Arthus Evans' contribution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Arthus Evans' contribution - Essay Example This Minoan civilization became his contribution to stratigraphy-driven archaeology. The Crete excavations that had resulted in the discovery of the Minoan civilization had another essential contribution in store. Based on the Minoan civilization, Arthur Evans developed a relative dating scheme which he named Minoan chronology (MacGillivray 163). Arthur Evans had predominantly managed excavations at Knossos. For this reason, the Minoan chronology is purely attributed to him. This dating scheme would later be applied in Greek and the Cyclades Islands, thereby becoming a plan for dating prehistoric and early historic Aegean events (MacGillivray 174). Arthur Evans was the world-renowned British archaeologist who excavated the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and developed the theory of Minoan civilization (Roberts 156). He was born on July 8, 1851 and passed away on July 11, 1941. Throughout his academic career, Evans contributed a great number of precious works which include Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phoenician Script (1895), The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult (1901), and The Palace of Minos (1921-1936) (Karetsou 364). These works have produced significant influence on the development of archaeology particularly in the field of European and Mediterranean Sea area history (Karetsou 381). Panagiotaki (257) contends that Evans also contributed largely to the study of ancient language by defining Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B. The findings of Evans laid a solid groundwork for later research and provided guidance for the further work on these areas. Evans was drawn to the field of ancient history due to both individual and social reasons. Evans was born in a highly educated and intellectual family. His grandfather was the Headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School and received a Master Degree in history. Arthur Evans’ father, John Evans, was capable of reading Latin which led him to large amounts of authoritative academic works

The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn Essay Example for Free

The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn Essay The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn, depicts American justice at its best and worst, It reveals the secrets of the current legal system with information that are more awful and realistic than any small screen show or any thriller. The Prosecutors gives an insight into the real-life lawful dramas that are seen daily in our courtrooms. It informs, alerts, amuses, and even makes us angry at times about the miscarriages of justice, but eventually shows in harsh detail the particulars that go into the working of our legal system. Gary Delsohn, was for the first time allowed access to spend a year in a metropolitan prosecutors office. The author presents a fascinating; secret look at how Americas more overstrained legal system really operates. Perceived by John OMara, a hard-hitting, cynical homicide chief, and Jan Scully, a proficient District Attorney, The Prosecutors’, illustrates these committed civic servants at work. The cases that these two people come across in this one-year are unforgettable, a simple robbery that goes bad breaks down a family forever, an acclaimed doctor is charged for the murder of his own daughter. A twenty-five-year-old bitter case blows up and brings terrible pressure and inquiry to the D.A.s office, which involves Patty Hearst and the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army). A top-ranking state prosecutor’s son faces a possible death sentence for abduct, rape, and slaughter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most intriguing cases of all these were definitely the 1975 robbery and murder case at the Sacramento-area bank. It’s this SLA bank robbery case that clearly stands out in â€Å"The Prosecutors,† and understandably so. For almost twenty-five years, the family of the victim, a 42-year-old mother of four children, who was fired at and killed during the robbery, had tried hard to bring the killers to justice, the family members had always suspected the killers to be associates of some puzzled terrorists who abducted the newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. But Myrna Opsahl’s family members never got any respite from the case, because the office of the district attorney couldn’t get adequate proof to try the case, even after Hearst’s 1982 journal revealed, what had actually taken place at the Crocker National Bank in April 1975.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"For the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the Sacramento district attorney’s office, the Carmichael bank robbery is one of those hideous failures that just won’t seem to go away,† (Gary Delsohn).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For John O’Mara, the homicide chief in the district attorney’s office, the case is terrifying, with no proper proof and unsatisfied family members of the victim, particularly one of Myrna Opshal’s sons, Jon Opsahl.   He wouldn’t let the case pass on and frequently disapprove of the Sacramento prosecutors for messing up the case. O’Mara is one of the important and most vibrant character in the book, although in the beginning the book port ray’s him as a picture of a graying prosecutor. But Delsohn supports his portrayal of O’Mara, presenting why a person with so much knowledge was so apprehensive of taking the SLA robbery case. In the end, it’s Delsohn’s access to the district attorney’s office, which gives us much information about this case and how the law operated during that time. Taking the case of the Bread Store trial, a failed theft that twisted into a murder when the accused, Rick Brewer, an ex-convict who had formerly stalled the same setting, fired from a shotgun into the store’s manager Jason Frost, after finding out that the whole amount from the days proceeds had been put down in a floor safe. The Bread Store case is symbolic of the vulnerabilities that prosecutors must go through when they take the trial of murders anywhere in the country, considering this lawbreaking murder where the person who drives the car in which the accused escapes is as guilty as the person who committed the crime. Taking the case of Nikolay Soltys, the security guard who was an immigrant from Ukraine who stabbed six of his relatives to death, which included his three-year-old son and pregnant wife. Prosecutors had a tough time when Nikolay killed himself to avoid trial. An average day in a city District Attorney’s office is tough, where work can take its toll on the people who do it. Most of the cases coming into the DA’s office are slaughter; children inflicted to child abuse, rape, robberies, drug deals, and fake currency rackets. It is a never-ending process of new crimes coming in day to day. This type of work cannot even be taken home and shared with your family. The prosecutors think about crimes, while sitting, standing, eating and drinking, these people are not even spared during their lunchtime, passing on shocking snaps of the crime scene. A prosecutor’s job is a tough nut to crack, as their relationship with they families get soured, because of their spending long hours in the office almost on a daily basis. During the course of his stay at District Attorney’s office, Delsohn reminds us that trials have become very rare these days. More than eighty five percent of the 36,000 crimes and misbehaviors charged every year by the Sacramento DAs office ended up with a plea agreement before the trial, as settlement. In the DA’s office at Sacramento, it mostly differs depending on who the in charge people are, but sometimes there is a strong and rarely insignificant competition between the sheriff, the FBI, the local police and the district attorneys office. But comparing the state attorney general and U.S. Attorneys office, the enmities and self-esteem battles can be unpredictable. Particularly the district attorneys office should do proper investigation before impulsively accepting what the police and feds say, about who should be detained and charged. Prosecutors have to keep the police under control to see that the case is prosecutable and concrete. Bad things can happed if prosecutors lose their independence and doubts. Gary Delsohn feels that the most important part of being an insider in the DA’s office for a year was that, he had the advantage of seeing the prosecutors’ working procedures in a manner that the media and an average outsider could not. The District Attorney’s office has been a witness to innumerable heartbreaking stories over the years, but theres hardly anything to compare with the moving release that comes after a long, stress filled murder trial, when the murder victim’s family finally speaks. The DA’s office is always humming with people, people who are related to horrible crimes, people who are innocent, but mistakenly accused of crimes, real criminals and their families etc. Works Cited Gary Delsohn, Inside the DA’s Office, Jurist, 22 February 2007. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew126.php.    Critic Reviews, Redding Book Club, 22 February 2007. http://bookclub.redding.com/reviews.cfm. The Prosecutor, Traveling Sounds.com, 22 February 2007. http://www.travelingsounds.com/Title.aspx?titleId=3212. Court tales make an arresting read, Rocky Mountain News, 22 February 2007. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/books/article/0,1299, DRMN_63_2164233,00.html.

The Civil Rights Movement Essay example -- The Civil Rights Movement

The latter part of the Civil Rights Movement was characterized by action and change as it was no longer centralized in the South or only fought for by black individuals. Rather, northerners were active in achieving black equality and the white community was campaigning for integration. Although many lost their lives in this struggle, their valiancy did not go unrewarded and soon enough African Americans were able to vote, work, study, and simply eat lunch beside white individuals. Despite the great efforts put forth during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 in which the black community and its supporters refused to use public transportation, transport segregation still remained in some southern states. As a result the civil rights group, the Congress on Racial Inequality (C.O.R.E.), began to organize what they called â€Å"freedom rides.† In 1961, the group began sending student volunteers on bus trips to test the implementation of new laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel facilities (Peck, 161). Most notable was a trip they took from Washington, D.C., making stops in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Upon arrival the group was met with violence and brutality from the Ku Klux Klan and others, but this did not deter them from getting their voice heard. In September 1961, the Attorney General petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to draft a policy making racial segregation in bus terminals illegal, and in November this was put into effect. The Freedom Riders gave national publicity to the discrimination that black Americans were forced to endure and, in doing so, helped bring about change not only in bus terminals but in the nation as a whole. One of the groundbreaking ev... ...s Movement in America. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1986. Flynt, Wayne. â€Å"In the Memory of Four Little Girls† 2 Nov 2004 http://www.useekufind.com/peace/summary.htm Meier, August and Elliot Ridwick. CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement. Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, 1975. Peck, James. Freedom Ride. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. Williams, Juan. Eye on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987. â€Å"Africana: Gateway to the Black World.† 2000. 1 Nov 2004 http://www.africana.com/blackboard/bb_his_000156.htm â€Å"Black Civil Rights in the USA (1954-1970). 2 Nov. 2004 http://www.heretaunga.school.nz/dept/history/5BLACK.htm#Birmingham â€Å"We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement† 2002. 2 Nov 2004 http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al11.htm

Bric

The emerging economics, the so-called BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, and China are predicated to be global players in next few decades. In being the world’s top global players these countries must realize that in order to become a true global power they will have to take on greater social responsibilities that will deal with ethical concerns. An increasing number of companies are moving production to the BRICs in order to take advantage of generous tax incentives, high productivity rates, and cheap labor. For example, Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises, a leading Indian cell phone operator, plan to open hundreds of Wal-Mart superstores across India by 2010 (International Business Environments and Operations, Applegate, Austin, and Soule 2009 pp. 219). However, with the BRICs emerging as economic powerhouses and the increasing number of foreign counties increasing to do business with them ethical rules must integrate into their business practices for the BRICs to have an impact on the whole world. Brazil has been an aspiring contender in the up and coming emerging counties but it has been struggling for decades because it has struggled to achieve expectations due to problems in income equality, productivity, and education. In order to obtain the status as one of the world’s leaders these social responsibilities must be addressed and corrected. The emergence of the BRICswill challenge the well-being and sustainability of the global environment. China is one of the pillars of the global economy, but controversies surround China’s future growth because of the controversy surrounding Chinese labor practices or tainted imports traced back to Chinese suppliers. In addition to the surrounding labor and tainted imports our Western-centric view of the world and current media restrictions in China the world’s largest country remains mysterious in many ways. Because of this, the development of a greater focus on corporate social responsibility in China has gone somewhat unnoticed. Chinese government has acted with some hesitancy in years past to fully embrace a more updated idea of corporate social responsibility because of fears such as added costs to exporting goods; however the situation has now changed. Not only are there new proposed regulations that foreign companies must submit their own sustainability reports within China, but various sectors within the Chinese economy have embraced both domestic and international standards to help propel Chinese businesses to greater heights around the world. ttp://www. chinacsr. com/en/2009/02/23/4572-how-far-can-chinese-companies-take-corporate-social-responsibility/. Russia is faced with incurring concerns with ethical issues that is attributed to their uncertain weak and corrupt government and the emergence of widespread market activity in Russia. Bribery has become a way of business in Russia. According to several recent surveys and interviews with dozens of ordinary Russians, it has surged in scale and scope in recent years under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. The prevalence of corruption and crime in business affairs has been generally recognized as a major cause of concern. Speculation about whether the movement toward a legitimate market economy can be sustained without a foundation of supportive institutions has been justifiably raised. The development of a system of ethical business practices in Russia process is needed to create a civil society along with becoming a global world leader. India is well aware of their involvement in corporate social responsibility to gain a position as one of the world’s strongest leaders. In terms of government rules and regulations, Jagdish Sheth, executive director of the India, China and America Institute and a professor of marketing at Emory University said that in India, â€Å"the government acts as a gatekeeper rather than an enabler, with slow approval, a complex bureaucracy and corruption. Enforcement is also lax† (Sheth, 2007). India has enacted several laws pertaining to child labor laws, environmental, and right to information and corruption laws however there are low levels of government capacity for law enforcement and implementation in India, causing relatively high levels of corruption, but other laws were enacted to give the general public right to government information which was meant to promote transparency and responsibility in the work of all governmental institutions. There is a strong belief in corporate social responsibility in India,† Sheth said. He also noted how Indian management style differs from that in the West: Decisions are made by the person at the top, not in a participatory way. And there is what he called a caste system by education. http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/2007/presentations/sheth. html

