Activities to Increase Students Vocabulary

Are you looking for a few fun ideas that will help increase your students writing, speaking, listening and reading vocabulary? Well here are 6 motivational activities to help expand their vocabulary. Fun With Literature When students hear the name Junie B. Jones or Ameila Bedelia (the main characters that are in popular book series) you will probably hear a roar of cheers from your students. Junie B and Ameila are well known for the hilarious antics and situations that they get themselves into. These series books are wonderful to use for prediction and to help enrich students vocabulary. You can have students predict what they think the main character will get into next. Another great collection that is filled with endless language opportunities is the books by Ruth Heller. This author offers a collection of rhythmic books about adjective, verbs, and nouns that are great for young students. Vocabulary Builder A fun and impressive way to increase and build students vocabulary is to create a Breakthrough Box. Tell students that each day they are going to discover or breakthrough a new word and learn its meaning. Each week for homework students must cut out a word from a magazine, newspaper, cereal box, ect. and paste it to an index card. Then at school, they put it into the Breakthrough Box. At the start of each day, the teacher randomly calls upon one student to pull out a card from the box and the students task is to discover its meaning. Each day a new word and its meaning is discovered. Once students learn the meaning of the word, they can write it down in their vocabulary book. Inventive Terminology This creative vocabulary activity is perfect for morning seat work. Each morning write one sentence on the board and underline one word that students may not know the meaning of. For example The old man was wearing a gray fedora. The students would have to figure out that fedora meant hat. Challenge the students to read the sentence and try to figure out the meaning of the underlined word. Their task is to write the meaning and draw a correlating picture. Character Traits To help increase your students descriptive vocabulary have each student create a character traits T chart for the current book they are reading. One the left side of the T chart students would list the main characters actions that are described in the story. Then on the right side, the students would list other words that describe that same action. This can be done as a class with your current read-aloud book, or independently with the students current book that they are reading. Picture of the Day Each day as part of your morning routine tape a picture of anything you want to the front board. The students task is to look at the picture on the front board and come up with 3-5 words that describe that picture. For example, place a picture of a gray furry kitten on the front board, and students would use descriptive words such as gray, furry, etc. to describe it. Once they get the hang of it, make the picture and words harder. You can even encourage students to bring in pictures or objects to hang or clip to the front board. Word of the Day Challenge students (with help from their parents) to choose one word and learn its meaning. Their task is to teach the rest of the class the word and meaning. Send a not home encouraging students to memorize and really learn their word and meaning so it will be easy for them to teach it to their classmates.

No Child Left Behind Act - 1358 Words

1. 4. Steps Taken by Educational Institutions to Comply with FERPA Few decades back, educational institutions maintained educational records mainly in paper files. In those days, privacy breaches meant access to information present paper files without proper consent, and the main concern was related to misuse of the student information by agencies rather than the theft of records. To comply with FERPA, educational institutions had to safeguard paper files from illegal access, and provide access to these files only for legitimate use. In early 2002, No Child Left Behind Act was enacted which largely transformed and helped digitalization of educational records held by institutions. Educational Institutions made significant progress in using latest technology to collect and store of educational records. Many of the institutions started maintaining longitudinal databases that helped track student educational records across different educational levels and made identification of patterns over a period of time easily. These advances provided policy maker s a wonderful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific policy. These advanced databases eased the access and sharing of educational information resulting in widespread concerns over security and privacy breaches. The constantly evolving technological landscape is posing a big challenge for institutions to comply with various Acts like FERPA, HIPPA etc. Institutions have started appointing Chief Information SecurityShow MoreRelatedNo Child Left Behind Act1621 Words   |  7 Pages The support for the No Child Left Behind Act plummeted down shortly after the act passed. Many people supported the act at first simply because they supported the goals of the act, once they saw the results, their opinions changed. One of the biggest arguments towards No Child Left Behind is that it is unfair. People believed the resources of difference schools were unequal, and thought the Title 1 funding that the schools received should go to ensuring all schools had equal resources. Many peopleRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act1670 Words   |  7 Pages Literature Review: Every Student Succeeds Act Suzanne Hatton, BSW, LSW University of Kentucky-SW 630 Abstract This literature review seeks to explore the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), a bipartisan reauthorization and revision to the No Child Left Behind Act (2002). The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the first law passed in fourteen years to address Reneeded changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Considered progressive and innovative at the time of itsRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act2120 Words   |  9 PagesWhen President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law in 2002, the legislation had one goal-- to improve educational equity for all students in the United States by implementing standards for student achievement and school district and teacher performance. Before the No Child Left Behind Act, the program of study for most schools was developed and implemented by individual states and local communities’ school boards. Proponents of the NCLB believed that lax oversightRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act875 Words   |  4 Pa gesThe No Child Left Behind Act â€Å"NCLB† was a bill passed by the Senate in 2001 and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. It was a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Act â€Å"ESEA† of 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. The NCLB was intended to help children in lower-income families achieve the same standard of education as children in higher income families. This was done by the federal government providing extra finances for Title I schools in exchange for a rise in academicRead MoreNo Child Left Behind Act1418 Words   |  6 Pagessystematic oppression. The flowing water of oppression floods poor schools; drowning students with dreams, and giving no mercy. The only ones safe from the water are the privileged, who are oblivious to the fact that it exists. George Bush s No Child Left Behind Act, which passed in 2002, mandated annual standardized testing in math and reading. If schools received insufficient scores, they were punished or shut down. This fueled the construed concept that a school is only doing well if the students haveRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act Essay921 Words   |  4 Pagesuccessful at it. (Source 7) Next, the â€Å"No Child left behind Act† it was signed by President George W. Bush and it passed with bipartisan support on Jan. 8, 2002. This Act states that there will be mandated annual testing in the subject reading and math and science. In the grades 3-8 and 10th grade. It shows the Adequate Yearly Progress of each school in the system of the United States. (source 1) The biggest point of this Act is that no child is â€Å"trapped in a failing school† (source 1). That eachRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act1988 Words   |  8 PagesJanuary 8, 2002, George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law (also known as the NCLB). The No Child Left Behind Act was the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a federal education bill addressing the nation’s schools. At his signing ceremony, Bush stated, â€Å"There’s no greater challenge than to make sure that every child—and all of us on this stage mea n every child, not just a few children—every single child, regardless of where they live, how they’reRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act1592 Words   |  7 PagesThe No Child Left Behind Act was the biggest educational step taken by president Bush and his administration. Its main goal included the increase of achievement in education and completely eliminate the gap between different racial and ethnic groups. Its strategies had a major focus on uplifting test scores in schools, hiring â€Å"highly qualified teachers† and deliver choices in education. Unluckily, the excessive demands of the law have not succeeded in achieving the goals that were set, and have causedRead MoreNo Child Left Behind Act1747 Words   |  7 PagesNo Child Left Behind Introduction The No Child Left Behind Act (NALB) was signed into law by the former President of the United States George Walker Bush on the 8th of January 2002. It was a congressional attempt to encourage student achievement through some reforms focused on elementary and secondary education programs in the United States. The NCLB requires that within a decade all students including those with disabilities to perform at a proficient level on their state academic evaluation testsRead MoreThe No Child Left Behind Act1124 Words   |  5 PagesChristian J. Green Dr. Shoulders NCLB and ESSA 28 February 2016 The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was authorized by and signed into law in 2002. NCLB was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. NCLB was meant to hold schools to higher standards, enforce accountability, and close achievement gaps that had existed in education since ESEA was enacted. Nevertheless, the rigorous standards and goals set forth under NCLB were never attained. ESEA Flexibility could

