ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LAB Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LAB - Research Paper Example The constituent materials include trees, ink, plastics. The process of making the paper cups uses multiple fuels. 0.11 Kg of CO2 is used when a cup measuring 16 ounce is transported from manufacturing site to the retail outlets. For every cup made and shipped to a coffee outlet 0.09 m2 of natural habitat is lost. However, it costs 0.27 Kg of plant and animal life potential to manufacture and ship the same size of cup to its final destination. Ideally speaking, it would take approximately 1.7 billion cups together with their sleeves to trigger one-potential species extinction (Starbucks web). The cups however, have approximately 10% post-consumer recyclable material. The cups are manufactured using bleached paperboard. This is in accordance to the requirements of FDA regulations. However, the cups are laminated with a polyethene referred to as resin. It is argued that the resin in the paper cups is not environmental friendly. When poorly decomposed, it produces greenhouse gas that is believed to trap more than 20 times the heat trapped by CO2 (Narang web). Coffee is the primary ingredient for coffee drinks. Starbucks consumes approximately 2% of global coffee production. Most of the coffee is sourced through Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) practices. According to the 2010-year report, Starbucks purchased122 million kilograms of coffee out of which 103 million kilograms were purchased through C.A.F.E. guidelines. The coffee is obtained from all parts of the world. However, coffee outlets get their share from the nearest coffee sources. However, transporting coffee from place of production to various stores and disposing various wastes from the outlets produces approximately 81, 000 tons of CO2 (Narang web). Starbucks gets its milk supplies from local dairy firms. For instance, the coffee outlets in China get their milk from milk suppliers from China. There are many milk suppliers and milk companies from which

Cultural Differences Affecting Meaning and Understanding Essay Example for Free

Cultural Differences Affecting Meaning and Understanding Essay How do cultural differences affect meaning and understanding? In today’s business environment, the mechanics of global business seem to be working on a surface level. We can make quick money transactions by phone or by computer. Consumers can purchase products from all different countries in one transaction. Although trade barriers are still a major topic, they are slowly decreasing. As we sick below the surface, we will see that Global business is still in major jeopardy because of a newly emerging challenge: Cultural differences. Culture is the pattern of beliefs or expectations that inevitably shape the behaviours of individuals and teams within organisations. It is concerned with the basic assumptions, values, attitudes, food and feeding habits, dress and appearance, relationships, a sense of self and space and norms shaped by members of an organisation or country. These elements of culture are usually taken for granted and guide others perceptions, thoughts and actions. For example, the Culture at McDonald’s fast food chain emphasises efficiency, speed and consistency. It orients employees to company goals and charters and suggests the necessary behaviours for success. Many educated, business people may say â€Å"But we are getting closer and closer to each other, we don’t have any cultural problems’. Yes, it is possible to transcend cultural differences; however statements like this can be misleading to many people. (Funakawa, p18) Geert Hofstede, a successful cross-cultural management researcher, observes five different dimensions within a culture: Power/Distancing – This refers to the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among people with and without power. High Power distancing cultures conclude that society accepts an unequal distribution of power and people understand their place in the system. Low Power Distancing means that power is shared and well dispersed. It also means that society members view themselves as equals. Application: According to Hofstedes model, in a high Power distancing country like Malaysia, you would probably send reports only to top management and have closed door meetings where only a select few, powerful leaders were in attendance. Individualism – This refers to the strength of the ties people have to others within the community. A high Individualism society indicates a loose connection with people. In countries with a high Individualism society there is a lack of interpersonal connection and little sharing of responsibility, beyond family and perhaps a few close friends. A society with a low Individualism would have strong group cohesion, and there would be a large amount of loyalty and respect for members of the group. The group itself is also larger and people take more responsibility for each others well being. Masculinity – This refers to how much a society sticks with, and values, traditional male and female roles. High Masculinity societies are found in countries where men are expected to be tough, to be the provider, to be assertive and to be strong. If women work outside the home, they have separate professions from men. Low Masculinity societies do not reverse the gender roles. In a low Masculinity society, the roles are simply blurred. You see women and men working together equally across many professions. Men are allowed to be sensitive and women can work hard for professional success. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index – This relates to the degree of anxiety society members feel when in uncertain or unknown situations. High Uncertainty societies try to avoid ambiguous situations whenever possible. They are governed by rules and order and they seek a collective truth. Low Uncertainty societies indicate the society enjoys novel events and values differences. There are very few rules and people are encouraged to discover their own truth. Geert also observes that when people write about national cultures in modern society becoming more and more similar, the evidence cited is usually taken from the level of practices; people dress the same, use the same fashionable words in context, buy the same products and brands, they participate in global sports etc. These manifestations of culture are sometimes mistaken for all there is: the deeper, underlying values is often overlooked. (Funakawa p33) The value for cross cultural communication cannot be overemphasised. It is what enables any mission statement, vision or strategy, and affects meaning and understanding on every level.

