Robert Grosseteste And Thomas Aquinas - 1832 Words

â€Å"The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.† (President Richard Nixon, 1972). Throughout history, the Jewish community has been a target of constant discrimination and prejudice as a result of their historical interaction with the Christian Messiah. Often labeled as â€Å"God-killers† and portrayed as the faction who prevented the ultimate saving of humanity, governments and social groups have often used Jews as a scapegoat to deflect any political and/or social turmoil that might exist. Robert Grosseteste, a prominent philosopher of the twelfth century, heavily nurtured this sense of hate and abhor towards the Jews of England. In his letter to Margaret de Quincy, Countess of Lincoln, we see Grosseteste’s compelling desire†¦show more content†¦Grosseteste starts his letter by reminding Margaret of the fact that Jews are responsible for â€Å"...killing the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ.† Through the portrayal of Jews as the people responsible for killing humanity’s savior, Grosseteste is able to justify his ideology regarding the treatment of the Jewish community. Furthermore, this short introduction helps set the tone for the rest of the letter. The strong imagery and graphic diction used permeates most sentences and leads to a tone that resembles hate and inspires discrimination against Jews. Grosseteste goes to far lengths to try to convince Margaret de Quincy to ensure that these new Jews are given the lowest status available in their communities and to prevent them from leading normal and successful lives due to their past. One of the major topics discussed by Grosseteste throughout the letter is the belief that Jews are condemned to hard labor as a result of their original sin. He comments on the fact that, â€Å"A curse is upon this people...not only the curse of sin, but also the curse of punishment.† Grosseteste constantly refers back to this statement to ensure that Jews are held below any Christian practitioner. This punishment often appears in the form of hard labor for their Christian leaders and the low yield of crops regardless of how much hard work and dedication is put into the task. Grosseteste further believes that it

The Essay Topics on Higher Education Trap

The Essay Topics on Higher Education Trap Inspiration to make your own advertising or media argumentative essay topics isn't really hard to discover. Selecting the proper topic for a persuasive speech is occasionally not such an easy issue to do as it might appear. Advertising and the media are now nearly inseparable from society for a whole. A persuasive essay is a powerful tool when you will need to supply a new vision of a specific topic for the reader. The written reflection also acts as a source of reference and evidence later on. You will need to back up your viewpoint with well-researched facts and data also. You might be able to compose a quick essay on education. Thus, you've got to make the very best effort for composing the most informative and appealing thesis statement on education. Likewise you've got to earn your thesis statement highly informative. The thesis will provide you with a guideline on how best to go about with writing the essay. So make sure you ensure it is clear in your essay which side you're on. An essay is a part of argumentative writing about one topic. Customized essay is the ideal solution to prevent painstaking procedure of essay writing. Argumentative essays may also need empiric research when an individual has to collect materials by interviews, observations or private experiments. Hope this list provides you a fantastic essay writing help. If you should choose the subject of your essay about education, you have arrived at the perfect location. When you begin researching on the subject of education, you might come across several things to write for your thesis. Still, figuring out the ideal topic for your essay isn't your only concern for a student. What You Don't Know About Essay Topics on Higher Education Education has become the most important element which plays a good part in the creation of a person and a nation. It plays a vital role in shaping successful people. It is an essential tool for bright future for all of us. School education plays a good part in everybody's life. Ultimately, cultural differences also alter the access to college education together with the high expenses of college education (McDonough, 1998). Without any sort of language, an individual can't achieve success in the education. It gives us the chance to turn into a productive member of a civilized society by acquiring all the vital skills. Another reason why getting a greater education is extremely valuable is because it offers lots of new opportunities to students they would not be able to get without having attended a university. Speaking about the value of education isn't the only choice for writing papers on higher education. Parents want to play a more active part in their kids' education. The Honest to Goodness Truth on Essay Topics on Higher Education Maybe you found working with children rewarding since you wish to be a teacher someday, or maybe you created your own workout regimen to acquire fit. Education is crucial tool for all to succeed in life and get something different. Each course only takes around 15 minutes. Education time is an essential portion of life for everybody personally and socially. It is an essential tool for everyone to get success in life and earn respect and recognition.

