Debate .. Football industry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Debate .. Football industry - Assignment Example Therefore, the paper will seek to emphasize what the football industry is worth and the factors that have made to be considered as getting out of control. It will also look at some of the measures that have been put in place to reduce hooliganism in the football industry. According to Batile et al (2014), the football industry is a profitable global sport that attracts revenue amounting to an excess of 5.4 billion Euros every year. Match day, commercial and broadcasting revenues are the major sources of income that most football clubs use to collect revenues on a day to day basis. Match day revenues are derived mainly from gate receipts paid by fans and spectators, memberships and season tickets. On the other hand, broadcasting revenues accrue from international and domestic competitions such as UEFA while commercial revenues are mostly gotten from merchandising and sponsorships. This means that in the process of determining profitable clubs, all these sources of revenue are accounted for. Based on these revenue models, Real Madrid has been rated the most profitable club in the world today for the ninth consecutive time (Mughal, 2014). It has total revenue of 518.9 million Euros, with match day collections of 119, commercial 183.3 while commercial ha ving revenues totaling to 211.6 million Euros. Moreover, by analyzing the revenue generated by other top clubs in the football industry such as FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and arsenal, a clear picture of what the football industry is worth can be ascertained. FC Barcelona comes in second with total revenue amounting to 413.6 million sterling pounds. Broadcasting revenues accrued from domestic and international competitions were valued at 188.2 million Euros while commercial income totals to 176.8 million Euros (Mughal, 2014). Manchester United is

Can India Become a Superpower Essay Example for Free

Can India Become a Superpower Essay Can India become a Superpower? The question is common and comes in evey mind, the topic is everlasting and in limeline. For being a superpower a country must have to solve his external and internal conflicts,its true that no country an become a superpower if ts not a developed one and india has yet to devlope andcan be said as an emerging power. Walking on this path is not so smooth you will find thorns that make you lame and sometimes huge rocks are ready to crush you so as India is facing it in this present senario (courption and repeatedly millitant attacks). India: A brief discription India so called as democratic country struggling to become a developed country has got a vast heritage. The overall population of India is 1.2 billion in 2013 and according to survey it will be going to become 1.4 billion in 2025 and in 2050 it will become 1.6 billion. Putting some light on political arena, Indian constitution has parliamentary system, multiparty system, liberal and conservatives. But it doesnt matter what rights we have there in our constitution because all are violated either by us or by governmennt, cant blame on a particular society or league of people. Now, the question comes, why it is not so easy to become a superpower, even we have proved ourself in every section of development? It is not so significant either you have taken your first steps in every section of development but it mainly depends on the factors that converts a country from developing to a developed country. Historical mistakes India has suffered a lot and yet it is suffering from illness, in historical time illness was that we were always being ruptured by foreign invaders Mughals, Englishmen, Portugese etc. The reason was our weakness because at that time trading were made on a large scale and to fullfill our needs manual manufacturing starts declining and industrial revolution take place which was the father of modern history and guess who was the mother none other than renissance that is re birth. Re birth of rationalism so the people of India were divided in many parts and didnt accept this change, now we are facing a big problem as at that time we belive in rituals not on reasons. The reason was, we were not united and till now we are facing the same problem of unity. Internal conflicts As disscused above the first problem we face is Being a united nation but not a united one that is, we say that India is a secular country, every one can follow his/her religion and yes we are enjoying it alot but somehow religion has divided us. The best example, RESERVATION, it is boldly mark because the worst thing to face and to fight, its quite similar to a railway reservation, for that you have to wait for your call, but it never comes because the middle man has reserved all the tickets for journey, here the middle man are bureaucrats. And on other hand the politicians are using it as a weapon to fill their vote banks, the manner, is giving reservation on the bases of religion and earning votes according to it. They alone cant be blame because its we who support them for our own cause. Not only reservation there are many problems like Hindu Muslim conflict, telangana case, diffrent language (yes its also a cause for not being united) etc are also responsible and wrtting on this will take a lot pages and suffcient time. External conflicts India is surrounded by lot many neighbours like Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, Afganistan and Sri Lanka. India Has bilatreal relation with all its neighbours and trying to maintain it but if we talk about Pakistan one of the oldest enemy of India causing a lot trouble supported by China. Recently there was a heavy load of firing in Poonch, Kashmir after PAK elects its Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who promised to solve problems with India regarding there relation. If we recall our memory Sri Lanka used to say that the LTTE is supported by India to break them. So its quite clear even though we have bilateral relation with our neighbours, we are facing a sense of rebel from there side. Terrorism One of the most significant problem faced by India which is restraining it to become a super power. The word terrorism always recall us Kargil war(1999), 26/11 mumbai attack, Dantewada tragedy and recently the attack on congressmen, not only this a lot many more attacks we have faced. PAK millitants has threaten so called heaven Kashmir anad on eastern side and central part Naxalites responsible for killing innocent people. Naxalites are considerd as terrorist organisation after Unlawfull Activites (Prevention) Act 1967 and also a most dangerous internal threat. Terrorism does not posses any shape, size, face, religion or community it is only to threaten people with gun power. Courption Last but not the least courption one of the major threat which is rotening our admistrative system from inside getting us weak and if we are weak than its only a dream to become a superpower. It adversly effects our economy. No particular person is responsible for it we all are responsible for it. All those scam like 2g colgate and CWG has an immense effect on our GDP rate,4.7% fourth quatqer of 2013 from 6.2% according to 2011-12 fiscal, which make us to count on Hindu rate of growth that is slow rate of growt. The above mention are some of the significant cause apart from others, which are blocking India to become a superpower. No doubt its true that after independence we have raised ourself to a better level in the feild of science, tourism, culture etc, but the goal is far away to achive and presently India is emerging as a superpower.