Ethnicity, Race and Culture: Austria

Essay Topic I: Ethnicity, Race and Culture: Austria Austria is not a big country; it’s ranked on 115th place in total area and 92nd in total population. But not so long ago the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was one of the â€Å"big players† by the end of the 19th century in Europe. That Empire has been a mixture of many different and strongly varying cultures and ethnicities, which remains as one of the reasons why it probably fell apart and got divided into different nations.So what is it now, that makes an Austrian an Austrian and why is he so much different than somebody from Hungary, Czech Republic or Germany; this is the main topic of this essay. The first part of the essay will give a short overview of what ethnicity, race and culture in general stands for. Therefor I will give a short introduction about these topics and try to explain how they are used today.Later on, my focus and the main part of this work will include aspects in which Austrian Culture influences pe ople (in Austria and in general) and try to find answers to the question: â€Å"What is typically or specific for the Austrian culture and the national identity? â€Å" To make this essay a little bit more thought-provoking, I will divide the main part into two parts. The first will consist of features which I perceive from being an Austrian citizen; the second part will attempt to give an indication of features that caught the attention of people who were not born or raised in Austria.Before I start with my major writing, first a short anecdote about the Austrian dialect, which is, let us say, an indicator for Austria’s culture and race: â€Å"The Austrian dialect is about as pretty because the talk resistant changes between self-indulgence and pulling oneself together back and forth play. It thus allows an irreplaceable wealth of right projecting temper. † This short quote from the German author and poet Christian Morgenstern gives already very precise and helpful â€Å"informations† about culture in Austria.To understand what the author was trying to say with this quote you have to appreciate the remarkable gap that lies in between Austrian and German culture. Even though most people in the world (if they even know where Austria is located! ) think of Austrian Culture as a very similar to the German culture, which might be not even so far away from the truth but indeed, there are important and noteworthy differences. One of them is that Austrians can be projected with the adjectives â€Å"cozy†, â€Å"comfy† and â€Å"unhurried† compared to the adjectives Germans are illustrious for in the world, such as â€Å"detailed†, â€Å"precise† and â€Å"hardworking†.From my point of view it is quiet right to say that a big part of the Austrian Culture lies somewhere in between, and that is what Christian Morgenstern was trying to say with his quote. But before I go too deep, let us start from the very beginning: What is culture? Well, this is not an easy question to answer because there are various definitions for this word. I will state here two different definitions of culture. Geert Hofstede defined a very common set of models for international cultures.For him culture â€Å"is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of on human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values. † (Hofstede 1990, p. 20) Whereas Edgar Schein, who was written one of the best and informative books on organizational culture, defines culture â€Å"as the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization that operate unconsciously and define in a basic `taken for granted? fashion an organization’s view of itself and its environment. † (Schein 1994, p. 7) From these two definitions it is already quite obvious that culture has very much to do with groups. A basic need of groups is the ability to communicate, both at a superficial level (for which ordinary language largely suffices) and also at a deeper level of meaning. At this deeper level, words, actions and things can become filled with special and specific meaning for the group, such as group-specific jargon and language, rituals for greetings, meetings and other group processes and last but not least artwork and artifacts that symbolize and remind the group of their history (cf.Schein 1994, p. 24;25). And Austria has a long history with a rich tradition. Austria’s geographical location at the crossroads of Europe determined its historical multiethnic makeup. As Austria is comprised with nine provinces and bordered by eight countries with their own distinctive cultures, the people of each province tend to be different. Surrounded by so many other cultures, Austria has often been subjected to cultural â€Å"invasions†, which are the source of the differences among the provi nces. Another source of the diversity is the Alps, which cover 62 percent of the country.The distinctions also occurred because different groups settled in Austria. In addition to the Celts, Romans, Hungarians, and Germanic groups, many groups from central Europe arrived during the Middle Ages. Now we have defined Austria’s conditions of culture and its heritage. Let us move to the next important topic: â€Å"National Identity†. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, identity is defined as â€Å"those attributes that make you unique as an individual and different from others† or â€Å"the way you see or define yourself†.Identity can therefore be seen as the positioning of the â€Å"self† as opposed to the â€Å"others†. This concept refers to individual rather than to collective identity and may be determined by the gender as well as the territorial, cultural, social, religious, ethnic, linguistic and national identity (cf. Sm ith 1991, p. 15). Going beyond individual identity to collective identity and approaching the concept of national identity, the definition gets more complex. It is not about identifying a single individual, but about detecting characteristics of a whole center of population.In another approach, the second construct, the nation can be defined as â€Å"an extensive aggregate of persons, so closely associated with each other by common descent, language, or history, as to form a distinct race or people, usually organized as a separate political state and occupying a definite territory† (The Oxford English Dictionary 1933, p. 30). So now we have well-defined the terms culture and national identity and these definitions leave very much space open to examine the Austrian lifestyle and culture. Therefor it is very difficult to answer questions like â€Å"What is typically Austrian? † without generalizing excessively.The struggle lies in the problem, that if you have grown up i n a place, you perceive many things differently than foreigners would and, which makes the situation even more complicated, you don’t notice things foreigners might consider odd. To me, the situation is a little bit easier; I was born in Croatia and moved to Austria when I was 5 years old, so I am able to take both sides of observation, the inside and the outside. My first part of observation about the â€Å"Austrian soul† precedes me to the baroque and catholic legacy that, I think, goes hand in hand with Austrian Culture and National Identity.This means that Austrian society is strongly influenced by a baroque, Catholic tradition that is fairly subtle in terms of actual religious life (only 7 percent of all Austrians attend a weekly service, which is Western-European standard; in Poland it is 20 percent, in the United States of America 40 percent! ). Nevertheless, the tradition of strong family ties, opulent architecture, food and feasts, as well as celebrations and ceremonies is something I see as concerned with the Catholic legacy of the country.Formality and certain ways in which you engage with people socially is very hierarchical and much stricter regulated than in English speaking countries. Families receive significant public benefits for staying with newborn babies for two years and employees are required to secure a mother? s (or father? s, but that is still very uncommon in Austria) job for three years. This leads directly to the very next shaping factor in Austria, the socialist tradition. The socialist tradition of the country is mostly based on the reforms of the1970ies.Education is more or less free from primary school to university (when a conservative government started charging about 700 Euros in fees per year, there were many demonstrations all over Austria). Health care is public. Transportation, culture and arts, libraries and other infrastructure is heavily funded by the public. That has significant social implications: Aus tria? s university graduates are among the oldest in Europe (in 2005, the average age of receiving the first degree was 27) and its retirement age is among the lowest. For several years, the political trend is to cut the social system down and liberalize the country economically.Many Austrians find the sheer thought of responsibility and initiative distressing, though. Austrians also have a reputation for being conservative and xenophobic, especially Germans like to think of us as a hostile, grumpy bunch (which we might well be with respect to Germans). The political spectrum of Austria is in fact shifted slightly to the right compared to Germany: The German conservatives are the â€Å"rightest† party, whereas Austrian populists standing clearly right of the conservatives have pioneered populist political movements in Europe.To understand this, I think it is necessary to distinguish between political contents on one hand and political style on the other. In terms of actual co ntent, the rightwing populists of Austria (and of other European countries) are not necessarily more radical than the Tories in the UK or even the democrats in the US. In terms of style, Austrians have very little constraints when it comes to being straight-forward and public statements are often made by Austrians that would be regarded as being highly politically incorrect in many other countries, despite of being wide-spread views.Another mechanism that came up my mind while writing this essay is that Austrian people have original views in foreign things. I think that there are several reasons for this. Partly it? s the Austrian mentality to rant openly about whatever bothers you. Partly – especially with rightwing issues – it is also that Austria defined itself with the aid of Western nations as the first victim of Nazi Germany, completely failing to acknowledge the role as a major culprit, which it also had, until into the 1980ies. There was much less of a progress ive turnover than in Germany after the war.But the key-question remains: Are Austrians more xenophobic, racist, Semitic than the rest of Europe? Drawn from own experiences and those of friends from other countries, I would say â€Å"most likely not†. As everywhere, cities are more open and cosmopolitan than rural communities. As everywhere, education makes people more tolerant. But just because it is quite likely to hear from an Austrian a grumpy complaint about Eastern-European burglars, Turkish youngsters molesting people on the street or Nigerian asylum seekers selling drugs does not mean that such stereotypes don? t exist in other countries.Enforcing political correctness (socially or legally) fights symptoms, not causes. In terms of causes of intolerance, I don? t think that Austria is doing significantly better or worse than other Western countries. And the openness in talking about pretty much anything will at least allow you to listen to people and get a direct handle on what they honestly think. Another important aspect of the Austrian culture and its soul is the priority of domestic life. Austrians love to build, repair, extend, maintain, refurbish or modernize their houses. They also love gardening and spend ours in garden centers. Houses and gardens are important social stages for dinner parties, BBQs or occasionally just staying in and watch TV. Garden-culture is something you find everywhere in Europe, the obsession with house-building and fixing is a more continental or even Germanic manner (a variation of the same principle is â€Å"washing the car†). The priority that homes and families have for Austrians might contribute to the stereotype of the bourgeois mountain people. Speaking of mountains: The natural beauty of the country gave rise to a pronounced outdoors culture.Mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing, paragliding, cycling, skiing, camping, skiing, swimming, just strolling and – of course – skiing are really big in Austria and we love to spend our weekends climbing pretty much any hill-resembling thing pointing out of the landscape. Then we sit on top of it, drink beer and watch the valleys. From my point of view, I don’t think there? s a rational reason why we are doing this. A colleague of mine once tried to explain it with a nation-wide UV light addiction; others think it? s coffee and â€Å"Red Bull† that drive us up the hills.Probably all nonsense. In the end, and I am only guessing here, we climb mountains simply because we can. This was the first part as to give my perspective of what is typically Austrian from the view of an Austrian. My next part should be seen as a form of an outside view of how Austrian people and their behavior are seen in the rest of the world. However, I am often amused by the little things that foreigners notice as typically Austrian. Having grown up in the country myself, I often take things as natural or granted that are somewhat odd to an outsider? s eye.From talking to people that have been to this country before, I have learned about the Austria-specificity of a range of features. Long conversations with a friend from Germany revealed a lot of Austrian culture to me that I had previously been unaware of. This included one of his observations on the way people in Austria attribute certain habits and features to the origin on a person: If somebody is Tyrolean, he is expected to like hiking, be conservative and hate Italians. Carinthian accents are immediately associated with ski- and surf-instructors, alongside with their stereotypical courtship behaviors.If somebody acts provincially in Vienna and it turns out that he is Upper Austrian, everybody goes â€Å"Ah, that? s why†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . According to my friend, the â€Å"tribal affiliation† of the Austrians is much more pronounced than in Germany. Something that I have been already aware but not considered as typically Austrian is the love to their titles a nd degrees. Austria has an impressive list of 819 titles and degrees. Many people get their title or academic degree included in their passports and they even a master (â€Å"Magister†) degree is written before the name.Most titles are used instead of a name when referring to a person directly, for example â€Å"Herr Magister† or â€Å"Frau Doktor†. Recent years saw the arrival of the Anglo-American â€Å"MA†, â€Å"PhD† or other â€Å"new† degrees. Most elderly Austrians are confused by these and try to translate them. This leads me to my last feature of Austrian behaviors that I concluded while talking to foreign friends of me. If you ask Austrians about an upper-class, it is likely that they will look at you somewhat confused and refer you to the wide middle-class and the longstanding socialist traditions that effectively eliminated at least the most pressing poverty.Upper-class as a concept is something strange to Austria – and ye t there are few countries that have a stronger correlation in education or income and life expectancy, income of children, social status, and so on, than the German-speaking countries. I am always fascinated how well the upper-class is ignored in Austria and yet maintains its behavioral and social rituals that often date back to the days of the monarchy. If an Austrian tells you that there is no real upper-class in this country, ask how many friends he has that went to one of Vienna? international schools; ask about the last time he went to the Salzburg Festival; if he would feel comfortable dining and using the correct cutlery in one of Salzburg? s top-restaurants; or if he has heard of the â€Å"Adelsclubs† of Vienna (associations for Austria? s ex-nobility). Austria has a long history with a long tradition. For the development of Culture and National Identity this is a very significant aspect, also when talking about what is typically for Austrians. Even to myself, as I al ready ive here for 20 years, there are facets about the Austrian culture that have not been revealed to me so far. Through attending numerous sociological classes and talking to friends from Austria but also from foreign countries, I was able to get a profounder and closer look on what makes an Austrian an Austrian and that there are reasonable explanations for certain aspects and behaviors. This will be important for further investigations, because I think that Austria’s culture (and every culture worldwide) is just about to experience major changes.Factors like immigration, migration and especially the immense changes we are going through thanks to globalization and all the issues that come with it, will show if historically grown cultures have the capability to survive such a thriving and lavish lifestyle, as we are experiencing right now in the western Words: 2. 965 Words: 2. 965 hemisphere. References: Austrian Culture. Hephaestus Books, 2011 Brown, Andrew;  Organizati onal Culture. Pitman, London, 1995 Culture of Austria-Hungary. General Books LLC, 2010Lichtenberger Elisabeth; Austria: Society and Regions. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2000 Schein, Edgar; Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass Psychology Series, 1994 [Paperback] Simpson, John; Weiner, Edmund; The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1989 Stein R. Conrad; Austria. Enchantment of the World Series. Children’s Press, 2000 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Available from: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/Nationalism [Accessed April 2012] Culture and quality: an anthropological perspectiveAvailable from: http://intqhc. oxfordjournals. org/content/16/5/345. full [Accessed April 2012] Wikipedia, Austria, last modified on 21 April 2012 Available from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Austria [Accessed April 2012] ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Wikipedia, Au stria [ 2 ]. Christian Morgenstern, German author and poet (1871-1914) [ 3 ]. Brown, Andrew,  Organizational Culture. Pitman, London, 1995 [ 4 ]. Schein, Edgar, Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass Psychology Series, 1994 [ 5 ]. Wikipedia [ 6 ].Lichtenberger Elisabeth; Austria: Society and Regions. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2000 [ 7 ]. Stein R. Conrad; Austria. Enchantment of the World Series. Children’s Press, 2000 [ 8 ]. Lichtenberger Elisabeth; Austria: Society and Regions. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2000 [ 9 ]. Austrian Culture. Hephaestus Books 2011 [ 10 ]. Austrian Culture. Hephaestus Books 2011 [ 11 ]. Culture of Austria-Hungary. General Books LLC 2010 [ 12 ]. Culture of Austria-Hungary. General Books LLC 2010 [ 13 ]. Culture of Austria-Hungary. General Books LLC 2010