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls

System to Filter Unwanted Messages from OSN User Walls M.Renuga Devi, G.Seetha lakshmi, M.Sarmila Abstract—One fundamental issue in today’s Online Social Networks (OSNs) is to give users the ability to control the messages posted on their own private space to avoid that unwanted content is displayed. Up to now, OSNs provide little support to this requirement. To fill the gap, in this paper, we propose a system allowing OSN users to have a direct control on the messages posted on their walls. This is achieved through a flexible rule-based system, that allows users to customize the filtering criteria to be applied to their walls, and a Machine Learning-based soft classifier automatically labeling messages in support of content-based filtering. 1. INTRODUCTION ONLINE Social Networks (OSNs) are today one of the most popular interactive medium to communicate, share, and disseminate a considerable amount of human life information. Daily and continuous communications imply the exchange of several types of content, including free text, image, audio, and video data. According to Facebookstatistics1 average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, whereas more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news, stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month. OSNs there is the possibility of posting or commenting other posts on particular public/private areas, called in general walls. Face book allows users to state who is allowed to insert messages in their walls (i.e., friends, friends of friends, or defined groups of friends). The aim of the present work is therefore to propose and experimentally evaluate an automated system, called Filtered Wall (FW), able to filter unwanted messages from OSN user walls. We exploit Machine Learning (ML) text categorization techniques. The major efforts in building a robust short text classifier (STC) are concentrated in the extraction and selection of a set of characterizing and discriminant features. We base the overall short text classification strategy on Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN) for their proven capabilities in acting as soft classifiers, in managing noisy data and intrinsically vague classes. We insert the neural model within a hierarchical two level classification strategy. In the first level, the RBFN categorizes short messages as Neutral and Non-neutral; in the second stage, Non-neutral messages are classified producing gradual estimates of appropriateness to each of the considered category. The system provides a powerful rule layer exploiting a flexible language to specify Filtering Rules (FRs). In addition, the system provides the support for user-defined Black Lists (BLs), that is, lists of users that are temporarily prevented to post any kind of messages on a user wall. 2. RELATED WORK The main contribution of this paper is the design of a system providing customizable content-based message filtering for OSNs, based on ML techniques. As we have pointed out in the introduction, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first proposing such kind of application for OSNs. However, our work has relationships both with the state of the art in content-based filtering, as well as with the field of policy-based personalization for OSNs and, more in general, web contents. 2.1 Content-Based Filtering Information filtering systems are designed to classify a stream of dynamically generated information dispatched asynchronously by an information producer and present to the user those information that are likely to satisfy his/her requirements. In content-based filtering, each user is assumed to operate independently. As a result, a content-based filtering system selects information items based on the correlation between the content of the items and the user preferences as opposed to a collaborative filtering system that chooses items based on the correlation between people with similar preferences. Documents processed in content-based filtering are mostly textual in nature and this makes content-based filtering close to text classification. Single label, binary classification, partitioning incoming documents into relevant and non-relevant categories. More complex filtering systems include multi label text categorization automatically labeling messages into partial thematic categories. Content-based filtering is mainly based on the use of the ML paradigm according to which a classifier is automatically induced by learning from a set of pre-classified examples. Several experiments prove that Bag-of-Words (BoW) approaches yield good performance and prevail in general over more sophisticated text representation that may have superior semantics but lower statistical quality. The application of content-based filtering on messages posted on OSN user walls poses additional challenges given the short length of these messages other than the wide range of topics that can be discussed. 3. FILTERED WALL ARCHITECTURE The architecture in support of OSN services is a three-tier structure (Fig. 1). The first layer, called Social Network Manager (SNM), commonly aims to provide the basic OSN functionalities (i.e., profile and relationship management), whereas the second layer provides the support for external Social Network Applications (SNAs).The supported SNAs may in turn require an additional layer for their needed Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The core components of the proposed system are the Content-Based Messages Filtering (CBMF) and the Short Text Classifier modules. The latter component aims to classify messages according to a set of categories. In contrast, the first component exploits the message categorization provided by the STC module to enforce the FRs specified by the user. The possible final publication can be summarized as follows: 1. After entering the private wall of one of his/her contacts, the user tries to post a message, which is intercepted by FW. 2. A ML-based text classifier extracts metadata from the content of the message. 3. FW uses metadata provided by the classifier, together with data extracted from the social graph and users’ profiles, to enforce the filtering and BL rules. 4. Depending on the result of the previous step, the message will be published or filtered by FW. 4. SHORT TEXT CLASSIFIER Established techniques used for text classification work well on data sets with large documents such as newswires corpora but suffer when the documents in the corpus are short. In this context, critical aspects are the definition of a set of characterizing and discriminant features allowing the representation of underlying concepts and the collection of a complete and consistent set of supervised examples. We approach the task by defining a hierarchical two-level strategy assuming that it is better to identify and eliminate â€Å"neutral† sentences, and then classify â€Å"non-neutral† sentences. The first-level task is conceived as a hard classification in which short texts are labeled with crisp Neutral and Non-neutral labels. The second-level soft classifier acts on the crisp set of non-neutral short texts. 4.1 Text Representation The extraction of an appropriate set of features by which representing the text of a given document is a crucial task strongly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. We consider three types of features, BoW, Document properties (Dp) and Contextual Features (CF). Text representation using endogenous knowledge has a good general applicability; however, in operational settings, it is legitimate to use also exogenous knowledge, i.e., any source of information outside the message body but directly or indirectly related to the message itself. We introduce CF modeling information that characterizes the environment where the user is posting. These features play a key role in deterministically understanding the semantics of the messages. In the BoW representation, terms are identified with words. Dp features are heuristically assessed; their definition stems from intuitive considerations, domain specific criteria and in some cases required trial-and-error procedures. Bad words: They are computed similarly to the correct words feature, where the set K is a collection of â€Å"dirty words† for the domain language. Correct words: It expresses the amount of terms tk 2 T K, where tk is a term of the considered document dj and K is a set of known words for the domain language. Capital words: It expresses the amount of words mostly written with capital letters, calculated as the percentage of words within the message, having more than half of the characters in capital case. Punctuations characters: It is calculated as the percentage of the punctuation characters over the total number of characters in the message. For example, the value of the feature for the document â€Å"Hello!!! How’re u doing?† is 5/24. Exclamation marks: It is calculated as the percentage of exclamation marks over the total number of punctuation characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 3/5. Question marks: It is calculated as the percentage of question marks over the total number of punctuations characters in the message. Referring to the aforementioned document, the value is 1/5. 4.2 Machine Learning-Based Classification We address short text categorization as a hierarchical two level classification process. The first-level classifier performs a binary hard categorization that labels messages as Neutral and Non-neutral. The first-level filtering task facilitates the subsequent second-level task in which a finer-grained Classification is performed. The second-level classifier performs a soft-partition of Non-neutral messages assigning a given message a gradual membership to each of the non-neutral classes. Among the variety of multiclass ML models well suited for text classification, we choose the RBFN model for the experimented competitive behavior with respect to other state-of-the-art classifiers. RFBNs have a single hidden layer of processing units with local, restricted activation domain: a Gaussian function is commonly used, but any other locally tunable function can be used. RBFN main advantages are that classification function is nonlinear, the model may produce confidence values and it may be robust to outliers; drawbacks are the potential sensitivity to input parameters, and potential overtraining sensitivity. The first-level classifier is then structured as a regular RBFN. In the second level of the classification stage, we introduce a modification of the standard use of RBFN. The collection of pre-classified messages presents some critical aspects greatly affecting the performance of the overall classification strategy. To work well, a ML-based classifier needs to be trained with a set of sufficiently complete and consistent pre-classified data. The difficulty of satisfying this constraint is essentially related to the subjective character of the interpretation process with which an expert decides whether to classify a document under a given category. A quantitative evaluation of the agreement among experts is then developed to make transparent the level of inconsistency under which the classification process has taken place. 5. FILTERING RULES AND BLACKLIST MANAGEMENT In this section, we introduce the rule layer adopted for filtering unwanted messages. We start by describing FRs, and then we illustrate the use of BLs. In what follows, we model a social network as a directed graph, where each node corresponds to a network user and edges denote relationships between two different users. In particular, each edge is labeled by the type of the established relationship (e.g., friend of, colleague of, parent of) and, possibly, the corresponding trust level, which represents how much a given user considers trustworthy with respect to that specific kind of relationship the user with whom he/ she is establishing the relationship. 5.1 Filtering Rules In defining the language for FRs specification, we consider three main issues that, in our opinion, should affect a message filtering decision. First of all, in OSNs like in everyday life, the same message may have different meanings and relevance based on who writes it. As a consequence, FRs should allow users to state constraints on message creators. Given the social network Scenario, creators may also be identified by exploiting information on their social graph. Definition 1 (Creator specification): A creator specification creator Spec implicitly denotes a set of OSN users. It can have one of the following forms, possibly combined. Definition2 (Filtering rule): A filtering rule FR is a tuple (author, creator Spec, content Spec, action), where author is the user who specifies the rule; creator Spec is a creator specification, specified according to Definition 1: Content Spec is a Boolean expression defined on content constraints of the form à °C; mlÞ, where C is a class of the first or second level and ml is the minimum membership level threshold required for class C to make the constraint satisfied; action 2fblock; notifying denotes the action to be performed by the system on the messages matching content Spec and created by users identified by creator Spec. In general, more than a filtering rule can apply to the same user. A message is therefore published only if it is not blocked by any of the filtering rules that apply to the message creator. Note moreover, that it may happen that a user profile does not contain a value for the attribute(s) referred by a FR (e.g., the profile does not specify a value for the attribute Hometown whereas the FR blocks all the messages authored by users coming from a specific city). 5.2 Online Setup Assistant for FRs Thresholds As mentioned in the previous section, we address the problem of setting thresholds to filter rules, by conceiving and implementing within FW, an Online Setup Assistant procedure. 5.3 Blacklists A further component of our system is a BL mechanism to avoid messages from undesired creators, independent from their contents. BLs are directly managed by the system, which should be able to determine who are the users to be inserted in the BL and decide when users retention in the BL is finished. To enhance flexibility, such information are given to the system through a set of rules, hereafter called BL rules. Such rules are not defined by the SNMP; therefore, they are not meant as general high-level directives to be applied to the whole community. Similar to FRs, our BL rules make the wall owner able to identify users to be blocked according to their profiles as well as their relationships in the OSN. Therefore, by means of a BL rule, wall owners are, for example, able to ban from their walls users they do not directly know (i.e., with which they have only indirect relationships), or users that are friend of a given person as they may have a bad opinion of this person. 6. EVALUATION In this section, we illustrate the performance evaluation study we have carried out the classification and filtering modules. We start by describing the data set. 6.1 Problem and Data Set Description The analysis of related work has highlighted the lack of an publicly available benchmark for comparing different approaches to content-based classification of OSN short texts. 6.2 Short Text Classifier Evaluation 6.2.1 Evaluation Metrics Two different types of measures will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of first-level and second-level classifications. In the first level, the short text classification procedure is evaluated on the basis of the contingency table approach. In particular, the derived well-known Overall Accuracy (OA) index capturing the simple percent agreement between truth and classification results, is complemented with the Cohen’s KAPPA (K) coefficient thought to be a more robust measure taking into account the agreement occurring by chance . At second level, we adopt measures widely accepted in the Information Retrieval and Document Analysis field, that is, Precision (P), that permits to evaluate the number of false positives, Recall (R), that permits to evaluate the number of false negatives, and the overall metric F-Measure (F_), defined as the harmonic mean between the above two indexes. 6.2.2 Numerical Results By trial and error, we found a quite good parameter configuration for the RBFN learning model. The best value for the M parameter, that determines the number of Basis Function, is heuristically addressed to N=2, where N is the number of input patterns from the data set. 6.2.3 Comparison Analysis The lack of benchmarks for OSN short text classification makes problematic the development of a reliable comparative analysis. However, an indirect comparison of our method can be done with work that show similarities or complementary aspects with our solution. 6.3 Overall Performance and Discussion In order to provide an overall assessment of how effectively the system applies a FR. This table allows us to estimate the Precision and Recall of our FRs, Let us suppose that the system applies a given rule on a certain message. In contrast, Recall has to be interpreted as the probability that, given a rule that must be applied over a certain message, the rule is really enforced. Results achieved by the content-based specification component, on the first-level classification, can be considered good enough and reasonably aligned with those obtained by well-known information filtering techniques. 7. DICOMFw DicomFW is a prototype Face book application8 that emulates a personal wall where the user can apply a simple combination of the proposed FR’s. Throughout the development of the prototype, we have focused our attention only on the FRs, leaving BL implementation as a future improvement. However, the implemented functionality is critical, since it permits the STC and CBMF components to interact. To summarize, our application permits to 1. View the list of users’ FWs; 2. View messages and post a new one on a FW; 3. Define FRs using the OSA tool. When a user tries to post a message on a wall, he/ she receive an alerting message if it is blocked by FW. 8 CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we have presented a system to filter undesired messages from OSN walls. The system exploits a ML soft classifier to enforce customizable content-dependent FR’s. Fig. 3. DicomFW: A message filtered by the wall’s owner FRs We plan to study strategies and techniques limiting the inferences that a user can do on the enforced filtering rules with the aim of bypassing the filtering system, such as for instance randomly notifying a message that should instead be blocked, or detecting modifications to profile attributes that have been made for the only purpose of defeating the filtering system. REFERENCES [1] A. Adomavicius and G. Tuzhilin, â€Å"Toward the Next Generation of Recommender Systems: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art and Possible Extensions,† IEEE Trans. Knowledge and Data Eng., vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 734-749, June 2005. [2] M. Chua and H. Chen, â€Å"A Machine Learning Approach to Web Page Filtering Using Content and Structure Analysis,† Decision Support Systems, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 482-494, 2008.

