Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Staff Reduction Process Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Staff Reduction Process - Coursework Example The other responsibility of the correctional manager in the staff reduction process is ensuring the employees who are let go do not harbour hard feelings and are adequately compensated and the staff reduction is done in accordance with the law and in compliance with agreements and regulations stipulated in employment contracts (McConnell, 1993). Ensuring all other avenues including cost saving have been sought for and failed before undertaking a staff reduction is the other role of a correction officer in staff reduction. My reservations about staff reduction include the impact of the families and relation of the affected employees, having to let go of employees who have showed great potential, and the possibility of the employees getting new jobs. The measures to be confident as a manager in a staff reduction process include early preparation including all the facts pertaining to the reason for the reduction, the members affected, and the procedure for the selection of the members. Ensuring the reason for the termination is justifiable and easily presentable to the employee to be able to inform the employees clearly. Reviewing policies and procedures on staff reduction will also increase my confidence through providing statements to staff during the staff reduction meeting (The Ohio State University, April 17, 2014). Providing a memo to all the terminated staff on measures taken to ensure adequate compensation and writing recommendations also allows for better confidence. Adequate analysis and in-depth thinking on the employees to terminate to ensure the correct decision on the affected employees also aid in increasing confidence in dealing with a termination of

Monday, October 28, 2019

Co-education Female Essay Example for Free

Co-education Female Essay The debatable issue on Co-education is continually progressing through the State and convincing parents and teachers that sex-separation will reveal a sign of improvement in student’s lives. In the United States, teamwork is a massive aspect in people’s lives where both girls and boys work together in order to achieve their goal , however, both articles provide informative proves that co-education could result in failure because of the different stereotypes in society. The debate mainly focuses on the separation of both sexes in school since â€Å"there is no extra cost. The debate also catches the reader’s attention by the different research that many scientists did in order to prove a fair result that will satisfy the parents and teachers. The separation of sexes in school could result in improvement of education and behavior with boys and girls. Based on Jennifer Medina’s article, teachers will face less problems if both sexes are separated since the boys will tend to focus more on learning than on girls, in addition, girls will tend to feel more comfortable participating in class. Co-education will also result in good teamwork especially in the outside community because both girls and boys will learn to communicate. However, from the boy’s point of view, they will tend to be more comfortable in expressing themselves and learn about â€Å"being a man† in their own bodies. In addition to those articles, the media will affect the parents and the teachers around the state because of highly known and educative people in society. For example, Leonard Sax who is a best seller author of Why Gender Matters and Michael Sax argues about single sex with a huge audience in order to prove their facts about the separation and the importance of it. In contrast, both sex educations could also result in improvement around the state and in schools because boys and girls will learn to communicate together and work hard as one community. In addition, many authors and scientist were seeking for evidence in order to prove that Co-education could be for the good of their community. For example, a research on Bronx’s Eagle school stated that both sexes’ classes tend to have higher test scores around the state and tend to receive high percentages in their community. Both sexes will also learn and appreciate that both sexes are important in everyone’s lives since they communicate and work together outside of the learning community. Researchers also proved that working together as both sexes will also result a sign improvement in teamwork because many girls tend to be left out in single-sex schools in teamwork projects. Comparatively, Co-Education and single education also have their problems in society because of their lack of certain teachings in schools. For example , a study showed that girls tend to be smarter than boys and tend to solve math and science faster and more accurate since there are different brains and each person have a different sign of knowledge and personality. However, since girls are smarter, they tend to ask for more detailed teachings and writing scripts since they will have more things to explain in their writing assignment. When in contrast, boys have to write about a simple sport or a job they seek for in order to prepare them for the future. Although, teachers who support single education tend to have other opinions toward their ways of teaching. For example, Mr. Napolitano claims that he is more comfortable in expressing his feelings and thoughts while teaching to single sex classrooms because the boys will tend to have the same situation. In addition he also shows a book called Patrol Boy in order to show boys that having a tattoo is not a material they should use in co-ed class. In conclusion, this debate tends to prove that single education will show more improvements since the media tend to support it and also the teachers. The reasons that parents should choose single education is because they will improve economically and also their students will face less behavior problems and more school focused. However, co-ed schools tend to have higher scores and will teach the students to work together in order to improve their speech especially outside in society since they will be working together as one team. Both articles prove that both educations will result in bonding together as students and as teachers in this society because at the end of this debate both classrooms will be teaching and learning in the states.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Science vs Religion Essay -- Religion vs Education Essays

"Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy." --- Christopher Hitchens With the loud protests of a small number of religious groups over teaching scientific concepts like evolution and the Big Bang in public schools, and the equally loud proclamations of a few scientists with personal, anti-religious philosophies, it can sometimes seem as though science and religion are at war. News outlets offer plenty of reports of school board meetings, congressional sessions, and Sunday sermons in which scientists and religious leaders launch attacks at one another. But just how representative are such conflicts? Not very. The attention given to such clashes glosses over the far more numerous cases in which science and religion harmoniously coexist. The fact is, there are a great number of Americans out there ...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

India and Corruption

CORRUPTION IN INDIA AND THE ROLE OF YOUTH IN COMBATTING CORRUPTION (Part 2) Corruption? Corruption is a black mark in our Indian economy. It is slowly stopping the growth of our country. The term corruption is in born in the society. The word is prevalent among the politicians and government offices. Corruption is defined as a way of saving wealth for the family and for their personal use. The people who indulge in corruption are also aware of the societal damage they create. But because of their greed they become money buglers. The concept came into existence when people thought of their well- being and not about the people, below poverty line (BPL). 2G Scam in Tamil Nadu during the tenure of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has blown up like a balloon and has put former Tele communication Minister A. Raja . We can shortly say corruption is a way of accumulating wealth. Last year , in 2010 the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chawan was held in Aadarsh Society scams for which he was chucked out from post of Chief Ministership. He accumulated wealth for his family members. Corruption has been a hindrance for the people in villages where lack of awareness plays a vital role. Grt leaders like C. N. Anna Durai, Kamaraj, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,Joti Basu, leader of Communist Party   thought of the well – being of the public and worked for the growth of the state / country. These great leaders had one motive – Serve the People, Die for the People. Kamaraj was the person who introduced the mid-day meal scheme in schools, so that all children are educated. But in the present scenario the goodness of leaders has vanished and they have started to experience the money they earn. These days leaders aim at earning money rather than goodwill from the public. Corruption is prevalent in all fields starting from politicians to educational institutions. This prevails in small to big issues. For example ration shops where people of lower middle class come to get their provision at a nominal rates but ration shop seller sells his commodities at a high price in order to gain profit. Youth of the society have greater responsibilities in combating corruption. Though we are aware of this phenomenon we are negligent towards this issue. We, the uprising young citizens of India should join hands as one and battle against corruption . The youth of the country must spread awareness in rural areas & make our citizens equipped with knowledge about this burning issue. Even now many citizens in India are ignorant about Right To Information. Anna Hazare is an social activist who has requested the govt. of India to pass a Bill against corruption . He was in fast for 3 long days to combat corruption in India. The Bill came to be known as Lokpal Bill in discussion with the govt. Central ministers of the country such as Finance Minister, Pranab Mukerjee , Home Minister P. Chidambaram and many other ministers where part of this discussion in regard to combating corruption. The govt. has agreed for the demand of Anna Hazare. Support Anna Hazare for the Cause. Youths are considered the strength of the country. We The Citizens Of India Should Join Hands And Fight Against Corruption

