Financial strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Financial strategy - Essay Example The most important step in developing start up financial strategy is ‘to undertake a realistic evaluation of the financial alternative available and consider the impact of capital source selection will have on the development and ultimate contours of the company.(Richard D Harroch and Gregory c Smith, page 703)2 It is also important that financial needs of the firm should be evaluated overtime. Every business requires two types of finances at the startup. One is long term finance and other is short term finance. Long term finances are required to meet long term plans of business. ‘Long term plans are part of an integrated strategy that, along with production and marketing plans, guides the firm toward strategic goals. Those long term plans consider proposed outlay for fixed assets, research and development activities, marketing and development actions, capital structure, and major source of financing.’ (Lawrence J Gitman, page 115)3 Finances required for long term plans are not invested all at once at start of the business but gradually over time. Basic sources of long term finance requirements are equity contributions of the ownership and debt capital. Strategy to obtain long term finance from equity or debt capital is matter of overall policy of the company and depends a lot on expected rate of return of investments in total assets of the company. This is because there is a difference in raising fund as equity capital and debt capital. The main difference is that debt investors into the business of the firm are entitled to contractual set of cash flows (interest and capital), whereas equity investors have a claim on the residual cash flows of the firm, after the company has satisfied all other claims and liabilities. Interest paid on debt capital represent a tax- deductible expense, whereas dividend paid to equity investors has to come out of profits after tax. Debts have a fixed maturity

Personal Identity and the Self Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal Identity and the Self - Essay Example Who am I? What am I? Have you ever wondered and kept on thinking about this mysterious question. You would have come across many answers like you are alive because of your brain or you are surviving because of physical existence of your body But does one really think he is just his body, or just alive due to the grey matter situated in the crown of his head. No this seems so absurd, at least for me. I am really convinced that I am only the soul. Soul is that minute particle of energy which is much lighter and smaller than atom and which gives me the immortal life that no death can conquer. I cannot be the brain for the very reason that when my brain stop working my breathe goes on. Same way, when my body is paralyzed I still keep on living. When seeing from both the angle of body and brain, the thing which keep me alive and blissful is my soul, my eternal soul. This concept of soul can be alien to many, but it is one truth which is eternal and divine. It is not right to say that we a re body, or we are alive because of brain as these are just instruments which give our soul chance to perform its duty on this earthly plane. Soul is the part of the God, but still separate from God, and has a motive of merging with God at end of its life cycle. We were created from God and have to merge with God after taking birth in different forms and times. Body and brain is nothing but some physical instrument which gives us reasoning and decision making powers. It may be surprising to many, if I tell you that we had to take many forms like plants, animals and human to complete our life cycle and ultimately merge with the divine. Yes, we survived through many years and strayed in many forms and eventually we get enlightened and get salvation. According to (Jerrry,1978,pg .3) â€Å"Survival means surviving no more no less. I have no doubts that I shall merge with beings, plants will take root in my remains, and the chemical that I am will continue to make their contribution to life†. This cycle goes on, until the soul in our self gets brightened and purified to join with the divine power. It is our aim, to find God in our self and understand it and nurture it and then surrender it to Divine power. We cannot be the body, how can I be the body? If then if my leg gets amputed then I should cease to exist. Does it happen? No, it won’t. If my whole body gets paralyzed until my neck, I keep on speaking .So what is keeping me alive, yes it is the soul undoubtedly. It is hidden in our body, and can be reached only by long lasting meditation and submerging in ultimate self. It very well cannot be the body, which keeps on changing according to the age and time. One may think what happens to this soul, once the body gets destroyed. Yes! This is a very valuable question and the answer is also valuable indeed. The soul never dies, never get destroyed and it remained as an immortal energy .The body is just a covering, a temple for the soul to reside, it re mains there witnessing all the actions of the body and mind. It lies in the body behind the subconscious mind and witnesses all the deeds good and bad. People don’t realize the soul because we are in the illusionary world, and this veil of ignorance keeps us away from the reality. The reality is only experienced when listen to the self and look inwards rather than outwards. If the self was just the body, then there would have been no purpose to this life. It is like we are here just to eat sleep and mating. We just need to give pleasures to the bodily organs and do not even have to look further for happiness and bliss. â€Å"A person’s â€Å"having a soul† is not, for example, a special form of possession or ownership .What we need to understand is that person’s â€Å"having a soul† is not a form of possession or ownership at all†(Rosenberg,1998,pg.58).Soul is the beholder of the body and the mind, and everything we think and do is witnessed by soul and affect the soul. Good deed and bad deed does make the soul pure or

Improving the Accuracy of Arabic DC System

Improving the Accuracy of Arabic DC System The main goal of this research is to investigate and to develop the appropriate text collections, tools and procedures for Arabic document classification. The following specific objectives have been set to achieve the main goal: To investigate the impact of preprocessing tasks including normalization, stop word removal, and stemming in improving the accuracy of Arabic DC system. To introduce a novel technique for Arabic stemming in order to improve the accuracy of the document classification system. The new algorithm for Arabic stemming tries to overcome the deficiencies in state-of-the-art Arabic stemming techniques and dealing with MWEs, foreign Arabized words and handling the majority of broken plural forms to reduce them into their singular form. To use Arabic text summarization technique as feature reduction technique to eliminate the noise on the documents and select the most salient sentences to represent the original documents. To explore the impact of different feature selection techniques on the accuracy of Arabic document classification and proposes and implements a new variant of Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) weighting methods that take into account the important of the first appearance of a word and the compactness of the word which can be taken as factors that determine the important features in the document. To implement various classifiers and compares their performances. 1.1.Problem Statement Despite the achievements in document classification, the performance of document classification systems is far from satisfactory. document classification tasks are characterized by natural languages. This means DC is closely related to natural language processing (NLP) which require knowledge of its subject matter. In general NL reveals many of syntactic and semantic ambiguities beside the complexities [45]. In the context of DC, a researcher tries to address various problems arising from characteristics of documents in the process of feature extraction and feature representation; or problems emanating from the classification algorithms. The following sections provide ideas on research problems. 1.1.1. Preprocessing Text Problem The preprocessing stage is a challenge and affects positively or negatively on the performance of any DC system. Therefore, the improvement of the preprocessing stage for highly inflected language such as the Arabic language will enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the Arabic DC system. In spite of the lack of standard Arabic morphological analysis tools most of the previous studies on Arabic DC have proposed the use of preprocessing tasks to reduce the dimensionality of feature vectors without comprehensively examining their contribution in promoting the effectiveness of the DC system. One of the challenges facing the researchers in Arabic document classification systems is the absence of a strong and an effective stemming algorithm. Arabic is morphologically a complex language [46], it uses both kinds of morphologies: inflectional and derivational morphologies. Based on these types of morphology, a single word may yield hundreds or even thousands of variant forms [47]. The impor tance of using the stemming technique in the documents classification lies in that it makes the processes less dependent on particular forms of words and reduces the highly dimensionality of the feature space, which, in turn, enhance the performance of the classification system.   In spite of the rapid research conducted in other languages, Arabic language still suffers from the shortages of researchers and development.   The state-of-the-art Arabic stemmers suffer from high stemming error-rates due to its understemming errors, overstemming errors, ignored the handling of multiword expressions (MWEs), broken plural forms, and Arabized words. Therefore, the limitations of the current Arabic stemming methods have motivated this author to investigate a novel technique for Arabic stemming to be used in the extraction of the word roots of Arabic language in order to improve the accuracy of the document classification system in chapter 5. 1.1.2. Highly Dimensionality of the Feature Space Extremely high dimensional features paces and large volumes of data problems occur in automatic document classification. High dimensionality problems arise because the number of features used in the classification process increases along with dimensionality of the feature vectors[13, 15, 48, 49]. Practical examples show that the number of features consisting the dimensionality could amount to thousands. A large number of features are irrelevant to the classification task and can be removed without affecting the classification accuracy for several reasons: First, the performance of some classification algorithms is negatively affected when dealing with a high dimensionality of features. Second, an over-fitting problem may occur when the classification algorithm is trained in all features. Finally, some features are common and occur in all or most of the categories [50]. In order to solve this problem, the feature vector dimensionality is required to be reduced without degradation of classification performance. It was important to extract the features with high discriminating power using various techniques.   Text summarization, feature selection and feature weighting are common techniques and methods that are used in document classification to reduce the highly dimensionality of the feature space and to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the classification system. The term frequency (TF) weighted by inverse document frequency (IDF) which is abbreviated as TFIDF can partially solve the problem of variation in content and length in the documents but it cannot solve the problem of the distribution of the important words within the document. In general, the document is written in an organized manner to describe its main topic(s). For example, the main topic for news articles may mentions at the title and the first part of the document to draw the attention of the reader. Therefore, depending on the location, the document parts may have different degrees of contribution to the documents main topic(s) [51]. In this thesis, we propose new feature weighting methods that treat the problem of the distribution of the important words within the document in chapter 6. In order to satisfy the objectives stated in this research, the research questions of this study can be summarized as: What are the impact of text preprocessing techniques such as normalization, stop word removal, and stemming in improving the performance of Arabic DC system? What are the available Arabic text preprocessing methods to be implemented in this research? What are their advantages and disadvantages? How to compare and improve their performance in order to improve the accuracy of the Arabic documents classification system? What are the Impact of feature reduction techniques on Arabic document classification? How to overcome the problem of the highly dimensionality of the feature space and the difficulty of selecting the important features for understanding the document? Which classification algorithms have the best performance when applied on different representations of Arabic dataset? 1.2.Research Contribution This research focuses on exploring different preprocessing techniques, dimensionality reduction techniques and investigating their effect on Arabic document classification performance. More specifically, the main contributions of this thesis are as follows: Demonstrate that using preprocessing task such as normalization, stop word removal, and stemming for Arabic datasets have a significant impact on the classification accuracy, especially with complicated morphological structure of the Arabic language. Furthermore, we demonstrate that choosing appropriate combinations of preprocessing tasks provides significant improvement on the accuracy of document classification depending on the feature size and classification techniques. In this thesis, we propose a novel stemmer for Arabic documents classification. The proposed stemmer attempts to overcome the weaknesses of root-based stemming technique and light stemming technique, in addition to dealing with the majority of broken plural forms, MWEs, and foreign Arabized words. We compare the proposed stemmer with the well-known Arabic stemmers, including root-base stemming (Khoja stemmer) and light stemming (Larkey stemmer), to study its contribution in improving the classification system. The comparison is carried out for different datasets, classification techniques, and performance measures. Demonstrate that using document summarization technique help to improve the efficiency of Arabic document classification by reducing the highly dimensionality of the feature space without affecting the value or content of documents, then saving the memory space and execution time for documents classification process. In this thesis, we investigate the impact of different feature selection techniques, namely, Information gain (IG), Goh and Low (NGL) coefficients, Chi-square Testing (CHI), and Galavotti-Sebastiani-Simi Coefficient (GSS) that have a significant impact on reducing the dimensionality of feature space and thus improve the performance of Arabic document classification system. In this thesis, we investigate the impact of feature representation schemas on the accuracy of Arabic document classification. The document usually consists of several parts and the important features that more closely associated with the topic of the document are appearing in the first parts or repeated in several parts of the document. Therefore, the proposed weighting methods take into account the important of the first appearance of a word and the compactness of the word which can be taken as factors that determine the important features in the document. Unfortunately, there is no free benchmarking dataset for Arabic documents classification. One of the aims of this research is to compile dataset for Arabic documents classification that cover different text genres which will be used in this research and can be used in the future as a benchmark for computation linguistics researches including text mining, information retrieval. The dataset collected from several published papers for Arabic document classification and from scanning the well-known and reputable Arabic websites. Compiling freely and publically available corpora is advancement step on the field of Arabic document classification.