Effect of Video Games on Brain Functions

Effect of Video Games on Brain Functions The Immersion of the Human Mind  In Video Games Stefan Nikolov Contents (Jump to) Abstract Literature Review Current Perceptions Abstract This research paper was created with the intention of taking the reader on a guided journey towards understanding how the human mind functions within the virtual world of video games. It explores the interaction between the senses of the nervous system and the game’s artificial reality and attempts to establish a connection between an individual’s brain capabilities and the demanding requirements of a game’s level environment and attempt to find a balanced relationship between the two. The paper is based around a research, conducted in order to come up with approximate statistics about how the game’s world triggers brain sensors and how and how much the human consciousness responds according to the information input it receives. A racing track, named the â€Å"Blackstone International Circuit† was created as a supporting piece of level design work. With the help of an external controller, a steering wheel with resistance and force feedback, fellow students, who took part in the research, were required to compete three laps around the circuit. The track was also released on several online websites and that made possible the involvement of other anonymous individuals. After they had their turn, they were asked to complete a track questionnaire with questions related to their experience. The data of the questionnaire was later collected and analysed in order to establish a statistics database of how the separate senses take part when the human mind is engaged. The results revealed that the brain’s involvement was maximised and participants felt fully immersed within the game environment. That allowed the collection of subconscious activity that was categorised to determine the type of game presence they had – tactical, strategic or narrative. Findings also helped support the claim that a person with a strong co-ordination and reflex abilities, which are the main part of having a tactical game presence, would be called a â€Å"good gamer†. The majority of participants in the survey belonged to the group of players that have tactical presence and had a very similar approach. Throughout this paper, objective analysis and criticism, as well as self-assessment and reliable sources were the foundation for building a valid and evident piece of academic writing. The paper concludes with suggested criteria for analysing the mind’s activity when playing a video game and getting clearly distinguished results about the type of people that play video games in today’s world. Literature Review At the beginning of each life experience, there is the perception of it. It is the initial start of the human mind’s interaction with the surrounding environment and ultimately serves as the foundation, on which events occur and build up. In the Oxford dictionary, the definition for the word â€Å"perception† is â€Å"the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.† The environment of reality is consisted of an infinite number of information flows, which inevitably and constantly interact with the mind. If the â€Å"filter† of perception did not exist, there would be an extreme mental overload, as the amount of streaming actions would be too big to comprehend. Blake and Sekuler (2006) state that â€Å"what is crucial is that perception provide us with a useful view of the world†, rather than detailed and accurate one; â€Å"where useful means being able to interact safely and effectively within our environment.† Perception acts like an information distributer to the mind, allowing only relevant data to reach the brain, while the unnecessary parts of the occurring event may even not make their way through. The two authors also explain that â€Å"stimulation comes in various forms of physical energy: thermal, mechanical, chemical, acoustic and electromagnetic.† As a consequence, the human brain’s ability to accept and process information is applied through the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Working together, they create a complete image of the surrounding environment, enabling us to co-ordinate and interact with at a level of full immersion. The word â€Å"immersion† originally meant â€Å"to submerge someone or something in a liquid.†, however, since the invention of video games and entertainment media in general, the meaning has evolved significantly, as far as it affects the human mind. According to Wikipedia, â€Å"immersion†, in relation to a video game, can also mean â€Å"a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world.† The immersion in the video game world can be split into three different types – tactical, strategic and narrative (Adams, 2005). The first two are easy to achieve, as they require problem solving; tactical is the type that requires skill and repetition of actions on the way to success; Strategic immersion involves calculation and prediction to overcome obstacles. However, narrative immersion is hard to accomplish, as a lot of elements must work together – story, characters, setting, acting, presentation, to compile everything together in a successful emotional state. Rigby and Ryan (2010, p.84) explain how Authenticity is a key factor to the believability of an experience. It is what provides ground for the extra step towards immersion, as people usually choose to keep their distance from things that they consider fake. Authenticity makes a product trustworthy and reliable, and helps the individual achieve the desired blending of the real (factual) and the imaginary (mental) world. According to the authors, each person has an individual set of requirements, called â€Å"schema†, which is applied to every experience in order to compare it to previous ones and determine if it can be classified as â€Å"authentic†. According to Madigan (2010), it is spatial presence that comes closest to what game players perceive as immersion. It is considered to exist when the elements of a game world are accepted as â€Å"real†, allowing one to submerge fully into a product of the imagination and feel like they are as much present in the scene, as they would be in reality. The process takes place over two defined stages. At the First stage, a player is accepting the surrounding world, composed of a variety of objects, sounds and events, which help create a saturated mental model of the game’s virtual universe. The Second stage is engaging the mind on a subconscious level, where it feels part of a flawless reality and is fully immersed within the experience. It has the imagination filling in the imperfections of a certain part of a game level, for example, which were imposed by the limitations of the machine or the level of object detail. Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive research scientist, in a keynote presentation (2012) about the relationship between the human brain and playing fast-paced computer games, suggested that doing so actually improved the brain’s capabilities. According to her team’s research, people who often play action games tend to solve problems faster, perform better in multitasking and recognise and react to the surrounding environment more accurately and with greater precision than people who do not. That is due to the fact, that, when fully immersed inside the game world, the brain would have to process often times a lot more information than in a lot of real-life situations, which would essentially serve as training process and help the individual improve on problem solving. The results of that research were valid even months after it was conducted. A very important, if not crucial factor for achieving a full immersive experience, when playing a game, is Realism. McMahan (2003) splits Realism of video games into two sub-divisional types – Social and Perpetual. The first type suggests the comparison between social interactions within a game’s environment compared to the real world, but the Perpetual Realism is the level of visual resemblance of the objects in that environment to the ones in reality. Most fast-paced games in today’s world offer the possibility of complete interaction of the mind and game world, due to the fact that computer graphics and processing of game data is becoming rapidly faster with each year that passes. Game genres like any modern First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, such as Call of Duty or Battlefield, require almost the same skill set for a proper playing experience. According to Gamer Institute (2014), the top skills of a professional player are Love of the Game, Unwavering dedication, Manual dexterity, Twitch reflexes, Strong multi-tasking, Analytical ability and Emotional Control. One of the most realistic genres of games in today’s world is the Simulator. It considers factors, such as physics, lighting, shadows, shapes or events to create a world, which resembles reality as close as possible. Depending on the type of simulator, reality’s properties can be used for a variety of purposes. Some games, such as Moon Tycoon (2001) tend to focus on events that cannot occur in the current state of the world we live in. Others, such as SimCity (2013), use reality to propose a virtual representation of events in a real-time game universe. A Racing Simulator is the type of game that would make a significant difference in how the mind can deal with reality. According to SAE (2014), the delay between events in the racing simulator can even cause motion sickness in drivers; that is why it is unacceptable, as â€Å"it can reduce effectiveness of driver-in-the-loop (DIL) systems used for studying vehicle dynamics†. A game called rFactor Pro (2008) was developed to ensure the maximum of the virtual reality is extracted and a life-like experience is delivered to the drivers in order to get them fully engaged and prepared for a race. SAE also writes that, as of 22 Jan 2014, the game is currently the dominant software in the simulator market, used in F1 and NASCAR teams to mentally prepare drivers. RFactor Pro is an upgraded version of rFactor, a racing simulator game, developed by Image Space Incorporated (ISI) and released in 2005. RFactor has a very large community and a rich and diverse database of game extensions, called otherwise â€Å"Mods† – tracks, cars, menu interface images, sounds and miscellaneous add-ons, developed almost entirely by third-party source, such as myself. The game itself has a very realistic physics engine that enables accurate simulation of life-like racing experiences – tire and engine wear, fuel consumption, wind resistance, tire grip, etc. It engages the players in a believable environment (roads and racing tracks) to get them concentrated on the objective of racing against other cars or beating a time record. According to Angel Ever (2014), safety is the biggest benefit of racing simulation. In virtual reality, there is no possibility for the risk of real-life damage and danger. This removes the â€Å"hazard† factor, while preserving all other fun factors that driving a fast car can provide. A player is not required to wear safety equipment, or have their car inspected at all times, in contrast to a racing driver. Moreover, real racing is a lot more expensive, compared to virtual one, as the cars’ integrity is reset at the beginning of each playing session. There is also the freedom to drive, regardless of the rules of the real world and experience pure fun when doing so. On the other side, a research, conducted by Continental Tyre UK (2011), suggested that people who often play driving games tend to be poorer drivers in real life. According to results, gamers are likely to take more risks, speed and be susceptible to reckless driving more often than non-gamers. Around 16% of all the participants agreed that driving games would make someone perform better in real conditions, while 40% said that virtual experiences contribute to dangerous behavior on the real roads. Current Perceptions The process of investigation is iterative and information is collected in a database for later evaluation. Since the method used in it does not change over time, that means that as the quantity of participants grows, the results’ accuracy grows as well. At the beginning of the project I already had a personal understanding of how a player interacts within the game world, based on my gaming experiences in the past. I wanted to examine the brain’s activity and how important it was for a player to have a complete image of the surrounding environment in order to extract the maximum of their performance. Several categories of interest were defined in order to achieve a guideline

Amnesia: Who Are You Anyway? Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Amnesia: Who Are You Anyway? "Should the soul of a prince, carrying with it the consciousness of the prince's past life, enter and inform the body of a cobbler, as soon as deserted by his own soul, every one sees he would be the same person with the prince, accountable only for the prince's actions: but who would say it was the same man?" --"Of Identity and Diversity", John Locke "Where am I? How did I get here?" "You were in a car accident last night. You're in the hospital, but you will be fine" "Accident? What accident? And who are you?" "Don't you know who I am? I'm your little sister." Sound familiar? How about another scenario? "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client has been under the influence of some form of memory loss at the time of the murder. Studies and tests have proved that this is the case. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, can we imprison a man for committing a crime for which he has no knowledge of recollecting?" These two scenarios depict typical instances of patients with amnesia or at least claim to have amnesia. Amnesia means a loss of memory from a failure of some part of the memory system (1). It is defined as a special case of forgetting, since the loss of memory is greater than expected under ordinary circumstances (2). In severe cases of amnesia, memory loss can result from a two-sided or bilateral (both hemispheres) damage to parts of the brain vital for memory storage, processing, or recall. These parts involve the limbic system, which includes of the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe of the brain) (1). The hippocampus encodes memory for events and episodes. Memories, either short term or long term, are not stored in the hippocampus. But instead, information gets pro... ...duced Blandness... http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/diaries/diariesf96/Kai/diary12.html 4)TRAUMATIC AMNESIA, REPRESSION, AND HIPPOCAMPUS INJURY DUE TO EMOTIONAL STRESS, CORTICOSTEROIDS AND ENKEPHALINS http://www.brain/ 5)Amnesia http://psych.colorado.edu/~dhuber/p2145/amnesia.html 6)Amnesia http://empresas.mundivia.es/braincenter/Amnesia.htm 7)Memory Impairment: The Amnesia, COMMENTS ABOUT IT http://www.tbilaw.com/AboutMildBrain16.html 8)Amnesia http://www.tbilaw.com/AboutMildBrain16.html 9)Briefing Notes: Amnesia http://www.ntu.ac.uk/soc/bscpsych/memory/amnbrief.htm 10)Children with amnesia cast new light on memory and learning http://expressindia.com/ie/daily/19970720/20150363.html 11)" Perry, John. Personal Identity. "John Locke: Of Identity and Diversity." University of California Press: Los Angeles, 1975. "

