Moral Sentiments Essay

Pursuit of wealth is a necessity for a proper and well standard life in today’s world. Wealth is an essential commodity today and one has to have it for a respectable living and that is why people are in a run to achieve it not matter the opportunity cost. The main question is that is money always worth all the opportunity cost and is its achievement at all cost a right or wrong thing? These are the basic points that I will be discussing in my paper below with respect to my opinion of the poor man’s son situation, as described by Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that he was not mistaken in setting out on the path of wealth acquisition and further on I would discuss what I would have done if I was in the same situation.. There is no doubt to the fact that wealth is necessary for a comfortable living. Wealth improves the quality of life by providing a person with the luxuries he carves for and with the satisfaction of these cravings comes utility which in result makes a person feel good. There is more to life than living in a budgeted amount every month and feeling content with whatever is within ones limited achieving power. Life is about exploring new horizons, about enjoying it to its fullest and in today’s world all of this cannot be achieved without money. It provides a person with a sense of peace because with money comes power to achieve every material thing possible. Lack of money do not makes one life hassle free or tranquil but instead provides one with the tension to achieve even the basic necessities of life which now are not available without money. Hard work is necessary to achieve great things in life, laid back attitude do not take a person anywhere. High achievers do not let fate decide for them but work hard enough to have their fate in their own hand so pressuring oneself to achieve more in life and test one limits is actually the correct way to life live as per me. While it cannot be denied that more utility comes from enjoying the beauty of a garden then seeing a machine work as Smith explained in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but it can also not be ignored that with the power to buy or have things one need which comes with the expenditure of money also provides a different sense of utility to a person. So I don’t think that the poor man’s son did anything wrong in working hard to fulfill his wants and dreams and instead of being critical of him one should appreciated him for fulfilling his dreams in the right manner, he at least did not cheat or lie his way to achieve what he wanted. I would have done the same had I been in his position. I would have also worked my way to achieve money if I had wanted it. But I would not have done that at the expense of that happiness in life which comes naturally along the way and have nothing to do with the amount of money one possess like enjoying a friend birthday treat, having time to enjoy the beautiful scenic beauty around me etc. I would have maintained the level of balance in my life with my priorities set in a proper order and money would be one of my priorities but not the top most priority. So I support the poor man son’s in his struggle to achieve what he wanted to achieve and his hard work is commendable but I think that he should have made money the only motive of his life and instead had enjoyed things coming in his life along the way because thirst for money can never be quenched so one should know the limit to have it if one want a peaceful n emotionally n spiritually better life. Reference: Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. N. p. : n. p. , 1759. Print.

Separation of a Mixture of Solids

Separation of a Mixture of Solids My Flow Chart First remove iron filings with magnet since this is the only substance in the mixture that it is magnetic and will be attracted to a magnet. Second remove the sand by adding the mixture to hot water, which the other two substances are soluble. Third remove the benzoic acid since this is less soluble in cold than salt by cooling the mixture in the heated water. This will then leave the table salt behind in the water as the last substance. Observations Data Table 1: Experiment Data| Grams (g)| Percent of Mixture (%)| Initial Mixture| 6. 5| 100| Iron Filings| 1. 8| 27. 69| Sand| 1. 7| 26. 15| Table Salt| 1. 9| 29. 23| Benzoic Acid| 0. 8| 12. 31| Combined Total| 6. 2| 95. 38| Questions A. How did your proposed procedures or flow charts at the beginning of this experiment compare to the actual procedures of this lab exercise? My proposed flow chart was very close to that of the actual lab exercise. The only step that I did not include was le tting the water evaporate to find isolate the table salt.I suppose I was thinking that it would be estimated by process of elimination. However, I can now that this would not accurately show that true weight and is therefore not scientific. B. Discuss potential advantages or disadvantages of your proposed procedure compared to the one actually used. The disadvantage of my flow chart would be that although the end numbers would be closer to the original mass of the mixture, it would not accurately represent the correct percentages and would not account correctly show the rror that occurred during the process. C. How would you explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage? I would explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage from water that could still be let in the sand if it has not been given the proper time to fully dry. However, the a small amount of table salt and benzoic acid particle were also left be hind in the small amount of water that needed to be dried out of the sand and could account for the higher percentage.D. What were potential sources of error in this experiment? I think that the largest potential for error is in the transfer and handling of the substances. Small particles were left behind in the original weighing dish, graduated cylinder and cup that were not able to be transferred. Human error, like spilling small amount of the mixture in transfer, and mechanical error, like a miscalculated calibration of the scale, could also be sources of error. Separation of a Mixture of Solids Separation of a Mixture of Solids My Flow Chart First remove iron filings with magnet since this is the only substance in the mixture that it is magnetic and will be attracted to a magnet. Second remove the sand by adding the mixture to hot water, which the other two substances are soluble. Third remove the benzoic acid since this is less soluble in cold than salt by cooling the mixture in the heated water. This will then leave the table salt behind in the water as the last substance. Observations Data Table 1: Experiment Data| Grams (g)| Percent of Mixture (%)| Initial Mixture| 6. 5| 100| Iron Filings| 1. 8| 27. 69| Sand| 1. 7| 26. 15| Table Salt| 1. 9| 29. 23| Benzoic Acid| 0. 8| 12. 31| Combined Total| 6. 2| 95. 38| Questions A. How did your proposed procedures or flow charts at the beginning of this experiment compare to the actual procedures of this lab exercise? My proposed flow chart was very close to that of the actual lab exercise. The only step that I did not include was le tting the water evaporate to find isolate the table salt.I suppose I was thinking that it would be estimated by process of elimination. However, I can now that this would not accurately show that true weight and is therefore not scientific. B. Discuss potential advantages or disadvantages of your proposed procedure compared to the one actually used. The disadvantage of my flow chart would be that although the end numbers would be closer to the original mass of the mixture, it would not accurately represent the correct percentages and would not account correctly show the rror that occurred during the process. C. How would you explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage? I would explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage from water that could still be let in the sand if it has not been given the proper time to fully dry. However, the a small amount of table salt and benzoic acid particle were also left be hind in the small amount of water that needed to be dried out of the sand and could account for the higher percentage.D. What were potential sources of error in this experiment? I think that the largest potential for error is in the transfer and handling of the substances. Small particles were left behind in the original weighing dish, graduated cylinder and cup that were not able to be transferred. Human error, like spilling small amount of the mixture in transfer, and mechanical error, like a miscalculated calibration of the scale, could also be sources of error.

Overcoming the Temptation to Overuse the Internet for Research Essay

Students today face a tremendous amount of obstacles in their day-to-day learning environment that may not have been an issue in generations past. The main problems remain the same as they always have. Time-management is a skill that learners must acquire if they want to turn in assignments on time and make the grades they need to obtain the goals they have set for themselves. Procrastination is a component of poor time management that many students face, which leads to cramming and an increased level of stress. Whereas students faced both of these issues in the past as well as today, one problem that has crept into society that students are struggling with every day is the increasing overuse and reliance on the Internet for research, information gathering, and even general learning. The growing use of the Internet in the recent years has made information much more accessible than ever before. The term â€Å"Google it† is so widely and commonly expressed that it would be very difficult to find anyone who did not understand. When someone needs information for school, work, or personal use Google seems to be the first and most convenient crutch. Convenience is the foremost reason students go straight to the Internet when they are in need of research sources. Barberio (2004) states, â€Å"the very real possibility exists that students overuse the Internet, much to their detriment and most likely, to the growing consternation of their instructors† (p. 307). Even when traditional textbooks are available, they almost always come with some links available to accompany the text with sources on those links easily available. Once students access these links, they no longer have the bountiful wisdom of a librarian to help them sort through it as they could in a traditional library. Setting the parameters for coursework research and requiring credible sources and proper online citation styles is left to the instructors in each subject (Davis, 2003). Professors and universities have concerns for the temptation of cut-and-paste plagiarism and show frustration over the lack of traditional library use and the scholarly research and references libraries offer. Besides the convenience, another reason students rely on the Internet too much is because of the struggles previously discussed. Poor time management leads to procrastination. Procrastination leads students who may have otherwise had the time to do more traditional research, to grasp at the instant gratification that the Internet offers. According to Carter, Bishop, & Kravits (2007), developing good time management skills helps students to finish their work on a schedule and avoid procrastination that helps to lower stress. In order to alleviate the temptation of counting on the Internet for resources, students must address the reasons they rely on it too much in the first place. As far as convenience is concerned, there may be no way around that. The Internet will continue to be used as a resource for gathering quick and â€Å"easy† information. However, the Internet can be a fine source of professional research and cost-free quality articles, scholarly papers, and official documents. If students today can sort through the vast pages of â€Å"search results† and biased Internet information, and gather un-biased facts from different sources. If they can then take this data and use critical thinking skills to draw intelligent conclusions, the Internet can be a worthy source for their research and learning. Another way to avoid over-using Internet resources would be to schedule a trip to the local library. Students may find it is surprisingly easier to gather information there. Before going to the library, students should be very precise with the information they are looking for, so that they do not waste the time that they have there. Overcoming poor time-management and procrastination would be another way to schedule that time for library research. When building a schedule, it is helpful to obtain some type of planner to help keep track of important goals, assignments, tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. Schedulers or planners can take shape in many varying forms including the traditional hand-held â€Å"Day runner† or notebook, calendars online such as Google calendar, or planners built into mobile phone applications. In addition to keeping track of this information, it is important to break the larger tasks into smaller tasks and prioritize the information to ensure that each task is completed on time. After setting a solid schedule, the next step is utilize tools to help manage time. As a student, there are a number of techniques that can be used to help manage time. These techniques include incorporating to-do lists into one’s routine and making use of the course syllabus to ensure compliance. Again, breaking the syllabus down into smaller tasks makes it easier to look at and less stressful to comprehend. Copying each week into its own folder in a Word doc on the computer desktop is one example of how to keep track of the syllabus. Students also need to become familiar with the many resources available through the University (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007). Students face many trials every day when trying to reach their goals. The Internet and its easy access to information without leaving one’s seat have become extremely tempting as a one-stop shopping for every need that comes along in the course of a day. When students are faced with a research paper, the habit remains to turn to Internet searches as a quick way of gathering this information. Learning how to properly gather this data and to use critical thinking skills is vital if scholarly research is going to be accomplished. Students must also use time management skills so that procrastination is not an issue and time is available for alternative forms of research.

