Ethics of stem cell research Essay

The employment of human embryonic stem cells is a significant breakthrough in the filed of biomedical research. The capability to isolate, culture, harvest and manipulate stem cells presents a huge potential to generate new cells that will technically replace non-functional or degenerate cells in a patient’s body. Such revolutionary technology may possibly serve as a new treatment method for incurable and debilitating diseases. Amidst the excitement within the scientific world for the promises stem cell research brings, there is a growing debate on the ethics that are associated with this novel technology. The collection and manipulation of embryonic stem cells in the laboratory is dependent on the destruction of embryos. Such procurement of biological material therefore warrants the termination of an embryo which directly represents the very beginning of a human being (Robertson, 1999; Leies, 2005). Society has thus questioned whether the scientific world has ignored the absolute value of life in exchange for excellence in biomedical research. In a newspaper article from the Washington post entitled â€Å"Clash over stem cell research heats up,† Rick Weiss (2006) describes how stem cell research is perceived by two sides of the issue. Both sides have aggressively used the media in helping them air out their concerns and excitement, respectively, over the use of embryonic stem cells. The newspaper article was written and published a few days before the Senate would meet to determine the fate of embryonic stem cell research in the United States. The stem cell research bill was initially reviewed in 2001 and indicated that research efforts on embryonic stem cells in the United States will not be funded due to ethical reasons. This new bill will thus take control of the 2001 restriction and will therefore allow funding of research programs on embryonic stem cells that have been created as of August 2001. The bill aims to preserve and protect human embryos from their destruction, yet several scientific groups have claimed that this restriction has hampered their research efforts on regenerative medicine, and has also resulted in the lag of research output. More importantly, other countries that are not restricted from performing embryonic stem cell research have gained a 5-years’ worth of research advantage over the United States. The controversy regarding the ethical issues of embryonic stem cell research impacts the entire human population. Each individual in the society has a susceptibility to contract a disease that might possibly need the use of stem cells that can replace defective ones in the body. We have heard of a number of public figures that have suffered from diseases that could have been resolved through the use of embryonic stem cells. The late former President Ronal Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and the late actor Christopher Reeve experienced spinal cord injury. Both of these individuals are prime examples of people who could have benefited from the results of embryonic stem cell research. Stem cells may be cultured and manipulated to differentiate into specific types of cells such as astrocytes or brain cells for Alzheimer’s patients, and neural cells for patients with spinal cord injury (Snow, 2003). However, nothing has been done since 2001 because the federal government has put a hold on any research activities that involves stem cell manipulation and experimentation. A solution to current debate on the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cell research is the comprehensive explanation of the definition of embryonic stem cells. It is imperative that the non-scientific public understand the principles and techniques behind the generation of embryonic stem cells. It is also important that the public know that harvesting embryonic stem cells is not much different from abortion. It is also essential to understand that the body of a human female biologically destroys or discards hundred of eggs cells through the natural course. The scientific group, in turn, should be patient enough to explain the area of embryonic stem cell research. I think that the ethical debate on the use of embryonic stem cells for research originates mainly from the miscommunication, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the concept of embryonic stem cells. In addition, the public only relies on the information that is released by senators and stem cell research activists, who have actually distorted the concept of stem cell research. Should the scientific world be humble enough to example the basics of stem cell research, including the misnomers and benefits of the research, the ethical debate on this issue would decrease and might even vanish. The debate on the ethical issues of stem cell research is just one of several topics that have been under intense scrutiny by the public eye. Other issues of human concern include the employment of genetically modified organisms (GMO), organic foods, genetic engineering and biotechnology. It should be known that these technological innovations were basically created to improve the quality of life and not to destroy existing life forms. Everything that interacts with human beings has its benefits and disadvantages, yet these biomedical breakthroughs are the usual focus of attention of the public. However, if we weigh the benefits and risks of stem cell research, we will realize that the benefits of stem cell research far outweighs the disadvantages that may result from the use of this technology. We should always remember that decades ago, so many lives were lost from bacterial infection because antibiotics were not discovered yet. Today, antibiotics are a common treatment regime for bacterial infections, which is a huge benefit to human health, but it also has resulting in the creation of drug-resistant strains of bacteria. The same setting may also be observed in terms of stem cell research, but we should intelligently consider both sides of the technology.

Molecules of Life

Molecules of Life Computer Assignment A) What characteristics are typical of molecules that are gases at room temperature? Molecules that are gases at room temperature tend to be smaller in size. This causes it to have a small molecular masses and has a relatively weak intermolecular forces of attraction. B) Compare and contrast the characteristics of soluble and insoluble molecules. Soluble MoleculesInsoluble Molecules -polar-non polar -lots of oxygen atoms-very few oxygen atoms -high electronegativity-low electronegativity C) Describe the general molecular characteristics of mono and disaccharides.What features account for their high solubility in water. The feature of mono and disaccharides that accounts for their high solubility in water is that they are relatively small-moderate in size and are polar (or ionic). D) What element forms the bridge between the monomers that make up maltose and sucrose? What molecule was made during the condensation reactions that formed these disacc harides? A water molecule is formed during the condensation reactions that formed these disaccharides. This leaves a oxygen behind which bridges between the monomers that make up maltose and sucrose.E) Compare and contrast the overall shapes of cellulose, amylose, and amylopectin. How do their differences in structure account for their different biological functions? CelluloseAmyloseAmylopectin non-branchingnon-linearnon-linear linearglobular structureglobular structure ability to bond to hydrogennon-branchingbranched FunctionFunctionFunction Structural support for plantsglucose storage moleculesglucose storage molecules F) What features of cellulose molecules account for both the strength and the water absorbing qualities of paper towels?The features of a cellulose molecule that accounts for both the strength and the water absorbing qualities of paper towels are that it is polar making it attracted to water molecules but because the molecule is so large it is not soluble. Causing i t to pick up water easily. G) What type of intermolecular force dominates the interactions of carbohydrates and water? The type of intermolecular force that dominates the interactions of carbohydrates and water would be hydrogen bonds. H) Describe the general characteristics of all fatty acids.The general characteristics of all fatty acids are they contain mainly carbon and hydrogen with very few oxygen atoms. They also have poor solubility making it â€Å"waterproof†. I) Compare the shape and molecular structure of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Provide examples to support your description. The differences between saturated and unsaturated fats is that unsaturated fats contain one or more double bonds of carbon bonds making the molecule look twisted in that area, whereas saturated fats don’t contain any double bonds and are linear.This causes the saturated fats to have a higher intermolecular force then unsaturated fats. J) What functional groups are involved in the formation of a triglyceride from glycerol and fatty acids? The functional groups that are involved in the formation of a triglyceride from glycerol and fatty acids are three fatty acids are joined to a glycerol atom which then go through three dehydration reactions. K) What is the fundamental difference between a triglyceride and a phospholipid?How does this difference account for the hydrophobic and hydrophilic nature of the phospholipid molecule? Phospholipids are different then triglyceride because they have a highly polar phosphate group attached to the glycerol instead of having three fatty acids, the highly polar phosphate is strongly attracted to water. The hydrophobic part of the atom is the two non-polar fatty acids at the end of the molecule making a â€Å"tail†. While the hydrophilic part of the atom is the highly polar phosphate called the â€Å"head†.

Changes in the Field of Civil Engineering Essay

Changes in the Field of Civil Engineering - Essay Example The aim of this report is to explore the changes that are occurring in the rhetorical practices in the field of civil engineering. Globalization, the computer evolution, population demand, scientific advancements as well as the growing concern for environmental and security in the field of material science, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are the key drivers of the changes. As the changes continue to emerge, students need to adapt, adjust and conform to the changes by acquiring more knowledge about the field that they otherwise would in the past. The adjustments need not only to be in the traditional sciences and math, but also to encompass emerging domains in engineering and science and knowledge in crucial areas such as leadership, communication, marketing, business management, and practical processes. In addition, students must be able to learn how to come up with innovative designs that are required for maintaining and enhancing the competitive advantage with respect to other n ations, and be able to prepare adequately to accomplish emerging professional challenges. Therefore, there is an urgent need to expand and improve civil engineering education (CEE), including professional innovators such as civil engineers with skills and knowledge required to develop novel designs, which can be patented. Over the past six decades, the United States has witnessed a significant reduction in the number of credit hours required for a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. In fact, at present, America’s average hours stands at about 125 credit hours only. (Arciszewski and Russell 5). This is a huge reduction considering the fact that just decade ago, the U.S. average credit hours for a bachelor’s degree in engineering took an average of 135 hours. This emerging trend is, particularly driven by state funded universities, which are increasingly heeding to political pressure to reduce the cost incurred in undergraduate education, as well as to ensure that civil engineering students graduate in four years. It is also unfortunate that even private universities are increasingly adopting this trend in a bid to remain competitive. Presently, civil engineering education in the country is struggling with the blatant contradiction between the national, state, and local level needs, according to Arciszewski and Russell (5). The aim of this report is to explore the changes that are occurring in the rhetorical practices in the field of civil engineering. The field of civil engineering has undergone many changes over the years. This has seen most paradigms being replaced by the emerging concepts. As earlier stated, the changes that have occurred in the field of civil engineering are attributed mainly to the rapid technological advancements and globalization being witnessed in different parts of the world today. This has necessitated students to adjust in their learning in order to keep pace with the changing needs of the world in the field of civil engineering. According to Arciszewski and Russell, the engineering system evolution is driven by objective evolutionary techniques, known as patterns of evolution (8). They argue that this pattern applies to all engineering fields, including CEE and practice. Many studies that dates back to the 1940s found nine patterns of evolution in the field of engineering. However, the S-curve pattern is the most relevant in CEE. According to the S-curve pattern, engineering systems have undergone transformations following an S-curve pattern, when the relationship between time and specific characteristics of an engineering system are both taken into consideration. This implies that each engineering system has a life cycle that once completed give rise to another system based on different assumptions or different paradigm, as shown in figure 1. For example, when we consider airplanes, we realize that there are separate S-curves for propeller-driven airplanes, jet planes, and turbo-prope ller planes. In this regard, we end up with a family

