Saturday, August 31, 2019

Health and social care Essay

Explain how the plan meets the health and wellbeing needs of the individual In health and social care the wellbeing of the individual is essential for all round health and well-being. Using the case of Miss JB, this essay I will explain how my plan will meet the health and wellbeing needs of this individual. To assist this process an action plan have been drawn up to support the short term, mid-term and long term goals of the individual to enable Mr JB to achieve his health and wellbeing needs. NOW TALK ABOUT WHAT HEALTH AND WELL BEING IS A person’s health and well-being is affected by a number of different factors. In general terms, health and well-being can be defined as†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ having a balanced diet (e.g. improved immunity, feeling healthy controlling weight) adequate rest and sleep (e.g. improved concentration, refreshes body, restores energy) regular exercise (e.g. improved fitness, weight control, circulation, mobility) supportive relationships (e.g. friends, family, professionals, improved self-esteem, self-worth) adequate financial resources (e.g. social security benefits, free prescriptions, free dinners, pension, mobility allowance) stimulating work, education and leisure activity (e.g. improve mental ability, valued) According to Mr JB BMI he is considered to be overweight and he does not get much exercise or sleep. Mr JB also lives in a confined space, sharing 2 bedrooms flat with 7 people. He is takes paroxetine and mirtazapine for stress and depression and does not spend any time with his family. Mr JB is at high risk I have created a plan to help improve Mr JB health and well-being. I have suggested the Mr JB move out of his parent’s house and buy a house of his own on a long term goal. I have also suggested to him that he could rent as an alternative action. The benefit of Mr JB owning his own home is he will have his independence, having his own space for him and his family and feel less stress about living with his parents. Having regular exercise will help Mr JB to lose weight; I have suggested that he exercise three times a week on a mid-term goal. For an alternative action he needs to lose 3 st one in 3-6 months. He need to join a gym, drink  more water and eat healthy (five a day fruit and vegetable). The benefits he will get are self-confidence, energy which will help him to spend time with his family, relief of stress and reduce the risk of a heart attack. Regular physical activity can help you prevent or manage a wide range of health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type two diabetes, depression, and certain types of cancer, arthritis and falls. Mr JB will also need to take paroxetine gradually. Stop Paroxetine hydrochloride abruptly can cause withdrawal symptoms or cause your original condition to return. In these instances, reducing the dose of Paroxetine hydrochloride gradually over time may reduce the chances of having these problems. Spending quality time and creating happy memories with his family will help reduce stress and strengthen the bond between him and his family which will result in being more relax less stress and help him to stop depending on his medication. I have suggested that he stop smoking because the amount he smoke long term can cause lung cancer, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Alternatively he should reduce that amount he smoke daily from 10 cigarettes a day to 3 a day and also used Nicorette patches to help him to stop over a period of 6 months on a short term plan. If he decides to follow the plan to stop smoking the result can be rewarding; less stress, reduce headache, feeling less tired, your sense of taste and smell improve and your heart will be less strained and work more efficiently which reduce that chance of lungs cancer and heart diseases. The recommended amount of alcohol to drink for a man is 21 units a week. Mr JB drinks 28 units a week. Your liver processes alcohol. It can only cope with so much at a time. Drinking more alcohol than the liver can cope with can damage liver cells and produce toxic by-product chemicals. The more you drink, and especially above the recommended limits, the greater the risk of developing serious problems such as: liver disease (cirrhosis or hepatitis); cancer; gut and pancreas disorders; depression; anxiety; sexual difficulties; muscle and heart muscle disease; high blood pressure; damage to nervous tissue; serious accidents; obesity (alcohol is calorie-rich). Also can mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and various other problems. I have suggested that Mr. JB reduce his alcohol intake by 19  units a week which is just under the recommended amount. The benefit of reducing his intake will reduce his chance of liver disease; You will immediately start having more money, reduce calories in take, Your liver will begin to rejuvenate All the little aches and pains throughout your body will slowly but surely go away, Your natural energy will slowly but surely return, You will find joy in all the little things of life, Your family will love the new you When I created this plan for Mr JB I thought about his preferences and circumstances I have chosen long term, mid-term and short term goal for him to achieve. I thought about what are his favourite five a day and encourage him to buy the and gradually introduce new ones if need. Mr JB like the idea of going to the gym so I suggested he join one, he work on shift base, so when he is on late shift I suggest that he take his younger child to school in the morning and pick them up when he is on early shift which will enable to spend more time with his children.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Existential therapy focuses

