Critical and Post-Modern Organization Theory Free Essay Example, 2500 words

The key concepts are subjectivity, temporality, progress, and rule of law. Critical & Modern Theories Changing Manager’s Behavior Critical Theories and Post Modern Theories both have assisted managers and management in changing their working behavior. Some of the theories we are going to discuss under this are Critical Management Studies (CMS), Organization Cultural Theory, Stakeholders Theory, Critical Theory of Globalization, Critical Theory and Management and Labor Process Theory. They are also wide variety of other theories as well that elaborate the changes in manager’s behavior but we are going to focus in respect to these theories only. Critical theories have advanced themselves to different fields and subjects. Further they play a major role in social sciences, especially physiology and other disciplines but the changes they encountered within the organization structure have landmark contribution. Critical Management Studies Critical management studies (CMS) was initially responsible in the development and expansion of business schools and for providing academic training to graduate schools of sociology, history, philosophy and psychology. Critical theory is ranked as the most prominent and influential within the development of critical management studies. There are other theories as well, such as; labor process theory, post structuralism and critical realism but critical theory holds a distinctive philosophical characteristic that makes it a benchmark as compared to others (Scherer, 2008). We will write a custom essay sample on Critical and Post-Modern Organization Theory or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Further Critical management studies play an important role in organizations mangers not only need to understand these advancements but to remain competitive in this global world they need to undergo training sessions.

Team Performance And Patient Safety Initiatives - 1305 Words

Team Performance and Patient Safety Initiatives Patient safety and quality care is the center of every health care provider’s initiatives. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report â€Å"To Err is Human†, adverse events and medical errors happen at an alarming rate with approximately 400,000 deaths a year (Epps Levin, 2015). An evidence-based practice, team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient safety (TeamSTEPPS), is a comprehensive program that brings staff together to train and enhance patient safety initiatives (Epps Levin, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to determine the tools teams use to improve patient safety while incorporating teams’ strategies to provide quality care and how this applies to the†¦show more content†¦These elements, when put to proper use, will create an environment of teamwork, reduced medical errors, and positive patient outcomes. Leadership can support a TeamSTEPPS approach to improving patient safety and quality of care. Through financial assistance, communication effort, and a commitment to providing high-quality training to all disciplines, organizations can support the directives in TeamSTEPPS (Ward, Zhu Lampman, 2013). Team leadership is a key core competency of the Team STEPPS approach to promoting quality and preventing errors (Clancy Tornberg, 2007). Team leaders must be adept at motivating, creating a positive environment, assess performance, and creating opportunities for education and skill development (Clancy Tornberg, 2007). Partnering with a member of senior leadership is an additional strategy for increasing performance and patient safety (AHRQ, 2012). Specific strategies the senior leader can adopt are to meet with the team on a regular basis to identify and remove barriers to project success. They can accomplish this by allocating needed resources, facilitating interdepartmental communication, which increases project awareness and support at the executive level (AHRQ, 2012). The multidisciplina ry staff including physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals must work together as a team to provide

The Elements of Transition and Threshold Spaces Free Essays

Passage infinites are those infinites that are passed through in the journey to finish, some being the finish themselves. Threshold is a starting point or point at which something begins to take consequence. Passages and thresholds are infinites or points of alteration in a journey. We will write a custom essay sample on The Elements of Transition and Threshold Spaces or any similar topic only for you Order Now They define our place in relation to where we have come from and where we are traveling. The experience and impact of a passage infinite is influenced by how it is revealed and how it relates to its milieus. It is believed that we, the perceivers are in a uninterrupted duologue with the infinite we are detecting. All the elements in the infinite speak to us. The more dominant 1s tend to talk first or we can state reveal foremost. This disclosure creates interesting experience through a passage infinite, making a better sense of journey and topographic point. There are assorted ways in which infinites or elements in the infinite are revealed. â€Å"Much of the delectation of a topographic point lies in how one gets to it.†2 2 Kevin Lynch,Site Planning, 3rd erectile dysfunction. ( Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984 ) , 329. It is hence non incorrect to state that it is the creative activity of journey, the passage infinite and the disclosure of objects or elements both touchable and intangible, which generate stimulating experiences and heighten the sense of topographic point. The spacial experience of a passage infinite is a series of assorted degrees of containment and openness, shadow and visible radiation, degree alterations, frontage beat and forms and assorted other factors. The elements Passage through infinites can besides be looked at constructing degree. We can see passage infinites in a vehicle and other on pes. So one is vehicular experience and other is prosaic experience. For a prosaic it is the finer inside informations that he experiences. He perceives all points of difference and alteration within the boundary really accurately, which he would be given to lose out while detecting from inside a vehicle. The proportions and densenesss of edifices along the border of the streets influence the experience of the journey along the street. There may be narrow streets with tall edifices on both the sides. There are other streets with edifices on one side and unfastened countries on the other side. In both the instances the prosaic experience is rather the antonym, one gives the feeling of containment while the other gives you the feeling of openness. The feeling of openness is enhanced when it comes after the feeling of containment or frailty versa. These intangib le feelings of containment and openness can be generated by many more ways. The interior decorator merely has to play with the volume of the passage infinite and the borders in order to bring forth these feelings. One must besides gain that a infinite might non be unfastened in true sense but it in relation to the infinite predating it or infinite next in row can be considered unfastened. This brings us to another facet of a passage infinite which is they are frequently perceived in relation to infinite environing it. In order to understand passage infinites it is really of import to understand thresholds. As antecedently mentioned thresholds are like points of alteration in a journey. A door in the wall is a threshold which connects two otherwise separate infinites. Some interior decorators use different elements like little bridging elements to make thresholds. These thresholds enhance the sense of topographic point by restricting the position of what is beyond and make expectancy. Some usage thresholds to concentrate or pull attending towards a certain component in infinite. So in one topographic point thresholds are used to hide while in the other they are used to uncover. Thresholds for different edifices are designed otherwise. You will detect a toran with graven images of Gods and goddesses carved out in them in the thresholds of a Hindu temple. Whereas you will detect a corbelled arch with a wooden door as a threshold in a house. Some thresholds are designed to stand for the position of the edifice or the street. Since clip immemorial the drama of shadow and visible radiation have been used to make a beat within the street or even inside a edifice. Shadow of the edifices, trees, vehicles parked, people and other objects create a beat. You may detect that it is at these points where people pause before traveling on to the following infinite. Just like shadow adds deepness in a 2D picture, the drama of shadow and visible radiation add life to any infinite. If the enchantment of shadow or visible radiation is big plenty to go a possible infinite so interior decorators create thresholds at the alteration from shadow to visible radiation and visible radiation to shadow. Other normally experient characteristics are stairss. They connect and separate infinites. They can make a sense of reaching. The placement of the flights of stepss influences the experience of reaching. The steps contained within the passage infinite defined by the edifices create a strong sense of separation. Through dividing the flight into two the tallness of the flight is less dashing and a infinite is defined by the landing. The landing becomes a passage into the confined infinite and the stairss at the terminal lead out of the infinite. Peoples are a really of import portion of the experience. Lynch, Kevin, 1967,The Image of the City, 3rd print, MA: MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England. â€Å"Moving elements in a metropolis, and in peculiar the people and their activities, are every bit of import as the stationary physical parts. We are non merely perceivers of this spectacle, but are ourselves a portion of it, on the phase with the other participants.† The sight of old people sitting and reading newspaper, kids running about or playing games, adult females speaking in the front pace and making family jobs are a common sight in societies. It is these people that add life to any infinite. A market topographic point with people is more welcoming and pleasant than one without them. This does non intend that a topographic point without people appears dead. Even without people the infinite is still alive. The place and seting propose a infinite that is used by the people who live at that place, the scooter parked in the street suggests that person is place, the stairss lifting up to a door connect the street to the upper degree. The Windowss looking over the street perforate the mass of the edifices supplying connexion between interior and outside, a sense that person could be watching. The figure of doors accessing a public infinite affects the security of the infinite. An flat block serviced by merely one entree onto the street activates the infinite every bit long as there are people utilizing the door, but when no 1 is coming or traveling a individual door offers no indicant of the figure of people utilizing it. Multiple doors indicate a larger figure of people potentially utilizing the infinite. The more doors that entree a public infinite the greater the sense that people could emerge from the door, supplying activation and security in the infinite. Nowadays people have started edifice boundary walls. They frequently have one chief gate. The infinite outside the walls is activated merely when people use that gate. You can visualize a school gate with tonss of little kids running out of the gate. The street in forepart is active merely so. A boundary wall may be supplying security to the people inside but it makes the infinite around really insecure. At times t he infinite within the boundary walls is besides non safe. An easy solution to this job of security is to increase the porousness in the walls. Many doors accessing a street work the same manner. How to cite The Elements of Transition and Threshold Spaces, Essay examples

Question Conservation of Energy free essay sample

Missy Diwater, the former platform diver for the Ringling Brothers Circus had a kinetic energy of 15 000 J just prior to hitting the bucket of water. If Missys mass is 50 kg, then what is her speed? Solution: According to energy conservation, the kinetic energy at the bottom of the dive (15,000J) is equal to her gravitational potential energy before the dive. We can use this fact to find her dive height: PE = mgh h = PE/mg = 15,000J / (50kg)(9. 81m/s? ) 31m (rounded) Her speed can also be found from energy conseration: E(final) = E(initial) 0. 5mv? = mgh v = v[2gh] = v[2(9. 81m/s? )(31m) = 25m/s 2. A 750-kg compact car moving at 100 km/hr has approximately 290 000 Joules of kinetic energy. What is the kinetic energy of the same car if it is moving at 50 km/hr? Solution: KE =v^ 2 (Kinetic Energy = speed ^2 If the speed is reduce by a factor of 2 (as in form 100 km/hr) then the KE will reduce by a factor 4. We will write a custom essay sample on Question Conservation of Energy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Thus,the new KE = 290 000 J / 4 KE = 72 500 J 3. A cart is loaded with a brick and pulled at constant speed along an inclined plane of an angle of 30o to the height of a seat-top. If the mass of the loaded cart is 3. 0 kg and the inclined distance of the seat top is 0. 45 meters, then what is the potential energy of the loaded cart at the height of the seat-top? Solution : PE = mgh PE = 3 kg x 10 m/s/s x 0. 45m PE = 13. 5 J 4. A 75kg trampoline artist jumps vertically downward from the top of a platform with a speed of 5m/s. How fast is he going as he lands on the trampoline 2m below? If the trampoline behaves like a spring of spring constant 5. 2E104 N/m, how far does he depress it? Soluiton : a) s = 1/2(u+v)t 2. 0m = 0. 5 * 5m/s * t 2. 0m = 10 * t t = 2. 0m/20 t = 0. 1s b) Hookes Law states F=kx x is the displacement of the spring (depression) F = Restoring force k = spring constant Rearrange. x = F/k What is the force upon hitting the trampoline? We have the mass so lets work out the acceleration. Acceleration = velocity/time Acceleration = 5/0. 1 = 50m/s^2 F=ma F = 75*50 = 3750N Substitute into Hookes Law x = 3750/(5. 2*10^4N-m) = 0. 072m of depression