Design a pay structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Design a pay structure - Essay Example The three main compensable factors that are identified are responsibility, Skill, and effort with each compensable factor having two sub-factors or degrees (Burke, 2008). For instance, the skill factor is made up of educational and technical know-how. Responsibility is made up of impact of the job and scope of control. Effort is made up of the degree of solving problems and how complex tasks are. Outliers ought to be done away with since the will not offer representativeness for the sample (Armstrong, 2002). This implies that the will be extreme data points that need to be taken consideration of in a separate manner. Therefore, in the present data set, there is no extreme outliers that need to be taken concern of. The base bay weighted means will be computed for every benchmarked job. Weighted means will be computed to represent the market data well (Milkovich & Newman, 2008. The simple mean will be computed by summing up the base pay rates and then subsequently dividing them by the total number of organizations, which are a total of six in the present case. The large and small companies in this case will be given the same weights since we are using a simple mean. The weighted mean is good since it offers equal weight for every incumbents wage, job and hence it qualifies as a representative (Burke, 2008). To establish the weighted average base the following is used to come up with the weighted average pay for front desk receptionist job where there are nine job in office in all the six companies. (1/9 X2100) + (2/9 X 2200) + (1/9 X 1800) + ()2/9 X 18500) + (1/9 X 17500)=$19944.44 To come up with the given pay rates provide a three percent pay tactic across the families of jobs. Excel was used to multiply the pay rates that were predicted for every benchmark job (Burke, 2008). The benchmark jobs were multiplied by 1.03. The computations came up with pay rates that were

Why 16 year olds should not get their driver license Essay

Why 16 year olds should not get their driver license - Essay Example Given the current statistics on accidents related to teen driving, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the issuance of driving licenses to teenagers needs to be reviewed. A sixteen year old is still not an adult and is not able to make critical decisions when required to do so. There are several reasons to support the fact that a sixteen year old should not be issued with a driving license as discussed below. For a good driver, anticipation is very vital in making correct judgments on the road while driving. A driver needs to look beyond his/her bonnet in order to drive according to the surrounding and be able to make quick decisions in accordance with the prevailing factors around him/her. A teenager of 16 years cannot quickly comprehend the happenings around him/her and will not look beyond the bonnet while driving. The fact that they cannot react quickly to any changes around them that can potentially be risky makes them very vulnerable to accidents and, therefore, not fit to hold driving licenses. Teenagers like taking unnecessary risks in almost everything that they do. A good example is in video games, where after playing street race games, they will normally want to do the same practically on the road. For a sixteen year old kid with a driving license, imitating video games will lead to overspending. One fact about driving at very high speeds is that getting to control the vehicle becomes a big challenge. According to recent reports, most deaths of teenagers between the age of 15 and 18 are caused by crashes that are, as a result, of overspending. Most teenagers at sixteen years cannot make out the difference in the working principles of a vehicle and what they play on video games. Mastering the rules of the highway may also be a problem for most teens at sixteen years. Consequently, this may lead to accidents that may cost lives. Most teenagers are fans to loud music and other channels of entertainment. They are characterized

Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited Essay

Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited - Essay Example Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited Music began its long relationship with copyrights through the Berne Convention 1886 which established that the moral right of ownership of a property had an effect on the reproduction of a property. This was extended to film through referring to it as a series of pictures in 1911 and in the Copyright Act of 1956 and then in the UK Performers; Protection Acts 1958-1972 began to solve the problems associated with copying protected intellectual property. The Americans would not sign on to the Berne Convention 1886. However, copyright is established as a right under the Constitution which supports a general belief in the concept of ownership. All subsequent American laws are developed from this foundation of law in their Constitution. Emerging sources of income in the early 20th century in the music industry were defined by performance, mechanical, and synchronized income. Performance income is based upon the revenue that is earned through users who create a public performance of the wor k that generates benefit. Performance rights are managed through entities that hold and can allow a performance to be licensed for a fee. Mechanical income comes from users who are reproducing a piece of music through technology of some kind. When other types of media utilize a song, then synchronization income is generated (Gammons 2010: 50). The MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) takes on the role of responsibility to administer licensed music. Through the use of a blanket license, the user is permitted use through a variety of forms of mechanical reproduction (Parker 2004: 78). The development of technologies in the 1960s created even more ways in which synchronization could be used to create multiple levels of income. While the film industry had become a well tapped resource for income as music was used liberally in movies, the television industry as it became more and more of a staple offered the music industry a

Computer Electronics Warehouse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Computer Electronics Warehouse - Essay Example o address how a computer warehouse can be kept operational for computer/laptop along with their accessories through delineating the advantages and the disadvantages of warehouse automation. Moreover, the strategies to be used for optimal utilization of surface area and importance of suppliers in warehousing management would also be determined. Evolution of My Warehouse. My warehouse mission statement is to be consistent in superior delivery through proper management of warehouse and emerging as the United States’ (US) leading retailer of computer/laptop and accessories with a vision of becoming the customers’ first choice through providing a wider range of quality products at best price with superior advice. Being the employers’ prior choice in industry would also be a key mission of the warehouse. The warehouse deals in the products including computer, laptops and accessories which are commonly usable products in office, household along with commercial purposes. Correspondingly, the proper route for distribution of these products will be using land, sea, air and through online which can help in smooth and easy processing. Location of warehouse should be in heavy industrialised area as such equipment requires proper knowledge with proper handing. Besides, the employees should have ample knowledge of w ork and have high experience of working in handling sensitive materials as any mislead in the process of storing could create massive loss to the warehouse operations. Employees should further be sub-divided into various departments with proper warehouse assistants who should be experienced enough in monitoring goods safely and maintaining efficiency with proper records. For a particular section of employees employed in moving various products within the warehouse, any previous experience might not be critical as full training program would be gradually provided to enhance their knowledge about their job role. However, knowledge about the warehouse environment

The Death of Socrates Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Death of Socrates - Assignment Example â€Å"The Death of Socrates† was completed in 1784 by Jacques-Louis David. David’s painting is a fine example of academic art which was a prevalent form in his day and age. The work was commissioned by the Tredaine de Montigny brothers, both of whom were active supporters of open public discussions and the free market system. This work of David’s would, ultimately, become an image of inspiration during the French Revolution.("Boston College") Academic artists rely on some very specific elements in order to qualify within the discipline. Firstly, it must contain historical relevance. The major subject of the work must contain a â€Å"sense of universal experience† within heroic terms; and nothing is allowed to distract from the subject or events that are being represented.(Goldstein 103) Socrates was a man of differing ideals and inspiring orations that earned him the accusations of being disruptive and of corrupting the Grecian youth. He was, ultimately, p ut on trial for this â€Å"crime† and found to be guilty. He was given the option of banishment or death by the consumption of hemlock. He accepts death rather than give up his principles. ... There are six people on either side of the philosopher. This includes the three individuals, one of which is Socrates’ wife, that are exiting up the distant stairs. The balance uses perspective that prevents the small, confining cell space from becoming overcrowded and helps keep the overall focus upon the main subject. The use of the neutral brown wood and gray stone has little texture, the majority of texture, as well as, color come from the people presented. Blue, rust, and yellow fabric is being worn repeatedly throughout the work, including by those exiting on the stairs. This retains the connected nature of everyone in the work. After all, in this style nothing can detract from the subject. This color continuity guarantees the perception that everyone is there or was there because of Socrates. The people on the stairs are not mistaken for people visiting another condemned prisoner. The only other character present that is even remotely distinguishable from the rest is, P lato, who is, also, wearing white robes. However, his robes remain more heavily shadowed. The light does not reflect as brightly upon his robes nor upon his skin as it does upon his mentor. Unity is extremely important within academic art, as well as, relevant in any piece of art. Unity is responsible for achieving an air of commonality within the end result and provides a sense of harmony of all the elements present.(Jirousek ) We know that all the individuals in â€Å"The Death of Socrates† belong there. We can look upon the environment and wardrobe and we accept that a moment of Grecian history has been captured. Everything appears and feels right. The intended function of the work and the artist’s purpose in creating it plays a huge role in the overall unity of the piece, as well.

