Disseminating Evidence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Disseminating Evidence - Assignment Example The strategies that will be used to disseminate this evidence include reports, workshops, emails, newsletters, workshops, websites, conferences, and press release (Gerrish, & Lacey, 2006). Each of the methods of disseminating evidence is suitable to a certain group of stakeholders. For example, conferences, websites, and press releases are the best strategies of informing the community about the results of the project (Holland, & Rees, 2010). This is because these methods are affordable to the members of the society. The youth and those who are conversant with the internet will get information from the website of the organization while those who have televisions and radios will watch the press release statement on these media. The project managers will also organize workshops that will aim at informing the community about the results of the plan. These workshops will encourage the members of the society to take corrective measures to protect themselves against the obesity stigma (Krisberg, 2014). The internal staff members of the company who include the nurses, clinicians, and managers will be informed about the evidence of the project using emails, workshops, newsletters, and reports. The reports will be used mainly to inform the managers and other key stakeholders who are involved in the management of the organization. The reports will consist of the objectives of the plan, the strategies used, and the results obtained (Burns, & Grove, 2009). This will enable these leaders to take corrective measures in ensuring that their staff members and the community surrounding the company get the right information about how they may protect themselves from gaining overweight. The nurses and other staff members who help in providing services in the organization, on the other hand, will be informed about the results of the project through

Two Weeks Notice Essay Example for Free

Two Weeks Notice Essay Two weeks notice Bullock plays Lucy Kelson, a committed left-wing attorney with an immaculate Ivy League background who fights the good fight against the heartless developers of lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Complications ensue when she finds herself working for one such figure, George Wade (Grant) in exchange for his preserving a Coney Island landmark near her childhood home. Wades not a bad guy, but hes frightfully dependent on Lucy for everything. When it seems possible she might at last get clear of him, she begins to have second thoughts about letting him go. The Movie Two Weeks Notice stares Saundra Bullock and Hugh Grant premiered in December of 2002. The movie follows a mix match relationship between a strong willed, save the community lawyer named Lucy Kelson, played by Sandra Bullock, and a high status business man, George Wade, played by Hugh Grant. The two in the beginning seem completely different but when Lucy goes to work for George, to keep him from knocking down the neighborhood community center, she realizes how needy he was, and how much she couldnt stand it. When Lucy gives George two weeks notice, George realizes that she is an asset to his company. After much arguing she finally gets out and then they both realize that theyve fallen in love with each other. Since they were too stubborn to admit it, it took a huge argument in the employee lounge to get them to let their guards down. Writer and first time Director, Marc Lawrences Two Weeks Notice is a charming, smart, and genuinely funny romantic comedy with terrific performances by Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. This a great movie. Inherent in romantic comedies is a degree of predictibility. Two Weeks Notice follows formula, but Lawrence orchestrates enough curves, character insight, and human resonance to make it more than just formula. He also has the great chemistry of Bullock and Grant this is their medium. Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Kelson, a Harvard educated activist lawyer, who is hired by George Wade (Hugh Grant)a handsome, charming, and seemingly shallow multi-millionaire develo per. George hires Lucy as chief legal counsel for Wade Corp. , for $250 K, because his brother Howard (David Haig), the true captain of Wade Corp. requested George hire an attorney who did not attend Bimbo U. Lucy swallows her idealism and poverty, because George also promises to protect her parents community center. Lucy is smart and not intentionally funny, and soon becomes Georges right and left arm he cant to anything without her consult. This only amplifies that Lucy has no life or rather any relationships of merit other than with George. Lucy gives George her Two Weeks Notice. Credit Lawrence and company, when George finally accepts Lucys resignation, it is crystal regarding the unspoken relationship of the two. Wink. Wink. Two Weeks never insults our intelligence, however, it makes us await for an hour and a half. Along with wit and humor Lawrence, Bullock, and Grant provide a a very human touch that resonates throughout the movie. In a very well done scene on the rooftop of Lucys parents New York apartment, Lucy shares with George that she never lived upto her mothers expectations. George says that is different from people having no expectations. This is where movie transforms beyond the opposites attract story. It makes sense of Lucys need to be perfect, and the man that George could be that he is well aware of. In its own light hearted way, Two Weeks looks at where you sell out, where do you become a whore (but in a nice way), and where do you take a stand. And taking a stand is never easy even in a romantic comedy, though it sometimes takes longer. Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant are magic together. They are both smart and their characters are also. Grant as George is charming, witty, and playing someone who has honor and substance that are dimissed by all except Lucy (Bullock). Grant is masterful at hinting at a depth of character. Sandra Bullock is beautiful, smart, and funny as Lucy. She also stretches herself when Lucy drunkenly braggs about her sexual prowess bobcat pretsel thing. Bullock lends compassion and a whacky sensibilty to Lucy who scares men off by being too smart and too perfect, but still not good enough for her mother. Her Lucy only gets a clue when she hires her replacement (a good Alicia Witt) she is in love with George. The exchanges between Grant and Bullock are so natural like conversation, spoken and unspoken. At one point in the movie, Lucy has a breakfast conversation with her Dad (a goofy and wise Robert Klein). She asks him What if people dont change? The point is they will or they dont. Kind of like loving someone is accepting them for who they are and for who they are not. Be open to surprises. Marc Lawrences Two Weeks Notice is an excellent surprise. He along with Bullock and Grant have made a classic romantic comedy and more. Hugh Grant plays George Wade, a property developer who hires Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock) as his Chief Counsel. Sick of calls in the middle of the night and appalled at being called away from a wedding just to help her boss decide what to wear for a particular occasion, Lucy gives George two weeks notice. ‘Two Weeks Notice is little more than a predictable romantic comedy and it is only a matter of time before George and Lucy realise that they have fallen for each other. How the film turns out is obvious, but this will not spoil your enjoyment of it. Sandra Bullock fails to convince as a successful lawyer and businesswoman but she is able to convey a vulnerability which makes the audience warm to her. Like her character in ‘While You Were Sleeping, Lucy is a lonely individual. When she is at home she comfort eats Chinese food, always ordering just for one. There are also no surprises with Hugh Grants character as he is much the same as any of his other romantic roles i. e. very likeable and charming. The film succeeds purely because of the actors likeability and the on-screen chemistry between Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock who are both gifted comedic actors. There are also enough good lines and funny situations to keep you chuckling throughout

Toronto Blue Jays :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Toronto Blue Jayss case study The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team was founded in the 1970s and experienced support from the fans during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1992 and 1993, the Jays won back-to-back World Series, yet in 1994, the team faced setbacks. The team had a losing streak, there was a major league baseball strike, and no World Series was played. At the same time, gambling came to Toronto, and the team had to compete for the fan's time. Also, players' salaries skyrocketed at a time when the Canadian dollar fell in value. How could the Toronto Blue Jays adjust ticket prices to improve financial performance and increase fan attendance? Situation Analysis The opening pitch of the 1999 marks the start of the Toronto Blue Jays twenty third seasons in the American League. In 1998, the Jays brought in their first winning season since 1993. The Jays plays in the worlds most advanced retractable-roof stadium. It is luxuriously called the Sky Dome. With a winning record like this and a state of the art stadium, the Jays feel their tickets are a great value because of the satisfaction fans can expect to receive from the ball game. Recommendation  · Price is that which is given up in an exchange to acquire a good or service. Price is typically the money exchanged for the good or service. Blue Jays pricing structure is based on the perceived value of the game, the entertainment, the love of baseball, and the action, not just the money.  · Inelastic demand means that an increase or decrease in price will not significantly affect demand for the product. In spite of the rising prices for the Blue Jays tickets, fans were expected to turn out in large numbers. This inelastic demand for the tickets can be attributed in large part of the fact that their teams plays so well in 1998, and another factor is that the Blue Jays fan could never stay away from their team. Another inelastic demand for the Blue Jays tickets is that there is no other locally substitute team.  · Blue Jays pricing strategies are not just a financial necessity, they are also a promotional tool used to increase fan attendance. How? At all Saturday home game and nonholiday games, senior citizens and young people up to fourteen years old can purchase tickets except for the most expensive ones.