The Five Best Methods for Taking Notes in College

The Five Best Methods for Taking Notes in College One of the keys to success in college is effective note-taking. Taking quality notes will help you to manage large amounts of complex material. The idea is to summarize what youve learned using your own words. When you focus on key concepts and condense them, it will help you to remember them more effectively. It makes studying and reviewing material a less difficult task. This is key to success on your exams. The type of technique you choose will depend on the course you are taking and your learning style. This guide will take you through how to use some of the most popular and effective methods of note taking.1. The Outline MethodThe outline method is probably the most popular method used by students. This method is perhaps the best when it comes to summarizing the main points of a lecture. The method works best in classes that follow a logical structure. It helps you to structure complex material and reduce it down to the main points. As the name suggests, you use an outline struc ture to list the main topics and subtopics. First, write down the main ideas or topics on the far left of the page. Next, indent and write down a subtopic related to the main topic. Underneath the sub-topic you may want to list any supporting facts or details. Here are a few tips for using this method:Write down the most important points as main topics.List subordinate or sub-topics underneath them after indenting.Make sure to include any relevant details or facts after your sub-topics.Use this method when you have a class with a logical structure. If your professor doesnt use the lecture method or structure, you might want to consider a different method.This method is effective because it reduces complex material to key concepts. It is not as effective in classes that make use of graphs, charts or complex statistics such as math course.Here is an example of how to structure your notes using this method:Outline MethodWrite down your main topic.List your sub-topic related to the main topic.Include any relevant details or facts supporting the topic.2. Concept MappingConcept mapping, also known as mind-mapping, is an effective way of taking notes in classes with interrelated concepts. It is also useful for helping you to go more in-depth about a particular topic. Subjects such as Science, History, or Philosophy are perfect classes for this method. First, begin by drawing a large bubble in the center with the most general topic. Secondly, draw smaller bubbles with other concepts related to this concept. Connect them to the main topic by drawing lines to connect them. Later, you can add other bubbles that add details or further connect the ideas or concepts that you are learning about. Here are some key things to remember when using this method of note-taking:List your main topic in a large bubble in the center of your paper such as Causes of World War 1List the related sub-topics or facts in smaller bubbles connected to the main concept.Later add other small bubbl es with facts that connect the sub-topics if applicable.Use this method when you want to connect concepts and understand how they are interrelated. This would not be effective in classes that demand memorization of large amounts of facts.Use brief descriptions or labels in your bubbles. Do not attempt to write long sentences in your bubbles.Below is an example of the use of this method using a History topic:Concept MappingAn example of Concept Mapping3. The Cornell MethodThe Cornell method has a different layout than many other methods. It involves a large section at the top for the title. In the center is a section for the main notes or concepts divided into two columns. The smaller column on the left is used for questions and key words from the lecture. The larger right column is used for the main notes and key facts. It is best to use abbreviations here to save space. At the bottom is a section for you to summarize what you learned. To summarize information, read what youve writt en and try to rewrite it using your own words. Here are some tips to apply when using this method:This method is effective for most types of lectures.It is a systematic way to summarize material and focus on the main ideas behind the concepts you are learning.It does require some advance planning. Draw your layout before you go into your lecture by hand or using a computer.Place your main topic or title at the top. Reserve the majority of the middle section for the main notes. In the smaller left column, list the keywords or questions. In the larger right column, write down your main notes, using abbreviations when you can. Try and summarize your concepts in the bottom section. If you can put the information in your own words, it will help you to remember it later.Here is an example of the Cornell Method:An example of the Cornell Method4. The Sentence MethodThe sentence method is perhaps the simplest method of taking notes, but it can be effective. When you are taking a course that is fast-paced and involves large amounts of information, this method works best. It involves simply writing down a quick summary sentence for the important facts being covered in a course. This allows you to have pared-down information to just the most important or relevant topics. It doesnt involve any advance planning and can be used for any college class. Here are some things to remember when using this method:Use it to summarize the main facts delivered in a lecture, especially ones that deliver large amounts of information in a fast manner.Every new line should be a separate topic, using headings for the topic if that helps you.This method is great for remembering the main points or facts of a class lecture.It does not require any advance planning to use it.Here is an example of the sentence method:Main topic (listed at the top of the page):A sentence involving relevant details pertaining to the topic.A sentence involving a separate concept/details pertaining to the same topic. A sentence involving a separate concept/details from the first two but related to the same topic.5. The Charting MethodThe charting method is best used to organize more complex material. This would be an effective way to organize statistics or other more detailed information. Set it up similarly to a spreadsheet with specific categories in your columns. This can be done on a computer or can be hand-written. The categories should be comparable and related. It may not be the best way to list information that is hard to categorize. It is also time-consuming, but is highly effective for facts and statistics that need to be memorized. Like the Cornell Method, you will need to draw your columns beforehand or create them using your computer. Keep these tips in mind as you implement this method:Use the charting method to summarize material that requires categorization such as science concepts.Either draw or use your computer to create separate columns before you try and use it.The categorie s that you create should be interrelated. This method is designed specifically to illustrate the interconnectedness of concepts and categories.This is probably not the best method for taking lecture notes. However, it is highly effective when reading textbooks and trying to break down complex material.Below is an example of the charting method using Scientific Classification:An example of the Charting MethodThe method that you use to take notes should depend on the nature of your course and your learning style. If you like to have highly organized summaries of lecture material, the outline method may work best. The outline method works best in classes where material is organized. When you need to learn how concepts are related to one another, the concept mapping method may be most effective. Sometimes, putting key words and concepts together by summarizing them in your own words works best. This involves the use of the Cornell method. If you are taking a class that is fast-paced and involves loads of information, use the sentence method. Use the charting method for courses that require you to use statistics or detailed information.Decide which method works best for you and the course you are taking. Feel free to experiment with different methods to find the right one. Once you do, you will find it easier to digest important information. Effective note-taking leads to effective learning. This will help ensure your success on exams and in your college classes.

