Coccidioidomycosis Valley Fever Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Coccidioidomycosis Valley Fever - Research Paper Example It is spread through the air when its spores are disturbed by wind. It is estimated that 150,000 infections take place annually in the US, although roughly half of this do not present any symptoms. The fungus is found in South America, Central America, Mexico, and South Western US since these areas weather conditions and dust that allows for the growth of Coccidioides. People get this illness when they inhale dust that contains the spores of this fungus. This spores spread into the air when dust containing the fungus undergoes disturbance through construction work, digging, or strong winds (Williams 41). The illness is hard to prevent, and no vaccine exists at present, although efforts towards its development are continuing. This research paper seeks to use journal articles and boos to discuss the epidemiology, pathogenesis, types, diagnosis, treatment, complications, and use in biological warfare of Coccidioidomycosis. Region of Primary Location The map provided below shows areas in the Americas where mass testing has revealed valley fever as an endemic illness. Taking note of the fact that two thirds of cases in the United States are found in Arizona with Tucson and Phoenix being the most affected is essential. In California, the endemic area is Kern County (Tabor 27). There are also areas of high endemic occurrences in Northwestern Mexico, South America, and Central America. In addition, it has been known for environmental conditions to spread spores across hundreds of miles and cause infection. The mass testing that identified the primary areas has not been done again for more than 50 years. Valley fever is restricted to America with an approximated 150,000 infections every year with the infection rates in the rest of the Americas currently unknown (Tabor 27). Approximately 25,000 new cases annually in the US lead to ~75 deaths annually. There are occasional epidemics with case numbers rising in Arizona, which may be related to people immigrating there. Out side of the United States, the most affected nations are Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Guatemala, and Mexico. (Williams 18) Epidemiology Valley fever is confined to areas that lie between 400N and 400S. The organism is particularly supported by dry and dusty soils in the lower sonaran life zone. Incidences of the organism’s occurrence increases significantly in periods where there is heavy rain followed by dry periods (Einstein & Catanzaro 23). The fungus is known to infect majority of the mammals, especially cats, dogs, and humans. Species such as marine mammals like the sea otter, llamas, and livestock have been found to be especially vulnerable to the valley fever fungus. Pathogenesis The valley fever fungus exists in the form of filaments in lab environments and soil. Cells that are found within the hyphae, over time, degenerate and form arthroconidia that are barrel shaped cells (Stevens 1079). These cells are light in weight and are transported by wind where they are eas ily inhalable sans knowledge of the individual. Once these cells arrive in the individual’s alveoli, they become larger, developing internal septations, whose structure is referred to as spherule and develop into endospores. Once these spherules rupture, the endosperms are released with the cycle being repeated, spreading a local infection. The nodules that at times form around the spherules could rupture, and their contents released, into the bronchus, to form cavities with thin walls. These cavities led to persistent coughs, haemoptysis, and chest pain (Stevens 1079). In people whose immunity is compromised, this infection could spread through the vascular system. Presentation Valley fever tends to mimic atypical