Julia is a 43-year old woman who claims that she never experienced the feeling of happiness. She said that there are certain times when she had been feeling that her life is progressing well as compared to other times; however she had never remembered feeling any sense of joy in her entire life. Julia said that most of the time she had always been pessimistic on everything new. She had never really believed that there was a man who is right for her and, apparently, due to this notion, she had remained single. It is really difficult for her to express amusement and Julia claims that she does not have the sense of humor.Often, she sighs she always has the sentiment of carrying on her shoulders the weight of the world. Julia’s has actually been diagnosed with a chronic weight problem. She has always been on a diet; however, her weight has kept going up and down the scale. She says she has a great need for sleep; however, at most times she experiences insomnia and walks around all day feeling tired. Julia perceives that the blame for this is on her energy and its chronically low level. She has always stressed up with what could have been rather simple decisions.She claims that she loathed her being indecisive. There are people who accused her of devoting 50% of her day with disagreements toward herself. Tracing back to her high school days during her junior year, the guidance counselor advised her to work on her very low self-esteem. At her age right now, Julia feels that it is too late to change, and she had already accepted the fact that she will forever stay unfulfilled and unhappy. Julia is reported to have been suffering from a mild and long-lasting form of depression classified as dysthymia.This type of depression is also considered as a minor type of depression that is characterized by its long-term effects. With this, people often suffer all throughout their lifetimes. Dysthymia is in general identified in people who have experiences of its symptoms every day within two years and without greater than two months span of having no symptoms. In adolescents and children, the principal symptom is dissimilar in comparison with the symptoms experienced by the adults. The adults initially experience extreme sadness, while adolescents and children habitually manifest defiance and irritability.The children usually tend to become inferior in school specifically during the stage of depression. Aside from the feeling of being depressed, the major symptoms should be prevalent in order to diagnose dysthymia which is overeating or poor appetite, oversleeping or problems sleeping, low self-esteem, low energy, poor concentration, feelings of hopelessness and difficulty in making decisions (Williams, Barrett & Oxman, 2004). The depression known as dysthymia has been known to affect two to three women for every man, and is perceived to be instigated during childhood and adolescence stages.If this is left untreated, the dysthymia will generally car ry on throughout the life of a person. People who are diagnosed to have dysthymia frequently have other associated disorders like a personality disorder, anxiety disorder or phobia (Williams, Barrett &Oxman, 2004). One of the most widespread psychological problems is depression; it affects almost everybody in the course of the depression of a family member or personal experience. Every year more than 17 million adults in the US experience a phase of clinical depression. The cost of human suffering is unable to estimate.It can cause interference with the normal performance or functioning, and normally roots problems with family and social adjustment and with work as well. It can cause extreme suffering and pain not only to those directly affected by the disorder, but as well as those who are concerned with their health and welfare. Moreso, serious depression can actually destroy the life of a family and the entire life of the person suffering from depression (Williams, Barrett &Oxman , 2004). Depression has tremendous impact including extreme emotional pain; as it disrupts the millions lives of people, it unfavorably affects the lives of friends and families.Likewise, it reduces the absenteeism and productivity of the individual at work and has considerably negative encompassing impact on the economy as well. Depression is considered a psychological condition which changes how a person feels and thinks and it also affects the person’s sense of physical well-being and social behavior. People have all felt sadness at certain points of time; however that is not considered depression. There are times that people have been feeling tired from working too hard or are easily discouraged when facing very serious and complicated problems.Such situations are not also considered as depression. These kinds of feelings normally pass within a period of few days or a matter of weeks, by the time the people have become adjusted to the stress. However, if such feelings see m to be present, and have intensified and have began to cause interferences in school, family responsibilities or at work then this can be considered as depression. The reality lies that depression can affect almost anyone, having been identified, majority of the people diagnosed with the psychological problem of depression have been successful with their treatments.Unluckily, depression is usually not diagnosed, for the reason that many of its symptoms imitate physical illness, like appetite disturbances and sleep. The recognition of depression is the initial step towards treatment (Williams, Barrett &Oxman, 2004). The type of depression the client is suffering is the dysthymic disorder which is characterized by chronic depression, except that it has a lesser amount of severity compared with a major depression. The crucial indication for dysthymic disorder is an approximately every day depressed disposition for at least two years, although lacking the needed criteria for the type o f major depression.Sleep, disturbances in appetite, low self-esteem and low energy, are more often than not a part of the medical representation as well. People who have been diagnosed with dysthymic disorder will frequently claim that they do not remember not having the feeling of depression; however they may be reasonably efficient in the aspect of managing their lives, even though the indications are harsh enough to root interference and distress in their important role responsibilities in life.It is imperative to have an absolute material to overcome any physical illnesses that could possibly be causing the state of depression. In addition, if the affected person has a chronic medical condition which seems to be the major cause of the depression subsequently the accurate conclusion may be a mood disorder because of a serious medical condition, despite of meeting the criteria of a dysthymic disorder. The argument lies as to whether the condition is the root of depression instead of creating a distress which is chronically psychological in nature that has been the cause of depression.Regardless of the long term background of dysthymic disorder, the aid of psychotherapy is helpful in order to reduce the indications of depression, and can assist the person in organizing their life more. There are people affected with dysthymic disorder who are able to respond well enough to medication with the use of antidepressants, aside from psychotherapy, an evaluation for the chosen medication is considered ideal as well, moreover consulting a psychologist is also needed (Adler, Irish & McLaughlin, 2004). There are many ways in order to identify dysthymic disorder.It is greatly associated with the changes in feeling, thinking, physical well-being and behavior. In terms of changes in feelings, a lot of people feel sad for no reason at all. Some have reported that they are not enjoying things that most people enjoy. They are lacking of motivation and are on the run of getti ng indifferent. They usually are tired and have the feeling of slowing down. They are also irritable and are experiencing difficulty in controlling their temper, eventually it can lead to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness (Franklin, 1999).In terms of the changes in thinking majority of the people are experiencing extreme difficulty in decision making and concentration. There are also affected individuals who have been reported to be suffering with problems in terms of forgetting a lot of things most of the time and having short term memory. Thinking and thoughts of negativity are the major attributes of depression. Poor self-esteem, pessimism, self-criticism and excessive guilt are very much common and for some people affected with more serious type of depression usually have very self-destructive thoughts (Franklin, 1999).In terms of physical well-being, during depression, there are negative emotional feelings which are most of the time associated with negative physical emo tions. Despite getting more sleep, chronic fatigue is also common. Most of the people have the difficulty to have normal and sound sleep, they usually stay awake for very long hours or are awaken from time to time, for some, and they sleep for longer hours, even much longer than usual and they still feel very tired.Most of them have also loss their appetite, they complain a lot on many pains and aches and they usually feel slowed because of the depression which they have been experiencing (Franklin, 1999). When it comes to behavior, the affected people feel more apathetic, simply because that is how they are feeling. They are also uncomfortable with the presence of other people and they have the tendency to withdraw themselves from society. They either eat more or eat less as a result of changes in appetite.They also cry excessively due to chronic sadness. Oddly enough, they complain about anything and they usually manifest outbursts of temper and anger. On the extreme aspect, affec ted people usually display negligence on how they look and much worst is neglecting their hygiene and personal care. They also tend to lose their sexual desires which leads to lack of sexual activities. As gees, a person suffering from depression is not doing much work, and what suffer are their household responsibilities and work productivity (Franklin, 1999).Based on the object relations theory, depression is due to problems which people have in terms of developing the representations of healthy and sound relationships. It is an outcome of a constant fight which people who are depressed bear for them to try and sustain their emotional contact with their desired things. There are two types that such process can follow the introjective and anaclitic patterns. Although these terms are presently not used in the DSM, there are therapists which tend to associate them with various types of depression.Using the Adlerian Therapy as a mode of growth, it emphasizes an optimistic human nature view and that people have the control on their own fate. People begin at a tender age in fashioning their very own distinct lifestyle and such style remains reasonably unvarying all the way through their lives. People are motivated in terms of formulating and setting their goals and how to deal the tasks and social interests in life. The therapist in this approach needs to compile the family history as much as they can, with these data, they can help the client to set goals and have the idea of the past performances of the client.This will help to challenge and encourage the clients. The focus of the therapist are to examine their lifestyles and the therapist will do his or her part to form a mutual trust and respect, together with the client, they will set goals and encouragement to help the client to reach the goal and the therapist can eventually give recommendations or suggestions as to how the client can achieve the goals (Psyweb. com, 2008). Carl Jung, on the other hand, thou ght that there is no therapist who can lead his clients further than he had gone himself.There is no such therapist who will be able to help a depressed people on the inner selves except they are incessantly struggling with their own cataleptic substance. The premise of the wounded healer is eternally valid and universal. It is archetypical. The thoughts and images which are emotionally charged have universal meanings. Existential therapy focuses on the freedom of choice in the endeavor to shape a person’s life. It teaches one to be accountable in shaping his or her own life and also involves the need for self-awareness and determination.The individuality of each person shapes his or her own genuine personality which begins from the infancy stage. Existential therapy is focused on both the present and future. The therapist in this case guides and helps the client to realize the many possibilities which are in store for him in the future. The therapist will impose a challenge to the client for them to recognize that they are responsible in what transpires within their lives. This kind of therapy is very much suitable in helping clients make good dealings and wise choices in their lives (Psyweb.com, 2008). Gestalt therapy facilitates the integration of the mind and body factors, by means of stressing integration and awareness. The main goal of the gestalt therapy is the integration of thinking, behaving and feelings. The client is viewed as having the capability to be aware of how their earlier life influences may have been the factors which changed their lives. The client is guided to be aware of their responsibility in their own selves, to finish unfinished matters, how to avoid problems, in the awareness of now and to experience things in a positive light.The therapist will take the role of helping their client to discover the awareness of each of the moments they experience in their life. They will challenge the client to gain the acceptance of their responsibilities in terms of taking care of themselves instead of relying to others. In this approach, the therapist can utilize confrontation, dialogues with polarities, or role playing to reach their set goals or by means of dream analysis. As such can improve treatment like marital or family therapy, crisis intervention, training, psychopathic disorders or children behavior problems (Psyweb.com, 2008). Rational-emotive therapy is a well action-oriented approach which deals with the moral and cognitive state of the client. This kind of therapy emphasizes the ability of the client in terms of changing and thinking on their own. The therapist in the rational-emotive approach strongly believes that people are brought to the world, endowed with the ability if thinking rationally, but can as well become a victim of thinking irrationally. The therapist emphasizes the ability of the clients to think, take action and make sound judgments.Through which, the therapist will make use of direc t therapy and it is also believed that irrational thinking and irrational behavior results to neurosis. Both the cognitive-behavioral and rational-emotive therapist perceives the problems of the clients are due to their childhood as well as their belief system, which was honed during the childhood phase. The therapy will consist of methods which involve dealing and solving behavior and emotional problems. The therapist will also help the client to eradicate their self-defeating outlooks and to teach them to rationally view their life (Psyweb.com, 2008). Most of the time, antidepressant medication is very much recommended for the depression of dysthymia. For client Julia in this case study, the approach of psychotherapy is the primary step to treatment. Initially, supportive counseling will help the affected person to ease the pain and therefore the feelings of hopelessness can be addressed. Next, cognitive therapy will be utilized to alter the unrealistic expectations, pessimistic i deas and critical evaluations that result to depression.It can help the depressed person to distinguish their problems as minor or critical, and such can help them accept life (HealthPlace. com, 2000). Then the therapy of problem solving follows to address the client’s problems and later on use the behavioral therapy to help the client develop the skills of coping and to resolve their conflicts with their relationships, thus can be effective for the treatment of dysthymic disorder of depression. References Adler DA, Irish J & McLaughlin TJ. (2004). The work impact of dysthymia in a primary care population. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. Franklin, D.(1999). What is Depressive Disorder. Retrieved June 9, 2008 from http://www. psychologyinfo. com/depression/description. html. HealthPlace. com. (2000). Dysthymia (Minor Depression). Retrieved June 9, 2008 from http://www. healthyplace. com/communities/depression/dysthymia. asp. Psyweb. com. (2008). Psychotherapy. Retrieved June 9, 2008 from http://psyweb. com/Mdisord/MdisordADV/AdvPsych. jsp#Rational-emotive%20Therapy. Williams JW Jr, Barrett J, & Oxman T. (2000). Treatment of dysthymia and minor depression in primary care: A randomized controlled trial in older adults. JAMA.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Mortality Rates of Advance Mechanical Ventilator Modes vs Research Proposal

The Mortality Rates of Advance Mechanical Ventilator Modes vs Intravenous (IV) medications in the Adult ICU Setting - Research Proposal Example Mechanical ventilation is a common application in the intensive care unit but their usage is not entirely safe. Fernandez, Miguelena, Mulett, Godoy and Martinon-Tore contends that such applications require high degree of care and this further means that associated risk can occur without cases of practitioner’s negligence (2013). New mechanical ventilators continue to emerge but the risk has persisted. Adaptive support ventilation is one of the latest models but despite its advantages such as reduced ventilation period and less human management, it has diversified disadvantages such as lack of direct programming options, inadequate experience, and limited availability. Consequently, application is limited and even when it is available; it has significant risks that can contribute to mortality rate among patients in the ICU (Fernandez et al., 2013). In addition to direct risks of ventilator application, a patient may not be tolerant to its usage and this may hinder its efficienc y. Consequently, usage may not imply benefits to patients who may succumb to breathing difficulties. Associated complications of ventilator applications such as pressure on a patient’s respiratory system, irritation, and air leaks among other complications may, if not detected and corrected in time, be significant to the patient’s condition and lead to death (Grossbach, Chlan and Tracy, 2011). Fan, Villar and Slutsky’s review of acute respiratory distress syndrome that ventilators induce confirms significance of associated risks with mechanical ventilator modes into high mortality rate despite continued usage of the technology in intensive care units (2013). Like mechanical ventilator modes, intravenous medications have associated risks. In a study to investigate risk of intravenous medication on blood stream infections, the researchers identified significant risk levels but noted that application of

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The Role of the Manager in Health System Finance Essay

