Dont Make English Offical Ban It Instead

Heather Schmitt English 1010 Mrs. Zeleznik 2 December 2012 â€Å"Don’t Make English Official – Ban It Instead† The article â€Å"Don't Make English Official – Ban It Instead† by Dennis Baron focuses on the idea of Congress considering to make English the â€Å"official language† of the United States. Baron uses the academic approach in portraying English as a tradition, a functional system of codes that enables people to interact with each other in the society. Using this as his primary thesis, Baron argues that English should not be implemented as the country's national language, since â€Å"it's hardly even English anymore. They clearly state in the article that even though English isn't the official language non-English-speaking immigrants are still picking up. Many people in America want English to be the official language that everyone should speak. I do not completely agree with this. It would be too difficult for everyone to follow th is request. Also, many people learn two different languages, which ultimately increases their knowledge. Dennis Baron's idea is that banning English would have the opposite of effect, that people that speak English would still continue to speak English and those who do not yet speak it will be more tempted to try it out.If we were to ban the English language then people would be more eager to learn it because people want what they cannot have. I personally find the idea of this humorous in a way. It's relating it to a bigger theme or main idea that it is almost human nature to try or do the things we are not suppose to do. Not that Congress would ever ban the English language or really any language in general, I think this piece is really aiming towards the idea of human nature rather than actually wanting to ban the English language.

Classical and post-Classical periods Essay

The Silk Roads were created when classical empires were established, and the scope of long distance trade expanded, connecting much of Eurasia. Throughout the Classical and post-Classical periods, the Silk Roads provided a way for not only goods to be introduced to new lands, but also ideas, religions and technology. The Silk Roads changed drastically due to expanding empires, new technology and diseases. Although the effects and empires with which the Silk Road was connected changed continuously throughout the Classical and post-Classical period, the thing that remained constant was the trade of spices and goods to and from Asia and Europe, and the Silk Road never lost its importance to the economies of the empires. The growing empires directly affected the Silk Roads. The growth and spread of empires was a direct result of who had the most control over the routes and what ideas were being spread, for instance religion. When disease decreased much of a population, that empire would stop trade with other nations and focus on interregional trade, until their empire was back up on its feet, and then it would again join in trade on the silk roads. This constantly happened with the introduction of new diseases to empires throughout the end of the Classical period and all of the post-Classical period. One example of this was China, when diseases were brought to its shore from the ships, its population decimated and they stopped trading with vast nations for luxuries and kept the trade within its empire till its economy grew and then they continued in trade throughout the silk road. The new technology introduced to the Silk Road had the most impact on the trade patterns. Throughout the classical period not many changes in technology occurred, however during the post-Classical, you start to see many new technologies introduced to the Silk Road. Yolks, saddles and stirrups were just some of the new transportation technology developed. In the 600s B.C.E., yolks, saddles and stirrups were used to allow more goods to be carried on horse, camels and ox and allowed them to travel further distance. Saddles were first developed in Southern Arabia for transportation. Then, Stirrups first appeared in Afghanistan, created by the Kushan folk. The stirrup is a piece of equipment that extends from a saddle on both sides, and the person sitting in the saddle can put their feet into the stirrup while riding to gain better control of the animal being ridden and to be more secure on the animals back. Lastly, the yoke allowed for more than one ox to plow fields. The yoke would link the two oxen together and attach them to something heavy, like a plow or a tool used for turning the earth. Another invention, which came from China, was a compass, which pointed north, and allowed sailor to navigate more easily. They also invented better-equipped, long-lasting ships to travel greater distances for the sole purpose of acquiring goods that people at home in China so desperately desired. These boats were called junks, and allowed for the Chinese to sail great distances for the goods they desired. However, they were not alone in the making of these big ships, Indians also began to craft larger and improved boats called dhows. Another major innovation that fueled trade was the Grand Canal. Created under the authority of Sui Yangdi in the Sui Dynasty. The Chinese needed a fast and easy way to transport essential crops, such as rice, from the Yangzi River to the North. Therefore they built the Grande Canal running through North and Southern China, creating an efficient way to transport good through northern and southern China. Other than transportation technology, there was other technology introduced in the post-Classical period. The Chinese invented printing and paper, which created an even faster and easier way to spread ideas, religion, and technology throughout the Silk Roads. Although the Silk Roads had many positive features, along with the spread of ideas came the spread of disease. This occurred throughout the whole period. Unbeknownst to the traders the ships and caravans, with which they traded, brought disease along with their many goods. Worlds apart, neither the two parties, the transmitter and the infected, were aware, at least primarily, of what the devastating effects would be when coming in contact with these diseases. Due to the fact that they were from different parts of the world, and seas away from each other, those who were infected were not immune yet to the diseases the merchants carried, and it had devastating effects of the population. These massive disease outbreaks resulted in drastic changes, beginning at the end of the Classical period. As the germs traveled from one side of the world to the other, they became more dangerous. One of the most obvious examples of what disease did throughout the Silk Road was in the Americas. When European settlers came to colonize America, they brought with them infectious diseases such as the bubonic plague, and malaria, killing off almost 90% of the native people. This made it especially easy to conquer lands and force Natives to work, and when they were running out of native workers, they just imported slaves from Africa. The diseases they brought made it possible for them to conquer as much land as they did and it also made it possible for the Europeans to destroy many of the Natives history, because the Natives could not stop them, for they only had few people left. Other than the natives in the Americas, both the Han Empire and the Roman Empire, tremendous trade destinations, had immense problems with disease in the 100s and the 200s C.E.: most likely these people experienced the bubonic plague, smallpox, and measles. For example, in the 100s C.E., about 45 million people lived in the Roman Empire, but in the 400s C.E. the population dropped at least 5 million. Likewise, the population in China dropped by 10 million in the 200 years following 200 C.E., sinking to 50 million. Unfortunately, the transfer of these devastating diseases to places without natural immunity to them caused devastating population decline throughout the classical and post-classical period. Despite the constant changes in materials traded, the original purpose of the Silk Road remained undamaged throughout the Classical and Post-Classical period. Asian goods were traded with European merchants along the Silk Road and vice versa. In particular, spices from Asia, which were traded with most wealthy empires, particularly Europe, fueled Asia’s economy. These spices were wanted by the Europeans constantly and elaborated the importance of the Silk Road. During the Post-Classical period, many countries like Portugal and Spain, tried to take control of the Spice trade. Although unsuccessful, it shows the importance of the spice trade to the Silk Roads. The spice trade created an economic boom in Asia and every other country wanted that leading to wars and a race to find the quickest route to Asia. Furthermore, Asia’s economy, specifically China’s economy, was dependent on the money from trade on the Silk Road, regardless the type of goods that were traded to fuel their economy. Likewise, Asian trades drove Europe’s economy. Throughout 200 B.C.E to 1450 C.E., the Silk Roads had drastic changes due to its growing empires, new technology and spread of diseases. One thing that remained constant was trade between Asia and Europe and their economies’ reliance on such trade. The effect the Silk Road had on empires and how it allowed ideas, like religion and philosophies, to be spread throughout the Silk Roads also remained constant throughout the Classical and Post-Classical period. Growing empires contributed new ideas, technology and crops. It also controlled much of the influence throughout Eurasia. New technology provided better transportation and faster ways to spread ideas. Lastly, diseases directly affected populations that were not immune to foreign diseases such as the bubonic plague, malaria and small pox and decimated populations.

Laws Special Education Essay

Prior to 1969, there was no special education or related services offered to learning-disabled children. By providing funds, the Public Law of 1969 known as the Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act has recognized children with â€Å"learning disabilities† (Berger, 2008, p. 302) and enabled them to receive special education and other services such as physical therapy, speech, transportation, etc. In addition, by enforcing mandated education for all children, the Public Law has protected children with disabilities from being rejected or forced out of school as it used to happen before 1960’s (Berger, 2008, p.302). By requiring local educational agencies to offer special education services for students with disabilities (Dunlap, 2009, p. 5), the Public Law provided parents/guardians with the opportunity to receive necessary assistance. As of 1975, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) required each child with disabilities to have the Individual Education Plan (IEP) written by the multidisciplinary team working with the student, which allowed specifying educational goals according to child’s unique needs. Also, by placing children with special needs in â€Å"least restrictive environment† (a setting as close as possible to a setting designed for children without disabilities), the EAHCA has helped the students with learning disabilities to advance their academic achievement and social skills (Berger, 2008, p. 302). Since the integration of EAHCA in 1975, the parental participation in the writing, approval, and evaluation of each child’s IEP has become mandatory (Dunlap, 2009, p. 91). The EAHCA also guarantees parents the right to sue a district if they feel that the best interest of their child is not being met or if they disagree with decisions regarding services provided to their child (Dunlap, 2009, p. 7). Since 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has worked in favor of â€Å"individuals† (previously referred to as â€Å"children†) to assist them with their â€Å"disabilities† (previously referred to as â€Å"handicaps†) (Berger, 2008, p. 302). IDEA emphasized parent’s right and collaboration in educational placement, IEP, and assessment of their child (Dunlap, 2009, p. 11). This law allowed parents to have advocates in schools (trained individuals to work for the welfare of their children). Updated in 1997 and 2004, IDEA strengthened the role of parents and their rights to be involved in educational decisions affecting their children. As these laws have contributed to the present status of Special Education in the U. S. , they continue being crucial in ensuring the help that individuals with disabilities need. While the public law makers have incorporated numerous special services, they keep modifying previously integrated laws to ensure that each child’s unique needs are met. The IDEA of 1990, for example, added autism as classification category to address current disability (Dunlap, 2009, p. 9). Its amendment of 1997 listed AD/HD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) as a â€Å"separate disability category, making children with AD/HD eligible for services under the health-impairment category Other† (Dunlap, 2009, p. 11). Bibliography Berger, K. S. (2008) The developing person: Through the life span (7th ed. ) (pp. 301-305). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Dunlap, L. L. (2009). An introduction to early childhood special education: Birth to age five. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc..

