Captain Ahab portrayed as monomaniacal in Moby Dick Essay

Monomania, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is the pathological obsession with one subject or idea. In Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, an obsession causes monomania in its main character. Through his actions, words, thoughts, and what others think about him, Captain Ahab is truly monomaniacal. Ahab is monomaniacal through his words and thoughts. â€Å"Talk not to me of blasphemy,man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.† This shows Ahab’s madness because only he would have the nerve to say that no matter who it is, great or small, he would stand up to them; this includes Moby Dick. Ahab often smokes a pipe, but he realizes something and says â€Å"What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I’ll smoke no more.† He admits that he is not a peaceful man, which is quite monomaniacal. Another event that shows Ahab’s monomania is when he talks directly to a dead whale’s head, saying â€Å" Speak, thou vast and venerable head, mighty head and tell us the secret thing that is in thee†¦O head! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!† His obsession leads him to even say that he will pay someone to kill Moby Dick just for the sake of revenge. â€Å"Whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!† When Ahab finally meets Moby Dick, his monomania hits its high point as his last words before his death are â€Å"Sink all coffins and hearses to one common pool! And since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!† Captain Ahab is not only monomaniacal through his words, but through his actions, also. In one incident, Ahab holds Starbuck at gunpoint just because he asked if he could have a crew of men fix a leak. Is that not an action of a madman? Ahab also breaks the ship’s compass at one point in the story so that the crew learns how the ship moves. He also refuses to recognize the warnings that are presented during gams; he dismisses them without any thought or hesitation because his obsession makes him blind to the reality and stupidity of the search for Moby Dick. Ahab also has no respect for his  fellow sailors, as he has manipulated them quite often. Everyone on the Pequod, especially Ishmael, thought that they were going on a normal whaling voyage, not a suicidal chase for a deadly white whale. If someone is to be called monomaniacal, not only one point of view can confirm that. The thoughts of fellows crew members on the Pequod often comment on how they feel about Ahab. Ishmael describes Ahab as being â€Å"A grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn’t speak much;Ahab’s been in colleges, as well as among the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than whales.† Queeqeug gives his two cents worth when he says â€Å" More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.† Obviously, Ahab did not like to smile, which is something that happy people do. Finally, Stubb comments that â€Å"The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul.† He says that Ahab has wasted his soul in pursuit of Moby Dick, and that if it was not for the sea and the white whale, Ahab would not be monomaniacal. Ahab is monomaniacal through what he says, what he does, and what other think of him. He not only manipulates his fellow sailors, he also acts like a madman because of his obsession with the pursuit of Moby Dick. Captain Ahab is seemingly monomaniacal despite what he thinks of himself.

Regina Case

Regina Company Inc. was known as a complacent slow-growth company and was dominated by Hoover and Eureka within the floorcare industry. Donald Sheelen was a promising young individual when he was hired first as the head of the marketing division in Regina, and then became its president. Shortly after becoming company president, Sheelen set out to make Regina the industry’s number one company and repeatedly vowed to â€Å"bomb† Hoover, the number one firm in the industry at the time. Sheelen expanded Regina’s product line and started an aggressive advertisement campaign to promote Regina’s products over Hoover’s. His strategy paid off, as Regina’s profits grew substantially, and after Regina went public, its stock price soared by nearly 500 percent, making Sheelen and the company’s other principal stockholders millionaires many times over. However, it turned out that the impressive financial figures released by Regina after it went public were fabricated by Sheelen. Instead of a growth company with bright prospects, Regina was a dying company mired in mounting losses. † The major reason behind Regina’s financial difficulties was the poor quality of its new products, which resulted in a reported 50 percent customer return rates. After realizing that Regina was in a deep trouble, Sheelen, with the help of Regina CFO Vincent Golden, came up with several illicit accounting schemes to keep the company’s stock pric es at a high level. In addition to significantly understating customer product returns and company’s cost of goods, they recorded bogus sales to inflate sales revenues, and implemented a so-called â€Å"ship-in-place† booking scheme. After realizing that he could no longer conceal the company’s deteriorating condition, Sheelen decided to let the public know of the company’s dire financial condition. Although Sheelen and Golden initially blamed the computer system for errors, they later pleaded guilty to federal mail and security fraud charges in 1989. Sheelen served 1 year in prison in a halfway house, and paid a mere $25,000 in fines. One of the charges was that Sheelen and Golden had repeatedly and intentionally misled the company’s audit firm, Peat Marwick. In a sharp contrast to the Mattel case, SEC did not fault Peat Marwick for failing to uncover the massive fraud by Sheelen and Golden, although several articles in financial press did criticize the audit firm. It is interesting that while SEC heavily criticized Arthur Andersen for failing to uncover Mattel’s fraudulent activities, there was not apparently a similar scrutiny of Peat Marwick for failing to uncover the fraud in Regina. Based on this article, it seems that Peat Marwick simply trusted Golden’s assurance that no fraudulent transactions had been recorded in Regina’s accounting records, and that Peat Marwick was therefore not to be blamed for failing to uncover the fraud in Regina’s financials. Given that the fraud schemes in both Mattel and Regina were of very similar nature, one wonders why Peat Marwick was not scrutinized to the same degree as Arthur Andersen. There is definitely more to this story than what is told in this article.

World War II and the Arab World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

World War II and the Arab World - Essay Example Then the military campaigns of the period 1939 to 1945 in the Arab world will be detailed. The impact of the post-war settlement in the region will subsequently be considered: Special attention will be paid to the impact and influence of the establishment of the state of Israel. Finally, a concluding section will draw together the various threads of argument and offer overall insights. Throughout the western reaches of the Arab world, along with the north coast of Africa, colonial domination was the norm. The entire southern coast of the Mediterranean consisted of European colonies with the de jure exception of only Egypt. Egypt, while not formally a colony in 1939, was controlled by Great Britain; a grip as tight as Great Britain's reliance on the Suez Canal's priceless access to India. The situation is exemplified by the treaty between the two, formally granting independence to Egypt, that was signed on August 26, 1936. It's formal title is â€Å"Treaty of Alliance between His Majesty, in respect of the United Kingdom, and His Majesty the King of Egypt†: An objective title for an agreement between equals. However, the truth of the matter is revealed in the attachment, a â€Å"Convention concerning the Immunities and Privileges to be enjoyed by the British Force in Egypt†. (UK Government, 1936) It is a list of all the concessions that the Egyptian government grants to the British military to maintain bases, operate in Egyptian air space, deploy forces and remain outside Egyptian civil and criminal law. The list of British privileges and concessions even in Egypt (outside the semi-autonom ous, British administered Suez Canal Zone) was so extensive that Egypt amounted to a British military base in all but name. Map 1: Colonialism in North Africa, 1930 Source: http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/northafrica/nafrica1930large.gif The eastern Mediterranean was a confusion of mandates and protectorates, an appropriately Byzantine maze of shifting alliances and influences dominated by the European powers – France and Great Britain – that had tried to control the region since the devolution of the Ottoman Empire a generation earlier.

What account for the deplorable conditions on the continent of Africa Essay

What account for the deplorable conditions on the continent of Africa - Essay Example Throughout the continent of Africa corruption is rampant. In order to receive even the most basic services Africans must pay bribes. In order for companies such as Shell to do business in Nigeria (ranked 121 in the world by Transparency International1) a huge amount of money must be paid out to local officials to â€Å"grease the wheels.† In hospitals, patients may have to put money in doctors’ consulting books in order to be treated. In schools, students may have to pay their teachers for passing grades.2 All of these situations are commonplace. Studies have shown that Africa loses $150 billion a year due to corruption and that products cost as much as 20 per cent more.3 It is impossible to measure how much more developed Africa would be at this moment had not a culture of corruption existed there for so long. In countries with poorly constructed, inefficient, and non self-enforcing constitutional rules, opportunistic behavior (including rent seeking) are usually quite pervasive. In such countries, the rules that regulate socio-political interaction, have failed to adequately constrain the government. As a result, state intervention in private exchange is equally pervasive. Excessive regulation of economic activities creates many opportunities for rent seeking, including bureaucratic corruption.4 Many public servants in Africa may have power to allocate resources, but they make small salaries. It is very easy for them to make a lot of money on the side by taking payments from special interests. Plus, public servants may have poor relatives who they are also supporting. They may not simply take bribes out of selfishness, but possibly to help feed their extended families. Nevertheless, it is clear that more rules and guidelines are required for public servants in their dealings with the private sector. Enforcement of such rules is desperately required.5 John Githongo argues that corruption usually begins at the top of a country’s leadership, and