The German World of Disappointment :: Essays Papers

The German World of Disappointment From the youngest child to the oldest man, everyone has experienced the unpleasant feeling of disappointment. Everyone has been to a place that was not all that they anticipated it to be. No one can say that someone has never somehow let them down. At one point or another, everyone has been disappointed in something they have purchased. And what child is not heart-broken when he learns there is no Santa Claus? Whether it is in a person, thing, place, or idea, disappointment can be the most devastating and hurtful feeling people face. Disappointment is an experience that the German people, especially, have had to live through. The German writer, Heinrich Boll, uses his story â€Å"Pale Anna† to illustrate the universal experience of disappointment, an experience his countrymen are very familiar with, through both literature and history. When a long-lost German soldier returns to his hometown five years after World War II has ended, he returns to a place that is familiar, but everyone he knows is gone. His new landlady constantly asks him if he knew her dead son. She talks endlessly about her dearly departed son’s life and shows him again and again all the pictures of her son. The final picture that was taken of the landlady’s son was of him at his job as a streetcar conductor. All the other occasions that the soldier had seen it he reminisced about his own time spent at that particular terminus. He remembers the pop stand, the trees, the villa with the golden lions, and especially a girl that he thought of often during the war that always boarded the streetcar at that terminus. The soldier never recognizes any of the people in the picture until he had been there for three weeks and then he sees the girl in the streetcar. The landlady tells him that the girl was her son’s fiancà ©e and th at she is living in the room next to his. Pale Anna is what they always call her because of her extremely white face, but her face was unrecognizably destroyed when she was thrown through a window by a bomb blast. The soldier returns to his room and tries unsuccessfully to imagine Anna’s face being anything else but beautiful, even with scars. He thinks about his past romances and remembers them as complete disappointments.

Family Therapy Essay

The whole issue of preferred family structure in the United States is complex with potential debates ranging from human rights issues to personal preferences and compliance with societal requirements. Several issue under lies this interest in a human context. For instance, the perception that the nuclear family is the best family structure which should feature in all human societies and is the only family structure that can fulfill the requirements and functions of a family is facing a lot of challenges in the modern society (McGoldrick, & Carter, 2005) this paper is written. It identifies and discusses the reasons why single parented family is more preferable to nuclear family in the United States. Nuclear family is defined as a traditional family which is made up of father, mother and children (McGoldrick, & Carter, 2005). It was traditionally conceived after marriage and developed ties across generation to an extended family, which accommodated cousins, uncles, aunts and grand parents. The nuclear family is associated with many advantages which range from emotional to social and economical support. However, numerous studies indicate that in the recent past, the nuclear family structure has lost the originality and substance it deserved and alternative family structures are becoming more prevalent (McGoldrick, & Carter, 2005). Several proposals have been put forth to explain this transformation top on the list being high divorce rates, same sex marriages and adoption of children. Current sociological statistics shows that nuclear family is losing prevalent in the United States because of its inadequacy to accommodate the diversified modern family arrangements. Available research shows that single parent family structure is increasingly high and 75% of all children in the United States spend a considerable amount of their life time in a single family (Stebbins, 2001). In a single family, there is only one parent in the family raising the children. In many a time, single parent family consists of a mother and the children. But to avoid being branded a feminist, the author of this paper finds it important to mention here that the number of single male parents is on the hike and cannot be ignored in this discussion. Several reasons have been put forth to explain why many people in United States prefer single parent family structure. From available statistics, many of the single parents are women who have never been married (Stebbins, 2001). The modern society has given women equal opportunities to pursue their careers. This is evidenced by the increasingly high number of women who have excelled in different careers including the male dominated ones. These women spend a considerable amount of their life time nurturing their careers to a point where if they have to wait until they get a potential partner, it mate be late for them to bear children. Advance in technology has enable women to bear children in absence intimacy with there male partners through artificial insemination (Sharp, & Yarber, 2010). They are given a chance to select a male partner who is willing to father the child without being emotionally attached. They raise the children according to their plans, values and standards and they stands to benefit from their parenting effort. The high rate of divorce in the United States has contributed heavily to the increased number of single parent families (Stebbins, 2001). Psychological research result indicates that conflict between parents creates the worst environment for the well being of children. Children built their characters from their parents and therefore domestic violence, for instance is emotionally and psychologically destructive to the children. Divorce and hence single family gives a solution to this problem and may guarantee the children a good future. Available information shows that despite the emotional feelings of loneliness, single parent families have many opportunities for the growth of children than in a two parent family (McGoldrick, & Carter, 2005). References McGoldrick, M., & Carter, B. (2005). The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Sharp, P., & Yarber, A. (2010). Focus on Single-Parent Families: past, present, and Future. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Stebbins, L. (2001). Work and Family in America: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.

