Specimen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Specimen - Essay Example Nobody can access it but him." The taller of the two men made a growling sound and took a menacing step towards Jason, "look here you little ." His partner pulled him back before he could continue and whispered something. They walked to the corner of the deck and began talking in urgent murmurs, with a great deal of hand movement and arm flaying. Jason strained his ears, trying to catch what their conversation but their voices were just too low. "The professor," Jason said, more as a confirmation than a question, "I don't know. Last night he told me that he was going to take the dinghy to shore at dawn to collect some specimens from the island and will be back around midday What's all this about," Jason asked fearfully. "No I mean yes, I don't know anything. Like I said, he locks himself up in the lab all day, only comes out for meals and ever so often, takes the dinghy to the island. I took this position as an assistant researcher but actually all I do is prepare the meals and clean up the yacht, and feed the specimens. I don't even know what the professor is working on or anything," Jason concluded desperately. They had to believe him, Jason thought to himself, they just had to. He really knew nothing. He had thought he was applying for a well-paying research position with the world famous marine biologist, James Farnsworth, and that this would be a career coup. However, ever since he boarded the Experian ten days ago, he'd only seen the professor at mealtimes and they had barely exchanged a few words. Jason had tried asking the professor about his research and what areas he would be assisting him in but Farnsworth had just glared at him beneath those bushy eyebrows of his and, in a surprisingly ferocious tone, had told him to mind his own business. Since that incident, which had happened the very first day he had boarded the Experian, Farnsworth had ignored Jason, barely acknowledging him with the briefest of head nods at mealtimes. If the truth be told, Jason didn't like the professor much. Certainly, he admired him as one of the greatest marine biologists of the age but he just did not like the man. He made him feel uncomfortable and a bit wary. "Look here," the taller of the two men said, breaking Jason's thoughts. "We're going to come clean with you. That boss of yours is onto some dangerous work and is involved with some very frightening people. We're not the criminals here and you really have no need to fear us if you're nose is clean. It's that boss of yours that you should be afraid of - very afraid of." A look of total confusion passed over Jason's face. He stared at the two men, open-mouthed and incredulous. "What! Farnsworth may not be a nice person but he's certainly not a criminal. The guy has been published in every single scientific

Ownership of Two Contrasting Businesses Essay Example for Free

Ownership of Two Contrasting Businesses Essay Asda is the second largest retailer in the UK, and it has been the largest subsidiary of the Wal-Mart family of companies since 1999. The UKs supermarket sector has also become more competitive. This contest between retailers in the marketplace helps to keep prices down. It also makes sure that organisations always produce and sell the goods that consumers really want. Asda is engaged in food, clothes, electronic and furniture selling. Consumers like price competition, as it means they can buy goods at low prices and save money. Asda is a large national company that makes a profit and it is private as well. Asda has a limited liability which means that they might lose the money they have invested in a business. This company is an incorporated business and it is also a public limited company. The main aims and objectives of Asda are: †¢To provide goods and services that is cheap and affordable to consumers to the public, to reduce the cost †¢To recycling their waste †¢To supporting voluntary services Oxfam is a small not-for-profit organisation and it is a global company because it operates in countries around the world. It is owned by Oxfam Trading Limited Companies and it is in private sector. The main aims and objective of this company are: †¢To Aid third world countries in any way they can †¢To relieve poverty, distress and suffering †¢To educate people about the nature, causes and effects if poverty †¢To campaign for a fairer world †¢To encourage western nations to supply aid to third world countries.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee :: essays research papers

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Indians were being confined to crowed reservations that were poorly run, had scarce game, alcohol was plentiful, the soil was poor, and the ancient religious practices were prohibited. The Indians were not happy that they had been kicked off there land and were now forced to live on a reservation. The Indians then began to Ghost Dance a form of religion it is said that if the Indians were to do this trance like dance the country would be cleansed of white intruders. Also dead ancestors and slaughtered buffalo would return and the old ways would be reborn in a fruitful land. Once the Bureau of Indian affairs noticed what was going on they began to fear this new religion would lead to warfare. The white peoplewere scared that this new dance was a war dance. They called for army protection. Army was called in to try to curbed this new religion before it could start a war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Sioux band tougher led by Little Big Foot. They were heading to Pine RidgeReservation in South Dakota, when the army stopped them and held them at gun pointovernight. Big Foot’s group contained about 300 people two-thirds of them were women and children. While the soldiers numbered around 500 and were armed with automatic weapons. The next morning when the army began to disarm the Indians a shot rang out then the gun fire began leaving about 200 Indians dead in the snow. Thirty soldiers were also killed in the massacre. The soldiers that lost there lives were most likely killed by their own men in friendly fire. Wounded Knee is said to have been the last battle of the war but it was not so much a battle as it was a massacre. It was in fact the last exchange of fire between the army and the Sioux.

Agile Software Development

Testing in Agile software development approach is quite different from the traditional testing methodologies as it requires testing at every phase of the development and not only by the Quality Assurance team but by developers and business analysts as well.This is because 1) Agile software development requires testing throughout the lifecycle of the project and 2) Developers and Business Analysts are under the system and the business better, respectively.According to Ambler, the basic strategy of testing in Agile software development is testing throughout the lifecycle and therefore can be divided into following four phases:1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Initiation – This is often short and includes indentifying initial acceptance tests, setting up the testing environment and identifying a testing team for the project. The benefit of this test phase is to set-up testing groundwork, possibly install the tools that will be needed for testing as well.2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Construction – This may comprise of any number of iterations depending on how the scope and management of the project. A significant amount of testing occurs during this phase. Concepts such as ‘confirmatory’ and ‘investigative’ testing is employed here by the agile developers who test often, test early and usually test first. Confirmatory and Investigative testing, as described by Ambler, are briefly defined below:a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Confirmatory Testing – This focuses on verifying that the system fulfills the intent of the stakeholders as described to the team to date. Two aspects of confirmatory testing, as presented by Ambler, are:i.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Agile Acceptance Testing – is a mix of traditional functional testing and traditional acceptance testing because the development team and their stakeholders are doing it collaboratively. Developer testing is a mix of traditional unit testing and traditional class/component/service integration testing.ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Developer Testing – strives to verify the application code and the database schema and to look for coding errors, perform at least coverage if not full path testing, and to ensure that the system meets the current intent of its stakeholders.It is often done in a test-first manner, where a single test is written and then sufficient production code is written to fulfill that test. (Ambler, Agile Testing Strategies)b.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Investigative Testing – This strives to discover problems that the development team didn't consider.Agile teams produce working software at the end of each construction iteration and hence a new version of the system should ideally be given to a separate test team that which can be assigned the goal to explore potential scenarios that neither the development team nor business stakeholders may have considered. (Ambler, Agile Testing Strategies)3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Release – At this stage, the project is ready to be delivered to the user an d is tested from user acceptance point of view at this stage.4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Production – Once the system has been delivered, defects may arise and Agile testing ensures that these defects are fixed in a timely and appropriate manner.Testing Tools It is not necessary to use a tool, solely designed for testing in an Agile development methodology. Automated testing holds a key place in agile development because of the sheer amount of testing that is required throughout the lifecycle.Some tools that have been used by agile development and testing teams include JUnit for Unit testing, Fit and Fitnesse for acceptance testing, Autoit and Selenium for functional testing etc.Microsoft Visual Studio is the first IDE that introduced integrated unit testing tool (Ingles)Test Documents Agile software development encourage going as light as possible, hence the need for singular reference points and avoidance of multiple documents and redundant information as is the norm in traditional approaches. (Ambler, Single Source Information – An Agile Practice for Effective Documentation)The main documentation work required in Agile software development is:1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Test plan to ensure comprehensive coverage of the software and guarantee quality (Black)2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Traceability Matrices – these matrices are used in testing phases to link functionality and test cases to specific requirements.Risks involvedThere are however certain risks involved in Agile development as suggested by some researchers. Some of these have been quoted below (Agile Software Development): ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lack of structure and necessary documentation ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Incorporates insufficient software designRequires too much cultural change to adopt Can lead to more difficult contractual negotiations Can be very inefficient — if the requirements for one area of code change through various iterations, the same programming may need to be done several times over.Whereas if a plan were there to be followed, a single area of code is expected to be written once. Impossible to develop realistic estimates of work effort needed to provide a quote, because at the beginning of the project no one knows the entire scope/requirements Drastically increases the risk of scope creep due to the lack of detailed requirements documentation Agile is feature driven, non-functional quality attributes are hard to be placed as user stories Test Standards The standards that have been introduced for agile software development include ISO/IEC 12207:1995 and its replacement ISO/IEC 15288:2002. Other standards that are also of interest to software development are ISO/IEC 15939:2002 (Software measurement process) and ISO/IEC 14143 (Software measurement – Functional size measurement). (W.H. MORKEL THEUNISSEN) Bibliography 28 July 2008 .28 July 2008 .28 July 2008 .28 July 2008 .28 July 2008 .â€Å"Agile Software Development.â⠂¬  Wikipedia. 28 July 2008 .Agile Software Development: Definition. 28 July 2008 .Ambler, Scott. Agile Testing Strategies. 28 July 2008 .—. â€Å"Single Source Information – An Agile Practice for Effective Documentation.† 28 July 2008 .Black, Rex. 28 July 2008 .Ingles, Paul. 28 July 2008 .W.H. MORKEL THEUNISSEN, DERRICK G. KOURIE AND BRUCE W. WATSON. â€Å"Standards and Agile Software Development.† 28 July 2008 .