Assignment on Self Assessment for Core Leadership -myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theAssignment on Self Assessment for Core Leadership. Answer: The assessment of leadership motivation suggests me that I possess a strong motivation in order to lead, which enables me to become a leader. As recommended by the assessment, I should think about pursuing my career as a leader. The score suggests that I wish to become a leader and along with that I also have the confidence to become a successful leader. In order to realize my aim, the assessment further suggests me to study on transformational leadership and Core leadership theories. Self-assessment practices make one aware of his or her both negative and positive aspects of personality (Weiner Greene, 2017). It assesses the persons personality in order to examine that how the person reacts in different circumstances, his or her perception towards problems and whether he or she possesses confidence either to face the challenges or to achieve his ambition. Self-assessment is a way by which one can know about himself or herself. It gathers information about ones interest, type of personality, and other values. Self-assessment defines ones personality by assessing the persons interests. Assessment of aptitudes is one of the crucial parts of self-assessment. In a self-assessment, a person is given with some examples of situations and he or she is assessed how the person reacts to those situations (Dweck, 2013). Work-related values are also examined in order to help one to understand his personality. Personality plays an integral part in leadership quality of a person in an organization (Colbert, Barrick Bradley, 2014). How one presents himself or herself before others. How one manages his organizational work and employees depend on the persons personality. The positive aspects such as the quality to accept any challenges in the workplace make the person a good leader. Similarly, if the person fails to manage its employees, it is considered as the negative aspect of his personality. Higher emotional intelligence helps one to empathize with others. The person with a high rate of emotional intelligence generally is able to convey his or her emotions clearly before others (Colbert, Barrick Bradley, 2014). the higher the persons emotional intelligence is, the more he is capable manage the team members and workers in an organization. One whose emotional intelligence is higher is able to encourage him or her as well as his co-workers. Generally the leaders of an organization possess high decision making abilities in order to make a necessary decision for the purpose of organizational operations (Huffman, 2014). The higher rate of decision making ability helps one to make decisions which will be effective in the long term. References Boud, D. (2013).Enhancing learning through self-assessment. Routledge. Colbert, A. E., Barrick, M. R., Bradley, B. H. (2014). Personality and leadership composition in top management teams: Implications for organizational effectiveness.Personnel Psychology,67(2), 351-387. Dweck, C. S. (2013).Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. psychology press. Huffman, J. B., Hipp, K. A., Pankake, A. M., Moller, G. A. Y. L. E. (2014). Professional learning communities: Leadership, purposeful decision making, and job-embedded staff development.Journal of School Leadership,11(5), 448-463. Oppenheimer, S. C. (2017).U.S. Patent No. 9,786,145. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Weiner, I. B., Greene, R. L. (2017).Handbook of personality assessment. John Wiley Sons.

The Area Of Below Normal Sea Surface Temperatures Continues To Expand

"The area of below normal sea surface temperatures continues to expand in the central equatorial Pacific, marking the demise of the 1997/1998 El Ni?o episode and the further evolution of La Ni?a (Cold episode) conditions. El NIA ("the girl"), the twin and opposite of more well known El No ("the boy") is now in full swing. The warm peaks--El Ni?o --were first named by South American fishermen because the warm, oxygen--and nutrient--poor water caused fish catches to plunge around Christmas time (El Ni?o is also a reference to the Christ child) in certain years. According to the National Center for Environmental Prediction, this century's previous La Ni?a's began in 1903, 1906, 1909, 1916, 1924, 1928, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1975, and 1988. During the most recent La Ni?a, in the winter of 1988-89, sea surface temperatures were about 7 degrees F below normal. La Ni?a's don't always follow El Ni?o's; since 1975, La Ni?a's have been roughly half as frequent as El Ni?o's. The researchers identified what is known and still unknown about La Ni?a and what is needed in order to issue forecasts and prepare for La Ni?a's impacts. The scientists at the meeting agreed that better ocean monitoring is needed for more accurate predictions of El Ni?o and La Ni?a.