Geopolitics and globalization Essay

Geopolitics is a field of study that is responsible for analyzing history, geography and social science with a special reference to spatial politics through patterns of various scales, ranging from state to international levels. It gives a critical examination of economic and political issues in relation geographical frontiers. In this context, geography is defined in terms of function, size, location and relationship of resources and places. Traditionally, geopolitics indicates causal relationships and links between geographic space and political power. It is seen as a concrete line of thought used to essay specific and strategic prescriptions that lay their basis on the relative significance of sea power and land power in the history of the world (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 33). The consistent concerns of the geopolitical tradition included the relationships between terrestrial and naval capabilities, the identification of international core areas and the geopolitical correlates of power in the world of politics. Geopolitics were conducted through a geopolitical system, that was seen as an ensemble of relations between the interests focused to an area, international political factors, ways, geographical elements and space. Geopolitics is a branch of political geography concerning the assessment of reciprocal relations between politics, geography and power as well as the interactions that arise from their combination. It is therefore a scientific discipline with a basic science nature (Klauds, 2000, pp. 12). Radically, contemporally use of geopolitics deviates from the original use in the 19th century. Originally, geopolitics served as a reflection of international affairs under a strong influence by social Darwinism. Under this, there was a limited significance of international law, global norms and multilateralism all of which signaled realist view of international affairs cynically. The concept currently denotes interplay of geographic space, strategic dominance and natural resources. In connection to earlier usage of the term, its growing use brings on board the need to reflect on the rise of multipolarity in the early 21st century and the renaissance of great power rivalry (Neil, 2005, pp. 23). As the world is changing, there has been great pressure upon traditional or old systems of societal governance and operation. This has been a movement towards globalization, a state where different social setups, economies, technocrats and political affiliates interact, share ideas, problems, challenges and experiences. A globalized society understands, anticipates and advocates for freedom and rights. Globalization encompasses the preaching of rights, justice, freedom, and peace continued support of masses and majority rule to citizens in promoting their own morality related believes. Through interaction, global community has become one society with commonalities in political, social, economic, cultural and technological beacons. Through the process, ideologies of many communities have been alignment towards the same point in both material and non material concerns of life. This change has influenced the original interpretation and applicability of geopolitics limiting the role it initially played (Agnew, 2003, pp. 45). Globalization is therefore premier buzzwords in 21st century, referring to a world which is stretched, interdependent, integrated, shrunk, interwoven, connected and less territorially segmented into various cultural and economic zones. Due to the above description, it is seen as shorthand towards economic liberalism spontaneously adopted by governments of the world, as a social modernization scaled up from national to whole world status with time and also as an economic technological process through the compression of time and space, highly challenging geopolitics (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 34). Since globalization and geopolitics aspects show some degree of compatibility regardless of the time factor, globalization is of late seen to replace geopolitics. Geopolitics was seen as an issue concerning great powers and empires imposing territorial control to various boundaries whereas globalization is a world that knows no boundaries. This means that globalization has geopolitical roots. Globalization represents a stark break of the geopolitics of the cold war (Brunn, 2004, pp. 20). The free world economy was started during the cold war, through the mantra of the new globalizing economy. Globalization has initiated a new regime of market access through a revolutionary process by international organizations including WTO, GATT, World Bank and IMF. These institutions have aided in departing from geopolitics through enforcement of radical economic liberalism. As a result a new economic geography has emerged, characterized by tension towards continued regulation of economic activities and a world economy with organized flow of goods and capital in locations that are widely scattered. Therefore as geopolitics decay in the current society, there is significant aspiration towards a higher level of global economic development. (http://www. informationclearinghouse. info/article11747. htm) Through globalization, the geographical logic of the world has changed by addressing the disparities between the territorial and interactional modes of capitalism organization. Globalization does not only reshuffle geopolitics in its nature of globality, but through the combination of global networks and localized territorial fragmentation. Geopolitics era structured the world economy into territorial entities such as colonial empires, states and geopolitical spheres of influence (Greer, 2000, pp. 30). In another perspective, globalization is not seen to mark the end of geopolitics but reform it. The main novelty today is the role of economic prosperity, underdevelopment of cross-border flows, networks linking nation to hinderlands and the increased differentiations between regions and localities because of the existing biases along the spatial channel. This clearly shows that globalization has no marked the end of geopolitics, but entails its reformulation from an economic mapping based on territories to a more complex mosaic of states, localities, global city regions and regions differentially integrated into the global economy. This means there exists geopolitics of contemporally globalization concerning the operational and originality structure. To indicate that globalization has not marked the end of geopolitics, social and political boundaries have not disappeared but are in a process of reconstitution along and across long established ones (Larrabee, 2003, pp. 12). Geopolitics was hegemonic in nature. For many years, geopolitics has been known to limit political and economic influence of many countries through dividing the world into territorial empires and trading blocs. The limitation was facilitated through enactment and enforcement of powerful strains to minimize the involvement in political affairs and foreign economic affairs. Geopolitics was highly supported by the autarkic dogmas of soviet communism and competitive trading blocs which were partly blamed for the great depressions of the 1930s. After the Second World War, a strong internationalist American agenda was brought in to counterpoint the effects of the communistic societies by sponsoring international investments, currency convertibility and free trade. This effort towards a free world order provided the groundwork to internationalization of global activities. According to this explanation, we can say that geopolitics laid down the groundwork to globalization. On the other hand, Globalization can thus be said to be a kind of geopolitics that has undergone transition within time and spatial dimensions (Heymann, 2005, pp. 67). Twentieth century economic globalization has been linked to two issues that indicate the linkage between geopolitics and globalization. These issues were both political and economic because they aimed at promoting as realization of continental expansion and later to global expansion in political, economic and social spheres. First, expansion of market was viewed as a necessity towards social well being and national political well being. Second, economic liberty or independence was viewed as the foundation for freedom per se. these views opened a new page as far as geopolitics is concerned (Buqajski, 2002, pp. 43). Early in the 21st century America underwrote continental expansion but stimulated foreign market for their commodities. However, the power of the government to control private economic activities was limited by federal subunits and the divisions of power between the branches of federal government. Such branches included the congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court. This system depicts how firm and conservative geopolitics was. On the other hand it shows how globalization was challenged by the system of governance before starting to grow. Globalization was experiencing a pull apart scenario from tiers of government and federal branches. Down the years, the country and other several nations have extended their powers beyond continental to global frontiers. This means the role of geopolitics in modeling the system of governance is decreasing with time, but it shall not bet forgotten that it serves as the bottom line for change, the change being renamed as the globalization (Herd, 2002, pp. 65). For globalization to be completely explored, it is necessary to assess the role played by geopolitics in its structuring. This is because of the commonalities the two concepts have. Such process will involve comparison between hegemonic power against democracy or devolution. The regime makers in this changing world determine the speed, scope and nature of globalization, regarding how far they are free from geopolitics. The roots of geopolitics indicate the reforms in markets, concentration of political and economic power and hegemony (http://www. informationclearinghouse. info/article11747. htm). To show the current scenarios in issues of globalization and geopolitics, many media commenter, IPE scholars and policy makers criticize de territorial threats from Middle East on the failure to adjust and embrace globalization. This has forced United States of America to use force and bring Middle East to globalization through a slogan that disconnectedness defines a danger. The Middle East is claimed to lie centrally to a vast region that is disconnected to global flow of security, capital and people to sustain mutually assured dependence. Americans have claimed to be fighting geopolitics in the Middle East region. It is said that geopolitical imaginary in the Middle East is blind towards networks of transnational mobility across the region. The study and consideration of geopolitics in the region gives the micro foundations of globalization in the area. It is also widely believed that the rate of globalization is inversely related to extend of geopolitics (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 35). Areas with high rate of geopolitics are thought to have low rates of globalization and vice versa, but none completely outdoes the other. This means both concepts are important for the involved elements around the globe to intermingle efficiently. This is built on pluralistic theory of globalization, stating that transnational processes and diverse global processes are heterogeneously shaped by agents and networks of alternative geopolitical imaginaries (Agnew, 2006, pp. 16). Specifically the way to globalization can be evaluated by considering the geopolitics of tourism since 2001 in the Middle East region. As opposed to many, tourism has significantly developed since then. Public and private sectors in tourism that initially focused on tourism from industrialized nations have redirected their efforts towards both domestic and regional tourist flow paving way to new, more regional and stylish tourist development. Today, new and emerging forms of regional Islamic tourism and Arabic tourism, propelled by oil income expansion and consumer behavior shifts have remapped globalization meaning in the region. Firms, states and various actors across Middle East are seeking negotiation on own interaction with global economy, promising to assert manipulation of their local spaces and territory and therefore define their itineraries of globalization (Klauds, 2000, pp. 19).

Perspectives in Psychology essays

Perspectives in Psychology essays Sigmund Freud developed the psychoanalytical perspective by combining ideas of perception and memory with beliefs of biologically based instincts. His feelings were that unconscious processes such as fears and desires influence behaviour. These processes are forced into the unconscious because they are forbidden or punished by society and parents during childhood. Once in the unconscious they grow to become emotional problems, or on the positive side as ability's that are socially acceptable. Freud believed there is a cause for every action but they are often an unconscious motive. An example based on the psychoanalytical theory is how whenever I go to bed I always snuggle up to my extra blanket and pillows. From a psychoanalytical perspective this would be blamed on an unconscious desire for my mother or father to be in bed with me cuddling me just like they used to when I was a little boy. The biological perspective believes that all psychological events are results of the body affecting ones behaviour. It attributes overt behaviour to electrical and chemical events taking place in the body. Researchers study the brain activity of animals to in turn understand the human brain. It can give them an idea of how inborn biological mechanisms are responsible for human behaviours and thoughts. An example using the biological approach could be the way that I am very attracted to red haired females just like my dad is. From a biological perspective this could be based on the theory that my father's trait for finding red haired women attractive was passed down to me thru genes, that in effect leaves me with the same feelings. Humanistic psychology is the study of how the entire, subjective, experience affects behaviour and cognition. Humanists believe that to totally understand human nature they must push to understand the whole person including, behaviours, beliefs, feelings and anything else that pertain to mental and behavi...