Eulogy for Friend :: Eulogies Eulogy

Eulogy for Friend The phone rang in the early hours of the morning. Rolf G. informed us that Michael had suffered a heart attack a few hours earlier and had not survived. My wife whispered a few words I could not hear, sat silently on the edge of the bed for a moment, then turned to me and said, "Michael passed away at the airport, its just not fair. He was doing so well." No, it was just not fair. We try to share with Michael's family, with Kathy, Molly and Tom, Molly, Clint and Wendy and their families the grief they feel, but it is not really in our power to do so. We are compelled to measure the loss of our friend and colleague, father and husband each in our own way and turn instead to what we can share, the extraordinary life that touched us all. I spoke with Michael several times well before we had actually met. When it was determined that Marilyn and I were coming to a university in far off Montana, he called us in Washington, D.C. to welcome us, to ask questions about courses I wanted to teach, shared information about students and the university. A few weeks after the Fall term began that year, he came into my office and asked me a question about a Native American tribe that lived in the Montana western border region. "How did they subsist," I think he asked. I replied that they hunted and fished and planted crops, they were a "seasonal people." He liked that phrase. "Ya, Ya" and then he was back to his typewriter. Some months later, the first addition of his book Montana: A History of Two Centuries, written with colleague Dick R., came out. He gave me a copy and I was perusing through the early chapters, when there in the middle of a discussion about Montana's native people, was "Historian Thomas R. Wessel refers to them as ‘seasonal people'." It was a small matter that hardly enhanced his scholarly reputation of mine for that matter, but I came to learn it was typical. A quiet, generous gesture followed in the years we spent together in the Department of History and Philosophy, and after, when he climbed the administrative ladder to the President's Office. I would soon learn that I was hardly alone as a recipient of Michael's generosity and concern. Eulogy for Friend :: Eulogies Eulogy Eulogy for Friend The phone rang in the early hours of the morning. Rolf G. informed us that Michael had suffered a heart attack a few hours earlier and had not survived. My wife whispered a few words I could not hear, sat silently on the edge of the bed for a moment, then turned to me and said, "Michael passed away at the airport, its just not fair. He was doing so well." No, it was just not fair. We try to share with Michael's family, with Kathy, Molly and Tom, Molly, Clint and Wendy and their families the grief they feel, but it is not really in our power to do so. We are compelled to measure the loss of our friend and colleague, father and husband each in our own way and turn instead to what we can share, the extraordinary life that touched us all. I spoke with Michael several times well before we had actually met. When it was determined that Marilyn and I were coming to a university in far off Montana, he called us in Washington, D.C. to welcome us, to ask questions about courses I wanted to teach, shared information about students and the university. A few weeks after the Fall term began that year, he came into my office and asked me a question about a Native American tribe that lived in the Montana western border region. "How did they subsist," I think he asked. I replied that they hunted and fished and planted crops, they were a "seasonal people." He liked that phrase. "Ya, Ya" and then he was back to his typewriter. Some months later, the first addition of his book Montana: A History of Two Centuries, written with colleague Dick R., came out. He gave me a copy and I was perusing through the early chapters, when there in the middle of a discussion about Montana's native people, was "Historian Thomas R. Wessel refers to them as ‘seasonal people'." It was a small matter that hardly enhanced his scholarly reputation of mine for that matter, but I came to learn it was typical. A quiet, generous gesture followed in the years we spent together in the Department of History and Philosophy, and after, when he climbed the administrative ladder to the President's Office. I would soon learn that I was hardly alone as a recipient of Michael's generosity and concern.

Ping-Pong Diplomacy

Ping-Pong Diplomacy From 1949 to 1972 there were no diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. No group of Americans had been invited to China since the Communist takeover in 1949 but that all changed with â€Å"The ping heard round the world†. Ping-Pong Diplomacy begun in April of 1971 when the U. S. Table Tennis team was participating in a World Table Tennis Championship in Japan when they received a surprise invitation to visit China.Nine American players, four officials and two spouses spent 7 days in China playing exhibition matches with their hosts, touring the Great Wall and Summer Palace, conversed with Chinese factory workers and students, and attended the Canton ballet. All while the American public followed the progress of this visit daily through the newspaper and on television.The visit opened a new door that changed the relations with the people of China and those of the United States as well as ended a 22 year embar go trade between the two countries. Soon later the Chinese Table Tennis team visited the U. S. in a similar manner as well as other countries to reach out to them using this Ping-Pong Diplomacy. The event showed the first instance that a sport such as Table Tennis can be used so effectively it could become a political tool for international diplomacy between nations.Even so that just a few months after the trip by the U. S. team President Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger secretly visited Peking and a Presidential visit to China was arranged. As the first President of the U. S. to do so President Richard Nixon then journeyed to China in what would become one of the most important events in U. S. history. It was all a result of Ping-Pong Diplomacy.

Best TV Shows About College Life

Best TV Shows About College Life If not for television, would we know how it feels to have the experience of raising 8 kids? Would we understand the thrill and rush that comes with learning to express yourself in high school through song and dance? What about the strength, bravery, and courage of a woman trapped in a religious theocracy that is simply doing what she can to survive and get herself out? While the plots for shows mentioned above may take their liberties with emotion and drama to create visually stunning programming and ratings producing statistics, something is to be said for those shows that create a more realistic window into the everyday lives of people. One of the most important of those experiences being, of course, college life. Television has, over the decades, created a wide range of shows that are meant to represent college life. Some take a more whimsical approach to the topic, like when Sabrina went to college and learned that life with magic isnt just hard in high school. Others take a more simple approach, choosing to pick and pull sugar coated lessons from college meant to entertain, rather than provide thoughtful insight into a character or experience like when Saved by The Bell took it to the College Years.. However, not all shows are designed to just be purely for entertainment. Some of the best tv shows about college put the focus on the characters and their complicated and sometimes tragic backstories, the political realness that comes with being different in a place where you have a voice to express it, and the all to familiar sense of falling in and out of love with the person you are becoming. Throw in a bit of bad cooking, take-out, deadlines, and romance, and you have the makings of a truly great tv show about college life. Here is our list of the Best TV Shows About College Life! Dear White People This critically acclaimed show about college life comes from Justin Simien. Dear White People focuses on a group of African American students at an Ivy League school that is trying to balance their school life with the â€Å"post-racial† society we are currently in. While sometimes misguided, their actions put them in situations that give voice to current social and political issues facing minority college students today. What makes Dear White People so great, is that it is for everyone. The show doesnt just focus on stereotypical â€Å"black-anger† or â€Å"white-guilt†, instead, it shows us what life is like learning to interact with people on both sides who just dont know better than what they have been raised to believe. With an intelligent script and a standout cast, this is one college life tv show that you are sure to binge watch! Grown-Ish Something about college show spin-offs always tends to do well and Grown-ish is no exception. A spin-off of ABC’s blackish follows their eldest daughter as she traverses her way between what the series creator calls â€Å"that in-between place where you are not quite an adult but facing grown world problems for the first time.† What we love about this show is its very real ability to show how the character struggles with not always getting what she wants. Too often we go to college assuming that we have finally made it, only to realize that we are only just beginning the first steps into adulthood. This show provides an excellent view of what this can make us feel like, and more importantly, the do’s and donts of how to react to it. Veronica Mars Veronica Mars follows the story of a girl who had everything in high school, and, after a series of personal events, finds herself an outcast in her school and neighborhood. Turning lemons into lemonade, she begins her journey of healing and self-discovery working as a private detective for her father. While the first 2 seasons of this show put Veronica in high school, the final third season explores her transition into college life. The confidence, bravery, and cunningness needed to survive those harsh high school years are just enough to help her keep a hold on things as they turn upside down in college. What we love about Veronica Mars and her college years is watching what type of greatness can be achieved out of tragedy. No story is better for watching someone who fell from grace so to speak, rise up to be better, smarter, and more capable than they had ever dreamed of being. Different World This Cosby Show spin-off follows the life of Denise Huxtable as she journeys through her college life at a historically black college. What makes this so real is that it represented life for African Americans in a way that hadnt been done on TV at the time. Fully diving into the social and political challenges that people of color were facing at the time was highly instrumental in teaching and motivating African American students to enroll in university and find an outlet to be the type of change they wished to see in the world. Mixed into the all-star cast, and the strong storylines was also a lot of fun, laughs, pranks, and hilarious misunderstandings. Truly one of the best television shows about college ever created! Community This NBC sitcom features a ragtag bunch of students that get together, initially, to form a study group. As time continues, they form a rather unique, bond that pulls them through the ups and downs of life at a community college. What makes Community great is that the setting isnt your typical university where everyone is bright eyed and bushy tailed with a long and exciting future ahead of them. With it being a community college, the age of the characters widens,providing a unique perspective into the world of people when they think that they have done everything right and it all turns out so wrong. The best part about this college life tv show is that it uses humor and hijinks to prove a lesson that most are looking for in college just be yourself, because nobody knows what they are doing! Felicity Felicity followed a small town girl who thought she would follow a small town boy to the Big Apple to win him over. While Felicity led a sheltered existence, she soon learns that life doesnt always go as planned and that finishing the day off as the same person you started it isnt always possible. What makes Felicity so great is the fact that it best represents what happens when we thought we had a plan, and even something better comes along. The endless possibilities that hit us in our college years provide the foundation that we build all future decisions on and the story of Felicity’s journey is a moving and inspiring one that is sure to connect with anyone who wanted to follow their heart to a better life. The Magicians The Magicians comes from a book of the same name and follows a group of students doing a postgraduate program at Brakebills a school for magic. Often described as a darker and more adult version of Harry Potter, this show, in reality, is so much more. What makes this show so great is the fact that the magic aspect isnt a huge deal in the show. Or at least it is just as important as showing the characters leveling up of their emotional and mental prowess in addition to their magical one. Love, betrayal, stress, and anxiety all fold together beautifully to show a college experience that has everyone constantly stressed and worried if they are going to make it to the next day. That is surely something that everyone can relate to. And while the extra sci-fi touch to it may be a bit much for some, we are confident that it is just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat wanting more! Whether we love watching them because the stories are more relatable, or because the characters are more believable, (no teenager is ever that clever in real lifeever), one thing is for certain, they are the shows that touched our hearts and got us through some of the best and worst times in that wonderful time we call college life. Image credit: IMDB

Selecting a Topic for Your Thesis

Selecting a Topic for Your Thesis A thesis topic must spring from your own energies and interests. The first step toward defining a thesis topic, then, is to determine your primary areas of interest. The role of self-examination in this process is critical. Finding a thesis topic within an area of interest is more difficult. A topic is best formulated as a question. But the questions cannot be too broad, for a topic must have focus. Nor can it be too narrow since the goal of a good thesis is to express thoughts of general importance through detailed analysis of a specific case or cases. Generally speaking, a good thesis topic is interesting to you, to your advisor, and to the research community. As with many aspects of graduate school, the balance you find will depend at least in part on the relationship you have with your advisor. Some professors have well-defined long-term research programs and expect their students to contribute directly to this program. Others have much looser, but still related ongoing projects. If you are unsure about the viability of your topic, you might look at past theses in order to find out what types of projects have been the most successful. Or you may order your thesis with and our professionals will do everything for you.

