Primary Data Essay

Primary data is that which is obtained by soliciting direct responses from individuals being queried. These individuals are reporting their personal experience, attitudes and feelings. Primary data is the outcome of interviewing and survey methods. Secondary data is information obtained by reviewing the existing academic literature consisting of studies that have been done, analyzing what is â€Å"out there†, and determining trends or patterns of evidence from many studies. Problems with primary data include the possibility that the research design is limited in the fact that it is given to a strictly controlled, limited group, which may not be representative of the overall population. The results from a convenience sample cannot be generalized to the population. Factors including but not limited to gender, nationality, economic situation and others could be expected to impact the effectiveness of application of results to ‘real world’ situations. Sometimes researchers choose to disregard their own interpretations and to accept those of respondents at face value. This can be cozy but may lead to collusion: Atkinson has warned of the dangers of â€Å"romanticizing† respondents’ accounts (Anastas, 12004). Problems with secondary data is that the researcher was not personally involved and does not know how relatively rigorously the research was done; this may compromise his/her observations and analysis. Different methods used in qualitative research furnish parallel datasets, each affording only a partial view of the whole picture; this is a natural feature of qualitative research, in that it acknowledges that there are different views of reality which have equal validity. Therefore, it is effective to look for results that are comparable rather than in agreement, and which may be mutually supportive.

Is Victor Frankenstein the Modern Prometheus?

Is Victor Frankenstein the modern Prometheus? Mary Shelley’s purpose in the subtitle of her book, Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus is to compare Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus, son of Zeus. By showing many similarities between the two, she has solid reasoning that Dr. Frankenstein is, in many ways, the â€Å"modern Prometheus. † Although both main characters create a problem they have no control over, they learn their lesson of tampering with the law of nature. It takes time, punishment, and tests for the both of them to understand their wrongdoings. Shelley’s book shows many similarities between Victor and Prometheus.In the beginning we are led to believe that Victor is a scientist who, through experiment and analysis, has the ability to re-create life. By using metamorphosis he uses old cadaver body parts to create an oversized and grotesque creature (Shelley, par. 91). Like Prometheus, Frankenstein created something he had no power or control over. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, not only once but twice. In doing so, they both went against all laws of nature. While Victor Frankenstein created a nonhuman creature and Prometheus stole fire from the gods they were both punished very severely.After Dr. Frankenstein brought his creature to life, out of disgust, he ran away. â€Å"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? † (Shelley, par. 121). Frankenstein could not stand the sight of his creation. Looking at it made him queasy and ill. The monster’s oversized body and unsightly proportions brought Victor much agony. The creature, feeling abandoned, turned to rage and attacked Victor’s loved ones. His first victim was William Frankenstein, Victor’s beloved brother.Giving Victor little time to repair from his tragic loss, the creature attacked again. This time he lost his best friend, Henry Clerval. During these catastrophic events, Victor knew this was his fault. He created a monster who would continue hurting him by taking the life of the people he cared most about. The final death of Victor’s family was his darling wife, Elizabeth. The creature killed her out of revenge because Frankenstein would not finish the female companion he asked to be made. Frankenstein lost the people closest to him while Prometheus was punished in a very different yet, equal way.Prometheus felt that humans should be superior to the gods. Having more power and the ability to make tools and weapons, he gave them fire. Zeus was furious about this, seeing that he had taken fire away from them before. When Prometheus gave fire to man the first time, Zeus was enraged with anger and explained to Prometheus that fire was not a power man should hold. Defying Zeus, Prometheus gave it back to man anyways. This was not a gift Prometheus could bestow upon humans after it was taken away once. Later punished for his actions, he was sentenced to be chained to a rock with the company of an eagle, hungry for his liver.The eager bird picked at Prometheus’ liver each day as the sun would dissipate. Overnight his liver would grow back but he would endure this agonizing and excruciating pain all over again. Both men experienced brutal punishment. Prometheus was tortured physically, while Victor was hurt on an emotional level. After their punishment, both Dr. Frankenstein and Prometheus were given opportunities to prove themselves. The creature went to Victor and asked him to make a female companion. After seeing how compassionate the people he observed were, the creature wanted someone to share those feelings with. I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"National library of,† 1998). Dr. Frankenstein began assembling the body parts to build a female creature. It took him months, but before he finished he decided a gainst it. He thought about how he could not control the creature he already built. The thought of there being two of them out there in the world sickened him. Victor was tested by having the opportunity to craft a second monster. By refusing to do so, he finally learned that trying to play God is not a role to be taken lightly.After Dr. Frankenstein denied the creature a mate, he soon realized this was a good thing. Prometheus was tested in a similar manner. His father, Zeus, presented Prometheus with two options. As there was a prophecy that a child of Zeus would one day dethrone him, Prometheus, who had the gift of foresight, could tell Zeus the mother of the child who would do this to him. His second option was put into two parts, there had to be an immortal that was willing to die for him, as well as a human who could kill the eagle and break Prometheus’ chains.Chiron, the centaur who trained Hercules, was immortal and offered to give up his life for the sake of Promethe us. Hercules executed the eagle and broke the chains (â€Å"The creation of,†). Shelley used the resemblance between Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus in her book. By showing how these characters are alike in different aspects, she demonstrated how Dr. Frankenstein is indeed, the modern Prometheus. Both men took on the role of playing God by creating problems they could not manage. Even more so, they both attempted something only God could determine or have power over.While Victor Frankenstein created a monster out of cadaver parts, Prometheus disobeyed the Gods by giving man the power of fire. Each of them, being punished for doing so, learned their lesson. Shelley’s character of Victor shares similar traits as Prometheus. They were both very daring and audacious. Both men had the ambition to create; though it did not work in their favor it illustrated their likeness. Mary Shelley portrays Victor as a man who went against God and the law of nature. Similar to Prometh eus, Frankenstein was very head strong and unfortunately for both men it was too late to repair the damage they had committed.Dr. Victor Frankenstein is indefinitely, the modern Prometheus. Reference Page Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus. London, England: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones Publishing House. Retrieved from http://www. gutenberg. org/files/41445/41445-h/41445-h. htm The creation of man by prometheus. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. greekmythology. com/Myths/The_Myths/Creation_of_Man_by_Prometheus/creation_of_man_by_prometheus. html National library of medicine. (1998, February 13). Retrieved from http://www. nlm. nih. gov/frankenstein/preface. html

Comparative Analysis of Two Films Essay

Stereotyping can be defined as sweeping generalizations about affiliates of a certain gender, nationality, religion, race, or other group. Social stereotyping has been a worldwide issue for many years. More specifically, stereotypical assertions, based on both gender and race, have been a common theme throughout many 20th and 21st century films. Both Crash, directed by Paul Haggis in 2004, and Girlfight directed by Karyn Kusama in 2000, address the issue of stereotyping in their own unique way. Girlfight does this by placing a female in the spotlight of a sport that is predominantly dominated by males, whereas, Crash confronts our problem with racial stereotypes and racism, and the need to counter them, by focusing on the â€Å"crash† humans experience by encountering people that they actually are already linked to. Throughout the film Girlfight, the crowd may have been against Diana, but her determination allowed her to fight off skeptics outside the ring and her opponents in the ring. Crash is a movie that brings out bigotry and racial stereotypes. While one story revolves around a gender debate, the other approaches the argument from the aspect of race and ultimately both combat the greater social issue of stereotyping. The film Girlfight depicts the struggle of Diana Guzman, a high school girl, and how she overcomes gender barriers to dominate the boxing arena. Her mother passed away when she was young, and she lives with her father and younger brother, Tiny. They reside in the projects of New York City, a tougher area where the ability to defend yourself is basically a prerequisite. Her father forces Tiny to train at the local gym to become better suited to defend himself and that is where Diana is introduced to the sport of boxing. Setting is a key aspect of the film and director Karyn Kusama’s choice of realistic venues for each and every scene help create a documentary-like atmosphere. One scene that illustrates this quality is when Diana and Adrian learn that they will both be fighting each other in the final bout. The scene takes place inside the manager of the ring’s office; a small but well organized office. The camera pans from character to character as they discuss Diana’s next fight and the viewer is placed in the back corner of the office space. A key detail to be noticed is that the door is open and one can see that boxers are still training in the background. This gives the audience the idea that what they are viewing is very real, almost like a documentary, and Kusama’s film work adds to that with a picture that is both grainy and misty. The scene is also full of dialogue, which is a common attribute of any documentary. It seems as if the scene would have occurred even if the camera had not been rolling film. The realistic aspect correlates back to the underlying premise of the movie, gender stereotyping. At the time, female boxers were a rarity and Diana was an exception not only because of her gender but also because of her skill. The boxers at this gym are all male except for Diana who happens to be the main character in the film. This creates an immediate gender barrier the second that Diana steps in the gym merely because she isn’t of the norm. The film Crash attempts to tackle the issue of racial stereotyping though the stories of several characters who all turn out to be connected in some way, shape, or form. Anthony and Peter are partners in crime who hijack cars for a chop shop. Anthony believes that society is unfairly biased against blacks, and at one point in the film he justifies his actions by claiming he would never hurt another black person. Rick Cabot, district attorney of Los Angeles, and his wife Jean are two other main characters throughout the film. One scene that reinforces the use of stereotyping is when Anthony and Peter stroll a Los Angeles shopping strip. As they walk along, Anthony explains to Peter how whites are so quick to judge blacks at night. The dialogue throughout the scene is especially important because Anthony quickly changes from complaining about racial tendencies around him to hiding behind a handgun as both he and his friend hijacks a car. The audience sides with Anthony, as he begins his rant, but out of the blue, the two men pull a gun on an innocent couple and the audience is left in shock. Anthony states, â€Å"You couldn’t find a whiter, safer or better-lit part of this city right now, but yet this white woman sees two black guys who look like UCLA students strolling down the sidewalk, and her reaction is blind fear† (Crash). This statement draws light on the fact that we as humans tend to jump to conclusions often too quickly. Anthony and Peter had done nothing out of the ordinary but the town happened to be predominantly dominated by whites and that set off a red flag in Jean’s mind. Anthony flips the subject based on the fact that they are the only blacks in the area and asks Peter, â€Å"Why aren’t we scared? † Peter responds, â€Å"Cause we got guns? † and both men proceed to pull out their weapons and hijack the Cabot’s vehicle (Crash). This scene is greatly enhanced by the use of sound. As both of the couples stroll down the boulevard, one can hear a peaceful Christmas carol in the background, but as the men approach the Cabots, the music increases in volume and changes to a more upbeat, edgy track. The film does this in order to create tension between both sets of characters; it changes the norm and keeps the audience anxious. To reinforce this, the sound increases once more as Anthony and Peter peel out of the street with the stolen car creating a definitive point in the scene. By transitioning from calm to chaos, Haggis demonstrates how a simple misinterpretation, a stereotype, could pay dividends in the long run. Jean Cabot had suspected something was not right as soon as she locked eyes with Anthony. The fact that Anthony gave a rather thought-provoking talk on racial tendencies shows that stereotyping does not go unnoticed. An act as simple as interlocking arms with your husband as you pass two young, African American teenagers may seem like an act of safety to you but to the teenagers it is offensive. This also proves that this is not a one-sided debate. Both parties are involved and equally held responsible for their criticisms. In â€Å"Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,† Aaron H. Devor discusses the distinction between gender and sexuality. Gender is typically based on anatomical differences between men and women, but does not necessarily match with them. In Diana’s case, she is a female yet she demonstrates masculine tendencies through her animosity and fury in the boxing arena. According to Devor, Diana fails to follow â€Å"the natural role† of her sexuality (Devor 160). Devor states, â€Å"persons who perform the activities considered appropriate for another gender will be expected to perform them poorly† (Devor 159). He point is valid because there are always cases when a male or a female may not fit the norm and fight off a society that is so fixated on masculinity versus femininity. This statement connects with the film Girlfight, in which Diana Guzman distinguishes herself by becoming a boxer, a sport dominated by males. Devor states that even if the athlete does succeed, it is a â€Å"reward with ridicule or scorn for blurring the gender dividing line† (Devor 159). The film Girlfight somewhat argues this statement because Diana was cheered as she finished her final bout against Adrian. Adrian was obviously the favored fighter, mainly due the act that he was a male, yet Diana pulled off the victory. The fact is that gender is socially and culturally determined; it is not biologically determined. At the time, boxing gurus failed to give credit to Diana by being an underdog and decided to instead critique and stereotype her based on her sex. Today more and more women have become boxers but there are still those that frown upon their presence in the ring. Even though people have become more tolerant, there are still some who are not willing to except things out of the norm, which is why society has not gained the balance it needs and social stereotyping exists. Gender stereotyping is a very serious issue in today’s society, but another dilemma just as grim is that of racial stereotyping. Larry Aubry’s Los Angeles Sentinel article titled, â€Å"Undoing Racism in American Cities,† argues how racism is still very much with us and is still a barrier to the realization of the American dream in the nation’s cities and towns. His main point is that in order to â€Å"undo racism† one must â€Å"move from being a part of the problem to becoming a part of the solution† (Aubry, par. 3). Throughout the film Crash, the main characters are given various opportunities to combat racism but instead act on poor judgment by stereotyping. The fact is that stereotyping never leads to a proper outcome. A proper outcome may not be what either party had intended but most of the time an ethical outcome is best. In Anthony’s case, he fumed on how whites were racist yet he became part of the problem by doing exactly what Jean Cabot had foreseen him execute. Anthony stereotyped against himself and further worsened the problem. According to Aubry, â€Å"there is a consensus that everyone is part of the problem in many different ways† (Aubry, par. ). Most people place the blame on others when in fact they escalate the argument. Stereotyping has set societies back time and time again and until society is guided by the fairness of its ideas, its politics, and its culture and not by the fairness of one another’s skin or gender, progress cannot be made. Girlfight attacks the issue from the gender side while Crash from the racial side. Stereotyping is vague in nature but both films key in on these issues through their storyline and cinematic techniques. Girlfight did this through a realistic portrayal of the life of a young female boxer and her struggles. Crash decided to create a segmented story in which characters interact through their abuse of stereotyping. If Anthony and Peter had decided not to go through with the car hijacking, both them and the Cabots would have been closer to the realization that they were in fact, out of line. In Diana’s case, the public is against her, even her father is against her, yet she knows she can fend off the skeptics. Social stereotyping is pervasive and without both parties grasping that fact, both racist and gender stereotyping will continue to exist.