Marine Biology :: essays research papers

MARINE BIOLOGY CASE STUDY LAB - PART 2 Analysis 1. By running the programming with a fish.dat file containing the information for a 2 x 2 tank size, and changing the starting positions for fish A, B, and C, according to the problem, I was able to evaluate the random sequence of steps taken by each fish. The fish move in sequence of A, B, and then C. Then they move according to open slots. If a fish is covered on both sides by another fish, it is unable to move and, therefore, stays in that exact position. Analysis 2. The following is a diagram of what we predicted for the outcome of the default configuration: A C E _ B H D F G And this is a diagram of where the fish actually moved to when running the program with the current configuration: A C E D B H F G _ My prediction was inaccurate because I did not move the fish in their correct order. Instead, I proceeded to move the fish in the order of whichever came closer to an open space. Analysis 3. The 1000 x 1000 matrix was unable to display any data visible to the user on the console. It exceeds the screens limit of display. I discovered that the largest matrix possible for the console would be a matrix with the size of 23 x 79. Every time that I ran the program with these specifications, I found that the fish always traveled the first step down (a total of 10 tries). Analysis 4. When that data file contains two fish located within the same spot, the executable displays at the top of the console error, attempt to create fish at non-empty: (4,4), and then goes on to only display the first fish, A. Analysis 5. The sequence of fish positions does matter when you want certain fish names at certain locations within the

Cooking Green Beans with Salt Essay

Introduction An experiment was conducted where two sets of green beans where cooked. One set had salt and the other one didn’t. One person who did not know which set of green beans had salt and which one didn’t got to taste and judge both of the sets on taste, texture and color. Chef Heston Blumenthal once asked ‘Why do cooks add salt (sodium chloride) when cooking vegetables, for example green beans? ’ Other chefs answered with these possible answers: * | * It keeps the beans green| * | * It raises the boiling point of water so the beans cook faster| * | * It prevents the beans going soggy|. * | * It improves the flavor. However, a scientist also replied saying these statements were untrue because: * | * Only the acidity and calcium content of the water affect the color of the beans| * | * Adding salt increases the boiling point of water but by such a small amount that it will make no difference to cooking times| * | * Vegetables will go soggy if cooked for too long whether salt is added or not| * | * Little salt is actually absorbed onto the surface of a bean during cooking – typically 1/10 000 g of salt per bean which is too little to be tasted by most people. The aim to this experiment was to prove or disprove these points. Materials:Listed below are the materials used for this experiment: * One bag of green beans containing about 250g * Two pans * Two bowls * One stopwatch * One strainer * A cutting board * A knife * A thermometer * SaltProcedure:First, the bag of green beans were washed and cut up. Then, they were evenly divided into two bowls; bowl A and bowl B. Bowl A had no salt in it and was then put into a pan and observed. The time it took to reach its boiling point and the temperature at boiling point were then noted. After that, the beans were places into a strainer and dried. This was also done with bowl B, except salt was added. DataAfter conducting the experiment, this is the data that was obtained:| | | | | With salt| Without salt| Taste| Tasteful| Dull, boring| Texture| Soft| Crunchy| Flavor| -| -|. As you can see, the only thing that didn’t change about the beans with salt was the flavor, which stayed the same for both experiments. Conclusion: Clearly, after this experiment, we proved the chefs right. Both the texture and taste where better with the salty beans. Some of the limitations where that we only tried this experiment once, therefore it is not 100% correct. We could have also had more people testing it, instead of just one person because there are some factors that could influence the opinion.

The New Nation essays

The New Nation essays Although political divisions first emerged over domestic issues, they deepened during a series of crises over foreign policy that reopened the nagging issue of Americas relationship with Great Britain. Domestic and foreign policy were, however, never entirely separate, since decisions in one area frequently carried implications for the other. Foreign and domestic policy (1789-1803) spans from the foreign affairs of Washington, to Jeffersons Louisiana Purchase. Between these times is the Election of 1796, Adamss administration, concerning various perspectives of historical figures on financial policies and foreign countries, the XYZ Affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts, all in relation to the restrictions and powers of the United States Constitution. Under the term of Washington, there were many affairs to deal with, mainly foreign. Hamilton saw much to admire in Britain. He modeled his financial policies in part on those of William Pitt the younger, a great British minister who took office in 1783, when Britain was so burdened with debt that it seemed on the verge of bankruptcy, and whose reforms restored his countrys financial health. The success of Hamiltons financial program, moreover, depended on smooth relations with Britain: duties on imports provided a major source of federal revenue, and most American imports came from Britain. Hamilton did not advocate returning the Americans to British rule; he had, after all, fought for independence as an officer of the Continental army. Nor did he seek to establish a monarchy in the United States. But he thought an amicable relationship with the onetime mother country would best serve American interests. In contrast, Jefferson remained deeply hostile to Britain, and his Anglophobia played a central role in his growing opposition to Hamilton. The treasury secretarys method of finance, with a bank and large funded debt, seemed-as in part it was-base...

