The Importance of the class-system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Importance of the class-system - Essay Example on class in comparison to quality of character, the novels create intelligently woven tales that are rich in story and plot, while maintaining a relevant editorial on the socioeconomic relationships within their culture. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the main character, Pip, experiences the many levels of the class system in nineteenth century England. Although such a rise would be near impossible, the use of one character to experience the many levels of the system allows the reader to create a structure and relativity between the lowest place where he starts his journey, to the higher end where he ends as an English gentleman. Although Dickens allows his character to have this journey, â€Å"The atmosphere and smell Havesham’s employ, or partaking of gentlemanly delights in London.† [1]. The reader remains aware of the rise that Pip has experienced and, when read during the time period, a personal impact was undoubtedly felt by this commentary. In exploring the class system in Great Expectations, Dickens is able to establish the importance of the system to the social culture, while making clear commentary on the true equality of the classes. As he develops his characters, we see that true worth is not measured in wealth or distinction, but rather in the quality of the character of an individual. Miss Havesham, a woman of means, is a twisted character who seeks to avenge herself on a boy and influence the growth and ability to form a good relationship by twisting the mind of a girl. In the bitterness of her ruined life, she seeks revenge through those who should have hope by virtue of their youth. Dickens displays an immense fascination with the prison system in his work. The character of Magwitch is quietly central to the theme of class distinction within the work. â€Å"As a returned convict who was been forcibly expelled, Magwitch in Great Expectations occupies a more complex position than mere ‘out sidedness’ and becomes a tool for a

Management Capacity Resume Essay Example for Free

Management Capacity Resume Essay The purpose of this letter is to express my interest in working with your company in a management capacity.   I have over 15 years experience working for a major bottling company utilizing my Sales and Operations management skills which would be an asset to your organization. My diverse background includes serving in the United States Army Reserve.   In both my military and professional career, I have demonstrated excellent leadership abilities and exceptional customer service skills.   I successfully built a solid sales team consistently mentoring and motivating staff to meet and exceed company sales quotas. In addition to the skills noted on my resume, I can also offer your company: An enthusiastic individual seeking new endeavors, accomplishing personal and professional goals. A multi-tasking individual leveraging sales and marketing skills to exceed sales quotas. Excellent analytical ability with solid verbal and written communication skills. I look forward to speaking with you further to discuss my skills and qualifications.   You can reach me at the number listed above.

Impact of Conglomeration on Cultural Industries

Impact of Conglomeration on Cultural Industries Cultural industries are a major source of generating information and knowledge in societies. The concentration in ownership over them, in the recent years by private corporate houses has brought in changes, in the way they operate and function in society. In this article, we see why cultural industries are important, what the functions carried out by them are and how they are affected by the conglomerate style ownership which is prevalent in society today. WHAT ARE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES? Cultural industry as a concept had first been put forward by German critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. While in exile from Nazi Germany in the 1940s, they wrote the Dialectic of Enlightenment through which they popularized the concept. In it, they wrote about the life in capitalist United States and felt it was rather meaningless and shallow. According to them, culture had become commodified in the capitalist societies, which was why they coined the term Culture Industry. (pg24) The complexities which have arisen in society over time have metamorphosed the singular field spoken about by the two proponents and led to the creation of ‘cultural industries’. The different ways in which society is influenced has led to the creation of different types of cultural production. (pg24) The continuous changes in the culture, economy and society make it important to understand cultural industries in the present day context. Cultural industry, in simple terms, refers to the activities which are interrelated with symbolic goods, i.e. those goods whose economic value is determined by their cultural value. This definition of cultural industries is relatively fluid as they respond to the changing dynamics of societies. Cultural industries comprise of ‘classical’ cultural industries like broadcast media, architecture, music, films, etc. and traditional arts such as theatre, visual arts, literature, galleries, etc. (1) In the present day the term cultural industries is often used synonymously with media industries. ROLE OF CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN SOCIETY Cultural industries have certain distinct functions to play in the present day modern societies. Firstly, cultural industries affect our views and knowledge about the world by creating and circulating different products. The media have a major contribution in this regard, not only through newspapers and broadcast news programmes but also through entertainment like films, television series and music. They help frame our views on what is right or wrong, determine how people live together in society, how far democratic functions are carried out and justice and rights upheld. These texts are disseminated by powerful corporations whose major motivation is to earn profits. Often theorists debate over whether cultural industries operate to carry out the interests of these elites in the society. Through cultural industries they try to accustom the common man towards a particular way of thinking which would eventually help serve their interests. (Pg 4) Secondly, the cultural industries tend to promote a particular type of work in society. Cultural production in societies takes place according to the type of audience. The texts produced in the system may sometimes be mediocre and not enriching for the people because the motivation is not to promote the creativity in society. Rather it is to preserve the power of the business elites and promote consumerism. The contemporary sufferings and inequality of the capitalist societies are said to be the fallout of these cultural industries. The heads of corporations generally decide the freedom given to the workers or artists and thus control the potential of the workers. (pg6) Thirdly, cultural industries are an important source for determining the source of wealth and employment in the societies. Scholars say that it is the brand name of the businesses which are of actual value and have motivated further spread of knowledge in societies. In recent years other sources developed, such as the internet. The massive boom in communication technologies provided an opportunity for the growth of credit based economic growth. Thus, cultural industries act as instruments of economic and social change. (Pg8) INTERESTS OF THE CORPORATIONS It is important to understand what the interests of the executive and owning class actually are to understand how and why corporations function as they do in contemporary capitalist societies. The prime interests of companies are to maximize their profits and revenues. Although some companies provide better conditions to their workers and offer many benefits but the target of the companies is to maximise their profits by minimising the costs. The owning class of companies try to collaborate with companies like their own. Despite the competition between the two, they try to unite in lobbying and campaigning against certain government legislations which are in support of the working class. For their business to prosper, the corporate owners require stable economic and political conditions. They might be against certain reforms which the government wants to introduce which might be beneficial to the consumers and workers. Thus they try to influence the government by donations in the ele ction campaigns and show their support to certain political candidates which will help create an atmosphere in the system which is needed for their business to boom and enlarge. (pg76-77) OWNERSHIP OF CORPORATIONS Around the 1960s, in the United States, conglomeration became one of the basic features of ownership of corporation. Diverse business and industrial houses that originally had interests limited in oil and financial services only, had now started investing more into the media industries. These industries primarily had private ownership. In the late 1980s a new form of cooperation emerged whereby there was cross –promotion and cross-selling between the different corporations so that there would an increase in the overall sales. With the developments in technologies new sources of cultural production emerged making the ownership more complex. In many of these industries such as radio, television and films, there was the emergence of oligopolistic ownership emerging which was leading to the creation of huge conglomerates. (pg195) In the USA, for instance, large corporations such as the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) became one of the leading companies overtaking the various me dia forms like publishing and newspaper companies and Hollywood studies emerged as an oligopoly which was integrated vertically. This vertical integration led to the development of certain new technologies such as recording and playback. There was also cross media ownership which made the system very complex. Film studios like MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) also held considerable interest in music industry. In the 1980s media houses began to invest more into consumer electronics companies. (pg72) For instance, Sony bought over CBS Records and Columbia Pictures Entertainment whereby it could use rock music and cinema which were popular in the US to promote the sale of CD and thereby increase their cultural productivity. (pg198) With the emergence of IT giants in the new millennium, telecommunications industries ventured into the broadcasting market. But it must be noted that these companies did not have significant cultural production. Their focus was more on gathering data on consumers which would help them to increase their sales. One of the most important ventures into cultural industries by the IT companies was that of Google who purchased YouTube in 2006. Google had recognized the relationship of circulation and distribution with that of culture and communication. The basic idea was that the greater the number of consumers who visit YouTube and the more number of pages they view, the greater will be the promotion of certain ads by YouTube. This led to the major clash over copyright between Goggle and other cultural industries. (pg 198) IMPACT OF CONGLOMERATE STYLE OWNERSHIP There was an increasing emergence of small companies which took part in the cultural production though it was at a much smaller scale. These small industries brought to the fore concerns regarding the domination of big business houses over cultural production. It was argued that ownership in the big business and corporate houses belong in the hands of a few. As it was explained earlier, the different shareholders especially in the media industry have started acting as moguls. They have control and ties with other powerful institutions and people who help spread and propagate their particular interests in society.(pg 73) Some scholars dispute that there has emerged a ‘managerial revolution’ in the nineteenth century which has led to delegation into the hands of the managers who have different interests from that of the owners. Thus, interests of the corporations become varied as different classes involved become more diverse. Critics say that the managerial class also bel ongs to the wealthy higher stratum of society and so they may share interests with the owning class. (pg 75) There can be many harmful effects on the democratic practices in the nation if there is concentration of corporate ownership over the media and cultural industries. The media is one of the main sources of information for the people today. It is responsible for enlightening the people and providing them with vital information. But if there is increased corporate interest in media coverage, then there can be a major impact on what the media covers and does not cover. The media can no longer provide unbiased information and always has to bear in mind that the information that they generate does not in any way offend the owners. Thus, the media and other cultural industries become bound and shackled by the chains of the interests of the executive and corporate heads. The common man in turn is denied access to accurate and unbiased information. If he could us it he could make informed decisions. This has a direct fallout on the democratic political system in the society. (3) Another significant issue is that the knowledge that is generated and the culture that is produced become uniform and standardized. The information that is generated is that which can help retain the power and position of the corporate giants and tycoons. This compromises the ability of the common man to develop his or her ability to the fullest potential because what is popular in society is controlled and decided by a few who belong to the elite class. The inequalities in society are legitimised by the cultural industries like media which help retain the power and wealth domination of the corporate heads. Thus we see that the control exercised by the giant corporate houses is not direct, but through their ownership and control over the media and other cultural industries. (4) There have often been debates whether cultural industries under the influence of private ownership have concentrated more on commerce rather than creativity. With increase in corporate interests in cultural industries and media whose primary motive is earning large profit and returns, many scholars feel that there has been a compromise in the quality of news generated. Journalism must maintain high quality but with new budget cut downs to reduce costs there has been a decline in the resources available to the journalists. Also, there has been a shift of concentration from important political and economic events to gossip on the lives of celebrities and the entertainment world as this proves to be more lucrative for them. Thus, there is concentration on public taste and what the public want to see, which some scholars point out is rather good than concentration on what the elites want people to see. Ben Bagdikian in his work The Media Monopoly listed the number of media companies in different industries like newspapers, magazines, motion pictures and television in the US market. In 1983, he found that there were 50 major corporations but their number continuously dwindled over the years and ultimately became only 5 in 2004. This clearly manifested the scope of influence that these corporation have in influencing the cultural industries. (pg205) Many critics point out corporations may become victims of the environment they exist in. For this reason many of them have adopted the policy of ‘de-convergence’ in recent years, whereby they concentrate on their primary business areas and have sold off their other business operations. But conglomeration continues to exist as one of the main features of cultural industry. CONCLUSION After careful scrutiny of the important role of cultural industries and the impact of conglomerate type of ownership on them, one observes that the latter limits the autonomy of the cultural industries in various manners. It is imperative that initiatives be taken to liberalize them from the corporate interests which bind them. It must be noted, that this form of ownership can have positive impacts as well. For instance, the corporate houses can control and keep a check on the government and limit them from acting arbitrarily or biased decisions. They also help promote healthy competition in the society. But after weighing the positive and negative impacts of conglomerate ownership over cultural industries one can conclude that there is need to take positive action in form of diversification of ownership. REFERENCES The Definition of ‘Cultural Industries’  http://www.pedrobendassolli.com/pesquisa/icc1.pdf Reference provided The Cultural Industries By David Hesmondhalgh Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership,  http://www.globalissues.org/article/159/media-conglomerates-mergers-concentration-of-ownership Media Ownership – Does It Matter?  http://lirne.net/resources/netknowledge/meier.pdf The Media Industry: Structure, Strategy and Debates  http://www.sagepub.com/mcquail6/Online%20readings/9b%20Croteau%20%20Hoynes%20-Devereux-Ch-02.pdf