Project Portfolio Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Project Portfolio Management - Essay Example According to Todd (2003) having a strong program for portfolio management can significantly lower risks and maximize the value of projects. It can strengthen communications between projects teams business leadership, encourage teamwork & responsibility in management of projects, permit efficient scheduling of project resources and eliminate project redundancy. The ultimate result is profitability and maximum value out of projects. It is crucial to follow best practices and key steps of project management. Firstly it is important to have an inventory of projects so as to have all the projects the organization is running in a single database. Second is to identify those projects matching strategic business objectives and then categorize the projects based on their scores. It is also crucial to proactively manage the projects and identify potential hurdles in good time. The article is very useful especially to persons involved in project management. While the author appreciates there one specific approach to portfolio project management, he points pins out aligning projects with strategy and embracing best practices as key success factors. The article also maps important activities that must be implemented while managing projects and therefore the information is very useful to project management teams but also business leaders and students of

The Mozart Effect Theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Mozart Effect Theory - Research Paper Example The science backing this theory has not been shown to have reliability as it cannot be duplicated through subsequent testing of the same hypotheses. The popularity of the idea, however, has inspired political use of the theory in order to appeal to a public that seems to like the idea that music can affect learning in their children. The romanticism of the science has been turned into a public set of myths that have yet to be proven. The development of the Mozart Effect Theory gives power to the music written by the young composer that extends well beyond its beauty, suggesting that intelligence is affected by exposure to his writings, but the theory only has support and has yet to be definitively proven. According to Don Campbell, â€Å"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who saw, spoke, and listened to the world in creative patterns† (xiv). Campbell discusses the idea of the Mozart Effect in terms of it being miraculous. He lists a series of events that suggest that the music can do wondrous things, including that in Britain there are monks who believe that through playing Mozart’s music to their cows, the cows produce more milk. He reports that in the Washington State Immigration Department they play Mozart and other baroque music during classes for students learning to speak English because it increases learning. He also states that in Japan the Ohara Brewery will use Mozart to increase the density with which the yeast for their sake rises, creating a higher quality drink. Campbell believes that the power of music is far more than in the enjoyment of listening. Brown and Volgsten state that â€Å"the enhancement seen with Mozart is not produced with music per se but occurs with rhythmic auditory or visual stimuli of diverse kinds, and is primarily localized to operations underlying mental rotation† (146). The effect of hearing the music of Mozart or music in general seems to be that the brain responds to the rhythms produced, cr eating a sort of re-organization of thought patterns towards a reception to the information that is in the process of being learned. Brown and Volgsten suggest that the stimulation may simply be arousing, that the effect is caused by the auditory system as it is ‘perked up’ through the rhythms and sounds it is hearing. Campbell, on the other hand, cites that research done at Irvine by Francis H. Rauscher and her colleagues has shown that increased spatial reasoning occurs for about ten to fifteen minutes after listening to ten minutes of Mozart’s music. This effect may go deeper than simple stimulation of the auditory nerves which in turn stimulate brain activity. Neil-Palmer discusses how â€Å"the findings for all of the studies supported the theory that music lessons lead to an improvement in spatial reasoning, but there are contradictions as to which specific skills are affected† (33). One of the theories that Neil-Palmer discusses is that phonemic awa reness may be a part of how music stimulates increased learning. Phonemic awareness involves the way in which language is learned and how a child learns to read through the phonetics of how a word sounds. She cites a study published by Gromko in 2005 in which children were divided into an experimental group and a control group where the experimental group

Managing Knowledge at an NHS Trust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Managing Knowledge at an NHS Trust - Essay Example For this change to take place, the management needs to follow a change management process and provide incentives to the employees to stick with this change. Hopefully with this change, Reddix hospital can stand back on its feet and shine once again. Reddix Hospital is a trust hospital under national health services (NHS) in the United Kingdom serving over 900,000 patients in the area. It caters to many different medical fields and hence has to cater to an annual 7000 patients in admissions. With only 200 doctors whose expertise includes breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and pediatrics, the hospital finds itself short on employees and due to the recent nurse shortage, it finds itself unable to cater to all the patients are diligently as it like to. Also due to the inefficiencies and conventional systems, the hospital cannot cope up with the demands of the patients and the employees alike. Being a big hospital, Reddix faces many problems in the daily operations which it tries to address. In all its problems the integration between the departments was considered the biggest challenge. Since the hospital has many different departments that provide specialist information to the customers and as well as other departments, it needs to integrate its systems used in each department like Radiology Information Systems (RIS), Patient Administration System (PAS), Laboratory Information Systems (LIS), Clinical Patient Record (CPR), Pharmacy Systems (PS) and Nursing Systems (NS). Without the proper management and collaborative working, these departments can never truly achieve the desired efficiency and therefore effectiveness. Analyzing the situation, it is apparent that the hospital will needs an overhauling of the entire systems and the processes. Therefore a change strategy needs to be used in the scenario to free Reddix out of the crunch situation. It has to interoperate between the departments. In this context, it means that all business units must work in unison to create synergy and lead the organization to achieve operational efficiency. Recommendations The change process described by the psychologist Kurt Lewin in the early 20th century must be followed here. Let's see how this can be done (Lewin & Gold, 1999). 1) The first part of this change process in the unfreezing of the current norms of the organization. This means to change the people's sense of safety and feel a sense of control. The employees at Reddix have become used to the hospital norms and like that norm to remain the way it is. Breaking this norm is the key to success however due to non-commitment and resistance to change, this break though needs a systematic strategy. First of all the employees at the hospital must be made aware of need for change. This involves sending the employees to seminars, or having meetings where the need for change is discussed (Isaac, 2006). When the employees understand the need for change, then the actual changes must be brought along. 2) After the initial education of the employees, the actual changes must be enforced on the employees by giving them goals and objectives (Fred, 2006). According to the report by National Health Services,

Astronomy 101 for 2 year college Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Astronomy 101 for 2 year college - Lab Report Example 5% of them seem to split in two facular points; (h) they disappear simply by fading away in an intergranular space; (i) they never merge with another facular point or with a granule. C. Small dark regions called sunspots. Sunspots are cooler regions on the photosphere. Since they are 1000--1500 K cooler than the rest of the photosphere, they do not emit as much light and appear darker. B. During a total solar eclipse, an exceptional situation occurs, and for a few fleeting seconds, an emission spectrum can be observed. This happens at the very beginning of totality and just after the last bit of photosphere has been covered by the Moon. (Picture 1) For a period of several to perhaps ten seconds the chromosphere is visible as a red arc. (Recall that the chromosphere is a very thin layer just above the photosphere.) Often prominences are seen jutting from the chromosphere. The deep red color of the chromosphere comes from very strong emission in the hydrogen-alpha line at 656 nm. Because the chromosphere is quite rare and hot (with a temperature of about 10,000 K) it shows an emission spectrum in the absence of any light from the much brighter photosphere. Of course, the advance of the Moon soon covers the chromosphere and then the much rarer corona becomes visible as a broad white halo. Within minutes totality reaches completion, the chromosphere reappears on the o pposite side of the Sun followed seconds later by the overwhelming brightness of the photosphere. (Picture 2) Because the chromosphere is so thin, it forms an ideal subject for spectral imaging. A diffraction grating inserted in the light path of a telescope separates the light according to wavelength (just as in your spectrometer). An attached camera will then record the chromosphere imaged in each of the component wavelengths in its emission spectrum. This is the flash spectrum, so-called because of its brief accessibility. B. Because the chromosphere is quite rare and hot (with a temperature of

Assignment 03 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

03 - Assignment Example The clause will legally bind the employees from releasing confidential company secrets other than in compliance with legal obligations in a court of law or statutory duty. In addition, the employees should not disclose information to anyone who has not signed a non-disclosure agreement with the company, failure to which the company will take legal action against the employee for breach of contract (Brewer 12). According to Brewer, assault is the threat to harm with the apparent ability to do so (74). Battery involves the harmful touching of an individual. In the case above, it is an assault case since the fake punch B took on A qualified as a threat to punch. In addition, B had the apparent ability to punch A due to their close proximity in the car. False Imprisonment is the act of restraining a person from free movement, either through physical force, a failure to release and physical barriers. For a false imprisonment charge to hold in a court of law, the act must be unlawful and must be against the will of the plaintiff. In addition, there must be force or threat to force. However, in the case between A and B, there is no false imprisonment since A has valid proof of cause for the alleged imprisonment; B was drunk and his life would have been in danger from the bears and witches. The sheriff should arrest B on drunk and disorderly charges (Brewer 23). Comparative Negligence is a law implemented in accident cases to ascertain responsibility and damages in proportion to the level of negligence of all the parties involved in the accident. In order to calculate the damages, two approaches are used: ii. Modified Comparative Negligence- The plaintiff is barred from recovering any damages if he is more responsible for the accident or equally responsible. Therefore, so as to recover damages, the plaintiff must have been less responsible for the accident. The law of Duty to Mitigate occurs when an individual suffers a loss due to a breach of

