Consumerism in America

Consumerism is assumed to be the basic pattern for the modern lifestyle in the USA. Some researchers even compare it with a kind of belief. It is essential to explore the nature of this phenomenon, including its development and the contemporary situation. In addition, it is useful to give a precise definition. Eventually, its consequences and effects are to be put under analysis.Consumerism is multifaceted, resulting in a significant influence on a variety of American life aspects. It is sure to have effects on a particular individual as well as on society as an entity. The â€Å"ideologists† of consumerism state that its principles are highly beneficial for consumers. However, nowadays, the majority of literature dedicated to disclosing the peculiarities of consumerism tends to incline to recognizing the preferably negative character of consumerism consequences for economy, social ethics and even environment etc.Though, the essence of the effects, especially, whether they are adverse or positive, needs a deep exploration. In America it seems that we are driven by the need to have more could this need to have more be fueled by something other than our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as mentioned in the constitution or, could this need be socially and, commercially driven.Consumerism developed within certain conditions, predetermining the inevitable appearing of such a phenomenon. The Industrial Revolution of the 1800s shifted the way of the economic history. For the very first time, it allowed products to be available in previously impossible huge quantities. Not to mention the fact that the increase in production in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted in growing markets. This meant expanding the consuming class far beyond the middle and upper classes and to include the working classes (Beder, 2004). The population rates grow only three times between 1860 and 1920 while the production increased by 12   to 14 times (Beder, 2004).The major industrial facilities tried to go with the times. That was the reason that back in 1910, Henry Ford instituted the â€Å"line production system† in his Highland Park, Michigan plant (Chandler, 1976). In spite of the innovation being in particular ways relatively unsophisticated, that was the moment of transformation of the U.S. capacity to produce (Ewen, 1976). In addition, the high level of products availability can be easily explained by rapid cost rate decrease. Moreover, the unrestricted access naturally resulted in the flourishing of the Mass Consumption era (â€Å"History of American Consumerism†).The mechanisms of mass production determined the need for markets to become more dynamic. These dynamic changes had to include various aspects. Firstly, they needed to grow horizontally, meaning nationally, secondly, vertically (expanding into such social classes that were not previously among consumers), and, eventually, ideologi cally (Ewen, 1976). The population was forced to be habituated to give a response to the newly developed demands of productive machinery. The researchers emphasize that it was even a nationwide systematic plan aiming at providing the wide masses with more buying power (Ewen, 1976).As the result, the system of consumer production was freely growing. The mass manufacturer could not depend exclusively upon an elite market in order to respond to the productive capacity. Therefore, the products' mass producer was forced to take into consideration the whole United States, ensuring the competitiveness with the other manufacturers by producing enough goods quantity for reducing the cost to the sufficient rate (Ewen, 1976).Nevertheless, the philosophy of consumerism has undergone a number of changes. It was imposed that people are almost obliged to obtain not only necessary goods, but also pay special attention to the other factors. For instance, new model of a particular product has been co nsidered to be more efficient, meaning the need for purchasing the latest configuration (â€Å"History of American consumerism†). Besides, the further changes touched the other criterion as people started buying newer models based on considerations about appearance. Nowadays, the companies tend to seek for increasingly sophisticated tricks in order to encourage consumers to get rid  of the old product and buy the new one instead (â€Å"History of American consumerism†).According to Scott, human nature is more complex to control than a material one (Ewen, 1976). The adequate approach to distribution was and still is (to the significant extend) a guarantee for high level of efficiency and profitability. Therefore, it was a necessity to create an ideological link narrowing the prejudices and covering the traditional social gaps in needs, class, taste or region. Advertising has become an inherent part of mass distribution within industries. Marketing professionals use ad vertisements in order to encourage, or even force people to strive to purchasing certain goods, starting with small, relatively cheap items and ending with luxurious houses and cars.Advertising is a legal tool for manipulating the consciousness of consumers. The camp of advertisement supporters claim that it plays a positive role by providing people with essential information. Though, such statement is quite controversial. Advertising along with mass media industry in general have made a considerable contribution into developing certain rules or norms of consumption within the American society. Such norms depict the sufficient for high standard of living level of consumption.The influence of consumerism concept is in the progress of constant increasing and expanding. The parallels with religious beliefs might be quite reasonable within analyzing the issue. Consumerism has become an inherent part of the contemporary lifestyle. It is worth noticing that alike as the belief consumerism is ephemeral and intangible, still people can perceive its effects in everyday life. It is arguably, but it might be referred as the religion of 20th and 21st centuries (Miles, 1998). To support this statement, Miles emphasizes that it apparently enters the day-to-day life, structuring everyday experience (1998, p.1). Moreover, it is rapidly altering the forms and reasserting the influences in the new spheres (Miles, 1998).Consumerism is the concept depicting the belief that happiness and well-being  depends to a significant degree of personal consumption. Basically, it means that purchasing certain material goods is likely to increase the level of satisfaction with life. The idea includes several layers: firstly, well-being depends on the standard of living, secondly that the key satisfaction in life is centered in consumption and possession of material goods benefit. â€Å"Consuming† as an activity has become one of the most valuable and worth spending time and resources . The principles of consumerist society are developing around the idea of the increasing necessity to consume.This statement can be easily paraphrased into an elementary formula: the more you consume, the better it is for you. To add to the point, the United States is the highly developed country, meaning that the consumerist society evolved to the hyper-consumerist society. The supporting facts are sure to be found in everyday life. The Americans are mostly obsessed with the idea of buying things beyond their basic needs. Certain elements of luxury have gained the perception of necessary for happiness and sufficient standard of life. Moreover, cities are transformed into the centers of â€Å"consumerism religion†. Shopping malls provide people with the enormous quantity of mostly useless goods.The lifestyle dictated by the consumerism concept brings about a variety of adverse effects. It is reasonable to start with the consequences for an individual. Consumerism might dislod ge more valuable thing from the life of Americans. People are mostly concentrated on owning money in order to satisfy the needs imposed by advertisement, mass media industry and the consumerist society in general. The ethical and spiritual part of life, along with socializing might draw back. Moreover, the consumerist society norms might be considered as those restricting the individual freedom to a significant degree. The proclaimed standards engage in bringing to life particular patterns associated with well-being and happiness of the people within a certain framework.In addition, more global long-term consequences refer to economical, social and environmental spheres. For example, environmental sustainability is put under jeopardy as the consumerism stimulates people to buy even bigger quantity of new goods, get rid of  another enormous quantity, meaning that the nature might not be capable of overcoming the severe effects of consumerist society lifestyle. Not to mention the fa ct that manufacturing of certain products needs the nonrenewable natural resources utilizing. The economical layer is also essential as the credit cards and loans, providing the members of consumerist society with an ability to keep up with the prescribed standards, contributed to the development of the economical crisis and credit crunch.Eventually, the conducted research has shown that consumerism is not as beneficial as the mass media industry tends to depict it. Consumerism might be reduced to the concept that constant and increasing consumption of goods is a guarantee for happiness and well-being. The development of such a concept was inevitable due to the economical conditions that started with the Industrial Revolution. The manufacturers are interested in profit growth, it results in a variety and diversity of marketing tricks aimed at stimulating the buyers will and power to consume. Though, the consumerist society provoked the adverse effects of individual and global charac ter.