Essay example --

The Great Irish Famine was undoubtedly one of Irelands darkest periods of history. The Great Famine, or also referred to as the Irish Potato famine was from 1845 through 1852 where many people starved, were disease stricken, poor and some forced to emigrate. The reliance on the potato to the Irish people was so great that when the Famine struck, the population declined greatly. The famine caused around one million deaths and another million immigrated to different countries. The Irish people’s health, death and emigration didn’t only impact themselves and their families but also Irelands social and economical state. For what began as a natural disaster, the conditions of Ireland during and post famine were intensified by actions (or the lack of action) from the Whig government. (BBC) In 1800 the British Act of Union made Ireland apart of the United Kingdom after the Irish staged a major rebellion against British rule. Before the famine happened, Ireland was a society in a crisis because of a rapidly expanding population. The population went from 2.5 million to 8.5 million, which put pressure on land, and food. The potato was a cheap crop, which was the staple diet of the rural population of Ireland. While it was cheap and easily accessible, it was also easily diseased. Potatoes are good with cleansing soil so they became more numerous in Irelands agriculture and diet. About one acre of potato growth could feed a family for a year since it is a crop that is healthy and can well feed people. Pre-famine, the rural poor people of Ireland ate around fourteen pounds of potato per person per day. They would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a liquid compliment such as salty water, skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc. The potato was ... ...sh Potato famine from 1845-1852 was Irelands greatest natural disaster that created a lasting struggle. The famine produced struggles that had a great effect on the economic and social trends for many years. The impact it had on the country and its lasting legacy through out the world is significant in Irish history. Unfortunately the famine had great negative impact on the country and forced many citizens to immigrate. The political aspect of the famine was disordered and produced a lot of difficulties and troubles. Although it is unknown what exactly the death count was, it was exceptionally high enough to be called a natural disaster, which occurred within the authority of Great Britian. Great Britian was the most industrially advanced empire at the time. The impact that Great Britian had on the Irish famine produces questions on how they reacted to the tragedy.

Self Discipline

Self-discipline is the ability to make oneself do things that should be done. It is the correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement. Acceptance, willpower, hard work, diligence, and persistence all come together to make self discipline. Self discipline is one of the more important attributes a person can master. Acceptance simply means that you see life as it should be seen and knowingly acknowledge what you see. Without acceptance you get either ignorance or denial.â€Å"Identify the area in which your discipline is weak, asses where you stand, accept your starting point, and design a program to improve. Along with acceptance you need willpower. Willpower is the ability to set a course of action and tell yourself to engage. Willpower gives you an intense temporary boost to create the momentum needed to overcome something. If you gather up all of your energy and use it to make a giant movement forward you can attack your problems at their weak points and break th em.Self-discipline is the ability to make oneself do things that should be done. It is the correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement. Acceptance, willpower, hard work, diligence, and persistence all come together to make self discipline. Self discipline is one of the more important attributes a person can master. Acceptance simply means that you see life as it should be seen and knowingly acknowledge what you see. Without acceptance you get either ignorance or denial.â€Å"Identify the area in which your discipline is weak, asses where you stand, accept your starting point, and design a program to improve. Along with acceptance you need willpower. Willpower is the ability to set a course of action and tell yourself to engage. Willpower gives you an intense temporary boost to create the momentum needed to overcome something. If you gather up all of your energy and use it to make a giant movement forward you can attack your problems at their weak points and brea k them.

Culture and Ikea

International Management Bermet Kanybekova 20113658 Assignment 5: IKEA 1. What has allowed IKEA to be successful with a relatively standardized product and product line in a business with strong cultural influence? Did adaptations to this strategy in the North American market constitute a defeat to their approach? IKEA has become the world's largest home furnishing retail chain with its international expansion in three major phases. Its mission is to offer a wide variety, good design and value for â€Å"young people of all ages†.IKEA is determined to maintain a standardized product strategy with a universally accepted assortment around the world, now carrying a variety of different home furnishings. It has limited number of manufacturing, however, designs all of its furniture. IKEA's cost leadership strategy through high volume production and standardized items enabled it to sustain its business. Consumers are expected to become â€Å"prosumers†, in the meaning of half producers and half consumers, thus supplying their time for assembling work after their purchases.Consequently, IKEA's success is due to its customer focused strategy. The principal market target is composed of â€Å"people, who are young, highly educated, liberal in their cultural values, white-collar workers, and not especially concerned with status symbol†. Therefore, consumers with low status concern and low conservatism enabled IKEA's success in strong cultural influences. Moreover, high income groups have fewer cross-cultural differences and more open to adapt values to new beliefs.As a result, with their right consumer target, IKEA was able to succeed with their relatively standardized product line. North American market proved that standardization is not a key to success in an American market; therefore adaptions have been made that clearly changed IKEA’s strategy. IKEA with its standardized market changed to a global market strategy and implemented new ideas t hat fit American taste in their market. Adjustments were made to their furniture that created and targeted more American consumers.Moreover, some adaptions might have been transferable to other targeted markets around the world. Consequently, the North American experience has caused IKEA to blend in their ideas and start remixing its formula elsewhere. For instance, these changes were implemented to the European market, changing furnishing concepts such as making sofa beds in Europe. 2. Which features of the â€Å"young people of all ages† are universal and can be exploited by a global/regional strategy? The â€Å"young people of all ages† share similar features internationally that enabled IKEA to maintain its target universally.However, not all of the targeted features were shared among various cultures. Hence, there were some adaptations according to various cultures and the relative importance of these features varied between countries and their consumers. Nonethel ess, the majority of the targeted consumers liked to perceive themselves as practical, modern and non-traditional. In other words, these consumers didn’t stick to the traditional way of furniture, instead saw IKEA’s designs as good, modern and practical that allowed them to afford their products.In this sense, simplicity and practicality was more important than traditional styles of furniture. With this concept, IKEA was able to specifically target those consumers who vied their products as fitting their taste with different features. Therefore, this concept with being practical and simple instead of traditional is an example of universal feature that can be further developed. IKEA’s targeted market like shopping for good value; therefore, they are ready to contribute their time and energy to get satisfaction out of assembling their work.Consequently, this willingness to contribute more and achieve better value is another feature that is shared among IKEAâ€℠¢s universal target. These new changes in IKEA’s strategic plan have brought it to a new level of international business with better customer satisfaction and greater value. 3. Is IKEA destined to succeed everywhere it cares to establish itself? Is IKEA destined to succeed depends on how flexible its concept is in various countries. However, I believe that IKEA will not succeed everywhere it establishes itself.The concept of IKEA can slightly be changed and adapted according to various cultures, but I strongly believe that certain changes cannot be implemented fully. This changing concept will have limitations when it is further taken globally and need to meet the standards universally according to various economies of countries. For instance, value of a certain sofa in a certain country is totally different in another country. If we take a sofa in America for $300, the same product must be sold at a lower price in a developing country due to its value differences in their ec onomy.Therefore, not all of IKEA’s concepts can be fully changed if they want to maintain its original formula. Moreover, customer expectations are different in various countries, thus, IKEA would have to consider new changes and flexibility in their concept to meet customer expectations and their value for products offered. In conclusion, I would like to point out that there is always a limit in adapting and changing concepts to meet various customer values and their desires to create profitable sustainability.