The Role of the Manager in Health System Finance - Essay Example The health system finance department needs a manager who ought to access and manage all funds in healthcare. The institutional and financial needs, in this case, will be available, due to well handling and running of funds. For healthcare institutions, methodologies of gaining funds range from grants, loans to government contracts. The manager in this instance has to come on board to organize all these funding methods. Economic evaluation is also possible with the full involvement of the manager in health system finance. This essay shall attempt to assess the role of the Manager in health system finance. The paper shall also explain the role of purchasers and commissioners in the fair allocation of resources, assess the viability of the use of clinical coding procedures for efficient payment and cost control, and finally evaluate the credibility of employing strategies to manage the effective use of coding systems in health care.  In the work of Smith & Curry (n.d.: 30), the purcha sers and commissioners have a greater role to play in ensuring fair allocation of resources in the healthcare system. In their work, Smith & Curry (n.d.: 30), bring out the concept that commissioning refers to making purchase strategically or rather planning and funding. In the United Kingdom, commissioning is mostly used in the National Health Service (NHS). This entails coming up with decisions that touch on the health requirements of the population and the required services that are required to meet these needs. In this case, the purchasers and commissioners come in handy to check for proper allocation of funds and the necessary resources to deliver full services to the population. On another viewpoint, Davies (2008: 25) indicates that the purchasers and commissioners play the role of monitoring the services that allow fulfill the standards put in place in the healthcare contracts.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Individual project 4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Individual project 4 - Assignment Example Nordstrom Inc. is an up market American fashion department store, founded by Carl F. Wallin and John W. Nordstrom currently having its headquarters in Washington’s Seattle. Shoe retail was the company’s beginning and has since grown their catalog to incorporate cosmetics, clothing fragrances, accessories, jewelry and handbags. Bloomingdale’s is also an up market American chain of department stores presently owned by Marcy’s, Inc. it was founded in 1861when brothers Lyman and Joseph G. Bloomingdale started retailing hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions Shop on Lower East Side of Manhattan. They were both sons of Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-native salesman who had inhabited Kansas and North Carolina before settling in New York City. Segmentation entails identifying different groups of buyers in a population in order to isolate certain products and services for these different groups or segments. By altering products, communication, prices to various groups, one is able to meet the needs of more consumers and consequently gain a higher overall level share or profit from a market. Segmentation, in short, allows companies to create just the right products and services in addressing the needs of different market slices (Berghoff et. al. 2012). You now have used qualitative and quantitative tools to assess service quality and segmentation in the stores. How can a marketing manager use these results to build a segmentation strategy in one of the target stores. Part 3 of the Individual Project will be 1 page in

Monday, August 26, 2019

What Postmodernism Is Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What Postmodernism Is - Essay Example The essay "What Postmodernism Is" concerns postmodernism era. Postmodernism intends to establish that it is not in the power of human beings to change the world for their own benefits. Humans do not possess an unlimited potential to understand the world. Modernists were of the view that it is possible to understand reality with complete certainty by way of observation and reasoning. Modernism ended abruptly when philosophers began to question the ability to understand truth objectively. The postmodernist is suspicious of such realities. They do not have any concrete reason to defy such objective facts. It is only suspicion and virtue of hypocrisy that keeps them from believing in them. Some objective realities are simply inescapable. There cannot be a world in which there is no objective truth. For example, hurting kids under every circumstance is completely wrong. There cannot be any possible world in which such a practice could be considered acceptable. If this objective reality is denied and it is assumed that reality cannot be understood objectively, then it is hypocritical. I think that there are many realities which are perfectly understood by everyone. This is because truth can be described objectively which suggests that truth is completely attainable. A world where truth is not attainable would be a picture of complete chaos. This is why postmodernism is hypocritical. If there is no absolute truth as postmodernists suggest, then everyone would be free to violate moral principles/

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Dam paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dam - Research Paper Example Remediation of Gorge Dam will involve; revitalizing its catchment area, that is the river Cuyahoga to ensure constant supply of water to the dam and reduce the flow of sediment. The decision to remediate a dam is based on various ecological, economical and human considerations in terms of impacts and risks associated with it. According to the American White Water organization, the Gorge Dam is roughly 57feet tall (approximately 17.4 meters), with a current average flow rate estimated at approximately 522 cubic feet per second (approximately 14.8 cubic meters per second). Remediation processes in the United States are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and it is executed in stages. The Gorge dam was built in 1912 on the Cuyahoga River between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron Ohio. Vast deposits of metal waste from industries were dumped into the Cuyahoga River between 1912 and 1926, which over time have converted into free flowing sediment. Also from 1926 to 1978, coal combusted products were also laid in the river as waste. The dam was built for the generation of hydroelectric power for the local street car public transportation systems and to provide cooling water storage for a local coal burning power plant. Removing the dam will cost approximately 50 to 70 million dollars and over a year to finish the process depending on how the funds are distributed and consumed. With these figures, it’s better to leave the dam alone since in removing or ignoring the dam doesn’t solve the problem of pollution as the sediment has to be removed even after the dam is removed. Sediment is a naturally occurring material produced by the forces of erosion and weathering and is transported downstream through the water. After removal of the dam, the large amount of polluted sediment on the base of the dam and the river also needs to be taken out to avoid allocating itself downstream. The operation is a major component of the cost consideration and time taken in removing the dam. Ignoring the dam means continued build up of sediment and water quality declination. The solution for the dam is remediation. Currently, the dam has a potential of generating approximately 2526 kilowatts. Considering its situation, this is a good amount of power and this means once the dam is remediated, power generation efficiency will increase. The generated power will be viable for feeding into the national grid. The cost incurred in remediation and upgrading the hydroelectric plant will be recovered in a few years, which is better than spending 50 to70 million dollars in removing the dam and over a year to do so, or incurring an annual expense of 1224 dollars in ignoring the dam to maintain it without any economic benefits. From the calculations in the appendix, Gorges dam can generate up to 2021017 watts of power assuming its efficiency is 80%. Hydroelectric power generation of a typical dam ranges from 70-90 %. When remediated, the fountainhead of the dam wil l be increased and a higher head implies more potential to generate power. The result is a cheap and readily available power for factories and to the local communities. Cheap and readily available power encourages local investment. Industries will develop which will create employment, and improving the standards of living. Remediating the dam removes the sediment accumulated over the years

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Exectuive Branch Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exectuive Branch - Research Paper Example The decision-making branch of the state level is headed by heads of states. All bureaucrats in the state executive level are answerable to the president, but in other cases, the executive level in different states are headed by governors The president in any state level has his own directives to carry out like being the commander in chief of the armed forces. This implies that the head of state is the only individual who can command the military wing of the forces. Secondly, the president has authority to select individuals or ministers to oversee the daily running of public institutions, like ministries and embassies (Ferguson, 2006). Functions of the State Executive Level The executive level has various functions to perform. They include overseeing and put into practice the work of their juniors, since they are mandated to see the overall running, and implementations of the laws. Secondly, the executive level makes sure that laws are followed to uphold their constitution and protec t their interest. It applies rules and orders in insuring that enactments are strictly followed. The laws enforced into enactment by the executive level involve the constitution laws signed and acknowledged by the executive head. Thirdly they have the responsibility to appoint the judicial officers like lawyers and state judges. Lastly, the executive has the mandate to appoint officials in a state subsection. The arm is in-charge of the of all key policy-making positions in state or government (Thorburn, 2008). The Authorizing Legislation of the State Executive Level Authorizing legislation can be used to describe the management process, and the instructions used to institute information sharing in any set of an institution. The legislation offers a structure for the enactment of laws and ideas in any set of a system. The executive, state level is guided by rules on the appointments of their officials. The authorizing legislation in any state government is the president or the gover nor. An excellent authorizing legislation has to meet the set standards like being timely in fulfilling vacancies in any state office. All the officials in the state institutions are appropriately expected to use the legislation act in occupying vacant positions inside an institute. Secondly the authorizing legislation should be considerate of an institution when making decisions pertaining to the appointments of officials in an institution. The authorizing legislation should entail the opus and qualifications for individuals who are to be appointed to occupy key positions in a state institution. Thirdly, the legislation act should plainly state the duties of the commission is selecting to aid in its operations. Lastly, the act should clearly state powers and limits of state officials in the handling of issues. The powers awarded to an individual are stated to avoid abuse (Thorburn, 2008). Structure of the Executive Federal Level The executive federal, level entails distribution of power among the state governments and other institutions like the national administration. The level is collected the office of the president, the managerial departments, the first lady and the independent agencies and committees (Ferguson, 2006). 1 The office of the president is regarded to be the uppermost bureau in the structure. It is composed of the president, the first lady, the vice president and the cabinet. The president

Information system management Statistics Project

Information system management - Statistics Project Example A system modeling is one of the main activities in any system development and without it the whole system development turns out to be collapse. The main reason behind this research is to find out and present more detailed factors that are connected with the existing confronts and prospects for systems modeling. Why we do the system modeling' This is an imperative inquiry that often comes in mind whenever we talk about usefulness of system modeling in the system development. The aim of this section is to present a consolidated and authenticated views and thoughts regarding this scenario. The system modeling provides great help during the movement from the classification of a key difficulty state to be addressed with an imitation model to a solution of what is obtainable to be modeled and how it can be done. In the system modeling process we split the units of a model study down into amount of small processes these processes can be the following (Robinson, 2002): In the above listed stages of the system representations particularly conceptual modeling is exercised. Here in this system study we are not immediately visited just the once the whole organization, on the other hand we are frequently returned in the course of a sequence of iterations in the life-cycle of a progress (Selic, 1999). As such, system mock-up is not a infrequency bear out, on the supplementary hand it is one that is normal and urbanized an quantity of periods all the technique in the course of a reproduction lessons. Given in the earlier studies system modeling composed of 5 fundamentals and model from the 'authentic system' in the course of 'processor' or we know how to speak it as the computer based simulation model (Robinson, 2002). Here we have Base model Lumped model Experimental frame The experimental enclose is the restricted summit of condition beneath which the genuine system is realistic, that is, particular input-output behaviors. The establishment reproduction is a imaginary complete amplification of the factual coordination, which is conversant of producing all potential input-output behaviors (Selic, 1999). The groundwork model is not capable to be entirely predictable for the explanation that whole knowledge of the definite system could not be accomplished. For instance, roughly all systems fit into place