Ergonomic Workstation

Computer Workstation Ergonomics INF 103: Computer Literacy Winter 2009 Computer Workstation Ergonomics As we spend increasing amounts of time at our computer workstation, we need to be aware of how the design and arrangement of our equipment can impact our comfort, health, and productivity. WORK AREA The work area should be large enough to accommodate you, allow the full range of motions involved in performing required tasks, and provide room for the equipment and materials that make up the workstation. †¢Use a headset for lengthy or frequent telephone work. Place the items you use most frequently directly in front of you. †¢Avoid overcrowding computer work areas. DESK/WORKSTATION Standard furniture cannot accommodate everyone’s needs. A taller person may need a one-time adjustment to have his or her work surface raised somewhat; a shorter person may need a footrest or other accessories. Adjustable furniture may be needed in situations where people share or use the s ame workstation. †¢The desktop should be organized so that frequently used objects are close to the user to avoid excessive extended reaching. The work surface should have a matte finish to minimize glare or reflections. †¢The area underneath the desk should always be tidy and clean to accommodate the user’s legs and allow for stretching. †¢If a fixed-height desk is used, add a keyboard tray that adjusts vertically to provide added adjustability. †¢A footrest should be used if, after adjusting the height of the chair, feet do not rest flat on the floor. †¢Use a headset or speaker phone to avoid neck and shoulder discomfort if you use a phone frequently throughout the day. †¢Place the phone on the side of your non-dominant hand (i. e. left side if right-handed, right side if left-handed) †¢Position your desk lamp (if you use one) so that it illuminates source documents without causing either glare on the computer screen or direct illumination to your eyes. †¢A document holder should be used if documents are referred to during keying. The document holder should: †¢Be stable and adjustable (height, position, distance, and angle of view). †¢Support your document on either side of the monitor. †¢Be at the same distance from your eyes as the display screen to avoid frequent changes of focus and you should be able you to look from one to the other without moving your neck or back. CHAIR ADJUSTMENTS Contrary to popular belief, sitting, which most people believe is relaxing, is hard on the back. Sitting for long periods of time can cause increased pressure on the intervertebral discs — the spongy discs between the vertebras. Sitting is also hard on the feet and legs. Gravity tends to pool blood in the legs and feet and create a sluggish return to the heart. The following recommendations can help increase comfort for computer users: †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Dynamic sitting†, don’t stay in one static position for extended periods of time. When performing daily tasks, alternate between sitting and standing or take small walking breaks throughout the day. †¢The chair back should have a lumbar support †¢Adjust height of backrest to support the natural inward curve of the lower back. †¢It may be useful to use a rolled towel, lumbar roll or cushion to support the low back. †¢The angle of the back rest is subjective but the trunk and upper l egs should form an angle between 90 to 115 degrees. †¢Adjust height of chair so feet rest flat on floor oSit upright in the chair with the low back against the backrest and the shoulders touching the backrest. Thighs should be parallel to the floor and knees at about the same level as the hips. oBack of knees should not come in direct contact with the edge of the seat pan. There should be 2-4 inches between the edge of the seat and the back of the knee †¢Arm rests should be removable and the distance between the arm rests should be adjustable. oAdjust height and/or width of armrests so they allow the user to rest arms at their sides and relax/drop their shoulders while keyboarding. oDon’t use armrests to slouch. Also, chair arms should not oticeably elevate your shoulders or force you to move your arms away from your body to use them. oElbows and lower arms should rest lightly on armrests so as not to cause circulatory or nerve problems. †¢Use a footrest when a ttempts to adjust your chair and the rest of the workstation fail to keep your feet on the ground. †¢Ensure that you have some space (2-3†³) between the top of your thighs and the underside of your workstation. †¢Have enough space under your work surface so that you can pull yourself all the way up to the edge of the desk with room for your legs and knees to fit comfortably. MONITOR Once the chair and work surface height are properly adjusted, the computer monitor should be placed so the top of the screen is at or just below eye level when seated in an upright position. The following suggestions can help prevent the development of eye strain, neck pain and shoulder fatigue while using your computer workstation: †¢Make sure the surface of the viewing screen is clean. †¢Adjust brightness and contrast to optimum comfort. †¢Position the monitor directly in front of the user to avoid excessive twisting of the neck. †¢User must position the monitor at a comfortable viewing distance, approximately 18-30 inches from the user. Position monitors at right angles from windows to reduce glare. Close window blinds as needed to reduce glare from sunlight. †¢Position monitors away from direct lighting which creates excessive glare or use a glare filter over the monitor to reduce glare. †¢Adjust the monitor tilt so that ceiling lights do not reflect on your screen. †¢If a document holder is used, it should be placed at approximately the same height as the monitor and at the same distance from the eyes to prevent frequent eye shifts between the monitor screen and reference materials. †¢Get regular eye check-ups. Adjust as needed for larger screens. You may need to sit farther away and increase the font size to take full advantage of the larger screen. Bifocal and trifocal wearers have to pay particular attention to the placement of their monitor. Wearers of bifocals and trifocals often unknowingly tilt their heads backwards so they can read the screen through the lower portion of their glasses. This can sometimes lead to neck, shoulder, and back discomfort. Potential solutions include either lowering the computer monitor or purchasing glasses designed specifically for working at the computer. KEYBOARD Many ergonomic problems associated with computer workstations occur in the shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand. Continuous work on the computer may expose soft tissues in these areas to repetition, awkward postures, and forceful exertions, especially if the workstation is not set up properly. The following adjustments should be made to your workstation to help prevent the development of an ergonomic problem in the upper extremities: †¢First adjust your chair as mentioned above, then with your arms resting comfortably at your side, raise your forearms to form a 90 degree angle with your upper arms. Adjust keyboard height so shoulders can relax and allow arms to rest at sides. An articulating keyboard tray is often necessary to accommodate proper height and distance. †¢Position the keyboard directly in front and be close to the user to avoid excessive extended reaching. †¢Forearms parallel to the floor (approximately 90 degree angle at elbow). †¢Mouse should b e placed adjacent to keyboard and at the same height as the keyboard. Avoid extended and elevated reaching for keyboard and mouse. The back of the wrist should be kept flat (in a neutral position). Do not rest the hand on the mouse when you are not using it. Rest hands in your lap when not entering data. †¢A padded wrist rest will help to keep your wrist in a straight and neutral position while typing and keep your arms off the sharp edges of the work surface. †¢Do not rest your wrists or hands on a palm or wrist rest when you are keying. These rests are designed to provide support only during breaks from keying. †¢The slope of the keyboard may need to be adjusted so that it is flat in order that your wrists are straight and not bent back while you are typing. †¢Press the keys gently; do not bang them or hold them down for long periods. Keep your shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers relaxed. If your work surface is too high and not adjustable, adjust your chair to bring your arms to the proper position. If you raise your chair make sure your feet are properly supported. MOUSE, TRACKBALL, OR OTHER INPUT DEVICE †¢The mouse is present in virtually every office environment. Handed versions of mousses are designed specifically to the contours of either the right or left hand. †¢Placing the mouse, trackball, or other input device too far away, too low, or too much on one side can cause shoulder, wrist, elbow, and forearm discomfort. Placing the input device directly in your immediate reach zone offers natural comfort and maximum hand-to-eye coordination. †¢Do not bend your wrist upward. Make sure you are sitting high enough for the workstation to be slightly below elbow height so that your hand rests naturally on the mouse. †¢Moussing demands a certain level of surface stability; if used on a keyboard tray, the tray should not wobble or tip. †¢A trackball has an exposed ball that you manipulate with your fingers. It requires the use of different muscle and tendon groups than does a mouse, and can add variety to your manipulation of computer information. Some trackball designs, however, may cause discomfort and possible injury to the area around your thumb, which stretches and reaches to maneuver the trackball. †¢Test different models of mouse’s, trackball or other input devices. Consider the shape and size of the devices, how comfortably it fits into your hand, ease of operation, and any special features that might make your job easier. In addition to the mouse and trackball, a variety of other input devices are available. Consider your task requirements and physical limitations. †¢Touch pads allow you to move the cursor on the computer screen by simply gliding your finger across a small pad. Unlike mousses, trackballs, and other pointing devices, touch pads have no moving parts to clog or breaks, so they never require disassembly for cleaning. †¢Touch screens allow you to point directly at an object. They require little or no training, are faster than other pointing devices, and require no extra work surface. However, the disadvantages of touch screens include arm fatigue, smudges, optical interference, and increased glare. †¢Voice input allows you to â€Å"talk† to your computer. Currently, such programs can understand and respond to natural speech delivered at rates of up to 160 words per minute. Pen-like devices use pressure, light, electromagnetic disruption, or radio frequencies to enter and manipulate information through contact with the computer screen or a horizontal pad. A pen pad requires about as much room on the work surface as does a mouse. If pen technology is used on a horizontal pad, a workstation must provide adequate non-glare lighting for both it and the computer screen. LIGHTING Lighting not suited to working with a computer is a major contributing factor in visual discomforts including eyestrain, burning or itching eyes, and blurred or double vision. The lighting in most office environments is too bright for optimal VDT screen viewing. The illumination may be reduced by removing 2 bulbs in a 4-bulb fluorescent fixture, removing the bulbs in every other fixture, or turning off overhead lights altogether. Supplemental desk lighting is better than overhead lighting for reading or printed copy. Use the following recommendations to reduce eyestrain and eye fatigue: †¢Close drapes/blinds to reduce glare. †¢Adjust lighting to avoid glare on screen (light source should come at a 90 degree angle, with low watt lights rather than high). Avoid intense or uneven lighting in your field of vision. †¢Place monitor at 90 degree angle to windows (where possible). †¢Reduce overhead lighting (where possible). †¢Use indirect or shielded lighting where possible. †¢Walls should not be painted with a reflective finish. †¢Use a glare screen or monitor shield to reduce glare from overhead lighting. WORK HABITS Repetitio us static work (working at the computer) is very fatiguing on your upper extremities as well as your eyes. It is important that breaks from working at the computer be taken every 20 to 40 minutes in order for your body to rest and recover. Taking a short break (3 to 5 minutes) does not mean you have to stop working, other activities such as talking to a co-worker, making copies, filing, etc. could be done during breaks from typing. It is also important to change positions periodically. According to the â€Å"Alexander Technique,† you should change sitting or leaning positions every 15 minutes (Bailin,  ¶ 13, http://www. netsci. org/Science/Special/feature01. html) Sitting in one position or leaning on your arms for an extended period of time can interfere with circulation. Laptop Computers NOTE: IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT LAPTOP COMPUTERS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED AS PRIMARY COMPUTERS. IN THE OFFICE OR WHILE AT HOME, A DOCKING STATION IS RECOMMENDED TO PROVIDE ADJUSTABILITY WHICH WILL ENHANCE NEUTRAL POSTURES. Computing Maintaining neutral postures will reduce stress and strain to the musculoskeletal system. †¢Incorporate mini-breaks every 20 to 30 minutes to break up repetition and static postures. †¢Maintain a comfortable viewing distance from your screen; about 18-30 inches. †¢Keep your head and neck in a neutral posture; avoid excessive neck flexion or rotation. †¢Angle the screen so that it is perpendicular to your line of sight, if lighting permits. Position the keyboard at elbow height, and keep your wrists straight while keying. Experiment with table height, chair height and keyboard angle to maintain neutral wrist postures. †¢Remember: if you raise your chair use a footrest to support your feet. When seated your hips should be slightly higher than your knees. †¢If you are seated in a side chair or couch, use a pillo w to support your arms while keying. This will help you maintain neutral arm, wrist, and hand postures. †¢Attach an external mouse instead of using the small constricted touchpad or trackball. †¢Clean the screen regularly using appropriate antistatic cleaning materials. The hands and wrists should be kept in a straight wrist posture when typing and should not be resting on a pal rest, table, or lap while typing. Wrist and palm rests are designed to provide support during breaks from typing. Transporting the Computer Keep these ideas in mind while carrying your laptop from place to place: †¢Eliminate unnecessary baggage from your briefcase; the less demand placed on the body the better. †¢Carry your laptop in a case with a padded shoulder strap and handle. Frequently shift hands or shoulders to balance the load. †¢Use a wheeled luggage cart when possible.