My Three Most Effective College Study Skills

College life is a new start for me. I need to change my study skills to adapt the new period of studying. As a college student, I think developing effective study skills is an excellent way to ensure that I can fully enjoy my college life. First of all, making a schedule to confirm what things I need to do and put everything in order is a good way for me to improve the learning efficiency. I try to make an â€Å"everyday To-Do list† and mark important tasks on the calendar, such as preparing presentations, the deadline of essays, and the date of quizzes or examinations.It can help me know class and tasks clearly, and then I can arrange everything under control. When I complete a task, I’ll tick off it. A small tick always gives me a sense of achievement. Secondly, listening to lecturers carefully in class is the most essential way. I try to take notes to record something important and underline important points in class. And I think giving eye contacts to teachers is a good way to give feedbacks to teachers and help teacher know whether you’ve understood or not.Actually, previewing new knowledge before class can help me understand contents of the class better. Moreover, reviewing knowledge after class; it’s a good way to test whether I’ve grasped the knowledge or not. Last but not least, participating in extracurricular activities is an important way. There’re lots of different kinds of lectures in our college, some lectures can help me open up my mind and enlarge my knowledge, and some lectures can help me relax.And participating in the group work regularly is a good way to develop communication competence and find our own strength and weakness. Meanwhile, society club activities also are a part of the college life. In our leisure time, we can take part in activities to make more friends and relax ourselves. All in all, everyone may have their own way to study well and get higher grades. Anyway, I think these three way s are the most appropriate for me. Someone who knows how to learn efficiently is much better than someone who can get good grades. (366 words)

Challenges Of Implementing Renewable Energy Essay

Challenges Of Implementing Renewable Energy - Essay Example The UK government wants to develop this energy source as a viable and active contributor to the economy. However, developing and using these free energy sources is not very easy and a number of challenges and barriers need to be overcome. These challenges include technical, social and financial challenges (Scottish Power, 2004). This paper will examine renewable energy sources in this context and suggest solutions to overcome the challenges. The UK government has undertaken a few projects to meet its obligations of reducing greenhouse gases. As per the Kyoto protocols, a signatory to the protocols and this includes the UK, have agreed to cut down their emissions to pre-1990 levels. The UK faces a huge problem of reducing the carbon levels and emissions since it mostly relies on coal-fired power plants and nuclear plants for power generation. For 2006, the total amount of Green House Gases - GHG emitted in the UK was the equivalent of 7,076 million metric tons of CO2. It is estimated that from these emissions about 2344 Teragrams were due to CO2 emissions from the activities of standard and old electricity power grids (SmartGrid GB, 2012). Other than nuclear power, all other systems and plants generate excessive carbon. Domestic and household consumption in the UK makes up for 60% of the power used while other users such as industries, utilities, offices, and infrastructure consume the rest. Automobiles account for more t han 75% of fossil fuel consumption (Williams, 2010). To promote the use of green and clean energy systems, the UK government has initiated a project that funds and supports solar energy by residential homes (Bullis, 2012). The proposal is called ‘Feed-In Tariff – FIT’. This project involves encouraging households to install small solar panels with solar PV that can generate electricity. The Department of Clean Energy of The UK government has undertaken a few projects to meet its obligations of reducing greenhouse gases. As per the Kyoto protocols, a signatory to the protocols and this includes the UK, have agreed to cut down their emissions to pre-1990 levels.

Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Supply Chain - Essay Example According to management study guide (MSG) (2013), a design framework should take into consideration elements of technology, external environment, market, and product. A supply chain is the critical backbone for distribution and consumption of goods and services (Watson et al. 2012). An efficient design should span across the market and should involve suppliers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. With changing consumer patterns, firms want to supply their products through different channels (Watson et al. 2012). A supply chain network dictates the manufacturing methodology and assembly points a given good or service should be collected from (MSG 2013). An organization maximizes its profitability by minimizing transportation costs by setting up warehouses closer to the consumers (Watson et al. 2012). The production unit should be situated where transportation costs of raw materials are minimal. A supply chain network defines sales and marketing decisions. MSG (2013) states that a supply chain network extrapolates cost impacts and combines possible combinations to project profitability. Supply design network is a strategic endeavor that includes long term; short term and capacity planning that extend over lengthy time horizons. An integer and linear programming mathematical optimization are the best approaches to deciding on various options and determine the best locations for supply (Watson et al. 2012). A strategic fit concept requires that organizations achieve efficiency in a supply chain in a way that meets the organization’s competitive strategy. The organization has to identify relevant drivers to achieve this efficiency. In any organization, capital productivity in the supply chain context comes when responsiveness and efficiency are improved (Business and Management University, 2011). Inventory, transportation, information and facilities determine the

International Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

International Finance - Essay Example When used in a data set of 7 major currencies in the post-Bretton Woods age, the JLR test offers strong and credible evidence in support of a unitary cointegrating vector in between forward and corresponding future spot rates. However, the orthogonality condition is met only for 3 major currencies. According to the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH), â€Å"under conditions of risk neutrality and rational expectations on the part of market agents, the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the corresponding future spot rate†. Assuming the absence of a risk premium in the foreign exchange market, it must hold true that Johansen (1992) puts forward a maximum likelihood technique to establish the number of common trends in a system of unit-root variables. Without any generality being lost, a p -dimensional vector autoregressive (VAR) process of k -th order can be written as: To test the hypothesis in (6), it suffices to test that the smallest of the characteristic roots of ÃŽ   is zero, as a rejection necessarily implies that all characteristic roots of ÃŽ   are nonzero and therefore ÃŽ   possesses full rank. Such a test can be constructed on the basis of the following test statistic, referred to as the Johansen likelihood ratio (JLR) test statistic: The paper analyzed U.S. dollar spot and 90-day forward rates for 8 major currencies: Canadian dollar (CD), Deutsche mark (DM), British pound (BP), French franc (FF), Swiss franc (SF), Netherlands guilder (NG), and the Italian lira (IL). The sample period is from 1974:3 to 1996:4 at a quarterly frequency. Since the maturity date of the forward contract and the sampling frequency are similar, problems emanating from the use of overlapping data are bypassed. The 90-day forward rates are matched with the corresponding future spot rates and

International Accounting Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

International Accounting Standards - Essay Example When comparing its financial position and results of operations for the last year or years, competitors located in the same country like the United Kingdom can be easily compared and contrasted. A little difficulty arises when the financial statements of competing companies are compared and one company is located in the United Kingdom and the other stiff competitors are located in other countries like the United States, Japan, Canada, Brazil, China, India etc. They say that accounting is the language of business. Just as misinterpretation could be eliminated if people from Germany and Spain understand each other, misunderstandings and variances in the interpretation of the balance sheet and income statement are due to the different financial statement standards and methods of reporting which includes costing, billing and cost distributions. One major problem is that each country has researched and approved own generally accepted accounting principles individually. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are the widely accepted set of rules, conventions, standards, and procedures that are used for reporting financial information which are researched and established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board of each country. (Sanella, 1991) One example of a generally accepted accounting principle is the United Kingdom's generally accepted accounting principle as to when to record a transaction as cash or receivable or another accounting data.Another problem is that the individual financial data ( Belkaoui, 1999) reported in the financial statements are cash inflows and cash outflows that are inherent and unique to each country. For example, average daily salary paid for the factory worker in competing companies will have a big disparity because salaries of production personnel in third world countries like India are estimated to be ten times lower than the average daily wage of a production worker in the Great Britain or Germany.Another problem is that the modes of transporting the goods in India or Brazil is not as advanced or fast as the mode of transportation in the United Kingdom or the United States.As of this time, there is no one size fit all when it comes to global accounting standards. In relation to this topi c, The European Union which is a conglomeration of individual independent states in Europe, including the United Kingdom, has come up with the European Court of Justice that gives decisions on cases within the European Union community even though each country has its own courts of law.The Tax consultants, accountants and financial statement analysts are at odds when comparing electricity, salary, rent, asset amortization and depreciation, assignment of values to assets between countries. We know that the standard of living in London is very much higher than the standard of living in China.Each accountant, financial stateme

Bioinformatics and molecular modelling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Bioinformatics and molecular modelling - Essay Example Plant lipases are often considered to be involved in regulating certain plant growths and developments (Bos and Laxminarayan, 2011; 42). They are mainly found in seeds where triglycerides are stored in the form of intracellular structures or the oil bodies. Lipases usually hydrolyze triglycerides to fatty acids and glycerol that produces energy needed for seed germination. The plant lapses are usually classified into three main groups with the first group consisting of the triacylglycerol hydrolases that are mainly found in seeds. Their study is vital since they are responsible for seed alteration especially during storage. The second group is the acylhydrolases that are found in various plant tissues. They often exhibit limited specificity for their substrates; therefore, they are unable to hydrolyze triglycerides. However, they are cable to catalyze some esterification processes or reactions (Appel and Feytmans, 2009; p. 68). The profound acylhydrolases include phospholipases A and B, sulfolipases, glycolipases, and monoglyceride lipases. The last group in this category is the phosphorlipases that involve plant metabolism, degradation, and rearrangement. Other than the above classification, the recent studies have led to different classification of lipases based on comparison of the sequences of their amino acid among other fundamental biological and physicochemical properties (Gupta, 2007; 34). This modern classification led to eleven subfamilies. Despite being a member of many protein families, the lipases often have similar architecture that is described by the ?-hydrolase fold. The activities of all lipases often rely on the catalytic triad that is usually fromed by the Asp, Ser, and His residues. In the sequence of the amino acid especially involving ?/? hydrolases, these three residues often follow the user-Asp-His order. Additionally, lipases often share the consensus sequence defined by the Gly-Xaa-Ser-Xaa-Gly where X may be a residue of an amino acid (Bos and Laxminarayan, 2011; p. 33). The three dimensional structure of any protein molecule often provides valuable insight into the molecular function, organization, docking stimulation, and the effective designing of drug experiments. The lack of an experimentally determined crystal structure, the homology modeling may be used to provide an opportunity in obtaining a reasonable 3D model. Currently, the 3D models often provide a perfect means of predicting the structure of biomolecules since it yields models that are suitable for a wide application spectrum that are structurally based thereby providing molecular design for mechanism investigation. The 3D approach is capable of providing a reasonable structure model that is often related to template that shares more than 25 percent sequence identity. An Arabidopsis thaliana lipase model is greatly proposed to investigate the model organism mainly in the plant biology since it is relatively small and and it is genetically tractable genome. Methods The Target and Template Proteins The model is perfect in determining adequate template for the homology modeling for the Arabidopsis thaliana. This sequence allows the alignment of amino acid sequence against the protein data bank (PDB) and this is performed by means of BLAST algorithm. According to the sequence algorithm, both the template (1HLG) and the target share 31 percent of the sequence identity.