Experience of a Lifetime free essay sample

The presence of stress and sweat fill the air. Student government election season is the time for the ambitious to come out and fight for a position. I only looked at the title and did not consider how much responsibility and work comes with it. I barely put any effort put into my campaign: few posters, no communication with the student body, and a poorly written speech. I was so overconfident that I was going to win the election that I did not realize how much work I needed to put in to win. My world was shaken when I found out that I had lost the election for class secretary. I felt like I was a failure not just in the election but in general. Before my failed attempt at becoming a class officer, I was not involved in school extracurricular events in any capacity.Losing the class election allowed for me to realize how much potential I have as a leader and encouraged me to be more involved in school. We will write a custom essay sample on Experience of a Lifetime or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Instead of trying to shun the high school experience, I embraced it with open arms. I felt so much more positive and fell in love with the high school experience. As a freshman, you are told that being involved and caring about school is an absolute joke. But what a lot of people do not realize is that not caring is the real joke. As a freshman, I was a new student who came from a different county. I had no friends and I was in my bubble for the first couple months of high school. I had never felt more isolated than I did during my freshman year. It was so bad that I sat alone eating lunch on my first day of high school. I did not have any social skills whatsoever. After losing the election and being more involved, I can say that I was able to cope with the major change by helping out around school. I was able to meet people, make new friends, and even become really close with the staff. I learned how to have responsibility with staying on top of my life academic-wise and social-wis e. If I did not step out of my comfort zone the way I did, I would have stayed miserable for the rest of my high school career. The class election pushed me to be my very best. The transition from middle school to high school was tough enough already but once I got involved I was able to cope with the change and embrace it. All I needed was a little push: maybe failing once in a while really is not a bad thing. Failure is not what destroys you but what motivates you to do better.

Store a String Along With a String in Delphis ListBox

Store a String Along With a String in Delphis ListBox Delphis TListBox and TComboBox display a list of items - strings in a selectable list. TListBox displays a scrollable list, the TComboBox displays a drop-down list. A common property to all the above controls is the Items property. Items define a list of strings that will appear in the control to the user. At design-time, when you double-click the Items property, the String List Editor lets you specify string items. The Items property is actually a TStrings type descendant. Two Strings Per Item in a ListBox? There are situations when you want to display a list of strings to the user, for example in the list box control, but also have a way to store one more additional string along the one displayed to the user. Whats more, you might want to store/attach more than just a plain string to the string, you might want to attach an object to the item (string). ListBox.Items - TStrings Knows Objects! Give the TStrings object one more look in the Help system. Theres the Objects property which represents a set of objects that are associated with each of the strings in the Strings property - where the Strings property references the actual strings in the list. If you want to assign a second string (or an object) to every string in the list box, you need to populate the Items property at run-time. While you can use the ListBox.Items.Add method to add strings to the list, to associate an object with each string, you will need to use another approach. The ListBox.Items.AddObject method accepts two parameters. The first parameter, Item is the text of the item. The second parameter, AObject is the object associated with the item. Note that list box exposes the AddItem method which does the same as Items.AddObject. Two Strings for One String Since both Items.AddObject and AddItem accept a variable of type TObject for their second parameter, a line like: //compile error! ListBox1.Items.AddObject(zarko, gajic); will result in a compile error: E2010 Incompatible types: TObject and string. You cannot simply supply a string for the object since in Delphi for Win32 string values are not objects. To assign a second string to the list box item, you need to transform a string variable into an object - you need a custom TString object. An Integer for a String If the second value you need to store along with the string item is an integer value, you actually do not need a custom TInteger class. ListBox1.AddItem(Zarko Gajic, TObject(1973)) ; The line above stores the integer number 1973 along with the added Zarko Gajic string. A direct typecast from an integer to an object is made above. The AObject parameter is actually the 4-byte pointer (address) of the object added. Since in Win32 an integer occupies 4 bytes - such a hard cast is possible. To get back the integer associated with the string, you need to cast the object back to the integer value: //year 1973 year : Integer(ListBox1.Items.Objects[ListBox1.Items.IndexOf(Zarko Gajic)]) ; A Delphi Control for a String Why stop here? Assigning strings and integers to a string in a list box is, as you just experienced, a piece of cake. Since Delphi controls are actually objects, you can attach a control to every string displayed in the list box. The following code adds to the ListBox1 (list box) captions of all the TButton controls on a form (place this in the forms OnCreate event handler) along with the reference to each button. var   Ã‚  idx : integer; begin   Ã‚  for idx : 0 to -1 ComponentCount do   Ã‚  begin   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  if Components[idx] is TButton then ListBox1.AddObject(TButton(Components[idx]).Caption, Components[idx]) ;   Ã‚  end; end; To programmatically click the second button, you can use the next statement: TButton(ListBox1.Items.Objects[1]).Click; I Want to Assign My Custom Objects to the String Item In a more generic situation you would add instances (objects) of your own custom classes: type   Ã‚  TStudent class   Ã‚  private   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  fName: string;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  fYear: integer;   Ã‚  public   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  property Name : string read fName;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  property Year : integer read fYear;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  constructor Create(const name : string; const year : integer) ;   Ã‚  end; ........ constructor TStudent.Create(const name : string; const year : integer) ; begin   Ã‚  fName : name;   Ã‚  fYear : year; end; begin   Ã‚  //add two string/objects - students to the list   Ã‚  ListBox1.AddItem(John, TStudent.Create(John, 1970)) ;   Ã‚  ListBox1.AddItem(Jack, TStudent.Create(Jack, 1982)) ;   Ã‚  //grab the first student - John   Ã‚  student : ListBox1.Items.Objects[0] as TStudent;   Ã‚  //display Johns year   Ã‚  ShowMessage(IntToStr(student.Year)) ; end; What You Create You Must Free Heres what the Help has to say about objects in TStrings descendants: the TStrings object does not own the objects you add this way. Objects added to the TStrings object still exist even if the TStrings instance is destroyed. They must be explicitly destroyed by the application. When you add objects to strings - objects that you create - you must make sure you free the memory occupied, or youll have a memory leak A generic custom procedure FreeObjects accepts a variable of type TStrings as its only parameter. FreeObjects will free any objects associated with an item in the string list In the above example, students (TStudent class) are attached to a string in a list box, when the application is about to be closed (main form OnDestroy event, for example), you need to free the memory occupied: FreeObjects(ListBox1.Items) ; Note: You only call this procedure when objects assigned to string items were created by you.

Cruise ship accomodations and other accomodations of Rio brazil Research Proposal

Cruise ship accomodations and other accomodations of Rio brazil olympic - Research Proposal Example In addition, over two hundred nations take part in various disciplines of the Olympic Games and more than half of the population of the world follows these events, either live or through the media. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the 2016 Olympic Games requires the deliberation of a number of components so as to guarantee the accomplishment of the occasion (Michaelis 2009). The quality and quantity of accommodation will be among the most essential components. Travelers and spectators who intend to attend the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will have access to a number of accommodation facilities. The complete area that is hosting the event has been going through tremendous transformation and a number of modern accommodation facilities have been developed in and around the venue of the games. Moreover, there are numerous accommodation facilities that are scheduled for launching prior to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. It will be the first time the event will be hosted in South America, and, particularly, Rio de Janeiro (Michaelis 2009). The International Olympic Committee recommended that there be a minimum of forty thousand hotel beds with at least three stars. Judging by the number of accommodation facilities that are either under construction or being renovated, Rio de Janeiro has the capacity to host the travelers and spectators. The 2016 Summer Olympic Games organizers anticipate that the required number of accommodation facilities will be ready for use before the start of the games. A number of accommodation facilities have vowed their assistance, and one can find numerous hotels lined up for erection in the Barra da Tijuca area, close to the Olympic village. Travelers and spectators can look forward to numerous properly-organized accommodation facilities and offers before August 2016 (Michaelis 2009). There are two new magnificent five-star hotels that are supposed to be constructed in

The Role of Trade Unions in the United Kingdom Essay

The Role of Trade Unions in the United Kingdom - Essay Example The conditions in these factories were harsh and the employees worked for long hours for very low pay. The workers did not accept these conditions and this resulted in trade dispute. The workers came together and resolved the one-off problems at work. This gave birth to trade unions. However, one of the challenges that are being faced by the 21st century trade union is redefining and reviving the traditional roles of trade unions. For instance, the UK has almost 200 certified independent trade unions, although the members have been reducing due to recent amalgamations. Howell (2009:19) defines a trade union as an organization that is comprised of members who are workers whose main aim is to protect the interests of its members. The trade unions core priority is protecting and enhancing people pay packages as well as the conditions of employment. Moreover, they are also tasked with campaigning or laws and polices that would be beneficial to the working people. Trade unions have been i n existence since an individual worker has very little power to affect the decisions that are made in relation to his or her job. Therefore, by combining with other worker there is a more chance of a significant voice and influence. The paper is going to critically discuss the changing trade union agendas and priorities. The major services that are provided by trade unions to its members are representation and negotiation. However, they are other benefits that individuals are accrued to from being members of trade unions which include provision of information and advice, and member services. Discussion Emerging trends and trade unions agenda Trade unions as noted by Wrigley (2002:82-90) play a number of roles including negotiating pay and employment conditions, offering advice and information such as financial and legal advice, defending the rights of the employees, negotiating bonuses for attaining set targets, resolving conflict, accompanying the union members to grievance and dis ciplinary meetings and lastly, offering services to members. In the last two decades trade unions have been faced with major political and economic change. There also have been a dramatic change in the in the type of jobs that people perform and the kind of industries they work in have also changed. The manufacturing sector which traditionally used to be the most crucial industries has shrunk tremendously translating in low union membership. On the other hand, new sectors like finance and voluntary sectors have become important to the global economy (Undy, 2008). Traditionally trade unions were shaped by existence of a normal employment relationship that involved a full-time job with a particular employer and typical degree of long-term stability. However, due to globalization and industrialization of economies, in cases that previously cushioned from external shocks, have now become subject to the fluctuations of the global markets (Checchi & Lucifora, 2002). People are now being e mployed on part-time and contractual basis thus has no way of joining trade unions. Furthermore, in some countries there has been a growing unwillingness from the employers to accept trade unions as collective representatives of their employees. With the recent changes in the labour market, trade unions in order to survive and thrive have reasserted the rights of labour in ways which let them to recapture the advantage in the battle of ideas. Since organizational strength without ideology is like form without content, numerous trade movements are suffering organizational weakness,