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange is one of the most significant results of the Age of Exploration and the First Global Age. Food products, livestock and diseases are but three elements of the Columbian Exchange. As Columbus â€Å"discovered America† and Western Europe discovered the various economic opportunities available in the New World, agricultural exchanges between the two regions led to exchanges of other items. Within decades of Columbus' voyages, the trans Atlantic slave trade had begun and hundreds of thousands of native Americans died of diseases brought to America by Europeans and Africans. The early Spanish conquistadors brought gunpowder and the horse to America as well as the Catholic Christian Church. Indeed, the conquistadors brought priests with them and established missions such as St. Augustine, San Diego and San Antonio. The Spanish also brought African slaves to work on sugar plantations. New foods for both Europe and the Americas was a major part of the Columbian Exchange. The Americas provided such new foods as corn, the potato, the tomato, peppers, pumpkins, squash, pineapples, cacao beans (for chocolate) and the sweet potato. Also, such animals as turkeys, provided a new food source for Europeans. Tobacco, an American product, was also carried to Europe. From Europe, the Americas were introduced to such livestock as cattle, pig and sheep as well as grains such as wheat. African products introduced to the Americas included items originally from Asia were brought to the west by European traders and African slaves. These items included the onion, citrus fruits, bananas, coffee beans, olives, grapes, rice and sugar cane. The â€Å"Columbian Exchange†Ã¢â‚¬â€a phrase coined by historian Alfred Crosby—describes the interchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas following Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in 1492. For reasons beyond human control, rooted deep in the divergent evolutionary histories of the continents, the Columbian Exchange massively benefited the people of Europe and its colonies while bringing catastrophe to Native Americans. Psst†¦ Check Out These Resources The Columbian Exchange Statistics The Columbian Exchange Quotes The Columbian Exchange Photos The Columbian Exchange Trivia The Columbian Exchange Primary Sources Why Should I Care? The Columbian Exchange: It's a relatively obscure concept, developed by a relatively obscure historian. Most people have never even heard of it. Its definition—the transmission of non-native plants, animals, and diseases from Europe to the Americas, and vice versa, after 1492—doesn't sound very sexy. And yet the Columbian Exchange just may be the single most important event in the modern history of the world. The Columbian Exchange explains why Indian nations collapsed and European colonies thrived after Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The Columbian Exchange explains why European nations quickly became the wealthiest and most powerful in the world. The Columbian Exchange explains why Africans were sold into slavery on the far side of the ocean to toil in fields of tobacco, sugar, and cotton. The Columbian Exchange even explains why pasta marinara has tomato sauce. If you don't understand the Columbian Exchange, you cannot truly understand the forces that shape the world we live in today. You cannot understand why you speak the language you speak, why you live in the nation you live in, or even why you eat the food you eat. If you don't understand the Columbian Exchange, much of what you think you know about the history of the Americas may be wrong. Spanish soldiers did less to defeat the Incas and Aztecs than smallpox did. Divine Providence did less to bless the Puritan settlers of the Mayflower with good health and fortune than the Pilgrims' own immune systems did. In the Columbian Exchange, ecology became destiny. Powerful environmental forces, understood by no one alive at the time and by very few people even today, determined who would thrive and who would die. And that may be the most shocking truth revealed to those who take the time to understand the Columbian Exchange: we, as humans, cannot always control our own destinies. The most important historical actors in this story are not Christopher Columbus or Moctezuma or Hernan Cortes. They are the smallpox virus, the pig, the potato, and the kernel of corn. The Columbian Exchange Summary & Analysis The Big Picture: Who, What, When, Where & (Especially) Why Columbus: Discovery, Ecology and Conquest Unequal Exchange: Food for Disease History as Demography The drawback of Old World civilizations' reliance upon domesticated animals came in increased incidence of disease. Many of the world's nastiest illnesses derive from bugs that have leapt back and forth between people and their animals. Humans caught smallpox from their cows, influenza from their fowl, bubonic plague from the rats who lived in their houses. By the time of Columbus, the Old World was wracked by endemic contagions of dozens of deadly diseases, which kept life expectancies low and infant mortality rates high. Largely due to the ravages of disease (especially bubonic plague), the population of Europe in 1492 was lower than it had been 200 years earlier. Jared Diamond, best-selling author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, popularized the notion that European imperialism succeeded due to European advantages over other people in the areas of, well†¦ guns, germs, and steel. As far as colonization of the Americas is concerned, though, guns and steel were all but immaterial. The germs alone were enough. The word â€Å"conquistador† evokes memories of Cortes and Pizarro, but in truth the greatest conquistadors of the New World were smallpox and influenza—not to mention typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, measles, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Every one of these diseases, endemic to the Old World, spread to the Americas after 1492 with catastrophic effects for indigenous people there. (In return, the Americas afflicted the Old World with only one major affliction—syphilis. And even that is in dispute; scientists and historians remain divided on whether the disease truly originated in the New World. Old World diseases—lethal enough already on their continents of origin—became exponentially more dangerous in America, where they spread as virgin-soil epidemics among native populations totally lacking in immunities to them. (In Europe and Africa, countless children died from diseases like smallpox and malaria; those w ho survived, however, built up antibodies that inoculated them against adult infection. Since no Native Americans had ever encountered these diseases, none built up any immunity, leaving entire populations as â€Å"virgin soil† for infection. When the diseases struck, entire communities could be felled in a matter of days. ) Virgin-soil epidemics are among the deadliest phenomena ever experienced by humankind, and the death toll of the pandemics unleashed in the Americas by the Columbian Exchange far exceeded that of history's most famous virgin-soil epidemic, Europe's Black Death (an outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1340s). The cataclysmic effects of virgin-soil epidemics struck Native American societies just as they faced the threat of European invasion, decisively reducing the natives' capability to resist colonization. It is worth noting that devastating smallpox pandemics struck both the Aztecs and Incas just before their respective disastrous encounters with Cortes and Pizarro. ) Mississippian Mystery: De Soto and La Salle Perhaps the most arresting evidence of the consequences of virgin-soil epidemics came from the entrada** of Hernando *de* Soto, who led an army of conquistadors deep into the North American mainl and in 1539. De Soto hoped to find gold in the country that today comprises the southeastern United States; he ended up leading more than 600 men and hundreds of livestock on a four-year wild goose chase. In the end, his mission proved to be a fiasco—two-thirds of the men, including De Soto himself, died without ever finding a trace of gold—but De Soto's expedition powerfully illustrated the destructive force of smallpox, which apparently spread from his pigs to the people of the Mississippi Valley. Before leaving, De Soto's men recorded their impressions of the Mississippian people—they found dense settlements, with large villages and cities often sited within view of each other, separated by carefully tended fields of corn. After De Soto left the country, no European returned for more than 100 years. When the French explorer La Salle canoed down the Mississippi Valley in 1682, he found very few villages, no cities, and no fields of corn, but instead a landscape almost devoid of people and overrun by buffalo* (which De Soto had apparently never encountered). * In the 140 years that passed between the explorations of De Soto and La Salle, something transformed the Mississippi Valley from a densely populated Indian heartland into a virtually deserted wilderness. That something was almost certainly smallpox. The landscape encountered by La Salle was not, as he believed, a primeval wilderness, but rather an ecosystem that had recently experienced the sudden destruction of its keystone species—Indians. The buffalo wandered in because few Indians survived to hunt them. * * From Canada to the Tierra del Fuego, the indige*Epidemic* Disease and Manifest Destiny Neither Europeans nor Indians had any scientific understanding of the ecological processes that had so profoundly shaped their encounter. Both groups understood phenomena like agricultural abundance or epidemic disease in spiritual terms, as the respective blessings or punishments of their gods. Thus, the undeniable facts of the European-American encounter—that Indians seemed to be wasting away, opening bounteous lands to the newcomers from across the Atlantic—acquired deep cultural and ideological meanings in the minds of the colonists who eventually founded the United States. Not understanding the scientific processes at work, Anglo-Americans interpreted their ongoing good fortune as proof of God's special endorsement of their nation. For example, John Winthrop—Puritan elder and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—perceived divine blessing of the colonists' venture in the Indians' Great Dying: â€Å"For the natives,† Winthrop wrote, â€Å"they are neere all dead of Small poxe, so as the Lord hathe cleared our title to what we possess. 3 A Frenchman on La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi captured the idea even more bluntly: â€Å"Touching these savages, there is a thing I cannot omit to remark to you, it is that it appears visibly that God wishes that they yield their place to new peoples. â€Å"4 Through generations of successful colonization—in which the descendents of Europe built some of the world's healthiest and wealthiest societies in the lands vacated by the Indians—white Americans' conviction tha t their presence in America had received a special blessing from God only grew stronger. The cultural and ideological origins of â€Å"manifest destiny† and â€Å"American exceptionalism† can be found in the exceptionally uneven terms of the Columbian Exchange. Only recently have we become fully aware that the special advantages enjoyed by Europeans in their encounter with Indians were bestowed less by God than by ecology. nous inhabitants of the Americas suffered similar calamities, the Columbian Exchange of diseases ravaging Indian communities and facilitating the European takeover of the hemisphere. Top of Form The Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange is one of the most significant results of the Age of Exploration and the First Global Age. Food products, livestock and diseases are but three elements of the Columbian Exchange. As Columbus â€Å"discovered America† and Western Europe discovered the various economic opportunities available in the New World, agricultural exchanges between the two regions led to exchanges of other items. Within decades of Columbus' voyages, the trans Atlantic slave trade had begun and hundreds of thousands of native Americans died of diseases brought to America by Europeans and Africans. The early Spanish conquistadors brought gunpowder and the horse to America as well as the Catholic Christian Church. Indeed, the conquistadors brought priests with them and established missions such as St. Augustine, San Diego and San Antonio. The Spanish also brought African slaves to work on sugar plantations. New foods for both Europe and the Americas was a major part of the Columbian Exchange. The Americas provided such new foods as corn, the potato, the tomato, peppers, pumpkins, squash, pineapples, cacao beans (for chocolate) and the sweet potato. Also, such animals as turkeys, provided a new food source for Europeans. Tobacco, an American product, was also carried to Europe. From Europe, the Americas were introduced to such livestock as cattle, pig and sheep as well as grains such as wheat. African products introduced to the Americas included items originally from Asia were brought to the west by European traders and African slaves. These items included the onion, citrus fruits, bananas, coffee beans, olives, grapes, rice and sugar cane. The â€Å"Columbian Exchange†Ã¢â‚¬â€a phrase coined by historian Alfred Crosby—describes the interchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas following Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in 1492. For reasons beyond human control, rooted deep in the divergent evolutionary histories of the continents, the Columbian Exchange massively benefited the people of Europe and its colonies while bringing catastrophe to Native Americans. Psst†¦ Check Out These Resources The Columbian Exchange Statistics The Columbian Exchange Quotes The Columbian Exchange Photos The Columbian Exchange Trivia The Columbian Exchange Primary Sources Why Should I Care? The Columbian Exchange: It's a relatively obscure concept, developed by a relatively obscure historian. Most people have never even heard of it. Its definition—the transmission of non-native plants, animals, and diseases from Europe to the Americas, and vice versa, after 1492—doesn't sound very sexy. And yet the Columbian Exchange just may be the single most important event in the modern history of the world. The Columbian Exchange explains why Indian nations collapsed and European colonies thrived after Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The Columbian Exchange explains why European nations quickly became the wealthiest and most powerful in the world. The Columbian Exchange explains why Africans were sold into slavery on the far side of the ocean to toil in fields of tobacco, sugar, and cotton. The Columbian Exchange even explains why pasta marinara has tomato sauce. If you don't understand the Columbian Exchange, you cannot truly understand the forces that shape the world we live in today. You cannot understand why you speak the language you speak, why you live in the nation you live in, or even why you eat the food you eat. If you don't understand the Columbian Exchange, much of what you think you know about the history of the Americas may be wrong. Spanish soldiers did less to defeat the Incas and Aztecs than smallpox did. Divine Providence did less to bless the Puritan settlers of the Mayflower with good health and fortune than the Pilgrims' own immune systems did. In the Columbian Exchange, ecology became destiny. Powerful environmental forces, understood by no one alive at the time and by very few people even today, determined who would thrive and who would die. And that may be the most shocking truth revealed to those who take the time to understand the Columbian Exchange: we, as humans, cannot always control our own destinies. The most important historical actors in this story are not Christopher Columbus or Moctezuma or Hernan Cortes. They are the smallpox virus, the pig, the potato, and the kernel of corn. The Columbian Exchange Summary & Analysis The Big Picture: Who, What, When, Where & (Especially) Why Columbus: Discovery, Ecology and Conquest Unequal Exchange: Food for Disease History as Demography The drawback of Old World civilizations' reliance upon domesticated animals came in increased incidence of disease. Many of the world's nastiest illnesses derive from bugs that have leapt back and forth between people and their animals. Humans caught smallpox from their cows, influenza from their fowl, bubonic plague from the rats who lived in their houses. By the time of Columbus, the Old World was wracked by endemic contagions of dozens of deadly diseases, which kept life expectancies low and infant mortality rates high. Largely due to the ravages of disease (especially bubonic plague), the population of Europe in 1492 was lower than it had been 200 years earlier. Jared Diamond, best-selling author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, popularized the notion that European imperialism succeeded due to European advantages over other people in the areas of, well†¦ guns, germs, and steel. As far as colonization of the Americas is concerned, though, guns and steel were all but immaterial. The germs alone were enough. The word â€Å"conquistador† evokes memories of Cortes and Pizarro, but in truth the greatest conquistadors of the New World were smallpox and influenza—not to mention typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, measles, scarlet fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Every one of these diseases, endemic to the Old World, spread to the Americas after 1492 with catastrophic effects for indigenous people there. (In return, the Americas afflicted the Old World with only one major affliction—syphilis. And even that is in dispute; scientists and historians remain divided on whether the disease truly originated in the New World. Old World diseases—lethal enough already on their continents of origin—became exponentially more dangerous in America, where they spread as virgin-soil epidemics among native populations totally lacking in immunities to them. (In Europe and Africa, countless children died from diseases like smallpox and malaria; those w ho survived, however, built up antibodies that inoculated them against adult infection. Since no Native Americans had ever encountered these diseases, none built up any immunity, leaving entire populations as â€Å"virgin soil† for infection. When the diseases struck, entire communities could be felled in a matter of days. ) Virgin-soil epidemics are among the deadliest phenomena ever experienced by humankind, and the death toll of the pandemics unleashed in the Americas by the Columbian Exchange far exceeded that of history's most famous virgin-soil epidemic, Europe's Black Death (an outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1340s). The cataclysmic effects of virgin-soil epidemics struck Native American societies just as they faced the threat of European invasion, decisively reducing the natives' capability to resist colonization. It is worth noting that devastating smallpox pandemics struck both the Aztecs and Incas just before their respective disastrous encounters with Cortes and Pizarro. ) Mississippian Mystery: De Soto and La Salle Perhaps the most arresting evidence of the consequences of virgin-soil epidemics came from the entrada** of Hernando *de* Soto, who led an army of conquistadors deep into the North American mainl and in 1539. De Soto hoped to find gold in the country that today comprises the southeastern United States; he ended up leading more than 600 men and hundreds of livestock on a four-year wild goose chase. In the end, his mission proved to be a fiasco—two-thirds of the men, including De Soto himself, died without ever finding a trace of gold—but De Soto's expedition powerfully illustrated the destructive force of smallpox, which apparently spread from his pigs to the people of the Mississippi Valley. Before leaving, De Soto's men recorded their impressions of the Mississippian people—they found dense settlements, with large villages and cities often sited within view of each other, separated by carefully tended fields of corn. After De Soto left the country, no European returned for more than 100 years. When the French explorer La Salle canoed down the Mississippi Valley in 1682, he found very few villages, no cities, and no fields of corn, but instead a landscape almost devoid of people and overrun by buffalo* (which De Soto had apparently never encountered). * In the 140 years that passed between the explorations of De Soto and La Salle, something transformed the Mississippi Valley from a densely populated Indian heartland into a virtually deserted wilderness. That something was almost certainly smallpox. The landscape encountered by La Salle was not, as he believed, a primeval wilderness, but rather an ecosystem that had recently experienced the sudden destruction of its keystone species—Indians. The buffalo wandered in because few Indians survived to hunt them. * * From Canada to the Tierra del Fuego, the indige*Epidemic* Disease and Manifest Destiny Neither Europeans nor Indians had any scientific understanding of the ecological processes that had so profoundly shaped their encounter. Both groups understood phenomena like agricultural abundance or epidemic disease in spiritual terms, as the respective blessings or punishments of their gods. Thus, the undeniable facts of the European-American encounter—that Indians seemed to be wasting away, opening bounteous lands to the newcomers from across the Atlantic—acquired deep cultural and ideological meanings in the minds of the colonists who eventually founded the United States. Not understanding the scientific processes at work, Anglo-Americans interpreted their ongoing good fortune as proof of God's special endorsement of their nation. For example, John Winthrop—Puritan elder and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—perceived divine blessing of the colonists' venture in the Indians' Great Dying: â€Å"For the natives,† Winthrop wrote, â€Å"they are neere all dead of Small poxe, so as the Lord hathe cleared our title to what we possess. 3 A Frenchman on La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi captured the idea even more bluntly: â€Å"Touching these savages, there is a thing I cannot omit to remark to you, it is that it appears visibly that God wishes that they yield their place to new peoples. â€Å"4 Through generations of successful colonization—in which the descendents of Europe built some of the world's healthiest and wealthiest societies in the lands vacated by the Indians—white Americans' conviction tha t their presence in America had received a special blessing from God only grew stronger. The cultural and ideological origins of â€Å"manifest destiny† and â€Å"American exceptionalism† can be found in the exceptionally uneven terms of the Columbian Exchange. Only recently have we become fully aware that the special advantages enjoyed by Europeans in their encounter with Indians were bestowed less by God than by ecology. nous inhabitants of the Americas suffered similar calamities, the Columbian Exchange of diseases ravaging Indian communities and facilitating the European takeover of the hemisphere. Top of Form

