US stock market Indexes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

US stock market Indexes - Research Paper Example The index is used in the context of actual 500 companies having their stocks in it. All the companies are publicly held and trade on NASDAQ, one of the two largest US stock markets. The S&P 500 comes on the second number as the most widely observed index of large-cap US stocks in comparison to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which is the no. 1 large-cap US stock. Otherwise, the S&P leads the US economy as a part of the index of leading indicators (â€Å"Real Time Charts,† 2008). The Dow Jones Industrial Average index was compiled to measure the industrial component of America’s stock markets, which is the oldest continuing U.S. market index. Currently, it consists of 30 of the biggest and vastly held companies in the U.S. The â€Å"industrial† name is no more relevant as many of the 30 modern components are unrelated to heavy industry. To make up the effects of stock splits and other settings, DJIA is currently a scaled average, not the real average of the prices of its component stocks. To generate the value of the index, the total of the component prices is fractioned by a divisor that changes over time (â€Å"Real Time Charts,† 2008). The NASDAQ Composite is a stock market index of all of the common stocks and similar securities like ADRs, tracking stocks, limited partnership interests, listed on the NASDAQ stock market, which means that it has more than 3,000 components. It is renowned as an indicator of the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies in the US (â€Å"Real Time Charts,† 2008). On the other hand, a number of index funds and exchange-traded funds follow the performance of the S&P 500 by keeping the same stocks as held by S&P 500 in the same values to reach near its performance level. Such companies that have added their stock to the S&P 500 list may see a rise in their stock price as the managers of the mutual funds have to purchase that companys stock

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Strategies

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Strategies INTRODUCTION Live birth with healthy child is the ultimate goal of ART cycles. There is a complexity of interlinked events that decides the final outcome of ART. This event can be categorised as, Clinical (stimulation protocol, opu, embryo transfer, pregnancy rate etc), Patient related (age, diseases) and Laboratory (ART Lab- oocyte, sperm, embryo, media, etc). There cannot be any single thumb rule for success in any ART cycle due to numerous variations in each categories. However by setting up Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and interpreting the data statistically we can have a better understanding of our success combinations as well as flaws. In this topic we will restrict our discussion upto laboratory category. ART lab and equipments are designed to mimic intra-uterine/ intra- fallopian tube environment. Thus by giving minimum stress to gametes a better embryo or blastocyst can be achieved which may result in healthy pregnancy. In order to have significant pregnancy rate various studies have been performed keeping in mind variables like, co2, pH, temperature, media etc. To have an insight of entire process majority of KPI are directed towards maintaining the above controls and also the clinical aspect of patient. This KPI gives us entire picture from patient age, stimulation protocols, drugs, opu, gametes, zygotes, embryos as well as record of temperature of work stations, room temperature, humidity, incubators conditions, ph, air quality , infection control policy. Thus KPI makes us more vigilant and observes the pattern of success or failure of our lab. By using our KPI we can have customised settings of our monitors and set protocol for a cycle. This Gametes and embryos are in artificial environment mimicking natural environment a stricter control on ph, temperature, air are perhaps most crucial. It is believed and observed that a compromise in any of this parameters does cause detrimental effect on embryos. Usually laboratories have protocols of checking the incubator settings, media, temperature daily. We do observe success rate to vary routinely. Where a drop in preganacy rate is to be considered more seriously , this makes us ponder over our KPI which should reflect the cause. We have observed many instances but we discuss about three such scenarios which caused damage to our pregnancy rates and KPI helped us. First Scenario- opening incubator door frequently On one occasion we observed more number of patients than usual in a batch of ART, while other KPI parameters were within accepted range. This observation lead to the fact that increased number of patient resulted in increase in number of oocytes.. This means that the load on incubator was much higher than usual. This load can be described by frequent opening of door to make fresh plates , transfer embryos, change media, observe growth, and embryo transfer. We used a conventional front load door incubator. Our KPI did not have a count or time period of incubator door openings, though it was handled to be bare necessity. To establish this assumption few studies observed that, there is a difference in temperature throughout the incubator where front and upper shelf had temperature nearer to 37 c as compared to other locations. Temperature displayed on screen of incubator was just an average. Temperature probe recorded average temperature of inside the incubator and hence KPI recordings were quite stable . However an important study observed that incubator door opened for 5 seconds takes a temperature recovery time of around 20 minutes whereas dishes took 30 minutes to come back to 37c. This can be explained due to cooler air from room entering the incubator and also cold co2 gas being pumped in due to decrease in co2 concentrations. IVF work station also has heating mechanism adjusted to 37 c but even that is average temp. And we do see different tempertaure in different parts of table. Further work station is also cooled by laminar air flow . Studies have proven that prolonged temperature variations impacts fertilisation especially high temperature affects cytokinesis of embryos. However we did not record absolutely mass failed fertilisation or mass embryo arrest .Though the number was less but the embryos progressed to blastocyst formation and also gave pregnancies. This leads to debate of optimal temperature required for embryo culture. Researchers have proved that core body temperature of reproductive axis to be 1c less than 37c. Interestingly a study observed difference in blastocyst formation from culturing the embryos at 36c .however fertilisation rate and implantation rate at both 36 c and 37 c were similar. With the concept of mimicking natural environment it was observed that preovulatory follicle had 2.3c less temperature than 36c. This could explain why even after temperature fluctuation we could still get good blastocyst as well as implantation. Another possible theory is a temperature regulating mechanism in embryo which remains an interesting research. Temperature fluctuations have an impact on pH also . Considering the importance of temperature and as most study design are carried out at 37c and better success rate at this temperature makes us accept cell culture to be at 37c. In order to set things right measures were initiated to reduce the number of patients or oocyte in one incubator. On an average not more than 2/3 patient with 6-8 dishes were kept in an incubator. Open culture system was changed to closed culture. Procedures like Dish equilibration, sperm swim up where carried out in mini incubator rather than routine incubators. Another way of controlling this could be use of embryo scope or using single step media or bench top incubators. But we preferred the older method to be cost effective. Second scenario- pH of media, calibration of instruments. Our KPI includes routine CO2 check by CO2 analyser and they were fairly within accepted range and settings were adjusted depending upon observed value to maintain co2 at 5 % or 6% . this percentage varied according to media manufacturing company like, SAGE needs equilibration at 5 % while vitrolife needs it at 6% . As co2 is used to maintain Ph . Despite being vigilant there was drop in overall blastocyst formation and implantation rate. A study of KPI statistics revealed more or less steady co2 and temperature with no changes in protocols . A detailed study questioned co2 analyser observation and it was found that co2 analyser was not serviced or calibrated over 6 months. Investigations confirmed Co2 analyser reading to be faulty. This scenario explains a lot about calibration of our instrument which are meant to check and control our functioning instruments like incubator.Routinely a calibration tolerance of 0.1 was accepted by us. We were using colourless media( vitrolife) rather than â€Å"pink† media ( phenol) hence changes in ph of media were unnoticed. literature supports ph to be most crucial for gamates. Routinely a ph of media scaling of 7.2-7.4 is accepted for cell culture. ph of media is also very dynamic and influenced by temperature,co2, volume of media. This leads to debate of optimal ph of media. Studies have revealed variable ph,that is alkaline in oviduct and acidic in uterus. Oocytes also showed varied ph from Germinal vesical stage ( 7.04 +/- 0.07) to MII stage ( 6.98 +/- 0.010). while amphibian oocytes shows rise in pH during fertilisation but unseen in humans. This opens a theory of intracellular ph regulatory system to mai ntain optimal Ph as required . This balance of CO2 and HCO3 in media sets the extracellular ph(phe) while intracelluarly (pHi) HCO3/Cl ad Na+/H+ regulatory systems maintain stability in cell. This self regulatory system of embryos seems to maintain the balance inspite of fluctuations and hence we see blastocyst formation and even implantation rates. Oocytes maintain their pHi through combination of follicular fluid, granulose cells. Hence denuded oocyte are more vulnearble and depends only up on pHe of media. Studies observed that raising ph to 7.4 or lowering to 6.8 affected the embryo metabolism where alkalinine media caused more damage. Thus ph around 7.2 seems to be more stabilising. Studies have observed ph irregularities to affect actin, cytoskeletal elements, meiotic spindle, cell apoptosis, mitochondria position in embryo. This problem was addressed by calibrating our co2 analyser every 3 months. Media tubes should be capped off immediately after opening to prevent evaporation which can cause ph fluctuation.KPI included servicing dates of each instruments with due date notifications.† Pink media† was not used considering toxicity of phenol and above all in subsequent cycles pregnancy rates were up with above correction.

Blaise Pascal :: essays research papers

Blaise Pascal was a great mathematician who lived in 17th Century France. His mother was Antoinette Begon; she died when Blaise was three. His father, Etienne took the responsibility of bringing him up. Pascal had two sisters, Gilberte and Jacqueline. Pascal began his studies in 1635 with his reading of Euclid’s Elements and mastered them by age 12. This won the boy respect for his great talent in mathematics. Pascal in fact did not attend school; instead, Etienne brought him to lectures and mathematical gatherings at the â€Å"Academie Parsienne† nearly from its founding. At the early age of 16, Pascal began to play an active role in â€Å"Academie Parisienne†. There, Pascal became the principal disciple of Girard Desargues, a professor working there because he was the only one who appreciated his work in geometry. Pascal began work on conics and published several papers to do with geometry. In fact, in June 1639, Pascal has already made a significant discovery with his â€Å"mystical hexagram†. In 1641, he began to suffer from problems of health that delayed his research for a year, but he recovered and continued his work. In 1642, Pascal began to create a machine that would be similar to an everyday calculator to help his father with his accounting job. His first attempts were failures and Pascal was discouraged from working on the project for many years. He returned to it in 1644 because of the encouragement of many people. He finished the final model in 1645 after going through more than 50 incarnations of the design, he finished the final model in 1645, Pascal himself did the selling with a few associates but because of it’s high price of and limited uses, sales were probably modest. He did present one to Queen Christina of Sweden and he was allowed a monopoly over it by royal decree. Although Pascal had been raised as a Catholic, later in his life, Pascal had been converted to Jansenism in 1646 and moved to a monastery in Port Royal in France. But in 1658, he left the monastery to continue his mathematical work. Pascal then worked on many mathematical problems, including how fluids and gases behave (1646) this proved that the mercury in a barometer did not move because of a vacuum but rather because of barometric pressure, created â€Å"Pascal’s Triangle† which calculated the probabilities of winning in gambling (1654) which today has been important in the study of statistics and even modern day physics, and the theory of indivisibles (1658).

