Usability of a Business Statistics and Research Course in the Field of Essay

Usability of a Business Statistics and Research Course in the Field of Information Technology Project Management - Essay Example hnology management involves analysis of business design, supervision of teams, preparation of project plans, designing databases and developing reports, the scope of business statistics and research involves principles of data collection, research design, and statistical analysis. The two professions therefore shares data management and communication of results as a common sub field. Sharma explains that developments in information technology have widened its scope to include applications that were previously undertaken by statisticians. He however identifies the technology to facilitate the analytical processes rather than being the basis of analysis (Sharma, p. 8). Business statistics and research, therefore, is used in developing designs for data collection and determination of appropriate type of analysis that is required for a data set. Information technology then validates and implements the designs for analysis (Sharma, p. 3, 8). Business statistics and research would therefore be applied in information technology project management by using it to develop a research and analysis framework that is then implemented by information technology project management

America’s cause Essay Example for Free

America’s cause Essay But he calmly proceeded to act his part, pretending not the least bothered by the gut-wrenching ride over a swirling sea. The following day he received this message from the Navy Department: â€Å"Dear Mr. Wayne- we are pleased to record this latest addition to naval lore. To the immortal expression, ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,’ we now add your own memorable words, ‘get me out of this son of a bitch! ’†(Wayne168-169). Wayne spoke the American language well. Once, asked by a reporter about his rumored plan to run for president, Wayne said, â€Å"Bullshit. † When asked to give a definite comment, Wayne told him to use the word. The following day, this news item appeared: â€Å"When Mr. Wayne was questioned about the possibility of running for national office, he replied ‘Bt! †(Wayne 162). Americans responded to John Wayne in a manner different from other stars of his generation. Other actors simply shed off their screen personae after the lights went off; not so Wayne. Although little was written about his private life (marriage, romantic affairs) until after his death, his public life was an open book that maintained and reinforced the John Wayne mystique. He was a natural treasure who was loved and respected. In 1979 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1998, an Army RAH-66 helicopter was named â€Å"Duke† in his honor. He wore a POW bracelet to show his sympathy with the fighting men in Viet Nam. Speaking extemporaneously before a subcommittee hearing in connection with the bill for the Congressional Gold Medal, Maureen O’Hara Blair, Wayne’s co-star in The Quiet Man, spoke for Wayne: â€Å"He is, believe me, the United States of America. He is a man that has a code of beliefs that he sticks with. He believes in individual responsibility and honor. † Said Reagan of Wayne: I never saw Duke display hatred toward those who scorned him. Oh, he could use some pretty salty language, but he would not tolerate pettiness and hate. He was human all right: he drank enough whiskey to float a PT boat, though he never drank on the job. . . he was virtually always the first to arrive on the set and the last to leave. World War II helped to define what John Wayne stood for. Unable to join the Navy due to an old football injury, his age (34), and being a father of four, Wayne did his part in the war by making movies about America’s fighting men. He appeared minus his horse and six-shooter in memorable films like the Fighting Seabees, Flying Tigers, Reunion in France, They Were Expendable, and Back to Bataan. The 1949 film Sands of Iwo Jima earned Wayne his first Oscar nomination. These films did not have the nauseating gore and graphic violence of present-day war movies, but they exalted the heroism of ordinary men, and people related to them well. Wayne had made it a point not to accept any role that was un-American or tended to denigrate the United States or the American tradition. At a time when he was nearly bankrupt, Wayne bankrolled, starred in, and directed the epic The Alamo, which had been his dream project of many years. In it, playing the role of Davy Crockett, he described the defenders’ role as they waited for the approaching battle with Santa Anna: â€Å"There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you’re as dead as a beaver hat. † As Crockett, he voiced out the timeless yearning of the Texans for independence: â€Å"It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. † John Wayne did not win on Oscar for The Alamo (except for Best Sound) although it received six nominations, but people came in droves to see the movie. Besides his classic westerns and war pictures, The Alamo is one of his lasting legacies. John Wayne is often equated with conservatism. He was the product of an age when Americans were proud of their heritage, conscious of their country’s new role as a world power and sincerely believed in the righteousness of America’s cause. He was born when Theodore Roosevelt was president, a man who believed in Manifest Destiny and was wont to â€Å"speak softly, but carry a big stick. † Wayne belonged to a generation yet untouched by pangs of national self-doubt, unstricken by remorse over purported wrongs committed by the white man against the natives, the blacks, the Vietnamese, the American youth who were being sent to die in remote battlefields. This was the turbulent 60’s, an age when young Americans were seduced by flower power, discovered new ideologies, adopted a libertarian attitude and opposed any kind of war. In a nation divided by war, John Wayne was seemingly a lonely figure as young Americans felt shame for everything America ever did in the course of her ascent to world dominance. A friend of Senators Barry Goldwater and Joe McCarthy, and former President Ronald Reagan, John Wayne was Republican to the core. Against the weakening of American resolve, John Wayne’s tenacious adherence to the American tradition of duty and honor could only be seen as naivete – sprung from the good guy–bad guy scenarios in his celluloid world. From the 40’s to the 60’s, the Left made inroads in school campuses where teach-ins became common, swaying many of the youth to the new ideology, and threatening to undermine the foundations of the country’s democratic system. Due to its potentials for propaganda, the movie industry was targeted and there were rumors that some Hollywood figures had embraced socialism. In 1944, Wayne helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, in the company of other giants like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney, and Robert Taylor. He later became president of the association for two terms. He was outspoken against the communist threat. He was mistaken for an archconservative and accused of blackballing movie personalities who refused to cooperate in Congressional hearings, although he never testified, nor did he blackball anybody (Wayne 55). His being perceived as a staunch anti-communist even gave rise to rumors that the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin plotted to have him murdered (Soviet Dictator).

Development of Dendritic Spines :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Development of Dendritic Spines Neurons have the capability of forming spiny outgrowths on dendrites that are associated with neuroplasticity. Stimulation, especially during post-natal development can lead to activation in the brain, referred to as Long Term Potentiation (LTP), associated with the growth of spines. These dendritic spines, which can number thousands to a single neuron, can have synaptic heads. Greater than 90 percent of synapses in the brain occur on them (1) . Through experimentation it has been found that a spine's glutamate receptors, calcium concentrations, and actin can affect its shape, length, and even presence on a dendrite. In general terms, how do dendritic spines develop and what do they affect in the brain? When a neuron is first formed it does not yet have dendrites, and therefore also does not have dendritic spines. Dendritic filopodia are formed from the dendrites first and then convert into spines after being innervated by synaptic fibers. Spines on different types of neurons attain their peak actin density at different times. Fewer spines are present in adults than children and there is a peak growth time during post-natal development. Adult brains show up to 50% fewer spines than developing brains (2) . Brain disorders, such as strokes, epilepsy, and forms of mental retardation like Fragile X, have been connected to deformations of dendritic spines or the total absence of them on certain neurons. Spines are predominantly found at excitatory synapses where inputs from many areas of the brain arrive. Initially during spine formation N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) is the main growth and development regulator. NMDA is a glutamate receptor found at excitatory synapses in most neurons in the mammalian brain. It contains channels permeable to calcium ions. Ions can accumulate and initiate currents at the head of the spine where the calcium channels are located, separate from the shaft of the dendrite. Weak calcium-induced currents affect individual spines whereas stronger currents can summate to affect multiple spines as well as areas of the dendrite's shaft. LTP is a strengthening of the synaptic connections which occurs when spines are formed. There are several steps to achieve a current in a spine. Magnesium ions block the NMDA receptor sites, but are displaced when a stimulus, such as caffeine, depolarizes the receptor. Calcium ions are then able to pass through and collect within the spine. Once the amount of ions reaches a threshold level the LTP is generated.