Realistic time frame Essay Example

Realistic time frame Essay Example Realistic time frame Essay Realistic time frame Essay Part of customer services involves asking the customer what it is that they want and listening to feedback from customers. If we take more time to listen to the customers problems, such as problems with the kind of product we are supplying, through improved customer service then we can ensure that we are selling goods that are wanted by the customers. This would help us to identify which product lines we should drop. This would only work if communication internally is done properly. Aim 2)  By improving customer services even further at John Lewis more people will shop in the department store buying more goods. This would help to strengthen the relationship that John Lewis has with manufactures. This helps to create better deals for John Lewis and in turn the customer in regards to prices as well as the efficiency of non John Lewis stock lines being delivered to the customer in a realistic time frame. Aim 3)  Further improvement to the quality of training that partners undertake in the partnership, will help improve the rapport that partners build up with the customers. This improvement in the customer services will help over a number of different areas which all contribute to being able to offer an extremely high level of service to the customers which would stand up well to competition elsewhere in the market.  Aim 4)  The Branch already meets this aim however areas for improvement could come from developing this aim to include the installation of certain goods, especially the fitting of goods from the large electrical department. The question Do you fit the appliance is an extremely frequently asked question in the department and all the selling partners can do is recommend external fitters. There are two main types of customers that feature in any organisation. These are External customers who are customers from outside the organisation in our case John Lewis who come into the store require our products and services. It is these people that spend the money and help to make John Lewis successful. There are then the internal customers in John Lewiss case the partners who may require information or the services of other people within John Lewis to help the smooth running of the store. Here is a list and description of the different customers that are important in the Large Electrical Department at John Lewis Watford.  External Customers  Students  The department often has to help young students who are about to leave home and go off to university. They therefore are looking to kit out a flat etc with the essentials. This group of customers are usually looking to spend as little money as possible on the machines. They are largely just interested in knowing that it has the basic functions. Young Single Females  These customers are usually buying to a budget and as they are buying for just one person and are therefore after basic reliable appliances. They also usually go for small appliances such as under counter refrigeration.  Young Single Males  These men often have money to spend and will go for reliable brands sometimes with a high specification and sometimes with a low specification. Young Newly Weds  This group of people are likely to be starting up a new home and are after new large electrical goods. The money being spent can vary a fair bit from very cheap to very expensive. They will be after a lot of information about the different makes and products that are on the market.  Landlords  The department deals with many landlords who are after the really cheap as they are often kitting out more than one residence. They also want something that will last for a last for a decent amount of time. Middle aged single people  Both male and female customers want appliances that are reliable but without a high specification as it is an appliance just for them.  Middle aged married customers  These customers are the ones that are replacing existing appliances because the old one has stopped working. They are very knowledgeable about the way that appliances work and know exactly what they want.  These customers often are buying to a budget and are after real value for money. They sometimes need a lot explaining to them as many are buying again after having had a machine for a number of years and need to know about technological changes. They wont however want an appliance that is complicated to use. They may also be living by themselves or as a couple so also wont need so many features.

Good Pandora Stations for Homework and Studying

Good Pandora Stations for Homework and Studying Almost everyone has a smartphone these days, and with it comes the ability to rock out to music whenever the mood strikes. Since Pandora Internet Radio is probably the most well-known place to grab free music on the go, and tons of students love to listen to music while they study, it only stands to reason that people might need some advice about choosing the best Pandora stations for studying and homework. Genre Pandora Stations When you log in to Pandora, you can choose an artist, a genre, or a song to get started. A musical genre is simply a style of music. Rock is a genre. So is punk. So is jazz. Pandoras site does have genres such as country and classical and hip-hop, and it also has a set of genres that have more to do with the overall emotional flavor of a collection of music rather than a particular genre. Pandora has a comprehensive and frequently updated genre list that you can browse to get started. Since researchers are at least agreed that quieter music without lyrics is the most conducive music to study to (barring no music at all), here are a few genre Pandora stations that may be ideal for you to study by. Some are instrumental only, and they cover a wide range of musical styles. Instrumentals Fifteen million listeners cant be all wrong: in Pandoras Instrumentals genre youll find everything from Dr. Dre to bluegrass to techno to jazz. These instrumentals are basically tracks from some of the top names in the business without the words to mess with your brain space; theres even a specific station called Instrumentals for studying. Quiet Tracks Willing to risk some lyrics? Pandora has three muted genres that might work for you. Pandoras Wind Down genre includes a collection of stations such as the Buddha Bar, with surreal lyrics, modal harmonies, and a slow-moving bass line. The Chill genre contains stations that are mostly acoustic playlists, with an emphasis on calm, sedate music. Styles range from coffeehouse-style folk music to pop music versions to classics, country, and indie channels. Pandoras Easy Listening channels include the light side of movie soundtracks, show tunes, cool jazz, solo piano, and light rock. New Age and Classical Pandoras New Age genre has several channels perfect for taking your anxiety over that deadline down a notch or two. Here youll find music suitable for relaxation, spa, ambient, and a whole range of subareas of New Age music types: instrumental, acoustic, solo piano, and beats. Just dont fall asleep. The Classical genre has a number of good channels that might trip your studying trigger: classical guitar, symphonies, renaissance, baroque. A  Classical for Studying Radio  channel promises a New Age aesthetic and an overall meditative sound. and a channel for Work might also do the ticket. In the End, Its All Between the Ears Its quite possible that some people do better with background music: people have different tastes, different study habits, and different ways of handling noise and distraction. Surveys of students themselves often say music helps them concentrate, keeps them company, alleviates boredom, and helps them learn faster. With free music sources like Pandora and Spotify, selecting the exact music you need might actually be a distraction in itself. Is Music While Studying Even a Good Idea? A few scientific studies have been conducted on the effect of music or other background noise on maintaining concentration. Most report that the best studying environment of all is silence. Since all music processing uses cognitive capacity, the theory goes, listening to music could impair task performance involving your brain. Most of the studies, however, have been relatively unsystematic and somewhat inconclusive, because so much depends on an individual students preferences and study habits, and the enormous number of musical genres available. If students study with music playing, they seem to perform better when the music is calm and they dont engage with the music. In other words, dont sing along, for example, or dont pick music that you either dont like or like too much. Your emotional response to music does add to the distraction value: music that is too stimulating or too sleep-inducing will also be a distraction. So: if you are the kind of student who needs music as a background to study, to act as white noise to keep other peoples voices or the radiators banging or personal worries out of your head, keep it low enough that you wont actually pay much attention to it. If you find yourself singing along, change the station. Sources Cassidy, Gianna, and Raymond A.R. MacDonald. The Effect of Background Music and Background Noise on the Task Performance of Introverts and Extraverts. Psychology of Music 35.3 (2007): 517-37. Print.Furnham, Adrian, and Lisa Strbac. Music Is as Distracting as Noise: The Differential Distraction of Background Music and Noise on the Cognitive Test Performance of Introverts and Extraverts. Ergonomics 45.3 (2002): 203-17. Print.Hallam, Susan, John Price, and Georgia Katsarou. The Effects of Background Music on Primary School Pupils Task Performance. Educational Studies 28.2 (2002): 111-22. Print.Kotsopoulou, Anastasia, and Susan Hallam. Age Differences in Listening to Music While Studying. 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. University of Bologna, 2006. Print.Kotsopoulou, Anastasia, and Susan Hallam. The Perceived Impact of Playing Music While Studying: Age and Cultural Differences. Educational Studies 36.4 (2010): 431-40. Print.Umzdas, Serpil. An Analysis of t he Academic Achievement of the Students Who Listen to Music While Studying. Educational Research and Reviews 10.6 (2015): 728-32. Print.