McDonald's Seniors Restaurant Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

McDonald's Seniors Restaurant - Assignment Example These elderly people do not have much to do, and can therefore comfortably spend half their day at her restaurant. According to the case, Quinn’s decision to accommodate her senior customers’ needs by allowing them to spend unlimited time at the restaurant does not improve the image of her McDonald’s franchise. Instead, it tarnishes it, and makes her restaurant appear like a rendezvous point for the old people in her town. The seniors spend a lot more time interacting within the facility than they do making actual purchases. They remain there for hours and fill up the chairs that would have otherwise been occupied by a consecutive number of people. If this trend continues, then Quinn’s profits may plummet. This is because the opportunity cost incurred per chair during these periods is too high to be overlooked. In addition, younger customers may also not want to be associated with a restaurant that has a predominantly elderly crowd. On the other hand, Quin n has successfully established a niche market for herself within the elderly population in her town. She is assured that she can rely on this crowd to bring in the bulk of her income. These seniors value the relationship that they have created with Quinn and her employees above the expenses that they incur whenever they eat at her restaurant (Blythe, 2005). It is almost certain that there will always be old people for Quinn to attend to. They are not as energetic and ambitious as the youth, and would therefore opt to remain where they currently reside. It is therefore necessary that she works towards retaining this loyal clientele. In this regard, Quinn should definitely encourage the senior citizens to keep coming to her restaurant. The party room area, which is able to hold as many as 150 people, should be converted into a recreational space for the seniors. These older people can play the bingo games there, and this would prevent congestion in the main dining area during the morn ing hours. It would also allow her employees to establish a similarly good rapport with the younger patrons who frequent the restaurant. Young customers are generally impatient, and thus if they feel neglected, then they would opt to have their meals elsewhere. Additional room in the dining area would also attract more people to the restaurant. However, there should never be, as Blythe (2005) puts it, â€Å"an over-emphasis of acquiring new customers, at the expense of ensuring that the firm keeps its old ones.† The seniors, who have been Quinn’s loyal customers all through, must continue to enjoy excellent services. Quinn McMahon should introduce the bingo idea during the slow morning hours of 9am to 11am. Since bingo games are popular with some senior citizens, she should ensure that the party room is available for the games. The bingo idea is very viable because it will earn her extra revenue above the normal food and drink purchases. The customers will be charged $ 2 each for the two-hour period and run the game with two of her employees who are underutilized. Quinn should also ensure that coupons are readily available as the prizes to make the games legal, and enable senior citizens to make purchases with them at her retail store. The coupons should also amount to a huge amount of the bingo receipts sold in small amount prices to

Methodology Proposal about Government intervention in Global Economy Essay

Methodology Proposal about Government intervention in Global Economy - Essay Example This paper intends to study in detail the reasons why and effects of governments’ intervention in the world economy. Introduction We first study the methods that the governments have in the past intervened. Research studies indicate that governments adopt various methods to intervene in economic performance dictated by the nature of intervention. History shows that the interventions have been directed by the world economic forces such as the recessions, booms, debt crises among others. However, we shall note that the disparity also arises from the generational change. Most of the interventions methods that governments adopted in the early regimes after independence have changed as the economies mature. Moreover, a defense is noted in the economic intervention mechanisms by the governments in the developed economies as opposed to the mechanisms adopted by the third world economies. Research studies reveal that much of government intervention in the growing economies revolve aro und boosting the economies, while in the developed economies are mostly interested in stability as well as growth. Mechanisms adopted by governments are in essence directed to offering cover to their economies against economic forces from outside or well too to regulate the internal economic performances of their countries. ... Economic partnerships Normally, the government and the private sector run as distinct identities as regards the business environment. Moreover, different governments run distinctively in economic matters though at times circumstances require collective working in order to realize set goals. The government of a state may join hands in economic dealings through what is called partnership moreover; one government may enter into formal arrangement with other governments to serve together economically. These partnerships dictate the economic environment of a state or an economic block. Small economies such as are the African countries are the best examples of economic partnership. They form economic blocks such as the south-south through which they stand to negotiate their deals in the global economic front. However, such partnerships always face the challenge of specialization. However, it is a challenge because majority of young African economies over-specialize in their mode of product ion. Agriculture is the basic example in this (OECD, United Nations OSAA, 2011, 6 of 14). Diversification Governments have the sole mandate of dictating the means of production within a country. Specialization policies as against diversification policies dictate that an economy relies on specialized sector of production within an economy. On the other hand; diversification entails policies that encourage various modes of production as against only one. Through this therefore, a government is able tgo influence her economic performance as well as the performance of her trade partners even within the global market. The government intervenes into the economic performance of a country through such policies that encourage diversification as against specialization. Government spending The

Referee report for paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Referee report for paper - Essay Example Each group occupied different geographical locations in the country. Autocratic form of government did not change even under president Jomo Kenyatta, but transitions came after the second president, who turned it into democratic government. However, during the autocratic form of government, ethnic favouritism was highly practice by political leader. This is supported by the data on road building, found across various districts in Kenya during the period of 1963 to 2011. The data indicates that across the 1963-2011 periods, the co ethic districts with the president received more roads expenditure as compared to non co-ethnic group. However, the new democratic government changed these kinds of biases and brought a lot of changes in the country that led to economic growth (Schwartzberg, 1987). This paper has clearly revealed the importance of democracy in Kenya, a country which is vulnerable to ethnic favouritism. It has defined the term ethnic favouritism and examined the effects it ha s on the country’s economy. According to the paper, ethnic favouritism has being used in most developing countries by political leaders. However, the way this paper has examined the efforts of reintroducing democracy in order to tackle ethnic favouritism, is quite interesting. It has also provided evidence to illustrate how ethnic favouritism is practiced in developing countries. ... For instance, according to ethnic data it is reported that Kikuyu consist of 18.8%, Luhya 12.7%, Kalenjin 10.8%, and Luo 13.4% (Anderson, 1999). During the pre colonial period, these ethnic groups did not exist because the authority at the time was personal and local. However, after independence new rules and leaders emerged and led to development of provincial administration. This administration divided the country into provinces, districts, divisions, sub locations, and locations. Ethnic homogenous districts, therefore, emerged in the course of the country’s evolution, leading to segregation and geographical targeting by various races to form ethnic groups. 2. Ethnic favouritism as a political strategy The paper reveals ethnic favouritism as the main strategy used by political leaders in many developing countries. Political leaders may use ethnic favouritism with the fear that without proper tactics in political games, they may lose their positions to other competing politic ians. They, therefore, believe that practicing ethnic favouritism increases strongholds that propel them to higher positions in the government (Anderson, 1999). However, since ethnic favouritism is a political game, I would expect the author to elaborate more on the issue. For instance, explaining how politician utilizes ethnic favouritism in weakening their political opponent through silencing their ethnic groups. This can be done through weakening or shutting down the electoral institutions. If a political leader practices ethnic favouritism then he or she is unaccountable and unrepresentative to his or her own people. This is because there are a few people who are favoured while others are being taxed, yet these leaders manage to remain in power for decades. It is possible for a president

African American Artist outline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

African American Artist outline - Essay Example Her mother did embroidery. Her father, a repair person and steelworker, jumped at the chance to tinker. An uncle was an artistic work painter. According to her authority site, Renee Stout experienced childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and gained her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. She started to investigate her African American legacy in 1985, when she moved to Washington, D.C. all around the African Diaspora, and in addition the world and her natures domain. Stout finds the motivation to make works that energize examination toward oneself, reinforcing toward herself and recovering toward oneself, bridling the conviction frameworks of African people groups and their descendants. Additionally, Stout utilization nonexistent characters to make a mixture of work of art, some of which incorporate: painting, blended media model, photography and establishment. Stout’s works portray some African influences. For instance, her artistic impacts incorporate Yoruba figure, and the nkisi consecrated items of the Central African Congo Basin. Other significant subjects in her work frequently incorporate Haitian Vodou, the space and society of New Orleans and the creole Voodoo specialist Marie Laveau. In a meeting led by Dr.o in her book Tales of the Conjure Woman, she affirms that keeping in mind the end goal to open the discussions, in regards to the set of relatives of African American society, she will keep rousing her takes a shot at topics, for example, African-determined profound conviction frameworks and Hodoo. She additionally concedes to needing to "possess a peculiar space inside the workmanship world- -a place that has more potential outcomes, both in vitality and spirit. She has taken part in various presentations including a few displays at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. what is more at the De Beyerd Museum in the Netherlands. Her work is in various accumulations such as National Gallery of Art. In 2012 she

Operations management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Operations management - Essay Example distribution to clients or customers along with purchasing activities with other vendors (Chidambaram, Whitman, & Cheraghi, â€Å"A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology†). With this concern it can be said that Ben and Jerry’s is playing a significant role by rendering its customers quality service through providing right product at the right time (Ben & Jerry’s, â€Å"Company†). The paper will be focused on providing a brief discussion about supply chain management of Ben & Jerry’s, an American ice-cream manufacturing enterprise along with its transformation methodology of providing their products in the global context. The various scopes of supply chain management of Ben & Jerry’s in the global operations has also been highlighted within the discussion (Chidambaram, Whitman & Cheraghi, â€Å"A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology†). The organizations in the present day context are highly focused to deliver their offerings according to the desires of the customers due to the immense growth in the communication networks along with changing face of globalization. Therefore, the competition within the enterprises can be considered to be extended globally in the modern business environment (Chidambaram, Whitman, & Cheraghi, â€Å"A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology†). The supply chain management system of Ben & Jerry is one of the effective tools for the organization in its endeavor to expand to more than 30 countries of the world. With the concept of effective global supply chain management system, the strategy of Ben & Jerry’s consigns transformation methodology along with making use of appropriate management techniques that help the enterprise to lead among the various competitors around the globe (Ben & Jerry’s, â€Å"Company†). In order to address the transformation related challenges on a global basis, Ben & Jerry’s focuses on various transformation steps for efficient supply chain management around its different units of enterprise.