Explain the growth in the concentration of media ownership around the Assignment

Explain the growth in the concentration of media ownership around the world - Assignment Example Founded and headquartered in Australia, the company now boasts of being the number one newspaper publisher in the world, with a cumulative daily readership of 14 million in these three countries alone. Murdoch has a near monopoly in the media space in Australia, owning two-thirds of all newspaper circulation in the country. Across the Tasman Sea, in New Zealand, he owns nearly half. Further, he is the owner of two fifths of the Australian Associated Press. (Knowlton & Parsons, 2005, p. 200) These holdings are notwithstanding his considerable market share in Britain and the United States. These statistics bear testimony to the Murdoch’s media monopoly. Between the lines one can read the dangers posed by monopoly in an industry that is crucial to socio-cultural discourse. One of the negative consequences of media concentration is that it nullifies ethical standards of journalism. News Corp’s official Standards of Business Conduct (SBC) document makes some bold claims. But the company’s actual behaviour is contradictory to these claims. For example, in the area of building trust with business partners and customers, it claims that trust and integrity are of utmost importance. The manner in which the company actually functions makes a mockery of these ethical concerns. There are several instances where News Corp had colluded with political organizations to attain favourable deals. One of the first instances of News Corp’s opportunistic use of political connections came to light in1995. Murdoch struck a book deal with the then House Speaker of the United States Congress Newt Gingrich for a substantial sum of $4.5 million. The ethical problem was obvious in this case. Murdoch, who was even at that time an influential and trans-global media personality, owned a newspaper chain and several television stations. He stood to gain enormously through the relationship with the Speaker. It was only after severe public

Importance of reserch and development to an innovative company Assignment

Importance of reserch and development to an innovative company - Assignment Example With reference to the context, it can be observed that Exxon Mobil Corporation from the United States has comprehensively introduced R&D management into its business process. With due consideration to the aspect, the paper intends to discuss about the ways in which Exxon Mobil makes use of R&D in its business operational process to obtain an edge over its market competitors. Exxon Mobil is one of the leading multinational and publicly traded oil and gas companies of the world having its headquarters in Irving, Texas, United States. It was created in the year 1999 after the merger between Exxon and Mobil and is recognized as a decedent company of Standard Oil founded by John D. Rockefeller. In serving the local communities with oil and gas along with other petrochemicals, Exxon Mobil has been able to expand its business operations on a global basis. Consequently, it has been able to achieve certain milestones which can be identified as the business segments of Exxon Mobil has expanded overseas within a very short span of time. Furthermore, in expanding business to overseas, Exxon Mobil has been capable to possess 31 refineries of oil. With the help of the final products produced in these refineries, Exxon Mobil is serving 21 countries with their products. Contextually, with the help of the sustainable performances in the recent years, Exxon Mobil has ach ieved the status of being the number one corporation in the USA according to Forbes Global 2000 list of the year 2012 by increasing its organizational revenues and profits (Forbes, 2012). Moreover, for surviving in the competitive marketplace, Exxon uses innovative and modern technologies in order to develop an aggressive and advanced operational process for serving the customers. In accordance with the aspect, it is observed that Exxon Mobil has introduced R&D management into its operational process (Exxon Mobil, 2012). R&D management can be defined as the management

My Light and Shadows Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My Light and Shadows - Essay Example have blamed the existence of unethical practices in the global market place to the fact that there are no universal standards for doing business because standards and ethics vary from place to place (Balkundi and Harrison, 2006). This paper therefore discusses the place of biblical principles for businesses and tries to find the place of these biblical principles in becoming universal standards for doing business. Comparing the guidelines offered by Caux Round Table and White’s Biblical principles, there are some similarities and differences that can be realized, especially using the logic variables presented in the two contexts such as purpose, questions posed, inferences, and conclusions made by the two writers. For example, it can be realized that in both contexts, there is a realization of a higher force and a smaller force. In the instance of the Caux Round Table, the employee is the smaller force who is bounded by the interests of the employer, stakeholders, the market, and the business environment. For the employee to gain favor in the sight of the higher force, there are key principles that must be followed in relation to these higher forces (CRT, 2010). In terms of White’s Biblical principles, similar scenarios are created between worshippers and deities. Regardless of this similarity, there are key differences that are noticed. In terms of implications that the two wri ters create, we read about Caux, focusing on the need for the business oriented person to follow specific ethics for the purpose of achieving business growth and a conclusion that brings about self gratification. In contrast to what is implied by White’s Biblical principles, the follower of rules and ethics is expected to do so not specifically for any personal gratification purposes but as a way of pleasing the maker and achieving a reward that is not of the present world but the world that is yet to come. Relating White’s five principles to that of Caux Round Table, there are

Price Elasticity to Identify a Brands Competitors Essay Example for Free

Price Elasticity to Identify a Brands Competitors Essay Firms today are in their perspective industries to maximize consumer satisfaction, increase revenue, and shareholders profits. These tasks require attention to detail when pricing their products. There are always competitors lurking and waiting by the wayside to gain market share and a competitive advantage. When identifying brands competitors, price elasticity is a major determinant. Demand for a product or service constitutes what the company’s price will be and whether the price will be higher or lower than the competitor’s price. In terms of the elasticity, price increases may decrease demand and price decreases may increase demand. However, according to Kotler, The introduction or change of any price may initiate a response (favorable or unfavorable) from customers and competitors† (Kotler, P. and Keller, K., 2012) Ultimately, the concept of price elasticity can identify a brand’s competitors along with marketing research to identify consumer needs, wants, and desires, as well as current industry and competitor’s going- rate pricing. Reference Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2012). Marketing Management 14E. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. How might marketers use conjoint analysis to improve pricing strategies? When determining pricing strategies marketers must perform research that allows the consumer to voice their opinions in reference to what they need and how important the product or service is to their well-being. One method of doing so is through conjoint analysis. â€Å"Kotler defines this method as a  means to ask customers to rank their preferences for alternative market offerings or concepts, then they use statistic analysis to estimate the implicit value placed on each attribute† (Kotler, P. and Keller, K., 2012). Marketers have their work cut out for them when a firm or pricing department requests their assistance to establish a competitive advantage for their product or service. In order for a firm to know and understand what value or benefits the customer expects when utilizing their products and services the use value propositions is of the essence. According to the strategy and performance coaching company Edborrows,† items that firms need to consider when applying customer value propositions are as follows: †¢ All Benefits †¢ Favorable Points of Differentiation †¢ Resonating Focus †¢ Resonating focus highlights one or two critical differences between the firm’s offerings †¢ Generic Value Propositions †¢ Operational Excellence †¢ Customer Intimacy †¢ Product/Service Innovation (Barrows, 2010) Price elasticity of demand is a way to determine marginal revenue. Optimal revenue and, more importantly, optimal profit will occur to the point when marginal revenue = marginal cost, or the price elasticity of demand The proportion of the total sales of a product secured by one particular company or brand