Principles Of Teaching And Learning In Teaching Math Essay

Students learn mathematics through the experiences that teachers provide. Teachers must know and understand deeply the mathematics they are teaching and understand and be committed to their students as learners of mathematics and as human beings. There is no one â€Å"right way† to teach. Nevertheless, much is known about effective mathematics teaching. Selecting and using suitable curricular materials, using appropriate instructional tools and techniques to support learning, and pursuing continuous self-improvement are actions good teachers take every day. The teacher is responsible for creating an intellectual environment in the classroom where serious engagement in mathematical thinking is the norm. Effective teaching requires deciding what aspects of a task to highlight, how to organize and orchestrate the work of students, what questions to ask students having varied levels of expertise, and how to support students without taking over the process of thinking for them. Effective teaching requires continuing efforts to learn and improve. Teachers need to increase their knowledge about mathematics and pedagogy, learn from their students and colleagues, and engage in professional development and self-reflection. Collaborating with others–pairing an experienced teacher with a new teacher or forming a community of teachers–to observe, analyze, and discuss teaching and students’ thinking is a powerful, yet neglected, form of professional development. Teachers need ample opportunities to engage in this kind of continual learning. The working lives of teachers must be structured to allow and support different models of professional development that benefit them and their students. Mathematics Principles and practice What can learning in mathematics enable children and young people to achieve? Mathematics is important in our everyday life, allowing us to make sense of the world around us and to manage our lives. Using mathematics enables us to model real-life situations and make connections and informed predictions. It equips us with the skills we need to interpret and analyse information,  simplify and solve problems, assess risk and make informed decisions. Mathematics plays an important role in areas such as science or technologies, and is vital to research and development in fields such as engineering, computing science, medicine and finance. Learning mathematics gives children and young people access to the wider curriculum and the opportunity to pursue further studies and interests. Because mathematics is rich and stimulating, it engages and fascinates learners of all ages, interests and abilities. Learning mathematics develops logical reasoning, analysis, problem-solving skills, creativity and the ability to think in abstract ways. It uses a universal language of numbers and symbols which allows us to communicate ideas in a concise, unambiguous and rigorous way. To face the challenges of the 21st century, each young person needs to have confidence in using mathematical skills, and Scotland needs both specialist mathematicians and a highly numerate population. Building the Curriculum 1 Mathematics equips us with many of the skills required for life, learning and work. Understanding the part that mathematics plays in almost all aspects of life is crucial. This reinforces the need for mathematics to play an integral part in lifelong learning and be appreciated for the richness it brings. How is the mathematics framework structured? Within the mathematics framework, some statements of experiences and outcomes are also identified as statements of experiences and outcomes in numeracy. These form an important part of the mathematics education of all children and young people as they include many of the numerical and analytical skills required by each of us to function effectively and successfully in everyday life. All teachers with a responsibility for the development of mathematics will be familiar with the role of numeracy within mathematics and with the means by which numeracy is developed across the range of learning  experiences. The numeracy subset of the mathematics experiences and outcomes is also published separately; further information can be found in the numeracy principles and practice paper. The mathematics experiences and outcomes are structured within three main organisers, each of which contains a number of subdivisions: Number, money and measure Estimation and rounding Number and number processes Multiples, factors and primes Powers and roots Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages Money Time Measurement Mathematics – its impact on the world, past, present and future Patterns and relationships Expressions and equations. Shape, position and movement Properties of 2D shapes and 3D objects Angle, symmetry and transformation. Information handling Data and analysis Ideas of chance and uncertainty. The mathematics framework as a whole includes a strong emphasis on the important part mathematics has played, and will continue to play, in the advancement of society, and the relevance it has for daily life. A key feature of the mathematics framework is the development of algebraic thinking from an early stage. Research shows that the earlier algebraic thinking is introduced, the deeper the mathematical understanding will be  and the greater the confidence in using mathematics. Teachers will use the statements of experiences and outcomes in information handling to emphasise the interpretation of statistical information in the world around us and to emphasise the knowledge and skills required to take account of chance and uncertainty when making decisions. The level of achievement at the fourth level has been designed to approximate to that associated with SCQF level 4. What are the features of effective learning and teaching in mathematics? From the early stages onwards, children and young people should experience success in mathematics and develop the confidence to take risks, ask questions and explore alternative solutions without fear of being wrong. They will enjoy exploring and applying mathematical concepts to understand and solve problems, explaining their thinking and presenting their solutions to others in a variety of ways. At all stages, an emphasis on collaborative learning will encourage children to reason logically and creatively through discussion of mathematical ideas and concepts. Through their use of effective questioning and discussion, teachers will use misconceptions and wrong answers as opportunities to improve and deepen children’s understanding of mathematical concepts. The experiences and outcomes encourage learning and teaching approaches that challenge and stimulate children and young people and promote their enjoyment of mathematics. To achieve this, teachers will use a skilful mix of approaches, including:  planned active learning which provides opportunities to observe, explore, investigate, experiment, play, discuss and reflect modelling and scaffolding the development of mathematical thinking skills learning collaboratively and independently  opportunities for discussion, communication and explanation of thinking developing mental agility  using relevant contexts and experiences, familiar to young people making links across the curriculum to show how mathematical concepts are applied in a wide range of contexts, such as those provided by science and social studies using technology in appropriate and effective ways  building on the principles of Assessment is for Learning, ensuring that young people understand the purpose and relevanc e of what they are learning developing problem-solving capabilities and critical thinking skills. Mathematics is at its most powerful when the knowledge and understanding that have been developed are used to solve problems. Problem solving will be at the heart of all our learning and teaching. We should regularly encourage children and young people to explore different options: ‘what would happen if†¦?’ is the fundamental question for teachers and learners to ask as mathematical thinking develops. How will we ensure progression within and through levels? As children and young people develop concepts within mathematics, these will need continual reinforcement and revisiting in order to maintain progression. Teachers can plan this development and progression through providing children and young people with more challenging contexts in which to use their skills. When the experience or outcome spans two levels within a line of development, this will be all the more important. One case in point would be the third level outcome on displaying information. The expectation is that young people will continue to use and refine the skills developed at second level to display charts, graphs and diagrams. The contexts should ensure progression and there are clear opportunities to use other curriculum areas when extending young people’s understanding. What are broad features of assessment in mathematics? (This section should be read alongside the advice for numeracy.) Assessment in mathematics will focus on children and young people’s abilities to work increasingly skilfully with numbers, data and mathematical concepts and processes and use them in a range of contexts. Teachers can gather evidence of progress as part of day-to-day learning about number, money and measurement, shape, position and movement and information handling. The use of specific assessment tasks will be important in assessing progress at key points of learning including transitions. From the early years through to the senior stages, children and young people will demonstrate progress in their skills in interpreting and analysing information, simplifying and solving problems, assessing risk and making informed choices. They will also show evidence of progress through their skills in collaborating and working independently as they observe, explore, experiment with and investigate mathematical problems. Approaches to assessment should identify the extent to which children and young people can apply their skills in their learning, in their daily lives and in preparing for the world of work. Progress will be seen as children and young people demonstrate their competence and confidence in applying mathematical concepts and skills. For example: Do they relish the challenge of number puzzles, patterns and relationships? Can they explain increasingly more abstract ideas of algebraic thinking? Can they successfully carry out mathematical processes and use their developing range of skills and attributes as set out in the experiences and outcomes? As they apply these to problems, can they draw on skills and concepts learned previously? As they tackle problems in unfamiliar contexts, can they confidently identify which skills and concepts are relevant to the problem? Can they then apply their skills accurately and then evaluate their solutions? Can they explain their thinking and demonstrate their understanding of 2D shapes and 3D objects? Can they evaluate data to make informed decisions? Are they developing the capacity to engage with and complete tasks and  assignments? Assessment should also link with other areas of the curriculum, within and outside the classroom, offering children and young people opportunities to develop and demonstrate their understanding of mathematics through social studies, technologies and science, and cultural and enterprise activities. How can I make connections within and beyond mathematics? Within mathematics there are rich opportunities for links among different concepts: a ready example is provided by investigations into area and perimeter which can involve estimation, patterns and relationships and a variety of numbers. When children and young people investigate number processes, there will be regular opportunities to develop mental strategies and mental agility. Teachers will make use of opportunities to develop algebraic thinking and introduce symbols, such as those opportunities afforded at early stages when reinforcing number bonds or later when investigating the sum of the angles in a triangle. There are many opportunities to develop mathematical concepts in all other areas of the curriculum. Patterns and symmetry are fundamental to art and music; time, money and measure regularly occur in modern languages, home economics, design technology and various aspects of health and wellbeing; graphs and charts are regularly used in science and social studies; scale and proportion can be developed within social studies; formulae are used in areas including health and wellbeing, technologies and sciences; while shape, position and movement can be developed in all areas of the curriculum. The Teaching Principle Effective mathematics teaching requires understanding what students know and need to learn and then challenging and supporting them to learn it well. Students learn mathematics through the experiences that teachers provide. Thus, students’ understanding of mathematics, their ability to  » use it to solve problems, and their confidence in, and disposition toward, mathematics are all shaped by the teaching they encounter in school. The improvement of  mathematics education for all students requires effective mathematics teaching in all classrooms. Teaching mathematics well is a complex endeavor, and there are no easy recipes for helping all students learn or for helping all teachers become effective. Nevertheless, much is known about effective mathematics teaching, and this knowledge should guide professional judgment and activity. To be effective, teachers must know and understand deeply the mathematics they are teaching and be able to draw on that knowledge with flexibilit y in their teaching tasks. They need to understand and be committed to their students as learners of mathematics and as human beings and be skillful in choosing from and using a variety of pedagogical and assessment strategies (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future 1996). In addition, effective teaching requires reflection and continual efforts to seek improvement. Teachers must have frequent and ample opportunities and resources to enhance and refresh their knowledge. Effective teaching requires knowing and understanding mathematics, students as learners, and pedagogical strategies. Teachers need several different kinds of mathematical knowledge—knowledge about the whole domain; deep, flexible knowledge about curriculum goals and about the important ideas that are central to their grade level; knowledge about the challenges students are likely to encounter in learning these ideas; knowledge about how the ideas can be represented to teach them effectively; and knowledge about how s tudents’ understanding can be assessed. This knowledge helps teachers make curricular judgments, respond to students’ questions, and look ahead to where concepts are leading and plan accordingly. Pedagogical knowledge, much of which is acquired and shaped through the practice of teaching, helps teachers understand how students learn mathematics, become facile with a range of different teaching techniques and instructional materials, and organize and manage the classroom. Teachers need to understand the big ideas of mathematics and be able to represent mathematics as a coherent and connected enterprise (Schifter 1999; Ma 1999). Their decisions and their actions in the classroom—all of which affect how well their students learn mathematics—should be based on this knowledge. This kind of knowledge is beyond what most teachers experience in standard preservice mathematics courses in the United States. For example, that fractions can be understood as parts of a whole, the quotient of two integers, or a numb er on a line is  important for mathematics teachers (Ball and Bass forthcoming). Such understanding might be characterized as â€Å"profound understanding of fundamental mathematics† (Ma 1999). Teachers also need to understand the different representations of an idea, the relative strengths and weaknesses of each, and how they are related to one another (Wilson, Shulman, and Richert 1987). They need to know the ideas with which students often have difficulty and ways to help bridge common misunderstandings.  » Effective mathematics teaching requires a serious commitment to the development of students’ understanding of mathematics. Because students learn by connecting new ideas to prior knowledge, teachers must understand what their students already know. Effective teachers know how to ask questions and plan lessons that reveal students’ prior knowledge; they can then design experiences and lessons that respond to, and build on, this knowledge. Teachers have different styles and strategies for helping students learn particular mathematical ideas, and there is no one â€Å"right way† to teach. However, effective teachers recognize that the decisions they make shape students’ mathematical dispositions and can create rich settings for learning. Selecting and using suitable curricular materials, using appropriate instructional tools and techniques, and engaging in reflective practice and continuous self-improvement are actions good teachers take every day. One of the complexities of mathematics teaching is that it must balance purposeful, planned classroom lessons with the ongoing decision making that inevitably occurs as teachers and students encounter unanticipated discoveries or difficulties that lead them into uncharted territory. Teaching mathematics well involves creating, enriching, maintaining, and adapting instruction to move toward mathematical goals, capture and sustain interest, and engage students in building mathematical understanding. Effective teaching requires a challenging and supportive classroom learning environment. Teachers make many choices each day about how the learning environment will be structured and what mathematics will be emphasized. These decisions determine, to a large extent, what students learn. Effective teaching conveys a belief that each student can and is expected to understand mathematics and that each will be supported in his or her efforts to accomplish this goal. Teachers establish and nurture an environment conducive to learning mathematics through the decisions they make, the conversations they orchestrate, and the  physical setting they create. Teachers’ actions are what encourage students to think, question, solve problems, and discuss their ideas, strategies, and solutions. The teacher is responsible for creating an intellectual environment where serious mathematical thinking is the norm. More than just a physical setting with desks, bulletin boards, and posters, the clas sroom environment communicates subtle messages about what is valued in learning and doing mathematics. Are students’ discussion and collaboration encouraged? Are students expected to justify their thinking? If students are to learn to make conjectures, experiment with various approaches to solving problems, construct mathematical arguments and respond to others’ arguments, then creating an environment that fosters these kinds of activities is essential. In effective teaching, worthwhile mathematical tasks are used to introduce important mathematical ideas and to engage and challenge students intellectually. Well-chosen tasks can pique students’ curiosity and draw them into mathematics. The tasks may be connected to the  » real-world experiences of students, or they may arise in contexts that are purely mathematical. Regardless of the context, worthwhile tasks should be intriguing, with a level of challenge that invites speculation and hard work. Such tasks often can be approached in more than one way, such as using an arithmetic counting approach, drawing a geometric diagram and enumerating possibilities, or using algebraic equations, which makes the tasks accessible to students with varied prior knowledge and experience. Worthwhile tasks alone are not sufficient for effective teaching. Teachers must also decide what aspects of a task to highlight, how to organize and orchestrate the work of the students, what questions to ask to challenge those with varied levels of expertise, and how to support students without taking over the process of thinking for them and thus eliminating the challenge. Opportunities to reflect on and refine instructional practice—during class and outside class, alone and with others—are crucial in the vision of school mathematics outlined in Principles and Standards. To improve their mathematics instruction, teachers must be able to analyze what they and their students are doing and consider how those actions are affecting students’ learning. Using a variety of strategies, teachers should monitor students’ capacity and inclination to analyze situations, frame and solve problems, and make sense of mathematical concepts and procedures. They  can use this information to assess their students’ progress and to appraise how well the mathematical tasks, student discourse, and classroom environment are interacting to foster students’ learning. They then use these appraisals to adapt their instruction. Reflection and analysis are often individual activities, but they can be greatly enhanced by teaming with an experienced and respected colleague, a new teacher, or a community of teachers. Collaborating with colleagues regularly to observe, analyze, and discuss teaching and students’ thinking or to do â€Å"lesson study† is a powerful, yet neglected, form of professional development in American schools (Stigler and Hiebert 1999). The work and time of teachers must be structured to allow and support professional development that will benefit them and their students.