The US Presidential Electoral System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The US Presidential Electoral System - Essay Example After the election, the delegates cast their electoral vote and the winner is decided. This system was necessitated at the birth of the nation when counting a national popular vote was impractical. In addition, it protected the government offices from being decided by an ill-informed electorate. Though it is generally an adequate reflection of the voters' preference, it has several weaknesses. One weakness in the electoral college, that a popular vote system would rectify, is the unequal distribution of voter power. Under the current system, the number of electoral votes is equal to the number of House members plus two. Since the number of House members is based on population, this gives an advantage to the smaller states (Bennett 3). Voters in the least populated states have more power with their individual votes than the voters in the larger states do. In addition, since the apportionment of electoral votes is based on the census, it is always out of date, sometimes by as much as 1 0 years (Edwards 2). A popular vote system would alleviate both of these problems and accurately reflect the population on an equal basis. Individual voter power is further hampered when the minority (loser) in the large states are awarded no electoral delegates at all. Leib and Mark state that, "Minority voters in large non-swing states—say Republicans today in California or New York, as well as Democrats in Texas—have the most reason to be upset with the current method of awarding electoral votes" (106). Uneven apportionment, out of date census data, and no minority voice creates an unjust system of voter unfairness. One of the purposes of an electoral system is to facilitate and encourage voter participation. When voters feel like their vote is of little or no value, they will be discouraged from participating in the process. As an example, Indiana has traditionally voted overwhelmingly for the Republican presidential candidate in the last several elections. Though Democrats make up as much as 40 percent of the vote, their votes have not been counted for years. For all practical purposes, they have no reason to vote for a candidate that can not carry the state. "These disincentives essentially take the form of reducing the perceived benefits of voting for a Presidential candidate by restricting the power of votes to state jurisdictions rather than allowing all votes equal value (power) in a national election determined strictly by a popular vote" (Cebula and Murphy 188). Reforming the electoral college to reflect a more equitable system of voter power would encourage greater voter participation. Moving to a popular vote system would not only more fairly represent the voters, it would also reduce the special favor spending projects that are awarded

Online Web Application For Selling Computer Products

Online Web Application For Selling Computer Products This project report represents the idea of the Online Shopping Website application for Computer products. In this project we are having primary goal of to increase the sale of the Computer product in the market, and to reduce the manual work and increasing the technical support for sellers and buyers to sale or buy product online. The second goal of this site is to maintain the data of buyers, sellers and product. 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT: In the current system all transaction are doing in manual that is very time consuming and it is very difficult for maintenance. They have to maintain all data in books and register that is very difficult to finding any data in those lots of registers and books so it is very time consuming and wasting of money. So to overcoming all these problems we can use Online Shopping for Computer product. The online shopping is the part of internet to do online purchasing and selling product with electronic security, now day this is called as E-commerce. Customer can directly purchase the product online from his/her home through internet. Customer can see many products and details about the products which are not possible in current system. Customer can pay online through credit card there is no need to keep big cash in pocket and physically going to the shop. 1.3 PROJECT AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The major of website for Online Shopping is sale and purchase computer products and services through the internet. This transaction does with the electronic data exchange over the internet. Customer has to give credit card details for purchase product with secure transmission of data exchange over the internet. The Online Shopping website has many objectives some of them as follow: It gives information about various products of different categories. Customers purchase the products online with the help of internet. Customer will login on website for shopping. Customers purchase the product with checking the price of product and can compare the same product with different categories product. Customer will pay online payment so security is more important so for that the secure transmission layer is used. After purchasing product customer can have any problem with product so he can give the details about the problem and get solution for that as per require time. Data security is more important because customers personal details are stored in the database so the database is access by only authorize person or admin. I strongly conclude that implementing this type of application is very useful for online users and sellers of product or owner of the site. 1.4 PROPOSED METHODOLOGIES: In this project we follow the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies use to develop website. I have used Waterfall Model to develop this website. The main steps in this methodology are Requirement, Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing and Maintenance. The waterfall model is also called as linear sequential model, in this model all tasks are completed one by one. To use this model the major advantage is very simple and all project development process takes place as per the user requirement. http://www.oddtodd.com/mw/clip_image003.gif Figure: Waterfall Model 1.5 SCOPE: This website is basically for server and deployed on the server site. The Online Shopping website is basically useful to company for selling computer products worldwide. This website will be useful for the following areas: Useful for online selling products for companies. Use anywhere in the world in any time. All information about items is stored in system. Company stores all items details, update items, price, discount etc. Customer can place online order from any place via internet. The System reduces most manual work and maintains all information and stores it for future references. This system will be applicable for company as well as wholesale shops, or any other Organization who wants to sell their products in international markets. This system will provide more data storage facility. This system will provide easy maintenance for future references. 2. RESEARCH: 2.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND TO THE SUBJECT: Java technology is the most popular and robust technique to develop any kind of projects such as window application, web application etc. J2EE is the java enterprise edition to the develop web application. To developing this website I have used JSP (java server page), Servlet and Java beans which are part of J2EE technology. These technologies basically used to give request and take response on server side. Model view controller (MVC) architecture: Figure: MVC architecture Model: The model is related with classes which represent the application data, this model responsible for know what the data is, how to create, delete, retrieve and store the data. View: It is basically used to show the data and notices in user interface which user wants to change it. Controller: These classes basically provide logic of the application, which is responsible for coordination the data in the model and the view. About the data base: The MySQL is one of the popular database for developing server side application or web application, it has more reliability, performance and simple to use. The MySQL database is open source, so its saving time and money and it can run on most platforms. It is specifically use to store large amount of data or records, So Online Shopping website use MySQL database to maintaining the data about the products, customers, sales, purchase etc. 2.2 STUDIES ON SPECIFIC ISSUES This system is purely web based client server architecture Take time to find the troubles of the online users Server MIS configuration Session management Error handling Deployment of the application in Apache Tomcat. MySQL database installation and versions. Setting the path and class path in java. 2.3 TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION Software Database : MySQL 5.0. Server : Apache Tomcat 4.1 Front End : JSP/Servlets, J2SDK 1.6, HTML, DHTML, Java Script. Editor : Edit plus, Jcreator. Hardware Processor : Intel P-IV based system Processor Speed : 2.0. GHz RAM : 256 MB to 512 MB Hard Disk : 40GB to 80GB Key Board : 104 keys 2.4 ANALYSIS OF EXISTING WORK: Proposed system (Developing system) and advantages: The system will reduce manual work which provides easy access and easy working environments. This system will give easy GUI (Graphical User Interfaces) for registration and fill different forms information. This system also gives facility to for customers to register their feedback regarding product to company online and get solution for that. From Companys ease system Admin can get easily details, add new items, update item or etc. The system will give robust efficient in all respect having a strong security features. Minimal and effective security notifications or messages. 3. DESIGN/STRUCTURAL FORMATION: Search ItemUML Diagram Add Item to Shopping Cart Checkout Cart System User Confirmation All Figure 2: Sample UML diagram In the above diagram the user search the products and add to shopping cart and after adding all products which want to buy then he can the checkout the cart and the system checks the users login, credit card and all information for further process and gives confirmation for dealing. (This diagram is sample one, will develop the database for better view). 4. DATA ACQUISITION: Distributed database and GUI application Application deployed in client server architecture. Service Authentication. Data capture. 5. TESTING AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: Planning to do unit testing, Integration testing and validation tests. 6. OVERALL EVALUATION: Online Shopping website run on any environment, this is useful for any computer parts manufacturing company to sale its products online. This application on the internet, user will use this application easily at anywhere in the world. The feasibility study of the project is follows: Economic feasibility: Online Shopping website is maintaining large amount of historical data with using minimum cost and time. With the help of internet the user or seller can ads or sale his products online all over the world without investing any cost. And the website having graphical user interfaces so no need to training for user or employee. 7. PROJECT APPROCH AND PLAN: In this phase or approach after the collecting the requirement from client we can analyze the customer requirements, then we can create the planning and decide the objectives of the project and divides the projects development into different phases. These phases divided into task and subtask and it will be complete within given time period. 8. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: In this project we are covering how helpful this Online Shopping website to the computer manufacturing company for selling products online, and online purchasing product to the customers. This application manages the all historical data about the products, customers, sellers to the future reference as insert, update, and retrieve the data. It is basically for who dont have time to go shopping at shop they can buy products easily via internet from home or office.

Nathaniel Hawthorne :: essays research papers

Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts and died in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Hawthorne's father was a sea captain and descendant of John Hathorne, one of the judges who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne's father died at sea in 1808, when Hawthorne was only four years old, and Nathaniel was raised secluded from the world by his mother. Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine from 1821–1824 where he became friends with Longfellow and future president Franklin Pierce. In 1842, he married illustrator and transcendentalist Sophia Peabody, and the two moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, where they lived for three years. Later they moved to The Wayside, previously a home of the Alcotts. Their neighbors in Concord included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Like Hawthorne, Sophia was a reclusive person. She was, in fact, bedridden with headaches until her sister introduced her to Hawthorne, after which her headaches seem to have abated. The Hawthornes enjoyed a long marriage, and Sophia was greatly enamored with her husband's work. In one of her journals, she writes: "I am always so dazzled and bewildered with the richness, the depth, the... jewels of beauty in his productions that I am always looking forward to a second reading where I can ponder and muse and fully take in the miraculous wealth of thoughts" (Jan 14th 1951, Journal of Sophia Hawthorne. Berg Collection NY Public Library). The two had three children: Una, Julian, and Rose. Una suffered from mental illness and died young. Julian moved out west and wrote a book about his father. Rose converted to Roman Catholicism and took her vows as a Dominican nun. She founded a religious order to care for victims of cancer. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, N.H. on a trip to the mountains with his friend Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne is best-known today for his many short stories (he called them "tales") and his four major romances of 1850–60: The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). (Another book-length romance, Fanshawe, was published anonymously in 1828.) Before publishing his first collection of tales in 1837, Hawthorne wrote scores of short stories and sketches, publishing them anonymously or pseudonymously in periodicals such as The New-England Magazine and The United States Democratic Review.