Millennium Development Goals Essay

Abstract: Woman is a term usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term woman is also used to identify a female human, regardless of age. This paper examines the place of vocational education as a means of women empowerment in Nigeria. How much a nation develops has a lot to do with the quality of human resources and educational attainment of its citizens. The impact of vocational education programme as a positive instrument for the empowerment of women in South-East, Nigeria was discussed. It was predicated on the assumption that vocational education acquisition is closely related to economic empowerment of women. This programme as well as the curriculum could be designed to take care of the needs of the learners in order to acquire skills necessary for employment, self-reliance and economic development. The acquisition of these vocational skills will greatly help to empower and transform women into self-reliant persons and make her economically viable. This economic empowerment will greatly help to ameliorate the incidence of prostitution,  kidnapping, and other social vices that are prevalent among women in South-East, Nigeria. Hence, it is recommended among other things, that government, private organizations and NGOs should adequately support the funding of vocational education programme. Keywords: vocational education, economic empowerment, social vices. INTRODUCTION Women play a central role in the socio-economic development of any society. In fact societal sustainable development is possible only if women are actively involved. Women must therefore be both participants and beneficiaries of development programmes. The United Nations Development Programme UNDP (1997) observes that women worldwide constitute half of population, perform two thirds of the hours worked, are registered as only performing one third of these hours, receive only 10% of the world’s income and have 1% of the world’s property registered in their name. This is injustice at its peak, and no sustainable development will take place in such situation of inequality. The Nigerian woman has not pressed hard to derive the full benefit of her economic activism and activities. Going by the 2006 census, almost 50% of the  total population of the country of over 170 million is women. The Federal Office of Statistics, (2006) reports that 70% of this population (about 59,500,000 women) reside and work in the rural areas. In the last few decades, a consciousness has been awaken globally that unless something is done to empower women as an interest group, global development will remain a mirage. Vocational Education has been recognized as â€Å"an instrument for promoting environmentally sound sustainable development† (FRN, 2004:30) as well as â€Å"a  method of alleviating poverty. † It is the basis for the full promotion and improvement of the status of women. Vocational Education empowers women by improving their living standards. It is the starting point for women’s advancement in different fields of human endeavor and a basic tool that should be given to women in order to fulfill their roles as full members of the society. Education of which vocational is an aspect, constitutes the single most important institutional boost to women empowerment. Vocational Education  especially is an excellent tool for bringing about individual and national development. However, a cursory look at the pattern of women’s involvement in vocational education in Nigeria reveals abysmal low levels. In spite of all the laudable goals and objectives of vocational education, Nigerian women still suffer a lot of constraints and inhibitions which militate against their personal and national development. Vocational Education focuses on the learner who is made to imbibe or acquire knowledge, skills, values and even attitudes that enable him to solve his and societal problems. Educated persons who acquire knowledge and skill can easily manipulate goods and services to create wealth for themselves and the society and thus create employment opportunities for others thereby reducing poverty. In absence of this, what is obtainable is a whole lot of women who lack skills, knowledge and appropriate value- orientation to survive in a knowledge-driven economy. They turn out to be societal misfits – prostitutes, armed-robbers, kidnapers, cause crises and upheaval in the society. This paper examines the importance of vocational  education as a means of empowering women in Nigeria. It investigates socio economic and political factors impeding this noble field. It presents a case for improved women’s economic status through greater participation in vocational education to fight hunger, poverty and unemployment through wage or self employment in the face of insecure and corrupt society we find ourselves. VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL IN NIGERIA FRN (2004:29) described vocational education as †those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of  technologies and related science and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economy and social life. † Fakes (2005) defined vocational education as that type of education that has specific relation with working life. According to Ogbuanya (2006), it is practical oriented and spans across areas like agriculture and related trades, building and wood work trades, commercial and related studies, electrical, textile and related trades as well as hospitality trades. Going by the above definition, vocational and technical education are interwoven as both are geared toward development of skills needed in the world of work, it is based in manual and practical activities which prepares one for gainful employment in recognized institutions and fields. Vocational education has passed through a series of trends ranging from pre- colonial era to date. Fafunwa (1991) noted that formal (western) education started in Nigeria in 1842, however, prior to this time, traditional and Islamic education have been holding sway in Nigeria. Traditional education has some  features of vocational education like smiting, building, craft to mention but a few. Even with the commencement of Christian missionary activities in formal western education in Nigeria, emphasis was not placed on vocational education in the formal education sector. Pure literacy as against vocational skill acquisition was the goal of education then. However, by 1863, it occurred to the missionaries that the plough and spade should go together. Hence this principle made some missionary schools to include elements of manual work like farming and bricklaying in their extra-curricular activities. Worthy of mention is that the attempts made by some of the missionary organizations towards industrial and agricultural education failed in most cases. Today, as pressure mounts in long unemployment queues, youth restiveness, high cost of living and insecurity in the nation, there is growing need to embrace vocational education as a tool for women empowerment for real national development Goals and Objectives of Vocational Education and Training The Federal Republic of Nigeria, (2004) highlighted what the goals of vocational education should be to include: ?Provision of trained manpower in the applied sciences, technology and business particularly at craft, advanced craft and technical levels. ?Provision of technical knowledge and vocational skills necessary for agricultural, commercial and economic development. ?Giving training and imparting skills to individuals who shall be self- reliant economically. It is believed that trainees on completion of vocational education course will have employable skills, set up their own business and employ others or pursue further education in advance technical programmes or other  institutions of higher learning. Vocational education plays a vital role in improving the overall wellbeing of the people by empowering individuals through skill acquisition. UNESCO (2006) affirmed that since education is the key to any effective national development, vocational education is the master key that can alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life for all thereby achieving sustainable development through empowerment of women and youths alike. CHALLENGES OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION The importance of vocational education in both personal and national  development cannot be over-emphasized. Such type of education is paramount towards the grooming of the citizens that would not only be innovative and productive but having acquired general education could patriotically contribute towards the development of their respective societies. In contrast, in spite of the gain that could be sourced from vocational education, Nigeria is yet to attain the level of impressive satisfaction as far as formal vocational education is concerned. This situation could be attributed to the following factors: Inadequate personnel in vocational colleges: Vocational education in the formal education sector had not been yielding the expected dividends as a result of the paucity of teachers of the vocational courses recognized by the National Policy on Education. This has brought about a situation whereby the personnel readily available are made to take extra work loads which in effect is not beneficial for the development of vocational education. This practice had raped the official teacher-student ratio of 1:20 as provided by the Federal Republic of Nigerian in its National Policy on Education. Poor delivery and  reception of the expected skills has been a resultant effect. Another problem that had been undermining the development of interest towards the study of vocational education courses by individuals is the issue of lack of industries or job opportunities where the skills thus acquired could be meaningfully utilized (Mohammed 2009). It is obvious that most of the industries in Nigeria are winding up. In view of this, studying a course that will make an individual wallow in unemployment is not in the best interest of the individual. For this reason, individuals do opt for other courses where they have brighter job opportunities. This in fact would bring about the reduction in number of people who would be enthusiastic towards furthering their education along the line of vocational education. In addition, the proximity of the secondary schools to any university that is offering vocational education courses could be a factor towards the development of the zeal for studying vocational education courses. Lack of adequate materials: Vocational education is about the development of motor skills. This cannot be achieved where materials are not adequate. In the case of Nigeria, most of the secondary schools or technical and vocational  colleges do not have the workshops, laboratories and the materials cum equipment that would facilitate the teaching and learning of vocational education courses (Mbakwem and Anyanwu, 2013). This had led to the teaching of theoretical aspects of the courses thus making the learner deficient in the actual use or practice of principles delivered to them. As a result, the products of formal vocational education schools have failed to meet with the demands of employers of labour as they lack cognate vocational training. Sector-specific corruption and the crisis of funding manifested in grossly inadequate budgetary allocations as well as generally collapsed standards in virtually all levels of Education manifested in symptoms of mass failure, cheating, fraudulent and criminal tendencies in schools. These and other numerous obstacles do exist but this work had confined its discussion within the scope of the above stated. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT Empowerment is a call to action and it involves a process of fundamental change in quality of life of any material being. It is the ability to effect change  and make meaningful choices. Empowerment is investing legally or formally with power, authorizing, licensing, enabling, permitting, giving people more control over their own lives. Sako (1999) defines empowerment as the process of strengthening the existing capacities and capabilities of disadvantaged groups in society so as to enable them perform better towards improving themselves, their families and the society as a whole. It involves the provision of enabling environment for their productive and intellectual abilities to be realized. Wiki defines empowerment as not giving people power but letting  out the power in them. It opines that most women across the globe rely on the informal work sector for an income. If they are empowered to do more and be more, the possibility for economic growth becomes apparent. Ighodalo (1990) views women empowerment as a process of enabling women to develop the capacity to actualize their potentials. Ighodalo further adds that women should be looked at as individuals that possess some hidden potentials for greatness and so should be encouraged to develop such to the fullest. The process of empowerment must necessarily also include the  expansion of women’s access to educational opportunities, facilities for skills acquisition and positions of authority. Empowering the woman is empowering all of humanity. This is because the woman is the pivot of the family. United Nations was apt to capture this in this year’s international day for violence against women titled â€Å"From Peace in the home to Peace in the World†, it is believed that empowered women can do more to contribute to peace in the world. Empowerment is a drive towards realization of the innate potentials found in an individual. Thus, the potentials found in the woman can  be enhanced if empowered. Women empowerment involves issues like (a) How women perceive themselves and are perceived by intimate and distant others in society. (b) How women treat themselves and are treated by others. (c) Ability to make key decisions on matters relating to themselves and their children. (d) The kind of opinion they have in other aspects of decision making in the family. It must be noted here that all these are virtually impossible without proper and adequate training especially at the higher level which includes vocational education. BENEFITS OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT. Women empowerment could be likened to leveling the playing ground for women, and this would offer huge potentials to everyone. For example, UNICEF information sheet (2007) states that educating girls and women help develop self confidence, protection from sexual exploitation, improved health care, better child education and poverty reduction for generations to come. Women