Camp Medicines

LIST OF MEDICINES AVAILABLE FOR CAMPAND INDOOR RSBY PATIENTS: (BODELI GENERAL HOSPITAL, BODELI) 02665-220712/222711/220712, www. bodeligeneralhospital. com ( Medicines can be prescribed for 3 days. ) SR NO. | GENERIC NAME| TRADE NAME| STRENGTH | NOS. | REMARKS ( CONTACT FOR QUERY/ DOUBTS| | ENT| | | | CONTACT DR J. SHROFF 09824299422| 1| TAB CEFADROXYL | DAX500| 500mg| 840| | 2| TAB CEFADROXYL | DAX250| 250mg| 400| | | TAB DICLOFENAC + PARACETAMOL| -| -| -| N/A(AVAILABLE SEPARATELY)| 4| TAB DIOMINIC DA/SIMILAR DECONGESTENT| -| -| -| AVAILABLE SEPARATELY| 5| CIPROFLOXACIN &DEXAMETHASONE EAR DROPS| -| -| 60| | 6| GENTAMYCIN EAR DROPS| -| -| 60| | 7| OTRIVIN NASAL DROPS/OTHER NASAL DROPS| -| -| -| N/A| | | | | | | | GENERAL SURGERY , GEN MEDICINE , OBST. &GYNAEC. ,ORTHOPAEDICS (MEDICINES OTHER THAN ALREADY LISTED ABOVE)| | | | CONTACT DR J . BHOWMICK 02665-220712/222711| | | | | | | 1| TAB LASIX (FRUSEMIDE)| TAB FRUSMIDE| 40| 250| | | TAB IRON| -| | 1000| | 3| TAB B COMPLEX/MULTIVITAMIN | TAB INTABION| | 1200| | 4| TAB DERIPHYLLINE| TAB DERICIP| | 460| | 5| TAB FAMOTIDINE| TAB FAMONEXT| 20| 3100| | 6| TAB ANTACID| -| -| N/A| | 7| TAB PARACETAMOL| TAB PARAGEST| 500| 5000| | 8| TAB DICLOFENAC| TAB REACTIN| 50| 3400| | 9| TAB AMLODIPINE| TAB AGINAL 5| 5| 350| | 10| TAB ATENOLOL| TAB ATENOLOL| 50| 560| | 11| ANTI DIABETICS (ORAL HYPOGLYCAEMICS)| GLIBENCLAMID+METFORMIN| | 500| | 12| TAB COTRIMOXAZOLE(BACTRIM/SEPTRAN)| TAB TRIMETHOPRIM+SULPHA| | 1000| | 13| TAB CETRIZINE| TAB CETRIZINE 10| 10mg| 750| | 4| TAB METRONIDAZOLE| TAB TYGYL| 200| 750| | 15| TAB OFLOXACIN | TAB OLX| 200mg| 760| | 16| TAB CALCIUM| TAB INTACAL D| -| 1850| | 17| TAB CHLOROQUINE| TAB CHQ| 250MG| 2000| | 18| TAB CEFIXIME| TAB KYXIME| 200mg| 600| | 19| SYP COUGH(TERBUTALLINE, GUAPHESASIN,AMBROXYL)| SYP COFF| | 260| | 20| SYP ANTACID| SYP ANTACID| | 120| | 21| TAB PREDNISOLONE| TAB PREDNISOLONE| 5mg| 750| | 22| SYP B COMPLEX| SYP MULTIBION| | 110| | 23| SYP URINARY ALKALISER| SYPALTRACIOL| | 9| SAMPLES PROVIDED| 24| TAB FOLIC ACID| -| -| | PROVIDED ALONG WITH IRON TABS| 25| TAB ECOSPRIN/ASPIRIN| -| 75mg| -| N/A| 6| TAB NIMESULIDE +PARACETAMOL| TAB NIMESULIDE+PARACETAMOL| | 1250| | 27| ANTISEPTIC CREAM (ZINC OXIDE,PLUS)| CREAM BURNHEAL| | 10| | 28| TAB CIPROFLOXACIN 250| TAB LUCIPRO 250| 250| 810| | 29| TAB CIPROFLOXACIN 500| TAB ANGECIP500| 500| 1000| | 30| DICLOFENAC GEL| DICLOFENAC GEL| | 96| | 31| TAB DICYCLOMINE+DICLOFENAC| TAB DICLO+DYCLOMINE| | 1000| | 32| TAB PARACETAMOL+TRAMADOL| -| -| -| N/A| 33| TAB METHYL ERGOMETRINE 0. 125MG| TAB MEMCAD| 0. 25| 230| | 34| TAB DOXYLAMINE+PYRIDOXE+FOLICACID (OBST. )| TAB PREGVOM PLUS| | 200| | 35| TAB ONDANSETRON DT| TAB ONCORT DT| | 230| | 36| TAB AMOXYCILLIN| TAB AMOXYCILLIN 200| 200| 58| | 37| TAB AMOXYCILLIN DICLOXACILLIN| TAB AMOXY-DICLOXA| | 1000| | 38| TAB CHLORPHENIRAMINE MALEATE| TAB CPM| -| 2900| | 39| TAB DOMPERIDONE| TAB LUPIDOM| 10| 1000| | 40| TAB LEVOFLOXACIN| TAB LEVOFLOXACIN| | 250| | | SKIN ( DERMATOLOGY) (MEDICINES OT HER THAN ALREADY LISTED ABOVE)| | | | CONTACT DR S. PATIDAR: 09428975702| 1| TAB DIOMINIC/SIMILAR COMBINATION (DEX CPM)| -| -| -| AVAILABLE SEPARATELY| 2| TAB L-DIO1/ SIMILAR (LEVOCETRIZINE)| -| -| -| CETRIZINE AVAILABLE| 3| TAB FOLE/FLUCOS ( FLUCONAZOLE)| TAB FLUCANOZOLE| 150MG| 150| | 4| CANDID CREAM (CLOTRIMAZOLE) CREAM| CREAM CLOCIP| | 18| | 5| CREAM COSVATEG/SIMILAR (CLOBESTATOL+GENTAMYCIN)| CREAM COBAT GM| | 120| | 6| TAB PRUGO ( HYDROXIZINE) | -| 10/25 mg| -| N/A| 7| TAB METHYL PREDNISOLONE| -| 4/8 mg| -| PLAIN PREDNISOLONE AVAILABLE| 8| FUTOP/SIMILAR (FUSIDIC ACID ) CREAM| -| -| -| N/A| 9| MELALITE PLUS CREAM| -| -| -| N/A| | | | | | | | | | | | | PAEDIATRICS (MEDICINES OTHER THAN ALREADY LISTED ABOVE)| | | | DR DIPESH GUPTA 02665-220712/222711| 1| DROPS PARACETAMOL| DROPS PCM| -| 70| | 2| SYP IBUPROFEN PARACETAMOL| SYP IBUSTAL| -| 110| | 3| SYP AMOXYCILLIN| SYP AMOXYCILLIN| 200MG| 58| | 4| SYP CEFIXIME| SYP SAXIM| 50MG| 120| | 5| SYP OFLOX+ ORNIDAZOLE| | | | | 6| SYP ONDANSETRON| | | | | 7| ORS POWDER PACKETS| -| | 120| | 8| DROPS- COLD| DROPS MEGACOLD BR| | 60| | 9| SYP MATFURA| SYP METRONIDAZOLE| | 100| | | | | | | |

Evaluation of materials example Essay

This article is relevant to our project as it identifies the various emotional problems after surviving the first five years of leukemia treatment. Shanon Guger and D’Agostino Norma are authorized professors of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, which is a regulatory body for the profession of psychology in Ontario, Canada, which states that they expertise in psychology, and not only that, they specialises on children psychology, which gives credibility to their information on emotional problems of post-treatment leukemia patients. Another author, Oussama Abla is an associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto, which specializes on children, given his experience in treating children since 2005, it gives reliability to the article itself. Furthermore, he specialises on leukemia and has research interests in childhood leukemia, which lends credibility and accuracy to the contents. The article’s publisher, AboutKidsHealth, is the world’s leading non-profit information source for children’s health, supported by the Canadian government , and is in collaboration with over 300 paediatric health specialists that also supports the publisher. Though published in 2010, the various emotional problems listed still relevant as according to the recently revised report in 2013 of emotional issues after treatment of leukemia by the official American Cancer Society2. The article mentioned that there are various problems after treatment of leukemia. They include re-experiencing the trauma; for example, troublesome dreams, or flashbacks during leukemia treatment, frequent problems with sleep, lack of concentration or phobia of places that remind the child of the experience with leukemia (for example, hospitals), which inspired me considering of solutions to these problems. To allow them to cope, they can undergo pet assisted therapy. Pet assisted therapy, could offer psychological and physical aid at the same time, where they can benefit mentally and physically, sleep better at night, maintain strength and circulation, lessen the side effects of treatments and keep the patient’s skin, muscles, heart and lungs in shape3. Children could play with the pets games such as fetch*. They also are allowed to walk the pets at parks. These allows the children to benefit psychologically in able to interact with the pet and benefit physically by playing with the pets. Some of these children may not have enough energy to keep such pets, as they have just recovered and undergone strenuous treatments, hence I propose that there will be a pet interaction corner in the void decks, where pet owners in the blocks are encouraged to bring pets down for a walk in the pet interaction corner, allowing leukemic children and normal children to interact with one another as well. The article states the only way of treatment is to allow the children to do a hobby or parents to watch their reaction. However, these children are not given proper care to cope with such effects and hence ended up in post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, to solve this problem, I propose video game therapy4. These activities allow movement and distract them from their pain, and also from reality. Research shown a facility in Children’s national centre, the video game therapy has allowed the children to cope with physical and emotional pain. Activities include simple sports games with Wii Sports, and dancing games with Xbox Kinect. This contributes to physiotherapy and psychotherapy as well, where children can get to exercise as well as play games to draw them away from reality, which helps them in their post-traumatic stress disorder. Hospitals could have a room specially for these children, where children can play and have fun before and after check-ups. Such equipment are not too high-cost and is manageable and feasible. 600 words

Freedom of Religion in the U.S

Freedom of Religion in the U.S Introduction Religious disagreements have often been the cause of discord, violence, and hatred in many parts of the world. In the U.S. during the colonial times, religious differences were the cause of religious conflicts and persecutions before the founders of the US undertook to work together to protect religious freedom and end persecutions and religious intolerance (Gunn 189).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom of Religion in the U.S specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The new religious pluralism, in the American context, guarantees religious tolerance and religious freedom, which has transformed the religious landscape to allow the coexistence of many religious standpoints. Unlike in the past, the religious pluralism allows the interaction of multiple religious traditions within the state and the civil society. However, despite this remarkable success, currently, religious confrontations often arise over many issues of religious faith. In particular, issues of creationism and evolution raise religious disputes, which are increasingly growing more intense. At the same time, the U.S. promotes religious liberty and pluralism as one of the cornerstones of democracy in the rest of the world. However, in the US, politics, law, and religion often generate disagreements and divergent religious views whereby, divisive politics on a number of religious issues threatens the commitment to religious freedom. Religious Freedom in America Despite some episodes of religious intolerance in the past, the US has made considerable progress in promoting religious freedom. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights purposely aimed at protecting individual right of worship and religious freedom. In particular, the framers of the constitution included three distinct commitments to religious liberty viz. the religious oaths to public office, prohibitions to freedom of worship, and legislations against the establis hment of religious facilities were declared against the constitution (Gunn 197). From the colonial era dominated by Protestant pluralism, the US presently allows the expression of almost all world religious faiths. This step presents a significant stride in promoting religious pluralism and encouraging religious tolerance.Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the US, many people do not profess any religious faith and they include the secularists, humanists, and atheists. Since the constitution offers no religious preference or any state religion, in the American context, religious freedom implies the religious liberty for all citizens including the non-believers. Religious liberty encompasses three principles: firstly, religious liberty is an individual right that transcends the state power (Gunn 201). Secondly, religious liberty, according to the constitution, confer s freedom of conscience to people of all faiths. Lastly, religious liberty means the right to practice a given religious faith or no religion at all without government interference. Thus, in the US, religious freedom allows all individuals to profess any religious beliefs or no religion without any state control. The Religious Landscape in America The freedom of religion as embedded in the constitution did not aim at preventing religious beliefs or institutions from participating in public life. In effect, the disestablishment resulted to less or no state interference in religion. Additionally, the freedom of religion provisions in the constitution barred any religion from becoming a state religion. As a result, many religious faiths play a vital role in shaping public policy and public life. The need to separate religion from the state was meant to prevent the government from being biased in the denominational competitions. Additionally, the religious freedom has significantly shap ed the religious landscape in the US. Religious tolerance among the Catholic, Jewish, the dominant Protestant, and other religions coupled with low cases of religious violence or turmoil are the results of the freedom of religion. In recent times, the denominational rivalries have declined giving rise to religious interest groups that go beyond religious boundaries. Religious views tend to reflect perspectives within and across denominations (Castelli 324). Commonly, religious opinions to controversial issues involve the religious versus the secular, or the conservative versus the liberal, which reflects a considerable change in religious boundaries and alliances (Castelli 327). Currently, unlike in the past, most disputes in the US involve competition amongst various religious interest groups but not conflicts. Threats to Freedom of Religion Considerable progress has been made in many religious settings following the articulation of the freedom of religion in the constitution. Amer icans are more tolerant to religious views and appear to transcend religious prejudices.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom of Religion in the U.S specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, angry confrontations over issues touching on religious faiths threaten the religious liberty that is so celebrated in the US. In particular, issues about public financing of religious projects such as schools, the Ten Commandment monuments, taxation as well as the use of the name of God when swearing allegiance to public office threaten this religious freedom (Sullivan 80). Religious disputes are also apparent in the public education system over teaching of controversial topics such as evolution and creationism. Religious divisions on other controversial issues including euthanasia, gay rights, abortion, and stem-cell research are apparent in the US. At the same time, the U.S. promotes religious freedom as a â€Å"universal human right† internationally. Through the International Religious Freedom Act (IRF) of 1998, the U.S. offers multilateral assistance to countries to promote religious freedom as one of the cornerstones of democratic development (Sullivan 81). It also sets out various initiatives to prevent violations of religious freedom by countries and promote religious tolerance. Conclusion Religious freedom is a right conferred upon Americans by the constitution and the Bill of Rights. Though much success has been achieved including religious tolerance and coexistence, religious disagreements often arise on a number of controversial issues. Internationally, the U.S, through the IRF Act, promotes religious freedom as a way of enhancing democracy. However, locally, the interaction between politics and the state as well as religious disagreements on many issues threaten the religious freedom. Castelli, Allen. Praying for the Persecuted Church: US Christian Activism in the Global Arena. Journ al of Human Rights 4.3 (2005): 321-331. Gunn, Jeremy. The Complexity of Religion and the Definition of ―Religion in International Law. Harvard Human Rights Journal 16.4 (2003): 189-205. Sullivan, Winifred. The Impossibility of Religious Freedom. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More