Exploring the theme of guilt in the fifth business and macbeth Free Essays

This paper will explore the theme of guilt in the stories of â€Å"Macbeth† by William Shakespeare and the â€Å"Fifth Business† by Robertson Davies. More specifically, this paper claims the guilt is a powerful emotion that can destroy a person. Basically, guilt in the context of the two stories led to devastations and up to some extent the ultimate downfall of a person. We will write a custom essay sample on Exploring the theme of guilt in the fifth business and macbeth or any similar topic only for you Order Now Moreover, guilt is confronted by people in different ways. Some would have a difficult time getting over it while others would easily get rid of it. And finally, it is the guilt of a person that serves as a catalyst to his suffering which is most of the time, on the emotional aspect On the story of Macbeth, guilt is found on the act of killing. The protagonist of the story, Macbeth, was persuaded to kill King Duncan of Scotland as well as his guard due to the persuasion of the three witches and his wife. But after the deed was done, Macbeth was guilt stricken. This is evident on the absent-mindedness nature of Macbeth after committing murder. In fact, after immediately killing the King, Macbeth is still carrying the bloodied daggers which are supposed to be planted on the guards of the King. Because of this, Lady Macbeth has to return into the King’s chamber to plant the daggers and even smear blood on the guards. It was noted that Macbeth has told her wife that he could not bring himself to return at the room anymore. In addition, even before the act of killing the King, Macbeth already feels guilty to what he will do. This is depicted on Act II, Scene II, Line 42 and 43 of the novel. It was declared in these lines that he heard of a voice saying that he has â€Å"murdered sleep† and that he â€Å"shall sleep no more†. Even after Macbeth became a King, the guilt feeling still lingered. It has even aggravated by his hallucinations with his order of killing Banquo. Furthermore, even Lady Macbeth has suddenly felt remorse with their deed. As a matter of fact, Lady Macbeth’s conscience has been irrelevant on their earlier part of the story. Eventually, she was also guilt-stricken thus having hallucinations and other vivid forms of imagination. At the end of the story, both of the Macbeths suffered a painful death which is a result of their deed in killing King Duncan. Meanwhile, the story of the Fifth Business tells about the guilt felt by Dunstable Ramsay towards a woman named Mary Dempster. Basically, when Ramsay and his friend, Percy Boyd Staunton, are snow fighting, they accidentally hit Mrs. Dempster who is pregnant at this time. Because of this, the act resulted to the very problematic as well as premature labor of Mrs. Dempster to his child, Paul Dempster. Unlike his friend Staunton, Ramsay was very guilty to what happened because he was the one who is supposedly hit by the snowball. This is evident in his lines, â€Å"I was contrite and guilty, for I knew the snowball had been meant for me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Davies, p. 3). From then on, everything had changed especially on the family of Mrs. Dempster. These changes had greatly affected Ramsay which caused him great emotional suffering. Although Ramsay was not directly affected by the changes in the family of Mrs. Dempster, he was nonetheless indirectly hit hard by these changes. More specifically, after the premature labor of Paul Dempster, Mrs. Dempster has become what they call a ‘simple-minded fool’ or a plagued with ‘madness’. This condition was perceived by Ramsay to be a lifelong responsibility to take care for Mrs. Dempster, thus offering some help in the chores of the Dempster household. Furthermore, Paul Dempster ran away from home even before he reached the age of ten (10). This is because of the Mr. Dempster blames him for the things that happened to his wife after giving birth to him. Specifically, he blames him for his mother’s madness. In fact, this blaming is complicated by the cruel jokes of people to Mrs. Dempster who thinks there is something funny about her. All throughout his life, Ramsay felt guilty to the many things that happened after the untimely labor of Mrs. Dempster. This is proclaimed in his lines delivered to Staunton that, â€Å"[This] is the stone you put in the snowball you threw at Mrs. Dempster†¦ I’ve kept it because I couldn’t part with it.† (Davies, p. 270) In other words, up to the end of the story, Ramsay was not able to get rid of the guilt he felt toward the incident that happened during his snow fighting. Indeed, the theme of guilt is relevant on the two stories. On Macbeth, the protagonist of the story, Macbeth, was guilt stricken for killing the King in order to get his throne. In the long run, he was not able to get rid of this guilt thus contributing to his downfall. The same is true with the fate of her wife, Lady Macbeth, who committed suicide because of her guilt, which she was not able to contain. On the story of the Fifth Business, the protagonist, Ramsay, was also unsuccessful in getting rid of his guilt despite the efforts he had done in order to reconcile with it. In a nutshell, guilt can be concluded as a strong emotional force which can significantly shape the lives of every man. This is especially true in the case of people who are guilt-stricken. All their lives, they will be haunted by their conscience because of what they have done. And most of the time, it is their guilt that dictates the tempo of their life. As such, they become forever bound with the power of guilt. REFERENCES Davies, Robertson. (2001). Fifth Business.   New York: Gail Godwin Shakespeare, William. (1992). Macbeth. Ed. by Barabara Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Press. How to cite Exploring the theme of guilt in the fifth business and macbeth, Essay examples

College Athletes Should Get Paid free essay sample

Pay for Play Today, sports are no longer fun and games, sports are a business, and college sports are no different. Division I college sports provide a huge source of universities’ income. The school receives money from ticket sales, television contracts, and sport-related merchandise, along with many other sports related revenue builders. The athletes on the other hand, receive their scholarship and little more. While the idea of receiving a free college education is something few would complain about; when the issue is more closely examined it becomes evident that it is not enough. Universities are exploiting athletes, and recently the problems that this creates have become more prominent. More and more athletes are now leaving school early to enter the professional leagues in order to make money. There have also been more reports of violations surrounding university boosters and alumni paying players. Furthermore, athletes have been accused of making deals with gamblers and altering the outcome of games. All of these problems could be minimized, if not completely eliminated, by adopting a program for compensating student athletes. College athletes are exploited by their schools, which make millions of dollars off of them. This leads to violations, students leaving college early, and student-athletes that cannot even afford to do anything that their sport doesn’t sponsor. The NCAA and professional leagues can work together to institute a plan to compensate these athletes and remedy all these problems. Student athletes need money just like any other college students, and many of them need it even more. According to Steve Wulf, many college athletes come from disadvantaged backgrounds (94). This means that while the free tuition is nice, they are still going to need money for other expenses that every college student faces. The NCAA finally realized this recently and decided to allow athletes to have a job earning up to $2000 during the school year (Greenlee 63). This, while well intended, is impossible for many, if not the majority of college athletes. As Greenlee states, The hours athletes would spend working at a job are already spoken for (63). The sport they play is their job; it takes up as much time, if not more, as the normal student’s job at the cafeteria or student center, yet they do not get paid. The schools have to make up for this by finding some way to compensate these athletes. The main reason behind not giving college athletes some form of compensation is that college athletes must be amateurs and if they are paid they will lose their status as an amateur. Amateurs are defined in the dictionary as an athlete who has never accepted money, or who accepts money under restrictions specified by a regulatory body, for participating in a competition. Many people say the fact that college athletes are amateurs and not paid gives college sports their appeal (Bruinis 1). However, these rules have been extended so far that athletes can barely get a check from their grandmother in the mail without red flags going up. Under the current rules, universities and colleges cannot recruit athletes who have competed with professionals, accepted money from benefactors to be used for things such as private high school tuition, accepted prize money won in competitions, or played for money in any league. Furthermore, current college athletes cannot be paid for giving lessons in their sport or accept grants from the U. S. Olympic committee (Suggs 54). A player cannot do anything that might jeopardize his or her status as an amateur. This rule is somewhat farfetched, even affecting work outside of the sports world. For example, Darnell Autry, University of Northwestern running back and theater major, went to Italy over the summer and appeared in a motion picture. He could not be paid for his services in the movie because it would damage his amateur status (Greenlee 63). This had nothing to do with college football, yet it was still a violation of NCAA rules. The amateur rules only create more problems and put an infinite number of restrictions on student athletes that just are not fair. Another major argument for not compensating college athletes is the fact that we have never done so in the past. Also, at a time of economic crisis, most Universities have other things to worry about, especially because there is no system in place currently that allows student athletes to receive money. The comparison of what student athletes get versus what they give makes it very obvious that they are exploited. Many of the athletes receive their education free, which can range from about $10,000 to more than $40,000 a year. However, college programs generate thousands more off of the athlete. Recently, the University of Notre Dame signed a five-season 38 million dollar contract with NBC for its home football games (Wulf 94). If there were 100 full scholarship football players for Notre Dame, that would equal $380,000 per player just from the TV revenues, when the limit of scholarships is usually around eighty. This oes not even take into account the ticket revenues, championship or bowl game payouts, and merchandise sold because of the players. Notre Dame is not the only school making million dollar deals like this one. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) makes approximately 242 million dollars off of TV revenues each year, and that number shouldn’t do anything but rise (Bruinius 1). When college athletes only receive a scholarship usually somewhere in the ball park o f $30,000 depending on the school, it would appear that since they can bring in up to 13 million, college athletes are being exploited. The simple fact that the colleges are making millions off of these athletes means that they are exploiting them and the NCAA constitution proves this. This constitution states that, student athletes shall be amateurs†¦and should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises. The problem with this rule is that it fails to acknowledge that university athletic programs are commercial enterprises, especially in recent times. These athletes aren’t amateurs any more but professional athletes some believe. Jeff Brown, author of Compensation of the Student-Athlete: Preservation of Amateurism, says, â€Å"Critics of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) amateurism rules argue that amateurism is an outdated ideal that no longer has a place in college athletics. The rules that worked back in the day are not working today. The objective of college athletic programs is to generate money (Murphy and Pace 168). If colleges are recognized in this way as commercial enterprises, it appears that colleges are violating the NCAA constitution. This means that college athletes are exploited even by universities’ own definition. It is exploitation in a form as obvious as any other form of servitude. Former executive director of the NCAA Walter Byers states, The coaches own the athletes’ feet, the colleges own the athletes’ bodies, and the supervisors retain the large rewards. That reflects a neoplantation mentality on the campuses that is not appropriate at this time of high dollars (Wulf 94). In other words, Byers is saying the universities are using these athletes for a type of slave labor. The big business is making a lot of money, and the ones who make it possible are not seeing a cent of the revenue they generate. Exploitation is a problem in itself, but it also causes many others, and these are increasing at a fast rate. One of these problems is the increase in NCAA violations by student athletes, in particular, gambling. The athletes need money and they can get it by making deals with gamblers. Athletes agree to alter the outcome of the game by playing poorly (shaving points), thus allowing the gamblers to pick the other team and make money.

