Processed Food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Processed Food - Essay Example In addition to this, their taste is almost always consistent. If we look at the process of manufacturing processed food, it can be divided into three basic processes. First is the raw material processing, which brings out the food in the form that is eaten. This is followed by packaging and finally transportation or logistics. Even though it sounds harmless, the process of manufacturing ready to eat meals has negative affects not only on the health of the consumers, but also on the environment. In the following essay, the use and production procedure of hamburger would be analyzed. The essay will show how producing a hamburger is accompanied by various processes which prove to be detrimental to the environment. Cheese is one of the condiments which always accompany a hamburger. Hardly any hamburger is eaten without cheese in it. Hilmar Cheese, a cheese production factory from California, has been in the business for over 20 years. As a result of its manufacturing process, the company has been constantly polluting both land and water. Approximately 2.5 million gallons of wastewater is discharged by the company every day. This water contains poisonous compounds like arsenic, barium compounds, nitrogen and other salts. Such elements are fatal to humans and animals. In addition to this, waste water from factories and production plants leads to two very serious types of pollutions, namely Barium pollution and arsenic pollution. The next component of a hamburger to be analyzed is the hamburger bun. These buns are made from wheat. With resources like land being limited, the same piece of land is irrigated repeatedly and its nutrition is exhausted. Over farming eventually leads to desertification. Since the same piece of land is irrigated repeatedly, it leads to over irrigation. This in turn leads to salinization. The farm land thus, gets covered with layers of salt. Most of the farming done

Data Warehouse Case Study Essay Example for Free

Data Warehouse Case Study Essay History of the CDR When the project began in 1995–96, the CDR, initially referred to as the â€Å"clinical research database,† was intended to support and enhance clinical research at the University of Virginia by providing clinicians, students, and researchers with direct, rapid access to retrospective clinical and administrative patient data. Re? ecting this intent, the system was funded by the School of Medicine and housed in the Academic Computing Health Sciences group, which is distinct from the medical center’s IT group. With considerable assistance and cooperation from data owners and stewards, legacy data from several different sources were loaded into a single relational database and periodically updated. Authorized users accessed the CDR through a standard Web browser and viewed or downloaded data to their personal computers for further analysis. Initially, emphasis was placed on getting the CDR running as quickly as possible and with a minimum of resources; consequently, extensive transformation of data to an enterprise data model was not performed. The CDR project team consists of 2. 5–3. 0 FTEs (full-time equivalents)— one developer, one developer-database administrator, and portions of analyst, clinician, and administrative FTEs. To date, the costs of developing and operating the CDR have been approximately $200,000 per year, underwritten by the School of Medicine. Over the course of the project, there have been signi? cant enhancements to the user interface, incorporation of additional data sources, and the development of an integrated data model. There has also been increasing interest in using the CDR to serve a broader audience than researchers and to support management and administrative functions—â€Å"to meet the challenge of providing a way for anyone with a need to know—at every level of the organization—access to accurate and timely data necessary to support effective decision making, clinical research, and process improvement. In the area of education, the CDR has become a core teaching resource for the Department of Health Evaluation Science’s master’s program and for the School of Nursing. Students use the CDR to understand and master informatics issues such as data capture, vocabularies, and coding, as well as to perform Case Study: A Data Warehouse for an Academic Medical Center 167 exploratory analyses of healthcare questions. Starting in Spring 2001, the CDR will also be introduced into the university’s undergraduate medical curriculum. System Description Following is a brief overview of the CDR application as it exists at the University of Virginia. System Architecture. The CDR is a relational data warehouse that resides on a Dell PowerEdge 1300 (Dual Intel 400MHz processors, 512MB RAM) running the Linux operating system and Sybase 11. 9. 1 relational database management system. For storage, the system uses a Dell Powervault 201S 236GB RAID Disk Array. As of October 2000, the database contained 23GB of information about 5. 4 million patient visits (16GB visit data, 7GB laboratory results). Data loading into Sybase is achieved using custom Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) programs. CDR Contents. The CDR currently draws data from four independent systems (see Table 1). In addition, a number of derived values (for example, number of days to next inpatient visit, number of times a diagnostic code is used in various settings) are computed to provide summary information for selected data elements. Data from each of these source systems are integrated into the CDR’s data model. In addition to the current contents listed in Table 1, users and the CDR project team have identi? ed additional data elements that might be incorporated Table 1. Contents of the CDR Type of Data Inpatient, outpatient visits Source of Data Shared Medical Systems Description Patient registration and demographic data, diagnoses, procedures, unit and census information, billing transactions, including medications, costs, charges, reimbursement, insurance information Physician billing transactions from inpatient and outpatient visits, diagnoses, and procedures Laboratory test results Available Dates Jul 1993–Jun 2000 Professional billing Laboratory results Cardiac surgery IDX billing system HL-7 messages from SunQuest Lab System Cardiac surgery outcomes data (de? ned by Society of Thoracic Surgeons Oct 1992–Jun 2000 Jan 1996–Jun 2000 Clinical details for thoracic surgery cases Jul 1993–Jun 2000 168 Einbinder, Scully, Pates, Schubart, Reynolds into the CDR, including microbiology results, discharge summaries (and other narrative data), outpatient prescribing information, order entry details, and tumor registry information. As of October 2000, we have just ? nished incorporating death registry data from the Virginia Department of Health into the CDR. These data will provide our users with direct access to more comprehensive mortality outcomes data than are contained in local information systems, which generally are restricted to an in-hospital death indicator. User Interface. The user interface runs in a standard Web browser and consists of a data dictionary, a collection of common gateway interface (CGI) programs implemented using the â€Å"C† programming language, and JavaScriptenabled HTML pages. Structured query language (SQL) statements are generated automatically in response to point-and-click actions by the user, enabling submission of ad hoc queries without prior knowledge of SQL. The SQL queries are sent to the CGI programs that query the database and return results in dynamically created HTML pages. The entire process is controlled by the contents of the data dictionary, which is used to format SQL results, set up HTML links for data drill-down, and provide on-line help. Data may be downloaded immediately into Microsoft Excel or another analysis tool on the user’s workstation. Query Formulation. Most CDR users use the Guided Query function to retrieve data. This process involves three steps: 1. De? ne a population of interest by setting conditions, for example, date ranges, diagnostic codes, physician identi? ers, service locations, and lab test codes or values. 2. Submit the query, specifying how much data the CDR should return (all matching data or a speci? ed number of rows). 3. After the CDR returns the population of interest, use the Report Menu to explore various attributes of the population on a case-by-case or group level. Custom reports can also be de? ned, and the results of any report can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel, Access, or other analysis tool. Generally, the query process requires several iterations to modify the population conditions or report options. In addition, â€Å"browsing† the data may help the user generate ideas for additional queries. We believe that it is helpful for end users to go through this query process themselves—to directly engage the data. However, many users, especially those with a pressing need for data for a meeting, report, or grant, prefer to use CDR team members as intermediaries or analysts. To date, we have attempted to meet this preference, but as query volume increases, our ability to provide data in a timely manner may fall off. Security. A steering committee of clinicians guided the initial development of the CDR and established policies for its utilization and access. Only authorized users may log onto the CDR. To protect con? dentiality, all patient and physician identifying information has been partitioned into a â€Å"secure† Case Study: A Data Warehouse for an Academic Medical Center 169 database. Translation from or to disguised identi? ers to or from actual identi? ers is possible but requires a written request and appropriate approval (for example, from a supervisor or the human investigations committee). All data transmitted from the database server to the user’s browser are encrypted using the secure Netscape Web server, and all accesses to the database are logged. In addition, CDR access is restricted to personal computers that are part of the â€Å"Virginia. edu† domain or that are authenticated by the university’s proxy server. Evaluation Understanding user needs is the basis for improving the CDR to enable users to retrieve the data independently and to increase usage of the CDR at our institution. Thus, assessing the value of the CDR—how well we meet our users’ needs and how we might increase our user base—has been an important activity that has helped guide planning for changes and enhancements and for allocation of our limited resources. Efforts to evaluate the CDR have included several approaches: †¢ Monitoring user population and usage patterns †¢ Administering a CDR user survey †¢ Tracking queries submitted to the CDR and performing follow-up telephone interviews Usage Statistics. Voluntary usage of an IS resource is an important measure of its value and of user satisfaction. 5 However, usage of a data warehouse is likely to be quite different than for other types of information resources, such as clinical information systems. A clinical system is likely to be used many times per day; a data warehouse may be used sporadically. Thus, although we monitor system usage as a measure of the CDR’s value, we believe that frequency of usage cannot be viewed in isolation in assessing the success of a data warehouse. Since the CDR went â€Å"live,† more than 300 individuals have requested and obtained logon IDs. As of September 30, 2000, 213 individuals had logged on and submitted at least one query. This number does not include usage by CDR project team members and does not re? ect analyses performed by team members for end users. Figure 1 shows the cumulative number of active users (those who submitted a query) and demonstrates a linear growth pattern.