empowerment is a global topic. The United Nations included gender and women empowerment in its development goals as it is an important tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In Nigeria, a good  number of women are now found in many prestigious occupations such as law, medicine, architecture, the armed forces and so on and they are really living up to expectations. At the same time, an equally large number, especially those living in the rural areas are engaged in menial jobs to earn a living. Most jobs performed by women, according to Egunjobi (2005) have no economic values . Explaining further, Egunjobi states that all the work and activities which do not require financial reward are the responsibilities of women. This would explain the global call for women empowerment. There are high prospects in women empowerment. First the potentials of women will increase, resulting in building a virile nation, producing better women, better home makers, better future leaders and a better society. The contributions of females in top management positions revealed that females are up to the task. Women in leadership positions, especially in developing countries, have the responsibility and the potential to influence their society through leadership, particularly when they are enabled. Enabled women are empowered to aspire, attain and perform well in leadership positions while still carrying out the home front roles. Women are enabled when they are educated, exposed and economically emancipated. Throughout the ages and in all countries, women in leadership positions have impacted positively on the society. The history of mankind is replete with such women. The last century saw the emergence of great women leaders in various spheres of human endeavours, notable among who are Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Winnie Mandela, who relentlessly battled the apartheid regime in South Africa  in spite of the fact that her husband was incarcerated at the time. Here in Nigeria such women include Queen Amina of Zaria, Idia of Benin, Moremi of Ile-Ife, late Professor (Mrs) Dora Akunyili, the former Director, National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and former Honorable Minister of Information and Communication, her Re-branding initiative is still fresh in our minds, the coordinator of Nigerian economy and Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs)Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Prof Mrs Grace Alele. Williams the First Female Vice Chancellor in Nigeria, the Late Professor (Mrs) Jadesola Akande and even the keynote speaker of this conference, Prof. G. G. Agulanna, among others. Women from time immemorial have exhibited unparalleled ability in policy development and implementation. Education of which vocational education is an aspect remains a veritable weapon for women empowerment in all facets of life and a source of strength for national development. With vocational education, women will have greater self- fulfillment and would be able to contribute meaningfully to the social and  economic development of their societies. Again for economic reasons women no longer stay at home. The present economic recession has turned things round. Both male and female now cooperatively maintain the home even though the man is still regarded as the head of the family especially in the Nigerian Culture. In such instance, women with vocational skills will be able to earn additional salaries and support the husband and the standard of their living will be high and they can easily survive hard times. This will make for reductions in social vices like prostitution, theft and other corrupt acts perpetrated against and by women. In a situation where there is need for empowerment, vocational skills acquisition programmes is a sure means for women learners to gain basic education and or a vocational skill. The National Open University Centre for lifelong learning vocational skills acquisition programmes are designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of students, women included, for immediate employment whether in the private or public sector or be self employed. As at June, 2013, enrolment figures stand at 1066, 381 of this figure are females. These run their programmes in study centres in  the cities with the exception of Awa-Ijebu, Ogori and Gulak. Women of all ages deserve to be integrated into the mainstream of a national economy through training. (Olakulehin and Ojo 2006) CHALLENGES TO WOMEN EMPOWERMENT The importance of vocational education in both personal and national development cannot be over-emphasized. Such type of education is paramount towards the grooming of the citizens that would not only be innovative and productive but having acquired general education could patriotically contribute towards the development of their respective societies. In contrast, in spite of the gain that could be sourced from vocational education, Nigeria is yet to attain the level of impressive satisfaction as far as formal vocational education is concerned. This situation could be attributed to Illiteracy, according to Olakulehin & Ojo (2006), remains at the centre of women empowerment problems in Nigeria and that there is a palpable deluge of problems besetting the Nigerian women, all of them arise from illiteracy. Also, socio-cultural restraints such as limited parental resources, early marriages, pregnancy, childbearing, sexual harassment etc. negatively impact on women empowerment. In many societies, the education of women especially at the tertiary level is considered unimportant since they believe girls do not normally pay back in full measure the money invested in them. Again, religious practices of keeping women in purdah and the Shariah system (mostly in the northern part of Nigeria) hinder women from participation in education especially at the higher levels. In addition special protective measures aimed at protecting women and enhancing their effective participation has turned round to work against them. For example International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions ban women from night work, underground work and stipulate maximum weight to be carried by women. It also provides for maternity protection and welfare facilities at the work place. Some employers have capitalized on this to discriminate against women and spend less on training them. Added to the foregoing some have suggested that women are their own worst enemies. Some women married to wealthy men sometimes have lukewarm attitudes to education. Some women are lazy, lack proper education and are not making positive efforts to improve themselves. All these pose formidable challenge to the empowerment of women. MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED TOWARD EFFECTIVE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT The hub of development of any country lies on how productive and creative its population are, for a country like ours, where women constitutes a reasonable percentage, the government, parents and men in general have obligations to ensure that women are empowered to discharge their obligations to the society and to better their life. In the light of the issues discussed above, the following recommendations are proffered. ?Funding of vocational education should be taken seriously by the federal, State and Local governments. This they can achieve through increase in the budgetary allocation to educational sector which will reflect in the vocational education sub-sector. ?Vocational education should be inculcated into the school’s curriculum to promote human empowerment and development through vocational skill acquisition. It is a means of reducing unemployment since it is skilled oriented and employment motivated. All school programmes should be geared toward providing vocational skills. ?Government and other stake holders in education should embark on awareness programmes through workshops and seminars to educate girls, women, parents and general society on the benefits of vocational education for women. ?The private partnership and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) should be encouraged to participate in vocational education through funding or contributions in kind. This involvement should be seen by firms as a long term investment, and as an aspect of their corporate social responsibility to the nation. ? To empower women, federal government should provide enabling  environment and all the necessary equipment and materials for the teaching and learning of vocational skills needed for economic enhancement in Nigeria. ?The women should shun joblessness and criminality through the cultivation of vocational spirit and acquisition of relevant skills that will launch them into greatness and economic independence. Conclusion Vocational Education has been viewed in this paper as a panacea to the endemic problem of poverty, hunger, Prostitution and other corrupt  tendencies, paving way for women empowerment. When women are trained, they explore opportunities in their immediate environment instead of chasing shadows and uncertainties in the urban centres. The development of Vocational Education will go a long way in creating employment, give women the opportunity to develop their enterprising skills, empowering them to be job creators and not job seekers and by providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge to raise their output; income and wealth thereby ameliorate the incidence of prostitution, kidnapping, and other social vices  that are prevalent among women in South-East, Nigeria. Vocational Education would also contribute to improve the image and highlight the role of women in society. REFERENCES Egunjobi, L. (2005). Women Empowerment: Perspectives and Prospects. Ado-Ekiti Fountain Newspapers and Publishing Co. Ltd. Empowerment Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/empowerment. retrieved 17/10/2014 Fafunwa, A. B (1991), History of Education in Nigeria: New edition, Ibadan: NPS Educational Publishers Limited. Fakes, B. B. (2005). Technical Education: An Overview of the Learning Process. Capacity,  building workshop for lecturers in Polytechnics and Monotechnics in Nigeria for higher competency and productivity. Education Trust Fund. Federal Office of Statistics (2006), Annual Abstract of Statistics (2006 edition) Abuja Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education: 4th edition. Yaba-Lagos: NERDC Press. Igbodalo, F (1990), Contributions of Women to National Development. Paper presented at the NAUW on Contribution of women to National Development. ILO (2004) International labour organization’s information sheet on the â€Å"convention on workers with family responsibilities. No. 156, 1981 – (July 2004). Mbakwem, J. N and Anyanwu, O. G. (2014) Assessing Qualitative Teaching and Learning Environment at Upper Basic Education in Imo State, Nigeria in T. A. Bolarin and G. C. Unachukwu (Eds) Education for All: Progress and Challenges. Proceedings of the 28th annual congress of The Nigeria Academy of Education (pp 225-232). Lagos: Toptune Educational Publishers. Mohammed, I. A. (2009), â€Å"Problems and Prospects of Vocational Education in Sokoto State. † Text Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of Federal College of Educaton. Gusau. Ogbuanaya, T. C. (2006). Vocational Education Training and Challenges of Human Resource Development. Nigerian Empowering the Youth through Technical and Vocational Education: A Panacea for Sustainable National Development. Journal of Professional Teachers 1(2) 207-214. Olakulehin, F. K. & Ojo, O. D. (2006). â€Å"Distance Education as a Women Empowerment Strategy in Africa. Turkish Online Journal of Distance education, 7, 1, 1. Sako . R. ed (1999) Women Empowerment and Advancement Manual , Kaduna: League for Democratic Women (Leads) UNDP (1997) Human Development Report 1995 , New York: Oxford University Press UNESCO (2006). Revitalizing Technical Vocational Education in Nigeria. Retrieved November 2, 2014 from. http://www. afrreorjo. org/pub UNICEF Information Sheet (2007) Nigeria Country Office. View as multi-pages TOPICS IN THIS DOCUMENT Vocational education, Higher education, Millennium Development Goals, Further education, Vocational school, Apprenticeship, Alternative education, Nigeria RELATED DOCUMENTS Women Empowerment †¦ Women’s Empowerment Source: www. undp. org UNDP promotes equality between women and men through ‘gender mainstreaming. ‘ The organization’s corporate strategy on gender is designed to integrate the promotion of women’s empowerment and equality fully in the organization’s core business. This strategy calls for gender mainstreaming to become everyone’s job – not the responsibility of a small number of specialists. It rests on three pillars:†¦ 4121 Words | 21 Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Women Empowerment †¦ Empowerment of any section of a society is a myth until they are conferred equality before law. 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Our research challenges orthodox views on the nature of poverty, how poverty is understood and how policy can best†¦ 4121 Words | 59 Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Women Empowerment †¦ The following are the aspect of women empowerment which most vital prerequisite of women achievement of individual and collective empowerment. (a) Women who increase their control over their work at home and outside the home in advantageous position for achieving empowerment. The mutual support in work setting in and outside home is playing an important role to women empowerment†¦ 4121 Words | 3 Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Women Empowerment. †¦ Women empowerment â€Å"No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live. † – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 1944 Women empowerment refers†¦ 4121 Words | 3 Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Women Empowerment †¦ Women Empowerment in India: A psychological view Women Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social and economic strength of Women. It involves increasing their power over decision making, social participation, economic opportunity and economic participation, political participation, access to education and health. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are human rights that lie at†¦ 4121 Words | 4 Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Women Empowerment †¦ Empowering Rural Women in Heath, Literacy and Environment Abstract This paper addresses the conceptual and methodological issues related to women’s empowerment, the trends in women’s empowerment over the years in key areas such as education, heal.