The Poetry of the First World War Essay Example for Free

The Poetry of the First World War Essay Does the Poetry of the First World War reflect the changing attitudes to War? Poems in the early part of the First World War were pro war which means that they were saying that the war was good fun with women and uniforms. The main aims of the poems were to get men to join the army and fight the Germans. After two years of the war in July 1916 the battle of the Somme took place, 60,000 English soldiers died each day. Anti war poems started to be written about how bad war really was, but these poems were hardly ever published in newspapers or magazines, as they still wanted men to join up to fight. The two pro war poems that I have chosen are Fall In by Harold Begbie and Whos for the Game by Jessie Pope. The Recruiting poems of 1914 were required because, unlike most European countries, we did not have conscription and therefore did not have a large army. They saw the war was going to be long and hard and recruiting poems and posters made people volunteer for the army until conscription was introduced in 1916. Fall In by Harold Begbie does exactly what it is meant to do. It makes people feel ashamed about not going and fighting for your country. The title Fall In is like a command, which they use in the army saying you must fall in, group together and fight. It also has another meaning say you are going to fall in to the army. You do not have a choice but you will fall in. Begbie says: What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack. When the girls line up on the street, shouting their love to the lads come back These are the first three lines and are saying that when the other men who joined up for the army come back, you will be left on your own with all the girls wanting the army men. And grin till your cheeks are red? Here the man Begbie is talking about his embarrassment about not being in the war and his face is going red. When your children yet to be clamour to learn of the part you played Begbie is saying that if you have children who are yet to be born and they want to know about what you did in the war, what will you do when you cannot answer them? You will miss out on your children looking up to you; this is what Begbie is saying. When you sit by the fire in an old mans chair and your neighbours talk of the fight Again Begbie is telling you when your friends will talk about the war for years to come they will not respect you when you answer that you did not go. Begbie is saying that you will miss the respect from friends. Your head shamed and bent? Or say I was not the first to go. But I went, thank God, I went Begbie is saying this to make people who have not gone to war yet feel that it does not matter that you have not gone yet, but there is still time to join to get all the things I just said you will miss. In the last stanza Begbie is saying if you do not join up and the war was lost it will be your fault that we lost. Begbie is trying to make the shirkers feel ashamed for not volunteering by telling them of the things they will miss out on. Things like, the women when you return from war, by your children looking up to you and the respect of your friends and neighbours when they talk about the war in years to come. Then towards the end of the poem he says that you can join up now, you were not the first to go but you went. The second pro war poem I will look at is Whos for the Game? by Jessie Pope. The great soldier poet, Wilfred Owen, particularly detested her. In this poem she tries to make war sound like a game. The poem is based on the game rugby. Pope says: Whos for the game, the biggest thats played? She is saying who wants to join the army, come on, its just a game come and play. Who would much rather come back with a crutch, Than lie low and be out of the fun? Pope is saying that it is better if you go to war and get injured than just having to lie low, rather than people talking about you not going to war and missing out on all the fun of war. Throughout the poem Jessie Pope uses slang, sit tight and up to her neck. She does this because it will be young men joining the army and they do not want to be sitting in the pub reading a formal poem, which they will not understand and just read the first line and put it down. They want to read in the way most of these men would talk. Rupert Brooke was a highly popular pro war poet. He was unaware of the conditions in the trenches which motivated by poets such as Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg and Siegfried Sesson on the front line. The two anti war poems I have chosen are Dulce et Decorum Est and Disabled. I felt that of the poems that I was given to choose from, these two told a tragic story of what war was really like. Wilfred Owen at the time seemed to be bitter. His reason for being bitter is that he read the pro war poetry by writers such as Jessie Pope, who was writing about the joys of war, how fun it was and how the ladies will love you. I have chosen Dulce Est because the poem describes the hardships for a group of soldiers who have to struggle through the life of war in the trenches. I have chosen Disabled because it shows the struggle of one man who has lost his legs and his arms at the elbow. All he has are the memories and they seem to become more distant as the days go on. Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patri Moria translated into English means It Is Sweet And Honourable To Die For Ones Country. If someone is reading the poem for the first time and learns of the English meaning of the title before reading the poem they may feel it is a poem that makes you think of the army in a good way. After reading the poem a number of times I have come to a conclusion that Owen named the poem this because of the strong statement that he makes in the poem. In a way I get the feeling that Owen was mocking the saying but I dont think he was mocking the army as a whole. The first stanza is not like how a pro war poem starts they are not all having a laugh wearing nice uniform, being cheered at by the ladies, they are staggering through mud, tired bleeding, and this is was Owen wanted you to think what war was really like. Owen says Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags Own is trying to say that these men came into the army as fit young men and now war has turned them into old hags, bent over and staggering. Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs The soldiers are fed up. They are so tired that even when the flares go off behind them they dont have the energy or even feel like turning around to see them. And towards our distant rest The reader and the men are lured into a false sense of security as we think they are safe from bombs. Blood shod Owen says this because they have been walking for a long time and is like they are wearing shoes of blood but what he is really saying is they have been treated like animals because Horses hoofs are shod. The men have been treated in an inhumane way, like they are worthless. Drunk with fatigue Owen is saying that the soldiers are so tired that it is as though they are drunk. Owen is trying too saying that the soldiers are as though they dont know entirely what they are doing. They are just being led along like zombies. Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind them Fine-Nines are gas bombs that the Germans used in the war. Owen is saying that the men are so tired that they are just blanking out the sounds of these gas bombs, as they are behind the lines and think they are not in range. The bombs are personified as is they are moving slowly and are weary. The pace of the poem quickens in the 2nd stanza. The soldiers are woken by a gas attack. This effectively shatters the mood that Owen has told of us in the opening stanza. The soldiers are now woken by the fact that their lives are in danger and they now have to be fully aware of all their surroundings. Owen says Gas! GAS! Quick boys! The men have just woken up they are still half-asleep the first sign of Gas is in lower case as they have just seen what going on. The second GAS is the man shouting for their lives as they try to find their gas masks. Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning The green light Owen talks about is the gas falling down on them. Owen uses a simile saying that the man is drowning in a green sea, which he means by the colour of the gas looking like the sea. The reality is that the man is drowning, when a gas attack takes place, the lungs fill up with fluid and drown on your own bodily fluids. The ecstasy of fumbling Owen does not mean that there is an adrenaline rush. But medically it means a morbid state of nerves, which means that your nerves are making you think of one thing to do, which in this case, is to put your gas masks on. Fitting the clumsy helmets Owen is either saying that the men are clumsy in putting the helmets on or the helmets clumsy by letting the gas in. Owen tells us how this memory has stayed with him. The sight of a dying man lunging at him in a plea for his life. In the short 3rd stanza, Owen seems to have a great fear of the gas attacks when he talks of them. Owen talks of all of the nightmares he has had because of the war and this event. Owen says In all my dreams before my helpless sight Owen is dreaming about that man, which was dying before him Owen dreams about it because there was no way in which he could help him. The 4th stanza is back to the slow pace of the 1st stanza. In this stanza Owen is accusing the pro war poets of doing this, making young men to join the army and just to go to their deaths. He was addressing mainly Jessie Pope because on the original draft he writes under the title, To Jessie Pope He describes how the man was taken away and then Owen walked behind and saw his face. Owen is still haunted by the nightmare. If in some smothering dream Owen describes his dreams as smothering because when he sleeps that is all he can think of the man dying. We flung him in The dead bodies are treated like meat there are so many deaths it becomes like a routine thing. In the first stanza he say blood shod like animals are shod once again here is another reference to them being treated like animals. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children or ardent for some desperate glory. Owen is saying that if you could see the things he had seen then you would not believe the lies that the pro war poets tell you. By saying this he is expressing the bitterness he has not only for the army but the situation as a whole. Owen adds more examples of this throughout the last stanza. Owens main question to the reader in the last stanza is before going into the army think carefully of what you are doing as you might get and see something in great contrast to what you may have imagined. The poem is describing a terrible shocking death by gas, how can it be sweet and honourable to die for ones country if you die like this. This is the country that sold him the old lie. Dulce ET decorum est. pro patria moria. In Disabled Owen is describing a man who has no legs and his arms have been amputated at the elbow. He is in an institute, a nursing home of some sought. This poem is an angry response to the type of patriotic poetry with made light of disability and which glorified death. Instead of writing and millions of dead or injured, he focuses on one person. Disability is not on the battlefield with bombs going off and people being blown up, it is at home, after the war, after the glory of winning. People will only think about the men who died in the war, not the people how have been, dehumanised and will have to sit in some home for the rest of the their lives. This is why the poem comes across as so shocking because in the days of the war people didnt know about the disabled people just about the people who died. Till gathering sleep The man is waiting for the night to come for him to sleep, as he hates to die, as he cannot do anything. I think the man sees sleeping as an alternative to death and he wants to end his life. Owen tell us about how he used to be, before he became injured, he used to like going out to have fun on the town at night, but now he just wants to go to bed and forget about the memories At the start of the 4th stanza it says, One time hed liked a blood-smear down his leg, This is ironic as he liked getting injured and bleeding and it is as if he enjoyed it now it has got it a millions time worse. It was after football, when hed drunk a peg. Hes thought hed better join He had drunk a peg of beer so he was probably not in the right frame of mind when he decided to join the army. It also says Someone had said hed look a god in kilts, Thats why; and may be, too, to please his Meg He is saying that he joined the army because he would look good in a uniform. I many of the pro war poems say that is one of the good things about war the uniform. He also joined because of a girl called Meg, who he was trying to impress, which it also says in pro war poems that when you join the army you get all the women wanting to be with you. The young man had lied to get in to the army Smiling they wroth his lie; aged nineteen years The men who were recruiting even knew that he was lying but they still wrote his name down. Germans he scarcely thought of he join the war note knowing about what was going on he had never thought about the Germans before. He talks about the evenings. He says that at this time the towns atmosphere was fun and happy everyone is dancing having fun. Owen makes the town sound romantic so that would feel for the man more. He says the girls look upon like he has some kind of disease. He talks of how he will never again feel the waist of a woman. He also talks about how he threw away his knees in the war. His was once a lovely face which now he looks old. His back is now in a brace and this was the back that was not so long ago was a strong as anything. He has lost his colour just like losing blood. He feels as though he has poured his life away down endless shell holes; he wonders what he has been given for this. Nothing. And leap of purple spurted from his thigh. Owen says And no fears of fear have come yet He had thoughts of all the swords and other weaponry that he would receive in the army. He had great thoughts of wearing the smart uniform. He thought that playing football was great, the buzz he got from the cheering. People thought of him as hero. He thought that people would cheer for him in the army; he wanted to be a hero in the army. He thinks of the army spirit, the pride in his unit. He tells about how he was given cheers and the noise of the drums as he leaves. He is so very optimistic. When he is brought back the cheers were not like the ones before the cheers are in contrast to what he imagined. This is ironic to him. Only a few people cheered when he came back only one man inquired this man was the priest. He will spend the next few years doing as the rules say. People will just take pity on him. He talks of how the women ignore him for the strong people. People with all their body. His final thoughts of the poem are one of total depression. He thinks that life is pointless. He is so helpless he cant go to bed without someone being there to help him. He feels as though he only has a few years left. He wants to be put to death as he feels like he has nothing to offer or that his life tolerable and he feels as though nothing that he does or feels will make him feel his life is worth it. As you can see from both poems they are very powerful. Each of the two poems makes a statement. One difference between the poems is that Dulce Est is a view on the army that concerns a whole array of the army. With Disabled it is just a description of the pain of one person. One thing that I feel both poems have in common is that they both talk about how they were lied to and how they were sold a lie. This is true, If a person wanted an example of army life at its worst then I would show them Dulce ET Decorum. However if I was asked about a poem that describes a poem where a person can see how the war affected people. II would recommend the latter Disabled is in my opinion the most moving of the stories as it represents a mans struggle for his life. This man can offer nothing to his country now. He cant even offer himself something that he feels will make his staying alive worth it. Whilst the majority of the people in Dulce Et are still alive this mans soul, has in effect died. He has lost his colour and cant get used to the fact that he is unpopular. I find Dulce Et Decorum to be the more shocking of the two poems. My reasons are as follows, although Disabled is a very moving and powerful poem in its own right, it only describes the view of one person in the army. I think that what makes Dulce Et so powerful is that Owen speaks for the masses in the army when he talks of the daily horrifying sights and regular attempts by the Germans to gas them. Reading these poems can enlighten a person. Many people say that they live stressful lives and are under extreme pressure. If you think of what these young men must have gone through it can put a lot of things in to perspective. Day in day out these men had to have the weight of a nation on their shoulders this is before they have to dodge land mines and gas attacks.

The Airline Industry :: essays research papers

The topic in which I chose to do a scrapbook on was â€Å"How the government affects the airline industry in Canada†. Specifically I chose articles that related to the aftermaths of the September 11th tragedy. This event affected airlines in an enormous manner. Many airlines were facing economical problems and in turned asked the government for assistance. As a result, Canada 3000, which was Canada’s second largest airline carrier filed for bankruptcy protection on October 11th. Air Canada was also faced with many hard to make decisions. They turned to the Canadian government and asked for financial assistance. The Problem Solving Method will be examined to determine how the government came to the decision of actually granting Air Canada some assistance. Problem Solving Method 1. Decide on the "Issue" (Define it carefully to avoid arguments later.) The issue that is being discussed in whether or not the government should help Air Canada out financially. As can be seen in the articles presented in the scrapbook, it is known that the government controls many of the operations at Air Canada. 2. Examine various points of view and the opinions they have.  · Your own In my opinion, I think that the Canadian government should help Air Canada with financial assistance. I believe that if the government wants to have control over their fare prices, whether or not they can open a discount airline, and the amount of workers they are able to hire, that they have an obligation to the airline to help them out in these types of situations.  · Those of key groups or individuals (stakeholders) a) Air Canada Union Representatives – This group feels that the government should be active in financial aid relief. During the events after September 11th, the union stated in many national papers, that they felt that they deserved the same amount of support and relief that the US government was giving their airlines. b) The Canadian Government – The government had essentially three choices: i) They could help the airline. ii) They could do nothing and let the airline claim bankruptcy. iii) They could buy back into Air Canada. With the first choice, the government has to allocate some of their resources to the airline. The second option was not feasible for the government to partake in because of the fact that Canadian citizens would be loosing the biggest airline carrier. The third option, which the government did consider, involved two options. The government could either buy a minority of the shares or they could buy the entire operation and that would result in Air Canada becoming a crown corporation.