Science and Atheism

Science and Atheism Science by definition is the intellectual, practical, and the systematic study of the composition and functioning of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.   Atheism, a word derived from the combination of the Greek ÃŽ ± or â€Å"not† and theos or â€Å"god† is commonly perceived as the belief that there is no God. Since science, as exemplified in the above definition operates in a framework of uncompromising naturalism and function as if our world has no connection with any supernatural being, it is often viewed atheistic. Although science and religion, according to literature are practices embodied in powerful social institutions and achieving peaceful coexistence, their boundaries, and social positions are well-defined. For one thing, science has a life of its own and regardless of its godly origins, it can function without theistic foundation. However, regardless of extreme naturalism and its very broad description of the world, science does not tolerate any atheistic morality and can function without atheism. Similar to theism that makes sense only to those who support the claim there is a God, atheism can only prosper in a society with different moral ideals such as Enlightenment humanism, communism, libertarianism, and others thus can also come into tension with science.   Atheism according to the literature is not just a claim that we live in a godless world. An atheist during the 18th century takes the world as given and rejects the claim that God is necessary to explain the existence of the world. Another form of atheism asserts that belief in God and in the afterlife undermines the value of human life on earth.   Similar to Marx and Lenin’s atheism, there is an atheistic world-view and ethics that people must become gods to be worthy of living in a godless world. Scientific Atheism Scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries, according to the literature were in a way self-consciously taken religion out of the discourse for the sake of modern science.   However, this was not at the done metaphysical level, but deliberately at the methodological level where religion and science do not mix. For instance, since good science involves dealing with problems until a solution is found, reaching out for God’s intervention whenever you encounter a problem is simply not science. Aside from the fact that most renowned scientists such as Galileo, Descartes, Boyle, Newton, and others were all religious, their atheistic attitude toward God was mere â€Å"scientific atheism† or recognition of the reality that Adam and Eve, Noah’s Flood, Jonah and the whale, and other religious claims   are no longer acceptable in modern science.   A survey of top-rank British scientist suggests that most respondents who came from physical sciences believed in God. Similarly, a study conducted in 1996 found that most members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences do believe in God. Dissertation Writing Service Science and religion are two conflicting aspects of social life. As science attempt discover facts about the world through observation and reasoning, religion has a creed and code of personal morals that are directly in conflict with science.   For instance, a creed is often the intellectual source of dispute between religion and science due to assertions, dogma, and philosophical doctrines that science can easily disprove.

Famous Stones and Their Legends and History

Famous Stones and Their Legends and History Certain stones started out as dumb common boulders, like all the rest. But one day they got a lucky break, and now theyre genuine rock stars. Heres a few of them. Family pride leads me to start with Plymouth Rock, that sturdy icon of American strength and faith. Its a chunk of Dedham Granodiorite that, the legend goes, was sitting where John Alden of the Plymouth Colony first stepped on American soil in 1620. That great man is my ancestor 13 generations back, but I didnt learn this legend in my fathers lap; instead I read about it on some Web site. And the legend isnt actually true either. In fact Plymouth Rock is a fraction of its old self, having suffered many indignities during its up-and-down history. I prefer the idealized image of the rock in its better days, as shown on a souvenir plate from the John Alden Shop in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Surely no humbler-looking object has ever been depicted by the porcelain artists at Jonroth Co., England, unless they made a plate to commemorate mashed potatoes (which would be a good idea). Somewhat more exalted, if only in being higher off the ground, is the Blarney Stone, set in the battlement of Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland. Kissing the stone gives you the gift of persuasive speech. Legend has it that this boulder is half of the Stone of Scone, awarded to the great Cormac McCarthy for supporting Robert the Bruce in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. A geologist recorded his judgment that the Blarney Stone is the same stuff as the rest of the castle, which is made of local limestone (a lower Carboniferous biomicrite, to be more precise). I swear its true, but the last time I checked the Web page documenting that, it had mysteriously vanished- something that almost never happens! Was the geologist himself talking blarney? Im not sure, because another legend has it that the true Blarney Stone was taken away, which means the geologist was looking at a sham stone. The Stone of Scone itself is the rock upon which the kings of Scotland were crowned, and the Scots know it as the Stone of Destiny. The English took it in 1296 when they conquered Scotland and had the stone built into the royal coronation chair to keep the tradition alive. (The stone was returned in 1996, but can be taken back whenever its time to crown a new monarch.) You see already that if the English took it in 1296, then Robert the Bruce could not have split it with Cormac McCarthy in 1314. The Stone of Destiny is a block of yellowish sandstone of uncertain origin. Legend traces it to ancient times as the very stone upon which Jacob laid his head in Genesis chapter 28, and thus it is a solid symbol of the Promised Land. But a legend says the stone the English took in 1296 was a fake! That would solve the discrepancy with the Blarney Stone- if we assume that one is also a fake. Perhaps the most exalted rock in every sense is the Black Stone of the Kaaba, a dark boulder set in silver on the wall of Islams central shrine, the Kaaba, in Mecca. It marks the starting point of the walk around the Kaaba at the heart of the holy pilgrimage called the hajj. Islamic experts make it clear that the Black Stone is not holy in itself. For instance, the Black Stone was once taken away for many years, and the hajj was not affected. (Perhaps the royals of the British Isles could learn from this.) The Black Stone has its own story, a good one. It is said that when the patriarchs Abraham and Ishmael were building the Kaaba, the stone was delivered to them by the archangel Michael. That story is consistent with the Black Stone being a meteorite, and indeed meteorites have been prized and revered by many different peoples around the world. But I wouldnt ask any Muslim, even a geologist, to waste one second of their hajj examining the stone to satisfy my curiosity. Scientists too have given names to stones- even geologists, who you think might know better. For example there are the rocks on Mars, sitting around the landers. But my favorite example is the roster of 162 sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa, in the California desert. Each one is being mapped with GPS technology by geologist Paula Messina of San Jose State University, and each of them bears a womans name. In fact each stone has its- I mean, her own Web site, and if thats not fame I dont know what is. Every year the stones are found sitting on the vast dry lakebed, but not in the same position. Behind each one is a shallow track in the cracked playa mud, proof that some rare combination of wind, water and physics animates them when no one is there to see. Thats no legend . . . merely a mystery. (But just in case youre keeping up, heres the latest and most plausible explanation.) PS: The Japanese created an art form out of stones: suiseki. The idea is to find natural stones that reproduce things like mountains, but on a desktop scale. Suiseki stones arent famous but they are beautiful, and sometimes quite valuable. See some examples of this Earth art.

Homework3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homework3 - Assignment Example The two factors or characteristic of power are highly conspicuous in the film. James sharper uses his political position (power) to influence people’s way of thinking. Ideally, the character influences people’s thinking and decisions through voting and rigging of elections. According to the film, Sharpe has been in office for four consecutive terms. His political success can be traced back to a network of corrupt city workers who protects his interests in Newark streets. Ideally, Sharpe threatened city workers with demotions and false accusations. In addition, traders who did not concur with his political ambitions were either accused of being terrorists or criminals. Consequently, their businesses were denied mayor’s protection and, hence subjected to sabotage. Although power is instrumental in social development, power can be applied in a negative sense, as depicted in the film. James Sharpe uses power for his own interests without considering people’s n eeds. Power gives authority to leaders and, therefore essential in leadership. However, power does not determine the quality of a leader. If it did then Sharpe would have been a better leader than his opponent was. Although the film does not reveal most of Booker leadership qualities, he seems a credible leader. His profile and academic qualifications makes him an outstanding leader compared to his political rival. Power is exercised through influence. In this context, leaders can also influenced by the very power they owe the people. It is unclear whether Booker can sustain his credibility if elected the mayor of the city. The first election illustrates the relationship between power and leadership. Ideally, candidates who had most power won the elections. Although James and Booker were both African-Americans, James had more political power than Booker did. Despite Booker having the best manifestos and visions for Newark and NJ, James had better chances of

Commercial Success Storyboard Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Commercial Success Storyboard - Assignment Example The target audience for the product is smokers between the ages of 18-42. A commercial campaign for this product should be run in the primetime hours of 8:00 P.M. – 11:00 P.M. The commercial should be aired at a time when there is maximum audience in order to reach more people. The firm should select a program that is popular and that is watched by a broad audience. A good show for the company to purchase commercial time on is America’s Got Talent broadcasted by NBC. America’s Got Talent is in the entertainment competition category. The show is aired Tuesdays at 8:00 P.M. eastern. This show is a good candidate because people of all ages and backgrounds watch this show. The creative approach that will be used to attract customers is by emphasizing on three elements: coolness factor, sex appeal, and convenience of the product. A celebrity guest will be included in the commercial. The 30 second commercial that will be prepared for The Electronic Cigarette Company wi ll be delivered using the broadcasting services of NBC. NBC is considered one of the market leaders among national television stations. Despite being one of the market leaders NBC has very reasonable pricing in comparison with the competition.