Friday, August 23, 2019

Comparing and contrasting Beyonce Knowles and Kelly of Destiny child Essay

Comparing and contrasting Beyonce Knowles and Kelly of Destiny child - Essay Example Since these two popular artist started in the same group of singing, therefore, their close relationship that can be determined from their past to present through comparison and contrasting their current popularity and new ventures. Remaining relevant in the music industry is a key issue for both artists. The two artists have remained relevant in the music industry in different ways. From their group of four, they are the two popular artists who can still be identified from the group. Despite remaining relevant, Beyonce has hit the music industry in a major way. This can be seen from hits after hits that she releases annually when compared to Kelly. Although Kelly also has some hits to identify with, they cannot be compared to the number of hits that Beyonce has had since the group broke up. Beyonce is currently known at least to have released hits that are not yet even been performed. Some of the music that Beyonce has recorded has hit the airwaves before she has even performed the songs to her funs. It is thus vital to note that, Beyonce remains to be more popular than her childhood friend Kelly whom they formed the popular group with and went on separate ways after deciding to go for single records. Over one millions likes in the media like facebook, twitter and you-tube videos for Beyonce are evident unlike those of Kelly Rowland. Marriage, relationship and venture into different career paths are also a key role that has determined the relevance of Kelly and Beyonce in the music industry. For Kelly, she has taken more of a different path in popular music when compared to Beyonce. Kelly has taken advertisements of major industries as her major. She has done more advertisement related gigs from her music talent when compared to Beyonce. In her music career, she remains relevant in most instances due to the adverts and the reality shows that she takes part in. More so, both have been involved in one or two movies that have been aired globally. Beyonce has the main actress in the ‘dream girls’ while Kelly has also been part of American black films that has maintained her relevancy in the popular music industry. For Kelly, nothing much has been heard of her successful relationships after the singles while Beyonce has hit a record of being a wife to a well represented artist globally called Jay-z. Beyonce has maintained a good marriage relationship when compared to Kelly who has no clear records of dating or marrying anyone through her music life (Arenofsky 5). Therefore, both have diverse preferences when it comes to marriages and ventures in to other forms of careers. Did their singles make a hit or collaboration was the main idea as to why they have remained relevant after their separation from the group? Well, it is evident that for Knowles, she had single hits that made her even more famous after her going single. She has had albums that have not featured any famous popular singer but still remaining very popular to her fu ns. For example, even after releasing songs like, ‘If I was a boy’ and ‘all the single ladies’ alone, she still attracted a large crowd of funs who could demand for more and more of her single album. She has given her funs the best of hits ever since she parted from her group. From my perception, it is like her being in the group was suppressing her talents and popularity. She could not have been known to be such a famous popular

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Alternative Dispute Resolution Clause for Learning Essay Example for Free

Alternative Dispute Resolution Clause for Learning Essay Alternative Dispute Resolution Clause for Learning Team Charter LAW 531 Alternative Dispute Resolution Clause for Learning Team Charter This paper will discuss an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clause that might be used by a Learning Team to resolve a disagreement among members. This paper will identify all provisions and information necessary to enable the ADR to occur and function effectively. The dispute that the ADR clause that might be used by a Learning Team will be when a member fails to submit their portion of the Learning Team assignment on time and therefore another member must write the portion assigned. I, Learning Team member, will settle all disputes or controversies arising from not submitting my portion on the time and date previously decided by the Learning Team to the Learning Team folder exclusively by mediation and a neutral third party mediator. The mediator will be chosen by the professor of the course that the Learning Team is associated. The mediation will be held within three days of said dispute or controversy and remedy will be completed within 5 days of said dispute. I will make myself available to the mediation and cooperate in any fashion with mediator. If a fair and equitable agreement for all cannot be reached than I will not be given rights within the Learning Team and the University will be notified that I have forfeited rights to the Learning Team. If and when settlement has been reached no party within Learning Team will mention said disruption within Learning Team folder. The above clause will allow the Learning Team to have a clear understanding that it is very important to make sure that their assigned portion is submitted on time. If the assigned portion is not submitted on time than they may have to submit to a mediation to work out the differences within the Learning Team and how they will make up to the Learning Team.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Long Process Of European Decolonization English Language Essay