Paper Critique: “Airavat: Security and Privacy for Mapreduce” Essay

1. (10%) State the problem the paper is trying to solve. This paper is trying to demonstrate how Airavat, a MapReduce-based system for distributed computations provides end-to-end confidentiality, integrity, and privacy guarantees using a combination of mandatory access control and differential privacy which provides security and privacy guarantees against data leakage. 2. (20%) State the main contribution of the paper:   solving a new problem, proposing a new algorithm, or presenting a new evaluation (analysis). If a new problem, why was the problem important? Is the problem still important today? Will the problem be important tomorrow? If a new algorithm or new evaluation (analysis), what are the improvements over previous algorithms or evaluations? How do they come up with the new algorithm or evaluation? The main contribution of the paper is that Airavat builds on mandatory access control (MAC) and differential privacy to ensure untrusted MapReduce computations on sensitive data do not leak private information and provide confidentiality, integrity, and privacy guarantees. The goal is to prevent malicious computation providers from violating privacy policies a data provider imposes on the data to prevent leaking information about individual items in the data. The system is implemented as a modification to MapReduce and the Java virtual machine, and runs on top of SELinux 3. (15%) Summarize the (at most) 3 key main ideas (each in 1 sentence.) (1) First work to add MAC and differential privacy to mapreduce. (2) Proposes a new framework for privacy preserving mapreduce computations. (3) Confines untrusted code. 4. (30%) Critique the main contribution a. Rate the significance of the paper on a scale of 5 (breakthrough), 4 (significant contribution), 3 (modest contribution), 2 (incremental contribution), 1 (no contribution or negative contribution). Explain your rating in a sentence or two. This system provides security and privacy guarantees for distributed computations on sensitive data at the ends. However, the data still can be leaked in the cloud. Because multiple machines are involved in the computation and malicious worker can sent the intermediate data to the outside system, which threatens the privacy of the input data. Even not to this extent, temporary data is stored in the workers and those data can be fetched even after computation is done. b. Rate how convincing the methodology is: how do the authors justify the solution approach or evaluation? Do the authors use arguments, analyses, experiments, simulations, or a combination of them? Do the claims and conclusions follow from the arguments, analyses or experiments? Are the assumptions realistic (at the time of the research)? Are the assumptions still valid today? Are the experiments well designed? Are there different experiments that would be more convincing? Are there other alternatives the authors should have considered? (And, of course, is the paper free of methodological errors.) As the author’s stated on page 3 â€Å"We aim to prevent malicious computation providers from violating the privacy policy of the data provider(s) by leaking information about individual data items.† They use differential privacy mechanism to ensure this. One interesting solution to data leakage is that they have the mapper specify a range of its keys. It seems like that the larger your data set is, the more privacy you have because a user affects less of the output, if removed. They showed results that were really close to 100% with the added noise, it seems this is viable solution to protect the privacy of your data input c. What is the most important limitation of the approach? As the authors mention, one computation provider could exhaust this budget on a dataset for all other computation providers and use more than its fair share. While there is some estimation of effective parameters, there are a large number of parameters that must be set for Airavat to work properly. This increases the probability of misconfigurations or configurations that might severely limit the computations that can be performed on the data. 5. (15%) What lessons should researchers and builders take away from this work. What (if any) questions does this work leave open? The current implementation of Airavat supports both trusted and untrusted Mappers, but Reducers must be trusted and they also modified the JVM to make mappers independent (using invocation numbers to identify current and previous mappers). They also modified the reducer to provide differential privacy. From the data provider’s perspective they must provide several privacy parameters like- privacy group and privacy budget. 6. (10%) Propose your improvement on the same problem. I have no suggested improvements.

Mobile phones. Essay

Starting Point: Communication methods (25 minutes) Use your textbook or the resources on Student Portal or the Internet to help you research these topics. The first one has been done for you so you can see the level of detail expected. http://www. enkivillage. com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mobile-phones. html https://www. google. co. uk/search? q=teact+ict+advnat%5Cges+of+mobile+phones&sourceid=ie7&rls=com. microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&surl=1&safe=active&gws_rd=ssl Method Of communication What is it? Benefits/advantages Drawbacks/disadvantages Mobile phones. Hand-help device for making calls, texting, listen to music, surf web, email   Portable so the communication is easy Can be contacted anytime / You are always connected   There are multiply uses   Security – children feel safer as they can easily contact their parents   In emergency situations , help can be reached You can call people anywhere on the planet   No specialist equipment is needed.   Cause accidents as they are a distraction for example driving Disturb other people   Might be inference so the quality of the call can be poor.   You can’t see body language so a lot of non verbal communication is lost. Its hard to make a record of what’s being said , things may get forgotten or misinterpreted SMS (texting) Texts are sent from one mobile phone to another. It is a quick and convenient way of sending a short message to someone . Sending messages, images, videos and sound clips between devices. Can send them at any time, day or night   Good for informal messages Good for helping friends and family keep in touch   Only short messages can be sent Needs basic typing skills Text speak spills over into written school work and formal communication.   Fast   Cheap No internet needed. Instant Messaging (IM) A system for exchanging typed electronic messages instantly via the Internet or a cellular network, using a shared software application on a personal computer or mobile device. Conversations happen in real time .   You can add video using webcams or add a mic rather than talking . This helps show that the person you’re talking to is genuine.   Useful for customer support Internet is needed There’s no time to reflect on the message before sending   There’s a lot of ads , you have to pay extra to remove ads Anyone can send you a message Chat rooms. An area on the Internet or other computer network where users can communicate, typically one dedicated to a particular topic.   Gives the ability to chat to more than one person at the same time Extremely useful for gamers where there are hundreds of players You can also private message people   People can fake their identity   Cyber bullying can occur Fax A system that normally uses telephone lines to send images of documents to others .   Good for places where security and legal issues are importan Fair inexpensive   Simple to use and require very little training. As long as the machine is on , messages can be received day and night   No specialist installation/ cabling needed because it uses the existing telephone line   No immediate response   You might dial wrong number and sent important document to someone else   If the machine is busy , the fax will not be delivered. The quality is often poor and might have some of the smaller details   You need to buy ink , the machine and paper Social networking A place where people of the same interests or backgrounds can communication .   Keep in contact with old friends Free   You can make new friends. Cyberbullying can occur Discrimination can occur People may be able to find out personal details   Its time consuming   People can easily lie about who they are   You need internet Weblogs A place where people can write down their activities on a website for others to read giving a commentary on their life . There can be photos / videos but are mainly text based.   Can easily be viewed / updated from any device that connects to the internet .   Allows you to express your thoughts   Easy to set up , little technical knowledge needed   There’s millions of blogs to read from   You can leave comments on blogs.

The Long and Short of Long- Words

The Long and Short of Long- Words The Long and Short of Long- Words The Long and Short of Long- Words By Mark Nichol Longevity, longitude, and other words with the root long- (or altered spellings of the root) are derived not from long, which stems from the Old English adjective lang, but from the Latin equivalent longus, which shares its Proto-Indo-European ancestry with the Germanic cognate. This post lists and defines words that stem from the Latin term. Longevity, from the Latin adjective longaevus, means â€Å"long life.† Longitude, meanwhile, in general means â€Å"length† or â€Å"height,† but it usually pertains to horizontal distance on the surface of Earth or any sphere (and to a line marking such a distance). The adjectival form is used in the measurement sense but also pertains to long-term research studies and to a vehicle engine that runs a lengthwise rather than crosswise crankshaft. Elongation and prolongation both refer to extension, but the former applies in a physical sense, while the latter sense is chronological. The verb forms differ, too: They are, respectively, elongate and prolong. Oblong, meanwhile, describes something that is longer than it is wide, though it can be used as a noun as well as an adjective. English borrowed longeurs, a word describing a tedious passage in a book or a play, from French. Two obscure words derived from longus are longanimity and longinquity. The former word means â€Å"forbearance† or â€Å"patience†; the element animity is from the Latin noun animus, meaning â€Å"mind† or â€Å"soul,† which is the source of animal. The latter is an archaic synonym for remoteness. Several words with disguised kinship are lounge, from the French verb s’allonger, meaning â€Å"lie at full length†; lunge, originally a fencing term meaning â€Å"sword thrust† (from the French noun allonge) with the extended meaning â€Å"sudden reach or rush†; and purloin, meaning â€Å"steal† (from the Anglo-French verb purloigner, meaning â€Å"remove†; the connection to longus is the idea of delaying something or moving it far away). Along, belong, and length are, like long, of Germanic origin, as are compound words such as longbow, longhaired, and longtime, as well as headlong, lifelong, and so on. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Cost-Effective vs. Cost-EfficientDisappointed + Preposition25 Idioms About Bread and Dessert