Obesity Development or Treatment

Sugar and Its Role in Overweight/Obesity Development or Treatment High Fructose Corn Syrup Researchers present different visions in relation to the dependence of the issue of obesity on the consumption of high fructose corn syrup. Stanhope discusses the relationship of the metabolic syndrome and consumption of fructose. It is found that increases in the consumption of high fructose corn syrup can provoke the dyslipidemia and decrease insulin sensitivity (Stanhope, 2012).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sugar and Its Role in Overweight/Obesity Development or Treatment specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Moreover, high fructose corn syrup is absorbed by the organism differently in comparison with the other types of sugar. That is why, the function of the metabolic regulating hormones can be influenced significantly. As a result, the appetite-control centers are affected, and the person’s appetite can increase, provoking the further consumption of calories and causing obesity with references to the body mass index and blood pressure (Lin et al., 2012). However, there is the lack of research in the field to state this or that point of view clearly. The discussion of the most controversial points can be supported with references to the investigation conducted by Lowndes and the group of researchers. Thus, according to the research findings, hypocaloric diets containing high fructose corn syrup can contribute to the decreases in weight of the obese individuals (Lowndes et al., 2012). From this point, high fructose corn syrup cannot be discussed as the direct cause for the epidemics of obesity in the United States as it is proclaimed by different scientists. However, all the effects of high fructose corn syrup on the human body and the development of obesity are not studied completely, and it is important to pay attention to such products containing high fructose corn syrup as soda, juice drinks, candies, and yogurts. Sorbitol To avoid obesity and control the we ight, sorbitol is used in sugar-free products. Thus, sorbitol is the component of such sugar-free products as syrups, cakes, pancakes, cookies, candies, and chocolate.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These sugar-free products can help people control their daily rates of calorie consumption because of the particular features of the sorbitol absorption by the human organism. Sorbitol is not absorbed properly, and it does not raise the blood pressure. However, the problem is in the fact that while being used in the reduced-calorie diets, sorbitol can cause such gastroenterology problems as meteorism and diarrhea (Stavniichuk et al., 2012). Nevertheless, the researchers are inclined to agree that the reduced-calorie diets based on the usage of sorbitol can be effective in overcoming the problems with obesity (Fernandez-Banares, Esteve, and Viver, 2009). Though, the proble m is also in the associated gastrointestinal symptoms. The connection of sorbitol malabsorption with gastrointestinal symptoms is obvious and the sorbitol-reduced diet can help in resolving the problem (Fernandez-Banares, Esteve, and Viver, 2009). Nevertheless, it is also important to explore the connection between the usage of sorbitol, calorie rates, gastrointestinal symptoms, and overweight in order to state clearly that sorbitol can be effective in diets to prevent obesity because of its malabsorption. Causing gastrointestinal symptoms, sorbitol can also affect the development of the other problems associated with gastroenterology which can influence the process of the absorption of different products’ components (Ledochowski et al., 20000. Thus, the problem is in the lack of the research on causes of the obesity epidemics, and sorbitol cannot be discussed as the sweetener which helps overcome the problem of obesity without harming the human health. References Fernandez-B anares, F., Esteve, M., and Viver, J. (2009). Fructose-sorbitol malabsorption. Current Gastroenterology Reports, 11(5), 368-374. Ledochowski, M., Widner, B., Bair, H., Probst, T., and Fuchs, D. (2000). Fructose- and sorbitol-reduced diet improves mood and gastrointestinal disturbances in fructose malabsorbers. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 35(10), 1048-1052.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sugar and Its Role in Overweight/Obesity Development or Treatment specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Lin, W., Huang, M., Chan, T., Ciou, S., and Lee, C. (2012). Effects on uric acid, body mass index and blood pressure in adolescents of consuming beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. International Journal of Obesity, 14(8), 19-28. Lowndes, J., Kawiecki, D., Pardo, S., Nguyen, V., Melanson, K., and Rippe, J. (2012). The effects of four hypocaloric diets containing different levels of sucrose or high fructose c orn syrup on weight loss and related parameters. Nutrition Journal, 11(55), 2-10. Stanhope, K. (2012). Role of fructose-containing sugars in the epidemics of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Annual Review of Medicine, 63(8), 329-343. Stavniichuk, R., Shevalve, H., Hirooka, H., Nadler, J., and Obrosova, I. (2012). Interplay of sorbitol pathway of glucose metabolism, 12/15-lipoxygenase, and mitogen-activated protein kinases in the pathogenesis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Biochemical Pharmacology, 83(7), 932-940.

policing the arts essays

policing the arts essays Should the Government Police the Arts Originally, when the question of the Government policing art was posed I was quite ambivalent concerning my position. I felt indecisive; on one hand I support the idea of freedom of speech, yet on the other I am against promoting outright pornography to the world. When you address censorship you must examine not only the artists right to freedom of speech, but also the rights of others to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I feel it is unfortunate that we have come to regard many differing things as art, for instance people handing out money on a street corner. As well as silly acts or objects that some people pass off as art, it seems they feel they can do anything, no matter how silly, and be protected from censorship by calling it art. Admittedly, I enjoy looking at a discreet nude photograph, and feel that people should have access to whatever material they wish within the confines of their private homes. Even though others may deem it "pornography", and con demn them their private thoughts. The photographs I am referring to are displayed in Mapplethorpe's "X-Portfolio". Among other things, they portray one man's arm inserted into anothers rectum; a man urinating into another's mouth; a finger inserted into a penis; and a self-portrait of a whip inserted in his anus. This is not the type of art most would prefer to see displayed at a public library. Without some form policing or involvement by the government our young people will get the impression that there types of activities are morally correct. Although this type of art is not in line with my own personal taste, I do feel that it should be acknowledged as an artful expression. Mapplethorpe is merely expressing himself as an individual. Regardless of how strange some may believe his photos to be, they must not be allowed to take away his freedom of expression. In essence, what I am not saying is that...

Scrivener 3 Dont Use it Until You Read This!