The Bombing Of Pearl Harbor Could Have Been Avoided And Many Lives Cou

The bombing of pearl harbor could have been avoided and many lives could have been saved if the united states didnt have over confidence in themselves, if the Americans would have kept better tract of Japanese intelligence, and if Roosevelt would of warned pearl harbor of his knowledge of it going to be attacked. Many things led up to the bombing of pearl harbor. The things that led up to the bombing started when japan started to make naval bases all over the territories it controlled. Roosevelt saw this as a threat to the United States so he decided to cut off their supply of natural resources. Roosevelt knew that without natural resources japan would not be able to last economically very long. In 1941 the United States tried to come to an agreement with japan to settle their differences. Japan wanted the untied states to keep supplying oil and for the United States to let japan go to war with china. The untied states refused to lift the oil embargo until japan would back off of the ir aggression with china. Neither country would agree to a settlement and war seemed like it was inescapable. (Pearl harbor conspiracy, 12) The many people in the United States knew that pearl harbor was going to be bombed, but nobody in Hawaii knew about the planned attack. Pearl harbor at the time before the bombing was very relaxed. Many people in pearl harbor had no clue about the Japanese plotting to bomb it because nobody was informed about it.( ). Many people had no idea that pearl harbor was going to be bombed as Ruth Erickson says who was a nurse at the time of the bombing. She says: we did not know what to think when pearl harbor got bombed We were sitting in the dining room on a Sunday morning having a late breakfast when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunshots and we saw a plane crash on the tennis court. We had no idea what had just happened.() . Another man who had no idea that pearl harbor was going to be bombed is Lee Soury. He said I just had breakfast and looked out the porthole window on the carrier I was on and I saw a couple planes flying overhead. Someone shouted out what the hell are those pla nes doing up there on a Sunday.. I thought that they were just practicing bombing targets and I realized that they were dropping real bombs. I said to myself what idiot made the mistake of putting real bombs on the planes instead of fake bombs. Not long after I realized that they were Japanese fighter pilots who were bombing the aircraft carrier. I wandered what is going on. I had no Idea why the Japanese would be bombing pearl harbor. I thought this was odd. Then I realized that I had to evacuate ship because it had been torpedoed ( Cavendish,543). Some major officials on the island knew about the plot of japan to bomb pearl harbor, but did not think that japan was capable of a plan like this, so they decide not to spread the word because they felt no major threat from japan. The united states also showed that they did not fear japan by not listening to the warnings of many people who had proof that japan was going to attack pearl harbor (Cavendish, 547). If the United States would have listened to the warnings and not have doubted the power of japan, the bombing of pearl harbor could have been avoided. There were many warning given by many different people. Here are a couple of the warnings that I found. One of the warnings was one given by the top British agent named Dusko Popov. he told the FBI of the planned attack on pearl harbor and that it would be very soon. The FBI told dusko that his information was too precise to be believed. The FBI said that the information he brought spelled out in detail when, where, how and why that they were going to be attacked. The FBI said it sounds like a trap so they

Cigarettes Essays - Electronic Cigarettes, Smoking, Habits, Tobacco

Cigarettes Essays - Electronic Cigarettes, Smoking, Habits, Tobacco Cigarettes 1-3-1 ESSAY Did you know three cigarettes could get one addicted? Every time one takes a puff of a cigarette they?re playing a dangerous game with life. I always wondered, Why are cigarettes so deadly, what is in cigarettes, if people know they?re deadly then why do they still smoke them, and finally why does the government allow people to buy these when they can kill you? Every time one smokes a cigarette it?s like putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger with out knowing if the gun is loaded or not. I?ll do what?s within my ability to answer these questions in this essay. I browsed the internet (isn?t it a wonderful tool?) and used other references and my knowledge to determine why cigarettes are addictive, unhealthy, and unappealing. If we could vote to make cigarettes illegal then I?d vote yes. If your vote is no then after you read this essay I hope you will vote yes and save millions of adult and CHILDREN lives. Cigarettes are very unappealing. Do you like the smell of an old used ashtray? I don?t and most other people don?t either. Well how would you like for smoking area to smell like that and wouldn?t be able to do anything about it. You know how some smokers? teeth are yellow. This is one result of the tar staining their teeth. All white items in your smoking area could turn yellow as a result in the tar you exhale along with many other chemicals. Premature wrinkles are another result in smoking. Cigarettes are very unhealthy. If you knew what is in cigarettes you would think twice about even touching them. The basic substances are nicotine, tobacco, and TAR. Yes TAR that black smelly stuff that you have on your roof, in the streets, and if you smoke in your lungs. These are some other substances used to make cigarettes: Uranium, water, Carbon Dioxide. These chemicals are also used to make nuclear bombs. I guess smokers enjoy smoking nuclear bombs. Some side effects of smoking are many forms of cancer, thickening of the blood, making the arteries thinner and smaller, cancer of the vocal cords You?ll have to talk out of a microphone in you?re neck, and could cause constant Bronchitis. Addiction is probably the worst part. Before I explain what addiction is like I?m going to tell you about the process of addiction. 1. You light the cigarette. 2. You smoke two or three. 3. That dizziness is the nicotine traveling throughout your body. 4. The nicotine takes effect and you want another and another and so on. 5. You?re addicted. Now for what it?s like. Every time you get angry or sad you want a cigarette. If you?ve had a stressful day you may want one after a day?s work to calm your nerves. If you have no way of getting them you?ll steal them or get other people to steal them for you. You may also get others to buy cigarettes for you, or buy them from other people and get ripped off. For those of you who voted no earlier and changed to yes, good for you. For those of you who voted no and kept your vote remember smoking is unhealthy, unappealing, and very addictive. I hope I answered many of your questions. Thank you for taking time to read my essay. I hope you will agree with me that cigarettes should be illegal.

Essay 4 Water, Xeriscapes and Native Plants Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

4 Water, Xeriscapes and Native Plants - Essay Example Requirement of seasonal variations of irrigation and water distribution systems remains a major puzzle in the way of solving urban water usage issues (Dzieglielewski et al, 1990). Open-air conservation of water would call for an imperative policy focus throughout several divisions of the state. Such policy restructuring would delimit the enhancements in water demand and free up the existing water supplies that would accommodate new constructions and residents. One of the essentials of the policy framework would include water-efficient changes in landscaping practices. (Hanak and Davis, 2006) Now, in order to change the landscaping practices, individuals and agencies must concentrate on a major aspect of American manmade landscapes: The lawns. In USA, people are generally fond of lawns and they are preferred for both purposes (Government buildings, parks, military barracks, etc.) and domestic architecture (cottages, bungalows, community housing, etc.) (Ratliffe, 2002). However, lawns are not water-efficient, and they can be considered as water costly landscapes for a state like California. When people are advised to avoid creating lawns, some individuals think that the Government has no right to restrict the usage of water since they are paying for it. Therefore, they neglect the fact that the lawns are water costly and delimiting the extent of lawns can eventually help their own generations in the long run. Such behavior can thus be explained by the lack of education and training in water management. (California Urban Water Conservation Council, 2005) Next, people start arguing that they have the basic freedom and right to have single-family houses if they can afford it. Single-family homes may increase water consumption due to more distribution requirements and less organized community use of the water supplies. In the case of single-family homes, a considerable percentage of the households do not deploy irrigated landscaping in their gardens and adjacent plot s, which invariably consist of lawns (Water Resources Engineering, Inc, 2002). This is an unwise reasoning since personal will cannot be more important than community wellbeing. Another argument is that lawns have more greenery which is friendly towards the environment and its air quality. This is a sort of excessive simplification of the environmental issues. The fact is that we need considerable number of mowers to maintain the lawns. The mowers increase air pollution and consume lots of energy. Moreover, excess water is necessitated due to the trimming, sprinkling, and gardening requirements. (Department of Water Resources, 2004; Ratliffe, 2002) Part 2: Replacing Lawns with Xeriscaped Gardens In the context of water conservation, xeriscaped gardens can be a better alternative to lawns. Xeriscaping  is a method of landscaping, which minimizes requirement and use of water. Xeriscape actually deploys smarter ways for saving water and suite the climatic needs of the area it is depl oyed wherein. (Ellefson and Winger, 2004) In general gardening and decorative architectural designs, various decorative and even foreign plants are grown alongside the lawns. Plants, which have natural requirements appropriate with respect to the local vegetation and climate, are often neglected. In the case of arid and semi-arid parts of California, most of the decorative plants and expansive

Depictions of a decision tree Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Depictions of a decision tree - Essay Example Overall incidence rates reported in 2011, per 100,000 populations are as follows: Due to my chosen reported symptoms and recorded parameters regarding doctor’s findings regarding Leukemia in children, it is important to note that childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children, representing 23% of cancer diagnoses among children who are younger than 15 years of age. ALL occurs in about one of every 29,000 children in the United States each year, and that for AML is about 11000 leukemia cases annually. Approximately, 700 cases of AML occur in people under the age of 20 each year. Due to this aspect pertaining the disease, it is critical to identify this when breaking down statistical data viewing of the group ‘leukemia’ as a whole (Else, Ruchlemer, & Osuji, 2005). It is also important to know the background information pertaining to Leukemia, with regards to race/ethnicity, since the data used involved multiple races and ethnic groups. Leukemia death rate was 7.6 per 100,000 men and women annually. To come up with these rates, people who died in 1998-2002 in the United States were analyzed. The table bellow shows the death rates in accordance to race and gender. Thus, Leukemia in 1st world countries like the US, has an approximate base rate occurrence of 1/10,000 children under the age of 15. Some of the risk factors for leukemia in children include the following: The most known symptoms pertain such things as looking pale, bleeding /bruising easily, regular cases of fever, shortness of breath especially after a small physical activity, and recurrent infections. Examination to identify this disease has a false affirmative toll of 5%– that is, 5% of the time that it says a child has the disease is false. Thus, the false negative rate is 0%– the test correctly diagnoses every child who does have the disease (Gribben, 2008). Despite the test being precise more than 90% of the time, it

Citrobacter freundii Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Citrobacter freundii - Lab Report Example The biosphere is characterized by the presence of microorganisms allover which invariably impacts on the environment they are growing. Microorganisms are present in the air, soil, plants and animals and their presence can be harmful, beneficial or inapparent with respect to human measure. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to cause diseases to the host animal while opportunistic microorganisms stay in a healthy host for longer period without causing illness the immune system of the host is suppressed. However some microorganisms are very beneficial as they are used in biotechnological processes, soil and to degrade waste. This paper focuses on experiment for isolation and identification of Citrobacter freundii bacterium. The bacterium Citrobacter freundii is an opportunistic pathogen belonging to the family of Enterobacteriaceae and was first identified by Gillen and Werkman in 1932 from soil extracts (Leboffe & Pierce, 2011). It is a long rod shaped facultative anaerobic gram-negative bacilli bacterium characterized by many long flagella to aid its movement though others are none motile. C. freundii is rod shaped between 1um diameter and 2-6um in length with optimum growth temperature of 370C and produces gas and acid as a result of carbohydrate catabolism (MicrobeWiki, 2011). The habitat for Citrobacter freundii includes food, water, soil, sewage and the intestinal tracts of both human and animals (MicrobeWiki, 2011). The diverse habitat upon which this bacterium can grow is mainly due to its ability to metabolize citrate and lactose as the main sources of carbon. Citrobacter freundii is characterized by various opportunistic infections including a variety of nosocomial infections of the respiratory tract, blood, urinary tract and other sterile sites in patients with suppressed immune system (MicrobeWiki, 2011). Research has revealed that C. freundii is responsible for over 29% of all the opportunistic infections (Leboffe & Pierce, 2011). It is therefore