Impact of Brexit on Cross-Cultural Management Practices

Impact of Brexit on Cross-Cultural Management Practices Critically analyse the long-term impact of Brexit for cross-cultural management practices in Europe. Consider the impact and issues for businesses from both the UK and other EU-partner perspectives. On 23rd of June 2016, United Kingdom (UK) had held Brexit referendum in desire of leaving European Union (EU) (Ford and Goodwin, 2017). The outcome of the referendum was 51.9% of British citizens voted leave EU, whilst 48.1% had voted to remain within EU (Hunt and Wheeler, 2017). The verdict of referendum to withdraw from the membership of EU, will have a huge impact to the country’s cross cultural relationship with the prime trade partner EU. This assignment has been prepared to critically analyse the long-term impacts of Brexit for cross-cultural management practices; the focus will be on the UK healthcare sector and how they will be enforced to cultural change, (Mundasad, 2017). Following onto UK banking sector and finishing off with summary on the impact of UK airline industry within EU. This essay will start off by an introduction regarding about the UK’s healthcare sector which will be the main focus of the essay; following on with brief implications on the UK banking sector and Low cost Airline industry. Describing how the healthcare sector will be hugely impacted by losing highly trained staff after Brexit, as majority of the nurses and doctors come from the EU to join UK’s healthcare sector. Furthermore this essay will analyse and identify the major impacts of cross culture management after Brexit. The main three effects of Brexit in the long run will be in regards to international staffing which includes: ‘immigration’,‘re-expatriation’ and ‘labour market’. These three difficulties will be linked to the long term impacts of Brexit and on the global staffing issue, this will be backed up with models to interpret and recognise the disputes. The word Brexit has been used throughout media and is a media terminology which has been used to show the exit of UK from EU. ‘Brexit’ has been created by combining two of the initial words of Britain with the word exit (James, 2016). The main question that was brought up to British citizens for the referendum was: â€Å"Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?† (Green, 2017).   The parliament gave the option for the public to decide whether it is best to leave EU, knowing the fact that the general public had no knowledge on the long-term impacts of Brexit and how it will bring challenges for the upcoming generations.  Ã‚   One of the challenges for Brexit that will impact the health care sector is global staffing that will be ‘immigration’. Before Brexit, UK was part of the EU and participated within the EU’s policies in relation to free movement of people. This allowed the healthcare sector to recruit their employees from any country within EU and permitted the citizens to move freely between EU and UK so they could work and live in their desired place. The latest statistics shows that the healthcare sector, has roughly around 55,000 recruits which come from EU countries (Fenton, 2016).   Conversely, because of the impact of Brexit there is a vulnerability that the privilege to freedom of movement would still relate to the EU citizens (Rankin, 2016). Many of the employees who work within the healthcare sector are categorised as ‘third-country nationals’ on their applications, these employees are mainly on a work visa in the UK.   However, after Brexit things will change and many of these ‘third-country nationals’ would be hugely impacted than the EU citizens that work in UK (Barnard, 2017). Because of this, the effects on global staffing of talent and ability planning within the healthcare sector occurs. Knowing that the implication of Brexit will lead to immigration issues, causing staff shortage within different industries, the healthcare sector should look into this matter and decide on different recruitment procedures whether they should make or buy the skilled force. Altogether, for a short period of time it will be best for the healthcare sector to make their talent rather than buying. It is smarter for the healthcare sector to concentrate on the internal labour markets after Brexit, on the grounds that this will build the dedication of employees in the job they do and giving them greater security so that they do not fear the consequences of Brexit. Since the matter of Brexit arose, the healthcare sector would in any case still want to keep their staff, as majority of these are EU national staff and are usually doctors or nurses that are highly skilled and qualified to serve the people of UK. For the healthcare sector to avoid any negative consequences which will begin to impact after the negotiations and agreement of Brexit, they should prepare themselves beforehand in regards to handling the workforce and retaining employees. Another challenge of Brexit that impacts the healthcare sector is ‘flexible to labour market’. The meaning of this is that the organisations have more freedom to hire and provide contracts to employees when the demands of work increases, and they have the power to fire the workers when demand of work decreases. On the other hand, healthcare sector has been in stress many times because of shortage in staff to fulfil the needs and providing service to the citizens of UK (Mundasad, 2017). Besides, the verdict of referendum could prompt to having a bigger number of issues than before on recruiting workers in the healthcare sector as majority of these workers are doctors and nurses who are recruited from EU nations (Triggle, 2016). When non-EU nationals apply to work within UK, they have to follow the ‘points-based system’ which causes difficulties in recruiting employees other than EU nationals (Landou, 2016). Once the Brexit is settled, there will be a risk off EU’s freedom of movement to be removed and this could cause huge implications on the healthcare sector as this will put on boundaries on recruiting employees, therefore this will lead to a huge deficiency of workers. These implications will affect the capacity of the employees who bring the right skills and abilities that is required by the healthcare sector. Therefore, to beat this issue it will be best for the healthcare sector to send their employees on an international project so they could develop on their skills and knowledge. The final implication after Brexit for the healthcare sector is ‘re-expatriation’, where the organisation will need to take to think through. The issues about freedom of movement as specified above, British residents who have decided to work and live in another country within Europe will fear their healthcare and right to remain will vanish post-Brexit (Carroll, 2016). Furthermore, British expats who work abroad within the EU could face difficulties if the country they’re at ask the expats to comply and act upon their prohibitive guidelines with regards to licenses, permits and setting up firms. Therefore, this could cause them in losing their right to work in EU countries and will need to gain a permitted stay to continue staying within the EU area because of the new policy that may be applied after Brexit. Thus, the effects of global staffing within the healthcare sector will be influenced. Conversely, if all the UK expats that live and work within EU nations are to return back to the UK following the post-Brexit, then it is conceivable that it will make it more difficult for new expats to look for some kind of employment within UK (Burton, 2016). Furthermore, the UK expats who work and live within the EU nations are entitled to free healthcare service but once Brexit is completed and agreed this will be affected and the right for free healthcare could be taken away (Parfitt, 2016). Expatriates give a lot of benefits to the firms which incorporates more prominent parent control and the right sets of aptitudes. It is believed that this is seen to provide greater prospects for personal and career development. With the post-Brexit, the expats are disturbed on playing out their parts and tasks bringing about the disappointment of expatriates. Precisely, re-expatriations will have complications on adjusting themselves when they return to UK. For instance, after the referendum and agreements majority of the expats will be required to return back to their birth country which will have an impact on culture, causing an experience of reverse culture shock by getting a habit of working and adjusting their life in the foreign country they have been sent to work at (Skyes, 2011). Therefore, this will cause the healthcare sector to experience a huge loss on collaboration and investments on expats who are sent to work from different EU countries. Overall, ‘re-expatriation’ will be a big test within the healthcare sector after Brexit primarily looking at the employment and managing role. Additionally, the healthcare sector should look into these long term impacts that have been mentioned above and plan into the future so they could avoid the consequences of managing global staff after Brexit. Now there will be analysis regarding about the banking sector and how Brexit will impact the cross cultural management style. The banking sector is a big sector within the EU and UK, majority of the UK banks work across EU and other international countries such as China and Japan as it is cheaper for non-EU countries to collaborate and work with EU countries rather than individual countries. The main impact on the UK banking sector will be in regards to the loss of â€Å"passporting rights†, a recent report has shown that almost 5,500 organisations in UK mainly rely on the passporting so that they could do business with the EU nations, and over 8,000 organisations of EU rely on passporting for trade with UK (Toptal Finance Blog, 2017). Majority of the banks within the UK are known for working cross-border to provide banking services to people across the globe. With regards to these services, the UK banks cover the needs of borrowing of the firms in various nations; thus, by losing the ‘passporting right’, it will hugely impact the banking sector and will be a challenge to overcome as they will have to terminate their cooperation’s with overseas consumers, a reality that could undermine the banks’ dependability in the market (Ford and Goodwin, 2017; Walsh, 2017). Hence, the banks will suffer a big loss towards cross-border collaboration and investments; so it will be a challenge to bring this up in the negotiations towards Brexit, however UK is leaving the EU so there will be less goodwill towards the negotiations and it will be tough. UK might have two options either to use the Swiss-style or the Norwegian way for Britain to benefit the passporting trade. Therefore the banking sector will need to look into this matter and come up with a solution so that they do not lose their overseas consumers. Ashurst (2016) clarified that the UK banks signifies high percentage of activities with regards to cross-cultural services. The activities are depended on the EU legislations. When the legislations are modernised and amended after Brexit, it could terminate the activities of the banks, this impact would be very hard to be overseen and managed, in both areas of lawful and as of its financial aspects (Ashurst, 2016). Simultaneously, the volume of bad loan under the impact of Brexit is predicted to be profoundly enlarged. The statistics shows that these loans in 2017, was expected to reach up to  £6.9 billion and in 2018 to reach up at  £9.7 billion; this impact will increase the loans by  £2.8 billion within one year (Gros, 2016). The Bank of England had made an announcement on March 2017, warning the banks within UK that they should be well prepared in the case of severe turbulence with the UK’s economy due to the Brexit outcomes; the Bank of England described the turbulences as â€Å"knee-jerk reactions† (Burton, 2017).   This statement that the Bank of England has stated has a negative connotation, they are giving a warning to banks that there will be sudden change within the economy and there will be no time to think about a solution because we do not know what the outcome will turn out to be. The UK is still undergoing their bill with negotiations, this bill will cover all the issues of Brexit and how UK could overcome it by EU been lenient to the bill, however it is predicted that this will cost the UK between  £66 and  £111 billion to complete the process (Lowe, 2017). Furthermore, the foreign investments within the UK business industry has been predicted to reduce by 25% by 2019, because of Brexit effect (Cox et al., 2017). This figure includes one of the Brexit cost. A survey conducted amongst the UK’s most influential businesses have exposed that the impact of Brexit on businesses within UK have been negative by far (Ross & Meakin, 2017). At the moment only in the result of the verdict UK have had negative effects on businesses but when the negotiations have been completed and Brexit is finalised this will severely impact the UK’s economy. Conversely, it is believed that the exit of EU will benefit the UK but in the long term. As the withdrawal from EU nations could potentially increase the UK’s economy as UK will not be included to contribute towards the EU’s assets and expenses. For instance, in 2016 UK had given an amount of  £13.2 billion to EU for the expenses and assets (Begg, 2017). But this benefit to Brexit on UK will take a while to appear. Certainly, UK’s growth has been predicted to be 1.6% in 2018 from 2% in 2017 having a decrease (Kottasova, 2017). PWC a leading accounting firm has produced a report, which the Bank of England has anticipated that they would avoid making any changes to Britain’s financial regulatory policy for a certain amount of time, mainly up until they get closer to the progression of Brexit negotiations (PWC, 2017). In conclusion Brexit will cause several implications on UK, both in a positive and negative scopes. Mainly in the context of economy, as there will be a potential increase of UK to do trade with other countries around the globe as the restrictions to legislations provided by EU will not be applied in UK. However, the Bill may create traffics and barriers between UK and EU trade and would potentially decrease the advantages of UK’s trade liberalisation. Simultaneously, the power of UK to make critical decisions on issues such as immigration, introduction of economy restrictions and involvement with conflicts around the globe would be unconditional. Additionally, it cannot be determined whether the full independency of UK from the rules of EU will be a condition of ‘hard’ Brexit or ‘soft’, if ‘hard’ Brexit is opted then this could potentially be dangerous for UK in several ways, mainly with the issues that have been analysed above. As a matter of fact, the aspects of UK’s economic, political and social environment has created awareness that the benefits of Brexit to the UK is virtually the same to it disadvantages. Therefore, with this nature the accomplishment of ‘soft’ Brexit through the negotiations should be the main aim for the UK’s government so that they could avoid complications in the future. Reference list: Ashurst (2016) Brexit: the potential impact on the UK’s banking industry. (Online). Available at: https://www.ashurst.com/en/news-and-insights/insights/brexit-potential-impact-on-the-uk-banking-industry/ (Accessed 12 Dec 2017). Barnard, C., 2017. Law and Brexit. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 33(suppl_1), pp.S4-S11. Begg, I. (2017) How Much Will Brexit Cost? Chatham House. (Online). Available at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/how-much-will-brexit-cost [Accessed 19 Dec 2017]. Burton, L. (2017) Bank of England warns lenders against knee-jerk Brexit reactions. The Telegraph. (Online). Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/27/bank-england-check-banks-ready-range-brexit-outcomes/ Burton, L. (2016). Brexit: What does it mean for expats, here and in the EU? BBC News. (Online) BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36606847 (Accessed 17 Dec. 2017). Carroll, L. (2016). It terrifies me: Britons in Europe on how Brexit is going to affect them. (Online) the guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/15/britons-expats-europe-how-brexit-affect-them (Accessed 18 Dec. 2017). Cox, J., Chu, B. and Rodionova, Z. (2017) Cost of Brexit: The impact on business and the economy so far. Independent. (Online). Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-economy-sterling-currency-investment-cost-impact-business-financial-banks-insurance-retail-a7695486.html [Accessed 18 Dec 2017]. Fenton, S. (2016). The government has admitted the NHS could struggle without EU staff following Brexit. (Online) The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-could-struggle-post-brexit-without-eu-citizen-staff-department-of-health-officials-admit-a7204551.html (Accessed 15 Dec. 2017). Ford, R. and Goodwin, M. (2017) Britain after Brexit.  Journal of Democracy, 28(1), pp.17-30. Green, D. (2017) The tale of the Brexit referendum question. Financial Times. (Online). Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/b56b2b36-1835-37c6-8152-b175cf077ae8 (Accessed 10 Dec 2017). Gros, D. (2016) How would Brexit affect finance for SMEs? (Online). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/apr/05/how-would-brexit-affect-finance-for-smes [Accessed 18 Dec 2017]. Hunt, A. and Wheeler, B. (2017) Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU. BBC News. (Online). Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887 (Accessed 11 December 2017). James, C. (2016) Brexit: What now for Study Mobility between the UK and the EU? Pà ©cs Journal of International and European Law, 2, pp.7-20. Kottasova, I. (2017) What Brexit will cost Britain: More debt, weaker growth and a final bill. CNN Money. (Online). Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/29/news/economy/brexit-article-50-cost-economy-debt/index.html [Accessed 19 Dec 2017]. Landou, P. (2016). Would Brexit make it harder to hire EU workers?. (online) the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/mar/29/would-brexit-make-harder-hire-eu-workers-referendum (Accessed 16 Dec. 2017). Lowe, J. (2017) How Much Will Brexit Cost? U.K. Conservatives Put Brexit Settlement in Manifesto. Newsweek. (Online). Available at: http://www.newsweek.com/brexit-eu-uk-conservative-party-manifesto-2017-how-much-will-brexit-cost-611677 [Accessed 19 Dec 2017]. Mundasad, S. (2017). NHS staff shortages: Why so persistent? BBC News. (Online) BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38640068 (Accessed 14 Dec. 2017). Parfitt, T. (2016). Expats in Spain could LOSE right to free healthcare after Brexit vote, PM says. (Online) Express.co.uk. Available at: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/683708/expats-Brexit-EU-referendum-Spain-Mariano-Rajoy-Jean-Claude-Juncker (Accessed 17 Dec. 2017). PWC (2017) Brexit – Global Insights. (Online). Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/brexit.html [Accessed 19 Dec 2017]. Rankin, J. (2016). Freedom of movement: the wedge that will split Britain from Europe. (Online) the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/06/freedom-of-movement-eu-uk-brexit-negotiations-theresa-may (Accessed 15 Dec. 2017). Ross, T. and Meakin, L. (2017) U.K. Business Says Brexit Already Having a Negative Effect. Bloomberg. (Online). Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-06/u-k-business-says-brexit-is-already-having-a-negative-effect [Accessed 19 Dec 2017]. Skyes, A. (2011). Reverse culture shock: What, when, and how to cope. (Online) Expatica.com. Available at: http://www.expatica.com/nl/moving-to/Moving-home-Reverse-culture-shock_104957.html (Accessed 19 Dec. 2017). Toptal Finance Blog. (2017). The Impact of Brexit on the Financial Services Sector. [Online] Available at: https://www.toptal.com/finance/market-research-analysts/brexit-and-its-effect-on-the-uk-european-and-global-financial-sector [Accessed 19 Dec. 2017]. Triggle, N. (2016). Brexit will make NHS staff shortages worse BBC News. (Online) BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36664094 (Accessed 16 Dec. 2017).