Cleaning Ambulance essay

Cleaning Ambulance essay Cleaning Ambulance essay Cleaning Ambulance essayYou can consolidate and save money. You don’t need the toxic products some departments use.   The driving force behind selecting a chemical to clean an ambulance should be the type of organism the chemical is meant to eliminate.   With the single exception of Clostridium difficile (commonly known as C diff), which requires a chlorine-based cleaning product, most ambulance providers need only low-level productsYou should have your cleaning plan schedule to conduct cleaning regularly and effectively. The plan should contain the time, place, and items that have to be cleaned along with the indication of detergent and cleaners that should be used to clean the interior of the emergency vehicle.Decontaminating an ambulance is a process. The first step is cleaning to remove debris. Only after a surface has been cleaned can it be decontaminated using one of three types of disinfection. The first, or highest level, is sterilization. Sterilization completely eliminates all organisms and is used for equipment that will be reprocessed (or reused) and comes into contact with mucus membranes, such as a laryngoscope blade. Chemical or steam-based sterilization can be used, but the correct procedure must be followed.  Disposable items don’t need a high level of sterilization. Non-critical items would include stethoscopes or blood-pressure cuffs. Cleaning of floors, stretchers and walls don’t require the same strict standards of the highest level of decontamination.You will require a gown, protective eyewear and special gloves when used. OSHA requires that providers wear dishwashing-type gloves, not disposable ones, when using any cleaning product, even disinfectant wipes. For the most part, wipes and paper towels used in the cleaning process are not considered medical waste and can be disposed of in the regular trash, even if bodily fluids are present. Using the regular trash to dispose of this waste will significantly cut cos ts. However, every state has different regulations, so she suggests reviewing state definitions regarding medical waste. One of the most effective disinfectants is a simple bleach and water solution, mixed at a ratio of 1:100.  PresentationWhile making a presentation, I conducted the preparation for the presentation collecting the information that I will need. In this regard, I collected and processed all the information, while preparing the pamphlet. First of all, I focused on the identification of major risks and threats which emerge in the course of the work of the average ambulance team. In this regard, it was easy to identify various infectious diseases, such as hepatitis, HIV, and others which may be transmitted to the ambulance staff from patients in case of not cleaning the ambulance properly. As I informed my team mates of the risks they are exposed to, I placed emphasis on the importance of cleaning the ambulance thoroughly and regularly. I explained them that cleaning t he ambulance is the only way to avoid developing an infectious disease being contaminated through the unclean ambulance environment. At first, my team mates does not really looked anxious about what I was telling them, until I noticed that the probability of developing an infectious disease in the unclean ambulance seven times higher compared to the clean one. After that I have noticed that my team mates have started to grow interested in what I was talking about.Then, I gave them the pamphlet printed for each team mate. I gave them some time to read and look through the pamphlet. After that I told them that it is not a mere pamphlet containing the general information on how to clean the ambulance. Instead, this is a set of recommendations which they would better take into account and follow, if they want to prevent them from catching an infectious disease or having other health problems. I told them that cleaning is easy when they know how and what to clean. Then, I asked them to l ook at the part concerning the planning and scheduling of the cleaning. I told them that it should a sort of the routine procedure for them† â€Å"It’s like washing your hands before having a meal during your service. You can’t just leave your ambulance unclean because it’s your health that is at stake†.Moreover, I tried to refer to the responsibility of my team mates, who started to object me that they do not really care about those threats they expose themselves to. I reminded them that cleaning the ambulance is not just the matter of their health: â€Å"Think of patients and your team mates? Don’t you care they can get a disease because of you, because of your laziness and negligence in cleaning the ambulance?† After that my team mates seemed to be more convinced of the importance of cleaning the ambulance. Then I asked them whether they know how to clean the ambulance properly. Naturally, they immediately responded positively. Then I asked them to look through the pamphlet again and asked several questions about how to clean the ambulance properly and my team mates could not respond to all of them properly. Hence, they agreed that they should work harder on learning how to clean the ambulance properly.

The Ultimate Strong Verbs List Thatll Instantly Supercharge Your Writing

The Ultimate Strong Verbs List Thatll Instantly Supercharge Your Writing 249 Strong Verbs Thatll Spice Up Your Writing Do you ever wonder why a grammatically correct sentence you’ve written just lies there like a dead fish? I sure have. Your sentence might even be full of those adjectives and adverbs your teachers and loved ones so admired in your writing when you were a kid. But still the sentence doesn’t work. Something simple I learned from The Elements of Style years ago changed the way I write and added verve to my prose. The authors of that little bible of style said: â€Å"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs.† Even Mark Twain was quoted, regarding adjectives: â€Å"When in doubt, strike it out.† That’s not to say there’s no place for adjectives. I used three in the title and first paragraph of this post alone. The point is that good writing is more about well-chosen nouns and strong verbs than it is about adjectives and adverbs, regardless what you were told as a kid. There’s no quicker win for you and your manuscript than ferreting out and eliminating flabby verbs and replacing them with vibrant ones. How To Know Which Verbs Need Replacing Your first hint is your own discomfort with a sentence. Odds are it features a snooze-inducing verb. As you hone your ferocious self-editing skills, train yourself to exploit opportunities to replace a weak verb for a strong one. At the end of this post I suggest a list of 249 vivid verbs you can experiment with to replace tired ones. Want a copy of the 249-verb list to read, save, or print whenever you wish? Click here. What constitutes a tired verb? Here’s what to look for: 3 Types of Verbs to Beware of in Your Prose 1. State-of-being verbs These are passive as opposed to powerful: Is Am Are Was Were Be Being Been Have Has Had Do Does Did Shall Will Should Would May Might Must Can Could Am I saying these should never appear in your writing? Of course not. You’ll find them in this piece. But when a sentence lies limp, you can bet it contains at least one of these. Determining when a state-of-being verb is the culprit creates a problem- and finding a better, more powerful verb to replace it- is what makes us writers. [Note how I replaced the state-of-being verbs in this paragraph.] Resist the urge to consult a thesaurus for the most exotic verb you can find. I consult such references only for the normal word that carries power but refuses to come to mind. I would suggest even that you consult my list of powerful verbs only after you have exhausted all efforts to come up with one on your own. You want Make your prose to be your own creation, not yours plus Roget or Webster or Jenkins. [See how easy they are to spot and fix?] Examples Impotent: The man was walking on the platform. Powerful: The man strode along the platform. Impotent: Jim is a lover of country living. Powerful: Jim treasures country living. Impotent: There are three things that make me feel the way I do†¦ Powerful: Three things convince me†¦ 2. Verbs that rely on adverbs Powerful verbs are strong enough to stand alone. Examples The fox ran quickly dashed through the forest. She menacingly looked glared at her rival. He secretly listened eavesdropped while they discussed their plans. 3.  Verbs with -ing suffixes Examples Before: He was walking†¦ After: He walked†¦ Before: She was loving the idea of†¦ After: She loved the idea of†¦ Before: The family was starting to gather†¦ After: The family started to gather The Strong Verbs List Absorb Advance Advise Alter Amend Amplify Attack Balloon Bash Batter Beam Beef Blab Blast Bolt Boost Brief Broadcast Brood Burst Bus Bust Capture Catch Charge Chap Chip Clasp Climb Clutch Collide Command Commune Cower Crackle Crash Crave Crush Dangle Dash Demolish Depart Deposit Detect Deviate Devour Direct Discern Discover Dismantle Download Drag Drain Drip Drop Eavesdrop Engage Engulf Enlarge Ensnare Envelop Erase Escort Expand Explode Explore Expose Extend Extract Eyeball Fight Fish Fling Fly Frown Fuse Garble Gaze Glare Gleam Glisten Glitter Gobble Govern Grasp Gravitate Grip Groan Grope Growl Guide Gush Hack Hail Heighten Hobble Hover Hurry Ignite Illuminate Inspect Instruct Intensify Intertwine Impart Jostle Journey Lash Launch Lead Leap Locate Lurch Lurk Magnify Mimic Mint Moan Modify Multiply Muse Mushroom Mystify Notice Notify Obtain Oppress Order Paint Park Peck Peek Peer Perceive Picture Pilot Pinpoint Place Plant Plop Pluck Plunge Poison Pop Position Power Prickle Probe Prune Realize Recite Recoil Refashion Refine Remove Report Retreat Reveal Reverberate Revitalize Revolutionize Revolve Rip Rise Ruin Rush Rust Saunter Scamper Scan Scorch Scrape Scratch Scrawl Seize Serve Shatter Shepherd Shimmer Shine Shock Shrivel Sizzle Skip Skulk Slash Slide Slink Slip Slump Slurp Smash Smite Snag Snarl Sneak Snowball Soar Spam Sparkle Sport Sprinkle Stare Starve Steal Steer Storm Strain Stretch Strip Stroll Struggle Stumble Supercharge Supersize Surge Survey Swell Swipe Swoon Tail Tattle Toddle Transfigure Transform Travel Treat Trim Trip Trudge Tussle Uncover Unearth Untangle Unveil Usher Veil Wail Weave Wind Withdraw Wreck Wrench Wrest Wrestle Wring Yank Zing Zap Click here or below to download the expanded list (now 249 powerful verbs!), along with the three types of verbs to watch for in your writing. Suggest in the comments three (only) vivid verbs that should be added to my list.

TIME WARNER CASE Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

TIME WARNER - Case Study Example Statistics proves that the cable industry and the broadband market are in a growing phase. The cable penetration is almost touching 0.7 per one household as per the statistics of 2003. The broadband subscribers have increased by 44.78% in 2003 in respect to 2001. Considering this statistics and the household base of Kansas City to be 321,000 we can expect the business to grow. With a 50% market share we can expect the gross profit to be around $70, 45,950. It will important for us to know the pricing of Everest on a time to time basis, so that we can evaluate our pricing accordingly. At the same time we need to expand our base to the wider section of the metropolitan, which will provide us more coverage and market share than Everest. It is quite clear that HDTV is becoming a major component in our marketing booty. In order to plan a promotional and marketing plan, we must first understand the need of HDTV in the households. Statistics proves that the cable industry per se has decreased significantly in 2003 as compared to the 1993. It has decreased almost 20% since then. However, the Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) industry has improved manifolds. As of 2003 the percentage is 21.3% which was only 0.12% in the year 1993. In view of the above information we first need to segment the section of the population where we can target our HDTV service. Since the package is quite attractive at $5.99 per month in certain areas. The only constraint is the price of the HDTV sets. At the same time the programming aspect needs to be taken care of. Hence, we need to plan how to reduce the cost of the HDTV sets. This can only be done through large scale marketing and promotional activities, along with discounted rates. We can plan to tie up with a few HDTV manufacturing companies, which will ensure discounted price of the sets. The cost can also be borne with the programming companies which can add value to their programs. The business health of

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

English - Essay Example However, such setbacks can be prevented in terms of using medical practices that are safe. Therefore, Oliver Sacks his 1995 book of essays An Anthropology on Mars expounds on seven case studies that important for discussion. For example, by making analysis of conditions and syndromes of his patients and former colleagues, he allows readers to understand several issues (Sacks 145). These include the study on the workings of the brain and the body system and their relation with the diseases that affect most of his subjects. In other words, the author intends to make the audience understand the connection between the concepts of normality and handicap conditions in the life. The writer’s method of investigation is called neurological analysis because he is a trained neurologist. Therefore, he decides to treat his subjects individually by using case studies. Similarly, the decision to approach the cases at an individual level allows the author to understand the neurological proble ms each of the persons being investigated. Alternatively, the use of one person at a time in a case study allows for closer scrutiny and analysis in terms of the repercussions of existence in a different environment. In the same scope, the ability to analyze at a time permits the readers to compare and contrast the seven cases studies that are written in the form of essays by the author in his book (Sacks 124). This is through identifying the problems discussed and the resulting consequences of each patient in his/her unique world. Furthermore, the decision to approach the investigation in the form of case studies is making it easy for alternations and adjustments especially if there is a discovery in the scientific world. Consequently, that suggests that the cases in the book are treated independently for analysis especially when a critical addition is to be made. On the other hand, the author’s approach allows for more time to collect data and information that may suit diff erent case studies at any time. Therefore, there several ways that the writer discovers the individuals discussed in the essays. For example, the case studies involve his former patients who had visited his office and explained their ailments. The people studied in the essays also involve former colleagues and patients thus understanding their neurological conditions and superseding ailment. This case is exemplified in the Case of the Colorblind Painter who finds that his perception of colors is lost after a horrible accident. Similarly, from the comprehension of the working of visions, the author expounds on the working of the brain and how it affects optical nerves and other related reflexes (Sacks 134). On the other hand, another method to discover individuals is through understanding of some medical conditions that affect citizens as noted in A Surgeon’ Life concerning his colleague. In the case analysis, Sacks explains the symptoms of Tourrette’s Syndrome and the tactics of adjustment when infected. Alternatively, the writer makes startling discoveries about individuals based on the debilitating conditions constantly mentioned in the book that affect most citizens in American and around the world. This suggests the main intention of discovery is to bring the fore the issues of humanity and the best ways having them treated. There is an interesting matter concerning whether people the author studies are either patients or subjects. I think they are both patients and subjects in the context of the neurological study by the author. First, they are patients because there are several diagnoses concerning their conditions and syndromes. For instance, the case studies entail the struggle of each person with a condition that is both painful and hard to live in terms of

Engaging Communication Technologies of the 1950s Assignment - 2

Engaging Communication Technologies of the 1950s - Assignment Example The history of Communication Technology counts back to the revolution era, when scholars and scientist discovered the utilization of various materials and minerals. They started engaging these materials to develop communication media, which then peaked in the 1950s. In the 1950s, communication technology made several notable communication establishments, which revolved the way of communication in many industries, ages, races and government work. The industry brought with it several positive developments as well as negative influences on the diverse areas of application by its users. Among the developments established by the 1950s in communication technology is the establishment of the first telephone communication, which came into play in late 1876 (Solway 27). Thereafter, as the 1900s came, technology continued to evolve bringing with it several discoveries. These discoveries include the making of first transcontinental phone call in 1915, and establishment of the first Air-to-Ground and Ground-to-Air Radio Communication. These developments created the basis for the more discoveries in the industry, making communication a key sector of interest to many stakeholders and governments. It is between the 1920s and 1950s that communication sector re volution then was at peak, with several developments coming into the action, and communication getting easy and comprehendible. The highlights made in communication technology at the period from 1900s to 1950s affected the use of communication technology in the 1950s remarkably. For instance, for the people who worked in the offices, both private and government sectors, several communication technologies affected their work and daily schedule. The communication within the office premises for the professionals entailed the use of several communication media (Krummenacher & Robert 67). The office manager needed to communicate with customers, clients and employees.