Music and Math essays

Music and Math essays "Music is the harmonization of opposites, the unification of disparate things, and the conciliation of warring elements...Music is the basis of agreement among things in nature and of the best government in the universe. As a rule it assumes the guise of harmony in the universe, of lawful government in a state, and of a sensible way of life in the home. It brings together and unites." - The Pythagoreans. Every school student will recognize his name as the originator of that theorem which offers many cheerful facts about the square on the hypotenuse. Many European philosophers will call him the father of philosophy. Many scientists will call him the father of science. To musicians, nonetheless, Pythagoras is the father of music. According to Johnston, it was a much told story that one day the young Pythagoras was passing a blacksmiths shop and his ear was caught by the regular intervals of sounds from the anvil. When he discovered that the hammers were of different weights, it occurred to him that the intervals might be related to those weights. Pythagoras was correct. Pythagorean philosophy maintained that all things are numbers. Based on the belief that numbers were the building blocks of everything, Pythagoras began linking numbers and music. Revolutionizing music, Pythagoras findings generated theorems and standards for musical scales, relationships, instruments and creative formation. Musical scales became defined and taught. Instrument makers began a precision approach to device construction. Composers developed new attitudes of composition that encompassed a foundation of numeric value in addition to melody. All three of these approaches were based on Pythagorean philosophy. Thus, Pythagoras relationship between numbers and music had a profound influence on future musical education, instrumentation, and composition. The intrinsic discovery made by Pythagoras was the potential order to the chaos o...

An Introduction to Dog Intelligence and Emotion

An Introduction to Dog Intelligence and Emotion We feed them, we let them sleep in our beds, we play with them, we even talk to them. And of course, we love them. Any dog-owner will tell you that their pet has a remarkable capacity to understand the world around them. And they’re right. Scientists have figured out great ways to find out exactly what human’s best friend is capable of. The Science of Animal Cognition Over the past several years, one of the biggest advances in our human understanding of doggie cognition has been the use of MRI machines to scan dog brains. MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging, the process of taking an ongoing picture of what parts of the brain are lighting up through what external stimuli. Dogs, as any doggie parent knows, are highly trainable. This trainable nature makes dogs great candidates for MRI machines, unlike non-domesticated wild animals like birds or bears. Ragen McGowan, a scientist at Nestlà © Purina specializing in dog cognition, takes full advantage of a certain type of MRI machine, the fMRI (which stands for functional MRI), to study these animals. These machines detect changes in blood flow and use that to measure brain activity. Through ongoing research, McGowan has found out a lot about animal  cognition and feelings. In a study done in 2015, McGowan found that a human’s presence leads to increased blood flow to a dog’s eyes, ears and paws, which means the dog is excited. McGowan also studied what happens to dogs when they are being petted. We’ve known for some time that for humans, petting a beloved animal can lead to lower rates of stress and anxiety. Well, it turns out the same is true for dogs. When humans pet shelter dogs for 15 minutes or more, the dog’s heart rate decreases and it becomes less anxious overall. Another recent study on dog cognition found that our beloved companion animals can tell the difference in our emotional expressions. In another study done with the fMRI machine, scientists found that not only can dogs tell the difference between happy and sad human faces, they also respond differently to them. As Smart as Children Animal psychologists have clocked dog intelligence at right around that of a two to two-and-a-half-year-old human child. The 2009 study which examined this found that dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures. Even more surprising, the same study found that dogs can actually count low numbers (up to five) and even do simple math. And have you ever experienced the emotions of your dog while you’re petting another animal or paying attention to something else? Do you imagine they feel something like human jealousy? Well, there’s science to back this up, too. Studies have found that dogs do, in fact, experience jealousy. Not only that, but dogs do their best to figure out how to â€Å"handle† the thing that’s taking their parent’s attention - and if they have to force the attention back on them, they will. Dogs have been studied for their empathy, as well. A 2012 study examined dogs’ behavior towards distressed humans that weren’t their owners. While the study concluded that dogs display an empathy-like behavior, the scientists writing the report decided that it may be better explained as â€Å"emotional contagion† and a history of being rewarded for this type of emotional alertness. Is it empathy? Well, it sure seems like it. Numerous other studies on dog behavior, emotion, and intelligence have found that dogs â€Å"eavesdrop† on human interactions to assess who is mean to their owner and who isn’t and that dogs follow their human’s gaze. These studies may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our learning about dogs. And as for doggie parents? Well, they may know a lot more than the rest of us, just by observing their best canine companions every day. The studies done on dog cognition all illuminate one thing: that humans may know much less about dog brains than we previously thought. As time goes on, more and more scientists are becoming interested in animal research, and with each new study done, we find out more about how our beloved pets think.