Controlling Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Controlling Freedom - Essay Example The propaganda model propsed by Chomsky argues that the maintenance of control over the media is a result of free market forces operating on a daily basis and does not necessarily require conscious planning. The framing of conditions and accidental necessity needed to do this can be compared to a that of a crystalline structure. By pouring a stream of balls over a flat box like frame we inevitably end up with a perfect pyramid structure. In the same way by pouring news, information and ideas into the basic framework of free market goals we end up with a self building pyramid where by supportive elements within the pyramid find themselves in stable positions and those unsupportive elements of the pyramid are simply forced out. The framing of these conditions which facilitate the building of these near perfect crystalline structures are called the five reality filters. The first filter is related to the size, ownership and expense of producing media. The second argues that the media ar e heavily dependent on advertising and sponsorship, thus content has to follow 'advertiser friendly lines' or risk loosing vital funding. Thirdly, resources are concentrated where significant news is likely to occur, while non routine sources of news often struggle to find access to the media. The fourth filter, called Flak, refers to the negative responses that are received by media due to a program or article. Just as supportive media is naturally assisted, unsupportive media is attacked and vilified. The last filter is called 'anti-communism' and refers to the need for a common enemy. Throughout history we see examples of the creation of new 'evil empires' ( communists , Islamic terrorists etc) which threaten the status quo, requiring the production of more arms and therefore increasing economic activity and generating important revenue. In testing the hypothesis there are numerous examples of media attention being directed to serve corporate interests and government agendas. Truth filtration also extends to media black holes, where unsuitable truths are simply not reported. A horrific example of this is East Timor, where Indonesian brutalities administered from weapons traded in multi million pound deals with the British, huge oil reserves and an amiable dictatorship ensured the smooth functioning of the filter system. The vast majority of the general public were unaware of the massive human rights abuses and atrocities taking place. Ignoring, silencing and not giving voices to those that contradict the 'line' is another filtration system which ensures the ongoing passivity of the general public. The Iraq war in 1993 saw the whipping up of an effective media campaign against Iraq and its evil dictator that had invaded Kuwait. The just and noble forces of freedom went into action backed by the media. Clark in his book The Fire This Time, US War Crimes in the Gulf demonstrates how the western version of media events was untrue and that the war was in fact set up, manipulated and brought about to remove obstructions to western economic interests. Other examples of the propaganda model in action can be seen with examples such as global warming. In 1990, despite government unanimity on its existence and the potentially

The courts decisions over the last thwenty five years or so reveal a Essay

The courts decisions over the last thwenty five years or so reveal a remarkably confusing approach to the purpose of cross-examination under s1(f)(ii)Criminal E - Essay Example gainst the national interest are easy to fathom and understand but lately, especially the last two decades, court decisions that require adjudication of cases in which the good or the bad moral character of the defendant is relevant to the resolution of the facts in issue, had been murky and muddled that students of law are often left befuddled. This is to be expected as the allowance of evidence of the bad or good moral character of the accused is fully in the discretion of the judges.3 Some jurors disallow hearing of evidence of the character of the accused on the pretext that it is irrelevant to the case. According to Elliott, â€Å"evidence is relevant when it has a tendency in reason to establish the probability or improbability of a fact in issue†4 Relevancy or the materiality to the issue of fact raised in the pleadings is extremely important because if evidence is relevant as well as competent, then that evidence is admissible. What is then relevant and thus admissible is therefore, dependent on the juror’s discretion. All that the court has to say after it refuses admittance of evidence is that it does so â€Å"in the interest of justice by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1988 section 25(1).5 Wigmore’s Axiom of Admissibility which is supposed to facilitate the judges’ exercise of their discretion to allow or disallow admission of evidence as to the good or bad character of the accused merely confuse the judges and everybody else. According to Wigmore, what can be admitted are only facts with rational probative value unless some specific rule clearly forbids its admission. Again the term ‘rational probative value’ is dependent on the interpretation of each judge. The Alfred Altmore Pope Foundation case tersely expresses this dilemma: No precise and universal test of relevancy is furnished by the law but the determination of whether particular evidence is relevant rests largely on the discretion of the court, which must be exercised

Book Critique Family to Family Essay Example for Free

Book Critique Family to Family Essay Author Information The authors of the book are Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee. Content Summary In the book, Family to Family, Families Making a Difference, the writers detail the major premise of the work within its first few pages: â€Å"Family to Family will help you discover God’s purpose for your family, develop a family mission statement, establish core values, make time for quality and quantity family time centered around God’s purposes, and equip you to lead your children to Christ and mentor them spiritually† (3). The book’s purpose is to maximize family time in the Lord, bringing family members closer together by helping them actualize their standing first in Christ, and then as they relate and interact with each other. The book promotes the idea of discovering â€Å"the critical link between being on mission as a family and passing the baton of your faith on to your children† (3). This line of thought is prevalent in the book and it seems to summarize the mission of the writers. The book views itself as being based and rooted in the solid foundation of the scriptures, and the authors express as much: â€Å"The bottom lineGod’s plan for the family has been revealed in His Word†¦ The success of our families will be determined by our commitment to know and live the principles of God’s Word† (3). In the first chapter of the book, the writers make the contention that many families are not healthy and are not spending quality time with one another. The writers reference research gathered from The American Family Association and George Barna. Through the accumulated research, the writers state that, â€Å"only 34 percent of America’s families eat one meal together each day. (In addition) the average father spends only eight to 10 minutes a day with his children. This includes meal times.† (6) Another alarming statistic that they present to their audience is that â€Å"only 12 percent of America’s families pray together, (and) the average couple spends only four minutes of uninterrupted time together a day† (6). After the writers finish sharing some alarming statistics, they proceed to identify what a healthy Christian family should look like. They call for persons to examine their own families and to ask the following questions: Is it a cohesive unit or a disjointed collection of individuals? Is it on mission for God or unsure of its mission? Is it flowing or fumbling? Disciplined or destructive? Purposeful or pointless (7)? From the second chapter onward, the writers seek to allow the book to serve as a guide to nurture an unhealthy family as they move towards an improved level of spiritual health. The writers begin by proposing a family mission statement, stating that, â€Å"A family mission statement will serve as a centerline and guardrails for your family on the road through life† (25). The writers lead us on an extensive exposition on the importance of a familial mission statement and how to initiate one and incorporate one into our families. In chapter two, they present seven realities, which are geared towards accepting and incorporating the fact that God is and can be an ever-present reality within your family. The writers then discuss the importance of teaching and sharing the Gospel with children. They present the fact that 90 percent of all Christians have accepted Jesus before the age of 25, and therefore, place a premium on passing the baton onto the next generation as early as we can (51). The remainder of the book becomes a summary of other evangelical programs and ideas, shared in an effort to encourage the entire family to become an evangelizing force together. They include the models of concentric circles (75) and other familial evangelistic ideas, which are geared towards the family being unified and presenting that unification before others as a witness to their unity in Christ. In the final chapter of the book, the writers detail the importance of Biblical based evangelism for all of those persons involved in the family unit. The writers advocate what they call the FIRM approach to evangelism, which involves: F ask about family, I ask about their interests-listen, R ask about religion-listen, and M share the message (114-115). Lastly, the writers provide some practical methods for sharing the Gospel, which include some scripture memorization and tips on a salvation-testimony presentation. Evaluation The book seeks to establish a rationale for the disunity of the modern family and then to provide mechanisms to promote unity within the family through the Word, then to evangelize through the family as a united front in Christ. The book is short, efficient and to the point. It allows for easy reading and presents an effective rationale for families being unified first in Christ (with each other), and then presenting that unification as an active, vibrant testimony to others. The writers identify early on that this is a book for families in crisis, and the greatest contributing factor to that difficulty involves time and busyness within the members of the family itself. Due to the simplistic presentation of the material, the writers allow for a potential impact for a wide variety of persons and family units (beyond the traditional ones). The writer’s presentation of unhealthy families and the facts provided which detail children who have fallen away from the church cannot be understated in its level of importance, and serves to provide the reader with a foundation for the rest of the work. The flow of the work involves a clever method employed by the writers that mixes conversational and anecdotal stories with necessary information, which is important to hold the interest of the target audiences. The writers may have perhaps offered a more compelling argument, had they given their target audience a little more background information concerning the statistics they compiled, rather than just highlighting that information in endnotes. The chapter on mission statements feels rushed, and gives the impression that research for the work appears to be somewhat lacking. Case in point: there is no citation offered concerning the comparison of Jonathan Edwards and the Jukes families. This cannot help but offer the audience the false notion that the writers composed the necessary research to develop the notion they are putting forth (24-25). The writers provide another example without properly citing and giving credit to the source on page 26, in the example of the bucket of sand and the big rock and the little rock. This is an illustration which has been used by many in the past, and the writers are not the original source of it. They state, â€Å"Perhaps you have seen the illustration of the big rocks and little rocks† (26). Again, this may be nitpicking; however, I believe that they need to demonstrate responsibility, since the book is a Christian work. The book contains relevant study questions and provides a plethora of workbook-like material. That being said, the work is ideal for small group studies in the church and provides a foundational approach for working with families. Beyond being simple enough for the new convert to understand, the book is filled with practical and insightful applications for all believers to use in their endeavors to spread the Word within their families and to others. The writers have fulfilled their purpose in the book. It is obvious to see, with the statistics presented and the commentary offered, that families are in trouble and the church needs to respond to their needs. The church is comprised (mostly) of families. The enemy is aware that if he destroys the family unit (as presented in scripture), then he goes a long way to placing a major injury on the church. Pipes and Lee are to be commended for their efforts. They wrote Family to Family: Leaving a Lasting Legacy, as a reply to the susceptibility of even supposedly Christian families to the status quo. This status quo, as presented by the writers, involves an adherence to one of the varying levels of dysfunction that many families experience. The outline for families in the scriptures is one man, one woman, and if they are blessed, then children. This work provides an excellent evangelistic modality within which to engage all types of families (single parent, no children, etc). This is due to the fact that, regardless of the construction of the particular family, salvation is needed within and should be displayed cohesively to the world. That being said, one can see that, once a family mission statement is adopted, the potential for manipulation within a family is obvious. Potential problems could arise should one of the parents attempt to use the mission statement to manipulate their children to act and perform in the manner that they desire. Should conflict and divorce arise in the family (which is a startling reality for the church as well as the world), then these paradigms constructed originally to help could instead be used to further divide the entire family. With any risk of developing methodology and then instructing others to incorporate this methodology into their lives, without being able to control all extraneous variables (which only God can), there is the potential danger for some using the writer’s material for abusive purposes. Yet in taking this risk, the writers succeed. This is largely due to the fact that they speak the truth of the scriptures in love, and are to be applauded for developing and exhorting others to incorporate these methods into their lives to improve their families and evangelize the lost. There is something pure and right about someone trying to assist others whom are in desperate struggles in this life. The writers have presented a unique and challenging way for the church to implement and instruct families which are in desperate need of such tutoring. A most wonderful encapsulating quote is found on page 114, which states, â€Å"The bottom line is sharing the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. This is what this book is all about: raising your family to follow Christ. Following Christ means sharing the gospel with those who do not know Him. Jesus said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matt.4:19). If you are not fishing, you are not following. You and your family are on mission to be fishers of men† (114). This is a rousing call to families and the Body of believers. Those who endeavor to heed the call must realize the writer’s purposes in desiring to show them a way to raise their families to serve and follow Jesus. BIBLIOGRAPHY Pipes, Jerry and Victor Lee. Family to Family, Families Making a Difference. Lawrenceville, GA: Jerry Pipes Productions, 1999.