Union Structure and Governance

Union Structure and Governance Introduction The purpose of this study will be to analyze the structure and governance of a national or international union that addresses the plight of workers.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Union Structure and Governance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The union that will be focused on in this study will be the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) which is a labor union representing the needs of workers employed in the electrical industry in the United States, Panama and Canada as well as other workers employed in the public utility and electrical manufacturing industry. The union also represents the interests of workers employed in computer, broadcasting and telecommunications sector. The main objective of the IBEW is to promote reasonable working conditions for all electrical workers under the union and also cultivate feelings of brotherhood/friendship among the various employees that fa ll under the union (Hill, 2008). History of the Union The beginning of IBEW can be traced back to the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen’s Union which was founded in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri. Both wiremen and linemen flocked to St. Louis to demonstrate their trade by wiring the buildings in the city with electricity lines so as to exhibit their trade. During the exhibition, the workers got together to talk about their jobs and also the working conditions of electricians in the electrical industry. There was a general consensus that their jobs were hard and they worked for long hours with little pay (12 hours a day for 15 to 20 cents per hour). The workers did not receive any training or apprenticeship during the first week of their jobs and the safety standards especially for the wiremen were nonexistent which meant that they were exposed to dangerous working conditions. These poor working conditions led to the industry having the highest mortality rates of one out of two hire d employees in the whole of America. The Convention and the growing electrical industry were basically the starting points of the Brotherhood (IBEW, 2005). The following year, 1891, saw a growing interest to have a national union that would address the plight of electrical workers in the US. The Convention that took place in St. Louis approached the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to receive a charter that would operationalise the Electrical Wiremen and Linemen’s Union.Advertising Looking for term paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Electrical Wiremen and Linemen’s Union under the charter No. 5221 was established in 1981 as a national organization that would address the labor needs of electrical workers within the electrical industry as well as other workers in the telecommunications, telegraph and electrical manufacturing industry. During their first year of operation, the union organized a convention in St. Louis where ten delegates representing the 286 members of the electrical industry attended the convention (IBEW, 2005). The ten representatives included Henry Miller, the president of the union, J.T. Kelly, W. Hedden, C.J. Sutter, H. Fisher, F. Heizleman, J. Berlowitz, T.J. Finnell, M. Dorsey and E. Hartung. These ten delegates formed the founders of the union and they adopted a different name for the organization known as the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. They worked for hours drafting a constitution for the union which would stipulate the laws and procedures that would guide the operations of the union. They also came up with the well-known emblem of the union, a fist grasping several lightning bolts, which would be used to distinguish the organization from other unions in the US. During the Convention, the delegates elected Henry Miller as the first Grand President of the union and they also elected T. Kelly as the Grand Secre tary Treasurer of the union. In the 1899 Pittsburgh Convention, the union decided to change its name to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The membership during that time had reached 2,000 members with over 43 chartered local unions in the whole of America. The current number of members now stands at 750,000 in the four countries covered by the union (Panama, Canada, US and some parts of the Caribbean’s) (IBEW, 2005). The type of employers the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers bargains with includes the electrical manufacturing industries, public utility companies that offer electricity to consumers, electrical installation companies, wiremen and linemen contracting agencies. The union faced adversity during its first year of operation as it received a lot of criticism and indignation from employers working in the mentioned companies. Many of these employers were trying to drive out trade unions in the country by organizing open shop campaigns in the national level. The union however sought to reduce tensions between employers and employees in the electrical industry by forming the Council on Industrial Relations which would be used to represent the interests of managers and employees (IBEW, 2005).Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Union Structure and Governance specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Hierarchical Structure of the Organization The IBEW is made up of three functional bodies which make up the structure of the union and these include the executive body which is made of the International President, the International Secretary-Treasurer, International representatives and the eleven International Vice-Presidents that manage the district level operations of the union. Other offices that fall under the executive body include the local union offices as well as the membership of IBEW. The judicial and legislative bodies of the union are made up of the International Executive Council which is made up of a chairman and eight elected members working in the district offices. The International President is charged with the general administration of the IBEW and the responsibilities that come with the international office are varied and distinct (IBEW, 2005). Some duties of the International President include implementing the laws of the Brotherhood, overseeing any controversial issues that might arise within the organization, acting on any appeals that might arise from decisions made by the International Vice Presidents, deciding on IBEW policies and procedures, chartering and amalgamating various unions that have been established in the local level and suspending or revoking any local union charters that do not serve the interests of IBEW’s members. The International Secretary-Treasurer is primarily charged with the role of handling the financial matters of the IBEW International office such as investments and pension funds. T he responsibilities of the treasurer include collecting, disbursing and accounting for all union funds, maintaining records of the organization’s membership and receiving all signed applications for the local union charter. The treasurer is also charged with protecting the seal and emblem of the Brotherhood (IBEW, 2005). The eleven International vice presidents that make up the district office and have been elected by the local unions work under the instructions of the International President of IBEW. The duties of the vice president include supervising the activities of all International Representatives within the district branch offices and also act on appeals that might come from members of the local unions. The internal bodies that exist in the local unions include presidents who are charged with enforcing the constitutional provisions of the union, vice presidents who are charged with assisting the local president with office duties, recording secretary who is charged wi th the role of keeping the minutes of local union meetings as well as maintaining all meeting records, the financial secretary who is charged with handling all the funds collected by the local union (IBEW Constitution, 2008).Advertising Looking for term paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Another member of the local union is the treasurer who receives all collected funds from the financial secretary and deposits them in the bank under the name of the local union and the business manager who is charged with the role of representing the local union in any trade disputes with industry employers. The business manager appoints all stewards within the local unions to effect bylaws that will be needed to effectively manage the functions of the local union. The business manager also conducts training programs for all stewards as well as enforcing all collective bargaining agreements. The International Executive Council (IEC) and the legislative body are charged with managing the judicial and legislative aspects of the union. The IEC is the final authority that is used when granting pensions, disability benefits and also handling the vested interests of the union’s members. The two bodies also act on appeals that are made by the International President and they try mem bers of the local union who have been charged with violating the laws and rules of the IBEW (IBEW Constitution, 2008). The diagram below represents the hierarchical structure of the IBEW and the various offices/bodies that make up the organization. Source: IBEW, 2005 Financial Flow of the Union The financial flow of the union is mostly made of funds collected from union dues, pension benefit funds and the general funds that are used to manage the day-to-day operations of the union. Members of the organization are meant to contribute $10 every month so as to manage the collective bargaining activities of the organization. The amount of pension funds that are collected from individuals within the union amounts to $3.50 per month for each full year of continuous membership that the member has with the union. The fund also pays death benefit to any of the member’s beneficiaries which could be $6,250 if the member dies of natural causes and $12,500 for any accidental deaths (IBEW Union, 2011). Union dues refer to the financial funds that are usually paid by the members of a union every month to support the general operations of the organization and its officers. The union dues structure of the IBEW covers two parts of the union’s structure which include the international and local union offices. The dues that are allocated to the international office are basically used to maintain and support the administrative and legal functions of the office as well as legislative procedures such as court appeals and trials which have been forwarded to the IEC. The bulk of union dues are usually allocated to the local union where the funds are used to manage the expenses of the offices as well as handle collective bargaining, member grievances, arbitrations and contract negotiations with employers. A basic union dues structure is made up of two parts: the local union and the IBEW per capital segment where the local union determines its dues by the operational cost s and expenses incurred by every local union within the various districts of the US (IBEW Union, 2011). Union dues are usually determined by the members of the local union as they are the only people who have the power and ability to change the amount of dues they have to pay ever month. The IBEW Per Capita structure of the union dues involves a monthly payment of $11set by the International Convention and which is meant to be paid by all members of the union. The monthly charge is usually used by the local union to fund the operations of the First District Office and it can only be changed by the elected delegates of the Convention. The diagram below represents the structure of and distribution of union dues in the organization (IBEW Union, 2011). Governing Entities within the organization The International Convention is the highest governing body of the Brotherhood. The union Constitution postulates that the IBEW member delegates meet every five years at a regular interval to dis cuss union matters and any labor issues that might arise in the electrical industry during the five-year duration. The international Convention therefore oversees these meetings during which it elects International Officers such as the president and secretary treasurer if there is need for reappointment or re-election. The International Convention also determines the basic law that will be used by the IBEW through the number of votes that have been cast for proposed resolutions and constitutional amendments to the union Constitution. The international Convention also has the final authority and decision on any appeals that have been made in the international, national and local offices of the union. The various entities that make up the Convention include delegates and member committees (IBEW, 2005). The delegates of the Convention are usually selected through secret ballots garnered from the members of the union. The level of delegate representation is usually based on the number o f members a local union has registered where the maximum number of delegates per local union is 15. The Convention further stipulates that no local union is entitled to representation unless it has been of good standing for the last six months before the International Convention. The committees in the Convention are usually formed by the International President who is authorized by the governing body to establish committees that will perform the basic functions of the Convention such as resolution action, the development of reports and recommendations that will be used to deal with disputes or conflicts between employers and employees. Another governing entity that oversees the functions of the IBEW is the International Executive Council (IEC) which deals with the judicial or financial aspects of the union. The IEC is the final authority when it comes to making decisions on granting pensions, disability benefits and also dealing with the vested interests of the union’s member s (IBEW, 2005). The types of boards exist under the local union and these include the examining board and the executive board. The purpose of the examining board in the local union is to examine and review the various applications for membership forwarded to the union for consideration. The examining board assesses the qualifications of various applicants according to the various sections of the union Constitution to determine if they qualify to be members of IBEW. The executive