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Best Chemistry Quotes

Best Chemistry Quotes This is a collection of chemistry quotes, relating to the science of chemistry or quotations from chemists about chemistry. Marie Curie â€Å"Scientist believe in things, not in persons† Robert B. Laughlin I also taught myself how to blow glass using a propane torch from the hardware store and managed to make some elementary chemistry plumbing such as tees and small glass bulbs. Roald Hoffmann I am a teacher, and I am proud of it. At Cornell University I have taught primarily undergraduates, and indeed almost every year since 1966 have taught first-year general chemistry. James W. Black I did help to set up an undergraduate course in medicinal chemistry and made progress in modeling and analyzing pharmacological activity at the tissue level, my new passion. Michael Polanyi And the actual achievements of biology are explanations in terms of mechanisms founded on physics and chemistry, which is not the same thing as explanations in terms of physics and chemistry. William Standish Knowles At Harvard, I majored in chemistry with a strong inclination toward math. Kenichi Fukui But the nature of my main work in chemistry can be better represented by more than 280 English publications, of which roughly 200 concern the theory of chemical reactions and related subjects. Adam Sandler Chemistry can be a good and bad thing. Chemistry is good when you make love with it. Chemistry is bad when you make crack with it. Frederick Soddy Chemistry has been termed by the physicist as the messy part of physics, but that is no reason why the physicists should be permitted to make a mess of chemistry when they invade it. Dennis Rodman Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college, where you figure out two plus two is 10, or something. Kenichi Fukui Chemistry itself knows altogether too well that - given the real fear that the scarcity of global resources and energy might threaten the unity of mankind - chemistry is in a position to make a contribution towards securing a true peace on earth. Antonio Perez Digital imaging is as much about chemistry as it is about semiconductors. Rudolph A. Marcus During my McGill years, I took a number of math courses, more than other students in chemistry. Tony Wilson Every band needs its own special chemistry. And Bez was a very good chemist. Donald Cram Few scientists acquainted with the chemistry of biological systems at the molecular level can avoid being inspired. Richard Ernst However, I survived and started to read all chemistry books that I could get a hand on, first some 19th century books from our home library that did not provide much reliable information, and then I emptied the rather extensive city library. John Pople I abandoned chemistry to concentrate on mathematics and physics. In 1942, I travelled to Cambridge to take the scholarship examination at Trinity College, received an award and entered the university in October 1943. Sydney Brenner I also became interested in chemistry and gradually accumulated enough test tubes and other glassware to do chemical experiments, using small quantities of chemicals purchased from a pharmacy supply house. Knute Rockne I enjoy talking to my football men and my chemistry classes and I feel sure that they are quite interested in what I have to say. Steve Blake I fell in love with Scotland and made good friends here, so I stayed after graduating with Honours in Chemistry. John Tesh I grew up wanting to be a musician, but my parents were sure I would starve to death. So, they put me in physics and chemistry. That eventually blew up, and I got into radio. Robert Huber I learned easily and had time to follow my inclination for sports (light athletics and skiing) and chemistry, which I taught myself by reading all textbooks I could get. Maya Lin I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up. Martin Lewis Perl I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set. George Andrew Olah I was invited to join the newly established Central Chemical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1954 and was able to establish a small research group in organic chemistry, housed in temporary laboratories of an industrial research institute. Burton Richter In 1948 I entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, undecided between studies of chemistry and physics, but my first year convinced me that physics was more interesting to me. John E. Walker In 1960, I went to St. Catherines College, Oxford, and received the B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1964. Jon Postel In a chemistry class there was a guy sitting in front of me doing what looked like a jigsaw puzzle or some really weird kind of thing. He told me he was writing a computer program. Paul D. Boyer In marked contrast to the University of Wisconsin, Biochemistry was hardly visible at Stanford in 1945, consisting of only two professors in the chemistry department. James Rainwater In my schooling through high school, I excelled mainly in chemistry, physics and mathematics. Jack Steinberger In the evenings I studied chemistry at the University of Chicago, the weekends I helped in the family store. George E. Brown, Jr. Industrial opportunities are going to stem more from the biological sciences than from chemistry and physics. I see biology as being the greatest area of scientific breakthroughs in the next generation. Wilhelm Ostwald It has pleased no less than surprised me that of the many studies whereby I have sought to extend the field of general chemistry, the highest scientific distinction that there is today has been awarded for those on catalysis. H. L. Mencken It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry. Edward Thorndike Just as the science and art of agriculture depend upon chemistry and botany, so the art of education depends upon physiology and psychology. John Pople Leaving England was a painful decision, and we still have some regrets about it. However, at that time, the research environment for theoretical chemistry was clearly better in the U.S. Auguste Comte Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy? Camille Paglia Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it. Kenneth G. Wilson My father was on the faculty in the Chemistry Department of Harvard University; my mother had one year of graduate work in physics before her marriage. Geoffrey Wilkinson My first introduction to chemistry came at a quite early age through my mothers elder brother. Rudolph A. Marcus My interest in the sciences started with mathematics in the very beginning, and later with chemistry in early high school and the proverbial home chemistry set. Michael Polanyi No inanimate object is ever fully determined by the laws of physics and chemistry. Thomas Huxley Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third. Johannes P. Muller Physiology is the science which treats of the properties of organic bodies, animal and vegetable, of the phenomena they present, and of the laws which govern their actions. Inorganic substances are the objects of other sciences, - physics and chemistry. Paul Berg That work led to the emergence of the recombinant DNA technology thereby providing a major tool for analyzing mammalian gene structure and function and formed the basis for me receiving the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Peter Hook The chemistry involved made everything Factory did quite special. Derek Harold Richard Barton The first serious applications were in triterpenoid chemistry. Paul Dirac The fundamental laws necessary for the mathematical treatment of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty lies only in the fact that application of these laws leads to equations that are too complex to be solved. Charles Babbage To those who have chosen the profession of medicine, a knowledge of chemistry, and of some branches of natural history, and, indeed, of several other departments of science, affords useful assistance. Jeremy Rifkin We were making the first step out of the age of chemistry and physics, and into the age of biology. Tim Hardaway You have to look at how chemistry develops. Johannes Vilhelm Jensen The grounding in natural sciences which I obtained in the course of my medical studies, including preliminary examinations in botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry, was to become decisive in determining the trend of my literary work. Dixie Lee Ray The organic material, as the laws of chemistry state, can neither be created nor destroyed.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Chicomoztoc, the Mythical Place of Aztec Origins