Scrivener 3 Dont Use it Until You Read This! Scrivener 3: Don't Use it Until You Read This! If you’re familiar with the writing tools provided by Literature and Latte, you might already know about - and be using - Scrivener 3.But if you’re a Scrivener 2 user who’s hesitant to make the switch because of Scrivener’s steep learning curve, or if you’re a Windows user who’s simply waiting for Literature and Latte to release a compatible version of Scrivener 3, we’ve got some advice to help you make the decision - or just tide you over.Before we start talking about the new functionalities on offer, let’s quickly cover what Scrivener actually is. 📚 Debating whether or not to switch to Scrivener 3? This review might help. What is Scrivener?Scrivener by Literature and Latte is a word processor for Windows and Mac, designed expressly for writers - fiction and nonfiction authors, screenwriters, journalists, academics, and more.One of the issues many writers of long texts face is navigation: assembling all of their research and information in a way that makes it easy to access what they need, when they need it. Scrivener helps with this, offering writers the tools to organize concepts, notes, research, photos, videos, documents, and more.Fun fact: What does a scrivener do? Back in the day, a scrivener (or scribe) was someone who could read and write, and made their living writing or copying material on behalf of others. How to Write a Book: The Ultimate Guide Read post Making the callScrivener is known for its feast of functionalities - but also its steep learning curve. If you struggle to stay organized while writing a book, its many tools might just be the ticket to keeping you on track to the finish line.However, if you just want a place to write - but are hoping to format as you do - consider giving the Reedsy Book Editor a try. It doesn’t offer outlining or research tools, but it will leave you with a professional-looking manuscript at the end. Or if you’re not done your book-writing software window-shopping session yet, check out this list of six book-writing softwares - other than Scrivener!Have you used Scrivener 3 - or any of its earlier iterations? Let us know what you liked about it or any struggles you faced in the comments below!

An essay of the novel Stalin's Barber Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

An of the novel Stalin's Barber - Essay Example Although Stalin was a man in possession of enormous political power, deep inside he was very insecure. Some consider him to be suffering from paranoia and delusion. Having made many enemies during his rapid ascent to the highest office, Stalin was ever fearful of retaliation from his enemies. He constantly feared the threat of assassination and did his best to minimize the chances. Toward this end, Stalin deployed body doubles of his during public events. In case an assassination attempt is made, he would thus survive. The plaster of Paris busts in the basement must have been models or dummies serving as his decoy. By all accounts, Stalin’s reign as the premier of the USSR was a terrifying one for the population. He is surely one of the most feared dictators of the 20th century, second only to Adolf Hitler (who was, ironically, defeated by Stalin). The summary executions, curtailment of several fundamental human rights (including freedom of speech) and intolerance toward dissenters were abominable features of the Stalin years. Stalin was thus a monster in terms of his practice. But when it came to rhetoric he was a seasoned politician. He paid lip service to the superiority of State over the individual, imploring his fellow countrymen to put the interests of their country above their own interests. This is a ploy to mellow down the citizeny and condition them to not raise any critical questions. When the sustenance of the State is put above concerns for individual human rights, social unrest is nipped in the bud. It is thus an effective strategy to control the population by invoking all egiance to a vague notion of patriotism. In the politically surcharged years of the Russian revolution, it was understandable why several conspiracies were hatched. There was mistrust, opportunism and exploitation even among stakeholders of the revolution, let alone the

My Big Idea regarding System of Education Assignment - 1

My Big Idea regarding System of Education - Assignment Example These issues among others are destroying the name of schoolwork in this country as the situation is moving from worse to worst. Â  Besides these issues, it is preferable to install computerized systems in schools such that students and teachers wherever they are can access the information they need. These systems should allow teachers to update syllabus, make notes, give examinations and produce results. This is well supported by virtual learning systems, and it is well done through the internet and local connections around schools. In return, the difficulties teachers and students face in schools will be limited while salaries and payments are relatively effective. The reason behind this attribute is that school staffs, students, and teachers do their core tasks required by the institution, and the rest of the other days is all for themselves to enjoy. This should be implied in the I.C.T sector. Â  Secondly, our system of education has been compromised as an orphan child among other areas in the society where it faces double standards that have created an atmosphere of frustration for primary and secondary level students. I urge the government to implant strong knowledge on practical education where specialization of one’s’ career begins at level one of secondary education. Â  I like how this craft is. As an editor of The Daily News, I would like to confirm to you that this information will be spread to people with enough courage to challenge the cabinet so that they can discuss on the implementation of these systems especially in the secondary and primary schools. Furthermore, the whole nation will be requested to give opinions on the same issue. I am sure that, once the government embarks on implementing these systems, there will be a reduced cost of manpower from the resource department.

Foreign direct investment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Foreign direct investment - Research Paper Example Lastly, the paper winds down with a thorough discussion of the political and economic reasons that inform governments’ need to intervene in the international trade. Foreign Direct Investment In every economy, the government of any given country defines the benchmark of political, social and economic leadership of that particular country. Government strategizes and sets legal mechanisms intended to drive the given country into ultimate prosperity. Economy is one of the most essential tools used by potential political contestants and prevailing governments to maintain and construct leadership by use of their individual economic policies. The direction of economic policies chosen by a government determines the nature of foreign relationships enjoyed with other nations to be affected by the set policies. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is one aspect of the economy that is capable of dictating the foreign relationship to be enjoyed between or among partnering nations. Foreign Direc t Investment occurs when a given business institution from a given country opens or transfers its operations to another foreign country (Kuepper, 2012). The main advantages of FDI are creation of new job opportunities for the host or receiving economy, and increase in tax margins received by the host government. FDI carries with it integrated technology and technical experts to the host country, which is usually in the class of developing countries. Despite its advantages, FDI being a form of investment from another country, tend to create a lot of discomfort on the recipient economy if not regulated. Kuepper (2012) indicates that one of the fears necessitate government’s intervention revolves around the fate of the domestic industries in the face of foreign direct investment. It is a normal practice in business that for any new entrant to survive in the foreign market, it has to offer its goods and services at relatively lower prices than the existing firms. The new entrant may also have to enhance the quality of its products and services to compete the existing ones to an extent of leading to closure of the local firms. These possible practices pose significant threats to the domestic firms, which justifies the role of government to set sustainable policies to foresee equitable sharing of the market and raw materials to the benefit of the entire economy. Technology, trademarks and patent rights are of great essential to the operation of any world class or highly innovative firm. Foreign firms lobbying for FDI may prove risky when it comes to technological leaks, breach of patent rights and misuse of established trademarks. To cushion the domestic firms from the negative effects of FDI, government’s involvement in the FDI will play a great role as it will help in protecting and defending the local firms. In addition, FDI are known by many governments as among the strategies to raise national income and government’s revenues. Governmentâ⠂¬â„¢s intervention is of great importance as it helps in the computation and determination of tax margins to impose on the arriving firms. It is noteworthy that every country has certain unique economic policies enforced on the local business institutions and organizations. Businesses investing in other foreign countries are likely to carry with them operational laws used in the original country. Some

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 4 Essay

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 4 - Essay Example The company has to align its business to n effective IS response giving it significant ground in the market. The IS that Brady Corporation was currently operating on did not support its business model since it made use of antique systems that were unable to communicate. As such, the IS response taken for the greater good of the business was to undertake a complete overhaul of the entire business processes of the company on a global scale, as well as, enabling them digitally. The results were phenomenal, with an annual revenue growth of 15%, a 2% reduction in operating expense, and an increase in internet orders by 50%. The roll out was successful because both the managers and employees had prior knowledge over its importance. Furthermore, the best people got the privilege of spearheading the change process, whereby all the processes mapped with their experts and owners. As such, this spectacular achievement answered the authors question on whether Brady Corporation could redesign its systems for success. The change from old processes to new processes enabled the corporation to revamp its profitability, as well as, re-establish its position in the

Impact of Social Web on Society Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Impact of Social Web on Society - Research Paper Example Te people using social websites are able to distribute/share private information, such as blog entries, photographs, and videos. There is an example of a social website that is MySpace. This social website is very famous equally with music groups and individuals, who want to share information about their tour dates, and distribute their songs on their profile pages (Bowles, 2010; Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005; Kulshreshtha, Kumar, & Sehgal, 2011). In addition, one of the most important advantages of social websites is that they are very supportive and useful method to stay in touch with many people (friends, relatives, colleagues etc.). In this scenario, if an individual has interesting news which he/she desires to share with other people (friends, relatives or community), with social web it turns out to be very simple since he/she can add/enter it on his/her personal bulletin board and it will be distributed or transferred to the people to whom he desires to share. In this way, the social networking sites play a major role in meeting with new people, whatever the purpose of it (a business deal or friendship) (Parrack, 2012; Dubai School of Government, 2011; Schultz, Schwepker, & Jr, 2012).