Psychology Vocab Essay Example for Free

Psychology Vocab Essay Anal stage: the stage at which children advocate erotic pleasure with the elimination process Archetype: an inherited idea, based on the experiences of one’s ancestors, which shapes one’s perception of the world Altered states of consciousness: conscious level, preconscious level, and unconscious level Amnesia: a loss of memory that may occur after a blow to the head or as a result of brain damage Biofeedback: the process of learning to control bodily states with the help of machines monitoring the states to be controlled Bipolar: a disorder in which a person’s mood inappropriately alternates between feelings of mania and depression Client centered therapy: an approach developed by Carl Rogers that reflects the belief that the client and therapist are partners in therapy Conditioning: a type of learning that involves stimulus response connections in which the response is conditional to the stimulus Central nervous system: Spinal cord and the brain Classical conditioning: a learning procedure in which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus Collective unconscious: the part of the mind that inherited instincts, urges, and memories common to all people Consciousness: an individual’s state of awareness, including a person’s feelings, sensations, ideas, and perceptions Compulsion: an apparently irresistible urge to repeat an act or engage in ritualistic behavior such as hand washing Cross- sectional study: research method in which data is collected from groups of participants of different ages and compares so that conclusions can be drawn about differences due to age CS (Conditioned stimulus): a once neutral event that elicits a given response after a period of training in which it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus CR (conditioned response): a response by the conditioned stimulus; it is similar to the unconditioned response, but not identical in magnitude or amount Defense mechanism: Certain specific means by which the ego unconsciously protects itself against unpleasant impulses or circumstances Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality): a person exhibits two or more personality states, each with its own patterns of thinking and behaving Dependent variable: changes in relation to the independent variable Discrimination: the ability to respond differently to similar but distinct stimuli. 2. The unequal treatment of individuals on the basis of their race, ethnic group, age, gender, or membership in another category rather than on the basis of individual characteristics Depression: a psychological disorder characterized by extreme sadness, an inability to concentrate, and feelings of helplessness and dejection Superego: the part of the personality that is the source of conscience and contracts the socially undesirable impulses of the id Dopamine: Involved in learning, emotional, arousal, and movement Eidetic memory: the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short term exposure Extinction: in classical conditioning, the gradual disappearance of a conditional response because the reinforcement is withheld or because the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus Endocrine system: a chemical communication system using hormones, by which messages are sent through the blood stream, EEG (electroencephalograph): a machine used to record the electoral activity of large portions of the brain Extravert: an outgoing, active person who directs his or her energies and interests toward other people and things Electroshock therapy: also called (ECT), an electrical shock is sent through the brain to try to reduce symptoms of mental disturbance Ego: the part of the personality that is in touch with reality and strives to meet the demands of the id and the superego in socially acceptable ways Free association: a Freudian technique used to examine the unconscious; the patients instructed to say whatever comes into his or her mind Formal operations: the person is able to solve abstract problems Fixed ratio schedule: a pattern of reinforcement in which a specific number of correct responses is required before reinforcement can be obtained Fixed interval schedule: a pattern of reinforcement in which a specific amount of time must elapse before a response will elicit reinforcement Functional fixedness: a mental set characterized by the inability to imagine new functions for familiar objects Genital Stage: Freud’s fifth and final psychosexual stage during which an individual’s sexual satisfaction depends as much on giving pleasure as on receiving it Hypothalamus: regulates the autonomic nervous system Hallucinations: perceptions that have no direct external cause Hypothesis: an assumption or prediction about behavior that is tested through scientific research Identity crisis: A period of inner conflict during which adolescents worry intensely about who they are Id: in psychoanalytic theory, that part of the unconscious personality that contains our needs, drives, and instincts, as well as repressed material Independent variable: experimenters change or alter so they can observe its effects Imprinting: inherited tendencies or responses that are displayed by newborn animals when they encounter new stimuli in their environment Introvert: a reserved, withdrawn person who is more preoccupied with his or her inner thoughts and feelings than in what is going on around him or her Imitation: The third way of learning Latency Stage: the fourth stage of Freud’s psychosexual development at which sexual desires are pushed into the background and the child becomes involved in exploring the world and learning new skills Long term memory: the storage of information over extended periods of time Longitudinal study: research method in which data is collected about a group of participants over a number of years to assess how certain characteristics change or remain the same during development Lithium carbonate: a chemical used to counteract mood swings of bipolar disorder Maturation: the internally programmed growth of a child Meditation: the focusing of attention to clear one’s mind and produce relaxation Modeling: the process of learning behavior through observation and imitation of others Mnemonic devices: techniques of memorizing information by forming vivid associations or images, which facilitate recall and decrease forgetting Negative reinforcement: increasing the strength of a given response by removing or preventing a painful stimulus when the response occurs Neurosis: One of the most commonly used diagnostic distinctions Oral Stage: Freud’s first stage of psychosexual development, in which infant’s associate erotic pleasure with the mouth Object permanence: Child’s realization that an object exists even when he or she cannot see or touch it Operant conditioning: a form of learning in which a certain action is reinforced or punished, resulting in corresponding increases or decreases in the likelihood that similar actions will occur again Obsession: a recurring thought or image that seems to be beyond control OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder): an anxiety disorder consisting of obsessions and compulsions Oedipus complex: seems more like a literary conceit that a thesis worthy of a scientifically minded psychologist Psychosexual stages: 1. Oral stage, 2.anal stage, 3.phallic stage, 4.latancy stage, 5.ganital stage Psychosocial stages: 1. Trust vs. mistrust, 2. Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt, 3.initiative vs. guilt, 4. Industry vs. inferiority, 5. Identity vs. role confusion, 6. Intimacy vs. isolation, 7. Generativity vs. stagnation, 8. Ego integrity vs. Despair Pre-operational stage: emerges when the child begins to use mental images symbols to understand things Pituitary gland: â€Å"master gland† Psychosis: One of the most commonly used diagnostic distinctions Projective test: an unstructured test of personality in which a person is asked to respond freely, giving his or her own interpretation of various ambiguous stimuli Phallic stage: Freud’s third psychosexual stage, children associate sexual pleasure with their genitals Psychology: the scientific, systematic study of behaviors and mental processes Psychiatry: a branch of medicine that deals with mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders Psychotherapy: a general term for the application of psychological principles and techniques for any treatment used by therapists to help troubled individuals overcome their problems and disorders Positive reinforce: a stimulus that increases the likelihood that a response will occur again Psychoanalysis: a form of therapy aimed at making patients aware of their unconscious motives so that they can gain control over their behavior and free themselves of self-defeating patterns Reli ability: the ability of a test to give the same results under similar conditions REM sleep: a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, a high level of brain activity, a deep relaxation of the muscles, and dreaming Reinforcement schedule: an important factor in operant conditioning Random sample: One way to avoid a nonrepresentative sample Rorschach inkblot cards: 10 cards with inkblot designs and a system for interpreting responses Self –actualization: the humanist term for realizing one’s unique potential Shaping: technique of operant conditioning in which the desired behavior is â€Å"molded† by first rewarding any act similar to that behavior and then requiring ever-closer approximations to the desired behavior before giving the reward Short term memory: memory that is limited in capacity to about seven items and in duration by the subject active rehearsal Spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after some time has passed Selective attention: Focusing\ on only one detail of many Schizophrenia: a group of severe psychotic disorders characterized by confused and disconnected thoughts, emotions, behavior, and perceptions Separation anxiety: whenever the child is suddenly separated from the mother Superego: the part of the personality that is the source of conscience and contracts the socially undesirable impulses of the id Sensorimotor: the infant uses schemas that primarily involve his body and sensations Surrogate mothers: substitute mothers TAT (Thematic Apperception Test): This test consists of a series of pictures Thalamus: major relay station of the brain Unconscious: the part of the mind that holds mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories of which we are unaware but that strongly influences conscious behaviors UCR (Unconditioned response): an organism, automatic or natural reaction to a stimulus UCS (unconditioned stimulus): an event that elicits a certain predictable response without previous training Variable- ratio schedule: a pattern of reinforcement in which a specific amount of time must elapse before a response will elicit reinforcement Variable- interval schedule: a pattern of reinforcement in which changing amounts of time must elapse before a response will obtain reinforcement Validity: the ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure Theorists Carl Jung: (1875-1961) believed that people try to develop their potential as well as handle their instinctual urges. He distinguished between personal unconscious and the collective unconscious Alfred Adler: (1870-1937) believed that the driving force in people’s lives is a desire to overcome their feelings of inferiority Sigmund Freud: (1856-1939) believed that our conscious experiences are only the tip of the iceberg, that beneath the surface are primitive biological urges that are in conflict with the requirements of society and morality Erick Erickson: (1902-1994) believed that the need for social approval is just as important as a child’s sexual and aggressive urges Abraham Maslow: (1908-1970) tried to base his theory of personality on studies of healthy, creative, self actualizing people who fully utilize their talents and potential rather than on studies of disturbed individuals Carl Rogers: (1902-1987) believed that many people suffer from a conflict between wh at they value in themselves and what they believe that other people value in them John B. Watson 🙠 1878-1958) psychology should concern itself only with the observable facts of behavior. Said that all behavior is the result of conditioning and occurs because the appropriate stimulus is present in the environment Ivan Pavlov: (1849 -1936) charted another new course for psychological investigation. Demonstrated that a neutral stimulus can cause a formerly unrelated response B.F. Skinner 🙠 1904-1990) introduced the concept of reinforcement. Attempted to show how his laboratory techniques might be applied to society as a whole Albert Bandura: people direct their own behavior by their choice of models. Harry Harlow: (1905- 1981) studied the relationship between mother and child in a species closer to humans, the rhesus monkeys Galen: Identified four personality characteristics called melancholic, sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic Alfred Binet: Karen Horney: (1885-1952) stressed the importance of basic anxiety. She believes that if a child is raised in an atmosphere of love and security, that child could avoid Freud’s psychosexual parent child conflict b Lawrence Kohlberg: His studies show how important being able to see other people’s points of view is to social development in general and to moral development of moral reasoning Jean Piaget: Discovered that knowledge builds as children grow. Children develop logic and think differently at different ages Lorenz Konrad: (1903- 1989) became a pioneer in the field of animal learning. He discovered that baby geese become attached to their mothers in a sudden, virtually permanent learning process called imprinting Stanley Milgram: conducted the most famous investigation of obedience in 1963. Wanted to determine whether participants would administer painful shocks to others merely because an authority figure had instructed them to do so James Marcia: main contribution is in clarifying the sources and nature of the adolescent identity crisis Philip Zimbardo: made the Zimbardo experiment Solomon Asch: designed what has become a classic experiment to test conformity to pressure from one’s peers Hermann Rorschach: made the inkblot test   Wilhelm Wundt: he proposed that psychological experience is composed of compounds, much like the ones found in chemistry Phillipe Pinel: Father of scientific psychiatry   Dorothea Dix: Chief spokesperson for reform