Chicomoztoc, the Mythical Place of Aztec Origins Chicomoztoc (â€Å"The Place of the Seven Caves† or â€Å"The Cave of the Seven Niches†) is the mythological cave of emergence for the Aztec/Mexica, the Toltecs, and other groups of  Central Mexico and northern Mesoamerica. It is frequently depicted in Central Mexican codices, maps, and other written documents known as lienzos, as a subterranean hall surrounded by seven chambers. In the surviving depictions of Chicomoztoc, each chamber is labeled with a pictograph that names and illustrates a different Nahua lineage that emerged from that particular place in the cave. As with other caves illustrated in Mesoamerican art, the cave has some animal-like characteristics, such as teeth or fangs and eyes. More intricate renderings show the cave as a lion-like monster out of whose gaping mouth the original people emerge. A Shared Pan-Mesoamerican Mythology Emergence from a cave is a common thread found throughout ancient Mesoamerica and among groups living in the area today. Forms of this myth can be found as far north as the American Southwest among cultural groups such as the Ancestral Puebloan or Anasazi people. They and their modern descendants built sacred rooms in their communities known as kivas, where the entrance to the sipapu, the Puebloan place of origin, was marked in the center of the floor. One famous example of a pre-Aztec emergence place is the human-made cave under the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. This cave differs from the Aztec account of emergence because it has only four chambers. Another constructed Chicomoztoc-like emergence shrine is found at the site of Acatzingo Viejo, in the State of Puebla, central Mexico. It more closely parallels the Aztec account due to its having seven chambers carved into the walls of a circular rock outcropping. Unfortunately, a modern road was cut directly through this feature, destroying one of the caves. Mythical Reality Many other places have been proposed as possible Chicomoztoc shrines, among which is the site of La Quemada, in Northwest Mexico. Most experts believe that Chicomoztoc was not necessarily a specific, physical place but, like Aztalan, a widespread idea among many Mesoamerican people of a mythical cave as a  place of emergence for both humans and gods, from which each group materialized and identified itself within their own sacred landscape. Updated by  K. Kris Hirst Sources Aguilar, Manuel, Miguel Medina Jaen, Tim M. Tucker, and James E. Brady, 2005, Constructing Mythic Space: The Significance of a Chicomoztoc Complex at Acatzingo Viejo. In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use, edited by James E. Brady and Keith M. Prufer, 69-87. University of Texas Press, Austin Boone, Elizabeth Hill, 1991, Migration Histories As Ritual Performance. In To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes, edited by David Carrasco, pp. 121-151. University of Colorado Press, Boulder Boone, Elizabeth Hill, 1997, Prominent Scenes and Pivotal Events in the Mexican Pictorial Histories. In Cà ³dices y Documentos sobre Mà ©xico: Segundo Simposio, edited by Salvador Rueda Smithers, Constanza Vega Sosa, and Rodrigo Martà ­nez Baracs, pp. 407-424. vol. I. Instituto Nacional de Antropologà ­a E Historia, Mexico, D.F. Boone, Elizabeth Hill, 2000, Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. University of Texas, Austin. Carrasco, David, and Scott Sessions, 2007, Cave, City, and Eagles Next: An Interpretative Journey Through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Durn, Fray Diego, 1994, The Histories of The Indies of New Spain. Translated by Doris Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Hers, Marie-Areti, 2002, Chicomoztoc. A Myth Reviewed, in Arqueologà ­a Mexicana, vol 10, Num.56, pp: 88-89. Heyden, Doris, 1975, An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 40:131-147. Heyden, Doris, 1981, The Eagle, The Cactus, The Rock: The Roots of Mexico-Tenochtitlans Foundation Myth and Symbol. BAR International Series No. 484. B.A.R., Oxford. Monaghan, John, 1994, The Covenants with Earth and Rain: Exchange, Sacrifice, and Revelation In Mixtec Sociality. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Taube, Karl A., 1986, The Teotihuacan Cave of Origin: The Iconography and Architecture of Emergence Mythology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. RES 12:51-82. Taube, Karl A., 1993, Aztec and Maya Myths. The Legendary Past. University of Texas Press, Austin. Weigland, Phil C., 2002, Creation Northern Style, in Arqueologà ­a Mexicana, vol 10, Num.56, pp: 86-87.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

A Guide to Disciplinary Probation

A Guide to Disciplinary Probation Disciplinary probation is the term many schools use to indicate a student or student organization has engaged in unacceptable behavior, according to an institutions student handbook or code of conduct. This is also known as college probation, probation, or a probation warning but is different than academic probation. Schools often let students or student organizations on disciplinary probation remain at the school during a probationary period, as opposed to suspending or expelling them. How to Respond to Probation If youve been placed on probation, its important to be very clear on 1) what caused your probation, 2) how long your probation will last, 3) what you need to do to get off of probation, and 4) what happens if you break your probation rules. Ideally, your school will provide all this information when your school notifies you about being placed on probation, as well as whom to contact with any questions. Additionally, its important to make sure you find positive support systems and stay away from situations that might, even by chance, lead you to a probation violation. Disciplinary probation often requires students to remain free from any kind of disciplinary trouble during a predetermined time period. For example, a student on probation for violating residence hall rules must not have any other disciplinary problems in the hall. If that student violates their probation, they may face more severe consequences, like suspension or expulsion, which can hinder progress toward graduation. In the case of an organization on probation, the school may further restrict its activities, cut off its funding, or force it to disband if the group violates probation. Probationary periods can be anything from a few weeks to an entire semester or academic year. Impact on Transcripts Policies vary by school, but your disciplinary probation could show up on your transcript. As a result, your probation could have an effect on any future activity that requires you to present your transcript, like if youre transferring to a different college or applying to graduate school. Youll want to check with your school, but in many cases, the probation note will only show up on your transcript during your probation period. If you make it through probation without violating its terms, the note should be removed. However, if probation leads to suspension or expulsion, its likely to remain a permanent part of your transcript. Can I Get out of Probation? Again, youd need to check your schools policies, but if you feel you dont deserve to be put on disciplinary probation, you may be able to fight it. See if theres a way to appeal the decision. If thats not an option, ask if theres anything you can do to shorten the probationary period. Beyond that, your best course of action may be to ride out the probation period with patience and good behavior. Once youve done whats required of your probation terms, your transcript will likely show no record of it. Of course, just because its not on your transcript doesnt mean your school forgets about it. You probably have a disciplinary record, as well, so youll want to avoid getting in trouble again, because you may face harsher consequences the next time youre cited for unacceptable behavior.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

An Analysis of How the UK Newspapers Reported the Senkaku Islands Literature review

An Analysis of How the UK Newspapers Reported the Senkaku Islands Dispute - Literature review Example This part also concentrates on the interaction existing between the media and the governmental representatives. Moreover, another part focuses on the attributes depicting the manner and the extent through which the western media portray other nations. In this part, the western media of the UK and the US in the form of the newspapers has been mainly considered for acquiring a better understanding about the reporting of Senkaku Islands dispute. Furthermore, the section also concentrates on determining the importance of framing news and the coverage of the same in national or international context. In recent few years, it was observed that the geopolitical conflict between Japan and China accelerated to the extreme level. According to Hagstrom, (2012), this was prominently seen over the Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyu islands, according to the Chinese. The islands possessed a total area of around seven square kilometers, which is in the west of Okinawa islands and east of China. Although the argument about the dispute of Senkaku Islands has accelerated recently, the debate between the two countries over the issue had been from history. Pieces of evidence revealed that both the countries have strong arguments to claim for the land. However, several media reports have pointed out different argumentative articles about the aforesaid issue. In this regard, one of the reports published by BBC (2014) suggests of the presence of a disputed island in the East China Sea. The report also provided the pieces of evidence of eight such disputed and uninhabited islands and rocks that e xisted in the Eastern Sea of China. Based on the viewpoints presented by Storey (2013), the historical evidence of Senkaku Islands can be traced back from reviewing several books like â€Å"Voyage with a Tail Wind†. Through this particular book, it can be ascertained that Senkaku Islands is also popularly acknowledged as Diaoyu in China.   