The Long Process Of European Decolonization English Language Essay According to Helen Tiffin, Decolonization is a process, not arrival it has been the project of post-colonial writing to interrogate European discourses and discursive strategies from a privileged position within (and between) two worlds (Tiffin 95). At the moment of decolonization there are two kinds of responses to the imposition of imperial language: post colonial writers either choose rejection or subversion of the imposed tongue and the empire by writing back in a European language. As part of this the Indian English writers thrive hard to project the hybridity of post colonial realities and the use of English as a linguistic expression of that hybridity must be accepted. Writers including Raja Rao, Rushdie and Roy were aware of the fact that the subversion of English is the only strategy that recognizes the influence of the colonial experience while, at the same time, dismantling its supporting biases. Therefore nativizing and acculturating it (Kachru 294) is the device these po st colonial writers adopted, thus transforming standard English into many englishes as are the diverse post colonial realities.(Ashcroft 8) These englishes allow the post colonial writer to voice his particular experience while exploiting the advantages of using an international language. Salman Rushdie comments on how working in new englishes can be therapeutic. In the essay Imaginary Homelands, he explicates that, the English language is not something that can simply be overlooked and disregarded, but is the site where writers should try to sort out the problems that challenge emerging or recently independent colonies. He believes that by conquering English we can conclude the process of making ourselves emancipated. What we find in the writings of these novelists is a resistance to the dominant language-culture which is facilitated through a naturalization of it and stretching it to contain some authentic Indian expressions. Thereby they are invested with a power to appropriate and dismantle metropolitan discourses and to assert post colonial difference from Europe. The linguistic hybridization which results from the manipulation of English as the normative linguistic code by the emerging post-colonial voices as an act of subversion and a necessary step in the direction of cultural liberation, becomes the source for new strategies of writing which have generated some of the most exciting and innovative literatures of the modern period (Ashcroft 8). These hybrid linguistic practices are a reliable sign of an authentic articulation of indigenous voices. Linguistic hybridization results in syntactic flexibility and rapid enrichment of vocabulary. The Indian English writer challenges and redefines m any accepted notions of language and indulges in creating different versions or constructing a new language in our multilingual contexts. These are the in between languages which occupy a space in between and seeks to decolonize themselves from the Western ex-colonizer and subverts hierarchies and brings together the dominant and the under-developed. The Caliban- Prospero paradigm can be seen as an illustration of resistance enacted by postcolonial Indian writers where Caliban practices what he calls the language of the torturer mastered by the victim. His appropriation of Prosperos language rather than his rejection of it, is an appropriation that extends and enriches the possibilities of the English language in ways that are, perhaps, no longer possible for the English themselves. As Graham Huggan suggests, Indian writing (especially in English) is to a large extent a transnational, diasporic phenomenon, the product of complex collisions/collusions between East and West (66). Therefore, the term postcolonial nowadays has a wider definition and it denotes an index of resistance, a perceived imperative to rewrite the social context of continuing imperial dominance (Huggan ix). Post colonial Indian writing showcases a number of linguistic tensions and any interrogation of the experiences involves a simultaneous interrogation of language also. Indian English liberates itself from the parent language and tries to be on its own surpassing its hyphenated status. The deformations, deviations and irregularities found in Indian English is part of an attempt by the writer to master the texture of the original while amending and altering it considerably to suit the local conditions leading to the birth of a brand new English. In its reinstatement as Indian English, it certainly shakes off its colour and becomes heteroglossic, true to what Bakthin opined as anothers speech in anothers language. English turns into playful manipulation in the hands of these writers. As a form of self-assertion Indian writers playfully manipulate the language and relates them to the roots and culture of ones own and introduces circumstances for their self-expression. R.K. Narayan advocates writing in a genuinely Indian way without being self-conscious about it; English has proved that if a language has flexibility, any experience can be communicated through it, even if it has to be paraphrased sometimes rather than conveyed, and even if the factual detail à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is partially understood à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ All that I am able to confirm merely after thirty years of writing, is that it has served my purpose admirably, on conveying unambiguously the thoughts and acts of a set of personalities, who flourish in a small town located in a corner of South India. (Press 123) The Indian writers communicate the Indian sensibility and consciousness to dissociate themselves from the subtle nuances of the language and its flexible idiom in an instinctive and effortless manner through narrative structures associated with the ones prevalent in Indian oral and epic traditions to vindicate the spirit of India and its quintessential unity. According to Rushdie, the moment the Indian writer tries to shed the insular mentality of exclusion and to use English as his own without any anxiety or self-consciousness the language of the other becomes his property on which its first user will have no substantial claim. This approach invests the Indian writer with a freedom to articulate which they aimed to achieve it. Indian English can be seen as a distinct variety whose body is correct English usage, but whose soul, thought and imagery is Indian in colour, and an Indian idiom which is representative of the unique quality of Indian mind while in compliance with the exactne ss of the English usage. Linguist Braj Kachru argues, using a non-native language in native context, to portray new themes and characters and situations is like redefining the semantic and semiotic potential of a language, making language mean something which is not part of its traditional meaning. It is an attempt to give a new African or Asian identity, and thus an extra dimension of meaning. A part of that dimension perhaps remains obscure or mysterious to the Western reader. The process of creating new meanings in English, for those who write in two languages is a process of transcreation (Kachru 48).The creation of new meanings accompanies the creation of new identities. Meenakshi Mukherjee claims that; The Indo- Anglian writer should be allowed the freedom to experiment with the language for his own artistic needs rather than be heaved into a system of linguistics in search of that elusive medium; a standard Indian English (214). Indian English literature is replete with experimental language which includes forging new words, new idioms, new turns of expressions, new syntactic structures and new rhythms, Indianisms, violating the syntax and grammar of English to echo the regional speech and to recreate an Indian consciousness and also to induce better linguistic results. R.K. Narayan comments that the presence of Indianisms are unavoidable in their situation as all writers are experimentalists, not attempting to write Anglo-Saxon English. The English language, through, sheer resilience and mobility, is now undergoing a process of Indianisation in the same manner as it adopted U.S. citizenship over a century ago. The process of transmutation is to be viewed as an enrichment of the English language or a debasement of it. These writers, says Mulk Raj Anand, aim at consciously reorienting the language and synthesizing Indian and European values in contemporary India.(20) Indians have found a sense of peculiar int imacy with the English language, making it a second natural voice for the Indian mind and sensibility. He sees realized in it the power of Indian inheritance, the complexity of Indian experience, and the uniqueness of Indian voice.( Walsh 65, 71) Indianisms can be accepted as permissible violations of the English language if they are introduced for the sake of reflecting cultural overtones and undertones.(Verghese 181) Shaking off the traces of foreign acquisition, the language is moulded today as anew idiom. The language has to be broken to it, as it were, and made new. (Kantak 223) The process of adaptation has been gradual and pervasive. Kantak rightly points out; Everything depends, of course, on the intimacy of the adoption, the level reached in the process of naturalization. (224) Most linguistic innovations are purposive and have an authentic ring about them. And it is not mere reproduction; the transformation of language takes place at a high artistic pressure.(235) Commenti ng upon the contextualization of English on India, Kachru observes: Indian English has ramifications in Indian culture(which includes languages) and is used in India towards maintaining appropriate Indian patterns of life, culture and education. This, in short, we may call the Indianess of Indian English, in the same way as we speak of the Englishness of British English. (Kachru 282) He again remarks; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the distance between the natively used varieties of English and Indian English cannot be explained only by comparative studies of phonology and grammar. The deviations are an outcome of the Indianisation of English which has, gradually, made Indian English culture-bound in the socio-cultural setting of India. The phonological and grammatical deviations are only a part of this process of Indianisation.(85-86) The appropriation of English language by Indian English writers results in innovations that enrich English. They also use the text to construct a world of difference, separation, and absence from the metropolitan norms which arose from the experience of colonization and a compulsive necessity to write in response to the imperial powers by asserting their differences from the assumptions of the imperial centers. The writers resort to many strategies or specific postcolonial literary techniques like fragmentation, plurality, and language to subvert Western-colonial constructs of identity and culture. It is also projected as a retelling of individual experience as against the colonial representations of history, language, and textuality. True to what Salman Rushdie famously remarked, that in post-colonial culture, the Empire writes back to the centre, these writings create a challenging discourse as against the dominant Eurocentric discourse facilitating a re-imagining and restructuring of it through breaking down certain colonial assumptions and grand narratives. Indian fiction in English can be read as a counter-discourse, as a response, in part, to earlier universalizing Western texts of English colonial writers. The Indian writers write using English vocabulary but indigenous structures and rhythms which goes in line with Chantal Zabuss theory of relexifcation Those who utilize this technique use English to simulate another language and therefore are not merely using English but also modifying it. In this process the expressions of the postcolonial are functioning as an interlanguage, mimicking neither the European target language or the indigenous source language (Zabus 315). To personalize and to correspond to a particular national or regional identity, Indian writers parade their mastery over language to nativize and indigenize English. Diverse ways of nationalizing English is used as an effective tool to demarginalize the postcolonial experience. This takes many forms and the most prominent of which is linguistic demarginalisation whic h leads to what Brathwaite calls a nation language, a need felt by a host of post-colonial writers. At the moment of decolonization, the imperial language which was an instance of the cultural baggage that restrained and smothered the natives was destabilized. The Indian writers uses the English medium to convey hitherto unknown and unfamiliar roles like a whole new set of customs, social objects, and relationships, universal responsiveness, which goes into the creation of a new culture. This represents the conversion of the weapon of the colonizer as a linguistic blade where it is redirected back at the colonizer thereby liberating the enslaving medium into a revolutionary weapon with Indian message. It helps the writer to indulge in self-reflexive narrative as a counter-discursive strategy to strike against the totalizing colonialist literature and also to erase the dominant universalist canon of Europe and endorse the marginalized canons of various local cultures. An expression o f culture-specific experiences and sensibilities through English, undermine the totalizing notion of one standard literary English language that can include all human experiences. As a result, Indian English cease to be regarded as postcolonial, but rather as an expression of uniquely Indian identity. The contemporary Bengali writer and critic Amit Chaudhuri, in his seminal anthology of 2001 The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, comments on the way English is used in India. Though used by a small but substantial group, English is now an Indian language, English is not an Indian language in the way it is an American language; nor is it an Indian language in the way that Bengali or Urdu. English is not an Indian language, but it has served so many useful and essential purposes of a developing society, this for so long that it has now become a kind of linguistic habit with us and cannot be easily discarded without a proper substitute. Writers like Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry, Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Anita Desai and more recently Kiran Desai, Shashi Tharoor, Pankaj Mishra and Amit Chaudhuri get gushing reviews and are the propagators and ambassadors of Indian writing in English. The following comments of Gokak present the recent assessment of Indian English writers ; Indo-Anglian writing is direct and spontaneous- like creative writing in any other language. It is conditioned in many ways by the peculiar circumstances of its birth and growth. (162) The use of English in India for almost two hundred years has naturally nativized the English language and it has also caused the entry of new words into the language which truly represent our culture and traditions and which is also used in non-Indian settings. The Indian linguistic and cultural context is flourishing everyday with new set of lexical items and typical Indian collocations. Srinivasa Iyengar is of the opinion that Indian writing in English is but one of the voices in which India speaks. It is a new voice, no doubt, but it is as much Indian as others (3) Indian writing in English has come a long way from that teething stage, developing a diversity of themes, a variety of forms and techniques, and, not the least, an authenticity and idiomatic expressiveness. (S.N.Sridhar 292) In the process of Indianisation and thereby to decolonize English, writers express every modes of feeling and thinking peculiar to the cultural milieu through words which are culture bound to describe everyday objects and convey the Indian sentiment. Strategies like vernacular transcription, loan words, syntactic fusion and use of rhythmic patterns and social conventions of Indian languages helps to bridge the cultural gaps and makes the use of the alien medium more acceptable to the non-native speakers themselves (Sridhar 298). English has been re-built to reflect the clarity of thought and shades of feeling to the extent they can realize within their own ecosystems. The Indian novelists in English have accelerated the process of desired linguistic deviation and according to Kachru, the process of Indianisation of English is a linguistic and cultural characteristics transferred to an adopted alien language.(19) In an attempt to disengage language from its socio-cultural roots and to make it conducive to the new user, the Indian writer liberates English from the precision and accuracy of its usage and disintegrates the stereotypical language functions to accommodate the native feel of the life. This leaves the language with a better freedom for the writer to exploit. Only a gradual and wider usage of the language to contain the burden of our local context and experience can lead to a complete decolonization of the language rather than a deliberate attempt to Indianise it. According to Gokak Indian English should represent the evolution of a distinct standard- a standard the body of which is the correct English usage, but whose soul is Indian in colour, thought and imagery.(3) As from all these illustrations we can conclude that the reappropriation of the ex-colonisers language, within a postcolonial frame of mind is a crucial thrust in terms of style for postcolonial writers. The writers I have chosen illustrate how one can authentically represent their native culture through Indian English which, at the same time, abrogates the Standard English as well as appropriates it for local discourses, thereby re-structuring deconstructing and decolonizing the English language to liberate it from within and to remould it for the purpose of dismantling the power structures of English grammar which are symbolic of the hegemonic controls implemented. The English used by these novelists, is a distinct English which is idiomatic, using a colloquial register that will certainly be familiar to a British reader but which contains an unmistakably Indian reference. It represents the new varities of englishes that are relocated, resettled and reincarnated language and indige nized to perform culture-specific functions. Rao has tried in his novels to conform the English language to Indian literary style and rhythm, and to make it express local myths and ideas. These writers are of the opinion that the subversion of English is the only strategy that recognizes the influence of the colonial experience while, at the same time, dismantling its supporting biases. Thus, on the Indian continent the English language was put to a revolutionary use by Rao, Rushdie and Roy. There works are clear illustrations of their efforts to completely relinquish the habitual linguistic practice and the formulation of an innovative, unrefined, critical and radical syntax. Another way of decolonization ably achieved by Indian writers like Raja Rao, Rushdie and Roy are through the Indianisation and acculturation of English language. Hence they are capable of formulating a new english which defies the western canons of power and controls and one which suits their requirements and which opens up spaces for creativity in Indian English. All these approaches are for redefining the medium, and contextualizing English in yet other socio-cultural and linguistic framework. Raja Raos Kanthapura, Rushdies Midnights Children and Shame and Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things where the writers uses a multiplicity of indigenizations, is an exemplary illustration of the trend, which has plenty of language rooted in local Indian culture. The Indian narrative of resistance begins with Raja Rao whose nativization of English is the best approach to avoid confined by Standard English structures and usage. He expressed his resistance to the language of the dominant discourse by rewriting its given structures. Writers like Raja Rao, Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy are involved in a process of indigenizing English. Language in its decontextualised way serves to denaturalize and decolonise thus subverting, diverting and twisting into new shapes and transformed into an alien material in order to express new realities. These writers exhibit a more intentional and calculated linguistic experimentation at several levels the outcome of which will lead to a decolonizati on of English. This decolonization of the language goes hand in hand with a desire to make it a more penetrating tool of artistic exploration. Post colonial writers like Raja Rao, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy have contributed to the discourse of hybridity through their works of dissent, challenge or subversion. It can be efficiently wrapped up that the practitioners of Indo- Anglian literature wield a decolonising pen (Rushdie). Rushdies prediction that Indians were in a position to conquer English literature seems justified.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Microbial Mats: A Bioreactor of Lithification