Wind Tunnel Measurement on a Aeroplane Model Lab Report

Wind Tunnel Measurement on a Aeroplane Model - Lab Report Example The range of the movement for the configuration will range between -20 to +100 at 10 intervals. These angles must be relative to the fuselage datum. The main function of the tail plane of an aircraft is to provide a sufficient amount of pitching moment while the aircraft is in flight and to control the aircraft in the longitudinal plane (Pankhurst & Holder, 1985). In order to achieve very efficient performance, the design of the airplane must take into consideration three important factors including; the geometrical relationship existing between the tail plane and the wing body of the aircraft, the performance of the tail plane and the structural components of the airplane (Irving, 2010). This experiment is conducted due to the need to monitor and determine the performance of an aircraft and its variation at the different stages of its movement. The results obtained will help to determine the best configuration for airplanes in order to improve their performance. The model of the airplane is mounted on an accurately and remotely operated 3 component mechanical balance. The incidence of the plane can be varied and the lift, drag and pitching moment be measured by means of weigh beams. The weigh beams usually have locks which should always be engaged when any adjustments are made to the model and also when the experiment is concluded. The balance is automatically locked when the stop button of the tunnel is pressed. Operation of the balance needs practice; the operator of the airplane must be accustomed to its natural frequencies. The forces that are acting on the plane model are lift, drag and the moment of the pitch. The airspeed can be deduced from the difference between the static pressures of the airstream at the point of entry and exit from the contractive of the tunnel. The pressure difference is usually equal to the dynamic head in the tunnel

Managerial Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Managerial Economics - Essay Example From this study it is clear that  accounting profit is the surplus money gained by the firm after deducting explicit costs such as labour from the total amount of revenue generated from its operations.   On the other hand, the difference between the firm’s accounting profit and implicit as well as explicit costs is known as economic profit. It is important for the managers to understand the difference between accounting and economic profits. Accounting profit denotes the firm’s market value to establish if it is operating viably. On the other hand, economic profit denotes if the firm’s economic condition is sound enough to continue with operations or halt them. It should be positive for a firm to carry own with operations.  This paper outlines that the majority of for profit firms are in business to generate profits from their operations. As such, the best way to measure a firm’s performance is to determine its current level of profitability compared to its previous profits for the same period. An increase in profits compared to the previous period entails that the firm is performing well while a decline in profits means that its performance is below expected standards since firms are mainly concerned with generating profits from their operations.     The major types of profits include accounting and economic profits as outlined in the prompt below.  Basically, accounting profit is the surplus money gained by the firm after deducting explicit costs such as labour from the total amount of revenue generated from its operations.  

Essay on The monthly LME spot price for aluminium in USD per tonne

On The monthly LME spot price for aluminium in USD per tonne between June 2008 and June 2014 - Essay Example China’s economic growth during the period of the fluctuations in the prices of aluminium affected the price of the metal. Secondly, there was a consolidation of the steel industry affecting the trend of the prices in the metal across the globe. More so, global warming and carbon sequestration must also have had a hand in the fluctuations in the aluminium prices. Finally, the rising costs of production and the loss of value of the US dollar must played a role in the changes in price of the same product. Historically, the prices of metals across the board always had a positive or an upward trend whereas the dollar kept at a constant for long period of time. The duration and amplitude of price fluctuations in the case in question must have been as a result of numerous change in the economic strength of the metal market in general (ASWATHANARAYANA,2012). Considerations in supply and demand of aluminium and unexpected events like natural disasters and accidents do influence the variations in the price of the aluminium during that given period of time. The global events in question are like recessions, economic growth and inflation do affect or influence the trend in the prices of the aluminium. The demand for metal in China was a result of the infrastructural expansion in the country. I think, in August 2008, the increase in price of aluminum was a result of the increased demand in the aluminum metal due to the intensive development in china ta that specific time. The inflation and recession of 2008 that affected most countries in the world must have been reasons for the fluctuations in aluminium prices. Minerals have a high tendency of losing when it comes to changes in the economic climate of the market and the general market. Inflation made the demand for the aluminium go down leading to the fluctuation in price during that period of June 2008 to June 2014 (

Enlightenment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enlightenment - Term Paper Example The Enlightenment followed the Renaissance and the Reformation periods of Europe and is included in what has been termed the Age of Reason. Those who championed the Enlightenment such as Voltaire, John Locke, David Hume and Thomas Paine, among many others, dismissed superstition, irrational thought and oppression by the ruling authorities which put them at odds with the monarchies of the time and the Catholic Church. Enlightenment â€Å"thinkers† were primarily Deists who questioned the authority of church institutions and whether their influence was a positive for society. Though not advocating the devolvement of religion, they embraced scientific analysis and rational conclusions based on evidence rather than the suppression of knowledge long supported by the Church throughout the dark ages. Enlightenment philosophers sought to deliver people from the constraints of religion and set the standard for secular morals and politics. To them, Christianity celebrated human sufferin g and poverty while preaching undeserved forgiveness. The Church hierarchy was institutionally corrupt, their actions to oppress the common people appalling and lust for power insatiable. Enlightenment thinkers thought themselves courageous for speaking out against Christianity which they thought was born from the decadent Roman Empire and responsible for ushering in the deeply superstitious and depraved dark ages. Expectedly, theologians of that time reacted negatively to the enlightenment philosophers whose influence was growing among both intellectuals and the common man. (Eliot, Stern, 1979). Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752) among other church officials staunchly defended Christianity to the flock while challenging the rational of deist thought. Butler stressed religion that spoke to the heart and not cluttered by thoughts of the mind. The emotional backlash among the faithful to this â€Å"heretical† movement was significant and extensive sparking a new movement in the o pposite direction. Pietism, started by brothers John and Charles Wesley in 1738, stressed strict adherence to church teachings and that enlightenment was a tool of the Devil trying to poison people’s minds and lead them away from God. By the late1700’s, pietism and rationalism were very much in conflict with one another. Advocates of each diametrically opposed position disagreed fervently on religious ideals. They did, however, concur on the matter of religious freedom. In addition, both pietists and rationalists felt they were outside the mainstream; both feared persecution and acknowledged the blatant, historic abuses propagated by religious institutions. Interestingly, both movements, each considered radical for the time period, were considered similarly threatening to the state and church institutions which had an interest in maintaining the status quo. (Lewis, 1992). A few of the more progressive members of the clergy tolerated ideas born of the Enlightenment, a f ew even embraced many of the base philosophies. Unfortunately for the movement, various factions involved with the French Revolution distorted and misused concepts of the Enlightenment. Some, intent of banishing the Christian Church from France along with its oppressive tactics, did so under the banner of Enlightenment although none of the philosophers of the time advocated this overreach. As a result of this distortion, the movement was vilified by both

The Diamond Model which has been penned down by Michael Porter Essay

The Diamond Model which has been penned down by Michael Porter - Essay Example This advantage is gained by the nation by increasing demand for that commodity by other nations. Either the nation with the competitive advantage has gained this edge because of the cheap labor available in their region, or it is due to the amazingly high quality of resources that are available within their region. The reason can be any - but once the competitive advantage has been gained, it goes a long way in helping the nation to rule the international market for that commodity and it even gives the nation the power to dictate prices at times, especially if there is scarcity of that commodity or the raw materials needed to make that commodity in other parts of the world, or if the commodity is a staple good or a fast moving consumer good. Thus, competition, in today's age, is not limited to domestic competitors. Rather, the competitors are now present worldwide for a single industry. Thus, Porter's model becomes the most comprehensive model available for this purpose only - to help nations make policies which will help them out beat their international competitors. 1. Firm strategy, structure and rivalry: Strategy is the way through which the nation aims to achieve its goals. If the nation aims to achieve strategic competitive advantage in four industries: wool, cotton, wheat and rice, then it need to work accordingly. Moreover, it also has to structure the domestic industry in a manner which instills competitiveness within the domestic players only, so that the overall industry can reach a higher level. Rivalry is the competition that is ignited within the local competitors, so that they work independently and also in groups to achieve the nation's policy of achieving global competitiveness in the international arena. 2. Demand conditions: A nation's policy on competitiveness around the globe will depend on the demand that exists for its products. The nation's industry can never stand out in a global sphere if the local demand does not match the international demand. If, for instance, the cotton produced in the local areas is of low quality and the local consumers are satisfied with that, then there is no scope for this industry to flourish internationally. This is because if the local demand is not demanding enough out of the industries, then they would never improve their level of quality, service or the elements that make a product from good to better to best. Thus, the more demanding the customers in an economy, the greater the pressure facing firms to constantly improve their competitiveness via different radical innovative product offerings etc. 3. Related and supporting industries: If an industry has to gain competitive advantage internationally, then it should also engage the support of the related and supporting industries. For instance, while making national policy, the related and supporting industries for the government would be the media industry, because of the amount of