Comparing coverage in two different Newspapers Essay

The incident covered in the two articles I have studied was a train fire in the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun on Saturday 11th November 2000. The first article I looked at was in the tabloid paper the Sunday Express. The second article I looked at was in the broadsheet paper the Observer. The two articles were very similar but had some differences. Both the articles emphasised that British people were among those that had died. The Sunday Express said â€Å"Britons among 170 victims† and The Observer said â€Å"Britons among 170 dead† The Observer also stated that children died â€Å"Children among victims†. Although both articles covered the same subject and seemed to emphasise the greatness of the tragedy, they had different approaches, The Sunday Express’ article was sensationalist and over emotive â€Å"†¦ inferno as it tore through carriages† The Observers article was a calmer and more concise report â€Å"†¦ and, within a few minutes, almost everyone on board was dead. † The articles both contained similar factual information. In the Article in the Sunday Express, facts were intertwined with opinions and emotive language. â€Å"†¦ engulfing tourists in temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Centigrade. † The Observer had some emotive language but seemed to keep the facts separate â€Å"†¦ which reached temperatures of more than 1,000 C† The only discrepancy between the two articles was over the initial cause of the fire. The Sunday Express interviewed a cable car technical expert Klaus Einsenkolb. â€Å"He said†¦ that either a short circuit in the batteries or the possibility that someone had started it with a naked flame was more likely,† This was their only reference to the cause of the fire. The Observer had many different statements about the cause of the fire. â€Å"Yesterday’s fire is believed to have started†¦after one of the cables that pull the train up the mountain snapped, apparently starting the blaze† They also had a statement from the local company Gletscherbahn Kaprun who owned the train. â€Å"†Due to a fire in the tunnel there was a shorting in the electrical circuit, consequently causing the train†¦ to catch fire. â€Å"† They also interviewed Klaus Einsenkolb, but stated nothing about his opinions of what caused the fire as in The Sunday Express. Both articles used similar language, but The Sunday Express used more emotive variations of language to put across the same point. The Sunday Express said â€Å"†¦ the harrowing task today of identifying 170 young skiers burned alive† The Observer stuck to the facts, however, some sensationalist language was used. â€Å"†¦ 170 people were killed yesterday when a fire†¦ engulfed an Austrian funicular train† The Sunday Express sensationalised the incident by using words like â€Å"inferno† and â€Å"disaster† repeatedly throughout their report. This created a mood in the article, expressing how terrible this tragedy was. Despite The Observer being a broadsheet paper, their article also used this type of language, such as â€Å"inferno† and â€Å"tragedy†. I think this also was used to create the mood. The underlying feeling in The Observers report was that this incident could have been prevented or its consequences reduced, had their been adequate safety measures and better maintenance. â€Å"†¦ Manfred Muller, security director for the railway, admitted that there had been no emergency fire fighting equipment in the tunnel, or on the train† The journalist’s use of â€Å"admitted† in this sentence supports his views that safety precautions were inadequate. After reading this article the reader was left with the impression it was just a terrible accident. â€Å"Yesterdays disaster was the second tragedy to hit Kitzsteinhorn this year. † â€Å"†¦ announced a criminal investigation into the tragedy. † No blame seemed to be pointed at anyone in this article. The Sunday Express’ article contained many interviews and comments from people involved with the incident. Most of the people interviewed were officials linked with the accident, like Norbert Karlsboeck, the town mayor of Kaprun, and Franz Schausberger the Salzburg governor. â€Å"Mr Karlsboeck said: â€Å"I did not realise the full extent of the catastrophe†Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Salzburg governor Franz Schausberger said: â€Å"I have declared a day of mourning. We can presume that everyone still on board the train is dead. â€Å"† They were commenting on their feelings about the incident. Klaus Eisenkolb, a cable car technician who worked on the planning of the line was also interviewed and spoke of what he thought about the occurrence of this incident and what could have possibly caused it. One witness and one survivor were also quoted. The Observer had fewer people interviewed, but had interviews with relatives and witnesses. They also had a statement from the company who owned the train, Gletscherbahn Kaprun, who commented on their feelings about this incident. â€Å"In a statement, the company said: ‘We and the whole town of Kaprun are in mourning. ‘† An unidentified man whose son had gone skiing that day, and a deacon were also interviewed. This gave the article a more personal feel, as the reader felt that they could relate to the people who’s lives had been affected by this and so understand the tragedy better. The layout of these reports was very different. Article I had a large bold headline on the front cover saying â€Å"INFERNO† in capital letters, to draw people’s attention. There was also a large illustration of one of the survivors with a caption. There was then a double page spread. On the first side of the double spread was a pull quote in large bold letters â€Å"There’s no hope left, the fumes were just terrible† next to another illustration of a survivor with a caption. This would also get peoples attention; the reader may look at the pictures and then want to read on. Under the title was a diagram of the mountainside with text pointing out where the events took place. This was quite easy to understand and gave the basic information. Inside that diagram was another diagram showing where Kaprun was in context to Austria and then to the rest of Europe. The text was in columns around these illustrations. The double page was split into three blocks of text, an individual report started on the second page written by Greg Swift, a continuance of the first article by David Dillon, and then an additional report: â€Å"Rising tide of Alpine tragedies†. The Observer had a medium sized headline â€Å"Inferno in the Alps† in bold letters. Underneath was a large illustration of a survivor (the same as in article 1) with a caption. The article was started with two large bullet points, which would grab the reader’s attention. There was then a tiny diagram of where in Austria the incident took place, and where it was in relation to Europe. The article was again written in columns. It then too went to a double page. The headline on this double page â€Å"A couple of breaths and they were lost† was also a pull quote, keeping the readers attention. There was a block of pictures with quotes in the top centre of the pages showing the rescue team, survivors and their families, and the train. This was really effective. The block of pictures would really attract the reader’s attention, urging them to read the article. There was a large diagram showing a picture of the mountainside and where the tunnel was, and then a diagram of the actual train, showing in steps what happened and when. This diagram was very clear, showing exactly what happened in an easily understandable way. The double page was again split into sections of text. There was the main report by Denis Staunton, and then two smaller reports. One was by Jason Burke telling how former British Olympic skier Martin Bell feared that some of his friends could have been on the train. This linked the incident back to this country and how it affected people here. The other was by Anthony Browne, talking of worries over how many recent tragic accidents have occurred in the Alps. I think that the article that explained what happened and suggested the full horror of this incident more effectively was the article from The Observer. I felt that the way in which it was written managed to create a balance between putting across the facts but still expressing the horror of the tragedy. I think because the facts were not clouded with opinions, they were easier to understand. I thought that the double page spread was particularly effective. The pictures were clearer and attracted the reader’s attention. The diagram on the double page was very clear and easy to understand. It showed exactly what happened in stages, with information about the mountain and the tunnel. I also thought that the headline â€Å"Inferno in the Alps† on the front page was really effective. It gave enough information for you to know what had happened but was short enough for the reader to read at a glance. I felt that The Sunday Express’ article was more difficult to understand as there were fewer facts and the writing was very opinionated. Also because there were fewer interviews with people who were directly affected by the incident, such as survivors, and relatives of victims, it wasn’t as easy to relate to that article. There was less text in general, as much of the space was taken up by large illustrations and headlines. Although the articles seemed to be similar they had differences which although may not be drastically apparent I felt they made a big difference to the effectiveness and success of the articles.

Exercise in Sentence Combining with Adverb Clauses

Exercise in Sentence Combining with Adverb Clauses As discussed in part one and part two, adverb clauses are subordinate structures that show the relationship and relative importance of ideas in sentences. They explain such things as when, where, and why about an action stated in the main clause. Here well practice building and combining sentences with adverb clauses. Practice Exercise:Building Combining Sentences with Adverb Clauses Combine the sentences in each set below by turning the sentence(s) in bold into an adverb clause. Begin the adverb clause with an appropriate subordinating conjunction. When youre done, compare your new sentences with the sample combinations on page two, keeping in mind that multiple combinations are possible. Example:Sailors wear earrings.The earrings are made of gold.Sailors always carry the cost of a burial.They carry the cost on their own bodies.Combination 1: So that they always carry the cost of a burial on their bodies, sailors wear gold earrings.Combination 2: Sailors wear gold earrings so that they always carry the cost of a burial on their bodies. It is unlikely that Cleopatra actually committed suicide with an asp.The species is unknown in Egypt.The boy hid the gerbil.No one would ever find it. Our neighbors installed a swimming pool.The pool is in their backyard.They have gained many new friends.My parents and I watched in awe.We watched on a hot August evening.Erratic bolts of lightning illuminated the sky.The bolts of lightning were from a distant storm. Benny played the violin.The dog hid in the bedroomThe dog whimpered.Natural rubber is used chiefly to make tires and inner tubes.It is cheaper than synthetic rubber.It has greater resistance to tearing when wet. A Peruvian woman finds an unusually ugly potato.She runs up to the nearest man.She smashes it in his face.This is done by ancient custom.Credit cards are dangerous.They encourage people to buy things.These are things that people are unable to afford.These are things that people do not really need.I kissed her once.I kissed her by the pigsty.She wasnt looking.I neve r kissed her again.She was looking all the time. Some day I shall take my glasses off.Some day I shall go wandering.I shall go out into the streets.I shall do this deliberately.I shall do this when the clouds are heavy.I shall do this when the rain is coming down.I shall do this when the pressure of realities is too great. When youre done, compare your new sentences with the sample combinations on page two. Here are sample answers to the practice exercise on page one: Building and Combining Sentences with Adverb Clauses. Keep in mind that multiple combinations are possible. Because the species is unknown in Egypt, it is unlikely that Cleopatra actually committed suicide with an asp.The boy hid the gerbil where no one would ever find it.Since our neighbors installed a swimming pool in their backyard, they have gained many new friends.On a hot August evening, my parents and I watched in awe as erratic bolts of lightning from a distant storm illuminated the sky.Whenever Benny played the violin, the dog hid in the bedroom and whimpered.Natural rubber is used chiefly to make tires and inner tubes because it is cheaper than synthetic rubber and has greater resistance to tearing when wet.By ancient custom, when a Peruvian woman finds an unusually ugly potato, she runs up to the nearest man and smashes it in his face.Credit cards are dangerous because they encourage people to buy things that they are unable to afford and do not really need.I kissed her once by the pigsty when she wasnt looking and never kissed her again although she was looking all the time.(Dy lan Thomas, Under Milk Wood) Some day, when the clouds are heavy, and the rain is coming down and the pressure of realities is too great, I shall deliberately take my glasses off and go wandering out into the streets, never to be heard from again.(James Thurber, The Admiral on the Wheel)