A Character Study Of Patrick Bateman Essay

This character study focuses on is Patrick Bateman, the anti-hero protagonist of â€Å"American Psycho†, an often misunderstood satire of the upper class American lifestyle by Bret Easton Ellis. The book is set in New York in the 1980s, and let the reader see through the eyes of the protagonist himself by using first narrative. Therefore when reading the novel it feels as if one is reading a diary, although there are no strict time intervals between each chapter. The storyline is very simple. The novel depicts the everyday life of Patrick Bateman with every minute detail. We are put right into a typical scene of Bateman’s life straightaway at the start when we see him and his friends at a posh dinner party. Immediately we get the idea that he is very rich and lives his life in style. The foods at the dinner party are exotic and Bateman couldn’t help keep showing off his â€Å"platinum American Express Card†. Like his friends, he loves to mock homeless people and those less fortunate than him. One of his favourite tricks is to pretend handing a dollar note to a beggar and then taking it away in the last second whilst taking pleasure from the disappointment of his victim. He also possesses some good qualities. For example, he is extremely intelligent and shows disgust in discrimination of any kind, provided that those people are on the same â€Å"level† as him. He even ridiculed a colleague for his anti-Semitic comments. However these good qualities are actually a fai ade, hiding his true personality. Contrary to what appears, he is strongly homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic and unfair to women. This can be demonstrated by his opinion of rap music, describing it as â€Å"too niggerish†. His views on women were â€Å"they are only there to help men carry on the human race†. Patrick Bateman is also very health conscious. Except for an occasional cigar, he does not smoke and loathes others who do. He also imposes a strict healthy foods regime on himself. His regime is somewhat similar to a vegan’s. He eats mostly fruit and almost never meat, with a special emphasis on exotic foods. His favourites include kiwi fruit paste and Japanese apple-pears, costing him an inordinate amount for each. To complement his dietary regime, Bateman frequently utilizes his exclusive, private health centre named Xclusive. Furthermore, he uses a wide range of health care products and medicines. These are actually Ellis’ exaggeration of what happens in real life, where the social elites desperately try and keep themselves healthy, with any means possible. During the day Bateman can be seen as a normal upper class person, but during the night things are completely different. When asked about what he does during the night, he replies â€Å"I have to return some video tapes†. This has become the euphemism of his night-time activities. At night, he indulges himself in murdering innocents and raping unfortunate individuals. Sometimes the shock of doing these things gets to him, and he starts to have panic attacks. It’s during these panic attacks we see really how weak he is. He often confesses his crimes to total strangers. However they always ignore him and think it’s a joke. This, combined with how characters in the book often mistakes one person for another, is Ellis’ way of representing how in the modern world we don’t really care about who we are talking to. One thing that cannot be ignored about the novel is how explicit it is. Rapes, murders and grotesque actions are described with nothing left out. For example, in one of the scenes Patrick Bateman drinks his own urine and in another scene, he cuts out the eyes of a homeless person. To give you an idea of what the language is like, here’s an extract from the book: â€Å"I push the serrated blade into its [a dog’s] stomach and quickly slice open its hairless belly in a squirt of brown blood, its legs kicking and clawing at me, then blue and red intestines bulge out and I drop the dog onto the sidewalk†¦. He [the owner] just stare in horror saying ‘oh my god oh my god’ as the sharpei drags itself around in a circle, its tail wagging, squealing, and it starts licking and sniffing the pile of its own intestines, spilled out in a mound on the sidewalk, some still connected to its stomach. † From this you can see how graphical the book is. Unfortunately this is only a small piece of the whole story and this extract is the most weak in terms of disgust in the book. This simply enforces the idea of how demented and psychotic Patrick Bateman is. The irony of the novel is that Bateman does completely opposite things whilst insisting what he does is always right. For example, he often mocks his colleagues for making discriminatory comments, but he is secretly just as discriminatory. While he outlandishly keeps himself fit and healthy, he abuses cocaine and anti-depressants. This is the core of Ellis’ satire, where he makes fun of the upper class, which insists on their perfection but actually is ignorant on how imperfect they are. Also in the novel Bateman dedicates a single chapter plus many parts of other chapters detailing his material wealth. Also he tirelessly compares his belongings to those of someone else. Indeed in one scene he discovered that another person’s business card was of a better quality and design than his and thus started to have intense jealousy for that person. This can be interpreted as Ellis’ satire directed at the greed of humans and our desperate struggle to have the best of everything. After he commits his final murder, Bateman does not feel good and â€Å"high† as he described it. Instead, he feels nothing. Not even killing can satisfy him now. It is astounding how he was never suspected of any of the numerous murders he committed. At the end we discover that he may have imagined all his acts of atrocity. This deliberate ambiguity is the only mercy Ellis has for this truly evil character. Despite this, I pity Patrick Bateman, for he tried to find pleasure, like we all do but in other ways, and failing to do so. In the end, he is left â€Å"hollow† with no emotion left whatsoever. It’s pitiful how one can become mentally deranged on one’s quest for personal gain.

Reasons to Support and Reasons to Oppose Ecotourism Essay

Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving visiting pristine, fragile, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, purposed as a low- impact and small scale alternative to commercial tourism, which contributes towards both environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Ecotourism travel has significantly caught the attention of various individuals recently. There are a number of reasons supporting ecotourism and there are a number of reasons opposing ecotourism. Ecotourism invented to help conserving the natural environment, it also helps improving the cultural, economical and social situations of the developing countries. At the same time, it can also possibly leads to a destruction of natural habitats, it can be prejudicial as well as damaging the local communities. The reason opposes ecotourism is that ecotourism will cause the destruction of the ecosystem. Tourists would scare the animals in areas where animals live, such as woodland areas. Those animals live in the forest are wild, they are not tame, and may pose a danger to tourists. The presence of tourists will cause stress to the wild animals since they are not used to live together with humans. If those tourists are carrying food and try to feed them, over a period of time, the survival ability of those animals would decline and it is bad to them. On Mexico’s Pacific coast, bright lights from beachfront hotels disorient female sea turtles coming ashore to lay eggs, often preventing successful reproduction (Eco-tourism: Encouraging Conservation or Adding to Exploitation?;pg.2). If you have ever been to any national parks, you will know that the parks are very big and there are at least a few pieces of rubbish in different places. Examples of that include the large-scale habitat transformation to enhance ecotourism experience in Malaysia, track erosion in Costa Rican National Parks and severe pollution by garbage at certain points in the Himalayas in Nepal (The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora’s box?; pg. 592). There are many park rangers to manage the parks, but it is still difficult to find every single piece of rubbish in the parks. The rubbish can be harmful to the natural environments and animals, especially the plastic trash, for example plastic bottles and plastic bags which cannot be decomposed in a short period. The first reason to support ecotourism is that countries can receive the economic gain from developing ecotourism, especially for those developing countries. Tourism in general created only between 0.5 and 13.5%of the GDP for some developed countries (The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora’s box?; pg. 584), it’s because the developed countries concentrate in financial industry and the real estate industry. But for the developing countries, it could generate huge revenue, for example, hotel revenue, sites entrance fee, tax revenue etc. Goodwin (1996) predicted the revenue created by ecotourism and environmentally sensitive tourism to be 50 billion and 300 billion US$ in the year 2000, respectively (The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora’s box?; pg. 580). It can also generate foreign currencies for their economic development. Ecotourism can also generate employment opportunities for the local communities, they can have more type of work to choose. In Bhutan, ecotourism plays an important role in generating employment opportunities, because there are 80 % of people work in agricultural sector, but conservative figures by the Tourism Council of Bhutan estimate tourism’s contribution to GDP at US$90 million in 2010, and there are now 21,000people employed directly and indirectly in tourism (Bhutan, A Model for Sustainable Tourism Development; pg. 15). The living standard of the local people is increased and compare to the extractive uses of land that ecotourism is more sustainable that locals could gain the long term income. Another reason is, to the developed and developing countries, many of the lands have ecological value for economic development. Developing ecotourism can make the sites protected well because it can generate foreign currency which provides a strong incentive to the government to conserve the sites. The governments will protect the sites for sustainable development but not destroying it, for example hiring park rangers to manage the sites. Also they will promote sites protection to the local resident, since they may not notice about the place they live now is that beautiful and need to conserve it, develop ecotourism can increase their awareness on protecting the sites. Since sustainable development is important to the sites, the government will improve the maintenance of the sites and have a good management. The last reason is ecotourism can increase sense of mission among tourists on nature and tourists can benefit from the local cultures. They can gain more knowledge about the nature since they can experience that directly. Local residents can benefit from the environmental education ecotourism provides. Honduran schoolchildren from the capital city of Tegucigalpa are routinely taken to visit the La Tigra cloud forest visitor center, to learn about the intricacies of the rainforests (Eco-tourism: Encouraging Conservation or Adding to Exploitation? ;pg.2). Tourist always like shopping while traveling, ecotourism can let them have more interaction with the nature, local residents and have a relaxing time, not just shopping but also enjoy the natural environment and try to travel on foot. Tourists are able to have an opportunity benefit from local cultures and understand the country more deeply. Some countries will promote that supporting local cultures by eating foods which are locally grown, having lunch in local-owned restaurants, taking part in their traditional activities, buying food at stores. The rise of interest in ecotourism is beneficial to many aspects, the government can achieve economic gains, and the local communities have a higher income. Also, it is beneficial to the ecotourism sites that the sites can be protected well and beneficial to the tourists that they can gain more knowledge about the nature. Although ecotourism may cause some habitat alterations and pollute the area, it can still be balanced between sustainable development and economic development if it is managed well and can be developed in more and more countries. So the advantages of development of ecotourism outweigh the disadvantages. It can also conserve the environment, which is good to all of us.