Sexual Harassment lawsuits often include wrongful discharge Essay

Sexual Harassment lawsuits often include wrongful discharge - Essay Example More specifically, after announcing the relevant decision, an employee has to leave his/ her work without – practical – having any financial claim (compensation, lost benefits and so on) against the employer. Of course, the fact that employee was forced to quit – i.e. that it was not his/ her own willing but the result of the pressure made on him/ her because of specific facts taking place in the workplace – maybe leave space for relevant claims. In law, such a situation is commonly known as constructive wrongful discharge; employees that were forced to quit do not always manage to persuade the court regarding the facts on which their decision was based – i.e. a constructive wrongful discharge is rather difficult to be proved in practice; as a result an employee who suffered sexual harassment can be left with no work and no compensation even if he/ she had no other alternative but to proceed to the specific reaction (i.e. to quit). The specific issue has been extensively examined in the Courts across USA; the court’s decisions tend to vary in accordance with the circumstances of each particular case and the ability of the employee to convince the Court regarding the real facts of the particular conflict. In any case it has been proved that sexual harassment lawsuits are based on their majority on constructive wrongful discharge. The various aspects of sexual harassment are not particular difficult to be understood. They can involve in both verbal and actual harassment that is characterized by sexual references by the other employee’s (including the manager’s) side. The specific issue (sexual harassment is not easy to be described and analyzed especially if taking into account the conditions in modern workplace). In accordance with Feary (1994, 649) ‘sexual harassment does not result from ignorance about fact or law; it is a problem which will be resolved only when

A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle Essay - 1

A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle - Essay Example The narrative discourse is distinct from the story because the events are arranged in a chronological manner. Instead of arranging the information of the story in a manner that makes sense, the author switches the story between the characters or moves the reader through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Although narratives of all genres are ubiquitous in the day-to-day life, Doyle’s narrative does not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. In the narrative discourse, Doyle employs varied approaches that include the solution to the narrative. For example, the dialogue between Watson and Holmes provides a clear understanding of the story. For instance, â€Å"was there a secret marriage?† also reveals the way the Holmes condescends the views of women in the story. One of the approaches employed in the story is the conversational approach, which the author included in the fiction work as the key aspect of the narrative discourse. The second app roach on narrative discourse provides a new genre of literary texts that represent a certain meaning. Doyle also uses suspense in the mystery story that leaves the reader to keep thinking about what happens next in the story. The author creates suspense in the story through explaining the atmosphere of the narrative in order to enable the reader to understand what is around him or her or what the people around the reader are doing. Suspense is used in narratives in order to enable the reader to think or focus on the insight of the story.

Rhetorical Analysis of JFK'S Inaugural Address Essay

Rhetorical Analysis of JFK'S Inaugural Address - Essay Example Therefore, the speech encourages Americans that through him a torch of a new revolution has been handed over to them and all must participate. JFK feels that in unity Americans can achieve more. Therefore, he calls them to a pledge of allegiance to the nation. Additionally, JKF called for Americans to be proud of their nation and to give it the necessary support to climb ladders that other nations have not climbed. His speech lures Americans to believe in their great potential to bring about changes they want in their land and beyond. This paper will focus on rhetorical analysis of JFK’s inaugural address. The inaugural speech by JFK had several goals. First, JFK needed to pass a message of accomplishment in winning the presidential elections. Kennedy was nominated as the democratic candidate for presidency in 1960, defeating the republican’s choice, Richard Nixon. Therefore, JFK starts his speech with diction to show his celebration of winning and his belief in freedom gained through his election. To him, this day not only signifies victory but also is a celebration of freedom, because it symbolizes the end of poor leadership and a beginning of another era. JFK starts his speech by reminding Americans of the pre-existing sense of pride of their nation. Kennedy says, â€Å"For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago† (Kennedy). One reason that makes Kennedy revisit ancient achievements is to show that he is in line with American Vision and to build a good name for himself. To Americans, the day when they have received their independence means very much – it is one of the most significant moments in their history. Mentioning it, Kennedy is bound to get some followers who associate themselves with the independence. He later claims, â€Å"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage † (Kennedy). By this, Kennedy shows, through words, a picture to the Americans – he has taken the mantle from leaders before him to fulfill certain tasks and responsibilities according to the collective wish of the Americans. Secondly, JFK seeks support for his presidency and uses the unification tool to lure Americans to support him. His speech is full of anaphora of â€Å"to† and â€Å"let both sides† to address both the republicans and the democrats present in this inauguration. JFK has a goal of uniting all Americans and fighting racism. To achieve this, he sates, â€Å"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man† (Kennedy). This statement inspires Americans and the world at large as they have so much they can do for their country. Additionally, it demonstrates them that if people collectively put their mind to something, they will achieve it. For instance, it will take unification to do away with racism, corruption, and achieve world freedom and world peace. Additionally, Kennedy unifies the public through the use of alliteration. For instance, he says, â€Å"Let’s go forth and lead the land we love†

Personal masters learning and development Essay - 1

Personal masters learning and development - Essay Example Nevertheless, I did log on to the website on my friend’s recommendation and browsed through the different pages. I was particularly keen to know how the course would help me further my goals in life. I was amazed to see my friend mature into a balanced individual with his own thoughts and perceptions. Academically he had achieved certain heights and he had developed social skills as well. I too am a good communicator and perhaps this University would help me develop my skills further. I browed through the different courses and modules on offer, and well it did frighten me a little initially. I was not too sure whether I could handle it but then, being an optimist, I decided to take up the challenge. To do something in life one has to take certain amount of risks. Moreover, higher the risk, higher the returns, is what we have heard. Besides, the economic downturn has impact all nations and one has to invest in education. This is the right time to do so, I felt. I browsed through some other University sites also but since I had very strong recommendations for this University, I decided to enroll myself here. What particularly impressed me about the University was that it had stude nts from a wide range of backgrounds. This meant that I could interact with people from different backgrounds and cultures, so essential for global management and international management today. Studying a Masters Degree is the only route to an established career. I too realized this and since I had set high goals for myself in the field of management, I knew a Masters Degree was essential. My objective in pursuing a Master’s Degree is to obtain a full time position in the field of accounting that uses my technical, analytical and interpersonal skills, with an employer that provides a challenging work environment and opportunities for advancement. I have done my undergraduate studies in the field of accounting and have practical experience working with several contracting

Careers in Recruitment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Careers in Recruitment - Term Paper Example aper has been structured in a way to first illustrate the interviewer’s expected answers in response to his own questions followed by the interviewee’s actual response to the questions asked. The response answers all the questions in the appendix in a chronological order. The HR coordinator is a HR professional who does various tasks related to the HR department and maintains effective communication and coordination among the concerned individuals. According to the requirements of a job of HR coordinator with HRC Associates mentioned in (CaribbeanJobs.com, 2010), a HR coordinator should at least have a bachelor degree in Human Resources Management. As the name implies, the HR coordinator serves to develop meaningful coordination among the parties involved. Besides, he also maintains and updates staff record on various levels that include attendance, issues with accommodation and length of experience. The HR coordinator works directly under the project manager. The HR coordinator should have excellent communicative skills and should be well versed with the use of computer and other administrative softwares. He should be active and present-minded. Sometimes, the HR coordinator may be involved in such administrative tasks by the project manager as writi ng minutes of meetings and advertising. A HR coordinator is fundamentally responsible to correspond interview dates and issue appointment letters to the employees. The initial period of employees’ settlement in the company’s environment and the accommodation is very critical and the HR coordinator assumes a very important role in those days. It is his duty to ensure that the employees are provided with all the facilities and necessities so that they take minimum time to adjust in the company. It is perhaps, the most important part of the HR coordinator’s duties to maintain the attendance and leave record of all the employees. The project manager sees the HR coordinator as a multi-talented person and may

The Importance of Health Insurance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Importance of Health Insurance - Assignment Example It is easy to apply as reimbursement provider.Conclusion. By implementing the required processing steps, the provider applicant can easily seek approval as the official medical nutrition therapy service provider. Proper coding helps ensure all medical nutrition therapy billings are reimbursed. Many health insurance providers offer 100 percent medical nutrition therapy reimbursements to diabetes mellitus patients. Evidently, Medicare and several insurance companies offer reimbursement of medical nutrition therapy. Reimbursement is information to dietetics professionals because they are confident their services can be paid quicker. By implementing the reimbursement steps, insurance companies or organizations can easily reimburse the patients and registered dietitian service providers. Further, the project objectives include learning whether diabetes patients can avail of reimbursements for medical nutrition therapy sessions. Another objective is to learn the importance of coding in the immediate release of reimbursements. A third objective is to learn the importance of health insurance in reducing the rehabilitation expenses of the diabetes mellitus patients. Furthermore, the MNT reimbursement requires the proper coding and billing to ensure quicker reimbursement processes. Each Code 97803 equates to 15 minutes follow up MNT visit. Each Code 97804 equates to 30 minutes Group MNT visit. Telehealth Codes are used for real-time interactive and video communication activities. The ICD Codes annually updated diagnosis. Code 250.00 represents diabetes. Moreover, the diabetes mellitus medical condition occurs when the patient is diagnosed with a chronic lifetime ailment. The ailment indicates the patient loses the normal capacity to maximize energy found in swallowed food. There are different types of the ailment.  