Steroids and Masculinity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Steroids and Masculinity - Research Paper Example Steroids are chemical substances which induce changes in hormonal secretions. They are naturally occurring or synthetic fat-soluble organic compounds which are in diverse range including bile acids, vitamin D, cholesterol etc (Steroids). They encourage masculinity and add strength to one’s body. Physical fitness reflects mental upliftment. This steroid consumption slowly becomes an addiction. Following essay addresses the issue of steroid intake in men, its impacts- positive and negative and substitute measures to steroid intake. There are many reasons prevailing in the society for the widespread use of steroids. The media holds a strong influence on the minds of people. They publicize and advocate weight loss, leaner body structures and attractive figures while promoting celebrity endorsed products. This provokes men to be like those celebrities whom they admire. The use of steroids is related with the degree of satisfaction that men have about their own body structure. Some people are believed to have a behavioural syndrome: ‘muscle dysmorphia’; in this condition although men have strong and large muscular built, they still think they are weak (Why Do People Abuse Anabolic Steroids). This mental dilemma forces them to take external help in the form of steroids to build their body according to their hypothetical body image. Men are lured into taking steroids because of its benefits which are- muscle and strength gain, increased agility, increased stamina and increased endurance in any of the physical activities (The Benefits of Using Steroids). Some other benefits include enhanced functioning of sexual organs, treatment of various disorders such as asthma, kidney problems, facial paralysis attacks, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, etc (The Advantages and Benefits of Steroids). As every coin has two sides, so does the consumption of steroids. Some health hazards due to its consumption are- hair loss, fertility problems, insomnia, headache,

Coursework 3 Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Coursework 3 Individual Report - Essay Example Pension crisis is a foreseen problem or difficulty in settling federal, corporate, and state pensions in the European nations and US. This might come about due a difference in the available resources to settle the pension and the pension obligations that arise. Studies show that the major factors contributing to this situation include lower birth rates, and most retirees living longer (The Economist, 2008). Reasons for this situation sometimes may vary depending on the nation. A good example is the current pension crisis in Pennsylvania. The country is facing this crisis due to its two-pension systems Public School Employees and State Government Workers both have over 40 billion dollars in debt (Priya, 2013). This crisis started surfacing back in 2001. A ten billion dollar hole was created in the pension systems when â€Å"Facing a flush stock market and a fully funded system, legislators raised benefits for state and school workers by 25 percent, hiked their own benefits by 50 percent, and created a cost-of-living increase for retired workers a year later† (Priya, 2013, para. 5). Therefore, from the above situations it is clear that the pension crisis situation is a predictable future situation. It is affected by the current financial actions carried out by the pension system and changes in demographics. There are a few key differences in taking up Money Purchase pension scheme or final Salary Pension scheme. These differences revolve around; who bears the risk, the calculation of pension to receive and performance of markets. In a Final Salary scheme, the benefits are promised, meaning individuals can compute the pension they are going to receive in advance basing on the salary at retirement and number of years as a member (WorkSmart, 2012). Money Purchase, on the other hand does not provide a means to calculate the final amount of pension an individual will receive. The size of benefits they

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, A Comparison of novel and film Essay

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, A Comparison of novel and film - Essay Example There are numerous schools of thought on what made this novel and film appeal to the American public. Some critics are of the view that it was all about the timing. Firstly, Barra (4 & 5) argues that the novel lacked the literary merit to warrant its popularity and goes on to base the novels success on the fact that it was produced at a period when easy-reading books, that he refers to as novelizations, were a hit. However, when it comes to the films, The Godfather  and  The Godfather Part II were realised in 1972 and 1974, which was a time that the US was experiencing much turmoil and change. Critics attribute the films’ leanings towards the New Left and its exposure of the hypocrisy of institutions of power, such as corruption in the police force and politicians, gave the public what they desired to see and hear. However, the theme that pundits agree on that may have contributed to the success of both the novel and the film was that the story was really about the exper iences of American immigrant families, specifically Sicilian-Americans, adapting to their new environment. Barra (6) states that if we take away the gambling and the murder, the story becomes a straightforward depiction of how Italian-American families were assimilated into American culture. This we believe superseded the notion that it was the film that made the novel famous because historical data shows that the book had already sold millions of copies before the first film was  ­released in 1972. This common theme therefore is what we believe to be bearing the underlying relevance of the both the novel and the films: assimilation of immigrant families into the American society and its resultant consequences. The original plot and the film adaptations The Godfather novel is set in the 1940s and revolves around the family of a Sicily-American immigrant. Don Vito Corleone, the head of the Corleone family is referred to as the Godfather because he embodies what every man aspires to be. He is strong, powerful, cunning and a loving family man. This is depicted where we see Amerigo Bonasera coming to him to seek justice for his daughter’s rape (Puzo 10) and also by Virgil Sollozo who seeks Vito’s partnership to engage in the lucrative drug peddling business. The Don refuses to take up Sollozo’s offer, which leads the â€Å"Turk† to send assassins to kill the Don. Vito Corleone survives, but needs to stay away from the direct running of the family business. Sonny, his hot-headed son, takes up leadership of the Corleone family, convinces Michael, his younger brother to kill Sollozo and Captain McCluskey in vengeance for his father’s failed assassination attempt. This act results in a full scale war between the five mafia families in New York. The all out mafia war leads to the death of Sonny and Michael’s ascension to the head of the family. Michael initially tries to legitimize the Corleone business empire, but fails. Michael who erstwhile wanted nothing to do with the family business changes into a ruthless Don, who eliminates all the heads of the other mafia families in New York. He later sells all the Corleone property in New York and moves the family to Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In contrast to the novel, the movie is made of three sequels. The Godfather, Part I is the film whose plot most closely resembles the novel’s bar the elimination of several character backstories

Coursework 3 Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Coursework 3 Individual Report - Essay Example Pension crisis is a foreseen problem or difficulty in settling federal, corporate, and state pensions in the European nations and US. This might come about due a difference in the available resources to settle the pension and the pension obligations that arise. Studies show that the major factors contributing to this situation include lower birth rates, and most retirees living longer (The Economist, 2008). Reasons for this situation sometimes may vary depending on the nation. A good example is the current pension crisis in Pennsylvania. The country is facing this crisis due to its two-pension systems Public School Employees and State Government Workers both have over 40 billion dollars in debt (Priya, 2013). This crisis started surfacing back in 2001. A ten billion dollar hole was created in the pension systems when â€Å"Facing a flush stock market and a fully funded system, legislators raised benefits for state and school workers by 25 percent, hiked their own benefits by 50 percent, and created a cost-of-living increase for retired workers a year later† (Priya, 2013, para. 5). Therefore, from the above situations it is clear that the pension crisis situation is a predictable future situation. It is affected by the current financial actions carried out by the pension system and changes in demographics. There are a few key differences in taking up Money Purchase pension scheme or final Salary Pension scheme. These differences revolve around; who bears the risk, the calculation of pension to receive and performance of markets. In a Final Salary scheme, the benefits are promised, meaning individuals can compute the pension they are going to receive in advance basing on the salary at retirement and number of years as a member (WorkSmart, 2012). Money Purchase, on the other hand does not provide a means to calculate the final amount of pension an individual will receive. The size of benefits they

Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley Research Proposal

Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley - Research Proposal Example In its extreme, racist form, eugenics intended to obliterate all human beings considered "unfit," saving only those who matched to a Nordic label. The eugenics theory hailed forced sterilization and isolation laws, in addition to marriage controls. In America, eugenics practitioners eventually forcefully sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, compulsorily isolated thousands in "colonies," and harassed countless numbers. Before World War II, nearly half of forced sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state contributes for a major percentage of all such surgeries (Black). In the novel Brave New World, Huxley had indicted against modern science and eugenics. In the second chapter of "Brave New World Revisited", however, Huxley seems disappointed by eugenics being discarded, saying, "In the Brave New World of my fantasy, eugenics and dysgenics were practiced systematically. In this second half of the twentieth century we do nothing systematic about our breeding". Does that mean that Huxley now regrets what he said before, that, social eugenics controlling population systematically would have benefited humanity in the long run Would Huxley now prefer biologically better ova, fertilized by biologically better sperm, to produce better species of people aided by the best possible pre-birth care to be lastly decanted Probably to answer such criticism, Huxley soon says, in the haphazard and looseness of the natural order and the biological interference that is aimed at reducing diseases and so on, we not only over-populate our earth but we also confirm that those who do not receive good care and treatments become the greater numbers - people having biologically poorer attributes. This, according to Huxley, means that an almost unknowing repetition of the Bokanovsky Process as depicted in Brave New World where biologically substandard ova, fertilized by biologically poorer sperm, were put through and dealt before birth with alcohol and other protein-destroying toxics, to make ("decant") the creatures finally nearly subhuman. Thus, for Huxley, eugenics is a proposed as a form of pseudoscience that is focused on "improving" the human race. In this paper, I will discuss Huxley's views on eugenics, the origins of the theory as well as the current views on the same. Development of the study of eugenics Eugenics was proposed as a means to selective breeding and genetic engineering in order to make human beings fit to survive in the world of the fittest, or in what is known as social Darwinism. The definition of eugenics is itself a much controversial subject. While some scholars think altering the gene pool is what is eugenics, some argue even attempting to alter some behavioral traits is also eugenics. Modern day reprogenetics, preemptive abortions and designer babies or infanticide in some primitive societies may also termed as eugenics. Eugenics may be positive - by increasing the fertility rate of the stronger genetic qualities - or negative - by lowering the fertility rate of the weaker genetic qualities. Perhaps this was why abortion was illegal for the racially superior women in Nazi Germany. In the modern times, eugenics is practiced by