Native Americans in the United States Essay Example for Free

Native Americans in the United States Essay The Navajo’s land was very precious. They lived in a huge expanse of land. They lived in large chunks of Utah and Arizona. They also inhabited small parts of Colorado and New Mexico. They had a similar climate all year around. The climate was arid to semi-arid. They had very hot summers and very cold winters. The annual precipitation for most of their land was less than 10 inches of rain. The average temperature range was 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They also had natural resources. They had coal, uranium, oil, natural gas, minerals, petroleum, agriculture, and herbs. ? LAKE NAVAJO ? FOOD: The Navajos had various amounts of food. They grew corn, beans, squash and melons. They hunted and ate Kaibab squirrels, black tailed jack rabbits, small pigs, peccary, horses, buffalo and sheep. They baked kneel down bread, Navajo cake, Navajo pancakes, blue â€Å"dumplings†, blue bread, hominy cookies, and squash blossoms stuffed with blue corn mush and pinon leaves. They also steamed and roasted corn. They harvested wild fruits and vegetables such as pinon nuts, corn silk, wild berries, wild onion, Navajo spinach (bee weed and pig weed), wolf â€Å"berry†, wax currant, sumac grapes, juniper oranges, yucca bananas, and Navajo tea (telesperma). They also traded for deer, squash seeds, tumble mustard seeds, pinto beans, goat, goat milk, and goat cheese. In special occasions they would have wild edible clay, wild potatoes, mimosa, sagebrush, and juniper ash. ? NAVAJO PANCAKES ? SHELTER: The Navajos had different homes than other native tribes. They lived in small clusters of families spread around. There’re 2 types of hogans (what they lived in), the winter type and the summer type. The winter hogan was more closed and padded for the cold but; the summer hogan was more open and less padded for the heat. They were both miserable and crude structures. The reason for them living in such poorly built homes was because they were nomads (so they could easily leave in a moments notice). They considered the outdoors as home. They used there â€Å"house† for storage, warmth and sleep. They said they wouldn’t get attached to their â€Å"homes† like white men (Americans). Hogans were round â€Å"houses† built with sticks, packed with earth and covered with brush, animal hides and whatever else they could find or was available. The front door always faced east to catch first light. They later built more advanced and bigger hogans made out of logs from pinon trees, and mud. ? NAVAJO HOGAN ? CLIMATE/ GEOGRAPHY INFLUENCE: The Navajo’s climate and geography affected them. Geography caused them not to have the same food or clothing in all parts of the Navajo land because some stuff didn’t grow everywhere and, the terrain made them wear different clothing according to altitude weather. Climate caused them not to have the same food, clothing or shelter all year around either. Some stuff could only be found a certain season. In the winter they had to wear more layers but, as for in the summer they would wear less, and like a said before (read shelter) there was a winter hogan and a summer hogan. ? CLASSIC TERRAIN ? LOCATION OF HOMES: ? NAVAJO’S CURRENT HOME ? NAVAJO’S ANCESTRAL HOME ? BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carey, Harold Jr. â€Å"Navajo People† Donald Snyder. (July 29, 2011) Outskirts Press. October 28, 2011 Donn, Andale. â€Å"Native Americans† Phillip Martin. (2007) October 27, 2011 Eck, Pam. â€Å"In Kido Indianans† Diane Dwenger. (April 22, 1998) October 28, 2011 Erdoes, Richard. â€Å"The Native Americans: Navajos† Sterling Pub. Co : New York; 1978: 15, 21, 12 James, Cullen. â€Å"Veterans Recall† Navajo Times; #24, October 29, 2011. 1,2 Kallen, Stuart A. â€Å" Native Americans of The Southwest† Lucent Books: San Diego; 2000: 12, 1, 11 Knysh, Brian. â€Å"Kid Port† Elizabeth Flynn. (1998) October 27, 2011 Lewis, Orrin, â€Å"Big Orrin† Laura Redish. (1998) October 27, 2011 Rossi, Ann. â€Å" Native Americans of The Southwest† Benchmark Education: Pelham; 2008: 16, 32, 10 Miller, Gay‘s 5th and 6th grade students. â€Å"Navajo. † Miller Gay. (October 23,2011) October 27, 20011 Yurth, Cindy. â€Å"Budding Filmmakers Debut† U. S. A Department of Defense; #3 October 29, 2011. 1,2 ? FUN FACTS: They Call them selves the â€Å"Dine† (the people) They drew petroglyphs Their reservation size is about 13 million acres (the largest in the U. S) They also have the largest membership size compared to other Native Americans membership’s size. (They allow up to 30 people from their extended family into the reservation. ) ? EXTRA: ? NAVAJO BOW ARROW ? NAVAJO POTTERY ? NAVAJO PAINTING ? NAVAJO TOMAHAWK.

Translation and Half-caste Essay Example for Free

Translation and Half-caste Essay Half-Caste is a poem written by John Agard. It presents another culture through dialect and uses complicated terminology. The poem is quite emotional and John Agard uses many techniques to present his ideas and views on Half-Caste. The poem is all about the different definitions of Half-Caste, it is undefined. Agard compares the word half-caste to Tchaikovsky’s piano, Picasso’s canvas and English weather. Firstly, John Agard uses rhetorical questions throughout the poem; ‘what yu mean?’ this shows that nobody knows what Half-Caste means it is down to the reader’s own opinion. This is repeated a lot throughout the poem. Rhetorical questions were very effective in this poem as it made the reader think imagine what the phrase half-caste means. Another technique that Agard uses is repetition; ‘what yu mean when yu say half-caste’. This demonstrates that John wants to emphasise this phrase. Repetition helps the reader to think about what half-caste actually means because it shows that there is no real definition and that it is the reader’s own interpretation of the word. The poet tells the poem in a confronting way because he uses the word ‘Half-Caste’. The poem is confrontational because the poem is coming across in an argumentative way especially against those who are half-caste. This could offend some people so the reader may think that, Half-Caste could be quite offensive. Half-Caste has many emotional thoughts. For example; is there anything wrong with the term ‘Half-Caste’, is it insulting, is he proud. A mixture of emotions are used here, including tension and anxiety, anger and also happiness. John Agard presents his ideas in a confusing way. The reader would think this because he does not actually know what half-caste means but yet writes a poem about different views of the term half-caste. He also writes the poem as a past experience as if he was a victim of racism. Agard uses things associated with half-caste so maybe he has been affected; ‘one leg’, ‘half of mih ear’, ‘half of mih eye’, ‘half-a-hand’. This shows that Agard must understand what half-caste is all about but he signals that half-caste is undefined without saying it in the poem. John Agard is very open-minded during the poem; ‘an I will tell yu de other half of my story’. This could show that there is another half to his story and that there may be a more cheerful side of his story. These words show that you should not judge people if you do not know them and don’t be judgemental. It does not matter what race or culture you are, be mindful. Agard uses insults to present his views on the term Half-Caste; ‘ah rass’. This could be offensive and cause anger towards the reader. The poem suggests that the reader only knows the definition of half-caste if you are half-caste. It is outsmarting all of the racist people because racist people may find the poem an insult. In the poem, the reader thinks it suggests that everything is a bit mixed up but it does not matter because everyone is unique and different. In conclusion, John Agard uses a variety of effective techniques to present the ideas and views to the reader. The reader thinks that the poem is quite confusing in the way it is written because it compares lots of things that the reader is not entirely sure define the term Half-Caste. The reader likes the way that Agard writes the poem as a past experience. Agard uses many techniques such as rhetorical questions and repetition which makes the reader think but also makes the poem flow well. Overall, the reader thinks that Half-Caste is a good poem that explains the different meanings of Half-Caste.