Developing Good Work Ethics Essays

Developing Good Work Ethics Essays Developing Good Work Ethics Paper Developing Good Work Ethics Paper As a social actively Its purpose Is the preservation of society. Work therefore has moral and legal implications. Work is a legitimate use of our mental and bodily powers for economic gain or profit 1 . Work is the use or application of our physical powers to accomplish certain tasks. It is the use because nobody can own another mans body, nor can anyone sell his body or any part of it, for purposes of material advantage or gain. . Work is the repose of obtaining economic gain for the power. It belongs to the essence of work that it can be compensated. The Meaning of Work in the Holy Bible From the biblical point of view, God is seen as the author of work and he also blessed and sanctioned work. Old Testament God did not Just create man, He was also the author of work. In Genesis chapter 1, He creates pattern for us to follow He created the world for SIX days and rested on the seventh day. The reason for this respite Is for man to appreciate the value and meaning of work. New Testament The meaning of work could be understood from the mystery of Gods reincarnation. When Christ became man, humanity was blessed and sanctified, including human work. Seen from this perspective, work therefore is not a drudgery, not even a curse, but an activity that has been sanctified, then it must also sanctify the worker. The Theological Meaning of Work According to SST. Thomas Aquinas SST. Thomas Aquinas enumerates four purposes of work In his treatise entitled Summary Theological 1 . It provides for ones day livelihood. 2. It prevents Idleness which Is the source of many evils. . It curbs the rebellious flesh. 4. It enables man to give alms from his material surplus. The Human Perspective of Work . Practice the Golden Rule. 2. Guard your mouth. 3. Stop the green Jokes. 4. Practice ethical behavior. 5. Learn to forgive. 6. Be generous. 7. Respect superiors and co-workers. 8. Be considerate. 9. Perform your work and fulfill your duties to the best of your ability. 10. B ea grateful person. 11. Do not bring the problems at your home to your workplace. (vice versa) 12. Be an inspiration to others. 13. Read the bible every day. 14. Develop a personal relationship with God. 5. Smile and enjoy work. (remember: work has been sanctified, it must also sanctify you) Basic Duties of Employers 1 . Respect the dignity of the worker 2. Appreciate their work. 3. Never treat them as a slave for making money. 4. Never assign them beyond their strength, do not employ them in work not suited to their age or gender. 5. Give them commensurate or fare wages. 6. Provide for their health and social recreation. 7. Provide them time for the practice of their religion. 8. Instruct them how to use their money wisely. 9. Instruct them to love their family. 10. Provide them opportunities for promotion. Basic Duties of Worker 1 . Work honestly and comply with all agreements. 2. Never injure capital, nor steal from the employer. . Never outrage the person of the employer. 4. Never employ deceit nor violence in presenting a cause. 5. Never consult with agitators or men with evil principle. CHAPTER 15 Equal Employment Opportunities and Affirmation Action EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITY- Is a labor policy that prohibits business from discriminating against otherwise-qualified people with disabilities. JOB on the basis of personal merit but on the basis of partiality or bias. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Involves policies to increase opportunities for ethnic minorities by favoring them in hiring and promotion, college admissions, and the awarding of government entrants. What is employment discrimination? Employment discrimination is a form of discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. Earnings differentials or occupational differentiation is not in and of itself evidence of employment discrimination. Discrimination can be intended and involve disparate treatment of a group or be unintended, yet create disparate impact for a group. 179. What are the factors to consider? Soon and Palm-Angles (1997) think that it really depends on several factors, such as the following: Who his competitors are What abilities his competitors have How interviewers see him How he performed during the exams and interviews 180. Is it easy to detect discrimination in the workplace? The truth is that it is not easy to detect whether or not there is discrimination in the workplace. Spotting employment discrimination is a big headache because it is generally hard to know whether specific individuals were actually discriminated against. 181 . What are the elements of Job discrimination? It may be of help if we are to identify some elements or factors that somehow constitute Job discrimination (Velazquez, 1998), and I enumerate here as follows: 1) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment (not based on personal merit such as seniority, performance rating, or other qualifications) is intended against anyone of the workers and his/ her particular group (2) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment springs from prejudice or bias, from false stereotypes, or from other ways of unfair attitude aimed at a particular group to which the worker belongs (3) When a Judgment, decision, or treatment is disadvantageous, pejorative or simply harmful to the worker, perhaps costing his/ her Job, promotion, or pay raise 182. How do you know whether those elements apply to our earlier example? Most likely, racial discrimination was a shadow behind the promotion or a better pay if the following three elements are present: (1) Was the discussion of management to bypass the Filipino assistant manager in favor of the French assistant manager based on personal merits such as seniority, performance rating or other qualifications? Or the criterion to promote the French assistant manager has nothing to do with merits, qualifications, and credentials? (2) Did the decision spring from false stereotypes such as the French are more competent, aggressive, or trustworthy Han Filipinos, Asians in general, and other ethnic groups? The presence of this element may be hard to prove. (3) Was the decision disadvantageous to the Filipino assistant manager in terms of a promotion or a better pay? 183. Is there discrimination against women in the workplace? In the Philippine setting, it looks like there is still some kind of Job discrimination The major challenge women have to confront relates to the fact they are the ones who biologically bear children and carry most of the burden of rearing and caring for them. Employers are equally afraid they must provide childcare support by setting up a Hillsdale facility at or near the workplace and other unending benefits for women. Almost always, HER managers are inclined to distinguish between a career woman and a mother, with the latter usually discriminated against in favor of the former. 184. What are the stereotypes against women? Job recruitment and interviews are discriminatory if the recruiter or interviewer routinely disqualifies women by relying on sexual stereotypes. These stereotypes may include some presumptions: There are fields of occupation, which are traditionally suitable for women because of their sensitive, vulnerable, and fragile nature. There are types of work, which may not be fitting to women due to their biological condition like monthly period. The inability of women to cope up with certain Job requirements since their common gender personality and aptitude traits make them unsuitable for those Jobs. Such generalizations about women are not only biased or prejudicial but also UNTRUE. 185. What is the lesson learned from the 1997 film 6. 1. Jane? The movie 6. 1. Jane, starring Deem Moore, demonstrates the active presence of a determined woman in the toughest military facilities of the US Navy Seals. Veritably, mimes have changed. In the real world-not by pure chance, luck, or accident-women have become heads of state in Israel, Pakistan, India, Nicaragua, Ireland, Finland, Great Britain, New Zealand and other nations. 186. How is discrimination related to right to life ? It is unethical and socially irresponsible for any employer to dismiss or discharge an employee merely on account of his/her marital status. Hiring, firing, promotion, or demotion must be subject to an objective, unbiased and fair criteria. Workers ought to be treated equally on the basis of individual merit and not on the ground of sexual orientation or marital status. 187. What are ethical principles involved in Job discrimination? Discrimination in the workplace is wrong and socially irresponsible because of the following reasons: 1) Discrimination in hiring is a disservice in the long run. To hire the best and the smartest it is wiser to select somebody whose talents and personality traits quality him/her as the most competent for the Job. If you so hire and appoint someone on the basis of other criteria unrelated to competency, then subsequent Job performance necessarily declines and productivity goes down. Thats one pragmatic argument against employment Discrimination. 2) It is actually double Jeopardy. Both the object and the subject of discrimination turn out to be the loser. The company could have possibly hired the worker discriminated against, the one who might turn out to be the best and most suited for the Job. But because it was biased, the company did not pick up the best possible applicant, suffered a disadvantage and got no blessing. Ethics. To discriminate is not the right thing to do. Each person has a fundamental right to be treated as a free and thinking individual and all other individual including employers) have a correlative moral duty to treat him/her as such. 4)when business discriminates, it consciously or unconsciously affirms that one group is inferior or subordinate to another group, that people from the province are less qualified than city residents, or UP and La Sale graduates are better than CRU or PUP graduates, that women are less capable than men, that French employees are better that Filipinos. Such regarding stereotypes undermine the self-esteem of those groups against whom the stereotypes are directed and thereby violate their fundamental right to be treated as equals. Discriminatory practices are not consistent with ethical management which upholds that all are equal in essence and dignity and that all men and women have the same basic rights and duties. Everyone is created equal in essence and dignity, in spite of the race or color, religion, sex, party affiliation, or business connections (Velasquez, 1998). 188. What is the best practice of shell in terms of diversity standard? Creating an inclusive environment that elicits the very best from its employees is fundamental to shells success. Therefore, the oil company is committed to manage diversity as a radical business activity. It values the broad range of cultural and personal differences that exists in the company. The company is benchmarking CARS on diversity and inclusiveness. Shell dedicated to respect each employees need to balance work and personal demands, and provide equal opportunity for everyone to compete through well-understood and consistently applied employment and performance standards. Thus, the company provides means for employees to share, networking, learning, self-development and communication. Royal Dutch/shell group(2002) reports that shell companies across the globe promotes a culture in which all shell employees, contractors, and Joint ventures share his commitment for diversity. In order to underpin this commitment, every shell company must assure that it: Has a systemic approach to diversity management addressing each of the elements of the group Diversity Framework; Actively supports attraction, development, retention, and promotion of diverse talents; Promotes a workplace free from harassment and discrimination; Establish annual diversity plans, goals and targets for improvement; measures, appraises and reports business performance; Includes diversity performance in the appraisal and development plans of leaders ND employees; Provides safe and effective ways for employees to report observed behavioral inconsistencies with this standard. Chapter 16: Against Conceptualization Is Conceptualization Socially Responsible? What is labor conceptualization? Is the replacing of regular workers with temporary workers who receive lower wages with no or less benefits. These temporary workers are also known as sometimes called contractual, trainees, apprentices, helpers, casuals, piece raters, agency-hired, and project employees, among others. They do the work of regular workers for a specified and limited period of time, usually less than six months. The work they do is desirable and necessary for the companys survival, but they never become regular employees even if they get rehired repeatedly under new contracts. The general public is sounding the alarm on the steady growth of both unemployment and underemployment. The concrete situation of millions of sales ladies in our department stores and giant malls, some factory workers, house helpers, carpenters, gasoline boys, workers in the barber shops and parlors, whose jobs are permanently temporary, simply because they are contractual. They have no stable Jobs, no ASS, no medical insurance, no security of tenure?not to mention the 6 million Overseas Filipino Workers who are employed on a contract-to- contract basis, more than 70 percent of whom are domestic helpers and entertainers stationed in four corners of the globe. The new millennium, tagged by management guru Peter F. Trucker as the century of knowledge society, is witnessing the sudden increase of part-time Jobs even among our professionals. This is happening in spite of the fact that the Filipino labor force in general is globally recognized as technically proficient, highly educated, almost always over skilled, let alone our competitive advantage in the English language. Filipino workers are prioritize among Asians by many international companies. Is contractual labor part and parcel of the big economic landscape? Contractual labor is and has been there as part and parcel of the big economic picture?in agribusiness, sweatshops, construction, and retail business. Nevertheless, the fact that it has been with us for a long time does not make it correct. At any fast food chain you and your kids happen to drop by and eat, it is very probable that only a few of the uniformed crew (18-24 years old) who are on duty will become casual, probe, or regular employees. One thing is sure for those crew embers, the rest of them are out of work before the sixth-month deadline imposed by Labor Code. Even oversupplied nurses are now contractual laborers. From there, some have to renew their contracts while others have to look for another job, usually in another fasted or gasoline station or hospital, and the vicious cycle of conceptualization continues without ceasing. The conceptualization of labor is a business strategy or practice, validated to be cost effective. What could be the raisin d ©tree why Article 23 was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says, Everyone has the right to work, to free choice f employment, to Just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment? The basic foundation for full employment is the 1987 Philippine Constitution protecting the right to full employment in the following provision: Article 13, Section 3, The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unrealized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all. From here, we can safely assume that both able and disabled bodies have the natural right to earn a living by a meaningful occupation, a Job worthy of the free and hinging person. This basic human right to work and earn a legitimate means of livelihood entails a solemn duty on the part of private business sector and the government to provide ample opportunities for adequate work and full employment. Jobs are not enough. It should be adequate and full?regardless of how beautifully some pundits explain various theories of underemployment. Why is it a choice between underemployment and unemployment? Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, relative to a standard. Examples include holding a part-time Job despite desiring full-time work, and over qualification, where the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the Job. Unemployment (or Joblessness) occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work In the technical sense, conceptualization is a form of underemployment. The right to adequate work and full employment is essential to all men and women of legal age, as swimming is essential to a fish and flying to a bird (well, most birds). This basic right springs from our intrinsic nature to self-preservation and our innate obligation o support our family, both of which are in accordance with the divine plan. Although underemployment (conceptualization and part-time Jobs) continues to exist in many various ways, there are no reasons adequate enough to Justify it. The key principle is that full employment is a fundamental right of every citizen, which means the right to be protected from unemployment and underemployment is basic. The harsh reality, however, appears to contradict this idealism embodied in our In most cases, on the part of the Jobsharers, who are almost always breadwinners, it is a choice between Joblessness and underemployment, a quick option between anger and at-least-theres-hope-for-survival. Is conceptualization a scheme for profit minimization? Ever since the Philippines Jumped into the GATE-WTFO bandwagon, times have been especially difficult for labor. The name of the game is cheap labor. In order to attract foreign investors?aspiring to be competitive as they say with our Asian neighbors? we have to provide the cheapest labor possible. And this cheap labor comes through conceptualization of Jobs and services. It appears that conceptualization is a scheme that allows capitalists to replace their workforce with ease according to market demands. This translates to minimization of profits for the company, but for the laborers, this system denies them the security and benefits of a regular Job while being paid very low wages. Conceptualization has become the main form of labor in many Philippine businesses, a good reason why there are hardly any labor unions in the country or why most workers are not organized in the new millennium. Contractual workers cannot afford to Join unions because they are at the mercy of their employers. Many laws protecting workers protect only regular employment. Ethics and Professional Codes of Conduct The era of globalization has created a need for a specialized skills and knowledge. 1 . Skills is the ability to do something well. 2. Knowledge skill that acquire during your education and experience. The reason for the globalization is known as full automation. This situation bring the word profession, professional and professionalism exist in the corporate world. 1 . Profession a type of Job that requires a special education, training or skill. 2. Professional -relating to a Job that requires special education, training, or skill done or given by a person who works in a particular profession paid to participate in a port or activity 3. Professionalism the competence or skill expected of a professional. Members of profession are required by their association to follow their particular rules or guidelines known to be Professional codes of conduct. These guidelines prescribe responsibilities that members must adhere to and situations in which they must not involved. In some cases, members must be sanctioned for violation of the code. These sanction may include the following : Payment of a fine Payment of a cost of any investigation Reprimand Imposition of condition on membership Suspension from membership Sometimes ,the law silent or absent in some areas of our human conduct. The law does not say anything about this human conduct and its regulation. In the absence of law, some people tend to make their own professional codes of conduct. However, professional codes of conduct are limited only to some specific professions and cannot be entirely regulated and imposed to all while Ethics is universal and applicable to all.