Sinclair Lewis and Babbitt Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Sinclair Lewis and Babbitt      Ã‚  Ã‚   The book under analysis herein is Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt.   The copy I am using in this research is published by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1950.   The original version was published in 1922, but there is no information in this book regarding what printing or edition it may be.   This edition encompasses thirty four chapters which span 401 pages in length as they are printed here.   One interesting note is that the novel is dedicated to Edith Wharton.    The author of the work, Sinclair Lewis, was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and holds the distinction of being the first American ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.   Lewis was born in the late 19th century and lived until the middle of the 20th century so he witnessed many social transformations, including electricity, the automobile and the rise of industrialism and urban centers.   His college years were spent at Yale and he worked early in his writing career as a newspaper journalist and editor.   His early works like The Job:   An American Novel were characteristic of the satire and realism that would come to be trademarks of his mature style.   Lewis would go on to write novels that satirized with little mercy the small rural town (Main Street), the 9-to-5 businessman (Babbitt) and those who tried to prevent scientific truth from emerging (Arrowsmith).   Elmer Gantry and Dodsworth were also literary successes and each was made into a Hollywood motion picture.      Lewis refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith because the terms of the award stated that it was not being awarded for literary merit, but for the best demonstration of "the wholesome atmosphere of American life" (Murphy   597).  Ã‚   L... ...at Lewis must have been valid about such an environment if Sinclair would admit to such a belief.   Nonetheless, Lewis still enables us to believe in American society but refuses to allow us to accept its worse qualities as anything we should promote or perpetuate.    WORKS   CITED Dooley, D. J. (ed.).   The Art of Sinclair Lewis.   Nebraska, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1967. Lewis, S.   Babbitt.   New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1950. Mencken, H. L.   Portrait of an American citizen. Light, M.   (ed.).   The Merrill Studies in Babbitt.   Ohio, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1971:   25-27. Murphy, B.   (ed.)   Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia.   (4th edit.).   New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. Sinclair, U.   Standardized America. Light, M.   (ed.).   The Merrill Studies in Babbitt.   Ohio, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1971:   28-31.

ufo cults Essay -- essays research papers fc

The First Encounter Assignment #2 â€Å"Are we alone in the universe?† Scientists have been trying to answer this question for many years. As of now there has not been any rock solid evidence to prove that there is life outside this world, but there is an overwhelming amount of people that believe that there is life. People only believe that there is life outside earth, they don’t know there is. It is hard to know that extra terrestrials exist unless a person has an encounter with one. A person named Claude Vorilhon (Rael) had an encounter with an alien and was told that we were all experiments to the aliens. The alien insisted for him to spread the word of the encounter and build an embassy for the coming of Elohim (the extra terrestrials). This encounter was the start of a UFO cult called Raelians. This cult has spread all over the world, predominately in Europe, Japan, and Quebec. In this UFO cult, Raelians, one can wonder what’s its beliefs are, what is it about the theology of this UFO cult that could draw so many followers and how some can not accept this religion. This religion started by one man went a long way and caused many controversies along the way. The theology of the Raelians was given from Vorilhon’s extra terrestrial mentor that he met with for six consecutive days for about an hour. There are eight main beliefs of the Raelians cult. The first one being that Elohim was the creator of humanity. The alien race was way more advanced than us and they mastered genetics and cell biology well enough to create DNA. They used earth to further studies because of its isolated environment. First plants were created then animals, then humans. â€Å"These human creations of the Elohim were first housed comfortably, being fed and sheltered with no obligations, in the laboratory of the Elohim. However, humans soon proved to possess an aggressive nature, and thus, the Elohim forced the humans out of the laboratory, which was poetically referred to in the Bible as the "Garden of Eden.† The second belief is the scientific translation of the bible. â€Å"Genesis 6:1-2 "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth and daughters were born unto them, that the Sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them as wives..." Rael states this quote from the bible that it indicates an interbreeding of the... ... through to draw people to it. Many people have faith in a religion but once they lose it, either they lost a loved one and wonder why has God done this to them or how God allowed it to happen, they may turn to another religion such as Raelians where there is no God present but simply our creators of life, the Elohim. The Raelian religion is growing by the year drawing more and more followers but there are also many others who reject this religion because of their own beliefs. We will never know how we came to be in this world either by aliens or created by a God, either way the installment of faith has to be present to follow a religion. The choice of religion is based on the person’s beliefs. Bibliography Faye Whittermore. April 2001. â€Å"Raelians†. Available on-line: New Religious Movements: http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/rael.html Mother Site of the Raelian Religion. http://www.rael.org/ (Last visited 04/02/05). Rael. 1998. The Final Message. London: The Tagman Press. Rael. 1986. Let's Welcome our Fathers from Space. Japan: AOM Corporation. Shupe, Anson D. 1981. Six Perspectives on New Religions. New York: Edwin Mellen Press. 75-80.

Principles of Business Phase Essay

In the aspect of business management, there are several elements and characteristics that organizational leader take into consideration when analyzing the condition of the economy of a certain society or nation. These elements are mainly the certain advantages and disadvantages of each society compare to others in terms of production, resource consumption, and economic benefit. Ideally, business leaders analyze each society based on the economic advantage they posses thus, establishing its fundamental business characteristic for market selection. In the application of this concept, consider the following scenario and the characteristic of the economic advantage each respective has for market analysis and selection. a) A nation has companies with the capacity to make stereo equipment at a much lower price than other national producers because of lower cost labor. The stereo equipment is of the same quality as other international producers. The characteristic of this society is mainly absolute advantage as their production nature possesses more benefits than the other in terms of resource consumption. Ideally, each business leaders desire to have better and effective production with lesser expenses to gain greater profit. Because this society can produce the same quality standard for their product similar to others while having cheaper production cost, their have absolute advantage than the others in terms of production and market selection. Indeed, business organization will desire to utilize the absolute advantage that this nation has for greater profit. b) A country mines for a high-demand precious gem only found within that country’s borders and distributes the gems to jewelry dealers all over the world. The principle for the economic characteristic in this scenario can be considered as absolute advantage mainly because the highly demanded resources can also be produced by their society making it their concrete advantage over the others. Likewise, this characteristic can also be considered as a comparative advantage scenario as the society can also be viewed as not the most efficient producer only that they are the only possible producers. Considering their condition, they might not be the most efficient producers for other products however, they can find certain advantage through specializing and focusing on the highly demanded product, which can only be found in their resource area. c) An overseas country passes laws to protect certain business practices that other countries may find unsuitable and perhaps unethical. The protection of these business practices are not seen as abusive or exploitive within the overseas country and are also consistent with national social standards. The business principle applied in this scenario can be considered as national competitive advantage as the law passed by this nation becomes their significant advantage over the others namely their concern for protecting certain business practices. Other societies might consider this protection perhaps unethical yet this specific nation implemented them while maintaining their adherence to the national standard. As such, business organizations who see much benefit from this protection will take consider applying their production operation in this nation. Thus, the law they passed protection business operation will become their significant advantage though not absolute above others. Bibliography Johansson, Borie & Karlsson, Charlie & Stough, Roger (2002). Regional Policies and Comparative Advantage. Edward Elgar Publication, USA. ISBN-10: 1840648341. Porter, Michael E. (1998). The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Free Press Publication, USA. ISBN-10: 0684841479.

Free Essays on Futurefirst

We’ve decided to use the direct sales route for our product. Direct Selling is the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location. These products and services are marketed to customers by independent salespeople. Depending on the company, the salespeople may be called distributors, representatives, consultants or various other titles. Products are sold primarily through in-home product demonstrations, parties and one-on-one selling. As reported in 2000, the 55 percent of American adults who have ever purchased by direct selling is exceeded only by the percentage of those who have ever purchased via retail stores (96%) or through mail order catalogs (83%). The primary reason we chose direct sales marketing is we feel that the consumer, in this age of internet commerce, will have a better personal experience while purchasing a new product though direct sales. In addition, we chose direct sales because we want to target a demographic that will purchase from a trusted retail vendor such as the major department store. We’ve decided to sell this product at department stores like Macy’s, Strawbridge’s, J.C. Penney. We’ve also decided to sell it at large-scale gyms like the YMCA or Gold’s Gym and sporting good stores such as Sports Authority and Dick’s.... Free Essays on Futurefirst Free Essays on Futurefirst We’ve decided to use the direct sales route for our product. Direct Selling is the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location. These products and services are marketed to customers by independent salespeople. Depending on the company, the salespeople may be called distributors, representatives, consultants or various other titles. Products are sold primarily through in-home product demonstrations, parties and one-on-one selling. As reported in 2000, the 55 percent of American adults who have ever purchased by direct selling is exceeded only by the percentage of those who have ever purchased via retail stores (96%) or through mail order catalogs (83%). The primary reason we chose direct sales marketing is we feel that the consumer, in this age of internet commerce, will have a better personal experience while purchasing a new product though direct sales. In addition, we chose direct sales because we want to target a demographic that will purchase from a trusted retail vendor such as the major department store. We’ve decided to sell this product at department stores like Macy’s, Strawbridge’s, J.C. Penney. We’ve also decided to sell it at large-scale gyms like the YMCA or Gold’s Gym and sporting good stores such as Sports Authority and Dick’s....