That Newfangled Technology Essays

That Newfangled Technology Essays That Newfangled Technology Paper That Newfangled Technology Paper Set Phasers on Stun Case Case 14: That Newfangled Technology Summary: On the morning of September 8, 1923, Lieutenant Commander Donald T. Hunter was assigned to responsible for leading fourteen destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 11 to depart from San Francisco to San Diego. They were returning home after an escorting Battle Division 4 from Puget Sound to San Francisco. At that time, the Destroyer Squadron comprised with leading flagship that commanded by Captain Hunter, USS Delphy (DD-261) and followed by; the four ships of Destroyer Division 33, USS S. P. Lee (DD-310), USS Young (DD-312), USS Woodbury (DD-309), and USS Nicholas (DD-311); the five ships from Destroyer Division 31, USS Farragut (DD-300), USS Fuller (DD-297), USS Percival (DD-298), USS Somers (DD-301), and USS Chauncey (DD-296); and four ships from Destroyer Division 32, USS Kennedy (DD-306), USS Paul Hamilton (DD-307), USS Stoddert (DD-302), and USS Thomson (DD-305). The warships conducted tactical gears and weaponry exercises en route, including a competitive speed run of 20 knots. Later in the day, as weather worsened, the ships formed up a column on the squadron leader â€Å"Delphy†. That evening, around 2000 hours (8:00 p. . ), the leading flagship broadcast an erroneous report, based on an improperly interpreted radio compass bearing, showing the squadrons position about nine miles off Point Arguello. About an hour later, the destroyers turned east to enter what was thought to be the Santa Barbara Channel, though it could not be seen owing to the thick fog. Unfortunately, due to a combination of abnormally strong currents and navigational complacency, it led the squadron onto the rocks offshore point and rugged area of San Miguel Island, near Honda Point. Just after turning, Delphy struck the rocks at 2105 (9:05 p. m. ), plowing ashore at 20 knots. More than worse, Delphy was followed by S. P. Lee, which hit and swung broadside against the bluffs. Young piled up adjacent to Delphy and capsized, trapping many of her fire and engine room crew below. While Woodbury, Nicholas, and Fuller struck reefs and ran aground offshore, Chauncey ran in close aboard Young. However, the alarm sirens slowed Somers and Farragut enough, so they just touched ground before backing off to deeper water while the five other destroyers steered completely clear. Although heavy pounding surf broke over the seven stranded destroyers, eventually breaking the Delphy into two parts. Hundreds of thousands gallons of fuel oil from seven ships spilled into the crashing waves, carbide bombs were exploded when they came in contact with the water, and numerous fires began on the ships and on the surface of the sea. Finally, 23 men died in the ensuring attempts to abandon the ships and make it to shore in the darkness and heavy surf. About 450 survivors from the seven warships made their way slowly to the narrow and rocky beach below the cliff during the hour that followed. S. P. Lee S. P. Lee Fuller Fuller Woodbury Woodbury Chauncey Chauncey Delphy Delphy Young Young Nicholas Nicholas What Went Wrong: It later turned out to the light that the Squadron was actually several miles north and further east, but Captain Hunter had disbelieved the accuracy of a Point Arguello radio signal. Following the turn, Point Arguello was dead ahead, and distant only about two nautical miles. The Point Arguello light may have been hidden by the fog. However, did Captain Hunter issue an order to change-of course of 95 ° left turn, or did he order his ships to turn to a bearing of 95 ° magnetic? Additional Factors: Communication between Captain Hunter and Radioman Falls: The communication between Captain Hunter and the radioman was misunderstood. The radioman would report the wrong bearings, when the reciprocal bearing should have been reported instead. Had the correct bearings been reported from the beginning, the ship wouldn’t have crashed. â€Å"Newfangled Technology† Feedback: The mistaken â€Å"error† proved that Captain Hunter cannot always rely on his strong self-reliance and that even a skilled mathematician makes mistakes; and that it’s acceptable to rely on technology. There was no feedback given back to Captain Hunter to state its’ reasoning behind the bearing that was being reported to him. Also, there was no feedback given to challenge Captain Hunter’s navigations. If more feedback was given, it could have been sensed that navigation was off route. Continued use of â€Å"That Newfangled Technology†: After the incident of being reported the wrong bearings, Captain Hunter still continued to use the navigation by radio bearing. It was assumed as an honest mistake. It wasn’t until after the crash that Captain Hunter realized that the radioman was giving him the correct bearings from the beginning. This could have been prevented if the system would have been checked after the first wrong bearing, to see what the reasoning behind such an error was; instead of continuing on the journey. More Information: According to an article by Noah Andre Trudeau, â€Å"California Naval History – Point Honda: A Naval Tragedy’s Chain of Errors†, a lean budget and distrust of new technology contributed to a naval tragedy at Honda Point, California (Trudeau, 2012). Speed was the essential creed of the early to mid-20th century destroyer driver. Determination and self-confidence was a style of command in which those qualities could achieve the impossible while in peacetime the same attributes contributed to one of the U. S. Navy’s most significant disasters (Trudeau, 2012). The 18 ships were meant to travel along the California coast to San Diego, with their two high powered and low powered turbines, four tall thin funnels and a book speed topped at 32 knots. Due to the postwar budget cutbacks, they were operating at 20-30% below full complement. Although a lot of live were lost during this tragedy, all the blame wasn’t on Captain Hunter. Everyone played a part, from, Watson’s fixation on making a record 20-knot passage along with his failure to supervise the navigation, Blodgett’s inability to express his concerns, and the silence of the other squadron officers. Uncertainties surround the new technology, unusual weather conditions and minor equipment problems also played a part (Trudeau, 2012). Lesson Learned: This case illustrated the importance of human error and testing all new technology before use. Although all faults in the technology may not be quickly discovered testing all aspects is critical. It is learned that although you may be proficient in a skill and have applicable experience, mistakes still happen. The people with great skill and power, like Lieutenant Commander Donald T. Hunter, are still fallible as human beings. Despite having a fully functioning technology system to navigate, it shouldn’t completely be dependent on. Instead, the two should assist each other, human intelligence and newfound technology. Additional Reference: Trudeau, N. A. (2012, March 2). California Naval History-Point Honda: A Naval Tragedys Chain of Errors. Retrieved October 29, 2012, from The California State Military Museum: A United States Army Museum Activity: Preserving Californias Military Heritage: militarymuseum. org/PtHonda. html

Padini SWOT Report Essay Essays

Padini SWOT Report Essay Essays Padini SWOT Report Essay Essay Padini SWOT Report Essay Essay Padini is a taking trade name in Malaysia. There are broad scope in manner and pricing of the trade names that PADINI carry on. Padini carries SEED. VINCCI. MikiHouse. P A ; Co. PDI. Padini Authentic and more. Their merchandises non merely fashionable yet besides impersonal which is suited for all type of consumers. Padini holding more than 330 retail mercantile establishments in Malaysia and around the universe of Padini Holding Berhad. Within these a batch of retail mercantile establishment. Padini is doing certain that they are unbreakable for their rivals. We can establish Padini mercantile establishment about every shopping Centre. Padini is among the celebrated trade name established since 1971 in Malaysia. It strategically located factors and warehouses to guarantee they holding broad market coverage in Malaysia. Beside that. Padini ever guarantee the quality of their merchandises is in higher facet for their trade name and in Ouse trade names under th em. holding good quality control. They besides guarantee their merchandises is suited for all ages of consumers. like Mikihouse selling kid and pregnancy wear. VINCCI selling lady accoutrements. The failing of Padini Holding Berhad is the net income is unstable. The consumers passing the budget on garment are depending on the season. In Malaysia. the net income will be at the highest extremum where there is festival season like Chinese New Year or Hari Raya. Another failing of Padini is they have no online shopping web site. For client. they can merely purchase Padini’s merchandise in shops which is non really convenient for the client particularly everyone are busy on working presents. they may hold no free clip to shopping. It besides non all the client is populating in the metropolis and near to shopping Centre. Actually Padini can utilizing the power as market leading to spread out their concern. As a market leader in the retail concern. Padini holding a immense power and chance to spread out their concern to following degree. Padini besides can open more subdivisions to cover loss of possible online client. So far. Padini consider as a celebrated trade name in retail concern which is dressing. lady accoutrements. places. children’s and pregnancy wear and more. Within this countries of concern. possible client is more interested in window shopping instead than online shopping. We think it is a good scheme for PADINI to open more subdivisions in order to pull their clients. Those betterment besides will convey menaces to Padini Holding Berhad. It will increase competition while they open more subdivisions and spread out their concern. Competition is appear where there are legion other trade names which operate at the same location as Padini. The other trade names compete non merely for market portion and floor infinite. Even though Padini have no famous person indorsement. Padini still pull off to be the led trade name in Malaysia. So it means. the power of Padini this trade name itself is powerful plenty to cover the dainties in the concern. To beef up their trade name. Padini should see offering a famous person indorsement.

Berthe Morisot Bio - French Impressionist Painter

Berthe Morisot Bio - French Impressionist Painter Movement, Style, Type or School of Art: Impressionism Date and Place of Birth: January 14, 1841, Bourges, Cher, France Life: Berthe Morisot led a double life. As the daughter of Edme Tiburce Morisot, a high-level government official, and Marie Cornà ©lie Mayniel, also the daughter of a high-level government official, Berthe was expected to entertain and cultivate the right â€Å"social connections.† Married at the advanced age of 33 to Eugà ¨ne Manet (1835-1892) on December 22, 1874, she entered into a suitable alliance with the Manet family, also members of the haute bourgeois (upper middle class), and she became Édouard Manets sister-in-law. Édouard Manet (1832-1883) had already introduced Berthe to Degas, Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro - the Impressionists. Before becoming Madame Eugà ¨ne Manet, Berthe Morisot established herself as a professional artist. Whenever she had time, she painted in her very comfortable residence in Passy, a fashionable suburb just outside of Paris (now part of the wealthy 16th arrondissement). However, when visitors came to call, Berthe Morisot hid her paintings and presented herself once again as a conventional society hostess in the sheltered world outside the city. Morisot may have come from an august artistic lineage. Some biographers claim that her grandfather or granduncle was the Rococo artist Jean-Honorà © Fragonard (1731-1806). Art historian Anne Higonnet claims that Fragonard may have been an indirect relative. Tiburce Morisot came from a skilled artisanal background. During the nineteenth century, haute bourgeois women did not work, did not aspire to achieve recognition outside the home and did not sell their modest artistic accomplishments. These young ladies might have received a few art lessons to cultivate their natural talents, as demonstrated in the exhibition Playing with Pictures, but their parents did not encourage pursuing a professional career. Madame Marie Cornà ©lie Morisot raised her lovely daughters with the same attitude. Intent on developing a basic appreciation for art, she arranged for Berthe and her two sisters Marie-Elizabeth Yves (known as Yves, born in 1835) and Marie Edma Caroline (known as Edma, born in 1839) to study drawing with the minor artist Geoffrey-Alphonse-Chocarne. The lessons did not last long. Bored with Chocarne, Edma and Berthe moved on to Joseph Guichard, another minor artist, who opened their eyes to the greatest classroom of all: the Louvre. Then Berthe began to challenge Guichard and the Morisot ladies were passed on to Guichards friend Camille Corot (1796-1875). Corot wrote to Madame Morisot: With characters like your daughters, my teaching will make them painters, not minor amateur talents. Do you really understand what that means? In the world of the grande bourgeoisie in which you move, it would be a revolution. I would even say a catastrophe. Corot was a not a clairvoyant; he was a seer. Berthe Morisots dedication to her art brought on terrible periods of depression as well as extreme exultation. To be accepted into the Salon, complemented by Manet or invited to exhibit with the emerging Impressionists gave her tremendous satisfaction. But she always suffered from insecurity and self-doubt, typical of a woman competing in a mans world. Berthe and Edma submitted their work to the Salon for the first time in 1864. All four works were accepted. Berthe continued to submit their work and exhibited in the Salon of 1865, 1866, 1868, 1872, and 1873. In March 1870, as Berthe prepared to send off her painting Portrait of the Artists Mother and Sister to the Salon, Édouard Manet dropped by, proclaimed his approval and then proceeded to add a few accents from top to bottom. My only hope is to be rejected, Berthe wrote to Edma. I think its miserable. The painting was accepted. Morisot met Édouard Manet through their mutual friend Henri Fantan-Latour in 1868. Over the next few years, Manet painted Berthe at least 11 times, among them: The Balcony, 1868-69 Repose: Portrait of Berthe Morisot, 1870 Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, 1872 Berthe Morisot in a Mourning Hat, 1874 On January 24, 1874, Tiburce Morisot died. In the same month, the Socià ©tà © Anonyme Coopà ©rative started to make plans for an exhibition that would be independent of the governments official exhibition the Salon. Membership required 60 francs for dues and guaranteed a place in their exhibition plus a share of the profits from the sale of the artworks. Perhaps losing her father gave Morisot the courage to become involved with this renegade group. They opened their experimental show on April 15, 1874, which became known as the First Impressionist Exhibition. Morisot participated in all but one of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. She missed the fourth exhibition in 1879 due to the birth of her daughter Julie Manet (1878-1966) that previous November. Julie became an artist too. After the eighth Impressionist exhibition in 1886, Morisot concentrated on selling through Durand-Ruel Gallery and in May 1892 she mounted her first and only one-woman show there. However, just a few months before the show, Eugà ¨ne Manet passed away. His loss devastated Morisot. I dont want to live anymore, she wrote in a notebook. The preparations gave her a purpose to go on and eased her through this painful sorrow. Over the next few years, Berthe and Julie became inseparable. And then Morisots health failed during a bout of pneumonia. She died on March 2, 1895. The poet Stà ©phane Mallarmà © wrote in his telegrams: I am the bearer of terrible news: our poor friend Mme. Eugà ¨ne Manet, Berthe Morisot, is dead. These two names in one announcement call attention to the dual nature of her life and two identities which shaped her exceptional art. Important Works: Portrait of the Artists Mother and Sister, 1870. The Cradle, 1872. Eugà ¨ne Manet and his Daughter [Julie] in the Garden at Bougival, 1881. At the Ball, 1875. Reading, 1888. The Wet-Nurse, 1879. Self-Portrait, ca. 1885. Date and Place of Death: March 2, 1895, Paris Sources: Higonnet, Anne. Berthe Morisot.New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Adler, Kathleen. The Suburban, the Modern and Une dame de Passy Oxford Art Journal, vol. 12, no. 1 (1989): 3 - 13