Advantages Of Semisynthetic Penicillins Biology Essay

Advantages Of Semisynthetic Penicillins Biology Essay Introduction Amoxycillin is a semisynthetic ÃŽ ²-lactam antibiotic derived from a common chemical nucleus of naturally occurring Penicillin G, 6-aminopenicillanic acid. Vital to Amoxycillins biological effects is the ÃŽ ²-lactam ring contained within this nucleus. Amoxicillin is bacteriolytic and bacteriocidal to susceptible gram positive and gram negative microbacteria. Today, amoxicillin is the 9th most prescribed drug in the world. Penicillin discovery Up until the early 1900s, the only treatment for bacterial infection was antiseptic which was only useful for surface wounds. In 1928, Alexander Fleming made a momentous albeit accidental discovery in St Marys Hospital in London. He noticed that a Staphylococci plate being grown in culture had been contaminated with mould of the species Penicillium notatum and that this had resulted in the inhibition of bacterial growth in the vicinity of the mould. Fleming subsequently isolated the mould and formulated an antibacterial mould broth. In 1938 at Oxford, Howard Florey and his biochemist Ernst Chain extracted penicillin from the mould and established that it was nontoxic and had chemotherapeutic effects. In 1941 an injectable form of penicillin became available for therapeutic use Advantageous of Semisynthetic Penicillins Penicillin G (naturally occurring) is poorly stable in gastric acid and broken down rapidly as it passes through the stomach. Therefore, Penicillin G must be given intramuscularly which limits its usefulness. Semisynthetic penicillins such as Amoxycillin with increased oral bioavailability were a major advancement in therapeutic antibiotics. Furthermore, while aminopenicillins and natural penicillins have similar efficacy against gram positive bacteria, semisynthetic aminopenicillins (such as Amoxycillin) are more active against certain strains of gram negative rods. Amoxycillin Discovery In Beecham Laboratories in 1957, 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA) was isolate from penicillin. Through chemical modification of the ÃŽ ²-lactam thiazolidine ring side chains semisynthetic penicillins were developed. In 1961, Ampicillin was created which was quickly followed in 1964 by the introduction of a Ï -hydroxyl group in Ampicillins side chain creating amoxycillin. Amoxycillin was found to have improved absorption following oral administration and 2-2.5 times greater plasma concentrations compared to an equivalent dose of Ampicillin. In 1967 Beecham laboratories discovered that the susceptibility of Amoxycillin to ÃŽ ²-lactamase could be overcome with co-administration of clavulanic acid (a ÃŽ ²-lactamase inhibitor isolated from Streptomyces olivaceus). Chemistry Amoxycillin is a white crystalline powder that is somewhat soluble in alcohol and water. Amoxycillins chemical name is (2S,5R,6R)-6-[(R)-2amino-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamido]-3,3-dimethy;-7-oxo-4-thia-1-azabicyclo[3.2.0]heptanes-2-carboxylic acid. It has a molecular weight of 419.4. Figure 1: Chemical Structure of Amoxycillin Pharmacodynamics Amoxycillin functions by inhibiting the biosynthesis of cell wall mucopeptides of susceptible gram positive and negative microorganisms actively synthesizing peptidoglycan and undergoing multiplication. The molecular target of Amoxycillin and other ÃŽ ²-lactam antibiotics are the Penicillin Binding Proteins. Upon drug-target interaction transpeptidation is blocked and thus inhibiting the synthesis of peptidoglycan, a vital cell wall component. Subsequently, the inhibitor of autolytic enzymes in the cell wall, is removed resulting in active autolytic enzymes and bacteriolysis. Pharmacokinetics Amoxycillin complies with the two compartment model with elimination occurring from the central compartment. Figure 2 demonstrates Amoxycillins biexponential decline of serum concentration with time. Table 1 and 2 document the pharmacokinetic parameters of Amoxycillin. Figure 2: Average serum concentration versus time after 500mg IV dose of Amoxycillin. Table 1: Pharmacokinetic parameter and absolute bioavailability of a 500mg oral dose of Amoxycillin. Table 2: Pharmacokinetic parameter of a 500mg IV dose of Amoxycillin. Administration Amoxycillin is usually administered orally. The relationship between dose and extent of absorption is not linear with a plateau at higher oral concentrations. Dose adjustments need to be made in patients with renal dysfunction. Bioavailability Drug bioavailability is the proportion of drug that passes into systemic circulation after oral administration. It is dependent upon absorption across the gastrointestinal tract and first pass clearance by the liver. After oral administration of a dose of 250mg and 500mg of Amoxycillin the average peak serum concentrations (observed between 1-2 hours after administration) were 5.0mg/mL and 6.0 10.8 mg/mL respectively. The variation of plasma concentration with time is demonstrated in Figure 3. The oral bioavailability of Amoxycillin is 77.4% Amoxycillin is stable in gastric acid and is rapidly absorbed after oral administration regardless of absence or presence of food products and thus a high proportion of administered dose reaches the systemic circulation.. Figure 3: Mean serum levels following oral administration of 125mg and 250mg of Amoxycillin to 11 normal volunteers. (95% confidence). Volume of Distribution Volume of distribution is defined as the volume of fluid in which the amount of drug in the body would need to be uniformly distributed to produce observed plasma concentrations. Amoxycillin distributes widely and rapidly into most body tissues and fluid. Despite this, Amoxycillin remains extracellular due to lipid insolubility and thus does not cross the blood brain barrier unless the meninges are inflamed. Volume of distribution of Amoxycillin is 20.2L (0.3 L/kg). Clearance Clearance is defined as the volume of blood cleared of drug per unit time. It is dependent on renal excretion hepatic elimination. The clearance of Amoxycillin is 221mL/min. Renal Excretion Amoxycillin is excreted predominantly via the urine in biologically active form or as penicilloic acid. 75% of a 1 gram dose is excreted in the urine within 6 hrs (60% biologically active form, 15% is in the form of penicilloic acid). Biological Half life Elimination half life is defined by the time taken for the plasma concentration of drug to reach half the steady state concentration. The biological half life is 61.3 minutes with normal renal function. Half life increases with renal dysfunction. Clinical Uses Amoxycillin is a broad spectrum ÃŽ ²-lactam antibiotic with effectiveness against many pathogenic microorganisms. It is commonly used to treat bacterial infections such as otitis media, tonsillitis, throat infections, laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, gonorrhoea and skin infections. Indications for use Location of infection Microorganism Skin and skin structure E coli, Staphylococcus, nonpenicillinase producing streptococcis Respiratory (Acute and chronic) nonpenicillinase producing E coli, Streptococcus, Strep. Pneumonia, H.influenzae, staphylococcus Genitourinary tract (Complicate and uncomplicated, acute and chronic) E.Coli, P.mirabilis and Strep. Faecalis Gonorrhoea N. Gonorrhoea (nonpenicillinase producing) Prophylaxis of endocarditis Used in people at particular risk (e.g. individuals who have previously had endocarditis or with a prosthetic heart valve) Table 3: Indications for use of Amoxycillin Precautions Drug interactions Amoxycillin is rarely associated with adverse drug interactions however the following reactions have been demonstrated in some cases. Drug Interaction Oral anticoagulants (e.g. Warfarin and Acenocoumarol) Results in abnormal prolongation of prothrombin time (or international normalised ratio.) Allopurinol Results in increased rate of rash reactions. It is unknown whether this is due to Amoxycillin reacting with the allopurinol itself or the hyperuricaemia that it is treating. Combined Oral Contraceptives Like all penicillin, Amoxycillin can affect the commensal gut flora which results in decreased oestrogen absorption. This has been associated with decreased efficacy of combined oral contraceptives. Tetracyclines or other bacteriostatic drugs Bacteriostatic drugs have been known to interference with the bactericidal effects of Amoxycillin Clavulanic acid Amoxycillin therapeutic effects are inactivated by penicillinase (ÃŽ ²-lactam) producing organisms. It is possible to co-administer Amoxycillin with clavulanic acid (ÃŽ ²-lactamase inhibitor) to broaden the spectrum of susceptible bacteria (e.g.. co-amoxiclav). Probenecid Renal excretion can be delayed by administration of Probenecid as demonstrated by Figure 4. When used in conjunction there is an increased plasma concentration of Amoxycillin reached and longer duration of effect. This is a beneficial interaction. Table 4: Some common drug interactions when co-administered with Amoxycillin Figure 4: Mean serum levels following oral administration of 1 gram of Amoxycillin with and without probenicid. Pregnancy and Lactation While penicillin can cross the placenta, no teratogenic effects have been uncovered through animal studies. Similarly, Amoxycillin can be excreted in breast milk resulting in potential side effects for the nursing infant including diarrhoea or allergic response. However, Amoxycillin is generally considered safe for use in pregnant women and nursing mothers. Adverse reactions Side effects are uncommon however potentially include insomnia, diarrhoea, dizziness, confusion, heartburn, easy bruising, itching, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, bleeding, rash and allergic reactions. The most common adverse reaction is hypersensitivity reactions in patients with allergies to ÃŽ ² lactam antibiotics, penicillin or cephalosporins. Anaphylaxis can be fatal and occurs more frequently following parenteral administration. All penicillins have been associated with seizures when administered in excessive doses or administered intrathecally. Conclusion The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Flemming lead to the subsequent generation of the semisynthetic aminopenicillin, Amoxycillin. This ÃŽ ²-lactam antibiotic has a broad spectrum of therapeutic use, high oral bioavailability and lack of toxic effects.

Ireland Conflict :: essays research papers fc

Conservation of the Amazon Rain Forests The rainforests are essential for life on earth, and destroying them could result in an ecological imbalance and the loss of many valuable resources; therefore measures must be established to protect the world’s rainforests. The rainforests are a major factor in the stability of the environment, especially in the greenhouse effect and the help to fight pollution. The Amazon Rain forest is the largest tropical rain forest of the world. It covers about 2 million square miles and about two-thirds of the forest is in Brazil. The rain forest lies in parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, and Venezuela. The rainforest receives about 50 to 175 inches and the average temperature is about 80 degrees. The Amazon rain forest contains a huge variety of plants and animals than any other place in the world. A statistic shows that a two and half acre area contains about 280 or more species of animals and trees. The growth of resources has made the rain forest decrease in size over the years. Only six percent of the rain forests are being protected today. Human activities are out of control and the forests are depleting rapidly. The rain forests are the homes to a variety of animals. These animals such as monkeys, gorillas, and leopards are a big source of food, which the native villagers heavily depend on. Many villagers depend on certain animals for me dicine. The two major factors that are destroying the rain forests are logging and poaching, logging being the greater of the two. â€Å"The further aspects of man’s impact on the vegetation of the rain forests must be mentioned: (1)the commercial exploitation of trees for lumber, (2)the continued exploitation of wood for fuel, including charcoal, and (3)the introduction of exotic trees for production of raw materials.†(Bennett 230) Logging itself, does not have to be so destructive. The multiple clearances of land are what is so destructive. The forest has the ability to replenish itself if given the proper time to. The problem is that as soon as the new trees reach a suitable size they are cut again. Some areas of the rain forest have been cleared three times in thirty years. Logging has grown extensively, and there is a spread of it into the last intact forests. One of these is the Amazon River Basin. The Basin is being logged from every side.