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 4 Essay

Human Resource Management & Information Management (MBA) pro 4 - Essay Example The company has to align its business to n effective IS response giving it significant ground in the market. The IS that Brady Corporation was currently operating on did not support its business model since it made use of antique systems that were unable to communicate. As such, the IS response taken for the greater good of the business was to undertake a complete overhaul of the entire business processes of the company on a global scale, as well as, enabling them digitally. The results were phenomenal, with an annual revenue growth of 15%, a 2% reduction in operating expense, and an increase in internet orders by 50%. The roll out was successful because both the managers and employees had prior knowledge over its importance. Furthermore, the best people got the privilege of spearheading the change process, whereby all the processes mapped with their experts and owners. As such, this spectacular achievement answered the authors question on whether Brady Corporation could redesign its systems for success. The change from old processes to new processes enabled the corporation to revamp its profitability, as well as, re-establish its position in the

Argument Essay Does Religion cause wars Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Argument Does Religion cause wars - Essay Example Religion makes significant contributions to the causes of some wars in the modern era. Witness the disputes around Jerusalem, Israels illegal occupation of Palestine and its status as a religious state, a rogue state and an aggressor state. Also, Huntingtons clash of civilizations theory places religion at the core of his warring civilizations. Jerusalem was the objective of the First Crusade, almost one millennium later it remains a focal point of religious warfare. For Jews, Jerusalem is where the Messiah will appear and the site of the original Temple of Solomon. It is also a significant site to Muslims: â€Å"Jerusalem has had a very important spiritual meaning for Muslims, not only being the first Qibla but also the mystical experience of the prophets ascendance to heaven.† (â€Å"Jerusalem in Islam†) For Christians it is where the Messiah was crucified, buried and rose again from the dead. The importance to Christianity is so great that there have been disputes within Christianity (intra-religious fighting) as to who has the privilege and responsibility of maintaining the Christian holy sites in the city. In 2008 the BBC reported, â€Å"Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Christs crucifixion.† (â€Å"Monks brawl at religious shrine†, 2008) Violence in and around Jerusalem, and attempts by various religions to claim Jerusalem as theirs, can be attributed to religion. In a broader sense the state of Israel and the warfare that has characterized its sixty years of existence are also attributable to religious roots. Israelis often insist that their differences with their neighboring states is not religious. They insist the friction is between a democratic state (Israel) and non-democratic states (Syria, Jordan and Egypt). However, it is clearly a religious issue that transcends Jerusalem. In December 2010 CNN reported â€Å"In August, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual

Evaluation of Iraq war through group think Essay Example for Free

Evaluation of Iraq war through group think Essay The War on Iraq was decided by a small group of people that was headed by the President and comprised of the Vice-President, Defense Secretary, CIA Director and other senior administrative officials. The decision to go to war was a decision of a small think-tank rather than of an individual or a larger group of people. The decision of the think-tank pushing the case for the Iraq War seems to be an apt example of confirmation bias. This confirmation bias during the events leading to the Iraq War has led to a widening rift between policy makers and the intelligence community. It is widely believed that the war think-tank defied the pointers presented by the official intelligence. Instead, the intelligence available in a raw form was misused to publicly justify the war on Iraq and build a positive public perception that would endorse the war. As the Washington Post reports the discussion on the war; The case was thin, summarized the notes taken by a British national security aide at the meeting. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. However, the think-tank was convinced about going for a war with Iraq and it used the available intelligence to confirm its beliefs. Cognitive diversity was missing in the think-tank that drew up the plan for the Iraq War. All members involved in the decision process had same political leanings, were to a large extent a culturally homogenous group and formed a small team that worked closely with each other on various policy making issues. The team did not comprise of various political voices even though the decision to go to war impacted the entire country. It did also not take advice and heed to objections of World bodies like the United Nations when some of the member countries objected to the unilateral action of the United States and its ally Britain to go to war. The team did not invite any new members to its coterie of decision makers to infuse fresh or alternative thinking in its decision making process. As Senator Barbara Boxer said, â€Å"Iraq was a war of choice, not necessity†. The intelligence community was roped in only to substantiate claims made by the think-tank on the reason to go to war. The group behaved with a preset agenda ignoring the alternatives at hand and made biased decisions. The Iraq War is also an example of group comparison where the decisions of the individual members could have been different from the decisions of the group that they were part of. The study of group polarization began with an unpublished 1961 Master’s thesis by MIT student James Stoner, who observed the so-called risky shift, meaning that a group’s decisions are riskier than the average of the individual decisions of members before the group met. After the wide public criticism of the U. S. handling of the war, two prominent members of the Iraq think-tank put in their papers. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell resigned after almost 4 years of at the helm of affairs. He was seen as less supportive of the war even though he was the public face on international forums to drum up support amongst its traditional allies. Whereas Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who took over the course of foreign policy after Powell’s exit was seen as a hardliner. It seems that the hardliners would have grown even more resolute in their decision to go to war after several rounds of deliberations that the think-tank might have had. They would have presented intelligence information and other reasons to hard sell their belief thereby subduing the reluctant supporters of the war.

What Is Knowledge According To Plato Philosophy Essay

What Is Knowledge According To Plato Philosophy Essay Plato had a strong belief that what we know in this life is recollected knowledge that was obtained in a former life, and that our soul has all the knowledge in this world, and we learn new things by recollecting what the soul already knew in the first place. Plato offers three observations of knowledge and he puts Socrates to reject all three of them. Platos first observation is that true belief is knowledge. Socrates rejects this by stating that when a jury believes the accused to be guilty by just hearing the prosecuting attorneys argument, rather than of any concrete evidence, it cannot be known if a defendant is guilty even if he is guilty. The jurys true belief is therefore not knowledge. The second observation is that knowledge and perception are the same. Socrates rejects this by saying that we can perceive without knowing and we can know without perceiving. For example, we can see and hear a sound without us knowing what or where it is coming from. If we can perceive without knowing, then knowledge cannot be the same as perception. Platos third observation is that true belief along with a logical account is knowledge, but true belief without a logical account is different from knowledge. The only problem with this observation is the word account. All the definitions of the word account are not valid for this argument. These observations are a great example of attacking the insufficient theories of knowledge, but Plato never gives a complete answer on what is the definition of knowledge. Plato preferred truth as the highest value, stating that it could be found through reason and logic in discussion. He called this dialectic. Plato preferred rationality rather than emotional appeal, for the purpose of persuasion, discovery of truth, and as the determinant of action. To Plato, truth was the higher good, and every person should find the truth to guide his or her life. Platos doctrine of recollection says that rather than learning in the common sense, what is actually happening when people are thinking about a problem, and find a solution to that problem, is that they are recollecting things that they already knew. The reason that Plato came up with this theory was because of the learners paradox. The learners paradox is that how can someone learn something if they dont even know what it is. As Meno points out if we dont know what something is then how will we know when we have it? When, for example, we say that we dont know what 946308 divided by 22 is, how can it be that we can find the answer to be 43014? If we dont already know that 946308 / 22 = 43014 then when someone tells us this we should not be able to know that answer is right. Aristotle also believes that knowledge is a form of recollection. He believes that there are universal causes and particular causes, however, unlike Plato; he believes that particulars carry an essence of the form. The four causes, or what makes an object what it is, are its efficient, material, formal, and final causes. The efficient cause is the primary source of the change. The material cause is the material of which it consists. The formal cause is its form. The final cause is its aim or purpose. Using the example of a skyscraper, the efficient cause is the act of building the skyscraper, the material cause is the material used to build it, the formal cause is the blueprint, and the final cause is using the skyscraper as a skyscraper. Everything has these four causes, but substantially changing any of them will cause the skyscraper to lose its skyscraperness. If you know all of a particulars causes, you know its essence. Everything has to have a cause. To truly understand something, we must know its explanation and that it cannot be otherwise. Demonstration must be from things that are true because deducing something from a falsehood would not give understanding of it. Things that are less general and closer to perception are prior relative to us. Things that are more general and further from perception are prior by nature. Demonstrations must be from things that are prior by nature. The premises of demonstrations must give the reason why the conclusion is true. Aristotle defines syllogism as a discourse in which, certain things having been supposed, something different from the things supposed results of necessity because these things are so. One syllogism that he used was: Socrates is a man, All men are mortal, therefore Socrates is mortal. Plato and Aristotles understanding of knowledge are complimentary in that they both believe knowledge is obtained by recollection. Also, they both value truth as the best way to obtain knowledge. What makes it contradictory is that Aristotle goes deeper into the subject of knowledge by stating that particulars have to carry an essence of the form and gives four causes that aid in finding the essence. Therefore, their understanding of knowledge is both complimentary and contradictory. I think we have abandoned the dialectical and demonstrative methods to a certain extent, but not completely. Most classes teach in the way that sophists teach, by just giving us the facts. An example could be my college algebra class, that teaches me how to do a problem but it doesnt tell me why it is like that. But then we have other classes, for example Mr. Hindmans classes, that do use those 2 methods. I think we need to incorporate these valuable methods more into our public school systems and it might help in raising grades up.

Comparing Relationships in Susan Glaspells Trifles and Cherrie Moraga

Female Relationships in Susan Glaspell's Trifles and Cherrie Moraga's Giving Up the Ghost The plays Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, and Giving Up the Ghost, by Cherrie Moraga, focus on women's interaction in various contexts. Despite the seventy-eight years between their performance dates and the drastic difference in settings and narrative content, the main female characters are comparable, as Mrs. Hale, in Trifles, points out, "We all go through the same things -- it's just a different kind of the same thing" (Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, 1359). These plays show the varying degrees of closeness women can have in female relationships, and the role circumstances play. When Trifles opens, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters do not know each other, and Mrs. Peters does not know Mrs. Wright; initially establishing the women's familiarity is important as they are essentially strangers. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are immediately grouped together by the men in the play, who subtly consider them and their concerns insignificant; Mr. Hale notes, "Women are used to worrying over trifles" (Glaspell 1353). The irony of the women finding what the men can not, Mrs. Wright's motive, emphasizes their importance in the play; the men failing to recognize this also creates dramatic irony. Mrs. Hale having known Mrs. Wright before she was married and having not visited her in over a year is significant as she illustrates Mrs. Wright's transition from a social to an isolated woman as a result of her marriage to John Wright. As she has children, Mrs. Hale can understand the importance of Mrs. Wright's canary, which served as the role of her child; similarly, Mrs. Peters can rela te to Mrs. Wright, whose only company in her quiet, empty house was ... ...en. Probably the most striking commonality is how women relate through those by which they are haunted: just as Marisa recalls her cousin Norma who was committed to a mental hospital, Alejandro's death seriously impacts Amalia; Mrs. Peters recalls her dead baby in an effort to relate to Mrs. Wright, and Mrs. Hale remembers the woman Mrs. Wright was before her marriage. Both Glaspell and Moraga explore the universal theme of isolation and how relationships can create, in the case of Mrs. Wright, or diminish it, as with Marisa and Amalia. Works Cited Gilbert, Sandra M. and Teresa Sullivan. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York: Norton, 1985. Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York: Norton, 1985. Moraga, Cherrie. Giving Up the Ghost. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York: Norton, 1985.