Assignment 1 is Thesis Critique and Assignment 2 Article Critique Essay

Assignment 1 is Thesis Critique and Assignment 2 Article Critique - Essay Example The study is important in that it contributes to the creation of more theoretical knowledge in the field of study, through creating a clear understanding of alcoholism and the factors that contributes to such a practice. In contributing to the theoretical knowledge, the study differentiates the normal contributory factors to alcoholism, to display the particular ones that are related to individuals with parental responsibilities (Kalekye, 2010). Additionally, the study contributes to more knowledge in the field of study by providing new methodologies, policies, and practices applicable in controlling this practice. The study suggests how rehabilitation, counseling, and family support can be applied to help such individuals overcome the addiction and take up the parental responsibilities. However, the study lacks well-defined research variables. Sampling Techniques and Sample The samples for use in the study were obtained from the central province of Kenya, arguably since it is the mo st affected of all the regions. Random sampling was used to identify the households from which individuals will be sampled. Stratified and systematic sampling techniques were used to identify the particular individuals who will be investigated from such households (Kalekye, 2010). Thus, a sample of 1054 households, consisting of 3172 individuals with parental responsibilities was applied for the study, running between 2008 and 2010. In consideration of the whole Kenyan population, and in regard to the diversity of the Kenyan communities, some of which consider alcoholism as a taboo, then this sample is not representative of the total population, and thus the findings may not be reliable to give the actual situation Design, Procedure, Instrumentation The study has effectively referred to previous studies undertaken in this field. A pilot study was also undertaken in 2008 (Kalekye, 2010). The study also analyzed references, by undertaking a literature review, such as reviewing the UNE SCO report of 2009 and the NACADA of 2010. Such evaluation was the basis of formation of the research hypothesis, which postulated that, there is a high rate of parental alcoholism and alcohol abuse in central Kenya region, more than in any other part of the country (Kalekye, 2010). Another hypothesis was that the children and spouses of alcoholics are more likely to be involved in alcohol and other drugs abuse (Kalekye, 2010). The study has stated its problem, objectives, and hypothesis in a clear and understandable manner. Both Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were applied under the study. Questionnaires and interview guide were applied as the data collection instruments, which were more appropriate for the study. The rationale of applying such instruments is that it would take less time to administer and collect information, while also affording an opportunity to apply observation, which gives the real picture of the situation However, the sample considered was not suff icient to give reliable basis of the findings on the study. The procedure of the study is well defined; where the study first embarked on a pilot study in 2008. This was followed by developing and refining interview questions as well questionnaires. Then, the questions and questionnaires were administered and

Business Law Questions (Part 1) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Law Questions (Part 1) - Assignment Example Yankit’s and they were bound by â€Å"common consideration† (Harold, 2006). It is irrelevant that they did not have a written agreement prior to delivery of service. In this case, Bill wishes to purchase a neighbourhood grocery belonging to Mel Merchant and they have agreed that Mel will not open another store of the same nature within a distance of 150 miles during the next 10 years. This is referred to as â€Å"voluntary restraint of trade† since both parties have entered into the agreement and no party has influence over the other which could have forced them into agreement (Michael, 2005). This arrangement is vital for the significance of the purchaser because, should Mel decide to open another grocery near the previous one, then Bill will have to go out of business since Mel is likely to acquire all his previous clients. My reasoning is due to the similar case in Dias v Souto (1960) where the defendant sold his trade under related circumstances and established a competitive dealing within the terrain. The defendant charged him before the court and he was held to blame. For the court to enforce this accord they first have to consider the space to which the moderation is applicable and the time it will be valid (Michael, 2005). They will also have to consider the sort of dealing the parties are engaged in. In this case, the distance of 150 miles and period of 10 years under control are irrational. Slander is any spread of information which is likely to hurt the image of the person to whom it is spoken against by word of mouth or sign language (Harold, 2006). However, the words must be heard by other people other than the person to whom it was being addressed to. In the case of Barak and Rush, both committed slander because their words were heard by the news reporter who even spread the information further. They words they said against each other had ill intentions and would change their public status hence they amounted to slander. Eves