Microbial Mats: A Bioreactor of Lithification Microbial mats: a bioreactor of lithification and an indicator of Earths evolution Introduction Microbial mat is a general term that is used to describe a variety of microbial communities that are found at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces such as estuarine environment and salt marshes (Krumbein et al., 1977; Nicholson et al., 1987). Bacteria and archaea are two main microbes forming the layers. Microbial mats contain a variety of different but essential trophic groups including primary producers, consumers, and decomposers. This is why even though microbial mats are, to an extreme extent, geographically small, they are ecosystems from an ecological perspective. Microbial mats are dynamic ecosystems in which a wide range of metabolic processes take place. Inside this tiny ecosystem, different physical and chemical environments are distinguished by a variety of gradients, include but not limited to light, oxygen and sulfide (Visscher and van den Ende, 1994). The gradients may not be always constant. For example, oxygen concentration may have varied from diurnally to seasonally. In some aquatic systems, it will drop from supersaturated to undetectable within a few centimeters. The light penetration depth is fluctuated because of change of seasons or just with cloud covering. All these temporal environmental oscillations mentioned above, will result in coupled reactions, that are critical to the biogeochemical cycle, like reduction and oxidation of elements such as carbon and sulfur. Therefore, heterogeneity of microbe habitat is a common character that exhibits among all microbial mats.   Microbial mat ecosystems can be viewed as a semiclosed system which require little more than sunlight to function, as such it is efficient in all kinds of reactions and element cycling. The relatively simple but functional structures make it, to a certain extent, easy to reach equilibrium and mass balances. Generally, microbial mats tend to have high rates of oxygenic photosynthesis, aerobic respiration, sulfate reduction, and sulfide oxidation (Canfield and Des Marais, 1993; Revsbech et al., 1986), when compared to other benthic ecosystems. A classical view of a microbial mat (Figure 1)(Visscher et al., 2000) is that a fixed sequence of microbial groups exists: starting with oxygenic cyanobacteria as a surface community, underlain by oxygenic phototropic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria as subsequent layer (Krumbein, 1983). This view, however, was later questioned and revised. Structure and the layers are not a result of different metabolic reaction types, on the contrary, they might be found in association with the cyanobacterial layer. Some research showed that the sulfur reducing bacteria was also found in the surface layer (Frà ¼nd and Cohen, 1992; Visscher et al., 1992). Microbial mats and mineral interaction In microbial ecosystems, when the precipitation rate of minerals is faster than that of dissolution, lithification will occur. Precipitations mediated by microbial mats is not limited to carbonates but also constituted by other minerals, such as gypsum and anhydrite (Ehrlich, 1998). Among all these precipitation types, carbonate precipitation is perhaps the most important process as it is directly related to the global carbon cycling. Therefore, in this section, a main focus will be put on sedimentary biofilms in hypersaline environments to help with the interpretation of the rock record. 2.1 Stromatolites and carbonate precipitation Stromatolites are lithifying organic sedimentary structures formed by microorganisms (Figure 2). Carbonate precipitation activities of microbial mats are trapped and recorded in stromatolites layered structures. As such, microbial mats can be viewed as bioreactors (Dupraz et al., 2004a). The stromatolites structure is characterized as an alternating soft and hard layers whose heights ranges from a few centimeters to two meters. The evolutionary processes of stromatolites remain largely uncharacterized (Zavarzin, 2002). There are two major hypotheses. Des Marais (1997) speculated that microbial lithification is a result of by-product of microbial metabolism. On the other hand, McConnaughey and Whelen (1997) suggested that this could be directly related to the consequence of microbes harvesting energy from protons released during calcium carbonate precipitation. However, regardless of origin, stromatolites have thrived for a long history that could be seen as a major evolutionary advan ce for us to study the Earths early history and global biogeochemical cycles. Cyanobacteria have played a crucial role in carbonate precipitation as shown in Figure 3. Two microbially as well as physicochemically controlled factors determine carbonate precipitation: the saturation index (SI) and exopolymeric substances (Lozano-Garcà ­a et al.). SI = log(IAP/Ksp), where IAP denotes the ion activity product (i.e. [Ca2+]*[CO2-]) and Ksp, the solubility product of the corresponding mineral (10-6.37 for calcite at 25 °C, 1bar atmospheric pressure and 35 PSU salinity (Zeebe and Wolf-Gladrow, 2001)). If IAP > Ksp, the solution is supersaturated, and when SI > 0.8, calcite carbonate tends to precipitates (Kempe and Kazmierczak, 1994). Or else, calcite carbonate will dissolve. The [CO32-] depends on the carbonate equilibrium, which comprises three species as followed: H2CO3, HCO3 and CO32-. In another word, pH is influencing the precipitation. Therefore, before investigating how microbial metabolism affect the CaCO3 precipitation, understanding production and consum ption of inorganic carbon and the environmental pH change is a prerequisite. EPS act as a chelator for cations and the template for crystal nucleation (Costerton et al., 1995; Decho, 2000). It is constantly modified by including but not limited to UV radiation, pH and microbial degradation (e.g. through hydrolysis, decarboxylation). 2.2 Microbial mats and lithification Contemporary microbial mats, vertically laminated ecosystems, resemble the layered sedimentary structures of stromatolites. As such, they have been attracting extensively research interests for being analogues for stromatolites. Shown in Figure 3, there are 6 different functional groups of microbes exist in microbial mats. From top of the figure to the bottom are: Cyanobacteria act as primary producers, which are believed to affect the trapping and biding of sediments; Aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, which gain energy from oxygen respiration and organic carbon; Anoxygenic phototrophs, mainly purple and green bacteria, which using HS- for photosynthesis; Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), which respiring organic carbon with SO2- while producing HS; Sulfide oxidizing bacteria (SOB), chemolithoautotrophs that oxidize HS with oxygen or nitrate while fixing CO2; fermenters, using organic carbon or sulfur compounds as electron donor and acceptor. However, this view of the mat composition is facing challenge because nucleic acid sequences will undoubtedly reveal more diverse and complex community structures than the simple classified ones. Cyanobacteria is more like an important mediator of biogeochemical cycle of the mats ecosystem. It produces oxygen for the whole system to be functional (Fenchel, 1998). As mentioned before, the mat ecosystem is very efficient and productive. The relatively high photosynthetic rates, which shows a diurnal fluctuation, will reach its peak in the afternoon. Aerobic heterotrophs respire during the daytime when there is abundant oxygen, thereby creating an anoxia environment at twilight. Fermenters degrade complex organic molecules into smaller ones and benefit the SRB. SOB and anoxyphototrophs have contributed less to carbon fixation comparing with cyanobacteria and the role of fermentation remains ambiguous. All these activities above have resulted in steep vertical geochemical gradients with extreme diel fluctuations (Figure 3). To understand the role of microbial mats in precipitation and dissolution, it is important to determine both the abundance and metabolic activity of these key functional groups. Because the quality and quantity of EPS are largely determined by the metabolic activity of the community. In the previous researches, several microbial mat systems have been found to produce carbonate phases: travertine in hot springs in Yellowstone (Fouke et al., 2000), dolomite in Lagoa Vermelha, Brazil (Vasconcelos and McKenzie, 1997) and Salt Pan, Bahamas (Dupraz et al., 2004a). However, there are still mats that will no lithify or fossilize. So here comes the question, what determines the lithification potential? A previous study, using a combination of geological and microbial techniques, of lithifying microbial mat systems in hypersaline lake system was carried on in Salt Pan in Eleuthera, Bahamas (Dupraz et al., 2004a). The lake is not deep with an average depth less than 60cm. From the shoreline towards the center of the lake, a gradient from lithifying mats to jellylike soft mats exists (Figure 4). The shallow water column was found to contain cyanobacterial pigments that efficiently quench the sunlight. Not surprisingly, the photosynthesis, aerobic respiration, sulfate reduction are generally higher and geochemical gradients are steeper in the shallower lithifying mats. Moreover, EPS is easily destructed by strong UV radiation in shallower mats. This process helps with removing inhibition of precipitation by releasing more Ca2+ into the environment. The combination of these processes benefits carbonate precipitation. 2.3 Microstructure of precipitation and EPS UV radiation will cause browning reactions, dehydration and alkalinity. However, EPS production in stromatolite mat can prevent damages such as desiccation of the mat, retains essential nutrients, and provides water channels for transporting metabolites and signaling compounds (Costerton et al., 1995; Decho, 2000). Decho, A.W. et al. (Decho et al., 2005) had shown that EPS production in a stromatolite mat accounted only for 8% of 14HCO3uptake during the light, and a rapid turnover followed during the dark. They concluded that despite the fast rate of production, the net EPS production was low. The production and consumption are in equilibrium. Once being hydrolyzed, EPS components were readily consumed by the mat community, particularly anaerobes instead of aerobes. This is somehow surprising that when Schizothrix EPS, xanthan, or sugar and amino acid monomers and polymers that comprise EPS were supplied in mats, stimulation of anaerobic heterotrophic activity stimulation was greater than aerobic heterotrophs activity (Decho et al., 2005; Visscher et al., 2000). The combined action of fermentative organisms and SRB could be responsible for this high consumption rate. Oxygen levels are influenced by the rapid and extensive diurnal fluctuations as well as cloud cover and O2-consuming cell clusters in the EPS can produce anoxic microenvironments, therefore, the anaerobic pathway plays an important role in microbial EPS degradation. EPS can not only release Ca2+and HCO3 during microbial alteration, but also influence chemical gradients, which will in turn affect the mineral phases. The EPS matrix preferably slows down the mobility of hydrated Mg2+, therefore, temporarily increase relative abundance of Ca2+(Figure 5). The delay of Mg diffusion would lead to a decrease of the Mg2+:Ca2+ ratio of mineral products forming inside the EPS (Verrecchia et al., 1995). As mentioned above, changes in the amount or type of EPS could influence the rate of precipitation or types of crystals formed. 2.4 Microbial metabolism and saturation index Simple redox reactions form the basis of microbial metabolism. These metabolic reactions often involve C and either O, S or N (Figure 3;(Fenchel, 1998)). Daytime and nighttime metabolism of the six key functional groups is typically different, especially when it is influenced by oxygen and sunlight. Chemical alterations of the microenvironment that result from different metabolic reactions might change the alkalinity and thus facilitate carbonate precipitation or dissolution (Visscher and Stolz, 2005). Microbial mats have a high metabolic activities, thus it is not surprising that the rapid SI changes, despite the internal buffering capacity of the carbonate system, would result in a chemical alteration of the microenvironment. High rates of cyanobacterial photosynthesis cause a rapid depletion of CO2, which challenge the resilience or reestablishment of the carbonate equilibrium, and the increasing alkalinity will results in carbonateprecipitation through removal of the Hthat is pro duced in the latter reaction. It should be noted that in these reactions, organic carbon is assumed to be CH2O and different outcomes are expected with different organic compounds. For example, CO2produced bythe decomposition of carboxylic acids, will potentially increase the carbonate alkalinity by CO2degassing(Visscher et al., 1992). As such, this could probably explain why heterotrophic aerobes have been shown to precipitate carbonate. Microbial mats as an indicator of sulfur evolution The sulfur cycle has evolved over the long history of the Earth, with the concentration and the isotopic fractional abundance much different between Precambrian and contemporaneous environment (Cameron, 1982). The surface environment of the early Earth was basically reducing. Little atmospheric oxygen existed. Even though it is still under debate how the oxygen was produced at first, a majority of researchers believe that the history of atmospheric oxygen and seawater sulphate are closely linked (Habicht and Canfield, 1996; Ohmoto et al., 1993; Walker and Brimblecombe, 1985). Sulphate in Archaean and early Proterozoic sediment was found to be consistent in 34S depletion, which is similar to meteorites and mantle-derived igneous rocks (Cameron, 1982; Monster et al., 1979). Moreover, sulphate level was found to positively influence the rate of 34S depletion as lower levels sulphate (