Analysis of the European Transportation Industry

Analysis of the European Transportation Industry Abstract The European transportation industry has been evolving for the last century but the pace of change accelerated in the recent years with the deregulation and intensification of competition between different modes of transport. The new agenda of the European Commission for the future of the industry after 2010 comprises of policies that try to establish sustainable transport that will meet the challenges of the current market environment the growing concern on gas emission, lack of funding as a result of the financial crisis, increasing oil prices and aging population in continental Europe. This paper analyses the current situation in the transport industry in Europe and the expected change in the competition between different modes with particular focus on the rail and road passenger transportation as a result of the policies for creating a fully integrated European transport network. Using the scenario analysis three possible outcomes have been identified as a result of the anticipated developments in regulations as well as feasibility of implementing those measures. Most reasonable of the three scenarios is the one where implementation will be taking place with mixed rigor in different member states, in addition the expected shift in passenger transport from road to rail will commence but at relatively slow pace. The result of the successful implementation of the new regulatory developments will be increased competitiveness between rail operators as new entrants will come to the market, increased efficiencies in the ex-monopolistic companies, and better service for the end-consumer both quality and price. The above scenarios provide a long-term perspective on the development of the intermodal competition in the passenger transport in Europe, since the time horizon for assessing the effect of a particular regulatory takes at least 10 years. The starting point is the current situation on the market which unfortunately has to go a significant change before the head-to-head competition between rail and road starts. The implications from the current study can be used as the basis for future research and scenario development with more sophistication. Regulations will definitely be in the core of transport industry development and the future trends as discussed in Chapter 3 will influence those policies with different degree. It is worth trying to understand and better prepare for the future both from business and social perspective. Thus the current study tries to bring the reader one step closer to that point. 1. Introduction Transport network is considered the backbone of the economy. It is a complex system that is influenced by multiple variables like population consumption, settlement patterns, organization of the production processes and the capacity of the infrastructure. As a major sector of the European economy transport has a top priority in the strategic agenda for building the single European Union market. The history of the sector is characterized with the key features of network industries natural monopolies, vertically integrated players, heavy investments in infrastructure, public subsidies, regulated prices. The globalization of economic activities and the gradual liberalization of the transport market, had led to changes in the business dynamics and structure of the sector. The environmental impact of transport became a priority in the development of policies and regulations for the industry. One push in the direction of more environmentally sustainable solutions is seen in promoting rail transport as a substitute for road transportation. The existing literature gives strong case in support for this scenario. This paper tries to explore the future scenarios in Europe and analyze the expected effect from the introduction of the new transport policy on the intermodal competition of passenger transport between rail and road. Chapter 2 presents the basic characteristics, development trends and economics in the network industries. Giving a starting point for understanding what has shaped the transport industry so far. In Chapter 3 are discussed the trends and challenges in the development and implementation of regulations in the transport industry in Europe. The focus here is on to rail and road passenger transport and the existing intermodal competition between the two modes. The following Chapter 4 includes analysis of the current competitive landscape of passenger transport in Europe. The market subject to analysis is defined as â€Å"transportation of passengers in the geographical boundaries of Europe† and it does explicitly exclude the transportation of freight which is characterized with different product/service specifications. The players who compete in this market are assumed to be only the providers of land transport rail and road operators. In addition the road mode comprises of bus and coach, while the rail mode includes railways, metro and tram. The purpose of the analysis is to give possible answers to the questions: Is rail the future transportation mode for passengers in Europe? Are regulatory policies the main tool for introducing intermodal competition? As a tool for conducting the analysis is used the traditional Porters five forces framework with a main focus on the barriers of entry representing the main competition force looking from the current market perspective into future scenarios. Using the results of the competitive advantage/disadvantage of each mode further scenario building is conducted applying a framework on industry scenarios and competitive strategy under uncertainty (Michal Porter). The results of the scenario analysis are taken in light of potential recommendations to both regulatory bodies and the providers of land passenger transport in Europe. Finally the conclusions derived are summarized in Chapter 5, including the possible implications, future research areas and limitations of the current study. 2. Characteristics of network industries One of the simplest ways to describe a network industry is by picturing good or services delivered through a set network both physical and virtual to an end customer. The network is established through the connection of numerous nodes which subsequently define the character of commerce in the industry. What is common in these types of industries is that the infrastructure which is comprised of many different elements links upstream supply units with the customers who are downstream. The basic components of a typical network industry comprise of: 2.1. Common structure in the network industries Although the industry structure varies across countries and different industries, the following cases are considered the most common ones: Vertical integration and monopoly in this case a single company operates the network infrastructure and both upstream and downstream components. Vertical integration with competition in the downstream or the upstream components -this case is similar to 1 but the company faces competition in the downstream and/or upstream components. Vertical separation with upstream and/or downstream competition, but the company that operates the network infrastructure does not operate in either the upstream or downstream components. Joint ownership in this case the infrastructure is owned jointly by companies competing in the upstream and/or downstream components. Infrastructure (facility-based) competition means competition among vertically integrated firms. 2.1.1. Historical background of the network industries in Western Europe In order to gain better understanding of the current developments in the network industries a short historic flashback is presented. The period of the 19th century Even in early 19th century when the free trade was dominant philosophy the government involvement was visible especially in the network industries. The triggering factor was the rights of way for railway tracks, gas and water, telegraph lines. After expropriation of the rights governments ease their way in establishing control over prices and profits by monitoring the engineering and financial stance of the respective companies. Overall the intervention of the government was limited more to arms length regulations and subsidies. The end of the 19th century is characterized with developed networks in telecommunication, rail, electricity supply which calls for more market opportunities and new entrants in the sectors. But the collapse of capitalism in 1930s brought distrust in governments ability to control private monopolies only through arms length regulations and subsidies. Thus alternative model was sought especially in network industries like telecommunication, railways and electricity. The time of the public ownership has come with the classic example of nationalization of the railways in France, Sweden, Spain and the UK in the period from 1937 to 1947. The period of the 20th century The main goals of the new state-owned enterprises were to provide service in the public interest along with break-even financially. The big challenge came from defining what is â€Å"public interest†. Eventually the solution was found, particularly for the network industries, in the so called â€Å"universal service† which comprises of standardized prices and service quality in the whole country. As a result of this approach the price of a product was fixed regardless of its point of distribution or delivery location for example electricity tariffs per kilowatt hour in different parts of the country were the same irrespective of the varying costs of supply. The second objective for the state enterprise was to break-even financially. The goal turned to be more difficult to achieve than initially planned having no clear guidance or support from the respective government authority. The â€Å"universal service† approach was not able to provide enough profits from areas of growth so as to compensate for the unprofitable ones. The period after 1960s is characterized with growing pressure on managers to meet the financial targets of â€Å"break-even† and beyond. The hope that the â€Å"universal services† will be able to cope with the unprofitable sectors by sustaining the profitable ones proved unsuccessful. Further, competition was growing and state owned enterprises were not flexible enough to respond adequately. Governments were worried with increased budget deficits coming from the rising public sector borrowing requirements. All of these contributed to the wave of privatization in Europe which had different timing across countries. In summary, the era of state owned enterprises was coming to its end. Its primary goal was to secure social and political unification and by the time of the second half of the 20th century much of this has been achieved. The technological developments changed much of the industries. New means of communication sprang apart from the traditional railways road, airlines, telecommunications. Although the strategic significance of a particular recourse was still the same, there was no need to keep it monopolized, for example one national air carrier. Financial returns from national resources like oil and gas were put into different legal forms thus allowing for concessions and tax schemes to be more profitable in the long-term. The Western European network industries had gone through tremendous changes for the last two centuries. The heritage left is the current surge for establishing more competitive regimes by allowing customer to benefit from improved quality and higher security standards. 2.2. The liberalized landscape in the network industries Coming from the state-owned natural monopolistic regime, the companies in the network industries had a structure where a non-competitive component of the industry was vertically integrated with a potential competitive component or activity. The separation of the two components by main sectors is summaries in a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as illustrated in the Table 1. Scope for competition varies depending on geography and nature of demand, amongst other things. Services in lower-density, lower volume residential areas are less likely to be competitive than services to high-density, higher volume commercial areas. Source: OECD report â€Å"Restructuring Public Utilities for competition†, 2001, p.9 The natural monopolistic structure has evolved both as a result of the deregulation and the innovation that came with technology development. Once non-competitive components started being replaced by new components competition was spread in a broader sense. An example of such change in the competitive landscape of an industry is the break-through in mobile technology. The new mobile vs fixed communication has brought competing models in the same market segment. The European Union experience in liberalization of network industries continues with the enforcement of Community law; different directives and specific regulations designed to harmonize the newly liberalized markets in member states. The expectations for the future are to have one unified market which promotes rivalry among companies that deliver better choice for customers both in quality and price. 2.3. Overview of the economics of network industries The basic features used to describe the specifics of the economics in the network industries are investments, production, pricing and regulations. 