Famous Botanist Francisco Hernandez Essay Example for Free

Famous Botanist Francisco Hernandez Essay During the time of 1700 hundreds many artist made their way to spain to seek out what they believed to be an art form but done in garden designs. So many people thought that this was a great cause and belived that this was they were meant to do for life. Francisco like other believed that this was the way to go so he to set to become a famous garden designer and soon he got his wish and was sent for by the duke of Earl. It took many years to establish a good working condition with his boss so he just continued to give his best at what he did which was deisgn the most beautiful garden that you would have ever seen. For many years it wqould be difficult for him to do anything else vbut design because that is all he thought about all day. In the winter it wouod prove to be cruel to him but he weathered the storm and kept right ahead with what he was doing and that was to creat the perfect garden fro duke. Many times the duke became frustrated with his work that he should have never sent for and this made Frncisco so very unhappy to where he put his all into what he was doing even more so but this was not enough until one day he finally decided to tell his boss that he was to ask him to send him back home.

Monster Mergers :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Monster Mergers About three decades ago, school boards in the state of Pennsylvania decided that bigger was better. These short-sighted members looked at school districts merging throughout the country and deduced they should join the parade. How could they be so naive not to see the damage and havoc that would be left in the wake of these giant jointures. Wyoming Valley West, Nanticoke Area, Hanover Area, Coughlin, and even the parochial Bishop Hoban, are responsible for killing a magnificent community spirit as well as extinguishing all chances of fervent rivalries. The consolidation of small town schools has deprived once proud individuals of a sense of community, tradition and memories. School boards have to be more sensitive to the needs of their constituents. A change in the board members or the school board system itself is necessary. Careful planning, unlike the school boards' decisions, is essential in changing an archaic system. A Task Force of School Governance commissioned by the Twentieth Century Firms, concluded, "The hallmark of American education for over 150 years has been the local school board, and nothing would be gained by shifting to a totally new system," (25). A revamping of decision making is needed to prevent the disasters of the 60's and 70's. Kirst states, "Rethinking and revamping the role of the school board are necessary in this altered policy context," (38). The school board points an accusing finger at the state government. Dwight W. Allen supports the stand by contending that the state makes the major decisions such as how many days of school in a year and who could attend regardless of how the towns feel about the issue (44). Our loca l school boards should care how we feel. They should be our champions. Instead, they buckle to state and federal educational fads. School boards actions affect not just the students, but each and every member of the community. "Since 80 percent of the taxpayers in some suburban areas and more than 50 percent of the taxpayers in most communities do not have children in school, it is essential to keep the community informed and involved in the schools" (Becthol 327). This type of communication should have been in place before school boards smashed small schools into an academic collage. School activities such as theatrical dramas, uplifting musicals, and nail bitting sporting events, once a staple for the community, are now absent.