board on the other hand is involved in hearing all charges that are brought against the members of the union and trying them according to the bylaws and working rules of the local union (IBEW Constitution, 2008). The executive board therefore acts as a trial board as it has to consider all matters properly before making any major decisions with regards to any charges or violations brought against a member of the organization. Apart from the IEC, other councils that exist in the IBEW include the railroad coun cils and system councils which address any union issue within the local union railroad industry. Railroad councils are subject to the rules that govern local councils while the system councils are formed by the International President for collective bargaining purposes under the direction of the president. If the local union is unable to establish a railroad council, they can be able to form a system council to address any disagreements that arise (IBEW, 2005). Appointment of Union Members According to the union Constitution, the various officers of the IBEW are usually nominated and elected by delegates who have been duly selected in the International Convention. The circumstances under which International Officers are chosen for the post of International President and International Secretary-Treasurer in the IBEW is when either of the two officers dies before completing their term, their term contract has expired, they are found to be in violation of the union Constitution or they have committed an offense that is deemed punishable by the International Convention (IBEW Constitution, 2008). The only requirement for a person to be elected to any of the positions is that they should have a five-year standing relationship with the union. This basically means that union members who have not had any violations or charges placed against them can be able to apply for the post of International President or International Secretary-Treasurer. The two International Officers are usually elected by secret ballot or per capita tax votes when there is more than one candidate for the position. Once they are selected, they are expected to assume office in 30 days and they can serve for a term of five years until their successors are nominated and elected (IBEW Constitution, 2008). Other positions that are elected in the IBEW include the eleven positions for vice presidents which are usually elected by the respective vice presidential districts and the delegates that fall unde r the International Convention who are usually elected through a secret ballot election. The positions that are appointed within the IBEW include the Resolutions Committee which is appointed by the International President to document any resolutions to trade disputes that have occurred between employers and employees of the trade union. The positions and offices within the Railroad Councils and the System Councils are also appointed by the International President in the IBEW where the IP follows the bylaws of the Constitution when selecting the various members of these councils (IBEW Constitution, 2008). Culture of the Union The culture that exists in IBEW is that of reform and business unionism where the union is interested in offering its members fair housing and better working conditions as well as attaining a 5% wage increase for all its members under IBEW. The history of IBEW has been one of business unionism and reform where the various officer holders have tried to negotiate for better working and living conditions for the various members under the union. As a result of reformist cultures within IBEW, the wages and working conditions of the union’s members have improved considerably when compared to other industries in the country. Because of the culture of reform and socialist unionism, members of IBEW have been able to enjoy better health care and welfare services as well as improved pension benefits, longer holiday vacations and shorter workdays. These reforms have been able to take place because of the cultivation of intelligent people to manage the affairs of the union (IBEW, 2005). The culture of reform has been instilled in the various office holders to necessitate changes for employees working within the electrical industry so that they can enjoy proper working conditions as well as long-term benefits. The heritage of IBEW is vibrant and strong as the various beliefs and value systems practiced by all previous office holders have been pas sed down the line of successors. The use of local leadership has also enhanced the culture of reform within the union where talented and tenacious leaders have been selected to represent the union in various forums. Proper leadership has ensured that a culture of social reform is established in the union where the individual needs of members and their beneficiaries/families are addressed to maintain a high standard (IBEW, 2005). The mission and priorities of IBEW include organizing all workers in the US or Canadian electrical industry and other member countries as well as organize workers in the public utility and electrical manufacturing industry. IBEW is also charged with promoting reasonable work conditions for its members as well as reasonable salaries and wages. Another mission of IBEW is to settle any disputes that might occur between the employers and employees of the organization and also assist each of the members and their families through periods of distress, death and si ckness or material loss. The main priority of IBEW is to reduce the number of hours daily laborers such as the wiremen and linesmen work as well as seek higher compensation, improved standards of living and working for its members (Hill, 2008). Union Mergers In 1908 when the union was experiencing a period of success and stability, an internal struggle emerged within the organization that saw the secession of a large percentage of the Brotherhood. This split was mostly caused by a growing dissension amongst the wiremen and linemen of the poor management of the union’s high-ranking offices. At the same time, employers within the electrical industry were bent on destroying the Brotherhood so they fostered the internal struggles that were taking place within the union at that time. The secession that took place IBEW was referred to as the Reid-Murphy split after the two officers who were elected by the seceding factions of the split (IBEW, 2005). While the Reid-Murphy group spli t from the Brotherhood, Frank J. McNulty and Peter W. Collins remained the recognized office holders of the Brotherhood. The result of the secession saw two trade unions being formed to address the concerns of employees in the electrical industry with the Reid-Murphy faction having the majority of members. The structure of the Brotherhood was not affect in a major way as McNulty and Collins were able to remain as the official office holders of the union but their functions were somehow impeded because of the separation of funds and resources between the two factions. These split was however reversed by a court decision in 1912 that saw the 1908 Convention null and void. Union funds that had been taken by both factions were restored to the recognized group under the union Constitution by the court. The seceding group later merged with the Brotherhood in 1914 after they agreed to end their differences and focus on serving the needs of IBEW members (IBEW, 2005). Union Affiliations In 1 982, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers become affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Labor to enhance its activities of safeguarding the welfare of wiremen and linemen in Canada while in 1989, IBEW entered into an affiliation with the committee on political education (COPE). This was meant to improve the involvement of organized labor in the active education and registration of voters during the union election process. Another affiliation that the IBEW had was with the Canadian Labor Congress in 1997 which has been identified as a re-affiliation in the historical records of the Brotherhood. The unions and associations that have allied themselves with IBEW include the Electrical Workers’ Benefit Association, the Canadian Signal and Communications Union and the Pension Investment and Employee Benefits Department (IBEW, 2005). Conclusion The sole purpose of this study has been to analyze the structure and governance of IBEW, a union that deals with the labo r issues of employees working in the electrical industry. The discussion has focused on the structure of the union by looking at the various positions and office holders that make up the union as well as examining the various roles and responsibilities that these members play in the union. The study has also focused on the various governing bodies that govern the operations of IBEW which include the International Convention and the International Executive Council. The study in general has been an analytical analysis of the various faucets and bodies that make up the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Questions Qn.1: Sections 1 up to 21 of Article XX of the AFL-CIO Constitution sets forth the various provisions that will guide the relationships of affiliates within the Federation and how each of the affiliates should relate with other affiliate members within AFL-CIO. For example Section two of the article sets forth that every affiliate member of the organization shall observe the established collective bargaining relationships that exist amongst the affiliate members of the organization which means that no member affiliate will attempt to represent employees who have an established collective bargaining relationship with another affiliate in the federation. Article XX is important for unions such as IBEW as it provides an established work relationship amongst the various unions that fall under AFL-CIO. The article provides a basic framework of how unions representing the interest of employees in one industry should conduct themselves to avoid any union disputes. Article XXI of the AFL-CIO Constitution talks about the organizing of responsibility procedures where the various member affiliates of the federation resolve to organize competition in situations where competition might be detrimental in serving the best interests of workers. This article is important for unions that want to represent the interests of workers from one industry. Section 2 of the article stipulates that any affiliate members of the federation that is actively engaged in representing and organizing employees from a particular industry can be able to seek for authority to enable them be the exclusive representative of these employees within that industry. Article XXI is therefore meant to limit the amount of competition amongst unions willing to represent the interests of workers within one industry (AFL-CIO, 2011). Qn. 2: One constituent group of the AFL-CIO is the coalition of black trade unionists (CBTU) which serves the needs of African American workers in the United States. While CBTU is not a civil rights organization, it provides the black workers in the US with a forum within the union movement to voice their concerns about organized labour in the country. The mission of CBTU is to meet the working needs of African Americans within the US by presenting their concerns to the union movement, AFL-CIO. The main activities of the organization includ e; improving the economic development of black workers by providing suitable employment opportunities, working together with the trade union movement so as to provide a voice for black workers in America, increase the union involvement of black workers by increasing awareness through voter education and voter registration, actively supporting civil rights groups that are trying to improve the working conditions of black people within the country and organizing black or minority group workers who are unorganized (CBTU, 2011). CBTU provides value to its members as it seeks to support programs and initiatives aimed at reducing the level of unemployment amongst black Americans in the United States. The organization collaborates with school systems to ensure that black students are equipped with the necessary skills that will allow them to gain useful employment once they complete their education. CBTU also adds value to its members by looking for ways to deal with the escalating prices in food, housing and medical services. It has established important alliances with various organizations within the American community to ensure that the financial burden is reduced (CBTU, 2011). Qn.3: One campaign under the Change to Win affiliate program is the Warehouse Workers United campaign where the Warehouse Workers United is an organization that seeks to represent the interests of warehouse workers in California’s Inland Empire. The main purpose of the organization is to join all warehouse workers together so as to improve their working conditions and also build a better future for the workers and their families. The Change to Win campaign for the Warehouse Workers United is focused on improving the terms of pay as well as working conditions for all warehouse workers in the Inland Empire. The Change to Win campaign for these workers is meant to build an effective response to the poor assault on worker rights by forming a stronger labour movement that will provide hop e to many minimum wage workers. Change to Win has the ability to affect a response from the various unions in America as it has the voice and the support of stronger affiliate federations such as AFL-CIO in addressing the concerns of workers such as the Warehouse Workers United (Warehouse Workers United, 2011). References AFL-CIO (2011). AFL-CIO Constitution; article XX and XXI. Retrieved from: aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/constitution/art21.cfm CBTU (2011). About CBTU: mission statement. Retrieved from: cbtu.org/mission.html Hill, E.D. (2008). Constructing Bright futures. IBEW Journal, 107(2): 1- 52 IBEW (2005). International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: History and  Structure. Retrieved from: ibew.org/IBEW/history/Form%20169%20-%20History%20and%20Structure.pdf IBEW Constitution (2008). IBEW Constitution as amended SEP. 2006 at Cleveland,  Ohio. Retrieved from: http://ibewminuteman.com/ibew_constitution/article-2.php IBEW Union (2011). IBEW union dues structure. Ret rieved from: ibew.org/1stdistrict/organizing/ibew_structure.htm Warehouse Workers United (2011). Why we fight. Retrieved from: warehouseworkersunited.org/index.php?id=why-we-fight