Adventure tourism

Adventure tourism is a type of niche tourism involving exploration or travel to remote areas, where the traveler should expect the unexpected. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity as tourists seek unusual holidays, different from the typical beach vacation. Mountaineering expeditions, trekking, bungee jumping, rafting and rock climbing are frequently cited as an examples of adventure tourism. Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel with perceived (and possibly actual) risk, and potentially requiring specialized skills and physical exertion. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations. According to the U. S. based Adventure Travel Trade Association, adventure travel may be any tourist activity, including two of the following three components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange or interaction and engagement with nature. Adventure tourists may be motivated to achieve mental states characterized as rush or flow,[1] resulting from stepping outside of their comfort zone. This may be from experiencing culture shock or through the performance of acts, that require significant effort and involve some degree of risk (real or perceived) and/or physical danger (See extreme sports). This may include activities such as mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, mountain biking, rafting, zip-lining, paragliding, and rock climbing. Some obscure forms of adventure travel include disasterand ghetto tourism. [2] Other rising forms of adventure travel include social and jungle tourism. Adventure travel involves exploration or travel to remote exotic areas. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity as a tourist seeks different kinds of vacations. Any constructive activity which tests the endurance of both a person and his equipment to its extreme limit is termed as Adventure. Adventure travel involves exploration or travel to remote exotic areas. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity as a tourist seeks different kinds of vacations. Any constructive activity which tests the endurance of both a person and his equipment to its extreme limit is termed as Adventure. India Offers a wide range of adventure sports for tourists. Trekking and Skiing in the Himalayas, White Water Rafting on the Ganges and Beas, Camel and Jeep safaris in the deserts of Rajasthan, Paragliding in Himachal, Watersports in Goa and Scuba Diving in Lakshadweep and Andaman are just some of the options available to the adventure seeking tourists. The perennial challenge of the Himalayas for mountaineers. Coniferous forests and flower meadows welcome the trekker. And the rapids of snow-fed rivers are ideal for white water rafting. Lakshadweep offers excellent wind surfing, snorkelling and scuba diving in the crystal clear waters of the lagoons which surround each island. Initiatives of Ministry ot Tourism to Promote Adventure Tourism As per the policy for the diversification of tourism product of India, special attention is being given for the development of Adventure Tourism in the country. The Ministry of Tourism has also issued Guidelines for Approval of Adventure Tour Operators, which is a voluntary scheme, open to all bonafide adventure tour operators. The Ministry of Tourism has also formulated a set of guidelines on Safety and Quality Norms on Adventure Tourism as BASIC MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR ADVENTURE TOURISM ACTIVITIES. These guidelines cover Land, Air and Water based activities which include mountaineering, trekking hand gliding, paragliding, bungee jumping and river rafting. Central Financial Assistance is being extended to various State Governments/ Union Territory Administration for development of Tourism Infrastructure in destinations including Adventure Tourism destinations These include facilities for trekking, rock climbing, mountainreering, aero-sports, winter/ water related sports, trekker huts, wildlife viewing facilities etc Financial assistance for purchase of water sports equipment consisting of kayaks, canoes, paddle boats, fibre glass boats, hoyercrafts, water scooters, etc. are also provided to State Governments. The Indian Institute of Skiing Mountaineering has been made fully operational in Gulmarg from January 2009. This institute now has its own building and all modern equipment and training facilities for adventure sports. Various adventure courses have been started and are being successfully run by this institute. The National Institute of Water Sports, another organistion of Ministry of Tourism based in Goa, is getting a new building and facilities upgraded for training in water sports activities. The Ministry is working with the Indian Mountaineering Federation and Adventure Tour Operators Association of India to explore positioning India as an Adventure Destination. Ministry of Tourism has been following up with concerned related Central Ministries with regard to facilitation for development of adventure tourism. As an outcome, the Government of India has given security clearance for opening of 104 additional peaks in Jammu and Kashmir ( Leh Area) subject to stipulations and clearances form State Govt. , Home Ministry and other concerned agencies. The opening of the additional peaks will help in positioning the Indian Himalayas as Adventure tourism destination.

Effective Communication Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Effective Communication Skills - Essay Example Effective communication skills are thus necessary to provide effective services in health care. Paul Leagans defines communication as the process by which two or more people exchange facts, ideas, impressions and feelings so that each person gains understanding of use, intent and meaning of the message (Schuster, 1999). Communication includes verbal as well as non-verbal exchange of information. It is necessary to practice effective communication skills in nursing so as to understand, empathize and support patients (Carrol and Dolly, 2008). This paper will elaborate on two elements of effective communication and the skills pertinent to these elements. It is crucial to develop effective communication skills so as to overcome the various barriers to communication. In nursing practice, barriers to communication include physiological, personal, cultural, psychological and physical barriers. Physiological barriers, for example, altered mental state may interfere with the patient’s ability to interpret information. The nurse’s attitude, knowledge and feeling towards a patient may also impede communication. Physical barriers include noise, distance and other environmental factors that may impede communication (Schuster, 1999). The elements of effective communication include the sender, message, channel of communication, receiver and feedback (Schuster, 1999). The sender (source) formulates programs and broadcasts the information, which they want to communicate. The effect of the message is dependent on the sender’s attitude, knowledge, social status and communication skills. The message is the information in physical form conveyed to the audience. The channel of communication is the media used by the source in facilitating communication to the receiver. The receiver decodes, translates the meaning and acts upon the information received. Feedback is the reaction to the information conveyed by the sender. This paper will focus on the message and the channel and the skills therein. There are various forms of message. They include words, signs, symbols and pictures. It comprises of message code, content and treatment (Schuster, 1999). Message code defines any form of signs and symbols that are structured in a meaningful format to the same people. This includes the use of language to convey information. Message content defines the material that is in the message. This is selected by the sender in putting across his information. On the other hand, message treatment shows the decisions which the source undertakes to select and arrange the codes and content. The message communicates the sender’s feelings, intentions and attitudes towards the audience (Balzer, 2007). In nursing practice, information is conveyed from one person to another within a short time. Effective communication skills are necessary to avoid errors in vital information, for example, treatment of a patient (Balzer, 2007). In effective communication, a messag e should elicit the desired action from the audience. It must be clear, timely, specific and in line with the intended objectives. This means that the nurse should ensure that the message is brief, accurate and meets the objectives of its purpose. In addition, the message should be conveyed in a language that the audience can understand. The use of complex vocabulary to explain the patient’s disease and treatment will interfere on the patient’s ability to understand as well as accept their condition. Nursing practice also involves gathering information about the patient, symptoms and their effects to the patient. The use of a common language will enhance understanding between the patient and the nurse (Christie and Robinson,

History 9UT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History 9UT - Essay Example However, this role did not last long. Their new roles were quickly snatched away from them once the war ended in 1945. The men who went to fight the war and survived were given back their old jobs and the women sent home packing. The social revolution was, therefore, rendered temporary since the women were subjected to their former roles as housewives as the men took up their jobs. During the social revolution period that took place in 1942, women were still subjected to discrimination at their places of work. The men at the work place never fully accepted them as their equals at the work place, and thus subjected them to different forms of discrimination such as sabotaging their jobs. Even after the social revolution, women continue to face discrimination in their roles in society. Though they may be able to gain form employment, back at home they are expected to perform their housewife duties as expected. This practice is still common to this date, and it is for such reasons that clarify why the document does not conflict reality in any way. Military; before the executive order given by President Roosevelt in 1941, recruitment into the American defense forces was exclusive to the white community. The white community was given preference in recruitment and promotion in the military, an opportunity which equally deserving and qualified African Americans were denied. It is for such reason that the protest march was organized by the African American community, to air their grievances on the same. Lynching; African Americans were not granted justice through the judicial systems in place before events in 1942. They were subjected to acts of lynching mostly by the white community whenever they committed an offence. Others were simply lynched because of their skin color if they were spotted in purely white neighborhoods. Such barbaric acts of injustices were part of Randolph’s argument for supporting the march. They demanded proper

Music and American Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Music and American Culture - Essay Example As percussion instruments evolved later to accompany music, there was also the emergence of individual percussionist. With time, other new kind of instruments emerged which instruments further enabled the playing of virtuoso. At a given point in time, regular individuals began to create songs meant for their own consumption. These songs were called folk songs and they were not about God or heroes, but rather about sorrows and joys of life. The invention of polyphony greatly reduced the importance of rhythm, and later come to be perceived as plebian and primitive element of music. Conversely, rhythm was heavily relied upon by the folk music, both for purposes for singing and dancing. Consequently, the element of rhythm became the distinguishing factor between folk and classical music. This state of affairs remained as it was when both folk and classical music arrived in America. Europeans in the Americans melting pot were obliged to admit that there were several different types of folk music for the first time. Even though the racial instinct of music in America was intended to separate the Anglo-Saxons from the rest, it was just a matter of time before these boundaries were shattered. Surprisingly, the existence of African music was the most traumatic confrontation for the Europeans. Even though African music was long discarded as an animal kingdom oddity, that is to say a sound that is similar to that of an animal, the African music was able to coexist with the European music for close to two centuries before penetrating into the white society in America. Several elements of African music during the 19th century began to infiltrate into the folk music of white American society. It is worth noting that during this century, the phenomenon of Afro fusion only took place in America an there was no Afro contamination so to speak in the European society that too k place not until much later. Once more, a principle distinguishing factor was rhythm. Even though rhythm was not an inventory of black Africans, the polyrhythm’s of black Africans was certainly wide and different to accommodate rhythm from European folk music linear rhythm. Initially, the impact of black African music was barely felt, however, little was it known that this music was going to become the main element driving innovation. It is worth noting that the European folk music in the early 19th century had barely been changed, however dramatic changes were on the verge of taking place with the heavy presence of black African music (Nelson 1988). Music in the United States is one of the aspects that reflect the cultural diversity of the country through the various arrays of musical styles. In the United State, there are a number of internationally renowned genres of music which includes: rhythm and blues, hip hop, rock and roll, country, jazz, pop, barbershop, and techno . As a matter of fact, America has one of the largest music industries in the world not to mention the vast audience that music capture across the world. The earliest inhabitants of the United States were the Native Americans. Even though these natives had their own kind of music the arrival of large numbers of immigrants brought new instruments and music styles in America. Notably, the emergence of African slaves brought novel traditions of music contributing greatly to the

German Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

German - Essay Example It was situated just next to the great Jewish monument. The Roma / Sinti memorial is also of a more modest scale as compared to the Jewish one which is of the size of a football field. It is located to the north-eastern part of large Berlin’s center and is not far from the vast memorial for the infamed murdered Jews of Europe. It was a good idea to have different monuments or memorials for the different affected groups. They suffered different causes like racism, beliefs as well as sexuality. They also represented people of different origins. The Germans, in particular, also suffered as far as the gay holocaust is concerned. Even the gay Nazis were murdered. This difference had to be observed in order to accurately pair the remembrance of their suffering to their true identities. The ort der information or the underground information was a brilliant idea conceived by Peter Eisenman together with Dagmar. It is this site that blends history and memory. It serves both as a site of memory and that of history, both informational and commemorative (Crownshaw and Rowland 86). The naming of the monument in the memory of the killed Jews absolves the other Jews who perished in the Germanys dark ages from the conditions they were subjected to in the concentration camps. Some died of diseases and others even committed suicide. Logically, in one way or another, they all died in the times of the holocaust from the Nazis set conditions, unfair laws, or even maltreatment. The more favorable and inclusive for all Jews would be â€Å"Memorial to the perished Jews under Nazism†. The United States of America never perpetrated the Holocaust. Actually, it was the U.S. that assisted in ending the holocaust. The genocide of the native Red Indians and other atrocities that were committed during the slavery period took place closer home, and therefore are more connected to the United States. For this reason, the establishment of the Holocaust

Fall of the House of Usher Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fall of the House of Usher Journal - Essay Example Homosexuality is an implied vice in the story. In their first meeting, Roderick Usher greets him with energetic warmth that creates a sense of an overdone cordiality. The association of the Narrator and Roderick is not entirely elaborated, the narrator describes Usher as a boyhood friend and further elaborates that they were intimate during their childhood. Usher writes the Narrator a letter asking him to accord him company during the distressful time, implies sexual attraction between the two friends. Despite being terrified by the house of Usher and his illness, the narrator cannot resist the attraction to the twisted world of Roderick (Poe and David 61). There is an implication that Roderick and Madeline are inseparable. Madeline coming back after being buried could be perceived as a ghost coming back for revenge or simply hallucinations of Roderick, to help him remember her. The possibility that Madeline and Roderick are halves of the same person, who can only co-exist together. When Madeline dies, Roderick prefers to entomb her inside the house as opposed to using the family`s

Music and American Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Music and American Culture - Essay Example As percussion instruments evolved later to accompany music, there was also the emergence of individual percussionist. With time, other new kind of instruments emerged which instruments further enabled the playing of virtuoso. At a given point in time, regular individuals began to create songs meant for their own consumption. These songs were called folk songs and they were not about God or heroes, but rather about sorrows and joys of life. The invention of polyphony greatly reduced the importance of rhythm, and later come to be perceived as plebian and primitive element of music. Conversely, rhythm was heavily relied upon by the folk music, both for purposes for singing and dancing. Consequently, the element of rhythm became the distinguishing factor between folk and classical music. This state of affairs remained as it was when both folk and classical music arrived in America. Europeans in the Americans melting pot were obliged to admit that there were several different types of folk music for the first time. Even though the racial instinct of music in America was intended to separate the Anglo-Saxons from the rest, it was just a matter of time before these boundaries were shattered. Surprisingly, the existence of African music was the most traumatic confrontation for the Europeans. Even though African music was long discarded as an animal kingdom oddity, that is to say a sound that is similar to that of an animal, the African music was able to coexist with the European music for close to two centuries before penetrating into the white society in America. Several elements of African music during the 19th century began to infiltrate into the folk music of white American society. It is worth noting that during this century, the phenomenon of Afro fusion only took place in America an there was no Afro contamination so to speak in the European society that too k place not until much later. Once more, a principle distinguishing factor was rhythm. Even though rhythm was not an inventory of black Africans, the polyrhythm’s of black Africans was certainly wide and different to accommodate rhythm from European folk music linear rhythm. Initially, the impact of black African music was barely felt, however, little was it known that this music was going to become the main element driving innovation. It is worth noting that the European folk music in the early 19th century had barely been changed, however dramatic changes were on the verge of taking place with the heavy presence of black African music (Nelson 1988). Music in the United States is one of the aspects that reflect the cultural diversity of the country through the various arrays of musical styles. In the United State, there are a number of internationally renowned genres of music which includes: rhythm and blues, hip hop, rock and roll, country, jazz, pop, barbershop, and techno . As a matter of fact, America has one of the largest music industries in the world not to mention the vast audience that music capture across the world. The earliest inhabitants of the United States were the Native Americans. Even though these natives had their own kind of music the arrival of large numbers of immigrants brought new instruments and music styles in America. Notably, the emergence of African slaves brought novel traditions of music contributing greatly to the

Fall of the House of Usher Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fall of the House of Usher Journal - Essay Example Homosexuality is an implied vice in the story. In their first meeting, Roderick Usher greets him with energetic warmth that creates a sense of an overdone cordiality. The association of the Narrator and Roderick is not entirely elaborated, the narrator describes Usher as a boyhood friend and further elaborates that they were intimate during their childhood. Usher writes the Narrator a letter asking him to accord him company during the distressful time, implies sexual attraction between the two friends. Despite being terrified by the house of Usher and his illness, the narrator cannot resist the attraction to the twisted world of Roderick (Poe and David 61). There is an implication that Roderick and Madeline are inseparable. Madeline coming back after being buried could be perceived as a ghost coming back for revenge or simply hallucinations of Roderick, to help him remember her. The possibility that Madeline and Roderick are halves of the same person, who can only co-exist together. When Madeline dies, Roderick prefers to entomb her inside the house as opposed to using the family`s

Letter Of Counsling Essay Example for Free

Letter Of Counsling Essay 1. Investigation has disclosed that you have failed to pay several bills within the last 3 months. This has become such a problem that your cell phone service was threatened to be shut off, insurance revoked, and car repossessed. 2. You are hereby counseled. By failing to pay your just debts, you have failed to meet the standards found in the Air Force Instruction 36-2906. As an Air Force member, you are expected and required to manage your financial affairs in a proper manner. Your conduct has shown a lack of financial responsibility that is expected of Air Force servicemen and women. Further punishment will be applied if you continue to fail to meet this standard. 3. The following information required by the Privacy Act is provided for your information. AUTHORITY: 10 U.S.C. 8013. PURPOSE: To obtain any comments you desire to submit (on a voluntary basis) for consideration concerning this action. ROUTINE USES: Provides you an opportunity to submit comments or documents for consideration. If provided, the comments and documents you submit become a part of the action. DISCLOSURE: Your written acknowledgment of receipt and signature are mandatory. Any other comment or document you provide is voluntary. 4. You will acknowledge receipt of this letter immediately by signing the acknowledgement below. Within three (3) duty days from the day you received this letter, you will sign the 1st IND below. Any comments or documents you wish to be considered concerning this letter must be submitted at that time.