Chinese and Western Landscape painting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chinese and Western Landscape painting - Essay Example The painting offers a unique feature that makes it one of the greatest surviving masterpieces not just in China but throughout the artistic world. The significance of this painting is reflected in the time taken to finish it. The landscape painting had emerged into an autonomous genre that clearly embodied the nature longing of cultivated persons to escape quotidian world to commune with the universe. The Lackawanna Valley is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. the artist inclusion of various tree stumps in the in his work foreground makes the piece of work unique, The painting exemplifies a significant philosophical dilemma that many Americans were tackling in the 1850s; Growth inevitably demanded the widespread destruction of nature which was not spoiled. My final comment to this piece of art is the effective use of muted colors experience also known as (Tonalism). This makes the paint a unique master piece and a reflective of the era that is such i mportant in the history of American civilization. From these and other observations, I came to a conclusion this work would be associated to the theme of westward expansion and its effects. Both landscape painters from the West and China have embedded their emotion and personal feelings towards the image as opposed to shallow depiction or appearance of the object. Nonetheless, most of the landscape painting from the west like this one in particular is largely affected by faith of Christian religion.

HRM IN BUSINESS CONTEXT Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HRM IN BUSINESS CONTEXT - Coursework Example Along with this another reason for the slowdown in the market is the inflow of the inferior quality of products into the market for futon which has acquired all the market share of the first time buyers or the students. The Furniture Manufacturer’s association have also appealed to the European Union for the control of such imports from India and the countries of the Far East (Hill and Jones 43-45). The changes in the policies of exports and imports of the government may have an effect on the revenue of the company. This will have an effect on the production level of the company and it would employ less people in the process of production. Thus there is threat of competition from the foreign countries. The company is also influenced by the government grants and in order to set up factory in such areas these grants are essential. Therefore it might be difficult for any other competing firm to open operations in Nottingham at ease (Palmer and Hartley 99-116). The availability of the hardwood and the softwood would have an influence on the costing of the company. Thus the barrier to entry is high for the new entrants. The company needs to have enough labour supply in order to continue with the production process. Since there is unemployment in the area the company can get adequate supply of labour. This means that the bargaining power of the labourers is low. The company is also influenced by the various laws relating to the emissions in the organisation. If the levels of emissions are not maintained the company would have to pay a huge amount of fine to the government. Niche Market for Futons and Sofa-beds The market for sofa beds and futons is a niche market because it is targeted towards those customers who are the students or the first time buyers. This market is an extremely specialised market in the town of Nottingham. The market is of the size of 10.7 billion pounds. The company though produces only a certain line of products, the company appeals to people of all the income groups. This is because the company has product made for the people who have lesser amount to spend as well as for those customers who generally look for the premium priced products. The company also caters to the unique styles and the wacky design segments for the furniture cover. These products are preferred by people with a different kind of taste. The import markets of the UK are mainly driven by China which account for 33% of the market share. The furniture is also imported from the Italian as well as German Markets. STEEPLE Analysis Social The products of the company are purchased by the people from different groups of income. Thus the portfolio of niche products of the company includes something to offer to each of the segments. The company has an opportunity to cater to the other markets. Technological The new methods of technique are used in the production process of the company. The company can use the advanced techniques of incorporating the high efficiency cyclones that would reduce the level of emissions. The incorporation of the new technology would also reduce the requirement of people in the company because the production process would be more automated. This would also be an opportunity for the company if the manufacture the various new technologically advanced products. Economic There are several economic factors that may affect the operations of the company.

HRM IN BUSINESS CONTEXT Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HRM IN BUSINESS CONTEXT - Coursework Example Along with this another reason for the slowdown in the market is the inflow of the inferior quality of products into the market for futon which has acquired all the market share of the first time buyers or the students. The Furniture Manufacturer’s association have also appealed to the European Union for the control of such imports from India and the countries of the Far East (Hill and Jones 43-45). The changes in the policies of exports and imports of the government may have an effect on the revenue of the company. This will have an effect on the production level of the company and it would employ less people in the process of production. Thus there is threat of competition from the foreign countries. The company is also influenced by the government grants and in order to set up factory in such areas these grants are essential. Therefore it might be difficult for any other competing firm to open operations in Nottingham at ease (Palmer and Hartley 99-116). The availability of the hardwood and the softwood would have an influence on the costing of the company. Thus the barrier to entry is high for the new entrants. The company needs to have enough labour supply in order to continue with the production process. Since there is unemployment in the area the company can get adequate supply of labour. This means that the bargaining power of the labourers is low. The company is also influenced by the various laws relating to the emissions in the organisation. If the levels of emissions are not maintained the company would have to pay a huge amount of fine to the government. Niche Market for Futons and Sofa-beds The market for sofa beds and futons is a niche market because it is targeted towards those customers who are the students or the first time buyers. This market is an extremely specialised market in the town of Nottingham. The market is of the size of 10.7 billion pounds. The company though produces only a certain line of products, the company appeals to people of all the income groups. This is because the company has product made for the people who have lesser amount to spend as well as for those customers who generally look for the premium priced products. The company also caters to the unique styles and the wacky design segments for the furniture cover. These products are preferred by people with a different kind of taste. The import markets of the UK are mainly driven by China which account for 33% of the market share. The furniture is also imported from the Italian as well as German Markets. STEEPLE Analysis Social The products of the company are purchased by the people from different groups of income. Thus the portfolio of niche products of the company includes something to offer to each of the segments. The company has an opportunity to cater to the other markets. Technological The new methods of technique are used in the production process of the company. The company can use the advanced techniques of incorporating the high efficiency cyclones that would reduce the level of emissions. The incorporation of the new technology would also reduce the requirement of people in the company because the production process would be more automated. This would also be an opportunity for the company if the manufacture the various new technologically advanced products. Economic There are several economic factors that may affect the operations of the company.

Behaviour for Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Behaviour for Learning - Essay Example Autistic children also have problems in communication. These are as follows: 1. Two – way communication process. These people find it difficult to express their language to others. 2. They also have problems in receptive language. In other words, these people cannot understand what others say to them. 3. These people also have problems understanding non – verbal communication like body language and facial expressions An autistic child also has problems in dealing with social situations due to the problems faced in communication. Social situations may be extremely stressful and demanding for these children as they find it difficult to communicate with other people. Such people may not even understand the general social rules that govern the social situation. For example, they may not understand how close one needs to stand in front of another person in order to communicate. Children may find it extremely daunting especially if they are in an unfamiliar or new situation. There may be some who may avoid contact with others due to these difficulties. Participant description: A thirteen year old autistic boy is having problems in behavior and learning. He is currently working on P levels in autism. He exhibits tantrums, screams, mouths objects, non – compliance, grinds his teeth, rocks, throws objects, spits and bolts. His tantrums usually last for about 20 – 30 minutes and repeats this at least 4 – 5 times a day. The thirteen year old scored a rating of 49 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale which puts him in the severely autistic range. This boy was sent to a special school wherein he learnt the functional use of five American Sign Language signs. However he did not learn any other communication skills including gestures. The Children Act and its aims: The Children Act 2004 (the Act) provides the legislative spine on which Every Child Matters. It aims to promote early intervention, integrate and improve children's services, prov ide strong leadership and bring together different professionals in multi-disciplinary teams in order achieve positive outcomes for children and young people and their families. Five key outcomes for children and young people are emphasized in the Act and Change programme. The act aims to attain, 'being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being'. (Surrey County Council, 2011). Behavioral and communication strategies: For autistic children and adolescents IQ and speech level is not questioned. However, many studies suggest that outcomes can be affected by intervention. Intensive behavioral intervention program is very effective in getting better results out of autistic people. An important component of prognosis is the type of intervention used for achieving desirable outcomes. The intervention also depends on the clinical traits and attributes of an autistic child and the best outcomes are derived from children ha ving high cognitive levels. Intervention is administered via multidisciplinary, comprehensive approaches that may include speech therapy, psychotherapy, educational sessions and psychomotor rehabilitation. Approaches are eclectic and vary considerably across individuals. Speech levels and autism severity are widely acknowledged as two of the prognosis factors irrespective of the methodology used. A predictive factor of outcomes is the presence or absence of speech in an autistic child. Higher level of autism is also responsible for

European School of Business London Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

European School of Business London - Essay Example In October 2007, I have worked as the Private Equity Advisor EBS, at Oestrich-Winkel and as the Estate Developer, with FH Kufstein. Besides this, I have also done my internships with Otto M. Schrder Bank AG, Lukas Bauprojekt GmbH and Aengevelt Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG. I have also worked as a Business Analyst, for Angermann M&A Int. GmbH. I am fluent with English, Spanish and Latin and love to play tennis, ski, travel, trade with stocks and derivatives in my free time. Evidently, I have made use of every opportunity that ahs come my way, to make myself eligible for getting into your esteemed school. I have chosen the European School of Business, since I understand that it is the perfect place to study business. It has great international exposure, which is essential for students and budding entrepreneurs. The award-winning integrated courses are indeed courses that help students get into the real world of business. The importance attached to language skills has again made me feel t hat this si the place where I would like to study, since I have gained fluency in a few languages, as well. Keep