The History of Dr Pepper and inventor Charles Alderton

The History of Dr Pepper and inventor Charles Alderton In 1885, in Waco, Texas, a young Brooklyn-born pharmacist named Charles Alderton invented a new soft drink that would soon become known as Dr Pepper. The carbonated beverage was marketed as having a unique flavor all its own. More than 130 years later, the brand can still be found on shelves and in refrigerated store coolers worldwide. Alderton worked at Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Texas, where carbonated drinks were served at the soda fountain. While there, he began experimenting with his own soft drink recipes. One, in particular, was fast becoming a big hit with customers, who originally ordered the concoction by asking Alderton to shoot them a Waco. As the soft drinks popularity grew, Alderton and Morrison had trouble manufacturing enough Dr Pepper to keep up with the demand for the product. Robert S. Lazenby, owner of the Circle A Ginger Ale Company in Waco, had been impressed with Dr Pepper and was interested in manufacturing, bottling, and distributing the soft drink. Alderton, who had no desire to pursue the business and manufacturing end, he agreed to let Morrison and Lazenby take over. Fast Facts: Dr Pepper The U.S. Patent Office recognizes December 1, 1885, as the first time Dr Pepper was served.In 1891, Morrison and Lazenby formed the Artesian Mfg. Bottling Company, which later became the Dr Pepper Company.In 1904, the company introduced Dr Pepper to 20 million people attending the 1904 Worlds Fair Exposition in St. Louis- the same Worlds Fair that introduced hamburger and hot dog buns and ice cream cones to the public.The Dr Pepper Company is the oldest major manufacturer of soft drink concentrates and syrups in the United States.Dr Pepper is now also sold in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, and South America, as well as New Zealand and South Africa as an imported good.Varieties of Dr Pepper include a version without high-fructose corn syrup, Diet Dr Pepper, as well as a line of additional flavors first introduced in the 2000s. The Dr Pepper Name There are several theories regarding the origin of the Dr Pepper name. In some versions of the tale, drugstore owner Morrison is credited with naming the drink Dr. Pepper in honor of his friend, Dr. Charles Pepper, while in others, Alderton is said to have gotten one of his first jobs working for Dr. Pepper, and named the soft drink as a nod to his early employer. Another theory is that the pep refers to pepsin, an enzyme that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides. Pepsin is produced in the stomach and is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, where it helps digest the proteins in food. Or it might have been something more simple. As with many early sodas of the era, Dr Pepper was marketed as a brain tonic and energizing pick-me-up. The pep in Pepper might literally have been named for the lift it supposedly imparted to those who drank it. In the 1950s, the Dr Pepper logo was redesigned. In the new version, the text was slanted and the font was changed. Designers felt that the period made Dr. look like Di: so for reasons of style and legibility, the period was dropped- but to paraphrase Shakespeare, no matter what you call it, a Dr Pepper by any other name would taste as sweet.

Maritime Applications for Machine Learning and Data Science

Maritime Applications for Machine Learning and Data Science    As data collection and analysis seeps into the conservative maritime industry we are beginning to see cracks in this grand old system based on tradition and trial and error. When I say old, I don’t mean the 1980’s or even the 1880’s. Opinions vary on the exact time shipping became modern as any sailor or longshoreman would recognize today. When the English and Dutch began standardizing shipping practices between their two countries to increase safety and profit the practices soon spread. This was happening in the late 1600’s and if you wanted to be part of the shipping economy you looked to the English, Dutch, and to a lesser extent, the Spanish. Today we can see another example of this technology clustering having a lasting effect on a growing industry. Starting in the 1960’s California became the place to be if you were a part of the new generation of electronics companies. Standards were set and the jargon and culture of Silicon Valley we have today is a direct result of this small but powerful geographic area. In addition to soft concepts like jargon, deep architectural standards like eight digit binary numbers were solidified. The same sorts of transactions and relationships were also true of shipping as it became a standardized business. Global shipping today represents many cultures and values and it must be responsive in the era of pervasive media and digital content, or it will be demonized and lose the minimal goodwill available to a largely invisible industry. Yet when they see a good idea, which is one that will save money, it is quickly adopted by the upper levels of management. Workers are sometimes resistant to change for fear of job loss. Both of these behaviors occurred when the intermodal shipping container was introduced in the 1950’s as a cost saving measure. Automation of ships and ports will be a much more difficult journey than the one fought by the proponents of the modular container in the early days. Job loss among longshoremen was real and the sealed container ended the common practice of pilfering some of the cargo. This was common, and still happens occasionally today, with some Masters sanctioning the activity. The fact was it took much less labor to load a ship with large boxes than it did individual sacks or grain or crates of equipment that varied in size and weight. Automated ships and ports will eliminate some jobs that are hazardous or dirty and most people will not miss this kind of work. Jobs that have a high value are a different story. A totally autonomous ship is in the future and that means less risk for deck hands while increasing profits substantially for ship owners. The savings are similar to autonomous car savings, less risk, less insurance costs, more efficient operation, better traffic management, and elimination of human error.    The elimination of human error on the operational level is important since most accidents happen because of failure due to poor design or human error in some aspect of vessel operation. Machine learning is giving us insights into the marine world we never had before, and some of the revelations are contrary to accepted beliefs. A good example of this is the Digital Deck product for commercial fishermen that was developed by the company Point 97. Digital tracking of fishery data collected by fishermen in their daily operation led to discoveries local regulators used to manage fish stocks and reduce the resources needed to search for illegal fishing activity. Automatic importing of data allows for near real-time insights not only for regulators, but also fishermen. Now a new class of data is emerging with the announcement from MIT that they have developed an algorithm that monitors wave data in order to predict rouge wave formation. Rouge wave are giant and often deadly waves that form in the open sea where two wave fields combine. Rouge waves are often in the form of a peak and not a long running wave like those produced by tsunami. This is a new class of data because it needs quick action to work. Automatic avoidance systems are not generally accepted and permission to change course could take minutes. Rouge waves form and do their damage quickly so the best use of this data is in an automatic system that will change course or turn to face the wave bow-on. This will make mariners uncomfortable but the alternative is worse. Classification societies, insurers, and regulators all stand in the way of more automation but like self-driving cars, they will be accepted because of greater convenience and cost savings. We have already reached a point where there is too much data for one human to absorb. All that data on the helm displays can be better managed by computers which already run many parts of a modern ship. The few sailors that do remain on ships of the future will likely be technicians with few hands on duties unless automated maintenance and repair systems fail.

The Codex Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Codex - Essay Example By describing brief history of different codices, an attempt has been made to highlight the importance of codex history. Such history will not only provide a better understanding of past work but it will also provide an understanding of the development of ideas as well as a base for future research. Today’s physical form of the book took a series of severe changes of about 5000 years. However, its most popular format has been in the shape of codex i.e. a collection of bounded and covered pages. Just after few hundred years of its creation, the codex book gained a distinct domination over the past well-liked format of papyrus scroll. One important factor that brought the supremacy of codex on scroll was the effective role of Christianity. Christian church took revolutionary steps to distinguish the writings of its holy books from the Jewish influence. They implemented several unique codex formats for its scriptures. Consequently, Christianity spread throughout the history and its codex formats as well. The Romans civilization is considered as the pioneer that used the codices (plural of codex) as personal notebooks e.g. their use in the form of mail etc. For this purpose they used wax-covered pills of wood and stylus. These codices were ephemeral and informal because after using once, they were washed out for their use again. In the history, the first occurrence of the use of the codex is the later part of 1st century when The Romans used the codex for the circulation of educational works. At that time, literary works were carried out through scrolls media which remained dominantly effective till the 4th century. Later on Chinese remained in practice in using of scroll for their literary purposes. Christians also widely used the papyrus codex during 2nd century. Evidences revealed that the most primitive surviving fragments from codices came from Egypt during the 1st and 2nd century (Turner, 1977 and Roberts & Skeat, 1983). An example of egypt

Group Post Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Group Post - Research Paper Example s not just about English being the first or the second language of the employees of a company, customers associate stereotypes and underestimate the foreign employees’ ability to understand their culture, and thus only want service from their local employees. Customer build their perceptions of a company’s corporate social responsibility based upon â€Å"all the information about a company that a person holds† (Brown and Dacin, 1997, p. 69). Drop in the number of American students that study Information Technology is a shocking fact and a strong reason for companies to stop outsourcing. This shows how deleterious outsourcing is for our society in the long run. I seriously doubt that outsourcing plays a role in increasing the quality of work. With outsourcing, employers have least control over the products’ quality since everything is being made abroad. Especially, when we talk about quality control, it means much more than just meeting the specifications to include the level of creation and innovation, and uniqueness in every item. It is so hard to keep all employees on one platform in outsourcing that such aspects are often neglected. To say that the talent employers get through outsourcing is not available in the local market is underestimation of American local workers. Had foreign graduates been more capable, thousands of students would be going from America to those countries for studying every year rather than the other way round. Outsourcing is a fundamental reason for unemployment in America (Converse et al., n.d.). It cannot be said with utmost surety that the outsourcing company would always maintain competitive advantage . These days, when economy has become very volatile and the value of currency is rapidly changing in different countries, if the value of currency of the foreign country starts gaining weight, the opportunity of outsourcing might eventually turn out to be a risk. While that is the definition of outsourcing, this definition is not

Nike Industry Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nike Industry - Research Paper Example For example, Adidas and Reebok are the closest competitors of Nike Inc. However, Adidas is one of the main competitors of Nike in that the company owns 5.32% of the industry market share and has been privileged to sponsor major events such the as the 2012 Olympics. While Nike owns 35.21% of the industry but suffers a major ordeal of competitive losses as it does not focus on social media to keep in touch with return customers and potential new ones. Reebok on the other hand, is a subsidiary of the Adidas Company and owns about 2.58% of the market share posing as a potential competitor for Nike in terms of quality products, target market, and promotional schemes (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Customer Bargaining Power Based on 2009, 2010, and 2011 revenues that peaked at $20.9, Nike’s customers have a high bargaining power with regards to their social backgrounds and average total household income. The target market for Nike Inc. earns an average total household income of $50,000 to $150,000 per year making the target market upper-middle class. The customer base of Nike Inc. is cultured in terms of quality and continued use of the company’s products, therefore, it has very little interest in switching brands. Trends in this market show that 62% of customers buy Nike shoes once per year as their use for the shoes is central to exercise and athletic reasons. The target market includes athletes and non-athletes while 19% of all sales are from athletes while the rest are distributed amongst customers looking for products giving/providing comfort, enjoyment, fitness exercise, and quality collections. Supplier Bargaining Power Given the market share of more than 35% that Nike Inc. has secured within the industry, the bargaining power of suppliers is weak due to the fact that there are few other companies that can sustain their survival better than Nike. For example, competition between suppliers in 2012 resulted to increased revenues for Nike as sup pliers had to win Nike’s confidence by lowering their prices and providing discounts in order to win the tenders. Additionally, Nike’s market share has placed the company as a high contender of the suppliers with best deals . Due to bulk purchases of supplies, the company enjoys extensive cash and purchase discounts (Lazich, and Virgil, 2011). Threat of Substitutes Reflecting back on the competitive forces that shape the sportswear industry, it has been noted that most companies in this industry capture their market share with regards to trends, customer behavior, and culture of the company (Lazich, and Virgil, 2011). Nike Inc. faces a major threat of substitutes from various companies starting with the major competitors Adidas and Rebook. However, Nike shoes and other products fair better on the competitive market due to brand recognition rather than quality and design. With regards to purchasing power of customers, above 62% of return customers buy shoes once a year and have more than $50,000 in total household income (Lazich, and Virgil, 2011). Due to prices that match the quality of products traded by Nike, substitutes bridge the gap between low income earners and product sales. For example, the market share owned by companies labeled as others is 29.68 (Mirando, (2012). Threat of New Entrants The threat of new entrants in the sporting industry is almost zero. Two considerations make up for this claim. Firstly, the sportswear in

Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Coursework Example It is important for business managers to understand the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. There is a minor difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Following is the definition and difference between efficiency and effectiveness: Efficiency: With respect to workplace it r refers to the time to perform a work with less time and more accuracy. For example, if a person writes one page with accuracy in 20 minutes and his counterpart writes the same page with same accuracy in half an hour. Then the person that takes just 20 minutes to write a page with the same accuracy that his colleague writes in 30 minutes is more efficient. Effectiveness: with respect to workplace it refers the level of results from the work of employees or managers. In effectiveness the emphasis is on quality rather than on time. In businesses, sometimes quality is more important than time. So in such case it does not matter if someone finishes a work in 20 minutes or 30 minutes. It is the effectiveness of the results that matter. Difference: Efficiency is a work done per unit time whereas, effectiveness is a work done over a comparatively more period of time. Efficiency is based on quality of work and time taken to complete that work. On the other hand, effectiveness is more focused on quality and less focused on the time. Answer: There is no denying of the fact that all businesses are interested in achieving higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness. There are numerous reasons behind this interest of businesses. Following are main three reasons behind this: 2. The quest of higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness make a sense of responsibility in employees and merit for promotion and benefits of employees are determined through efficiency and effectiveness. Answer a: For conducting financial analysis using accounting ratios, Visa Inc. has been selected. Visa Inc. is a global

Sydney Harbour Bridge Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Sydney Harbour Bridge - Research Paper Example With the development of techniques and craftsmanship, these engineering feats began to become more and more sophisticated and complicated, over the years from its humble beginnings of tree barks used for connecting land masses, to more sophisticated suspension, cantilever and arch bridges. These pieces of construction not only add to the visual imagery of a geographical location, but also bear testimony to the imagination, craftsmanship and engineering accomplishment of mankind, as represented by the Sydney Harbour. Introduction: â€Å"Of all the inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done the most for the civilization of our species† Thomas B. Macaulay, 2010: 290 Bridges have historically, played a key role in the development of human civilizations. This unique piece of construction and sheer engineering marvel has contributed to the development and flourishing of human civilizations, since time immemorial. It is on account of this very reason, that bridges have been featured prominently in the development of some of the most affluent cultures and cities around the globe - including the likes of London on the river Thames, Brooklyn bridge in the city of New York; the various artistic bridges on the Seine river in the city of Paris; Howrah bridge in Kolkata etc., among many others. Not only do they add a sense of artistic imagery and beauty to the city, but also help accelerate the mobility and access to various key locations in and around the area, thus enhancing the overall vitality of the cities they are built in, ultimately contributing to the social, economical as well as cultural development (John, 2000). This paper on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, aims to discuss the various factors critical to this unique and historical piece of construction, such as the history behind its construction, the various materials used, the materials used for its construction; the various equipments use d; the availability and use of labour force used during construction; the civilizations and culture that flourished in that era etc. It also includes a brief discussion and analysis on the type of structure it would have been, if it was built in present times. The history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge: The Sydney Harbour Bridge, is one of Australia's most prominent landmarks, was open to the public on 19th March, 1932. The bridge, which is also popularly known as the â€Å"Coathanger† by the locals, is the largest (although not the longest) bridge in the world. It is not only a great engineering feat but also revered as one of the greatest economic accomplishments of the century, especially considering the fact that it was built after the world war, during the years of the Great Depression. The bridge was built using extensive labour, which included as many as 1400 men, and took almost eight years to complete (from 1925 to 1932), with an investment of six million pounds (Lalor , 2006; Sharpe, 2001; Langmead and Garnaut, 2001). It was designed by a British firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd, under the directions of Dr. J. J. C. Bradfield along with other officers of the NSW Department of Public Works. The design of this bridge was inspired by the Hell Gate Bridge in New York (Sydney Harbour Bridge, 2012). Although the construction of the bridge began in the year 1925, the foundations for the same were laid decades ago, which is evident from the various historical events that took place, as is described in the following sections. Brief Background: Events that led to the construction of the Bridge Prior to the construction of the Sydney Har

Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Coursework Example It is important for business managers to understand the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. There is a minor difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Following is the definition and difference between efficiency and effectiveness: Efficiency: With respect to workplace it r refers to the time to perform a work with less time and more accuracy. For example, if a person writes one page with accuracy in 20 minutes and his counterpart writes the same page with same accuracy in half an hour. Then the person that takes just 20 minutes to write a page with the same accuracy that his colleague writes in 30 minutes is more efficient. Effectiveness: with respect to workplace it refers the level of results from the work of employees or managers. In effectiveness the emphasis is on quality rather than on time. In businesses, sometimes quality is more important than time. So in such case it does not matter if someone finishes a work in 20 minutes or 30 minutes. It is the effectiveness of the results that matter. Difference: Efficiency is a work done per unit time whereas, effectiveness is a work done over a comparatively more period of time. Efficiency is based on quality of work and time taken to complete that work. On the other hand, effectiveness is more focused on quality and less focused on the time. Answer: There is no denying of the fact that all businesses are interested in achieving higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness. There are numerous reasons behind this interest of businesses. Following are main three reasons behind this: 2. The quest of higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness make a sense of responsibility in employees and merit for promotion and benefits of employees are determined through efficiency and effectiveness. Answer a: For conducting financial analysis using accounting ratios, Visa Inc. has been selected. Visa Inc. is a global

Global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Global warming - Essay Example You’ve been greatly successful in offering appropriate illustrations, examples, and explanations all through your speech, effectively enhancing them with elaborate graphics. Significantly, the data you’ve provided throughout your speech have been concise and handy, ornamented with computer-model charts, photos, archival footage, and cartoons. The ultimate impact of using these tools in the speech is that the audience is easily persuaded by the seriousness of the issue as these dramatically illustrate the influence of the issue of global warming on the entire universe, and on the U.S. in particular. I’m particularly impressed with the pertinent point of your speech, i.e. the human beings have been destructively influencing the planet by way of manmade pollution and other threatening acts. However, I’m more impressed with the way you have been emphasizing the compelling case for decisive action, through your forceful words and effective mannerisms. In short, I’m highly convinced that you’ve secured a respectable place among the world’s most natural public speakers through your show of public speaking ability in this campaign. Work Cited â€Å"An Inconvenient Truth.† Top Documentary Films. Feb 17. 2011.