Soil stabilization with lime in road construction

Soil stabilization with lime in road construction Soil Stabilization with lime Lime is another fundamental soil material that has been widely used as soil stabilizer for road pavement construction. Limestone is a soil material that discovered from sedimentary rock combining of high levels of calcium and magnesium carbonate composition as other small amounts of minerals. This is the extraction of underground mines and quarries all around the world. Therefore, the lime can be very cheap, it can be found everywhere in many countries. There is no transportation between long distances and it normally used to create a capping layer of road pavement from appropriate in- situ soils. In some road pavements, lime is considered to be a subbase layers that appeared the first part of a two part construction process using ordinary Portland cement and ground blast furnace cement. In general, the plasticity of soil material can be decreased by treating the performance of fine-grained soils. Once, the characteristic or physical property been changed, an improvement of workability needs to be made and also the volume of the material needs to be reduced. in addition, the strength of lime is basically depended on many elements such as curing time, curing temperature, water content and percentage of lime content. Types of lime. There are many types of lime have been introduced as soil stabilizer for road pavement. However, several types of lime have been commonly used there are dolomitic lime, calcitic quicklime, dolomitic quicklime and hydrated high-calcium lime respectively. The high calcium hydrated lime is used more often, this is because the hydrated lime is much less caustic than quicklime, the high calcium hydrated lime is a dry powder that made by a chemical reaction of quicklime with water to ensure natural affinity of the quicklime for moisture content. Easy to form the hydrated lime that is suspended or mud, often the process of pumping a variety of positions within the industrial plant. The alkaline as a result, having a pH of 12.4. Most hydrated limes have a combination of 75 percent cao and 25 percent H2O.Hydrated lime is used in a variety of industrial applications including water treatment, as an anti-stripping agent in asphalt, and in soil stabilization. Some hydrated limes are sold into the food grade market as well. Advantage The advantage of using lime as a soil stabilizer is basically concerned with many reasons such as reduced construction or operational cost during process of the project especically, reduce water use energy consumption and a reduction of Co2 emissions as well as saving time of operational processes. Stabilization with Lime-Fly Ash (LF) and Lime-Cement-Fly Ash (LCF). There is little for coarse-grained soils in soil stabilisation that can be achieved by the use of a combinations of LF or LCF. Lime -Fly Ash is also known as Coal ash which is a part of mineral residual from the burning of crushed coal. It is a combination of aluminum and silicon compounds. Once mixed with water anf lime, the mixture of soil can be created a strengthened cementitious mass accomplished of containing high compressive strengths. A combination of lime and fly-ash can also be used comomly as a soil stabiliser for stabilizering grainy materials when the lime can react with the fly-ash produced a agent. The combination of LF or LCF as a soil stabilisation is suitable for road base and sub-base materials. In gerneal,the appearance of Lime-Fly Ash or Lime-Cement-Fly Ash both them looks almost the same to the appearance of cement. When Fly Ash appear as circular particles that looks like a ball bearing while cement appears angular that looks like a crushed rock more. In addtion, Fly Ash contains strengthened cementitious quality so it can be used to replace the cement in a cement mix. Fly Ash can easily replace the cement in the concrete mixes that is good for saving costs during a soil stailisation process. There is another problem that needs to be considered once Fly-Ash as a soil stabiliser. The compressive strength of concrete mix with Fly-ash is approximately the same to the compressive strength of concrete without Fly-ash. There may be a slight decrease in compressive strength in the first, and then there is a slight increase after the first two weeks. Types of fly ash There are two different types of Fly-ash have been introducted to soil stabilisation or construction industry, type C and type F respectively. Type C Fly-ash is come from the combustion of lignite or subbituminous coal and the type C Fly-ash is also called as â€Å"high lime ash†this is because a high percentage of lime is contained in type C Fly-ash. The type C Fly-ash is a pozzolanic substance, when it is self-reactive with water . Type F Fly-Ash is produced from the combustion of anthracite or bituminous coal and sometimes it is known as â€Å"low lime† ash.It is required the addition of lime to make a reaction to produce a pozzolanic substance. TYPE F Provide sulfate resistance of cement equal to or better than Type V cement. Effectively controls heat gain during concrete curing. TYPE C When type C fly-Ash adds into the concrete mixes, it will contains a early strengths this is becuuse it contains its own amount of lime. Under this circumstance, it requires pozzolanic reaction to be started reacting eailer. Advantage; There are many advantages of using Fly-ash that concerned with the manufacturing of concrete pipe which contains a greater density of the concrete.the peremebility of a construction project can be improved by using a more dense concrete mix and reduce the probability of infiltration. Finaly, the workability of the project can also be improved by using Fly-ash material. A fly ash concrete mix will generally gain strength more slowly at early ages. After about seven days, the rate of strength gain of fly ash concrete exceeds that of conventional concrete, enabling equivalent strength at 28 days. This higher rate of strength gain continues over time enabling fly ash concrete to produce higher ultimate strength than can be achieved with conventional concrete. Stabilization with Bitumen Soil Stabilization with Bitumen which is an aggregate contains bitumen. It has a big difference in appearance when it compared to cement and lime soil stabilisation. The mechanism of bitumen is basically concerned with fine-grained soil that is a sealing or waterproofing phenomenon. The bitumen is coated by soil particles that can reduce the strengths of Soil by slowing down the penetration of water. In some construction project, the bitumen for soil stabilisation is widely used for bitumen bound pavement that is normally less than any other purpose of using. Normally, the bitumen for soil stabilisation will contain approximately about 4-8% of the soil without any water content. TYPES OF BITUMEN. Sand bitumen: a mixture of sand and asphalt, of which the sand particles cemented together, provide a more stable material. Bitumen with aggregate: asphalt mixture gradation and a good gravel or artificial aggregates, after compaction, provides a highly stable sub-base or water quality based on the quality of course. Bitumen with lime: a mixture of lime, soil and bitumen after a soil compaction, the compacted soil mixture may has characteristics of the bitumen treated materials that will contains a high PI value. In general, there are several types of bitumen used for soil stabilization. The type of bitumen which is to be used that based or depended on the different type of soil need to be used as a stabilizer, the processing for a road pavement construction and operational or weather conditions. Frost areas, tar as a binder, should be kept away because of its high temperature sensitivity. The asphalts substance can be slightly influenced by a change in temperature. According to a specific soil experiment, a good result can be perfectly achieved by the soil mixed quickly with liquid asphalt which is the stickiest one. One of the higher qualities for soil mixture that used for a central plant, the sticky grade asphalt cement should be used. There are many soil bituminous stabilization needs to be operated in a place where the bitumen material can be used directly for the soil and soil compaction can also easily be done during construction process. Emulsion is highly recommended to use in a soil stabilization construction, because of energy limitation and reduction of pollution control efforts. For a road pavement project, the engineer needs to decide what kind of the type of bitumen would be used that is based on operational or weather conditions and the cost of the project as well as the different types of equipment in the construction. There are several types of bitumen are introduced as below that would be used for the soil gradation indicated: Open-graded aggregate Rapid- and medium-curing liquid asphalts RC-250, RC-800, and MC-3000. Medium-setting asphalt emulsion MS-2 and CMS-2. Well-graded aggregate with little or no material passing the No. 200 sieve Rapid and medium-curing liquid asphalts RC-250, RC-800, MC-250, and MC-800. Slow-curing liquid asphalts SC-250 and SC-800. Medium-setting and slow-setting asphalt emulsions MS-2, CMS-2, SS-1, and CSS-1. Aggregate with a considerable percentage of fine aggregate and material passing the No. 200 sieve Medium-curing liquid asphalt MC-250 and MC-800. Slow-curing liquid asphalts SC-250 and SC-800. Slow-setting asphalt emulsions SS-1, SS-01h, CSS-1, and CSS-lh. For many road pavement design, the engineer use the bituminous stabilization which is the application of liquid to construct surface of an unbound aggregate road. There are SC-70, SC-250, MC-70, and MC-250 are respectively applied to the slow and medium curing liquid bitumen. Gradations for soil stabilization There are several soil gradations which is highly recommended to used for sub-grade base or sub-basematerial as show below in two tables Recommended gradations for bituminous stabilized sub-grade materials Recommended gradations for bituminous-stabilized base and sub-base materials MIX DESIGN In many soil stabilizations with a sub-grade material, there is one equation that needs to be applied for identifying the groundwork quantity of falloff asphalt. The equation as shown below: p = ((0.02(a) + 0.07(b) + 0.15(c) + 0.20(d))/(100 S)) X 100 Where, p = percent cutback asphalt by weight of dry aggregate a = percent of mineral aggregate retained on No. 50 sieve b = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 50 sieve and retained on No. 100 sieve c = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 100 and retained on No. 200 sieve d = percent of mineral aggregate passing No. 200 S = percent solvent The initial number of emulsified asphalt Once soil stabilization with sub-grade materials need to be involved in a road construction. The initial quantity of emulsified asphalt also needs to use for the sub-grade materials that can be determined by a table as shown below: Emulsified asphalt requirements For the final design stage the content of emulsified asphalt that need to be chosen based on the experimental results of the Marshal Stability testing. The test is used to determine the Marshall stability of bituminous mixture. There is a minimum requirement of Marshall Stability which required for sub-grade is 500 pounds. Once, the recommended quantities of bituminous materials need be added, if appearance of increased Marshall Stability is not shown for the soil particles, the soil gradation would be identified with more details or another type of bituminous materials need to be applied as a soil stabilizer. STABILIZATION WITH LIME-CEMENT AND LIME-BITUMEN In a road pavement construction project, the advantage of using combination stabilizers is that one of the stabilizers does not perform its effectiveness properly, the other one is able to compensate when treating a specified characteristics of a given soil. For example, lime has been used frequently with stabilizers such as asphalt or Portland cement in order to provide base courses for clay areas. Since plastic clays is not totally compatible with asphalt or Portland cement and the lime cannot corporate into the soil to make it friable, therefore, asphalt and the cement can be effectively mixed. Stabilization practice might be more expensive than conventional single stabilizer methods, but it could be still reasonably priced at places where base aggregate costs are high. There are many different types of cement as a soil stabilizer. But in this case study, two combinations of cement particle are concerned with lime-cement and lime-asphalt respectively. LIME-CEMENT Lime can be used as an initial additive with Portland cement or the primary stabilizer. The main effects lime gives is to reduce the plasticity of the soil. The main approach is to add enough lime I order to reduce the plasticity index to satisfactory levels. LIME-ASPHALT Lime can be used as an initial additive with asphalt or the primary stabilizer. The main effects lime gives is to act as an anti- stripping agent. In the layer capacity, the lime acts to neutralize acidic chemicals in the soil or aggregate which tends to interfere with bonding of the asphalt. 1-2 percent lime is basically needed for this objective. LIME TREATMENT OF EXPANSIVE SOILS. In a road pavement, the surface of an expansive soil is defined as those exceeding three percent expansion in the exhibition. The expansion of soils is concerned with a road pavement construction, when water is influenced in clay minerals. The plasticity characteristics of a soil particle can be used as an indicant for the swell potential of a soil which is shown as below: Swell potential of soils A treatment with lime would be introduced to determine the well potential of a soil. The lime can be used to reduce swell. For an expansive soil, A more or less degree of expansive soil may be present activities of the clay minerals. Once, the lime needs to be added that requires a minimum amount of the lime, it can reduce swell to acceptable limits. There is an experimental process for conducing swell test which can be found in ASTM D 1883. The depth of lime should be incorporated into the soil, in general, the equipment used by the construction of a limited. In general, A maximum required depth need to be calculated with 2 to 3 feet that can be treated directly without removal of the soil.