2.3.1. Investments Compared to other types of industries in this case the initial investment is higher as the infrastructure costs are significant but necessary requirement for the successful delivery of the product to the customer. In addition the structure of the existing network influences its modification or extension thus allowing for extra costs compared to green field investments in other industries. For example in the railway transportation building the network meaning tracks is both expensive as an initial investment and subsequent maintenance costs. First, the main condition for laying the tracks is to have property right on the land which might be expensive to obtain, or to regulate. Second, the track technical execution is costly and third the future maintenance requires long-term commitments and highest quality of service provides which again is at a significant cost. 2.3.2. Production Economies of scale are realized when a product becomes standardized and an addition unit produce reduces the average cost of production. The complexity of network industries allows in certain businesses for such economies to be achieved but the variable cost component is less obvious than in other industries. The more popular concept in the network industries is the so called â€Å"surface/volume effect† in which case the available infrastructure provides for lower unit cost when output is increasing with the plant production. For example, when there is a large scale industrial or transportation equipment the costs for manufacturing are related to the surface of the equipment while the output from it is function of the volume to be transported (cases of oil, gas etc.). As a result the surface increases with the square of the equipment scale while on the other hand the volume increases with its cube. The ratio of surface/volume representing the average cost is a decreasing func tion of the scale. In practice, this leads to very large equipment being built. Economies of scope exist when a company is able to produce several goods at a total cost smaller than the sum of the costs of these activities when they are isolated one from the other. A business in a network industry might own a piece of equipment and the workforce that can produce large quantities of goods/services with similar specifications. For example, the building of information database which subsequently can be used for various activities without additional costs. Vertical integration exists in the case when a single company performs a number of successive distinct operations in the production process of a particular good or the provision of a service. In the context of network industries, especially those involved in the so called â€Å"public service†, the vertically integrated structure of a company can be justified if it manages to provide cost reduction in the service/product. Some sources of these cost benefits can come from technical complementarities, like better co-ordination between successive stages in the production process, also another social benefit might come from the removal of successive private profit-margins that are realized by intermediaries. On the other hand, the vertical integration in an upstream direction can be used by a company as a control mechanism on its customers, suppliers and competitors. The risk in this scenario comes from the fact that by controlling the delivery of certain strategic inputs, the com pany can gain dominant position on the end market. Example from the network industry is when a company owns both the control of the access to transport infrastructure and at the same time is a user of the infrastructure. 2.3.3. Competition The network industries are characterized with strong externalities which result from the interdependence of the agents. The interdependence is described with the effect that the level of satisfaction of one member has on other members in the network. These externalities are both positive and negative. The case of positive externalities is when particular action of a member increases the utility of the others or the so called â€Å"club externalities†. The spill-over effect is another positive externality, when the existence of a network in a certain area â€Å"spills† its benefits outside of its boundaries. In the case of negative externalities called â€Å"congestion externalities† the entrance of a new user in the network affects negatively the existing users. In practice the size and composition of a network are the result of a trade-off between club benefits and congestion costs. The composition and size of the network might change and the set access price would make some members to leave and other to join. This means that the number of those who wish to be in the network depend on the number of those who are already in the network. In this case equilibrium is reached when demand is compatible with itself, namely when the number of the members is exactly the same as the number of the candidates. But because of the earlier described club effect, at the given price would exist several equilibriums. The competition discussed here is ex post, meaning actual competition between two or more companies in the market. As already described, the competition in network industries is characterized with multiple equilibrium configurations for a given set of competing companies which implies that the quality of the service provided by the companies is endogenously determined by the participation of the clients. Here, the expected quality not the actual one is what matters. Another key feature of the competition in a network industry is that it can evolve into some kind of co-operation by decisions of compatibility. Compatibility can be achieved through standardization and the reason for companies to resist it is that it leads to more homogenous products. As a consequence of the standardization, the competition is enhances and loss of profit margins for the incumbent players. For example, in the electricity industry, there is a long tradition of co-operation at both national and international levels for the frequent power exchanges through interconnections. The usual dynamics of competition between companies are modified in a network environment as a result of the endogenous quality of the network and the necessity to reach a critical size in order to survive. So competition at the initial stage is considerably fierce. Companies have to make significant investment to capture the critical customer mass then sustain the image of better than the competitor quality of service / goods which subsequently will enhance the quality of the network. Later, switching costs create a lock-in effect and competition between those companies that managed to get through the initial phase is softer. Because of these companies have an incentive to heavily invest in infrastructure at the entry aiming to create a momentum and realize higher profits on next stage. Competition becomes weaker with the maturity of the industry, companies with existing installed base have less incentives to invest in quality and the only factor that triggers competition may come f rom break-through in the technology. If, no such happens then new entrants will be hard to overcome the competitive advantage of the incumbents. Still in some network industries certain elements like infrastructure remain natural monopolies as a result of the strong economics of scale and scope and relatively high degree of lumpy capital investments. 2.3.4.Regulation of network industries The liberalization process in the network industries brought the co-existence of monopolistic and competition elements in most industries. The change in the market structure requires new developments in the regulatory regimes in those industries but the transition phase as illustrated in Figure 1 is pursued with various conflicting priorities in the sole task to establish competition on the market. Currently, the European Union agenda is to have a set of regulations that will facilitate and speed-up this process. The ultimate goal is to increase efficiency in the performance of the industries and promote higher quality with the introduction of new products thus providing for lower consumer prices. Still the liberalizing policies face certain constraints coming from: the monopoly control legacy in the network industries, the common state aid subsidies, the institutional diversity in various countries, private vs public services objective; the existence of bottlenecks in the network infrastructure and the need for establishing interconnections between rival networks. Figure 1: The evolution of regulation over the three phases of market structure. Source: Lars Bergman, Chris Doyle, Jordi Gual, Lars Hultranz, Damien Neven, Lars-Hendrik Roller â€Å"Characteristics of network industries in Europes Network Industries: Conflicting priorities† published in 1998 by Center for Economic Policy Research.† The next chapter focuses on the current and future regulations in the European transport sector. It emphasizes some of the implications from the development and implementation of the regulations on two specific modes of passenger transport rail and road and the effects on the intermodal competition between them. 3. The regulatory framework in the European transport system â€Å"Transport is the backbone of the European economy, accounting for about 7 % of GDP and more than 5 % of total employment in the EU. As a network industry, transport requires elements such as infrastructures, vehicles, equipment, ICT applications and operational procedures to interact smoothly in order to move people and goods efficiently.† 1 Figure 2: Transport growth compared to GDP growthEU-27 Source: European Commission: â€Å"EU Energy and Transport figures† statistic book 2009 As one of the main sectors in the economy of a unified European market, transport is subject to continuous efforts from regulatory bodies to bring efficiencies and better product/service to customers. The framework for strategic development of the sector is set in the White Paper issued by the European Commission for a period of ten years and mid-term review is conducted which gives up-dates on the progress and recommendations for future developments. In 2010 the current strategy is to be reviewed and next decade program will be set forth in a new White Paper incorporating the new policies in light of the future trends in transport sector development. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission, Commissioner for Transport. Report â€Å"A sustainable future for transport†. 3.1. Trends influencing the European transport policy The EU White Paper 2001 and the mid-term review in 2006 drew key conclusions and set the directions for continual work on the EU sustainable transport policy. The key conclusions to be put forward in the new paper include optimization of each transport mode to bring competitiveness and propensity, transition of all modes to more environmental solutions both resource consumption and external costs. In addition each mode should be used efficiently on its own and in combination with all other modes so as to achieve sustainable utilization of resources. Looking at the future prospects of the industry and its development the following trends will have a significant influence on shaping the regulatory regime of the transport sector in EU. 3.1.1. Environmental challenges Transport is one of the sectors that have a tremendous impact on the environment. It is the only sector that has constantly increased its GHG emissions in the recent decade as illustrated in Figure 1. The growing concern on the global climate change has led to the adoption of climate and energy package by EU with a target to cut GHG emissions by 20% compared to levels in 1990. The environment aspect will be the main external factor influencing all modes of transportation and the respective players in the market. 3.1.2. Urbanization There has been a clear trend in the growth of urban population which is predicted by 2050 to be 84% of total European population2. This trend increases the challenges on the transportation sector as more density is brought in the urban networks accordingly with more environmental issues and congestion problems. The costs of both environmental and structural problems increase with the growth of cities density as longer delays in traffic jams incur larger fuel costs respectively emissions of CO2 are higher. One of the greatest challenges in this context is the building of additional infrastructure within the cities while bringing collective modes of transportation in resolving the congestion problems. 3.1.3. Migration and mobility According to the data provided by Eurostat 3 in the next decade EU is expected to add another 56 million people to its population as a result of a migration trend. This could be a positive trend for aging Europe as usually migrants are relatively young and settle in the developed urban regions that mainly contribute for the economic development. Another factor affecting the structural change in the population density is the internal mobility of workers between member states. This would be more visible with the removal of certain administrative and legal barriers in the labour market. 3.1.4. Ageing of population As mentioned in the previous paragraph one of the challenges in the coming future of Europe is the aging population. Compared to the world trend over the next 50 years, the annual average growth rate in the EU-27 population will be constantly declining as shown in Figure 4: Source: Eurostat (demo_plan), United Nations, Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division (2008), ‘World urbanisation prospects — The 2007 revision. 3. Eurostat (population and social conditions), Statistics in Focus No 72/2008; and European Commission, ‘Demography report 2008: Meeting social needs in an ageing society. SEC(2008) 2911. This particular phenomena has a very deep impact on the transport sector on few dimensions. First the availability of resources (human capital) will diminish. According to the EC â€Å"2009 ageing report† in 2060 there will be only two active workers for every pensioner. In the long-term this requires more contributions for pension funds thus limiting public finances for the supply and maintenance of the transport infrastructure. Overall, the end result might be more costly transportation products/services for the society as a whole. Second, the elder members of the society although much more flexible than a decade ago do travel less than younger population. This has a direct effect on the demand side for transport services both regional and long-distance. Another characteristic of an elder customer is that he/she puts high priority on factors like safety and comfort which in its turn requires different focus on the future specifications of the products/services provided in the transpiration industry mainly safety and reliability which pushes further the quality standards in the sector. 3.1.5. The financial crisis and global trends It is hard to ignore the current and future impact of the recently started economic crisis. The economic growth as forecasted few years ago had dramatically slowed down and this has led to major restructuring in all sectors of the economy. Still the continual globalization trend serves positively the transport sector, with the increasing need for integration and deepening of the single European market. The growing world population expected to reach 9 billion in 20505 is seen as the main challenge for all sectors of the economy, including transport. The scares resources that should provide for the growth in consumers, requires better model for creating sustainable transport sy