Monday, August 19, 2019

Organization Study :: Essays Papers

Organization Study Case Analysis #3 1.What type or types of power does Anita Rod*censored* appear to rely upon? Based on my observation, Mrs. Anita Rod*censored* heavily relies on Expert, Referent, and Information power. According to the textbook, Expert power is based on the possession of expertise that is invaluable to the company and its employees. From the case discussion, we could see that, due to her diligent work, Anita Rod*censored* is able to possess firsthand information about the company’s products and customers and integrate such information into the final value-added product package the company offers to its customer. For example, Anita is engaged in extensive traveling to potential markets to obtain firsthand information about the market and its customers. Referent power, on the other hand, results from being admired, personally identified with, or liked by others. Anita Rod*censored* is widely liked by her employees and managers. And many of the company’s employees even state that it will be difficult for them to work for other companies after being an employee of Body Shop International. There is no doubt that such kind of loyalty among its employees will enhance the company’s productivity and realization of Anita’s vision. Finally, Information power comes from the access to mission-critical information regarding the operation and growth of the company. As head of the company and possibly the largest stockholder, Anita Rod*censored* actually sets direction for the company’s operation for years to come. 2. Would you consider Anita Rod*censored* to be a transformational leader? Why, or why not? I definitely regard Mrs. Anita Rod*censored* as a transformational leader. Based on the textbook, transformational leaders are leaders who could motivate individuals to perform beyond normal expectations by inspiring subordinates to focus on broader missions that transcend their own immediate self-interestes, to concentrate on intrinsic higher-level goals rather than extrinsic lower-level goals, and to have confidence in their abilities to achieve the extraordinary missions articulated by the leader. In order to be a transformational leader, one has to be charismatic, which means that this leader is able to inspire others and gain respect from them; to recognize what is really significant for the company; and to articulate a clearly defined mission. As for Anita Rod*censored*, she set the vision for the company to be socially and environmentally responsible and to benefit the external environments and its employees as well. On one hand, this vision is strongly supported by the compan y’s employees and customers and represents the future trend, on the other hand, more interestingly, this vision has benefited the company’s business as shown by the strong market growth over the years.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

McTeague or Animalism Essay -- essays research papers

McTeague, or Animalism - Unpublished   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The last decade of the twentieth century in America saw a rise in programs for human’s â€Å"self betterment.† A popular form of betterment is that of the inner animal. Interest in Native American animal mysticism, vision quests, and totem animals have increased dramatically in the past few years. No forms of media have been spared; Calvin Klein’s supermodels come on during sitcom commercials to tell viewers they need to be a beast, or to get in touch with their animal within. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, animalism was viewed not as a method of self-improvement but as the reprehensible side of humanity that lingered beneath the surface, waiting for an opportune time to come out and play. In Frank Norris’ novel McTeague, humans are no better than the beasts they claim to control. They cage and torment defenseless creatures, but cage and torment themselves far, far, worse. McTeague, Trina, Zerkow, and Marcus are animals in thin human’s clothing, walking the forests of McTeague, waiting for the opportunity to shed their skin and tear each other apart, while the real animals of the world continue leading lives far superior to their human counterparts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  McTeague, the title character of the work, is the king of beasts in San Francisco. A charlatan dentist who constantly mumbles and growls when speaking, he makes his living by causing great pain to his fellow human beings. The woman he falls in love with, Trina Sieppe, is a patient in his chair. McTeague’s love is spawned from the agony of false orthodontics. Although etherized, Trina experiences the hurt of McTeague’s drills. As he works his macabre work on the beautiful girl, McTeague begins to see her as more and more attractive. The pain is a sexual catalyst for McTeague; like an animal on the hunt, he becomes aroused by the suffering he causes Trina. The instinct to take advantage of the defenseless girl becomes overpowering, and he eventually gives in to his raging, bestial nature and plants a dog-like smooch on her lips. From this love forged in sex, the downfall of McTeague and Trina is cast.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  McTeague resembles the beast inside more and more as his marriage progresses. At first, sexually dominating Trina satiates him. Like a drug, however, a greater dosage is ne... ...bsp;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The final stab at humans is the way the animals in the story act. The two dogs in the alley are constantly fighting each other with barks. They are confined to cages, so for a long time they never have the opportunity to come to blows. Cages can only hold a creature for a finite amount of time, however, and eventually an opportunity arises where the two animals finally meet. Instead of tearing each other to shreds, they sniff each other and seem quite satisfied with the other. The fact that the dogs can succeed where the humans failed goes a long way in explaining the other character’s actions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The four principle characters of McTeague fall short where two â€Å"simple-minded† canines win. According to Norris, humans are less than animals; they are slow-witted beasts barely able to come to grips with their own nature. Instead of pretending they are so high and mighty, Norris forces people to realize that their humanity causes them to fall beneath the animals. The very things humans pride themselves on are their downfall, and the animals are laughing, laughing as humans hunt and kill themselves closer and closer to extinction.

Contemporary Taiwan :: essays research papers

The process of liberalization and democratization increased in Taiwan throughout the 1980s. The government’s new openness included the recognition of some of its past actions, such as the Nationalist government’s massacre of thousands of native Taiwanese in 1947. Although friction has lessened between the island Chinese, who make up about 85% of the population, and those who came from the mainland, it has remained a problem. Martial law, in effect since 1949, was lifted in 1987 and many jailed political dissidents were released. Opposition parties were legalized in Jan., 1989. Relations with mainland China were eased somewhat during the 1980s so that Taiwanese were allowed to visit after 1987, but the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989 fanned Taiwanese mistrust of the mainland. 15 Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988 and was replaced by Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwan native, who was reelected by the national assembly in 1990. In 1991, Lee ended emergency rule, and all the members of the national assembly, many of whom were mainland delegates originally elected in 1947, stepped down. In elections for a new national assembly, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), which continued to promise unification with the mainland, held on to a majority, but the Democratic Progressive party, strongly advocating an independent â€Å"Republic of Taiwan,† won nearly a third of the seats; the KMT retained its hold on the legislature throughout the 1990s. 16 In 1995 and 1996, Beijing conducted missile tests and ultimately military exercises near Taiwan in an effort to inhibit Taiwanese moves toward democracy and independence. In 1996, President Lee, who was opposed by the Beijing government, won a landslide victory in Taiwan’s first-ever direct elections for president. A major earthquake hit central Taiwan in Sept., 1999, killing more than 2,000 people and causing massive infrastructure damage. 17 In the 2000 Taiwanese presidential election, a KMT split resulted in the election of the opposition candidate, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive party; the KMT retained control of the legislature.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Inequalities and Discrimination of Women In The Workplace