The Jacksonian Era and the Emergence of the Common Man essays

The Jacksonian Era and the Emergence of the Common Man essays The Jacksonian era in American history dating back to the 1820 ¡Ã‚ ¯s and 30 ¡Ã‚ ¯s was a time of radical change and reform with revolutionary liberating effects. Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s philosophy that public officials served all men not a particular group caught wildfire throughout the nation. Men ¡Ã‚ ¯s total suffrage came of age in Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s term and also sentiments of women ¡Ã‚ ¯s suffrage were enlivened, not to mention the emergence of the common man in political society. These changes and ideals brought freedom and equality unknown to any other nation throughout history. .Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s presentation of political reform became obvious in his decision to reduce the restrictions for voting and for the changes in requirements for running for political office. In Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s annual message he stated,  ¡Ã‚ °no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another (Doc. A). This new idea of equality that empowered the common man gave the presidential elections a huge boost in voter participation. In the 1824 election a mere 356,000 men voted but in a few short years after Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s political philosophy and actions were settled over 1,200,000 men voted in the election (Doc. B). Suddenly as we say now voting became the  ¡Ã‚ °cool ¡ thing to do and in the 1840 election approximately 80 percent of the eligible voters participated in the election (Doc. D). This emergence of popularity at the voting box was due to two main reasons. One reason had to do with the states catching on to Jackson ¡Ã‚ ¯s philosophy quickly a nd conforming their own constitutions to fit it. For example, the Ohio constitution stated that,  ¡Ã‚ ° all white males above 21 years of age having lived in state for over a year and having paid taxes were eligible to vote. (Doc. G) ¡ In the past voting requirements included restrictions such as one ¡Ã‚ ¯s literacy, one ¡Ã‚ ¯s membership in the church, and the mandatory ownership of property. Another astoun...

CONTRACT GRADE ASSIGNMENT PORTFOLIO Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CONTRACT GRADE ASSIGNMENT PORTFOLIO - Essay Example I can characterize much a larger number of words than I use in anything aside from scholastic written work. An inward ear: I hear what I compose or read in my mind just as it were stood up noisy. Thus, my written work has a cadence to it that helps attract consideration regarding it. A confidence in the essentialness of truth: I do not have faith in objectivity or total truth. In any case, I do accept that truth exists remotely, and that a few perspectives are more substantial than others are, and worth communicating as precisely, as could be allowed. I have a memory solid on distinguishment, however not extraordinary on review: Often, I cannot dig up a memory myself. However, in the event that somebody or something triggers a memory, my brain is superior to very nearly everybodys. I think that distinguishment is more imperative than review for an essayist, in light of the fact that, when a memory is covered, numerous types of intriguing associations are made to it in your brain. By complexity, I think that a photographic memory blocks this inventive methodology, which is the reason I am happy that I do not have one. A hesitance to edit: By the time I wrap up, my psyche is now proceeding onward to something else. I can just alter myself by a demonstration of will; I am still not great at it. An over-utilization of moves: Im so fixated on structure that I would begin each sentence with one on the off chance that I let myself. As things seem to be, one of my routine altering assignments is to erase a large portion of the "as a matter of first importance", "on alternate hands and different moves. A fear about fiction: Above all else, I need to be a fiction essayist. It implies such a great amount to me that its taken me years to really have the capacity to compose it. When I attempt to compose fiction, a straining eventual outcome and I stop up: I am dreadfully partial to the first or striking expression, maybe in light of

Strategy Tripod Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategy Tripod - Assignment Example 72). When it comes to global business, strategy is perceived in two dynamics, 1- strategy as action, and 2) strategy tripod. The ‘strategy as action’ perspective suggests that the essence of strategy is interaction because actions and reactions such as ‘competing aggressively’, ‘price war’, ‘attack’, ‘counterattacks’ etc lead to competitive advantage (Peng and Gokalp, 2011, p. 250). The ‘strategy tripod’ model sheds light on global competitive dynamic based on the major three perspectives, namely industry-based, resource-based and institution-based views. The Strategy Tripod The fundamental objective of the competitive strategy of a company is to gain sustainable competitive advantage in the industry. There has been a great amount of academic debates during recent years concerning competitive strategies to explain ‘why do firms succeed and often fail’. There are different approaches concerning competitive strategy such as SWOT, Porter’s five force etc. The strategy tripod is another approach to explain competitive strategy that states that a company’s competitive strategy derives from three main sources: the pressure of the industry the company operates in, the impact of the institutions that a company is surrounded by and the resources that a company possesses (Wallner, 2012, p. 12- 13). Peng (2008, p.14) identified the very fundamental four questions in strategy. They are: 1) ‘why do firms differ’? 2) ‘How do firms behave’? 3) ‘What are the main determinants of the scope of a firms’? 4) What are the main determinants of a firm’s success or failure? He elucidated the concept of ‘strategy tripod’ to answer ‘how do firms behave’. According to him, strategy tripod is a framework that states that a competitive strategy as a discipline has three ‘legs’, that are the basic three perspectives; industry-based, resource-based and institution-based views of a firm. Three leading strategy perspectives, namely industry-based view, institution-based view and resource-based view of the firm collectively lead to a strategy tripod. The industry-based view highlights the five-forces affecting an industry and explains that the strategic effort is meant to examine the five competitive forces namely competitive rivalry, threat of entry, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of customers. The resource-based view concentrates on strengths and weaknesses internal to a firm, whereas the industry-based view focuses on the opportunities and threats that are external to a firm. Industry-based view thus concentrates on the O and T whereas the resource-based view concentrates on the S and W in the SWOT (Peng, 2008, p. 14). The institution-based view suggests that a firm and its competitive strategy conditions are influenced by the institutions that the firm is surrounded by. The three ‘legs’ of strategy tripod are explained in detail below: Industry-based view The industry-based view, which is pioneered by Michel Porter in early years of 1980s, emphasized that the primary principle of competitive strategy formulation is the relationship that a firm builds with its environment. External factors are the major determinants of a firm’s competitive strategy because these factors not only affect firm’s performance but also its way to achieving competitive advantage (Gao, Murray and Kotabe, 2010). Firms are largely depending on various external industry forces such as threats of substitutes and new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and competition rivalry among the major counterparts.

Green Technology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Green Technology - Research Paper Example With the rapidly decreasing natural resources replete, people are concerned if one Earth would be sufficient to meet the needs of humans in the near future. There is obviously no choice as this Earth is all we have to manage our resources in. Therefore, people all over the world are being encouraged to live green. Living green means adopting all ways and means in everyday life that would make minimum use of the natural resources and would be environment friendly. In order to facilitate people, the contemporary research and development is largely directed at developing green technology. â€Å"The field of "green technology" encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic cleaning products† (Green Technology, 2010). This paper aims at discussing some of the most significant elements of green technology. Renewable energy sources Renewable energy is a kind of energy which is retrieved from such natural sources as geothermal heat, sunlight, wind, rain, and tides. Most of the times, projects of renewable energy are executed on a grand scale but renewable energy is equally usable in rural and backward areas. Kenya, a small country that has the largest rate of solar ownership for residential communities in the whole world sells as many as 30,000 units of solar power that have a capacity between 20 and 100 watts per annum (Renewable Solar Energy, 2011). Although some technologies that produce renewable energy are deemed unreliable, yet the growth in the market of renewable energy is steady. There are several forms of renewable energy that include but are not limited to wind power. Wind has been employed as a source of energy for a long period of time. Chinese have been making use of wind for watering their crops almost for over 4000 years. Sailors have also used wind to make journeys. Wind energy can be captured w ith the help of a tower that has a big propeller top that stands at considerable height from the sea level. The propeller’s circular motion because of wind generates electricity. Magnitude of electricity produced can be increased manifolds by building several towers and using them simultaneously. Open fields, coastal regions, hill tops and any areas with frequent and large air currents are the most appropriate areas for the construction of wind turbines. Electric vehicles Electric vehicles or electric cars do not use gasoline engines unlike the regular cars. A controller provides the electric motor with the energy for regulating the power according to the way driver manipulates the accelerator pedal. The batteries of electric vehicles are rechargeable. Common domestic electricity available in the houses can be used to charge these batteries. Electric motors are employed to drive electric vehicles. Rechargeable battery packs are used to run the electric motors. Electric motors offer considerable benefits in comparison to the internal combustion engines (ICEs). To power the wheels, as much as 75 per cent of the chemical energy stored in the batteries is converted by the electric motors. This percentage of conversion of chemical energy into gasoline is reduced to 20 when internal combustion engines (ICEs) are employed as converters instead of electric motors. Electric vehicles are friendly to the environment in that they do not emit any pollutants from the tailpipe, though some pollutants may be emitted from the power plant that generates the electricity. No air pollution whatsoever is produced by the electricity generated from the wind powered plants, hydro powered plants, solar powered plants and nuclear powered plants. The operation of

Social marketing role on smoking issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social marketing role on smoking issue - Essay Example The paper then moves on to the marketing environment and consumer orientation. In order to develop a better understanding of how social marketing can influence the social issue a discussion on smoking and social marketing is given which covers a number of factors associated with it. In the end conclusion and recommendations are given. Even though the awareness about the ill-effects of smoking has significantly increased over the years, it remains a social problem today effecting millions of people worldwide. For instance, the number of smokers in the UK has dropped by 50 per cent since the 1950’s, still smoking caused around 1.2 million deaths in European region alone in 2000 (Bonas 2005). Many diseases have been associated with smoking, such as low birth weight, high death rate, cancer, heart attacks, stroke, etc. Smoking not only has a negative impact on the health of the smoker, but it also has adverse effects on the people who live around the smoker and the society as a whole, making it a social problem. The problem of smoking is not confined to one particular region but spread over the whole world, especially among the youngsters. According to a study conducted by Schaefer (1979), old smokers who quit are constantly replaced by smokers that originate in the younger generation. Moreover, status symbol was identified to be one of the main causes of smoking, i.e. smoking served as a status symbol which motivated the people to smoke (Schaefer 1979). Most of the people begin smoking during adolescence and the main motivation behind taking up smoking is said to be the frequent advertising of cigarette (Arnett 2001). Sandage defines social marketing as the â€Å"design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research† (Sandage and Fryburger 1960,