Analysis Of Abe Kobos The Red Cocoon Essays - Oddworld, Kb Abe

Analysis Of Abe Kobo's The Red Cocoon Essays - Oddworld, Kb Abe Analysis Of Abe Kobo's The Red Cocoon Generally speaking, the purpose of most forms of artistic expression such as literary art, music, or art itself is a mode by which the author can express him/herself with. They use their respective skills and/or interests to convey feelings or thoughts on any given topic. Short fiction is by no means exempt from this. Many writers use their literary skills to express dreams, aspirations, opinions, or even political viewpoints. In order to make a dertermination of a probable origin for a story, research into the authors life and beliefs most likely will prove benefical. With this in mind, Abe Kobos story The Red Cocoon seems to be a prime example of an author expressing his political viewpoints and his personal conflicts with society through literature. Given this, researching his life and political stance might help to support or negate such an assumption. The Red Cocoon begins with a man walking down a street discussing with himself the problem of not having a house to go home to. The narrator, who is also the main character, jumps abruptly from topic to topic throughout the story, but this reoccuring theme of the lack of a house seems to be a central idea. As the narrator comtemplates, he wonders if he has just forgotten his house and proceeds to knock on the door of a random house to find out if this is what has happened. After he has explained his plight to the woman who answers the door, he begins arguing with her over having proof that it is not his house. Shortly thereafter, the narrator begins to ponder wether or not things such as concrete pipes or park benches are his house. Deciding that they are on their way to belonging to someone or that they belong to everyone and not just one person, he begins to wonder if anything exsists that belongs to no one. At the end of the story, he finds that one of his legs begins to unwind in to a silk thread and wrap him up in a cocoon. Abe Kobos story is quite abstract and seems to have little meaning. In fact, that is just the opposite. After reading some information about Abe Kobo, the story seems to take on a new meaning. Abe Kobo is considered to be one of the leading authors during the post-WWII era of Japanese history. Many of his works use what was then radical artistic methods of literature (Abe Kobo). In his early childhood, Abe was living in Manchuria which was occupied by the Japanese at the time. Being born in Japan, altough Abe felt strong ties to the chinese, he was left feeling like an outsider and rejected by both societes. After the war, Abe became more and more antinationalist and was interested in marxism and communism. Soon, he even joined the Japanese Communist Party (Abe Kobo). He was quite involved in political issues at this time and many of his early writings preceding the early 60s deal with his issues about society says Clerk and Seigal in Modern Literatures of the Non-Western World (136) . With this information about Abe Kobo, an interpretation of The Red Cocoon emerges with heavy political and social tones. The narators central problem of attempting to find out why he does not have a house seems to point to not only Abes feelings of isolation during his childhood, but also his socialist political viewpoints at the time. The Red Cocoon was written in 1949, a period of Abes life when he was a strong political activist (Clerk and Seigal, 136). Utopian marxist or communist views on society center around a flat heirarchial structure where no one is more powerful or of a higher class than any other. The property of the country is reffered to as property of everyone and ownership is somewhat denounced in the strictist forms of the political stance. Abes character in The Red Cocoon seems to be having problems with ownership of houses and other pieces of property. The question is asked, Even if it isnt mine, cant there be just one thing that doesnt belong to anyone? This quest ion appears to have socialist undertones

Project Management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Project Management - Term Paper Example There is a specified objective of completing the task within 20 days. This is 15 days shy of the existing 35 days within which projects are normally completed. The most fundamental technique to use in achieving the set goal is to eliminate all forms of waste associated with production. There is an estimated cost of 500,000 usd investment fund. There is a very highly taunted objective of improving quality of engines to be produced through a performance analysis process. This is a linear project management process Project Management Institute (2008).. There are however rooms made for handling changes in the scope of the project. The contract shall permit changes to be made in relation to labor issues such as employing new staff to continue from where existing staff exit. There shall also be the introduction of new fund of not more than 25% of the original estimate if the need to pump in more funds arises. It is assumed that should the project be closely delivered according to the objective and target of reducing waste, the company would accumulate more revenue than expected. This is because more pieces of engines can be built with the current budget and more quality engines can be produced within the set time frame (PM Docs,

Ethical boundaries of undercover policing and authorized criminality Essay - 1

Ethical boundaries of undercover policing and authorized criminality - Essay Example of concession once the fellow group discovers about it ( Sullivan, 2005 ) .Again, engaging in a situation whereby it would involve revolutionary offenses and commission of executing since this would be against the legal framework of police laws and this would deny me the trust from the public at large ( Kephart, 2007 ). Also, engaging in an activity that involves drug rewards to the clunk, since it puts one in a position of conflicting judgment as a law enforcer. I would ensure my authorized criminality included the following: â€Å"Buy-bust†: this involves making orders for the drugs and using the marked money to purchase the drugs. The covert police then flees from the scene which opens an opportunity for the plain clothed police to swoop in and detain the supplier. Then the confiscated cash is used as evidence that the deal had indeed taken place ( Sullivan, 2005

Determining HRIS Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Determining HRIS Needs - Essay Example Human resource information systems are aimed at enhancing efficient use of information to ensure informed decision-making process. When plans for updating the human resource information are being made, it is prudent to assess a number of parameters that influences the system and its operations in an organization (Torres-Coronas and Arias-Oliva, 2009). Thus, to begin with organizations should the management practices in the organization and the current technology that is implemented in relation to the changes in the business environment. In this regard, the organization should acquire knowledge of new technology that they seek to replace the current one and analyse both its advantages and drawbacks, and them assess its suitability in the organization. The government regulation concerning deployment of new technology as far as human resource information system is concerned should be analysed so as to ensure the new technology or improvements, that are to be rolled out, are in accordance with the law and they meet the minimum requirements as stipulated. The needs of the organization should also be taken into consideration since the new technology or improvements that are to be done are for the sole purpose of ensuring the objectives of the organization are achieved with ease (Torres-Coronas and Arias-Oliva, 2009). That notwithstanding, before rolling out the changes the human resource department should assess their long-term plans incline them with market dynamism and thus ensure viable long term strategy. Also information from market leaders that have successfully implemented the changes or new technology concerning the human resource information system together with records from government agencies should be analysed and aid in making informed decisions as far as the upgrade is concerned. Focus groups are prone to bias since the groups tend to be dominated by few individuals whose ideas will override the general opinion of others thus make the