Richard Florida Critique Essay Example for Free

Richard Florida Critique Essay Brenda Parker’s article emphazises a critique of Richard Florida’s Creative Class discourse. Florida’s theory is centred on the belief that human knowledge is the main requirement in order for cities to be successful in modern society. He argues that diversity and creativity are the drivers of innovation and regional and national growth (Florida, 2003, p.3). Parker’s argues that Florida overlooks several aspects in this theory particularly labor market segmentation as it relates to race and gender. â€Å"I suggest that the Creative Class discourse forwards a seemingly soft, contemporary version of hegemonic masculinity. † (Parker, 2008, p. 202). The main goal of the article argues that the Creative Class traditional characteristics facilitate unequal gender and racial relations. She highlights the women minorities and wage inequalities in many ‘creative careers’ as well as the tensions among care giving and work (Parker, 2008, p.203). She argues that Florida’s theory allow men to thrive in society through the â€Å"creative professional† aspect, while women are undervalued. She highlights the inequality between work and home and ‘creative’ and ‘service’ work. According to Parker, Florida’s creative discourse attracts an elite population which reproduces such gender and racial relations (Parker, 2008, p.222). Critical Analysis Richard Florida developed a theory based on a Creative Class.† His theory relates to many creative cities in the world today. Is this a perfectly constructed theory that defines modern day society? The answer to that is no because it fails to account for many important aspects of inequality that exists in today’s society. Brenda Parker’s article argues that Florida overlooks important issues of race and gender in his theory of the creative class. Parker argues that Florida’s simplified theory reproduces raced and gender inequalities in the city (Parker, 2008, p.204). At first glance, Florida’s theory creates a positive image to the reader. It appears to be a relevant theory to successful global cities in modern day society. There is  a creative core and a super creative core in which diversity is claimed to be important (Parker, 2008, p.203). These creative and knowledge people are perceived as having the potential to change cities into successful ones as they are drivers of economic growth. Parker dissects this theory and illustrates how this simplistic view requires further analysis on issues of race and gender. The article provides a detailed analysis of labour segmentation in creative cities. It mainly highlights the intersection of gender and race as it relates to the distribution of jobs in the ‘creative class’ society. The dominance of a masculine figure is prevalent in Florida’s theory. According to Parker, women face significant barriers to entry, remain marginalized and operate within a society centred on masculine norms (Parker, 2008, p.203). The idea is that a creative worker is required to work long hours in order to be successful while sacrificing family life. Florida ignores the workers who aim to maintain a work life balance and maintain a family. He overlooks the fact that not every individual has the same values and beliefs. The â€Å"second shift† of women is often referred to as care work. It is clear that Florida devalues the importance of this job. â€Å"Households and social reproduction are not presented as sites of creativity or as placed wh ere social relations and identity negotiations take place.† (Parker, 2008, p.210). Florida segregates the workforce and narrows the meaning of a creative professional worker. There seems to be no opportunity for success for women who value family life. A high percentage of the women who do work are in the lower paying service class jobs. The issue of race is also an important factor which explains the labour market segmentation. As Parker (2008, p.216) explains in her statistical research, the poverty rates for black households are higher in creative cities and there is a large gap between the earnings of white and black households. Despite the desire to drive economic growth with creative workers, Florida fails to address the continuous problem of racism in the labour market. The perception that his theory encourages diversity is therefore questionable. The social construction of employment skills as it relates to gender and race are highlighted in Parker’s article. â€Å"A normative, northern, elite, white male is most unambiguously at the heart of Florid a’s idealized Creative Class.† (Parker, 2008, p.208). The creative class promotes job skills that are based on a typical masculine figure. Masculine norms based  on long hours of working as well as the hard, demanding nature of work dominates the best jobs in these cities (Parker, 2008, p.209). Therefore, it is evident that the successful jobs are dominated by men while the care work performed by women receives no recognition. As Parker (2008, p.225) states, the creative class erases reproductive and caring activities, labelling them as uncreative, and spatializing them apart from production and consumption. Many of the employed women in today’s society are in underpaid, service class jobs with little opportunity for advancement. In global cities, resident workers are women of colour, native and immigrant status (Ehrenreich Hochschild, 2002, p.258). This is also evident in Parker’s article as statistics show the unequal earnings between female minorities as compared to male. Even though the gap seems narrower than in previous years, it is still significant enough and needs to be addressed. As resources are shifted from services such as education and health care, women and families suffer negatively (Nagar et al., 2002). This shift results in an increase in poverty for these women among other consequences. Many women have shifted to subsistence food production, informal work, emigration, and prostitution (Ehrenreich Hochschild, 2002, p.266). One of the major problems arising from this is illegal trafficking in cities. â€Å"Prostitution and migrant labour are increasingly popular ways to make a living.† (Ehrenreich Hochschild, 2002, p.265). Women are exploited in such industries by illegal gangs and government institutions that promote these activities as a major source of revenue. Despite several strong arguments presented by Parker, there are a few weaknesses. Parker emphasises inequality in the creative class mainly through women inequality. With the exception of a few minor arguments, she fails to signify how racial inequality is also a major problem. The main argument for racial inequality is the statistical representation of the super creative core. Labour segmentation involves more than simply gender inequality and Parker fails to address this. Conclusion It is clear that Florida’s creative class theory needs to be reassessed. The labour segmentation aspects such as racial and gender inequality is an evident problem that exists within the theory. The significant disadvantage and devaluation women face in the workforce in comparison to men requires further analysis. The attempt to encourage diversity in creative cities is  not enough to solve the inequality problem. An analysis of this paper alerts the reader to be aware of labour segmentation and the social construction of employment as it relates to race and gender bias. It is important to note and understand how these inequalities are still significant in today’s society despite efforts to reduce them. Further research which can encourage and promote creative workers while minimising inequality should be done. The problem will always be evident but if it can be minimised in creative cities, they will be more attractive. Reference Page Ehrenreich, B., Hochschild, A.R., (2002). Global Woman. Parker, B. (2008). Emerald Book Chapter. In J.N. DeSena (Ed.), Research in Urban Sociology, Volume 9 (pp.201-232). Sassen, S. (2007). A Sociology of Globalization.