Accounting article, read and answer the questions Article

Accounting , read and answer the questions - Article Example While these conflicts of interest are very real, they note that we often dismiss them as unimportant, or having no effect. This is because we believe that these professions and professionals adhere to a strong system of ethical standards. But, according to the authors, such conflict of interest situations do have a very marked effect. Thus they suggest a theory of â€Å"moral seduction† which allows most professionals to accept conflict of interest as inevitable and harmless. In addition, they cite Kunda (1990) and argue that people are naturally self-serving. Furthermore, auditors work within a framework of incentive and accountability – the authors cite Bazerman, Morgan & Lowenstein, 1997 – and hence are just as susceptible to subjectivity and bias as any other professionals. 3. The argument of the writers convincingly states that both on an in individual, psychological, and cognitive level, and on a broader social, and political level, conflicts of interest have come to be taken very lightly. Therefore, even if someone wants to bring about reform, and stop dishonest, biased practice within the auditing industry, he/she would face many difficulties. Changing mindsets about conflict of interest within society generally would be required, not just change among auditors. 4. The authors refer to Moore & Lowenstein (2004) to suggest that corporate ethics changed from what is morally right to what is technically legal. Restated, they claim that a set of values-based beliefs – about honest reporting, accountability, and accuracy – were replaced by a less morally- based approach. Auditors were able to justify any inaccuracy, or even misrepresentation of financial information, by finding legal loopholes. So, where the necessity existed for misreporting, auditors would find a way to justify that misrepresentation in the law, an external system, rather

Carry out a full CSR audit and report on Burnley Football Club Essay

Carry out a full CSR audit and report on Burnley Football Club - Essay Example This incorporates the impact of operations directly and also the wider effect of the business ranging from suppliers then to customers and then to the consumers. Moreover CSR also includes the contributions the Company voluntarily makes to community and the wider society. This trend is widely increasing in the sports industry. Nowadays there is greater focus on the CSR by the stakeholders (Argandon?a Ra?miz, 2009). In the world today the discussion is increasing on the issue of the importance of integrating CSR strategies into businesses for real benefits especially in the sports organizations that have various stakeholders associated with them like the football clubs (Brown, Crabbe and Mellor, 2009).The unique position of football clubs for delivering widespread benefits of CSR is debatable. Moreover the call for building the goodwill residue that connects to CSR as their need for planning permission and attraction of negative publicity keeps growing is equally important and arguabl e. The requirement of permission for planning for a different new ground, corruption at top levels, racism amongst footballers etc. propose that all the football clubs need to address the CSR. There are basically four approaches in CSR that are namely political (corporate citizenship idea), instrumental (achievement of economic objectives by social activities), ethical (right things to perform) and integrative (integrating social demands) approaches (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). It has been found out by recent researches that CSR policies’ effective application by the football clubs can enable the donors and also the variety of stakeholders to take a lot advantages from them. Burnley Football Club A Professional League of Football based in Burnley is known as the Burnley Football Club. The colors of the clubs are blue and claret that were adopted in tribute to leading English football club Aston Villa in 1910. Football League Championship belongs to Burnley twice that is onc e in 1920 and the other in 1960. The club has also once won FA Cup in 1914. This Clubs is a part of the two teams (the second team is Wolverhampton Wanderers) that has won all four top English Football professional divisions. It has been revealed by the recent researches that the need for stakeholder management at club level is constantly increasing and this refers to the maturity and professionalism of the football industry. This change has made the football clubs recognize the expansion in the social, economic and political importance. The importance of financial management is at its place and will always remain important but at the same time management of many other things like stakeholders is very significant for the survival of the club in the long run. Following is the analysis of the club’s stakeholders, how the relationships can be improved, the CSR learning stages in relation to Burnley football club and the assumed policies and vision statement that the club can ado pt. Club’s Stakeholders Stakeholders are those individuals who affect and influence the company. They can be clients, customers, suppliers, investors and employees. The participation of stakeholders in the survival of t

Econ 336 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Econ 336 - Essay Example However, India was observed to be amid the leading countries to plan a population check but it still failed to attain its objective. The government policies with regard to controlling population have been assessed to be a prime reason behind the success of China and the failure of India. This research paper aims at highlighting the differences in the population policies of both the nations in order to gain a lucid comprehension regarding this definite aspect. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 Comparison of the Government Policies of India and China 6 Method of Analysis 9 Analysis 9 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction India and China have been identified to be the two countries with the highest population along with their respective cultures being as old as thousand years. Both the countries were regarded as young nations in spite of the huge changes related to death as well as birth rates that the nations were undergoing. This pa rticular aspect is believed to hold serious significance in the present history of demographics. The pace of rise in the overall population of the world has been found to gather speed notably during the previous century. The increasing pace of rising population makes it important to comprehend the various aspects manipulating the population development and the consequences that the growth related to population can have and the way governments need to manage their respective population. As mentioned earlier, China has been measured to have the highest population but the rapid rise in terms of rate related to population in India proposes that it would soon surpass the population of China. It needs to be mentioned in this respect that growth is associated with several ways towards the alterations in the population. The endeavors of the nations especially by India towards development can be stated to have triggered the population growth. Therefore, it has been correctly mentioned that t he rise in population was set free with the help of trimming down the rate of mortality and even migration (Coale, 1983). Literature Review India as well as China have been measured to be the two countries across the world that records population above 1 million. Although the population of China has been gauged to be greater than India, but it has similarly been predicted in this context that the population count in India is supposed to exceed the level of China by the year 2025. There have been witnessed a rapid rise in the population rate which has attributed to the factor of higher birth rates in comparison to the death rates. A desire in the family sizes in India was recorded owing to the economic worth associated with children which has also been a contributing factor for the population rise. It has been stated in this regard that devotion towards children or rather the desire for children in the family is perceived by the Indian families to be a kind of intergenerational shift as children are regarded as significant inputs with regard to the production function in relation to the households which is considered to be competent of generating extra household income (Portner, 2001; Dasgupta, 1995; Cochrane, 1975), emotional incentives (Stecklov, 1997; Weil, 1994) and security in the old age (Ehrlich & Lui, 1991). Children are also predicted to entail the competence of acting as a form of insurance in opposition to the deficits in terms of income

Unix Vs. Windows Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unix Vs. Windows - Essay Example operating system to be used by complete novices (as a result of the ease of operation and the simple user interfaces), Microsoft has also forged partnerships with many big and small PC manufacturers, thereby ensuring that the operating system is shipped along with the PCs that consumers purchase (Jeurguen Haas, 2005). However, UNIX (as also its various versions) continues to be the preferred choice of programmers and software developers in the case of network programming. This is due to the fact that UNIX offers ready-to-use libraries that facilitate the use of direct networking features such as sockets, semaphores and pipes. In windows however, the user is encapsulated from all such features, thereby denying them flexibility at the core programming level. This, according to them, is due to the fact that the operating system offers additional advanced capabilities when compared to Windows (Jeurguen Haas, 2005). One of the most versatile features of UNIX is the fact that the operating system can be installed on numerous machines consisting of different architectures (be it cluster or distributed architectures). Moreover, unlike window, which is a PC based OS; UNIX can be installed on supercomputers and mainframes with a minimal change of configuration alone (KernelThread, 2006). Another problem that continues to plague windows is the constant occurrence of system breakdowns and frequent hang-ups, while such a problem has been found to have lesser frequency of occurrence in the case of UNIX. As such, a UNIX machine requires less network administration and maintenance. UNIX also offers a greater processing power and is found to have solutions for distributed environments as well. The above points do not mean that windows do not provide networking solutions. The upper advantage of UNIX over windows based solutions lies in the fact that in order to operate across a network using windows, one would have to usually install additional software in order to communicate

Econ 336 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Econ 336 - Essay Example However, India was observed to be amid the leading countries to plan a population check but it still failed to attain its objective. The government policies with regard to controlling population have been assessed to be a prime reason behind the success of China and the failure of India. This research paper aims at highlighting the differences in the population policies of both the nations in order to gain a lucid comprehension regarding this definite aspect. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 Comparison of the Government Policies of India and China 6 Method of Analysis 9 Analysis 9 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction India and China have been identified to be the two countries with the highest population along with their respective cultures being as old as thousand years. Both the countries were regarded as young nations in spite of the huge changes related to death as well as birth rates that the nations were undergoing. This pa rticular aspect is believed to hold serious significance in the present history of demographics. The pace of rise in the overall population of the world has been found to gather speed notably during the previous century. The increasing pace of rising population makes it important to comprehend the various aspects manipulating the population development and the consequences that the growth related to population can have and the way governments need to manage their respective population. As mentioned earlier, China has been measured to have the highest population but the rapid rise in terms of rate related to population in India proposes that it would soon surpass the population of China. It needs to be mentioned in this respect that growth is associated with several ways towards the alterations in the population. The endeavors of the nations especially by India towards development can be stated to have triggered the population growth. Therefore, it has been correctly mentioned that t he rise in population was set free with the help of trimming down the rate of mortality and even migration (Coale, 1983). Literature Review India as well as China have been measured to be the two countries across the world that records population above 1 million. Although the population of China has been gauged to be greater than India, but it has similarly been predicted in this context that the population count in India is supposed to exceed the level of China by the year 2025. There have been witnessed a rapid rise in the population rate which has attributed to the factor of higher birth rates in comparison to the death rates. A desire in the family sizes in India was recorded owing to the economic worth associated with children which has also been a contributing factor for the population rise. It has been stated in this regard that devotion towards children or rather the desire for children in the family is perceived by the Indian families to be a kind of intergenerational shift as children are regarded as significant inputs with regard to the production function in relation to the households which is considered to be competent of generating extra household income (Portner, 2001; Dasgupta, 1995; Cochrane, 1975), emotional incentives (Stecklov, 1997; Weil, 1994) and security in the old age (Ehrlich & Lui, 1991). Children are also predicted to entail the competence of acting as a form of insurance in opposition to the deficits in terms of income