In countries such as Brazil, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Macao, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore, women earn 60 percent less than what men earn (256). Although U. S. figures aren†t as extreme as these, women face discrimination in the workplace. In 1999, women held only 5. 1 percent of top executive management positions, and only 3. 3 percent of companies† highest paid workers were women (256). The term glass ceiling is used to describe the situation in which qualified women aspire to fill high positions but are prevented from doing so by the invisible institutional barriers (256). Discrimination of women in the workplace is a result of men†s power and their reluctance to give up resources and their control over women and can be summed up for women of corporate America by looking at four categories. First, the quality of women†s work tends to be undervalued. Frequently, studies asking participants to assess a piece of work have found that it is evaluated less favorably when said to have been done by a women than when the same piece is attributed to a man (257). Although the tendency to favor a man†s work is not always found, when differences in evaluation are found they tend to favor men. Further, women†s successes tend to be attributed to â€Å"luck†, and competent women are sometimes described as â€Å"unfeminine†. Society†s distrust in women†s abilities results from the stereotypical roles which label women as less assertive and expert than men. A second form of discrimination of women in the work place involves making unjustified assumptions about women†s values. Whereas men are assumed to have values that tend to perpetuate the system, women†s values are assumed to challenge it. Felicia Pratto and her colleagues conducted a study testing the status of the positions for which men and women were most likely to be hired. They found that women were favored to fulfill hierarchy-attenuating jobs (jobs that seek to change the system or improve the lot of people who have been marginalized); men, on the other hand, were favored for the hierarchy-enhancing jobs (which maintain and strengthen the status quo). This was true even when applicants† resumes violated the stereotypes associated with men and women (I. e. men†s career history that indicated they were â€Å"attenuators† and women†s which indicated they were â€Å"enhancers†) (258). The work place is made especially difficult for women with children. Up until the 1970s, pregnancy or the potential for pregnancy was used as a justification for discrimination in the U. S. , allowing employers to routinely force women to leave their jobs or take unpaid leaves (259). Women were even excluded from jobs because they might get pregnant. Looking at current issues, however, the U. S. does not hold any government provision for paid maternity leave for female workers, often causing mothers to bear an economic cost which is not borne by fathers (260). Even when discrimination against mothers is not formal, our culture†s work-family dynamics disproportionately affects women†s careers. Much more women than men have primary responsibility for child care. Working mothers are judged by their community according to how well they parent and work but particularly according to how dedicated they seem to be to parenting. Women, generally, are expected to alter their work commitments when children have problems and are more harshly judged for not doing so (261). A fourth and final aspect of discrimination against women in the U. S. orkplace lies in the notion that they do not have equal right as men to be employed. The U. S. situation is not as extreme as countries such as Russia and China, where many government bureaucrats and factory managers assert to anyone willing to listen that women belong at home, because in the U. S. such public pronouncements are likely to create an explosion of protests. Still, though, the perception that women†s household duties should come before their careers is widespread. Whereas men carry the obligation to earn an income and support their family, the nurturer role is assumed most important for women (260). A review of 21 studies showed that between 16 and 46 percent of the identified lesbians, gays, and bisexuals surveyed reported that they had experienced some form of employment discrimination, as discrimination against individuals of these sexual orientations is legal in most workplaces in the U. S. Also, researchers found that lesbian and bisexual women earn about 13 to 15 percent less than heterosexual women. This is in part because they are more likely to be working in the lowest-paying female-dominated jobs, but it also suggest the impact of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (261). Understanding the circumstances that promote stereotyping and lead to discrimination of women in the workplace provides some clues as to how an organization could act to reduce them. Companies can make an effort not to isolate women in particular job categories. Company managers can avoid falling into the notion that specific jobs require â€Å"masculine† qualities by examining job-related assumptions. They can base judgments of whether workers should be hired or promoted on clear and concise criteria. Last, they can develop formal guidelines to be modeled and enforced by top-level management about how to avoid discrimination (265).

Friday, August 16, 2019

Bilingualism in Children

Bilingualism can be viewed in two different ways. One way of viewing bilingualism is that it is a commendable trait for a person to have, that is alongside the thinking that it is a mark of high intellect. Another way of viewing bilingualism is that it is a negative upshot of Globalism, that it is a degradation of culture. It is undeniable that bilingualism is a prevalent topic in today’s society. Some even consider it as an essential trait for survival in the context of the modern world.This notion of bilingualism is especially prevalent in the US, where immigrants should adopt a second language to be competitive in terms of employment. That is why children from immigrant families are advised by their parents to learn a second language early as early as possible. The problem bilingualism arises when parents fail to consider that children are still in the stage of mastering their first language. Acquiring two language simultaneously is would be difficult for anyone regardless of age. It is a common notion that the children would eventually learn the second language.That is alongside the thinking that, as the children are exposed more to the society speaking the second language, the children would naturally the language. Although, it is observable that children from immigrant families gradually become more and more comfortable with second language through time. But it is also observable that the process that the children have to go through is not an easy one. The difficulty of children’s acquisition of a second language is expressed by Eva Hoffman in her book â€Å"Lost in Translation.† She had thrown in a very helpful query for this discussion: â€Å"†¦how does an individual bend toward another culture without stumbling over? † (Hoffman 209) Hoffman’s semi-autobiographical book is about her struggle to acquire a second language when family had migrated from Poland to Vancouver. The bulk of the book is about her lost of he r sense of place and belonging in her new society. But the fact that the acquisition of the second language would come as natural would not necessarily mean that the children would not be subjected to the consequences of being bilingual.Another book that would be helpful to the discussion at hand is Natasha Lvovich’s â€Å"The Multilingual Self: An inquiry to language learning. † In contrast to Hoffman’s work, Lvovich’s book had taken a more attention-grabbing approach. Lvovich’s work is about the struggles that her daughter had to face when they had moved to America. Although there are some minor differences between the two books, they are both talking the same topic of language acquisition. Both of the books had depicted how a child is subjected to consequences of being bilingual.A common consequence of bilingualism as Lvovich had depicted through the story of her daughter â€Å"†¦she is going through a very difficult period of adjustment a s a teenager growing into adulthood† (Lvovich 101) There was even a point in the book that Lvovich’s daughter became reluctant to speak their first language. Hoffman argued that a reluctance to speak the first language would result to the atrophy of the mother language of the child (Hoffman 98) ConclusionFor children of immigrant families to succeed in being multilingual, their parents should first do careful planning and learning about the nature of language acquisition. The parents should always keep in mind that childhood is already full of challenges as is. They should be aware of the consequence of being bilingual and they should also have at least an idea of how to counter them. Works Cited Hoffman, Eva. (1990). Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language. NY: Penguin Lvovich, N. (1997). The Multilingual Self: An inquiry into language learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Bilingualism in Children Bilingualism is the production and/or comprehension of two languages by the same individual (Cummins, 1981). Many children of varying nationality, acquire this ability of learning two languages through cultural maintenance and educational enrichment. Furthermore, the media continuously bombards children of stimulation of the other language (Cummins, 1981). Cummins (1981) stated that there is a strong tendency among children of replacing the first language with the other. A series of tests were made by Feldman and Shen (1969) about some language-related cognitive advantages of bilingual five year olds.Three tasks for children were made accordingly to gather information. These tasks of increasing difficulty were (1) object constancy, (2) naming and (3) using labels in sentences, respectively . In object constancy, children were primarily shown with objects such as cups, plates, sponge, match and suction cup soap holder. These objects were later physically transformed in front of them. Crushing the cups, burning the match and painting the plates were some examples of transformation. Transformed objects are placed beside an identical pre-transformed objects.Afterwards, the children were asked to identify which among the two was primarily shown. Naming, on the other hand, purposely tests the child's ability to use verbal labels to name familiar objects. The experimenter tried to confuse the children by switching the names of the familiar object and designating nonsensical names to objects. For example, calling an airplane as â€Å"car† and relabeling the cup as â€Å"wug†. The children were asked which among the objects was really an airplane. They were also asked which one was called a â€Å"wug† and then they were asked what it really was.In the third experiment, the child was requested to show his ability of using three sorts of labels in simple relational sentences such as â€Å" The cup is on the plate. † These labels, as discussed i n naming, were common names, switched common names and nonsense names. The principle for using simple relational sentences was that referential word meaning is the simplest sort of meaning. Words like â€Å"cup†, â€Å"plate† and even the part of the predicate â€Å"on† can all be thought of as referring to things. Results showed that bilinguals perform significantly better in the said three tasks than monolinguals do (Feldman & Shen, 1969).Moreover, bilinguals' advantage over monolinguals was more apparent in comprehension than production measures. These means they execute better where nonverbal pointing responses were required. In addition, functions related to labeling would be more advanced by having two languages. Research by Bialystok (2004), on the other hand, has shown that bilingual children develop control processes more readily than monolinguals do. They respond more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands on working memory and carry out con trolled processes more effectively (Bialystok, 2004).On the other hand, Macnamara (1966) argued some studies have reported negative effects of bilingualism (as cited in Bialystok, 2004). In Feldman & Shen's (1969) experiment, it was found out that monolinguals do better in the use of either common names alone or nonsense names alone. Furthermore, Fishman (1967) added that disadvantages commonly associated with bilingualism would not appear in bilinguals whose languages were situation specific (as cited in Feldman & Shen, 1969). It was an accepted notion that bilinguals had deficits compared with monolingual peers.Nonetheless, studies show significant cognitive advantages of children with bilingual capacities. These advantages were dominant in comprehending rather than performing verbal actions. Other research pointed out bilingual advantages in the areas of creativity, problem solving and perceptual disembedding (Bialystok, 2004). These advantages of bilinguals can be uniquely attri buted to an early development in association and labeling skills (Feldman & Shen, 1969). Bibliography: Bialystok, E. , Craik, F. I. M. , Klein, R. & Viswanathan, M. (2004) Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control: Evidence From the Simon Task.Psychology and Aging, 19 (2), 290-303. Feldman, C. & Shen, M. Some Language-Related Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Five Year Olds. Retrieved from http://eric. ed. gov/ERICWebPortal/custom /portlets/recordDetails/detailmini. jsp_nfpb=true&_&ERICExt Search_SearchValue_0=ED031307&ERICExtSearch _SearchType_0=no&accno=ED031307 Cummins, J. Bilingualism and Minority-Language Children. Retrieved from http://eric. ed. gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini. jsp_ nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED215 557&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED215557