Walt Disney Animation Studios Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Walt Disney Animation Studios - Essay Example Its ingenious film-making skills have left a strong mark on the American popular culture. The discussion focuses on the success of Walt Disney Animation Studios and how its production of animation started and improved over these years. In addition, the focus will be on how the company is being built into a kingdom of sorts, soaring up in the world animation industry and how it is positively influencing people in the field of art today. Walt Disney Animation Studios, founded by Walter Elias Disney, have produced around 54 featured films, starting from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 to Big Hero 6 in 2014. Right from the start of the studio in 1923, it produced a wide range of cartoons and animated short films, until it expanded into feature film production in 1934. It exclusively developed various techniques, principles, and concepts, that later became standard practices of conventional animation. Most importantly, it pioneered the art of ‘story boarding’, which had laid the standard technique for today’s both animated and live-action filmmaking. â€Å"The significant element of Disney-Formalist hyperrealism is the lifelike movement- or motor function – of the animation, which reflects both the actual movements of live-action models and the skill of the animator.† (Pallant, 2011). The studios animated features and techniques became Disneys renowned assets, and particularly the animated characters - Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Pluto – became the recognizable figures in modern American popular culture. These characters turned out to be the mascots for The Walt Disney Company as a whole. The history of Walt Disney Studios and the early years of Walt in entering the animation industry were not an easy accomplishment. In 1920, he started his career as advertising cartoonist by marketing his first original animated cartoons. After starting his own company, Laugh-O-Gram Films, with his colleague, Ubbe Iwerks, he improved

Selection Decision Making Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Selection Decision Making - Case Study Example A selection plan gives an overview of how the job looks like thus making it easy for the recruitment panel to pick the most desirable applicant. It contains key job responsibilities, makes it clear of what must be performed and acts as a guide in selection procedures. The format is as given below. The table above illustrates scores of all the ten applicants. The analysis was based on multiple predictor methods; clinical prediction and rational weighing. However, since clinical prediction and unit weighing produce similar results, it was considered wise to include the unit weighing column. The unit weighing figures were derived from averaging each applicant’s scores in individual assessment methods. Basing on the unit weighing results, tangle wood will consider the highest scores. Therefore, Heckman; 76, Reznor; 73 and Scores; 70 will be the most preferred applicants. The rational weighing results were obtained by assigning a weight to every assessment method and summing up the scores. The assigned weights were biodata; 30%, Applicant exam; 10%, Retail knowledge; 30%, Conscientiousness; 15%, Extraversion; 15%. Biodata and retail knowledge were allocated the largest weights because the job position demands experience from applicants. Applicant exam was assigned the lowest weight mainly because it measures the least important KSAOs required in the managerial position. From the data, Tangle wood will consider Heckman; 76, Reznor; 69, Renoir; 67.5. If tangle wood decides to use multiple hurdle selection as its first stage in identifying the best five applicants, and further apply interviews and resumes to get the top three finalists, the five suitable candidates would be Reznor, Yorn, Greer, Renior and Durvall. This is quite interesting since Heckman who tops in both rational and unit weighing does not appear in the top five when using test scores. Since conscientiousness and extraversion prove the ability and suitability of an applicant to perform and

Argument analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Argument analysis - Essay Example It has been proven that obesity is connected with how easily affordable unhealthy foods are in comparison to fruits, vegetables, and healthier meats. However, there is nothing to suggest that only poor people are the ones buying the foods that are bad for the human body. Most people, regardless of their economic status, enjoy the tastes of many of these fattening snacks, such as chips and candy, and obtaining these has nothing to do with cost. If anything, if a person is rich or poor will only determine how many bags of chips or other unhealthy foods they will buy; a rich person is more liable to buy more since they can afford it. Since poor people can afford less, more of their money would go towards proper foods, like meats, instead of junk foods that cannot make meals. Cullen brings up the point that there are more convenience stores and gas stations than there are grocery stores. Convenience stores and gas stations carry only a small variety of food, â€Å"Chef Boyardee but not baby carrots (Cullen).† In lower-income neighborhoods, these places might be more common than a grocery store, but that does not mean that poor people are unwilling to drive a few extra miles to shop at a grocery store. When most people go shopping for food, regardless of the money they have, they go where they need to so that they may get what they want. If poor people want steaks, they will go and buy steaks; if rich people want hotdogs, they will buy hotdogs. Being rich or poor has nothing to do with the type of food people are willing to eat, and therefore cannot be considered a cause of obesity. Regardless of how much money a person is making, obesity is everywhere, and I find it hard to believe that every one of these obese people is poor. Each person, taking away the factor of money, will have similar eating habits as someone else. Poor people may prefer the cheaper food, but rich people can still afford more, especially of the cheap, unhealthy food. Though Cullen makes many good points, a lot of them seem to be assumptions or opinions. Her argument could be strengthened if she used citable facts and statistics to prove her points. When Is Thin Too Thin? The fashion industry is an important one, designing and displaying the fashion that will one day grace the presence of our outlet malls and fashion boutiques. Fashion models are used to present those clothes in the way that their designers intended them to be worn. As Eric Wilson points out in his article â€Å"When Is Thin Too Thin?,† part of the vision of these designers involves ghastly underweight women as the models to display these fashions. The designers of these fashions, as well as many of the agents that hire the models, claim that there is nothing wrong with the weight or health of these women. This is despite the fact that prospectors at fashion shows have the ability of counting every rib on many of the models. Beauty has blurred the line between healthy and unhealthy, and this perception needs to change. â€Å"Underweight models [and] fashion shows perpetuate an unhealthy image of beauty, encouraging eating disorders among young women (Wilson).† Women are staving themselves for their work and they are being praised for it, receiving positive feedback and proclamations of beauty. Unfortunately, this is not even the worst part. Shockingly enough, many