Research Culture In Pakistani Universities

Research Culture In Pakistani Universities Research plays an important role in the development of nations. Countries which provide the basic and quality education to their citizens are known for their ethical and social values and also excel in the field of science and technology. People living in these countries are habitual of asking questions, making hypothesis and testify them for the sake of better living life. We are living in a nation that is surrounded by many internal and external problems and how to get out of this critical situation is still a question. Universities, though, can be of vital help to improve the prevailing situation as usually universities are the centers where intellectuals and thinkers are produced. These intellectuals, with aid of researching tool can pull the nation upward from the fall. The paper aims to discover and analyse the current situation of research culture in Pakistani universities. The extent of research culture in Pakistani universities is discovered through quantitative research wit h the sample size of 150 students, to identify the problematic factors that are hindering in promoting research culture in the universities. Field survey was conducted using a structured likert scale questionnaire for quantitative research. The tool designed by Santo et al. (2009) was modified and used accordingly to our study spectrum and collected data was analyzed in SPSS. Multistage sampling was conducted using a combination of snowball sampling, stratified sampling and random sampling techniques and data was collected from the students of different programs including management, engineering, medicine and humanities. Due to limitation of resources the data was collected only from universities in Lahore and Islamabad, two major cities of Pakistan. Univarate analysis with the help of descriptive statistics techniques and frequency table methods helped to identify the behaviour of respondents towards each of the 32 questions contained in the questionnaire. The findings of research show that Pakistani universities are lacking a healthy research culture. In fact the results showed a positive sign of concern from the students that they want to get improved research facilities in their universities. Data also highlighted specifically the most problematic areas in a detailed fashion. The results gave the exact factors which need to be considered seriously by the university authorities in order to implement the research culture in its true sense in their universities. Also the results may open new avenues for improvements and bringing betterment in the current picture of local universities research culture. Key words: Lack of Research Culture, Universities, Reasons, Pakistani Introduction Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue. It consists of three steps: Pose a question, collect data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question. (Creswell, 2008). Although research is defined differently by different authors and thinkers but the value of research is recognized equally by every philosopher. Undoubtedly research is the most important tool to investigate the problems of the people, to find out their demands, and even to explore the mysteries of life, and research has the solutions for all. Research is a significant process of digging the facts and laying the foundations of knowledge and is a key process in knowledge formulation. The rate of evolution of knowledge depends on the rate of research in a particular field. With every passing day, the increased demand of detailed, authenticated and reliable knowledge, research is becoming most substantial process in every field of knowledge. Some people may think that research is simply gathering information about people, things or a certain state of affairs by some organizations, etc., but there are others who call the means of progress in the life of the present global scenario, in which every nation come closer together and appear to depend in one way or the other (Nadeem, 2011). The importance of research is recognized worldwide and developed countries are spending a lot more to promote research culture. In a speech to the Royal Society in April 2010, German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel explained that the prosperity of a country such as Germany [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] must be sought through investment in research, education and science, and this to a disproportionate degree, (TheRoyalSociety, 2011). Developing countries are not in a competitive position to go parallel with the developed countries in field of education, despite of other facts and reasons; lack of research oriented educational approach is the main reason of it. Making countries progressed, as divide between developed and developing nations is clearly the educational system (Sanyal Varghese, 2006) What we see nowadays the technology is making this world a global village, too many innovations taking place, ideas are getting converted into realities etc. is all due to the research by the researchers and their findings in them. We hear very often the word RD that is research and development, which means to develop something, research is at the first place. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, RD refers to creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications, (OECD Factbook 2008: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, 2008). General practices of research and development activities in universities facilitate the industries through their implementations. Research oriented universities assist the industries directly and indirectly: directly by provision of skills and indirectly by spillove rs (Wu, 2007) In a research culture maximum people of a group, university, business firm, area, city and or country, sit together to indicate and solve the problems like corruption, water sharing, economic crises, state security, distribution of resources and obligation etc. The meaning of research culture is also that each and every direction in the society must be biased on reason, rational, logical, pragmatic and science, as an instrument of events and resolving problems, (Ahmed, 2006). Whereas universities are considered to be the birthplaces of research and researchers and lot has happened in the world to change the non-research culture to a research culture and to the change has been the most difficult part, (Cheetham, 2007). Situation in Pakistan in regards of research at universities is not impressive and Pakistan still lacks research culture at par with developed countries, (Lodhi A. , 2010). The research output by universities in Pakistan in terms of number of research publications as against the total faculties of universities is not more than 13 per cent, (Qureshi, 2011). Pakistan is ranked 34 in the list of countries by research and development which spent 2.73 billion US$ in the year 2007. However, most RD funding in Pakistan is consumed by the military sector (60%), (UNESCO, 2010). There are deficiencies in the quality of both skills and research output of the education sector. A viable quality assurance mechanism is essentially required in Pakistan to change and improve the quality of output and efficiency of the higher education learning systems. (Mahmood Shafique, 2009) This current scenario of research culture leads results in the low yield of research output in terms of research publications. HEC Pakistan took many initiatives in order to promote research culture in Universities. But these initiatives didnt payback the desired results, i.e. a healthy research culture in Pakistani universities. This paper aims to find out the reasons of these negative results in terms of reasons of lack of research culture. Extensive research has been carried out by various researchers to analyze the extent of research culture in different institutes and universities. Literature review indicates that most of these researches are more focused towards the instructors approaches towards research culture. The role of students and the institutional policies in research are not critically analyzed. This paper is an attempt to cover the gap in this area of knowledge. It is felt that research culture is not fully introduced and facilitated and the paper aims to find and identify what are the reasons might be for the current prevailing situation of lack of research culture in the universities. Either this is due to weak infrastructure, non-serious behavior of students or teachers are not making it realized to students of the importance of research. Moreover, role of individual factors of students and institutional policies in a research culture is critically and deeply analyzed in this paper. Ultimately we are looking to promote the research culture in Pakistani universities and also to rectify the problems from its roots that are hindering in promoting the research culture. Literature Review It was during the Second World War that governments, notably the US government, recognized the significant contribution made by university research, especially by the scientists and engineers, to their success in the war, (Sanyal Varghese, 2006). The world recognized university educational research, but it is more evident in the developed nations as compared to the developing world. According to UNCTAD, 2007 they reported that there are only 94.3 scientific researchers per million people in the least developed countries (LDCs), against 313 in the other developing countries (ODCs) and 3,728 in rich countries (high-income OECD). Enrolment in university level institutions (that is, tertiary school enrolment as a share of the corresponding age group) is only 3.5% in the LDCs, against 23% in ODCs and 69% in rich countries. (Vessuri, 2011). Just to quote to some examples, the number of enrollments in PhDs in Australia, there has been 300% increase from 9,298 in the year 1990 to 27,996 in 2000, (Stehlic, 2011). Similarly North America and Europe are considered as the home to the great majority of the worlds university faculty, as well as virtually all of the worlds high-quality institutions (Vessuri, 2011). On the other hand the scenario is worst in the least developed countries due to several reasons. One of them may be due to non supportive living conditions. As reported by UNSTAD, 2007 countries like Haiti, Cape Verde, Samoa, Gambia and Somalia have lost more than half of their university-educated professionals in recent years because they have moved to industrialized countries in search of better working and living conditions, (Mamdani, 2011) (Vessuri, 2011). Undoubtedly the knowledge divide between developing and developed countries is both deep and wide. A countrys existing RD activities are a reflection of its capacity to create knowledge, (Sanyal Varghese, 2006). Higher education and science must become more evenly distributed around the world if political tension is to be eased and the chances of economic and social development are to improve. The role of education and science in this process is taken as a given a point of departure and it is assumed that knowledge and skills will be at least as important for the future of the developing world in this century as they were for developed and industrialized countries in the past, (Vessuri, 2011). Universities are the best places to implement the research culture. Humboldt, a German statesman, philologist and architect of the University, observed that the purpose of a university for both the teacher and the student is a common quest for knowledge or Wissenschaft, (Lueddeke, 2008). It is widely accepted that research, as the most important source of knowledge generation, occupies a critical position in promoting a nations prosperity and its citizens well-being in the knowledge-based era, (Li, Millwater, Hudson, 2008) and educational research helps by improving the understanding of how students learn and how best to teach, (Morrell Carroll, 2010). Moreover research is not only helps solve the practical problems and brings about material improvements via high-tech products, it also provides insights and new ideas that enrich human understanding of various social, economic and cultural phenomena, (Li, Millwater, Hudson, 2008). As also explained by Patricia D. Morrell and James B. Carroll in their book called Conducting Educational Research, educational research is important in: Proposing theories Testing theories Increasing our understanding Improving teaching learning (Morrell Carroll, 2010) The worldwide higher education landscape and research and knowledge production sectors are undergoing a profound transformation driven by unprecedented global social and economic forces and are embedded in an extremely complex reality, in which no self-evident choices are available and where actions have multiple effects in a dynamically interdependent environment (Vessuri, 2011). However integrating research and teaching in research-intensive universities is still an unresolved issue as we head into the 21st century, (Lueddeke, 2008) and expansion has taken place in fairly a limited part of the world (Vessuri, 2011). From the expanding literature, conferences and the reality on the ground, it does appear that most research-intensive universities across the globe still have not fully realized the harmonization of the research-teaching relationship, (Lueddeke, 2008). Whereas teaching in a University is different, we use the same word in primary school, secondary school, TAFE, Teachers Colleges, CAEs etc but it is not the same. One of the major differences is of course the extent to which it (the teaching) is interwoven with research and our research principles, (Cheetham, 2007). The faculty in higher education institutions has traditionally been trifocal, consisting of teaching, research and community service/extension. University faculty members are required to become teachers, researchers, and service-oriented professionals, (Salazar-Clemeà ±a Almonte-Acosta). So finally we can say that, the trends in enrolment in higher education are an indicator of the widening or narrowing gap between developing and developed countries in terms of research capacity, (Sanyal Varghese, 2006). Although universities in the developed world, as compared to the developing world, have firm traditions of research whereas universities in the developing world have retained strong teaching functions and weak research functions, (Nadeem, 2011) (Sanyal Varghese, 2006) (Salazar-Clemeà ±a Almonte-Acosta) (Lodhi A. S., 2011). Specifically talking about Pakistan, she lacks research culture at par (Lodhi A. , 2010). The nation expects from universities to contribute to basic, applied and/or action research to help minimize the problems of the country to meet the future targets, (Qureshi, 2011). There are many reasons being given by different researchers and scholars for not implementing research culture in general overall in the world and specifically for our country. Some of the reasons are extracted from different research papers and articles: Pakistan is facing major challenges regarding population and socio-economic developments which include employment, resources, food, energy, sustainability and the race for talent (Qureshi, 2011), because until and unless people will not get commodities (such as bread, cloth, and home) they cannot be turned for getting education, (Ahmed, 2006). Lack of incentives by the government, cases of plagiarism and proper facilities to conduct research on technical and scientific subjects, small salary packages to teachers in government sector universities, (Lodhi A. , 2010). Some of the problems as indicated by Sabahat Sultan of Karachi university, International Relations Department are; illiteracy standard of education, lack of resources, in cooperative attitude of government financial problems, lack of job oriented programs publishing goods, lack of proper training of research and professionalism (Sultan). Faculty members in the Pakistani universities are less enthusiastic about research, apart from a few amount of faculty members in different universities, others have not done voluntary research. Similarly students, they take up research project which is primarily a compulsory component for the award of degree, but that is done under compulsion which does not ignite students inquiry skills nor attract teachers to go for voluntary research. (Nadeem, 2011). One of true factors, which equally are applicable to Pakistani environment, as indicted by Sanyal and Varghese 2006, Gender Disparities. As they say in their research paper, female researchers constitute a relatively small share in all countries except the CIS countries. Even the ratio found very less in the advanced countries like USA and Germany, (Sanyal Varghese, 2006) . The South Asian Region also suffers from lack of linkages between public and private actors and no university-industry collaboration to speak of. It is noted in that, overall, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka seem better at producing basic knowledge than commercializing it, (UNESCO, 2010) (Wu, 2007) Introduction of research into early years of undergraduate education is not so obvious talking in the context of Role of Disciplinary Variation in Conceptualizing Research and Teaching, (Lueddeke, 2008). Research culture is largely affected by personal and organizational characteristics with leadership being the most critical attribute, (Theodore Lynette, 2010) (Lodhi A. S., 2011). Research Culture requires stable political climate, (Theodore Lynette, 2010). Methodology This is research is based on quantitative data analysis. Data collected were analysed on statistical explanatory data anaysis techniques mainly due to the reason of our intent to find only problematic factors that are causing lack of research culture in Pakistani universities. Sample Size Experts opinion was used to determine the sample size and a sample size of sample of 150 for was suggested. Tool Quantitative research was carried out with the help of a structured questionnaire developed by Santo, Engstrom, Reetz, Schweinle, Reed, 2009 (Santo, Engstrom, Reetz, Schweinle, Reed, 2009) and further used by Lodhi S. A., 2011 (Lodhi A. S., 2011) who modied the tool on the basis of his experiences to conduct his research in the Pakistani univerristies context. We modified the tool accordingly with the help of an expert for our research work to be conducted specially on students rather than on teachers and or faculty members in the universities. Respondents Sample population consists of a blend of students from different areas of study including engineering, medical, humanities, social sciences and management. Due to time and financial constraints, out of different private and public sector universities in Pakistan, we selected seven universities only from Lahore and Islamabad. The educational background of the respondents was such that they were both male and female students accompanied in bachelors and masters degree courses in their perspective universities. Out of 150 students 105 were from bachelors and 45 respondents were masters degree programs. 83 of them were male and rest, i.e. 67 were female students. Sampling technique and data collection procedure Multistage sampling was conducted using a combination of snowball sampling, stratified sampling and random sampling techniques to collect the data that resulted in a diverse and unbiased population sampling. 186 questionnaires were got filled out of which 150 questionnaires were used for the analysis purpose. Total time of 3 months was consumed in data collection and then entered in SPSS (version 17) and Microsoft Excel for further analysis. Data Analysis This quantitative study intends to find out the factors causing hindrances in a healthy research culture by focusing on individual factors of students or the institutional and leadership factors. All items in the questionnaire were individually analyzed through univariant analysis. Initially, frequencies, means, standard deviations, histograms and percentages were used to analyze the responses. Through the analysis of the all questions, few individual and institutional factors were identified that are paying major contribution towards creating lack of research culture in Pakistani universities. The problematic factors were then further categorized to favorable conditions and unfavorable conditions. Favorable conditions include the responses that were responded as strongly agree and agree patterns. Whereas unfavorable conditions include the responses that were in strongly disagree and disagree and Neither Agree Nor Disagree patterns. These factors were deeply analyzed. Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1 depicting means and SDs of all the items in the questionnaire. Means were in range from 2.45 to 3.74 with SDs in range from 0.897 to 1.244. The overall behavior of the respondents was such that they were neither strongly disagreed nor strongly agreed in their views about each question so making the scenario middleware leaving a feel that students are not fully aware of the research practices as well as they dont really care about the situations regarding research culture prevalent in their universities. This behavioral trend of respondents makes the situation very vague uncertain in terms of awareness about research culture and its factors. Frequency Tables To know the in depth details of how respondents responded to each of the item in the questionnaire, we used frequency tables which gave us results in the form of frequencies and their subsequent percentages that how many out 150 students responded as strongly disagree or disagree or neither agree nor disagree or agree or strongly agree in the whole dataset. This technique helped us known that how many students, majority of them, think alike about the problems those were posed in the questionnaire. It was, ultimately, highly needed to identify the most problematic factors which may cause impedement in the growth of research culture in the universities. Most of the responses, also can be seen from the results of descriptive statistics, were centered to a middle are of histogram, i.e. responses ranging from Disagree to Agree with responses recorded as Strongly Disagree or Strongly Agree. However our interest was not to see that how different respondents responded to a certain type of qu estions that was posed, but to find the problems creating hindrances in the growth of research culture in Pakistani Universities. The below findings are describing the most problematic factors: Research Findings The detailed analysis of the responses enabled us to identify that how students think of each and every problem stated in the questionnaire. But it was very needed to analyze and highlight those problems which are more critical and hence need special attention in order to bring positivity in the prevailing situation of research and research output in Pakistani Universities. To highlight such problems we defined a rule of thumb that responses being answered as Strongly Disagree, Disagree or Neither Agree or Nor Disagree is unfavorable conditions and responses answered as Agree and Strongly Agree is favorable conditions. We further operationally defined that if cumulative percentage of unfavorable conditions equals or greater than 60% it shows characteristics of problematic factor which should be eliminated. The other way to see the problematic factors is to look at the means of the responses in the questions. Questions having a mean less than 3 are problematic areas and they can be cross verified with the criteria being set above except for the question of At least monthly, I have substantive uninterrupted conversations about research and writing with colleagues in my university whose mean is 2.98 but cumulative percentage of unflavored answers is 59.3%. The factors which are highlighted problematic in the dataset is depicted below in the below figure. Out of the eight above highlighted problematic factors, first four of them belong to Individual Factors and rest four of them belongs to Institutional and Organizational Factors. These factors include: I have/had an unassigned mentor either in my department or in other departments/schools who provides (or provided) me with valuable guidance in research. Assigned mentor and unassigned mentor are up to students interests weather they approach to them to discuss the research topics and to get pieces of advice from them or not. Although in both the cases the responses from the students are unfavorable but the criteria equal to or greater than 60% cumulative percentages being set dont allow us to depict the assigned mentor question in the above bar graph figure but its importance cant be denied if 59.3% people answer unfavorably. Anyways the scenario of unassigned mentor is clearly problematic as 71.3% people responded in unflavored manner. I have a system that allows me to protect periods of uninterrupted time to address research activities. Students recorded unfavorable concerns equal to 75.3% which means our students do not have such systems where they can save their uninterrupted time to address their research activities. Although a fair amount of students answered Agree when they were asked about having adequate time for doing their research activities, but they are not into practices of saving uninterrupted times specifically to address the research activities. Up-to-date in qualitative research design and analysis 64% of the students recorded their responses as unflavored as they see themselves weak in qualitative research design and analysis because they are not currently up-to-date with the qualitative research design. Up-to-date in publisher-hunting skills (e.g. identifying appropriate journal/conference/exhibitions, understanding their procedures and submission evaluation for your research) Although our students believe that they are up-to-date in writing skill, presentation skills, IT skills (e.g. Microsoft Office, Design and Analysis Tools, Simulation Tools), and using relevant software for data-collection and analysis (e.g. SPSS, Nvivo, EndNote, etc.) but when it comes to their up-to-dated skills in publisher hunting for identifying appropriate journal/conference/exhibitions, understanding their procedures and submission evaluation for their research they are not well up-to-dated as 68% students recorded unflavored conditions. At least weekly, I have substantive uninterrupted conversations about research and writing with colleagues in my university 72% of the people responded unfavorably as they feel they do not converse weekly about their research topics with their fellow colleagues in the university. I have access to adequate human resources such as secretarial support, support staff etc., to conduct my research projects 66% of the students stated that they do not have access to adequate human resources such as secretarial support, support staff etc. in their universities to conduct their research projects. My university provides me adequate financial support to travel to academic conferences/exhibitions within Pakistan Interestingly the most problematic factor of all is the one stated above i.e. universities provide financial support to travel to academic conferences and exhibitions within Pakistan where more than 83% people recorded their concerns unflavored. My university provides me adequate administrative support to apply for travel grants from HEC or other external sources for presentation of paper in academic conferences within Pakistan. In the similar pattern about 70% students answered unfavorably that their universities provide adequate administrative support to apply for travel grants from HEC or other external sources for presentation of paper in academic conferences within Pakistan. The figure of 70% is less than of 83% in the above question may be due to readily available HEC support or due to HECs itself marketing campaign but, as per the collected data, support from universities in this regard of applying for travel grants from HEC or other external sources is minimal. Conclusion The studies show that universities play a prominent role in knowledge production, particularly in the pure or basic research fields, (Li, Millwater, Hudson, 2008). A lot of effort is being made in the developed and developing world to make their universities as research centers, though knowledge divide is deep and is heavily tilted in favor of developing countries (Sanyal Varghese, 2006). For a country like Pakistan is where there are so many social economic and security problems, the solutions lies in inculcating the research culture at higher education level. In Pakistani universities students need direction towards conducting research. Exposure of our students towards serious research is minimal or no as very minimum number of students have their papers published in worlds journals and publications, hence the importance of research is not fully known by them. Teachers and management, however, can play a pivotal role to set the university campuses onto the high class seats of res earch centers and ultimately making the students ready for taking part in the prosperity of the nation. These are the teachers and management which can give the light of wisdom to the educating pupils that they have to come in the competition of conducting research or our nation should get ready to perish from the face of this earth. Study also highlighted the specific problems relating to individual and institutional leadership factors causing the reasons of lack of research culture. It was noted that due to the moderate correlation existence between the stated two variables, present research output of individuals can be increased by controlling the problematic factors as identified in institutional and leadership factors list, i.e. once the institutions develop systems for students to conduct their research work, they have the ability to capitalize on the things with their new and energetic ideas. Implications In the light of the findings and the literature review, some of implications can be made to introduce the research culture into the students. These are enumerated as below: Separate centers for research should be made with several research groups to promote the cause of research culture in universities. These centers should be granted grants and finance for their smooth operations. A number of students will be taking part actively under the umbrella of these research centers. Teachers having no research experience or having not appeared in any international research journals/conferences with their papers are indeed a decline to research culture, (Cheetham, 2007). In our universities, well have to make it sure that our teachers are actively involved in conducting researches as ultimately theyll be able to translate the same habit to their students and if needed inductions of new highly qualified and trained tutors having experience in research can be made. Top management should involve into the matter of concern and should make the environment such that students get all those tools that are required to write an international research paper, e.g. availability of liter