Effects on Obesity essays

Effects on Obesity essays In America today many people are suffering from obesity. Obesity is defined as enormous amount of weight caused by excessive accumulations of fat. Researchers of American Medical Association found that 56 percent of American adults are overweight and that 20 percent are obese. Obesity have great effects on human being such as their: medical condition, physical abilities, and mental effects. Medical condition is one of the main effects to people who are obese. For example Type 2 diabetes is a main disease that effects people who are obese. Study shows 73 percent out of all obese people have Type 2 diabetes. Next common disease that attacks people who are obese is cancer. For female they have high risk in breast cancer. Women who gain nearly 45 pounds or more after 18 are likely to develop breast cancer after menopause. Also people who are obese usually have high blood pressure that will lead them to shortage in life. At the end these diseases will kill people who are obese if it ¡Ã‚ ¯s untreated. Second, obesity will effect physical abilities. People who are suffering from obesity may not be able to do things that normal weight people can do. Playing sports or do any activities that involves fast movement of any kind is main physical ability that obese people can ¡Ã‚ ¯t do. They may not even have power to walk sometimes because of mass amount of weight pressuring down on their weak ankles which gives them enormous pain that will stop them from walking. They may not also have power to jump up and down. It ¡Ã‚ ¯s hard for over weight people to jump up and down with their heavy weight. Finally, mental effects have played many negative roles in obesity. People who suffers from obesity goes through depression due to their over weight appearance. Most people who are obese have hard time fitting into groups because of their differences. Since the are obese they may not...

Computerized Management Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Computerized Management Systems - Essay Example Computer System evaluation In order to attain efficiency and excellence, hospitals may implement the ELECTRA System. This system is valuable in that it provides health institutions with the appropriate management tools. These tools include stimulation, analysis and modeling. Proper documentation is also attainable through the use of the ELECTRA system. These management tools are equally vital because they enable health care providers to offer quality services to patients and increase their level of productivity (ACGIL, 2010). Administrator plus Administrator Plus is used together with other technologies and assists in carrying out different duties in health care institutions. Administrator plus is particularly used by different specialists in promoting health care. These specialists are mainly the administrators and managers. The system can only run using Microsoft applications (Accurate Info Soft Pvt. Ltd., 2011). Discussion How computerized management systems could increase quality of care ELECTRA The utilization of the ELECTRA system is of great advantage to hospitals because it helps in the promotion of quality services offered to patients. In addition, hospitals that wish to operate at low costs while still ensuring efficiency should consider applying the ELECTRA system. This system provides different managerial advantages to a health care institution including telemedicine, enquiry management, pharmacy management and queue management. The ELECTRA system allows healthcare providers to serve many patients within a short period. ELECTRA helps in keeping patients’ data and booking appointments with staff members. Computer systems that improve the quality of work in health care institutions are those that can effectively serve many patients within a short period (ACGIL, 2010). Administrator Plus Administrator Plus promotes quality by streamlining the different operations carried out in hospitals. This is made possible through consultant management, pati ent management and OPD. Patient management is vital because it enables staff members to collect and retrieve data. This system is most effective in a hospital that serves hundreds of patients at any particular time. Administrator Plus is of considerable advantage to doctors because it helps to save time (Accurate Info Soft Pvt. Ltd., 2011). Getting nurses involved The application of ELECTRA and Administrator Plus cannot be successful unless nurses are involved. This is because nurses are expected to give a report on the inflow and outflow of patients in hospitals. It is therefore important to involve the nurses’ in the selection of the type of system that would be most appropriate in health care. Gordon and Cox noted that when nurses are involved in implementation of technology, managers learn about their attitude towards certain technology (ACGIL, 2010). In addition, the medical fraternity will be linked to different technological experts through the involvement of nurses in the implementation of technology. Involvement of nurses also helps in setting the priorities among staff members. This is a vital step in avoiding cryptic issues. It can therefore be noted that health care institutions should not only ask nurses to apply certain technologies to their operations but should also

Country Risk Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Country Risk - Case Study Example Currently, the company fails to reach an agreement with the Hong Kong government to fund a much-needed 301 acres of expansion and started to give employees the sack. HKDLD has been losing profits that leads to the present state of being. All creative and design works are halted leaving a "shell" of 10 member team after the stripping off the "imaginers" (Business Week, 2009). Walt Disney Company (WDC) may just walk away from the negotiation from the government to focus on the upcoming Disney Shanghai. Yet Disneyland is significantly a landmark and tourist attraction, the HK government can find no comfort zone in abandoning it or funding the business. The strategy is only to keep on improving it as a competitive edge over Disney Shanghai scheduled to open in 2014. This implies the need of constant influx of taxpayers' fund for HKDLD expansion to keep the economy on the road to recovery, even though the present spending hurts the country's expenditure with HKDLD's profit book in the red expectedly (NPR, 2009). The nature of the existence of the risks of this Private-Public Partnership (PPP) project occurs due to the complexity and uncertainty of the interaction of factors that includes financing, taxation, technical details, market conditions and changes over the duration of the project (Yin Shen, Platten, 2009). Hence for the HKDLD project, the risks affecting the project expansion are identified with their preventive measures. To achieve the value for money in PPP projects, risk are allocated between this pair of private and public sectors in partnership. The risks should be allocated accordingly with respect to the type of risk and the ability of either sector to mitigate them. Based on this principle the risks are outlined alongside the preventive measures by means of allocations of identified risks. During the start of the expansion, site acquisition risk is present in land acquisition and or during retaining or demolishing existing buildings. The HK government is responsible for ens uring the acquisition of the HKDLD site and protecting the site from any intrusion and all land uses in surrounding areas. The operational private partner is responsible for the operational process of site protection or demolition of existing buildings or facilities. In all construction, the risk associate with adverse underground conditions is taken care of by the private partner since they are in charge of site survey particularly on the underground conditions that deals with the stability of foundation and supply of utilities. Polluted land and surroundings is a risk borne by both sides by the right legal disposal of construction waste and enforcement of good house keeping. Land reclamation runs the risk of delay of construction and is allocated to the private partner for adhering to the project deadline Volatility of market changes is always present with factors such as the

Exploring the international Business environment Essay

Exploring the international Business environment - Essay Example Scenario planning was first implemented in military intelligence and military strategy studies. Scenario planning involves identifying trends and analyzing their predicted ramifications. Scenario planning helps organizations in implementing strategic investment, regulating hiring strategies and conducting capital planning. Organizations are able to execute scenario-based approaches to planning thereby developing credible solutions to potential challenges (Friedman, 2014). Scenario planning also helps firms to assess potential outcomes before implementation. Scenario planning is also beneficial in categorizing plans according to their short-term or long term feasibility. The paper will examine the demographic and religious forecast of Tajikistan until the year 2030 and the implications on Asian Development Bank’s strategic plan for Central and West Asian developing member countries. The Republic of Tajikistan is an autonomous country located in Central Asia. The country’s administrative, legislative and financial capital is Dushanbe. The country is bordered by Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and China. Up until September 1991 when the country gained independence, Tajikistan was part of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. At 143,100 square kilometres, the country is the smallest nation in Central Asia (CIA, 2015). Tajikistan is landlocked and very mountainous. The country is divided into four provinces: one capital province, one autonomous province and two other provinces. The head of state is the president while the government is led by a prime minister. The Tajikistani legislature comprises of a national assembly and an assembly of representatives. The judiciary implements a civil law system (CIA, 2015). Tajikistan is classified as the poorest country in Central Asia and among former Soviet states. The country’s slow economic growth is attributed to the high levels of corruption, poor governance, political unrest, economic