IQ Testing and Group Intelligence Testing

In defining intelligence, there has always been the question of whether intelligence is measured as a remarkable occurrence or if it has many variables that are combined. For example, is it how â€Å"smart† a person is? Or is it their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Are they measuring a person†s intelligence? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person†s IQ? Or is it a mixture of survival, mathematical, social and other abilities. There are many debates regarding whether measuring intelligence is determined from test scores and results, or if it is measured by the person†s ability to process and problem solve. Uses of intelligence testing in an educational setting, intelligence and achievement tests are administered routinely to assess individual accomplishment. They are used to improve instruction a! nd curriculum planning. High schools use these tests to assist in the students future educational planning and help decide what college or type of college to attend. Elementary schools utilize screening and testing procedures to help determine readiness for writing and reading placement. Intelligence can be measured, by intelligence tests, among them the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Scale. These tests are intended to determine an individual†s intelligence quotient (IQ). Intelligence tests usually provide an estimate of global cognitive functioning as well as information about functioning within more specific domains. Intelligence tests are quite stable compared to measures of other human traits. However, the degree of stability increases with age such that early childhood and preschool measures of intellectual function are far less predictive of later functioning than assessments taken during middle childhood. The stability of intelligence test scores may! change as a function due to important environmental factors. Therefore, intelligence test scores are descriptive of a child†s functioning at that point in time when taking a test. The test scores could also be effected by environmental factors, child†s psychiatric status or educational program. Components of a good intelligence test are (a) Validity; does the test really measure intelligence and not something else? (b) Reliability; does the test produce consistent measures? (c) Norms; are the participants being fairly compared? Components that make an intelligence test flawed are (a) Poor validity; tests may be sensitive to social factors. (b) Poor norms; comparing people who are different. (c) Poor application; tests measure something that the school or job has nothing to do with. Theories of Process Psychometric Model Psychometric approach is defined as psychology that deals with the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests ! for the measurement of psychological variables such as intelligence, aptitude, and personality traits. There are various psychometric approaches to intelligence. The following paragraphs describe three different theorists and their psychometric model. First is Charles Spearman, who believed that intelligence is a combination of two parts. According to his two-factory theory of intelligence, the performance of any intellectual act requires some combination of g, (general intelligence factor) which is available to the same individual to the same degree for all intellectual acts. (Specific factors) or s is specific to that act and varies in strength from one act to another. S is specific knowledge such as verbal reasoning or spatial problem solving. Spearman equated g with mental energy. If one knows how a person performs on one task that is highly saturated with g, one can safely predict a similar level of performance for another highly g saturated task. The prediction of perfor! mance on tasks with high s factors is less accurate. Thus, the most important information to have about a person†s intellectual ability is an estimate of their g or mental energy (Plucker 1989). Guilford†s theory includes 150 abilities, arranged in three dimensions; contents, operations, and products. Guilford†s three-dimensional Structure of Intellect classified intellectual acts into 120 separate categories. These categories are operations dimension, products dimension and material or content dimension. He developed firm convictions regarding the ability of individual difference among people. Guilford believed that intelligence is much too complicated to be subsumed by a few primary mental abilities and g factor. His systematic theory gave rise to what is known as informational-operational psychology. Information-Processing Informational theorists believe human cognition is best understood as the management of information through a system with limit!ed space or resources (Bukato and Daehler 1998). Thurstone†s theory is based on seven primary mental abilities. In the area of intelligence, his theory maintains that intelligence is made up of several primary mental abilities rather than just the g and s factors. He was among the first to purpose and demonstrate that there are numerous ways in which a person can be intelligent. Thurstone†s Multiple-Factors Theory identified these seven primary mental abilities; Verbal Comprehension, Associative Memory, Word Fluency, Number Facility, Reasoning, Spatial Visualization, and Perceptual Speed. Thurstone†s theory has been used to construct intelligence tests that yield a profile of the individual†s performance on each of the ability tests, rather than general that yield a single score such as an IQ. Two theorists that promote informational processing models are Sternberg and Gardner. Sternberg†s triarchic theory consists of three parts; cognitive components of intelligence, experien! They are divided into three major sub-theories: Componential is encoding, combining and comparing stimuli, and evaluating one own performance. Contextual is the adaptation to one†s environment. One of Sternberg†s most important contributions to intelligence theory has been the redefinition of intelligence to incorporate practical knowledge. As Sternberg insists, â€Å"real life is where intelligence operates† and not in the classroom†¦The true measure of success is not how well one does in school, but how well one does in life (Trosky, 1998)†