Media influences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Media influences - Essay Example It is through previously established theoretical traditions and research methodologies developed in countries all over the world that enable us to form knowledge and opinion about different elements within the media. The theoretical conventions include those f the American 'Empiricism', European Critical Theory, Western 'Marxism', British Cultural Studies, Political Economy, and French Structuralism and Semiology. Investigating these methodologies, along with exposure to media itself, can assist us in understanding the relationship between the text, the producer, and the audience, and therefore make sense f the political, economic and cultural meaning f everyday life. The worth f media studies itself includes the preparation for media practice, as well as the preparation for skilled reception by the audience, which we are all a part of. For this reason, media studies in society is a vital skill which will continue to be relevant well into the future. Media studies allows us to examine elements f the media and its affect on audiences, whilst investigating the influences that make up the media that we are familiar with. Cunningham and Turner describe briefly the way in which media shapes our way f thinking and allows us to further our ideas and opinions on particular issues. "We learn about world politics from our newspapers, radio news broadcasts and TV; while we may be aware that the views we receive are necessarily brief and partial, they play an important part in our conception f the world." (The Media and Communications in Australia, 2002) It is difficult to determine exactly how he media affects its audience, as the results are different between individuals. For example, drug use in a movie may deter someone from wanting to use drugs, whilst tempting another to try them. This shows how vital it is to study the media and the particular ways in which it affects its audience. It is essential that we continue to try and make sense f exactly how the media influences our society in order to prevent negative effects. When doing this, we should look into theoretical traditions f media is history such as the American 'empirical traditions and Western 'Marxism' J.B Thompson states his ideas about the important role media plays in self-formation, "individuals are able to gain access to new forms f knowledge which are no longer transmitted face-to-face."Individuals' horizons f understanding are broadened... shaped increasingly by the expanding networks f mediated communication." (The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory f the Media, 1995). This proves the importance f media in everyday life in our society. We are assisting in shaping our own ideas and opinions through the media, in much the same way that we are influenced by people around us. When speaking f such influences, we must examine further the specific elements f everyday life and the way in which theoretical traditions have influenced how we think f the media to this day. Politics are all around us. Political issues can exist in the workplace and at home, as well as in our local, state and federal governments. The general public relies on the media to communicate political messages that could possibly effect how society is run. Unfortunately,

Challenges in Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Challenges in Writing - Essay Example For example, after writing about the ‘moment of truth’ in my protagonist’s life (in a short story I wrote), I pondered for a long time for an alternative word but had to be satisfied with ‘the yes moment’ and then still unhappily replaced it with ‘the cool moment’. Similarly I had to spend a sleepless night being unable to break free from the ‘having said that’ and ‘at the end of the day’ syndromes in my writing. To disentangle one’s thought process from the mundane discourses of one’s own mind is another great challenge, as far as I am concerned. This demands great amount of concentration and clarity. This approach to writing is rooted in attaining a crystal clear consciousness when one starts writing, which can surely be cultivated. It is an unconditional opening up of one’s senses to the surroundings so that you can hear a cuckoo’s song heard from far away (which otherwise you may n ot even notice), you can hear the feeble murmurings of wind, and also you can feel forgotten experiences and memories from distant recesses of the past. In such a moment of deep contemplation, I always had the experience of new words, new sensations and new ideas pouring in.

Media influences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Media influences - Essay Example It is through previously established theoretical traditions and research methodologies developed in countries all over the world that enable us to form knowledge and opinion about different elements within the media. The theoretical conventions include those f the American 'Empiricism', European Critical Theory, Western 'Marxism', British Cultural Studies, Political Economy, and French Structuralism and Semiology. Investigating these methodologies, along with exposure to media itself, can assist us in understanding the relationship between the text, the producer, and the audience, and therefore make sense f the political, economic and cultural meaning f everyday life. The worth f media studies itself includes the preparation for media practice, as well as the preparation for skilled reception by the audience, which we are all a part of. For this reason, media studies in society is a vital skill which will continue to be relevant well into the future. Media studies allows us to examine elements f the media and its affect on audiences, whilst investigating the influences that make up the media that we are familiar with. Cunningham and Turner describe briefly the way in which media shapes our way f thinking and allows us to further our ideas and opinions on particular issues. "We learn about world politics from our newspapers, radio news broadcasts and TV; while we may be aware that the views we receive are necessarily brief and partial, they play an important part in our conception f the world." (The Media and Communications in Australia, 2002) It is difficult to determine exactly how he media affects its audience, as the results are different between individuals. For example, drug use in a movie may deter someone from wanting to use drugs, whilst tempting another to try them. This shows how vital it is to study the media and the particular ways in which it affects its audience. It is essential that we continue to try and make sense f exactly how the media influences our society in order to prevent negative effects. When doing this, we should look into theoretical traditions f media is history such as the American 'empirical traditions and Western 'Marxism' J.B Thompson states his ideas about the important role media plays in self-formation, "individuals are able to gain access to new forms f knowledge which are no longer transmitted face-to-face."Individuals' horizons f understanding are broadened... shaped increasingly by the expanding networks f mediated communication." (The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory f the Media, 1995). This proves the importance f media in everyday life in our society. We are assisting in shaping our own ideas and opinions through the media, in much the same way that we are influenced by people around us. When speaking f such influences, we must examine further the specific elements f everyday life and the way in which theoretical traditions have influenced how we think f the media to this day. Politics are all around us. Political issues can exist in the workplace and at home, as well as in our local, state and federal governments. The general public relies on the media to communicate political messages that could possibly effect how society is run. Unfortunately,

The Internet and its business capabilities Essay

The Internet and its business capabilities - Essay Example As more individuals owned their own personal computers, the demand for internet access increased, which started off with simple uses such as email, typing and storing digital information (Veeramani 2000). As with all technology, internet technology began to develop at a rapid pace to accommodate concerns over speed and safety which resulted in the development of web browsers and the use of the internet for e-commerce in the 1990s (Veeramani 2000). This signalled the beginning of a new era for businesses as the new opportunities presented by the internet's e-commerce and e-business capabilities promised significant cost savings, new distribution channels and new markets. E-commerce has enabled businesses to conduct transactions over the internet as it enables instant communication and interaction, as well as providing real time access to information, products and services (Veeramani 2000, Pratt 2002). This has meant that the notion and concept of opening hours, location and customer services have been transformed. E-commerce also provides economic benefits by reducing the cost of searching and the cost of transmitting information which has led to efficiencies in transaction costs and the consolidation of supply and demand (SBA 2004). Consumers would also be provided with better information about price, quality and terms of trade. E-commerce would also expand markets and competition which would lead to lower prices and increased quality (SBA 2004). As a result of the opportunities presented by e-commerce and the technology available in this area, small businesses have been quick to capitalise on this and set up their internet presence. This was significant for small and medium sized businesses as they could compete with the larger organisation without having to invest in expensive infrastructure like building and costly marketing campaigns. Small and medium sized businesses were able to identify market niches and improve their customer search process in response to this (Pratt 2002). Printing technology is undergoing rapid advances as photochemical processes are being superseded by digital reproduction (Pratt 2002, SBA 2004), which is environmentally friendly and more cost effective in the long run, as it will eliminate need for procurement. However this new technology has got to be complimented with personnel trained in information technology as customers are now after total business solutions which include after care, image management and communication needs (Pratt 2002, SBA

Using Kanamycin Resistance Bacteria Essay Example for Free

Using Kanamycin Resistance Bacteria Essay Kanamycin is a common antibacterial that interferes with bacterial growth, by inhibiting protein synthesis, and causing the mistranslation of mRNA. Kanamycin is commonly used in chicken feed to keep harmful bacteria from getting into the eggs and producing healthier chickens. Recently reports of severe gastroenteritis have been linked to eating raw or undercooked eggs. This has led to the FDA to look for possible sources of contamination. Scientists have now isolated bacteria from batches of eggs known to cause the illness, and they found that the bacteria are resistant to kanamycin. The contaminated eggs were found to have come from three different chicken farms, Acme, Big AL’s, and Clucky’s chicken farm, that are geographically separate, and are in different states. The scientists also know that there are three different genes responsible for kanamycin resistance, and that these different genes codes for a certain enzyme that alters the kanamycin molecule differently. The enzymes are located between the inner and outer bacterial membranes, and act on the kanamycin after it passes through the outer membrane. The modification of the kanamycin molecule prevents it from being taken up by the inner membrane, preventing it from reaching the ribosomes. Therefore if any bacteria present has one of the three genes for kanamycin resistance, than kanamycin won’t prevent bacterial contamination (Hass C. , Woodward D. , and Ward A. , 2010. ). The purpose of this lab was to determine if there was a shared source of contamination for the three chicken farms, and to make recommendations for steps to prevent further outbreaks. The hypothesis is that all the chicken farms shared the same source of contamination. The guiding questions for the lab are what is the concentration of viable bacteria in the original samples from the three chicken farms? And what is the frequency of resistant bacteria in the original samples? Methods and Materials: This lab is broken up into four different sections. To begin section one of this lab you need to make sure that your lab area is sterile so that there is no contamination of the bacteria. Then each group gets a bacteria sample, and the letter represents which chicken farm the sample came from. Next each group should obtain six plates. Three have kanamycin, and are labeled with a K, and three unlabeled plates. Each group should then put the names of the groups’ member s, date, lab section number, letter of bacteria sample, and label one of each of the three sets of plates, K versus non K, 10-2, 10-4, and 10-6. Then label three, empty, sterile, microtubules with the dilutions, 10-2, 10-4, and 10-6 that will be made. Next using sterile techniques add 990 microliters of water into each microtubule. Afterward mix the bacterial suspension by gently flicking the microtubule, as shown by your TA. Then for each dilution factor, use 10 microliters of the bacterial suspension, and use this as the starting sample to make three-fold serial dilutions. For each dilution factor make sure to keep the bacteria well suspended by flicking the tube before removing each sample, and make sure that a fresh pipette tip is used for each dilution. Then use sterile glass beads to distribute the bacteria evenly on the agar surface of the 10-6 plate by gently swirling the beads in a circular motion. Then using the same set of beads for each plate transfer the beads from 10-6 to 10-4, then 10-2. Each group should then flip the dishes upside down and stack the three dishes together. Lastly tape the stacks together, and label the tape with your group member names, and section number. The plates should be incubated for approximately 24 hours, and then placed in a cold storage room until you are ready to count the colonies (Hass C. , Woodward D. , and Ward A. , 2010. ) For section two of this lab each group will be working as one group with the other groups at your lab bench. To begin you will collect the petri dishes that you prepared before. Remove the tape from the stacks and examine your plates for colonies. Each lab bench will have six tubes containing PCR mix. The orange, blue, and yellow tubes will have primers only, and will have some colonies added to them. The red, green, and pink tubes will have primers with the control plasmid so no colonies will be added to these tubes, as they will be used as positive controls. Second identify and number the antibiotic resistant plates labeled â€Å"K† which have colonies growing on them. Third, use a white pipette tip and dip it into a colony on the plate labeled number one, and dip that into the orange tube, and close the cap. In turn repeat this step using a new pipette tip each time for colonies two and three, in the blue tube, and the yellow tube respectively. Finally load all six tubes into the PCR machine, and you TA will help you run them. While the PCR machine is running each group can begin working on section three of the lab. To begin with each group will look at the bacteria plates, and count the number of colonies. If the colonies are distributed evenly in the plate then you can divide the plate into four quadrants and just count one quadrant and multiply that number by four. However if they are not, you must count all of the colonies. If there is more than 800 colonies on a plate record the number as lawn growth. Finally record the number of colonies for each plate and use these numbers to calculate the concentration of viable bacteria in the original sample, and the frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the sample. In the last section for the lab each group will be using gel electrophoresis to run their bacteria DNA. Each lab bench will make, and run one gel electrophoresis per table. Once the gel is ready to be loaded, load five microliters of PCR DNA ladder into the first well, as a standard. This should be found in a tube in and ice bucket. Next add two microliters of 6x loading dye into the six sample tubes. The dye should be mixed in thoroughly by gently pipetting up and down after adding the dye. Following that you should load fifteen microliters of each sample into the following six wells. Since lane one will have the DNA ladder lane two starts the samples using the orange tube, then the blue, yellow, red, green, and pink tubes go into lanes three, four, five, six, and seven respectively. Once all the samples are loaded turn on the electrophoresis machine, and wait until the bromophenol blue tracking dye has migrated at least half the length of the gel. Lastly using gloves carefully remove the gel and carry it to the UV light box to view, and photograph the gel (Hass C. , Woodward D. , and Ward A. , 2010. ). Results: The results of this experiment show that the farms do not share the same plasmid that carries the antibiotic resistance gene. Table one shows the individual group data for the concentration and frequency of the antibiotic resistant bacteria. Table two shows the overall frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria for code A which was taken from Acme Farm, for the section. Table three shows the section data for the overall frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria, for all three farms, and which plasmid corresponds to that bacteria code. The results showed that for code A which was Acme farm, their resistant bacteria carried plasmid A. For code B, Big Al’s, and code C Clucky’s chicken farm, their resistant bacteria carried plasmids B, and C respectively. Figure A shows the gel electrophoresis picture for the bacteria code A. This figure shows that code A does in fact carry the plasmid A. Discussion:  Based on our data we can conclude that the three farms had different sources of contamination because the three farms all had different strands of resistant bacteria, as shown by the gel electrophoresis pictures from each farm. Figure one shows the plasmid that correlates to bacteria code A which came from Acme Farm. Based on the results shown in table 3 we learn that our hypothesis that all three farms shared a contamination source was wrong. The three farms each carry a different plasmid that is resistant to the antibiotic so their contamination sources must be different. The overall trends from this data are that there was an overwhelming amount of bacteria in almost every case for the 10-2 dilution factor, and the frequencies of viable resistant bacteria were low so that means there was not a lot of resistant bacteria. Some possible sources of error were the DNA samples were not placed properly in the gel so the electrophoresis was not as reliable, or a fresh pipette tip was not used for each dilution which would have messed up the dilutions. Additional experiments that can be done are use three different farms from the previous experiment and see if the same results are obtained. Our research was significant because it showed that there was not a common source of bacteria for the farms, and that bacteria can have multiple strands of DNA that could be resistant to an antibiotic. The significance of the guiding questions was to give practice calculating the concentrations and frequencies of bacteria. Doing these calculations also gave us an indication of how reliable or data could be based on the amount of viable specimen. Recommendations for the farms would be to figure out where the bacteria is coming from and find a way to keep it from the chickens, or to use a different antibiotic that has less resistant strands.