Standard Deviation use in the Business World Essay Example for Free

Standard Deviation use in the Business World Essay Abstract This paper evaluates the role of standard deviation in business. As part of the evaluation, a brief summary of five different peer reviewed papers has been presented. Topics such as, the purpose of the study, the research questions, the hypothesis of the study, and the main findings of the study for the five papers, have been summarized by each of the learning team members. Standard Deviation use in the Business World Standard Deviation is a statistical measurement that shows how data are spread above and below the mean. The square root of the variance is the standard deviation (Cleaves, Hobbs, Noble, 2012). It plays a key role in business management, with one of its benefits being that it simplifies the determination of variability in a given symmetrical data set. In this paper, the role of Standard Deviation in business has been presented by means of summarizing five peer-reviewed papers. Summary of Paper 1 In order to understand the role of standard deviation in business world, the first paper reviewed is on the topic ‘Risk: An uncommon deviation’, by Scott, D (2006). Standard deviation has a critical role to play in evaluating the risks involved in the field of business investments. Below is the summary of the findings from the paper: Purpose of the Study The paper focused on understanding the role of using standard deviation in estimating the risks involved in investments. According to Scott (2006), historically few, if any, real world investors naturally think in terms of standard deviations when they think about risk. The traditional risk models did not take into account standard deviation. In this paper, the author has evaluated the impact of using standard deviation in enhancing risk management strategies. Research Questions The key questions discussed within this paper are 1. Does use of standard deviation help in estimating all possible outcomes involved in business investments? 2. Does use of standard deviation help in mitigating risks? Hypothesis The hypothesis used in the paper is that the risk in the real world includes a set of situations and outcomes that no model can ever capture and no statistic can ever express. However, the usage of standard deviation can possibly help in building a more predictable risk management strategy. Findings of the study Below are the findings of the study 1. Standard deviation can help in predicting many of the possible risks, but there will always be rogue risks, which are very hard to predict. Risk that can be modeled mathematically is only part of the risk. However, standard deviation can help in greatly enhancing the traditional risk evaluation models, since most of the times the performance outcomes stay within the realms of a normal distribution (Scott, 2006). 2. It is essential to diversity the risk management techniques used. According to Scott (2006), it is essential to pay attention to correlation coefficients, covariance matrices and other statistical analyses by all means, but also assess the actual financial exposure to any one issuer, economic happening or institutional structure. 3. Challenge those whose professional training encourages them to equate risk and standard deviation (Scott, 2006). Summary of Paper 2 The second paper chosen is titled â€Å"Implied Standard Deviations and Post-earnings Announcement Volatility† by Acker, D (2002). Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to investigate if there is increase in volatility of stock prices following annual earnings announcements. The study is using implied standard deviations (ISDs), which are derived from option prices to establish the day-by-day changes in volatility within the announcement period. The focus is primarily on the timing of the volatility increase, rather than on the level of increase. Research Questions 1. Can the timing of market volatility due to reaction to bad news or good news, be predicted using the ISD? 2. Is there difference in the timing of reaction between, good news, easy to interpret news vs bad news, or difficult to interpret news? 3. Is the delayed reaction to bad news a manifestation of their lower degree of earnings persistence? Hypothesis The hypothesis is that good news announcements are associated with positive returns and bad news is associated with negative returns. Announcements of bad news have generally been established to have lower earnings response coefficients. The conditions of changing volatility, the ISD of an at-the-money option can be interpreted as an estimate of the expected standard deviation of the return over the life of that option, and can therefore be used to analyze the pattern of volatility, which the market expects to occur around an announcement. Announcements of earnings per share (eps) figures with a high transitory component, whose implications for the future are more difficult to assess, should be associated with a delayed volatility reaction. Findings of the study 1. If the day of the of the anticipated volatility increase is known, then by measuring the ISD at two points before that day, the `basic volatility and the amount increase can be deduced. 2. The ISDs tend to rise before the announcement date and fall after it. The day 10 ISDs suggest that volatility rises again roughly two weeks after the announcement. 3. Announcing bad news and announcing news that is difficult to interpret both have an incremental effect on delaying the volatility reaction, but the effect of bad news appeared to be dominant. 4. Companies reporting bad news deliberately convey less precise information, thereby extending the period required by the markets to analyze its implications. 5. When there is no news, ISD and hence volatility did not appear to change significantly around the announcement. Summary of Paper 3 The third paper chosen is titled â€Å"Forecasting the pulse: How deviations from  regular patterns in online data can identify offline phenomena† by Andreas and Pascal (2013). Purpose of the Study With steady increase of data availability of human behavior collected through online social services, there is a big potential for data scientist to leverage standard deviation as the tool to conduct real time detection and analytic studies of extraordinary offline phenomena. Such detection helps build foundational marketing opportunities for social commerce. Research Questions 1. Does communication environment (i.e. facebook, twitter, match.com) has its normal state of user behavior? 2. Is there seasonal trend in the patter? How big are the variations? 3. What is the dynamic empirical state base on the historical data pattern? Do large deviations detected between system states versus empirical state work as indicators of user’s offline phenomenon? Hypothesis Large deviations between the states of the social platform as forecasted by the empirical model can be used as indicators of extraordinary events, which led users to deviate from their regular usage patterns. Findings Studies launched on Twitter base on historical usage in 2011 – 2012 concludes that each social platform has its own variable of usage pattern that is specific to individual user. The normal state of communication environment can be measure by specific variables in the data documenting the user behavior online. After removing the seasonal trends, statistic model can determine the large deviations between the state of the system as forecasted and the empirical state. These large deviations are later validated as truly extraordinary events that led the users to deviate from the normal usage patterns (Andreas Pascal, 2013). These variations act as predictors for the social companies to proactively launch market campaign to target audiences. Summary of Paper 4 The fourth paper chosen is titled â€Å"Standard deviation of anthropometric Z-scores as a data quality assessment tool using the 2006 WHO growth standards: a cross-country analysis†, by Mei, Z., Grummer-Strawn, L.  (2007). Purpose of the Study Worldwide nutritional status of population can be measured using height and weight anthropometric indicators. In 1978, World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that the Standard Deviation of the Z scores of these indicators remains relatively constant across population, irrespective of nutritional status. In 2006, WHO published new growth standards and purpose of study is to find whether above standards can still be used to access data quality. Research Questions 1. Are previous measures of Z scores calculation still applicable to measure worldwide nutritional status of population? 2. Can nutritional status, especially in children, from both developed and developing countries, be used as international references? 3. Will Z-score rages still apply to data collected after the application of 2006 WHO growth standards? Hypothesis Since the Z-Score scale is linear, summery statistics i.e. mean, Standard Deviation, and standard errors caused through delta of application can be computed from Z-Score values. Z-Score summery statistics is also helpful for grouping growth data, irrespective of age, sex and nationality. The summary statistics obtained for current application model can be compared with earlier references. Findings Available Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) represent nationally and contains large sample sizes. As these surveys are supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), they can be used authentically and contain wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators. As per 51 DHS surveys obtained, 32 were from 23 African countries, four from three Asian countries and 15 from eight Latin American countries. The Z scores were obtained for height for age, weight for age, and weight for height and body mass index for age. For all these four indicators, Z-score in Latin American countries were higher than in African and Asian countries, even though the Standard Deviation for all the three indicators were relatively stable and did not vary much with the Z-Score means. References Acker, D. (2002). Implied Standard Deviations and Post-earnings Announcement Volatility. Journal Of Business Finance Accounting, 29(3/4), 429. Andreas, J., Pascal, J. (2013). Forecasting the pulse: How deviations from regular patterns in online data can identify offline phenomena. Internet Research, 23(5), 589 607. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IntR-06-2012-0115 Cleaves, C., Hobbs, M., Noble, J. (2012). Business Math (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved from VitalBook file. Scott, D. (2006). Risk: an uncommon deviation. JASSA, n.a.(2), 30. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/89211018?pq-origsite=summon Mei, Z., Grummer-Strawn, L. (2007). Standard deviation of anthropometric Z-scores as a data quality assessment tool using the 2006 WHO growth standards: A cross country analysis. World Health Organization.Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85(6), 441-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/22955688 7?accountid=458

Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay -- Kate Chopin Awakening Essays Pape

Kate Chopin's The Awakening In Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, written approximately one hundred years ago, the protagonist Edna Pontellier's fate is resolved when she 'deliberately swims out to her death in the gulf'(Public Opinion, np). Her own suicide is indeed considered as a small, almost nonexistent victory by many, nevertheless there are those who consider her death anything but insignificant. Taking into consideration that 'her inability to articulate her feelings and analyze her situation [unattainable happiness] results in her act of suicide...'(Muirhead, np) portrays Edna as being incapable of achieving a release from her restricted womanhood as imposed by society. Others state that the final scene of the novel entirely symbolizes and realizes Edna's victory on a 'society that sees their [women's] primary value in their biological functions as wives and mothers?(Kate Chopin, np). In short, The Awakening is the tragic story of a woman who in a summer of her twenty-eighth year, found herself and struggled to do what she wanted to do; be happy. Although ?from wanting to, she did, with disastrous consequences?(Recent Novels 96). For those who wanted it to be a truly, and ironically, life achieving instead of life ending end, it was. But those who disagreed with Chopin?s choice ending found themselves losing some sleep over another magnificent author gone wrong (96). Various readers and reviewers alike found the ending to be sold short and unsatisfactory since it did not deliver the promise of a rewarding happy life to the protagonist who so valiantly endured her obstacles throughout the novel. Had she lived by Prof. William James? advice to do one thing a day one does not want to do [in Creole Society, two would perhaps be better], flirted less and looked after her children more, or even assisted at more accouchements- her chef d?auvre in self denial- we need not have been put to the unpleasantness of reading about her and the temptations she trumped up for herself. (96) Irony plays an inexplicable and majestic part in the conclusion of The Awakening. One can say with confidence that in a story a protagonist, or heroin in this case, is expected to fulfill a happily ever after ending not only from a repetitious guarantee but from the incisive determination by such character, whom through hardships, earned it. Edna Pontellier... ...ine. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com Muirhead, Marion. ?Articulation And Artistry: A Conversational Analysis of The Awakening.? The Southern Literary Journal 33.1 (2000): n. pag. Online. Internet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/slj/33.1muirhead.html ?Kate Chopin.? Gale Group (1999): n. pag. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/SRC ?Recent Novels: The Awakening.? The Nation Vol. LXIX, No. 1779 (3 Aug. 1899): 96 pp. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC Bogard, Carley R. ?The Awakening: A Refusal To Compromise.? The University of Michigan Papers in Women?s Studies U Vol. II, No. 3 (1977): pp. 15-31. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC Eichelberger, Clayton L. ?The Awakening: Overview.? Reference Guide to American Literature 3rd ed. (1994): n. pag. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC Eble, Kenneth. ?A Forgotten Novel: Kate Chopin?s The Awakening.? Western Humanities Review No. 3 (1956):pp. 261-69. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC

a farewell to arms Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"A writer’s job is to tell the truth† – Ernest Hemingway. This quote means that it is a writer’s job to convey some sort of truth or accuracy to the reader. I agree. This is shown in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway through the setting and characterization in the novel. It is also shown in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee through the themes and setting of the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the war novel, A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway demonstrates that it is a writer’s job to convey some sort of truth to the reader through the setting of the novel. This novel takes place during a time of war and shows what war is like, realistically. For a war novel, there is not a lot of fighting but instead more of getting from one place to another and the situations that occur in the interim. This portrays a truth to the reader because it shows how war is in reality and that it is not all death and destruction. Hemingway expresses the emotions of the characters accurately for time of war and conditions or situations the characters are put into. The author shows us the characters interact with each other and how they deal with the war surrounding them. For example, in Book III of the novel, the priest says that people that summer finally realized the war and that people were gentler because they had been beaten. This, truthfully, shows how war affe cts people and their emotions because it shows how they are disappointed. Through the setting of...