value chain analysis Essay

value chain analysis Essay value chain analysis Essay Multidimensional Value Chain The traditional Value Chain is linear - for example, it assumes that input logistics are directly related to operations - and that value between these linear nodes should be analyzed. However, in reality, each domain links with multiple other domains - for example, sales and marketing often link with input logistics in order to determine costs, pricing and branding. These non-linear relationships should also be considered. Further, there are links between domains to other companies - for example, output logistics may link to various other firms depending on the exact nature of an order (first class customers may require delivery through Fedex and economy customers may require delivery through the United States Postal Service etc). There is increased value to be found in each of these relationships. Supply Chain, Other Chains (Chain Analysis) The Value Chain is one method of analysing the chain from source to delivery. The Supply Chain and many others are also useful, parallel Chain Analysis Tools. Various differences between the models exist. For example, a focus on the Supply Chain may lead to optimization (which may cost money) whereas a focus on the Value Chain may lead to value-adding (which may save money). These models are included in the software. Value, Supply, Chain Grids The Value Grid, Supply Grid and Chain Grids call for multi-firm analysis and coordination. Common value-adding and margin maximizing activities could include minimizing the risk of the future cost of oil (purchasing, hedging; this

Cuiltural diffusion between Africa and Japan essays

Cuiltural diffusion between Africa and Japan essays Most cultures, if not all, are influenced by other cultures and civilizations through cultural diffusion. In the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy the Khoisan peoples culture is infiltrated by modern influence. Similarly, the Japanese culture, during the Heian period, was greatly influenced by China. Although both the Khoisan people and the Japanese initially accepted the new cultural influence, in the end, the Khoisan people rejected the modern influence completely, while the Japanese modified Chinese influence to be part of their own unique culture. The enthusiasm the cultural influence caused the Japanese and the Khoisan people was great and instigated both to primarily accept the new cultural influence. When the Coca Cola bottle descended from the sky towards the Khoisan people, they believed the gods had sent it to them and used the modern influence as much as they could. With the same amount of fascination, the Japanese welcomed Chinese influence by trading with China and sending mission groups to study the Chinese way of life and bringing back the information to Japan. The Khoisan people began using the Coca Cola bottle in any way possible, jobs they could do fine without the object soon became unachievable without the object. The Japanese began to change their way of life to make it more like the Chinese way of life, altering customs which did not need alterations just so they could compare closely to the Chinese. The Japanese and Khoisan people associate strongly because both cultures were adequat e ways of life but their eagerness to accept new cultures caused these two cultures to acknowledge cultural influence when they truly did not need it. In time the Khoisan people and the Japanese lose interest in the influences that they were once so enthusiastic about, but both cultures went about discarding the influence differently. The Khoisan people sent...

The Affects of Paranoid Schizophrenia In the Brain

The Affects of Paranoid Schizophrenia In the Brain Free Online Research Papers Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that can cause people to lose touch with reality. Some people are convinced they hear or see things that are not there, which are hallucinations and these people become delusional. In Paranoid Schizophrenia, some people that become delusional develop persecution of person dignity. It is caused by a chemical reaction in the brain and some are not even sure of how people come about to have this disorder. The first signs of Paranoid Schizophrenia maybe begin to show anywhere between the ages of 15 to 35.There is no permanent cure for this disorder but there is medication that can be given to show less symptoms of it. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are given antipsychotic medication that reduces the symptoms and usually allows the patient to live a more functional normal life. There are many different types of schizophrenia the affect a vast majority of people that live around the world. There is more of a chance being diagnosed with schizophrenia than developing AIDS. Paranoid Schizophrenia is a disorder that inhabits many people, both males and females. People with this condition have constant feelings that they are being watched, followed or betrayed all the time. Many people with schizophrenia do decide to end their lives. There have been studies conducted that show this can be caused by genetics, psychological and social process, and early environment. Some patients may be given medication that can make them better or it can make them feel worse. The onset for schizophrenia in men is usually within their teens or twenties while in women it may be in their twenties or early thirties although the paranoid schizophrenia tends to appear more towards the later end of this rage. Early signs of schizophrenia include social withdrawal, unusual behaviors, anxiety and a significant decline in daily abilities. Delusions and auditory hallucinations may be the part of psychotic symptoms in people associated with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Delusions are thoughts of people believing something is real or true that no one else believes. Often to be thoughts such as someone trying to spy on them, follow them, kill them or even know their thoughts. Auditory hallucinations are voices that no one else can hear and it can be more than one person talking or having conversations. These voices can also cause this person to conflict harm upon themselves and or others. This causes the person to talk aloud and shout to these voices that they only hear at t imes. The people with this type of schizophrenia do not have disorganized speech or behavior that may be seen in other types of schizophrenia. Researches believe that schizophrenia develops during early brain development and there have been studies that focus on the way brain cells communicate with each other through pathways. There are too many or too few connections in certain important communication pathways that have to do with emotion and the control of them. Usually it is in the parts of the brain that produce the most dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter. Technology we have today can be used, such as the MRI, in order to detect the differences in brain activity that occur in the hippocampus, the frontal and temporal lobes. Paranoid schizophrenia is a serious condition that requires a lifetime of treatment. There may be periods that the patient will feel better and may think that they might not need treatment anymore but is no guarantee that medication can work 100% in patients. Having effective treatment will help control these symptoms and can help live a normal functional life. Some forms of treatment are medication, psychotherapy, and hospitalization. The most common type of medication used to help treat symptoms is antipsychotic drugs but this type of drug also can have serious neurological side effects. This is often given to help manage the hallucinations and delusions. Other medications may also be antidepressants and anti-anxiety prescriptions, which can help with stabilizing moods and anxiety. Getting the right treatment is such an easy thing to do being that people react different to different medications and some may cause serious side effects that can make the person worse. Psychotherapy is another important form of treatment for schizophrenics. This can include family therapy or individual therapy. This type of treatment is not suitable for everyone with this condition but it can help some. People that do need hospitalization are often people that have severe symptoms, to ensure the safety of themselves and the people around them. Schizophrenia is a complicated mental disorder that cannot be explained as originating from a single factor. It is highly related to neurological malfunction and brain abnormality in some areas. The activities and structure of the brain are a lifetime developing process; however, certain external factors also play important roles contributing to the abnormal development of the brain. In the other words, nobody is born a schizophrenic, healthy child rearing practices and healthy life style might prevent the onset of this mental disorder but there is still a chance of developing it later on in life. 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Academic Honesty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Academic Honesty - Essay Example This means that plagiarism is the act of copying an submitting the work of another author and claiming the work to be the efforts of the person who is submitting the work and not giving any credit to the author who had originally authored that piece of work. One of the most modern ways of detecting plagiarism is the use of plagiarism checking applications such as Turnitin. When using this software, the teacher submits the work on the website of Turnitin and the website compares the work from various academic and internet databases for similar content that have been submitted by some other individual. According to Green one of the consequences of plagiarism is that â€Å"it is the breach of faith in the social contract between the reader and the writer† (Green, 2008, p.112). Furthermore, students who indulge in plagiarism may have to suffer severe consequences such as being graded as failed in a particular subject or course and may even be expelled from their educational instit ute. One of the way through which plagiarism can be avoided is that the writer gives credit to the original author of the content through the use of references. Another way is that the writer paraphrases the content while giving credit to the original author. I promise that throughout my educational period as well as professional life, I will never indulge in the act of plagiarism and any form of academic

California and Federal Leave Laws Research Paper

California and Federal Leave Laws - Research Paper Example From this study it is clear that  many states have identified the disadvantages of this present law and the unfavorable impact it is causing on both the employers and the employees. Because of this, twenty-eight states such as New York, California, New Jersey among many other have introduced paid leave bills. This enables workers to get payment from a given period when they are on leave.This paper declares that introduction of SB 1661 legislation in California State in February in 2002 enhanced the existing States Disability Insurance (SDI) system. The present SDI system is already providing partial paid family and medical leave. They also replace 55 to 60 percent of the wage of the employees when they take a leave to recover from serious illness such as pregnancy and disabilities that come because of giving birth. Further, use of SB 1661 extends this medical and family leave insurance system to enable employees replace 50-60 percent of their wages when they take a leave up to 12 w eeks to take care of the newborn or a family member who is seriously sick or after adopting a new baby. Section 233 of the California labor code enables employers to use up to the amount of sick leave that accumulate during the period of six month that they use while caring for family members who are sick. This research paper analyzes different types of leaves laws as well as the differences that exist between California and federal leave laws.