My Most Memorable Dining Experience Essay Essays

My Most Memorable Dining Experience Essay Essays My Most Memorable Dining Experience Essay Essay My Most Memorable Dining Experience Essay Essay My most memorable dining experience surprisingly happened on a regular Wednesday eventide. I was packed and ready for my month trip. my flight was scheduled early in the forenoon and I knew I had some clip on my custodies. I wanted to pass it with my best friend before I left. and with that great thought in head I headed to her topographic point of work. Emeril’s Restaurant. I had neer dined there before due to the pricy ticket that every mulct dining eating house carries. but that twenty-four hours I decided to get down my holiday early and fling myself. I’m truly glad I did! Everyone should see a all right dining atmosphere at least one time in their life-time because those exceeding memories are invaluable. As I arrived. a mark with â€Å"complementary gentleman parking† on it already set the tone for a pleasant surprise. I made my manner to the chief entryway basking a light zephyr that brought a sweet flowered odor. Immediately a friendly hostess approached me inquiring if I had a reserve tonight. I let her cognize I was here to see one of the employees. my best friend Julia. While she was naming for her. I couldn’t aid but stare at the luxury atmosphere of that topographic point. I felt like I walked into a castle. Highly high ceilings decorated with bright colour pendants contributed good to alone natural visible radiation coming through mosaic colour glass windows making a beautiful atmosphere and first feeling. Walking through the dinning room with my friend. I saw looming shelves at the saloon filled with sole vinos and liquors. while across from it featured calm lily pool that runs in a centre of the eating house. Wet walls of that pool create mini waterfalls for a romantic scenery at the booths right next to it. After all this I decided to research another pearl of this eating house. the Chef’s nutrient saloon! Located right in forepart of the kitchen. where all the action takes topographic point it couldn’t be a better pick for me. Sing that astonishing South Pacific atmosphere with modern-day design had me more than excited to seek their nutrient creative activities. Right off I receive a complementary appetiser from the Chef for being a first clip invitee and it gave me clip to look over a bill of fare. With my spicy tuna axial rotation I receive a interest martini good paired by Julia for that Asiatic extract. It softened the spicy bite of axial rotation and accented fresh chip veggies and tempura crust in my oral cavity. a great start. I chose to go on with seafood throughout the classs. as the lone petition I asked Julia for while she’s doing a determinations for me. The following dish was an obvious pick as she knows how much I love crab bars. and now I get to seek Chef Emerile’s Polynesian take on it. It arrived on a large blue home base that contrasted bright xanthous mango-habanero butter sauce and included a fantastic caramelized Ananas comosuss on top of elephantine aureate crusted bar. Presentation was completed by long cut cives. coriander foliage. and black benne seeds. The first bite is runing in my oral cavity while I’m savoring the strong spirit of the snow bluish crab. and so the sauce comes in drama conveying sugariness of Mangifera indica and little boot of habanero. Thingss I thought could neer be on the same home base. every bit good as soft texture of crab on the interior and panko crisped outside and another bed of soft caramelized Ananas comosus are so good blended. With all the odors and steams of good crafted nutrient coming my manner. I know I’m ready for the chief class! My dining set up gets changed once more. and I’m excited to see chop sticks. that means I’m acquiring something from a splash Fry pan. My exhilaration and expectancy grows bigger when the barman. Tony. personally brings his creative activity – a tropical spritzer made of fresh juice. white vino. sparkling H2O. and garnished with existent bright pink flower. yet another image worthy presentation. Shortly after. mouthwatering pan seared crenations over rice noodles have arrived and I can see hot steam lifting from my home base conveying an inviting aroma of soy sauce and mushrooms. Soft. spicy noodles present a strong boot. but certain adequate my reviewing spritzer off sets the powerful gustatory sensation and cleanse the palette for the crenation. That fantastic repast transported me to the peaceable resort on the Pacific Islands for few hours. and in my head I wasn’t in Orlando at all. I was on holiday already. Everything from the arresting infinite. good executed dishes. to the keen service created warm memories for me to take on a long trip. I think everyone should handle themselves to ticket dining experience at least one time for a life clip memories. and I assure you. Emeril’s merely the topographic point for it!

Why Some Conservatives Oppose Gay Marriage

Why Some Conservatives Oppose Gay Marriage While some conservatives oppose gay marriage, others do not. For conservatives who do oppose it, the issue has less to do with homophobia and more to do with protecting the Judeo-Christian view of marriage. Social Conservatives and Wedge Issues While it is true that social conservatives have been on the front lines of wedge issues, not all conservatives are as deeply passionate about them as others. In fact, a large portion of the conservative movement- fiscal conservatives and crunchy conservatives, for example- may find themselves disagreeing with social conservatives on issues like gay marriage. Nevertheless, simply identifying as a conservative is enough to earn the vitriol and condemnation of the LGBT movement. Opposition to Gay Marriage vs. Homophobia Most gay rights advocates voice opinions of their own. Conservatives are motivated by homophobia [or hate], they say. Conservatives use their religion as a way to oppose gay marriage, others opine. Still, others believe that conservatives dont harbor the same hatred for divorced people, vandals, or other sinners. They have a special hatred for gays and lesbians. Comments like these force even those who have no particular sentiment either way to take up sides and defend their loosely-held convictions (whether they lean to the right or the left on this issue). I dont support gay marriage is not the same as I hate gays, and those on the left are frequently too blinded by their advocacy to recognize it. Those that do simply refuse to acknowledge it. Not everyone who opposes gay marriage is a homophobe, and not everyone who opposes gay marriage hates people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. By branding the religious end of an entire conservative movement as hateful, the people making such remarks come off as hateful of conservatives. It boils the issue down to one or the other, without considering those in between. Marriage As a Sacred Symbol For many people (not just religious conservatives), marriage is a sacred symbol of heterosexual love and commitment. Seeing it changed in such a profound way would be like the National Rifle Association suddenly claiming the rainbow flag as its symbol. Just as this would change the meaning of the flag in a way that is unpleasant to the LGBT community, so too would gay marriage change the meaning of marriage to a large part of the married community. Separation of Church and State? There is a common misconception among those on the left that the Constitution mandates a clear separation of church and state, yet that language is nowhere to be found in the document. The phrase was taken from a letter by Thomas Jefferson and bound into law by an activist Supreme Court in 1878. The Constitution deals with the issue of religion via the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. In the former case, Congress cannot pass laws based on religious principles and in the latter, the government cannot keep people from practicing their religion. National recognition of gay marriage is believed by many conservatives to be an example of government interfering with their right to practice their religion. They see it as akin to the government changing a basic tenet of their religion, not unlike forcing Orthodox Jews to eat pork or forcing Catholics to use something other than water in their baptisms. It reduces the covenant of marriage to a bureaucratic rubber stamp and also bastardizes the holiness of it. Recognition of Civil Unions vs. Marriage As it relates to the federal government, the trouble begins with how marriage is treated. There are very few mainstream or common-sense conservatives who will argue that a gay persons life-partner shouldnt be afforded the same rights as a married persons spouse, especially in instances where one of the parties is ill. The trouble with existing federal law is that it recognizes the institution of marriage, which is a holy, religious practice. While atheists will argue marriage is a legal covenant, most conservatives (and even many liberals) will concede that it is an act of religion. Most mainstream conservatives believe that civil unions would be a better way for the federal government to bestow benefits on couples. State vs. Federal While there are many conservatives who believe the institution of marriage should be defended as a covenant between a man and a woman, many more believe that the federal government shouldnt be dealing with the subject at all. Its a matter of jurisdiction. A large majority of conservatives believe the gay marriage issue is a states rights issue since there is no explicit language regarding the subject in the Constitution. According to the Tenth Amendment (Article X of the Bill of Rights), The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. If it were a matter of the states, there undoubtedly would be states in the U.S. that would permit gay marriage and others that wouldnt. For the majority of conservatives, this is fine as long as the voters of these states are the ones making the decisions (not the lawmakers). The Bottom Line For most mainstream conservatives, gay marriage isnt the issue it is for social conservatives. While there is a crossover for many on the right, political conservatism is less about wedge issues and more about limiting the size and scope of government, building a strong national defense and enabling the freedom of enterprise. Many conservatives who took a states right stance have put the issue on the back-burner since the Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage and prohibiting state restrictions and bans.

Evaluation of leadership theories Research Proposal

Evaluation of leadership theories - Research Proposal Example From this research it is clear that for an effective leadership within an organization, the situational theory points out that the leader should be in a position of adjusting the situation and circumstances at the organization. Under the Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory of leadership, a team develops from the immaturity stage to the maturity stage during which leadership style and management tend to develop progressively. Fiedler’s contingency model is another type of leadership style that is applicable to the CCS Group based in London. This particular theory indicates that there is no one leading style that can make leadership effective. This style of leadership tends to be effective in the CCS Group since it has helped in the improvement of the performance quality of the organization. The leadership of the CCS Group is normally linked to its performance. According to the theory, there is a concern to assess the traits of the leader if the organization needs t o be successful through effective leadership. Its effectiveness in the improvement of the quality of performance of the CCS Group because it uses the least preferred co-worker scale for assessing the attitude of the leader by asking the leader about the individual they would wish to unite in their work. The trait theories of leadership indicate that leaders who are regarded as effective tend to share common traits and personalities. This is effective in the CCS Group of organizations because the majority of leaders at the organization is self confidence, honest, intelligent, and are self driven.

The Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG - Case Study Example Basically, the bribery scandal at Siemens critically demonstrates how employees were involved with unethical behaviours, which led to an irrevocable damage to the company’s reputation and the ultimate profitability and success (Marsh, 2007). Founded in 1847, the company made their listing in the New York Stock Exchange in 2001, where they were rated as the most efficient and profitable company. Never the less, the business world fell in 2006 when around 30 Siemens’ offices and private homes were raided based on the notion of bribery, fund embezzlement, and evasion of taxes, a raid that led to the uncover of what is said to be the world’s largest corporate bribery scandals. It was evident that Siemens had involved itself in bribery and other related business malpractices. In essence, three main issues focus on failure of employees to hold fast on the ethical standards in relation to personal communication and cross cultural business relationships. First, the lack of cultural sensitivity, over and above, unfamiliar global practises greatly contributed to an abundant environment in which exploitation and manipulation of other companies was witnessed. Second, short time focus on making the deal through contract negotiation, and special bribes pulled out poor decision process from the managers of the company. In addition, there was lack of accountability, compliance, and transparency by management, a situation that permitted Siemens’ employees to involve themselves in fraudulent behaviour (Sims, 2007). Ethical Contemplation According to utilitarian approach on ethical matters actions are right once they achieve maximum good for maximum number of peo ple. Although not all people will be favoured by the decision made, the overall is that everyone will be in a better position as compared to the previous situation. Needless to mention, that the act of bribery at the time seemed to be a cost effective issue as the company was able to secure some of the important contracts through the use of bribery that acted as the fraction of the monetary funds that the company expected in relation to the whole deal. Of important to note is that, there was dire need to keep the company in business and the use of bribery facilitated it survival, over and above been able to continue with their operations and provide of the society in term of social responsibility, employment opportunities, as well as, paying taxes (Thiel, 2007). Conversely, Siemens AG bribery scandal has a permanent impact on the owners and or shareholders and the company itself which may not be easily realised. In essence, the reputation and credibility of the company would be comp romised a situation that