Friday, October 18, 2019

Usefulness of Comfort Theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Usefulness of Comfort Theory - Research Paper Example Further, the paper correlates the four contexts of comfort and integrates this into the larger comfort concept of the model. Other efforts have also been suggested on the relevance and applicability of the theory to the modern nursing practice, while pointing out limitation of the theory and offering suggestions for wider health care application of the theory. This paper sums up the discussions by highlighting the focus of comfort theory and relating it to its proposed modification so that it can enhance health care provision to larger healthcare framework and not just on nursing practitioners. According to Florence Nightingale, the primary concept of nursing is to place a patient in the best possible conditions for nature to act upon them. Virginia Henderson also defines nursing as the unique function of assisting individuals, either well or ill, in performing activities that contribute to enhance health, recovery, or peaceful death that the individual would perform without assistance if they had adequate will, strength, and knowledge. (Kolcaba, 2003) Moreover, these assistive functions are performed in a manner that enables the individual to gain rapid independence. According to research and studies in the past, majority of patients attest to provision of care with kindness by most nurses. The relationship between nursing care and comfor t dates back to the early 1900s with the central focus on moral imperative. By 1903s, specialists in the nursing field perceived comfort as a strategy for attaining aspects of nursing care. By 1960s, comfort was a minor goal in nursing care, as physical aspects were dominant while emotional comfort was gaining importance. In 1990, Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory was fully dominant, with emphasis on childbirth pain, pain management, and palliative care and end of life (Kolcaba, 2003). Conditions in the nursing care sector such as loss and suffering of patients with complex medical care, pain scores of 10/10 even with increase in medication, and personal frustration and inability to change the situation contributed to the adoption of comfort as the foundation of nursing care. There exists universal consensus among the health practitioners that nurses’ role entirely should focus on caring for the patients and making them feel comfortable. Comfort for patient’s forms the d iscussions that Katherine Kolcaba anchors her discussions on Comfort Theory of Nursing. This theory sets out new paradigms in the nursing sector providing new insights into nursing as a profession and expectation of patients when being cared for by nurses. The Comfort Theory: Background From a bibliographical perspective, Kolcaba traces her childhood days to Ohio where she had always wanted to pursue nursing. To actualize her dreams, she took up a volunteering nursing job at Candy stripper at tender age of 14 to gain insights into the nursing profession. Her nursing education traces back to St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing and Case Western Reserve University being the first Registered nurse for a Master’s degree with special interest in gerontology in 1975. It is during her post graduate studies

New Perspectives and Issues in Educational Language Policy Assignment - 11

New Perspectives and Issues in Educational Language Policy - Assignment Example Through this course, I am well versed with how to handle my attitude in order not to affect the attitude of the student’s towards the course. Furthermore, through this specialization, I have been able to learn how to handle myself and deal with student issues. This is very important in ensuring that my behaviors do not deviate the students’ attention from the course. Furthermore, it has changed my beliefs concerning the course and the strategies to be used to achieve success. Therefore, when handling the students, I am more confident and able to learn the students’ reactions concerning my actions or teaching strategies. As a result, I am able to know when to make changes in order to keep the students glued to the topic of study. Through this course, I have developed immensely. I am now more mature and understand the interests of the students and how to incorporate my personal goals with those of the students. In addition, I now understand how to ensure that the personal life of the students does not affect the ability to learn English. Through teaching special needs Latin Males, I have been able to use the skills learned in the course. I have, therefore, been able to learn that I need to handle my emotions more carefully in order to ensure that they do not affect my teaching practice. Through interacting with Walden colleagues, families and other education professionals, I have been able to learn that educating the students to need a holistic approach. This is through involving all people who interact with the students. Furthermore, teaching students is a learning process; therefore, I need to be open-minded in order to learn from other people including students’ parents (Cooper, Shohamy, Walters, & Cooper, 2001).

Thursday, October 17, 2019

How to Merge Two Companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

How to Merge Two Companies - Essay Example If the merger does not result in increasing the value of the new company, then there is no presence of synergy and the merger will be ineffective. A strategic merger can reduce the tax burden by benefiting the statutes and loopholes in the law. As there is cash outflow in the merger, the taxable amount of profit will come down. Another chance of tax saving is that if a company running in losses merges with a profit-making company, there will be set off of losses and ultimately it will result in tax saving for the profit-making company. Diversification helps in improving the operations of the organization. Sometimes the company may be interested in diversifying its operation to be more profitable and competitive in a highly competitive marketplace. Some mergers happen only out of the sole discretion of the managers. In most of the cases, the merger can result in increasing the value of the new company. That may result in increasing the salary of higher-level managers. If they think that they will be monetarily or non-monetarily benefited if the merger happens then they will implement the merger. If the company a and company b is going to merge into company c then the value of company A and company B if they are taken separately is known as break-up value. If the break-up value is more than market value the merger or acquisition will have a better result. Horizontal Merger: If the two companies doing the same business or deal with similar or complementary products, merge to form a new company, then the merger is called horizontal merger. A soft drink company may merge with a sugar manufacturer for increasing synergy.

Movie of choice - Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) 2005 Essay

Movie of choice - Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) 2005 - Essay Example But here there is one opposite situation and that is the fraternity and brotherhood which was established before the war for some time. The series is totally vise versa i.e. from war to fraternity and again from fraternity to war. The soldiers from two opposite troops have already prepared for the war, yet celebrating the Christmas with the genuine feelings of fraternity. It seems to be weird and unbelievable yet it had happened during the First World War. This amazing true story was pictured by Christian Carion in his film â€Å"Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas)† One very beautiful line quoted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, â€Å"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each mans life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.† Hostility is there among the countries, among the leaders but what about the common soldiers? As a part of the duties they might be fighting with each other but their fight is not at all due to their personal abhorrence. These soldiers are also the human beings and they have their family, friends. War is for the politics and not for human beings. Apart from being and enemy of each other the soldiers have created some emotional tie ups with the soldiers from their enemy country. In war stories we can see many incredible things. Here also we can see the love and hatred dwell under one single roof. This movie explains about the ceasefire took place in the regiments of three major countries on the Christmas Eve of 1914 during the First World War near Prussian occupied France. At that time the soldiers urging for peaceful family life put down their ammunitions and began to establish fraternity among each other. Though this film is a war film, the approach is individual and sentimental. It gives prominence to the emotions of the individual rather than the war and the political scenario. Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) is an amazing and a very touching

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

How to Merge Two Companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

How to Merge Two Companies - Essay Example If the merger does not result in increasing the value of the new company, then there is no presence of synergy and the merger will be ineffective. A strategic merger can reduce the tax burden by benefiting the statutes and loopholes in the law. As there is cash outflow in the merger, the taxable amount of profit will come down. Another chance of tax saving is that if a company running in losses merges with a profit-making company, there will be set off of losses and ultimately it will result in tax saving for the profit-making company. Diversification helps in improving the operations of the organization. Sometimes the company may be interested in diversifying its operation to be more profitable and competitive in a highly competitive marketplace. Some mergers happen only out of the sole discretion of the managers. In most of the cases, the merger can result in increasing the value of the new company. That may result in increasing the salary of higher-level managers. If they think that they will be monetarily or non-monetarily benefited if the merger happens then they will implement the merger. If the company a and company b is going to merge into company c then the value of company A and company B if they are taken separately is known as break-up value. If the break-up value is more than market value the merger or acquisition will have a better result. Horizontal Merger: If the two companies doing the same business or deal with similar or complementary products, merge to form a new company, then the merger is called horizontal merger. A soft drink company may merge with a sugar manufacturer for increasing synergy.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Empirical paper on international finance or open economy Essay

Empirical paper on international finance or open economy macroeconomics - Essay Example A deep and well-supervised financial sector is essential for efficiently intermediating foreign finance into productive investments. It has also been shown to reduce the adverse effects of capital flow volatility. Countries with better institutions attract relatively more foreign direct investments and portfolio equity flows, which are more stable than debt flows, and as a result, the likelihood of promoting indirect benefits. For each of the threshold category, an appropriate and conceptually sound measure was chosen. Financial depth; the proxy used for financial depth is the ratio of private credit to GDP. Also include in the measure of financial depth and development are stock market capitalization sum and credit to the national GDP, the ratio of GDP and institution measures such as creditors’ rights ii. Institution quality; the proxy used to get aggregate institutional quality get derived from a simple average of the six World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). The six aspects of institutional quality covered by WBGI are: violence and profit stability; accountability and voice; quality of the regulatory; government effectiveness; the rule of law and control of corruption. iii. Regulation; the proxy used is an index of the rigidity of labor regulations from the International Finance Corporation’s Doing Business Database. The database captures an economy’s ability to adapt to changing business conditions that include financial flows. Since data is only available from 2003, average for each country is used as a fixed regulation variable. iv. Trade openness; the totals of imports and exports of goods and services, expressed as a ratio to GDP is used as the proxy. The measure of policy openness to trade can be defined as the proportion or level of years for which the trade regime/ era is an open one also got included. v. Macro policies; the