Spanish, British, and French colonial experiences Essay Example for Free

Spanish, British, and French colonial experiences Essay For the Spanish, their motives were economic and religion. They wanted to Christianize Natives. They were mostly located in South America, Central America, and the West Indies. The British motives were only economical. They were located in North America and in the West Indies. The only type of people that were allowed to be with the Spanish were mostly only Catholics or you had to be from a noble family and you had to be homogenous. Anyone could be with the British. There were diverse races and the people were in Religious and Ethnic groups. The Spanish finances were based on Public/Crown Financed terms and for the British it was Joint Stock/Private terms. The Spanish had relations with exploited natives and they also believed in intermarrying with natives. They also believed in enslavement and they were associated with the Mestivo and they wanted to Christianize everyone. If you were not converted to Christian, you were killed. The British also had relations with exploited natives. They did not believe in intermarrying or enslavement. They did believe in Separation and Removal to the West. The Spanish government was highly centralized. There was less self-government. Governors were representatives of Crown- Viceroys There were no democratic traditions. The British government was decentralized and there was much more self-government. The British simply neglected to enforce or regulate. Democracys seeds are planted. Economically, many Spanish had tried exploiting and going home-they did not posses the mind set to develop as much as North Americans. Government regulation is in a form of regulation of emigration and trade. For the British, most settlers, stayed in New World and invested. The government stayed clear of economic activity for most part.

Can criminological theories help manage crime in the workplace

Can criminological theories help manage crime in the workplace Security management is a task that required diverse skills which include human management, time management and some fundamental theories as guiding principles. The essence of the knowledge of these theories in relation to criminology to Security Managers should not be undermined in order to have and effectively achieve the organisations set goals or key performance indicators. This essay shall focus on how the knowledge of these theories could enhance the performance of a Security Manager in the work place in relation to theft and theft related offences in the retail business environment. However, if we give heed to the macro theory of criminology, a bigger picture surrounding the cost of theft in the retail industry rather than just focusing on cost of goods stolen in isolation can be fully examined. It should be noted from the onset that there are some other offences which can be perpetrated as part of criminal conduct that can ensue alongside the particular offence of retail theft e.g. assault inflicted on staff who have no choice but to physically engage a thief in the workplace (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2009). Various reports including the crime survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) indicate with interest that thefts in retail shops are also being perpetrated by employees, and therefore note should be made that the offence is not exclusively being perpetrated by customers. As mainstream surveys tend to cover those who are not under the category of the organisations labour force, it is important to consider this dimension in the essay as the impact of such losses to retail industry cannot be ignored. On many occasions, there are complimentary offences but aspects relating to theft shall be considered in this essay. There have been several schools of thought in relation to applying criminological theories to crime management. They suggested that effective crime managements could only be achieved by using these theories conjunctively. Strengths and weaknesses of these theories shall be analysed and their relevance to the theft management in a retail business environment shall also be considered. The class of the offenders guilty of this crime, motivational factors and how they are carried out shall also be discussed using the appropriate theories and a strategy to managing and reducing delinquency. The 1968 theft act proscribes theft as; ..A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and thief and steal shall be construed accordingly (Theft Act 1968, sec 1:1). Shoplifting is a common delinquency in the retail business which impacts on stock shrinkage and cost of business insurance. However in general public and media discourse, it is widely accepted that retail theft is a petty crime and there are attempts to explain this phenomenon using theories such as criminal deviant behaviour. In this context, and in such a class based society as the UK, it is not unusually that retail theft is associated with the underprivileged in the society. Such perceptions make it difficult for the police and security managers to take seriously the impact this crime has on high tax paying industries such the retail sector, which incidentally offers employment to millions of workers in the country. Some other criminological theories such as the expected utility principle can breed compliancy in the work done by security managers as this theory assumes that potential criminals are rational beings who can be deterred from committing offences because people will act in an a manner that will increase their benefits and reduce their losses. In this context, the expected utility principle suggests that the commitment of the supposed petty crime of retail theft by employees is unlikely to occur as workers will give heed to their vested economic interest in remaining employed. However, there may be a lack of indebt knowledge of what constitutes retail theft. For instance, an employee inadvertently using part of the companys inventory such as stationeries, souvenirs for self benefit and is within the ambit of the theft act 1968 is guilty of theft. Another sinister form of retail theft involves employees who connive with criminals and pretend not to see the crime being committed. These usually involve the use of false drivers licence and stolen bank statements. . . . . . . . . . .Fraud is an act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain, especially financial gain. (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2009:pg24). . . . . . . . . . .Card fraud in the BCS (British Crime Survey) is defined as using plastic payment cards, such as bank, debit, credit or store cards, to take money without permission or prior knowledge from a bank, building society or credit card account (or to charge money to credit/debit cards). (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 08/10:pg25). The 2008/09 BCS report reported that plastic card owners who had fallen victim of card fraud had increased. Only 6.4 per cent of card fraud victim confirmed that they were aware that crimes had been committed with their cards within the last 12 month compared to 4.7 per cent in the previous year (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 08/10:pg25). In a bid to demonstrate why people commit crime, the motivational factors, and various groups of people with criminal behaviours and how combinations of criminological theories help in crime management. Rational Choice and Routine Activities theories shall be considered in relation to their relevance to crime management in a mobile phone retailer like Carphone Warehouse Plc. Rational Choice theorists believe that offenders decision to commit crime is based on the available opportunity and that the benefit of their crime outweighing the costs (Nagin et al, 2002). Rational choice theorists believe that crime is a function of individual choice which is influenced by its costs and benefits (Akers et al, 2004). Researches have shown that out of 50 interviewees in a research on shoplifting, 88% admitted that they had shoplifted and 42% of these people take stealing as the only way to earn their living. The average age of offenders as gathered during the interview was 12 years (Schneider, 2005). It is important to have the indebt knowledge of crime costs and its benefit, proportionate sentence and the types of punishment given to those who have committed similar crimes in the past or whether they avoided punishments. With this knowledge in place, it will be more likely to deter crime if its costs are made higher than the benefits e.g., enhancing the protection in places, target hardening, and more punishments when offenders are caught. In a situation where punishments are certain, motivated offenders may not want to subject themselves to hard work before committing the offence (Cullen Agnew, 2002). Rational choice theory is very extensive in range with simple basic elements which are strong but at the same time flexible. Offenders decisions between choices at every point in time tend to be rational. However, the facts of the theory stands that for any crime to be committed, the perceived benefits associated with the crime outweigh its risk. Some people have taking criminal behaviour as a way of life. In some situations, decisions to commit crime are arrived at due to inadequate information available at the time of decision making and all these put together still reflect the important role opportunity plays in criminal act. In addition to opportunity, importance of the environment on crime cannot be undermined. In certain situations, offenders hardly ever have a detailed thought of all the various costs and benefits of their action as some decisions are taken spontaneously (Felson Clarke, 1998). In theory, there are three broad categories of offenders or workplace violence perpetrators; employees, strangers and the intending or potential customers or clients (Chappell and Di Martino, 2000). Employees in most cases take advantage of imperfect systems. In an ideal business environment, organisation should have records of their inventory through regular stock counts. The UK shrinkage rate as a percentage of retail sales stood at 1.29% which was Europes average in 2010 (Bamfield, 2010). In a bid to control and manage crime, Opportunity-reducing techniques are a vital approach which could be achieved by increasing the perceived effort of crime by target hardening, security control access to target and deflecting offenders from target. In cases of card theft, crime facilitators could be controlled by having the owners photos on credit cards, using plastic beer glasses in pubs etc. Another technique involves increasing the perceived risks of crime by security screening, formal surveillance by employees, manned guarding, CCTV and effective lightning which could take the place of a Natural surveillance and help in obtaining footage through the use of technology. Anticipated rewards of crime should also be reduced so as to discourage criminal act. Targets could be removed; there could be property marking, and reducing temptations by ensuring that every motivational factor is put under control. Educating everyone on codes of conducts, and acceptable norms would eliminate t he excuses of being ignorant (Clarke, 1997). It is important to understand the opportunities that facilitate workplace crime in order to combat or reduce the criminal act. In America, introduction of Caller identification devices have removed obscene and threatening phone calls which ordinarily depends upon telephone access and the ability of the caller to hide his own identity. However, rates of other crimes such as car theft and burglary would also be higher when, in fact, they are lower in Britain and some other countries in Europe. Customer theft remains a major source of retail crime in line with general acquisitive crime trends reported by the Home Office. The survey recorded 498,405 incidents of customer theft in total. The previous years survey revealed that retailers suspected they identified perhaps as little as half of all customer theft. The real level of customer theft experienced by respondents was probably somewhere in the region of 750,000 to 1 million thefts or even as high as 2 million for the whole industry (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2009: Pg 12-13). During 2008-09, the value stolen per incident has continued to decline as retailers continue to improve the protection of high value items. The average value of goods stolen fell by 34 per cent to  £45 per theft. Whilst individual customer thefts may be many times this value, this figure falls comfortably within the range of Penalty Notices for Disorder, a disposal available to the police for first time offenders involved in low value crimes. Nevertheless, only about one third (37 per cent) of customer thefts are reported to the police. (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2009: Pg 12-13). As a result, the Police Authorities, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Neighbourhood Policing Teams are unlikely to be aware of the true level of customer theft occurring in an area. This is reflected in national figures of reported crime which differ significantly from retailers experience (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2009: Pg 12-13). Contrary to rational choice theory which believes that opportunity is the main factor responsible for crime occurrence, routine activity theory as described by Cohen Felson explained in one of their published articles in 1979 suggests that Crime occurs when there is an intersection in time and space of a motivated offender, an attractive target and lack of capable guardianship. Changes in routine activities in society (e.g. where both couples are working, construction of new roads) can influence crime rates. Peoples daily routine activities affect the likelihood of crime being committed (Cullen Agnew, 2002). . . . . .The routine activity approach still offers the best explanation for the rise in burglary in the United States and Western Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Included in this explanation is the finding that the best predictor of annual burglary rates is the weight of the smallest television set sold each year. Another important component of the explanation is that far more homes in this period were left unguarded in the day as more women entered Full-time paid work. In fact, the most general explanation of crime rate trends is an indicator of the dispersion of activities away from family and household settings. As people spend more time among strangers and away from their own homes, their risk of personal and property victimization rises (Felson and Clarke, 1998). Every individual has specific areas in which they carry out their daily routine activities and this is called the activity space, domain or a potential path area. This area includes both the places that are visited and routes to such locations from their places of abode. In as much as people are not static, crime will have a non-static nature. In reality, some places, properties or facilities attract more crime than others. It is important to understand that in routine activity theory, crime do occur when there is interaction between a potential offender and a suitable target in time and space; opportunity which is being created by the lack of capable guardianship cannot be undermined. It is very essential to identify the available opportunities and put in place measures to either make these opportunities less attractive or show that the cost outweighs the benefits. These could be achieved through the use of Security devices and technology, proper lighting of an area, orientation and educating staff and visitors through various audio visual devices etc. Many businesses and organisations combine some of these procedures to control and manage crime (Hayes, 1991). Criminological theories play important roles in crime control and management as guidelines to what a Manager should look out for and how these factors should be managed in order to reduce crime. In some occasions where the capable guardianship is available, thefts are being attacked by the detectives in the store or those on patrol (Hayes, 1993; Jones, 1998). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Fraud costs the UK in excess of  £20 Billion. It recognised fraud as a low priority within UK Policing and the UK itself as having an uncoordinated approach (Simms C, Chief Constable West Midlands Police, 2010). In theory, victims are protected by law and most of the conveniences extended to them in the past will no longer be available when the credit reporting agencies have been contacted to report the crimes that thereby impress a theft flag on the victims credit file. Future lenders would be sceptical in exposing themselves to such customers and as such would be demanding for additional information and documents to verify the genuineness of the person requesting for credit facilities. Though, there are different types of customers who visit the organisations on daily basis, some visit with the intention to shoplift, window shop, to see demonstration of new products and to purchase products. It is certain that these groups of customers, with different motives behave differently when they are in the shop and their approaches to staff differ. This is where the level of education on delinquent and staff awareness about customers behaviour have to be improved upon. Security and safety at work place is every employees responsibility. Theft as a workplace crime impacts negatively on all parties involved with the organisation. The business operational costs are increased as a result of losses due to theft and these costs are passed on to their clients and employees. In most cases, it results to increasing costs of security maintenance, insurance premium and other elements of operational costs which will affect employees benefits depending on the magnitude of losses suffered by the organisation. In recent years, retailers have taken action to reduce theft by employees which accounted for 7 per cent of all retail crime by value in 2008-09. Employee theft includes theft of anything of value from the retailer by an employee or an accomplice, such as stealing merchandise, cash, retaining receipts, voiding a sale after a customer has paid and taking the cash, overcharging, short-changing, false mark-downs, coupon and voucher stuffing, credits for non-existent returns or exchanging counterfeit goods for genuine merchandise, and sliding a product through a lane without charging. It can also include serious financial fraud, involving senior or managerial staff. Improved security measures and investigations by expert staff appear to have reduced the opportunity for offences therefore deterring employee-related theft (BRC Retail Crime Survey, 2008: Pg 15). It is apparent that the true cost of theft crime in the workplace is unknown as some factors cannot be quantified. This includes business disruptions, employee morale, loss of customs, management time wasted on incident reporting and documentation (British Chambers of Commerce, 2002). High level workplace theft may also lead to company insolvency. Based on this, it is very important to understand the workplace and the nature of crime facing the business before putting in place any crime anticipatory measures or displacement measures. Rational choice emphasises that opportunity is core in the decision making by offenders when it comes to delinquencies. It is obvious from all indications that once the opportunity is displaced or appears to be of any value, a motivated offender may not notice a likely target. As a result of this, opportunities have to be identified and modified before the related crime can be perpetrated. By virtue of the fact that opportunity is requisite to crime occurrence, it is agreeable that rational choice theory interrelates with the routine activity theory which believes that crime can only happen when there is interception of certain elements. Working in an environment where there is an opportunity of having access to money and property does not translate to committing crime. This shows a subjective aspect of opportunity. It is therefore important to understand that certain factors like social desirability for the product or property, conceal ability of target and proximity do have supportive role to play in conjunction with opportunity for theft to occur (Hollinger and Clarke, 1983). In conclusion, it is therefore compulsory that a Security Manager, who has understood the surroundings where he works, should recognize the risk component, opportunities, and inspirational factors for possible offenders; use the mix understanding of these theories to design an approach to prevent the entire potential crime avenues. The combine knowledge of rational choice and routine activities theories give an insight into what to look out for and how to put in place the preventive measures to control crime. Theft as a workplace crime that can be managed by understanding what items offenders are looking out for, opportunities surrounding such items, characteristics of the targets and detailed understanding of the environment where the targets are situated. It is therefore evident that the knowledge of criminological theories has an immense role to play in assisting the security Manager to manage crimes such as theft in the workplace.