The Differences Between the UK and US Constitutions Essay -- Politics

The Differences Between the UK and US Constitutions The question invites an analysis of how the differences between the UK and the US constitutions establish the political systems in both countries, and further whether there is distinction between the political systems. Initially I will define what a constitution and a political system are. Subsequently in the main body of the text I shall analyse the differences between the constitutions, and how they influence each separate political system. Loosely defined, a constitution creates institutions and should state any definite power, indicates the relationship between different state institutions, and how the constitution can be amended. In my essay I shall illustrate the differing state institutions in America and Britain, who has the power according to the constitution, and accordingly which state institutions wield the power and authority, and additionally if the difference in ease of changing the constitution is responsible for a difference in political system. In my conclusion I shall assess whether my investigation is corresponding to the statement. Friedrich (1937) believed a constitution should be 'a system of effective regularised restraints on government action, therefore should be a statement of individual rights.'[1] This leads to the question, should a constitution include a Bill of Rights like the American constitution's amendments? In America there are freedoms in religion, speech and the press for example, yet Britain has no enforceable Bill of Rights in its constitution. There are essential rights and freedoms in the European Human Rights Act but this is at the h... ...rnment and Politics: An Introduction (Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001), p. 186. [2]James Q. Wilson, American Government (Boston: Houghton, 2000), 54. [3]Simon Hix, "Britain, the EU and the Euro," in Patrick Dunleavy, Andrew Gamble, Ian Holliday and Gillian Peele, eds., Developments in British Politics, (Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000), p.54. [4]Wilson, American, 32. [5]Vernon Bogdanor, "Britain: The political constitution," Vernon Bogdanor, ed., Constitutions in Democratic Politics (Aldershot: Gower, 1988), 56. [6]Hailsham cited in Bogdanor, "Britain," 66. [7]Richard Hodder-Williams cited in Joseph Hogan, "The no-win Presidency and contemporary presidential-congressional relationships," in Robert Williams ed., Explaining American Politics: issues and interpretations (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 48.

Cellular Reproduction :: science

Cellular Reproduction Cellular Reproduction is the process by which all living things produce new organisms similar or identical to themselves. This has to happen because if a species were not able to reproduce, that species would quickly become extinct. Reproduction consists of a basic pattern: the conversion by a parent organism of raw materials into offspring or cells that will later develop into offspring. The reproductive process, whether asexual or sexual always involves an exchange in hereditary material from the parents so that the new organism may also be able to reproduce. Reproductive processes can be categorized into either asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is any form of reproduction that does not require the union of male and female reproductive material (sperm or egg). Most single celled organisms reproduce by the asexual process known as fission, which is commonly called mitosis. Fission is The splitting of a nucleus into two roughly equal parts accompanied by the release of a pretty large amount of energy. Interphase, the first phase of the cell cycle and also the phase before mitosis, starts as soon as the cell is born. Interphase is broken up into three phases, G1, S, and G2. During the G1 phase, the cell increases in mass except for the chromosomes, which stay the same. Protein synthesis is also occurring during this phase. If a cell doesn't divide further, it remains in the G1 phase. Next is the S phase, in which the mass of the cell continues to increase, and DNA is duplicated, and then the chromosomes divide. During the G2 phase of Interphase, the cell becomes double its mass at birth, the chromosomes beg in to shorten and coil, and the centrioles appear, the cell is now ready to enter into mitosis. In the first phase of mitosis, prophase, the chromosomes become visible and the centrioles split in half and then move to opposite sides of the cell. At this point chromosomes have formed into two chromatids separated by a structure called a centromere. Spindle fibers are barely visible. During metaphase, the second phase of mitosis, the two chromatids line up along the equator of the cell. Each chromatid has its own spindle fiber. Next comes the third phase of mitosis, Anaphase, in which the centromeres break in half, causing each of the two chromatids to start to be pulled to different sides of the cell.

Academic and Career Goals Essay

Academic and Career Goals Sometimes it seems like life is inhibiting me from achieving my goals. I define my objectives as I see them. I associate them with my values. Knowing that the task at hand is essential to realizing my dreams, but I am unable to do it. I have thought about other ways to get around the problem, I keep getting back to the talent I’m missing. Accomplishing a new ability might feel like a huge undertaking. It’s been my experience that if a talent is necessary in getting closer to achieving my dreams, education is not a bad thing after all. I begin on an excursion to take the first of many steps gaining enlightenment while pursuing my academic and career goals. Furthermore, education is the most important aspect in people’s lives. It is becoming even more important than it has been in the past. In today’s society, education is essential in order to be successful economically and socially. The benefits of education are boundless. I believe the stages from elementary to high school; students are getting an inadequate amount of education. Furthermore, education is a mandatory process. Individuals who continue their education in colleges and universities will become more experienced meanwhile increasing their chances of getting a well-paid job. In essence the desire to return back to school has been a dream for a long time. I have had to start a little later in life but I have finally found my passion in graphic design. Since becoming a young adult, I have had to work multiple jobs and mentally trapped in a state of barely surviving; I needed to have an encouraging transformation that would allow me to achieve a better financial steadiness. My reasons for returning back to school are much more than becoming a graphic designer; having the instability of a lower income was extremely pertinent for my self-worth. I ACADEMIC 3 have been particularly apprehensive for such a long time that making life altering decisions will optimistically create an end result for me and my family. During this day and age, numerous individuals are going back to the school to further their education; due to many families having challenging times in making their ends meet. The employers are seeking individuals who possess college degrees; which inspires people to further  their education. Having a college degree often leads individuals into a secure and a well-paying job in order to adequately support their family. In today’s society and principles, individuals with a college degree are viewed to be more devoted, well-informed, teachable, and respected to potential businesses. Additionally, when I was younger and inexperienced, my day dreams were of going college and gaining the experience that would lead me to a successful career. Unnecessary time had passed; and unfortunately, I had to work instead of continuing on with school. Many of my older friends talked about their experiences, and my high school friends were also excited about the idea of joining the working class. After being employed with several jobs, I felt as if my life was not reaching full potential. My self-esteem became low and I felt distraught. Furthermore, I needed to motivate myself and decided to pursue my college degree. There is a point in everyone’s life where they will have to become financially independent. Unfortunately, for some people this process can be difficult. Planning my life has been a roller coaster and extremely difficult. I have been dependent on others most of my life, and realized I had to take consequences for my actions. For all intents and purposes I look to the future to attain a college degree, to better myself and accomplish my Academic and Career Goals. ACADEMIC 4 References Ashford University. (n. d. ). Ashford writing center. Retrieved from https://content. ashford. edu/ Sole, K. (2010). Essentials for College Writing. San Diego, Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content. ashford. edu.