The Auteur Theory Film Studies Essay

The Auteur Theory Film Studies Essay -The auteur theory, if defined as the ultimate foundation for a filmmakers vision, can be a rather unstable remark for one to give. Who in the beginning of film history declared that a director must adhere to a specific genre with a specific style? It seems, like anything else, that the reasoning behind this theory is for a person to find a way to make sense of it all. However, one could argue that a filmmaker has reasoning behind why they have chosen their career path in the first place, or what kind of themes they want to express to the public. No matter what the genre or screenplay, a filmmaker can become a true auteur if they exhibit the same thematic preoccupations, the same recurring motifs and incidents, and the same visual style and tempo (Wollen 73).   In this essay, I will argue that Andrew Sarriss definition of film auteurism, along with Jim Kitses and Peter Wollen redefinition of its traditional and structuralist conceptions, are displayed in M. Night Shyamalans The Happening (along with his other films) as an example of the filmmakers auteurism. Andrew Sarris assesses a filmmakers auteurism under three pieces of criteria: technical competence, personality evident through oeuvre (director as stylist), and beauty of interior meanings of films. Technical competence, as a notion of value, surfaces the idea that a badly directed or undirected film has no importance in a critical scale of values, but one can make interesting conversation about the subject, the script, the acting, the color, the photography, the editing, the music, the costumes, etc (Sarris 69). In an interview with CNN, Shyamalan insists that The Happening is the best B movie you will ever see, thats it. Thats what this is. With this information, Shyamalan lays out the foundation of the films technical competence in relation to his past films. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, and Lady in the Water were assumingly created to the best of Shyamalans artistic abilities. Shyamalan premeditated The Happening with the notion that it would not be displayed as one of his ideal aesthetic pieces of cinema. It has been widely known that Shyamalan has had direct influences from science-fiction shows like The Twilight Zone, therefore audiences should be able to suspend moments of realism because, premeditatedly, bizarre and unexplained scenes are going to occur. Its going to test your patience, imagination, and social pressure, meaning that it almost dares you to laugh at inexplicable moments of dialogue and scenarios, and while it would be easy to write them off as bad filmmaking, if more effort is put into discover whats really happening or whats trying to be displayed (Shyamalans B-movie approach) , the stronger the payoff will be. For example, the scene where Mark Wahlberg is talking to a plastic plant, pretty funny right? Sure, if you look at it from the standpoint that its just Mark Wahlberg talking to a plastic plant. But if you think about it abstractly, the scene is completely appropriate to the films narrative. After evacuating New York City, being dropped off in a random town in Pennsylvania, then running from an attacking environmental force thats never fully explained, isnt it crazy enough to think that after all this, a person might begin to lose a sense of normalcy? Why not talk to the plant? It cant hurt to try new approaches to a specific scenario in order to figure out what could be happening, no matter how crazy it makes you look from an outside perspective. Sarriss film auteur definition extends even further, to the filmmakers personality and its visible evidence throughout oeuvre (director as stylist). A director must exhibit certain recurring characteristics of style which serve as his signature. The way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels (Sarris 69). With The Happening, there is clear evidence of Shyamalans personality. Since The Sixth Sense, he has been become known as the master of suspense. He never sells himself out to violence. Instead, he uses it as a tool to build towards a much more apocalyptic fear. The Happening is never explored from a large-scale angle like War of the Worlds, but rather the larger event that is taking place simultaneously merely peeks from the corners of the screen. Any filmmaker can physically blow things up so long as they have a decent budget. Instead, Shyamalan blows up our imagination. According to Sarris, the auteur theory must have a director with a specific style. Going along with Sarriss quote, the way Shyamalan uses violence in the film fits his personal and socially known filmmaking vision. For example, the scene where multiple bodies hang from hoses on trees is incredibly and meaningfully staged. As a passing car witnesses this, could you imagine sitting in that car and be thinking: What in the hell happened here that caused people to end up like this? Its so much scarier with scenes like this to leave the actual act of violence to the imagination because the imagination has no limits. Thats what makes this all the more horrifying. Shyamalan could have taken the lazy way out by going all Saw on us, producing over the top gore that has no purpose to the story. Theres a difference between horror and violence, and instead, Shyamalan seems to grasp this concept and use violence to enhance the story. He has shown this in every single one of his movies, even with The Happenings limitless R-rating. Sarriss third and final piece of criteria for assessing a directors auteurism is the beauty of the interior meaning behind a film. Sometimes a great deal of corn must be husked to yield a few kernels of internal meaning (Sarris 71). The post 9/11 atmosphere in our society still looms in the back of everyones mind. Shyamalan, instead of abusing this fear, induces it into interpersonal paranoia. The strangeness of each scene allows multiple scenarios of fear. The vibes coming off each character suggests that the events in The Happening are terrorist attacks. Why? Because its the first thing that enters everyones mind. The media has us so convinced that an act of terrorism is the only possible explanation of an attack on American soil that it has become the epitome of mass cultural fear. The standardization of mass culture (in this case, the media of mass culture) dictates the audiences reactions, telling them how to think and feel. Clement Greenberg, an American art critic of the 20th century argues that the Kitsch (German word meaning mass culture) associated in filmmaking has become extremely easy to notice. For example, a clichà ©d horror scene consists of objects jumping onto the screen after moments of eerie noises or silence (The Prom Night example). Formulaically, its the feeling that someone is going to jump out and scream a standardized horror clichà ©d line like boo! or gotcha! Shyamalan on the other hand, takes this persona and reverses it. Instead of forcing the audience into feeling a specific reaction, he allows them to think for themselves. Jim Kitses and Peter Wollen redefine the traditionalists and structuralist conceptions of auteurism in a simplistic manner that remains to this day, arguably, as an odyssey. Kitses claims that genre is to filmmaker as language is to speaker. The very foundation of meaning for an artist to work with is the roots in which they display the most comfort. Kitses explains that the meanings, characters, stories, and imagery come from the structure of the genre and the present culture in which the filmmaker is working within. Applying this to Shyamalans personal authorship, both Kitses and Wollen express their theories: In my view the term (auteur theory) describes a basic principle and a method, no more and no less (Kitses 89) and exhibit the same thematic preoccupations, the same recurring motifs and incidents, and the same visual style and tempo (Wollen 73). Shyamalan, in almost all of his films tackles big social themes, being mostly end of the world scenarios (Signs, The Happening) and/or socially known fears (The Village, The Sixth Sense). In Signs, Shyamalan takes a basic principle (an alien invasion towards planet earth) and applies his own basic method to it (the event is seen through the eyes of an American family trying to survive it). By adding his own layers of substance to Kitsess basic principle and method, Shyamalan ultimately creates his own personal authorship. Signs has the same basic principle as Steven Spielbergs War of the Worlds, but each director has their own vision towards it. Both Signs and War of the Worlds are about an alien invasion towards planet earth in which an American family tries to survive it, but unlike Spielberg, Shyamalan doesnt physically blow up the world, he enforces the imagination on the viewer and only implies physical destruction. Roger Eberts review of Signs furthers this argument: I will not even say whether aliens appear in the movie, because whether they do or not is beside the point. The purpose of the film is to evoke pure emotion through the use of skilled acting and direction, and particularly through the soundtrack. It is not just what we hear that is frightening. It is the way Shyamalan has us listening intensely when there is nothing to be heard. I cannot think of a movie where silence is scarier, and inaction is more disturbing (Roger Ebert). Kitses and Wollen have very similar opinions in the basic elements of the auteur. Kitses expresses that it involves a basic principle and a method, where Wollen argues that it exhibits the same thematic preoccupations. However, the process of getting the film to a concrete medium is where the two differ. Kitses compares genre to filmmaker as language is to speaker. When a speaker speaks a language, they may say it on their own terms, with different tones, dialects, expressions, emotions, speed, etc. therefore in translation to cinema, a filmmaker may express a genre their own way without the interference of an outside medium. While that it very much the case in many situations, the auteur must also face several realities, most evidently the wants and desires of the films financier (in other words, the studio) and the potential incidents that could destroy a films credibility. The director does not have full control of his work. This explains why the auteur theory involves a kind of decipherment, decryptment. A great many features of films analysed have to be dismissed as indecipherable because of noise from the producer, the cameraman or even the actors (Wollen 77). Audiences and critics can become subconsciously superstitious if one is not careful to consider the fact that films undergo realistic challenges like anything else. Shyamalan has experienced these heartaches just like any other filmmaker. In The Sixth Sense, his favorite scene (an alternate ending with an extended version of Bruce Williss wedding video speech) was cut from the film due to a studio decision. In Signs, Shyamalan was disappointed with his cinematographers (Tak Fujimoto) visual representation of the aliens. Furthermore, one must insist that Kitses wrote his analysis on the auteur theory before the Internet world affected the cinema. For example, the definitive twist in Shyamalans The Village was leaked online before its theatrical release date, ultimately allowing the entire world to access the films signature plot twist. This not only directly contributed to the films box-office disappointment, but also its initial critical failure, which discouraged the meaning of Shyamalans message. One could argue that The Sixth Sense would have suffered the same fate of The Village had the Internet been a primary resource and if the films ending was leaked online before its theatrical release in 1999. The structure of a movie is premeditated by an auteur, but a films outcome may have an end that does not justify the means. In a perfect filmmaking world, Kitsess theory would reign supreme on the idea that genre is to filmmaker as language is to speaker, but Wollen understands that things can happen beyond the control of an auteur. It simply means that it is inaccessible to criticism. We can merely record our momentary and subjective impressions (Wollen 77). Perhaps this is why Shyamalans films are becoming more appreciated as time goes on. One example of this is Unbreakable, which was initially a critical and box-office disappointment (in relation to The Sixth Sense) upon its release date in August of 2000, but over the years a cult following on DVD and VHS has sparked rumors of a potential sequel. Sarris, Kitses, and Wollens theories are visible in todays mainstream discussions. Shyamalans statement in the CNN interview stating, The Happening is the best B-movie ever is filled with Sarriss ideas of technical competence in the criteria for a films auteurism. Wollen is seen in Roger Eberts reviews on both Shyamalans Signs and The Happening. Ebert states in his Signs review that in a time when Hollywood mistakes volume for action, Shyamalan makes quiet films. In a time when incessant action is a style, he persuades us to play close attention to the smallest nuances (Roger Ebert). Every Shyamalan film since The Sixth Sense has had a summer release date. The filmmaker has an off-rhythmic beat in a year of Hollywood releases. M. Night Shyamalans The Happening is a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man (Roger Ebert). Personal taste aside, a theatrical release of a Shyamalan movie is always a movie event. In many ways, we know what to expect from his films. First and foremost (in accordance to mainstream logic), his box-office numbers are usually very successful (Lady in the Water is his only film that failed to produce a profit in its theatrical run). A Time Magazine interview has Shyamalan defending his financial success. Except for Pixar, I have made the four most successful original movies in a row of all time (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village). If youre not betting on me, then nobody should get money. Ive made profit a mathematical certainty. Im the safest bet you got. Behind his films financial successes are their other obvious components. The science-fiction genre is a must, his release dates are similar (theyve ranged no further in the summer season than June through August), and his characters all embody the struggles of interpersonal and emotional growth.   Through this mainstream discussion, an auteur (in this case, Shyamalan) exhibits the same thematic preoccupations, the same recurring motifs and incidents, and the same visual style and tempo (Wollen 73). Shyamalan, whether or not many believe he has lost his touch, is still a prime example of film auteurism. When watching one of his films, you always know you are watching a Shyamalan movie. It is clear with his setting (every one of his films is set in Philadelphia,) his vision (large scale events shown through a small-scale,) and his themes (the power of love, the fear of violence, and the importance of the imagination). His technical competence, personal evident throughout oeuvre, and internal meeting are all elements in his personal authorship in American cinema. Like anything else, only time has any real ability to create an understanding, in this case behind the man who was once called The Next Spielberg, the elements of his film auteurism, and the theorists who have timelessly argued the notion of the terms infinitely interpreted foundation.