Human Resources Management in Apple Company Essay

Human Resources Management in Apple Company - Essay Example Microsoft was the prominent competitor of Apple from tis beginning itself. In 1980’s and 1990’s Apple struggled to counter the competition faced from Microsoft. Microsoft pushed Apple yards behind with the introduction of their Window based operating system. However, Apple was able to bounce back at the beginning of twenty first century with the help of their innovative â€Å"i† series products such as iMac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes etc. Kim (2010) has pointed out that Apple Inc, is currently the second largest company in the world in market capitalization, second only to Exxon Mobil. Moreover it is believed to be the most valuable technological company in the world at present, again pushing Microsoft far behind (Kim, 2010). (Warren, 2010) Even though Apple succeeded in achieving top spots in international market, many people believe that their organizational culture and human resource management needs drastic changes to maintain their top spot in the market. E ven though Apple employees are getting competitive salaries, increased workload, lack of work-life balancing, lack of motivation, prejudices and biases in deciding promotions etc are some of the major complaints of the employees. Moreover, Apple’s success and failures revolve around the charismatic leadership of Steve Jobs. This paper critically analyses Apple’s human resource management policies at the individual level, group level and organizational level. Individual Level Work Motivation The topic of employee motivation in Apple Company is a controversial one. On one side, Apple is able to motivate the employees and on the other side some of its HR strategies are demotivating the employees. It is a fact that Apple provides ample opportunities to the fresh employees to grow under the wings of experienced employees (Qumer, 2009, p.3). The above strategy is a big blessing for the fresh employees to take advantages of the immense experience and talents of the experience d ones. The above work culture helps Apple to blend fresh and the experienced hands in a judicious manner so that neither the employees nor the organization faces any problems in completing their works. Fresh employees may bring new ideas to the organization which will be critically analyzed with the help of experienced ones. Thus the fresh people will get immense support from the experienced hands in shaping their ideas and concepts useful to the company. The compensation and benefits offered to employees of Apple are very competitive and it includes product discounts, vacation time, healthcare, training courses, casual dress codes on jobs etc. In 1995, Apple created the Apple Fellows Program in order to recognize its best employees who had made extraordinary contributions to the company. Funny, brilliant, relaxed co-workers and modern spacious beautiful offices filled with comfortable equipments etc are some of the major benefits of working in Apple Company. Apple workforce includ es diverse employees from different countries which enable them to utilize the expertise from different regions. It provides equal opportunities to its diverse employees irrespective of their ethnic background (Qumer, 2009, p.3-9). In short, Apple is keen in recognizing outstanding performances with rewards which is definitely a motivating factor for the employees. At the same time there many complaints also about some of the controversial HR policies of Apple. Employees often forced to work overtime and thereby they are facing troubles in achieving proper work-life balancing. Moreover Apple provides no information about the new products which are going to be developed in the company. The above policy demotivated the employees since no organization can capture the employee

NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION - Essay Example This strategy will look useful when it is evident to one party that there are specific laws regarding the matter. In addition, it is clear that the other party is not willing to accommodate the interests of the party. Thus, if it is seen that the cost and time involved in litigation are worth putting in considering the issue, the party may resort to litigation. For example, a serious breach of contract often calls for litigation in the form of a lawsuit. On the other hand, mediation is rather voluntary in nature and hence, it has no binding impact on the parties involved. Mediation requires the help of an impartial third party acceptable to all the parties involved. The benefit is that the decision is quick, and satisfactory to all the parties involved. This helps save cost and time. As is seen, the benefit of mediation is that the parties control the outcome unlike arbitration and litigation. So, it is highly useful in areas like renegotiating the various aspects of an existing agre ement. The fact is that there is no point in dragging such an issue to a court or litigator causing unnecessary delay and complexity. Both the parties fully understand the fact that the interests of the other party should also be accommodated in order to continue the agreement. In such situations, it is seen that the parties will use negotiation as the best strategy. Similarly, it is sometimes necessary to negotiate an agreement when two parties come together to form a new business venture. In such a situation, there is no point in depending on litigation and arbitration. In order to reach a solution which satisfies the interests of all the parties involved, the best strategy adopted is mediation. Arbitration involves solving a dispute with the help of a knowledgeable third party. This is binding on the parties, and most of the time, the decisions will not be reviewed by a court. That means the parties are surrendering their right for resolution through courts when they resort to ar bitration. The bright side of arbitration is that there are no formal pleading rules, and it is easier to communicate industry practices and complex damage models to a knowledgeable arbitrator than to a jury. In addition, it helps save time and cost involved in litigation and consequent appeal. It is seen that arbitration is the most effective strategy when the issues are consumer-related or industry-internal subjects. The mere fact is that when there is a dispute between a business and a consumer, there is no point in resorting to mediation if the parties feel that the interests of the other parties in the dispute do not need to be entertained. In such cases, the issue is better handled by an arbitrator who is knowledgeable in the area. Admittedly, this is useful when the issue can only be solved by a person or a board with knowledge in the industry. 2. I would like to have two-step dispute resolution clauses included in the agreement. It seems necessary to have mediation or negoti ation as the step before arbitration because they are less time consuming and more effective. Also, this gives both the parties a chance to listen to the position of the other party, and may give valuable insight about the weakness in ones own position. Anyway, as Friedland (2007, Ch 7) points out, it is necessary to have negotiation regarding the acceptability of mediators, negotiator, the binding nature

Detecting Cry1Ab gene in Mon0810 Transgenic Maize by PCR Lab Report

Detecting Cry1Ab gene in Mon0810 Transgenic Maize by PCR - Lab Report Example The idea is to check for the gene size of Cry1Ab in order to distinguish it from the rest of the other gene strands. Cry1Ab is a gene from an incorporated plant pesticide thus its genetic sequence is known. A comparison of the known and the established one from the photograph helps to determine its presence in the transgenic maize. If its size is seen to match with the known then it is present, if there is no matching band of close size then Cry1Ab is not present in the maize. Basically, PCR is an easier method for detection of genes as their amplification and comparison with the known size of the DNA strand becomes captured. GAMARRA,LUIS FERNANDO RIMACHI, DELGADO,JORGE ALCAÃŒ NTARA, VILLASANTE,YENY AQUINO, & ORTIZ,RODOMIRO. (2011). Detecting adventitious transgenic events in a maize center of diversity. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-34582011000400009. WALSH, MARIA C., BUZOIANU, STEFAN G., GARDINER, GILLIAN E., REA, MARY C., GELENCSÉR, EVA, Jà NOSI, ANNA, EPSTEIN, MICHELLE M., ROSS, R. PAUL, & LAWLOR, PEADAR G. (n.d.). Fate of Transgenic DNA from Orally Administered Bt MON810 Maize and Effects on Immune Response and Growth in Pigs. Public Library of Science.