Big Data in Cloud Computing Issues

Big Data in Cloud Computing Issues Abstract- The term big data or enormous information emerged under the touchy increment of worldwide information as an innovation that can store and handle enormous and fluctuated volumes of information, giving both endeavors and science with profound bits of knowledge over its customers/tests. Cloud computing gives a solid, blame tolerant, accessible and versatile condition to harbor Big data distributed management systems. Inside this paper, we introduce a overview of both innovations and instances of progress when coordinating big data and cloud structures. Albeit big data takes care of quite a bit of our present issues despite everything it exhibits a few crevices and issues that raise concern and need change. Security, privacy, scalability, data heterogeneity, disaster recovery systems, and different difficulties are yet to be tended to. Other concerns are identified with Cloud computing and its capacity to manage exabytes of data or address exaflop figuring proficiently. This pa per presents a diagram of both cloud and big data innovations portraying the present issues with these advances. Introduction As of late, there has been an expanding demand to store and process an ever increasing number of information, in areas, for example, finance, science, and government. Systems that bolster big data, and host them utilizing cloud computing, have been created and utilized effectively. Though big data is in charge of storing and handling information, cloud gives a dependable, fault tolerant, accessible and versatile environment so that big data system can perform (Hashem et al., 2014). Big data, and specifically big data analytics, are seen by both business and scientific ranges as a way to correspond information, discover designs and foresee new patterns. Therefore, there is a colossal enthusiasm for utilizing these two advances, as they can furnish organizations with an upper hand, and science with approaches to total and compress data from analyses such as those performed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). To have the capacity to satisfy the present necessities, enormous data systems must be accessible, fault tolerant, adaptable whats more, versatile. In this paper, we depict both cloud computing and big data systems, concentrating on the issues yet to be tended to. We especially examine security concerns while contracting a big data seller: Data privacy, data administration, and data heterogeneity; disaster recovery strategies; cloud data transferring techniques; and how cloud computing speed and versatility represents a issue with respect to exaflop processing. In spite of a few issues yet to be improved, we show how cloud computing and big data can function admirably together. Our commitments to the present state of art is done by giving an outline over the issues to enhance or still cant seem to be tended to in both technologies or innovations. Storing and processing huge volumes of data requires scalability, adaptation to internal failure and accessibility. Cloud computing conveys all these through hardware virtualization. Accordingly, big data and distributed computing are two perfect ideas as cloud empowers big data to be accessible, versatile and fault tolerant. Business view big data as a profitable business opportunity. Thusly, a few new organizations, for example, Cloudera, Hortonworks, Teradata and numerous others, have begun to concentrate on conveying Big Data as a Benefit (BDaaS) or DataBase as a Service (DBaaS). Organizations, for example, Google, IBM, Amazon and Microsoft additionally give approaches to customers to devour big data on request. BIG DATA ISSUES Albeit big data tackles numerous present issues with respect to volumes of information, it is an always changing range that is dependably being developed and that still represents a few issues. In this area, we show a portion of the issues not yet tended to by big data and distributed computing. Security Enterprises that are wanting to work with a cloud supplier ought to know and ask the accompanying questions: a) Who is the genuine proprietor of the data and who has access to it? The cloud suppliers customers pay for an administration and transfer their data onto the cloud. Be that as it may, to which one of the two partners does information truly have a place? In addition, can the supplier utilize the customers information? What level of get to needs to it whats more, with what purposes can utilize it? Can the cloud supplier advantage from that information? In fact, IT groups responsible of keeping up the customers information must have admittance to data clusters. In this way, it is in the customers ideal enthusiasm to concede limited access to information to limit information get to and ensure that as it were authoriz. b) Where is the data? Sensitive data that is viewed as legitimate in one nation might be illicit in another nation, in this way, for the customer, there ought to be an agreement upon the location of data, as its data might be viewed as illicit in a few nations furthermore, prompt to arraignment. The issues to these inquiries are based upon agreement (Service Level Agreements SLAs), however, these must be painstakingly checked with a specific end goal to completely comprehend the parts of every partner and what arrangements do the SLAs cover and not cover concerning the associations data. Privacy The reaping of data and the utilization of analytical tool to mine data raises a few privacy concerns. Guaranteeing data security and ensuring protection has turned out to be greatly troublesome as data is spread and duplicated the world over. Privacy and data assurance laws are started on singular control over information and on standards for example, data and reason minimization and restriction. All things considered, it is uncertain that limiting information gathering is dependably a handy approach to protection. These days, the security approaches when handling exercises appear to be founded on client assent whats more, on the information that people intentionally give. Privacy is without a doubt an issue that needs further change as frameworks store tremendous amounts of individual information consistently. Heterogeneity Huge information concerns enormous volumes of data additionally distinctive speeds (i.e., data comes at various rates contingent upon its source yield rate and network latency) and extraordinary assortment. Data comes to big data DBMS at various speeds and configurations from different sources. This is since various information gatherers lean toward their possess schemata or conventions for data recording, and the nature of various applications additionally result in assorted data portrayals. Managing such a wide assortment of data and distinctive speed rates is a hard undertaking that Big Data systems must deal with. This undertaking is aggravated by the way that new types of files are always being made with no sort of standardization. However, giving a consistent and general approach to speak to and investigate complex and developing connections from this information still represents a challenge. Disaster Recovery Data is an exceptionally valuable business and losing information will absolutely bring about losing value. In case of occurrence of crisis or perilous mishaps, for example, earthquake, surges and fire, data misfortunes should be negligible. To satisfy this prerequisite, in the event of any episode, information must be rapidly accessible with negligible downtime and loss. As the loss of information will conceivably bring about the loss of money, it is vital to have the capacity to react proficiently to risky occurrences. Effectively conveying huge information DBMSs in the cloud and keeping it generally accessible and fault tolerant may unequivocally rely on upon disaster recovery mechanisms. Other Problems a) Transferringdata onto a cloud is a moderate process and organizations frequently decide to physically send hard drives to the data centres so data can be transferred. In any case, this is neither the most functional nor the most secure answer for transfer data onto the cloud. Through the years has been an exertion to enhance and make proficient data transferring calculations to limit transfer times and give a secure approach to exchange data onto the cloud, be that as it may, this process sill a big bottleneck. b) Exaflop computing is one of todays issues that is subject of numerous discussions. Todays supercomputers and cloud can manage petabyte data sets, however, managing exabyte size datasets still raises loads of worries, since high performance and high transmission capacity is required to exchange and process such gigantic volumes of data over the network. Cloud computing may not be the appropriate response, as it is accepted to be slower than supercomputers since it is limited by the existent data transmission and latency. High performance computers (HPC) are the most encouraging arrangements, however the yearly cost of such a PC is colossal. Besides, there are a few issues in outlining exaflop HPCs, particularly with respect to productive power utilization. Here, arrangements have a tendency to be more GPU based rather than CPU based. There are likewise issues identified with the high level of parallelism required among hundred a large number of CPUs. Examining Exabyte datasets requ ires the change of big data and investigation which postures another issue yet to determine. c) Scalability and elasticity in cloud computingspecifically with respect to big data management systems is a subject that needs additionally investigate as the present systems barely handle data peaks automatically. More often than not, scalability is activated physically instead of automatically and the cutting edge of programmed scalable systems demonstrates that most calculations are receptive or proactive and often investigate scalability from the point of view of better execution. Be that as it may, an appropriate scalable system would permit both manual and automatic receptive and proactive scalability in light of a few measurements, for example, security, workload rebalance (i.e.: the need to rebalance workload) and redundancy (which would empower adaptation to internal failure and accessibility). Additionally, current data rebalance algorithms are in light of histogram building and load equalization . The last mentioned guarantees an even load circulation to every server. In any case, building histograms from each servers heap is time and asset costly and additionally research is being directed on this field to enhance these algorithms. CONCLUSIONS With data expanding on an every day base, big data systems and specifically, analytics devices, have gotten to be a noteworthy drive of advancement that gives an approach to store, handle and get data over petabyte datasets. Cloud environment firmly use big data solutions by giving fault tolerant, scalable whats more, accessible conditions to big data systems. Albeit big data systems are powerful systems that empower both ventures and science to get bits of knowledge over information, there are a few worries that need further examination. Extra exertion must be employed in creating security instruments and standardizing data types. Another significant component of Big Data is scalability, which in business proceduresfor the most part manual, rather than automatic. Additionally research must be done to handle this issue. With respect to this specific area, we are wanting to utilize adaptable mechanisms keeping in mind the end goal to build up an answer for executing elasticity at a few measurements of big data systems running on cloud environments. The objective is to explore the mechanisms that adaptable software can use to trigger scalability at various levels in the cloud stack. Consequently, pleasing data peaks in a automated and responsive way. REFERENCES Chang, V., 2015. Towards a big data system disaster recovery in private cloud.AD Hoc Networks, 000, pp.1-18. Cloudera,2012. Case Study Nokia:Using big data to Bridge the Virtual and Physical Worlds. Geller, T., 2011. Supercomputings exaflop target. Communications of the ACM, 54(8),p.16 Hashem, I.A.T. et al., 2014. The rise of big data on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information Systems, 47, pp. 98-115 Kumar, P., 2006. Travel Agency Masters big data with Google bigQuery Mahesh, A. et al., 2014. Distributed File System For Load Rebalancing In Cloud Computing. ,2, pp. 15-20