HW 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HW 1 - Essay Example In addition, globalization contributes to unfair employment practices and working conditions, which are mostly perpetrated by large organizations. Thirdly, globalization makes large organizations to exercise little accountability in the conduct of business (Norberg, 2011). I disagree with the statement about sweatshops because I believe that, rather than enhancing progress, they tend to derail it. The working conditions brought about by the idea of sweatshops are not impressive and they often lead to the victimization of employees. Sweatshops should not be tolerated since they demean humans and are an insult to human dignity. This idea subjects employees to poor wages; the work they do is not worth the income they are paid. From an economic point of view, sweatshops tend to perpetrate poverty rather than alleviate it. Modern technology has had a huge impact on globalization. The developments and advancements in technology have driven globalization and led to the spread of trade among nations. Most of the globalization processes have been facilitated by technology. For example, modern technology has enhanced the mass production of goods and services. In addition, communication technology has led to the exchange of information about business activities between nations (Norberg,

History of Graphic design (Object poster) Research Paper

History of Graphic design (Object poster) - Research Paper Example As has been a result to this complication, a more made easier type emerged thats a simple meal for the individual that "read" by simply passersby on jam-packed boulevards. Throughout Belgium this method, called â€Å"object poster† or Sachplakat Inches had taken the particular design and advertising mobile phone industrys simply by the hurricane. It absolutely was the technique of preference for a Plakatstil, or perhaps poster type motion. Sachplakats developer, the 18 year old in German cartoonist whom known as herself Lucian Bernhard, moved into a poster opposition throughout 1906 backed through Berlins Priester Go with Organization as well as Germanys primary advertising/ poster printer company Hollerbaum & Schmidt, (Jean-Marc, p. 111). Beside the ashtray have been a couple of wood suits. When it ended up being incorrectly taken to get a stogie advertising campaign, Bernhard has been pushed him in order to reconsider his / her arrangement and started reducing the tablecloth, stogie, ashtray along with smoking, leaving behind simply two easy matches. He or she enflamed the actual matchsticks, prepared them reddish with discolored guidelines, and inserted all of them towards any maroon field (Joan, p. 136). The apex of the style location this individual side lettered in strong stop correspondence the term "Priester†. Inches There the individual are! A fresh design! persistence into adulthood of obesity from childhood is related both to age at onset and severity. Art work Nouveau met the decline not really totally because of the invention of Bernhard, yet since types had been altered to meet brand new professional demands. The raise of car targeted traffic as well as the fast tempo each day existence needed that companies be competitive intensely to the publics focus. Aesthetic difficulty no more accomplished the same reflective outcomes (Joan, p. 136). In 1906, there might have

Final Exam Essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final Exam Essays - Essay Example â€Å"Use Immunity† is a bit narrower in its classification in terms of what can be used within the trial and what the Fifth Amendment Privilege protects. In use immunity, statements made by the witness cannot be used against the immunized person. At the same time, the persecution is not in agreement that it will not persecute the person given use immunity. This type of immunity does not give definite protection under the Fifth Amendment privilege; at a later date, the court under independent or untainted types of evidence may persecute the person. Finally, testifying without asserting one’s right against self-incrimination wouldn’t receive transactional immunity, but is a viable candidate for use immunity. These are two of the three different types of immunity classified under ones Fifth Amendment rights. â€Å"Sovereign Immunity† is the immunity that says that the state or government entity cannot commit legal wrongdoing. It is based in the English roots of our country, generally exalting the concept that the crown or higher governmental power is always right. For this reason, it is sometimes called â€Å"Crown Immunity.† Much like the name, sovereign immunity holds a state or federal entity immune from any or criminal prosecution unless they expressly consent to waiving this right. This is true in many cases where the United States, the concept of sovereign immunity is waived by the government or the government gives its consent to suit. The differentiation between federal and state sovereign immunity is defined and explained, though it isn’t the most clear-cut outline and is constantly being debated. in the eleventh amendment, it describes suits between the federal government and states, between states themselves and between individuals in different states. Fe derally, the government prefers to

Erving Goffman The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Essay Example for Free

Erving Goffman The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Essay Erving Goffman has completed a wonderful presentation of human behaviour and face-to-face interactions, of a first meeting between two people, who may or may not have an audience. The use of a theatrical performance to explain the interaction was indeed an ingenious idea that kept me intrigued until the very end. This book was written in 1959 but its referencing to human behaviour is still very much relevant to today’s life style. Human behaviour patterns have been written about by many individuals over the years, why we do the things we do or how long we have been undertaking these behaviours. Is there any relevance to the patterns in our behaviour? It would seem there definitely appears to be. As a society, to influence how another person perceives who we are. We give appearances and refinements of someone we want people to see, yet not particularly who we truly are. Goffman describes this as a performance, a play that we put on to give a good first impression. This play could become a nightmare, if we do not keep it under control. It can be difficult to play the part of someone you are not, for the reason that it can rebound on you. It is better to persist with who you are, and not reveal all of yourself in the beginning, like a good story. To present who we are, we should start at the foundation, begin with presenting an opening act. This act should be near to true life, the person you would like to be known as. Currently a person of importance gives the impression that they know what they are doing, example your doctor. If they were a person who, on first meeting gave the impression that they were unsure, confused and unconfident, would you go back to them? No, perhaps not. Even when they are having a bad day your doctor will always appear to be in control, so that we feel more at ease. When we first meet new people we try to acquire information about them, it is then how the person delivers this information, that we base our assumptions. People give information verbally and non-verbally by expressions, movements, gestures and other presumably unintentional communications, like a slight smile. Our brain takes all this information into consideration then makes a personal judgment based on the material it collects. There is so much information for us to collect and make our decision on, that we sometimes need a second meeting to be able to make a correct judgement on a particular person we have meet. Goffman concludes that his own assumptions are made upon a face-to-face interaction and the result of an encounter, the performance that is given to each particular participant and their performance as a basic point of reference. In conclusion, Goffmans writings clearly represent how we present ourselves in everyday life today, and possibly well into the future. References Erving, Goffman (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York, Anchor Books, pp. 1-16.