Chicano Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Chicano Study - Essay Example occurs after the Falklands war had ended in favour of the British and the military, dictatorial regime in Argentina had been replaced by a so-called civilian Government, but the political background of this films is also one of oppression. Using women as protagonists, both film portray political events as witnessed through the eyes of a relative outsider, to heighten the impact of the political background on individuals and the power those events had to disrupt and change the life of those individuals. Argentina’s dictatorial regime is portrayed through a woman’s perspective, to gradually reveal the oppression of the regime, as the protagonists move from ignorance to full blown awareness of the horrors lying below the surface. The perspective used by both filmmakers to present the repressive political background of both films is that of individual women who are relatively innocent; they are not directly involved in any of the atrocities taking place by the Government, yet each one becomes the victim/target of the Government’s policies. Since Argentina is largely a state where feminism has not taken such a strong hold as the Western countries, men are the prime movers and shakers of political events and women are restricted and confined to certain occupations and are thus relatively immature and unaware in a political sense. From this perspective, they may actually represent the average ordinary citizen who is relatively ignorant in terms of political acumen and is a victim of political events rather than being one of the perpetrators. Political events form the backdrop rather than the major theme of both the films; but by using these innocent female protagonists, both film makers are able to introduce these events to the audiences as if viewed through the eyes of those protagonists – a gradual dawning of knowledge about the events which are transpiring in the background and the gathering horror as they become involved in the fallout of these

Project3+proposal3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project3+proposal3 - Assignment Example There is a need for parents and teachers to get involved in their children’s education by giving them enough support, since adequate sleep is vital for physical and neuropsychological function (Jiunn and Shih, 248). Inadequate sleep results in to inattention, daytime sleepiness, impaired attention, and memory lapse. For that reason, sufficient sleep is crucial as far as the proper functioning of the brain is concerned (Cheng, Wang and Jeng, 59). Research has revealed that there is a divergence, as far as grades are concerned, between students who get enough sleep and eat the right diet, and those who do not. Sufficient sleep helps one to relax and focus on one’s studies. Students who do have enough sleep tend to feel lazy and always procrastinates activities, leading to work load and depression. Sleeping problems are a significant hurdle to learning and cognition, and have an adverse effect on behaviour and the gaining of social competence (Gibson, Powles and Thabane, 1 16). Furthermore, good nutrition helps in cognitive functioning. Children who have a deficiency of calcium are likely to suffer from anaemia, which heavily impacts on their school performance. On the same note, most students consume meals that are high on sugar, fat and sodium, and which may lead to obesity and chronic ailments. Additionally, since most parents are now in the workforce, some students end up skipping nutritious meals and opting for junk foods. Consequently, poor nutrition increases the risks of high blood pressure, obesity, cancer, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes (Edlin and Golanty, 93-94). This brings the need for teachers and parents to support students in getting sufficient sleep and proper nutrition to ensure they perform well in school. With all the partying, preference for television programmes, part time jobs, and studying, it is inevitable for students to lack sufficient sleep and to consume poor diet. Research shows that app roximately 20% of most college students suffer from insomnia. Those experiencing sleeping disorders suffer from anxiety, irritability, and weight gain, aspects that directly affecting their performance in school. Additionally, research has revealed that poor nutrition contributes immensely to diseases like cancer, diabetes, obesity, among others, hence, adversely affecting the academic performance of most students (Edlin and Golanty, 93-94). Students should think holistically on how health behaviours are related to their attainment of success (Carter et al., 8-9). Other adverse impacts of lack of sleep and poor nutrition extend to seizure, gaining of weight, and stroke. Consequently, students result in taking unpleasant measures in order to combat the effects of lack of sleep. Such measures include a high consumption of sodas, coffee, and energy drinks which end up worsening the problem. Various scholars agree that students who are sleep deprived tend to score lower marks as compare d those who sleep sufficiently. The scholars further add that students should get six to about eight hours sleep in order to perform well in their tasks. People who fail to get ample rest end up having low productivity and for the students they end up registering poor scores in their academics (Gibson, Powles and Thabane, 116). Most people do not perceive lack

Factors influencing Language and Literacy - (4) Language Change Essay

Factors influencing Language and Literacy - (4) Language Change - Essay Example With the shift to understanding the importance of culture in teaching English as a second language, teachers are faced with new challenges when teaching adults. Language is complex, far more than just making language and grammar choices. For instance, try translating the phrase â€Å"Linguists have been interested in several aspects of language variations† into Spanish, and then translating the Spanish back to English: Los lingà ¼istas han estado interesados en varios aspectos de la variacià ³n de la lengua. The translation reads: â€Å"The linguists have been interested in various aspects of the variation of the tongue.† That might be quite true because the tongue has a great deal to do with forming words, but it isn’t the phrase that was originally translated. Translation is one of many specific factors that influence language change. What else must be taken into consideration in an analysis of change? An effort will be made to investigate factors such as cultural variation, social networking, ethnicity, communication in a family-unit and technological advances, as they relate to teaching and learning a different la nguage. Looking back at the history of the English language over the past hundred years, pronounciation, spelling and meaning have changed very little, but the number of words has greatly increased because of the industrial revolution and the advent of a technological society. Also, military history, with wars throughout the 1900s, made military language very much a part of the century (Wilton, 2005). In Great Britain, the variances of language, i.e. accent, dialect, variety and register, are especially evident in different sections of England. American English has its own regional dialects, as well as different spelling, pronounciation and meaning for many English words. In Australia, both accent and dialect, as well as several words unique to the continent, make the English language distinctive there. For people from Asian

Project3+proposal3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project3+proposal3 - Assignment Example There is a need for parents and teachers to get involved in their children’s education by giving them enough support, since adequate sleep is vital for physical and neuropsychological function (Jiunn and Shih, 248). Inadequate sleep results in to inattention, daytime sleepiness, impaired attention, and memory lapse. For that reason, sufficient sleep is crucial as far as the proper functioning of the brain is concerned (Cheng, Wang and Jeng, 59). Research has revealed that there is a divergence, as far as grades are concerned, between students who get enough sleep and eat the right diet, and those who do not. Sufficient sleep helps one to relax and focus on one’s studies. Students who do have enough sleep tend to feel lazy and always procrastinates activities, leading to work load and depression. Sleeping problems are a significant hurdle to learning and cognition, and have an adverse effect on behaviour and the gaining of social competence (Gibson, Powles and Thabane, 1 16). Furthermore, good nutrition helps in cognitive functioning. Children who have a deficiency of calcium are likely to suffer from anaemia, which heavily impacts on their school performance. On the same note, most students consume meals that are high on sugar, fat and sodium, and which may lead to obesity and chronic ailments. Additionally, since most parents are now in the workforce, some students end up skipping nutritious meals and opting for junk foods. Consequently, poor nutrition increases the risks of high blood pressure, obesity, cancer, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes (Edlin and Golanty, 93-94). This brings the need for teachers and parents to support students in getting sufficient sleep and proper nutrition to ensure they perform well in school. With all the partying, preference for television programmes, part time jobs, and studying, it is inevitable for students to lack sufficient sleep and to consume poor diet. Research shows that app roximately 20% of most college students suffer from insomnia. Those experiencing sleeping disorders suffer from anxiety, irritability, and weight gain, aspects that directly affecting their performance in school. Additionally, research has revealed that poor nutrition contributes immensely to diseases like cancer, diabetes, obesity, among others, hence, adversely affecting the academic performance of most students (Edlin and Golanty, 93-94). Students should think holistically on how health behaviours are related to their attainment of success (Carter et al., 8-9). Other adverse impacts of lack of sleep and poor nutrition extend to seizure, gaining of weight, and stroke. Consequently, students result in taking unpleasant measures in order to combat the effects of lack of sleep. Such measures include a high consumption of sodas, coffee, and energy drinks which end up worsening the problem. Various scholars agree that students who are sleep deprived tend to score lower marks as compare d those who sleep sufficiently. The scholars further add that students should get six to about eight hours sleep in order to perform well in their tasks. People who fail to get ample rest end up having low productivity and for the students they end up registering poor scores in their academics (Gibson, Powles and Thabane, 116). Most people do not perceive lack

Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Knowledge Management - Essay Example Some of the examples of changing the culture of an organization include how all employees assembled in the main board room every Friday which was to be changed in the up coming quarter, owing to financial expenditures. They discussed organizational matters in a very informal manner but the Managing Director decided to do it in the form of a virtual group which was created and everyone was asked to subscribe it to receive instant updates (Drucker, Garvin, Dorothy, Straus & Brown, 1998). Similar cultural changes do take place within organizations and these are seen as normal measures since organizations are moving ahead with both short term changes as well as the strategic ones. The need is to know what the employees think about them and how ready and willing they would be to embrace the change that is coming about within the organizational cultural realms. As a leader, I would initiate the process of organizational change by finding out what I essentially want to achieve. When I am certain that the aspects that I want to attain are true and genuine for the sake of the organization, and that the change is a positive tangent, then I will manifest it in the truest possible way. I will take all the employees under my aegis and inform them of the management decision. When this has been done, I will ask the middle management to come up with certain policies which are for the betterment of the organization yet are inclined towards attaining a change that is driven by results. I will be making all-out measures to make sure that all employees are on board and provide as much clarity as possible in order to speed up actions. Each of these stages can take up to about 15 days which would mean that the organizational change is a process spanning up to about 3 months. Since there would be five to six different steps that will be undertaken