Barriers to participation in adult learning Essay

Barriers to participation in adult learning - Essay Example In acting on this need, the adult learner will find that there are obstacles to going back to school, some of which will be anticipated, but others which will create a surprising result. While real life obstacles of a financial variety, including childcare issues and spousal resistance may come into conflict with ambitions, the unexpected feeling of being aged out and inappropriate to the social setting may have more impact than expected. The following study is intended to critically evaluate the literature in order to assess the problems that adult learners will face when going back to school. Through secondary research review, the project will provide contest for the nature of the phenomenon of the adult learner, thus creating a discourse on the identity issues that will result from the choice to go back to school after an absence in between which life has taken place. 1.1 Background The barriers that exist to adult learning can be defined by a great number of categories, through a spects of social classifications, medical classifications, and through aspects of cognitive development as it affects age. Issues of class, race, gender and disability can contribute to problems that might arise as those issues in combination with generational gaps can create issues that many students will not have to address. The number of ways in which an adult learner will be affected in a classroom setting can equal the number of ways in which the adult learner diverts from the socialization of the common, age specific learner in a university setting. According to Podsen (2002: 18) there are four specific areas that will affect an adult learner: Adults are self-directing and desire to be in charge of their learning, including the content time and effort. Adults’ prior life experiences play a key role in their learning activities, and they rely on these experiences as a resource from which they can learn new things. Adults have distinctive learning styles, with their routi nes and strategies for processing information already established. Adults pass through various developmental stages, and this impacts the types and methods of learning in which they will engage. However, these advantages have their disadvantaged counterparts, creating barriers that are designed through the social status of an adult over a young adult who is still within the framework of the support of a family. As an adult learner, the support system that is in place for most young adults will more than likely not be relevant to the adutl learner with more years of life experience. While learning will be easier under many course objectives, financial pressures, home life stressors, lack of parental support, and child care necessities will complicate the process. With a developed life experience ‘portfolio’ lying underneath the experiences of an adult, the pressures that can distract for the efforts towards achievement provide a different framed experience in a learning institution than that of a young adult learner. Additionally, the social structure of a learning institution is constructed to support the socialization of young adults, thus leaving older students out of an important aspect of university life. Therefore, the pressures on an adult learner are far different than those of a young adult learner, creating a diverted atmosphere than the one that has been created by the university. 1.2 Research Questions The following research questions have been used to frame the discussion of adult learners in a

Report on Diversity day episode Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Report on Diversity day episode - Essay Example Employees are inconsiderate of other employee’s feelings. One employee shreds papers rudely inconveniencing another, who is on the phone. He even goes further to cut off a call from a client. Dwight steals a colleague’s client. Such behavior illustrates the absence of office etiquette. Michael Scott as the Scranton Regional Manager should set a good example and the standard for the way people conduct themselves in the workplace. The Diversity Day training is organized by corporate in response to an incident in which Michael made racially offensive statements. Having everyone sign the Diversity commitment paper in order to avoid embarrassment shows preferential treatment in corporate. There should be fair treatment of all members of an organization. At the seminar, he does not provide a good environment for Mr. Brown, the course facilitator to do his job. Michael also discriminates against black people in the office. He lashes out at them for failing to take responsibility for mistakes they make and blames them for expecting praise for doing what is expected of them. He later extends this discrimination to the Mexicans by suggesting that the term represents something that one should feel ashamed. Role acting about minority communities propagates stereotypes. The role of Michael representing Martin Luther Jnr is an insult to the civil rights movement and the black community he represented. The statement that most streets named after the civil rights record the highest number of violence propagates the stereotypes that black people are violent. The show also suggests that Arabs are violent people while upholding the perception that Jews are shylocks. It is worth noting that several laws broken in the show. For example, the slapping of Michael breaks the law against violence at the workplace. His imitation of Indians deliberately singles a member of the minority community subjecting her to emotional pain

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Industry Research Proposal

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Industry - Research Proposal Example Hence consolidation can be in the form of merger between two or more pharmaceutical companies, acquisition of one pharmaceutical company by another, merger or acquisition between a formulations company and a bulk drugs company terming which as vertical integration will be more appropriate. There can also be mergers or acquisitions between a health care industry and a pharmaceutical industry, a form of vertical integration. All these activities centre around one goal, that is consolidation. The generic meaning of consolidation is strengthening. Hence consolidation is for obviously strengthening of merging entities. The question this proposal however poses is who the beneficiaries of the consolidation are. The stakeholders in the consolidation process are shareholders of the company, its consumers, its suppliers, its customers, its employees, Government and environmentalists. Apart from them, behind the scenes are the consultants and the directors of the company who manipulate consolid ation. This proposal will undertake a detailed study as to who the real beneficiaries of consolidation are. This is the research question the proposed research will address for which purpose detailed literatures review will be undertaken. The very question presupposes existence of a problem of who actually the beneficiaries are in consolidations. There are bound to be vested interests beneath the surface and in the deliberate hostile takeovers. Problem viewed in this context, the research question gains significance as to whether consolidations are serving the interests of stakeholders or the vested interests which may be against public policy. The outcomes examined on case by case basis may be mixed. Therefore the study has to see the overall impact of consolidations in health care and pharmaceutical industry. To this extent, the issue is problematic and answer is not readily forthcoming without a deep research into the subject. Objectives of Research To examine the benefits of consolidations. To ascertain risks associated with the consolidations. To make a comparative study with consolidations in other industries and ascertain why pharmaceutical or health care sector is unique .and To arrive at a balanced view for future policy. PART 2: Literature Review This part of the paper is important in that literature review is part of the research methodology by which the researcher will examine data already available on the subject of study. In research parlance this is the secondary data through which the research questions raised in the study will be likely to be answered if the data so gathered is adequate. Generic drugs manufacturing companies were once poor relations of the pharma industry. But they have now grown and attained international stature via acquisitions. In 2006, the generic drugs' sales all over the world were $ 77 billion. (URCH) Shukla (2006) states that pharmaceutical companies across the world persuade their counterparts for consolidation with a view to benefit from their respective core competencies in various segments of R & D, manufacturing and unique marketing opportunities in a global setting. Pharmaceutical comp

Barriers to participation in adult learning Essay

Barriers to participation in adult learning - Essay Example In acting on this need, the adult learner will find that there are obstacles to going back to school, some of which will be anticipated, but others which will create a surprising result. While real life obstacles of a financial variety, including childcare issues and spousal resistance may come into conflict with ambitions, the unexpected feeling of being aged out and inappropriate to the social setting may have more impact than expected. The following study is intended to critically evaluate the literature in order to assess the problems that adult learners will face when going back to school. Through secondary research review, the project will provide contest for the nature of the phenomenon of the adult learner, thus creating a discourse on the identity issues that will result from the choice to go back to school after an absence in between which life has taken place. 1.1 Background The barriers that exist to adult learning can be defined by a great number of categories, through a spects of social classifications, medical classifications, and through aspects of cognitive development as it affects age. Issues of class, race, gender and disability can contribute to problems that might arise as those issues in combination with generational gaps can create issues that many students will not have to address. The number of ways in which an adult learner will be affected in a classroom setting can equal the number of ways in which the adult learner diverts from the socialization of the common, age specific learner in a university setting. According to Podsen (2002: 18) there are four specific areas that will affect an adult learner: Adults are self-directing and desire to be in charge of their learning, including the content time and effort. Adults’ prior life experiences play a key role in their learning activities, and they rely on these experiences as a resource from which they can learn new things. Adults have distinctive learning styles, with their routi nes and strategies for processing information already established. Adults pass through various developmental stages, and this impacts the types and methods of learning in which they will engage. However, these advantages have their disadvantaged counterparts, creating barriers that are designed through the social status of an adult over a young adult who is still within the framework of the support of a family. As an adult learner, the support system that is in place for most young adults will more than likely not be relevant to the adutl learner with more years of life experience. While learning will be easier under many course objectives, financial pressures, home life stressors, lack of parental support, and child care necessities will complicate the process. With a developed life experience ‘portfolio’ lying underneath the experiences of an adult, the pressures that can distract for the efforts towards achievement provide a different framed experience in a learning institution than that of a young adult learner. Additionally, the social structure of a learning institution is constructed to support the socialization of young adults, thus leaving older students out of an important aspect of university life. Therefore, the pressures on an adult learner are far different than those of a young adult learner, creating a diverted atmosphere than the one that has been created by the university. 1.2 Research Questions The following research questions have been used to frame the discussion of adult learners in a

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Industry Research Proposal

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Industry - Research Proposal Example Hence consolidation can be in the form of merger between two or more pharmaceutical companies, acquisition of one pharmaceutical company by another, merger or acquisition between a formulations company and a bulk drugs company terming which as vertical integration will be more appropriate. There can also be mergers or acquisitions between a health care industry and a pharmaceutical industry, a form of vertical integration. All these activities centre around one goal, that is consolidation. The generic meaning of consolidation is strengthening. Hence consolidation is for obviously strengthening of merging entities. The question this proposal however poses is who the beneficiaries of the consolidation are. The stakeholders in the consolidation process are shareholders of the company, its consumers, its suppliers, its customers, its employees, Government and environmentalists. Apart from them, behind the scenes are the consultants and the directors of the company who manipulate consolid ation. This proposal will undertake a detailed study as to who the real beneficiaries of consolidation are. This is the research question the proposed research will address for which purpose detailed literatures review will be undertaken. The very question presupposes existence of a problem of who actually the beneficiaries are in consolidations. There are bound to be vested interests beneath the surface and in the deliberate hostile takeovers. Problem viewed in this context, the research question gains significance as to whether consolidations are serving the interests of stakeholders or the vested interests which may be against public policy. The outcomes examined on case by case basis may be mixed. Therefore the study has to see the overall impact of consolidations in health care and pharmaceutical industry. To this extent, the issue is problematic and answer is not readily forthcoming without a deep research into the subject. Objectives of Research To examine the benefits of consolidations. To ascertain risks associated with the consolidations. To make a comparative study with consolidations in other industries and ascertain why pharmaceutical or health care sector is unique .and To arrive at a balanced view for future policy. PART 2: Literature Review This part of the paper is important in that literature review is part of the research methodology by which the researcher will examine data already available on the subject of study. In research parlance this is the secondary data through which the research questions raised in the study will be likely to be answered if the data so gathered is adequate. Generic drugs manufacturing companies were once poor relations of the pharma industry. But they have now grown and attained international stature via acquisitions. In 2006, the generic drugs' sales all over the world were $ 77 billion. (URCH) Shukla (2006) states that pharmaceutical companies across the world persuade their counterparts for consolidation with a view to benefit from their respective core competencies in various segments of R & D, manufacturing and unique marketing opportunities in a global setting. Pharmaceutical comp