Cat Connotations

Cat Connotations Cat Connotations Cat Connotations By Mark Nichol I recently discussed senses of words for various species from the dog family as they apply to human behavior and characteristics. Every dog has its day, but now it’s time for the cats to come out. 1. Cat This word for any feline or, specifically, the small domesticated species became a term of contempt for a woman and slang for a prostitute (brothels have been called cathouses), and vicious or sniping comments or behavior, probably from an association with the behavior of agitated cats, are still referred to as catty. Similarly, noisy protests from spectators at a performance or competition are referred to as catcalls, presumably from the unpleasant sound of cats howling out during fighting or courtship. However, cat also came, first in Black English and then in more widespread usage, to be synonymous with fellow or guy and became a label for a jazz aficionado. A fat cat is, by analogy with the physical aspect of an obese feline, a wealthy, self-satisfied person. Many idioms and expressions employ the word cat, including proverbial references to cats having nine lives and letting the cat out of the bag. 2. Cougar This relatively recent slang term, from an analogy with feline predation, refers to older women who seek younger males as sex partners. 3. Kitten The word for a young cat applies to a seductive or alluring woman; it’s sometimes expanded to â€Å"sex kitten.† 4. Lion Because of this animal’s regal nature, its name is used to celebrate noble bearing; the word also alludes to bravery (as in the epithet Lionhearted) but also to greed or tyranny. The verb lionize refers to adulation; leonine is an adjective that often describes a person’s feline appearance or comportment. 5. Tiger The ferocious nature of the tiger has inspired the use of its name to express admiration for a person’s tenacity or competitive spirit. By contrast, a paper tiger is just what the idiom suggests: an apparently powerful entity that is not a force or a threat. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 Idioms with Heart36 Poetry TermsWriting Styles (with Examples)

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Chemistry - Lab Report Example 31). Since acids and bases readily react with each other, it is experimentally quite easy to find the amount of acid in a solution by determining how many moles of base are required to neutralize it. This operation is called titration, and you should already be familiar with it from your work in the Laboratory (Harris 2006, Pg. 06). We can titrate an acid with a base, or a base with an acid. The substance whose concentration we are determining is the substance being titrated; the substance we are adding in measured amounts is the titrant. The idea is to add titrant until the solution has been exactly neutralized; at this point, the number of moles of titrant added tells us the concentration of base (or acid) in the solution being titrated (Harris 2006, Pg. 8). In this schematic reaction, base1 is conjugate to acid1, and acid2 is conjugate to base2. The term conjugate means â€Å"connected with†, the implication being that any species and its conjugate species are related by the gain or loss of one proton. The Arrhenius view of an acid is a substance that dissociates in water to produce a hydrogen ion. There is a serious problem with this, however: the hydrogen ion is no more than a proton, a bare nucleus. Although it carries only a single unit of positive charge, this charge is concentrated into a volume of space that is only about a hundred-millionth as large as the volume occupied by the smallest atom. Owing to its extremely small size, the proton will be attracted to any part of a nearby atom or molecule in which there is an excess of negative charge. Such places exist on any atom that possesses non-bonding electrons, and here that protons attach themselves to the acceptor atom by forming a shared-electron (coordinate) bond with the lone pair (Silbey 2006, Pg. 42). Interestingly, experiments indicate that the proton does not stick to a single H2 O molecule, but changes

Ciba-Geigy Case Study Essays for MBA Strategy Subject Essay

Ciba-Geigy Case Study Essays for MBA Strategy Subject - Essay Example The principle markets for this segment comprised of North America, Western Europe, South East and Japan. The industry consolidated, following the oil crisis in the 1970’s, and had become increasingly competitive with high entry and exit barriers requiring environmentally sound production techniques and high investment. But, Ciba, in spite of the adverse market conditions, on the strength of its innovative products had managed to achieve steady growth in its pigment business making pigments a strong performer within the industrial divisions. Some of the biggest customers of Ciba were in America and Japan, and during the year 1994, U.S. sales accounted for approximately 40% of its total sales for HPPs, besides, Ciba was the second largest employer in the state of Delaware, which added to the several strengths of the company and strengthened the argument in favor of investing in the Newport plant project. According to the portfolio planning initiative that took place in the year 1994, under the guidance and leadership of Verena Laanio, certain categories were designed and developed which aimed at serving three main functions: first, to serve as a resource allocation device, second, to manage the overall portfolio in terms of cash and growth; and third to provide management focus on the appropriate key success factors for each stage in the lifecycle. According to Ciba’s portfolio planning guidelines for core businesses, the Pigment’s division was responsible for increasing cash flows by about 50 million Swiss francs per annum, thus satisfying the company’s primary target. Secondly, Ciba’s pigment division head, Mark Schutz, assured the management of maintaining the required levels of 10% RONA, which at its very worst would dip to 6%, satisfying the second target set by the company. After the company’s reorganization, its businesses were divided into 33 segments which were further sorted into five categories;

Catch-22 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Catch-22 - Research Paper Example He was ready to comply with the U.S. Air Force standard of twenty-five combat missions and go home. However, Colonel Cathkart dreaming of fame at any cost, patriotically increases the number of required missions and it makes Yossarian’s desire to go home unreal. Actually, in some time Yossarian begins to fight worse and worse. Going up in the air he has a single goal – to return alive, and he totally does not care where they drop bombs – on the enemy’s object, or in the sea. But the commanders fight bravely, ready to carry out the most daring operations, as long as their subordinates risk their lives. They heroically disregard the dangers borne by others. It is not a problem to bomb the Italian mountain village, even without warning civilians. They are not afraid that there will be casualties, since it will create a perfect jam for enemy equipment. They are fiercely fighting each other for a place under the sun. Thus, General Peckem is plotting the defeat of the insidious enemy, which is the other American General Dreedle. For the sake of the general’s epaulettes Cathkart mercilessly exploits his pilots. Each of the many characters in this literary mural has its own war to win in, and for the victory they would spare neither effort nor life, someone else’s life. ... , gaining freedom), it serves not only to reveal the image of the protagonist of the novel Yossarian, but also the ideological and philosophical perspectives of Catch-22. Images and perspectives are revealed step by step: with each new episode of the central themes of the novel acquire new sensual fullness and variety of interpretations: The most significant aspect of the structure of Catch-22 is its chronology. Behind what appears to be merely random events lies a careful system of time-sequences involving two distinct and mutually contradictory chronologies (Gaukroger 71). This is largely due to the multi-faceted structure of the novel, â€Å"disparate elements of its structure as the seeming chaos of its surface text and its unrelenting comedy† (Woodson 153). Chaotic at first glance, the text of the first chapters of in the end of the novel acquires a clear structure; isolated episodes are arranged into a single event line. With immersion into the atmosphere of Catch-22 a c omic element is reduced to a bitter sarcasm and almost disappears in the final chapters. According to Joseph Heller: But certainly there is nothing funny about death; there is nothing funny about the death of a young man, and the fact I often in Catch-22 present the death of somebody in a flippant or disrespectful way was not only intended to have almost a contrapuntal effect—to avoid sentimentality—but also to make it perhaps more effective by dismissing the seriousness of death briefly as well (quoted in Meredith 50) Absurdity, which at the beginning of the novel is perceived more as a literary device, is gradually revealed as an existentialist category. The same event is described repeatedly, shown through the lens of views of different characters, the same facts are presented in different

Ciba-Geigy Case Study Essays for MBA Strategy Subject Essay

Ciba-Geigy Case Study Essays for MBA Strategy Subject - Essay Example The principle markets for this segment comprised of North America, Western Europe, South East and Japan. The industry consolidated, following the oil crisis in the 1970’s, and had become increasingly competitive with high entry and exit barriers requiring environmentally sound production techniques and high investment. But, Ciba, in spite of the adverse market conditions, on the strength of its innovative products had managed to achieve steady growth in its pigment business making pigments a strong performer within the industrial divisions. Some of the biggest customers of Ciba were in America and Japan, and during the year 1994, U.S. sales accounted for approximately 40% of its total sales for HPPs, besides, Ciba was the second largest employer in the state of Delaware, which added to the several strengths of the company and strengthened the argument in favor of investing in the Newport plant project. According to the portfolio planning initiative that took place in the year 1994, under the guidance and leadership of Verena Laanio, certain categories were designed and developed which aimed at serving three main functions: first, to serve as a resource allocation device, second, to manage the overall portfolio in terms of cash and growth; and third to provide management focus on the appropriate key success factors for each stage in the lifecycle. According to Ciba’s portfolio planning guidelines for core businesses, the Pigment’s division was responsible for increasing cash flows by about 50 million Swiss francs per annum, thus satisfying the company’s primary target. Secondly, Ciba’s pigment division head, Mark Schutz, assured the management of maintaining the required levels of 10% RONA, which at its very worst would dip to 6%, satisfying the second target set by the company. After the company’s reorganization, its businesses were divided into 33 segments which were further sorted into five categories;