The Awakening Essay -- essays research papers

The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, tells the story of a woman, Edna Pontellier, who transforms herself from an obedient housewife to a person who, is alive with strength of character and emotions which she no longer has to repress. Playing the role of a wealthy New Orleans housewife, Edna searches for fulfillment in her customary 19th century life, where the Creole society had high expectations of their women. Even with children, a generous husband, and financial stability, Edna finds herself wanting more from life. In the novel, two women friends of Edna, Adele Ratignole and Mademoiselle Reitz signify her awakening and the consequences of her new found self. 	Edna was attracted to both women for their prospective connection to the two existences within which Edna struggles to find herself. Adele Ratignolle is Edna's close friend and confidante, but the two women are nothing alike. Adele is the perfect housewife and mother; she is the epitome of what a Creole woman and mother ought to be. She lives her life for her children, always being sure that they are properly cared for, clothed, and educated. Unlike Adele whose life is fulfilled through loving and caring for her children, Edna is "fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way" (Chopin, p. 18). They are not enough to justify her life. Adele could not understand how Edna could say that she "would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for anyone" (Chopin, p. 47). Edna's being is ...

St.Augustines Theodicy and St.Irenaeus theodicy as a weak response to

Augustine’s theodicy is greatly influenced by the creation stories of the Old Testament (Genesis 1-3). While thinking about Augustine’s theodicy it is worth bearing in mind that he interpreted the Genesis story as a literal account of the origins of the world and also as a mythological story that communicated values and meaning. While most Christians today would not suggest that the Genesis story is literally true, they still value the ideas Augustine puts forward in his theodicy. Augustine’s theodicy is basically- God is perfect and creates perfection (garden of Eden), God gave us free will which we in turn misuse which in turn leads to the fall of man and therefore evil comes into the world. So now the whole world is evil and corrupted, Natural Evil is then a result of this corruption. Everyone after the fall shares in the sins of Adam- Original Sin, until Jesus saves us by dying for our sins on the cross. In the book of Romans (5:12) it says ‘Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death shall spread to all because all have sinned.’ Therefore humanity is responsible for evil. But some may say that God gave us free will in the first place and if God is all knowing then He knew the fall would happen and therefore he is not all loving or all powerful as he knew evil would come into the world and yet did nothing about it. Vardy comes up with an analogy that works with St.Augustine’s theodicy- the story about the prince and the peasant, a rich prince falls in love with a peasant but knows that if he went up to her clad in his rich fine cottons and silks then she would not truly love him but love what he has. So the prince disguises himself as another peasant and ‘woos’ ... ...so a story of a girl who is beaten and beaten by her parents but does not know why because she is so young. Ivan would say that having free will is ‘still not worth it’ On the other hand some believe that Irenaeus’ Theodicy is effective. They may say that the theory works well with evolution, in the sense that the world was bad and it must be made into perfection. They say that we were once imperfect and have since improved and evolved but this would happen through suffering and therefore it is possible to tie the two theories together. Having to suffer in order to achiever the virtues seems sensible and logical as many sportsmen will know that pain shows that your working hard, this also ties in with the aesthetic principle. Personally I believe that the Irenaeun Theodicy is weak and feeble as there is just too much evil in the world in comparison to the good.

Boredom: Prank Call

Boredom paper Can Boredom get you into trouble? That is the question that i will be discussing in my paper. I think boredom can get you into trouble because you tend to do things you normally wouldn't do. Second I think boredom can get you into trouble because you can get arested. Lastly I think boredom can get you into trouble because when you are bored you tend to eat more and more. There's still some good in being bored. When your bored you can draw,read and just write about anything. My paper is going to be about the bad in boredom.My first reson that i think boredom can get you in trouble is because you will start doing thingsyou wouldn;t normally do. If your at home and your bored and hungry but you don't know how to cook what's going to happen? Your going to want to experiment but you don't know how cook,but you cook anyway. You cook anyway and you end up burning down your house and almost killing yourself. See that's what boredom does to you. My second reason that I you think boredom can get you in trouble is because you can get arrested. When your bored some people prank call people for fun depending on their aghe they can get fined or arrested.I went on my computer and typed in things to do when your bored,two things that came up were prank calling people and hurting yourself and others. That's what being bored does to you. My last reason that I think boredom can get you in trouble is because you tend to eat more and more. When your bored you eat just to eat. You eat just to eat because your bored and there's nothing else for you to do. When you eat because your bored all your doing is gaining wieght and seting yourself up for health problems down the road. See that's what boredom can leads too.

The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation did manage to successfully handle the new west erne lands which were acquired by America after the war. Following the war America gag Ned new lands and the government needed a system to divide and govern these new lands. Many of the larger colonies claimed to own these western lands due to their original charters.B t, in order for the Articles of Confederation to be ratified and to pay off the debt from the war, t he states needed to give up their land to the national government, so that it could be sold in order to pay off the country's debt. The large states did give up their lands to the central govern .NET (Document E). In order to govern these new lands the government needed to make new law s. One of the laws passed was the land ordinance of 1785. This new law divided up the land in the e new western territories into sections which could be sold to individual citizens.The money received from the people who bought this land helped to pay off the debt . The land ordinance al so promoted republican ideals by providing a school for each of the new territories that we re created. Providing a school in each town allowed all people to be educated which pro meted equality. The northwest ordinance of 1 787 was passed to set up government in these n ewe territories. The Northwest Ordinance stated the requirements for any of the new territories t o become a state. In order for one of the new territories to become a state they were required to r each a given population and create their own constitution.The Northwest Ordinance man aged to abolish slavery in the new states as well. Although the Articles of Confederation were e effective when it came to creating new states, they were not very effective at anything else. The Articles of Confederation were highly ineffective when handling commerce e. Under the Articles of Confederation it was difficult for the national government to cool elect taxes from states. When the central government atte mpted to place a tax on Rhode island d, they refused to pay the tax and claimed the national government did not have the right to tax them (Document A).It was reported that the national government was only able to collect one fourth of the taxes they requested from the states. The government only received very few taxes from the states because they could not force the states to pay the taxes, and states obviously did not Want to pay taxes that were not required. Not being able to collect taxes had many negate eve consequences for the government. The government was not able to pay soldiers who fought in t he revolutionary war because they didn't receive enough tax money from the states (Document t C).The government owed money to the soldiers who fought in the revolution but the could not afford to pay them. Financial problems also affected the farmers of Massachusetts. As a response to crop prices decreasing and the amount Of farm foreclosures increasing Daniel Shah yes led Shay's re bellion. Shay's rebellion was when the Massachusetts farmers refused to p ay taxes and resisted foreclosures. After America gained independence they were no longer trade Eng as much with Britain. (Document B) prior to the war Britain had been America's most lucubrate vive trading market.After the war America's population increased but the value of their ex ports to Britain did not. Generally when the population off nation increases the value of their ex ports increases because they are able to produce more and their population gives them more military power. Under the Articles of Confederation collecting taxes and trading became much h more difficult for America. America was not respected by other nations and struggled with foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation.After the war America gained a large amount of Ian d in the west that Britain had previously restricted from them. However the Americans were not able to access all of their new land due to occupied British fort s in the west (Document D). The Americans wrote a letter to Britain requesting that the forts be vacated but the British refused. The British refused because they didn't think the Americans were strong enough to remove them Because the Articles of Confederation did not have the power to raise an army it was imp Seibel for America to force Britain out of their land.America also wished to gain access to the M sipping river in order to trade more efficiently. Unfortunately Spain controlled the Mississippi river and did not allow the Americans to use the river at all. America requested that Spain grant t them access to he river but they refused because they did not believe America was strong en ugh to resist (Document F). Due to the weakness of the Articles of Confederation Spain did not respect America enough to give them access to the river.America was unable to effect Tivoli deal with foreign affairs because their government was not respected other countries. The Articles of Confeder ation were unable to control the common people who o W ere given too much power. After the war America struggled to keep both wealthy elites and the common people loyal to the government. John Jay believed that the wealthy c redirectors of the action world begin to lose faith in the new government (document G). A cried tort is someone who lends money to someone else in order to be bayed back in full with inter est..A debtor is someone who owes money to others. In this situation the creditors are the w lately elites who helped find the war, and the debtor is the US government, who cannot afford to pay back the creditors in full. America cannot pay back its creditors because the Articles of Confederation were unable to collect enough taxes. The wealthy creditors began to lose faith in the government because they did not believe they would ever be bayed back. Losing support f the wealthy was devastating for America because they were needed to fund the nation.One A intermediaries claime d that the Articles of Confederation should be refused or fixed rather t Han replaced. An analogy was used which said if a building has a problem people do not tear d own the whole building, they fix the building (document H). He argued that the Articles of C infiltration had very few flaws and they could be fixed easily. However this was not the case. The Articles of Confederation had many small problems which weakened its effectiveness. T here was also one assistant problem which was the over Reliance on civic virtue.The Articles of Confederation c could only be effective if the states and the people demonstrated civic virtue and paired their optional taxes. However human are naturally not virtuous, but more interest De in their own self interests. For this reason the Articles Of Confederation were ineffective at con trolling the people. The Articles of Confederation were unable to control the people because of the e over reliance on civic virtue and the creditors loss of faith in the government. The Articles of Confederation were a highly ineffective first attempt at go verging the new United States.