Sexuality & bipolar Essay Example for Free

Sexuality bipolar Essay Sexuality as we know it has always been bipolar in its categories: the masculine and the feminine. People are then placed in these categories according to their anatomy, with pre-set expectations placed on them on how they would act and eventually mature. For example, it is unacceptable for women to smoke cigars, repair cars and wear moustache while men are not supposed to be doing housework, carry purses, wear nail polish and cry in public (Kunkel 283). Yet what we take for granted is our knowledge that sexuality is not bipolar and the practices that seem innocent yet oppressive, limiting and binding on our insights. For example, if one would look at a greeting card section, one will find that most of the cards are focused mainly on two categories, for mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers for the feminine category and fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers for the male. The only remotely gender neutral cards were for friends yet even they weren’t entirely neutral since their colors and design corresponds to what is viewed by society as acceptable for what males and females would like, i. e. , cards directed at women receivers tend to receive cards that are pink or pastel colored with a flowery or â€Å"cute† design. Male receivers on the other hand mostly receive blue and other masculine colors with a sporty motif. Most cards dealing with relationships depict heterosexual couples and labels such as husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend and such. On the other hand, depictions of homosexual couples are virtually invisible; a few cards brandishing love quotes are the only ones who are gender neutral. If a homosexual wishes to buy a card for his/her partner, his /her only option is to focus on the love section and a few of the romance. He/she would have to take care to choose the depictions on the cards as well. The reason for the invisibility of the other forms of sexuality is due to the fact that society views heterosexuality as the norm and homosexuality is deviant (Cruz 1012). Homosexuality is viewed as biologically abnormal, pathological, and anti-nature since its very principle clashes with the idea of pro-creation. Society has created labels and borders to prevent the homosexuals from being visible. One example is the categories of relationships with heterosexual anniversaries, marriages and such. In a marriage, there is a label of â€Å"husband† and â€Å"wife†, the male taking the former and the female the latter; same-sex marriages, while still being debated whether it should be legalized or not, possesses no such labels in the relationship. In contrast, the idea heteronormativity has labeled same-sex couples with derogatory names, to mark them as inappropriate behavior and be categorized as sexually deviant. (Kunkel 289). In effect, people tend to reject and persecute them, giving the deviants neither room nor niche to challenge the status quo. In one hour of television, commercials always show images of heterosexual couples in their respective niches in the crowd. Although homosexuals are portrayed in reality shows, there is no hint of their relationships with the other characters on screen. If there is a hint, it is usually downplayed and censored. Heterosexual couples however, are celebrated and objectified. There is virtually no same-sex couple that is depicted even if the media is one of the most influential driving forces in forwarding awareness of these same-sex couples. It is interesting to note that even if people are claiming that they are tolerant and accept same-sex couples, same-sex couples are still â€Å"invisible†. Heteronormativity is driven by gender roles that are imposed by society’s bipolar expectations. Its pervasiveness can be attributed to the fact that since a community is held together by unwritten laws such as norms and taboos, it is safe to assume that society is threatened by these sexually deviant individuals thus heteronormativity is more pronounced and enforced. Heterosexism, in a way, is a cord that binds our society together, yet in return it sets boundaries and insists that it is the norm. Heteronormativity itself does not empower heterosexuals and robs the power from same sex individuals; rather, it limits both parties and disempower them since they are stuck in their labels and categories, with no room to maneuver about. People believe that it is so since other forms of sexuality are invisible and are conditioned to think in the bipolar manner. Heteronormativity is everywhere since society has its own set rules and status quo that is hard to neither displace nor challenge and heteronormativity has been present ever since the formation of such communities. WORKS CITED Cruz, David B. â€Å"Disestablishing Sex and Gender. † California Law Review Vol. 90 (2002): 997-1086 Kunkel, Charlotte A. and Nielson, Joyce McCarl and Walden, Glenda. â€Å"Gendered Heteronormativity: Empirical Illustrations in Everyday Life. † The Sociological Quarterly. Vol. 41 (2000): 283-296

