend analysis tasks. * Greater use of networking to carryout financial transactions with partners and suppliers.