The Success of the Simpsons Essay examples -- essays papers

The Success of the Simpsons The Improbable Long-Term Success of The Simpsons When examining the history of modern prime-time television, there is a certain pattern that virtually every successful show inevitably falls into. After a period of initial success, perhaps lasting three or four years, the writing on the show becomes stale by using the same format and same jokes over and over. The viewing audience becomes bored, and eventually, the show fades into television oblivion. Or, as Jeff MacGregor states in The New York Times, â€Å"Historically†¦(successful shows) collapse under the weight of their own complacency, hanging on for a few lifeless seasons while the producers wait to cash out their millions and move to Maui.† Based on this premise, it would seem that â€Å"The Simpsons,† an animated series that debuted in 1987 as thirty second segments on â€Å"The Tracey Ullman Show,† should have worn out its welcome long ago. However, â€Å"The Simpsons† is still going strong today. The secret to the show’s success lies in its producers’ ability to understand the expectations of the television audience and the culture that surrounds them. This understanding, combined with â€Å"wry sarcasm, topical themes, and superb scripting that puts most other comedies to shame,† as well as some old-fashioned slapstick comedy, makes â€Å"The Simpsons† one of the most popular programs in television history. The show is often complex and highly intellectual, while remaining funny at the most basic levels. As Jim Gleeson states in The College Tribune, â€Å"The show is rare in rewarding attention to detail, with especially obscure references that†¦ even if you had never heard of†¦you would still laugh, giddy with the crafted sleight of it all.† This fact that the show works on several levels at once draws a generationally diverse fan base. The adults are attracted by the surprisingly sophisticated dialogue, while the children enjoy the clumsy antics of Homer and the traditionally â€Å"cartoonish† aspects of the program. An example of a multidimensional scene occurs in the episode where Marge, the mother of the Simpson family, starts a crusade against campaign violence. Maggie, the baby, is mesmerized by an â€Å"Itchy and Scratchy† cartoon show in which the mouse pummels the cat over the head with a sledgehammer. Later in the episode, Maggie imitates the actions of the mouse by hitting her fathe... ... theory suggests that the success of â€Å"The Simpsons† is a consequence of television history, and could not have taken place if the show had originated twenty years earlier. The medium of television needed time to build up complexity and diversity, so that the show could virtually redefine what is expected of a television program. Based on this theory, â€Å"The Simpsons’† effect on television is similar to the Beatles’ effect on music. The theory predicts that the show will continue on until, just like the Beatles, they have nothing left to do. At its current pace, â€Å"The Simpsons† seems like it could go on forever. The show is continually progressing and perhaps funnier than ever. The writers are further developing the characters with each passing episode, and the show’s possibilities, for the time being, seem limitless. It is difficult to explain exactly what the allure of the show is, but at the core its most appealing characteristic is that it is simply funny. From the simple pleasure of watching Homer fall flat on his face to the most obscure reference imaginable, â€Å"The Simpsons† continues to entertain over a decade after its conception and shows no signs of slowing down.

Morality depends on God’s command Essay

Humans, from the cradle to the grave, are taught to respect society and its many pre-existing intricate systems, often with no rhyme nor reason.   How can one really know what, and if, social systems are beneficial to them, when one is forced to live under the watchful eye of the society who created these systems, and wish them to continue?   Questioning society is something that is reserved for those who wish for better systems than the ones they were given, ones that will serve to improve the human condition.   However, society often neglects these difficult questions, accepting instead easy answers, commonly accepted and passed down through the generations.   Within the confines of a questionable society arises humans who dedicate their lives to the searching for answers to these questions, in hopes of providing humankind with a better understanding of its place.   Philosophers are the title bestowed upon these individuals, and one such philosopher who searched for truth , was Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a philosopher who interpreted the world, and through his interpretations, he succeeded in changing it.   Whether or not it was for the better or the worse, remains discussion amongst many scholars.   Among his many philosophical observations were; religion is a type of illusion, that history itself is linear and progressive.   He also supported women’s liberation and stated that an important goal of improving the human condition to be achieved by creating a new type of society for everyone.   A new society for everyone would mean the abolition of the old.   It was this revolutionary nature of his philosophy which created a fear among those few who were, and those who still are, in power.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marx was a fervent supporter of social criticism, and he believed that the criticism of religion was the premise of all criticism.   In his view, he found it to be a type of illusion.   Marx borrowed his religious philosophies from Feuerbach who wrote that man makes religion, not vice-versa, and in creating God in his own image, had â€Å"alienated himself from himself† (Marx, 1978/1848, p. 53).   This meant that man had created a greater being in contrast to himself, reducing himself to a despicable creature who needed both the dogma of the church and the laws of government to guide and control him. Marx agreed with this philosophy and described religion as the, â€Å"sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions,† adding that religion was â€Å"the opium of the people† (1978/1848, p. 54). Marx believed that the human condition causes people to create illusions, religion being one, which create a false happiness.   He called for people to abandon their illusions and demand for their real happiness.   The criticism of religion created an awareness as to its illusory nature, and Marx felt strongly that man should be able to create an illusion-free existence, relying instead on his reason. To Marx, religion prohibits man from realizing himself as the center of his existence, an in place, creates an environment in which religious belief dictates his action.   Men can never be free, as long as they accept their existence as subservient beings, indebted to a omnipotent supreme being.   Religion is a tradition which has survived the ages, though constantly changing to suit the times.   Events such as the Reformation, or the Great Schism, only serve to support this, for religion, like all things man-made, is only used if it is a useful part of society.   Marx believed that if religion were abolished human beings would overcome their self-inflicted alienation.   The abandonment of this illusion, in Marx’s view, could be one of many crucial steps mankind towards advancement. Marx believed that humans could find meaning in history, which he believed to be linear and progressive.   He saw history as the unfolding of class struggles, between the owners of the productive forces, bourgeoisie, and the workers, proletariat.   With his conception of history, Marx used scientific observation to show how history was really the â€Å"history of production†.   He set human existence as being the first premise in history.   Humans must live to create history, so he showed how humans survive, by producing useful things out of natural material. Through this he showed how man is the producer, and by using natural materials, he created a new â€Å"man-made† nature over the original.   This â€Å"material† conception of history is based on Hegel’s conception of history, along with Feurerbach’s criticism of it, but whereas Hegel claims man to be a self-alienating spirit, Feurerbach claims man to be self-alienating in its own, and the â€Å"spirit† Hegel speaks of, is actually the thought process taking place in the mind.   Marx argued that this human thought was determined by social and economic forces, particularly those related to the means of production. He explains that the ruling class of each historic period, is the class that controls the material force of society, and their ideas prevail.   The â€Å"goals† or â€Å"ideals† of each earlier generation, he points out, are only formed by the later generations based the influence the prior generations had.   This led Marx to develop a method of analysis called Dialectical Materialism, in which the clash of historical forces leads to changes in society. He also declared that all history is the history of class struggles, whether it be the slave-master relationship of earlier ages, or the employee-employer relationship of today.   Marx expressed history as the process of human self-development, and criticized the common economic system of Capitalism.   He claimed that Capitalism must be abandoned in favor of a better economic system.   He also felt this would happen, for he believed man to be capable of such a development. What, according to Marx, is the good life? Why is it unattainable under capitalism? Critically analyze Marxs views. Marx believed that the important goal of improving the human condition to create the good life was to be achieved by creating a new type of society for everyone.   Marx claimed that in a Capitalist society, which still remains the most common economic system, the struggle between the working class, or proletariat, and the ruling business class, or bourgeoisie, would eventually end in the formation of a new society, a classless society.   â€Å"Society can no longer live under this bourgoeisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society,† sated Marx his work, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1978/1848, p. 483).  Ã‚   To Marx, the good life was impossible under a capitalist system. Marx points out how human history has delivered its share of class struggles turned to revolutions, and the bourgeoisie society will be no different.   In his writings, he often uses the French Revolution as an example, citing the uprising of the bourgeoisie against the former feudal society.   The one constant in the history of man has been the fact that some men have what other men wish too have, but do not.   This puts man in competition with each other, and this leads to struggle amongst man, rather than cooperation amongst man.   This consequently leads men to feel separated from others, by the share fact that they become opposing forces. Marx applied this idea of alienation to private property, which he said causes humans to work only for themselves, not for the good of their species.   Because Capitalism has its roots in private ownership, he felt that it created an environment, ripe for greed and avarice to develop.   This prevents man from focusing on cooperating, and maximizing their potential.   Marx felt that it must be abandoned for the good of the species, and man’s continuing development towards enlightenment.   The economic system he proposed was a socialist one, or communism.   He called for a communist society to overcome the dehumanizing effect of private property. Marx’s proposed communist society would be one that would provide for all.   Many believe his view on the possibility of communism succeeding was pure idealism, but he believed that it was crucial for man.   By creating a society where man could work together towards a common goal, it would be able to achieve many more important results.   Marx believed that this could help create a classless society in which all men are provided for, and free to endeavor as they please.   Certainly, in its pure form, communism seems that it would be able to thrive.   However, since its inception, it has developed a negative connotation in many countries, especially in the United States, which fought a â€Å"Cold War† with the hated â€Å"commies.†Ã‚   The failure of the Soviet Union, the Communist leader in the world, led many to believe that it was a system doomed to failure.   Despite that, communism and Marx’s beliefs in it, were all part of his plan of lib erating man, and women as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Amongst the many little-known facts about the philosophies of Karl Marx, was his support for women’s liberation in a time when they did not share the privileges of men.   He believed that this would encourage greater equality within societies, therefore making life better for the society as a whole.   More than a century ago, many years before women were allowed to vote in the United States, Marx wrote of his views towards women’s rights.   In the modern bourgeoisie society, Marx explained in so many words, that women in a capitalist system were nothing more to men than another instrument of production. Men, who controlled the world as wells as it’s productive forces, also controlled women.   Because the instruments of production are to be exploited, women are exploited.   With the abolition of the bourgeoisie society, women would be free from every form of prostitution, public or private.   For the Communists, there was, â€Å"no need to introduce community of women; it has always existed almost from time immemorial† (1978/1848, p. 488)   But traditional capitalistic values make this fact all but impossible to notice, and for Marx, women’s equality was another step towards human enlightenment and the good life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The philosophies of Karl Marx continue to draw varied opinions.   For many years, people who were believed to be communist were persecuted, many in spite of their actual innocence.   In the United States, propaganda and political movements against Marxist philosophies, created fear in and ignorance in millions.   Perhaps, it is the revolutionary nature of Marxist philosophy that has many men of power frightened.   Perhaps, an educated and motivated working class, with nothing too lose but their shackles, is something which causes fear in those who have everything too lose.   Anyone with common sense would be able to see the benefits of helping our fellow man, and the benefits of pooling our collective talents towards a common goal.   But as long as people continue to accept their oppression, the goal of enlightenment grows more distant.   â€Å"WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!† (1978/1848, p. 500). Works Cited: Marx, K. (1978/1848). Communist Manifesto. The Marx-Engels Reader. Trans. Tucker, R. C., Second Edition. New York:   W. W. Norton.