The different themes in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What Research Paper

The different themes in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What message was Mark Twain trying to relay to the readers - Research Paper Example It was highly criticized and scrutinized because of its over adventurous nature to the racial content, but anyone who reads and understands will not have any doubt about the intention of the novelist or the novel itself. Even after 200 years of its publication it is still considered as an important part of the American literature which is thought to have been shaped by the presence of it. Huckleberry Finn is described by Twain as â€Å"a book where sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers a defeat† (Twain, 1992 p xvii). The novel portrays Huck’s moral development as he ends up in different circumstances but is able to maintain his freedom and security The author wants to impose the importance of freedom for every human being and tries to justify it as a basic necessity. However, the novel is also criticized on its racism by few critics because of the use of the racist slur â€Å"nigger†, but author clearly tries to show tha t Jim is a very loving and caring person. Even Huck is also confused sometimes by the voices of his inner conscience that tells him to like Jim but the socially accepted treatment for the slaves at that time, told him to do otherwise. In this way this novel also conveys an idea about the effect of the society in a person’s acts and decisions (Alberti, 1995). Twain’s novel brings into consideration this very important point that one’s opinion must not be influenced by that of society. Twain also demonstrates the psychic struggle going on between the morally right and legally and socially enforced decisions. In the beginning, Huck also considers himself as a slave because he is oppressed by the ideals of society. He is a freedom loving person and enjoys his less restricted life style. He acquires it by means of escape; this is what satisfies Huck (Jarnow, 2004 p 41). In the course of the novel two seemingly opposite people become friends and their friendship prosp ers in the rest of the novel. Their relationship becomes as important as that of a father and son which seems like impossibility in reality. By this portrayal the aim of author was to show the absurdity of the idea that was felt by the society and the reader. It also shows the misjudgment prevailed in the society. Regardless of immorality and inhuman behaviors of white people, they were considered superior and virtuous than black. This is shown when Huck’s drunkard father gets his custody legally. This decision of the society shows its instability in regard of equality and logic. Society’s criteria or priority was laid for only white skin people. The fact was clearly ignored by them that beneath skin, they all are human with same will and passions. Huck realized this after meeting Jim and he wanted to treat him as a person and not as a slave whose only fault was his dark skin (Jarnow, 2004 p 51). The most important dispute in the novel was the use of the word nigger be cause of the sensitivity of the African American towards it. However inhibiting the use of a word for its emotional aversion will only increase its offensive power, although banning a literary novel over this cause while media is embracing the same word is an unjust act. Not only media or modern culture but a lot of other literary novels contain coarse language but still they are a significant part of the literature.

Social marketing role on smoking issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social marketing role on smoking issue - Essay Example The paper then moves on to the marketing environment and consumer orientation. In order to develop a better understanding of how social marketing can influence the social issue a discussion on smoking and social marketing is given which covers a number of factors associated with it. In the end conclusion and recommendations are given. Even though the awareness about the ill-effects of smoking has significantly increased over the years, it remains a social problem today effecting millions of people worldwide. For instance, the number of smokers in the UK has dropped by 50 per cent since the 1950’s, still smoking caused around 1.2 million deaths in European region alone in 2000 (Bonas 2005). Many diseases have been associated with smoking, such as low birth weight, high death rate, cancer, heart attacks, stroke, etc. Smoking not only has a negative impact on the health of the smoker, but it also has adverse effects on the people who live around the smoker and the society as a whole, making it a social problem. The problem of smoking is not confined to one particular region but spread over the whole world, especially among the youngsters. According to a study conducted by Schaefer (1979), old smokers who quit are constantly replaced by smokers that originate in the younger generation. Moreover, status symbol was identified to be one of the main causes of smoking, i.e. smoking served as a status symbol which motivated the people to smoke (Schaefer 1979). Most of the people begin smoking during adolescence and the main motivation behind taking up smoking is said to be the frequent advertising of cigarette (Arnett 2001). Sandage defines social marketing as the â€Å"design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research† (Sandage and Fryburger 1960,

The value of GCC currencies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

The value of GCC currencies - Research Paper Example Conclusion: 14 8. Bibliography: 15 1. Introduction: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is also known as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG). It is a political and economic union of the Arab states neighboring the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. The six member states of the GCC are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. They are often known as â€Å"The GCC States.† Some of the general objectives of GCC countries are a follows: promotion of scientific and technical progress in different industries like mining, agriculture, water and animal resources; setting up joint ventures among the member states; cheering cooperation of the private sectors; strengthening ties between the peoples of the member countries; and establishing and developing a common currency for all the member countries. The common currency of GCC is known as Khaleeji (meaning Gulf in Arabic). At present, the GCC monetary union is the third moneta ry union in the world in terms of GDP, after the Euro and 2) the unofficial monetary union between the United States and the Latin American countries which declared the US dollar as their currency. There are certain problems now facing the GCC council. According to IMF report (1997), the key challenge facing the GCC countries was the financial condition and valuation of the currency in the member countries of GCC. ... The exception in GCC is Kuwait, where the currency is valued to a group of currencies that is heavily weighted in favor of the US dollar. Therefore, the exchange of the Kuwaiti Dinar to the US dollar remains relatively stable. In last five year the rate of Kuwaiti Dinar is always within 0.27-0.29 to US dollar (QNB, 2012, p.31). During 2008, GCC countries were facing the inflation as it was reached up to 11. 2%. According to the financial analyst, revolution of the economy in the upward direction was helpful in order to control the inflation rate which helped to bring down the import cost. According to the report the GCC monetary union project was mainly inspired by the Euro. The problem which was face by different countries that have Euro as their currency is a helpful tool for the monetary policy makers in GCC countries to figure out the loopholes and act accordingly. This evaluation is helpful to figure out whether introducing a common currency for all the member countries of GCC i s efficient or not (QNB, 2012, p.31). 1.2. Economic Structure: It is very clear from different research that the growth of GCC as one of the strongest economy of the world is mainly on the basis of highs price of gas and oil (energy sector), and also with the help of rapid economic growth. During 2007-2011, the world GDP growth rate was 2.8% where as, GDP growth in GCC was a staggering 4.7% making it the fastest growing group of country in the world (QNB, 2012, p.4). According to the report of QNB (2012), the GCC economy has seen a golden period during 2003- 08, when GDP grew at the rate of 19.9%. This was a result of continuously increasing demand for energy sources as an outcome of robust global development, particularly in Developing Asia (QNB,

Compulsory education Essay Example for Free

Compulsory education Essay The K-12 education system is the public education system that most people are familiar with today. Comprised of 13 grades, kindergarten through 12th, it refers to the public school system in all of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and parts of Europe as well. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact history of education, as it has been occurring in some form for centuries in all parts of the world. Today, K-12 education represents the compulsory education required of all children in the US. Though this type of education can be attained from either publicly or privately funded institutions, children who have reached compulsory school age (ranging from age six to eight, depending on the state) are required by law to attend school. Compulsory education in the United States began over 150 years ago when Horace Mann established a statewide system of education in Massachusetts, which became the first state to pass school attendance laws in 1852. By 1918, children were required by law to receive an education in all states. Kindergarten was actually developed prior to compulsory education. Though it is not compulsory in all states, children are required to start school in most states at the age of six. If the child is too young to start kindergarten the year he turns five, kindergarten may technically be required since he will be turning six that school year. The word kindergarten is of German origin and means â€Å"children’s garden.† The concept was the brainchild of Friedrich Froebel, a self-educated philosophical teacher, who sought to develop a place of guided play for children to â€Å"bloom.† The first kindergarten established in England was in 1852, and the United States followed by establishing its first in 1856. Though education was required of all children in Massachusetts by that time and many other states were following suit, not all schools provided, nor required, kindergarten. Similarly, not all schools required a student to stay in school beyond a certain grade, as compulsory education initially applied only to elementary aged children. Many children were also permitted to miss portions of the  school year, especially farmers’ children who were needed at home for harvesting crops and preparing for the winter. The Education Act of 1918, or the Fisher Act, was an act of British Parliament that implemented changes in progressive education and helped form many aspects of the K-12 education system used today. The Fisher Act raised the age at which children could leave school to 14 and addressed education needs, such as health inspections and accommodations for special needs children. This act also led to the development of a committee that reported to and made recommendations to policy makers regarding education. In the United States, unlike England, public education was governed by each individual state. As early as 1791, seven states had specific provisions for education in their own individual constitutions and were formed partly on the basis of education without religious bias. Prior to the passing of compulsory school attendance laws, education was primarily localized and available only to the wealthy, and it often included religious teachings. Following the compulsory attendance laws, Catholics banned together in opposition of states mandating common schooling and created private Catholic schools. In 1925, the Supreme Court ruled that children could attend public or private schools for education. Over time, each individual state developed its own department of education to oversee the public education system. Compulsory attendance grew to include kindergarten and mandate attendance through the age of 16. Funding sources for public education also grew to include federal, state and local sources. Federal funding was overseen by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1953 to 1979, until it was divided and the US Department of Education was formed as a stand-alone entity. By the 1950s, compulsory education had become well established, but the K-12 education system was really still in its infancy. Schools were still primarily localized, but education was no longer available only to the wealthy. Even in the 1950s, however, segregation by race was still common practice in public schools in the US. Then came another landmark decision by  the Supreme Court. In 1954, in the US Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Though this decision was met with resistance and it took many years before legalized segregation was completely eliminated, especially in southern states, the federal courts eventually achieved success. This achievement was not without its repercussions, and many urban and inner city schools saw an exodus of wealthy and middle-class white families, who moved to suburban districts. In time, many urban districts were left only with poor families and it became difficult to attract and pay for quality teachers and education. Since the formation of the US Department of Education in 1979, the education system has been similar to what is found today, but has undergone a series of developments and amendments to accommodate the changing needs of education. Funding has always been a source of concern for public schools, especially in poor, urban districts, where the quality of education also came into question. As a result, federal funding is now directly related to school performance as determined by standardized testing under the current No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB was signed into law by President George W. Bush 3 January 2002. Under this law, standards of accountability were increased in an effort to improve performance and to give parents flexibility in choosing schools. NCLB requires states to administer assessments of basic skills to all students at certain grade levels and achieve the standards set forth by each state in order to receive federal funding. Specific and more rigorous goals were placed on reading achievements under this law and states also had to develop high school exit or graduation exams with specific measures of assessment in place as well. The intention was to hold schools to a higher  level of accountability, but was debated from its inception. Currently, the K-12 public education system provides a 12th grade education to eligible students for free. Families have the option of sending their children to private schools, but are then responsible for tuition. The future of education will undoubtedly experience change and social and economical challenges, just as it has in the past. Programs may soon expand to include pre-K compulsory attendance and could even expand to include options beyond the 12th grade, as these are concepts, in their earliest stages, currently being explored.