Investigating the Preparation and Properties of Dies :: Dyeing Investigations Dye Essays

Investigating the Preparation and Properties of Dies Aim: To investigate the preparation and properties of dies. Introduction - Dyeing is a process of colouring materials, such as textile fibres, so that the colouring matter becomes an integral part of the fibre. Dyes, or ‘dyestuffs’, are soluble compounds that can be either absorbed and retained by the fibre or chemically combined with it. Dyes are generally fast, that is, they retain their colour in the fibre throughout the textile-making process and under exposure to normal wear, including sunlight, water, and detergent washing. (Textile dying) - Dyes can be classified as either natural or synthetic. The only natural dye still used on a large scale is logwood, which imbues silk, wool, cellulose acetate, and nylon with a deep black colour. With the exception of a few inorganic materials used in special processes, all dyestuffs used in textile applications are synthetic organic chemicals.  · Information taken from Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2003 Preliminary Work About this topic, an experiment to evaluate how quickly a dye can spread in water and the reactions between the dye and bases and acids, called Chromatography has been carried out. When beetroots were mixed with hot water, the dye spread out quicker and was brighter than with cold water, due to the fastness of moving molecules in the hot water. No real conclusion was established however, for the experiment was done to give a fair idea of how dyes ‘work’. Prediction My prediction is that if the amount of water in the die is reduced, the die will be stronger, and if it is increased, the die will become weaker. I also think that with salt as a mordant, the cloth will become dyed more quickly than with sugar or with no mordant at all. As my variable is the type of mordant, I predict that the dye colour will be stronger with salt and weaker with no mordant. Equipment List The apparatus used will be:  · Coffee, Red Cabbage and Red wine (to carry out experiment)  · Board Cleaning Cloth (to place dye in)  · Salt and sugar (as fixatives, to grip dye to fabric)  · Measuring cylinder (to measure amount of water, dyes and mordant)  · Old pot (to dye fabrics in)  · Gloves (So that hands do not interfere with the experiment, and not to stain them)  · Beaker (To grind dye sources in)  · Thermometer (to measure the temperature of water)  · Scale (To measure the mass of the dyes and fixatives)  · Stopwatch (To count the simmering time) Carrying out the Investigation  · Material (dye source) is broken into small pieces in the beaker (or

Review Of The Red Lantern :: essays research papers

There are some movies about lifestyles in China and then there is “Raise the Red Lantern.'; The film parallels “The Last Emperor'; in how a master controls his subjects within his domain. Out of all the Chinese movies that I have extensively viewed, this was the only one that actually, and effectively, captures the lush background of life during this time period.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The film entirely takes place on the grounds of a wealthy master whose only chore seems to be deciding which one of his four wives to sleep with on a given night. In viewing the movie, we are forced to feel sympathetic to the fourth mistress. She was the youngest among the other three who arrives at the estate after studying at the university. Cherished memories of her life before arriving there were ultimately destroyed. In one instance, the master burned the fourth mistress’s flute that her deceased father gave to her. The film evokes feelings of sorrow and disgust, but it manages to fill in humorous bits that alleviate the tense mood.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The film revolves around the master’s polygamist lifestyle and his utter dominance over his wives. When one mistress was good to him, he would decide to sleep with her that night. At the beginning of the film you get the notion that the forth mistress doesn’t want to sleep with the master, but that changes as the film goes on. Sleeping with the master that night meant the lanterns outside your room were lit up and, an added incentive, was being able to get a foot massage that night. The massage seemed to be the most rewarding part of being at the estate. The master’s decision of who to sleep with that night evoked jealousy between the “sisters.'; This increased the excitement of the movie and led to the main struggle between the fourth mistress and the three other women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fourth mistress’s anger and lack of control creates hostility in the household. Her behavior creates a downward spiral, which leads to the deaths of two important characters.