Improving Speaking Skills Essay

This article examines the different circumstances under which infant and adult learners develop speaking skills. We will see the facilities or difficulties in both cases in order to focus on the real possibilities of adults to develop a high level of speaking proficiency. We will see what the role of the teacher is in order to improve the learners’ skills, the features of oral communication that need to be improved and which strategies can be used to overcome the difficulties. Key words: speaking skills, adult learning, oral communication, teaching strategies. Resumen Este articulo analiza las diferentes circunstancias en las que ninos y adultos desarrollan las destrezas orales. Veremos las facilidades y dificultades en ambos casos para asi centrarnos en las posibilidades reales que tienen los adultos de alcanzar un alto nivel de competencia oral. Veremos tambien cual es el papel del profesor en este contexto, para mejorar las capacidades de los alumnos, y ver cuales son los elementos de la comunicacion oral que hay que mejorar y que estrategias se pueden aplicar para superar las dificultades. Palabras clave: destrezas orales, aprendizaje de adultos, comunicacion verbal, estrategias de ensenanza. If we think of the period in our lives when we learned to speak our first language, and the moment in which we started to make huge efforts to speak our second/foreign language we find significant differences. In the former case, we may have fond memories of what our parents told us; and in the latter, it suddenly becomes a frustrating experience that seems to bring imperfect results. For adults, learning to speak a new language is in many cases far from satisfactory simply because they feel they need to cope with many different aspects at one time, and that seems to be impossible in real conversations. I wonder if it is possible to acquire a high level of speaking proficiency in adults; I wonder if it is possible to make adult learners improve their speaking skills, and the most important thing for teachers: how? The first question we have to consider in order to reach a conclusion is whether learning at infancy is different from learning at adulthood; which are the circumstances that differentiate them and if those onditions inevitably lead to obvious and hopeless results. Only bearing in mind what we can expect of a particular type of learner, we can focus on how to improve their speaking skills. It is obvious that there are marked differences between children learners and adult learners and that they cannot acquire the second language under the same circumstances. Consequently, the results will be also different. Concerning children and the early age at which they learn to speak, we can say that they enjoy certain advantages that make them outstanding learners. They have surprising linguistic abilities due to optimal moment in which they find themselves for language learning, this is to say, at this moment their brain is characterized by a certain plasticity that allows some abilities to develop with ease during a period of time, after which it becomes really difficult for these abilities to be developed (Fleta, 2006: 53), or using 86 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Klein’s words ‘between the age of two and puberty the human brain shows the plasticity which allows a child to acquire his first language’ (Klein, 1986: 9). Therefore, children are special learners for their natural and innate abilities to acquire a language. According to Fleta, one of these special abilities is ‘filtering sophisticated information about language properties from birth’ (Fleta, 2006: 49), in other words, children have an enormous ability to integrate difficult information in an easy and unconscious way from the beginning of their development. They are able to acquire and integrate complex data without being aware of it, whereas other learners, at other ages, would find it arduous to achieve. Moreover, apart from this special gift children have for assimilating difficult information, we can mention some of their other qualities, such as their capacity for perceiving and imitating sounds. Some studies have showed that ‘young infants are especially sensitive to acoustic changes at the phonetic boundaries between categories’ (Kuhl, 2004: 832). Also, children are especially good at predicting syllable chunks: ‘infants are sensitive to the sequential probabilities between adjacent syllables’ (Kuhl, 2004: 834) which makes children with a surprising instinct as far as language knowledge is concerned . Finally, students also acquire the ability of ordering words within a sentence (grammar rules) unconsciously: ‘there is some evidence that young children can detect non-adjacencies such as those required to learn grammar’ (Kuhl, 2004: 836). All in all, we can say that children learn the language without being aware of it when they ‘are exposed to the right kind of auditory information’ (Kuhl, 2004: 836), this is, children learn the language through communication and interaction and thanks to that they acquire all the abilities they can potentially develop. On the other hand, concerning adults we observe how difficult is that they can acquire certain native sounds; their pronunciation will be, on many occasions, foreign-like which is due to their difficulty in distinguishing and producing some sounds after the so called ‘critical period’. In that respect, some authors claim that adult learners cannot acquire a phonological development (Lightbown and Spada, 2006: 69). However, other researchers defend the opposite. Wolfgang Klein, in his book Second Language Acquisition (1986) stated that ‘the apparent facility with which children learn a second language is often attributed to biological factors, but an alternative explanation might be that, unlike adults, children have no need to fear the loss of their social identity’ (Klein, 1986: 6). Authors such as Klein argue that phonological facilities of children are not bound to biological reasons, but to psychological ones. In that respect, adults feel attached to their native identities, to their original social identities, which is what prevent them from achieving perfection in L2 pronunciation. Klein confirmed that ‘suitably motivated adults are capable of mastering to perfection the pronunciation of the most exotic languages’ (Klein, 1986: 10). Therefore, we conclude that although the cases of adults speaking a second language without any accent are not very common, this does not mean that it is impossible to acquire a native-like pronunciation. Also, besides phonological issues, we can talk about the capacity of adults to acquire any other kind of linguistic faculties, more related to structural relations (UG). In that sense, there are authors that doubt the validity of Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) by assuring that even adults have access to the well known Universal Grammar. While Lenneberg claimed that only before puberty learners had UG available, authors such as S. W. Felix defended by evidence that adult L2 learners also benefit from the UG principles: ‘If child and adult learners use different modules for the purpose of language acquisition, then we would expect adult learners to be unable to attain grammatical knowledge that arises only through the mediation of UG. If, in contrast, adults do attain this type of knowledge, then, we have reason to believe that UG continues to be active even after puberty’ (Felix, 1988: 279). Therefore, we can conclude that adults are also able to master a proficient use of the second/foreign language, not only in grammatical issues but also in phonological ones, which makes us believe that we can improve adult learners’ speaking skills. 87 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Once we know that adults can be biologically and psychologically prepared to have a native-like proficiency in the second language, we should move on to the second language teaching context in order to achieve our aim of improving adult learners’ skills. In that respect, we should reflect on the teachers’ role in this situation and what they can do to be successful with their learners. Teachers therefore need to analyse the students’ needs, face their problems and find fruitful solutions that help them develop their speaking abilities. S. Pit Corder, in his chapter called ‘Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching’, in Introducing Applied Linguistics (1973) defended the important role of linguists who identify the problems of the learners and find solutions for them. Corder added that specialists’ role is to formulate the appropriate questions in order to define problems that need to be faced. Using his words, ‘the formulation of the questions, the identification of the problems and the specification of their nature presupposes linguistic theory. The nature of the problem is defined by the theory which is applied to it. The solution to a problem is only as good as the theory which has been used to solve it’ (Corder, 1973: 138). In this direction he said that in language teaching there are two appropriate questions teachers should make: what to teach and how to teach, ‘these are the problems of content and method, or, using an industrial analogy, the problem of product and process design respectively’ (Corder, 1973: 139). Therefore, if teachers wish to know how to improve speaking skills, what they need to ask themselves first is what they are going to teach, and how. On the one hand, let us consider the first question: what. If we need to improve speaking skills we need to know which skills or which features learners need to develop. In that respect, there are several authors that stated different goals or different dimensions that speakers needed to achieve. Goodwin, for instance, established several goals for a proper pronunciation. She called them ‘functional intelligibility, functional communicability, increased self-confidence, and speech-monitoring abilities’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118). She argued that learners should be able to speak an intelligible foreign language, that is to say, listeners need to understand the learner’s message without huge efforts; learners also need to be successful in a ‘specific communicative situation’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118); they need to ‘gain confidence in their ability to speak and be understood’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118); and finally, they need to monitor and control their own production by paying attention to their own speech. Goodwin specified those abilities that learners need to acquire through certain linguistic features that can be practiced: Intonation, rhythm, reduced speech, linking words, consonants and vowel sounds, word stress, etc. These are concrete speaking aspects in which learners should be trained in order to improve their speaking skills. Similarly, other authors such as Anne Lazaraton suggest that oral communication is based on four dimensions or competences: grammatical competence (phonology, vocabulary, word and sentence formation†¦); sociolinguistic competence (rules for interaction, social meanings); discourse competence (cohesion and how sentences are liked together); and finally, strategic competence (compensatory strategies to use in difficult situations), (Lazaraton, 2001: 104). According to Lazaraton learners should develop all these abilities to acquire a high oral level of the foreign language, but she adds that in recent years, with the influence of the communicative approach, more importance is given to fluency, trying to achieve a balance with the traditional accuracy. Moreover, apart from what pedagogically and theoretically should be taught, many researchers are presently analysing real problems that learners face: ‘fluent speech contains reduced forms, such as contractions, vowel reduction, and elision, where learners do not get sufficient practice’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 103); use of slang and idioms in speech since students tend to sound ‘bookish’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 103), stress, rhythm, intonation, lack of active vocabulary, lack of interaction pattern rules†¦ 88 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Once speaking goals have been determined, next step consists of questioning how they are going to be achieved. For designing a concrete methodology teachers need to adopt a theoretical perspective, they need to reflect on the linguistic approach that will be used in their teaching. Many authors, following the up-todate trend of the Communicative approach, defend the interactive role of speaking and promote its teaching from a communicative perspective stressing meaning and context. In Goodwin’s words: ‘In â€Å"Teaching Pronunciation† the goal of instruction is threefold: to enable our learners to understand and be understood, to build their confidence in entering communicative situations, and to enable them to monitor their speech’ (Goodwin, 2001: 131), also ‘pronunciation is never an end in itself but a means of negotiating meaning in discourse, embedded in specific sociocultural and interpersonal contexts’ (Goodwin,2001: 117). If we think of how this theoretical background will be applied in real teaching, we find that in traditional classes they focused speaking practice on the production of single and isolated sounds, whereas within the communicative approach, ‘the focus shifted to fluency rather than accuracy, encouraging an almost exclusive emphasis on suprasegmentals’ (Goodwin, 2001: 117). There is the key word, when communication is the main goal linguistic practice turns into longer structures, at the suprasegmental level; therefore, the training on individual sounds makes way for macro structures that affect interaction directly. The second part of how to teach, moves away from theory to approach real problems and their solutions. Several authors have stated that when learners face problems in speaking they need practical and concrete solutions to know how to behave and respond in order to overcome those difficulties. Mariani, in his article ‘Developing Strategic Competence: Towards Autonomy in Oral Interaction’, recalls L1 strategies that native speakers use when they encounter communication problems, and suggests teaching those strategies to L2 learners: ‘just think of how often, in L1 communication, we cannot find the words to say something and have to adjust our message, or to ask our interlocutor to help us, or to use synonyms or general words to make ourselves understood’ (Mariani, 1994: 1). Mariani classifies those strategies according to the speakers’ behaviour: learners can either avoid certain messages because they don’t feel confident with their speaking skills (‘reduction strategies’), or make the most out of their knowledge and modify their message bearing in mind their weaknesses and strengths (‘achievement strategies’: borrowing, foreignizing, translating†¦(Mariani, 1994: 3). The author praises the latter by saying that achievement strategies are a very interesting way of developing learners’ language domain. Speakers who opt for this option make huge efforts to transmit a message by playing with the language to the extreme, which only brings beneficial consequences. In the second or foreign language classroom context, teachers should train learners to use and practice the different strategies that can help them face difficult situations. The only way of training students in this direction is by means of a bank of activities in which they become aware of the different possibilities that they can put into practice. Authors such as Goodwin or Lazaraton offer a varied list of exercises to be used in class: poems, rhymes, dialogues, monologues, role plays, debates, interviews, simulations, drama scenes, discussions, conversations†¦ Therefore, coming back to the initial question proposed above, I think it is absolutely feasible to teach adults strategies to improve their speaking skills. Of course, that objective depends on many different factors that will affect the degree of acquisition, let us think of age, motivation, or even the context in which the language is learned: ESL versus EFL. In that respect, learners in a second language context will have numberless occasions to practice the language and that will undoubtedly influence their skills development. With reference to the foreign language context, authors such as Lazaraton admitted the difficulties learners 89 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 ormally face: ‘homogeneous EFL classes, where all students speak the same first language and English is not used outside the classroom, present certain additional challenges for the teacher’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 110). As she said, teachers have considerable limitations in EFL classes such as lack of opportunities to use the language, lack of motivation in the learners, the number of students in the class, curriculum re strictions†¦(Lazaraton, 2001: 110), but there are solutions and strategies, as the ones previously mentioned, that should be put into practice. Mariani, in his article mentioned above, also makes a reflection on whether communication strategies should be teachable or not. He states the pros and cons by saying that training students on specific strategies can provide them with certain limitations and consequently hamper fluent communication: ‘we can hardly force them into a straightjacket of pre-selected strategies. Most of us would agree that we should encourage spontaneity, creativity and originality in language use’ (Mariani, 1994: 7). However, on the other hand, he argues that if learners become aware of the different strategies they can flexibly use, they will finally integrate them either consciously or unconsciously, which will stretch their possibilities for communication. To sum up, as teachers can, and should, improve learners’ speaking skills and communication strategies, the only thing they need to do is to plan their teaching around two main questions: what they want to teach, which specific speaking features they want to develop in their learners; and how they want to do it.