Esterline Technologies and Lean Manufacturing Case Study

Esterline Technologies and Lean Manufacturing - Case Study Example Tier-1 supplier status puts the business organization into a more advantageous situation, which gives it a higher bargaining leverage. On the other hand, it also highlights the company's current performance. Cremin notes that, Tier-1 status "means that you can handle the next biggest thing; you can be trusted, you're reliable, and you have financial strength." Lean manufacturing has been instrumental in the deployment and success of the strategy. Esterline recognizes that lean manufacturing is a system which helps it achieve its manufacturing goals of "lower cost, improve quality, and build competitive barriers to entry." 3. What are the key components of a lean system and how do they compare with components of traditional systems As you prepare your answers consider dimensions such as: supply chain management, process architecture (layout), metrics, material flow discipline, inventory management, key performance metrics, use of IT, employee involvement, quality systems, equipment maintenance, scheduling, links between product design and manufacturing, and other factors that come to mind. Lean system is a quest in maximizing the efficiency through the elimination of wastage in the manufacturing process in a business organization. ... supply chain management, process architecture (layout), metrics, material flow discipline, inventory management, key performance metrics, use of IT, employee involvement, quality systems, equipment maintenance, scheduling, links between product design and manufacturing, and other factors that come to mind. Lean system is a quest in maximizing the efficiency through the elimination of wastage in the manufacturing process in a business organization. The key components of a lean system are often in contrast in a lean manufacturing system. In a lean system, supply chain management is very much important as the flow of goods within the organization is highly organized. Close collaboration with suppliers through the use of IT is emphasized in a lean system. In a traditional system, this is not practiced. In a lean system, plant and equipment layout is by product flow using cels or lines for product families. In traditional system, plant and equipment layout is by department function. Inventory levels and turnaround are closely monitored in a lean system where inventory levels are kept as low as possible while turnaround is high. The contrast is applicable to traditional system. In a traditional system, employee input into how operation is performed is low. In a lean system, employee empowerment is high as they are given the responsibility for identifying and implementing improvements. In the traditional system, there is no flexibility in the manufacturing schedule as manufacturing is difficult to handle and hard to adjust. Traditionally, production schedules are based on forecast. In the lean system, production is scheduled by customer orders which mean that product is pulled through the facility. In a traditional manufacturing system, quality is assured through lot

Video games Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Video games - Essay Example This work aims to argue that by allowing more room for more moral independent decision-making and by effectively incorporating the element of social reward, it is possible to utilize video games to enable children to make moral decisions in various contexts and also to make them aware about the implications of both moral and immoral decisions. The first point this work will address is the fact that video games are considerably different from other art forms in the fact that it is highly interactive. The second main point to be elaborated is the role of social reward, social conformity, and social learning in making decisions in the real society. The last point will elaborate on how to incorporate these elements in video games in order to make children aware about morality and its implications through video games. This topic is highly relevant in the present situation where social thinkers, police forces and parents are busy, blindly accusing video games for the fall in morality among children. This research will describe how video games are close to real life and different from other forms of art. In addition, the work will show how this interactive nature of video games can be utilized to develop moral thinking instead of destroying the same. Moreover, the study can make the reader aware about the various elements which influence the decision-making in real life. This is a difficult research to accomplish because it needs to compile information from various subject areas, ranging from gaming industry, decision-making, development of morality, social reward, social conformity, and social learning. From a reading of various scholarly articles on the subject, it becomes evident that scholars have already started accepting video games as different from other forms of art, and a few have in fact claimed that video games can be utilized to teach

Human resource career field Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human resource career field - Research Paper Example Hence, a HR generalist has to perform daily tasks such as keeping track of the various activities in the HR department as well as monthly reporting and annual or semi-annual participation in the appraisals and other tasks. The dimensions of the HR generalist job that interest me are to do with the sense of being in charge of the HR function and the ringside view that the job offers in terms of participating in the recruitment, training and performance evaluation of the employees. The most exciting thing about the HR generalist job is that one can get involved with the various activities of the HR function and get a chance to apply some of the theoretical knowledge gained during the education and also get a chance to hone one’s skills by practising the art of HR management. The dimension of the HR generalist’s job that does not interest me is the rather generic nature of the job when compared to the specialist role that has a more direct and deep involvement. The nature of the HR generalist job is such that it requires the person to be knowledgeable about the various activities that are typically performed during the conduct of the job. Hence, I would be interested in playing the role of an observer cum evaluator that is part of the HR generalist’s job. Further, what interests me about the HR generalist’s role is that the job entails hands on involvement for certain aspects and an indirect involvement for other aspects. The functions of recruitment and performance evaluation are some of the functions that I perform well. The functions that I need additional training are the training and development function. The recruitment and training functions interest me a lot and I am confident that I can perform well in these functions. I have a natural affinity towards recruitment and performance evaluation activities since I have devoted considerable time towards learning the appropriate theory in

Health Psychology Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Health Psychology Master - Essay Example As Tudor (1996) states mental health should be seen as a 'positive concept', that must be seen as different from psychopathology. Good mental health is not only about not having difficulties which cannot be overcome, but also implies that the individual will develop in, an emotionally and intellectually, healthy way across their lifetime. These healthy skills will give the individual, child or adult, the strength to be able to manage when life's inevitable problems find them, as well as being able to form fulfilling interpersonal relationships (BMA, 2006; MHF, 2006). The term mental health covers a wide range of difficulties that individuals may encounter throughout their lives. These can range from everyday concerns, such as a homework deadline, to severe and crippling problems, such as depression (BMA, 2006). The ONS (2006) defines mental health disorders as a set of clinically recognised abnormal behaviour and symptoms, which cause the individual extreme distress and distortion to their everyday lives. These crippling problems cause great suffering for the individual, and severely affect their ability to function in everyday life. However, these disorders do not manifest over night. They are usually brought on slowly and have roots in childhood (Ahrons, 2004). Therefore, if British children are already suffering from mental health difficulties, then as an adult they will have a high chance of these problems continuing or reoccurring. As has been reported in the media (USAtoday, 2008; The Times, 2008; BBC, 2008) British society seems to be letting down their children, as they are reportedly 'the unhappiest children in Europe' (UNICEF, 2006). Other research has implied these same results (Alexander & Hargreaves, 2007; Porthouse, 2006). Research published in Porthouse (2006) stated that John Bradshaw has shown that British children were more unhappy than most of their European counterparts. This led to a flurry of research on the matter. Bradshaw's report (Porthouse, 2006) and later ones from UNICEF (2006) have suggested that Britain is one of the worst places for child health, that British teenagers have the second lowest score for their hopes and ambitions for their future careers and employment prospects. The UNICEF (2006) report covered six main dimensions including material wealth, family relationships and peer relationships, education, the child's subjective understanding of their well-being, all brought toget her to present an encompassing picture of British children's lives. Alexander & Hargreaves (2007) state that what was most striking from their research was the amount of agreement which the results showed, particularly in the main areas of 'educational purpose, curriculum and assessment, the condition of childhood and society, and the world in which today's children are growing up' (p.1). What was more striking though was the negativity and 'critical tenor' that these issues told the researchers. The researchers found repeatedly that the children felt under powerful or even extreme pressure from the schools they attended. However, Harris and Guten (1979) state an individual's health behaviour shows little consistency. They may go to the gym everyday to look after their bodies, and then eat fast-food burger on the way home. This makes applying theory difficult. In addition, health behaviour tends to change over periods of time, making conclusive assumptions of

Management Information Systems IP Four Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Management Information Systems IP Four - Essay Example The other is flash crash: machines go wild case study where the market equity in a flash, plunged to a historic low. The third is the Piloting the Valero with real-time management case study in which the Valero, a Texas-based oil refinery needed a system that could be able to display real-time data about issues concerning the plant. Reality Gets Better Case study Virtual reality is a three-dimensional space, which is a computer generated interactive space. Virtual reality immerses its users in the virtual world while the augmented reality keeps in touch with the real world. Augmented reality uses any of the three major display techniques to be able to achieve the blend of reality mixed with real-life images and graphic effects. The display techniques are hand held displays, head mounted displays that provide the virtual environment and shut out the real world, and spatial displays that mount graphical information on physical surfaces. It has been used to improve marketing in the sens e that it helps involve the customers and is able to communicate to the customers in an interesting and interactive way with relevance to them. In 2009, Esquire magazine was able to use this in their advertising where they added several stickers, which had designs that had this ability. When held up to a web camera, it started interactive video segments featuring the issue’s cover, Robert Downey Jr. (Ovide, 2009). In image guided surgery, a CT scan and MRI provides the necessary data that is superimposed on the patient in the operating room. In real estate, this has been employed to help the user find information they need on the go, since smart phones have GPS, cameras and internet. Therefore, one can just point their phone on a building and the value of the building per square meter and a small photo accompanied by a live image project from the phone’s camera, hence provide real estate information on the go (Macintosh, 2010). Flash Crash: Machines go wild case study The U.S stock markets on May 6, 2010 experienced a sudden and quick plunge at 2:42 PM, which left Dow Jones 600 points down. Twenty-five minutes later, Dow had gained almost the points it had lost. This flash crash appeared to have happened when a single mutual fund company engaged in abrupt selling activities that caused a chain reaction. The high-frequency traders HFTs are the ones now doing the work that the stock specialists used to do, including the matching of buyers and sellers efficiently, which the market makers did. In a case where the algorithm cannot handle the complexity of the event, a flash crash occurs. The algorithm in the case of Overland park on May 6 dumped 75,000 contracts and was instructed to sell them with disregard to price and time, and continued to sell and the prices dropped sharply. It would normally take five hours to sell them but this took twenty minutes (Bowley, 2010). The NYSE activated circuit breakers where the trading traffic is shifted to human stockbrokers intended to slow the trading process and to avoid the plunge (Bowley, 2010). Electronic trading simply showed that it allows the flash crash to occur over a short period of time and is able to amplify sudden market moves, which can go either side and happen faster with minimal chances of intervention (Henderson, 2009). Piloting the Valero with real-time management Valero energy is one of the largest oil refineries in the US,