Monday, October 14, 2019

Competition in Energy Drinks Essay Example for Free

Competition in Energy Drinks Essay 1. What are the strategically relevant components of the global and U. S. beverage industry macro-environment? How do the economic characteristics of the alternative beverage segment of the industry differ from that of other beverage categories? Explain. The strategically relevant components of the global and U. S. beverage industry macro-environment are essentially the expansion of the market for alternative beverages by introducing energy drinks, sports drinks, and vitamin drinks in international markets, and increasing the market size of alternative beverages by extending current product lines and developing new products. Numerous factors affect the achievement of this strategy and they include: Size of the Market: It is without question that the global beverage industry is a large one, with the dollar value of the market being $1581. 7 billion in 2009 and volume sales (in billions of liters) being $458. 30. Regarding the distribution of sales in regards to beverage type, carbonated soft drinks came on top with 12,919. 3 (millions of gallons) being sold and leading to a market share of 48. 2%. Next in volume of sales was bottled water with a sales volume of 8,435. 3 and 29. 2% market share. Fruit beverage sales were 3,579. 2 and a market share of 12. 4%. In the alternative beverage category, sports drinks sales were 1,157. 8 and a market share of 4%, ready-to-drink tea sales were 901. 4 with a market share of 3. 1%, flavored or enhanced water sales were 460 with a market share of 1. 6%, energy drink sales volumes were 354. 5 with a market share of 1. 2%, and ready-to-drink coffee sales volume was 51. 5 with a market share of 0. 2%. In 2009, the industry worldwide sales of alternative beverages were 40. 2 billion, with sales in the US accounting for 42. 3% of the sales. Asia-Pacific accounted for 31. 5%, Europe 22. 2%, and the Americas (excluding the US) 4%. Growth Rate: There has been a steady growth in the value of the global beverage industry over the years. Between the years 2005 and 2009, there has been a constant increase in the dollar value of sales, and this increase has also been forecasted between the years 2010 and 2014. Regarding the alternate beverages, we see an increase in sales over the years that even surpasses that of the global beverage industry. Market Segmentation: The market for global alternative drinks has been in existence for a while, and beverages have been chosen and selected into groups based on the type of products. The different groups include sports drinks, energy drinks, vitamin-enhanced beverages, and relaxation drinks, with comfort and relaxation been of utmost importance to the consumer. In 2009, the alternative beverage drink with the most sales was sports drinks with sales of nearly 60%. Vitamin enhanced followed in sales by 23% and energy drinks came closely behind with sales of18% during that same year. Scope of Competition: The major worldwide producers of beverages are Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Red Bull. There are also smaller companies in the same industry, by their production do not compare to the three major companies. Among the most important competitive features of the alternative beverage industry include product innovation, efficient distribution systems, and distinct differentiation. 2. What is competition like in the alternative beverage industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants? Competition in the alternative beverage industry is in favor of the three major producers, especially Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Since their alternative beverage product offerings are numerous, and they supply to grocery stores, convenience stores etc. who have a high demand for their products, they avoid vulnerability to buyer leverage and always have shelve space in these channels. Of the five competitive forces, the intensity of competitive rivalry among the sellers of alternative beverages is the strongest. Bargaining power and buyer leverage are also among the strongest. Individuals who purchased the alternative beverages for convenience stores, grocery stores and wholesale clubs have the advantage of negotiating prices with the producers of the alternative beverages because of the fact that they are purchasing such large quantities of the products. Even though the majority of energy drinks were purchased in convenience stores, sports drinks and vitamin-enhanced beverages were also available in most delis and restaurants and were also sometimes sold at sporting events and in vending machines. The weakest competitive force in the alternative beverage industry appears to be the bargaining power and leverage of sellers. Due to the fact that there are many suppliers in this niche, the competition is quite intense it becomes important to have features such as ingredients, more attractive packaging etc.to differentiate them from other brands. The competitive force that seems to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and potential profitability of new entrants is the threat of new competition. Since the alternative beverage industry is a very lucrative one and tends to carry high price points, this profitability becomes very attractive to new entrants because of the possibility of being able to achieve success in the industry. 3. How is the market for energy drinks, sports drinks and vitamin-enhanced beverages changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those forces individually or collectively make the industry more or less attractive? The market for energy drinks, sports drinks and vitamin-enhanced beverages has changed a lot over the years and will continue to see changes well into the future. The underlying drivers of change include changes in growth rate (decrease) and innovation. Worldwide dollar sales of alternative beverages grew by more that 13% annually between the year 2005 and 2007, however, it slowed down to about 6% between 2007 and 2009. One might argue that the reason for this decline is the impact the ongoing recession has on the beverage industry. Beverage producers continue to maintain their optimism for the industry regarding future prospects that will be brought to fruition by innovation in brands, flavors, and formulations. These are the facets that they believe will support their premium pricing and volume increases. 4. What does your strategic group map of the energy drink, sports drink, and vitamin-enhanced beverage industry look like? Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? The worst positions? The strategic group map shows the leading alternative drink producers competing both geographically and in regards to variety of drinks offered, there are therefore the strategic groups in the best positions. The alternative drink companies are not only competing domestically, but in an international scale as well. Hansen Natural, the producers of Monster energy drink, who splits distribution of it’s energy drinks between Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola is not only successful in the United States, but in Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Monaco. The company has also entered agreements to have its beverages available in Mexico and Australia. In a similar fashion, Rockstar has been able to venture internationally by having its products distributed by PepsiCo in foreign countries. The countries Rockstar is currently being distributed are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Spin, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In a similar fashion as the aforementioned alternative drink producers, Red Bull also has a brand presence both domestically and internationally, specifically in Europe and the Americas. The strategic groups in the worst positions appear to be those companies with a single brand e. g. , ViB, Dream Water, etc. operating solely domestically. With the amount of competition in the market currently, it does not appear that these company will fare well in the long-term. 5. What key factors determine the success of alternative beverage producers? There are three key factors that determine the success of alternative beverage producers and they include: Access to distribution In order for the alternative beverages to achieve the sales volumes that its producer desires, it first has to be widely available in stores on a consistent basis. With brand popularity comes the advantage of having a product readily available on store shelves. Innovation With competition being as tight as it is in the alternative beverage industry, innovation is of utmost importance because it sets a product or a company aside for its competitors. Innovation can be achieved by entering into different product lines or creating completely different categories of alternative beverages. Brand image A company’s image is very important when it pertains to competing in whatever industry it does business in. Choosing the right image to portray in advertisement, marketing, etc. could possibly be what retains customer loyalty, or sways a customer’s decision to purchase their product over that of a rival. 6. What recommendations would you make to Coca-Cola to improve its competitiveness in the global alternative beverage industry? To PepsiCo? To Red Bull GmbH? Since it is apparent that Coca-Cola is growing at a much slower pace that its competitors in the alternative beverage market, I recommend that it take building brand image and continual innovation and new product development into consideration. Portraying the right image in advertisement and marketing could lead to retention in customer loyalty and regaining lost market share. Since PepsiCo is ranked number one worldwide for the sale of alternative beverages, with it’s best-selling alternative beverages including Gatorade, which held a 75% share of it’s 1. 57 billion US sports drink market, Propel, SoBe Lifewater, Amp Energy drinks, and No Fear energy drinks, I would recommend that the company continue to build upon this ranking by taking the necessary steps to boost their brand image. I would also recommend that PepsiCo include energy shots to it’s product line-up to further boost sales. There is no doubt that Red Bull GmbH has found its niche in the alternative beverage market as the world’s number one seller of energy drinks, making it the third-largest producer of alternative beverages worldwide and the number two seller of alternative beverages in the US and Europe. To continue it’s growth in the US and Europe, I will recommend that the company continue to innovate and develop new products. I will also recommend that in order to further solidify the Red Bull brand, they should venture into production of he other types of alternative beverages. References Gamble, J. (2008). Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