Whats the Best Food to Eat Before a Test

Whats the Best Food to Eat Before a Test Proper nutrition is important, and doubly so on important days like when you take a test. Keeping up your energy during the exam is crucial to your success. Ever had one of those times when youre staring at the sheet and are just drawing a blank, even though you know for sure youve studied this? It might be because you didnt pay proper attention to what you ate, and it resulted in your blood sugar flatlining at the worst moment. Heres a little guide on how to avoid it happening again. Eat Light the Night Before If youre cramming the night before a test (like any proper student would), it might be hard not to get pizza as a way of rewarding yourself. You should consider putting off that reward until you actually write the test, though. Its best to wake up hungry and not with that pregnant feeling everyone gets when eating right before going to bed. Drink Water First thing you should do for energy is drink water. Americans, as a whole, dont drink enough liquids, if you discount for sugary drinks. A glass of cold water on an empty stomach is a great way to start the day and boost your metabolism – which means youll have more energy throughout the day. Eat Your Vitamins Starting your day right means getting all the vitamins your body is going to need throughout the day. Consider, at the least, fish oil and a vitamin B supplement. Fish oil is great for energy boosting, as well as increasing metabolism and clearing up skin, and without sufficient B12, your body is not going to have proper energy reserves, and thats just two of them. Getting a blood test from your doctor will tell you better what daily supplements you should be taking. Caffeine and Energy Drinks Unless youre a total, complete addict, youll want to go without coffee and especially energy drinks. Drinking them gives an energy boost, but the crash or comedown is not worth it, especially if it happens while youre taking your test. If you absolutely cannot start the day without a beverage to bolster your energy, try green tea. It has lower amounts of caffeine, but does have anti-oxidants that coffee lacks. Eat Breakfast The most important meal of the day. If youre one of those people who doesnt have their first meal until lunchtime, you should think about having a proper breakfast. This will provide you with the energy boost you get from coffee, and sustain you until you have lunch. Since breakfast is the most vital meal of the day, you should be all that choosier with what you eat. Try and avoid sugary cereals. Yes, theyre pretty much the best, and you might say, why even wake up if I cant have my sugar fix right away? The same reason as coffee: sugar, as well as all carbs, gets you going fast, and you crash just as hard. Its the thing that metabolizes the fastest, so it wont sustain you for very long, and, as has been said above, were trying to avoid that crash. Instead of Lucky Charms, try something thats high in fat and protein. Eggs with hummus, for instance. Some sort of lean meat, like grass-fed beef or salmon is also a great way to start the day. Try it with some avocado for those healthy omega acids, and eat it on an English muffin to avoid being completely boring with your food choices. If youre a vegan, try mixing quinoa or chickpeas with some spinach or kale, add some nuts, and dress with vinegar for a morning salad. Whatever youre eating on exam day, be conscious of how long its going to sustain you for. You know your body best, and if you know a Red Bull in the morning and a Red Bull before the test is going to get you through it, then, by all means, indulge. Keep in mind, though, youre not going to be 20 forever, and at some point youre going to have to think about how healthy the choices youre making are. Until then, have fun.

Political Economy Essay

Political Economy Essay Political economy simply means the study of the interrelation between politics and economy. It entails the study of how institutions develop and manage to cope in areas of communism, socialism and capitalism which are the major political systems. Political economy also turns out to be a battle for resources between the major groups in the government. In this case we will pay keen interest on the outcome of the political unrest in the Arab nations in North Africa. This wave of Arab Spring of unrest affected Egypt and Tunisia sometimes last year and early this year. Morocco and Algeria were also affected but in these nations it was just some riots and protests nothing so serious. This paper will view the effects of these political unrest in the economies of the affected nations. Summary The article was published by the Real Instituto Elcano and is named A Political Economy on North African’s Transition. The author of the articles is Gonzalo Escribano and it was published on the thirty first of January this year. The paper focuses on the political unrest in the North African Nations for the past two years. The possible causes of the civil unrest and the possible effects of the revolts against the government especially when it comes to the economy. When we talk about political economy it is an evaluation of the relationship between the politics and the economy of a nation. It is generally an assessment of the wave of the political revolts that saw the overthrow of incumbent regimes and the after effect which is the nations plunging into economical crisis. For there to be a democratic rule, there must be the agreement between the political and economic forces in a nation. The emergence and rise of the middle class and also the decentralization of an economic power are key for there to be a good relationship between politics and economy. In Tunisia, there society considered more modern in terms of of the socio-economic ecosystem were the first to revolt against the law. These political case can be viewed as a business scenario to make it much easier to understand. The urge to revolt tends to increase when the opportunity cost of of a revolt is lowering and this tends to make nations with a high inequality in the resources and low economic opportunities more prone to revolutions than nations which have high economic opportunities. What democratization factors made the Northern Africa nations more prone to civil unrest and later on led to the overthrow of the Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian dictatorships? The effects that were later passed on to the economies of the parent nations after the revolts. Economically, the North African nations have achieved good results ranking in the high and medium in the High Development Index: Libya being position sixty four, Tunisia number ninety four, Algeria holding the ninety sixth position, Egypt in position a hundred and thirteen and Morocco being the last in position a hundred and thirty. Over the last decade, life expectancy has greatly increased and schooling has also progressed. Algeria, Libya and Tunisia has on average had many years of expected schooling of Medium Human Development Countries and Arab States Morocco and Egypt on the other hand have are at an average of both country groups. The slow economic growth during the revolt especially after the leaders were taken out of power can be associated with the international financial crisis and the Euro crisis also. The impact of the crisis even affected the macroeconomic balance. The attempts to stop both social unrest and deepening of economic downturn led to the fall of fiscal income and expenses on the other hand were fostered. A rise in subsidies, public wages and public jobs saw the rise and growth of fiscal deficits in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco for years 2011 and 2012. After the revolts which started off in early 2011, cases of increased poverty, food scarcity and inequality were also recorded to be on the rise. In the last two decades, there has been a rise in the number of human population and there was a slow down in the pace of improvement in the second half of the second decade. However, only Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt were able to reach the HDI rank. Food subsidy reductions have been common in the past and is attributed to the recent demonstrations. It is not however known whether the access to food has been a problem I the nations. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are however experiencing problems with their nutritional levels. Libya had a problem with malnutrition levels and the nutrition figures in Algeria are also staggering. It is however debated that the poverty levels in the Northern Africa nations were underestimated. The progress in the reduction of poverty is however slow and very insignificant and are considered the slowest in the region and do not seem to slow down the poverty levels in the Northern part of the continent. There is however a more sophisticated argument regarding the economic causes of the Arab revolts is all about modernization and social transformation. The involvement of the North African regimes and their ability to deliver on socio-economic urges and also the legitimacy of autocracy was getting a major challenge from the broader and very demanding middle class. It also lay emphasis on the involvement of these North African governments and the fact that the cost of autocracy cannot be compensated for the meager economic benefits. The emergence of the North African balances in the political economy is well written down in the regions political economy literature. After the colonialist left, they had put in position structures that shaped the economic and regional balances between their parent nations. This led to state-led growth, the importation of the strategies of substitution which in turn generated a class of managers and rent seeking employees. Due to the increase in the debts, this model first failed in the 1980s. However, with the help of the economic elites, it led to the stabilization and liberalization of policies. The political economy of the North African nations traditionally has been based on the political networks which majorly base on popularity. The exploiting of economic reforms and renewing of rent active strategies is also one of the bases of political economy. In Egypt and Tunisia, the two leaders who were taken off duty after riots had put in place architects who would extract rents from their nations. A revelation made by the popular WikiLeaks in the year 2006 showed that the US ambassador to Tunisia reported that most of the Tunisia’s elites were actually related to Ben Ali, the the president. Their relationship was based on the group called a â€Å"Family†. In Egypt, the connections was being based by one of Mubaraks son and this led to conflicts of interests between the son and the military. In Morocco, the Mazkhen constitute of a a very hidden network of influence around the palace. The economic preferences and interests around the palace include a number of famous businessmen who conduct activities between the public and private sector. In Libya, the Gaddafi family had taken over oil mines and all the revenue was under the scrutiny of the family. There has also been a conflict between foreign investors and the ruling elite. Most of the foreign nations and investors have to adopt exit strategies to optimize their returns when it comes to investments. In a way, the foreign investors have a positive effect when it comes to modernize the economic system but have one negative effect. They do not change the political economy balance and when we look at the Middle East, they have no commitment to the promotion of democracy. After the Arab Spring, all North African affected nations increased public wages and public works. This was done as a method to take away the tyranny of bad leadership and at the same time put the interest of the masses forward. These measures have however created an advance for social justice and changing the system of leadership to bring about a more inclusive method that incorporates growth and the sharing of wealth. The correlation between the political systems and the economic growth are however different in these nations. This is because of the different social systems and the resourcefulness of every nation. The enlargement of the working middle class, slowly renewing business and and economic elites is viewed as another measure of reassuring the restoration of the economic systems. The main obstacle may however be the implementation of short term economic policies which at times prove to be politically expensive. Such methods include the food rationalization and energy subsidies which are implemented in through social targeting, external liberalization continuation, fiscal unsustainability, resistance and maintenance of a prudent micro-economic stance. It is proven that is very hard for an economy to manage in a government or nation is in political transition. A good political mood sets it off for good business and investment opportunities and structures actually. What we have in the article is not the picture of a modest society but the real world in which we live in now. Africa is a growing continent and nations in these continent are weighing their options between exploring its economic options and the realization that policy space is quite reduced. It is necessary for every nation to know that politics and the economy go hand in hand. An economy of a nation cannot be good where as the nation is sunk in civil strife and political instability. The leadership in the nations should also make it their duty to ensure there is economic growth in their countries. In this case, they should ensure the implemented programs are successful and are aimed at serving the country not causing harm lastly, corrupt and unethical leaders should be scrapped away to avoid the case of a government failing under the nose of its elite leaders who had a chance to do something yet they choose not to.