A Cognitive Model of New Data on Human Problem Solving Essay -- Psycho

A Cognitive Model of New Data on Human Problem Solving I. Project Description Cognitive modeling is the creation of models which resemble and explain the way in which humans do things. What makes them so interesting to me is the process though which cognitive scientists go in order to create these models. Cognitive scientists often use a generative theory in creating such models. A generative theory is a theory that explains a set of empirical observations by actually generating them (as opposed to just summarizing them or characterizing them with equations or logic). Thus, a generative theory has to be executable, like a computer program or a "recipe". The system on which I'm basing my work is named Cascade (VenLehn, Jones & Chi, 1991). Cascade was originally developed to explain the cognitive mechanisms involved in the self-explanation effect (Chi et al., 1989; Fergusson-Hessler & de Jong, 1990; Pirolli & Bielaczyc, 1989). Simplifying a bit, the effect shows that people learn more effectively by studying examples when they are careful to explain to themselves as many steps of the example as they can. Students who do not carefully explain worked out example steps do not perform as well on subsequent problems. Cascade models the potential learning mechanisms that cause this effect. I now wish to apply the Cascade model to a new problem domain and a new set of psychological data. Originally, Cascade was written to solve problems in Newtonian physics, the domain used in Chi et al.'s study. Since Cascade was first created additional psychological research has been done in other problem domains. Due to the versatility of Cascade, applying the Cascade model to other problem domains would be beneficial. In the fall of 2000 I... ...nnual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human Problem Solving. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Pirolli, P., & Bielaczyc, K. (1989). Empirical analyses of self-explanation and transfer in learning to program. In G. M. Olson & E. E. Smith (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 450-457). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Renkl, A., Atkinson, R. K., & Maier, U. H. (2000). From studying examples to solving problems: Fading worked-out solution steps helps learning. In L. R. Gleitman & A. K. Joshi (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 393-398). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. VanLehn, K., Jones, R. M., & Chi, M. T. H. (1991). A model of the self-explanation effect. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2, 1-59.

Buried Alive! The Fiction of Premature Burial :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Buried Alive! The Fiction of Premature Burial Why are there claims that people are being buried alive? I will tell you why; it is an old wives tale so there is no credit to. People were never buried alive, it is all fiction. There were patents put out there but the patents were never supported. The fact that there are no signs of the patented objects ever being used makes you wonder if they ever existed. If they did exist, why are they not being used today? I will tell you why people in the present age are being embalmed. Once a person is embalmed, the body is killed in order to keep it preserved and so it does not rot. In the paper, I will discuss how if a person is buried alive it is improbable that someone would live. In addition, I will discuss the theories about Anne Hill Carter Lee's double burial. If a person were buried alive, there would be no way to tell if they were in fact buried alive. Would you not hear the person screaming to be let out of their tomb? Of course you would not be able to hear a person scream or yell for help. They are six feet under the earth. In the times of old they would supposedly find scratch marks on the lids of coffins, but how do we know if they were telling the truth. Now in the twenty first century, we are finding no evidence of this ever happening in coffins of old days or even now days. There used to be bells and pulleys to let the person on the graveyard shift know someone was there. No longer are there such bells and pulleys. When the person who was on the graveyard shift and heard the supposed bells and sirens they had to dig up the coffin. In reality, this would have taken excessively long and the person in the coffin would run out of air. The fact is there are articles being revised to fit the culture of the twenty-first century. In 1898, the Journal of the American Medical Association editorial reminds us of the peculiar fascination with "premature burial" held for people in the last century. Even if a person should be so unlucky as to be buried while unconscious, the editors pointed out that the average coffin contains so little oxygen that asphyxia would probably precede any return to full consciousness. Buried Alive! The Fiction of Premature Burial :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Buried Alive! The Fiction of Premature Burial Why are there claims that people are being buried alive? I will tell you why; it is an old wives tale so there is no credit to. People were never buried alive, it is all fiction. There were patents put out there but the patents were never supported. The fact that there are no signs of the patented objects ever being used makes you wonder if they ever existed. If they did exist, why are they not being used today? I will tell you why people in the present age are being embalmed. Once a person is embalmed, the body is killed in order to keep it preserved and so it does not rot. In the paper, I will discuss how if a person is buried alive it is improbable that someone would live. In addition, I will discuss the theories about Anne Hill Carter Lee's double burial. If a person were buried alive, there would be no way to tell if they were in fact buried alive. Would you not hear the person screaming to be let out of their tomb? Of course you would not be able to hear a person scream or yell for help. They are six feet under the earth. In the times of old they would supposedly find scratch marks on the lids of coffins, but how do we know if they were telling the truth. Now in the twenty first century, we are finding no evidence of this ever happening in coffins of old days or even now days. There used to be bells and pulleys to let the person on the graveyard shift know someone was there. No longer are there such bells and pulleys. When the person who was on the graveyard shift and heard the supposed bells and sirens they had to dig up the coffin. In reality, this would have taken excessively long and the person in the coffin would run out of air. The fact is there are articles being revised to fit the culture of the twenty-first century. In 1898, the Journal of the American Medical Association editorial reminds us of the peculiar fascination with "premature burial" held for people in the last century. Even if a person should be so unlucky as to be buried while unconscious, the editors pointed out that the average coffin contains so little oxygen that asphyxia would probably precede any return to full consciousness.

The Female Reproductive System

Shakeeta Morgan For life to have an on-going process, there must be the process of creating new life. This process is called reproduction. Human beings reproduce in much the same way as other mammals. There is need for both male and female to be involved in the human reproductive process. The Female Reproductive System The female reproductive system consists of the fallopian tube, ovum,ovary, uterus, cervix and vagina. Ovary This is the name for the sex gland that is similar in function to the male testicle. They are two in number and are located on either side of the uterus (womb). Each ovary is coverd by a tough protective capsule and contains many follicles. A follicle-sound is an egg cell sourounded by one or more layers of follicle cells. It is estimated that about 400,000 eggs (ovum) are stored in eachovary at birth. However, only one egg becomes ripe each month, once puberty begins, and departs from the ovary and travels into the fallopian tubes (oviduct). They also manufacture the female hormones estrogen and progesterone which is instrumental in the onset of the menstrual cycle. Ovum(ova) egg cell A microscopic egg cell is released from one of the two ovaries at an average cycle of once every 28 days. When sperm cells encounter an ovum in the fallopian tube, they swarm around it like bees around honey. Once one sperm cell breaks through the outer membrane of the ovum by using hydrolitic enzymes, the egg immediately produces a wall that blocks a second sperm from entering. When fertilization of an ovum occurs, menstruation stops and no other ovum can be discharged until the fetus has left the uterus. Luteinizing hormone (LH)-sound This hormone is responsible for triggering the release of the ripe egg from the ovary. Corpus Luteum-sound After the ovum (egg) is released from the ovary, a small temporary gland forms in the ovary and begins to produce the hormone progesterone. Progesterone-sound Progesterone is secreted to help prepare the endometrium to receive a fertilized ovum. Once menstruation occurs, progesterone levels decrease and slowly rise again to form a new endometrium. Fallopian tube (oviduct)-sound The ovum is transported from the ovary to the uterus over a period of one to five days via the fallopian tube. They are two in number and lead directly to the uterus. As the egg travels down the tube, hair-like cillia move the egg toward the uterus by a swaying motion. If one fallopian tube becomes blocked and an egg attempts to travel down to the uterus through it, the egg will not be able to make contact with a sperm cell. Occasionally, an egg will implant on the fallopian tube wall. When this happens, the tube painfully ruptures as the egg matures into an embryo. The embryo is expelled from the body and the fertilization process must begin again. Fertilization (conception) Fertilization occurs when one sperm unites with an egg. This usually happens in the fallopian tubules of the female. Ovulation Ovulation is a period of time when a female becomes fertile and can conceive (when a sperm cell and an egg can unite). It usually occurs two weeks before the onset of the female menstrual cycle and lasts for one to five days; the amount of time it takes for an egg to travel down the fallopian tube. Blastula-sound The name for a zygote after the process of clevage, cell division. The blastula is a hollow ball of cells and travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus. During this stage the growing egg implants itself into the endomertium. Zygote-sound The fertilized ovum that can divide into a group of human tissue cells and becomes an embryo is called thezygote. A zygote usualy forms in the fallopian tubules. Menstruation-sound Two weeks, on the average, after ovulation, if the egg is not fertilized, it dies and the blood rich cells of the membrane of the uterus and the microscopic unfertilized ovum pass through the uterus out through the vagina in a process called menstruation.. Uterus (womb)-sound The uterus is an thick, muscular organ in the reproductive system shaped like an upside down pear located within the abdomen of a female. It is the place where the membrane lining of the uterus endometrium becomes thicker as it amasses blood and nutrients to accommodate the embryo which will develop and grow into a fetus. It is also the origin of the bloody discharge that usually occurs monthly during the reproductive years of a female. The unique arrangement of hte When it is time for the fetus to be born, the uterus will contract to expel its contents. Cervix An opening at the top end of the vagina leading to the uterus is called the cervix. After an embryo has favorably been implanted in the uterus, the cervix is sealed off to stop infection and allow amniotic fluid (the fluid that surrounds the fetus) to fill the uterus. During the first stage of labor, expulsion of the fetus from the uterus, the cervix dilates (increases in size) to form a passageway for the fetus into the vagina. Endometrium-sound This is the lining of the uterus that is prepared to receive the fertilized ovum. The rich endomerium is equipped with blood vessels which attach to the growing embryo and nourish it. Vagina-sound This tubular female sex organ serves many functions. It is the place where menstrual discharges pass out of the body. It also stretches to function as a birth canal when it is time for the fetus to be expelled from the uterus. It is the channel through which the sperm in the semen travel up toward the fallopian tube to fertilize an egg. Although its muscular tissue is much thinner than the uterus, the walls are strong enough to contract to hold a penis or allow passage of a babys head.