Reviewing The Effectiveness Of Uk Drug Policy Criminology Essay

Reviewing The Effectiveness Of Uk Drug Policy Criminology Essay This paper argues that a meticulous review of the effectiveness of UK drug policy is urgently needed. Policy as contained in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (the MDA), Drugs Act 2005, Medicines Act 1968 and strategy document Drugs: Protecting families and communities]   is currently in a state of disrepair. The question suggests a contemporary over-influence of rhetorical bases in policy formation and evaluation, to the detriment of a frank review of its actual effectiveness, however I am unconvinced this artificial annexation of such broad notions will forge the more effective drug policy to which the question also refers. Rather, I propose that these notions describe the many authorities manipulated and dovetailed to produce and justify a much wider policy model. And it is this model, and the weight given to those authorities that currently hinders the effectiveness of the UK drug policy and deserves review. I call into question the way in which our current system is criminalised v ia the implementation of the MDAs class system, limited to non traditional drugs, and based on control as justified by rhetoric. I propose a more appropriate direction in the adoption of an evidentially based harm reduction model, in line with the home offices most recent policy. 2. UK Drug Policy In order to explore the necessity for a rigorous evaluation of the current UK drug policy; one must gain a comprehensive understanding of what the contemporary policy actually is, and why.  [2]  This can be demonstrated most thoroughly and accurately through a brief analysis of some of the most important policy models affiliated with our domestic drug policy. Through extrapolating the wider reasoning behind our current system I hope to decipher the influences on policy decisions and where the weight imposed on such factors is unsatisfactory the balance should be changed. 2.1. Medicalization A timeline stretching from the nineteenth century keynotes the first defined drug policy of full medicalization at the end of the century.  [3]  This stance places drug users within a medical paradigm, seeing addiction as a disease.  [4]  Whilst this ideology can still be seen as a strand within medicinal interactions with problem drug users, in terms of treatment and the Medicines Act 1968; it no longer works as the basis of domestic strategy. 2.2. A War on Drugs Nixons 1973 use of the metaphor of warfare in relation to drug policies has since seen the USA [wage] an ever-escalating war on drugs.  [5]  This has impacted the UK, where it is argued that criminal law and arguments of morality are deeply embedded in UK drug policy,  [6]  evidenced through a movement towards a largely American-inspired prohibitionist approach in post war years, simply echoing the Pharmacy Act 1869s earlier quasi-medical control of certain substances.  [7]  And I argue that this prohibitionist control still underpins UK drug policy today;  [8]  framing contemporary strategy documents.  [9]  My research suggests this ideology that has lead to drug policy becoming crime-focused to an extent that it can be viewed as distinctively and substantively different in the twenty first century.  [10]   2.3. Criminalisation Academics have noted that the home office has used its influence to try to push Britain towards a system similar to that of the USAreliant solely on control measures.  [11]  With the MDA regulating drugs using a complex legislative framework revolving around the criminalisation of a band of illicit drugs focussing on penal control, apparently based on risk assessment of the harms these drugs cause to the exclusion of traditional drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.  [12]  This was compounded further by the Drugs Act 2005 placing law enforcement and crime reduction [as] central features of the agenda, working alongside the MDA in criminalising the activities surrounding certain drugs.  [13]   The government has maintained that this fundamental purpose of providing a framework within which criminal penalties are set is correct, compounding the overwhelming priority of criminalisation in the current drug policy.  [14]  I argue this undermines current drug strategy aim to reduce the harm that drugs cause to society, to communities, individuals and their families.  [15]  Gower has expressed a deep concern regarding this over-reliance on criminalisation as the means of control, arguing that it lacks a clear grounding in evidence, and it does not achieve its objective to reduce the misuse of drugs.  [16]  This criticism coming from a strong academic feeling that criminalisation seems to define our current definition of the drugs problem, with critics calling into question this nonsensical and unjustified focus on punishment and enforcement.  [17]   2.3.1. Why has the drug-crime link come to be the principal lens through which the drug problem is viewed today?  [18]   The governments criminalisation of drug use is validated by suggestions that drug use and crime are linked in some way;  [19]  as demonstrated by the home office website.  [20]   This contemporary obsession with the drug crime link,  [21]  refers to a belief that the drug trade is linked to serious organised crime.  [22]  Officials argue that the coincidence of drugs and criminal activity can be understood through a theory of causation, and remains a key strand in current drug policy. However, this long history of exaggerated claims has been damned by experts, recognising that whilst there are links; it is surprisingly difficult to show that any of the commonly misused drugs directly cause any behaviour.  [23]  A number of studies have identified only vague correlations,  [24]  with limited evidence showing any causal connections between drugs and crime, somewhat questioning any conviction that drugs cause crime.  [25]  The perceived drug clime link is simply a rhetorical justification of the criminalisation of policy direction, lacking any real evidential strength.  [26]   2.2.2. The Role of the Media Consultation papers work as a key resource in the governments current evaluative process.  [27]  However, public opinion and thus their responses are fundamentally manipulated by the media. Newspapers work in many ways as a talking shop for politicians to inform much of what we know, or think we know, about crime; with careful choices by such outlets triggering a variety of public responses.  [28]  Schlesinger et al assert that media representations are a key moment in the process whereby public discourses concerning crime and justice are made available for general consumption.  [29]  Thus, in consultation papers recognised as conversations with the public and the limited existing form of evaluation medias interpretation is likely to implicate subsequent responses; somewhat negating the productivity of consultation.  [30]   Distorted media presentation of substances can influence popular belief about their harmfulness, which then directly implicates change in drug policy; with clear inconsistencies between reality and reports.  [31]  Mannings commentary on ecstasy depicts how a series of well documented media-led moral panics can lead to an evolution of the governments policy, based on individual tragedies and anecdotes rather than rational analysis of evidence and pragmatic public health responses.  [32]  The rushed classification of Mephedrone recently echoed this to the letter.  [33]  Whilst it denies reviews react to media attention,  [34]  I argue that through sacking David Nutt following such pressure,  [35]  government showed [its] willingness to [bow] to public mood, feeding policy with rhetoric.  [36]  I assert that this amplified role of media in the formulation of drug policy forges political moves driven by people pleasers, rather than evidence. 2.3.3. The role of ACMD The Advisory council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is a statutory body which aim[s] to advise the government on drug policy and treatment  [37]  . However, its validity is questionable. Firstly, ACMD has a statutory duty to consider both medical and societal harms when making recommendations,  [38]  with a number of factors feeding into decisions, including unconvincing theories, the media, culture and what the public is thought to think  [39]  . Secondly its remit seems to be restricted to those substances the government are concerned with notably excluding alcohol and tobacco. And finally, when scientific bodies bring evidence at odds with governmental direction; it is disregarded.  [40]  Despite Professor Wiles assertion that the Government does not interfere with the independence of the ACMD and that ACMD have freely decided not to advise them about traditional drugs,  [41]  their ambit is limited to illicit drugs, because their advice intended to be indepen dent at present, depends on government policy, not just scientific evidence. ACMD is forced to be political in nature; used as puppets of government in its attempt to legitimize a framework that simply does not correlate with the statistical evidence experts propose.  [42]   2.4. Cultural prejudice The government itself notes that the distinguishing factors regarding the illegality of drugs are based in large part on historical and cultural precedents  [43]  . Politicians are it would seem unwilling to tackle traditional drugs, simply because it would conflict with deeply embedded historical tradition and tolerance.  [44]  Safe.Sensible.Social promotes a sensible drinking culture rather than the prohibition of alcohol,  [45]  which is of stark contrast to any policy regarding what are regarded as illicit drugs. The reasoning for this polarity is defended though the social acceptability of alcohol and tobacco; which are void of any scientific basis.  [46]  This method of distinction questions the validity of our drug policy; emphasising how arbitrary the nature of the way in which we currently decipher which drugs fall within the ambit of the MDA really is.  [47]   2.4.1. Traditional Drugs Because of a preoccupation with illicit drugs in recent decades there has been, until relatively recently, much less discussion on alcohol. This is changing.  [48]  The government has introduced two alcohol policies, the most recent being Safe.Sensible.Social in 2007, however health professionals who had pressed for the alcohol strategy were critical of it when it appeared in 2004 and the 2007 review was thought to be little better.  [49]  Whilst the government discredit direct comparisons between illegal drugs and alcohol as inappropriate,  [50]  the evidence brought to government by the Health Select Committee covering a huge breadth of harms concludes that England has a drink problem.  [51]  Comparisons are appropriate and necessary. WHO deduces that two million deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption world-wide each year, with it being responsible for 11% of the total disease burden in Europe.  [52]  Alongside this, 90% of all drug related deaths ar e attributed to alcohol and tobacco.  [53]  In addition there are arguments of a strong correlation between binge drinking and offending,  [54]  even satisfying the flimsy drug-crime link precedent of the MDA. The governments response that the classification system under the MDA is not a suitable mechanism for regulating legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco;  [55]  is met with criticism of their complacency in the face of the seriousness of our current predicament.  [56]  Nutt expresses that it is this omission from the classification system that, perhaps more than any other, truly lays bare its fundamental lack of consistency, reasoning or evidence base.  [57]  If classified under any realistic assessment of toxicity, addictiveness and mortality rates both drugs would certainly be criminalised and prohibited under the current system  [58]  . There is a clear presumption; were alcohol introduced today it would be classified and criminalised.  [59]   2.5. Political rhetoric is far removed from the reality  [60]   The governments use of broad definitions, reliance on rhetorical justifications and a seemingly unconvincing distinction of legal and illegal drugs despite their harms, leads us to a strange statutory framework which legalizes drugs alcohol and nicotine that are equally, if not more, addictive and cause more death and ill health thanthe most feared illegal drugs.  [61]   The moral panics constructed by the failure of politicians promises of a drug free world, have lead to claims that the current policy is an embarrassment, unproductive, and based on a band of rhetoric amidst a failing model of criminalisation and penal thinking.  [62]  Whilst both the alcohol and drug policies suggest a dedication to minimizing the harms caused by drug use, the prevalence of tough talk and political posturing has invariably triumphed over common sense, with the key aim of harm reduction lost within the framework of a criminalisation model.  [63]  This clearly calls into question the legitimacy of the advisory council, politicians, and the effectiveness of our drug policy and legislation. 3. A Call for Evaluation The governmental strategy is ad hoc in its foundations, attracting a plethora of criticism regarding the artificiality of the dominant construction of criminality. ACMD suggest that there is scope to explore how effectively the current system is operating,  [64]  and Journalists are led to similar conclusions following indications of the insufficiency of current policy.  [65]  As reports continually conclude, this war on drugs has been a disaster.  [66]  With Boland encapsulating this exasperation in his assessment that the logic of continuing to pour huge amounts of public money into fighting a war that is patently not going to be won must be revisited with a more questioning mind.  [67]  Both scientifically and rhetorically, there are calls for evaluation with an eye to a more effective policy model in which evidential distinctions will thrive. 3.1. The Ambit of Evaluation An evaluation should cover all substances regarded as harmful drugs. Scientists and academics struggle to specifically define what a drug is; mainly retracting back to science with reference to mixtures of chemicals and their effects on users.  [68]  It is fundamentally the mission of the law to draw distinctions, writing laws that draw careful and appropriate distinctions between the permitted and the prescribed.  [69]  The war on drugs has become a war on certain (illicit) drugs, with traditional others such as alcohol and tobacco falling outside of the scope of the draconian enforcement of controls.  [70]  The one obvious basis for distinction between legal and illegal drugs are that illicit drugs are those that create a high risk of harm to the users or others, however even this has been proved to be, inherently flawed.  [71]   3.2. Drugs and Harm: A New Agenda for a New Government  [72]   Although law enforcement has been given a higher priority in recent yearsthey coexist with a quite different line of thinking and action, that of harm reduction.  [73]  An evaluation of the current policy should use an increasingly evidence based approach, with particular regard to the classification of traditional and non traditional drugs within this harm reduction model. If a harm reduction approach is adopted, the policy will work to reduce the harms that result from the misuse of drugs, which waste lives, destroy families and damage communities.  [74]  However, legislations hidden implication of harm reduction is currently insufficient.  [75]  Any such base has been overshadowed in recent decades through the MDAs more prominent regime of classification and subsequent criminalisation of illicit substances.  [76]  Through exploring classification in its present form compared to how it could be improved through using this model, I hope to illustrate how the governme nt could develop strategies which may lead the drug user into less harmful patterns of drug use, rather than simply enforcing the law and punishing wrongdoers.  [77]   4. Drug Classification: making a hash of it  [78]   Despite indications that the current classification system is indefensible;  [79]  the home office has said it has little intention of changing this framework, deciding not to pursue a review of the classification system at this time.  [80]  I counteract that this is a mistake, with the the methodology and processes underlying classification systems inherently flawed.  [81]  As per Forte et al, in a freedom loving society no conduct by rational adults should be criminalised unless it is harmful to others; I argue that a transparent evaluation of the way in which our policy works and should work is long overdue.  [82]   4.1. Policy needs to informed by evidence  [83]   Critics have, in many ways, attributed the failing classification system to it being closed to scientific evidence.  [84]  Many arguing that the MDA simply reflects official perceptions of relative harmfulness,  [85]  claiming that the government routinely cherry picks and spins figuresto give a misleading impression.  [86]  I suggest that this can be remedied through a clearer, more sagacious approach  [87]  . And support the notion that evidence should not dictate all aspects of drug policy, but that clear distinctions need to be made when policy is based on scientific evidence and when it is made on the basis of particular conception of what society should be like.  [88]  Nutt has said that people really dont know what the evidence is. They see the classification, they hear about evidence and they get mixed messages [with the] scientific probity of governmentundermined in this kind of way.  [89]  The public should be fully informed of the basis of the frame work presented to them, and the reasoning behind this. Rhetoric and cultural influences are an important factor in formulating policy decisions and communicating with the public and their impact should not be wholly negated, rather a limitation of rhetorics weighted influence in key decisions regarding the harmfulness of drugs is needed. 5. Policy Consequences Upon evaluation I suggest that the current system will be regarded as outdated, ineffective and in need of a complete regeneration. Whereas at present it seems the ACMD can only recommend prohibition,  [90]  I have not explored, nor will I advocate, the notion of legalisation or indeed the criminalisation of harmful substances. Rather, I suggest such an approach is unproductive, and envisage a two pronged approach; involving the current penal system as just that a system of punishment, running parallel with a more scientifically based approach. 5.1. One Policy In accordance with my discussion regarding the scientific evidence about alcohol induced harm, I believe that alcohol policys separation from the UK drug policy is unnecessary and unproductive. We must fully endorse harm reduction approaches at all levels and especially stop the artificial separation of alcohol and tobacco as non-drugs.  [91]  As it stands, there is no sign that the governments aims to reduce harmful alcohol consumption have been achieved.  [92]  Increasingly strong evidence suggests a long term trend towards the integration of traditional and non traditional drugs.  [93]  And I support a more comprehensive policy that amalgamates drugs and alcohol, using the evidence bases made available to the government to truly work to reduce the harms caused by drug misuse in the UK.  [94]   6.2. Rational Scale Based primarily on the work of Nutt, King, Saulsbury and Blakemore, I am calling for a second scale that doesnt simply masquerade itself as an indication of the harmfulness of drugs; but is an accurate scientific representation of the harmfulness of each drug. This would be decoupled from penalties, to give the public a better sense of the relative harms involved, working as a second pillar to a continued penal classification system, with very little change.  [95]  Transform has supported the pragmatic nature of this scheme, and my research would suggest that many critics would welcome this scientific inclusion,  [96]  offering scientific evidence of actual risks as a way of replacing perceived risk in the classification process  [97]  . A key issue with this approach is the deciphering of what harm actually is, however I propose that this scale would allow for flexibility in the interim period of its existence. Whilst Nutt has criticised the current systems lack of flexi bility,  [98]  he is confident that this modified scale is remarkably robust as data is added to it, clearly opening its doors to a workable and scien

The Internet as a New Medium of Communication Essay -- Internet Commun

The internet, a new medium of communication that allows us to communicate over large distances with an impressive outcome, the internet has improved long distance communication with its ever growing means of communicating. In this essay I will elaborate on my understanding on the internet as a new medium of communication, I will also state relevant theories and examples to back up my result. â€Å"The paradigm of the new mode of communication and clearly the emerging infrastructure for the hypermedia environment is networked computing, and in particular, the loose conglomeration of worldwide net worked computer known as the internet† (deibert, p.131). The internet began in the 1970s as a US military experiment, where they designed a computer network called ‘Arpanet’ that would survive a nuclear attack; the primary theory of the network was a distributed form of communication without any central control. The Arpanet eventually became a tool for researching inform ation for the public. In the early 1990’s the internet became a successor to the Arpanet, networked communication had exploded to include private individuals around the world which was linked through the anarchic web of computers, surfing, sharing information and online discussion. The internet then became a phenomenal as everyone from governments to universities, businesses and individuals exploring this medium of communication. The growth of internet users was indescribable as it was now spread worldwide; the internet was now user friendly. The World Wide Web emerged due to the growth of the internet and the revolutionary development, which permits the integration of hyper textual links and multimedia in a single platform. â€Å"In providing globally-networked, hyper textual, ... ...ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2878_1%26url%3D https://blackboard.le.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2878_1%26url%3D https://blackboard.le.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp%3Fattachment%3Dtrue%26navItem%3Dcontent%26content_id%3D_561171_1%26course_id%3D_2878_1%26displayName%3Dthe%2Bworld%2Bwide%2Bweb%2Bof%2Bsurveillance%2540%2Bthe%2Binternet%2Band%2Boff%2Bworld%2Bpower%2Bflows.pdf%26href%3D/%2540%2540/AA8A813A99BD4A059CE4EB843F104663/courses/1/MS2007/content/_561171_1/the%252520world%252520wide%252520web%252520of%252520surveillance%252540%252520the%252520internet%252520and%252520off%252520world%252520power%252520flows.pdf