black and blue Essay -- essays research papers

Black and Blue 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why did Fran terminate her relationship with Bobby? What do you think enabled her to do so? In the novel Black and Blue, Fran terminated her relationship with her husband Bobby because he was physically abusive towards her. Fran had started dating Bobby when she was just a bare age of nineteen years old. I feel when teenagers â€Å"fall in love† they fall hard and become attached too quickly. In the novel it said that Fran loved Bobby, but I feel it was more of the feeling about wanting to love someone than actually loving Bobby. Before Fran could make her decision to leave Bobby, it took her seventeen long years. She also suffered through a broken collar bone, a broken nose, and a really big broken heart. Another reason why I think it took Fran seventeen years to leave Bobby, because there was always a thought in the back of her mind that no matter how far she went or where she went, he would always find her. I think what finally enabled Fran to get away was Patty, because she made Fran realize that it would be the safest thing for her to do. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Describe Fran’s personality characteristics. Was she the same person at the beginning and the end of the story? If not, how do you think she changed? What characteristics do you think may have played a role in her getting involved with Bobby in the first place? Which helped her leave? In the beginning of the story Fran was independent. She attended nursing ...

Anti-Defamation League Essay -- Race Racial Ethnicity Essays

Anti-Defamation League Lawyer Sigmund Livingston in Chicago, IL started the ADL in 1913, with the mission: "to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience, and if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. . . to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike. . . put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." The ADL has gone from having a small office in Chicago to 30 regional offices as well as international offices in Moscow, Jerusalem, and Vienna. The ADL, as a well-respected political interest group, has been active in influencing United States foreign policy in Middle East countries, such as Israel. Today, under the leadership of National Chair, Howard P. Berkowitz and National Director Abraham Foxman, the ADL remains as the leading opponent of anti-Semitism and they continue to expose all forms of injustice, prejudice, and bigotry. ADL’s primary goals as a religious organization are to bring about social change through the elimination of bigotry and hatred by influencing government legislation. Specifically, one piece of legislation the ADL is working against is the implementation of school vouchers. It is ADL’s position that by using government funds to support vouchers, the quality of education at the public schools will decrease. I completely agree with this position. Education reform doesn’t mean destroying one institution that helps a large majority to promote elitist institutions that only benefit a small minority. The ADL is very large organization with vast influence benefiting millions of people around the globe, and according to Olson’s collective action problem members could be dissuaded from parti... ...ias. The ADL’s religious interests are mainly to promote the interest and betterment of Jews. So to listen to ADL and make legislative changes accordingly is to create a hierarchy among religions that shouldn’t be a part of the government. Even though, I may not agree with everything the ADL says, I think that what they are trying to do is incremental in bringing about the change necessary to improve our society. Works Cited: Bahrampour, Tara & Anthony Ramirez (2001). New Monitor For Hate Groups [Electronic version]. New York Times, B5.1. Falconer, Matthew (1999). Filter blocks hate-promoting Web sites [Electronic Version]. Boston Globe, A40. Olson, Mancur (1965) from Nivola, Pietro S. and David H. Rosenbloom (1990), Classic Readings in American Politics, 2nd Edition, pages 225-240. New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc.

Psychology of Adolescence Essay

BoysTown is a registered charity and a national organization for youth welfare in Australia. It focuses on helping disadvantaged youths who are at risk of social exclusion to enhance their quality of life (â€Å"Youth social†). It recognizes several causes of social exclusion among disadvantaged youths that need to be addressed, which include single parenthood, low self-esteem, physical and mental health problems, substance abuse, lack of work experience, functional illiteracy, and underdeveloped personal and vocational skills (â€Å"Youth social†). BoysTown also recognizes that most of the disadvantage youths came from families who have a history of intergenerational unemployment and welfare dependency and from Indigenous backgrounds (â€Å"Youth social†). BoysTown offers several social inclusion programs to help disadvantage youths to improve their life. The programs include Kids Helpline, Youth Programs, Indigenous community development, Family programs, and Intermediate labor markets. The key attribute of these programs is that they emphasized sustainable outcomes while they rely on safe strategies for working with youths who are at risk of social exclusion (â€Å"Youth social†). BoysTown’s Kids Helpline is a national telephone and web-based counseling program that provides services for more than 60,000 children and youths across the country. The Youth programs offer personal development, training and employment assistance to more than 3,500 youths in communities. BoysTown is collaborating with key stakeholders to work on a social inclusion project with four remote Indigenous communities in the East Kimberleys (â€Å"Youth social†). It also provides parenting programs and family refuges such as home-based support and training to make way for the transition of disadvantaged youths to the wider world (â€Å"Youth social†). The organization also operates various social enterprises and transitional employment programs in order to provide 400 youths per year with paid work and on-the-job training. There are various indicators that demonstrate the degree of social exclusion suffered by families and children, which include low-birth-weight babies, permanent exclusion from school, the number of children living in unemployed households, teenage pregnancy, low academic achievement, and the number of children aged 10-16 who are in young offender institutions (Pierson, 2002). The indicators of social exclusion at the level of community include overcrowded housing, a high percentage of households without a bank account, poor community participation, and high levels of burglaries (Pierson, 2002). The key forces that increases the likelihood of social exclusion are poverty and low income, lack of social supports and networks, lack of access to the labor market, the impact of the local neighborhood, and exclusion from services (Pierson, 2002). Pierson (2002) suggests ways to address social exclusion, which include maximizing income and securing basic resources; improving social networks and supports; collaborating in partnership with local organizations and agencies; developing channels of effective participation for users, local residents, and their organizations; and concentrating on whole neighborhoods. Socially excluded youths have a significant cost impact on society in terms of publicly-funded health services, justice system and social security costs, and the impact of decreased individual earning capacity, lost productivity, and decreased tax revenue (â€Å"Youth social†). The Australian government is investing in developing the capability of the not-for-profit organization to provide more holistic, community-based strategies to respond to social exclusion, especially among young people (â€Å"Youth social†). Models of intervention must be multi-dimensional and aimed at providing young people with a comprehensive range of support over an extended period of time (â€Å"Youth social†). They should also be based on a holistic approach in order for young people to overpower personal barriers; improve their strengths, health, well-being, life and interpersonal skills; develop their self-esteem and the ability to learn; and succeed in shifting to independent living, training or work, and further education (â€Å"Youth social†). BoysTown’s Youth programs are effective in helping youths who are at risk of social exclusion because they incorporate individual assessment, counseling, and support, life skills training, personal development and mentoring; vocational skills training, employment assistance; and post-placement support (â€Å"Youth social†). Young people must be provided assistance into paid employment by giving advice, training and other help that they need to make them more employable (Kemp, 2005). Focusing on individual agency such as young people’s attributes, qualifications, decision-making, and behavior allows young people to successfully transition from welfare to work (Kemp, 2005). The Kids Helpline at BoysTown is similar to a mentoring program that helps disadvantaged young people to tackle social exclusion. Mentoring consists of an informal educative role and personal support and encouragement (Pierson, 2002). Mentor acts as a trusted counselor or guide (Pierson, 2002). The goal of a mentoring or counseling program is to connect two individuals in a one to one voluntary relationship, with one individual being more experienced than the other and with the hope that their knowledge and skills will be transferred (Pierson, 2002). The key features of a mentoring relationship include a voluntary arrangement as required by the individual being mentored and can be ended by either party at any time, interpersonal skills of mentors to manage and monitor the relationship, and the understanding of both mentored and mentors about the boundaries and objective of the relationship (Pierson, 2002). Colley (2003) mentions the popularity of mentoring with policy-makers because it addresses their concerns such as the moralization of social exclusion. The author adds that the solution to social exclusion of young people depends on their re-engagement with the labor market and/or formal learning routes. The key role of mentoring is to provide a way for the re-engagement by changing young people’s values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior to engage their personal commitment to become employable (Colley, 2003). Mentoring helps young people in terms of empowering them, discussing aspirations, and making them more realistic about their view of work (Colley, 2003). It is also important to assist young people to attain skills in areas such as confidence building, problem solving, improvement of interpersonal skills, punctuality, and team working in order to enhance their personal effectiveness in the workplace (Colley, 2003). Moreover, mentoring is also important to help disadvantaged young people develop social networks and capital (Colley, 2003). It is necessary to create initiatives that involve young people not only in making decisions that affect them individually or on particular services but also in making decisions that influence their communities collectively (Pierson, 2002). Organizations led by young people play an important role in defining services and provide practical support for young persons (Pierson, 2002). The aim of the Indigenous community development at BoysTown is to help young people to re-engage in learning; increase community involvement in formal education and training; enhance access to sustainable mainstream employment opportunities; and develop training and work opportunities through community-based social business enterprises (â€Å"Youth social†). According to Pierson (2002), adolescent support teams have emerged rapidly during the early 1990s. The author adds that the aim of adolescent support teams is to divert youths from the care system and offer short-term preventive service that assists families prevent problems in relationships that might result to homelessness. The approach used by the adolescent support teams is preventive and based on time-limited, task-focused work (Pierson, 2002). Most of the work of the adolescent support teams involves negotiation and mediation between young people and parents (Pierson, 2002). BoysTown enterprises are involved in several community infrastructure development, asset maintenance, and urban renewal projects in disadvantaged areas (â€Å"Youth social†). Enterprise-based intermediate labor markets are effective in minimizing crime and anti-social behavior and in helping young people who are socially excluded to engage again with the labor market (â€Å"Youth social†). According to Aiken (2007), social enterprises are considered mission-driven organizations with a commitment to a specific disadvantaged group. The author adds that placement agencies function as intermediaries in searching and training people to move into work in the mainstream labor market. Social enterprises have often focused on the needs of socially excluded client groups (Aiken, 2007). Aiken (2007) mentions that the origin of social and community enterprises can be found in the mutual and cooperative sector in Great Britain. The author adds that the emergence of this movement has resulted to an important pattern which has focused on the economic development of poorer communities, including the importance of maintaining paid work. Intermediate Labor Market organizations focus on short-term training and employment with the goal of trainees transitioning into paid work in other organizations (Aiken, 2007). They may be working with disadvantaged people and will have a tendency to be reliant on some degree of public sector contracting. References Aiken, M. (2007). What is the role of social enterprise in finding, creating and maintaining employment? for disadvantaged groups? Retrieved June 14, 2009, from http://www. parracity. nsw. gov. au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/22575/Cabinet_Office Colley, Helen (2003). Mentoring for social inclusion: A critical approach to nurturing mentor relationships. New York, NY: Routledge. Kemp, P. A. (2005) Young people and unemployment: From welfare to workfare. In M. Barry (Ed. ), Youth policy and social inclusion: critical debates with young people (pp. 139-156). New York, NY: Routledge. Pierson, J. (2002). Tackling social exclusion. New York, NY: Routledge. Youth social exclusion: A global concern. Retrieved June 14, 2009, from http://www. boystown. com. au/downloads/rep/BT-Youth-Social-Exclusion. pdf