Little Sister

SCENE 21 BELLA is walking down the hall. She has been crying. JORDAN spots her BELLA Do you have any chips? JORDAN No. †¦ Bella, you okay? BELLA Fine. Don’t look at me. JORDAN No you’re not. What’s wrong? BELLA I need some chips. An economy size two-bag box of chips. JORDAN Tracey †¦ Has she been bugging you, hurting your †¦ BELLA Not her. Katie. JORDAN Katie †¦ BELLA Sometime she can be incredibly mean. Everyone can be increadibly mean. JORDAN Tell me about it. Tracey just kicked the fender on my dad’s car. She scratched it. I’m not kidding.BELLA If I had no one to go with and you had no one to go with †¦ JORDAN Where? BELLA To grad. JORDAN Grad’s two years away. BELLA If neither of us had anyone to go with †¦ could we †¦ could we go together? JORDAN Sure. But that’s way in the future, Bella. You’ll probably be married by then, a good Italian girl like you †¦ BELLA You mean it? Youâ€℠¢ll really g o with me? I get so worried I’ll miss it. I get so worried I can’t sleep at night. You really mean it? JORDAN Bella I’d like to go with you. Even if you’re going out with someone I’ll hold you to it. I’ll force you to go with me.It’s a date and I’m it. Okay? BELLA Deal. BACKGROUND There are main five characters in the script of Little Sister: Tracey, Katie, Bella, Jay and Jordan. The author of this script is Joan Macleod. It happened in a Vancouver school. Katie just moves to here from Toronto. She hasn’t adapted here yet. Tracey and Bella are friends and study in this school. Other two boys Jay and Jordan are good friends too. From the script, Jay likes the new girl Katie because she is classic and totally different from the girls here; (He thinks) however, Tracey seems like Jay – A triangle love.And Jordan is nice to everybody. The one of the scene in this script, Scene 21, it occurs the school hall . Bella is walking down the hall. She has been crying because Katie hurt Bella’s weight problem. And Jordan who is a kind guy spots Bella. The relationship between Jordan and Bella is not really close to each other. But both of them are nice and pure. In this scene, Jordan knows why Bella cries, and promises her to go the grad together, although, grad is still two years away. The end with the scene is Jordan makes Bella happy and smile.THE PROPS LIST Two chairs One bag with towels One Tennis racket CHARACTER ANALYSIS – BELLA Bella is very nice to the new student Katie. She is a kind and simple girl. On Page 56 and 57, Bella said hello to Katie and tried to introduce her-self â€Å"I’m Bella. You’re new, eh? † Moreover, Bella discussed those models’ weights on the fashion magazine with Katie on page 73, Scene 7, although Bella have the weight problem too. â€Å"Girl’s washroom, Bella and Katie are poring over a fashion magazine†¦ .. † Bella got good grade on her history project which is B.It also mentioned on page 75, Scene 7, â€Å"Bella: What did you get on your history project? Tracey: C minus. Bella: I got a B. Katie? †¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bella thought she was fat and Tracey didn’t agree. On page 66, Scene 4, when Tracey said that Katie agree with her about Paula Abdul’s fat, Bella shouted â€Å"Fat! God! What do you two think when you look at me? † However, Tracy didn’t mind and answered â€Å"We think you’re big-boned. † Bella’s first goal was going to the Halloween dances as Madonna, and she achieved. â€Å"My goal is the Halloween dance. Twenty-six pounds.That’s my first goal†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Tracey! I’m going to the Halloween dance as Madonna†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Page 57, Scene 1 Then, on page 79, Scene 9, â€Å"Jordan, Bella and Tracey are in the washroom, passing around a bottle of beer. Bella is dressed like Madonna. † B ella’s aunt lives in Toronto. It could be proved by Page 59, Scene 2, â€Å"Tracy: Where’re you from? Katie: Toronto. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Bella: My aunt lives there. Ross Scarpacci. She’s my mum’s littlest sister†¦ † What is more, Bella asked Tracy to go see Katie together when Katie was in hospital. On page 87, Scene 11, â€Å"we should go see her.I’ve never even been in hospital overnight, except when I was born†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bella got the card for everyone to sign and tried to make Katie feeling better in the hospital. On page 92, Scene 13, â€Å"Tracey: We just got here†¦ you look good. You look okay. Katie: Fat. Bella: Katie, you look beautiful†¦ Bella: Everybody misses you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  On page 107, Scene 20, all girls are talking about their plan for spring break. Bella is going to Disneyland. â€Å"We’re going to Disneyland. Can you believe it? I’ve wanted to go since I was two but not now. Yo u want some chips? †