ESL Writing Achievement and Grades

ESL Writing Achievement and Grades STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD WRITING ESL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PEER RESPONSE Graham, Berninger, and Fan (2007) emphasized that attitude is an effective component of motivation. Concerning (Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Cook (1993) elaborated on the Affective Filter Hypothesis proposed by Krashen’s 1982 theory of second language acquisition. Cook (1993) stated that Krashen theorized that motivation is an essential variable that has a facilitative, affective role in L2 (second language) learning. Cook (1993) explained that Krashen claimed that Language learners who are highly motivated are more inclined to acquire the target language. Unmotivated learners who are highly anxious on the other hand, usually have difficulty understanding the target language because of a high â€Å"affective filter† which results in a â€Å"mental block† that hinders â€Å"comprehensible input† from being acquired. The question here is; how about peer reviewers’ affective state? More critically, and in direct relation with (ESL) writing, Anderman and Wolters (2006) indicated that the affective states may influence the different types of strategies which are utilized by students while writing (as cited in Graham et al., 2007). Along similar lines, Isen (1990) stipulated that students with negative affect tend to use obsolete and dead-end writing strategies whereas students who are characterized by an affirmative and more encouraging attitude towards writing tend to get engaged in more flexible and adaptive self-regulated strategies which help them be cognitively engaged to the writing task (as cited in Graham et al., 2007). According to Graham, Berninger, and Fan (2007) the sole researcher who investigated students’ attitude towards writing in a systematic way during the 90s was Knudson (1992, 1993, 1995) whose main area of focus was elementary age children. Kear, Coffman, McKenna, and Ambrosio (2000) found out that children’s attitude toward writing actually worsens as they move to upper grades. Same results were reported in earlier research done by Knudson (1991, 1992, 1993) who also found out that older students tend to have less positive attitudes towards writing that younger ones (as cited in Kear et al., 2000). Therefore, Knudson (1995) insisted that since research indicates that writing anxiety and apprehension have a negative effect on students’ success in school, practitioners should be more involves in research that has to do with writers’ attitudes towards writing and how it evolved in school environment. Knudson (1995) also emphasized that educators should be know ledgeable about their students’ understanding of the writing tasks so that they would be better able to assess their students’ engagement, involvement, and interest. Knudson (1995) conducted a field study which examined how writing attitude and achievement are correlated in addition to the correlational relationship between writing attitude and grade level in addition to gender. The participants were 430 students enrolled in an elementary school in the USA / English language native speakers who came from either low or lower socio-economic status. The researcher administered a questionnaire for each student grade level. Hence, students in grades (1-3) responded to the writing Attitude Survey for Primary grade students; whereas older students in grades (4-8) responded to the Writing Attitude Survey for Children. It must further be noted that the aforementioned attitude scales were both developed by the researcher. In addition to the questionnaires, students were asked to respond to a given prompt. Each essay written by students was read and graded by two raters who had achieved acceptable terms of inter- rater reliability. Knudson (1995) triangulated her data collection procedures by randomly selecting 12 students from all grade levels and interviewed them to elaborate on their answers they have given in the writing attitude survey . The children were also interviewed to elaborate on their beliefs towards the writing tasks done at school and how they were directly related to their achievement as well as to explain how they perceived writing to be important. The interview contained 10 open –ended questions which provided the researcher more insights about students’ understanding of writing tasks and activities at different grade levels as well as more explanations on students’ responses given in the questionnaires administered earlier. Results indicated that writing achievement was directly related to students’ grade level as well as their perceptions and attitudes towards writing. Hence, Knudson (1995) reported that students who have positive attitudes towards writing regardless of age and gender tend to be better writers. On the other hand, concerning grade level and gender and their relation to writing achievement, the researcher also reported that older students and females in particular have a better inclination towards becoming proficient writers that younger writers and males in particular. What is interesting is that Knudson (1995) claimed that the questionnaires and interviews she conducted also measured how students’ attitudes towards writing changes as a result of specific writing strategies they learner in class. Hence, students in grade 4 for example were able to verbalize the process strategies they used in writing such as planning, organizing, and goal setting. So, the researcher conclu ded that the process writing approach became more prevalent in writing instruction where students engage in prewriting activities and this strategy was verbalized by the participants as â€Å"planning the entire composition†, drafting which was voiced by the interviewed students as â€Å"thinking what to include and leave out†, in addition to revising which was verbalized by Knudson’s participants as â€Å"being sure they stayed on topic† (Knudson, 1995, p. 94). These results are consistent with what Knudson (1991) suggested when she was in the process of developing her writing attitude scales back then. Hence, she recommended that â€Å"it is useful for researchers, program evaluators, and researchers to assess children’s attitudes towards writing and the effect of instruction on their attitudes, including treatment, grade, and times of measurement† (Knudson, 1991, p. 814). Of direct relevancy, Graham, Berninger, and Fan, (2007) investigate d one aspect of motivation; specifically, attitudes of young, beginning writers. The participants were 128 first grade level students (70 females and 58 males) and 113 third grade level students (57 females and 56 males) who were English language native speakers. The educational level of the parents was used as a socioeconomic status as well. The participants’ writing proficiency was average ranged. To begin with, each student wrote a composition and three measurements were conducted for each written composition. The first measure aimed at assessing the sophistication of vocabulary use by students. Therefore, two scorers counted 7- letters or more vocabulary words and transformed into portions (based on TOWL-2). The second measure was the average length of the right word sequence. The average length was measured by obtaining the â€Å"average length and correct word sequences that occurred in sequence before an incorrect word sequence occurred† (Graham, Berninger, and Fan, 2007, p. 525). Two scorers revised and discussed the rules for obtaining a correct word sequence and inter-rater reliability coefficient was 0.85.The overall quality of written essays was calculated by the third measure which was a holistic rating scale based on (Cooper 1977) . The papers were scored on a 7-point Likert scale, 1 being the lowest quality of writing and 7 being the highest by two former e lementary grade school teachers (inter-rater reliability coefficient was 0.93). As for students’ attitude towards writing, students had to cater to seven questions which measured their attitudes toward writing. The researchers used the Garfield the cat scale developed by McKenna et al. (1995). Hence, students chose images ranging from the image of a very happy Garfield the cat (score of 4) and ending up with a score of 1 that is the very unhappy or sad Garfield. Later on, structural equality modeling (SEM) approaches based on (Bollen, 1989, and Kline, 1998) were used to identify the structural relationship between attitude and achievement. It should be noted that in addition to examining the structural relationship between attitude and achievement, the researchers examined age differences (younger / older) and gender differences (male/ female). Results indicated that writing attitude does influence writing achievement because the relationship between them was found to be statistically significant. Moreover, girls were found to have more positive attitudes toward writing and therefore favored writing more than boys did. However, no statistical difference was reported concerning the writing achievement variable. Interestingly enough, Musgrove (1999) conducted a different kind of study concerning students’ attitudes toward writing. The researcher had her students write self-evaluative narratives that reflect how writing attitudes are usually shaped by how successful students’ writing experiences are. The participants were English majors prospective secondary teachers and college students registered in a first-year writing class. At the beginning of the term, Musgrove (1998) identified for her students what is meant by attitude â€Å"one’s predispositions toward particular tasks, ideas, or people† and provided them with lexical terms of attitude. Then, in a series of mini-lessons, she provided her students with literary works which demonstrated particular attitudes (positive and negative critical attitudes) which were discussed by students. The researcher then asked students to track down how their attitudes towards writing developed by keeping records and compiling portfolios. Musgrove (1999) announced that the portfolios included â€Å" a resume, an initial attitudinal survey, learning goals, personal grammar and usage handbook, in class writing, homework assignments, essays, and portfolio self-evaluations written at midterm and end of semester† (p. 5). Musgrove (1998) concluded that drawing students’ attention to their attitudes gave them the opportunity to examine how their beliefs and what they bring to their writing definitely affects their writing achievement. Moreover, the self-evaluations written by students helped them connect to their backgrounds as writers because their writing background actually directly affects their attitudes towards writing. However, Katstra, Tollefson, and Gilbert’s (1987) study was the only study; to my knowledge, that examined the effect of peer response on students’ attitudes toward writing. To elaborate, the study was conducted to investigate whether peer response in a process approach to writing environment could yield to positive attitudes towards writing along increased fluency. The participants were ninth grade native speakers in the USA who registered in seven English classes which were taught by three teachers. The subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in such a way that each teacher had a control group and an experimental group to teach. Both the control groups and the experimental groups responded to two attitude instruments before treatment. Then, both groups wrote the first draft of a personal narrative. The first drafts’ word number was tallied and recorded as a pretest measure for fluency in writing. The treatment was introduced over a pe riod of four days. First, the experimental group explicitly received training in peer response and participants rewrote their second drafts according to comments suggested by the peers in each response group. The students in the control group on the other hand, wrote their second drafts based on assistance offered by the teacher due to specific questions asked by students in the control group. The two groups then counted the number of words they had written in their second drafts and this became the post-test measure of writing fluency. Finally, the two attitude instruments which were administered to both groups as pertest were administered again as post-tests measures. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was administered in order to measure the three – way interaction between the independent variables which were (1) teachers (three levels) (2) gender of students (3) and treatment condition. Results indicated an increased positive attitude towards writing on behalf of the experim ental group. However, no significant differences were noticed in post-test writing fluency. Therefore, peer evaluation does not affect students’ writing fluency. Some studies tackling the affective benefits of peer response examined students’ perceptions toward peer feedback. Chong (2010) examined student teachers’ perceptions and attitudes toward peer response and the likelihood to how they are willing to use the aforementioned approach in L2 writing classes. Results indicated that student teachers did not favor the usage of peer response in their classes due to â€Å"external reasons such as class size, time restrictions, authority control, as well as internal factors such as inability to see the benefits of peer response, insufficient experience or training in using this technique† (p. 58). As for the affective factor of peer feedback of ESL university students, Zhang (1995) made it clear the majority of his 81 ESL students (75%) who were enrolled at a university in USA actually favored feedback provided by teachers as opposed to feedback provided by peers.. The findings coincide with Nelson and Carson (1998) whose ESL college students expressed their tendency to favor teachers’ feedback rather than their peers’ feedback. Moreover, cultural differences were perceived to negatively affect peer response as some of the participants’ goal in peer review sessions particularly Chinese students was mainly maintaining good harmony by refraining from providing their pees with critical peer response. However, another study actually contradicted Nelson and Carson’s (1998) findings concerning the Chinese group’s perception of peer response. Hence, Roskams (1999) who examined Chinese EFL learners’ perceptions toward peer response. The univer sity –bound Chinese students actually reported their openness to engage in peer response and expressed that this approach could be beneficial to their ESL language learning. Hence, participants generally perceived peer feedback as useful. However, only 5 % of participants did not enjoy the collaborative learning arrangement. Therefore, many studies revealed conflicting results which reported inconsistency in findings which reflected that peer response is problematic due to students’ cultural schemata, their ability to review their peers; work and their attitudes towards peer response. However, Hu (2005) indicates that these problems are not inherent in peer response as research literature suggests that carefully designed training in peer response can help assist L2 writing students as well as their teachers gain understanding of the benefits of peer response (Berg, 1999; Min, 2006; Ting and Qian; 2010). THE ROLE OF THE COMPUTER IN CONVEYING MEDIATED FEEDBACK The role of computers in conveying mediating feedback in L2 (second langue) settings has become central for research concerned with technology-enhanced peer response lately. However, the results on the effects of integrating computer-mediated communication (CMC) into peer response have been conflicting, mixed, and even inconsistent (Schultz, 2000; Hu, 2005; Liu and Sadler, 2003; Tuzi, 2004; DiGiovanni and Nagaswami, 2001). Hence, many researchers (Braine, 1997; Leh, 1999; Biesenbach-Lucas and Weasenforth, 2001; Liu and Sadler, 2003) have expressed concerns about using computer-mediated communication as a substitute for the face-to-face venue of peer response, especially that its ultimate benefits for ESL learners have not been yet established fully by researchers. However, consensus have been researched among researchers that CMC-based peer response should be seriously blended with face-to-face communication in the peer response process (Schultz, 2000; Hu, 2005; Liu and Sadler, 2003; Tuzi, 2004; DiGiovanni and Nagaswami, 2001).