Curriculum and instruction Essay Example for Free

Curriculum and instruction Essay The definition of curriculum transcends the conception of it as a mere document and ushers it into the realms of instruction itself. Certain researchers consider the curriculum to be a dynamic instrument that is vital to the way students and educators interact with the materials of education â€Å"in a free-wheeling setting† (Weade, 1987, p. 15). Much of the current trends in curriculum and instruction involve the constructivist practice of hands-on training (Ediger, 2001). This dictates that the curriculum takes the form of the drafting and implementation of practical methods in the planning of instruction. Depth of instruction is at the heart of current reformatory curriculum drafting, as it has been theorized by several educational researchers that the improper articulation of the intricacies of certain concepts has led to current educational problems (AAAS, 2000). The fact is that curricula, which serve as a guide for teachers, also have the ability to restrict their freedom in the classroom. The cursory way in which some curricula deal with concepts often has the effect of curtailing teachers’ tendency toward depth and breadth within a lesson, and this in turn has an adverse effect on the understanding of the students. In mathematics, for instance, a student may be having trouble understanding the application of an algebraic concept in the real world. The student may not be able to visualize the transformation of a perfect algebraic square such as (a + b)2 into the expression a2 + ab +b2. The student might not be aware of how the ab portion of the equation comes into play. Visualization of the problem might be aided through the labelling of the sides of a square with the measurements a + b and then dividing the square into bits to demonstrate the areas that correspond to a2, b2 and ab. The visual and practical demonstration of this would work in conjunction with the theoretical aspect of the algebraic problem to aid understanding and consequently memorization. In that way, freedom in the curriculum allowing for a greater depth in the instruction of the concept would lead to a better understanding for the student (AAAS, 2000). References American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Project 2061. (2000). Algebra for all — not with today’s textbooks, says AAAS. Press Release. Retrieved on October 2, 2007 from http://www. project2061. org/newsinfo/press/rl000426. htm. Ediger, M. (2001). â€Å"What makes for a quality science curriculum? † Journal of Instructional Psychology. 28(4): 241-243. Weade, R. â€Å"Curriculu ‘n’Instruction: the construction of meaning. † Theory into Practice, 26(1): 15-25.

Calculators Essays -- Essays Papers

Calculators Calculators in the Classroom As the world changes and grows, more things are created to make people's everyday lives easier. One tool that can be used in school to help facilitate math is the calculator. This technology allows students to use a machine to obtain answers instead of using PPA (Paper and Pencil Arithmetic). Like any technology, there is fear on how to best use it to help facilitate growth in students. If the calculator is used properly in the classroom, it can be a beneficial tool for pupils. The calculator enables students to concentrate on math instead of focusing on tedious tasks that are not used in everyday life such as long division. If the calculator becomes a tool that elementary students use more often in the classroom, it will only help them become better students of mathematics over time. One of the many things that prevent the calculator from being more widely used in the elementary school are the many negative myths about calculators and how they adversely affect students in elementary schools. One belief that is held by many parents and teachers is that calculators hinder students’ ability to grow as thinkers. People believe that the calculator is doing the work instead of the students. This idea is absurd. Pupils need to push the buttons on the machine and in the correct order to come up with the right answer (Lambdin, Lindquist, Reys, Smith & Suydam, 2001). In fact the calculator enables the student to use more of their intellect because the machine allows the student to free itself from performing arduous tasks which allows the student to focus on how he or she obtained the answer (Lambdin et al, 2001). Another impediment to using ca... ...ad to be done so the results would be precise. This one experiment involving a tool of mathematics integrated science and math. This is just one way that the calculators can be used to benefit elementary students. If the calculator is used properly in the classroom, it can be a great tool that benefits students and teachers. This machine allows teachers to focus on other school subjects that they would have spent on teaching aspects of mathematics that are no longer used today. The tool is beneficial to the pupil because if it is used properly, it allows the student to spend time on how they came to answer instead of reaching the answer and leaving class because time ran out. As teachers and students use the calculator on regular basis, more people will see that in fact it is a tool that is necessary for the student to grow and not a hindrance.

Relationship Between Strings and Spacetime Geometry :: essays research papers

If string theory is a theory of gravity, then how does it compare with Einstein's theory of gravity? What is the relationship between strings and spacetime geometry? Strings and gravitons The simplest case to imagine is a single string traveling in a flat spacetime in d dimensions, meaning that it is traveling across space while time is ticking, so to speak. A string is a one-dimensional object, meaning that if you want to travel along a string, you can only go forwards or backwards in the direction of the string, there is no sideways or up and down on a string. The string can move sideways or up and down in spacetime, though, and as the string moves around in spacetime, it sweeps out a surface in spacetime called the string worldsheet, a two-dimensional surface with one dimension of space and one dimension of time. The string worldsheet is the key to all the physics of the string. A string oscillates as it travels through the d-dimensional spacetime. Those oscillations can be viewed from the two-dimensional string worldsheet point of view as oscillations in a two-dimensional quantum gravity theory. In order to make those quantized oscillations consistent with quantum mechanics and special relativity, the number of spacetime dimensions has to be restricted to 26 in the case of a theory with only forces (bosons), and 10 dimensions if there are both forces and matter (bosons and fermions) in the particle spectrum of the theory. So where does gravity come in? If the string traveling through spacetime is a closed string, then the spectrum of oscillations includes a particle with 2 units of spin and zero mass, with the right type of interactions to be the graviton, the particle that is the carrier of the gravitational force. Where there are gravitons, then there must be gravity. Where is the gravity in string theory? Strings and spacetime geometry The classical theory of spacetime geometry that we call gravity consists of the Einstein equation, which relates the curvature of spacetime to the distribution of matter and energy in spacetime. But how do the Einstein equations come out of string theory? If a closed string is traveling in a curved spacetime, then the coordinates of the string in spacetime feel this curvature as the string propagates. Relationship Between Strings and Spacetime Geometry :: essays research papers If string theory is a theory of gravity, then how does it compare with Einstein's theory of gravity? What is the relationship between strings and spacetime geometry? Strings and gravitons The simplest case to imagine is a single string traveling in a flat spacetime in d dimensions, meaning that it is traveling across space while time is ticking, so to speak. A string is a one-dimensional object, meaning that if you want to travel along a string, you can only go forwards or backwards in the direction of the string, there is no sideways or up and down on a string. The string can move sideways or up and down in spacetime, though, and as the string moves around in spacetime, it sweeps out a surface in spacetime called the string worldsheet, a two-dimensional surface with one dimension of space and one dimension of time. The string worldsheet is the key to all the physics of the string. A string oscillates as it travels through the d-dimensional spacetime. Those oscillations can be viewed from the two-dimensional string worldsheet point of view as oscillations in a two-dimensional quantum gravity theory. In order to make those quantized oscillations consistent with quantum mechanics and special relativity, the number of spacetime dimensions has to be restricted to 26 in the case of a theory with only forces (bosons), and 10 dimensions if there are both forces and matter (bosons and fermions) in the particle spectrum of the theory. So where does gravity come in? If the string traveling through spacetime is a closed string, then the spectrum of oscillations includes a particle with 2 units of spin and zero mass, with the right type of interactions to be the graviton, the particle that is the carrier of the gravitational force. Where there are gravitons, then there must be gravity. Where is the gravity in string theory? Strings and spacetime geometry The classical theory of spacetime geometry that we call gravity consists of the Einstein equation, which relates the curvature of spacetime to the distribution of matter and energy in spacetime. But how do the Einstein equations come out of string theory? If a closed string is traveling in a curved spacetime, then the coordinates of the string in spacetime feel this curvature as the string propagates.

Pathophysiology of admitting diagnosis

Syncope (fainting) is a loss of consciousness due to the sudden decline of blood flow to the brain. There are several types of syncope, such as vasovagal syncope, carotid sinus syncope, and situational syncope. Vasovagal syncope is triggered by emotional stress, pain, the sight of blood, trauma or prolonged standing. Carotid sinus syncope occurs when there is constriction of the carotid artery. Situational syncope happens during urination, defecation, coughing, or gastrointestinal stimulation. Textbook signs and symptoms include dizziness, lightheaded, nauseous, cold, and clammy. Syncope can also be a symptom of heart disease, abnormalities, and neurological disorders. Complications that occur due to syncope include: reduced level of consciousness and falls. If an older adult falls, complications such as, broken hips or limbs may result. Precaution should be taken for a person with syncope to decrease the risk of injury to the individual. Assessment priorities include: monitoring vital signs, fluid and electrolyte balance, and blood work. Nursing Diagnosis/ Interventions: Risk for Falls * Complete a fall-risk assessment for older adults in acute care. Recognize that risk factors for falling include recent history of falls, confusion, depression, altered elimination patterns, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, hypotension, dizziness, and altered mobility. * Assess the client for the ability to supine to sit, sit supported and unsupported, standing, walking and turning around, and transferring. * Assess lab results and signs and symptoms of infection, dehydration and hypotension. If the client has hypertension, anti-hypertensives may be the result. * Encourage the client to wear glasses and use walking aids when ambulating. * Make sure the client has a fall risk hand band on while under care in the hospital facility. * Teach the client the importance of using her prosthetic limb. * Refer her to physical therapy for the correct usage of her prosthetic limb. * Teach the client the importance of living in a home free of clutter such as slippery floors, scattered rugs, unleveled stairs or furniture.