Higher Education and Poverty Reduction Among the Youth

HIGHER EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG THE YOUTH BY OKUNOLA, PHILIP OLAYIDE (Ph. D), ONYENE. V. E(Ph. D. )([email  protected] com) SUBAR, S. TAYO. ASHIRU, AL-MAHROOF OLASEEWO ([email  protected] ca) PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 8TH REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH POLICY NETWORK VENUE: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE (IITA), IBADAN AUGUST, 2008 ABSTRACTEducation in Nigeria and higher education in particular, are fundamental to the construction of a knowledge economy and worthwhile society in any nation hence, from a global perspective, economic, political, technological and social developments are increasingly driven by the advancement and application of knowledge, skills and socialization acquired in the process of this education. This paper presents an empirical study of higher education and poverty reduction among the youth using the University of Lagos, Nigeria. A total of 330 youth population comprised the sample drawn from the eight facultie s on campus.Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using chi-square statistical tool at 0. 05 level of significance. The major findings are that higher education is significant in exposing the youth to talent discovery, physical and intellectual development among the youth and has high potency reduction for poverty reduction among the youth. Introduction The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental changes to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social values and ethics. Globalization is the driving force in all these changes.While globalization has induced the collapse of time and space, it has also expanded opportunities and challenges for individuals and for nations and has sidelined the weak and unprepared. Anya (2002). The task of the university education will then be to empower the youths to be able to cope with the dynamics of globalization. Consequently the university must have an organic linkage with the industrial and economic environ ment to contribute to economic growth of the nation. Education has for long been recognized and accepted as a panacea for Nigeria’s ills and woes. Particularly so is the case of higher education.Stupendous amount of money and other resources, even though inadequate are expended on the universities annually. Unarguably al stakeholders look up to the universities as the nation’s beacon of hope, light and civilization. For this reason, besides over 50 public universities are springing up all over the nooks and crannies of the country (Ejiogu and Onyene, 2006). Nigeria ‘s philosophy of education is aimed at education that foster the worth and development of the individual, for each individuals sake, and for the general development of the society there is need for empowerment so as to break the chains of poverty for necessary liberation.Are the Nigerian youths hopeful? Do they see the light? Are they civilized? The quest and agitation for the empowerment of the youth and their liberation through higher education is fast becoming almost hysterical given the often reported cases of incessant strike actions by lecturers, lack or inadequate infrastructures in the universities, brain drain, and so on, within the university system. Instance abound when university graduates are not employable in the labour market.The situation becomes worrisome and intriguing with the jet-speed rate of opening up of new universities with its attendant alleged unemployment of â€Å"unqualified† staff, and stragglers from older universities. The Concept of Higher Education and Poverty Higher education means different things to many people, but the purpose is perceived to be the same. It is the type of education that focuses on professionalization, by empowering the partaker of this level of education with skills that are not necessarily the function of formal educational process.This type of skills emanates from students’ interaction with their peers, teach ers and other members of their academic community. Though these experiences that culminate into skills makes students sojourn in their academic environment a complete one, which necessitates the saying â€Å" passing through the school without the school passing through the student† The proponents of this statement are of the opinion that students who passed through the school without the school passing through them have learnt only partially regardless of their grades at the end of their academic pursuit in the university, thereby limiting their opportunities.This is corroborated by Gay 2005, who opined that poverty can only be eliminated if the students to whom implicit promises are being by urging them to attend school actually receive some tangible benefit for their years spent in school. Higher education includes teaching, research and social service activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education and the graduate school). Higher education generally involves work towards a degree level or foundation for degree qualification.In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enters higher education is therefore every important to national economy, both as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy. Schofield, K. 1999. Higher education is based on theoretical expertise. It might be contrasted with higher vocational education, which concentrates on both practice and theory. Deciding to further education and attain a degree tends to improve many aspects of life.People with college degrees tend to earn more money and salary increases over the years are more substantial than for those that do not have a college degree or university degree. Additionally, people that have a college degree are less likely to go through long bouts of unemployment. However attaining certifications and/or degrees related t o your field can yield better jobs and ongoing opportunities (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). University qualifications need to match employers’ and labour market requirements as closely as possible.Mass unemployment of university graduates is the result where university programmes and the labour market are at variance. The issue of relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects of income generation at completion of a programme should be uppermost in the programmes provided by universities. The idea of pursuing knowledge for its own sake or of the sake of engaging in a programme of study given a passion for learning in a particular subject area will seem acquaint if it is remembered at all. (Roberts, 1999).Youth (in the developed world): like all identities, is a culturally relative manifestation whose meanings and applications are specific to certain times and manifestation whose meaning and applications are specific to certain times and locales. For those living in p resent-day western cultures, the term youth refers to persons who are no longer children and not yet adults. In a strictly legal sense, the term is typically applied to a person from the time of their early teens until a point between 16 and 21, after which the person is legally an adult. As an adult they are endowed priviledges such as the right to vote and consume alcohol e. c. used colloquially, however, the term generally refers to a broader, more ambiguous field of reference – from physically adolescent to those in their late 20s, the United Nations, for example, defines youth as people between the ages of 15 and 24 years inclusive (United Nations Education and Scientific Children Organisation, 2002b). Poverty refers to a situation and process of serious deprivation or lack of resources and material necessary for living within a minimum standard conducive to human dignity and well being (NEST, 1991). Poverty connotes deprivation of the means of subsistence. The manifesta tion of poverty, i. inadequate distribution of resources, access to basic social services like education and health, food scarcity, low life expectancy, and lack of participation in decision making processes (Braun, 1999, Carrey 1999;World Bank 1999; Web et al 1992;Ravnborg, 1996). For the purpose of this paper poverty is viewed as deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, which include food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.This can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent in over time between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body, which may lead to extreme poverty. United Nations 2002 report defines extre me poverty as â€Å"poverty that kills†, depriving individuals of the means to stay alive in the face of hunger, disease and environmental hazards.This is further substantiated by Moore (2007) in his report for the World Bank, that extreme poverty implies living on less than 1 dollar per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Looking at the period 1981 – 2001, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than $1 per day has halved.Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished â€Å"capability† of people to live the kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or po litical power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.Statement of the Problem The growth and development of this country will to a large extent be determined by quality, in character and in learning, of the products of our universities. UNESCO policy (1997) posited that basic education for all should incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care, family planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and voting rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and drug awareness (UNESCO 2002). The questions are what is the hope of Nigerian youth in universities? Do they really discover their potentials having gone through the university?What then can we say are the contributions of Nigeria universities to poverty reduction among the Nigerian youth? It becomes imperative, therefore, to ascertain the potency of Nigerian higher education for poverty reduction among the youth and to proffer measures for enhancement and sustainability of youth empowerment. Methodology The study was carried out using the descriptive survey research design. The youths in University of Lagos constituted the study which comprises 500 respondents. They were diploma and 100-300 level students, from the eight faculties of the University of Lagos, Akoka campus, Lagos, Nigeria.Higher Education Potency for Poverty Reduction Questionnaire (HEPPRQ) designed by the researchers was the data-gathering instrument. It measure sure such poverty reduction potencies as talent discovery, facilitation of mind development in the youth, good leadership skills, enabling intellectual development, development of social ethics through positive interaction, exposure to entrepreneurial activities, provision of mindset for creative ideas, preparation for rend ering payable service (income generation), inculcation of technological ideas for product development, self esteem mong peers, position of youth for global alignment with contemporaries in the western world and realization of the academic inclination (discipline). Colleagues affirmed the face validity and reliability of the instrument The researchers personally distributed the questionnaire to 500 respondents across the 8 faculties on campus on different occasions; some of the respondents returned the questionnaire immediately while others returned theirs the following day. Of the 500 copies of the questionnaire distributed, 330 (66%) usable copies were returned.However, the analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. To be precise, simple percentage and chi-square statistical tools were used. Findings Total response of the respondents was done by finding the percentages. The analysis is presented in table1. Table 1: Frequency count of responses and percenta ge ratings. |S/N |POTENCY INDICES |ALWAYS |OFTEN |SOMETIMES |NEVER |TOTAL | |1 |University environment and talent |200(60. 60%) |20(6. 06%) |110(33. 3%) | – |330 | | |discovery | | | | | | |2 |Higher education development and e |160(48. 48%) |90(27. 27%) |30(9. 09%) |50(15. 15%) |330 | | |youth’s minds | | | | | | |3 |Higher education and good leadership|190(57. 57%) |50(15. 15%) |50(15. 15%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | |4 |Higher education and intellectual |200(60. 60%) |50(15. 5%) |70(21. 21%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |development | | | | | | |5 |Social ethics through the university|170(51. 51%) |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | |6 |Higher education, parliamentary and |120(36. 36%) |110(33. 33%) |90(27. 27%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |governance process | | | | | | |7 |Entrepreneurial activities at school|110 |120(36. 6%) |80(24. 24%) |20(6. 06%) |330 | | | |(33. 33%) | | | | | |8 |University environment and mindset |170 |100(30. 30%) |50(15. 15%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |for creative ideas |(51. 51%) | | | | | |9 |Rendering payable service (income | 170 | 80 |40(12. 12%) |40(12. 2%) |330 | | |generation) |(51. 51%) |(24. 24%) | | | | |10 |University education and | 180 | 70 | 70 | 10 |330 | | |technological ideas |(54. 54%) |(21. 21%) |(21. 21%) |(3. 03%) | | |11 |Employment with related industries | 70 | 80 | 150 | 30 |330 | | | |(21. 1%) |(24. 24%) |(45. 45%) |(9. 09%) | | |12 |Sustenance in the face of job |110 | 90 | 110 | 20 |330 | | |scarcity |(33. 33%) |(27. 27%) |(33. 33%) |(6. 06%) | | |13 |Apart from certification, university| 190 | 120 | 20 | – |330 | | |environment and self esteem |(57. 57%) |(36. 36%) |(6. 6%) | | | |14 |Global alignment with my | 190 | 100 | 30 | 10 |330 | | |contemporaries in the western world |(57. 57%) |(30. 30%) |(9. 09%) |(3. 03%) | | |15 |Relevance of their academic | 150 | 120 | 60 | 30 |330 | | |inclination (discipline) outside |(45. 45%) |(36. 36%) |(18. 18%) |(9. 9%) | | | |their myopic perception | | | | | | Hypothesis 1 There will be no significant influence of higher education exposure on youth talent discovery. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 2 below. Table 2: higher education and talent discovery. |S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |1. 200(60. 60%) |20(6. 06%) |110(33. 33%) |- |330 | | |2. |160(48. 48%) |90(27. 27%) |30(9. 09%) |50(15. 15%) |330 | | |3. |190(57. 57%) |50(15. 15%) |50(15. 15%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | | |4. |200(60. 60%) |50(15. 15%) |70(21. 21%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |5. |170(51. 51%) |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |10(3. 3%) |330 | | |Column Total |920 |280 |140 |110 |1650 | | |Average Total |460(55. 75%) |140(16. 96%) |70(20. 60%) |55(6. 66%) |825 | Chi-square observed value = 52. 63 Degree of freedom = 12 Level of significance = 0. 05 Critical Value = 21. 03 The result revealed that the observed value (52. 63) is greater than the crit ical table value (21. 03) given 12 degree of freedom at 0. 5 level of significance. The result is therefore significant, thus giving a basis for rejection of the null hypothesis. It can then be inferred that higher education has significant influence on the exposure of youth to talent discovery. Hypothesis 2 Higher education will have no significant influence on the physical and intellectual development of the youth. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 3 below. Table 3: Higher education, Physical and Intellectual Development S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |6 |120(36. 36%) |110(33. 33%) |90(27. 27%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |7 |110(33. 33%) |120(36. 36%) |80(24. 24%) |20(6. 06%) |330 | | |8 |170(51. 51%) |100(30. 30%) |50(15. 15%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |9 |170(51. 1%) |80(24. 24%) |40(12. 12%) |40(12. 12%) |330 | | |10 |180(54. 54%) |70(21. 21%) |70(21. 2 1%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |Column Total |750 |480 |330 |90 |1650 | | |Average Total |375(45. 45%) |240(29. 09%) |165(20%) |45(5. 45%) |825 | From the responses of the participants in the table, it is realized that the observed chi-square (49. 6) is greater than the critical value (21. 03) at 12 degree of freedom and at 0. 05 level of significance. The result is therefore significant, thus higher education will have significant influence on physical and intellectual development of the youth. Hypothesis 3 Higher education will make significant provision of resources and materials for youths’ adequate living. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was employed and tested at 0. 05 level of significance. The results are presented in table 4 below. Table 4: Higher Education and Youth Adequate Living. S/N |Items |Always |Often |Sometimes |Never |Total | | |11 |70(21. 21%) |80(24. 24%) |150(45. 45%) |30(9. 09%) |330 | | |12 |110(33. 33%) |110(33. 33%) |110(33. 33%) | 20(6. 06%) |330 | | |13 |190(57. 57%) |20(6. 06%) |20(6. 06%) |- |330 | | |14 |190(57. 57%) |30(9. 09%) |30(9. 9%) |10(3. 03%) |330 | | |15 |150(45. 45%) |120(36. 36%) |60(18. 18%) |30(9. 09%) |330 | | |Column Total |710 |510 |370 |60 |1650 | | |Average Total |355(43. 03%) |255(30. 90%) |185(22. 42%) |30(3. 63%) |825 | Chi-square observed = 195. 41 Degree of freedom = 12 Significance level = 0. 05 Critical value = 21. 03The table above reflects that the chi-square calculated (195. 41) exceed the critical value (21. 03) at 12 degree of freedom and 0. 05 level of significance. Thus higher education provides resources and materials for youths adequate living. Results and Discussion Analysis revealed that the study population consisted of 330 participants, 210(63. 63%) were males and 120 (36. 365) females whose age ranges from 15 to 30 years. 300(90. 90%) were single and 30 (9. 09%) were married. 40 (12. 12%) were in diploma 1, 10 (3. 03%) in diploma 2, 90 (27. 27%) in 100 level, 40 (12 . 12%) in 200 level and 150 (45. 45%) in 300 level respectively.Table shows the item-by-item analysis of the perception of the youth towards the potency indices of higher education concerning poverty reduction. Majority of the youth (60. 60%) who participated in the study were of the opinion that university environment enables the youth to discover their talents and higher education poses challenges that enables intellectual development in the youth. 57. 57% of the respondents were in tune with the fact that higher education inculcates good leadership skills in the youth, apart from certification, being in the university environment gives them self esteem among their contemporaries in the western world.Also 51. 51% of the respondents who are in the majority opined that they gain social ethics through positive interaction with their peers while in the university. University environment provides the youth with the mindset for creative ideas and talents developed in the university prep are them to render payable service (income generation). 48. 48% of the participants who were in the majority believed that higher education facilitates the development of youths’ mind, 45. 45% were in tune with the fact that higher education make the youth realize the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline) outside their myopic perception.Majority of the respondents (54. 54%) admit that university education inculcates technological ideas that can facilitate product development. However, 45. 45% of the respondents felt that youth only sometimes get employment with industries related to their discipline before graduation, but 21. 21% and 24. 24% of them believe that youth with university experience are always able to sustain themselves in the face of job scarcity, equal percentage the participants contends that it happens only sometimes. The findings in this study showed that: †¢ Higher education is significant in exposing the youth to talent iscovery. †¢ Higher education has significant influence on physical and intellectual development of the youth. †¢ Higher education makes significant provision of resources and materials for youths’ adequate living. The significance of higher education in exposing the youth to talent discovery is corroborated by UNESCO policy 1997, which stipulates that basic education for all should incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care family planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and voting rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and drug awareness.Also the finding relating to higher education having significant influence on physical and intellectual development of youth, is justified by Subar and Ashiru 2007, they opined that the students (youth) are the core input into our educational institutions and the quality of the output (students) depends largely on the provision of infrastructures capable of directly or indirectly su pporting, facilitating, influencing and encouraging the development of their potentials.Therefore, the knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes students (youth) acquire for life can make them fit into the cultural, social, economic and political contexts of the society in which they live, and to work and employment.The finding that education makes significant provision of resources and materials for youth’s adequate living, emanates from the fact that youth get employment with industries related to their discipline even before graduation, youths with university experience are mostly able to sustain themselves in the face of job scarcity, apart from certification, being in the university environment gives the youth self esteem among their peers, higher education positions youth for global alignment with their contemporaries in the western world and education makes the youth realize the relevance of the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline) utside their myopi c perception. Conclusion ? From the foregoing, it is permissible to justify the above stated with the statement of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, â€Å"there have been steady increases in college job placement†. This means that not only are college graduates more likely to find good jobs, but they progress after college.Ashiru and Owodiong 2008 declared that the absolute position of the university graduate is declining as more educated workers are displacing less educated workers in the same job, this shows that the Nigerian youth should advance academically, this challenge to the youth is evidenced by the continuous increases in entry point requirement for jobs, for instance a degree certificate is required to teach in a secondary school, while doctoral degree is required to lecture in the university. The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental changes to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social values and ethics thr ough globalization. This globalization has induced the collapse of time and space; it has also expanded opportunities and challenges for the individual and for the nations and has sidelined the weak and the unprepared. Recommendations Government and university authorities should ensure that university programmes and labour market are not at variance on the issue of relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects of income generation should be uppermost in the programmmes provided by the universities. ? Universities must have an organic linkage with the industrial and economic environment to contribute to economic growth. ? Acquisition of higher education should be encouraged among the youth, through scholarship awards for those who lack the resources in continuing heir education. ? Government should encourage enrollment expansion in tertiary institutions, which will avail more people the opportunity to higher education, hence empowerment through skill acquisition and enhanced int ellectuality and human capital development that will necessitate innovative ideas for job creation, employment and economic advancement. ? University authorities should integrate entrepreneurial skills into academic programmes of students for rounded preparation for the world of work. Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) should be provided in all faculties to enable undergraduates develop and market products and services relevant to their areas of study. REFERENCES Anya, A. O. (2002), â€Å"Science, Oil and the Future of Nigeria Economy†, The Guardian (Lagos), Wednesday, March 13, p. 16. Ashiru, A. O. and Owodiong-Idemeko, N. L. (2008). Higher Education and the Millennium Development Goals. Lagos: Unpublished M. Ed. Thesis. Braun, J. V. ,Teklu, T. and Webb P. (1999). 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