Two theories of motivation

Two theories of motivation Motivation is an intangible human asset which acts as a driver that pushes humans to be willing to perform certain actions. In just about everything we do there is something that moves us to perform the action which involves some motivation allowing us to perform tasks or actions which produces some type of personal benefit as a result. The general theory would be that, the greater the personal gain in performing the task for the individual, the more motivated they are to try at the task to achieve the best outcome. Motivation is usually stimulated by a want where there is a gain to be had as a result of performing a certain task. As Todes, McKinney, Ferguson, Jr. (1977) p.223 states, A person is a wanting being he always wants, and he wants more. Therefore if there is nothing that an individual wants, there would be no need for them to perform a certain task as there is nothing they can gain from it. Over time there have been many motivational theories developed to try and explore what motivation is and how different levels of motivation can be achieved with different inputs. Two of the most widely recognised motivational theories come from Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs) and Fredrick Herzberg (two factor theory). Managers in businesses would use these theories in an attempt to motivate staff to provide them with job satisfaction and in return receive better task performance. Through extensive research Maslow and Herzberg developed their own theories which are now used in businesses all around the world. Both differ in how they are applied but in the modern world they are seen as being totally true by many although they should be perceived as being an interesting problematic set of observations about what motivates people (Finchman Rhodes, 2005) p.199. This is due to the lack of evidence to say that they are completely true despite applying to the overall majority. Each is very similar in the way that there are certain requirements that must be fulfilled before high levels of motivation can be obtained. Abraham Maslow sets out a hierarchy of importance where human needs are arranged in a series of levels (Todes et al. 1977). Like Herzbergs two factor theory, the needs in Maslows hierarchy can be split into two levels. The first set being the basic needs, contain physiological and safety needs. The second set can be seen as the motivators consisting of social, esteem and self actualizing needs. In comparison to Herzberg, basic needs would be the equivalent of hygiene needs consisting of: salary, colleagues, supervision, policies and environment. Herzbergs second set (motivators) includes: recognition, promotion, achievement, responsibility and intrinsic job aspects, all of which are individually quite self-explanatory and fairly interlinked (Finchman Rhodes, 2005). As the structure of Maslows hierarchy suggests, the higher motivators are harder to achieve than the previous and there is an order to which they must be acquired. If the previous motivator has not been reasonably satisfi ed then there will be no desire to try and obtain the next. The physiological needs are reflected in the human need to eat, breathe, rest, drink and engage in active endeavors (Todes et al. 1977) p.244. These needs can be seen as essentials for survival making it logical to be place at the bottom of the hierarchy and as the lowest motivator (Todes et al. 1977). Safety needs come in the form of feeling secure in the job that you have which means that there is a requirement of: shelter, a strong feeling of job security and as Todes et al. (1977) states, a need for protection against physical dangers along with the need to earn a fair salary that can satisfy a given standard of living which is an element in Herzbergs list of hygiene factors. A manager would be able to fulfill the basic needs by giving suitable amount of time for breaks in which the physiological needs can be easily met. Safety would derive from supervision and policies of the company where they act as a guide, helping the employees progress giving them a feeling of being well supported. The environment that they work in would also help with employees feeling safe as long as there is the avoidance of physical dangers. Also there is the conflict of whether or not salary is a motivator. Managers may think that employees would work harder for a raise whereas others believe it is ineffective. Although necessary, hence it being placed in the hygiene factors and incorporated in the safety needs, it is not a motivator. The reason for this may be that although one receives more money for what they do, they will not necessarily work harder having acquired the raise. This therefore links salary to the motivator, promotion which would be the reason for why there is a sudden increase in an individuals income. The motivators, beginning with social needs, (Maslows third need which could be seen as being at the base of the motivational hierarchy) cannot be achieved unless the basic needs prior to it are in place and adequately satisfied. Social needs can be seen as the desire for interaction, acceptance and a sense of belonging with associates and personal acquaintances (Todes et al. 1977. With Herzberg, it can be argued that the social motivator is split between both the categorical factors contradicting Maslows perception of it. As the hygiene factors of colleagues and to an extent, supervision, fulfill the social need for interaction, the motivator recognition would lead to meeting the need for acceptance and belonging. Herzbergs motivator of recognition combined with promotion, responsibility and perhaps achievement would also be linked with Maslows fourth need, esteem. This, a more personal, perhaps egotistical need, is much harder for a manager to incorporate into the working environme nt due to the managerial trend of reducing most jobs to their lowest level of job content (Todes et al. 1977). Being noticed for good performance through praise and recognition, which could lead to the achievement of a promotion where responsibility is increased, can all be contributors towards fulfilling esteem but never effectively satisfying it entirely. Even if it does, it will only be temporarily and perhaps not enough for the peak need of self-actualisation to start being met. It therefore acts as a constant motivator to work harder or continue working to meet the higher needs (Finchman Rhodes 1977). Self-actualization is where an individual grows towards a firm understanding of their abilities and utilises these skills at an optimum level (McGregor. 1964). This final need however, is rarely met, hence it being at the top of the hierarchy as the idea of: as you progress up the hierarchy, the peak of each need that must be passed is higher than the need before it. Not only is this an important factor, there is also the requirement that the previous needs, although less dominant in focus, must remain active and acceptably satisfied before the next factor can be of any interest to the individual (Krech, Crutchfield Ballachey cited in Todes et al. 1977). Due to this and the general fact that self-esteem is satisfied in small quantities and not regularly, it does not make acquiring self-actualization an easy task due to the previously described theory rule. Although Herzbergs theory operates similarly, there is not as strict an order to follow as to whether a specific factor must be met before another one can become of any interest other than working on the basis that all hygiene factors must be adequately satisfied before any motivators can begin to be of any relevance to the individual. In this aspect the model is more lenient and due to not having a strict order of how they must be met, any factor within their respective categories can be acquired in any order making it easy and ready to be tested. Not only this but each factor is very much interlinked and compliments one another in the way that when one is achieved, other factors can be acquired in quick succession. Managers could then incorporate this into the way that tasks are delegated so that when an employee completes one task they obtain a certain amount of need satisfaction. On the next task performed, more needs could be fulfilled and unknowingly, employees would be progressing through the fulfillment of either Maslow or Herzbergs needs where they attain either more self-actualisation or job satisf action. What needs to be kept in mind is that although the two are very similar, Maslows hierarchy can be applied almost any situation with the aim of exploring psychological progression. Whereas Herzbergs theory outlines more of what factors must be in place before job satisfaction can be achieved relating more specifically to motivation and its impact within the work place (Finchman Rhodes. 2005). The intrinsic job aspects would be the closest motivator related to personal accomplishment as this need involves the employees feeling that through working they are benefitting and developing as an individual. This therefore means that a manager would need to try and identify which of the two theories they think would be most effective and achievable in developing employee motivation. Do they want their employees to acquire job satisfaction through Herzbergs motivators or to be self actualizing being more willing to work understanding themselves and what they are capable of. A combination of th e two could be possible in Maslows basic needs and Herzbergs hygiene factors but the acquisition of both does not necessarily mean that motivation or job satisfaction would be obtained, it just means that job dissatisfaction would be likely to develop without it (Finchman Rhodes 2005). Another point to remember is that not all individuals are the same in what they want hence the models not being universally accurate. A situation where either model would not be fully applicable is where one is happy with their current position and the tasks that they perform. As a result of the fulfillment of an unwanted need such as promotion, that particular employee may underperform as they have lost the job satisfaction they had prior to the acquisition of that motivational need. Whereas another who may have wanted such a need would be discouraged due to them not receiving the promotion and as a result de-motivated the employee. As mentioned, everyone is different in their levels of satisfaction and motivational priorities, some of which would be unknown to the individual. Even if known they may not know what to do to obtain them. From this a manager would have to find a way of being able to match the needs of people with appropriate incentives (Todes et al. 1977) p.165. Of course for a manager to fulfill all these needs they would have to be able to relate to the motivational needs of the employees beneath them and incorporate them into their strategy so that employees would be able to achieve them through the tasks they perform. As these motivational needs are met, employees may be more motivated to work and unknowingly develop other motivational needs that are fulfilled through the managers task setup. A very important factor for a manager to remember according to Finchman Rhodes (2005) p.266, is that the principle of behaviour that is rewarded tends to be repeated and that which is punished, avoided. From this, it can be seen that managers have a strong ability and in fluence on their employees behaviour. Therefore both motivational theories are not total opposites of each other but are in fact very similar. Both focus on the motivators as being contributors to psychological growth and development (Finchman Rhodes, 2005). Each has certain requirements which must be met before someone can progress onto achieving motivational needs, such as in Maslows case the basic needs and the hygiene needs in Herzbergs both are seen as being needed to be in place before there can be any progression onto the next set of motivators. This also expresses how both are similarly split into two groups. A big difference would be how Maslows theory can apply to any situation but Herzbergs is more applicable in the workplace and set out in a way that made it easy to prove correct, whereas it was more difficult with the former despite being taught as true (Finchman Rhodes, 2005). Managers could effectively incorporate the motivational techniques into developmental strategies by designing a work environment w here employees would be able to develop personally as they work, in turn they could unknowingly acquire motivation (Todes et al. 1977). This way employees would be more willing to perform their tasks and develop needs encouraging them to work harder, becoming more motivated to meet these new needs. But perhaps the most obvious and important similarity is that although they are taught as being true, a manager would need to keep in mind that they are not. Even though they apply to the majority, different people have different needs and levels of satisfaction therefore either model cannot be totally relied on for a manager to try motivate employees (McGregor. 1964). Reference List: Finchman. R Rhodes. P, Principles Of Organisational Behaviour, 2005 P.199, P.233 McGregor. D, The Professional Manager, 1964 P.11, P.75 Todes. J.L, Mckinney. J, Ferguson Jr. W, Management Motivation, 1977 P. 165, P. 223-227, P.244

The Impact and the Outcome of Pain :: Essays Papers

The Impact and the Outcome of Pain The impact of sexual abuse reaches all levels of Childs emotions. Confusion: This is usually the first reaction of the child. They will usually question, â€Å"What is going on?† and â€Å" Is this right or wrong?† For a young child these questions can be a huge load on their psychological development. Once the abuse begins the victim experience a tremendous conflict with their emotions. They experience pain, guilt, and anger for what is being done. The question, â€Å"Is this right or wrong?† posses the greatest conflict within the Childs minds. The abuse feels so wrong yet the abuser insist it is okay, taking advantage of the Childs mistrust and naivety. This kind of conflict can stay within the victim’s minds for years. This pain and conflict is what Dorothy Allison writes about in her book ‘two or three things I know for sure† Coming from a dysfunctional low-class family with mostly women around was her environment for years and the only man around, sexually abused her. Imagine yourself in a similar position and ask yourself â€Å"what would the effect be on me?† The effect on Dorothy Allison is portrayed in the book. She writes about having mixed emotions that for people who have not had such an experience seems quit strange. For example on page 48 (I knew; with fury) she describes the first time making love to a woman. When she makes love to her the smell reminds her of her stepfather. She feels both desire and hatred. The desire was what scared her, but by making love to this woman it made her feel more comfortable with that emotion. The desire resulted in a process of healing, not thinking of her stepfather while having sex. It takes her a long time tough not to feel rage when she feels desire. Comparing a book like this with Ursula Duba’s in essence is not hard. Both have the clear topic of multiple sources of social identity. In both books you can read about things that make peoples identities change, be it atrocities of war or a horrible experience like rape. The difference however and also the main topic of this paper lies in emotional wounds and their possible healing. In â€Å"The bakers story† a poem is written about a baker and his wife, both holocaust survivors, and the regularly visits Duba and her husband made to the bakery shop.

TRICARE: The Restructuring of Military Healthcare System in Response to

In the U.S and other nations of the world, the health expenditure and number of physicians increase as the economy expands. However, physician shortage is of a great concern globally, which the U.S and the Military Healthcare System (MHS) are no exceptions. According to Garber (2004) â€Å"a shortage exit when there is unsatisfied demand, which occurs when the quantity of a good or service is less than what people will be willing to buy at the current price†. For example a long wait time to get an elective surgery done, or a long wait for a patient to get an appointment to see the doctor are evidence of physician shortage. Another definition of shortage is â€Å"having a projected supply of physicians that meet less than 80% of the forecasted demand or need, calculated at the estimated means (Scheffler, Liu, Kinfu, & Dal Poz, 2007). The World Health Organization report (2006) estimated that, 57 countries had absolute shortage of 2.3 million physicians. This shortage acco rding to prior studies implied the lack of a sufficient number of health care professionals to deliver skilled health interventions such as child-birth. Schaffer et al. (2007) projected the global supply of the physician workforce to balance the demand using the demand base model and sufficient surplus in the year 2015. Despite this projection of surplus and balance of the physician workforce globally, the problem of shortage will still remain with some countries and nations as a result of distributional problems that continue to persist, and Africa for instance will need about 65% increases in supply of physicians by the year 2015 (Scheffler et al., 2007). According to Cooper (2004 & 2005) the shortage of physicians in the U.S was related to the economic capacit... ....S and overseas to supplement the care provided to the growing beneficiary population in the MTFs. The MTF is the primary health care facility for TRICARE. TRICARE PCP shortage is due to deployment to war zones, humanitarian missions and special combat skill training. Throughout the research, attempts will be made to respond to the primary question and then the other sub questions in relation to; TRICARE background history, epidemiology, physician types, administration, policies and law, finance, personnel, marketing, ethical issues, beneficiary complaints and satisfaction. Other areas include the role restructuring plays in resolving the beneficiary complaints and the impact the restructuring of TRICARE will have on health care delivery to beneficiaries. The summary, recommendations and conclusion will be addressed finally to complete this research paper.