The Use of Symbols to Ensure Confidential Communication :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Since the industrial revolution, communications technology has improved at an alarming rate. From the invention of the printing press to the rapidly expanding internet, it becomes easier to communicate with others every day. One downfall of this revolution is that it is much more difficult to keep confidential papers documents secure. In such a volatile environment a document can be stolen, scanned, and sent to the rest of the world within a span of five minutes. Once a person gets a hold of this information they can read it if it is in their own language or get it translated if it is in a foreign language. If a picture, symbol, or badge, is exploited in the same manner through the internet, it will not have such a crippling effect. Although viewers will be able to see the illustration, they will only derive from it whatever values or characteristics they associate the symbols with. However, the people who are affiliated with the image derive more important facts from it. The y might associate the illustration with historical meaning, personal stories, or how the image was created. Literate means of communication are imply universal understanding while symbols have the ability to convey different levels of meaning and comprehension to different groups of viewers. This dichotomy creates different niches for literate and visual means of communication to be used in. If material is meant to be understood universally and to convey the same meaning to all viewers than literate means of communication should be employed. If certain details are to be communicated to a select group of individuals, then symbols are a more effective way of ensuring secrecy. Symbols indicate the need for communication and yet conceal the details and innermost aspects of its contents (Religious). Unlike literature, symbols can be associated with various tangible or intangible objects to different people. This is because symbols are not comprehensible to the general public. I propose that symbols have four different levels of understanding while literate means on communication can only convey one level. The deeper connections associated with symbols cause informed viewers to experience a wide array of emotions when they see a symbol they are affiliated with. Organizations such as businesses, fraternities, and athletic clubs use symbols to invigorate their members with emotion that is not supposed to be acquired by the rest of society.