Containerization: Cargo and Traditional Bulk Transport

What is containerization and how did the innovative use of containers transform the distribution of goods? The traditional way of transporting goods from one place to another was highly labor intensive and goods were in individual crates of different sizes and shapes and they had to be manually lifted and stowed in the holds of ships. As the time passed by, the concept of containerization emerged.Basically, Containerization is an inter-modal system of transporting the general cargo or product in lots which are too small for the traditional bulk transport system, using ISO standard containers that can be loaded and sealed intact onto  container ships,  railroad cars, planes, and trucks. The concept of containerization is considered as the key innovation in the field of logistics which has revolutionized freight handling in the twentieth century.Containerization reduces time in transit, the inventory costs and increases reliability. Such benefits are forcing the industry to make it more favorable in terms of cost, flexibility and speed. As the Internet and other new technologies and advancements are developing, it is expected to bring more innovations which will further simplify the tasks of logistics.The innovative use of containerization has transformed the distribution of goods in following ways: * Goods in lots which are too small for the traditional bulk transport can be moved using containers * It is best option for high-value and delicate cargo as it provides safety from human and natural factors * As containers are moved intact, substantial amount of time and labor cost is saved which would otherwise have incurred in loading and unloading goods * It prevents poor handling of goods that results from bulk transport systems * Containers can act as mode of storage anywhere along the transport route * Container ships provide regular service to overseas ports, thus it minimizes the waiting time * It reduces the transit time which not only offers a means of marketing for the producer that bulk systems cannot provide, but also helps to reduce the inventory costs and increases reliability. 2. What role has containerization played in the development of a global economic system? As containerization is the new way of transportation model, it’s definitely is more advanced and optimum way of shipping the goods from one place to the other.Container shipping eventually replaced the traditional â€Å"break-bulk† method of handling crates, barrels and bags, and stowing them loose in a ship's hold, a system in use since the days of the Phoenicians. The replacement of break-bulk with cargo containers dramatically reduced shipping costs, reinvigorating markets and fueling the world economy. Due to cheap transportation cost, the countries could engage themselves in a fierce export drive exploiting the technological advancements and lower labor costs which are the major basis for the industrialization. In addition to that, cheap transpor tation also helped in revolutionizing the supply chain management of the business houses.There had been some major developments like South Korea developed a very strong ship building industry centered on the new ships made possible in the development and introduction of containerization. And also, the major and biggest container ports in the world are located in Southeast Asia. Thus, the credit for the development of such ports in these areas goes to the containerization. Without which, these areas wouldn’t have been developed like they are today. Containerization makes the loading and unloading of goods from the ships to the ports easy and consumes extremely less time in comparison to that of tradition way of transportation. These are some of the major roles that containerization played in the development of the global economic system.

Responses to Question 1 and 4 on “Two Ways of Seeing a River” on page 481 of Model for Writers

1. The method of organization that Twain uses in this selection is time order because he described the way he saw and experienced the river in a sequence as they occurred. In addition, he stared an essay by telling an event in the past and ended it in the present. That is the time order organization. He might have used the comparison and contrast method as the alternative methods because he compared two different ways of seeing the same river. The knowledge and the experience would have been gained or lost. 4. Yes, Twain feels he has â€Å"gained most or lost most†. He has gained the knowledge and the experience when he looking at the river. At the first time he saw it, he was inspired by its calmness, its smoothness and its beauty. However, after lots of time looking at that river, he became less impressed in it. While he lost his emotional connection to the river, he lost the connectedness of it to his live. That’s what he has lost. Reponses to Question 1 through 6 on â€Å"Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts† on page 493-494 of Model for Writers 1. In paragraph 10-12, Catton discusses what he considers to be the most striking contrast between Grant and Lee. That different is that while Lee saw himself defending only his region, a static society that did not want to change, Grant was fighting for a growing, expanding nation. In addition, Grant was â€Å"the modern man emerging,† while Lee stood for the past, for traditions that originated in the age of chivalry. . The similarities that Catton sees between Grant and Lee are tenacious, daring and resourceful. Most important, according to Catton believes, is that both of them had the ability to turn from war to peace because it helped the two sections to become one nation again. 3. 4. Catton organizes the body of his essay paragraph 3-16 by using time order and logical order pattern. He introduces the background of Grant and Lee and their view of soci ety by contrasting them. Then he uses transitional paragraph from contrast to comparison. 5. 6. Catton constructs clear transitions between paragraphs. The transitional devices he uses are using comparison and contrast words to link the paragraphs (yet, on the other hand), using addition words such as furthermore, and, and using time transition (lastly). Because of these transitions, they help me read easily to know the main idea of the whole essay and to join the various parts of an essay together.