The Great Gatsby Essay Example for Free

The Great Gatsby Essay â€Å"The most iconic characters in literature are alienated by the changing world around them. † Discuss these ideas in relation to The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In ‘The Great Gatsby,’ Fitzgerald frequently demonstrates how isolated his strongest characters are by the world around them through a variety of techniques. Both Nick and Gatsby are presented as being alienated from the world in some way and, as suggested by William Troy, both characters represent two forces in Fitzgerald’s own life – â€Å"’intelligent and responsible’ vs. ‘dream ridden romantic. † He uses symbolism frequently throughout the novel to suggest that this split autobiographical portrayal of his characters is representative of the limbo between â€Å"‘power’ and ‘dream’† as said by Lionel Trilling in his critical essay, and the immovability this creates within people. I find confinement of characters is shown in the novel through a use of pathetic fallacy. Fitzgerald also uses the novel to introduce the theme of class and demonstrate how wealth constricts different people in different ways, despite sometimes seeming like the key to happiness. Many of these ideas are echoed in ‘Nineteen Eight-Four,’ in which Orwell uses symbolism to emphasise his totalitarian oppressive society. One way Fitzgerald portrays his characters as confined by the world around them is through his use of pathetic fallacy. The phrase ‘weather-beaten’ is used to describe Nick’s bungalow on the West Egg and this implied that it wasn’t just the people in ‘The Great Gatsby’ that the weather and change bore down on, but the buildings too. When Nick first visits Tom Buchanan at his home, Fitzgerald says the two men talk on ‘the sunny porch’ with the sunshine here being presented as a sense of optimism that Nick can find companionship with a man he knew at ‘Yale’. When Nick talks to Daisy during that first visit, he tells her there’s a ‘persistent wail all night’ along the shore of where they’ve left; Nick is bowing to Daisy’s desire to be missed by personifying nature to allow it to chase after her, much like Gatsby. Sunshine again is used by Fitzgerald to present those who are indulgently wealthy when Nick visits Tom and Myrtle’s apartment which was ‘full of cheerful sun’ until night time and alcohol were brought into the story. Alcohol is usually accompanied with darkness within the novel, to reflect Fitzgerald’s potential personal distaste as a recovering alcoholic at the point of writing the novel. Of Gatsby’s parties, it is said they are held on ‘summer nights,’ a phrase still managing to retain the concept of summer and nice weather to attach to the wealth. Once Nick has arranged the meeting between Daisy and Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses pathetic fallacy to mirror Gatsby’s emotions within the chapter. As he waits for Daisy coloured with ‘embarrassment,’ it is ‘pouring rain’ but once Daisy arrives and he sees her with ‘unreasoning joy’ it has ‘stopped raining,’ and finally as Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby looking at each other with ‘wonder’ over a piano, there are ‘twinkle-bells of sunshine’ leaving a sense of hope to the chapter that the constraining rain did not hold. Again, at Gatsby’s funeral, Fitzgerald writes the weather to very clearly reflect the character’s moods. Nick is deeply saddened by the loss of his friend and the rain is repeatedly described to be ‘thick’ and ‘heavy,’ a force to be reckoned with that the characters must move ‘through to the cars. ’ The rain is shown to hang around Nick, replacing the people the funeral lacks in attendance and shows that Fitzgerald thinks it is a trapping task for a man to abandon the side of him that dreams. Similarly, Orwell also uses metaphor at the beginning of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ as Winston enters Victory Mansions to describe the ‘swirl of gritty dust’ following him into the building, reminiscent of how the Party trace every movement and every action, confining their citizens in the most suffocating of manners; the dust reminiscent of the dark, rainy sky in ‘The Great Gatsby’ closing in on the characters. Fitzgerald frequently depicts the isolation of characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ with use of various reoccurring symbols. Colours are something the author uses in various ways. The colour yellow, which we have already seen mirrored in Fitzgerald’s use of pathetic fallacy with the large amounts of yellow sunshine symbolises decay and corruptness. The reader is told Gatsby’s car is a ‘rich cream’ colour. Not only is the mustard colour of the car symbolism, it is a representation of Gatsby himself – ostentatious and over-the-top in displaying his wealth. Later in the novel, Fitzgerald writes that the car ‘mirrored a dozen suns’ with its large amount of windshields. This give the interpretation that the car is glowing, further drawing on the yellow symbolism of decay for the personal representation of corruption. Perhaps intentionally, it is also this car that leads to Gatsby’s own destruction by being so conspicuous. Gatsby’s demise by his own car leads to the idea presented by Fitzgerald that one cannot escape decay. The Valley of Ashes is riddled with symbolism, from the ‘ash grey’ men that inhabit the ‘grey land’ to the looming billboard eyes of T. J. Eckleburg. The colour grey here symbolises dreariness and monotony, and with the character of Wilson, Fitzgerald ties this to a lack of wealth. The lack of light implies claustrophobia within its inhabitants – Tom says it’s good for Myrtle to ‘get out. The ‘dimmed’ eyes of Eckleburg ‘look out’ over the characters in the novel and symbolise the ever growing commercialism of America and how this change causes moral depravity. This is again emphasised by how Wilson equates these eyes to God when finding out about Myrtle’s affair with the phrase ‘God knows’ what she’s being doing. The eyes watched as Tom and Myrtle had to drive past them to get to their apartment, and the loss of Myrtle’s life occurred in the miserable valley of ashes under their omniscient gaze. Another colour Fitzgerald utilises is white, though it is usually placed in juxtaposition to the character wearing it. Daisy and Jordan, first seen in ‘rippling’ white dresses, are not seen in any other colour but white – falsely implying the purity and innocence women were just losing the expectation to have. This lies in line with Joan Korenman’s interpretation that says the ambiguity of Daisy’s hair colour from dark to light symbolises ‘the fair and the dark women’ of literature, with fair hair being stereotyped as innocent – something the reader finds neither Daisy nor Jordan to be. Fitzgerald is also referencing the ‘expansion of femininity’ with the 1920s â€Å"new women. † In ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ Orwell also uses symbolism when he writes a poster that ‘gazes down’ with large, ‘dark’ eyes much like those of T. J. Eckleburg, that are pasted all over London by the Party – comforting to some inhabitants with the name ‘Big Brother,’ but a threat to others because the posters watch their every move. However the connotations of ‘Big Brother’ are a lot more oppressive than those of God in ‘The Great Gatsby’ and cause Winston’s alienation and his subsequent relationship with Julia. Another way Fitzgerald shows that the characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ are ostracised because of the world they inhabit is through his presentation of classism and how that affects the interaction between people, as well as isolating them to their own class. Ross Posnock argues that the characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ are so obsessed with material wealth they treat each other like objects and this could leave many people feeling objectified and therefore ostracised by those who claim to care about them. This is seen when Nick says the cocktails are ‘floating’ – completely overlooking the fact Gatsby’s hired staff are holding the trays. Marxists argue that Nick overlooks the existence and therefore the difficulties of the working class. However at the start of the novel, after the events of the story, Fitzgerald writes that Nick is aware the ‘fundamentally decencies’ are ‘parcelled out unequally at birth’ at that point, which means he knows class play a big role in identity in his current society. Fitzgerald further supports this with the phrase ‘wanted the world to be in uniform’ which is simultaneously a nod to the passing of World War I and also emphasising that Nick has had enough of the upper class’ selfish behaviours. When Nick is sitting on the porch with Daisy and Tom, Tom states that their society is ‘going to pieces’ and spews racist ideals. This is Fitzgerald showing that Tom feels he is at the top of society and does not want to be ‘submerged’ by those he feels are beneath him – the lower class and immigrants. However, earlier when Tom shows Nick his ‘nice place’ the reader can see it isn’t as big or obnoxious as Gatsby’s home and the divide between the â€Å"Old Rich† and â€Å"New Rich† starts to become clear. This minute difference in class leaves the upper classes estranged from each other. At the start of the novel, it is made clear that even Nick’s family have been wealthy ‘for three generations’ and this makes him acceptable despite been less rich than those he socialises with. Like Fitzgerald, Orwell uses the class divide in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ to define between members of the Party (who are granted great privileges and freedoms), the middle class who obey the Party (such as Winston), and the proles who ( are a ‘swarming mass’ so poor they are ‘disregarded’ by the Party, which is so convinced of their inability to have action against them – much like Nick’s complete ignorance to Gatsby’s servants at the party. After exploring a variety of factors throughout this essay, I agree with the critical opinion, especially in terms of ‘The Great Gatsby’ as one of Fitzgerald’s main themes throughout was of how Gatsby was trapped in the past and this isolated him from the present. This can be seen especially in the last paragraph of the book, in which Fitzgerald compares his character to boats ‘beating on. ’ I feel Orwell’s characters also felt claustrophobic in their London because of the new law implemented by the Party, and Winston’s submission at the end of the novel is representative of Orwell’s warning to the readers.