Strategic Information System mangament Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Strategic Information System mangament - Essay Example The shop has only one receptionist. Each customer has to stand in the line to get a form. The form to fill is very comprehensive and time consuming. The receptionist won’t handle the next customer’s request until a current customer’s case has been closed (form is filled). The form contains a lot of questions but does not specifically ask the client what the problem is and what the next steps might be. Lapy King only sells laptop computers and just takes the orders to repair broken laptops from the customers in the city centre. Then they deliver the item to the main repair company which is located in a suburb within a 15 Kilo meters distance. Once they receive the broken item, they read the form, perform a quick diagnosis and then they usually have to call the client and ask further questions for instance whether the client wants an device being replaced for a quoted price. If the call is made during working hours, the customer may not answer the call and when the client calls back the company the call has to be forwarded to the repair company and the person responsible to fix the device. All these together delays the delivery of the product/service. There is no kind of managed communication between customer and repair guys. Receptionist does not have much technical information and answering the calls and making arrangements between the staff and managers, consumes a lot of her time. The receptionist at lapy king, is responsible of answering the phone calls to the company and directing them to the right person. She is also responsible to take orders from customers with a broken laptop. She provides a form for a client to fill. This includes client’s details, for example name and address, email and phone number, the problem with the laptop and whether they want other services like backup from hard disks. The receptionist asks the customer for a registration fee. Receives and packs the laptop and issues a

Cover letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Cover letter - Essay Example The motive was to gain competence on how to identify the possibility of stroke in postoperative orthopedic patients. The course enabled me understand the neurologic patterns that may indicate the danger of stroke in orthopedic patients. Currently, I am pursuing a certificate course on Advanced Cardiac Arrest Support to boost my service to severe orthopedics cases that require information on cardiac arrest. My intention is to advance in the leadership ladder. I have successfully served several leadership positions in various institutions. I served as a charge nurse on a medical unit from 1983 to 1995. The position entailed supervising other nurses, offering support to them and also caring for patients. The position helped advance my leadership skills. I was promoted to Unit Supervisor in 1996 after satisfactory service at the Charge Nurse position. I have served as the unit supervisor from 1996 to date. The position entails supervising a nursing unit in the orthopedics department. I ensure the wellness of the unit nurses as well as ensuring that patients receive quality care from the nurses. My education and experience prove my commitment to excellence. I can fit into any nursing leadership roles. I hope the information will be useful in making a decision on hiring me for a leadership role. I am looking forward to hearing from you. I am a Registered Nurse with more than 30 years of nursing experience. My specialty has been in orthopedics. I am a team player, team leader and skilled in current and emerging trends in my scope of practice. I am attentive to details and always put the health of the patients first in any decisions I make. I am also emotionally intelligence and hence able to make objective decisions on any emerging issue, trend or practice. I am keen to study new concepts that add value to my practice such as ACLS and NIHSS

Improving Student Learning When Budgets Are Tight (Ch. 3 Summary) Essay

Improving Student Learning When Budgets Are Tight (Ch. 3 Summary) - Essay Example Thus the author’s major argument is that schools and districts should develop strategic plans to successfully cope with tightening budgets. According to the author there are four major reasons why schools are facing problems with cost increases, namely, smaller classes, more electives, automatic pay increases, and growing benefit costs (Odden, 2012, 47-49). First, some schools and districts reduce class sizes in the belief that it will improve student performance. Such belief is supported by several studies which reported improvements in the academic achievement of students who belong in smaller classes. However, these smaller class sizes are only effective in early grades. Second, more elective courses demand greater costs because they are usually made up of smaller classes. Third, as expected, automatic pay increases boost costs. Teachers and administrators are automatically given salary increase every time they acquire more experience or move up to a higher qualification le vel. Unfortunately, this salary system is not associated with greater academic performance and better teaching; it merely increases costs. And lastly, pension and health benefits, especially for those currently employed, also add pressure to education resources. All of these four factors undoubtedly increase education costs, but with little or no positive impact on student learning or academic performance. The author provides several strategic methods to resolve the dilemma of increasing costs and flat performance, such as definite objectives, a plan of action, and a clear strategic budgeting plan. Those schools with adequate resources but experiencing budget cutbacks must only consider strategies that will have the least effect on academic performance, such as a smaller number of administrators and instructional aides. On the other hand, those schools with insufficient funding must leave out small class sizes and consider more instructional coaches to enhance core classroom instruc tion (Odden, 2012, 50-52). In essence, a general plan of action can offer guidance to both sufficiently and insufficiently funded schools. The Midwestern middle school example shows how a substantially funded school can improve student learning without having to increase costs or demand additional resources. The problems with the school are that it has too many staff, but no instructional coaches and tutors, and lacking in collaborative work which could promote student learning. According to the analysis, the school can in fact afford all the staffing needed to significantly enhance student learning (Odden, 2012, 54). Numerous staff positions and electives can be reallocated to areas that have greater impact on student performance, such as those for struggling students (e.g. poor, disabled, etc). The analysis shows that the suggested staffing allocation could drastically enhance academic performance without additional staffing and/or funding. One of the main suggestions given to suc cessfully address the issue of tightening budget in education is increasing class sizes in order to reallocate resources to other more important areas, like programs for struggling students. As mentioned previously, studies have found that smaller class sizes positively impact student learning in early grades, but nothing has been