Cell Phones Advantages&Disadvantages Essay

1.0 Introduction When I have been on different school placements during my time at the College there has always been one thing I have paid more attention to and noticed in every school. This situation is a very common thing among students in Malaysia and also occurs among people who normally use more than one language. This phenomenon is called code-switching and usually happened in bilingual societies. What is code-switching? It is when a person mixes two languages in a single sentence or a conversation. This issue was ordinary to take place in Malaysian students which is learning more than one language. Our country students usually learned more than three language likes national language, mother language and etc. Our ministry of education set English as a second language in Malaysia, so Malaysian English Language Instructors and ESL (English as second Language) requires learners tend to use more than one code of language in the context of formal classroom. Now, we wants to discuss the factors that cause ESL learners to code switch and how to overcome it. 2.0 Main Body 2.1 Feel More Comfortable, Environment, Lack of Confidence The first factors it cause students cannot switching code immediately because they not usual to use English and also feel custom and more comfortable to use their own language. They prefer to use their own language because it is more smoothed and easy communicate with their friend. Besides that, they also did not have a good environment or social to speak English. Take one example, we was grow in a family which does not often speak English and we just only use our mother language to communicate with our family’s in home, that is a big problem for us to learn and speak English properly. The problem will cause the students lack of confidence to speak English because they do not have basic for speak to other people. Last but not least, they also will feel shy to use English because they are afraid of speaking mistakes. 2.2 Lack of Motivation, Lack of Interest, Lack of Enforcement Furthermore, they also lack of motivation because they do not get any courage from their friend or family. When students do not have enough vocabulary word they  cannot speak any perfects English. If they cannot speak English properly, they will give their friend laugh and it will causes they do not have more interest in English. Besides that, they will also give up to learn English and also will drop out of study. Motivation may be expect to improve when class take into account students likes in teaching style and lesson material. Additionally, parents did not enforce their children to speak and learn English in home. Parents also lack of accompany with their children to teach them important of English or another language in the whole world even tourism and doing business. 2.3 Watch more English videos, more interaction, talk with others race After the factors let us talk about solutions to overcome the problem students who are face it. Lecturers can takes some video from youtube or google to share with students but ensure the video can help students to improve their English. They can also listen music English or see an English movie to increase their listen and speaking skill. We must let students have more interaction and practice among them when during lesson. Lecturers should break them into different group with different language or country to get more chance to be in touch with English in class. 2.4 Join the activity can improve English, Attended to tuition, Penalty The parents need to speak with them in English and without home language at home to improve their basic in speaking. Parents also can send them to counselling or campaign for training them to use English in social life. Students must me hardworking and go to a place which availability of additional resources or knowledge to increase their vocabulary. To give those students cannot handle the basics English parents should force them to attend tuition class. When students in the school or college, lecturers must be ensure students are in the English speaking zone to communicate with their friend without other language. Last but not least, if those students who are not follow the rules must give a heavy penalty to let them remember and would not do a same mistake against. 3.0 Recommendation and Conclusion The use of mother language is not conclusively a threat to English as a language or a subject at school. In school or college lecturers should be concern about students have the ability to differentiate the two language and separate them in formal and non-formal communications in class.  Therefore, poor performance in English cannot blame on home language, but a person’s background. In my view educators should take the responsibility and teach suitable things to enable the primary level students learn in English. Its can make them understanding in a better command of English. 4.0 REFERENCES 1) Jtonec. (2012). A Description of How the Teacher of Language and Literature May Use Drama in Education to Overcome Low Linguistic Competency and Low Self Confidence. Available: http://www.studymode.com/essays/a-Description-Of-How-The-Teacher-1221891.html. Last accessed 12 May 2014. 2) Timmytimmkins.(2010). Effective ESL Elements. Available: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Effective-Esl-Elements-406002.html. Last accessed 10 May 2014. Question 2 1.0 Introduction In this global computer science and technology, who does not have a cell phone these days? Even a child in primary school some of their parents also will give them a phone to them for easily to stay contact with parents. However in this era of technology, a cell phone most amazing things is that they are no longer just used for calling or texting. Actually, a cell phone is not just only a tool for communicate with family and it is also a tool for multimedia such as smartphones. The smartphones can use in multimedia likes games, pictures, songs and it will bring out many advantages and disadvantages for us so with this mind. Hence, should students be permitted to use cell phones in school has become a hot topic of discussion among individual. Thus, let us discuss and debate about this topic. 2.0 Main Body 2.1 Access Information, Useful Application Firstly, it goes without saying that the advantages of cell phones is it can help students to overcome some of their academic problems. This is due to the reason that cell phones allow them to download some useful software such as dictionary. When they cannot understand what their lectures teaching about due to the vocabulary, they can find the meaning of the vocabulary and try to translate it to their own language by using the dictionary software  so that they will manage to understand what their lectures teaching about. In addition, they can also access ‘google’ to find the materials which they need. This is because internets have a pool of information to provide the information that they acquire. On the other hand, the student parents can also check their children whereabouts by using a phone. Besides that, the smartphone also has a lot of function such as calendar, calculator, maps finder and many technology software. I can take an example that I will use software to supervise my homework and revision to ensure that I will not waste the precious time. 2.2 Replace Pen and Paper, Use To Memory, E-learning Apart from that, using cell phones to do home works or assignments can replace the pen and reduce the paper so that this will help to reduce deforestation as well as keep away from greenhouse effect. The cell phones can also become a â€Å"memory card†, when the student insufficient time to write down all the points that the lecturers given or he or she absents the lessons, they can just take a picture and do revision at home. Furthermore, they still can take out these pictures to revise before the examination. In this way it is killing two birds with one stone a stone. Additionally, they can use for E-learning in internet by using a cell phone with their friends and lectures to discuss homework or which are they do not understand in the lesson. 2.3 Distraction Class, Cheating, Bullying Every coin has two sides, cell phone also bring some disadvantages to us. Let us discuss the disadvantages of a cell phone right now. The cell phones also bring out many troubles to students like distract the lecturer and all their friends. The meaning distract is stand for while lecturer teaching in the class the students who play games and the worst is cell phones ringing will disturb the whole class force to stop the class. After that, the students will also laugh at which classmates those who are not using the latest phone. They cannot understand their parents work hard also unable to buy a latest phone to them because new phones price is too expensive and even run up to two thousand. 2.4 Annoying Lecturers, Health Hazard, Safety of Students When lecturers is teaching in the class, the students which is mischievous will take the lecturer funny picture and upload to the social network to annoying their lecturer. These types of students do not have manners because they did not give any respect to their lecturer. England scientist investigate point out if each people using cell phones in one day more than 2 hours, they will get health hazard like shortsighted, radiation, skin cancer. So, if students bring cell phones to school they will get more times to be in touch with the disease above. Beside, students can keep play their phones and did not pay attention when they go downstairs or cross the road. It is very dangerous actions and do not behave their self and their family. 3.0 Recommendation and Conclusion In the last, students bring cell phones to school have both of advantages and disadvantages but they should know how to use the cell phones in the place is correct. We can come to a conclusion that although mobile phones have their weak points, they are very useful when they are necessary. Students are the decision makers. Therefore, we can choose which are good and bad. According to my opinion cell phones are very useful things if we use them in a proper way in the school it may help students solve many problems. 4.0 REFERENCES 1) RaulBarrera. (2012). Disadvantages of Cell Phones in School. Available: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Disadvantages-Of-Cell-Phones-In-School-1074638.html. Last accessed 6 May 2014. 2) HayItsGio. (2012). Cell Phones in School. Available: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Cell-Phones-In-School-1317488.html. Last accessed 4 May 2014.

Forecasting the manpower needs of Ya Kun Essay

Question-1: How would you forecast the manpower needs of Ya Kun? There are few ways by which we can forecast the manpower needs of Ya Kun Kaya. They are: * Trend analysis * Ratio analysis * Scatter plot and * Computerized system Based on trend analysis, we can find new recruit by studying the variation of their past employment levels which means that they can provide an initial estimate of future staffing needs, but employment levels rarely depend just on the passage of time. They looked their past performance of sales, productivity and so on to estimate their employee also because if their performance goes beyond their expectation like Ya kun that have many outlets throughout the world, they may required more employee either full time or part-time. Other forecasting method that we can use to forecast their manpower is ratio analysis. In this method, the forecasting would be based on the historical ratio between some causal factor (like sales volume) and the number of employee required such salespeople. In this case, Ya Kun need more employee because they need more salespeople to run the business in each of their outlets. The sales volume for Ya Kun also one of the factor that Ya Kun need to recruit employee. Compared to trend analysis, ratio analysis assumes that productivity remains about the same. Another method we can use is scatter plot to forecast their manpower. In this method, the personnel may use two related variables to indicate the relation between the two such as sales volume and number of employee. If these two factors are related, then the points will tend to fall along straight line then the personnel can forecast the need of new recruitment. Computerized forecasting also is one way that can be used to forecast their need of manpower. With programs like these, employers can more accurately estimate how many employee that they need to projected productivity and sales. Question-2: What are the advantages and disadvantages of Ya Kun’s hiring part-time workers? Advantages of hiring part-time workers include: * Flexibility in scheduling as they help to fill in the gaps when the full-time workers go on leave or are taken ill. * Part-timers will complement the full-time workers. * Allows Ya Kun to tap into a larger available pool of job applicants as many more people may be willing and able to work part-time as opposed to full-time. * They may be deployed strategically during peak hours. Disadvantages include: * They may be less committed to the company. * It may be more difficult to integrate them as they only work occasionally. * Having too many part-time workers may affect teamwork. Question-3: A good attitude and commitment are two important attributes that Ya Kun looks for in its job applicants. Is a job interview an effective method to assess these two attributes? What else can Ya Kun do to get reliable information on these two attributes? A job interview may not be the most effective method to assess these two attributes as they are not directly observable during the interview process. In order to obtain reliable information on these two attributes, managers of Ya Kun may: * Ask the job applicants for referrals in the application pack, and contact the referrals to obtain information regarding these two attributes. * Use critical incidence interviews to test if the job applicants have past examples of these attributes. * Provide job applicants with a realistic job preview by telling them about all the challenges and worst case scenarios that their staff faces. This allows the applicants to have a better idea of the job and make a better-informed choice of whether to take up the job or not. * Use role-playing exercises where the applicants play the role of the staff, and the managers the customers, so that the managers may observe how the applicants may potentially react when they are actually working for Ya Kun. Question-4: What suggestions would you make to Ya Kun to improve its recruiting processes? Ya Kun’s low turnover rate and large pool of hardworking committed workers indicates that its recruitment processes are working well. However, to improve their recruiting process, Ya Kun’s managers may choose to: * Use more internal referrals as employees know what kinds of applicants will fit well with the prevalent company culture. * Hire a larger ratio of part-timers to full-timers as this allows them greater flexibility in scheduling. * Convert part-timers to full-timers if they perform well and if they are open to the switch. * Maintain contact with those employees who have left the company so that they can be informed of any new positions in the company. Q1. Ya Kun can forecast the manpower needs by using ratio analysis to conduct a quantitative analysis of information in a company’s financial statements. Ratios are calculated from current year numbers and are then compared to previous years, other companies, the industry, or even the economy to judge the performance of the company. Based on the analysis, Ya Kun could increase their salesperson to run the business in their outlet. Ya Kun can even use trend analysis as an aspect of technical analysis that tries to predict the future movement of a stock based on past data. Trend analysis is based on the idea that what has happened in the past gives traders an idea of what will happen in the future. Based on trend analysis, Ya Kun can find new recruit by using their past experienced by estimating the number of staffs needed in future. The organization could either recruit full- timers or part timers. YaKun also can use computerized system to predict the manpower needs for their organization. The employer could estimate the number of staffs needed to increase their sales. Q3. A job interview is not really an effective way to assess these attributes. It is because a job interview is only a process in which a potential employee  is evaluated by an employer. During this process, the employer hopes to determine whether or not the applicant is suitable for the job by looking at their experience and academy level. If Ya Kun is looking for an employee with a good attitude and commitment they could use behavioral interview questions. Through this way the employer could ask questions related on what they did in past jobs or life situations that are relevant to the particular job and skills. The answers given by the applicant can be used to predict their future performance in similar situations. Ya Kun could also use situational interview questions. During the question and answer session the applicant will be ask to imagine a situation and respond base on it. Based on the answers given, the employer could predict the commitment level of the applicant. Ya Kun could use the two weeks training period to study more about the applicant because it is difficult to judge the attitude and commitment level during theinterview. Usually commitment level and attitude will be only revealed after acertain period of time.