Shooting an Elephant by Rebecca Bonner Essay Example for Free

Shooting an Elephant by Rebecca Bonner Essay Choose an essay which puts across a strong personal belief in a clear and convincing manor. George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant,’ is an essay which takes place in imperial Burma where he is a police officer working on behalf of the British Empire. He is resented by the people who pressures him into shooting an elephant, where he describes himself as being a meaningless puppet in front of the Burmese crowd. Throughout this essay he also delivers his strong personal beliefs towards his hatred of imperialism, despite working for the colonies, he mentions several times of how much he despises it and sees it as ‘evil. ’ We first capture his opposing view of it when he is discussing his job in Burma, he detests it and hates the way in which it oppresses the native people, ‘at that time, I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing.’ He voices his disapproval of it and it is very reactionary, the word ‘evil’ is used without qualification, this shows a perhaps lack of detailed knowledge of the political issues, or maybe he just feels so disgusted by it, he uses such a devilish word to describe his view. He then goes on to describe how he is against his own government and was on the Burmese’s side, despite his hatred for them, ‘Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.’ Here he shows his true opinion of the Empire, though with the use of the hyphens, adding in how he kept it a secret, showing his lack of courage to publicly oppress the Empire. Even although he has very conflicting views towards the native population, there is also times we see him appearing deeply sympathetic towards the Burmese and their suffering, ‘all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.’ The interesting use of the word ‘oppression’ suggests he is feeling the same way as the natives and in some way shares their pain. His sympathy and description of the Burmese people is the main factor of why he thinks imperialism is an evil thing, by mentioning this often, it helps him back up his opposing view in a clear and convincing manor. He then goes on to say how he is stuck between his hatred of the Empire and for the native people, ‘With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples;’, This part of his mind directly opposing the Empire and continuing upon his strong belief, this unbreakable dictatorship suggesting  that they could never win against the British, giving them a helpless and sorrowful status. Orwell uses his incident with the elephant to illustrate the power relationship which exists between the colonizer and the colonized, ‘It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism – the real motives for which despotic governments act.’ The elephant’s actions are described in a comical, hyperbolic tone, ‘raided’ juxtaposed with ‘fruit stalls’; ‘inflicting violence’s’ upon a ‘rubbish van,’ which evoke a degree of affection and sympathy for the elephant. The uneven balance of power with also the sympathy towards the elephant describes what imperialism has caused within the town, evidence in which helps back up his opinion of the wrong-doings of imperialism its consequences. Orwell is then forced upon to kill the harmless beast, he shoots the animal using a gun that is not suitable for an animal of its size, in a slow agonising death, ‘the thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but he still did not die.’ He wants the reader to engage with the terrible suffering that the animal has to endure as a result of his weak decision, to show the meaningless barbaric acts that can arise from a tyrannical government, ‘afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant.’ Orwell leaves the scene and shows his guilt and self-disgust also that he is weak-willed, leaving the scene before the elephant is dead. The elephant could be seen as a symbol of the British Empire, once a vast powerful force, now a small, weak position. Using this powerful use of emotive language of how the poor beast died, he tries to convince the reader to agree with him that the whole idea of imperialism is wrong and does this rather successfully through his various techniques of emotive and sympathetic language throughout the essay. In conclusion, Orwells style is a major key factor on putting across his strong personal belief of his opposing views towards imperialism. He uses powerful word choice in a personal tone in order to try and convince the reader of why he was forced to make the decisions he made due to the consequences that had to do with imperialism and does so very successfully.

Stimulants to Help Depressive Patients

Stimulants to Help Depressive Patients Different methods have been developed to train and improve executive function. The implications of those developments could revolutionize treatments for depressive patients in which there are executive function deficits. This paper proposes a study for patients diagnosed as having recurrent major depressive disorder to undergo counseling sessions coinciding with a stimulant or a placebo treatment group. The aim is to identify a causal linkage supporting the therapeutic aid of stimulants in treating depression by providing cognitive enhancement to the patient. Literature Review The main part of research I am interested in is how researchers find relationships in phenomenon impacting everyday life. Establishing relationships between events and prove elements of life are interrelated is an intricate process. Professor Twamley helped spur thoughts behind my fascination in her assigned academic journal when she designed a group based cognitive therapy to help veterans, some of which were diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), with impaired cognitive functioning skills. The goal of the research was to provide evidence that this specific treatment was able to help improve veterans overall quality of life. The success of the treatment was tracked by testing executive function and quality of life throughout the process. The results showed that the compensatory cognitive training (CCT) improved participants levels of executive function but CCT for TBI was not associated with improvements on processing speed measures or executive tasks that involved switching (Storzbach et al., 2016). Executive functioning skills in participants were improved overall by the treatment, but participants with a traumatic brain injury still had deficits in executive functioning. It was difficult to see why a participant couldnt improve a particular aspect of executive functioning because a previous traumatic brain injury had inhibited the positive results that treatment could bring. This relationship between executive function improvement and TBI blocking those improvements led me to research more on the topic and develop questions about how improvement to executive function in populations with cognitive dysfunction can improve quality of life. Executive Function Finding a definition for executive function is a difficult process. A concrete definition of the term does not exist to easily describe it and it is still widely debated amongst researchers (Alvarez Emory, 2006). Most theories define executive function as non-routine processing that operates within the brain when presented with a novel situation (Gilbert Burgess, 2008). Its how our brain responds to unique situations that we dont know how to respond to. Specifically, executive function is involved in the control and regulation of lower-level cognitive processes and goal-directed, future-oriented behavior (Alvarez et al., 2006). In its truest essence, executive function is the higher level thinking of an individual. Much of the brain activity for executive function is likely to happen in the frontal lobe (Biringer et al., 2005). This is because the frontal lobe is the area most associated with reasoning and decision making. This region of the brains association with executive functi oning tasks helps to establish the relationship between executive function and higher level thinking. Deficits in Executive Function. Most notable in studies about executive function is what conditions are associated with deficits in executive functioning tasks. The relationship between depression and executive function is widely noted, but not fully understood. This was shown in a study in which persons with a diagnosis depression were found to have deficits in executive function tasks in comparison to non-depressed people (Channon Green, 1999). In this study depressive persons were even less likely to use aids to help them with executive function tasks(Channon et al., 1999). Much of the research on this topic explains how the diagnosis of depression and executive functioning deficits are interrelated, but there is still debate on how the rates of depression or executive function affect one another. Improvements in Depression. There is evidence that once a patients depression levels improve so will their levels of executive function (Biringer et al., 2005). This experiment followed depressive patients two years after to diagnosis to see a full recovery from depressive symptoms was highly related to normal levels of executive function. This study begins to show that improvement to depression is associated with improvement with executive function tasks. This association between depression recovery and executive function lacks causal implication and leaves much more of the relationship to be discovered. Digging deeper into this, another study finds there is evidence to support improvement to executive function after a specialized treatment with transcranial magnetic waves stimulating the frontal cortex (Moser et al., 2002). Transcranial magnetic wave therapy is sometimes used in some cases of severe depression as a final resort to treatment and its effectiveness is debated. It is n ot known how transcranial magnetic wave therapy works in the treatment of depression. This relationship between this method of depression treatment and executive function might explain why this therapy is sometimes successful in the depressed patients. Further research will be required to determine that but other treatments that improve executive function have been partially investigated. Stimulant Assisted Treatments. Modafinil, a stimulant, is known to enhance the cognitive functioning in healthy volunteers to help improve performance on a number of cognitive tasks (Turner et al., 2002). This relationship between modafinil as well sas other stimulants and cognitive improvement has been covered a lot in the media as smart drugs. Some of these drugs are labeled as cognitive enhancers, but there is little talk about how smart drugs can be used medicinally to help depressed populations. Since the relationship between depressive disorders and executive function deficits was established, trials for the treatments of depression in the 1980s with a stimulus drug were reviewed for this study because of the potential positive effects simulants have on executive function. In a meta analysis of stimulant use for the treatment of depression, Satel (1989) found that that more studies involving a placebo would need to take place in order to establish a causal relationship between improvement in depressive symptoms and stimulant treatments . Establishing a relationship between depressive symptoms and stimulant treatment could be beneficial to the overall treatment of depression. More studies need to be conducted to support this claim and the drug used should be investigated more as well. Werneke (1990) said that stimulants very useful role in the treatment of certain categories of depression as well as other psychiatric syndromes and such patients should not be deprived of symptom relief by these drugs. This paper follows that philosophy and intends to provide evidence that this is a viable treatment that should not be overlooked. Proposed Study This study will aim to identify that stimulants can assist already existing therapy for depression on the basis that executive function will improve with the use of stimulants. Participants will take a stimulant drug before the start of a therapy session to ensure that the drug will only be working during the therapy session. Depressed patients seeking care will first be placed in either a stimulant (Modafinil) or placebo condition , following that all volunteers will receive problem solving therapy (PST). This study will be double blind in order to ensure that therapists and patients will not have knowledge that would have an effect on treatment. Participants will be randomly assigned to each group. The goal of this study is to establish that stimulant aided depression therapy will be more effective than non-stimulant aided therapy. Ethical Guidelines In an effort to be ethical and to not cause unnecessary harm, patients will be provided with a form of therapy to coincide with either a placebo or stimulant pill. With this methodology, no patient will be purposefully put in danger of not receiving the care that is needed to treat their depressive symptoms and they will be attended to under a treatment plan by a psychologist to ensure that the study is not negatively affecting their lives. In any psychopharmaceutical area it would be the utmost importance to protect participants from any unforeseen harms. At any point, for whatever reason any participant can choose to withdraw from the study or a researcher can choose to withdraw any participants. Participants. To adequately represent the effect of stimulants on depression this study will recruit 200 participants in total aged 18-80 This age limit is designed to designate the study towards patients who have the right to get consent and that the depression scale used can accurately measure. Each person will be diagnosed with major depressive disorder according to the DSM-V. Each person should be diagnosed as a recurrent major depressive disorder patient ranging from mild to severe symptoms. Participants should be excluded if any hold a comorbid diagnosis or had concurrent symptoms with any of the following: an anxiety disorder, substance abuse or drug dependency, any symptoms of delusions, had experienced psychosis in the past six months, experienced a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime, or any other condition the researcher may conclude would affect the levels of executive function in an individual besides depression. Participants on medication for depression treatment will also be excluded from this study. These exclusions follow previous research for similar concerns. In this study we will not be controlling for level of executive function because the study is within subject design and we are interested in measuring overall improvement of individuals. Therapy Condition. Over the course of treatment each patient will be given counseling treatment for depression. A treatment will occur once a week for six weeks. Coinciding with this behavioral treatment, a patient will be receiving a pill. The pill will either be a low risk stimulant (Modafinil) or it will be a placebo. This pill will be taken at the start of each therapy session to allow the individual in the stimulant condition to have improved executive functioning skills throughout the duration of the therapy. These therapies were chosen specifically for their efficacy with their treatment populations. The problem solving therapy (PST) group was chosen in order to establish a successful treatment method. In a meta-analysis by Bell and DZurilla, PST was found to be equally as successful as medication treatment for depression (2009). By using this therapy we can evaluate if stimulus aided PST is more effective than non stimulus aided PST in the role of social problem solving. In addition, this study may determine if deficits in executive function are an epiphenomena of depression or not. Other studies have yielded conflicting results in relation between severity of depressive symptoms and impairment in executive function (Austin, Mitchell Goodwin, 2001). However, positive results could be the result of the combination of PST with stimulant aided therapy. To truly understand the relationship between stimulants and depression, the results of the stimulant group will be compared with the placebo. PST will focus in areas that have been proven to have the most effective results on participants. These areas are a training for positive problem orientation, problem definition, problem formulation, generation of alternatives, decision making, solution implementation and verification (Bell et al., 2009). This therapys focus is to mediate between stressful life events and wellbeing (Bell et al., 2009). Over the course of treatment we will see how stimulant aid will impact pre and post test analysis for levels of executive function and depression. Executive Function Measures. Three measures for executive function will be assessed in this study. Executive function of the participant pool will be tested at baseline and five weeks after the study has been completed both occurring without any use of stimulants. If there is improvement from before to after treatment it will reinforce other studies that state absence of depressive symptoms is associated with rejuvenated executive function skills. It is intended to see if there was improvement from before to after treatment without the use of stimulants in assessment to gauge the overall effect of treatment. The executive function measure used in this study has already been tested on depressed populations and was found that depressed populations did worse on the tasks below than non-depressed populations (Channon et al., 1999). Since the prior study had been used to compare group differences in executive function it is a suitable measure in our experiment for a between groups within subject design. All measures below are used from a previous study by Shelly Channon in the Department of Psychology of the University College London (Channon et al., 1999). Memory for categorised words task This task asks participants to remember 16 words presented in a random order. Each word would appear on a computer screen for 2 seconds and participants were asked to remember them so they could write them down after this session. They were asked to write down as many words as they can after the words had been shown in an unlimited time period. After that another session of 32 words would appear on the screen, again for 2 seconds each. Participants would have to identify which of the words presented were distractors or the correct 16 words. Response suppression task An experimenter will read 30 sentences in total to the participant with the final word omitted from the sentence. The participant would then be asked to insert a word to complete the sentence that made no logical sense to the sentence. Response would be categorized as nonsensical, semantically related word choice, and straightforward sentence completion. Multiple scheduling task These tasks were broken into four groups of mirror reading, identifying the position of words, object knowledge questions, and drawing objects. In mirror reading, words are presented backwards and participants are asked to write the correct word. In position of words task, participants are asked to write the word corresponding with a location in a certain row of a table. The table would consist of 176 numbers in column one and 176 unique words in column two. Finding words more efficiently was a way of measuring executive function. The object knowledge questions would ask open ended questions about everyday objects for them to identify. An example is, where would you find a keyhole?. For the final drawing objects task, participants are asked to draw everyday objects. Depression Scale. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) will be used to assess the levels of depression in this participant population before each session of treatment. No participant should have their depression levels assessed while they are under the influence of Modafinil. This aim is to see how mood is progressing throughout the treatment not how stimulants are directly altering mood. The BDI-II assessment correlates highly with depression rates by the Hamilton Rating for Depression (Steer, Ball Ranieri, 1996). It is in a 21 multiple choice format and the severity is assessed on a scale of zero to sixty-three. The scores are broken into scores from 0-12 as nondepressed patients, 13-19 as dysphoric patients, and 20-63 as dysphoric or depressed patients (Beck, Steer Brown, 1996). The higher the decrease in rate of depression will be the basis for finding success of the treatment for depression. This depression measure was chosen for its accuracy in identifying depressive sym ptoms and its ability to be completed in two minutes (Beck et al., 1996). Potential implications of this study[1] This study has the potential to establish a causal linkage between positive effects of therapeutic depression treatment utilizing the aid of stimulant assisted therapy. Successful results in PST with stimulant aid versus PST without stimulant aid would infer that executive function aid could improve the success of a therapy. The results can determine that executive functioning and depression are more interrelated than we think. If a link is proven between depression and executive function improvement it could expand our treatment practices for depression. Fluoxetine, one of depressions most utilized treatment options, was found to be ineffective in some women who have low levels of executive function coinciding with their depression (Dunkin et al., 2000). If we are able to advance executive function, then we can further enhance treatments so that depressive symptoms would continue to decrease instead. In addition, stimulants can have less side effects than other psychiatric medicatio ns (Satel et al., 1989). Findings from this study can provide safer, more effective treatment for populations that have difficulty finding dependable treatment options. References Gilbert, S. J., Burgess, P. W. (2008). Executive function. Current Biology, 18(3). doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.12.014 Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., Brown, G.K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. [1]how to assess this?