Benefits of Capital Punishment Essay Example for Free

Benefits of Capital Punishment Essay Though death penalty law has received insurmountable onslaught from the opposing activists and human rights campaigners, a number of states have maintained a hard stance and stood their grounds, this has been with good reasons. It is also in the clear understanding of its benefits and the hollowness of the counter claims. The position of this paper is that capital punishment has a wide range of benefits to a nation. Capital punishment deters crime, curbs recidivism, controls overcrowding and reduces the cost of maintaining inmates serving life sentences. A number of econometric studies conducted between 1978 and 2000 in the United States by a number of scholars bear the truth about the deterrence abilities of capital punishment (Paul R. Z. , 2006, 34). These studies have established the obvious, just as incarceration deters crime so does capital punishment. Capital punishment simply refers to an act by state of executing criminals found to have committed capital offenses. History has it that the origin of capital punishment was necessitated by the need to quell soaring rates of grievous crimes and political dissent. There are various crimes that are punished using death penalty; these however usually vary from one country to another and are a product of a states traditions and societal expectations. In China corruption is considered serious enough to attract a death penalty. Majority of countries regard drug trafficking, rape and cold blood premeditated murders as capital offences. Zhiqiang Liu (2004, 12), an economist, is particularly categorical in his study of the ability of capital punishment to deter crime. He goes forth and posits that one execution of criminal by state goes ahead to safeguard about eight lives of potential victims, this is in accordance to a study he conducted in the United States between the early 1930s and the late 1960s. This study is quite confident on the relationship between executions and crimes rate. These findings had earlier been echoed by H. Naci Mocan and R. Kaj Gittings (2003, 29) in a state level study conducted for a period of 20 years up to 1997. The conclusion of this study was reached after a careful analysis of the homicidal and imprisonment rates compared with the rate of capital penalties meted out. The conclusion was that each execution carried out went ahead and reduced the number of homicidal cases after while rescinding of a death penalty generated a significant increase of murder cases. The issue of deterrence has received quite a sizeable proportion of interest from academicians. This interest is not only as a result of its relation to capital punishments only but also in regard to other crimes as well. One of the reasons behind incarceration in addition to locking out criminal elements away from the precincts of the society is to deter occurrences of similar crimes from potential criminals. Theories have been put forward to analyze the effects of imprisonment and punishment as a form of deterrence. Most scholars have found a correlation between the two. The fear of imprisonment, fines and other forms of punishment is one big reason why many people would rather not go against the law. Early philosophers theorized about the origin of state saying it was brought forth to arrest the anarchical situation that reigned in the original state of nature. The presence of state also gave birth to the need to create laws and spell out the nature of punishment for the violators, such punishment would be meant to deter. There is an undeniable link between deterrence and punishment and the harsher the punishment, the more efficient the deterrence (Van den Haag, E. , 1975). The idea hence that harsh punishment meted out against criminals does not deter similar occurrences is inconceivable; almost all scholars are in agreement that capital punishment should be given to the elements in the society charged with grievous crimes. The basic argument here should be that the nature of crime one commits should attract an equally harsh punishment. Capital crimes rank the highest. None would be harsher than death and this would go ahead in preventing others with similar intentions. A total of 53 criminals were executed in the United States two years ago (Amnesty international, 2007). A bigger portion of those were in Texas. Critics admit that these executions went a long way in curbing crimes in the states that they were carried out and most studies agree. The issue of deterrence hence is unquestionable. A secondary objective of capital punishment on capital offenses is to stigmatize grievous crimes like rape and murder. It seeks to portray the horrific nature of such acts. Nothing would portray this better than an execution. Capital crimes cannot be deterred effectively by imposing light sentences or life imprisonments with an option of a parole. It is not in question that prospects of imprisonment would deter future acts of crimes, but this might not be applicable in well mapped out and executed murders. The prospect of a parole itself negates the deterrence that could have been achieved. The prospects of a death penalty on the other hand make any criminal to have second thoughts before contemplate on taking innocent lives. Capital punishments with an intention of deterring crimes should not only be carried out but they should also be highly publicized to ensure that such news reach all quarters (Hugo A. B. , 1997, 67). . Texas has an exceptionally high proportion of executions being with over half of all executions in the United States. These executions have been on the increase in these recent past years. Dale O. Cloninger and Roberto Marchesni (2001, 62) carried out a study with an intention of comparing two periods, when in one, executions were near zero and in another where there were remarkably high number of executions. This study found that the deterrence hypothesis holds. The numbers of homicide cases reported when there were minimal executions were higher than in when the number of executions went up. Other studies have found that executions conducted in one state have a spill over effect to other areas. Executions in one state may result to a reduced rate of capital crimes in a neighboring state indicating how efficient the idea of deterrence is (Van den Haag, Ernest, 1975, 26). Deterrence operates within a framework of three assumptions; the first one is based on what the law stipulates. The contents of the law are themselves enough to deter crime; a tough law goes a long way in preventing criminal tendencies. The second one is punishment. Everyone should be made aware of what the punishment for violating a certain law is. The third aspect is the certainty of such a punishment. This is where capital punishment comes and it is ascertained through carrying out executions. The state goes right ahead in achieving this and deterrence is achieved. Robertson I (1989, 33) notes that â€Å"through punishment corrections serve to deter the offender from deviating and it scares others who might be tempted into crime† Capital punishment has also a cost advantage. In the process of meting out a judgment especially for the lesser crimes, the court determines whether to imprison or fine an individual by looking at the possible costs of incarceration, the nature of the crime and the character of the individual. This is a complicated formula that puts into consideration even the salaries and expenses of the probation officers alongside other costs. The average cost of maintaining a prisoner for a whole year in prison as established in the finding conducted in 2003 is well above twenty-five thousand dollars. This number if multiplied with the millions serving jail sentences in the United States really puts a strain on the public coffers. Fines and paroles are important ways of circumventing this cost and to a greater extent eradicates the social and health issues that arise as a result of the increasing over crowding in the jails today, especially occasioned by the three strikes law. The prisons in most countries, United States included, are always carrying above the expected capacity. Although the intention of capital punishment is not to decongest prisons, when imposed, it goes ahead to achieve this. The costs of congestion are insurmountable both social and economic (Gottfried, T. , 1997, 78).