Parkers Back :: Religion, Divine Intervention

â€Å"Parker’s Back† is filled with biblical allusions as one man’s journey towards God and pleasing his wife ends unsuccessfully. Parker has always been a rebel; however, his wife is a devout, plain woman who has an indescribable control on him, possibly due to his subconscious wish to be saved. Parker wishes to leave her, but finds he never can do so. Not only is he unable to please his wife, but also he is unable to experience spiritual satisfaction, and in the brief moment at the end where he does have a connection to God, his wife rids him of it. Biblical allusions are spread throughout â€Å"Parker’s Back,† and they serve to emphasize O.E. Parker’s failure as a spiritual person. Parker notices a tattooed man at fair, where he became inspired to get tattoos. The man’s tattoos are of â€Å"beasts and flowers,† (384) full of â€Å"intricate design of brilliant color† (384), as they represent an Eden that Parker cannot have. Parker’s response to the man’s tattoos can never be replicated; Parker always feels dissatisfaction with his own tattoos. The man’s tattoos seemed to be alive and have â€Å"a subtle motion† (384), and Parker is never able to experience the emotion he felt when looking at the man’s tattoos, as if he can never experience Eden again. On the other hand, Parker’s tattoos seem to represent something entirely different. The serpent on Parker’s arm represents the wrongs he has done, and with the serpent on his arm, Parker cannot truly experience the religious and spiritual satisfaction that his wife does. This biblical allusion of Eden and the serpent shows that Parker has strugg led to find peace, and has had a troubled life. As a tattoo-clad high school dropout, a dishonorably discharged ex-navy, and a heavy drinker, O.E. Parker is a failure. His soul is a â€Å"spider web of facts and lies,† (393) and compared to his devout wife, he is a failure in religion because of his lack of faith. Parker detests his own wife, calling her â€Å"plain,† (382) but he still stays with his wife, an action that caused him to be â€Å"puzzled and ashamed of himself† (382). Perhaps the real reason he is staying with his wife is that she â€Å"had married him because she meant to save him,† (382) and Parker is waiting to be saved. Sarah knows that O.E. Parker’s real name, Obadiah Elihue, is significant when she says it out loud in â€Å"a reverent voice† (387).

Inside the Mind of a Victorian Policeman Essays -- Victorian Era

Devoid of the Domestic: Inside the Mind of a Victorian Policeman â€Å"For many early Victorians, policing was a new and low-status occupation. Few men became policeman for positive reasons" (Taylor 49). Construction of the Typical Police Officer Several criteria apply to the Victorian police officer: * Policemen were typically involved in trade and were part of the lower middle class o â€Å"In Staffordshire, miners, shoemakers, brickmakers, moulders, puddlers, potters, engine drivers and even a printer joined the force† (Taylor 48). o The occupational background of the police officer, while quite diverse, composed of a large portion of agricultural laborers (48). This is due to industrialization and mechanization of agriculture during the Victorian Era; fewer rural laborers were needed. * Policemen were typically young: â€Å"In the Metropolitan Police the mean age of recruits fell to twenty-four in 1850† (Taylor 49). * Policemen were typically single: â€Å"Many forces quite explicitly stated in their recuiting campaigns that married men need n...

Celebrities: Perfection and Individuals

ENC 1101 March 24, 2013 Celebrities’ dysfunctions and transgressions In this age of the scandalisation of public life the media suffers from an overload of films stars, sport personalities, that is, celebrities, caught in socially unacceptable situations. Celebrity and scandal are closely linked, where scandal often enhances the celebrity quotient of the star (Nayard 2009: 112).In other words, even negatives disclosure and representation of their marriages (practically most film stars), their pedophilia (Roman Polanski), breaking the law (Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen), are all important part of the celebrity culture that fans and spectator so love to hear about. The privilege of fame may act as a license to transgress meaning the can get away with a lot, resulting in greater tolerance for celebrity wrongdoing.However, paradoxically, it is also clear that, as an in? uential elite, celebrities are expected to conduct themselves with propriety, meaning that their be havior is closely scrutinized (Gieles). Most individuals love a scandal, barring the people caught in one, of course. The rest of society most often absolutely cannot get enough. Fans are mostly interested in the good and the bad actions of a celebrity. In the others, there are spectators that are only interested in the scandals about the celebrities.Whether one admit it or not, few things make a person feel better about them quite as intensely as seeing the people that society places on the highest of pedestals get knocked off of them in spectacular fashion. Celebrities’ dysfunctions and transgressions attract high audience interest not only from the celebrity fans , but other spectators. Celebrities scandals appeals to individuals. As a result, they show that celebrities’ larger-then-life figures are idolized by fans and envied by others, enhances that celebrities are ordinary individuals, and sparks curiosity and interest.First, audiences are highly interested in sc andal. The fans are very interested in the stars career and personal life either good or bad. Individuals, whom are not fans of a specific celebrity, are more likely to pay attention to this celebrity when they are spotted on the headline of the tabloids for doing something wrong. Both fans and other individuals pay close attention to those scandals which give these scandals a larger audience. Individuals obtain a certain amount of pleasure from hearing scandals about celebrities.Elizabeth Bird suggests that a scandal story evokes a pleasure derived from both fascination and revulsion for the social mess that scandals symptomatize (Bird 2003:45). Sensational headline build on ones fears, anxieties and desires. Indeed scandals appeal because they deal with the moral values, fears of the people as a whole (Bird 2003:32). Social values and norms are violated by scandals, and thus is what interests fans, that individuals are able to break social norms. Fans anxieties about broken marria ges or families of being failures’, even their own desire for wealth or fame, fuel their reading of scandals.In the case of scandals, it’s not simply media production. It is the sustained interest of the fans that generates. To continue, while some fans idealized a celebrity there are others who envy them. Joseph Burgo, a psychologist and author of â€Å"Why I Do That† argues that idealization and envy; are two powerful psychological forces that always go together. Fans often want to believe that some privileged people have perfect lives, full of satisfactions, without the everyday pain and frustration that they face in their own lives. In a way, fans take displaced pleasure in a celebrity glamorous existence.On the other hand, there are individuals that secretly hope that if those people manage to have a perfect life; it is always possible that they could eventually have one, too. However, fans and other spectators often grow increasingly envious of that perfec t life they do not have. Envy is a very negative force and one feel envious at one point or another. Because certain fans often envy celebrities with perfect lives, they take pleasure in reading and gossiping about their downfall. Individuals who are not fans of the celebrity often take the most pleasure on watching their downfall.When an individual want something that they cannot have, they often times tend to devalue it, make it undesirable so it is no longer envy. In addition, although mass media often represents a celebrity as perfect individuals, their transgression and dysfunction shows fans that they are ordinary individuals (Lieves). They are fantasy objects, perfection that ordinary individual can not hope to attained, and ‘hold out the lure of fully –achieved selfhood to those who yearn for such an impossible fullness and perfection (Gilbert 2004:91).This argument helps one better understanding the interest in celebrity dysfunctions or transgressions. Celebrit ies’ scandals, misbehaviors or faults show that they are not all perfect individuals. Messy marriages, financial bungling, substance abuse and mistakes humanize celebrities, bring them down to earth. Those transgressions help one identify with the celebrity. Individuals often identified with imperfect individuals. Their misbehaviors helps fans sees that they are ordinary individuals with everyday life problems just like them.Although, it is easy to see a celebrity culture as actively encouraging, constructing the cult of perfection and success by producing beautiful models, successful film stars, singers and sportsmen. Scandals about celebrities are highlighted, reported as a means of debunking the myth of human perfection. Furthermore, audiences always look for stories that spark their curiosity and interest. According to Tyler Cowen, all forms of sorts of behaviors both good and bad are used to attract fans.Right or wrong are blurred and subsumed into the general category o f a publicity folder (Cowen 2000: 17). Society often tends to want to hear about someone getting a divorce, getting arrested instead of stories about someone donating money to a charity or saving someone life; stories like that do not make the front page of the tabloids at the grocery stores. Fans might pay attention to the stories about a celebrity donating or saving someone life, but might not spark the interest of individuals whom are not fans of the particular celebrity.Seeing a tabloids headlining â€Å"Chris Brown abusing Rihanna and Rihanna getting back together with Chris brown† can definitely spark curiosity and interest. Hence, this headline can attract attention from a variety of different audiences whom shares different views and belief on the subject. These headlines fans of Chris Brown, fans of Rihanna and also the interest of those who are not fans of neither celebrities. Of course, these headlines will have hundred bloggers writing tortured messages about how concerned they are for Rihanna and the message she is sending to her leagues of fans.Stories about celebrities’ life and mistakes are all very entertaining. For example Lindsay Lohan’s drug addictions, Kim Kardashian’s reason for being famous, and Charlie Sheen crazy personality. Stories about these celebrities’ scandalous lives are engaging, stimulating and attract countless numbers of audiences. In conclusion, scandals about celebrities attract high audience interest because fans of the celebrity are not the only paying close attention to these scandals. People pay more attention to celebrities when they do something bad without even ealizing that they are doing so. While people are trying to raise a major point about how a celebrity action is immoral, incorrect, offensive, or corrupting, the rest of society are just giving it attention, increasing how well-known it is, and arousing people's natural curiosity as to why it is so offensive. Certain fans i dealize a celebrity, but there are those individuals whom take pleasure in judging them by especially harsh and oversimplified standard (Cowen 2000, 70).Citation Page Pramod, Nayard. Seeing Stars: Spectacle, Society and celebrity culture: SAGE, 2009. Print Bird, Elizabeth. The audience in Everyday Life: Living in a media World. Routledge, 2003. Print Cowen, Tyler. What Price Fame? Harvard 1999. Print Gilbert J. Small Faces: The Tyranny of Celebrity in Post-Oedipal Culture. Mediactive 2004. Print Gies, Lieve. â€Å"Stars Behaving Badly. † Feminist Media Studies 11. 3 (2011): 347-361. Communication ; Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.