Issues in the Correctional Systems of the United States Essay

I have chosen to research the correctional system of the United States for many reasons. The first reason is that I believe this component of the legal system has the most problems facing it. Another reason is that this topic interests me and I would like to learn more about it. There are many important issues, challenges and problems within the United States correctional system that need to be addressed. I found it difficult to focus on just three issues. The first problem I will discuss in my paper will be the issue of the growing population in the prisons. Prisons are overcrowded and murderers who have served barely half of their sentence are being released because the state facility needs their beds for other inmates. The second issue that I will discuss is prisoners and drugs; including, drug addicted prisoners and drug treatment prisoners. The third issue that I will talk about also pertains to drugs and deals with the problem of drug trafficking in prisons. The first component of the United States correctional system that I have chose to discuss is the problem caused by overcrowded prisons. This is an important topic because overcrowded facilities are a huge problem in America and are very detrimental to society. Prisoners who have been convicted of murder, but have shown good behavior while in prison, are being released with not even serving half of their sentence. The parole board is releasing these prisoners because space is needed for other prisoners coming in. What if, that prisoner that was released early because of overcrowded prisons had killed a member of your family and might now go kill someone else? Wouldn’t that make you a little upset with our system? There are many reasons why prisons in the United States are so overcrowded. To understand overcrowdedness one must first understand how expensive it is to build and maintain these correctional facilities. In 1993 the average cost to keep just one inmate incarcerated for a year was over $14,000 (Gaines, 1999). State courts convicted 872,217 felons during 1995 and one-third of the convictions were for drug offenses. 26% of all convicted felons were sentenced to local jails, usually for less than a year, and 45% were sentenced to state prisons. The remaining 29% were sentenced to probation with no jail or prison time to serve (Currie, 1998). Felons sentenced to state prison in 1994 were sentenced to an average of about six years but were most likely to serve just two of those six years, under the current release policies (Bender, 1998). There are many reasons why prisons became so overcrowded between 1985 and 1998. These factors include a 12.3 average annual increase in the number of Hispanic inmates, a 91% rise in admissions, a decline in the annual release rates, and a sharp rise in violent offenders among white inmates therefore keeping them in prisons longer (Jacobs, 1995). A lot of the increases were due to drug convictions. From 1985 to 1992 there was a 33% increase in the number of blacks sent to state prisons for violent offenses compared to a 27% increase in the number of whites. A similar increase in both incarcerated blacks and whites occurred for property crimes. However, for drug crimes, 94% more blacks were sent to prison from 1988 to 1992, while only 35% more whites were incarcerated (Cose, 2000). The nations courts are sentencing and admitting more offenders into America’s prisons than the facilities can hold. At the beginning of 1995, 39 states were under court order to relieve overcrowding (Currie, 1998). The way to address overcrowding is to build more prisons and maybe try to rehabilitate these felons a bit more. The 1995 census found that state and federal officials built 213 new prisons – 168 state and federal facilities with more than 280,000 beds between 1990-1995 to keep up with the growing prison population (Jacobs, 1997). In 1995 18 correction agencies opened 70 new institutions, adding 69,921 beds at an average cost of $46,758 (Jacobs, 1997). Some states have trouble building prisons fast enough to meet court orders to correct conditions. Because building prisons and adding new beds is costly, states are looking for other ways to manage overcrowding, such as  early release programs, electronic monitoring, keeping prisoners in local jails, and having offenders pay restitution to their victims. Early release gives officials a way to allow prisoners to leave before their sentence is completed. In New York, â€Å"presumptive release† permits the parole board to release offenders on parole after they have served their minimum sentences if they have not caused any problems. Good time or merit time allows the reduction of the sentence time for everyday of good behavior or for participating in particular programs. Felons were sentenced to an average sentence of 71 months in state prisons in 1994 but actually served about 38 % of that sentence (Bender, 1998). The danger in releasing inmates to make more room for new admissions is that some prisoners are violent offenders and should not be let out yet. Another way to deal with overcrowded conditions is for the government to save money by allowing private businesses to perform some government functions (privatization). This policy has largely affected the corrections system, especially as state and federal government face an increasing number of prisoners and , as a result, a growing need to build more prisons. People that are for the privatization of prisons believe that private firms would both improve the quality of services and reduce the costs. A National Institute of Corrections survey in the mid 1980’s found that more than 30 types of services were provided by the private sector (Gaines, 1999). The services most frequently supplied by private enterprise are health services, community treatment centers, facility constructions, educational programs, drug treatment, staff training and counseling. Much of the growth in the prison population can be attributed to the increase in the number of people sent to prison for drugs. In an effort to control overcrowding petty drug offenders should be given treatment or lighter sentences. When I say petty drug offenders I mean drug users and not drug dealers that are a greater threat to society. Maybe if they get treatment they don’t become repeat offenders. Loading our prisons with non violent drug offenders means that today we are committing more non violent offenders to hard time than we are violent criminals, and there is less room left for  violent offenders who should be put away to make society safer. There is a major question whether prison actually helps these drug users. They can usually find drugs in prison and if not they obtain drugs when they get out. It would be better if drug users were put into mandatory treatment programs on top of doing community services. This would help the situation of prison overcrowding while at the same time help those people who are involved in these treatment programs. There is a major problem when drug addicted people are put into prison and cannot get help they help. Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses made up the single largest group of federal inmates, 60% (Currie, 1998). This is a problem and inmates who are convicted of drug offenses should be made to participate in these programs. Most of these drug treatment programs at federal institutions have been ineffective and poorly run. In 1995, according to the Criminal Institute, about 13.2% of inmates participated in drug programs (Jacobs, 1995). The New York Times reported that, although 1 in 6 inmates receive some kind of treatment, only about 2 % have the kind of service rehabilitation that changes the inmates behaviors for a lifetime (Jacobs, 1995). Most of the participants end up recidivists. The most effective programs take many months but reduce the re-arrest rate greatly. Drug treatment advocates say that drug treatment programs could be provided for much less than the amount spent to build more prisons. A lot of average Americans think people in prisons are all hardened criminals. In reality, the prisons are filled wall to wall with drug abusers and mentally ill that need treatment instead of incarceration. They can change with the right help. In stead of building new prisons, the government should spend half that money on treatment programs. These programs would benefit society more than new prisons would. The third major issue that I would like to talk about deals with the problem of drug trafficking in prisons. It is a major problem when inmates can easily obtain drugs in prison. Many inmates who are constantly in and out of prison, see prison as a vacation from the rough streets. (Cose, 2000). This is because prisoners get three meals a day, free room and board, and are  able to purchase drugs. Prisons should be drug free and inmates should not be able to get high. It is hard to regulate drugs in prisons because in order to do so you would have to search everyone going in, keep all packages out, and lock inmates in their cells for 24 hours a day. With more and more inmates in prison for possessing and dealing drugs there is already a market and it is hard to keep drugs out. There are also too many corrections officers that go to work everyday and do all the drug pushing, making it hard to find the dealers. To address this problem of drugs availability in prisons more states are staging surprise lock downs and raids to stem the amount of drugs. This has proved to work but it is hard to do all the time because it involves a lot of man power. Another way in which in authorities try to keep drugs out of prisons is to use undercover officers. By using undercover officers in prisons you have an opportunity to get to the main source of the drugs coming in. The only problem with working on the inside to uncover drug trafficking is that it is very dangerous. Both the undercover officers, and surprise raids and lock downs are good way to regulate the amount of drugs in prisons. These issues that I have discussed are the major problems in the correctional system of the United States. These issues have to be addressed rapidly to better our society as a whole. These problems are not going to go away overnight and we, as voters in a democratic society must elect people that are going to take action and deal with these problems. Bibliography Bender, David. Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime Greenhaven press, CA 1998. Cose, Ellis. Newsweek-â€Å"America’s Prison Generations†. November 13, 2000 Currie, Elliot. Crime and Punishment in America. Henry Holt and Company, NY 1998 Gaines, Ann. Prisons. Chelsea House, Philadelphia 1999. Jacobs, Nancy. Prisons and Jails: A Deterrent to Crime? Information Plus, Texas 1995.