Business Trip Brussels Essay

My flight to Stockholm would be late landing. The pilot told us that we were in a ‘stack’ of planes circling above the snow clouds that were giving Brussels its first taste of winter. Air traffic control had closed the runways for a short period at dawn, and the early morning flights from all around Europe were now being allocated new landing slots along with the long-haul jumbos from the Far East and the US. After a 20-minute delay, we descended bumpily through the clouds, and landed on a recently cleared runway. Even then there was a further ‘hold’ on a taxiway; we were told that the de-icing of the apron was being completed so that planes could proceed to their allocated stands and airbridges. All around the airport I could see the scurrying flashing beacons of the snow-clearing vehicles, the catering suppliers’ vans, the aviation fuel trucks, the baggage trailers, buses transporting crews and passengers, security police cars, and an assortment of other vehicles all going purposefully about their work. Brussels airport always looks busy, with over 10 million passengers a year, but this morning the complexity and scale of the operations were particularly evident. Finally, about an hour late, we pulled up to the gate, the engines were turned off, and we disembarked into an icy-cold airbridge, leaving behind a particularly untidy plane strewn with litter from a full cabin of restless passengers. We passed the team of cleaners and maintenance staff waiting just outside. They will have a hard time this morning; more mess to clear and probably less time than usual to do it, as the airline will want a quick turnaround to get back on to schedule,’ I commented to my colleagues. We could just hear the sounds of frantic activities going on below the plane: baggage and cargo being unloaded, catering vehicles arriving, fuel being loaded, and technicians checking over the engines and control surfaces. Everyone trying to get their work completed quickly and correctly, not least so that they could get back indoors out of the biting cold wind! From the airbridge we walked past the crowded seating areas, where plane-sized groups were gathering anxiously awaiting the signal from the gate staff to board their much delayed flights. Then on to the moving walkways, conveyed leisurely past other departure lounges, equally overfilled with passengers. Anxious to get ahead of the crowd, we took to a running pace past the rows of cafes, bars and shops, hoping to avoid the usual morning queue for Passport Control. I should have remembered the old saying ‘more haste, less speed’ because my next journey was to the First Aid room! I had apparently slipped on some spilt coffee that had not been cleaned up in the haste of the morning, and had fallen awkwardly, straining my ankle and breaking my duty-free brandy. ‘At least they would clean the floor after that,’ I thought, sadly. Suitably patched up, I hobbled with my colleagues and joined the long queue for Passport Control, and eventually through to Baggage Reclaim. Even with the excellent new baggage-handling systems in Brussels, the passengers usually get there first, but the accident had changed all that! Scanning the video screens, we found no reference to our flight arrival; the remaining bags from our flight had apparently already been removed from the carousel and were stored in an adjacent office. After a simple signing ceremony, we were reunited with our belongings, and hastened (slowly in my case) to the taxi rank. Our hopes of a quick ride to the city were dispelled when we saw the long queue in the icy wind, so we made our way to the station below, where a dedicated ‘City Express’ train departs every 20 minutes for the Gare de Nord and Gare Centrale. We just missed one! After a busy and successful day at our Brussels office, a taxi was called, and we were back at the airport in the thick of the evening rush hour. The departures check-in area is the upper floor of a vast new terminal extension, and is very orderly and well equipped. Facing you on entry from the taxi drop-off point is a huge electronic display which lists all departures scheduled for the next few hours and showing the appropriate check-in desk number for each flight. The speed of the check-in systems has been improved dramatically, so there was no queue at our desk, and the three of us were issued with boarding passes in only a couple of minutes. Our baggage sped away on conveyors down to the new sorting hall two storeys below. Brochures explain that the new terminal extension was designed to make it possible to go from check-in to final boarding in only 20 minutes, which has involved investment in a state-of-the-art automated baggage-handling system. On my last visit, following traffic delays on the way to the airport, I found that this system works, but I doubt that it would if everyone arrived only 20 minutes before departure! It is no wonder that they advise checking in one hour before; it also gives passengers much more time to spend money in the duty-free shops, restaurants and bars! By this time, my injured leg had swollen up and was throbbing painfully. This seemed to be a routine situation for the check-in staff, who arranged for a wheelchair and attendant to take me through Border Control and security checks. While my colleagues travelled down to the departures hall by escalator, I took the slower route by lift, meeting just outside the duty-free shops where the attendant left them to take care of me. We had some time to spare, so we replenished the brandy, bought some Belgian chocolates and headed for a cafe-bar. While Brussels is renowned for its excellent cuisine, we didn’t expect to find high standards of food in the quick-service environment of an airport, but we were wrong! The delicious aromas of freshly prepared food attracted our custom, and we weren’t disappointed. After a welcome glass of speciality raspberry-flavoured beer to round off the meal, we headed for the airline’s executive lounge. The view across the airfield was not promising! After a bright, crisp day, more snow-laden clouds had arrived and a chill wind cut across the tarmac. De-icing crews were working on the parked aircraft and others were treating the runways, taking quick action between the aircraft movements. Concerned that we might be delayed and miss our connection at Oslo, we checked with the staff at the airline’s flight information desk. After some phoning, they confirmed that, although there could be some delays, Oslo had arranged to hold connecting flights, as many passengers originated from Brussels. Their professional and friendly advice made us feel much more at ease, and they even offered to allow us to send fax or phone messages to our destination. They couldn’t have been more helpful. Announcements of the minor delays were made over the speaker system, but it wasn’t long before we were directed to the departure lounge and were preparing to board. Outside, around the aircraft in the gloom, the baggage trucks were pulling away and the giant push-off tractor was being connected up to the nose-wheel. Ten minutes later, we were at the end of the runway, ready for take-off. ‘Today must have been a very busy one for everyone involved in keeping the airport open,’ I thought, ‘but perhaps every day has its own challenges in such a complex operation. ’