Principles of Economics.Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve Essay

Investment and consumption decreased during the 2007 and 2009 recession. Government expenditure can increase Aggregate demand because it increases liquidity in the market. The government may operate below full employment when job seekers are more than available job hence end up accepting low wages. The multiplier can have a negative effect when people lose jobs as a result of government cut spending. This causes initial decrease in national income. The relationship between marginal propensities and multiplier is that an increase in MPC leads to an increase in multiplier. Similarly, increase in MPS causes a decrease in the multiplier (Farmer, 2008). 2. Fiscal Policy                9/11 attack led to decrease in aggregate demand, in United States. An example of a sector that was hit hard is entertainment and travel sectors. It also led to decrease in personal consumption. The attack caused an increase in equilibrium price levels. This is because there is an inverse relationship between Aggregate demand and equilibrium price levels.An Expansionary fiscal policy and Contractionary fiscal policy is used to increase aggregate demand. Expansionary fiscal policy is a policy used during the recession to increase AD by increasing government spending or decreasing taxes. Contractionary fiscal policy is used during inflation in order to decrease AD by decreasing government spending or increasing taxes (Farmer, 2008). After September 11’s attack, the government increased expenditure in different sectors such as national defense. 3. Money and Banking                Factors that led to the mortgage default crisis is much borrowings and flawed financial modeling majorly based on an assumption that prices of homes only go up, greed and fraud. Mortgage defaults affected lending banks in that their loans were not repaid leading to huge losses. In many cases, they got real estate that was valued far below what mortgage was when borrowers had a note. Default of bonds income backed by mortgage loans was interrupted banks were left with unwanted real estate (Friedman, 2010). Securitization is pooling different types of contractual debt. TARP is a program formed by the government of US to buy assets and equity from institutions that offer financial services in order to strengthen the financial sector. TARP opened a window of opportunity for banks to pay their own debt and acquire other businesses instead of lend money to private sectors. The Federal Reserve injected funds into the credit markets in order to help them lend again. It also reduced the target federal funds rate. Major provisions in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act include Office of Insurance which creates Federal Insurance Office that monitors aspects of the insurance industry and Consumer Protections that creates Consumer Financial Protection Agency which protects Americans from unfair financial products and services. 4. Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve                The Federal Reserve System refers to the central banking system of United States. Fed was launched in response to a series of financial panics. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta covers the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, 74 counties in Tennessee, 38 parishes of Louisiana, and 43 counties of Mississippi. William H. Rogers, Jr is the current Chairman of this Fed. This fed should remain politically independent because its rate is determined by market and is not explicitly determined by the Fed. The target for federal funds is adjusted by 0.25% or 0.50% at any given time. Fed give liquidity to banks to enable them gives credit in times of recession. Federal Open Market Committee is a committee in Federal Reserve System that is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the country’s open market operations. Fed should decrease their rates to help spur the economy of US. This is expansionary monetary policy (Axilrod, 2011). 5. Free Trade                I support free trade and the NAFTA. They are based on comparative advantage. Countries produce what they can export cheaply. US exports goods like corn and meat to Mexico. Some of goods imported into USA include snacks and processed fruits. However, despite the having the benefit of increasing growth and collaboration between countries, free trade has the cost of dumping goods into the country and destroying infant industries. Free trade should be restricted on some goods like natural resources. 6. Foreign Exchange                US dollar is currently losing value against the euro. This is because the European Union is finding solution to Euro crisis. Dollars are supplied by the Central Bank of USA. A dollar loses value when its demand goes down. For example, whenever US citizens buy products from Germany, the demand for Euro goes up against the Dollar. A falling US Dollar increases ones travel expenses. This is because has to use more dollars to buy a foreign currencies which are expensive. However, a cheap dollar is bad for the US economy because it discourages exportation. A free floating exchange rate refers to a monetary system whose exchange rates are free to move due to forces of the market without intervention by the government (Friedman, 2010). References Axilrod, S. H. (2011). Inside the Fed monetary policy and its management, Martin through Greenspan to Bernanke (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. APA formatting by BibMe.org. Farmer, R. E. (2008). Aggregate demand and supply. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. Friedman, M., & Heller, W. W. (2010). Monetary vs. fiscal policy. New York: Norton. Starr, R. M. (2011). General equilibrium theory: an introduction (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Source document

Career Goals And Learning Plan

Career Goals And Learning Plan My ultimate career goal is to work as a school psychologist in either primary middle or high school, and to achieve my objective I must first complete my master’s degree in psychology at University of Phoenix; as indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009), school psychologists in most states are required to have a specialist degree but some states recognize a master’s degree; thus it is my intention to complete my master’s degree in 18 months and obtain work as a school psychologist while continuing to undertake further study; perhaps I will study within a specialist Ed.S degree in school psychology, which requires a further two years study, and a one year internship, which I could accomplish at my place of then current employment. While studying COM505 Communication Skills for Graduates at University of Phoenix, I discovered a new area of knowledge related to learning styles and how personality factors influence career choices. In light of these finding s, and because I have already decided on my career path, I will not be using the knowledge pertaining to my personality and learning styles as a means of determining a career. My objective within this paper therefore, is to determine why I have chosen the particular career path I have; in other words, whether my personality and learning styles have led me down this particular route. On completion of the Multiple Pathways to Learning Questionnaire (Carter, Kravits, Bishop they but also include problem-solving and new approaches to issues (Carter et al, 2007). The specific strengths pertaining to my personality type and learning styles all point in the direction of the career I have already chosen.

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 48

Marketing - Essay Example Further, the retail store provides incentives coupons on its website periodically that can be used only in-store, thus prompting the online consumers to visit the bricks-and-mortar retail stores. The household catalog strongly iterates the availability of products online, providing promotional codes in the catalog that can be used online. The promotional function integrates all of the marketing messages so that customers find consistency in how the business is positioned against competition stemming from its different marketing channels. JCPenney positions on price and affordability against its competition, and the majority of integrated promotions for all three channels focus on pricing differentiation. It could confuse the brand concept if the business used multiple promotional strategies. Promotions are not different in-store, in the catalog, or online since the company maintains a very wide target demographic. Because the business carries products relevant to many different lifestyles and age groups, it must adopt a mass market promotional strategy rather than limiting the business to niche marketing or market

Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah - Essay Example He was a part of the Royal family and, therefore, especial attention was given to his education. He also was made responsible politically at a very early age. The department of public service of Ahmadi region in Kuwait was under control of Sheikh Jaber when he was only 21 years old (AME Info, 1). This shows that he was being groomed to become the ruler of the country from a very early age. His highness Sheikh Jaber had the honor of chairing the first finance ministry of Kuwait in 1962. Before this, Kuwait did not have a ministry of finance. During his tenure as a finance minister, Sheikh Jaber took many landmark steps. He was the first person to foresee that the oil reserves of Kuwait were perishable. He noted that once the oil runs out, the country will be left in bad situation economically. This is why Sheikh Jaber was the first to set up a fund in order to ensure the continuance of Kuwait’s economy in case of exhaustion of country’s oil reserves (AME Info, 1). This shows the foresight of Sheikh Jaber and his political wisdom. The fund is still in place and continues to grow. Sheikh Jaber was forced to steer the nation from abroad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Sheikh Jaber knew the importance of leadership and therefore left for Saudi Arab in order to secure the government of Kuwait (BBC, 1). Iraq had a strong military and Kuwaiti military was of no match to its enemy. This is why the ruler of Kuwait decided to take help from Saudi Arab and other western allies to protect his country from foreign oppression. Staying abroad, Sheikh Jaber was able to contact the international community in order to make a case against Iraqi invasion. Kuwait’s 13th ruler was still in close communication with the residents of Kuwait even after he left the country with his administration in 1990 (AME Info, 1). He was also able to build up a rà ©sistance force in Kuwait in order to fight the Iraqi invasion. This clearly shows that he was very well connected with the