Make Way Movie Brats Essay Example for Free

Make Way Movie Brats Essay In the late 1960s to late 1970s, as the veteran directors retired, a new generation gradually took their place. Associated with â€Å"New Hollywood,† these young and diverse directors, often in their late twenties and early thirties, were considered â€Å"movie brats. † These new directors Some of the more famous were Francis Ford Coppola, Stephen Spielberg, and George Lucas; all of whom had an intense awareness of film history, worked with quotations and remakes, and created extremely successful films. With an influx of new directors, it seemed fit that they would take over the industry entirely. However, director Robert Altman, born around twenty years earlier and being significantly older than his â€Å"movie brats† successors, Altman remained essential to the industry. Post mid-1970s, it was less commonplace for efforts to be put toward maintaining Hollywood art cinema. The new directors were focusing on box-office revenue and the production of both action-oriented and youth-oriented, blockbuster films with radiant special effects. Two films that demonstrated such qualities were Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and George Lucas’s Star Wars. Altman persisted for efforts to be continued. He, as well as other older directors like Paul Mazusky and Woody Allen, ventured into the American art cinema. Altman had to work at a rapid pace during the 1970s as he completed more than a dozen films. He also had to compete with the younger generation of Hollywood that was producing huge blockbuster hits. Though rather than trying to create an action flick, Altman stayed true to his roots and produced films primarily based on the character’s emotions rather than plot. Two specific movies in which Altman emphasized shifts from objective reality and subjectivity of the character are Images and 3 Women. In 1970, Altman directed M*A*S*H*; a film praised for its uses of humor with a topic as heavy as the Korean War and for becoming one of the highest grossing films of the year. However, Altman’s films did not always prove to do exceedingly well at the box-office. McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye created a few years later were generally well received and proved to be moderate earners. His films That Cold Day in the Park, Brewster McCloud, and Thieves Like Us evidently all became box-office disappointments, even though the three generally received good reviews from critics. Although Altman’s movies are not always top box-office earners, they are still habitually the subject of a lot of critical attention. Such is evident with his film Images where the movie didn’t garner a lot of praise for Altman, even though the film might have been considered a peak for other directors. It was released between the films â€Å"McCabe† and â€Å"The Long† and as mentioned previously, they were moderately successful. They received more acclaim and attention resulting in less appreciation of Images upon its release on-screen and it’s availability in today’s time. For this reason, the film can be compared to Francis Coppola’s The Conversation. Although a great movie, it was only considered to be a minor significance to Coppola’s career coming between the crowd pleasers and box-office smash hits The Godfather and The Godfather 2. Images was shot in the wet autumn months of 1971 in Ireland. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the following May. It was there that Susannah York won the award for best actress. York credited her role as Cathryn in the film as the role she is most proud of. Although taking home an award, Cannes audiences were primarily confused. Images isn’t the type of film an audience would feel sympathetic towards. It’s somewhat complicated to follow and comes off as cold. However, it’s not as nearly as hard to comprehend as the first reviewers of the movie suggested. As film critic Roger Ebert states, â€Å"[The film] is a technical success but not quite an emotional one. † Because Altman was a hot ticket item in 1971 with M*A*S*H*; Columbia Pictures took the distribution rights of the film and entered it in the New York Film Festival. Unfortunately for Images, neither Vincent Canby nor Roger Greenspan (two dominant film critics for the New York Times) took up the movie to review. It was then left to Howard Thomson, a journalist and film critic for the New York Times nicknamed â€Å"mishmash† for writing brief reviews for films. Thomson made no exception for Images, leaving it only with an imperceptive review. The film never went on to have a traditional commercial release in America. Essentially the film is about a children’s author and housewife Cathryn (Susannah York) who receives several phone calls on a gloomy night in her London home. The voice on the other end is a female stating that Cathryn’s husband Hugh (Rene Auberjonois) is having an affair with another woman. Hugh comes home seeing his wife in grief and tries to comfort her. He vanishes and another man is shown acting as if he was her husband. Frightened at the sight, she screams and backs way, later seeing the figure change back into the â€Å"image† of her husband. Hugh feels that her angst is a result of stress and her budding pregnancy. He takes her to vacation at an isolated cottage in an attempt to relieve some stress. As she stays there, Cathryn dives farther into foreboding delusions as the stranger reappears. It becomes difficult for her to distinguish what is happening in reality and what’s just going on her head. Images shows a lot of subjectivity through its characters because of the extreme personas of the characters and the situations they are placed in. Cathryn begins hearing sounds and hallucinates constantly. She feels guilt sexually after envisioning encounters with two men that are not her husband. One is a sinister Frenchman who asked to be shot by Cathryn to exorcise his ghost. After he apparently falls dead, it is shown that her husband’s expensive camera is all that was really shot. The other man is more realistic, portraying a neighbor who’s infatuated with her and believes Cathryn has rape fantasies and needs strong care. She bares an attraction to him but also feels guilt. She eventually stabs the neighbor with a kitchen knife eventually â€Å"killing† him. The husband Hugh is relatively the only normal character of the film. He never completely comprehends the extent of his wife’s mental horror. Truly having his wife’s best interests in mind and acting as an ideal husband, Hugh thought relocating her to a more isolated place would relieve her of woes. He’s a typical simple American who is addicted to dumb jokes. What Cathryn actually feels about him is only pointed at towards the last 20 minutes of the film where she tries killing off a ghost she incorrectly sees as her other self. Altman’s introduction of his characters and plot comes off as him trying his hand at feminist tax. For one thing, there’s barely any scenes that don’t revolve around the main protagonist Cathryn. Her character isn’t compelling which somewhat dooms the film from the beginning. The male characters come across as jerks. Altman’s goal seemed to make a point about the way movies objectify women, turning them into the â€Å"images,† the film’s title indicates, for the consumption of male viewers. After all, Cathryn is only a little more than something for the men in the film to enjoy. Cameras figure plainly in the film’s mise-en-scene. Her pointing and shooting a gun (a symbol of male power) is yet another example of Altman’s use of gender associations. Although Altman’s point is clear, it seems like he went about delivering the message in a cliched way. In terms of objective reality, every image revealed rovides a lot of suspense and anticipation of what effect Altman will provide next. However it is somewhat difficult to find the reality as it is one of Altman’s most abstract films. It is full of so much symbolism and images that it reflects the work of Bergman and Kubrik. These â€Å"images† consist of shimmering water and tinkling ornaments. They are astonishing beautiful â€Å"images† cut often by shocks of Cathryn’s sensibilities. One daunting scene that does not occur in her head is when she is writing her story and watching ponies, but a dog and frantic sounds break the peacefulness. Altman wrote the film entirely, but the children’s story that accompanies some of â€Å"the images† was composed by Ms. York. This blends art and actuality. The film also has a wonderful use of color that separates the protagonist Cheryl from her ambience in a particularly unique and incomparable way. A few things that this movie can be credited for is its complete originality and uniqueness. Images is a very bizarre Altman film. For a filmmaker who characteristically produces works with large ensembles and layered dialogue, Images feels more blunt and almost claustrophobic. One thing that makes it so different is that the visual style is more lyrical at some points while jagged at the others. Another difference is that the dialog does not overlap. In charge of photography was Vilmos Zsigmond, one of the best cinematographers of the seventies and Altman’s favorite cameraman at the time of production. He does an amazing job with his photography by remaining with the woman’s point of view while never suggesting at what is really going on. Altman added a clever touch to interchange the character’s names with the actors that portray them. Susannah is played by actress Cathryn Harrison and Cathryn is played by actress Susannah York. Another switch of names is shown in the characters of three actors: Hugh played by Rene Auberjonois, Rene played by Marcel Bozzuffi, and Marcel is played by Hugh Millai. Altman’s demand of the audience’s senses is both nontraditional and expert. The fragmented style applied to the movie will definitely not please all senses to each audience member. However its witty script, brave look at a twisted inner world, and the eerie atmosphere the film creates is enough to keep one’s attention for the films entirety. If that’s not enough, there is always the pleasure of watching characters played by phenomenal actors Altman is so famous for providing. American film critic and film/animation historian Leonard Maltin described the film best in stating the film was â€Å"difficult but fascinating† and that it comes off as â€Å"off-putting at first, but worth the effort to hang on. † It is a definite must see for Altman admirers who want to see him in a new style. Altman doesn’t worry about the defenses needed for his film, but rather simply creates a spiritual and poetic vision letting logic and caution fall in the depths of the films beauty. Whether or not Altman produced a commercial success, didn’t change the pace at which he put forth films. Five years after Images was produced, Altman came out with the film 3 Women. The idea for the film came to Altman in a dream. It was because of Allen’s success with filmmaking; 20th Century Fox approved the movie before he had a definite script. Although it was original intention to film without a script, he eventually had one made before filming. This script was more like a â€Å"blueprint,† which he regularly did with previous films. The film centers around two women whose characters are in keen contrast with one another among their first encounters. The third woman the title hints at is a minor character but has a key supporting role, although not first recognized to the audience but gradually can be understood. Essentially the movie tells a story of three women whose characters change and merge, until finally, in the perplexing ending scene, switch roles. 3 Women, although praised for its uniqueness, was not very popular at the time. American audiences may not have even recognized its release at the time. Why you might wonder? A little movie directed by George Lucas bearing the name Star Wars was released in the same year. The three women the title hints at are Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule who live in the same apartment complex in the desert of California. Duvall plays Mildred â€Å"Millie† Lammoreaux, who works as a physical therapist at a senior care center. She comes off as very confident about her charm and her appeal to men, even though the men she goes after openly mock her. Pinky Rose, played by Spacek, is a young, naive, and childlike woman from Texas who too gets a job at the senior center. With Millie’s roommate moving out, she is forced to find a new roommate, after accepting the conditions, Pinky becomes that new roommate. Rule plays the supporting yet vital role of Willie Hart, the pregnant wife of the landlord of the apartment complex. She gives off an incredibly sad aura as she moves with a gloomy silence, keeping isolated from other people. Willie is a muralist who makes visually appealing yet moderately unsettling murals; one in which is painted at the bottom of the apartment pool depicting godlike creatures, absurd men, and women who annoy each other. The opening scene of the film reflects roles of each of the three women that women in general often play. Willie, the pregnant wife, represents a mother. From the mural she is painting in the pool, one can determine that she seems very sad. Millie reflects a teenager in that she is often very interested in the opposite sex. She is an odd character in that she obsessively gives recipes to others and tells them how she organizes them by the allotted time, even though no one seems to care. Pinky, when first introduced at the clinic, comes off instantly as immature and naive just like an average child. During lunch, she blows bubbles through a straw into her drink and later plays around in a wheelchair, pretending as if she was a patient. Along with making faces at the workers, she says to Millie, â€Å"You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever met,† resembling a young child admiring their cooler older sister. As with Images, this film is also extremely subjective in terms of the characters. Each character has an excessive emphasis on their moods, attitudes, and opinions. There’s no subtly in any of the way the characters act. Millie, as explained in the previous paragraph, is portrayed as an annoying friend who talks excessively. We’ve all experienced or know someone who has experienced a friend like this before, but someone having a personality as dramatic as Millie is just unusual. The audience quickly understands how desperate she is to find a man. Tom, a neighbor who works the grill during poolside dinners, is someone Millie fancies a lot but can’t get attention from. She even tells Pinky that he has asked her out on dates but she’s always been too busy to accept; clearly an act of desperation over someone she cares fantasizes about so deeply. During her lunch break she eats and sits with the doctors, consisting of only men, rather than her co-workers even though it’s more expensive. Her efforts are useless in that they still don’t really acknowledge her. Her last hangout spot to socialize with men is a local bar/ recreation area, owned by Edgar and bartended by his wife Willie. The boys too preoccupied with shooting at a gun range and riding bikes outback, provides yet another obstacle for Millie to find someone. Pinky too reflects the extreme of a personality behaving as some would call childlike. She is a withdrawn woman trying to begin a new life in California, refusing to go into specifics of her past life. The way she looks up to Millie after knowing her for less than a day is extremely odd. Most people emulate people, especially when they are the new one in town as Pinky was, when they are popular or are known for doing something good. They think by acting similar to that person, they will share that same sense of praise and popularity. What’s strange about Pinky’s situation is that Millie isn’t your ideal role model and is the complete opposite of a popular girl. Millie is more of the nerd that’s oblivious to what other people truly think about her. It brings to the question, why would anyone want to duplicate Millie? Also, what made Pinky not want to keep her past life hidden? Altman was very creative in creating Willie’s character. Although Willie doesn’t have many lines in the film, shown mostly with her paintings instead of with people, her supporting role is necessary for the flow of the movie. With a macho husband possessing such an extravagant personality, it wouldn’t be hard to miss her character entirely. Although withdrawn from social interaction, it is made evident that she is still caring. After Pinky attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the apartment pool, Willie didn’t hesitate to jump in and save her. Also in the final scene, even though Willie and Pinky were both messing around with her husband, she still decided to take them in and let them work at the bar with her after the â€Å"accidental† death of her husband. The three women make a complete 360 from polar opposites, into a family. The objective reality of the film is evident through its use of the visual representation found in the mirrors and the water. Mirrors and reflections represent the way Millie views herself. Through the mirrors, we begin to understand Millie’s obsession with looking good, something she is proud of accomplishing. Millie is always beautifying herself by making small changes to her clothes, touching her hair constantly to make sure her curls are intact, and perfecting her makeup. She looks at her reflection, apparently adoring what she says looking back at her, even though no one can figuratively see her. The mirror and the reflections represent Millie’s invisibility to other people in that when you look in the mirror, you are the only one to take notice of what’s reflecting back. Water is also extremely prevalent in the film’s entirety. Each of the three female protagonists of the film is associated with water in one way or another. The opening shot of pregnant Willie painting a mural and water being immersed as a backdrop is said by Altman to represent â€Å"the amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus,† (Ebert). The seceding scene shows Millie and her coworkers helping old people slowly descend into a pool- going to the water as their lives initially started. The wavy line shown on the screen is thought to represent an umbilical cord connecting the person to its life line. Also located in the pool is the crucial turning point in which Pinky jumps into the pool from the balcony, to be later saved by Willie. The movie does feature men; however they are of far less significance to the main protagonists. Edgar, played by Robert Fortier, is the husband of Willie. What someone might call a â€Å"manly man,† Edgar showcases himself with motorcycles, beer, and guns. He is very much a drunk who tries to portray himself as a benevolent western gunslinger and fails to acknowledge his wife properly. The other men, often seen lounging around the apartment’s pool, are objects of Millie’s captivation. She always comes off in preparation for dates or dinner plans with these gentleman, even though they never actually happen and they fail to notice her. It is understood fairly quickly that Millie is a lonely soul. The men are used only to further emphasize the personality of the female characters they come in contact with. It is obvious that this film was primarily focused on the significance of the character rather than creating an high-suspense adventure like Stephen Spielberg did with his film Jaws created a mere two years previously. Each actress perfectly resembles their characters through their looks and acting capabilities. Rule depicts Willie with no apparent expression on the face and a sad look in her eyes. Spacek’s light hair and eyes that stare in adoration fit a character named Pinky. Duvall especially contributed a lot to the creation of the film. She was accountable for creating the recipes, the diary entries, and a great deal of the dialogue her character Millie had. Her big brown round eyes resemble a deer in headlights as she is oblivious to the feelings others have towards her. It’s no wonder why she took home the Cannes Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards best actress award. Though the actors fit the characters well and portrayed each scene wonderfully, some things are left unanswered for the audience. Although Pinky is a main character, not a lot is understood about her past. Upon completion of the film, it is still left a mystery why she left Texas and whether or not she was actually from there. When Millie asked for specifics on what part of Texas she was from, Pinky accused her of giving her the third degree and avoided the question. Also, when Pinky saw her â€Å"parents† in the hospital she claimed that she had never seen them before, screaming for them to get out. This was a very peculiar scene since the old couple claim to be Pinky’s parents, but look far too old to actually be them. Whether they are frauds, grandparents, or her adoptive parents, is never actually presented. Another mystery Altman added to make the movie come off as a dream, where not everything makes sense and only certain details are vivid. For its use of water coming in and out of scenes with the primary characters, even though water is not actually present, and the mysteries that leave the audience questioning scenes, 3 Women possesses a dream-like quality. The idea of the film, the story, the cast, and everything included, was said by Altman to come to him in a dream, so he wanted to express it as such. The message and the overall point of the film are left open to interpretation for the audience. Altman himself says he is not exactly sure what the ending means but has a â€Å"theory† on what it signifies and what actually occurred. He wanted to create a film filled with emotion and allusion rather than â€Å"surface realities caught with the camera’s allegedly objective eye,† (Sterritt). Essentially this movie is not a narrative in any way but reflects the three stages of a woman’s life. The three women merge into a single person, who is mother, daughter, and granddaughter, â€Å"isolated but serenely self-sufficient (Canby). The film is about age and youth and the overall quality of American life. Trying to decipher the exact meaning of the movie is pointless in that no one could be definite for sure. 3 Women is a film concentrated more on mystery, mood, and behavior than the use of plot devices. In both Images and 3 Women, it is evident that Altman avoided an attempt to make a flashy movie in order to compete at the same level as his younger comrades in the business. Images depicted a fairytale and 3 Women, a dream; both very unconventional types of films. He was far too interested in the preservation of Hollywood art to care about garnering publicity. These were films that had emphasis on ambiguous between objective reality, and character subjectivity, decorated with abstract, enigmatic compositions. Both were films in which Altman was involved both with the writing and directing process, enabling him to project on screen what he himself envisioned as the direction of the movie. Also, these films examined madness in its female characters. It is no coincidence that these specific films both won a best actress award at Cannes. Although Altman’s movies don’t always do extremely well at the box office, they are perpetually the subject of a lot of analytical attention.