Teenage Violent Crime Rates in the US

Teenage Violent Crime Rates in the US Erica Goncalves What do teenagers do after school? Research states that 1 in 5 children in the United States are unsupervised after school. This leads to teen violence. Teen violence are when children get out of school and join a group of gang and start committing crimes, go in the internet and bully other students. Lastly, teen violence are still going on because of the ways teens are acting, the way they are because of the videogames and the kinds of music teens are listening to. Teen violence are in every school and place that contains teen in it. Those teens that are doing the violence has been abused or bullied before. Teen violence has been passed through generations it gets pass on each year to young adult, the causes of teen violence in the city of Boston is that teen violence is caused because of the ways the parents treat them violence teens. This shows that we need more afterschool program in the United States to keep children engaged and productive. Children in quality afterschool progra ms are more likely to come to school, stay in school, hand in their work, and get better grades. After school programs are particularly well positioned to make a difference in a students life to help them be successful. Students who attends an after school program have a higher chance of going the college and have a career than students who does not attend an afterschool program. The problem is that there is a lot of teen violence happening lately. Over the last couple [1]years teen violence has been a problem that is affecting everyone in the city of Boston[2]. Teen [3]violence also affect a lot of things like lowering the budget of the city, making streets unsafe, harassing and bullying other citizen, and sadly the increase in the number of teen who lose their life. According to recent studies about teen violence, 12% of students who attended high school reported having a weapon, and about 3% were carrying a gun. Also 20% of students reported participating in a physical fight, 7% of teens were reported to participate in gang activities. When it comes to bullying, 17% of students said that they had been a victim of bullying and 14% said that they been a victim of cyberbullying [1]. The city of Boston contains 25% of the violence in all of Massachusetts [2]. It is not easy for a teen to focus and be positive know that 64% of recovered guns are seized from peo ple who own them illegally[3]. Teen Violence has a pervasive effect on all members of the society, from the teens themselves to adults that pay higher taxes to address the issue. Students that do not go to an after school program are most likely to become involved in teen crime. These students that are unsupervised after school are 49% more likely to use drugs and 37% more likely to become a teen parent than kids that attend some after school programs for 1-4 hours each week. (add footnote) Another example of the impact of after school programs is that students that attend an after school program are less likely to be suspended from school for violence, and students already in the juvenile court system that attended after school programs were less likely to go back to court for any reason, especially for violence. Lastly, students in afterschool programs were less likely to become a first time offender of violence in the community than other students not in an afterschool program that had not already committed any crime.(Add Footnote) Twoafter school programs have had large success in preventing crime. When an after school program was created in 12 California neighborhoods, teen crime decreased significantly. Vandalism decreased by two-thirds, violent acts and carrying a concealed gun decreased by more than half, and the number of arrests made by the police decreased by half (add footnote #1). Baltimore also made an after school program through the police department. Once it was created, juvenile crime dropped by 10% and the risk of children and teens as victi,s of crime was cut in half (add footnote #1). Lastly, the crime rate decreased by 75% in a housing project when an after school program was created, but crime increased in a similar housing project when there was no after school program (add footnote #2). After school program have existed for many years. After- school programs first [4]emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in the form of small, idiosyncratic boys clubs, often no more than a storefront or room in a church or other local building(The context for the emergence of the after school program by Robert Halpern).The clubs evolved to provide recreation and learning activities to children. In addition the supply of after school programs is not as high as the demand for them.Twice as many elementary and middle school parents want afterschool programs as are currently available(National Opinion Research Center). What makes this problem severe is that the lack of afterschool programs allows students to drop out, commit crimes and become teen parents. The hours between 3 and 6 p.m. are the peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex(Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2003). This is the time when students are leaving school and feel like they are on their own. In recent years, more children have been attending after school programs. Their families are in favor of their positive benefits. In 2004, 6.5 million children participated in after school programs, and this value increased to 8.4 million in 2009 and 10.2 million today (add footnote #3). Parents who have kids who attend an after school program have been increasingly satisfied with the programs. Over time they have increased their satisfaction in quality of care, homework assistance, workforce skills development, variety of activities, and the knowledged staff (footnote #3). Juvenile crime rates have decreased since the 1980s, so the effectiveness of afterschool programs is seen in many ways. In recent years (2008-2012), the teen crime rate has decreased. Murder decreased by 42%, rape decreased 24%, robbery decreased by 39%, and aggravated assault decreased by 35% as well in the 4 year period (add footnote #4). For the 6th consecutive year after 2006, the youth violent crime rate has decreased dramatically in the US (footnote #4). The prevalence of crime in males and females ages 10-17 has decreased in the last 4 years. It has also decreased for all races- whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians. Between 2003-2012, violent crime for Asian youth has decreased by 44%, 41% for American Indians, 39% for whites, and 23% for blacks (add footnote #4).The components of violent crime- murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault- have fallen to record lows over the period of 2008-2012.(add footnote #4) Youth property crime has decreased significantly coming up to 2012. In 2012, the property crime rates were at its lowest levels since 1980. In the same 4 year period described earlier, youth were arrested 36% less for burglary, 30% less for larceny-theft, 47% for motor vehicle theft, and 33% less for arson (footnote).The prevalence of property crime has decreased for both genders over the period of 2008-2012. The prevalence has also decreased for all races, [5]too- whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians. Students who spend no time in extracurricular activities, such as those offered in after-school programs, are 49 percent more likely to have used drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents than are those students who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities(National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center). Youths who went to a juvenile detention facility were significantly less likely to be suspended from school compared to kids who did not participate in the program. Teens who were a part of the juvenile justice system were significantly less likely to fall back into committing crimes. Teens that had no experience were less likely to commit a first offense. A study of afterschool programs conducted by the California Juvenile Crime Prevention Demonstration Project in 12 high-risk California communities found that, the rate of crime and delinquency went down after they started the program. Vandalism and stealing dropped by two-thirds, violent acts and carrying a concealed weapon fell by more than half, and arrests and being picked up by the police were cut in half. In the three years after Baltimores Police Department opened a Police Activities League (PAL) afterschool program in one high-crime neighborhood, juvenile crime in the neighborhood dropped nearly 10 percent, and the risk of c hildren and teens becoming crime victims was cut nearly in half. While juvenile victimization rates were coming down for all Baltimore juveniles, the rate in the area served by the PAL program came down nearly three times as fast as it did for the city as a whole.x Paulo Barros is the person who run the program. All the decisions in implementing the proposed program is made by the director Paulo Barros, catholic charities board, the president of the CEO and vice president of the CEO. It costs the company 1.3 millions of dollars to run yearly. Success are measured based on how many students go the college. It is also measured by the amount of gang involved in the environment and arrests, and how many students gets a job. Also that is where many of Cape Verdean students learn English. This program has been run since 2001. It use to be a middle school K1-8. The program use to run cafeteria in the basement that had nothing to do with school. Throughout the year the program became bigger and bigger and once the school shut down because of the archdiocese sex scandal. Then the teen center took over the building. Saint Peter encourage students to stay in school. Students who attends to Saint Peter are more likely to get good grades and perfect attenda nce. Saint Peter prevent teens from doing drugs or commit crimes. They dont serve elementary students due to the lack of funding. Not only that but Saint Peter is not very diverse majority of Cape Verdeans that goes there. The key groups who support this program are the mayor menino and his family. He backed up our mission statements and wanted a safe community for Bowdoin and Geneva area. The mission that he supported was to provide education, enrichment, leadership development and recreational activities to the adolescents of the Mid- Dorchester corridor. Second Alternative: Mattapan Teen Center The program is run by the director Ronald Carroll. In 2008 Bain Company donated to complete a 100 million dollars comprehensive campaign, which calls for investment in innovation and impact to double the number of youth served at the point. It costs 20,686,041 for all operating expensive. Boys and Girls club is successful by teaching young people the skills they need to succeed in life. This can be measured easily by comparing the ratio of students who attends to an after school program to who doesnt and see whos more likely to be successful in life. 97% are expected to graduate high school. It has been run since 1893. First club was found in Charlestown in 1893. The Boston foundation helped put the girls in the Boys and Girls clubs by providing a $300,000, for three years grant to reach out to special categories of youth who lack opportunities for appealing programs. In 1981, the club formally changed its name to Boy and Girls clubs of Boston and national organization followed in 1 990. Boys and Girls Club help kids stay in school and improve their academic success. It is open daily, after school and on weekends when kids have time and wants to be productive. It helps kids graduate from high school not only that but it also save lives. Boys and Girls club are located in disadvantaged community areas. Macs- generous support for BGCAs mission and our local Clubs through funds raised during the annual Thanks for Sharing campaign helped to create great futures for Americas young people. Ross Stores- helped Clubs provide homework assistance to more than 12,000 youth at 90 Clubs through its support of Power Hour. ConocoPhillips- supported BGCAs dropout prevention program,Best Buy Childrens Foundation. The mission statement is to help young people, specially those who need us most, build strong character and realize their full potential as responsible citizens and leaders. The organization does this by providing a safe haven filled with hope and opportunity, ongoing relationship with caring adults and life-enhancing programs. Alternative 3: Holland School The program is run by Hillary casson. That legislation that this program supports is the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care because the Programs are licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care and Turnaround plan. The Chester commissioners team and Scoot given, the chief executive officer are in charge of the day to day management of the school. And will work directly to implement the holland plan. The Mission of this program is that all students acquire the knowledge, skills, and strength of character necessary to succeed on the path to college and to achieve their full potential. Therefore it is measure of how many students are moving on to the next grade and their growth from the time they start and end. 2013, Up receives a new schools venture fund U.S education reform organization of the year award. UpHolland is a elementary school and there is an after school programs that include homework support and tutoring. Upholland after school su pports all students with extra help including students with disabilities and English language learners. They only serve K1- 5th grader. The key groups who support this after school program is the College Bound Dorchester. The college Bound Dorchester provides students with a range of activities including homework assistance, writing, visual and performing arts, science exploration, physical education and field trips. During the last year, 98% of Out of School Time students were promoted to the next grade level on time. Out of School Time programs serve children ages 6 to 12 years between the hours of 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm during the academic year. [1] Youth Violence Prevention Through Positives Youth Development Mass. gov ,2013. Accessed January 30,2017 http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/community-health/dvip/violence/youth-violence-prevention-program.html [2] Crime Rates for Boston, MA Neighborhoodscout.com . Accessed February 6,2017 https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ma/boston/crime/ [3] Mayor Walsh and Police Commissioner Evans Announce Additional Steps to Curb Gun Violence Cityofboston.gov. September,09,2015 accessed February,6,2017 http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=20321 [1]race, age, genders [2]better few as of someone who doesnt know anything about boston [3]ages 13-18 [4]explain how after school has a huge impact in women . how it gives women the opportunity to work instead of be a house wifey and take care of the kids [5]duration 1 paragraph

Essay --

WikiLeaks: It’s Effect on the American and World Society By: Sam Karnan WikiLeaks has created an enormous effect on American society and the world in terms of national security and government transparency. WikiLeaks was created as a not-for-profit media organization whose main goal is to bring important news and information to the public. Much of the information that WikiLeaks has published would be considered sensitive material and extremely classified by the US Government and many other governments across the world. Background WikiLeaks.org was officially founded on October 4th, 2006 (Wall Street Journal). It operates from servers based in Sweden where it is illegal to reveal anonymous sources, whether they are one’s own or someone else’s. WikiLeaks was created with a goal of â€Å"promoting truth† (Wikileaks.org) in order to fight against government and corporation corruption. The main face of WikiLeaks is Julian Assange. He is an Australian journalist, editor, publisher and activist. Assange was described by his father (Brett Assange) as â€Å"a sharp kid that always fought for this underdog.† (The secret life of Julian Assange, 2010). Assange had a talent for hacking computers and has faced over 30 charges of hacking in Australia. Another high-profile face of WikiLeaks was Daniel Domscheit-Berg. He is most famous for the falling out he had with Assange and subsequently opening the curtains on the organization that opened the curtains on many other governments and corporations. Domscheit-Berg is a German technology activist that best became known for deleting at least 3000 unreleased documents, including a complete US No-Fly list, from WikiLeaks when he left the organization. After leaving the organization Domscheit-Berg state... ...N, 2013) Most recently, Edward Snowden who is a former CIA employee and NSA contactor released over 200,000 documents to the press. These documents contained information about the mass NSA surveillance program in the US as well as US surveillance on other countries. Snowden is considered a fugitive by the American government and is living in Russia under temporary asylum. (NSA Releases Some Files On Electronic Surveillance, NPR, 2013) WikiLeaks has changed the way governments operate. Due to the release of all these high profile documents, both the American people and people in other countries expect their governments’ to show a higher level of transparency. In this age where anything can be posted online or released to the press, whistleblowing has become much more common. This can be attributed to the effect WikiLeaks had on both the American and world society.

Fiber Optics :: essays research papers fc

Fiber Optics Fiber Optic Cable Facts "A relatively new technology with vast potential importance, fiber optics is the channeled transmission of light through hair-thin glass fibers." [ Less expensive than copper cables [ Raw material is silica sand [ Less expensive to maintain If damaged, restoration time is faster (although more users are affected) [ Backbone to the Information Superhighway Information (data and voice) is transmitted through the fiber digitally by the use of high speed LASERs (Light Amplification through the Simulated Emission of Radiation) or LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). Each of these methods create a highly focused beam of light that is cycled on and off at very high speeds. Computers at the transmitting end convert data or voice into "bits" of information. The information is then sent through the fiber by the presence, or lack, of light. Computers on the receiving end convert the light back into data or voice, so it can be used. ORIGIN OF FIBER OPTICS Information (data and voice) is transmitted through the fiber digitally by the use of high speed LASERs (Light Amplification through the Simulated Emission of Radiation) or LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). Each of these methods create a highly focused beam of light that is cycled on and off at very high speeds. Computers at the transmitting end convert data or voice into "bits" of information. The information is then sent through the fiber by the presence, or lack, of light. So, all of the data is sent light pulses. Computers on the receiving end convert the light back into data or voice, so it can be used. All of this seems to be a very "modern" concept, and the technology we use is. The concept though, was the idea of Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1800's. He just didn't have a dependable light source... some days the sun doesn't shine! He thought of the idea that our voices could be transmitted by pulses of light. The people who thought that audio, video, and other forms of data could be transmitted by light through cables, were present day scientists. Most of the things that are possible today, Alexander Grahm Bell could never even have dreamed of. Although the possibility of lightwave communications occurred to Alexander Graham Bell (who invented the telephone), his ideas couldn't be used until the LASER or LED had been invented. Most of these advances occurred in the 1970s, and by 1977 glass-purifying and other fiber-optic manufacturing techniques had also reached the stage where interoffice lightwave communications were possible. With further technological development, many intercity routes were in operation by 1985, and some transoceanic routes had been completed by 1990.