Business Process Reengineering

Describe each of the four kinds of organizational change that can be promoted with information technology. What is business process reengineering? What steps are required to make it effective? How does it differ from business process management? Explain with example. In an organization, there are major risks and uncertainties in systems development that need to be addressed by the management. Determining when new systems and business processes can have the greatest impact is involved in these challenges.This may be the reasons why organizational change and development is becoming a common scenario to talk about involving management, organizations, business, and leadership. With the fast-changing environment, business conditions bring consequences in management both in inner and outer factors. That is why in most cases, most of the managerial activities revolve around decision – making. Knowledge plays a major role in organizational development.Organizational changes are also u sually described, including management and employee training requirements, recruiting efforts, changes in business processes and changes in authority, structure or management practices. Information technology can promote various degrees of organizational change, ranging from incremental to far-reaching. There are actually four types of organizational change enabled by information technology: automation, rationalization, reengineering, and paradigm shifts. [pic] This figure shows the four degrees of organizational change.Automation is the easiest and the most common form of change. Being the most common form of IT-enabled change, the using of computer to speed up the performance of existing tasks is an example of automation. This involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively. AUTOMATION Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of ind ustrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization.Although automation speeds up performance of tasks, it does not guarantee a very high effectivity in business success. It is just the same as repeating the old manual way of disorders but in a faster way. However, this type of change, although common, is slow – moving, thus producing slow returns. Organizations using automation produce the same products and services as before but changes the way the organization functions. Example of automation in business are calculating paychecks and payroll registers, automated checkout and inventory system employed by many supermarkets. nd giving bank tellers instant access to customers deposit records. RATIONALIZATION Rationalization of procedures causes the organization to examine its standard operating procedures, eliminate those no longer needed, and make the organization more efficient. It is the streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient. Rationalization follows quickly from automation. Both types of change cause some disruption, but it's usually manageable and relatively accepted by the people.BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING A more powerful type of organizational change is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified and redesigned. Using information technology, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service and quality. Business reengineering reorganizes work flows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminating repetitive, paper intensive tasks. It is usually much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures, requiring a new vision of how the process is to be organized.Business process reengineering in simpler words is Radical redesign of processes to improve cost, quality, and service, to maximize the benefits of technology. Process reengineering have been used by many companies to deal with a wide variety of problem. For example, the EMI Records Group was having difficulty filling orders for its most popular CDs. Retailers and recording stars were rebelling–it took the company as much as 20 days to deliver a big order for a hit CD, and then nearly 20% of the order would be missing. Small, incremental improvements would not have been adequate, so the company reengineered its entire istribution process with dramatic effects on on-time delivery and order fill rates. In business process reengineering, the organization can develop the business vision and process objective. It can identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback) and understand and measure the performance of existing processes. It can also identify the opportunities for applying information technology and build a prototype of the new process. PARADIGM SHIFT It is about changing the very nature of the business and the structure of the organization itself, whole new products or services that didn't even exist before.In other words, paradigm shifts deals with major disruption and extreme change. Paradigm is a complete mental model of how a complex system works or functions. In other words, a paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business and the organization. It is a complete re-conception of how the systems should function. For example, higher education is undergoing a major paradigm shift in the online delivery of education. Classes are now offered through the Internet so that students don't even go to classrooms. Many tried-and-true teaching methodologies are being radically altered to accommodate this shift in how education is offered.Paradigm shift is a radical re-conceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization. Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge to the management. It is said that seventy percent of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail. But still o rganizations change. The reason is because the rewards are high. Paradigm shift involves great risks, but great returns too. The Internet is causing all kinds of industries and businesses to alter their products, their services, and their processes in radical ways.Entire organizations are being created to handle the paradigm shifts involved in e-commerce. Look at the automobile industry as an example of this type of change: Traditional dealerships are being disrupted by auto malls and online buying opportunities. BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING In today’s ever-changing world, the only thing that doesn’t change is ‘change’ itself. In a world increasingly driven by the three Cs: Customer, Competition and Change, companies are on the lookout for new solutions for their business problems.Recently, some of the more successful business corporations in the world seem to have hit upon an incredible solution: BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING (BPR). Business Process Re engineering (BPR) involves the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. A reengineered organization is process oriented, where: 1) Processes are identified and named, 2) Everyone is aware of the processes they are involved in, 3) Process measurement, i. e. onitoring and control, is performed BPR advocates that enterprises go back to the basics and reexamine their very roots. It doesn’t believe in small improvements. Rather it aims at total reinvention. As for results: BPR is clearly not for companies who want a 10% improvement. It is for the ones that need a ten-fold increase. BPR focuses on processes and not on tasks, jobs or people. It endeavors to redesign the strategic and value added processes that transcend organizational boundaries. According to many in the BPR field reengineering should focus on processes and not be limit ed to thinking about the organizations.After all the organization is only as effective as its processes. Processes are currently invisible and unnamed because people think about the individual departments more often than the process with which all of them are involved. So companies that are currently used to talking in terms of departments such as marketing and manufacturing must switch to giving names to the processes that they do such that they express the beginning and end states. These names should imply all the work that gets done between the start and finish. For example, order fulfillment can be called order to payment process. Steps to an effective BPR are as follows – . Prepare for reengineering – Planning and Preparation are vital factors for any activity or event to be successful, and reengineering is no exception. Before attempting reengineering, the question ‘Is BPR necessary? ’ should be asked. There should be a significant need for the proce ss to be reengineered. Preparation activity begins with the development of executive consensus on the importance of reengineering and the link between breakthrough business goals and reengineering projects. A mandate for change is produced and a cross-functional team is established with a game plan for the process of reengineering.While forming the cross functional team, steps should be taken to ensure that the organization continues to function in the absence of several key players. As typical BPR projects involve cross-functional cooperation and significant changes to the status quo, the planning for organizational changes is difficult to conduct without strategic direction from the top. The impact of the environmental changes that serve as the impetus for the reengineering effort must also be considered in establishing guidelines for the reengineering project.Another important factor to be considered while establishing the strategic goals for the reengineering effort, is to make it your first priority to understand the expectations of your customers and where your existing process falls short of meeting those requirements. Having identified the customer driven objectives, the mission or vision statement is formulated. The vision is what a company believes it wants to achieve when it is done, and a well-defined vision will sustain a company’s resolve through the stress of the reengineering process. 2.Map and Analyze As-Is Process – Before the reengineering team can proceed to redesign the process, they should understand the existing process. Although some BPR proponents argue against analyzing the current enterprise, saying that it inhibits the creative process, that might not always hold true. It varies from case to case. While some organizations which are in dire straits might attempt a new process design while totally ignoring the existing processes, most organizations need to map the existing processes first, analyze and improve on it to de sign new processes.The important aspect of BPR is that the improvement should provide dramatic results. Many people do not understand the value of an As-Is analysis and rather prefer to spend a larger chunk of their valuable time on designing the To-Be model directly. The main objective of this phase is to identify disconnects (anything that prevents the process from achieving desired results and in particular information transfer between organizations or people) and value adding processes. This is initiated by first creation and documentation of Activity and Process models making use of the various modeling methods available.Then, the amount of time that each activity takes and the cost that each activity requires in terms of resources is calculated through simulation and activity based costing (ABC). All the groundwork required having been completed, the processes that need to be reengineered are identified. 3. Design To-Be process – The objective of this phase is to produc e one or more alternatives to the current situation, which satisfy the strategic goals of the enterprise. The first step in this phase is benchmarking.The peer organizations need not be competitors or even from the same industry. Innovative practices can be adopted from anywhere, no matter what their source. Having identified the potential improvements to the existing processes, the development of the To-Be models is done using the various modeling methods available, bearing in mind the principles of process design. Then, similar to the As-Is model, we perform simulation and ABC to analyze factors like the time and cost involved. It should be noted that this activity is an iterative process and cannot be done overnight.The several To-Be models that are finally arrived at are validated. By performing Trade off Analysis the best possible To-Be scenarios are selected for implementation. 4. Implement Reengineered Process- The implementation stage is where reengineering efforts meet the most resistance and hence it is by far the most difficult one. When so much time and effort is spent on analyzing the current processes, redesigning them and planning the migration, it would indeed be prudent to run a culture change program simultaneously with all the planning and preparation.This would enable the organization to undergo a much more facile transition. But whatever may be the juncture in time that the culture change program may be initiated, it should be rooted in our minds that ‘winning the hearts and minds of everyone involved in the BPR effort is most vital for the success of the effort. Once this has been done, the next step is to develop a transition plan from the As-Is to the redesigned process. This plan must align the organizational structure, information systems, and the business policies and procedures with the redesigned processes. 5.Improve Process Continously- A very vital part in the success of every reengineering effort lies in improving the reen gineered process continuously. The first step in this activity is monitoring. Two things have to be monitored – the progress of action and the results. The progress of action is measured by seeing how much more informed the people feel, how much more commitment the management shows and how well the change teams are accepted in the broader perspective of the organization. This can be achieved by conducting attitude surveys and discrete ‘fireside chats’ with those initially not directly involved with the change.Communication is strengthened throughout the organization, ongoing measurement is initiated, team reviewing of performance against clearly defined targets is done and a feedback loop is set up wherein the process is remapped, reanalyzed and redesigned. Thereby continuous improvement of performance is ensured through a performance tracking system and application of problem solving skills. An intense customer focus, superior process design and a strong and mot ivated leadership are vital ingredients to the recipe for the success of any business corporation.Reengineering is the key that every organization should possess to attain these prerequisites to success. BPR doesn’t offer a miracle cure on a platter. Nor does it provide a painless quick fix. Rather it advocates strenuous hard work and instigates the people involved to not only to change what they do but targets at altering their basic way of thinking itself. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving an organization's business processes.BPM activities seek to make business processes more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. BPM is a subset of infrastructure management, the administrative area of concern dealing with maintenance and optimization of an organization's equipment and core operations. BPM Vs. BPR If BPM is a system software, then BPR is a method. BPR re-eval uates the processes used by the enterprise from the very basics and thoroughly redesigns them, enabling enterprises to have significant breakthroughs in cost, service, and speed.BPR can enable enterprises to reform from deep within, and create a new organization structure. Therefore, BPR is for the whole enterprise and may even include basic organization structures in its large modifications. BPM is a concept built internally in an enterprise that continuous to manage business processes. In an environment that stores internal and external events, BPM starts from a group of dependent processes, that describes, understands, indicates, and manages the whole process.BPM can integrate internal resources in an enterprise, automatically linking each department, enabling the enterprise to become a single united special forces team. As well, establishing standardized business processes through a single portal, the system can automatically make decisions based on rules and processes of the en terprise to satisfy the management needs of the enterprise, creating comprehensive core competitive force. Key aspects on which BPM differs from BPR are as follows: – Marked difference between BPR and BPM | |Aspect |BPR |BPM | |Level of change |Radical, one step change |Evolutionary & continuous | |Time taken for implementation |Long |Short time and smooth takeover | |Starting point |Drawing board |Current processes and automation levels | |Implementation |Huge effort required for the |Incremental | | |disruptive change | | |Expanse |One major process at a time |Flexible – simultaneously across one or more / | | | |small or major processes | |Methodology |Redesigning of business |Process and decision models | | |processes | | |Enabling technology |Primarily IT |Primarily process technology | |Involvement |Business and process experts |Process experts and all related people | |Risk |High |Low | |Outcome |Drastic |Incremental improvement | |Cultural issues |Major concern |Not much concern | |Implementation stress and concern|High |Low | BPM tools have taken the advantage of the BPR experience and conceptually are more flexible in terms of expanse and intensity.Unlike BPR which targets end-to-end process by radically redesigning it, BPM tools can be applied part by part to the whole enterprise at a time, by adopting much more manageable and smaller changes in the process. This way the investments, risks and amount of change are minimized but at the same time the tangible impact is much more modest than what was a possibility with BPR. Yet BPM tools for automating processes have their basis on the fundamental concepts that were emphasized by BPR, such as: †¢ Simple processes delivering on the metrics of quality, service, flexibility †¢ Focus on eliminating non-value adding activities †¢ Decisions becoming integral part of the processBPM unifies discrete tools through extension of technologies like BPR, EAI, Workflow automation and any other business application package in such a form where the implementation and upgradation is much easily handled and underlying business process are efficiently managed. In addition to the strength inherited from BPR that BPM is built around business processes and not business applications per se, yet another promising feature of BPM is that it is based on mathematical process models. For example: – BPM helps you improve predictability and repeatability. For example, it will help you identify and recruit 10 candidates for a specified position in 8 weeks. BPR helps you study this and reduce this 8 weeks to 6 weeks or 4 weeks , depending on the context. Once this is done, we need to again use BPM to stabilize this and get back to predictability. Business