The threat of globalization for smaller firms

The threat of globalization for smaller firms Globalization has costs and benefits. There are examples of poorly managed economies. (eg when countries opened their economic borders before they had the capacity to respond well) but there are also examples of well managed countries thatengage well with international community. Many governments and supranational authorities have committed themselves to encouraging trade in the world economy and further reducing poverty through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are cooperating together to work out smart ways to manage globalization for their smaller firms /countries success in the world economy. Through the evaluation of the strategic management in the global competitive enviroment. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the process of the strategic management of smaller firms by governments and supranationals in the global competitive environment. Introduction and Background What is globalisation? Globalisation can be defined as the greater movement of people, goods, capital and ideas due to increased economic integration which in turn is propelled by increased trade and investment. It is like moving towards living in a borderless world. There has always been a sharing of goods, services, knowledge and cultures between people and countries, but in recent years improved technologies and a reduction of barriers means the speed of exchange is much faster. Globalisation provides opportunities and challenges. Bigger markets can mean bigger profits which leads to greater wealth for investing in development and reducing poverty in many countries. Weak domestic policies, institutions and infrastructure and trade barriers can restrict a countrys ability to take advantage of the changes. Each country makes decisions and policies that position them to maximise the benefits and minimise the challenges presented by globalisation. ( www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au) In a world economy, characterized by a high level of changes over the past few years, we can say that the world does not appear any more like it was in the past. Indeed so many transformations have been done in terms of government regulations, business, telecommunications, technology, research and development, customers needs and tastes, reduction in barriers to free trade and the world with all these factors have led to a great convergence. All these transformations are leading our national economies into a global system or a global economy, i.e. an independent, integrated global economic system therefore a process that we can refer to as globalization. Hence, in the era of the globalization, it has been inevitable for national enterprises to globalize in order to gain for instance some competitive advantage, economies of scales, more market share, better skills. Indeed, nowadays, wherever a company operates, theses products or services would find some foreign competitors. ( Hill, 2006), The impact of globalization on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has received a lot of attention in international markets in the past few years. Today, globalization is a major driver that has impact on nearly every business. One of the reasons for the international focus on SMEs is that these firms make significant contributions to the economy of both developed and under-developed countries. SMEs contribute over 55 percent of GDP and over 65 percent of total employment in high-income countries (UNCTAD, 2004). In Middle and East Asia for example, SMEs are major players in their countries economy; accounting for a higher percent than what it represents in the developing countries. Globalization has that much impact on business forces which have added more drivers to Porters five Forces. One of these new drivers in business life was discussed in an article by Larry Downes in Beyond Porter says that technological progress in logistics and distribution enables nearly every business to buy, sell and cooperate on a global scale. Similarly, customers have the chance to compare prices globally in order to find the best offer. Many SMEs are now looking to go global. The markets are more accessible than ever before. However, most SMEs are finding it difficult to master the art of market entry, resulting in heavy losses. Globalization has increased competitive pressures on firms. Together with rapid technological change it has altered the environment in which SMEs operate. The bottom line is that, in an open and liberalized world, increasing SMEs competitiveness has become a major challenge. Globalization has also expanded competition both geographically and to new areas. Competition between companies was mainly on products and services, at least to the extent that markets were protected from foreign competition. There is a wealth of economic evidence that demonstrates that globalization brings great benefits as well as costs. It offers the opportunity for a higher rate of sustainable growth- growth that translates into longer, healthier lives and improved living standards. But, if we look at another side of picture then it has been proven that some of the competitive obstacles often faced by the little fish in the big ocean. Compared to larger firms, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are generally less well-equipped to face increases in international trade. As a result of their lower productivity, many have found it difficult to compete. Also, given their limited resources, they have found it more difficult to take advantage of the removal of tariff barriers. Global markets are more integrated with more free flow of information, goods and services and migration. As a consequence of globalization we have seen the rise of the influence of large multi nationals, to the detriment of Small and Medium Enterprises. In response to this threat governments and supranational authorities have designed programs to protect and support these small firms to allow for their survival. Threat of globalization The increasing interdependence of countries in a globalised world makes them more vulnerable to economic problems for smaller firms like the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. (J.O Ajiboye, Adeyunke Tella University of Botswana) Smaller firms will find it difficult to compete on the global level as they lack the financial and technical resources that multinationals have. In addition they lack the economies of scale which results in lower cost per unit for the multi nationals. Pricing could be a challenge since the smaller firms are likely to have high costs per unit. Larger firms have the capacity to undercut the smaller firms prices as a consequence of this competition between smaller and large firm would erode margins of smaller firms and some of them would end up making loses and winding up. It would be difficult for smaller firms to attract a highly skilled work force because multi nationals have the capacity to pay better packages as they will have more financial resources. This would pose a challenge for smaller firms to operate efficiently and effectively. High promotional, advertising and branding costs are a barrier to entry for small firms Cultural and religious factors can also affect competitiveness of small firms. For instance, in countries where Islam is a dominant religion in which strict adherence to halaal standards is a requirement, small firms may find it difficult to penetrate the market or to survive in such markets. Import restrictions can also affect small firm competitiveness. For example, in some countries such as Egypt, where there is an import ban on raw materials small firms may find it difficult to penetrate in such markets without a diversified global market base. Smaller firms may find it a challenge on the global market in terms of meeting certain international standards imposed by certain markets. Export restrictions may also pose a problem. In some markets there are restrictive export regulations which, smaller firms find difficult to comply with e.g, small firms in Africa exporting agricultural produce into European markets such as honey or paprika. Membership of a Trading blocs such Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa COMESA, Southern African Development Community SADC and the European Union EU, inter alia, could be another source of hindrance to smaller firms. Countries that are not members of such trading blocs may find it difficult to trade with member countries. Further other government policies such as high taxes are a disincentive to investment. Small firms are likely to be affected by such taxes. Unlike multinationals, small firms are likely to suffer currency exchange losses. This is because small firms may not have capacity to hedge against such losses. Multinationals, operate in different markets and can easily cushion such effects. Multinationals have the capacity to produce better and cheaper goods as a result of the superior resource endowments such as modern technology and have larger budgets for research and development as compared to smaller firms. Purchase Power Parity is another factor to consider e.g, multinationals can procure inputs in countries where the currency has a higher PPP. Globalization poses new challenges for SMEs by leading them to at least partially integrate the consequent idea of global change in their strategy. The expansion of markets does not mean that only large businesses will be able to profit fully from this trend. There is no correlation between large market and large business. Whatever the cost, to encourage the competitiveness of large national businesses. A fish that has become bigger and bigger in its pond will be eaten when it reaches the sea; it is better to teach it how to fight when it is small so that it can deal with the competition, wherever it is. On the other hand, the internal factors constraining the globalization of SMEs are lack of experience on their part, insufficient resources and an excessive perception of risk. The major external factors are national information networks that are inadequate or poorly connected internationally, deficient complementary regional resources and assistance programs that are maladapted to SME requirements. In a number of countries, the positive factors appear to be gaining ascendance over the negative. The recently completed (1996) OECD study on market globalization and SMEs shows, on the one hand, that the major factors sustaining or accelerating SME globalization are as much a result of the internal dynamics of small businesses as of environmental support. In the first instance, searching for diversified growth, specific innovation-based production, and open-minded management capable of engaging the appropriate specialized resources, go a long way toward explaining the behavior of internationally open SMEs. The case of the environment presumes effective regional consulting, funding and logistical resources to support exports. (Pierre-Andrà © Julien Università © du Quà ©bec à   Trois-Rivià ¨res ) How Governments and other supranational authorities support small firms In order to support the small firms from the threats of globalization governments and other supranational have designed programmes to protect them as stated below. Examples of Supranational institutions that manage such programs are: Governments, COMESA, WTO, World Bank, AU, SADC,UN, ECOWAS, EU etc. Government support: Some of the different programs that must be designed include: Favorable bilateral and multilateral trade agreements which, support positive trade balances must be instituted by governments. This will ensure the growth of small firms thereby contributing to overall country growth. Governments should use their political influence to lobby for relaxed trade. Providing loan guarantees to small firms. Some of these guarantees involve partnerships with private banks or multilaterals such as the World Bank. Such policies help the smaller firm have access to finance. Governments also offer incentives and subsidies to allow the smaller firms compete on the international markets e.g. the Government of South Africa made deals with the Government of Zambia to allow a tax rebate of about five years also the EU also subsidies small scale farmers in the EU. Governments should introduce tax rebates on certain sectors of the industry e.g. in Zambia agricultural inputs are have zero tax to bring into the country to encourage more people engage in to agriculture and overall boost the economy for exports . Governments may devalue its currency to increase export volumes by allowing its exports to be cheaper e.g. China and Japan are practicing this. This should however be done carefully recognizing that it can be inflationary. Government should institute policies that encourage domestic trade through relevant monetary and fiscal policies. Government should encourage policies that support reduction of borrowing costs. Legal enactment of credit acts must be encouraged to protect the consumer. Government should provide grants to economic agents for capital injection. Government should encourage agencies such as the Zambia Development Agency which to provide support to help small and medium businesses become more innovative, efficient and competitive through a national network of services and support for eligible SMEs to access expert, practical advice and support tailored to their individual firms. 4.2 Supranational Support includes: Supranational authorities should introduce grants, loans and funding for small economies to encourage production and trade among countries. Supranational should endeavor to help less developed countries by exposing entrepreneurs to the international markets. Supranationals should facilitate trade expos to stimulate trade. eg traditional indigenous artifacts have found their way to the international markets. Fair trade policies play a bigger role in protecting trade, fair and stable price and institutes like the WTO should encourage this. Forums are another platform that these institutions have introduced to give a voice to the voiceless on issues of economic development e.g. G8 are encouraging world trade by adopting certain polices. Examples of supranational and their impact on globalization: 4.2.1. a International Monetary Fund (IMF) The IMF is a sister institution to the World Bank in the United Nations system. It shares the same international membership and the same goal of raising living standards in its member countries. It works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty. 4.2.1. b World Bank(WB) The World Bank Groups mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world. It is a development bank which provides low-interest loans, interest-free credit, grants, policy advice, technical assistance and knowledge sharing services to low and middle-income countries to reduce poverty. The Bank promotes growth to create jobs, and to empower poor people to take advantage of economic opportunities. The Bank is strongly committed to the Millennium Development Goals which target poverty. (www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/.) 4.2.1. c World Social Forum (WSF) The World Social Forum (WSF) is an amalgamation of many political/social movements from around the world. It was created to openly discuss alternatives to the model for globalisation formulated by the World Economic Forum, large multinational corporations, National Governments, IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. It is working to demonstrate that the path to sustainable development, social and economic justice lies in alternative models for people-centered and self-reliant progress, rather than in neo-liberal globalisation. (www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/.) 4.2.1. d World Trade Organisation (WTO) The World Trade Organization (WTO) is a global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the worlds trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. (www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/.) 5.0 Conclusion More and more SMEs are availing themselves of new material and immaterial technologies to increase their productivity. They are innovating to prolong the useful life of their products or to change these products. They are associating with large businesses or working in networks to boost their strike forces. These networks also provide them with international information to prevent them from being outpaced by change. But given the limitations of globalization, some Governments and supranational can have SMEs break away from increased competition by positioning them in specific niches. Globalization can offer as many opportunities for dynamic SMEs as obstacles for those that lag behind in modernizing their production processes or developing these niches which can give them at least temporary shelter from the pressures of new competition. There are social and economic costs to globalisation. Trade liberalisation rewards competitive industries and penalises uncompetitive ones, and it requires participating countries to undertake economic restructuring and reform to help smaller firms. Some countries have been unable to take advantage of globalisation and their standards of living are dropping further behind the richest countries. The gap in incomes between the 20% of the richest and the poorest countries has grown from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 82 to 1 in 1995 (www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/.). The major economic powers have a major influence in the institutions of globalisation, like the WTO, and this can work against the interests of the developing world. The level of agricultural protection by rich countries has also been estimated to be around five times what they provide in aid to poor countries. Trade liberalization and technological improvements change the economy of a country, destroying the traditional agricultural communities and allowing cheap imports of manufactured goods. (www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/.) References and Biography www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au www.worldbank.org/ www.forumsocialmundial.org. www.wto.org/ www.ausaid.gov.au/ Michael Porter Johnson and Scholes, 1993