Questions based on evolution and definitions Essay

Questions based on evolution and definitions - Essay Example Batesian mimicry which is a natural selection that favors the non-poisonous butterflies due to their similarity in their color with the poisonous butterflies is an example of a negative frequency-dependent. Positive frequency-dependency is seen in morph butterflies that are within the same species but have a different color pattern. Linkage disequilibrium arises when the genotype of at two loci is independent of each other and is as a result of Mutation, Random drift and Gene flow. It can be maintained by inducing mutation, random drift or gene flow in a generation. Deterministic forces are referred to as linear pressures due to their tendency to of pushing alleles frequencies in one direction which is either up , down or towards the middle. Important forces that take place in such a situation include selection, mutation, gene flow, meiotic drive and nonrandom mating. However, stochastic evolutionary force is the genetic drift that takes place due to random sampling of individuals and genes in small populations. Both are important because they lead to evolution as they cause changes in the genetic makeup of any population. The variance of reproductive success is usually higher among males than the females because the male sperm runs faster than the female, but dies faster than the female. The effect of this is more females in the society as a result of higher chances of having a female offspring. In situations when nonrandom processes overwhelm the random processes, it leads to low levels of variation which cannot be reconstructed over ecological time scales. Moreover, variation can arise from mutation and recombination. Since selection can remove variations from a population, genetic drift takes place. Antagonistic pleiotropy is a situation whereby the one gene controls foe more than one trait where at least a single of these traits

NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION - Essay Example This strategy will look useful when it is evident to one party that there are specific laws regarding the matter. In addition, it is clear that the other party is not willing to accommodate the interests of the party. Thus, if it is seen that the cost and time involved in litigation are worth putting in considering the issue, the party may resort to litigation. For example, a serious breach of contract often calls for litigation in the form of a lawsuit. On the other hand, mediation is rather voluntary in nature and hence, it has no binding impact on the parties involved. Mediation requires the help of an impartial third party acceptable to all the parties involved. The benefit is that the decision is quick, and satisfactory to all the parties involved. This helps save cost and time. As is seen, the benefit of mediation is that the parties control the outcome unlike arbitration and litigation. So, it is highly useful in areas like renegotiating the various aspects of an existing agre ement. The fact is that there is no point in dragging such an issue to a court or litigator causing unnecessary delay and complexity. Both the parties fully understand the fact that the interests of the other party should also be accommodated in order to continue the agreement. In such situations, it is seen that the parties will use negotiation as the best strategy. Similarly, it is sometimes necessary to negotiate an agreement when two parties come together to form a new business venture. In such a situation, there is no point in depending on litigation and arbitration. In order to reach a solution which satisfies the interests of all the parties involved, the best strategy adopted is mediation. Arbitration involves solving a dispute with the help of a knowledgeable third party. This is binding on the parties, and most of the time, the decisions will not be reviewed by a court. That means the parties are surrendering their right for resolution through courts when they resort to ar bitration. The bright side of arbitration is that there are no formal pleading rules, and it is easier to communicate industry practices and complex damage models to a knowledgeable arbitrator than to a jury. In addition, it helps save time and cost involved in litigation and consequent appeal. It is seen that arbitration is the most effective strategy when the issues are consumer-related or industry-internal subjects. The mere fact is that when there is a dispute between a business and a consumer, there is no point in resorting to mediation if the parties feel that the interests of the other parties in the dispute do not need to be entertained. In such cases, the issue is better handled by an arbitrator who is knowledgeable in the area. Admittedly, this is useful when the issue can only be solved by a person or a board with knowledge in the industry. 2. I would like to have two-step dispute resolution clauses included in the agreement. It seems necessary to have mediation or negoti ation as the step before arbitration because they are less time consuming and more effective. Also, this gives both the parties a chance to listen to the position of the other party, and may give valuable insight about the weakness in ones own position. Anyway, as Friedland (2007, Ch 7) points out, it is necessary to have negotiation regarding the acceptability of mediators, negotiator, the binding nature

Questions based on evolution and definitions Essay

Questions based on evolution and definitions - Essay Example Batesian mimicry which is a natural selection that favors the non-poisonous butterflies due to their similarity in their color with the poisonous butterflies is an example of a negative frequency-dependent. Positive frequency-dependency is seen in morph butterflies that are within the same species but have a different color pattern. Linkage disequilibrium arises when the genotype of at two loci is independent of each other and is as a result of Mutation, Random drift and Gene flow. It can be maintained by inducing mutation, random drift or gene flow in a generation. Deterministic forces are referred to as linear pressures due to their tendency to of pushing alleles frequencies in one direction which is either up , down or towards the middle. Important forces that take place in such a situation include selection, mutation, gene flow, meiotic drive and nonrandom mating. However, stochastic evolutionary force is the genetic drift that takes place due to random sampling of individuals and genes in small populations. Both are important because they lead to evolution as they cause changes in the genetic makeup of any population. The variance of reproductive success is usually higher among males than the females because the male sperm runs faster than the female, but dies faster than the female. The effect of this is more females in the society as a result of higher chances of having a female offspring. In situations when nonrandom processes overwhelm the random processes, it leads to low levels of variation which cannot be reconstructed over ecological time scales. Moreover, variation can arise from mutation and recombination. Since selection can remove variations from a population, genetic drift takes place. Antagonistic pleiotropy is a situation whereby the one gene controls foe more than one trait where at least a single of these traits

College Inc Essay Example for Free

College Inc Essay After watching the documentary College Inc, I have come to the realization that colleges are not at all as they seem. Many colleges are a for-profit college which is institutions being operated by profit-seeking business. This video was pretty much about for-profit schools tuition being more than community college tuition. It was also about the lengths that for-profit schools will go to get as many people to enroll there and get the funds necessary to keep the college alive. The video also included the many for-profit colleges had so many people enroll and knew that, they were coercing kids and business executives to invest in there college. One thing I found very interesting was the fact that they are charging people more to take online classes, then to actually be in a class. I also found it interesting that most students are actually taking online classes which is a good idea especially, if they can not take actual classes or if they have a job that that takes up there time during the day/night. A second fact or observation I found interesting was this has been going on for how long and they are just now telling people about it. These profit schools are only profiting money, but the department of education is finally seeing what is going on with colleges. The government’s role in this scam is that they are aware of what’s going on but are not really doing anything, other than giving the colleges money to stay afloat. The colleges are in fear of losing there grants/funds because the department doesn’t see a growth in education and people finding jobs after they graduate. The colleges are telling kids what they want to hear, if you apply to so and so you will get tour diploma in no-time and find a job soon after. They way colleges are run like a business is the way people advertise and say what they can learn/ earn from the business they are in. What interests me as a business law student was that its in writing colleges have to do anything to get students to sign up and get started with classes. I do understand that for-profit colleges are putting pressure on there employees to get as many students enrolled in there school, or else they are the ones that are losing in the end. Another interest to me is that community colleges are very underrated, many people go to community college because they are not sure what they want to do in life or, they are working to provide for there families and themselves. Most community colleges are under funded so the expectations of the school are rising and the funds are going down each year, leading to perform with limited resources. One other interest to me is the fact that the colleges paint a picture perfect life when you get your diploma, but they do not tell you the enormous debt they leave you in when your done with there college. On the other hand I do believe that people should know what they are in for when signing up to a for-profit college, your are paying an arm and a leg for an education and then you are in debt for many years. In my opinion I believe in going to a community college is a good choice for at least a year or two. I believe this because if you don’t know what you want to do or you want to stay close to home, you can do that with a community college. You save a little more by going to a community college especially if you are trying to go part-time because you work, you can go to school but also save money incase you want to go to a four-year college. In closing after viewing the documentary College Inc, I have come to the conclusion that colleges are not as they seem. They will say anything to get students to enroll and then leave them to dry when they can not get a job after they graduate, and left with over a thousand dollars in debt.