The Entry into Practice for the Family Nurse Practitioner Essay

The Entry into Practice for the Family Nurse Practitioner - Essay Example This facility is in a rural medically-underserved area where the clinic is part of the hospital system – but is not a hospital in the strictest sense. The clinic, however, shares the tax ID number with the hospital. It is also a provider-based health clinic (more on family practice and services). It is well-funded and is qualified under health provider shortage and medically-underserved categorization. In this sense, it is qualified to use either category, depending on need and on advantages. It is a small community of fewer than 20,000 inhabitants but it would likely serve more than one county or community. This type of town is one where everyone would most likely know each other. All the providers would have an LVN and the clinic has a clinic manager who would be acting as a liaison between the clinic and the hospital CEO; this manager would also be an intake coordinator; he would also coordinate staff for rescheduling, for billing, and for referrals. Pros and cons of workin g in identified arrangement One of the advantages of working in the identified arrangement are that the provider would be able to get to know his patients and the circumstances surrounding his patients’ lives. Such an arrangement helps the provider administer the best type of care for his patients. Assessing the patient within his home environment is one of the ways for a provider to reach maximum efficacy (Hunt, 2008). The provider would not have much difficulty in evaluating his patients in their home setting because the community is small. Moreover, the provider would already know where the available resources are and know who would likely have access to such resources (Buppert, 2007). For the more specialized needs of the community, the clinic schedules specialists to visit at different times each month in order to reduce the need for patients having to travel to distant places to seek medical care. In the end, this practice helps ensure continuity of care for the patient s. Continuity of care is an important aspect of healthcare because it helps ensure that the patient would be fully monitored throughout his illness and would be able to eventually gain full recovery (Haggerty, et.al., 2008). Disadvantages are however also apparent in this set-up. For one, not many people would prefer living in medically-underserved areas because of the difficulty in accessing adequate and quality medical care (Shi and Singh, 2008). The more technical and higher level of services would be limited in this area. I noted however that the clinic where I precept conducts many high-level services because the health professionals in the clinic are very skilled. Throughout their years of practice in the rural setting, they have picked up and mastered various skills. They have encountered various patients and have come up with different ways to treat them or to stabilize them long enough to reach the next referral hospital. Even with the disadvantages which practitioners have encountered in the rural practice, the clinic has managed to work around its challenges and provide the best quality of services it can provide. It is important to note also that there are not as many positions for practitioners in the rural setting; the pay scale is lower than the average pay. The cost of services is however also lower than the cost of services appear in the urban setting.  

The PESTEL Framework Essay Example for Free

The PESTEL Framework Essay The PESTEL framework examines the six main macro environmental influencing factors of companies: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. These influences determine the future success or failure of the corporate strategies. The political influence include the role of the governments; economics embraces the macro economic factors such as growth rate, exchange rates and business cycles; the social component stands for changing cultures and demographics; technological influences include innovations; environment refers to the â€Å"green† issues including pollution and waste; and legal entails legislative changes and constraints. Gerry(2008) argues that identifying the key drivers for change helps to focus on the important PESTEL factors. Based on those managers can make the optimal decision for effective action. Thus, the key drivers for change determine the success or failure of a strategy. For instance the clothing retailers are concerned about the social changes which drive consumer taste and behaviour. When there is a high uncertainty in the business environment due to complexity or rapid change, it is unlikely to build a single vision of how the environment can affect companies’ strategies.

Genetically Modified Plants in Agriculture :: GMOs Genetically Modified Foods

Genetically Modified Plants in Agriculture The use of agriculture to grow edible plants is an essential step in the worldwide goal of nations to maintain self-sufficiency. Through agriculture, crops are raised by the cultivation of soils, in conjunction with the biological processes that allow for plant growth. In recent years, genetic engineering has enabled plant scientists to insert genes from one type of plant species, which will express a desired trait, into a different plant species that had not been able to obtain the genes through cross fertilization or other natural pathways. The possibilities arising from the use of genetically modified (GM) plants seem as an excellent answer to the overwhelming problems of environmental degradation and food instability worldwide, but society is now faced with the possible implications that could occur with an influx of "new" plants. These implications lead to a massive debate ranging from health issues to who owns seeds that are produced by GM plants. Included in this debate as well is the question of how much power should be given to large multinational companies who have developed the new technology. Farming and agricultural methods have become far more complex, as they have evolved throughout time. Ancient methods allowed for the taming of plants and animals to provide for a transition from nomadic lifestyles of constantly moving in search of food and water, to the agricultural lifestyle of self-sufficiency at a permanent residence. Evolution in the complexity of agricultural methods and techniques has occurred in part due to a search for maximum efficiency by an advancing society. Efficiency has always been a dominant motivational factor for new techniques to be allocated in this field, and in this last century, especially in the last decade, changes unfathomable to farmers past and present have taken place along the lines of efficiency. Along with increased use of fertilizers, high-yielding hybrid seed varieties that have been produced by plant breeding techniques have dramatically increased the average production per land area. In recent years, the scientific community has developed a process enabling genetic engineers to insert genes expressing a desired trait into crops that had not been able to obtain these genes from other species through cross fertilization methods. These genes can then be passed down to the seeds of the newly recombined plant and will be expressed in the generations following. The Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources better describes how genetic modification technology affects agriculture in the present era:

A Clean Well-Lighted Place :: A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essays

A Clean Well-Lighted Place Today in class we talked about plot in relation to "A & P" by John Updike. I had always thought of plot as just being the sequence of events, but after our reading assignment I realize that there is much more to it. I’d never thought of looking for plot in things like patterns. My reaction to "A & P" is mixed because I disagree with the main character being a hero (as Updike intended). While reading the story I thought that the girls who came into the store were merely looking for attention. I feel this way because the girls were prancing around in their bathing suits, which was probably a big deal in 1961, and the fact that ‘Queenie’ kept her money between her breasts shows that she was obviously trying to provoke a reaction. Other than the fact that one of the girls blushed when asked to leave I don’t think they were embarrassed and I don’t think the main character was trying to be particularly heroic. I gathered from all the sexual description tha t he was only interested in the girls physically. I also think that he just hated his job at the A & P because it was boring, since he always refers to the customers as a type of farm animal, and was just looking for an excuse to quit. What better excuse to quit than one that might make him look good to some cute girls? He would be through with his boring job and might score a date. We also talked about point of new in relation to "Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty today. I’ve never read anything where I really didn’t trust the narrator like in this story. I though the story was confusing because I could never figure out who was telling the truth. Sister seemed to have a very slanted view on things and thought that everyone was ‘out to get her’. Since the story was told from her (an unreliable narrator) point of view it gave me a feeling of turmoil like I have when I experience an argument in my own home. In that way Welty achieved her goal of making the reader feel involved in the story. I guess that Welty explained why Sister lives at the P.O., but I don’t understand why she thought anyone would care. A Clean Well-Lighted Place :: A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essays A Clean Well-Lighted Place Today in class we talked about plot in relation to "A & P" by John Updike. I had always thought of plot as just being the sequence of events, but after our reading assignment I realize that there is much more to it. I’d never thought of looking for plot in things like patterns. My reaction to "A & P" is mixed because I disagree with the main character being a hero (as Updike intended). While reading the story I thought that the girls who came into the store were merely looking for attention. I feel this way because the girls were prancing around in their bathing suits, which was probably a big deal in 1961, and the fact that ‘Queenie’ kept her money between her breasts shows that she was obviously trying to provoke a reaction. Other than the fact that one of the girls blushed when asked to leave I don’t think they were embarrassed and I don’t think the main character was trying to be particularly heroic. I gathered from all the sexual description tha t he was only interested in the girls physically. I also think that he just hated his job at the A & P because it was boring, since he always refers to the customers as a type of farm animal, and was just looking for an excuse to quit. What better excuse to quit than one that might make him look good to some cute girls? He would be through with his boring job and might score a date. We also talked about point of new in relation to "Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty today. I’ve never read anything where I really didn’t trust the narrator like in this story. I though the story was confusing because I could never figure out who was telling the truth. Sister seemed to have a very slanted view on things and thought that everyone was ‘out to get her’. Since the story was told from her (an unreliable narrator) point of view it gave me a feeling of turmoil like I have when I experience an argument in my own home. In that way Welty achieved her goal of making the reader feel involved in the story. I guess that Welty explained why Sister lives at the P.O., but I don’t understand why she thought anyone would care.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 2