Medias Effect On Voters :: essays research papers

In our lazy nation today, most of the American citizen cast their vote on what they see on the news. It is safe to say that the media primarily control peoples opinion on political issues. Unfortunately the worlds most developed nation don't have time to carefully pick their leaders in any level. While vast opportunity of research is available to the American citizen to carefully pick their candidates, they choose to go along with the with what the media tells them to do. It is the media that controls the nation, it is the media that selects the agenda, and it will be the media that selects the president. Media also gives vast amount of information to keep us up to date with the changing world. It is important to watch the news, because news allows us to be up to date on current events. When it comes to keeping up with news, I usually tune to several different sources such as PBS and ABC. I choose to watch PBS and ABC because these sources generally gives the cold facts first, then allows journalist to give their opinion on certain issues. This is helpful because when the viewer knows the facts, they can relate their opinions to the opinions of the journalist. There are times when the media gets carried away with information, they allow their opinion to drive the fact, instead of the facts driving the opinion. This example was experienced in the case between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. The journalist's opinions, not facts drove the nations though about the issue. After President Clinton testified in front of Mr. Starr we learned the cold facts. This is why I believe media's most important job is to inform the public.Media's job is to inform. I'm not against media's quest to make profit, but I'm against it when media, the informer, gives untrue stories to catch ratings. What is the point of having a teacher who is interested in making money and forgetting about the most important thing, which is to teach children? In a nation that is so dependent on the media, it must be their duty to inform. The president himself is dependent on the media to keep up with the changing world. There must be other ways to gain ratings, but misinforming the public is not one of the options. That is why if I were to run for a public office, my primary link to the electorate would be CNN.

Cosmopolitanism: Cultures Essay

The essay â€Å"Making Conversation† by Kwame Antony Appiah is a reflection on the term â€Å"cosmopolitanism† and the steps people in any nation have to take in order to achieve â€Å"cosmopolitanism† and â€Å"globalization†. He brings up the point of how all cultures have their similarities and differences and in most cases these differences are so different that it makes these cultures hard to connect with one another. He believes that conversation is the first and most important step to the understanding of others. Appiah explains how all cultures have standards that they believe to be the norm and how some cultures with also find these customs acceptable while others will find them repulsive. Due to the nature of all human beings, people tend to only think of themselves as having the correct views on the world and are less accepting of the beliefs of others. I wholeheartedly agree with Appiah as he says how small agreements essential to eventually having two cultures that work in harmony for long periods of time. Over time, this will eventually open up people’s minds to other cultures, customs and beliefs. Citizens of each culture will then learn to accept the beliefs of others and by â€Å"changing our minds† we will slowly move towards becoming more cosmopolitan and globalized. But only when all citizens of a nation become completely accepting of everyone’s beliefs without necessarily agreeing with them at all will the nation and culture fit the definition of cosmopolitan and become completely globalized. Only the nations that will strive to accept other cultures will become globalized. These countries will then become an asset to communications between all other countries on this Earth and become a successful and thriving nation.

Assignment 2- Database Modeling and Normalization

Assignment 2- Database Modeling and Normalization Dr. Amir Afzal Strayer University- CIS 515 August 7, 2012 Abstract Selling high end electronics is big business and being a commissioned employee in that field if your sales are up means big money. Prices for electronics range from the low hundreds into the thousands. It really depends on the person style, specifications they are looking for, trust in the brand, and the depth of their pockets, how much a person is willing to spend for example on a that high definition led plasma television that is 52 inches.No matter the cost, businesses want to keep a track of the sales of their employees and how much they are getting paid. In this case a high-end electronics store wants to streamline data processing to enable them to help determine the commissions paid to employees. Assignment 2- Database Modeling and Normalization Streamlining processes allows information to be available to users across the system. In order for the finance departme nt to be able to find the commission paid to employee’s information that maybe held by other departments such as human resources will be needed.Once the database is complete and has all the information such as: employee first and last name, employee ID, yearly salary, commission rate, department, etc, the finance department can then being to generate that information. In this case a query is designed to allow the finance department to determine commissions paid to employees of specific departments. That code will be compared to the code that would show how much total compensation is paid to each employee monthly. Lastly it will be described how Big Data could be used to assist in productivity and forecasting of organizations product and resources.Methods After information is gathered about the employee; most of what was mentioned before, and input into the system a query can be designed to pull that information from the tables. In order to pull information from tables the SEL ECT function is used to determine the information that is needed and the FROM function tells from what tables to pull it (Coronel, Morris & Rob, 2012). The coding that was used to find information on commissions paid to employees was: SELECT Employee. * FROM Employee, Invoice WHERE (DepartmentID =2);The asterisk next to employees indicates that all the information under the employee table was used to generate the search. In this query information was pulled from the employee and invoice tables. The WHERE function more specifically states the department which can be changed and it would generate new information. The query currently only shows employee commission information for employees who work in department two (see attachment). If the finance department wanted to find the total compensation paid to each employee in the same month as the first query a slightly different query would be run to generate that information.The first code simply pulled the information and did not include and computation because the finance department only requested to be able to determine as in pull up the record for employee’s commission paid. The second code will include computation which will divide the yearly salary by twelve months then multiples the commission rate by the total amount of product sold and lastly add those two numbers together to get the total compensation for that month. Unfortunately the coding that I am using is not generating a proper result.However, it should look something like this: SELECT Employee. EmpNumber, Employee. EmpFirstName, Employee. EmpLastName, Employee. YrlySalary, Invoice. InvAmount, Invoice. InvDate, Employee. CommissionRate FROM Employee INNER JOIN Invoice ON Employee. EmpNumber = Invoice. EmpNumber WHERE (DepartmentID=2);, it is missing the computation part. Big Data could be used to assist in productivity and forecasting of organizations product and resources because it takes â€Å"large pools of data that can be brought togethe r and analyzed to discern patterns and make better decisions†.It â€Å"enhanc[es] productivity and creat[es] significant value for the world economy by reducing waste and increasing the quality of products and services (Mcguire, 2012). Additionally, Big Data adds â€Å"value by making information transparent†¦ â€Å"store more transactional data in digital form†, and develop the next generation of products and services† (Mcguire, 2012). That last aspect of Big Data allows â€Å"manufacturers are using data obtained from sensors embedded in products to create innovative after-sales service offerings such as proactive maintenance to avoid failures in new products (Mcguire, 2012).References Coronel, C. , Morris, S. , & Rob, P. (2012). Database systems. (10th ed. ). Independence, KY: Cengage. Mcguire, T. (2012, July). Why big data is the new competitive advantage. Retrieved from http://www. iveybusinessjournal. com/topics/strategy/why-big-data-is-the-new-compe titive-advantage Appendix A Appendix B | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Comparative and Contrast