Sigmund Freud Paper

Many believe Freud to be the father of modern psychiatry and psychology and the only psychiatrist of any worth. He is certainly the most well known figure, perhaps because sex played such a prominent role in his system. There are other psychologists, however, whose theories demand respectful consideration. Erik Erickson, born Eric Homburger, whose theories while not as titillating as Freud’s, are just as sound. This paper will compare the two great men and their systems. In addition, this paper will argue that Freud offers the more useful foundation for understanding the Jenny Masterson’s confused psyche. Sigmund Freud showed signs of independence and brilliance well before entering the University of Vienna in 1873. He had a prodigious memory and loved reading to the point of running himself into debt at various bookstores. Among his favorite authors were Goethe, Shakespeare, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. To avoid disruption of his studies, he often ate in his room. After medical school, Freud began a private practice, specializing in nervous disorders. He was soon faced with patients whose disorders made no neurological sense. For example, a patient might have lost feeling in his foot with no evidence to any sensory nerve damage. Freud wondered if the problem could be psychological rather than physiological. Dr. Freud evolved as he treated patients and analyzed himself. He recorded his assessment and expounded his theories in 24 volumes published between 1888 and 1939. Although his first book, The Interpretation of Dreams, sold only 600 copies in its first eight years of publication, his ideas gradually began to attract faithful followers and students – along with a great number of critics. While exploring the possible psychological roots of nervous disorders, Freud spent several months in Paris, studying with Jean Charcot, a French neurologist from whom he learned hypnosis. On return to Vienna, Freud began to hypnotize patients and encouraging them while under hypnosis to speak openly about themselves and the onset of their symptoms. Often the patients responded freely, and upon reviewing their past, became quite upset and agitated. By this process, some saw their symptoms lessened or banished entirely. It was in this way that Freud discovered what he termed the â€Å"unconscious. Piecing together his patients’ accounts of their lives, he decided that the loss of feeling in one’s hand might be caused by, say, the fear of touching one’s genitals; blindness or deafness might be caused by the fear of hearing or seeing something that might arouse grief or distress. Over time, Freud saw hundreds of patients. He soon recognized that hypnosis was not as helpful as he had first hoped. He thus pioneered a new technique termed â€Å"free association. † Patients were told to relax and say whatever came to mind, no matter how mortifying or irrelevant. Freud believed that free association produced a chain of thought that was linked to the unconscious, and often painful, memories of childhood. Freud called this process psychoanalysis. Underlying Freud’s psychoanalytic perception of personality was his belief that the mind was akin to an iceberg – most of it was hidden from view. The conscious awareness is the part of the iceberg that is above the surface but below the surface is a much larger unconscious region that contains feelings, wishes and memories of which persons are largely unaware. Some thoughts are stored temporarily in a preconscious area, from where they can be retrieved at will. However, Freud was more interested in the mass of thought and feeling that are repressed – forcibly blocked from conscious thought because it would be too painful to acknowledge. Freud believed that these repressed materials unconsciously exert a powerful influence on behavior and choices. Freud believed that dreams and slips of tongue and pen were windows to his patient’s unconscious. Intrusive thoughts or seemingly trivial errors while reading, writing and speaking suggested to Freud that what is said and done reflects the working of the unconscious. Jokes especially were an outlet for expressing repressed sexual and aggressive tendencies. For Freud, nothing was accidental. Freud believed that human personality, expressed emotions, strivings, and beliefs arise from a conflict between the aggressive, pleasure-seeking, biological impulses and the social restraints against their expression. This conflict between expression and repression, in ways that bring the achievement of satisfaction without punishment or guilt, drives the development of personality. Freud divided the elements of that conflict into three interacting systems: the id, ego and superego. Freud did not propose a new, na? ve anatomy, but saw these terms as â€Å"useful aids to understanding† the mind’s dynamics. The id is a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that continually toils to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce and aggress. The id operates on the pleasure principle – if unconstrained, it seeks instantaneous gratification. It is exemplified by a new born child who cries out for satisfaction the moment it feels hungry, tired, uncomfortable – oblivious to conditions, wishes, or expectations of his environment. As the child learns to cope with the real world, his ego develops. The ego operates on the reality principle, which seeks to superintend the id’s impulses in realistic ways to accomplish pleasure in practical ways, avoiding pain in the process. The ego contains partly conscious perceptions, thoughts, judgements, and memories. It is the personality executive. The ego arbitrates between impulsive demands of the id, the restraining demands of the superego and the real-life demands of the external world. Around age 4 or 5, a child’s ego recognizes the demands of the newly emerging superego. The superego is the voice of conscience that forces the ego to consider not only the real but also the ideal. Its focus is on how one should behave. The superego develops as the child internalizes the morals and values of parents and culture, thereby providing both a sense of right, wrong and a set of ideals. It strives for perfection and judges our actions, producing positive feelings of pride or negative feelings of guilt. Someone with an exceptionally strong superego may be continually upright and socially correct yet ironically harbor guilt-, another with a weak superego may be wantonly self-indulgent and remorseless. Because the superego’s demands often oppose the id’s, the ego struggles to reconcile the two. The chaste student who is sexually attracted to someone and joins a volunteer organization to work alongside the desired person, satisfies both id and superego. Analysis of his patients’ histories convinced Freud that personality forms during a person’s first few years. Again and again his patients’ symptoms seemed rooted in unresolved conflicts from early childhood. He concluded that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body he called â€Å"erogenous zones. † During the â€Å"oral stage,† usually the first 18 months, an infant’s sensual pleasure focuses on sucking, biting, and chewing. During the â€Å"anal stage,† from about 18 months to 3 years, the sphincter muscles become sensitive and controllable, and bowel and bladder retention and elimination become a source of gratification. During the phallic stage, from roughly ages 3 to 6 years, the pleasure zones shift to the genitals. Freud believed that during this stage boys seek genital stimulation and develop unconscious sexual desires for their mothers along with jealousy and hatred for their father, whom they consider a rival. Boys feel unrecognized guilt for their rivalry and a fear that their father will punish them, such as by castration. This collection of feelings he named the â€Å"Oedipus Complex’ after the Greek legend of Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Originally Freud hypothesized that females experienced a parallel â€Å"Electra complex. † However, in time Freud changed his mind, saying, (1931, p. 229): â€Å"It is only in the male child that we find the fateful combination of love for the one parent and simultaneous hatred for the other as a rival. † Children eventually cope with these threatening feelings by repressing them then identifying with and trying to become like the rival parent. Through this identification process children’s superegos gain strength as they incorporate many of their parents’ values. Freud believed that identification with the same-sex parent provides our gender identity – the sense of being male or female. With their sexual feelings repressed and redirected, children enter a latency stage. Freud maintained that during this latency period, extending from around age 6 to puberty, sexuality is dormant and children play mostly with peers of the same sex. At puberty, latency gives way to the final stage — the genital stage — as youths begin to experience sexual feelings towards others. In Freud’s view, maladaptive behavior in the adult results from conflicts unresolved during earlier psychosexual stages. At any point in the oral, anal, or phallic stages, strong conflict can lock, or fixate, the person’s pleasure-seeking energies in that stage. Thus people who were either orally overindulged or deprived, perhaps by abrupt, early weaning, might fixate at the oral stage. Orally fixated adults are said to exhibit either passive dependence (like that of a nursing infant) or an exaggerated denial of this dependence, perhaps by acting tough and macho. They might continue to smoke or eat excessively to satisfy their needs for oral gratification. Those who never quite resolve their anal conflict, a desire to eliminate at will that combats the demands of toilet training, may be both messy and disorganized (†anal expulsive†) or highly controlled and compulsively neat (†anal-retentive†). To live in social groups, impulses cannot be freely acted on They must be controlled in logical, socially acceptable ways. When the ego fears losing control of the inner struggle between the demands of the id and the superego, the result is anxiety. Anxiety, said Freud, is the price paid for civilization. Unlike specific fears, the dark cloud of anxiety is unfocused. Anxiety is therefore, difficult to cope with, as when we feel unsettled but have no basis for feeling that way. Freud proposed that the ego protects itself against anxiety with ego defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms reduce or redirect anxiety in various ways, but always by distorting reality. Although Freud was known to change his mind, he was deeply committed to his ideas and principles, even in the face of harsh criticism. Although controversial, his ideas attracted followers who formed a dedicated inner circle. From time to time, sparks would fly and a member would leave or be outcast. Even the ideas of the outcasts, however, reflected Freud’s influence. Erik Erikson was one of these outcasts. He agreed with Freud that development proceeds through a series of critical stages. But he believed the stages were psychosocial, not psychosexual. Erikson also argued that life’s developmental stages encompass the whole life span According to Erikson, a crisis is equivalent to a turning point in life, where there is the opportunity to progress or regress. At these turning points, a person can either resolve conflicts or fail to adequately resolve the developmental task. Delving further into these differences, Erikson contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task. Young children wrestle with issues of trust, then autonomy, then initiative. School-age children develop competence, the sense that they are able and productive human beings. In adolescence, the task is to synthesize past, present, and future possibilities into a clearer sense of self. Adolescents wonder: â€Å"Who am I as an individual? What do I want to do with my life? What values should I live by? What do I believe in? † Erikson calls this quest to more deeply define a sense of self the adolescent’s â€Å"search for identity. † To refine their sense of identity, adolescents usually try out different â€Å"selves† in different situations – perhaps acting out one self at home, another with friends and still another at school and work. If two of these situations overlap – like when a teenager brings a friend home from school – the discomfort can be considerable. The teen may ask, â€Å"Which self is the real me? Which self should I be? † Often, this role confusion gets resolved by the gradual reshaping of a self-definition that unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense of who one is – an identity. But not always, Erikson believes that some adolescents forge their identity early, simply by taking on their parents’ values and expectations. Others may adopt a negative identity that defines itself in opposition to parents and society but in conformity with a particular peer group, complete perhaps with the shaved head or multi-colored coif. Still others never quite seem to find themselves or to develop strong commitments. For most, the struggle for identity continues past the teen years and reappears at turning points during adult life. During the first social stage, trust