Process Reengineering Describe each of the four kinds of organizational change that can be promoted with information technology. What is business process reengineering? What steps are required to make it effective? How does it differ from business process management? Explain with example. In an organization, there are major risks and uncertainties in systems development that need to be addressed by the management. Determining when new systems and business processes can have the greatest impact is involved in these challenges.This may be the reasons why organizational change and development is becoming a common scenario to talk about involving management, organizations, business, and leadership. With the fast-changing environment, business conditions bring consequences in management both in inner and outer factors. That is why in most cases, most of the managerial activities revolve around decision – making. Knowledge plays a major role in organizational development.Organizational changes are also u sually described, including management and employee training requirements, recruiting efforts, changes in business processes and changes in authority, structure or management practices. Information technology can promote various degrees of organizational change, ranging from incremental to far-reaching. There are actually four types of organizational change enabled by information technology: automation, rationalization, reengineering, and paradigm shifts. [pic] This figure shows the four degrees of organizational change.Automation is the easiest and the most common form of change. Being the most common form of IT-enabled change, the using of computer to speed up the performance of existing tasks is an example of automation. This involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively. AUTOMATION Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of ind ustrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization.Although automation speeds up performance of tasks, it does not guarantee a very high effectivity in business success. It is just the same as repeating the old manual way of disorders but in a faster way. However, this type of change, although common, is slow – moving, thus producing slow returns. Organizations using automation produce the same products and services as before but changes the way the organization functions. Example of automation in business are calculating paychecks and payroll registers, automated checkout and inventory system employed by many supermarkets. nd giving bank tellers instant access to customers deposit records. RATIONALIZATION Rationalization of procedures causes the organization to examine its standard operating procedures, eliminate those no longer needed, and make the organization more efficient. It is the streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient. Rationalization follows quickly from automation. Both types of change cause some disruption, but it's usually manageable and relatively accepted by the people.BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING A more powerful type of organizational change is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified and redesigned. Using information technology, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service and quality. Business reengineering reorganizes work flows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminating repetitive, paper intensive tasks. It is usually much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures, requiring a new vision of how the process is to be organized.Business process reengineering in simpler words is Radical redesign of processes to improve cost, quality, and service, to maximize the benefits of technology. Process reengineering have been used by many companies to deal with a wide variety of problem. For example, the EMI Records Group was having difficulty filling orders for its most popular CDs. Retailers and recording stars were rebelling–it took the company as much as 20 days to deliver a big order for a hit CD, and then nearly 20% of the order would be missing. Small, incremental improvements would not have been adequate, so the company reengineered its entire istribution process with dramatic effects on on-time delivery and order fill rates. In business process reengineering, the organization can develop the business vision and process objective. It can identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback) and understand and measure the performance of existing processes. It can also identify the opportunities for applying information technology and build a prototype of the new process. PARADIGM SHIFT It is about changing the very nature of the business and the structure of the organization itself, whole new products or services that didn't even exist before.In other words, paradigm shifts deals with major disruption and extreme change. Paradigm is a complete mental model of how a complex system works or functions. In other words, a paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business and the organization. It is a complete re-conception of how the systems should function. For example, higher education is undergoing a major paradigm shift in the online delivery of education. Classes are now offered through the Internet so that students don't even go to classrooms. Many tried-and-true teaching methodologies are being radically altered to accommodate this shift in how education is offered.Paradigm shift is a radical re-conceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization. Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge to the management. It is said that seventy percent of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail. But still o rganizations change. The reason is because the rewards are high. Paradigm shift involves great risks, but great returns too. The Internet is causing all kinds of industries and businesses to alter their products, their services, and their processes in radical ways.Entire organizations are being created to handle the paradigm shifts involved in e-commerce. Look at the automobile industry as an example of this type of change: Traditional dealerships are being disrupted by auto malls and online buying opportunities. BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING In today’s ever-changing world, the only thing that doesn’t change is ‘change’ itself. In a world increasingly driven by the three Cs: Customer, Competition and Change, companies are on the lookout for new solutions for their business problems.Recently, some of the more successful business corporations in the world seem to have hit upon an incredible solution: BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING (BPR). Business Process Re engineering (BPR) involves the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. A reengineered organization is process oriented, where: 1) Processes are identified and named, 2) Everyone is aware of the processes they are involved in, 3) Process measurement, i. e. onitoring and control, is performed BPR advocates that enterprises go back to the basics and reexamine their very roots. It doesn’t believe in small improvements. Rather it aims at total reinvention. As for results: BPR is clearly not for companies who want a 10% improvement. It is for the ones that need a ten-fold increase. BPR focuses on processes and not on tasks, jobs or people. It endeavors to redesign the strategic and value added processes that transcend organizational boundaries. According to many in the BPR field reengineering should focus on processes and not be limit ed to thinking about the organizations.After all the organization is only as effective as its processes. Processes are currently invisible and unnamed because people think about the individual departments more often than the process with which all of them are involved. So companies that are currently used to talking in terms of departments such as marketing and manufacturing must switch to giving names to the processes that they do such that they express the beginning and end states. These names should imply all the work that gets done between the start and finish. For example, order fulfillment can be called order to payment process. Steps to an effective BPR are as follows – . Prepare for reengineering – Planning and Preparation are vital factors for any activity or event to be successful, and reengineering is no exception. Before attempting reengineering, the question ‘Is BPR necessary? ’ should be asked. There should be a significant need for the proce ss to be reengineered. Preparation activity begins with the development of executive consensus on the importance of reengineering and the link between breakthrough business goals and reengineering projects. A mandate for change is produced and a cross-functional team is established with a game plan for the process of reengineering.While forming the cross functional team, steps should be taken to ensure that the organization continues to function in the absence of several key players. As typical BPR projects involve cross-functional cooperation and significant changes to the status quo, the planning for organizational changes is difficult to conduct without strategic direction from the top. The impact of the environmental changes that serve as the impetus for the reengineering effort must also be considered in establishing guidelines for the reengineering project.Another important factor to be considered while establishing the strategic goals for the reengineering effort, is to make it your first priority to understand the expectations of your customers and where your existing process falls short of meeting those requirements. Having identified the customer driven objectives, the mission or vision statement is formulated. The vision is what a company believes it wants to achieve when it is done, and a well-defined vision will sustain a company’s resolve through the stress of the reengineering process. 2.Map and Analyze As-Is Process – Before the reengineering team can proceed to redesign the process, they should understand the existing process. Although some BPR proponents argue against analyzing the current enterprise, saying that it inhibits the creative process, that might not always hold true. It varies from case to case. While some organizations which are in dire straits might attempt a new process design while totally ignoring the existing processes, most organizations need to map the existing processes first, analyze and improve on it to de sign new processes.The important aspect of BPR is that the improvement should provide dramatic results. Many people do not understand the value of an As-Is analysis and rather prefer to spend a larger chunk of their valuable time on designing the To-Be model directly. The main objective of this phase is to identify disconnects (anything that prevents the process from achieving desired results and in particular information transfer between organizations or people) and value adding processes. This is initiated by first creation and documentation of Activity and Process models making use of the various modeling methods available.Then, the amount of time that each activity takes and the cost that each activity requires in terms of resources is calculated through simulation and activity based costing (ABC). All the groundwork required having been completed, the processes that need to be reengineered are identified. 3. Design To-Be process – The objective of this phase is to produc e one or more alternatives to the current situation, which satisfy the strategic goals of the enterprise. The first step in this phase is benchmarking.The peer organizations need not be competitors or even from the same industry. Innovative practices can be adopted from anywhere, no matter what their source. Having identified the potential improvements to the existing processes, the development of the To-Be models is done using the various modeling methods available, bearing in mind the principles of process design. Then, similar to the As-Is model, we perform simulation and ABC to analyze factors like the time and cost involved. It should be noted that this activity is an iterative process and cannot be done overnight.The several To-Be models that are finally arrived at are validated. By performing Trade off Analysis the best possible To-Be scenarios are selected for implementation. 4. Implement Reengineered Process- The implementation stage is where reengineering efforts meet the most resistance and hence it is by far the most difficult one. When so much time and effort is spent on analyzing the current processes, redesigning them and planning the migration, it would indeed be prudent to run a culture change program simultaneously with all the planning and preparation.This would enable the organization to undergo a much more facile transition. But whatever may be the juncture in time that the culture change program may be initiated, it should be rooted in our minds that ‘winning the hearts and minds of everyone involved in the BPR effort is most vital for the success of the effort. Once this has been done, the next step is to develop a transition plan from the As-Is to the redesigned process. This plan must align the organizational structure, information systems, and the business policies and procedures with the redesigned processes. 5.Improve Process Continously- A very vital part in the success of every reengineering effort lies in improving the reen gineered process continuously. The first step in this activity is monitoring. Two things have to be monitored – the progress of action and the results. The progress of action is measured by seeing how much more informed the people feel, how much more commitment the management shows and how well the change teams are accepted in the broader perspective of the organization. This can be achieved by conducting attitude surveys and discrete ‘fireside chats’ with those initially not directly involved with the change.Communication is strengthened throughout the organization, ongoing measurement is initiated, team reviewing of performance against clearly defined targets is done and a feedback loop is set up wherein the process is remapped, reanalyzed and redesigned. Thereby continuous improvement of performance is ensured through a performance tracking system and application of problem solving skills. An intense customer focus, superior process design and a strong and mot ivated leadership are vital ingredients to the recipe for the success of any business corporation.Reengineering is the key that every organization should possess to attain these prerequisites to success. BPR doesn’t offer a miracle cure on a platter. Nor does it provide a painless quick fix. Rather it advocates strenuous hard work and instigates the people involved to not only to change what they do but targets at altering their basic way of thinking itself. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving an organization's business processes.BPM activities seek to make business processes more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. BPM is a subset of infrastructure management, the administrative area of concern dealing with maintenance and optimization of an organization's equipment and core operations. BPM Vs. BPR If BPM is a system software, then BPR is a method. BPR re-eval uates the processes used by the enterprise from the very basics and thoroughly redesigns them, enabling enterprises to have significant breakthroughs in cost, service, and speed.BPR can enable enterprises to reform from deep within, and create a new organization structure. Therefore, BPR is for the whole enterprise and may even include basic organization structures in its large modifications. BPM is a concept built internally in an enterprise that continuous to manage business processes. In an environment that stores internal and external events, BPM starts from a group of dependent processes, that describes, understands, indicates, and manages the whole process.BPM can integrate internal resources in an enterprise, automatically linking each department, enabling the enterprise to become a single united special forces team. As well, establishing standardized business processes through a single portal, the system can automatically make decisions based on rules and processes of the en terprise to satisfy the management needs of the enterprise, creating comprehensive core competitive force. Key aspects on which BPM differs from BPR are as follows: – Marked difference between BPR and BPM | |Aspect |BPR |BPM | |Level of change |Radical, one step change |Evolutionary & continuous | |Time taken for implementation |Long |Short time and smooth takeover | |Starting point |Drawing board |Current processes and automation levels | |Implementation |Huge effort required for the |Incremental | | |disruptive change | | |Expanse |One major process at a time |Flexible – simultaneously across one or more / | | | |small or major processes | |Methodology |Redesigning of business |Process and decision models | | |processes | | |Enabling technology |Primarily IT |Primarily process technology | |Involvement |Business and process experts |Process experts and all related people | |Risk |High |Low | |Outcome |Drastic |Incremental improvement | |Cultural issues |Major concern |Not much concern | |Implementation stress and concern|High |Low | BPM tools have taken the advantage of the BPR experience and conceptually are more flexible in terms of expanse and intensity.Unlike BPR which targets end-to-end process by radically redesigning it, BPM tools can be applied part by part to the whole enterprise at a time, by adopting much more manageable and smaller changes in the process. This way the investments, risks and amount of change are minimized but at the same time the tangible impact is much more modest than what was a possibility with BPR. Yet BPM tools for automating processes have their basis on the fundamental concepts that were emphasized by BPR, such as: †¢ Simple processes delivering on the metrics of quality, service, flexibility †¢ Focus on eliminating non-value adding activities †¢ Decisions becoming integral part of the processBPM unifies discrete tools through extension of technologies like BPR, EAI, Workflow automation and any other business application package in such a form where the implementation and upgradation is much easily handled and underlying business process are efficiently managed. In addition to the strength inherited from BPR that BPM is built around business processes and not business applications per se, yet another promising feature of BPM is that it is based on mathematical process models. For example: – BPM helps you improve predictability and repeatability. For example, it will help you identify and recruit 10 candidates for a specified position in 8 weeks. BPR helps you study this and reduce this 8 weeks to 6 weeks or 4 weeks , depending on the context. Once this is done, we need to again use BPM to stabilize this and get back to predictability.