Throwing the Perfect Party

Brittney Liston Professor Thomas English Comp. I September 26, 2011 Throwing the Perfect Party Throwing the perfect party requires a lot of planning because the party planner’s reputation will be put in the spotlight. Rather it being a party that goes well or if it’s a total disaster. Hosting a party can be stressful if the proper amount of time is not used wisely in planning the party. Lots of people have failed and very few have succeeded in creating the perfect party depending on the time used in planning the party. The ones that failed usually were because they had poor planning skills. There are many steps that need to be followed in order to throw the perfect party. First off, take time to plan things out. Check dates out to make sure that party is not planned on top of another event that might be going on. A decision on location also needs to be made at this time. Now since they have a location and a date set a guest list can be started. Verify that all contact information for guest is good. The second step would be deciding a theme for the party. A month before the party is ideal for knowing the theme so that purchasing favors, decorations can be done and that everyone is properly dressed for the event. Wait around three weeks before the party to send out invitations. A reserve by date is good so that an accurate count can be made so that food and entertainment can be planned. The menu can be decided at this time. The menu will depend on the type of party being thrown. Finger foods and soft drinks are good for simple parties, while a full dinner maybe needed for a formal party. Activities should be decided at this time. If a band will be attending verify weekly with the band so that they are sure of their attendance. If planning to use personal media prepare what songs will be used and set those aside. Around a week before the party send out reminders to guest so that attendance will be assured. Calling the guest that has not responding is also a good idea in case they might have not received the invitation. Two days before the party get a final count of the guests attending so that the proper amount of things will be available at the party. Remember to take all food out of freezer that needs time to thaw out. Make sure that plenty of batteries and film are available so that all the special moments are captured by camera. If the party is to be held in a personal home be sure that all organizing and cleaning is done at this time so that it is ready for the party. The day before the party should be used to prepare most of the food that can be prepared early. If the party location is available use this time to do all indoor decorating so that it will be ready for the party. The day of the party is finally here. All of the early preparations have paid off to make this day a perfect day. Now is the time to put outdoor decorations out. All of the food that was not prepared prior should now get prepared and available to use. The guests are all arriving and all that is left to do is to enjoy to perfect party that you have made possible through proper planning. Now since the day of the party is finally here, do all of the last minute adjustments to the decorations. Make sure all the placements are out and ready, and that the music selection is in order.

Definition and Examples of the Series in Grammar

Definition and Examples of the Series in Grammar Definition In English grammar, a  series is a  list of three or more items (words,  phrases, or  clauses),  usually arranged in parallel form. Also known as a list or catalog. The items in a series are usually separated by commas (or semicolons if the items themselves contain commas). See Serial Commas. In rhetoric, a series of three parallel items is called a tricolon. A series of four parallel items is a tetracolon (climax). See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Writing With Descriptive ListsAsyndeton and PolysyndetonAuxesisBill Brysons ListsClimactic OrderCoordinate Adjectives  and  Cumulative AdjectivesDiazeugmaHypozeuxisEdward Abbeys List of ExamplesEnd-Focus and End-WeightEnumeratioListicleNikki Giovannis ListsParallelismSystrophe EtymologyFrom the Latin, to join   Examples and Observations With their repetitions, their strong rhythmic qualities- lists are often the most musical section of a piece of prose, as though the writer suddenly broke into song.(Susan Neville, Stuff: Some Random Thoughts on Lists. AWP Feb. 1998)Twitter has become a playground for imbeciles, skeevy marketers, D-list celebrity half-wits, and pathetic attention seekers: Shaquille ONeal, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest.(Daniel Lyons, Dont Tweet on Me. Newsweek, Sep. 28, 2009)Tea is the steady companion of the Scottish day, and each hotel, no matter how humble, stocks its rooms with supplies for brew-ups: electric pot for boiling water, ceramic pot for brewing, china cups and small tea creamers, a raft of teas, honey, fresh milk, and lemons.(Emily Hiestand, Afternoon Tea,  The Georgia Review, Summer 1992)Donkey: I dont get it, Shrek. Why didnt you just pull some of that ogre stuff on him? You know, throttle him, lay siege to his fortress, grind his bones to make your bread? You know, the whole ogre t rip.Shrek: Oh, I know. Maybe I could have decapitated an entire village, put their heads on a pike, gotten a knife, cut open their spleens and drunk their fluids. Does that sound good to you?Donkey: Uh, no, not really, no.(Shrek, 2001) Daisy said some cruel and heartless things about me, my personality, my looks, my clothes, my parents, my friends, the way I eat, sleep, drink, walk, laugh, snore, tap my teeth, crack my fingers, belch, fart, wipe my glasses, dance, wear my jeans up around my armpits, put HP sauce on my toast, refuse to watch The X Factor and Big Brother, drive . . . The litany went on and on and was interspersed with tears and sobs.(Sue Townsend,  Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. Penguin, 2010)Go on vacation with your siblings; you will be back in the treehouse of code words and competitions and all the rough rivalries of those we love but do not choose as family. I am more likely to read trashy books, eat sloppy food, go barefoot, listen to the Allman Brothers, nap and generally act like Im 16 than Id ever be in the dark days of February. Return to a childhood haunt, the campground, the carnival, and let the season serve as a measuring stick, like notches on the kitchen doorway: the last time yo u walked this path, swam this lake, you were in love for the first time or picking a major or looking for work and wondering what comes next.(Nancy Gibbs, To the Time Machine! Time, July 11, 2011) The fictional model for the country gentry is the hard-riding, heavy-drinking, red-faced, Hanoverian-damning, Pox!-exclaiming, no-nonsense Squire Western in Fieldings Tom Jones.(Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People. Overlook, 2000)Throughout [the movie] Sinister, the rooms remain darker than crypts, whether at breakfast or dinnertime, and the sound design causes everything in the house to moan and groan in consort with the heros worrisome quest. I still cant decide what creaks the most: the floors, the doors, the walls, the dialogue, the acting, or the fatal boughs outside.(Anthony Lane, Film Within a Film. The New Yorker, October 15, 2012)Knowing already of the towns carefully nurtured reputation for gentility, I moved [to Bournemouth] in 1977 with the idea that this was going to be a kind of English answer to Bad Ems or Baden-Baden- manicured parks, palm courts with orchestras, swank hotels where men in white gloves kept the brass gleaming, bosomy elderly ladies in mi nk coats walking those little dogs you ache to kick (not out of cruelty, you understand, but from a simple, honest desire to see how far you can make them fly).(Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island. Doubleday, 1995) Most of the public lands in the West, and especially in the Southwest, are what you might call cowburnt. Almost anywhere and everywhere you go in the American West you find hordes of these ugly, clumsy, stupid, bawling, stinking, fly-covered, shit-smeared, disease-spreading brutes. They are a pest and a plague. They pollute our springs and streams and rivers. They infest our canyons, valleys, meadows, and forests. They graze off the native bluestem and grama and bunchgrasses, leaving behind jungles of prickly pear. They trample down the native forbs and shrubs and cacti. They spread the exotic cheatgrass, the Russian thistle, and the crested wheat grass.(Edward Abbey, Even the Bad Guys Wear White Hats. Harpers Magazine, January 1986)I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or a sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a humble-bee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the northstar, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a Jan uary thaw, or the first spider in a new house.(Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) Oh, look, she said. She was a confirmed Oh-looker. I had noticed this at Cannes, where she had drawn my attention in this manner on various occasions to such diverse objects as a French actress, a Provenà §al filling station, the sunset over the Estorels, Michael Arlen, a man selling coloured spectacles, the deep velvet blue of the Mediterranean, and the late mayor of New York in a striped one-piece bathing suit.(P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves, 1934)Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, mee t any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.(President John Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961) The sandwiches were stuffed with alfalfa sprouts and grated cheese, impaled with toothpicks with red, blue, and green cellophane ribbons on them, and there were two large, perfect, crunchy garlic pickles on the side. And a couple of cartons of strawberry Yoplait, two tubs of fruit salad with fresh whipped cream and little wooden spoons, and two large cardboard cups of aromatic, steaming, fresh black coffee.(Thom Jones, Cold Snap, 1995)While politely discussing with him my fathers sudden journey to town, I registered simultaneously and with equal clarity not only his wilting flowers, his flowing tie and the blackheads on the fleshy volutes of his nostrils, but also the dull little voice of a cuckoo coming from afar, and the flash of a Queen of Spain settling on the road, and the remembered impression of the pictures (enlarged agricultural pests and bearded Russian writers) in the well-aerated classrooms of the village school which I had once or twice visited; andto continue a tabulati on that hardly does justice to the ethereal simplicity of the whole process- the throb of some utterly irrelevant recollection (a pedometer I had lost) was released from a neighboring brain cell, and the savor of the grass stalk I was chewing mingled with the cuckoos note and the fritillarys takeoff, and all the while I was richly, serenely aware of my own manifold awareness.(Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. Random House, 1966) The one with the assortment of smiles, the oneJailed in himself like a forest, the one who comesBack at evening drunk with despair and turnsInto the wrong night as though he owned it- oh smallDeaf disappearance in the dusk, in which of their shoesWill I find myself tomorrow?(W.S. Merwin, Sire. The Second Four Books of Poems. Copper Canyon Press, 1993)The Length of a SeriesAlthough the four-part series is indicative of a human, emotional, subjective, involved attitude, each additional lengthening of the series increases and magnifies this attitude, and begins to add an element of humor, even absurdity. [William] Hazlitt, writing about human beings, the Public, his own kind, [above] uses the long series to indicate great involvement, great feeling, and a certain sense of humor about it all. The Public is mean, but so ornery that we almost have to laugh.(Winston Weathers and Otis Winchester, The New Strategy of Style. McGraw-Hill, 1978)Usage Tips: Arranging and Concluding a Series- In a n unenumerated series, place the longest element last.(James Kilpatrick)- Do not use etc. at the end of a list or series introduced by the phrase such as or for examplethose phrases already indicate items of the same category that are not named.(G. J. Alred et al., The Business Writers Handbook. Macmillan, 2003) Pronunciation: SEER-eez