Tuesdays with Morrie Essay -- essays research papers

At first glance, the movie, Tuesdays With Morrie, appeared to be a movie about an ex-student learning a final lesson about life from his dying ex-professor. But, as the movie progressed, I felt it was actually a movie about two dying men. Morrie, the old professor, was in the final stages of ALS and physically dying. Mitch, the former student was a commitment-phobic living an unfulfilled life and spiritually dying. Spiritual death is reversible, so Mitch tried to gain some of the wisdom and learn some of the lessons that Morrie had already learned in his happily fulfilled life. On the other hand, physical death is irreversible and Morrie realized that his time was growing short. He had concerns, such as becoming increasingly dependent on others, that he wanted to discuss. Most importantly, he wanted to teach the world one final lesson on "The Meaning of Life" and he needed Mitch to be his messenger. For fourteen weeks, Morrie and Mitch discussed life and how it should be l ived. Topics included issues concerning love, commitment, forgiveness, family, and regrets. By the time Morrie died, they had helped each other transition to a new life. Their discussions changed Mitch’s life. Before the weekly lessons with Morrie, he appeared to be terrified of love and commitment. He was also afraid of displaying affection like kissing, touching, hugging or crying. He broke promises to Janine, didn’t save a lot of time for her, and was basically str... Tuesdays with Morrie Essay -- essays research papers At first glance, the movie, Tuesdays With Morrie, appeared to be a movie about an ex-student learning a final lesson about life from his dying ex-professor. But, as the movie progressed, I felt it was actually a movie about two dying men. Morrie, the old professor, was in the final stages of ALS and physically dying. Mitch, the former student was a commitment-phobic living an unfulfilled life and spiritually dying. Spiritual death is reversible, so Mitch tried to gain some of the wisdom and learn some of the lessons that Morrie had already learned in his happily fulfilled life. On the other hand, physical death is irreversible and Morrie realized that his time was growing short. He had concerns, such as becoming increasingly dependent on others, that he wanted to discuss. Most importantly, he wanted to teach the world one final lesson on "The Meaning of Life" and he needed Mitch to be his messenger. For fourteen weeks, Morrie and Mitch discussed life and how it should be l ived. Topics included issues concerning love, commitment, forgiveness, family, and regrets. By the time Morrie died, they had helped each other transition to a new life. Their discussions changed Mitch’s life. Before the weekly lessons with Morrie, he appeared to be terrified of love and commitment. He was also afraid of displaying affection like kissing, touching, hugging or crying. He broke promises to Janine, didn’t save a lot of time for her, and was basically str...

BMW Operations Management Essay

1. Executive Summary This report will describe a named organisation in terms of a general introduction and background of that organisation. For the organisation described, there will be a detailed account and critique of quality management and capacity management issues within the business. This will then be backed up with relevant academic theory and models; in addition to this there will be a description of their relevance in the business environment, citing examples of their use. The report will then finish with a conclusion and possible recommendations for the chosen organisation in regards to their operational management style and how it could be improved. 2. Introduction 2.1 Background BMW is primarily a German automobile company. It also has operations in aircraft engine production; electronic systems and hardware production; finance; and service. It had revenues of more than $27 billion and net profits of nearly $700 million in 1990, with about 65,000 employees. Bayerische Maschinen Werke GmbH as it is otherwise known was the surviving entity of a merger in 1955 between BMW and Allegemeina Flugzeug Werke (AFW). BMW has a history dating all the way back to the early 1920s when it was founded as a machine shop on the outskirts of Nuremberg. The AFW part of the company was founded in 1910 and was one of the major contributors of military aircraft during the First World War. The automobile industry can be very volatile and mistakes in decision making can prove to e extremely costly. BMW has proved over time that through careful management the number of errors a firm makes can be greatly reduced. BMW’s operations management is also of a high standard; it designed a production system where new parts can be produced in small amounts and only result in a moderate cost. 2.2 Methodology Research will have to be done in developing the report before any reflection can be made on its contents. There are a number of sources available to get the relevant information from; a many number of books are accessible that go into great detail on each subject within operations management. These will provide a range of academic theory and models which can then be applied into business terms. The internet also provides a vast amount of information that can be used as a reference in the writing of the report, it not only refers to academic theory but also other authors reflections on certain topics which can then be used to draw ideas and apply them to the report. 2.3 Structure of the Report This report will describe a named organisation in terms of a general introduction and background of that organisation. For the organisation described, there will be a detailed account and critique of quality management and capacity management issues within the business. This will then be backed up with relevant academic theory and models; in addition to this there will be a description of their relevance in the business environment, citing examples of their use. The report will then finish with a conclusion and possible recommendations for the chosen organisation in regards to their operational management style and how it could be improved. 3. Findings The operations management task is defined as the day-to-day production of goods that continually requires decisions to be made and the implementation of changes. Operations Management is different to that of other management topics such as strategy, marketing or finance. Whereas these fields are based on theory such as economic, social, and mathematical factors; Operations Management is much more difficult to pin down to a specific aspect. It takes into account a vast array of academic and practical applications that when communally put together produce a basis from which decisions can be made. Operation managers that work inside an organisation work on the foundation of balancing the quality of the service that they provide against the resources they currently have available to them. They are required to be highly skilled in managing their current capacity output so that it can cope with the ever changing levels of demand placed upon their organisation. There are many ways that managers cope with the levels of demand; a manufacturing manager such as BMW would attempt to influence the demand through an assortment of different marketing techniques. In any organisation there will be a relationship between their capacity management, quality management, and their resource productivity. There are a number of issues that arise when trying to manage the organisations supply and demand. Managers must keep to their productivity targets without adversely affecting the quality of the product that they produce; striking a balance can prove difficult especially in the automobile industry where mistakes can prove to be very costly. 3.1 Capacity Management Capacity management is finding the balance between the demand from customers and the capability of the organisation in satisfying that demand. There is a great need for managers to forecast what they think the demand might be in the future so they can sufficiently change their capacity to cope with the change. Where the capacity of the organisation is limited the focus will be on influencing the demand to be in line with the available capacity, this is referred to as level strategy. The opposite of this is chase strategy; this is where the supply can be changed to meet the fluctuating level of demand. Managers can direct their operational control by altering the capacity of the organisation, hold items in inventory in case of a sudden increase in demand, oblige customers to wait for their product, or attempt to influence the demand themselves. In the automobile industry it is possible for an organisation to produce cars in advance of demand and hold it in inventory. Operations managers must at all times be wary of their current capacity, to what degree it can be changed, the costs involved in changing that capacity, and the speed in which the change can happen. This is most important in organisations where profitability is linked to that of capacity and the prices charged for their product or service. BMW is already a leader in the niche car segment of the automobile industry. To retain that status BMW built a $660 million Research & development centre and plans to invest more than $1 billion each year in finding new ways to exploit their position as a market leader. BMW are aware of the fact that they are not one of the biggest companies in the industry and can’t mimic the bigger companies who have far greater capacity and financial power. BMW try to innovate new ways to stay ahead of their competitors. They designed a new manufacturing plant where the cars would move down the assembly line on an independently powered gantry. The new technology would produce sound waves so that collisions can be avoided, thus reducing the need for more workers and also reducing the risk of unwanted accidents in the plant. The output achieved by any capacity management system depends on a number of factors that relate the resources currently available to the actual output of the organisation. It is sometimes inevitable in the niche car segment that an organisation will run out of capacity to cope with the ever changing levels of demand. If this problem occurs then the management can carry out two possible courses of action: o Allow the quality of the product to decline o Attempt to influence the demand so it doesn’t affect the organisation in the long term. In the scenario where the capacity of the organisation is in excess of the demand, this can lead to lower efficiency and a lower quality service to the customer. 3.2 Quality Management BMW believe that quality is of key importance in every stage of the manufacturing process, from product conception to customer feedback. They base their working principles around consistency and complete coverage of all requirements throughout the development and production process. Quality control within BMW is achieved through a system of quality audits at every stage of the manufacturing process; the productions of parts, components and in the assembly plant are all thoroughly maintained. These same quality control principles also apply to their suppliers of materials and components, with all of BMW suppliers agreeing to work to specific specifications of quality. Once cars arrive in the distribution centre, they take on a quality check and have a full pre-delivery inspection before being delivered to the customer. Quality driven organisations are more likely to integrate human resource management into their strategy as employee participation can be seen as key to bolster quality. The BMW management structure allows for teams, comprising of employees from all levels, to react quickly if a fault is found and work together immediately on a problem if one should occur. BMW also benefits from excellent personnel management that allows them to motivate their employees and create a friendly working environment. It provides its workers with a highly competitive pay package and supplies special contracts that allow certain workers to work four-day weeks. Every member of staff is fully responsible for the quality of their work and this well help lead to job enrichment for every member of the workforce. The company has never lost its focus or attempted to spread itself across the entire automobile industry. This is an example of quality management because if the management had been slack, BMW would have lost its focus and attempted to make products for everything and everyone. Manufacturing firms, such as BMW, are always searching for new and innovative ways to cope with global competition in the ever changing business environment. One such process that has been implemented at BMW is that of a focused factory. The complexity that comes with an automobile manufacturer can provide a barrier to managing these facilities, thus the creation of a focused factory solves this problem. The focused factory is a â€Å"plant established to focus the entire manufacturing system on a limited, concise, manageable set of products, technologies, volumes, and markets precisely defined by the company’s strategy, its technology, and its economics.†( APICS Dictionary 1992). Manufacturing companies implement this technique to improve the organisations productivity, quality, and responsiveness. BMW can focus their equipment, employees, and technology one specific tasks rather than using the same technique for all of their different projects. Implementing focused factories make it easier to manage production systems, reduce inventories, and reduce manufacturing space and investment requirements. As BMW have a strong quality emphasis with more attention being given to the performance of the organisation, the use of appraisals is crucial to the requirements that lead to producing a quality product. They place customers at the centre of attention as it is in any organisation that takes quality so seriously. The appraisal process necessitates the employees to evaluate each of their peers so that it encourages them to produce quality work and so to satisfy their customer-supplier relationship. 4. Conclusion Successful automobile manufacturers in the future will need to maximise efficiency, eliminate waste, adapt to change and implement strategies that stay in line with their customer requirements. BMW will need to keep modernising their internal operations to keep up with the constant changing in the automobile industry. Streamlining their plants will facilitate the balance between supply and demand while keeping the quality of their product high. Decisions within BMW are now made throughout the organisation, from the factory floor up to the chief executives. This has increased the communication between all levels of the organisation making it more flat and thus increasing the quality of the automobiles. Jobs have become more diversified with the need for new knowledge and skills becoming more crucial, as the global competition increases, more needs are placed on the company to provide products that meet consumer desires. The main link between the customer and organisation has always been the shop floor assistant. Performance feedback, audit results, and customer opinion surveys are the ways in which organisations know if they are doing there job to satisfactory standard. BMW make sure that the assembly workers are aware of the consumers’ requirements by providing suitable training and sound environment so that those requirements can be met. Organisations that cut down on investment in employee development will suffer a decrease in employee performance due to the close relationship between the two, and this will ultimately filter down to the consumers. Operations management in relation to automobile manufacture is crucial in defining priorities and identifying possible problems. One possible problem that might be confronted in the near future is that of overcapacity in terms of passenger cars. It is seen that other cars such as sport-utility vehicles don’t suffer from overcapacity as they are usually custom made to the consumers’ preferences. Passenger cars are normally batch produced on a production line in their thousands and organisations have a wealth of stock kept in their inventory. Automakers usually add capacity in the 100,000s so the market is never satisfied precisely; there is either a demand lag or a saturation of the market. Costs remain vitally important in making strategic product-line decisions. Regardless of the preferred quality or productivity quota, BMW must stay concerned with the continuous improvement of the business by improving quality, productivity, customer service, and delivery. 5. References Quality management: How four European companies succeeded? Nguyen, Andrea, Kleiner, Brian H. Business Credit. New York: Nov/Dec 1994.Vol.96, Iss. 10; pg. 32, 3 pgs Chrysler and minivans: Are we there yet? Vido, Adrian. CMA. Hamilton: Nov 1993.Vol.67, Iss. 9; pg. 11, 6 pgs The ‘coping’ capacity management strategy in services industry Armistead, Colin G, Clark, Graham. International Journal of Service Industry Management. Bradford: 1994.Vol.5, Iss. 2; pg. 5, 18 pgs Continuous improvement through the focused factory Elmore, Robert C, Natarajan, R, Rezaee, Zahihollah. CMA. Hamilton: Feb 1995.Vol.69, Iss. 1; pg. 21, 4 pgs The two worlds of operations management research and practice: Can they meet, should they meet? Nigel Slack, Michael Lewis, Hilary Bates. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Bradford: 2004.Vol.24, Iss. 3/4; pg. 372 Tools and Techniques – A Current Responsibility Miller, John A.. CMA. Hamilton: Feb 1992.Vol.66, Iss. 1; pg. 34, 1 pgs http://www.bmweducation.co.uk (Accessed 16th March 2005) http://www.bmw.co.uk (Accessed 16th March 2005) APICS Dictionary, 7th Edition, APICS, Falls Church, Virginia, 1992. Sam Bench 03169230