Essay --

Review of Literature We live in a world where academic succession leads to better opportunities and a prosperous life. But in order to obtain academic language and understanding, a person has to be successful in reading. It is said you cannot do well and achieve in Science, Social Studies, and Math if you cannot read and apprehend what you read. How could you understand a Science lab report, how could you analyze a History article, and how could you solve a multiplication word problem if you cannot read? Reading is crucial. Learning to read begins at home. â€Å"Parents play a key role in their children’s literacy development and school success† (Piper, 2010, p.48). In a national survey of 22,000 public schoolteachers, 90 percent indicate that a lack of parental support is a problem (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1988). In order for students to succeed academically in reading it is important for parents to get involve and assist their child with endless effort and time. Schools are required to educate a child, but teachers cannot do the job alone. More burdens are placed on teachers with less support from home (Lickona, 1991). This literature review was embarked on in an effort to investigate the question: how does parent involvement at home with reading fluency strategies affect students’ performance with automaticity and prosody? Researchers focus on ways to encourage and engage parents to get involve in their child’s education and disseminate what effects of parental involvement in reading have on the improvement of students’ reading fluency. This literature review scrutinize: ways to overcome obstacles or barriers of parental involvement, the importance of... ...hols, W. D., & Rickelman, R. J. (2000). Effects of parental involvement in developing competent readers in first grade. Reading Psychology, Vol.21 Issue 3, p. 195-215. Mapp, K. L. (2003). Having their say: parents describe why and how they are engaged in their children’s learning. School Community Journal, Vol.13, No.1, p. 35-64. Lincoln, USA: Academic Development Institute. Morrow, L. M., Kuhn, M. R., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2006). The family fluency program. The Reading Teacher, Vol.60, No.4, p.322- 333. Musti- Rao, S. & Cartledge, G. (2004). Making home an advantage in the prevention of reading failure: strategies for collaborating with parents in urban schools. Preventing School Failure, Summer 2004, Vol. 48, Issue 4, p. 15- 21 Piper, L. E. (2010). Parental Involvement in Reading. Illinois Reading Council Journal, Spring 2010, Vol. 38, No.2, p. 48-51.