Young Modulus of Copper Essay Example for Free

Young Modulus of Copper Essay Theory The following quantities is important for the experiments concerns: Stress is defined as ? =Force / Cross-sectional area ( F/A ) Strain is defined as ? = Extension / Natural length ( e/l ) The ratio of Stress to Strain, is the Young modulus (E= ?/?) Since a stiffer material requires larger stress to produce the same strain , a stiffer material would have a greater Young modulus ( a greater slope in a graph of ? against ? ) . For a non brittle material, usually there are two stages of deformation before breaking. Stage 1 : Elastic deformation In this stage, the wire would return to its natural length when the stress is removed. Hookes law is usually obeyed in this stage, therefore the graph is almost a straight line. When the wire is further stretched, it reaches the elastic limit and get into stage 2. Stage 2 : Plastic deformation In this stage, the stress is not directly proportional to the strain and and a small amount of stress can produce a large strain. If the wire passes the yield point, its will have permanent extension and will not return to its original length. Finally, when the wire is kept to stretched, it will break at the breaking point. Procedure Experiment 1: Study the stress-strain behaviour of a copper wire 1.A micrometer screw gauge was used to measure the diameter of the copper wire at several points. Mean value was taken and the cross-sectional area of the wire was calculated. 2.A pulley was mounted on one side of the table. A 2 m segment of the wire was cut out and was clamped firmly by using a G-clamp which was at a distance about 1.5 m form the pulley. 3.The wire was placed over the pulley. Some newspapers were put one the ground below the pulley. 4.A label marker is sticked on the wire at a distance about 0.5 m from the pulley. A metre rule was placed below the wire and was fixed on the table by sticky tape. 5.A 100g hanger was tied to wire. 6.The length between the G-clamp and the sticker, which represents the natural length, was measured. 7.100g load was added to the hanger one by one , and the extension was recorded each time. 8.Load was kept increasing until the wire broke. Experiment 2 : Elastic deformation and Young modulus 1.A new wire of the same length and thickness was used and steps 1 to 7 in experiment 1 were repeated. 2.Load was added to the hanger carefully. All the load were removed each time to check whether the wire would return to the original length. Results were recorded. 3.Step 2 was repeated until the elastic limit was just exceeded. Precautions 1.The hanger should be more than 0.5 m above the newspapers. This allows the wire to get enough space for extensions before it breaks. Also it should not be kept too high from the ground, this may cause the tiles of the floor to break. 2.The sticker should not be placed too close to the pulley. If not the wire may touch the pulley when the wire is extended. A distance of 0.4 m is preferred. 3.The load should be added to the hanger slowly and carefully. This is to avoid exerting impulse to the wire and making the masses to oscillate. Otherwise the wire may get extra extension and make the records not appropriate. 4.Records should be taken only after the sticker stops moving. This is because the wire takes time to extend itself, especially at the later stage when the wire passed the elastic limit and was near breaking. Results Diameter of the copper wire: D1 D2 D3 D4 Mean Value (in à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.005mm) 0.370 0.365 0.670 0.370 0.3688 Natural length of the wire=1.15m Experiment 1: Load(kg) 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 Extension(10^-3 m) 0 0.5 0.5 1 1 1.5 1.5 2.0 Load(kg) 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Extension(10^-3 m) 2.5 2.5 3.0 3.0 3.5 4.0 5.5 12 Load(kg) 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Broken Extension(10^-3 m) 19 34 46 60 77 98 125 / Maximum load for elastic deformation=1.3 kg Load for breaking the wire=2.3 kg Experiment 2 : Load(kg) 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 Extension (10^-3) 0 0.5 0.8 1 1.2 1.5 1.5 2 Load(kg) 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 Elastic limit exceeded Extension(10^-3) 2.5 2.5 3 3.5 / / / Calculations Graphs Maximum possible error of metre rule = 0.1 cm=0.01m Maximum possible error of micrometer screw gauge =0.005mm=510^-6 m Cross-sectional area of the wire = 1.06810^-7 m^2 Percentage error = 26.77810^-3 =1.3557% ?Cross-sectional area = (1.071 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.01)x10^-7 m^2 Experiment 1 Stress Strain relationship: Stress (M Pa) 9.345 18.69 28.03 37.38 46.73 56.07 65.42 74.76 Strain (10^-3) 0 0.4348 0.4348 0.8696 0.8696 1.304 1.304 1.7392 Stress (M Pa) 84.11 93.45 102.8 112.1 121.5 130.8 140.1 149.5 Strain (10^-3) 2.174 2.174 2.609 2.609 3.043 3.478 4.783 10.44 Stress (M Pa) 158.9 168.2 177.6 186.9 196.3 205.6 215.0 Broken Stress (10^-3) 16.52 29.57 40.00 52.61 66.96 82.61 108.7 / Stress at elastic limit=124 M Pa Percentage error=Percentage error of the area of the wire =1.3557% ?Stress at elastic limit=(124 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 2)M Pa Breaking stress=(215 Pa à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 3)M Pa Experiment 2: Stress Strain relationship up to elastic limit: Stress (M Pa) 9.345 18.69 28.03 37.38 46.73 56.07 65.42 74.76 Strain (10^-3) 0 0.4673 0.7477 0.9346 1.121 1.402 1.402 1.869 Stress (M Pa) 84.11 93.45 102.8 112.1 Elastic limit exceeded Strain (10^-3) 2.336 2.336 2.804 3.271 / / / Mean of the stress=60.7 M Pa Mean of the strain=1.5610^-3 Slope of the best-fit line=38.9 G Pa Maximum slope=42.2 G Pa Minimum slope=30.0 G Pa Mean error=(38.9-36.1)=2.8 G Pa ?Young modulus of the copper wire=(38.9 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 2.8)G Pa Errors and Difficulties 1.There were systematic errors in this experiment. The masses were not weighted to check what its actual weight is. The wire may not be made of pure copper. The air temperature may vary due to air-conditioners. Besides, gravitational acceleration is taken as 10ms^-2 instead of 9.8ms^-2 2.There was a random error in viewing the sticker. Since the sticker had a few distance from the ruler, errors due to parallax would arise if we view form a little bit right or left. So it is difficult to obtain the precise value. To improve this, a nail can be added onto the sticker. The nail was more stable and gave readings very sharply. 3.At the beginning of the experiment, the wire is very uneven. The first few extensions we taken may be only due to the reform of the wire into a straight shape.(just like stretching a spring into a straight wire) Discussion 1.Near the breaking point, the shape of the wire is very narrow. 2.During elastic deformation, the hanger falls and loses gravitational potential energy. This energy change to elastic potential energy. If the wire is unloaded, the energy will be restored to GPE and the wire will return to is original length. 3.During plastic deformation, the loss of gravitational potential energy becomes the work done to increase the length of the wire (increase the separations of the particles in the wire). This energy would not be restored even the wire is unloaded. 4.Double of the amount of the load is required to break the wires. Conclusion To obtain the Young modulus of the copper wire by this experiment is convenient. A few apparatus and steps are needed, and it only involves easy calculations. But by comparing to the actual value(124G Pa), the result we get (38.9 G Pa) has a great difference from it. This may due to the experiment is done in several assumptions and estimations. We assumed g=10ms^-2 and the wire is made of pure copper. We neglected environmental factors and assumed the wire was stretched evenly in every parts. In short, although the experiment is not accurate enough, it provides a good chance for students to practice what they have learned. It is quite shocked that a very thin and long wire can withstand more than 2 kg load.

Leadership Theories Relevant In Contemporary Organisations Management Essay

Leadership Theories Relevant In Contemporary Organisations Management Essay Introduction Leadership theories talk about different methods or ways that a leader follows to complete a given task with a group of people (followers or subordinates). These theories also talk about leaders behavior, character, knowledge, and the environment the team is working in. as it is the leaders task to complete the given work in given time and environment. Different theories talk about different leadership styles or methods a leader can choose to follow to complete the given task. Leadership theories relevant in contemporary organisations: Leaders play a vital role in determining the organizations effectiveness. Effective leaders are critical to the effectiveness of the contemporary organizations. Whether leadership can be taught, or even how effective it might are the question to answer (Collinson and Keith in year 2005). Leadership is not just a single man process, but it is a shared process (Hunt and Murrel 1997, 2004), leaders can become followers and followers can become leaders depending on the process, situation and the task. In simple terms, leadership is a process in which an individual or a group influences others to accomplish a specific task providing the necessary directions to the organization to become more effective. With growing technology and globalization, organizations are competing with each other like never before. As a result, how well and organization can use its resources plays a very important role. Some also argue that the effects of a leader on an organization are less when comparing with po litical, economical and environmental forces (Lieberson and OConnor, 1972; Pfeffer, 1977), natural disaster in Japan recently is a perfect example of this. Situational Leadership Theory The situational leadership theory which is first introduced as life cycle theory was developed b Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard says, the effective leadership varies not only with the person or group but many other factors influencing the organization like environment, politics, economics, etc, which can affect the workflow of the organization. So, the most successful leaders are those who can adapt their leadership styles according to the situation and to the maturity of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence. Maturity can be seen as 1. The ability or capacity to set high but achievable goals. 2. Responsibility and commitment to complete the task. 3.Relevant education and experience with respect to task. There are two fundamental concepts in Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory. Leadership styles. Individuals or groups maturity level. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory) Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory talks about four different leadership styles and four different maturity levels of the individual or group. How different leadership styles can help different maturity levels is what the theory is about. M1/S1: If the individual or group is not matured enough, leader should constantly tell them and direct them towards the goal. M2/S2: If the maturity level is medium and skills are limited, leader should coach them and direct them towards the goal, not constantly. M3/S3: If the maturity level is medium and the skill level is high, leader should participate with the group or individual and support them to achieve the goal. M4/S4: If the individual or the group is highly matured, leader involves him/her self in the process to check the development or the progress of the task. (http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_44.htm). Some of the factors that will affect the leaders decisions are: Capacity and the influence of the leader. Capacity and motivation of the subordinates or followers. Relation between leader and team. How serious is the situation or amount of the pressure on the leader and the team. What are the resources available for the leader and the team? As a leader plays a major in any organisation, it is important to have necessary information and knowledge about the planning and should have a clear vision. So, he or she can help the team or subordinates to have clear vision and together they can archive the common goal. There are many strategies a leader can approach (like task oriented or people oriented etc). However the approach can change according to the situation. In many areas situation plays major role, so understanding the situation and supporting the team will help the leader and the team to reach the desired goal. Leaders should mainly know about: Subordinates or followers motivation and capacity to work in various situations. Do all the subordinates know or understand what they should do ( action plan or vision )? How the work is organised. Understanding between team members (it plays a major role in completing task). What are the resources that are available? Information about external groups that a leader can coordinate and take support form in unpredictable situations. Herseys and Blanchards Situational Leadership Theory illustrates the development of the team in four stages. The four stages are: Forming: Forming a team. It is important for the leader to select a team with a group with enough information and knowledge which helps leader forming plans and take actions to complete the tasks. Storming: leader should have a clear vision of what he or she is doing and should have a clear plan how to do it. Leader when has a clear vision he or she can help the team to form a clear vision which helps the team to reach their goal. Clarity is very important for the leader and the followers. Norming: Understanding between the team members or followers is very important for the team leader, as it plays very important role for the leaders life. If the team members have a good understanding it is easy for the leader to complete the task with less trouble in unwanted situations. Performing: Leader with all the information and knowledge about the task and all the resources that organization has, to complete the task. Making a perfect business plan is just beginning but performing according to the plan is tough and not easy. With proper motivation and leaders charm it is possible to complete the task. (http://www.businessballs.com/slanalysis.htm) (http://www.ehow.com/situational-leadership/) (http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_44.htm) Disadvantages/Limitations of the Situational Leadership Theory This model was unable to differentiate between management style and leadership style. What leadership is all about, is it making decisions or motivating and inspiring and helping followers / subordinates? Concentrates a lot on what leader does for him/her self and for the team and for the organization. (http://www.12manage.com/methods_blanchard_situational_leadership.html)