Ionic Sieving Properties of Graphene Oxide (GO) Membranes

Ionic Sieving Properties of Graphene Oxide (GO) Membranes ABSTRACT: We characterized the ionic sieving properties of graphene oxide (GO) membranes by performing classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The Lerf-Klinowski model is used for GO nanosheets structure. The Optimized Potentials for Liquid Simulations for all atoms (OPLS-AA) force field is used for GO potential. The SPC/E model is used for water molecules. We show that GO membranes can act as reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, although the water flow in GO membranes is hundred times faster than RO membranes. In this work two important factors in ionic sieving process are studied. First the GO layers separation and second the pressure of water. Each simulation runs until at least half of the water molecules are desalinated. The water flux, permeability, salt rejection, potential of mean force (PMF), and radial distribution function (RDF) are measured. We show that the GO membranes can be the appropriate choice for desalination of seawater in future due to the simplicity in produc tion, low cost, fast water flow, and great ion rejection ability. By 2030 nearly half the global population could be facing water scarcity, with demand outstripping supply by 40 percent, said United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.Over 97% of the water on the Earth is saline water and only three percent is fresh water and about two thirds of this fresh water is frozen.So in the near future the only way to provide fresh water is desalination of seawater. There are common ways to desalinate seawater like reverse osmosis (RO) or methods based on distillation. In the RO method an applied pressure is used to overcome natural osmotic pressure so water passes through a semi-permeable membrane leaving salt behind. In the Distillation methods seawater is evaporated and then condensed to produce freshwater. Both methods require a lot of energy and are very costly. Recently nanotube-based membranes and graphene-based membranes have attracted many interests for their potential in water desalination due to their high permeability and great ion rejection. Although these membranes have a great theoretical advantages, the problem of synthesis and fabrication is a major challenge for producing cost effective membranes. Graphene oxide (GO) is a chemical derivative of graphene with several functional groups such as epoxide and hydroxyl that is produced from graphite by the Hummers method. GO has been synthesized and fabricated in the forms of papers and films in the industrial-scale. Functional groups and layers separation of GO membranes can optimized simply during synthesis process to achieve best performance for desalination. In the GO membranes, water molecules permeate through the nanochannels between oxidized regions (pristine regions), which are provided by the hydrophobicity of functional groups. Particles that have a smaller size than the GO nanochannels can permeate in the GO membrane with speed orders of magnitude greater than common membranes. Dry GO membranes have a layers separation of ~5 ±1 angstroms which only lets water vapor molecules permeate through the nanochannels. When a GO membrane is immersed in water, it is swelled so the layers separation is increased to ~12 ±1 angstroms. Na+ is the smallest ion in the saline water which has a hydrated diameter of à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¾9 Ã…. Therefore after swelling of the membrane, small ions such as Na+ can permeate easier which leads to reduction of ion rejection. Several methods have been tried to prevent swelling of GO membranes, such as physical confinement, and crosslinking of nanosheets In this paper we present a next generation of ultrathin membranes which have remarkable abilities like high permeability, good ion rejection, and great resistance to blockage. Furthermore the simple and cheap methods for synthesis of GO membranes make them energy efficient. We performed Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the large-scale atomic molecular massively parallel simulator (LAMMPS).The VMD and OVITO were used for analysis and visualization. All simulations were carried out in NVT ensemble with a Nosà ©-Hoover thermostat and a damping constant of 10 femtoseconds. The equations of motion were integrated with a time step of 1 femtosecond using the velocity-verlet algorithm. The periodic boundary conditions (PBC) were applied for all three directions. The all-atom optimized potential for liquid simulations (OPLS-AA) is used for graphene oxide (GO) and salt ions.This potential contains many-body terms, including bond stretching, bond angle bending, van der Waals, and electrostatic interactions. In addition, OPLS uses a geometric combining rule for the Lennard-Jones coefficients. The extended simple point charge model (SPC/E) is used for water molecules, following previous studies on similar systems. The force field parameters are given in the table S1 to table S4 completely (see supporting information). The SHAKE algorithm is applied for water molecules to reduce high frequency vibrations that require shorter time steps. The interaction between water and GO includes both van der Waals and electrostatic terms. The van der Waals forces are truncated at 1.0 nm, and the long-range Coulomb interactions are computed by using the particle-particle particle-mesh (PPPM) algorithm. As it is seen in the figure S1 (see supporting information), in our model of GO, both hydroxyl and epoxide groups are considered, following the Lerfà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Klinowski model that is the most well-known model for GO. The structure of the single sheet of GO was considered as 1.5ÃÆ'-3 nm2 containing 18 epoxide and 25 hydroxyl groups. The oxygen functional groups were distributed on both sides of GO sheet. The single sheet of GO contains 206 carbon atoms and 43 oxygen atoms. Therefore, the ratio of C/O is about 4.8 which is in consistent with the Lerfà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Klinowski model. The size of simulation box in the x, y and z directions were about 17, 37 and 11 nm respectively. For preventing the membrane from movement, carbon atoms in the edges of the sheets were fixed. In the first step, a membrane was designed with 13 GO sheets and two layers according to the GO membranes structure proposed in previous studies. Distance between the edges was considered 2 nm. Figure S2 shows the designed membrane (see supporting information). Simulations were carried out for multiple values of layers separation from 7 to 8.5 angstroms with increment of 0.5 angstroms. For each choice of layers separation, three simulations were run for different nominal water pressures of 500 atm, 1000 atm, and 2000 atm. These numbers are nominal pressures but in the feed side of simulation box using voronoi atom volume estimation, feed pressure determined as 600 atm, 980 atm, and 1600 atm. Water pressure on the feed side of the membrane was enforced by applying specified and uniform forces in the z-direction to the piston atoms, thus ensuring that the water pressure was kept constant. Figure S3 shows the membrane with the layers separation of 8.5 angstroms, water, salt ions, and the piston (see supporting information). In the Figure S3a after 0.1 ns water molecules are in the pressure of 2000 atm and in the Figure S3b after 14 ns, we have 94 percent salt rejection and more than half of water molecules purified. In our simulations, saltwater was generated on the feed side of the membrane, consisted of 4800 water molecules and 52 Na+/Clà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ pairs, corresponding to a salt concentration of 35.5 g/L, which is close to the normal salinity of seawater (~35 g/L). Figure 1a shows the flux of water (volume per unit of time per area) passing through the membrane as a function of applied pressure and layers separation. In our simulations, we had to use high pressures in compare to typical pressures that is needed for desalination, because we have a time scale limit in molecular dynamics. We can solve this problem with calculating permeability (volume per unit of time per area per pressure) of membrane that is shown in figure 1b. Another possible method is extrapolating the graphs in figure 1a to low pressures like 10 atm, so we can reach to appropriate flux due to approximately linear relation (R2=0.99). In figure 1b it is obvious that with increasing the layers separation, the membrane permeability increases linearly (R2=0.98). As it is expected the numbers for membrane permeability are in consistent with other reports.Figure 1c shows salt rejection for the membranes with different layers separation and different water pressures. Salt passage wa s calculated from proportion of filtered salt ions number at time t (t is the time that half of the water molecules passed from membrane) to initial salt ions number in the feed side. So we have salt rejection = (1 salt passage). As it is seen in the figure 1c, with increasing the pressure or layers separation, salt rejection reduces which is expected. It is clear that with using lower water pressures like 10 atm, we can achieve higher ion rejection. Figure 2a shows the number of water molecules versus time in the membrane part. For each value of separation there is a limit for number of water molecules that can be in the membrane. In the simulations with higher pressures, the membrane gets filled faster as it is shown in figure 2b. Furthermore in longer times (about 15 ns) the separation value controls the number of water molecules in the membrane. Therefore, without attention to the water pressure, anyway the membrane is filled with water completely. Figure 3 indicates number of filtered water molecules against time. The graphs are plotted at the time that half of the water molecules are desalinated. According to the figure 3b, it is obvious that after about 5 ns the membrane is filled approximately. So we can see a stable flow due to linear relationship between filtered molecules and time. Figure 3a shows water flow for different layers separation and figure 3b shows water flow for different pressures in constant separation value. Figure 4 is the 3D color map for potential of mean force (PMF) for a particle passing through two sheets of GO. The PMF was calculated from steered molecular dynamics (SMD). We used harmonic potential U = K(x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ x0)2/2, where K is 20 Kcal/mole-angstrom2 and end of spring moving with velocity of 0.00005 angstrom/femtosecond that is enough for reversible pulling. For checking the reversible pulling, the SMD was performed in X direction and -X direction at same width, but the results were same. Also using umbrella sampling and weighted histogram analysis method (WHAM) give us the same results as SMD for PMF calculation. For creating each PMF map, 30 simulations were performed to cover all of the GO layers width. We have done these simulations for 3 different layers separation. So we have a PMF map that shows barriers and valleys of energy all over the GO layers completely. In figure 4a, 4b, and 4c the PMF are plotted for Cl ion that passing from one side of GO layers to another side. In each path, Cl ion sees many barriers that prevent from movement of the ions. Also the ions can stuck in the valleys of energy between the barriers. Figure 4d, 4e, and 4f show PMF map for Na ion. In comparison to Cl ion, the barriers are shorter and valleys have a higher depth. So the Na ions in the valleys can move out with lower energy than Cl ions. PMF for H2O molecule in figure 4g, 4h, and 4i are shown. Flat surfaces indicate easy movement of H2O molecules across GO layers without encountering any barriers or valleys. As we can see in all of the plots, with increasing the layers separation, height of barriers and depth of valleys are reduced so the ions and water molecules move easier. Figure 5 shows salt concentration in the three part of feed, membrane, and filtered against time. In figure 5a the simulation is selected with layers separation of 8 angstroms and pressure of 2000 atmosphere. At the first of all simulations the salt concentration is 35.5 g/lit in the feed part which is same as sea water salinity. Salt concentration of feed part is slightly increased until reach to 90 g/lit at the time that half of the water molecules are desalinated. In the filtered part there are some peaks showing passage of ions through membrane. After the each peak, the salt concentration is reduced until the next peak because of passing water molecules from membrane into filtered part. Salt concentration in the membrane part fluctuates around the mean value of 17 g/lit until the end of simulation. So this fluctuation is enough to ensure that the membrane blockage does not occur even in higher salt concentrations like 90 g/lit. In figure 5b the layers separation is 8.5 angstroms with the water pressure of 2000 atmosphere. As we can see the behavior of plots is similar to figure 5a except number of peaks in the filtered part. Figure S4 indicates radial distribution function (RDF) for water and functional groups in GO layers (see supporting information). Figure S4a shows correlation between oxygen and hydrogen in water. Figure S4b presents RDF between oxygen in water and hydrogen in hydroxyl groups. Figure S4c shows RDF between hydrogen in water and oxygen in hydroxyl groups. Figure S4d shows correlation between hydrogen in water and oxygen of epoxide groups. The first peak in all of the plots in figure S4 shows length of hydrogen bond. As we can see in the figure the longest hydrogen bond is belong to hydrogen of water and oxygen of epoxide. We show that nanometer-scale pores in single-layer freestanding graphene can effectively filter NaCl salt from water. Using classical molecular dynamics, we report the desalination performance of such membranes as a function of pore size, chemical functionalization, and applied pressure.