The Effects of Alcohol on the Body Essay -- Alcohol Drinking Liquor Es

The Effects of Alcohol on the Body You are in college, you are at a party, and you are drunk. You, and the people around you, know you are drunk by your disorientated behavior but do they know what is causing you to act in this manner? Most likely not. Most people do not think about what the alcohol inside them is doing, the only thing they are worried about is the buzz that they get from it. Moderate drinking is alright but drinking excessively can wear out the body.   Three important things to know about alcohol are how it enters and leaves the body, the effects of alcohol, and how the body responds to alcohol. After the drink is consumed, the alcohol enters the blood stream. After it enters the blood stream it dissolves in the water in the blood and gets carried throughout the body. The alcohol then enters the tissues and dissolves in the water in the tissue; it does this for every tissue but fat tissue. Alcohol is not able to dissolve in fat so it is incapable of dissolving in fat tissue. This explains why women feel the effect, and get drunk quicker than men do. Women tend to have more fat, whereas men tend to have more muscle. Because muscle has more water, the alcohol becomes more diluted in a male. Once the alcohol is absorbed into the body it leaves in three different ways: the kidney, lungs and liver. The kidney removes 5 percent of the alcohol in the urine. One of the duties of the kidney is to regulate the composition of blood in the body. Through this process the blood level is maintained by the removal of unwanted substances from the blood and into the urine. Another 5 percent of the alcohol is exhaled through the lungs. Ever wonder how a breathalyzer works? When the blood enters the lungs some alcohol m... ...affects almost every part of your body since the alcohol is circulated throughout the bloodstream. The affects of alcohol depend almost entirely on how high the person's blood alcohol content is. The most significant thing a person can do to avoid harming themselves is to pay attention to how much they drink, and how quick they consume the alcohol. The three important things to know about alcohol are how the alcohol enters and leaves the body, how the body is affected and what the body does in response to the alcohol. By knowing these three things a person can drink responsibly through the knowledge of what is going on inside their body. The next time you are out at a party pay attention to not only how much you drink but also keep and eye on your friends. But remember, you do not need alcohol to have a good time and it is definitely not the answer to your problems. The Effects of Alcohol on the Body Essay -- Alcohol Drinking Liquor Es The Effects of Alcohol on the Body You are in college, you are at a party, and you are drunk. You, and the people around you, know you are drunk by your disorientated behavior but do they know what is causing you to act in this manner? Most likely not. Most people do not think about what the alcohol inside them is doing, the only thing they are worried about is the buzz that they get from it. Moderate drinking is alright but drinking excessively can wear out the body.   Three important things to know about alcohol are how it enters and leaves the body, the effects of alcohol, and how the body responds to alcohol. After the drink is consumed, the alcohol enters the blood stream. After it enters the blood stream it dissolves in the water in the blood and gets carried throughout the body. The alcohol then enters the tissues and dissolves in the water in the tissue; it does this for every tissue but fat tissue. Alcohol is not able to dissolve in fat so it is incapable of dissolving in fat tissue. This explains why women feel the effect, and get drunk quicker than men do. Women tend to have more fat, whereas men tend to have more muscle. Because muscle has more water, the alcohol becomes more diluted in a male. Once the alcohol is absorbed into the body it leaves in three different ways: the kidney, lungs and liver. The kidney removes 5 percent of the alcohol in the urine. One of the duties of the kidney is to regulate the composition of blood in the body. Through this process the blood level is maintained by the removal of unwanted substances from the blood and into the urine. Another 5 percent of the alcohol is exhaled through the lungs. Ever wonder how a breathalyzer works? When the blood enters the lungs some alcohol m... ...affects almost every part of your body since the alcohol is circulated throughout the bloodstream. The affects of alcohol depend almost entirely on how high the person's blood alcohol content is. The most significant thing a person can do to avoid harming themselves is to pay attention to how much they drink, and how quick they consume the alcohol. The three important things to know about alcohol are how the alcohol enters and leaves the body, how the body is affected and what the body does in response to the alcohol. By knowing these three things a person can drink responsibly through the knowledge of what is going on inside their body. The next time you are out at a party pay attention to not only how much you drink but also keep and eye on your friends. But remember, you do not need alcohol to have a good time and it is definitely not the answer to your problems.