He Does Not Preach Pessimism My workout is interrupted midday, when Mom descends the basement stairs and says I have an appointment with Dr. Patel. I ask if I can go later that night, after I have completed my daily weights routine, but Mom says I'll have to go back to the bad place in Baltimore if I do not keep my appointments with Dr. Patel, and she even references the court ruling, telling me I can read the paperwork if I don't believe her. So I shower, and then Mom drives me to Dr. Patel's office, which is the first floor of a big house in Voorhees, just off Haddonfield – Berlin Road. When we arrive, I take a seat in the waiting room as Mom fills out some more paperwork. By now, ten trees must have been cut down just to document my mental health, which Nikki will hate hearing, as she is an avid environmentalist who gave me at least one tree in the rain forest every Christmas – which was really only a piece of paper stating I owned the tree – and I do feel bad now for making fun of those gifts and won't ever poke fun at the diminishing rain forest in the future when Nikki comes back. As I sit there flipping through a Sports Illustrated, listening to the easy-listening station Dr. Patel pumps into his waiting room, suddenly I'm hearing sexy synthesizer chords, faint highhat taps, the kick drum thumping out an erotic heartbeat, the twinkling of fairy dust, and then the evil bright soprano saxophone. You know the title: â€Å"Songbird.† And I'm out of my seat, screaming, kicking chairs, flipping the coffee table, picking up piles of magazines and throwing them against the wall, yelling, â€Å"It's not fair! I won't tolerate any tricks! I'm not an emotional lab rat!† And then a small Indian man – maybe only five feet tall, wearing a cable-knit sweater in August, suit pants, and shiny white tennis shoes – is calmly asking me what's wrong. â€Å"Turn off that music!† I yell. â€Å"Shut it off! Right now!† The tiny man is Dr. Patel, I realize, because he tells his secretary to turn off the music, and when she obeys, Kenny G is out of my head and I stop yelling. I cover my face with my hands so no one will see me crying, and after a minute or so, my mother begins rubbing my back. So much silence – and then Dr. Patel asks me into his office. I follow him reluctantly as Mom helps the secretary clean up the mess I made. His office is pleasantly strange. Two leather recliners face each other, and spider-looking plants – long vines full of white-and-green leaves – hang down from the ceiling to frame the bay window that overlooks a stone birdbath and a garden of colorful flowers. But there is absolutely nothing else in the room except a box of tissues on the short length of floor between the recliners. The floor is a shiny yellow hardwood, and the ceiling and walls are painted to look like the sky – real-looking clouds float all around the office, which I take as a good omen, since I love clouds. A single light occupies the center of the ceiling, like a glowing upside-down vanilla-icing cake, but the ceiling around the light is painted to look like the sun. Friendly rays shoot out from the center. I have to admit I feel calm as soon as I enter Dr. Patel's office and do not really mind anymore that I heard the Kenny G song. Dr. Patel asks me which recliner I want to relax in. I pick the black over the brown and immediately regret my decision, thinking that choosing black makes me seem more depressed than if I had chosen brown, and really, I'm not depressed at all. When Dr. Patel sits down, he pulls the lever on the side of his chair, which makes the footrest rise. He leans back and laces his fingers behind his tiny head, as if he were about to watch a ball game. â€Å"Relax,† he says. â€Å"And no Dr. Patel. Call me Cliff. I like to keep sessions informal. Friendly, right?† He seems nice enough, so I pull my lever, lean back, and try to relax. â€Å"So,† he says. â€Å"The Kenny G song really got to you. I can't say I'm a fan either, but †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. When I open my eyes, he says, â€Å"You want to talk about Kenny G?† I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. â€Å"Okay. Want to tell me about Nikki?† â€Å"Why do you want to know about Nikki?† I say, too defensively, I admit. â€Å"If I am going to help you, Pat, I need to know you, right? Your mother tells me you wish to be reunited with Nikki, that this is your biggest life goal – so I figure we best start there.† I begin to feel better because he does not say a reunion is out of the question, which seems to imply that Dr. Patel feels as though reconciling with my wife is still possible. â€Å"Nikki? She's great,† I say, and then smile, feeling the warmth that fills my chest whenever I say her name, whenever I see her face in my mind. â€Å"She's the best thing that ever happened to me. I love her more than life itself. And I just can't wait until apart time is over.† â€Å"Apart time?† â€Å"Yeah. Apart time.† â€Å"What is apart time?† â€Å"A few months ago I agreed to give Nikki some space, and she agreed to come back to me when she felt like she had worked out her own issues enough so we could be together again. So we are sort of separated, but only temporarily.† â€Å"Why did you separate?† â€Å"Mostly because I didn't appreciate her and was a workaholic – chairing the Jefferson High School History Department and coaching three sports. I was never home, and she got lonely. Also I sort of let my appearance go, to the point where I was maybe ten to seventy pounds overweight, but I'm working on all that and am now more than willing to go into couples counseling like she wanted me to, because I'm a changed man.† â€Å"Did you set a date?† â€Å"A date?† â€Å"For the end of apart time.† â€Å"No.† â€Å"So apart time is something that will go on indefinitely?† â€Å"Theoretically, I guess – yes. Especially since I'm not allowed to contact Nikki or her family.† â€Å"Why's that?† â€Å"Umm †¦ I don't know, really. I mean – I love my in-laws as much as I love Nikki. But it doesn't matter, because I'm thinking that Nikki will be back sooner than later, and then she'll straighten everything out with her parents.† â€Å"On what do you base your thinking?† he asks, but nicely, with a friendly smile on his face. â€Å"I believe in happy endings,† I tell him. â€Å"And it feels like this movie has gone on for the right amount of time.† â€Å"Movie?† Dr. Patel says, and I think he would look exactly like Gandhi if he had those wire-rim glasses and a shaved head, which is weird, especially since we are in leather recliners in such a bright, happy room and well, Gandhi is dead, right? â€Å"Yeah,† I say. â€Å"Haven't you ever noticed that life is like a series of movies?† â€Å"No. Tell me.† â€Å"Well, you have adventures. All start out with troubles, but then you admit your problems and become a better person by working really hard, which is what fertilizes the happy ending and allows it to bloom – just like the end of all the Rocky films, Rudy, The Karate Kid, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, and The Goonies, which are my favorite films, even though I have sworn off movies until Nikki returns, because now my own life is the movie I will watch, and well, it's always on. Plus I know it's almost time for the happy ending, when Nikki will come back, because I have improved myself so very much through physical fitness and medication and therapy.† â€Å"Oh, I see.† Dr. Patel smiles. â€Å"I like happy endings too, Pat.† â€Å"So you agree with me. You think my wife will come back soon?† â€Å"Time will tell,† Dr. Patel says, and I know right then that Cliff and I are going to get along, because he does not preach pessimism like Dr. Timbers and the staff at the bad place; Cliff doesn't say I need to face what he thinks is my reality. â€Å"It's funny, because all the other therapists I've seen said that Nikki wouldn't be back. Even after I told them about the life improvements I have been making, how I am bettering myself, they still were always ‘hating on me,' which is an expression I learned from my black friend Danny.† â€Å"People can be cruel,† he says with a sympathetic look that makes me trust him even more. And right then I realize that he is not writing down all my words in a file, which I really appreciate, let me tell you. I tell him I like the room, and we talk about my love of clouds and how most people lose the ability to see silver linings even though they are always there above us almost every day. I ask him questions about his family, just to be nice, and it turns out he has a daughter whose high school field hockey team is ranked second in South Jersey. Also he has a son in elementary school who wants to be a ventriloquist and even practices nightly with a wooden dummy named Grover Cleveland, who, incidentally, was also the only U.S. president to serve two terms that were not back-to-back. I don't really get why Cliff's son named his wooden dummy after our twenty-second and twenty-fourth president, although I do not say so. Next, Cliff says he has a wife named Sonja, who painted the room so beautifully, which leads to our discussion about how great women are and how it's important to treasure your woman while you have her because if you don't, you can lose her pretty quickly – as God really wants us to appreciate our women. I tell Cliff I hope he never has to experience apart time, and he says he hopes my apart time will end soon, which is a pretty nice thing to say. Before I leave, Cliff says he will be changing my medication, which could lead to some unwanted side effects, and that I have to report any discomfort or sleeplessness or anxiety or anything else to my mother immediately – because it might take some time for him to find the right combination of drugs – and I promise him I will. On the drive home I tell my mother I really like Dr. Cliff Patel and am feeling much more hopeful about my therapy. I thank her for getting me out of the bad place, saying Nikki is far more likely to come to Collingswood than to a mental institution, and when I say this, Mom starts to cry, which is so strange. She even pulls off the road, rests her head against the steering wheel, and with the engine running, she cries for a long time – sniffling and trembling and making crying noises. So I rub her back, like she did for me in Dr. Patel's office when that certain song came on, and after ten minutes or so, she simply stops crying and drives me home. To make up for the hour I spent sitting around with Cliff, I work out until late in the evening, and when I go to bed, my father is still in his office with the door shut, so another day passes without my talking to Dad. I think it's strange to live in a house with someone you cannot talk to – especially when that someone is your father – and the thought makes me a little sad. Since Mom has not been to the library yet, I have nothing to read. So I close my eyes and think about Nikki until she comes to be with me in my dreams – like always.