Mla Sex Education

Sex Education is Necessary in High-School Does sex education encourage sex? According to Benjamin Spock the author of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, â€Å"Many parents are afraid that talking about sex with their teenagers will be taken as permission for the teen to have sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the more children learn about sexuality from talking with their parents and teachers and reading accurate books, the less they feel compelled to find out for themselves. † Before 1910 there is no recollection of the history of sex education.We managed as people to â€Å"replicate† ourselves very well for decades and absolutely nowhere near our level of family disruption. In 1915 the first of anyone who introduced a significant change in all of this was Margaret Sanger [The founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest promoter of sex education and abortion in the U. S. and in the world. ] She wrote, What Every Boy And Girl Should Know. Sex Education should be taught in High-Schools because the research on sex education has shown that the prevention programs have a high affect on behaviors and they help achieve positive health impacts.It has helped reduce the frequency of sex, new number of sex partners, and also the unprotected sex mishaps which are increasing the use of condoms and contraception’s (â€Å"Sex Education†). About every year over 800,000 pregnancies and young adults under the age 25 experience about 9. 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (â€Å"Effective Sex Education†). Criticize that by age 18, 70 percent of U. S. females and about 62% of males have engaged in sexual intercourse.In the program no abstinence-only-until-marriage has shown results that they help teens to be able to delay in engaging in sexual intercourse or to at least protect themselves when they actually do engage in sex (â€Å"Effective Sex Education†). Sex education and HIV/STI prevention prog rams do not increase rates of sexual engagement, and do not lower the age at which youth engages them in sex, and they do not increase the number of sex partners and the frequency of sex among young adults.But do consider that between the 90s and 2004 the U. S teen birthrate fell from 62 to 41 per 1000 female teens. Experts say that 75 percent of the decline is due to increased contraceptives and 25 percent in to being abstinence of sexual intercourse. Others might say contraceptives and abstinence are very equal, but regardless contraceptives have been very critical to reducing the teenage pregnancy (â€Å"Abma et al†).Some might say that parents should teach their teenagers about sexual intercourse or to at least talk to them about it, but some will say that it is easier for someone who actually knows what they are talking about such as a sex education classes to give the reasons of why being abstinence is more important than being sexually active because teenagers tend not to listen to their parents they would rather listen to their peers and the society. Also consider that some teenagers don’t like to be embarrassed especially when talking about their gender based anatomy.But what they don’t know is that classes are gender exclusive, which saves the embarrassment amongst their peers and teaches them only what is necessary for their gender. If taught properly sex education could become a regular course such as the human anatomy and biological science are taught as high school credits that go towards their graduating credits. If students are taught the correct terms of reproductive systems, sexually transmitted diseases and birth contraceptives instead of the â€Å"street lingo† and the appropriate sexual education can have such an impact on preventing the sexual problems in adulthood.As for the Planned Parenthood issue it just â€Å"promotes comprehensive sex education in schools and for school-aged youth as an important way- al ong with parental guidance- to help young people lead sexually healthy and responsible lives†(â€Å"Sex Education in Schools†). Advise that parents and teachers do have doubts about the sexually education but Planned Parenthood just helps assist schools in developing and delivering medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education curriculum, so teens just don’t learn things beyond their age maturity.Although about 13% of U. S. teens have had sex by the age of 15, most of them initiate in sex in their late teen years. By their 19th birthday, 7 in 10 teen men and women have had intercourse (Abma et al). Between the years of 1988 and 2006-2010, the proportion of never-married teens aged 15-17 who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse declined from 37% to 27% among females and from 50% to 28% among males. Conclude that during the same period, among teens aged 8-19, declined from 73% to 63% among females and 77% to 64% among males (Martinez G et al).Experts at the G uttmatcher Institute say 86% of the decline in the teen pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002 was the result of dramatic improvements in contraceptive use, including increases of teens using a single method of contraception’s and increase of using multiple methods simultaneously and a substantial decline in nonuse. But only 14% of the decline is attributable to the decrease in sexual activity (â€Å"Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex†).Public school systems have been implementing sexual education into their classrooms as a regular part of instruction for decades. The controversy are very abundant and when dealing with such delicate issues and there are many pros and cons to the sexual education being taught in the public schools. It seems that most parents are either strongly against or strongly in favor of sexual education classes, but very few parents are in the middle ground. But in fact there are more parents that are actually in favor of sexual education classes.As the result of polls they have estimated that less than 7% of the population does not believe that sexual education should be requirement in schools (â€Å"Pros and Cons†). As of 93% who are actually in favor of the subject matter that are as part of the regular curriculum such as when teens take human anatomy and physiology or biology the classes are very similar to sexual education but as sexual education tends to be more based to the diseases, STD’s. But as the 7% of the parents/teachers that are disagreeing to the class are considering more of the cons aspect than what good it could possibly do.Such as being aware of his or her own family or religious beliefs and values and know their child’s intellect and maturity levels, or the myths surrounding the intercourse can be dispelled (such as not being able to get pregnant the first time) (â€Å"Pros and Cons†). But even when these such classes are available the sexual educat ion are taught as a brief interlude during a physical education or a health class which in reality is not long enough to relate such serious material.Also the teachers are not always trained how to properly teach sexual education courses and may transgress their own beliefs and morals into the subject matter rather than sticking with the facts. But what parents/teachers are ignorant to even just a class of appropriate sexual education can have an impact on preventing sexual problems in adulthood, studies show that many teenagers become sexually active before the inclusion of the educational classes.Early inclusion of classes has proven to help student remain either abstinent or to at least be responsible if they are active (Parker). Conclude that the idea of schools and the state have a responsibility to teach young people about sex is a peculiarly modern one. The rise of sex education to a regular place in the school curriculum in the United States and Western Europe is not, howeve r, simply a story of modern enlightenment breaking through a heritage of repression and ignorance.The movements of sex education can be understood through several related angles: as part of larger struggles in the modern era over who determines the sexual morality of the coming generation; as part of the persistent tendency to view adolescence especially adolescent sexuality (â€Å"Sex Education†). Sex education has always been shaped by its historical context. Much to the distress of sex educators, young people do not simply memorize their school lessons and apply them perfectly.But all in all sexual education to an understanding and despite the educators’ moralistic tone, sex education met immediate opposition. Sexual education has very well statistics being taught in school when relating it to the pregnancies and more teens being aware of the contraceptives and condom use has proven/ shown fewer percentages of sexual activity, and new numbers of sex partners and few er less mishaps of unprotected sex mishaps.

Agricultural biodiversity conversation

Agricultural biodiversity conversation Agricultural biodiversity is defined as the variability and variety of plants, animals and microorganisms that are used in agriculture and food. To specify it, agricultural biodiversity can be expanded and categorized it into ecological diversity, genetic diversity and organismal diversity. Agricultural is not only a subset of biodiversity, somehow it embraces units and habitats that are usually not accepted or recognized by some biologists as a part of biological diversity. Agricultural biodiversity is the results of the interactions between humans and natural ecosystem and brings beneficial to human health and nutrition and able to provide humans with goods and services. It includes species that are used directly and indirectly in food and agriculture and species that are not included in the farming system. Diets, food intake, nutrition, and ingredients for food preparation, cooking processing and storage are also one of the elements of agricultural biodiversity. Besides, agricultu ral biodiversity also includes physical, social, cultural, ethical, spiritual elements and elements that benefits and harms the crops, food production, and ecosystem. For instance, pollination is one of the elements that can bring beneficial not only to food production but ecosystem. Likewise, pests and diseases are few of the elements of agricultural biodiversity that affect crops adversely. The number of plant species and animal species that were successfully domesticated has been decreased across the centuries due to the simplification of agriculture also known as agricultural revolution. The ease of cultivation, the nutrition that the species are able to produce and the species that are able to be grown in a particular habitat are the reasons of the simplification of agriculture. Over the centuries, natural selection and artificial selection have developed a complex diversity of local varieties or landraces. Due to the difference of external conditions in such soil type, weather, climate, landraces or primitive cultivars have their own adaptation, and characteristics such as nutritional value, use and date of maturity. The simplification of agriculture has caused some controversies. Researchers suggested that it reduces human’s dietary diversity due to intensification of agriculture. It brings adverse effect on human health due to human only rely on tiny number of crop species for instance the staples, which are mainly barley, wheat rice, millet, etc. and might cause malnutrition and has higher chance of getting infection by diseases. However, some researchers suggested that by growing such crops, others can concentrate on finding other nutrients, and so they can have balance nutrition. In short, it cannot be denied that the intensification of agriculture has sustained human population growth. Simplification of agriculture is mainly caused by modern intensive agriculture, while others are small-scale agriculture and other various forms of traditional agriculture, home gardens. However, the substitution of landraces by more advanced cultivars has caused genetic erosion of the crop species, loss of landraces. Humans in global depend only 7,000 out of 400,000 species of plants as their staples in order to maintain adequate nutrition. They are normally cultivation crops, underutilized or orphan crops, wild-gathered plant species, crop wild relatives. Wild-gathered plant species are not only used as food, they are also used as fibres, fuel, ornament and medicines. They are still popular in tropics, developing countries and the Mediterranean region especially for rural people, as they provide rural poor with most of their daily requirement of essential vitamins and minerals. As wild-gathered species play important role to humans nowadays for instance increase income, nutritional benefits, some domestication programmes are being developed to bring wild species into cultivation. The term ‘Underutilized species’ is defined as those species that can improve people’s livelihoods, food security, domestication but due to lack of competitiveness with domesticated crops, they are not fully utilized. However, these species are receiving more recognition which more and more report and meeting has mentioned the importance of underutilized species. Next, crop wild relatives are an essential source of genetic material for getting better adapted crops even though it is not a major role in human nutrition. Hence, it is also now widely recognized that crop wild relatives will play a role in future food security when facing global change. Animal diversity for instance dairy products, eggs, meat, etc. also plays important role in human nutrition and dietary diversity. It mainly contains proteins, fat, some vitamins and nutrition that might not have in the plants. It might not a major part of some people’s diet due to dietary restriction, financial restriction, supply restriction. Wild meat can be defined as non-domesticated mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians hunted for food. However, due to excessive hunting of some wild animals, it is threatening the livelihoods of some forest communities. . The demand for animal source foods has been increasing in recent years. Hence, industrial livestock production is needed to supplement the wild meat. However, it is reported that the practice of cultivation is not sustainable due the large usage of land surface. Next, fish and crustaceans is a major source for coastal, lacustrine and riverine communities. Fish play important role in developing countries especially in r ural area, to get sufficient nutrition. Now, nearly 50 percent of fish eaten are cultivated, not wild capture. As fish also provide adequate protein, vitamins and minerals to human, the world fish consumption has been increasing in recent years. Nevertheless, agricultural intensification is threatening our biodiversity around the world. It threatens rare or almost extinct plant and animal species, adverse effect on biodiversity, changed our dietary patterns, and overuse on energy and water. Therefore, some researchers proposed new paradigms to solve this problem. The main concept of the new paradigms is maintaining intensification of agricultural production but without simplification. In the other words, maximize the productivity from the same area of land while conserving the environment and resources. It is important that healthy ecosystems provide not only goods and services to human but the entire agricultural systems. Governments and policymakers overpass the relationship between biodiversity conservation and poverty. In fact, local biodiversity and ecosystem services play important role in developing countries especially in rural area. It provides food, medicine, fibre, fuel wood etc. to the local communities. However, local agricultural biodiversity such as traditional crops, underutilized species and wild-harvested species is less concerned by public because of lacking of evidence, research, literature reviews and knowledge on the underutilized crops and wild-harvested species. Hence, some researchers encourage others to do research on local biodiversity and nutrition in order to have better understanding of local dietary contributions, and local modification by various processing techniques.