Geopolitics and globalization Essay

Geopolitics is a field of study that is responsible for analyzing history, geography and social science with a special reference to spatial politics through patterns of various scales, ranging from state to international levels. It gives a critical examination of economic and political issues in relation geographical frontiers. In this context, geography is defined in terms of function, size, location and relationship of resources and places. Traditionally, geopolitics indicates causal relationships and links between geographic space and political power. It is seen as a concrete line of thought used to essay specific and strategic prescriptions that lay their basis on the relative significance of sea power and land power in the history of the world (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 33). The consistent concerns of the geopolitical tradition included the relationships between terrestrial and naval capabilities, the identification of international core areas and the geopolitical correlates of power in the world of politics. Geopolitics were conducted through a geopolitical system, that was seen as an ensemble of relations between the interests focused to an area, international political factors, ways, geographical elements and space. Geopolitics is a branch of political geography concerning the assessment of reciprocal relations between politics, geography and power as well as the interactions that arise from their combination. It is therefore a scientific discipline with a basic science nature (Klauds, 2000, pp. 12). Radically, contemporally use of geopolitics deviates from the original use in the 19th century. Originally, geopolitics served as a reflection of international affairs under a strong influence by social Darwinism. Under this, there was a limited significance of international law, global norms and multilateralism all of which signaled realist view of international affairs cynically. The concept currently denotes interplay of geographic space, strategic dominance and natural resources. In connection to earlier usage of the term, its growing use brings on board the need to reflect on the rise of multipolarity in the early 21st century and the renaissance of great power rivalry (Neil, 2005, pp. 23). As the world is changing, there has been great pressure upon traditional or old systems of societal governance and operation. This has been a movement towards globalization, a state where different social setups, economies, technocrats and political affiliates interact, share ideas, problems, challenges and experiences. A globalized society understands, anticipates and advocates for freedom and rights. Globalization encompasses the preaching of rights, justice, freedom, and peace continued support of masses and majority rule to citizens in promoting their own morality related believes. Through interaction, global community has become one society with commonalities in political, social, economic, cultural and technological beacons. Through the process, ideologies of many communities have been alignment towards the same point in both material and non material concerns of life. This change has influenced the original interpretation and applicability of geopolitics limiting the role it initially played (Agnew, 2003, pp. 45). Globalization is therefore premier buzzwords in 21st century, referring to a world which is stretched, interdependent, integrated, shrunk, interwoven, connected and less territorially segmented into various cultural and economic zones. Due to the above description, it is seen as shorthand towards economic liberalism spontaneously adopted by governments of the world, as a social modernization scaled up from national to whole world status with time and also as an economic technological process through the compression of time and space, highly challenging geopolitics (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 34). Since globalization and geopolitics aspects show some degree of compatibility regardless of the time factor, globalization is of late seen to replace geopolitics. Geopolitics was seen as an issue concerning great powers and empires imposing territorial control to various boundaries whereas globalization is a world that knows no boundaries. This means that globalization has geopolitical roots. Globalization represents a stark break of the geopolitics of the cold war (Brunn, 2004, pp. 20). The free world economy was started during the cold war, through the mantra of the new globalizing economy. Globalization has initiated a new regime of market access through a revolutionary process by international organizations including WTO, GATT, World Bank and IMF. These institutions have aided in departing from geopolitics through enforcement of radical economic liberalism. As a result a new economic geography has emerged, characterized by tension towards continued regulation of economic activities and a world economy with organized flow of goods and capital in locations that are widely scattered. Therefore as geopolitics decay in the current society, there is significant aspiration towards a higher level of global economic development. (http://www. informationclearinghouse. info/article11747. htm) Through globalization, the geographical logic of the world has changed by addressing the disparities between the territorial and interactional modes of capitalism organization. Globalization does not only reshuffle geopolitics in its nature of globality, but through the combination of global networks and localized territorial fragmentation. Geopolitics era structured the world economy into territorial entities such as colonial empires, states and geopolitical spheres of influence (Greer, 2000, pp. 30). In another perspective, globalization is not seen to mark the end of geopolitics but reform it. The main novelty today is the role of economic prosperity, underdevelopment of cross-border flows, networks linking nation to hinderlands and the increased differentiations between regions and localities because of the existing biases along the spatial channel. This clearly shows that globalization has no marked the end of geopolitics, but entails its reformulation from an economic mapping based on territories to a more complex mosaic of states, localities, global city regions and regions differentially integrated into