Saturday, October 12, 2019

A Journey into Darkness in Heart of Darkness Essay -- Heart Darkness e

A Journey into Darkness in Heart of Darkness      Ã‚  Ã‚   Joseph Conrad, in his story, "Heart of Darkness," tells the tale of two mens' realization of the dark and evil side of themselves. Marlow, the "second" narrator of the framed narrative, embarked upon a spiritual adventure on which he witnessed firsthand the wicked potential in everyone.   On his journey into the dark, forbidden Congo, Marlow encountered Kurtz, a "remarkable man" and "universal genius," who had made himself a god in the eyes of the natives over whom he had an imperceptible power.   These two men were, in a sense, images of each other:   Marlow was what Kurtz may have been, and Kurtz was what Marlow may have become.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like a jewel, "Heart of Darkness" has many facets.   From one view it is an exposure of Belgian methods in the Congo, which at least for a good part of the way sticks closely to Conrad's own experience.   Typically, however, the adventure is related to a larger view of human affairs. Marlow told the story one evening on a yacht in the Thames estuary as darkness fell, reminding his audience that exploitation of one group by another was not new in history.   They were anchored in the river, where ships went out to darkest Africa.   Yet, as lately as Roman times, London's own river led, like the Congo, into a barbarous hinterland where the Romans went to make their profits.   Soon darkness fell over London, while the ships that bore "civilization" to remote parts appeared out of the dark, carrying darkness with them, different only in kind to the darkness they encounter.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   These thoughts and feelings were merely part of the tale, for Co... ...ntempt to be a kind of moral heroism.       Works Cited Adelman, Gary. Heart of Darkness: Search for the Unconscious. Boston: Little & Brown, 1987. Bradley, Candice. "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." (24 Jan. 1996). Online Internet. 3 October 1998. Available: http://www.lawrence.edu/~johnson/heart. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. 17th ed. New York: Norton, 1988. Levenson, Michael. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80. Rosmarin, Adena. "Darkening the Reader: Reader Response Criticism and Heart of Darkness." Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York: St. Martin's, 1989. Watt, Ian. Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. San Diego: U. of California P, 1979. 168-200, 249-53.   

Friday, October 11, 2019

Christian Counseling Essay

Abstract In the book, â€Å"Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling†, author Mark McMinn gives the reader information on how these three entities can work together in Christian counseling. McMinn offers several ways in which this can be done including the use of prayer, Scripture, confession, forgiveness, the effects of sin, and redemption in counseling sessions. Through narration of counseling vignettes displaying different results, from different approaches demonstrates for the reader integration. There are very many counselors in different walks in their faith and McMinn helps to explore this area for future and practicing clinicians. 4 MAT Review McMinn Summary Mark McMinn authored the book entitled; â€Å"Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling† introduces the reader to his concept of integration of these three entities. McMinn separates spirituality and defines why it is unlike psychology and theology, he states, â€Å"We can become more with less competent in the spiritual disciplines, training ourselves to experience God more fully, but we can never be spiritually competent.† (2011, p. 11). This is an interesting observation since Christians are always growing but can sometimes become stagnant in their growth and in their walk with Christ. It was also pointed out that spiritual training is not done in the classroom, it is not in a curriculum, and thus harder to measure from someone other than the participant. McMinn wants to empower the reader to explore their own Christian faith and how it can be incorporated successfully into therapy sessions with their clients. By educating the reader on a sense of a healthy self, he explores how prayer can be effective in sessions and also provides different methods for implementation. He stresses the importance of prayer and what it means at different times in relation to a counseling session he states, â€Å"We pray  as we breathe, inhaling the wisdom of God’s presence in this moment, exhaling a frantic need to have the perfect words or exact technique to â€Å"fix† our clients.† (2011, p. 109). This was one of the ways the author describes the use of prayer in counseling and how it also aides the counselor. Exploring further into the use of Scripture in counseling sessions the author establishes the connection of support in different counseling models. Forgiveness was also another topic the author addresses noting, â€Å"Rather, my goal is to raise pertinent issues and make recommendations for Christian counselors to consider so that each unique counseling situation can be carefully evaluated and a psychologically and spiritually sensitive manner.† (McMinn, 2011, p. 250). McMinn additionally provides five steps in assessing before considering introduction of forgiveness in a therapeutic session. He does this by debunking misinformation, and other related concepts that are not true in the use of forgiveness in therapy. By tying together the topics of prayer, scripture, confession, forgiveness, and redemption the goal as McMinn puts it, â€Å"If not how we understand the relationship between psychology and theology but how we practically use the Christian faith in our counseling. Change brings challenge and Christian counselors they several significant challenges as they bring religion into the counseling offices.† (p. 26) Concrete Response In McMinn’s book, he uses a chapter to discuss forgiveness which reminded me of a client I had long ago. This client had suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from various family members. I remember this client disclosing horrible, horrible abuse and still having nightmares, at times hallucinations of the offenders, and fits of rage. At this point in my career I was co-counseling, and was just beginning to understand the impact forgiveness can have in physical health and emotional health. My problem was I didn’t realize how the client wanted to please me and in doing so I believe I prolonged this client’s understanding of forgiveness and what it should have meant with the client and not me. This client was Christian and from my estimation now looking back was just beginning their walk with Christ and not on the same maturity level that I was at that time in my walk with Christ. At that time I knew how forgiveness first and foremost is obedience to God, and secondly how it can set you free from so many emotional problems, McMinn said, â€Å"Forgiveness, in its theological and spiritual context, is profound, life-giving, and transforming. When we remove the religious context and think of forgiveness only as a clinical technique, we risk losing the essence of forgiveness.† (2011, p. 254) After reading this chapter it made me re-live an area in which I was not fully equipped to help client maneuver their way through. This particular chapter has allowed me to see how vital forgiveness is in a therapeutic session, and how it must be used carefully. It is made me aware of how important my Christianity is to forgiveness, but also to assess the level my client is currently on before beginning a session on forgiveness. Reflection Truthfully, there was not much about this book that gave me pause to say â€Å"this bothers me†. Although, I did have a few questions but not necessarily pertaining to the author’s writing of the book, but more so some information of other resources cited. For example, the author stated, â€Å"Though Maslow would not agree that the Christian faith can help lead people to emotional health, his reports of the characteristics and desires of help the people who have moved beyond preoccupation with self he called them self actualizers are remarkably similar to the fruit of the Spirit described by apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23.† (McMinn, 2011, p. 52). This was interesting, but this student thought as the author had previously pointed out how you can build on something that’s faulty. It appeared as though Maslow’s disagreement with the Christian faith was unfounded, but he built his own concept of self-similar to Christian values. There was a statement from McMinn which did cause this student question if there was a direct answer. McMinn stated, â€Å"However, this view perpetuates the problem mentioned earlier, that Christianized form of therapy can be built on flawed, misleading, and damaging worldview assumptions.† (2011, p. 25). The question this student was left with was is there any therapy that can agree with Christian beliefs without being built on a flawed worldview? The author gave this student of reason to pause when thinking about the different types of therapy that are currently used in counseling. Due to different statistics, success rates, and general practice it seems as a counselor you go with what  works. However, McMinn has given this reader a different view on how therapy for the counselor should be perceived with the integration of psychology, theology, and spirituality. It is not enough simply to use of therapy because statistically it has been proven to be successful. If certain theories in which some therapies are based are in direct opposition of godly counsel in this would need to be viewed more cautiously by the counselor. Action Action steps this student can take as a result of what has been learned, specifically in regards to prayer would be as follows: if a client desires to pray this student asked the client that comfort level in regards to pray aloud, silently or together. Further, learning pauses in a session can be a prime opportunity to pray silently for the client and guidance from God. McMinn stated, â€Å"Praying during pauses in conversation is often the way not only to keep a spiritual focus in counseling but also to keep from impulsively filling the silence with unnecessary words.† (2011, p. 83). Another action step this student will be taking as a result of a lesson learned, researching theories and books which may be in opposition to Christian beliefs. This student’s understanding of integration of psychology and Christianity are vital in be effective in helping God’s people. For example, the book â€Å"The Courage to Heal† is used in many areas of sexual abuse. This student was unaware of the author’s understanding of forgiveness and how the client is directed not to forgive the perpetrator of the abuse. If the client is Christian and this student is the counselor gave a homework assignment from this book regarding forgiveness this would create a problem. It is very important to understand, read fully, and research information which may be incorporated into a counseling session. It is not enough to use a therapy technique or intervention because it is popular or has been proven effective. Steps must be taken to ensure therapy and techniques are in line with God and His will. References McMinn, M. (2011). Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling (p. 254). Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers.