Saturday, October 5, 2019
Problem Definition Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Problem Definition - Research Paper Example The problem that the paper centers around is gender bias in corporations and the associated problems. (Jennings, 2008; Wines, 2006; Bowie, 2002) Earning profits without maintaining ethics might benefit the organization but the growth is short lived. Investors, employees, customers and interest groups judge whether an action is ethical or non-ethical. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2009; Jones, Parker & Bos 2005) The aspect of gender bias has been taken up in this paper with some small case studies to bring out the exact work environment in the US. The company under study is an orchestra company, which was accused for gender discrimination in employee treatment and work culture in the US music industry.  Our study is based on the US music industry. The bias has been seen in the compositions of western music and in the very management itself. Women working here are hurt badly in the way they are treated or the acknowledgement of their works and achievements. There have been some cases when women have been denied membership or selection in an orchestra position based on their gender. (Takala, 2007) The work atmosphere is such that women are deprived of any equal treatment to that of men in similar positions. This feeling of exclusion and deprivation affected their performance and their abilities misused. (Takala, 2007). United States in general has an impressive statistics with respect to workingwomen compared to Europe. While Europe has 41% of workingwomen with only 1% making it to the executive boards, US women make more than half of the working force with 10% in the executive boards. Women participation in orchestras has been compared for four countries according to gender. Allmendinger and Hackman report women participation of 36% for US against 30% for UK and 16% for East and West Germany. But the high rates in US did not give the real picture. The survey found that though the number of working women were high in US, most of
Friday, October 4, 2019
History of Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1
History of Immigration - Essay Example Obadina ( 2003 ) argues that â€Å" the total human loss to Africa over the four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade range from 30 million to 200 million†. When human trading was exported to America, the geographical and socioeconomic factor was fit to slavery. For one, during the beginning of the American colonial times, the colonies were small and in need of a higher population. To attract people in helping populate North American colonies, farmers would pay Europeans in need of work to come to America in exchange of labor service. People from Europe were looking towards in achieving the â€Å"American Dream†when they landed in America. At that time, there were many poor European immigrants who crossed the Atlantic just to risk a new life in America. Consequently, these workers were provided a home to live in and meals to eat. It was at first a mutual relationship as both gained something they needed. Labor terms lasted for years; usually between four to seven years. This was a common agreement that was not viewed as feudal at all. As for children, they would work for about nine years. Indentured servants, as they are called, came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, and other European countries. Some indentured servants were never bound by contract. Children were fooled into becoming servants by candy offerings. Some were drunks who were captured and taken to the ships to be sold off. Indentured servants were held tightly together within the ship without being allowed a breath of fresh air until they arrive to their destination in â€Å"the new world.†This was graphically portrayed by the award-winning movie â€Å"Amistad†. It is not uncommon for workers to be beaten or raped and many have committed suicide. Exported African slaves who were being shipped and sold to the colonies went under the same harsh conditions as the indentured servants. The only difference is indentured servants were put on contracts while the African slaves are
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Living in Families Essay Example for Free
Living in Families Essay How does the average person view the common family? In the picture of â€Å"a happy family†on commercials, conflict and hatred are replaced with sweetness and adoration – qualities that are apparent on the family members’ smiling faces. Pure happy days are simply not realistic. In real life, families have good reason to frown occasionally, which leads to a statement by the author Willa Cather about a family relationship. She comments that the seed of the family conflict is from the clash of each members’ individual personality, or identity. As one builds own identity, there is no choice but to struggle for appealing his or her ego to other family members; even though they are a family who is supposed to understand and concede to one another, ideally speaking. Cather also says that family members pursue the sense of security from mutual existence, and they want to eschew from the restraint and infringe on individual privacy at the same time.    Three works of literature which support Willa Cather’s idea about family relationships are: â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing†by Tillie Olsen, â€Å"Two Kinds†by Amy Tan, and â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†by James Baldwin. Through the eyes of these characters, we can see how the development of identity causes conflicts between family members. Ironically, they continue to pull away from each other even though they need each other. We should explore how the characters get over the â€Å"tragic necessity†(Cather 107-120).            Though the main conflict in â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing†doesn’t seem to appear on the surface the author shows that the conflict occurs inside narrator’s mind. When the narrator has Emily, her daughter, she â€Å"is nineteen and it is the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression†(341). Living in the new era as a nineteen-year-old single mother, she has to confront her new identity. In other words, there is a struggle between two identities inside her, as an individual who tries to survive in tough circumstance and as a mother who tries to love her daughter. As she confesses that she â€Å"was a distracted mother†(345), her unstable identity does not allow her to take superior care of Emily. This is the situation which Cather referred to as a â€Å"double life†(107-120). The narrator has suffered from â€Å"the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends†(Cather 107-120).            In laborious circumstances, her only family, Emily, is the reason why she is still alive, but also the burden from which she wants to escape. This is shown in â€Å"what was in my face when I looked at her,†the scene in which she realizes her frown face at her daughter saying â€Å"there were all the acts of love†(341). Because of her desperate fate, the narrator unconsciously tries â€Å"pulling away from†her daughter even though she â€Å"seeks†to feel (Cather 107-120) maternal affection for Emily. This irony is represented by Cather’s idea of â€Å"the tragic necessity of human life†(107-120).            At the end of the story, the narrator shows her will to finish the conflict she has endured. According to Emily who never believed herself to be special, finds her identity and path, which concludes with her mother lightening the pressure about being a role of breeder by â€Å"letting her be†(345).            Contrary to â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing,†the main conflict between family members in â€Å"Two Kinds†is revealed clearly; it is about the relationship between a mother and daughter. The peculiarity of this story is that the basis of the conflict is a clash of two different cultures, which can be interpreted as a clash of two identities; the Chinese mother who wants â€Å"obedient daughter†and the Americanized daughter, named Mei, who wants to â€Å"follow her own heart†(353). Her mother’s wishful thinking is clear on this quote; â€Å"you can be anything you want to be†(346), which means actually â€Å"you can be anything I want you to be.†This attitude is very different from the mother’s attitude in â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing.†On contrary to â€Å"letting her be†(345), Mei’s mother keeps pushing her daughter to do what she wants, not what her daughter wants – this is Mei’s mother’s personality. Mei’s response is:  â€Å"I won’t be what I’m not†(348). As a result, the conflict in this story is caused by the clash of individual identities, as Cather describes.            Moreover, the trouble reaches a peak at their quarrel following the piano recital. In this scene, Mei pretends to â€Å"pull away†(Cather 107-120) from her mother by saying â€Å"the magic words†(353). What Mei says was not from the bottom of her heart: it could be seen when Mei gets the piano as â€Å"a sign of forgiveness†(353), she â€Å"feels proud, as if it were a shiny trophy†(354). In other words, she cannot deny that she misses her family even though she wants to get away from them. After all, the daughter seeks to get out of the â€Å"tragic necessity†(Cather 107-120) by realizing that the two piano pieces â€Å"pleading child†and â€Å"perfectly contented†(354) is one song, which means that the pleading child has become perfectly contented.            Compared to the other two works above, the conflict in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†occurs between a sibling relationship, not between parent and child relationship as in the preceding examples. The origin of the conflict is the same; the clash of identities. At the beginning of the story, the fact that the narrator, Sonny’s brother, gets Sonny’s news from the newspaper shows that the relationship between two brothers is not secure; their relationship as a family has already been â€Å"pulled away†(Cather 107-120). The reason why they have been separated from each other for a long time was the lack of comprehension of the other’s individual personality. To overcome â€Å"the darkness outside†(384), which describes the discrimination in that era, both brother have to develop their identities which helps them as they endure hardships. Unfortunately, the identities they developed are very different; the narrator is practical and conservative, and Sonny is emotional and unconventional.            The clash of the identities has divided the brothers and causes Sonny to pursue â€Å"escaping, running away, and trying to break the net†(Cather 107-120) which leads to his addiction to heroin. In fact, Sonny â€Å"had always been a good boy†(377) as a member of the family. In his subconscious, he had â€Å"another secret, passionate and intense†(Cather 107-120). Though the narrator tries to care for Sonny in order to fulfill the promise made to his mother, He cannot understand Sonny’s â€Å"another†(Cather 107-120) aspect. This conflict is the reason why they keep pulling away each other.            Nevertheless, at the end of story, they get back together with perfect comprehension. Listening to Sonny’s play, the narrator â€Å"understands, at last†(398), his brother’s identity and why they were pulling away from each other; he realizes that the root of the conflict the brothers had was not because of Sonny’s rebellion but of his own misunderstanding of the suffering Sonny has endured. The brothers prepare to overcome the â€Å"tragic necessity,†which initially separated them, with â€Å"a Scotch and milk†(399) in the end.            In conclusion, through the analysis of the three works of literature, Willa Cather’s idea of â€Å"the double life†and â€Å"tragic necessity of human relationship†(107-120) can be seen as a universal theme in various stories. The development of identity causes the conflicts between family members, and the irony is that they continue to pull away from each other even though they need each. In Cather’s view, family members have a chance to overcome the conflicts they have had, as demonstrated by the narrator of â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing,†Mei from â€Å"Two Kinds,†and Sonny’s brother from â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†. Each character gets the better of his or her own conflicts to a certain extent. As they should; families are supposed to stick together. References Cather, Willa. Katherine Mansfield. Willa Cather on Writing. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. 107-120. Schilb, John, and Clifford, John. Making Literature Matter. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006
Causes and Treatments for Dyslexia: Overview of Theories
Causes and Treatments for Dyslexia: Overview of Theories A common definition of dyslexia states it is a specific difficulty in gaining literacy skills that occurs in people who otherwise appear to be developing normally (Snowling, 1987). It is thought to occur in between 3% and 10% of the population (Habib, 2000). Methods of treating and managing dyslexia have been largely influenced by theories about its aetiology. Three different types of explanations are examined here: the behavioural, the cognitive and the biological. Each of these suggests a contrasting approach to treatment. The cognitive approach to dyslexia can be seen in the phonological theory. This has one of the longest pedigrees amongst explanations for dyslexia and it suggests a deficit in working memory (Bradley Bryant, 1978). Specifically, this theory suggests that part of the short-term memory the phonological loop has a deficit causing dyslexics to have difficulties representing, storing and retrieving the sounds of speech. In order to learn to read, the theory argues, it is necessary to make connections between phonemes (the units of sounds that make up words) and graphemes (the units of letters that make up words). Problems in making this connection will tend to result in reading deficits. This cognitive explanation clearly suggests that strengthening the link between graphemes and phonemes will help those with dyslexia (Lyytinen, Erskine, Aro Richardson, 2007). Consequently there are a huge range of different interventions focussed on encouraging the learning of these connections. Ehri et al. (2001), reviewing these approaches, found they generally fall into three categories of interventions. The first are designed to break down the sounds in a word after it has been learnt. The second category are designed to help build up a word from its component sounds. The third take a more whole-language approach. When compared to other forms of intervention those based on phonics instruction, according to this meta-analysis, provide the best outcome for children. Despite this, other interventions are frequently recommended for those with dyslexia these stem from different explanations. One example of a more biological, rather than cognitive approach to dyslexia suggests the source of reading difficulties in this condition is related to deficiencies in the visual system (Lovegrove, Bowling, Badcock Blackwood, 1980). Specifically, this theory is based on findings about two particular visual pathways in the brain: the magnocellular and parvocellular. It is thought that it is the magnocellular pathway that is deficient (Stein Walsh, 1997). This is then thought to cause a variety of visual problems such as unstable eye fixations, poor vergence and visual crowding. It has been argued by Whiteley Smith (2001) that around half of those with dyslexia suffer from eye strain and distortion of text. A treatment for dyslexia suggested by the magnocellular theory is the use of coloured lenses. Irlen (1997) argues that the use of blue filters slows down the functioning of the faster parvocellular pathway, thereby stabilising the speed more in line with the slower magnocellular pathway. Early research such as that carried out by Jeaanes et al. (1997) found these overlays were preferred by children, although later research suggested this was a result of the placebo effect. Attempts to correct for these methodological problems have proved difficult with, for example, Robinson Foreman (1999) finding little support for the coloured lens approach specifically helping those with dyslexia. Along with cognitive and biological explanations for dyslexia have come those which focus on primarily behavioural causes. These can include a wide variety of different sources such as generally poor teaching, a poor relationship with a teacher or a home life that is disturbed (Morton Frith, 1995). Ridsdale (2004) has pointed out the connection between dyslexia and low self-esteem, behavioural difficulties, withdrawal and depression. Behavioural approaches to treatment, then, can aim to raise self esteem which can include changing goal orientations, giving praise, increasing the levels at which others provide support and so on. Metacognitive approaches help to provide ways of thinking about thinking this means teaching those with dyslexia to be able to monitor their thinking processes. Some of these behavioural interventions have been evaluated. Steinhausen and Metzke (2001), for example, found that peer group support could help those with behavioural difficulties. In conclusion, there a variety of cognitive, biological and behavioural explanations for dyslexia, each of which has different associated treatment or management options. In general each of the explanations explains some of the evidence from dyslexia but none of them explain all of it. This suggests that either theories are as yet incomplete, or there are methodological problems with the evaluations or there are different types of dyslexia to be explained. In practical terms, however, support and treatment for those with dyslexia often uses a multi-modal approach on the basis this is more likely to prove beneficial. References Bradley, L., Bryant, P. E. (1978) Difficulties in auditory organisation as a possible cause of reading backwardness. Nature, 271, 746-7. Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic Awareness Instruction Helps Children Learn to Read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels Meta-Analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(3), 250-287. Habib, M. (2000) The neurological basis of developmental dyslexia: an overview and working hypothesis. Brain, 123, 2373-2399. Irlen, H. (1997) Reading problems and Irlen coloured lenses. Dyslexia Review, Spring, 4-7. Jeanes, R., Busby, A., Martin, J., Lewis, E., Stevenson, N., Pointon, D., Wilkins A.J. (1997). Prolonged use of coloured overlays for classroom reading. British Journal of Psychology, 88, 531-548. Lovegrove, W.J., Bowling, A., Badcock, B., Blackwood, M. (1980) Specific reading disability: differences in contrast sensitivity as a function of spatial frequency. Science, 210, 439-40. Lyytinen, H., Erskine, J., Aro, M., Richardson, U., (2007) Reading and reading disorders. In: E. Hoff, M. Shatz, (Eds.). Blackwell Handbook of Language Development. London: Blackwell. Morton, J., Frith, U. (1995) Causal modelling: a structural approach to developmental psychopathology. In: D. Cicchetti, D. J. Cohen, (Eds.). Developmental psychopathology. Vol. 1, Theory and methods. London: Wiley. Ridsdale, J. (2004) Dyslexia and self-esteem. In: M. Turner, J. P. Rack (Eds.). The Study of Dyslexia. London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Robinson, G. L., Foreman, P. J. (1999). Scotopic sensitivity/Irlen syndrome and the use of coloured filters: A long-term placebo controlled and masked study of reading achievement and perception of ability. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 89, 83-113 Snowling, M. J. (1987). Dyslexia: A Cognitive Developmental Perspective. London: Blackwell. Stein, J., Walsh, V. (1997) To see but not to read: the magnocellular theory of dyslexia. Trends in Neuroscience 20, 147-52. Steinhausen, H.C., Metzke, C.W. (2001). Risk, Compensatory, Vulnerability, and Protective Factors Influencing Mental Health in Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(3), 259-280. Whiteley, H. E., Smith, C. D. (2001) The use of tinted lenses to alleviate reading difficulties. Journal of Research in Reading, 24(1) 30-40.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Animation :: essays research papers
Animation      Animation is a visual technique that creates the illusion of motion, rather than recording motion through live action. The technique is used mainly for motion pictures. Animation can be created by illustrators, filmmakers, video makers, and computer specialists. Animation is most popular in creating cartoon movies. Advertisers also employ animation to develop commercials for television. In addition, producers of instructional films may use animation to help explain a difficult idea or one that could not be shown in live action. Animation can also be combined with live action in a movie. Many animators continue to make many drawings by hand. Since the mid-1980's, however, computer assistance combined with hand-drawn animation has become standard in many movie studios. These methods created such feature-length animated films as The Lion King (1994) and The Prince of Egypt (1998).      One increasingly important type of animation is computer-generated imagery (CGI), in which the computer creates the characters and backgrounds and animates them without actually photographing either cels or figures. Films made entirely with CGI include Toy Story (1995), Antz (1998), and A Bug's Life (1998).      Most CGI-animated characters start with a sketch or small sculpture called a â€Å"maquette†that is used for reference. The artist then creates a computer image called a wireframe model. The wireframe model serves as a framework for a shell or skin that gives the computer image a solid, three-dimensional appearance. To move the character, a computer animator changes the positions of the wireframe model in a number of key frames. The computer then supplies the frames between the key frames, moving the model from one of the animator's positions to the next.      After creating the three-dimensional model, the artist adds color, texture, and shading in a process known as texture mapping. Texture mapping makes the surfaces of the characters and scenery look real. A texture map can be created by a computer program or scanned from an actual photograph.      The final step is called rendering. During rendering, the computer calculates the effect of light, color, and texture on the model's surface. For a film or video, the computer will produce a two-dimensional digital picture of the characters for each frame of the animation. The computer artist usually adjusts many visual effects, such as camera focus and transparency, during the rendering phase.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Females According to Christina Rossetti and Mary Wollstonecraft Essay
Females According to Christina Rossetti and Mary Wollstonecraft What is it that separates and elevates human beings from the rest of the animal world? It is the ability to logically explain an action, decision, or conviction; it is the capacity to reason. As Rousseau states, â€Å"Only reason teaches us good from evil†(Wollstonecraft 238). According to him, as well as countless other intellectuals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through the exercise of reason men become moral and political agents. Of course, this Enlightenment theory does not include women. Rousseau declares his opinion of the female, â€Å"O how lovely is her ignorance!†(253) The woman is the man's fantasy, the man's student, the man's plaything. Controlled, contained, and defined by the man, the woman is inferior to him and thus, not human. Eighteenth century writer and mother of female liberalism, Mary Wollstonecraft refutes this supposedly natural state of man being superior to woman in her treatise, "A Vindication of The Rights of Woman": It is farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of reason... This was Rousseau's opinion respecting men: I extend it to women....till the manners of the time are changed...it may be impossible to convince [women]that the illegitimate power, which they obtain, by degrading themselves, is a curse, and that they must return to nature and equality ...(239) She proclaims the female to be equally capable of reason as the male. In order for the female to recognize and utilize this capability, society's males and females must alter their prejudicial definition of the feminine. Wollstonecraft addresses the fema... ...cquire virtues which they may call their own, for how can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?†(254) Indeed, it is only when the woman may call her skill, her experience, or her truth, all derived from reason, her own that she shall be independent. As Rossetti states, â€Å"Only my secret's mine...†(6). And, only when the societal norms change, shall the keeping of such a secret be by choice and not necessity. Works Cited Wollstonecraft, Mary. Vindication of the Rights of Women. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol 2A. Ed. David Damrosch. 2nd ed. London: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2003. 227-255. Rossetti, Christina. â€Å"Winter: My Secret.†The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 2B. Ed. David Damrosch. 2nd ed. London: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2003. 1617.
Capital Budget Essay
Please offer your recommendations, based on (a) (b) (c) (d) the payback period method; the IRR method; the pro? tability index method; and the NPV method. 3. Case Study: Randgold Resources plc Randgold resources plc is a London Stock Exchange gold mining and discovery ? rm with almost all its activities centred in Africa. This case study concerns a hypothetical gold discovery of 300,000 ounces of gold in the Mwanza region at the north tip of Tanzania. Randgold can only extract 50,000 ounces per year from the Mwanza mine and variable extraction costs are a function of the gold price. The gold price is expected to evolve as follows: 1 Cases and Exercises for Value and Capital Budgeting Year Gold price 1 $1,070 2 $1,120 3 $1,200 4 $1,100 5 $1,000 6 $950 The discovery comes on the heels of a massive ? ve-year exploration and discovery programme that cost $20 million. Although the exploration and discovery programme has now been completed, the ? rm still need to pay $8 million this year and $5 million next year (year 1) as a delayed payment to suppliers. Randgold will need to lease the land from the Tanzanian government for $10 million per annum. Mining equipment and mining quarters (spanning ? ve miles) will need to be constructed at the cost of $70 million and this should be depreciated using 20 per cent reducing balances over the 6 year project. Assume that the equipment and mining quarters can be sold for only 20 per cent of residual value at the end of the project. The workforce will cost $10 million per annum but 30 per cent of the workforce will come from existing operations elsewhere in Africa. If the Mwanza mine is not put into operation, the workforce that comes from existing operations would lose their jobs. Working capital is expected to increase by $8 million at the start of the project and this will fall to zero at the end of the project. The effective tax rate of Randgold Resources is 28 per cent and the appropriate discount rate is 20 per cent. (a) Is it worthwhile for Randgold Resources to start production? Use three investment appraisal methods to justify your answer. (b) What are the main risk factors facing Randgold Resources in the mining project? Discuss these in detail. 4. We are evaluating a project that costs ? 896,000, has an eight-year life, and has no salvage value. Assume that depreciation is 20% reducing-balance method. Sales are projected at 100,000 units per year. Price per unit is ? 38, variable cost per unit is ? 25, and ? xed costs are ? 900,000 per year. The tax rate is 35%, and we require a 15% return on this project. (a) Calculate the accounting break-even point. (b) Calculate the base-case cash ? ow and NPV. What is the sensitivity of NPV to changes in the sales ? gure? Explain what your answer tells you about a 500-unit decrease in projected sales. (c) What is the sensitivity of OCF to changes in the variable cost ? gure? Explain what your answer tells you about a ? 1 decrease in estimated variable costs. (d) Suppose the projections given for price, quantity, variable costs and ? xed costs are all accurate to within  ±10%. Calculate the best-case and worst-case NPV ? gures. 5. The ? rm SENSITIVITY is studying the realisation of a project of launching a new toothpaste. The Marketing Department indicates the following estimations (in thousands of euros): Parameter Sales (quantity) Advertisement costs Sales price Value 1,450 tonnes 10% of sales 5/tonne 2 Cases and Exercises for Value and Capital Budgeting.
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