The Outlook for the US Printing Businesses in 2007 Essay Example for Free

The Outlook for the US Printing Businesses in 2007 Essay The printing industry encompasses a wide range of products for commercial and retail use. Printing is involved in the production of magazines, newspapers and books, as well as brochures, maps, postcards, business forms, stamps, manuals, packaging and so on and so forth. It also includes various related pre- as well as post-press occupations such as lay-outing, graphic designing, binding and finishing. There are different methods of printing using plates or an image carrier. Among the most common of these are: lithography invented in 1798, the modern process makes use of a photosensitive emulsion placed onto smooth surfaces, either using a platesetter for computer-to-plate (CTP) technology or on flexible aluminum or plastic printing plates; it’s most commonly used for credit cards, packaging, CDs, books and newspapers. flexography – most commonly used for packaging, it makes use of a 3-dimensional negative impression of the image to be printed produced on polymer or rubber and rotated on the surface to be printed. It was originally used for printing on corrugated boards. The flexibility of the material enables the print to be impressed on uneven surfaces. gravure – used mainly for food packaging, wallpaper, furniture laminates, paneling and magazines, gravure printing uses depressed, as opposed to raised, surfaces, where the image areas are etched into copper cylinders. It produces high quality print but the costs involved in the necessary equipment are prohibitive compared to other methods used in high volume runs. screen printing – can be used to print on almost any material, using a screen prepared with a stencil, a squeegee and ink. It is highly versatile and simple to use. The best known application for this method of printing is for T-shirt printing, letterpress printing – the method involves the use of movable type where the ink is smeared on raised surfaces and then placed on a suitable material such as paper or cloth for transferring impressions. The invention of reusable, individual letters for use in this type of printing in the 1400s is credited to Johann Gutenberg; offset printing – modern techniques make use of film negatives where the image is transferred onto photoelectric plates, similar to the printing of photographs. It is the most commonly used method for high-volume printing. Non-impact or plateless printing includes electrostatic, electronic, toner-based and inkjet printing. With the advent of computers, there has been a further diversification of the industry; namely, traditional or manual printing and quick or digital printing. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005) Together   with the computer, the ready availability of the Internet has inspired fears that the printed word was in danger of being phased out as the most widely spread form of communication and information.   The impact on the growth and profitability of the printing industry was of significant concern, as the rising financial and environmental costs of paper printing made the move into a paperless society seem inevitable. In the US, especially after the recession of 1990-91, the most pessimistic forecasts had been made regarding the future of the printing industry in an increasingly digital world. A 2004 study of the findings and forecast of the US Department of Labor on the employment and compensation of workers leads to the conclusion that fewer workers working fewer hours will be required overall in the printing industry against a projected increase in all other industries, due mainly to the increased use of automation and digital prepress technology. However, there is a concurrent requirement for workers with knowledge in digital prepress and post-printing technologies. There also seems to be a perceived increase in companies specializing in commercial flexographic and digital printing. More companies will be employing fewer than 10 non-supervisory workers at higher or equal hourly compensation as compared to other industries. There also seems to be a trend towards increased employment of workers with knowledge or education in operation of computer-related equipment. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005) There are varied opinions among businesspeople in the industry. Some maintain that the level of capital investment needed for quality, high-volume printing precludes all but a few to make a reasonable profit. (Paul, 1998) Others maintain that while a small profit margin may be discouraging, the printing industry is alive and booming, in part because of growing expenditure in advertising and promotions, as well as the proliferation of direct selling companies. (Dolbeck, 2005) Most agree that the advent of digital technology has helped lower costs and increase efficiency, thus improving profit margin. Some studies have shown that an increasing number of people are tuning into the Internet rather than newspapers or magazines. However, it is projected that it will be at least 10 years before those who get their news from the internet will outnumber those who read the newspaper. That is, if those who had earlier converted revert back to printed media. It is maintained that despite the many innovations in digital technology, it is not as portable as printed material, and the cost of attaining some portability is still beyond many consumers. Moreover, many companies maintain that the retention and pass-on potential of the printed brochure or pamphlet has a greater marketing impact than a website. For educational and scholarly products, the process of transferring the information from print to screen is a long and laborious process, and while audio books and CD-ROMs are enjoying growing popularity in many libraries, it is still a long way from replacing the books as a means of providing in-depth information and education. (Heger, 1994) According to C. Barnes and Co.’s report â€Å"2005 Market in Print,† a survey of printing companies revealed that the majority of companies surveyed with non-printing operations (NPO) were small companies. These NPOs included graphic design, fulfillment and mailing. The chief complaints from printing business owners include stiff competition, the cost of technology that have shorter depreciation, shortage of skilled workers and price increase of consumables. The transition from manual to partly digital technology has caught some companies flat-footed, jumping on the bandwagon too late or without enough knowledge and research to buy the right equipment at the right time. The segment of the industry that is particularly enjoying popularity is digital or quick printing.   Small print shops that specialize in desktop value-added services abound because of the ease of acquiring the necessary equipment and consumables and the relatively low capital requirements.   These services include calling cards, invitations, letterheads for small businesses, leaflets, flyers and marketing materials such as promotional mugs and magnets. Digital cameras and mobile phones with high resolution cameras have also resulted in a rising demand for digital photo printing. Also an interesting development in the industry is large format printing, in which digital images are transferred directly from a digital image to tarpaulin or paper, much like a large inkjet printer.   This is especially handy for low-volume printing requirements such as a banner a garage sale or posters for a school recital. Digital print shops have a unique relationship with its customers. All preprinting requirements may be provided by the client directly, usually already in a digital file.   The print shop ascertains that form and layout of the file is up to standards for proper printing and provides the medium for the actual process.   Or the client may come in bare-handed and state the requirements. The print shop then provides the services required: scan, lay-out, proof, color correct, edit then print. Many a party or small social event, small business and school have taken advantage of this while-you-wait service in fulfilling their collateral needs at comparatively low cost considering the volume involved. Paper companies make the process even easier by producing products especially designed for toner-based or inkjet printers ranging from pre-formatted labels in different configurations to scented board paper for calling cards, all available in retail at neighborhood bookstores at reasonable prices. The trend for digital printing is towards faster, cheaper and higher quality of printed product. However, high volume requirements cannot be fulfilled by even the best equipped digital print shop simply because the cost escalates per piece produced, unlike traditional printing methods, where fixed costs such as plates and film enable the producer to run prints at lower cost when volume goes up. These same fixed costs, however, cannot provide the service at competitive prices if the volume is low. The relationship of the plated and digital print businesses is largely symbiotic.   Plated printers are the main source of income of paper companies that also produce the specialty paper needed by digital printers, but only as sub-business. These paper companies deal in volume as well, and will not survive on the sales from digital shops alone. Digital printers at the neighborhood level provides potential clients an accessible point in which they can bring their initial printing requirements to be then referred to a plated printer after graphic design, scanning and/or lay outing for volume printing. There is very little actual overlap for the two sub-industries, providing services for different needs of the same customer. A new player in the field that promotes the marriage of digital and traditional printing processes is print-on-demand (POD) publishers. More of a publishing rather than printing method, it nonetheless uses digital imagery and letterpress printing to produce books and posters in small runs. (Wikipedia) Would-be authors are able to have their work published, albeit they pay for it themselves. The method is also often used for limited circulation publications, as a stopgap for materials with high demand that are in the process of being re-run and for books in print with only a trickle of demand which makes a full re-run impractical. What is the forecast for the printing industry in the US?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Overall, the prospects of the printing industry for 2007 are good. Perhaps it is not as rosy as some projections from 1999, when printers enjoyed a boom, but neither is it as black as it is being painted by some trend watchers. The average projections for the industry overall is 5. The need of those in the printing industry to reinvent itself in order to overcome aggressive competition, smaller markets, and increasing cost of materials, especially paper. The changes in the market are considered by 20% of a representative slice of print and prepress firms as a call to arms in the war of doing business in a changing world. (Youngblood Communications, 2005)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the second quarter of 2006, Xerox Corporation spearheaded a free seminar series entitled â€Å"Innovate ’06.† It is a worldwide series with concurrent offerings within the United States that focused primarily on educating those in the printing business, or who are thinking of getting into it, on their options regarding industry trends, technological advances and how to boost profit and efficiency in the workflow of an increasingly digital industry. (Presswire, 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While there is some pessimism among some of those in the industry regarding the viability of the printing business of turning over a reasonable profit, the prognosis of manufacturers of the equipment and consumables is positive. In a survey of U.S. companies reports show and increase of expenditure from 2004 of 23% on new plants and equipment. The spending spree is attributed to appreciable profit-earning in 2004, enabling companies to make improvements and begin projects that have been put off during the leaner years. (Min, etal, 2005)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   TrendWatch Graphic Arts, in its report entitled â€Å"Printing Forecast 2005: The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities for Printing in the Next 12 Months and Beyond†, also reported that a survey of American and some Canadian commercial printers are hopeful about their companies’ futures. There was an increased sale of printing presses in 2004 and a projected 6% increase of sales of 6-color sheetfed offset presses over the following months. (Youngblood Communications, 2005)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Advertising expenditures has also increased, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a strategic advertising and marketing information provider. In the 1st Quarter of 2006, total advertising expenditure rose by 5.2 percent against the same period of the previous year. However, impact of this expenditure did not quite favor newspapers and business to business (B2B) magazines. Of those in the publishing industry, only consumer magazines posted an increase in income. (TNS Media Intelligence, 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Such reports tend to focus on the large companies spending the big bucks in advertising. Growth in the industry is not as high as projected, mostly because of a not altogether unexpected shift to online media, with a worldwide growth of 40% expected, according to Carat. (Khan, 2006) But earnings from advertising and marketing expenditures by top companies are not the only opportunities for those in the printing industry today. There has been a healthy growth in the quick print industry that to print for the ordinary citizen with a family picture Christmas card to send to the folks back home. (Youngblood Communications, 2005)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The grudging admission by most existing, large printing companies is that business is good, if not great. This could be because they are reluctant to encourage other players to get into the business and cut into an ever decreasing wedge of the market. Environmental issues are also a big consideration in the woes of these big companies, requiring expenditures on cleaner, more efficient machines.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For those about to plunge into the pool, start small seems to be the way to go. The neighborhood print shop, the POD publisher, the offshoot value-added service provider does not require much capital expenditure. There is always someone wanting to print something, the important thing is to research the intended site of enterprise and provide whatever is needed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The shift to digital has been widely accepted as a good thing, even by those who had watched its advent into the market askance. The growing dependence on the microchip driven hardware is felt across all industries, and most especially in the printing and publishing industry, spawning a greater demand for the technology. And software and hardware companies are quick to take full advantage of this trend. Almost every six months, the newest, fastest, cheapest, most efficient, most environment friendly, most accurate, most user-friendly and other â€Å"new, improved† models and programs are being touted.   For those wishing to get into the business in a big way, big ticket items are the ones that need to be most researched. True, the Internet and online media are the new toys, and everybody wants to have a go at it. Gone are the days that for research, you go to the trusty 20-volume Merit Student’s Encyclopedia, and for the latest Hollywood gossip you go over to your neighbor’s house and borrow the supermarket tabloid. The Internet is easier to use when searching for a school project, music to download, movies to preview or things to buy However, very few people enjoy reading a suspense thriller or a romance novel from a glowing screen hunched over a computer, and it is highly unlikely that some type of digital media would become affordable enough to be left in mailboxes in lieu of flyers, leaflets, pamphlets and brochures. Sharing photos and sending virtual greeting cards are also a good thing, but there is no replacement for actual photographs you can frame or actual greeting cards you can frame. In essence, one media does not necessarily compete with the other. They each have their advantages and disadvantages, and given most circumstances, print and digital complement each other. Some publications have even found that a good Web-based counterpart was a good way to get circulation going as well as a source of income via advertisements. Furthermore, since Web content can be updated instantaneously, the publication can keep its readers up-to-date with the latest news and trends in between issues. For those in the printing industry, the computer has been much like the electric bulb. It is faster, easier to use and produce better results. The ones who could not keep up with the technology have turned in their shingles and closed up shop. The smart ones got with the program and grew even better. The well-researched, carefully-planned production structure with prerequisite training and upgrades in equipment and workflow has generated significant earnings for the enlightened business owner.   Rather than ranting at the changes and trying to outlast the new technology, many companies began spending on upgrades or outright replacements of obsolete equipment that was keeping the productivity of the company at pre-digital levels. This willingness of printing companies to invest in new technologies sends a crystal clear signal that the industry is healthy and responsive to changes.   The outlook for 2007 for US printing industry is looking well. References Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2005 Printing Career Guide to Industries, 2006-07 Edition retrieved December 15, 2006 from at http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs050.htm Paul, P. 1998 Everything thats fit to print: printers struggle with changing technology and stiff competition New Mexicos printing industry Industry Overview New Mexico Business Journal retrieved Dec 15, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5092/is_7_22/ai_54370066 Heger, K. Oct, 1994,  Print: a road kill on the information superhighway? impact of information superhighway on printing industry Communication World,    retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_n9_v11/ai_16358776 Dolbeck, A. 2005, Valuation of the Paper and Publishing IndustryWeekly Corporate Growth Report NVST retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3755/is_200502/ai_n12412452 Min, et al, June 2005, U.S. industry unlocks budget box Pulp Paper retrieved December 15, 2006   http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3636/is_200506/ai_n14687790 Youngblood Communications Co., Ltd., Jan 2005 Printing Forecast 2005 Print Action retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4088/is_200501/ai_n9485742 Patrick, M. Nov 2000, The Web Effect on magazine publishing industry Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management,   retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_14_29/ai_67718962 Wikipedia, Flexography retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexography Khan, M. December 12, 2006 Online drives Carat’s revised ad spend forecast DM News retrieved December 15th, 2006 from http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/research-studies/39350.html TNS Media Intelligence 2006 TNS Media Intelligence Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Advanced 5.2 Percent in First Quarter 2006 retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.tns-mi.com/news/05312006.htm M2 PressWIRE, 2006 Print Industry Experts to Help Companies Worldwide Profit and Grow retrieved December 15, 2006 from http://www.imaginginfo.com/article/article.jsp?id=1575siteSection=33