Brain Stimulation

The primary aim of this study was to determine the extent to which human MT+/ V5, an extrastriate visual area known to mediate motion processing, is involved in visuomotor coordination. To pursue this, the excitability of MT+/ V5, primary motor, and primary visual cortex was increased or decreased by the application of seven minutes of anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in healthy human subjects while they were performing a visuomotor tracking task involving hand movements.The percentage of correct tracking movements increased specifically during and immediately after cathodal stimulation, which decreases cortical excitability, only when V5 was stimulated. None of the other stimulation conditions affected visuomotor performance. The researchers propose that the improvement in performance caused by cathodal tDCS of V5 is due to a focusing effect on the complex motion perception conditions involved in this task.This hypothesis was proven by additional ex periments: When testing simple and complex motion perception in dot kinetograms, it was found that a diminution in excitability induced by cathodal stimulation improved the subject’s perception of the direction of the coherent motion only if this was presented among random dots (complex motion perception), and worsened it if only one motion direction was presented (simple movement perception). The data suggest that area V5 is critically involved in complex motion perception and identification processes important for visuomotor coordination.The results also raise the possibility of the usefulness of tDCS in rehabilitation strategies for neurological patients with visuomotor disorders. Article 2 Environmental stimulation, parental nurturance and cognitive development in humans Martha J. Farah, Laura Betancourt, David M. Shera, Jessica H. Savage, Joan M. Giannetta, Nancy L. Brodsky, Elsa K. Malmud and Hallam Hurt 1. Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, USA 2. Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Pediatrics,Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, USA 3. Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA Developmental Science 11:5 (2008), pp 793-801 The effects of environmental stimulation and parental nurturance on brain development have been studied extensively in animals. Much less is known about the relations between childhood experience and cognitive development in humans.Using a longitudinally collected data set with ecologically valid in-home measures of childhood experience and later in-laboratory behavioral measures of cognitive ability, the researchers were able to test hypotheses concerning the effects of environmental stimulation and parental nurturance. A double dissociation was found: On one hand, there was a selective relation between parental nurturance and memory development, consistent with the animal literature on maternal buffering of stress hormone effects on hippocampus development.On the other hand, there was a selective relation between environmental stimulation and language development. The results primarily suggest that the same general dimensions of early life experience identified as important in animal studies of brain development are also important for humans. In particular, the relation between the composites measuring parental nurturance and later memory ability, which have no common-sense connection, is consistent with studies of experience and brain development in animals. The present findings thus provide an important bridge between the study of neurocognitive development in animals and humans.Secondarily, variation in the childhood experience of healthy humans bears a systematic relationship to cognitive development, and this relationship is more selective and specific than simply better environments predicting better development. Memory development is predicted by parental nurturance but not environmental stimulation, whereas language development is predicted by environmental stimulation, but not parental nurturance. Finally, these effects represent a possible mechanism by which socioeconomic status is associated with intellectual attainment. Article 3 MEG Study of Short-Term Plasticity Following MultipleDigit Frequency Discrimination Training in Humans Lichan Liu and Andreas A. Ioannides Laboratory for Human Brain Dynamics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wakoshi, Saitama, Japan. Brain Topography, Volume 16, Number 4, Summer 2004 The researchers trained four right-handed male subjects to detect small changes in the frequency of 21 Hz electrical stimulation applied to digits 2+3+4 of the right hand for four hours. Before and after the training, magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals were recorded whe n the stimulation was applied to digit 2-5 separately using a whole-head MEG system.Tomographic analysis was applied to the MEG data to track the evolution of activity over the entire brain every 1. 6 ms and evaluated the change for each digit before and after the training. In summary: (1) subjects improved in discrimination performance with training; (2) activations were identified in the left primary somatosensory (L-SI) and medial parietal precuneus (PCu) areas, but no systematic changes were observed in location and strength of activation of these two areas; (3) after training in L-SI, the 21Hzspectral power increasedfor digits 3 and 4 over the stimulation period, while the 10 Hz spectral power increased for digit 3 around stimulus onset and offset; (4) only digit 3 showed significant change of correlation between L-SI and PCu areas around the stimulus onset and offset, coincident with the increased 10 Hz spectral power. The results suggest that short-term plasticity is associat ed with changes in timing and interaction between cortical areas. DiscussionThe main finding of the first study is that cathodal tDCS applied to the left V5 improved performance in a visuomotor coordination task that encompassed both dynamic, high-resolution perception and selection of motion predetermined by a moving target. Stimulation of the primary visual cortex and the left motor cortex did not result in significant changes in performance, nor were the reaction times in the random dot kinetogram task significantly affected. These results suggest that tDCS indeed modified visual motion perception and motor performance.Common sense says that childhood experience affects cognitive development. Yet common sense does not say which psychological or brain functions will be affected by experience, or which specific aspects of childhood experience will exert an effect. The second study attempts to address these issues empirically with a unique longitudinally collected data set including ecologically valid in-home measures of early childhood experience and later laboratory measures of cognitive function. The effects found were strikingly selective and, in addition to their statistical significance, were substantial in size.In the third study, functional rather than anatomical short-term plastic changes in the brain induced by the frequency discrimination task were identified. After training, no new activated areas or expansion of activated areas or systematic increases in activation strength in any one specific area were observed. Instead, increased spectral power around 21 Hz in L-SI for both trained digits 3 and 4 for all 4 subjects was observed. Furthermore, for digit 3, increased spectrum power at 10 Hz in L-SI for all 4 subjects between map I and II around thestimulus onset and offset was observed. Conclusion After analyzing the above three methods of brain stimulation, one can come to the conclusion that the first study was found to have the maximum results i n term of invoking activity of the stimulated areas. The study stands out among the other two not just for its methodology, but also for its high reliability and accuracy. Hence, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be considered to be the best method of brain stimulation.