Life of Paul Cuffee Essay

More than for 500 years, people of African origin have shaped the course of not only American but the history of the whole world. We are proud of many African-Americans that had put so much hard work to make our society as good and developed as it is nowadays. There are lots of Blacks, who are very famous for their deeds and deserve to be remembered as honorable society members, such as Phyllis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs and others . The main objective of this paper will be the analyses of life and work of Paul Cuffee. Paul Cuffee was born on the 17th of January on Chuttyhunk Island in Southeastern Massachusetts, as a free child and a son of an African father and Native American mother. His father, named Kofi, was a member of the West-African tribe known as Ashanti tribe in Ghana. He was captured there and brought to America when he was ten. He was made a slave of Ebenezer Slocum, a Quaker of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, but the skills of good carpenter helped Kofi (Cuffe) to buy his freedom. He even managed to educate himself and later married to Ruth Moses, who was a Wampanoag Indian from Massachusetts. The Native Americans were not enslaved, so their children were born free. Paul did not want to take the name of his father’s possessor and chose his father’s name, which was Cuffe (or Cuffee). His family also owned a 116-acre farm in Westport, which was very rare at that time as most of the other African people were enslaved. The family was large and counted ten children: six daughters and four sons (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). After the death of his father, Paul Cuffee, at the age of 16 and with the knowledge only of an alphabet, already had many ambitious dreams such as getting an education and having a career in shipping industry. The boy always showed a kinship to navigation, boatbuilding and trade. When he was a teenager he constructed small boats. This hobby ended in trading among the islands of Massachusetts (â€Å"Paul Cuffee (1759-1817)†, 2013). He started to do the job of an ordinary seaman on fishing and whaling boats – this was in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was caught and held as a prisoner by British soldiers for three month during the Revolutionary War, but once he was released, he managed to start minor coastal trading. Paul bought some ships together with his sister’s husband Michael Wainer, who was a Native American. Because of his partner was afraid to sail big sea distances, in 1779 Cuffee tried to deliver the cargo to Nantucket alone, but he was waylaid by pirates. He continued to ship aboard a whaler owned by the Quaker merchants, prominent Rotch family and whalers of New Bedford. Despite the fact that pirates were very active those days and have attached the local sailors a lot, Paul’s business was prospering (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffe’s business started to grow and he had enough money to built bigger vessels and successfully traded north to Labrador and south to Virginia (â€Å"Petition for Relief from Taxation†, 2013). Paul gathered rather big capital that helped him to expand his ownership and to get a fleet of ships. He commissioned the closed-deck boat, which could ship around 14-15 ton known as Box Iron. Just after that, another achievement that followed was a18-20 ton schooner. In the 1780s Paul already owned schooner Sun Fish and schooner Mary, which in total could transport cargo of approximately 65 tons. In 1796, just right after the mentioned schooners Sunfish and Mary were sold, Cuffee’s shipyard in Westport launched a 69-ton schooner known as Ranger. Eventually he could afford to buy a large farmstead and in 1799 he bought property in Westport for $3,500. Later he bought a half of the 162-ton barque Hero. Paul was so wealthy, that he maybe was one of the richest man among all Native American and African American of the in the United States of the 19th century (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Just a couple of weeks before the Revolution ended, Paul married Alice Pequit, who was also Wampanoag Indian, the same as Cuffee’s mother. This marriage brought seven children to Cuffe’s family: David, Sarah, Jonathan, Mary,John, Phebe, Ruth, Lydia, Freelove and Paul. On the 17th of January the youngest son was born. The child was biracial, but born free, as the two parents were not enslaved (Cordeiro, 2004). The Roch family and other successful merchants have inspired Paul to build his own empire, which was very successful. The crews that he employed were mainly African American and  Native American people. Eventually his ships were on both sides of the Atlantic. He opened an outlet in New Bedford, where he sold the goods that he imported (â€Å"Paul Cuffee (1759-1817)†, 2013). Being a businessman with an African American and Native American crews, Paul managed to earn the respect of many white Americans through the relationships in the Quaker faith. When Cuffee was twenty-one he refused to pay taxes. This protest was done along with his brother and lasted from 1778 till 1780. The main motivation for that was that free black Americans did not have the right to vote, but according to the governmental laws of that time, African Americans were taxed. He even petitioned the council of Bristol County in 1780, Massachusetts to put such taxation to an end. Despite the denial, later his petition was one of key factors that led to granting voting rights to all free male citizens by Legislature in 1783 (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffee built a schoolhouse for African American children on his own property. He spent his money on that and it took him a couple of months to finish. After the school was built, Paul hired a knowledgeable teacher and opened the institution to the Westport residents. It was for kids, who were denied to visit other public schools. He implemented his own policy to the school’s administration, according to which children of all races were allowed to attend the studies, so the school was multiracial. This was just a beginning of a future fight against unfair treatment of the US and other governments towards the black people (Cordeiro, 2004). The majority of Anglo-Americans and English origin people considered African as lower race in comparison to Europeans, even in principally Calvinist and Quaker New England. Unfortunately the slavery continued, but some decent men like James Madison and Presidents Thomas Jefferson thought that colonies emigration of Blacks outside the US was the best and the easiest way to the fight the race problem in America (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffee was involved not only in local activities. He played a crucial part in national and international events related Blacks in that time. Because of his successful business, Cuffee had contact all over the Atlantic seaboard, which connected the three important continents: Europe, North American and Africa (Cordeiro, 2004). Americans and Europeans put many efforts in all the parts of the world to colonize Black, but they were all unsuccessful. One of such attempts was related to Sierra Leone colonization. The Sierra Leone Company  was a main sponsor of 400 people departure from Great Britain to Western African colony. The colony was rebelling and wanted to create a working and competitive economy and a government, which would be strong enough to resist the outside pressure. Eventually the Sierra Leone Company collapsed and another institution known as African Institution was offering migration to the released slaves, which have settled in London and Nova Scotia after the American Revolution. The institution’s sponsors were hoping to get some economical benefit by fostering the educated trades of Blacks (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Despite the fact that it was very difficult to colonize Sierra Leone, Cuffee really believed that it was a vital option and supported the movement. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Paul started to cooperate with the mentioned African Institution, which was based in London (Cordeiro, 2004). In U.S. the organization was very active in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. This all started in March 1807, when members of the institution encouraged him to help them. The main objective was to promote the immigration to Sierra Leone, a colony of Britain in West Africa. Cuffee was among those who recruited African Americans so they can settle there; he transported a big amount of families and explored the local economy trying to find ways of its improving. This was all mainly done for his own funds (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biog raphy†). Paul Cuffee wrote in his letters, that he really felt like going to Sierra Leone, he wanted to see the situation in the country. He believed that the inhabitants of that colony were talented people, which, as well as he did, deserved to feel the true light of Christianity and be benefited thereby (â€Å"Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters†). Paul obtained a bill, given by the Committee of the Whole from the Senate and the President of the United States, which gave him a right to leave US with the cargo and come back with a cargo from Sierra Leone. He was nominated by government and had all the privilege to be treated properly (â€Å"History of Congress†). Cuffee studied all the logistics and the possible outcome, when finally on December in 1810 he left U.S. for his first voyage to Sierra Leone. He managed to get to the colony on the 1st of March in 1811. He was travelling all over the place to explore the local habits and economy in order to find the possibilities to development. He met the officials there, but they were against of the colonization idea, as they were afraid of American merchants, because this could create a lot of  unfair competition. Moreover, the cargo, which Cuffee intended to trade off, did not sell well as the tariff charges implemented by British trading system were too high. Eventually this did not stop Cuffee and on the 7th of April 1811 he made an appointment with key Black entrepreneurs. An outcome was that a special petition for the African Institution was written, which stated that people in the colony wanted to work in merchanting, whaling industry and agriculture. This indicated that those three areas were the main objective of the future growth and development of the colony. Cuffee together with the black businessmen set the Friendly Society foundation in Sierra Leone. Its main aim was to ensure further prosperity and industry development among all free peoples. Another area to work on was related to breaking the strong merchants trade established there by British. Cuffee decided to go to UK in order to make sure that colony will get further aid. He arrived to Liverpool in July 1811. There he met the officials of the African Institution in London, who collected some funds for the Friendly Society. He also obtained further required governmental license and permissions to continue his delegation in Sierra Leone. Paul was happy to come back to the West African colony where he shared the ideas of the Friendly Society with the local merchants. Together they elaborated plans for Sierra Leone to grow by building a saw mill, grist mill, salt works and rice-processing factory. Later Cuffee was involved with similar venture, which was backed by Americans and let to creation of the American Colonization Society and colony in Liberia (Cordeiro, 2004). During that period of history the relations between the Great Britain and United States were strained, which led to embargo establishment on British goods in 1811. This had somehow a negative outcome on Cuffee’s voyage, as when in April 1812 he reached Newport on his ship, it was usurped by U.S. customs officers along with all its cargo. This case was not being resolved locally, so Paul Cuffee left to Washington, D.C. to file an official appeal to his case. In the White House he met with the President James Madison and Albert Gallatin, who was a Secretary of the Treasury in that time. Cuffee was warmly welcomed and treated there. Madison was on his side and later ordered to release the goods, based on the information that Cuffee did not know about the political disagreements and did not deliver the goods with the intention to violate any laws. Cuffee shared his observations and experience, which he gained  during his trip to Sierra Leone. First the President seemed to be very interested in further expansion of the colony in Africa, but eventually he refuses to participate in Cuffee’s further investigations, as he saw this mission not possible because of too many problems and obstacles that U.S. will be facing during further attempts of Sierra Leone colonization. This was all related to the fact that it was initially fully British project. Still Cuffee obtained a legal permission to become an official authority on Africa in the United States. Cuffee had clear intentions to visit Great Britain’s colony of Sierra Leone on a regular basis, but his plans were interrupted because of the sudden War of 1812, which started in June and was a war between the British Empire and the United States. This prevented Paul from visiting the colony for a while. Despite the fact that Cuffee was opposed the war because of his Christian beliefs, he was really against any interruptions that could have been caused by war and resulted as an impact on trading and goods delivery from Sierra Leone. The war continued, so Cuffee took a change to convince U.S and Great Britain to ease restrictions on trading. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful and he waited until the war ended in 1815 (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Meanwhile, Paul remained an active political life and paid a couple of visits to Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York, where he spoke to groups of free African Americans about the colony. He encouraged Blacks to create organizations within their cities, to talk to each other and to have a correspondence with the Friendly Society at Sierra Leone and the African Institution. A special pamphlet with the ideas of Paul Cuffee related to Sierra Leone was printed at that time and distributed to general public. He rebuilt the Westport Friends’ Meeting House in summer of 1813, which was a meeting house for the multi-racial members of the Society of Friend, where Cuffee spoke and preached regularly on a Sunday meetings. Most of the money for that was coming from Cuffee’s personal funds. It is important to mention that war impacted Cuffee’s business and during that year he facial financial crisis. He has a number of unprofitable ventures related to ships. One vessel was considered unseaworthy and has never returned from Chile. Luckily the war ended and the Treaty of Ghent was signed at the end of 1814. After some time taken to recover, Paul was prepared to go back to Sierra Leone (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). The first ship with thirty-eight Blacks shipped from Westport  on December 10, 1815. Among the passengers were 18 adults and 20 children (Cordeiro, 2004). The price of organization of that expedition was $5000. Eighty percents of those expenses were covere d by Cuffee. The rest was paid by passengers and with the help of donation by William Rotch from Massachusetts. The colonist arrived to the colony with their own belongings such as hoes, axes, wagon and a plow, but they were not treated as well as it was expected by Cuffee. This was related to the fact that Governor was facing difficulties in keeping the existing population in order, which could have even worsen the situation if more emigrant have arrived. Moreover, the act known as the Militia Act was imposed upon the colony and obliges males to swear of loyalty to the Crown. People had concerns, because it could have been an obligation to go to military service. Despite the negative outcome related to economical benefits and sales, the positive was the fact that colonist have finally settles in Freetown. Cuffee spent lots of money by supporting the new inhabitants with money for the first year’s provisions. It was planned initially that Cuffee will be reimbursed by the African Institution, but due to heavy tariff duties there was a big deficit in the budget. Actually Paul was never given money by the African Institution in Britain. After coming back to USA in 1816, Cuffee searched for financial support from New York’ division of the American Institution and has eventually obtained $439.62 for further investments into Sierra Leone’s colonists (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Soon in1816, Cuffee proposed a newly-designed emigration plan for African Americans, which was related not only to Sierra Leone but also possibly to Haiti. Provide funds. Congress did not approve the petition to provide funds for that. People all over U.S. have started to show more and more interest in immigration to Africa, believing that it would help to solve the racial problems. Cuffee was trying to find support from other institutions, but some of them were not honest, such as American Colonization Society (ACS) , which was alarmed as a racist organization. The ideas were supported by many other Americans, but later they turned in favor of emigration to Haiti, where the immigrants were welcomed and supported by the President Boyer Since 1817 Cuffee was not feeling himself well and has never visited Africa again. He died in September of that year surrounded by his family and friends. Cuffee was buried at the Quaker Meeting House near Westport (Cordeiro, 2004). To  conclude, it should be mentioned that Cuffee was and is considered one of the greatest persons in African-American history. He was a first African-American who had a success in implementation of ideas of Blacks. He fought the existing racism of that time with the help of tolerant and Christian methods. Not only he opposed himself, but he also managed to dwell public attention to the current situation with Blacks, which helped people a lot. He was a successful businessman, who could have had just a happy and calm life, but spent his time and effort to explore Sierra Leone, donated his own money to make the life of immigrants there as good as possible and helped in many other ways to people. I think this person is worth to be admired and remembered thought all future generations of the world. References A Paul Cuffe Biography. (n.d.) SlideShare, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/rbgstreetscholar1/a-paul-cuffe-biography Paul Cuffee (1759-1817). (2013). Paul Cuffee School. Retrieved from http://www.paulcuffee.org/about/mission-history/paul-cuffee/ Petition for Relief from Taxation. (2013). Abstract. Pearson Education. Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/cuffe-taxation-petition/ Cordeiro, B.N. (2004). Paul Cuffe: A Study of His Life and the Status of His Legacy in Old Dartmouth. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Boston. Retrieved from http://paulcuffe.home.comcast.net/~paulcuffe/Paul_Cuffe_Thesis_by_Brock_Cordeiro.pdf Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters. (n.d.). Estimed froends John James and Alexander Wilson. Westport 6 mo 10th 1809. Paul Cuffee. Retrieved from http://atlanticslaverydebate.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/shared/ASD/Module2/InitialCrrspdnceCuffe1809.pdf History of Congress. (n.d.). A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Co ngressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=027/llac027.db&recNum=221