versus mistrust, an infant’s basic task is to develop a sense of trust in self, others, and the world. The infant needs to count on others and develop a sense of acceptance and security. This sense of trust is learned by being caressed and cared for. From Erikson’s viewpoint, if the significant others in an infant’s life provide the necessary love, the infant develops a sense of trust. When love is absent, the result is a general sense of mistrust in others. Clearly, infants who feel accepted are in a more favorable position to successfully meet future developmental crises than are those who do not receive adequate nurturing. However, Erikson postulates that since development is a ongoing lifelong process, personality is not fixed at any given time. Events, circumstances, and social relationships are dynamic and changing. Thus, even a child who emerged from the first stage of life with a strong sense of trust may become mistrustful and cy! nical if betrayed in later social relationships. Hence, personality is not viewed as fixed by the fifth year of life, as Freud believed, but remains fluid throughout the life span. Between the ages of one and three (Freud’s anal stage), children are developing a growing sense of control over their lives. They can now walk, run, climb, and get into all sorts of mischief. A sense of autonomy develops as they learn new skills and achieve a feeling of control over their environment. Thus Erikson’s titles this stage Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt. During this period, some parents, out of concern or impatience with their children’s progress may intervene and do things that the children should be doing by themselves. Other parents may demand a level of competence of which their children are not yet physically and/or emotionally capable. In either case, these children begin to doubt their own abilities and feel ashamed when they fail to live up to parental expectations. Children who fail to master the tasks of establishing some control over themselves and coping with the world around them develop a sense of shame and feelings of doubt about their capabilities During the next stage, Initiative versus Guilt, which takes place during the preschool years (ages 4 to 6 – Freud’s phallic stage), children seek to find out how much they can do. According to Erikson, the basic task of preschool years is to establish a sense of competence and initiative. Preschool children begin to initiate many of their own activities as they become physically and psychologically ready to engage in pursuits of their own choosing. If they are allowed realistic freedom to choose their own activities and make some of their own decisions, they tend to develop a positive orientation characterized by confidence to initiate actions and follow through on them. On the other hand, if they are unduly restricted, or if their choices are ridiculed, they tend to experience a sense of guilt and ultimately withdraw from taking an active and initiating stance. By the age of six, the child should enter elementary school. It is during this age that the stage of Industry versus Inferiority occurs. During the ensuing five years, the most important events in the child’s life revolve around setting and accomplishing goals related to school situations. When children are successful in mastering the many behaviors expected of them during these years, they develop feelings of competency and a sense of industry. They may express such feelings as: â€Å"I can do anything if I just work hard enough. Children who encounter failure during the early grades may experience severe handicaps later on. A child with learning problems may begin to feel like a worthless person. Such feelings may drastically affect his or her relationships with peers, which are also vital at this time. During the adolescent years, teens experience Identity versus Role Confusion. Typically, adolescents feel they are on center stage and everyone is looking at them. They are often highly critical of themselves and feel that others are equally critical. Their thoughts often turn inward. They look at themselves and question whether or not they measure up to their peers. They also begin thinking about lifelong goals and careers, wondering whether they will make it in the world of the adult. Their ruthless self-appraisal is often beneficial. It results in the development of values, social attitudes, and standards. This inward focus appears to be necessary for the development of a firm sense of self and of broader roles in the social order. During the stage of Intimacy versus Isolation, adolescence is now behind the individual and the early adult years loom ahead. Energies are focused on building careers, establishing lasting social ties, and achieving then maintaining intimate relationships. Marriage or cohabitation creates new demands on the individual – sharing, compromising, and relinquishing social mobility to some degree. Also, many young adults begin having children and raising families. Those who were unsuccessful in resolving their identity crises may find themselves isolated from mainstream society and unable to maintain healthy intimate relationships. The years between the ages of 35 and 60 are a time for learning how to live creatively with others; this period can be the most productive stage of an individual’s life. According to Erikson, the stimulus for continued growth in middle age is the crisis of Generatively versus Stagnation or Self-Absorption. By generatively, Erikson meant not just fostering children, but being productive in a broad sense – for example through creative pursuits in careers, in leisure-time activities, in volunteer work or caring for others. Two important qualities of the productive adult are the ability to love well and the ability to work well. Adults who fail to achieve a sense of productivity begin to stagnate, which s a form of psychological death. The years of maturity are typified by the stage of Integrity of the Self versus Despair. This is the most illuminating stage of a person’s life. If all the crises of earlier stages are resolved, looking back with satisfaction of a life well led is a healthy manifestation of self. Maintaining a sense of worth and personal integrity during the final years is natural. Those who could not resolve earlier crises will look upon the prospects of old age and death with a deep sense of dread and despair. Another primary concept to Erikson’s system is ego identity development and the ego strengths that delineate each of the eight stages. His system stresses the ego’s complete and stabilizing influences in a person’s life history. He depicts the ego from a psychosocial viewpoint as the hub of individual identity. As the ego develops through life crises, it gains the capacity to master in increasingly sophisticated ways the puzzles posed by inner and outer reality. Erikson proposed that ego strength is achieved in a sequence of psychosexual stages. Beginning in infancy, the child’s ego must first learn to trust itself and others to become autonomous and self-sufficient. With trust and autonomy come the virtues of hope and will, forms of ego strength that foster sufficient security for the child to risk the potential disappointment that hope entails, and sufficient independence of spirit for children to dare to initiate willingly their personal adaptation to their inescapable realities. Once these fundamental ego strengths are acquired, the child is able to acquire a sense of purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care and wisdom – the ego strengths associated with each stage. Erikson’s theory embodies a well-balanced concern for nonmothetic or universal psychological â€Å"laws† with some traditional psychoanalytic concern for the uniqueness of the individual, especially in the areas of clinical application and psychohistory. So where does all this theorizing leave Jenny Masterson? A Freudian psychoanalyst may have Jenny free associate to certain terms. Perhaps her free association would turn out something like this: Psychoanalyst: Jenny, I want you to relax and lay back. Close your eyes. Now, I want you to give me the first word that pops into your head when I say a certain word. For instance, if I said â€Å"Dog,† you might say, â€Å"Cat. † Jenny: No, if you said, â€Å"dog,† I would say â€Å"dependent. † Psycho: Interesting, why do you think you would say â€Å"dependent? † Jenny: â€Å"Well, they are aren’t they? I have to feed them, I have to bathe them, I have to wash them, I have to walk them – just like a small child. Except they won’t disobey you, and I expect they’d be a little more respectful of all that I would do for them. Psycho: Okay, the next word is religion. Jenny: Futile. Non-lasting. Psycho: Love Jenny: Useless. Really, love means nothing, just like marriage is meaningless. Psycho: I see. Next word, sex. Jenny: Ugh. So vulgar, dirty, disgusting. So beastly. Psycho: Okay. How about children? Jenny: Ungrateful. Possessions. Really, children just do not realize all that we do for them. We sacrifice, we slave so that their existence may be better and what do they do for us? Nothing. Just heartbreak, never ending hearbreak. Psycho: Okay, just one last word, woman. Jenny: Prostitute. Chip. Unclean. Most women are just so ugly, inside and out. I simply cannot stand their smiles – so inviting, those little trollops. Jenny had some major hang-ups in the area of sexuality. Perhaps all her â€Å"problems† stem from this one subject. Sex. Her hostility towards other women, her hinted-at incestuous relationship with Ross, her extreme jealousy of Ross’ girlfriends, her possessiveness, her lack of close friends – all of these can be traced back to her most important subject. Jenny might have been characterized as an anal character. It can be speculated that during her toilet training stage, she refused to give, was prudish and was retentive. It can be speculated that perhaps through unwise parental insistence, she may have come to value yet fear this psychical function and all the features associated with it. According to Freud, this type of person becomes orderly to the point of obsession, egocentric, picayunish, preoccupied with money and material things and obstinate. Jenny is all of these things. His theory also holds that sadomasochism is also a trait of the anal character. Jenny exhibits this. She inflicts and receives suffering all of her life. She is constantly asking for suffering from Glenn and Isabel when she continually insults them, yet they never give in and make her suffer. She creates situations where only suffering can result for her and others, like when Ross and her moved into the same flat. That was doomed to fail. She constan! tly obsessed over where he was, whom he was with, why he wasn’t paying rent – she drove herself crazy, and in the process alienated her son. Like any masochist, she seems in a strangely perverted way to relish her martyrdom and enjoy her distress. Freudian theory holds that the instincts seek pleasure and therefore that Jenny’s persistence in her treacherous behavior must give her some gratification. While her behavior goes against the very grain of survival, and therefore must be neurotic, it serves to gratify her masochistic needs. Continuing with this theme, Jenny believed sex to be dirty, and beastly. It is not known much about her marriage, but one can hardly picture Jenny as a wanton woman, or even as a woman with normal sexual drives. Her marriage may have even been a product of rebellion, again an anal trait, against her family. The principle explanation for Jenny in a Freudian analysis would turn to Jenny’s confused sexual identity. It might be said that she never worked through her oedipal complex successfully. She did identify with her mother, according to her sister however. By identifying with her mom, she may have taken on masculine role. After all, by 18 she was the main breadwinner in the house. Perhaps she wished to possess her mother, since she had taken on the male role. When she married, this psychosexual confusion was not resolved. In fact, it may have been worsened by her husband’s death. It is said that Jenny did not grieve for her husband. Perhaps she merely transferred her womanly affection onto Ross, expecting a relationship from him that was like that of a lover and not a son. Her jealousy over his girlfriends and her kisses under the moonlight certainly point towards unnatural feelings towards him. Perhaps, with Ross’ birth, she was able to find a replacement for her lack of penis. Ross may have been a projection of her true masculine nature. She was able to live her life in the masculine image by being one with Ross. When he died, she kept his robe and pipe, thus cherishing the remnants of her/his masculine identity. Her love of Ross gives an impression of an incestuous relationship. She has fits of jealousy over his lovers, calls him, â€Å"sex mad† and talks of him like a lover (†kissed under the stars†). She is very delusional when she believes that to Ross, she is responsible for his existence but that he owes her nothing. Her actions speak contrary to this. She is the perfect martyr, constantly making exaggerated sacrifices for Ross. In reality, she expected him to repay her with undying devotion. She wanted to possess him.