Complementarity and Substitution in the Theory of Capital :: essays papers

Complementarity and Substitution in the Theory of Capital This essay is an explanation and importance of complementarity and substitution in the theory of capital. Complementarity can be usually seen in goods with â€Å"sympathetic shifts in demand.† It is also important to realize the narrowness of the traditional treatment of complementarity. Complementarity is analyzed in a single enterprise and also in the economic system as a whole. In the latter complementarity is analyzed in an economic system in equilibrium and also in disequilibrium. In an economic system with equilibrium all the acts of all individuals are consistent with each other and all factors of production are complementary. The system with disequilibrium on the contrary, realizes that while a factor of substitution eliminates another factor, another will be created, though possibly it might be of a different mode. It is idealistic to think that capital structure can only exist in equilibrium, but realistically, capital structure is in a state of continuous transformation. Any major change creates a situation of instability of the capitalistic economy. A clear example of this is the accumulation of capital on profits and the inducement to invest. As capital accumulation grows, investment opportunities and the rate of profit decline. Also, the existence of unused human or material resources provides potential complements for new productive combinations, which in result produce the changes in capital. These unused resources have two main functions in the world of dynamic change. First, they reduce the shock when disintegration exists, and second they stimulate the investment of capital goods complementary to them. In conclusion, the theory of capital is a dynamic discipline, and is not in static equilibrium.

Marketing – Delta Faucets

Delta Faucets – Final Project One of the most luxurious and exquisite brands in the world of faucets and bathroom fittings is Delta Faucets. The branding of Delta has been a very remarkable process – it targets the highest niche of the market with its products that have the highest finish and technological innovation. It is compelling to think how technology could be introduced in bathroom fittings and faucets. Delta faucets are embedded with technologically innovative ideas and thus are distinctive in nature from all of its competitor products. Marketing Mix Analysis Overview Established in 1954 as a home improvement and building products, Delta Faucet Company is a subsidiary of Masco Corporation. This company is one of the largest manufacturers of home fittings and building products. The company has been very innovative in the faucets business and its business philosophy has made it adopt an innovative approach to the traditional business of manufacturing home fittings. The company manufactures a wide range of home fitting products but apart from that, it has a list of patented designs and products to its credit. This includes a variety of breakthrough technologies and innovative ideas that have led to faucets being more intelligent than just ordinary home fittings. Targeted distinctively for corporate offices and exquisite homes, Delta Faucet products are not for the ordinary people. The products marketing campaign is equally exquisite and yet simple. The website of the company shows the innovative ideas that have been the reason for its success in the business and a targeted marketing strategy for corporate offices has been the key to its distinguishment from other products in the marketplace. This paper will analyze the marketing mix of Delta Faucets and dissect the different elements of its marketing strategy that have been crucial to its success. Product Delta Faucet products are home fittings and building materials that simply defy the convention. The products of Delta Faucet are value-added in that they are the result of innovation and technological embedding – Delta Faucets enabling it to be the market leader in innovative faucets and fittings patent most of these designs. The product comes in lavish packaging however, since Delta Faucet hones the â€Å"green† paradigm, the packaging is biodegradable but manages to provide the buyer an exquisite image well. Pricing Bathroom fittings and kitchen fittings that cost as much as tyre cars are the norm for Delta Faucet products. It should be remembered that Delta does not target a large population – rather it skims the top most segment of the market. It would rather be that Delta Faucets are used for corporate bathrooms than for private home fittings (Etzel, Walker, Walker & Stanton, 2003). Delta Faucet prices well above its nearest competitors enabling it to reach the premiums of high pricing. Placement Delta Faucet is not short of outlets for placing its faucets. It operates in more than 53 countries using an efficient supply chain network with reduced lead-time. The company has an extensive network of distributors and retailers that sell Delta Faucets products throughout North America and Europe. The use of information systems in its supply chain network has been one of the strongest plus factors for Delta Faucet enabling it to strengthen its placement strategies (Pelyco, 2003). Promotional Mix Delta Faucet manages to market its products using a variety of strategies: in spite of being a luxury product, Delta Faucet has been able to stir its demand over the years using corporate magazine marketing as the primary tool (About Delta, 2009). A combination of viral marketing amongst the corporate world (through secretaries of executives) is the most relied upon form of promotion at Delta Faucets. It also houses exquisite showrooms and display centers for the people that are abounded by physical marketing and the â€Å"touch and feel† of things. It is perhaps this strategy that is the most consistent with Delta Faucets. Overall, Delta Faucet has been very pervasive in its marketing and promotional strategies. It has strived to make sure that it is chosen by the top-notch sector of the society by constantly dwelling on copyright technology and innovation. Delta Faucet projects itself as a brand that is for the elite; keeping this into view, it can be concluded that the price and promotional strategy of the product are well in tandem with the products image and nature (Pride & Ferrell, 2007). Delta Faucet needs no revision of its marketing strategy: it only needs to broaden its horizons. Turning from an exquisite product to a luxury product high in demand amongst wider elite would be a better strategy for the company – and this is what Delta Faucets should be eyeing for in the near future in order to stand out against its competitors in this fiery era of globalization and expand its profitability. References About Delta (2009). Delta Faucet Company: Who are We? Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from: http://www. deltafaucetcompany. com/company/whoweare. html Etzel, M. J. , Walker, B. J. , Walker, S. , & Stanton, W. J. (2000). Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Pelyco (2003). Delta Faucet Company achieves continued success with Peyco Supply Chain visibility solution. Retrieved on December 15, 2009 from: http://www. pelyco. com/press_release_02_20_03. htm Pride, W. , Ferrell, O. C. (2007). Foundations of Marketing: Revised Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Expanding Coverage, Aging Population, and Economic Recovery Essay

Unprepared to pay the high cost of health care, baby boomers are entering a Medicare and Medicaid system that currently serves 100 million Americans. 2015 to 2023, the cost of health care is anticipated to rise by 6%, that is 2% more than the past five years. Health care is not expected to inflate as it did in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The prediction for health care spending in the US this year is beyond $3 trillion. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2014) Obama Care is considered liable for the 2% inflated health care cost. Due to the health care mandate, nine million signed up for health care this year and it is projected another eight million will seek health care in 2015. â€Å"Medicare and Medicaid will drive costs from 2016-2023, with average annual increases  of 7.3 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. For Medicare, it’s partly due to the retirement of the baby-boom generation, while Medicaid will see higher use of services by elderly and disabled beneficiaries†. ( Alonso-Zaldivar, 2014) Despite the out of pocket cost increases due to Medicare cuts, baby boomers will perpetuate the need for health care. The increased health care needs will lead to job opportunities in the medical field. Reference Alonso-Zaldivar, R. (September 14, 2014) Expanding Coverage, Aging Population, and Economic Recovery likely to spur Health Care Inflation Retrieved from http://www.startribune/style/health/273892451.html

Teen Sex

Teen Sex Many teenagers are engaging in having sex. A lot of them are doing it just to fit in and some are doing it because of peer pressure. Yes I believe abstinence programs discourage teen sex but a lot of teenagers need an abstinence education as well as a comprehensive sex education. Although some say that Abstinence and comprehensive sex education programs in schools are a bad idea, I think otherwise because some students need help learning about birth control and if they're ready for sex.The government needs to fund teen sex programs that guide teenagers through which sexual direction they want to go in and things they want to learn about such as Comprehensive education, Abstinence education and Pregnancy. Comprehensive sex education has been proven more effective. Comprehensive sex is well needed in schools. It does not encourage teens to start having sexual intercourse. This program is what young people need; an honest effective sex education.Comprehensive sex education prog rams help youth delay from sexual activity, it reduces the frequency of sexual activity, and it reduces the number of sexual partners and increases condom and contraceptive use. Without a Comprehensive sex education program in schools, teen sex increases, more teens will experience negative sexual health outcomes and pregnancy. â€Å"Medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sex education in schools, education that include information about both, abstinence and contraception, both from a values and public-health perspective. † (Rep. Lee and Sen.Frank Lautenberg, 2005, P. 776) Abstinence programs can help teens delay sex. Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity. I think that abstinence education convinces teens to postpone sex; which is a good thing because they are too young. Without an abstinence program, more students would be engaging in sex. â€Å"Federal governme nt only funds abstinence education, even though at least 75 percent of parents say they want teens to be taught about both abstinence and contraception. (As cited in CQ researcher, 2005, pg. 771) Pregnancy is often the result of teen sex. With abstinence and comprehensive sex education programs, pregnancy rates will decrease. Teen mothers are less likely to finish high school and more likely to end up on welfare, and their children are at greater risk for abuse and neglect. The majority of teen mothers raise their children alone without the help of the child’s father, which makes it much harder. â€Å"Twenty percent of teen mothers have a second child before the age of 20. † (Sarah Brown, 2005, pg. 763) It’s very hard for teen mothers to go to schoolGovernments need to fund teen sex programs that guide teen through sexual activity. Teenagers are having sex to fit in and some are being forced to have sex because of peer pressure. Schools are not responsible for t eens engaging in having sex but it helps a lot for teenagers to go to school and learn about it through Abstinence, Pregnancy and Comprehensive programs. With the students being taught about things it can decrease the pregnancy rate and reduce teen sexual activity. Both teens and the government will benefit from them; teens postpone sex and the government wouldn’t have to fund as many teen moms on welfare.