History of Western Philosophy †Research Paper

History of Western Philosophy – Research Paper Free Online Research Papers History of Western Philosophy Research Paper Do you think that Descartes has satisfactorily solved the problem of mind-body dualism? The Cartesian Dualism has come across three main problems, first, whether Descartes had successfully proven the existence of the non-material thinking soul, second, whether the soul (thought) can interact with our body (extension), regardless of the truthfulness of dualism, third, and the mental-or-physical dilemma. However, we cannot find any satisfactory and adequate answer of those problems in Descartes’ dualistic philosophy 1. Descartes’ Mind-body Dualism In Cottingham J, â€Å"Cartesian man†, the author began discussing Descartes’ arguments with the comparison between animals, men and machines. Descartes held that there would still be differences even the machines are made â€Å"bore a resemblance to our bodies, and imitated our actions as closely as possible for all practical purposes (p.109).† For machines cannot â€Å"produce different arrangements of words so as to give an appropriately meaningful answer to whatever is said in its presence† and they cannot â€Å"act through understanding but only from the disposition of their organs (p.109).† That is to say, the difference is that every action or utterance of a machine is limited by environmental conditions; whereas a human can deal with everything in their life freely and creatively because he can â€Å"instantaneously interpret an indefinitely large of utterances [situation] (p.110).† Human being has a unique competence for language, which is distinguished from â€Å"utterances of animals† (p.110). Descartes claimed that â€Å"utterances of animals† are not regarded as genuine language in that their utterances are just expressions of their passion, such as hope of eating, fear and joy etc. One may ask why would human being possess such a peculiar ability that even the most sophisticated machine and a magpie (a bird can imitate people talk) would not have. To ask this question, for Descartes, is simply to ask what kind of substance that we human being exclusively own. And he would say it is our rational soul (anima rationalis) contributes to our thinking which allow us to cope with â€Å"the indefinitely diverse contingencies of life† (p.109) and be a â€Å"genuine language user† (p.109). Extension, for Descartes, is an underlying substance that contains different attributions an object has, namely weight, colour, hardness, temperature†¦and the like. Dualists maintain that a human is constituted not only of a bodily substance, but also of a thinking substance (that we have mentioned in above paragraphs). Descartes thought that the latter, which produce a thinking mind for human, should not be derived from extension. It is simply a non-material substance –that has no extension- â€Å"specially created† (p.111) and implanted in each of us by God. Nonetheless, is such a difference adequate for us to ascribe our â€Å"thinking feature† (the function of mind is to think) to a non-physical thinking soul? As we know for Descartes the words â€Å"mind† and â€Å"soul† are of no difference at all. Materialist may argue that the brain alone can produce rational thinking of human. Now let us go over the arguments offered by Descartes attempting to prove the existence of rational soul and examine their successfulness. 2. The Argument from Doubt To reach the â€Å"non-materiality of the mind† (p.112) Descartes had applied his â€Å"method of doubt† which is to find out â€Å"what cannot be doubted†. Descartes examined his own existence by doubting (imagining the disappearance of) the existence of his own body and the world he was in, until he found himself unable to doubt he was thinking (his mind existed), which assured his existence. Since one could doubt all material things, Descartes believed there were non-material substances distinct from the body giving rise to our thought. A Descartes’ critic Antoinc Arnauld reckoned that although one can imagine himself without a body, body is â€Å"indeed an essential part of him† (p.112), without which one could not even exist. Such a refutation seems to have presupposed a materialistic view, that human’s existence relies on physical substance; and it fails to falsify Cartesian’s argument because Descartes could resist by restating his mind-body dualism, saying the mind could exist alone even though the body is eliminated and immortality is a feature of soul. However, Descartes himself finally admitted that the argument could not sufficiently and deductively prove the immateriality of soul as the soul could be derived from â€Å"our undoubted existence†. 3. The Argument from Clear and Distinct Perception Descartes stated that if one could â€Å"clearly and distinctly understand† one thing apart from another, it was enough to assure him that they were two distinct things owing to their capability of being separated. Therefore, having a clear and distinct idea of myself, to the extent that â€Å"I† am simply a thinking, non-extended thing; is separated from having a distinct idea of body, in so far as this is simply and extended, non-thinking thing. In accordance with such distinction, â€Å"it is certain I am really distinct from my body and can exist without it (p.113).† Then he said that the mind and the body were complete ideas that he could conceive them alone respectively. What he wanted to point out was that if one knew that the mind (a complete idea) could exist without the body (another complete idea), then one could know that the body is no part of the mind’s essence (p.114). The problem here is that even one can clearly and distinctly discern thinking from body; it does not follow that the one who thinks must be non-corporeal. That is to say, although we can directly aware of our thinking, we cannot directly aware of â€Å"what (who) does the thinking† (p.115), which can be corporeal. 4. The Divisibility Argument This argument intended to prove that the mind and the body were two entirely different substances (non-material and material, as mentioned) by saying that mind was indivisible in nature but body was divisible. Moreover, Descartes held that if there was bodily division (e.g. cutting off a hand from a body), â€Å"nothing had thereby been taken away from the mind† (p.116). What he meant â€Å"nothing† here was simply what he called â€Å"pure thought† (to doubt, to understand, to affirm, to deny, to be willing and to be unwilling, p.122), which can â€Å"occur without physiological events taking place in the brain or anywhere else† (p.116). Critic of Descartes suggested that â€Å"our desires and our reason could pull us in opposite directions† (p.118) and such â€Å"directions† would make our consciousness not simple and indivisible. Dualist could reply that even if there were opposite directions occurring in a consciousness, that â€Å"thinking I† could just make one decision, so the mind could retain its unitariness. Again, the problem of the argument is that we cannot infer a non-corporeal soul from knowing that our consciousness is indivisible, as â€Å"what does the thinking† may still be physical. Hitherto we have not found the arguments above sufficient and satisfactory to prove the immateriality of soul. Now it is time we discovered the problems encountered by Cartesian dualism, suppose the dualistic account is true. 5. The Problem of Interaction between Mind and Body The most significant problem for dualism is the problem of interaction between mind and body. As we all know mental changes and physical changes can cause one another. Some kind of causal flow from mind to body and vice versa is necessary in order for such things to be possible. However, since mind and body are defined by Descartes in terms of â€Å"not just distinct but mutually incompatible attributes†, it is not easy to see how such causal flow is possible (p.119). That is to say, it is difficult to see how the soul can initiate bodily movement. In spite of this, we are also curious about where the soul is supposed to take place. Descartes thought that it was located in the innermost part of the brain, which is a certain very small gland situated in the middle of the brain’s substance. (p.121) In other words, the point of interaction between soul and body must be within the brain. He proceeded to say that there must be one place where the dual data from sense organs (eyes and ears etc.), were integrated, so as to enable the soul to have a single (visual or auditory) perception (p.121). Here, the soul was like a little man inside the brain viewing the images from the optic nerves converge. The fatal problem of the thesis was that the pineal gland is the ‘principal seat’ of the soul only postponed, and did not solve the problem of how psycho-physical interaction is possible.† 6. Sensation and Imagination There is another difficulty of Descartes mind-body theory namely the mental-or-physical dilemma. It implies that we, human beings, are also dealing with some psycho-physical phenomena which are not categorized as either purely mental or purely physical. Now it seems that the two categories, mind and body, created by Descartes cannot include all human experience. Let us look at how Descartes pondered on his nature: But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling and also imagines and has sensory perceptions. (p.122) We should have no question about the first four activities, they are what Descartes regarded as â€Å"pure actions of the soul†; whereas the last two ones, imaginare and sentire, he had a different account on them. Descartes assured that when one had sense-perception, some actually present external objects printed an idea or a figure of themselves on his senses. These images would then be imprinted on the pineal gland and perceived by the mind; furthermore, when one had imagination, his mind imprinted some images on the gland, fashioned and shaped them in the brain in the absence of external objects. (p.123) We know from the above that imaginare and sentire are not activities we can practise with our pure intellect (mind) alone. It requires physiological activity which also requires optic and auditory nerves and brain activity, movements in the pineal gland. That is to say, without sensory nerves, we cannot perceive; without pineal gland (brain), we cannot imagine. One may ask why sensory experience and imagination involve brain activity. Descartes’ answer was that imagination needed a ‘peculiar mental effort’ (p.125): suppose we were conceiving and imagining some geometrical figures, we could conceive a dodecagon rather easily but we would feel strange (confused) when imagining it. So there was always a ‘curious gap’ between our purely intellectual cognition of the figure being considered and our ability to imagine and visualize it (p.125). This sensation of having to wait until one finishes visualizing the figure is exactly the evidence of non-pure-intellectuality of imagination. On the other hand, sensory experiences, Descartes noted, like hunger and thirst, taught people that they (their souls) were very closely joined or even intermingled with their bodies, so that they and their bodies could form a unit. The soul here, is like â€Å"a sailor perceives by sight if anything in his ship is broken. (p.125)† Therefore when their bodies needed food or water, they should have explicit understanding of the fact, that is, they knew they are hungry and they knew they are thirsty. In addition, Descartes insisted, some sensations, like hunger, could not be clearly and distinctly conceived, they are inherently ‘confused’. So we can see the difference between, on the one hand, doubting, understanding, affirming, denying, is willing, unwilling; on the other hand, imagining and having sensory perception. For the last two ones have an inherently confused, indefinable, subjective quality which requires the hybrid of mind and body. The dualistic problem here is that both the faculties of imagination and sensation are not straightforwardly ‘mental’, and they are capable of being accommodated with Descartes’ official dualistic schema. Official dualistic schema seems impotent to explain the complex psycho-physical phenomena. 7. Conclusion Even Cartesian dualists can reply the question of how psycho-physical interaction is possible by saying the sensation (sense-perception and imagination) is exactly the evidence of the psycho-physical interaction. However it is still inadequate to answer how the mind initiates the bodily action. Conclusively, Descartes failed to, first, prove the existence of non-material soul; second, he failed handle of the problem of how mind and body interact, and, last but now least, his dualistic theory was unable give an account on the complexity of imagination and sensory perceptions (psycho-physical phenomena). 8. References Cottingham J, â€Å"Cartesian Man†, in Descartes, Oxford: Blackwell, 1986, Ch.5 Research Papers on History of Western Philosophy - Research PaperComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoGenetic EngineeringMind TravelBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresResearch Process Part OneThree Concepts of PsychodynamicThe Spring and AutumnAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementBringing Democracy to Africa