Our Obligation as Leaders Essay

The role of leaders anywhere is primary to lead the way. Leaders are supposed to be visionaries, those who chart the course. In any organization or any establishment, there are some abilities or functions that are required of a leader. Primary out of all these is the unique ability to see far, envision the people and make them see things from the right perspective; separating illusions from realities. As leaders, we should hold the idea that if we have knowledge of things that others are in the dark of; we are supposed to make them see the light. This is because by so doing, we are not only helping this people see the light, we are actually helping ourselves. Knowledge itself should make us act and the best thing we can do is to help eradicate darkness that comes with ignorance and make these people see the light. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, those people who are fortunate to see the sun owe those in the cave an obligation. This is because we were once like them. Apart from this, we are nothing better if we just keep mute about what we know. A knowledgeable person in the midst of ignorant people can not really be said to be knowledgeable. This is because soon enough, if we don’t change them, they will change us. Moreover, the question here is that since we have established the fact we have an obligation to the people in the cave, can it be said that we also have an obligation to those people we meet outside the cave? My answer to this question is yes. This is because if we have not met them, we would not have had an idea of the truth that we now know. They served as a torch to our darkness and on this very basis we owe them an obligation. Such an obligation might be that we also impart knowledge to other people who we meet on our way who are like we were before we gained knowledge. Therefore, we must act. We must embark on a mission to illuminate the cave with knowledge. We must strive to convince them of what we know. At first, they might see us as fools but as we insist on what we are saying, they would begin to see sense in what we are saying. Our knowledge is nothing without imparting other people.

Convocation Address Essay

As part of his attempts to survive the horrors of the camp, Faludy (a university professor) gave mini-lectures in the barracks at night on a variety of subjects. Some of the fellow prisoners eagerly joined in; others declined. Faludy notes, â€Å"Those who died . . . ere always the men who had been most determined to survive, those who had concentrated on nothing but food, sleep and warmth . . . I was reluctant to admit the obvious: that delighting in a good poem or discussing Plato’s Socratic dialogue could somehow arm the spirit to the point that it could prevent the body’s collapse. † He concludes his address with this realization: â€Å"Our whole fragile tradition of art and thought is neither an amusement nor a yoke. For those who steep themselves in it, it provides both a guide and a goal for surpassing all the half-baked ideologies that have blown up at our feet in this century like landmines . . All we have to guide us in this present is the accumulated thought and experience of those who have lived before us. † This convocation address has had a significant impact on my view of education. Most people agree that there is potentially something noble about teaching, yet Faludy proves it. I am reminded of film critic Roger Ebert’s assessment of the film Life is Beautiful in which Ebert argues that since Jewish prisoner Guido is a clown, comedy becomes his weapon. Faludy was an educator. Education was his weapon. As it is for us all.

DQ 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

DQ 2 - Essay Example Just as the Central Florida Police Stress Unit proposes, there should be department-based programs to help effectively alleviate specific job-related stress and to help generally thwart occupational stress in the disciplined forces. It is the responsibility of criminal justice agencies to include criminal justice agency staff members, professional legal counselors and peers of these criminal justice agencies in stress reduction efforts. First, this cannot materialize if criminal justice agencies do not come together as a caucus. Just as the National Institute of Justice observed, to successfully alleviate professional stress, criminal justice agencies must unitarily appoint a dedicated member of staff to: identify with stressed colleagues; solicit the support of, and work together with administrators, staff members, family members and officers’ unions; observe confidentiality; and accord stressed employees, an array of support services (Gino and Cable, 2013). Above all, criminal justice agencies can best abate employee stress by counseling and educating employees on their legal or constitutional duties. Inadequate understanding of legal injunctions opens up doors for legal suits, dismissal of evidence or work acquired outside the confines of the law and ultimately, personnel frustration. This case is being exemplified by New York Police Department officers who are having their evidence acquired through stop and frisk being challenged and declared inadmissible in the court of law, on the account that stop and frisk is

Informational interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Informational interview - Essay Example dent of me to conduct a personalized interview with some of the accountants who have made it to the top in order to become adept with the skills and challenges they faced. c) During my interviews, the interviewees were more than interested and willing to offer the information I ask for. Their corporation partly showed their experience and the importance of sharing information to other people.d)A part from the learned skills employees’ performance requires a lot more of interpersonal skills to allow right communication with employers, other employees and customers. In fact, to improve your career and get promotions especially in the field of accounting you need to put more diligence, creativity, and ethics at work. e) I am going to talk about the information I got from an interview with an accountant onhow the skills and challenges experienced overtime in the field of accounting are crucial to the transcending of his career to greater heights even to the position of a CFO. a) Good communication skills: As an accountant aspiring to be a manager, you need effective communication skills in order to relay you facts efficiently to the junior as well as senior staff. This will also help you reduce making many

Instrument Selection Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Instrument Selection Report - Assignment Example Overview of Learning Scenario A learning scenario is a prioritized description of a situation in learning, which is independent of any underlying pedagogical approach. The scenario describes an organization with the aim of ensuring the appropriation of precised set of skills, competence, and knowledge. The learning scenario in this case is a practical learning scenario. A practical learning scenario consists of descriptions followed by respective questions although the scenario could develop in stages with each stage having at least one question (Shepherd, 2011 ). Information may be presented with the use of various media elements such as texts but the described situation has to be relevant and realistic. In theory, various formats of questions could be employed in order to challenge learners about the situation being learned including the simple multi-choice questions. Any of the various theory formats are meant to determine the abilities of students in their capacity to answer vari ous forms of questions (Lejeune A., 2004). Learning Objectives In this learning scenario, the learning objectives involve the determination of the ability of students to answer various forms of questions. The objective includes expectations that lie within the outcome of the education program. The paper will establish the capacities that students have in handling questions in different forms as part of their assessment program within a practical learning scenario (Shepherd, 2011 ). Analyzed Tool The American Psychological Association (2013) provides information on a code prepared by a joint committee for testing practices as a way of ensuring that there is enough observation of fairness among test takers in education. Code of Fair Testing Practices provides guidance in the development and selection of tests. It also provides guidance in the administration and score determination in tests and goes to an extent of ensuring good reporting and interpretation of test results in order to keep the test takers fairly informed. The code ensures fairness in test taking and provides grounds for the test takes to view their test results positively in terms of fairness. Various tools of assessing students in the practical learning scenario include concept maps, concept tests, knowledge surveys, exams, oral presentations, poster presentations, peer review, portfolios, rubrics, and written reports. The assessment of students in a learning scenario can be done with the use of any of these ten assessment tools. Concept maps involve diagramming techniques in which case students are assessed on how well they can see pictures. This kind of assessment could also include the way students can interpreted elements in such pictures as well as such maps (Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education , 2013). The concept map involve a diagram made of hierarchical nodes, which are labeled with concepts with the nodes linked using directional lines, and elements arranged from a general to specific scope. Students are assessed on how best they can link elements within the conceptual map (Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education , 2013). Concept tests involve conceptual questions that are based on multiple choices. These questions are mainly useful in the context of large classes in terms of student number. This technique is mainly used in lecture settings where the instructor may decide

Professional Practice in Bioscience Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Professional Practice in Bioscience - Assignment Example Secondly, working with the professional staff of doctors, I expect to learn from their vast experience. They also have a variety of devices and medical technology such as an X-ray machine all, which I will become proficient at using making me a better future veterinary practitioner. As an intern at the Burwood hospital, have had to work as part of a team mostly with my fellow intern's assigned duties by the doctor in charge. One of the first duties we were assigned as interns was to carry out an inventory of the facility; we were divided into two teams of 3 each. One was assigned to the laboratories while the other (mine) was to inventory the equipment in the whole hospital. The first team finished a day before mine but accidentally one of them deleted the data they had collected and they were unable to recover it. I proposed we work together and help them redo their work in time, members of my group were however against the idea since it meant they would have to sacrifice their entire free Saturday to clean up someone else’s mess. I, however, convinced them to agree and assisted the other team for at least half the day. The doctor in charge had given us the Job as a team of six so he was not aware we were divided in two, therefore I knew if we delivered half complete work and blamed the other team it would reflect negatively on the whole team. However, even after our efforts to help them, their part of the inventory came up short after submission. It turned out that in the hurry to complete the job in time, they had overlooked tens of items, which resulted in the whole inventory inclusive of our part being canceled, and the team was asked to repeat the process under the supervisor of a senior veterinary doctor.

Simulation Technology Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Simulation Technology - Article Example The simulations feign an activity, which is "tangible", therefore, it can be termed as "virtually real". The activity is simulated so fittingly that there is slight difference amid the real environment and the simulated one; in addition, the same form of learning involvement can happen. Simulations are "hands-on", encompassing learners so that they become partakers, not mere observers or listeners. Students absorb effectively from their individual experiences than partaking others' experiences associated to them (Banks, 2010). Simulations are encouragements for learning. Learner’s involvement into the simulation activity is very deep that it interests the student to learning more concerning the activity and its field matter. Simulations are custom-made to the learner. Once they are devised precisely for their audience, simulations can take progressive requests into consideration. Simulations are inspirational where student input is embraced and events are fabricated to encourage learners to improve the activity through contributing their individual ideas. Simulations are also developmentally valid; they can make allowance for the students' developing level. Simulations are empowering meaning students undertake responsible roles, look for ways to thrive, as well as devising problem-solving tools because of the simulation interaction (Sherman, 2008).