Feels Like Home

Feel like Home The first few weeks I arrived in Leeds, I felt quite lonely since I arrived late and I missed out the chance to meet new friends during the fresher programs. One day I received an email from the university telling that there will be a party to welcome new and returning Muslims faith students in Leeds Grand Mosque. I knew this will be my opportunity to meet and socialize with other students that have same faith as me. Without hesitation, I highlighted the date in my diary.On the day itself, when I reached the venue, I was surprised to see the crowd that gathered in the place. It was really beyond my expectation. For one second, I hesitated to join the party because I came alone and afraid that I will be isolated from the crowd. Suddenly a friendly young lady, whom I assumed to be one of the society members, greeted me warmly at the door and invited me to come in. I saw groups of young students around my age, busy chatting and mingling around in the hall.I walked to the girls to greet them and introduce myself. They were so friendly and welcomed me to join their group. We started to talk about ourselves, random topics and made jokes. Within that short acquaintance, I slowly felt so comfortable with them and no longer felt awkward at all. All of us came from different countries, ethnicities and some of them are locals too. It was good to know that you are not the only one who is thousand miles from your home. The event started with welcome speech from the society’s representative.Then, we were being informed briefly about the upcoming events that will be held by the society throughout the year. After the short opening, we were divided into two groups to have ice breaking session. We had so much fun during the session. All of us were then later being invited to have some refreshments that had been prepared by the society. Before the event ended, we promised to meet up again for the Eid celebration a week from now. As promised, on the 26th Octo ber 2012, we gathered again in the same place for the Eid Adha celebration.This time was not only for ‘us’ but the whole Muslims faith community in Leeds. It was great to meet even more new people on that day; some of them came with their families and small children too. We had prayer together in the morning. Then, all of us had photo session before heading to the feast in our friend’s house. It was such a great experience and glad to know that we are like a ‘big family’ here in Leeds. Most of all, this kind of gathering makes you will feel like home. I am absolutely looking forward to joining more social events like this in the future.

Bhavesh.Amin

Bhavesh.Amin Essay CSC 4810-Artificial Intelligence ASSG# 4 Support Vector MachineSVM is an implementation of Support Vector Machine (SVM). SupportVector Machine was developed by Vapnik. The main futures of the programare the following: for the problem of pattern recognition, for the problemof regression, for the problem of learning a ranking function. Underlyingthe success of SVM are mathematical foundations of statistical learningtheory. Rather than minimizing the training error, SVMs minimizestructural risk which express and upper bound on generalization error. SVM are popular because they usually achieve good error rates and canhandle unusual types of data like text, graphs, and images. SVMs leading idea is to classify the input data separating themwithin a decision threshold lying far from the two classes and scoring alow number of errors. SVMs are used for pattern recognition. Basically,a data set is used to train a particular machine. This machine can learnmore by retraining it with the old data plus the new data. The trainedmachine is as unique as the data that was used to train it and thealgorithm that was used to process the data. Once a machine is trained, itcan be used to predict how closely a new data set matches the trainedmachine. In other words, Support Vector Machines are used for patternrecognition. SVM uses the following equation to trained the VectorMachine: H(x) = sign {wx + b}Wherew = weight vectorb = thresholdThe generalization abilities of SVMs and other classifiers differsignificantly especially when the number of training data is small. Thismeans that if some mechanism to maximize margins of decision boundaries isintroduced to non-SVM type clas sifiers, their performance degradation willbe prevented when the class overlap is scarce or non-existent. In theoriginal SVM, the n-class classification problem is converted into n two-class problems, and in the ith two-class problem we determine the optimaldecision function that separates class i from the remaining classes. Inclassification, if one of the n decision functions classifies an unknowndatum into a definite class, it is classified into that class. In thisformulation, if more than one decision function classifies a datum intodefinite classes, or no decision functions classify the datum into adefinite class, the datum is unclassifiable. To resolve unclassifiable regions for SVMswe discuss four types ofSVMs: one against all SVMs; pairwise SVMs; ECOC (Error Correction OutputCode) SVMs; all at once SVMs; and their variants. Another problem of SVMis slow training. Since SVM are trained by a solving quadratic programmingproblem with number of variables equals to the number of training data,training is slow for a large number of training data. We discuss trainingof Sims by decomposition techniques combined with a steepest ascent method. Support Vector Machine algorithm also plays big role in internetindustry. For example, the Internet is huge, made of billions of documentsthat are growing exponentially every year. However, a problem exists intrying to find a piece of information amongst the billions of growingdocuments. Current search engines scan for key words in the documentprovided by the user in a search query. Some search engines such as Googleeven go as far as to offer page rankings by users who have previouslyvisited the page. This relies on other people ranking the page accordingto their needs. Even though these techniques help millions of users a dayretrieve their information, it is not even close to being an exact science. The problem lies in finding web pages based on your search query thatactually contain the information you are looking for. READ: Homeless: What Has Been Done To Decrease The Probl EssayHere is the figure of SVM algorithm:It is important to understand the mechanism behind the SVM. The SVMimplement the Bayes rule in interesting way. Instead of estimating P(x) itestimates sign P(x)-1/2. This is advantage when our goal is binaryclassification with minimal excepted misclassification rate. However, thisalso means that in some other situation the SVM needs to be modified andshould not be used as is. In conclusion, Support Vector Machine support lots of real worldapplications such as text categorization, hand-written characterrecognition, image classification, bioinformatics, etc. Their firstintroduction in early 1990s lead to a recent explosion of applications anddeepening theoretical analysis that was now established Support VectorMachines along with neural networks as one of standard tools for machinelearning and data mining. There is a big use of Support Vector Machine inMedical Field. Reference:Boser, B., Guyon, I and Vapnik, V.N.(1992). A training algorithm foroptimal margin classifiers. http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/papers/tanh.pdf

Two reading report NGO-industrial complexand is globalization reducing Essay

Two reading report NGO-industrial complexand is globalization reducing poverty and inequality - Essay Example As a common globalization and free trade expansion practices, state government and international organizations are focused on addressing the corporate accountability of multinational companies. Other than requiring certain companies to issue forest and apparel certification, corporate environmental reports are normally broken down into four major categories known as the first-party, second-party, third party, and forth party certification (pp. 57 – 58). Even though there has been a continuous promotion of corporate governance in the global markets, there are no clear evidences that can prove that social and environmental protection could contribute to the improvements of employees’ working condition nor increase the overall business performance of Corporate governance is a system of authoritative direction or government which includes the specific role and responsibilities of the shareholders, the board of directors, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). I strongly agree that through a good corporate leadership among the members of the top management and establishing a strong organizational culture that gives priority to teamwork and fair business practices, it is possible for corporate governance to contribute to the increase in profit and business success of multinational companies even though the implementation of corporate governance could sometimes fail. Wade discussed and provided evidences that globalization could either increase or decrease poverty and inequality between and within nations. In line with this, India, China, and the rest of the East Asian countries are benefiting from globalization. Since the overall operational costs in developing countries are much lower and more attractive as compared to the operational costs in developed countries, a lot of large-scale multinational companies from developed countries continuously transfer their business

Personal narrative about social media impacted your life Essay

Personal narrative about social media impacted your life - Essay Example One of the aspects it brought is reconnection to my old friends whom we studied together in my school. I had a classmate who moved with the family to Europe to live had no idea on how to communicate with her. I used face book to search using he full names she used, I found several users who used such names but I could identify her through her profile picture. She was my best buddy and the social media brought us together once more. We had a lot to share about her school and our families. Face book is one of the powerful social media that connect people who have a common origin and interest. With the help of my profile information, the users can view my profile and send friend request. Finding friends was the climax of the fun in the social site, face book brought the aspect of mutual friends which involves getting to know my friend’s friends adding new people to my friends’ list. I loved the idea of knowing more people each time I accessed face book. I left school at an era where social media had just become "the new thing in town" back then. During those times, Smartphone were technologies used in movies and phones when internet access had just been introduced to the market. Among other social sites I chose face book as one the powerful tool of communication globally. It was through Face book that I was able to interact with new friends from the mutual friends. The new friends might have mutual friends that would connect me to many other friends making it a chain of friends. Finding new friends among friends was not the only way, I could visit the face book groups that I knew and from there I could meet the entire society that the group belonged. Sometimes I could get disappointed using face book since some friends provided false information about them. Trying to find my old or new friends was not also easy since I realized that some people are just imposters which brought a negative view about face book. Relationships with people