How To Write A Research Paper Essay

This guide covers research papers, and provides advice on forming a title for your research paper, how to plan your paper before you start, and filtering material for your research paper. What is a research paper? The terms ‘research paper’ and ‘term paper’ are frequently used interchangeably. However, the terms do not mean the same thing. ‘Term paper’ was used in the past exclusively to refer to the project (indeed research based) that was due at the end of a term, semester or quarter whereas ‘research paper’ had a more specific meaning, i.e. a paper written as a summary of research. Hence ‘research papers’ may be written at any level (before, during and after attending university), they may be published works in a professional journal and they may represent the results of practical research, which would not ordinarily be conducted for a term paper. This is the context in which we will discuss the term ‘research paper’ herein. A research paper is an academic written assignment that is the product of a research project. This may span days, months, weeks or even years. Typically, research papers will involve the examination of a particular issue, and discuss: * The background or history of that issue * Any outstanding questions relating to the issue (the research paper will commonly focus on one particular question and seek to establish evidence to answer this) * The current data and statistics relating to the issue * The problems relating to the issue as revealed by the data * The problems relating to the issue as revealed by practical primary research (i.e. carrying out interviews, tests etc) or secondary research (i.e. looking at other people’s research) * Proposed solutions to the problems, and the strengths and weaknesses of these * Conclusions drawn from the data, research and evidence, as examined * Recommendations in relation to these conclusions. We will look at each of these elements in turn, in order to understand how a student or professional can write a good research paper. Forming a title for your research paper Unlike most types of assignment, the research paper title is usually decided upon AFTER you have completed the paper. This is so that the title accurately reflects the contents of the paper. However, your research paper will need a working title. This helps you to focus and helps others to understand what you are doing – for example, your lecturer/instructor or, if working at a higher level, those funding your project. You should therefore return to this section when you have completed your paper. You then need to pick a concise, accurate title for your research paper that will make readers want to look at your content, help others find your paper in databases, and explain exactly what is covered by the paper with a high degree of accuracy. A research paper will commonly have a title of 15-20 words in length. Every word must be necessary for the title – and so for example, ‘Project on†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘Paper on†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘Research on†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ should be removed as these types of phrases are not necessary. Example concise research paper titles: * Unemployment by Constituency * Transport in New York Research Paper Subtitle Unlike a research paper or essay, it is very common to give your research paper a subtitle. This explains your title more fully, puts it in context and qualifies the extent, or scope, of the research. Example subtitles (relating to the above example titles): * 2007-2008 trends using constituency maps * Transport governance and provision since X was elected in 1999 Researching/gathering information for your research paper As your research paper needs to show a good depth of reading, good research skills are paramount! But before you start, a key thing to bear in mind is that you MUST reference all material that you use in your paper. So the first thing to do is find out what referencing style is required (either by your university or, if you are writing a research paper for a journal, by that journal) and start to record the location of your sources using that referencing style. If you do this as you perform the research, you’ll save yourself hours of time later on. Here are some research tips to get you started: RESEARCH STEP 1 * Form a list of keywords from your research paper’s working title * Use a thesaurus to find words that mean the same thing as your list of keywords RESEARCH STEP 2 Most students will begin researching using the Internet and indeed, this is a great way to get ideas for your research paper. So start with Google, type in your keywords and bookmark the most relevant information sites that appear in relation to the issue. Then identify all current matters that relate to your issue from those sites. Note: Internet websites provide a fast source of up-to-date information but unfortunately they are not a reliable source. Use a search of the web as a starting point but unless the website is hosted and edited by a ‘reliable’ organization (such as the Government), don’t rely on its contents as a source for your research paper. Find another means of verifying the information. RESEARCH STEP 3 Now you’ve identified a list of issues and current debates for your research paper, you need to find some quality source material. The first stage is to find the most recent books written about the issue you’re researching. Whilst books are not as up-to-date as journals and articles, they will contain valid points-of-view that need to be considered. So where do you find books for your research paper? * Google Books – this is a good place to start as it has several thousand books that have been scanned in, together with details and snippet views of those which haven’t been scanned in. * Amazon.com – Amazon is a good source because you can see which books are being released, and their release date, as well as using ‘search inside’ to look through the contents of many books (this latter service only works if you have placed an order before) * Questia – Questia has thousands of books scanned in although you have to pay a small subscription fee. Your university may also provide you with access to a library and you can then search through their databases to find the most relevant and recent books for your research paper. The best way to scan whether a book is relevant to what you’re writing about is to look through the index. You’ll quickly see if there’s anything useful in the book for your research paper. RESEARCH STEP 4 Now you have the latest books for your research paper, you need to start looking for journals. These really should be your main type of source material. Open University Web Resources is an excellent list of such journal databases, although you’ll need an ATHENS password to use some of them. Our favorite journal databases for consistently excellent and up-to-date content are: * ScienceDirect – 2,000 peer-reviewed journals, books, handbooks etc * EBSCO- thousands of journals, millions of articles * Emerald- thousands of journals in management and library and information services, engineering, applied science and technology * Ingenta – 4,500+ journals in all fields and a further 20,000 abstracts The latter source, Ingenta, gives you FREE access to the bibliography which is useful for your research paper even if you don’t have an athens login. Locate articles relating to your subject and check out the bibliography for further reading which you might be able to locate online without passwords. You can sometimes obtain a free trial of these databases giving you temporary access. Also, the four websites also have a good number of journals that you do not need a subscription to view. These are often indicated by a special icon. For example (from Ingenta): RESEARCH STEP 5 There is one final type of source material you need to consider, and that is the news. If you’re lucky enough to have an athens password, your first stop will be Lexis Professional (formerly known as LexisNexis Executive) which contains the full text of newspapers and other news sources worldwide; as well as company data, annual reports and business directory information from Disclosure, Extel, ICC, and Worldscope. If you don’t have an athens password, any good news site will suffice – US News, CNN etc. Of course, if you are researching an issue which affects another country, you should be looking at that country’s main news website. What you are looking for is any current developments that may affect the research for your paper. This may be statistics released by the Government, consultation papers, proposed changes in legislation, current developments or debates etc. Don’t forget, newspapers are NOT a reliable source of information. You are using them to find information for your research paper but you should substantiate this information once you have found it. If it is reported that the Government has released some statistics, go and find those on the Government website. If a consultation paper has been released, go and find the paper and read it. Filtering the material for your research paper The five step research process reveals a lot of information for your research paper and you’ll need to filter it down, or you’ll have too much to analyses. This does, however, beg the question – how many sources should you use? The answer to this depends on the level of your research paper. If it is an assignment for your degree, you should look at using roughly 9 quality sources per 2,500 words. If it is for some post-graduate course, you can easily double that. A professional research paper (for publication) might use 30-40 sources per 2,500 words. The emphasis in all cases, however, should be on quality and not on quantity. A good selection of research material from a variety of quality sources (i.e. not just books, not just journals, not just the internet and not just the news) is far better than a huge selection of research material from poor quality, unreliable sources of a similar type. To help filter the information you have found for your research paper, you are going to need to evaluate its quality. This involves a consideration of whether: * The source is a quality source -it’s reliable, dependable and highly likely to be accurate. * The source is unbiased – watch newspapers which may have political views. Ask yourself if the writer has presented a balance argument, or has deliberately played down one side of the argument to prove his own personal views. * The source is relevant to your research – does it specifically tie in with your working title? * You haven’t already got enough material to prove what this source proves – if you aim to back up each of your arguments in your research paper with 2-3 pieces of evidence (for a very high quality paper) or at least 2 for a student paper, then you can filter out any material that is excessive of this. Creating an outline for your research paper A basic outline will look something like this: * Working title (as discussed previously) * Purpose – this is a short statement to say what the paper is for. It helps people who are looking for research papers themselves to assess the relevancy of your research paper to their studies. Example purpose statement: This paper shows the number of people claiming benefits recorded as resident in each constituency in the United States in July 2008, together with comparisons with the levels in July 2007 and July 1997. This paper also presents residence-based unemployment rates for all constituencies in the United States. * Methodology – this is a statement of how you will carry out your research. You have already done some ‘secondary research’ but you may also wish to carry out ‘primary research’ for your paper. Primary research (sometimes called ’empirical research’) is research you carry out yourself and data that is produced as a result of this, which has never been published before. Primary research may be carried out through face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, postal surveys, website surveys or focus/discussion groups. Be careful before carrying out research over the phone or through the post though – some states allow people to restrict how they are contacted. Secondary research is the study of data that exists already such as books, journals, statistics, other research papers, websites, news reports, magazine articles etc. You have already carried out secondary research through the five step research process. So which research method is best for your research paper? Instinctively you may think that the primary data will provide the most interesting results. However, if your time and budget are both limited, do not be tempted to embark on a study. You will do far better analyzing existing studies than producing a low-quality study that is limited in its value due to the amount of time and finance you can devote to it. * Scope of research – all research is going to be limited to certain factors. A paper on ‘crime’ cannot investigate all types of crime, committed by all sexes, all ages, globally. So how are you going to limit your paper? What areas of the issue will you look at and which will you discard? Your statement of scope will be about 150-300 words long and explain exactly what you are going to cover in your research, and what you are going to leave out (usually with brief reasons). If you are carrying out primary research, you may want to set out the limitations of this here too. * Introduction – this is where you set the scene for your reader. You explain what you are researching and why. You identify the issues you will be looking into and you say what you are going to prove. It is therefore a good idea to write this last, along with your final title! * Background/history – this section of your research paper isn’t essential but might be appropriate. You might want to explain the development of the issue and how particular matters have arisen. Don’t bother unless it is necessary, to put the matter in context. * Body – this section of your research paper will be broken up into sub-sections, each dealing with a particular sub-matter. Aim to present balanced evidence in each section on the points you wish to raise, and try not to reach any conclusions at this stage. The ‘body’ is the body of your research, not the analysis. * Findings/Discussion – here’s where you analyze the research you have conducted and say how your findings are relevant to the issue. It’s a very important section, without which you will have merely stated other people’s findings and opinions without contributing anything yourself. * Conclusion – this section of your research paper returns to the introduction and stated aims, and spells out very clearly how you achieved them, referring to the points you have proved and the evidence you have used to prove it. It should not be repetitive but instead, it should summarize the results of your research. You should also ensure no new material is introduced at this stage – if you have new material for your research paper, put it in the body and findings sections. * Recommendations – this section of your research paper is very much optional and will depend on whether such a section would be appropriate for the subject you are studying. Law research papers almost always will include recommendations. What sort of recommendations should you make? These might include: * How policies/the law/practice should be changed, based on your findings * What further research must be carried out before making any sensible recommendations. Your recommendations must actually relate to what you have established in your research paper. You cannot randomly introduce things at this stage that you think might be useful. They must be logical recommendations, based on your research and analysis, and they should follow on from the conclusion. Now you have written out an outline for your research paper, you will literally be able to ‘fill in the blanks’ and your paper should evolve and progress naturally, following the headings you have chosen. Keep referring back to your working title as you write, as well as to your methodology and scope. This should limit you to material that is most relevant and ensure you don’t include excessive, unnecessary points. Finishing your research paper Now you’ve written up your research paper, you’ll need to do a little editing and proofreading to ensure the finished product achieves the grade you’re looking for. This includes: * Weeding out any unnecessary material. Evaluate what you have written and whether it is needed, keeping the methodology, scope and working title in mind * Proofreading your research paper. Read it out loud, have someone else read it for you, run a spell check, run a grammar check – go over the paper several times and make sure you haven’t made any errors. There are often extra marks for students in respect of presentation. * Checking your referencing. Every source should be properly referenced. Quotations should be in â€Å"quotation marks†. Your work should contain a full list of references and a bibliography. References are sources you actually cite in your work whereas the bibliography includes sources which you may have read, and may have influenced your writing, but you haven’t specifically cited.