Compare and contrast essay How far will you go for the person that you love? This is the question that most mates want to know before they go further with their partner. Different people have different answers and reasons for this question. Even between cupid and psyche & Orpheus and Eurydice. These two Greek stories have the same topic, which is â€Å"how far will you go for the person that you love†.These love stories are different in terms of theme until the story itself. These two stories are actually easy to understand but they have similarities and differences between them. First lets discuss about similarities; they are both a story about love and also how much they love their partner and how far would they go for the person that they love, even if the way how to get back their partner is different but the main topic of the story is still the same.They did several things to get their partners back, even if in the end of the story is not always them living in the wor ld but still in the end of these stories they went back together. The person who’s trying to get back their partner in these stories also get second chances in completing their journey, they both failed because of curiosity. Both of them are so impatient and curious so that’s the reason why they fail. Even if there’s a lot of similarities already but there are also differences in this story.Psyche was so curious and that she opened the beauty secret box and by that it made her work wasted, she wasn’t able to give back the box to Aphrodite so she failed while in the other tory Orpheus was able to get Eurydice back but then he was so impatient and curious if Eurydice is still with her or not so she looked back and then Eurydice was sent back to the underworld. There are different gods who impact the story, in the story cupid and psyche Aphrodite is the one who impact the story but in the story Orpheus and Eurydice Hades and Persephone are the two gods who i s included.But above all the way how they get back their partner is the sweetest in the first story Aphrodite gave a lot of things for psyche to do and she really did everything to get cupid back while Orpheus went to the underworld to get Eurydice back, these two jobs that they did is very tiring and it needs a lot of efforts but they still do it for their partners just to get them back. Between the two stories, it shows how some people actually care so much about their partner and even the would do the hardest job that could be possible just to get them back.

ICT System Specifications

For my database to run efficiently, the luxury car dealership needs a computer with certain specifications in order to run the certain software. I have researched the necessary system requirements for the software I use to create and run databases. These programmes include the operating system (the OS) and the program I use to create the actual databases. Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate * 1Ghz 32-bit or 64-bit processor * 1GB of system memory * Direct X 10 * 128Mb Graphics Card * 40GB HDD with 15GB of free space * DVD-ROM Drive * Audio Output Capability * Internet Access Capability * Keyboard and Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 * 500-MHz or faster processor * 256Mb of RAM or greater * 2GB of Hard Drive Space * DVD Disc Drive * Windows Vista, Windows XP Home, Professional or Media Centre Edition with Service Pack 2 * Super VGA (800Ãâ€"600) Monitor or greater * Broadband Connection * Programmes included are the 2007 versions of: Microsoft Access, Communicator, Excel, InfoPath, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word. Microsoft Office includes all of the necessary programs for the car dealership's database including Microsoft Access to create it and Microsoft Word for the mail merge. It is quite expensive but it is compatible with all documents and is a quality product, used by many businesses every day. I myself use these Microsoft Office programs so it is easier for me to create the database. As well as Microsoft Office, there is also another type of software currently found on the internet and as a free download. The program is called â€Å"Star Office†. This is available for free from a website: www.sun.com, where you can download the program for free. The program can be linked with Microsoft Office, as there is a word processor (Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), presentations (Microsoft PowerPoint), E-Mail Client (Microsoft Outlook) and Databases (Microsoft Access). The system specifications of â€Å"Star Office† are: * 320Mb of Hard Drive Space * 128Mb of RAM * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition/Professional/Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2 * For Download from the Internet – Broadband Connection * For Installation by Disc – DVD Disc Drive The advantages of using Star Office are that it is free from their website, it includes most of the functions from Microsoft Office and it does not take up a lot of space on the Hard Drive or RAM. The fact that the software is free is that is it not as good as Microsoft Office because it cannot open all the documents, which could be difficult for the dealership if they create a document on Microsoft Office (say from their home) and when they try to upload it onto the computer at work, it might not be able to open. I decided to choose the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 for the company because it is a quality product and it is compatible with all documents. It is also the top of the range version with all of the necessary programs for the dealership, unlike Star Office. It is also much easier to use for both new and existing users of the dealership. However, it is quite expensive but the overall cost is less than using Star Office. The computer's operating system is also made by Microsoft, which is a genuine company and are also the company who make Microsoft Office, so they are compatible. The company users may also have used Microsoft Office before so it would be familiar to them. The company have also asked me to purchase new computers that will benefit them. I have looked at several computer websites and tried to find a computer with at least the exact specifications shown above for Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007. As I have been with the knowledge of computers for a long time, I know which computer manufacturers to trust. I looked at several online stores including PC World, Currys Digital and Sony Centre Online and I have found two PC's that meets my needs and the company itself. I chose Sony as the computer manufacturer as they are very reliable, they build quality computers and they have a superb repair service if the computer crashes. I have found this laptop on Sony's website that suited the company and me: Sony Vaio AR Series with Blu-Ray Disc Drive Specifications * Intel(r) Core(tm) Duo Processor T2500, Supports Enhanced Intel SpeedStep(r) Technology * Microsoft(r) Windows(r) Vista Ultimate * 1920 x 1200 Display * 1024Mb of RAM * Blu-Ray Super Multi Double Layer DVDà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½RW/BD-RE drive * NVIDIA(r) GeForce(tm) Go 7600 GT with 256MB dedicated Video Memory * 802.11a/b/g Wireless Receiver * HDD (Hard Drive Disc) 160Gb This laptop costs à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2000 from Sony's website or from Sony's store. This might seem quite expensive yet it has all the necessary specifications and more. The RAM (Random Access Memory) is very large – 1024Mb. This means that they can load up a lot of programs at once without any lag time. This will benefit the company as they will be able to open many programs at once e.g. opening the database and Microsoft Word at the same time and they would not have to close a program down to open another. It also has Windows Vista Ultimate. This will benefit the company because most of the users would have used a Microsoft operating system before so all of their documents are compatible and they know how to use Microsoft Windows without any training. It also has a DVD Disc Drive, which means they are able to write and re-write DVD's. There is also a Blu-Ray Disc Drive. The Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 60 GB of data and it is re-writeable. This means that the company can save documents and files on several large discs and is able to re-write any disc placed in it (as long as the disc is re-writeable). This means that they can back-up all of their documents and files onto the disc so that if their laptop crashes, the documents will not be deleted. The laptop is ideal for the company because it is portable, so the manager can load the specifications of the car and show the customers the specifications next to the car, rather than looking at the car then looking at the specifications. The hard drive is also very large – 160 GB – which can easily store all the necessary programs and more programs if the company wish to install more programs. The laptop also has a wireless card built-in which means that if the company has a wireless router, they can access the internet wirelessly. This means that they can carry the laptop anywhere and have a wireless connection. They can show the customers the car manufacturer's website when they are looking at that particular car so that they can see what the specifications are and what the price would be when bought new from the cars dealership. Finally, the laptop has a large screen, which means that there will be no difficulty looking at the screen and not being able to see what is on there. The screen is also backlit so if the room is dark, you can see the screen more clearly and easily. The backlit screen is brighter when plugged into the mains but darker when portable in order to save battery life. The other computer I was looking at was another Sony desktop computer: Sony Vaio VGC Series (Black) * Intel(r) Pentium(r) D Processor 820 (2.80 GHz and 800 MHz FSB) * Genuine Microsoft(r) Windows(r) Vista Ultimate * 250 GB SATA hard disk drive * 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) DDR2-533 SDRAM, maximum 1 GB * 20†³ WXGA (1366 x 768) widescreen X-black LCD screen with double lamp technology * ATI Mobility(tm) Radeon(r) X700 graphics card with 256 MB HyperMemory(tm) * Wireless LAN 802.11b/g * Wireless QWERTY keyboard with pointing device (touch pad type), wireless optical mouse and remote control Between the Sony laptop and the desktop, I have chosen the desktop as the company's new computer. The reasons why I chose the desktop are that the desktop is very slim, similar to the laptop. Also, the desktop's power is from the mains, not from a battery pack which the laptop has and needs recharging every two hours or so. The desktop has a wider screen than the laptop, making it easier to see. The screen is also backlit, similar to the laptop but it is always bright. However, with the laptop, when portable, the screen is dark and not backlit. The desktop has all the necessary requirements and features the company need. The desktop specifications are much better than those of the laptop. Firstly, it has a 250GB hard drive disc, the laptop has 160GB. The desktop also has a 1024Mb which is equal to the laptop. The desktop is bundled with a wireless card so at the company can connect to the internet wirelessly without any Ethernet cables. The laptop has a wireless card yet it uses a lot of the laptops battery life and significantly reduces it to one hour's battery life when connected wirelessly. Finally, the desktop is bundled with a wireless keyboard (useful for typing on desks or when standing), a remote control (to control presentations such as slide shows and picture galleries) and a wireless optical mouse (useful when working on a desk). The most important reason why I chose this desktop was that it was à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 cheaper than the laptop – the desktop costs à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1500. I thought that the selling price was quite good considering that when you buy the desktop; you have higher specifications than the laptop which costs an extra à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500, which has poorer specifications. I chose the computer manufacturer Sony because they make high quality computers with excellent specifications, reliability and at a reasonable price. An alternative to using Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is using Apple's OS X Tiger 10.4. This is very similar to Windows yet it uses different programs, so the same applications are not cross compatible, so the company's employees would not be able to view documents made on a Macintosh on a Windows PC. I did not choose Mac OS X because the employees and I have no training in using this software. Also, the Mac is more graphically advanced than Windows, yet this is unnecessary because the computer is only needed for running a database and does not have to have a lot of graphical power. Finally, Mac OS X is much more expensive as it includes all the software made by Apple. Most of the software is unnecessary for the dealership so purchasing a Windows Vista PC is more beneficial as the user can choose what programs you wish to purchase. Printers There are two types of printers available to purchase; inkjet and laser. I decided to choose one suitable inkjet printer and one laser printer for the dealership and then work out which would be the best to purchase. I decided to choose â€Å"Lexmark† as the printers manufacturer because they are very reliable, efficient, cheap and a well known brand. I myself have a Lexmark printer and I recommend their printers to all of my customers. Lexmark Z845 * Inkjet Printer * USB Connection * 100 paper tray * 24 pages per minute in black * 18 pages per minute in colour * Windows and Mac compatible * à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 This printer is very cheap – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50. This is beneficial for the user and the dealership because it would save them quite a lot of money on a laser printer, like the one below. It also prints both colour and black ink so the user can print out documents such as reports as well as print out photos of the cars if he wishes to. The printer can also hold a lot of paper before it has to be refilled which is good because the user could ask the computer to print 100 pages and would be able to leave the printer printing for a long time. However, this printer is inkjet so it takes a lot longer to print both colour and black ink pages than a laser printer which could be annoying and time consuming for the user as he may have to print out the documents as quickly as possible for a customer waiting. The ink also runs out very quickly, which means that the user would have to purchase more and more cartridges. These are also very expensive, which is not beneficial for the company. Lexmark E120N * Laser Printer * USB Connection * 165 paper tray * 20 pages per minute in black * Windows only compatible * à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½80 The alternative to the inkjet printer is this laser one. It holds 165 pages until it has to be refilled – 65 more than the inkjet printer. This means that the user is able to leave the printer for a long time to print out documents until he has to refill the paper. It also prints 20 pages per minute in black which is quite a lot. This means that the user can print off reports very quickly, saving the user time and effort. The toner is also very long lasting and is quick and cheap to change – unlike the inkjets cartridges. This will save the user time and money when the toner has run out. However, this printer only prints in black so the user would not be able to print any colour documents or photos from the printer. It is also more expensive – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30 more than the inkjet printer which is not beneficial for the company. I decided to purchase the Lexmark E120N for the company. Firstly, it is laser so it is able to print a lot of black pages very quickly and efficiently, saving the user time and money replacing the cartridges of the printer as the toner is much cheaper. Also, the printer holds more paper than the other one so the user does not have to keep refilling the paper tray as often as using the laser printer. Unfortunately, the printer only prints black pages. However, the company would not need to print out anything in colour as it only needs to print out reports, so buying an inkjet printer would be inadequate. Also, the printer is more expensive but by saving money from buying toner rather than inkjet cartridges, the money is effectively paid back from the saved money. Internet I also decided that the company should purchase a broadband connection for many reasons. Firstly, if the company were to expand in the future, they would be able to communicate with the other dealerships across the region, saving time and money spent on making phone calls to the other dealerships for information. Looking at the software requirements of Windows Vista Ultimate, the company needs to have an internet connection so that they can register their computer and OS with Sony and Microsoft to prevent any illegal copies of it being made. The internet connection also benefits the company as they would be able to update vital downloads on their computers. The internet may also benefit the company because they would be able to compare their prices with other companies who rent luxury cars, so that they know if they are over or under charging for their rentals, benefiting the company and the customers themselves. Also, the company is able to download new information from the car manufacturer's website including new cars and new details. They could also purchase new or used cars from the manufacturers directly through the internet. I recommend to the company that they purchase a fast internet connection of 8Mbps. This would benefit the company and the user because they would be able to download updates from Microsoft very quickly and efficiently, they would be able to access website quickly saving a lot of time for the user, they would be able to surf the web and download items at the same time and it would be future proof for the company so that they would not have to upgrade their internet speed for a long time. However, if the company purchase an internet connection, they would have to purchase some software to protect it against viruses and spy ware. A program they should purchase is Norton Anti-Virus 2007. This can be purchased via the internet or as a software package. This would provide protection for the company's computer against viruses such as â€Å"Trojan Horse† and spy ware which allows other computers to access information and document from your PC, effectively ruining your privacy. If the computer was attacked by one of the 114,000 viruses on the internet, the computer's data could become corrupted and any valuable data could be lost. By purchasing this software, this will prevent any damage happening to the company's computer.