Development of Aging Tourists Market in China Dissertation

Development of Aging Tourists Market in China - Dissertation Example Studies conducted by The World Health Organization revealed that ageing population includes the people who are 60 years of more of age. Although this population is more prone to opt for tourism opportunities, however, tourism management authorities have not been encouraging this because of the various costs that are involved with this from which the major ones include cost of security, medical and time. Tourism management refers to the management of all the activities that are related to tourism and this also includes those activities that are related to tourism. Furthermore, they also have to implement strategies that promote tourism and provide easy access to people for the purpose of tourism. Tourism Consumption System The authors, Dubelaar and Woodsie (2002) have defined the tourism consumption system (TCS) as the set of related travel thoughts, decisions, and behaviors by a discretionary traveler prior to, during, and following a trip. The central proposition that the authors have given by this theory is that the thoughts, decisions, and behaviors with regards to an activity have a major impact on the thoughts, decisions, and behaviors for the other activities. Further in the article, the authors have used exit interview travel data and quick clustering analysis for the purpose of examining the seven main propositions of tourism consumption system on the basis of which the tourists take decisions. It has also been said by the authors that this approach is very beneficial for the marketers and practitioners with regards to tourism and this would greatly help them in increasing the effectiveness of the tourism marketing strategies. Tourism Behavior The set of responses that the people develop with regards to tourism develop tourism behavior and this determines their likeliness and their interest. There are some elders who opt for places which are more lively and colorful while there are some people in the ageing population who prefer going to places which are calm and serene. Sustainable Tourism According to Dubelaar and Woodsie (2002), tourism involves a certain cost which can be monetary as well as time and energy of the tourists. Since the ageing popula

Math assignment Essay Example for Free

Math assignment Essay

Consumer benefits and drawbacks of shopping online

Consumer benefits and drawbacks of shopping online In the following essay I attend to track the recent growth on the web/e-retail sales and analyse, compare and critique the consumer benefits and drawbacks of shopping online compared to conventional store from the perspective of consumer behaviour, brand marketing and the application of the seven Cs of retailing. The business of e-retail has been defined as the sale of goods and services via Internet or the other electronic channels for personal or household use by consumers (Dennis 2002). The explosive growth of the Internet has revolutionised many aspects of daily life (Routledge, 2000). Since the development of the Internet in the early 90s and its relevance in e-commerce the Internet has allowed effective new communications channels, easy access, flexibility and the potential to upload a huge amount of information to a global audience. Online shopping has evolved with the growth of technology. Online shopping has had a dramatic impact and become very popular, however it still carters to middle and upper class. A significant feature in consumer attitude towards non-store shopping is exposure to technology, since it has been established that amplified exposure to technology increases the probability of developing favourable attitudes towards new shopping channels (Bigne, Enrique.2005). Growth of the web The occurrence of the Internet has already had a remarkable impact on society, there are more people online than at any other point in history and online retailers have seen tremendous increase in their online earning potential. PricewaterhouseCoopers predict that by 2014 the UK entertainment and media business will be worth an estimate  £56 billion (video on nile week 4 uk entertainment media). The rapid growth of the Web and Web development has been the result of many innovative advances in Web technology, Feather calls this the webolution. Everyday more and more people are integrating the internet into their daily lives due to the flexible opportunities on offer. Feather forecasts that a vast rapid growth on the Internet will concur over the next ten years transforming all aspects of society. Feather argues that half of North America will be living a web lifestyle in which they will also be connected to the internet and be able to control their homes, automobiles, work and lesse n the need to commute to a remote work site. Developed countries that have been offering e-commerce have shown impressive improvement in their respective economies (Javalgi et al., 2005) however the Gulf Area seem to be struggling to keep up with the western world. While consumers from the western world take for granted Internet banking and Internet shopping the Arab world are struggling due to major obstacles mainly poor infrastructure, under investment and slow connection speed. Another major concern that is contributing to their lack of slow growth is the insufficient and compelling amount of content in Arabic; only 0.2% of websites are in Arabic. However the Gulf area presents a huge potential market with over 30million web users but organisations feel its an expensive process to translate. On the other hand the new deregulation has allowed competition to enter, before only one ISP company was available to the masses but now with an increase of ISP companies they have started to push the limit on service. This new competition has driven down prices because the Internet has become more accessible and affordable for users. Video(nile of BBC Middle East Business Report: Internet Growth in the Middle East video on nile week 4) The huge growth area though, is in mobile internet access (appendix). Mobile Commerce has been defined as follows: Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device (Tiwari, R.; Buse, S. (2007) Mobile is literally how consumers live in todays worldwide society and businesses have already seen this change in the way consumers connect to the internet. Businesses have realised the new trend and due to the improvement on browsing on smart phones this is set to increase rapidly. (Ebay appendix) Customer benefits and drawbacks To most consumers important attributes of online shopping are convenience and accessibility (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001). Online shopping is becoming more and more popular each year as consumers take advantage of the convenience, wide variety of products and low prices available when shopping online. Over the years the Internet has become a great source for bargain hunters for good reason, there are many great buys online with price comparison companies that help consumers find the best prices, shipping and tax advantages, and the convenience of not having to leave home. However sometimes the deal that looks like a bargain may fall short of what has been advertised. Being able to walk into a physical store and able to see, feel, try, easily ask questions and compare different products side by side with ease makes for a strong case to why brick and mortar shopping is more of an engaging experience. One major benefit of brick and mortar shopping is its organisation. Its straight-forward layout allows consumers to easily locate the right department and the right products effortlessly. Online sites offer similar organisations layouts by providing search capabilities and well designed websites with easy navigations. Another factor could be the relationship between attitudes of attractiveness of alternatives. The consumer although might have a positive attitude toward online shopping, lead by the strong attractiveness of the brick-and-mortar alternative. Therefore, he will choose to shop offline, despite his positive attitude toward shopping on the Internet. Online stores recommend certain products over others, while all websites offer descriptions for each product, it may not always be the best thing because the descriptions can be either too general or too detailed, making it difficult to compare two or more products on their features. A negative aspect of shopping online is the communication dissatisfaction because consumers miss that face to face link, not having an informed person available to provide an immediate answer. However websites now provide independent reviews by customers who have brought each product and display their own personal opinion which in the long run is beneficial to consumers because it helps strengthen their decision on whether or not to purchase a product. Other advantages and disadvantages for shopping online include: (see appendix) Perspective of consumer behaviour Retailers and researchers have been aware that shopping is not just a matter of acquiring tangible products but also about experience, enjoyment and entertainment. In the e-shopping context, experience and enjoyment originate from consumers interactions with an e-retail site. Factors can influence a consumers decision when shopping online, these include the following: Image: Traditional retailers with strong images have long been making the running in e-retail. According to Kimber (2001) instore and online shopper loyalty are linked. Image is the significant perception from the eyes of the consumer to build up their overall evaluation or rating, in such a way to guide their decision making process. Consumers are more likely to buy from a store that they consider to have a positive image e.g. price, brand or customer service. For example Tesco is recognised as having a positive image both instore and online, being the UK grocery market leader in both channels and the worlds largest e-grocer. Social: One social interaction is reference groups. These are groups that serve as a point of reference for an individual. They are perceived as credible and powerful can change consumers attitude and behaviour (see table1 appendix major consumer reference group pg332). When having doubts about obtaining accurate information about products or services, consumers are more likely to communicate with like-minded people who can be important motivators that influence decisions. Consumer related reference groups include the following: (see appendix book page 334) Opinion leadership unofficially influence the actions or attitudes of consumers who may be opinion seekers or purely opinion recipients. Opinion leaders are highly credible sources of information because their intentions are perceived as being in the best interest of the opinion recipient because unlike commercial endorsers, opinion leaders do not actually represent the interests of one company and receive no compensation for their advice. Comparisons of opinion leaders and receivers (appendix pg 506) Product characteristics: Consumers decisions whether or not to shop online are also influenced by the variety of products or services available. In essence some product categories are more suitable for online shopping than other categories, the lack of physical contact and assistance in shopping on the Internet is one factor that influences this suitability. Kare Silver (2001) created the electronic shopping test to measure a product to calculate the chances that it will be purchased online. Three factors affected the potential sell for products: Product Characteristics Familiarity and Confidence Consumer Attributes More information + example of electronic shopping test (appendix) Brand marketing Brands are ever more important on the internet with further competitors due to the global presences; brands are the link to maintaining the relationship between e-retailers and consumers. Consumers have a variety of choices and are more liable to choose e-retailers they know who represent value and are trustworthy. Brand elements are the point of contact between the brand and consumer which is intended to mirror the wanted look and feel of the brand and what it represents. For the brand to succeed all elements must be implemented correctly, however branding a company as something they do not represent is worse than no branding at all because it raises consumer expectations about the quality of what they will receive. Lindstorm (2001) dictates both trust and interactivity are the main factors when shopping online. Consumers perception of e-brands are driven by their total experience on the website, making trust a significant long-term barrier because there is no personal interaction buying on the internet offers potential risks e.g. security transactions. E-retailers can interact and build trust with consumers in a number of ways (appendix model of e-branding pg 176). E-retail mix assists e-retailers to achieve designated objectives. Prices and advertising remain a key element but online e-retailers benefit from using banner ads, pop ups and affiliate marketing. Difference forms of retail mix and e-retail mix (appendix) Loyalty marketing strategies, including communication and two-way dialog, rewards, effective customer service and service loyalty schemes and are an important aspect of brand building (Cuthbertson and Bridson, 2006). One way Adidas use the e-mix effectively is to allow consumers to create accounts to make their shopping experience easier. They offer exclusive deals/discounts on products, able to keep track of orders and personalised homepage when signed in makes consumers feel the brand are paying great attention to their needs, help build and maintain a relationship.