A Usability Study for Promoting E-Content Essay Example for Free

A Usability Study for Promoting E-Content Essay Electronic content or e-content is defined by creating, providing, and distributing information as a digitized content. It is produced and stored electronically rather than in printed form. E-contents use in education can be in the form of e-journals, e-books, e-research reports, e-lecture modules, e-lecture notes and e-lecture slides. E-content has a huge potential in future education. Many higher education institutions publish books, research reports, lecture modules, theses and other information for academic purposes, but they are usually in print-form rather than electronic. Although, there are compelling reasons why these printed publication should be in electronic form. E-content use in education benefits from hyperlinking, non linearity, addition of multimedia, portability, and automatic searching. Hyperlinking is where contents can be linked to other pages inside and outside the book. Users can determine the order of accessing information by non-linearity. The addition of multimedia in presentation has been enhanced by the introduction of information types such as, sound and video. The data density has also been reduced where, storage capacity is decreased due to less storage of printed contents, while portability of information has increased. Searching for useful contents is enhanced by the ability of the users to locate any information instantly via e-content. As a whole, the usage of e-content requires less effort, thus making it more easier than printed contents. The outcome of some studies suggest that the involvement with computers through the use of e-content can promote positive attitude towards learning and higher achievement among learners. Studies also show that computer based learning leads to a significant increase in in the learners performance in reading, computer knowledge, mathematics and grammar. There is a huge potential in marketing e-contents to students through the internet. They can take advantage of this technology in which students can get fast access to study materials at a cheaper cost. Promoting, publishing and marketing e-contents are accomplished through electronic bookstores such as, E-campus.com, Amazon.com and e-libraries for instance e-Library.com. It serves as a portal for the e-content community and readers who are seeking information. E-content has a huge potential in increasing the satisfaction of students as well as academics. Many higher education institutions are introducing electronic learning environment through the web to their students. It is believed that,e-content can help promote academics work worldwide and assist students to immediate access to lecture notes, modules, and textbooks.