Improving roads Essay

If someone goes on a hill or a high place and has a look at what is going on, down on the vast area, he will see a lot of curved lines that are like snakes, creeping in each other and there are some tiny objects that are moving like thousands of insects. Living in modern cities needs more traveling during the day because people go to different work places. This is a good reason for having a liable transportation system that is able to transfer every body from one place to another one. Some people think that governments should pay attention to this matter and spend more money to build more roads and highways. They prefer fast cars and a good route to ride their vehicles because they have to work or shop and there is not enough time for all of them. I believe, governments should have a general view about transportation and it means that there are some other issues that must be considered at the same time. If we spend more money on public transportation system, a lot of people can use it and they don’t have to buy a car to pollute the environment and also we would not have so many car accidents that suffer a lot of families and are a waste of money, and time. These days, every one is aware of air pollution and a great deal of damage to the environment that are caused by fuels. If the number of private vehicles increases, we can not breathe well. There are different diseases in children who live in polluted cities. Nature is changing and some areas in the world have had â€Å"acid rain† that destroyed a lot of trees in forests. Have you thought what would happen to our planet if this situation continues We must improve public transportation system and make people use it and refuse riding private cars to help ourselves. When we read a newspaper or listen to the news on radio or at T.V., we notice how many car crashes happen in a day. A lot of people die or are damaged. Families are sad and every body thinks why all these should happen. If we encourage people to take public transportation, they would be safer and the amount of psychological and economical effect on the society would decrease. As a result, I think government should spend and even invest more money on public transportation to prevent more pollution in cities and let people  live in healthy condition. Also by improving public transportation we avoid more accidents and consequently decrease death toll.

Evaluate Financial Conditions Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluate Financial Conditions - Research Paper Example ment arrangements in external cash and investment pools, which are not registered by SEC, are usually determined by the fair worth for every allocation of the pool’s principal portfolio, except if the pool is such like 2a7. Thus a 2a7-like pool is an external and cash investment pool which functions in accordance to the SEC’s Rule 2a7 as circulated under the regulation of Investment Company Act of 1940, as adjusted. Investment arrangements in a 2a7-lie pool ought to be calculated at the net asset worth for every share supplied by the pool. An internal cash and investment pool on the other hand is an arrangement which pools the funds of over one component unit or fund of a given reporting entity. Internal cash and investment pools are to adhere to the guidance for non-current and short-term investments provided by various regulations. The position of each equity of every account taking part in the investment pool must be stated as an asset in the respective participating account. Costs and income related with investments that are internally pooled are to be described in the accounts that account for the investments except if contractual or legal provisions need transfer of quantities to a different account (Crawford & Loyd, 2009). â€Å"Interim financial reports are not needed for state and governmental units since external users of financial reports have no need to assess monthly or quarterly performance of the government.†I totally agree with this statement since interim reports are usually prepared for the sole use of government oversight or management. It is very rare that interim reports will be released or issued to members of the general public. Interim reports are made either on a monthly or quarterly basis and usually show operating results, financial position as well as any other significant information. Such reports may also be used in comparison of actual financial data to budget. The main principles by which the interim financial reporting is

Check Your Understanding Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Check Your Understanding - Assignment Example Destructive conduct in made by a person and endorsed by the community, members. Natural morality revolves around human evolution than what has been acquired from the environment. Moral behavior is outgrown from the animals. The human beings are social being and therefore they derive moral out of interactions and are passed to the next generation in life. Empathy is the nature of animals and human beings are not excluded. They walk together in groups and also hunt in groups out of these interaction they inherit morality. On the contrary transcendent morality is the morality that goes beyond the world and the visible things that can be seen. It goes beyond the physical world and tries to explain what bring people together in marriage sports and pledging their allegiance to the state. Moral judgment is the process in which character traits, belief systems motives and opinions are measured against the standard good. There are standard set that are used for judgment failure to meet these standards will lead to automatic disqualification. These standards are based on the individual’s knowledge, integration and experience. As moral judgment primarily focuses on discussion, aesthetic judgment focuses the beauty and ugliness which are part of life. Beauty and ugliness lack the standards of measurement but depends on how they are perceived by different people. Perception determines how an object is beautiful or ugly. The completeness and proportionality of a beautiful object is difficult to arrive at. Behavior can be considered in one context as beautiful while in a different context as ugly it depends on the perception and interpretation in the mind. Moral objectivists are those people that believe that reality is independent of consciousness. Human beings have direct contact with the reality though the sense of perception and