Langston Hughes’s Harlem

His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Hughes had a very poor relationship with his father. He lived with his father in Mexico for a brief period in 1919. Upon graduating from high school in June 1920, Hughes returned to Mexico to live with his father, hoping to convince him to support Langston's plan to attend Columbia University.Hughes later said that, prior to arriving in Mexico: â€Å"l had been hinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much. Initially, his father had hoped for Hughes to attend a university abroad, and to study for a career in engineering. On these grounds, he was willing to provide financial assistance to his son but did not support his de sire to be a writer. Eventually, Hughes and his father came to a compromise: Hughes would study engineering, so long as he could attend Columbia.His tuition provided; Hughes left his father after more than a year. While at Columbia in 1921, Hughes managed to maintain a 8+ grade average. He left in 1922 because of racial prejudice, and his interests revolved more around the neighborhood of Harlem than his studies, though he continued writing poetry. In Lincoln, Illinois, Hughes had begun writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. During these years, he held odd lobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman.In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D. C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not without L aughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature. Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties.Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been iven landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street nas been renamed â€Å"Langston Hughes Place. † First published in The Crisis in 1921, â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† became Hughes's signature poem which was collected in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues in 1926. Hughes's first and last published poems appeared in The Crisis; more of his poems were published in The Crisis than in any other Journal.Hughes's life and work were enormously influential during the Harlem Renaissan ce of the 1920s, alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas. Except for McKay, they worked together also to create the short-lived magazine Fire, devoted to younger Negro artists. Hughes and his contemporaries had different goals and aspirations than the black middle class. They criticized the men known as the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance: W. E. B.Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Alain LeRoy Locke, as being overly accommodating and assimilating Eurocentric values and culture to achieve social equality. Langston Hughes is famous for his poems during the Harlem Renaissance. In his poems he incorporated the real lives of blacks n the lower social-economic strata. He criticized the divisions and prejudices based on skin color within the black community. Hughes wrote what would be considered their manifesto, â€Å"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain† published in The Nation in 1926.Hughes identified as unashamedly black at a time when blackness was d ©mod ©. He stressed the theme of â€Å"black is beautiful† as he explored the black human condition in a variety of depths. His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience. His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working-class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, Joy, laughter, and music.Permeating his work is pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. â€Å"My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind,† Hughes is quoted as saying. He confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America's image of itself; a â€Å"people's poet† who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality. Langston Hughes has many famous poems; Mother to Son, 50:50, but my favorite is Harlem (A Dream Deferred). Harlem† is a lyric poem with irregular rhyme and an irregular metrical pattern that sums up the white oppression of blacks in America. It first appeared in 1951 in a collection of Hughes's poetry, Montage ofa Dream Deferred. In 1951 †the year of the poem's publication†frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. The Civil War in the previous century had liberated them from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. However, continuing prejudice against blacks, as well as laws passed since the Civil War, relegated them to second-class citizenship.Consequently, blacks had to attend poorly equipped segregated schools and settle for menial Jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys, and so on. In many states, blacks could not use the same public facilities as w hites, including restrooms, restaurants, theaters, and parks. Access to other facilities, such as buses, required them to take a back seat, literally, to whites. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with nferior status became a powder keg, and the fuse was burning.Hughes well underst what the tuture held, as ne indicates in the last line ot the poem. Langston Hughes's poem â€Å"Harlem (A Dream Deferred)† is about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. Hughes probably intended for the poem to focus on the dreams of African-Americans in particular because he originally entitled the poem â€Å"Harlem,† which is the capital of African American life in the United States; however, it is Just as easy to read the poem as being about dreams in general and what happens when people postpone making them come true.Ultimately, Hughes uses a carefully arranged series of images that also function as figures of speech to suggest that people should not delay their dreams because the more they postpone them, the more the dreams will change and the less likely they will come true. Harlem (A Dream Deferred) is my favorite Langston Hughes's poems because he is talking about how problems are in the world we are living in. He knows that African Americans have their freedom and rights now but, they are still issue with unfair treatment. Hughes dreams that his race keeps battling through adversity and hopes that things will get better.I think what makes Langston Hughes poems so popular is his interaction to his audience. Hughes relates and involves real world events in his poems. Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and po litics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride

Chapter 6 Presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chapter 6 Presentation - Essay Example Theres also potential for harm when decisions affecting students futures are being made based on results of assessments made with tools that are not appropriate for the purpose. A good designer generally begins to think about assessment instruments as she develops the learning objectives. This is done to help ensure that not only does the assessment match the objectives but appropriately amplifies and clarifies the objectives themselves. Practicality: Optimal assessment might be a many-itemed constructed response or performance exam that is as close as possible to the real life situation in which the learners will apply their knowledge for all objectives with a carefully developed set of criteria for evaluating the responses. Trade-offs in Assessment Design: It is indeed important to consider carefully decisions as to which factors are most important for the particular assessment situation and then male trade-offs among the factors of validity, reliability and practicality. All design work involves consideration of trade-offs (Petroski, 2003). Swanson, Norman, and Linn (1995) proposed that â€Å"authentic assessment† is synonymous with performance assessment. They defined performance assessment as â€Å"testing complex, ‘higher order’ knowledge and skills in the real world context in which they are actually used, generally with open-ended tasks that require substantial examinee time to complete. 1 Observation of On-the-job performance: The best way to see if students have learned what we want them to learn at the necessary level is to take into the real world and have them perform what they have been instructed to do. The test instruments can be a checklist or rating scale. Checklists may be appropriate for on-the-job assessments if all critical cognitions in the newly acquired learning are manifested in observable behavior. Rating scale is used when a more refined evaluation of a process or product than just

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FINANCE LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FINANCE LAW - Essay Example Buy-back and the countertrade, are long-phase trade agreements with the mutual trade flows happening at varied phases of the period. Where readily viable credit facilities and readily acknowledged forms of money exchange are available, markets eschew inefficient and cumbersome countertrade transactions. However, due to governmental restrictions on operation of markets and due to international liquidity issues have motivated many nonmarket economies ( NMEs) and majority of the less-developed countries and industrially developed nations, to usher â€Å" creative â€Å" business transactions that bypass the normal exchange medium of contemporary markets2. It is estimated that about 25 to 30% of international trade are carried through unofficially by way of countertrade or barter system and various empirical evidence prove that whenever there is a financial or economic crisis, there is an increased practice of these kinds of trade. As per Aggarwal, government may persist on countertrad e to safeguard or to kindle the output of domestic industries. This kind of protectionism may kindle counter-purchase or offset deals which in turn may facilitate to purchase much required skills to develop the economy further. According to Lecraw, countertrade practices can be employed to override other guises of protectionists’ trade policies and finally the government policies which attempt to balance and plan its foreign trade, may involve statutory countertrade3. From what has been mentioned above, this research essay, an earnest attempt will be made to find out the legal principles involved in the financing of countertrade transactions in the international oil and gas business with a particular emphasis to whether the present law is adequate to support business in this province with decided cases on the subject, in order to discuss the issue adequately before coming to a conclusion. Legal Principles involved in Countertrade The legal principles in the financing of count ertrade transactions 1. Discrimination principle As per IMF estimates , the countertrade is presently employed by half of its members and is viewed as a guise of exchange restriction and trade which is especially condemned in cases of debt rescheduling by a member nation as in the case of Romania in 1982-1983. In the countertrade , the export revenue will not be distributed fairly and hence there is a legal principle of discrimination exists in countertrade. 2. Protection of domestic industries The WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement states that Member nations may levy anti-dumping duties, where dumping is considered to create ‘material damage’ to the domestic industry. countertrade is frequently said to be means of destabilising or evading anti-dumping law, because countertraded goods lack a translucent, arms-length export price. Hence , countertrade has the legal principle of offering no protection to domestic industries . 3. Consultation principle Countertrade like any other export or import transactions includes negotiation of disputes through alternate dispute mechanism like arbitration etc. 4. Stable basis of trade Countertrade helps to maintain stable prices during the period of extreme exchange volatility and also helps to attain a stable export revenue for a nation. 5. Types of letters of credit framework of agreement obligations Letter of Credits are significant in countertrade transactions concerning parallel L/Cs and are also significant to make sure payment on