Effects of Drug Use during Pregnancy on Children Essay Example for Free

Effects of Drug Use during Pregnancy on Children Essay Being pregnant means more than just carrying a child in uteri for nine months. Pregnant women must watch what they put into their bodies because it will directly affect the life of their unborn child. Unborn children are totally helpless to their mothers’ actions and totally dependent on everything they do. All pregnant women need to be aware of the consequences of using drugs during pregnancy; drugs such as, cocaine, heroin, cigarettes, methamphetamine, and marijuana. All drugs illegal or not could have critical and long lasting effects on children throughout their whole life. What are drugs? Drugs are chemicals that can make you change the way the body works. Some drugs are worse than others but no matter which one used, during pregnancy all drugs have dreadful effects on the unborn child. The drugs cocaine, heroin, tobacco/cigarettes, methamphetamines and marijuana can affect children in different ways; however, they all should be avoided during pregnancy. Mothers need to think about their unborn child and the adverse effects using drugs will have on them not only as infants but as young children and young adults as well. Cocaine is a strongly addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. Cocaine is one of the oldest drugs known to this day (Barbara L. Thompson, 2009). There is no safe amount of cocaine for a woman who is pregnant because any cocaine taken will transfer to the baby as well (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Heroine is also a highly addictive drug and it is the most abused and fast acting of the opiate group. Heroine, processed from morphine, is derived from certain poppy plants. Heroin will cross over to the baby through the placenta and cause an unborn baby to be dependent on the drug. Tobacco/cigarettes are a non illicit drug and the most common drug used among pregnant woman. Tobacco products have been linked to low birth weight and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Methamphetamines are highly addictive substances with powerful central nervous system stimulant properties (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Methamphetamines are considered a major drug of abuse and can cause low birth weight, miscarriages and could lead to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in America today. Women who use marijuana on a daily basis will operate at subliminal levels because it directly affects the way the brain works. When using marijuana during pregnancy the mother is more likely to have a miscarriage or a low birth weight baby. No matter which drug the mother is using it can be detrimental to the unborn baby’s health and should be avoided. Using drugs during pregnancy not only affects the baby a birth but it can affect that child for the rest of his/her life. The child can experience many difficulties in when he/she goes to school as well. Each drug is different and affects children differently. Cocaine may cause drug dependency and withdrawal symptoms at birth, as well physical and me ntal problems, especially if the mother used cocaine during the first three months of pregnancy. There is a higher risk of hypertension, heart problems, developmental retardation and learning difficulties (Gale A. Richardson, 2010). It has been reported that prenatal cocaine exposure is linked to cognitive and neuropsychological development and school functioning in 6 to 8 year olds (Gale A. Richardson, 2010). A baby who has been exposed to prenatal cocaine use by the mother is more likely to be irritable, jittery and have an irregular sleeping pattern, visual problems and problems with sensory stimulation (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). During pregnancy cocaine crosses into the placenta and enters the baby’s blood circulation and will stay in the blood longer than it will the mother (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Using cocaine during pregnancy increases the risk of having a miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy. During the later part of pregnancy, using cocaine can cause placental abruption which could lead to severe bleeding, preterm birth and death of the unborn baby (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Also babies who are exposed to cocaine during the later part of pregnancy may experience a dependence of the drug and may be required to be weaned off the drug at birth because the child can experience withdrawal symptoms (Joan Keegana, 2010). Symptoms include tremors, sleeplessness, muscle spasms, and feeding problems for the infant. Prenatal cocaine exposure has also been linked to behavior problems among the children in school, and aggression and shoddier attention and processing skills (Delaney-Black, 2010). For children of prenatal cocaine exposure life can be difficult, struggling in school at an early age may detour that child from continuing school when they are older to achieve his/her diploma. Also the children will have all sorts of behavior issues in school. Compared to children with no cocaine exposure, children who were exposed to cocaine had drastically more mother and teacher behavior problems throughout early elementary school (Gale A. Richardson, 2010). Children of older women who used cocaine during pregnancy also experienced more difficulties in school than children born to younger mothers who used cocaine (Gale A. Richardson, 2010). Children who are exposed to cocaine prenatally were also linked to be affected by weight and height, meaning children were smaller in weight and height categories compared to their peers. Cocaine is a very powerful drug and should not be used at all and more importantly should not be used during pregnancy. Cocaine use during pregnancy could be fatal for the unborn child and does not give him/her a fair chance at life. A pregnant woman needs to think about her unborn child before she does cocaine because her child could potentially have multiple problems in school and in life. The most important reason for a woman not to use cocaine during pregnancy is it could kill an unborn child. Heroine is classified as an opiate and travels the fastest of any drug into the baby’s blood stream when the mothe r is pregnant and used it (Joan Keegana, 2010). Like cocaine heroin is also very addictive and the baby once born can become dependent on this drug and have to be weaned off of it (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Using heroin while pregnant can affect fetal development. Heroin use has been associated with an increased risk of miscarriage and premature birth, and babies may be born smaller than average and may be prone to illness (Barbara L. Thompson, 2009). The substances that are cut with heroin may also cause problems during the pregnancy and affect the developing fetus. Injecting heroin can increase the risk of both the mother and baby becoming infected with blood-borne viruses, such as hepatitis and HIV (Joan Keegana, 2010). Pregnant women who want to stop taking heroin need to be very careful. Sudden withdrawal from heroin may harm the baby and increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). If a mother continues to use heroin while breastfeeding, it is possible that the drug will be present in her milk and may have adverse effects on the baby. Babies of mothers who use heroin will have some long-term effects. Some children at three to six years of age children whose mothers were addicted to heroin were lower in weight and height compared to the other children whose mothers did not use heroin, and impaired in behavioral, perceptual and organizational abilities. Babies born with low birth weight have been shown to have many difficulties later in life such as, language learning disabilities, behavior problems, and children are more likely to be rejected by peers and performance in school may suffer and the children may need special education courses. Heroin is a very bad drug to be addicted too, not only because of the risks it presents on the person using it, but because it has an added risk of HIV because of all the needle sharing. Using heroin or any opiate should be avoided at all time for children’s sake. Methamphetamine use during pregnancy affects development of a babys, brain, spinal cord, heart and kidneys (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Methamphetamine use during pregnancy may result in prenatal complications, like premature delivery and birth deformities. High doses of the drug may cause a babys blood pressure to rise rapidly, leading them to suffer strokes or brain hemorrhages before birth (Barbara L. Thompson, 2009). Methamphetamine-exposed babies may experience gastroschisis and other problems with the development of their intestines (National Institutes on Drug Abuse, 2009). As a result of methamphetamine use by their mothers, some babies may suffer developmental and skele tal abnormalities and some babies are born without parts of their arms or legs (Joan Keegana, 2010). Because methamphetamine affects transmitters in the brain, babies often experience sleep disturbances and altered behavioral patterns (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). These babies have been described as irritable babies. Full-term babies born to mothers who use methamphetamine will likely have difficulty sucking and swallowing, much like premature babies. Often babies born to meth-addicted women cannot tolerate stimuli such as human touch and light. These babies often display tremors and coordination problems (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Babies whose mothers used methamphetamine during pregnancy may experience learning disabilities, growth and developmental delays (Methamphetamine use During Pregnancy, 2008). The effects of methamphetamine use on brain development may last for many years. School-aged children whose mothers used methamphetamine while pregnant are more likely to be hyperactive or to have attention deficit disor ders, learning disabilities and unprovoked fits of anger (Methamphetamine use During Pregnancy, 2008). When pregnant women use marijuana it crosses into the baby through the placenta. Marijuana contains toxins that keep the baby from getting the proper amount oxygen that the baby needs in order to grow normally (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Marijuana use during pregnancy is one of the lesser bad drugs; however, it could still pose detrimental problems on the growing fetus (Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy, 2008). Babies born to women who used marijuana during their pregnancy display altered responses to visual stimulation, increased tremors, and a high-pitched cry, which could indicate problems with nervous system development (Joan Keegana, 2010). During preschool and early school years, children who have been exposed to marijuana have been reported to have more behavioral problems and difficulties with sustained attention and memory than children who were not exposed (Joan Keegana, 2010). Because some parts of the brain continue to develop into adolescence, it is also possible that certain kinds of problems will become more evident as the child matures (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Pregnant women should not to use any drugs because they might harm the growing fetus. Although one animal study has linked marijuana use to loss of the fetus very early in pregnancy, two studies in humans found no association between marijuana use and early pregnancy loss (Barbara L. Thompson, 2009). Regardless of the situation, mothers should not smoke marijuana because of the possibilities of it causing harm of the baby. Tobacco is the most commonly drug used among women who are pregnant because the quit rate is surprisingly low. Only twenty percent of woman who smoke will quit smoking completely during their pregnancy (Vanessa E Murphy, 2010). Women who are heavy smokers are less likely to quit as well. Smoking during pregnancy can cause premature birth and can cause the baby to be little. Smoking while pregnant is also linked to placenta previa, placenta abruption and sudden infant death syndrome (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). While smoking tobacco has long been linked to poor growth in a fetus and other short-term effects, it also has long-term effects on a baby whose mother smoked during the pregnancy. Only about twenty percent of women smokers who become pregnant quit (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). With all of the health effects that tobacco can have on both baby and mother, pregnant women who smoke are advised to try and quit for their own health and the health of their child (Miles, 2009). Children born to mothers who smoke tobacco tend to be more impulsive and have more trouble learning and developing. Infants whose mothers smoked while they were in the pregnant are more likely to exhibit lower scores on mental tests at age one and to have lower grades overall during the school years than children whose mothers who did not use tobacco (Vanessa E Murphy, 2010). The risk of a learning disability, such as dyslexia, rises twenty-five percent in children whose mothers smoked a pack or more of cigarettes a day. Babies born to smokers may also have lifelong birth defects that impede mental development, such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation (Miles, 2009). Those whose mothers smoked moderately or heavily during pregnancy were over four times as likely to develop type two diabetes; also called adult onset diabetes, before the age of 33, which is considered an early age for developing this type of diabetes. The children of mothers who smoke are also more likely to become obese later in life. There is also a link between fetal exposure to tobacco smoke and future risk of cardiovascular disease (Vanessa E Murphy, 2010). Children who were exposed to tobacco smoke as a fetus are more likely to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure, than the children of women who did not smoke during pregnancy (Miles, 2009). This increase was originally thought to be correlated to the low birth weight typical of babies whose moms smoked during pregnancy, but when compared with children of similar birth weight, the smokers children had higher blood pressure at ages five and six than other kids. Mothers who smoke tobacco while pregnant may also affect their babys brain in ways that last a lifetime. These children are more likely to engage in criminal behavior and to abuse drugs than the children of women who did not smoke while pregnant (Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy, 2011). Overall, mothers who are pregnant should not use any type of drug from illicit to non illicit because they can all have detrimental consequences on the growing baby, not just in the womb but later in life as well. Work Cited * Barbara L. Thompson, P. L. (2009). Prenatal exposure to drugs: effects on brain development and implications for policy and education. National Institutes of Health , 10 (4), 303-312. * Delaney-Black, V. (2010). Prenatal and Postnatal cocaine exposure predict teen cocaine use. Neurotoxicology and Teratology , 110-119. * Drug Babies and the Effects of Drug Abuse During Pregnancy. (2011). Retrieved May 19, 2011, from The Good Drugs Guide: www.thegooddrugsguide.com * Gale A. Richardson, L. G. (2010). Prenatal cocaine exposure: Effects on mother-and teacher-rated behavior problems and growth in school-age children. Neurotoxicology and Teratology , 69-77. * Joan Keegana, M. P. (2010). Addiction in Pregnancy. Journal of Addictive Diseases , 29 (2), 175-191. * Methamphetamine use During Pregnancy. (2008, October). Retrieved May 19, 2011, from North Dakota Department of Health: www.nddh.com * Miles, M. (2009). Challenges for midwives: pregnant women and illicit drug use. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing , 28 (1), 83-90. * National Institutes on Drug Abuse. (2009). Retrieved May 18, 2011, from National Institutes of Health: www.nida.nih.gov * Using Illegal Street Drugs During Pregnancy. (2008, October). Retrieved May 19, 2011, from American Pregnancy Association: www.americanpregnancyassociation.org * Vanessa E Murphy, V. L. (2010). The effect of cigarette smoking on asthma control during exacerbations in pregnant women. Thorax , 739-744.