the global economy. This means there exists geopolitics of contemporally globalization concerning the operational and originality structure. To indicate that globalization has not marked the end of geopolitics, social and political boundaries have not disappeared but are in a process of reconstitution along and across long established ones (Larrabee, 2003, pp. 12). Geopolitics was hegemonic in nature. For many years, geopolitics has been known to limit political and economic influence of many countries through dividing the world into territorial empires and trading blocs. The limitation was facilitated through enactment and enforcement of powerful strains to minimize the involvement in political affairs and foreign economic affairs. Geopolitics was highly supported by the autarkic dogmas of soviet communism and competitive trading blocs which were partly blamed for the great depressions of the 1930s. After the Second World War, a strong internationalist American agenda was brought in to counterpoint the effects of the communistic societies by sponsoring international investments, currency convertibility and free trade. This effort towards a free world order provided the groundwork to internationalization of global activities. According to this explanation, we can say that geopolitics laid down the groundwork to globalization. On the other hand, Globalization can thus be said to be a kind of geopolitics that has undergone transition within time and spatial dimensions (Heymann, 2005, pp. 67). Twentieth century economic globalization has been linked to two issues that indicate the linkage between geopolitics and globalization. These issues were both political and economic because they aimed at promoting as realization of continental expansion and later to global expansion in political, economic and social spheres. First, expansion of market was viewed as a necessity towards social well being and national political well being. Second, economic liberty or independence was viewed as the foundation for freedom per se. these views opened a new page as far as geopolitics is concerned (Buqajski, 2002, pp. 43). Early in the 21st century America underwrote continental expansion but stimulated foreign market for their commodities. However, the power of the government to control private economic activities was limited by federal subunits and the divisions of power between the branches of federal government. Such branches included the congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court. This system depicts how firm and conservative geopolitics was. On the other hand it shows how globalization was challenged by the system of governance before starting to grow. Globalization was experiencing a pull apart scenario from tiers of government and federal branches. Down the years, the country and other several nations have extended their powers beyond continental to global frontiers. This means the role of geopolitics in modeling the system of governance is decreasing with time, but it shall not bet forgotten that it serves as the bottom line for change, the change being renamed as the globalization (Herd, 2002, pp. 65). For globalization to be completely explored, it is necessary to assess the role played by geopolitics in its structuring. This is because of the commonalities the two concepts have. Such process will involve comparison between hegemonic power against democracy or devolution. The regime makers in this changing world determine the speed, scope and nature of globalization, regarding how far they are free from geopolitics. The roots of geopolitics indicate the reforms in markets, concentration of political and economic power and hegemony (http://www. informationclearinghouse. info/article11747. htm). To show the current scenarios in issues of globalization and geopolitics, many media commenter, IPE scholars and policy makers criticize de territorial threats from Middle East on the failure to adjust and embrace globalization. This has forced United States of America to use force and bring Middle East to globalization through a slogan that disconnectedness defines a danger. The Middle East is claimed to lie centrally to a vast region that is disconnected to global flow of security, capital and people to sustain mutually assured dependence. Americans have claimed to be fighting geopolitics in the Middle East region. It is said that geopolitical imaginary in the Middle East is blind towards networks of transnational mobility across the region. The study and consideration of geopolitics in the region gives the micro foundations of globalization in the area. It is also widely believed that the rate of globalization is inversely related to extend of geopolitics (Gearnoid, 1998, pp. 35). Areas with high rate of geopolitics are thought to have low rates of globalization and vice versa, but none completely outdoes the other. This means both concepts are important for the involved elements around the globe to intermingle efficiently. This is built on pluralistic theory of globalization, stating that transnational processes and diverse global processes are heterogeneously shaped by agents and networks of alternative geopolitical imaginaries (Agnew, 2006, pp. 16). Specifically the way to globalization can be evaluated by considering the geopolitics of tourism since 2001 in the Middle East region. As opposed to many, tourism has significantly developed since then. Public and private sectors in tourism that initially focused on tourism from industrialized nations have redirected their efforts towards both domestic and regional tourist flow paving way to new, more regional and stylish tourist development. Today, new and emerging forms of regional Islamic tourism and Arabic tourism, propelled by oil income expansion and consumer behavior shifts have remapped globalization meaning in the region. Firms, states and various actors across Middle East are seeking negotiation on own interaction with global economy, promising to assert manipulation of their local spaces and territory and therefore define their itineraries of globalization (Klauds, 2000, pp. 19).

Many Types of Drop-In Fuels

Many Types of Drop-In Fuels These days, it’s hard to find an organic material that isn’t being positioned as the next great alternative energy source. Rising to the top of the list are biofuels known as so-called â€Å"drop in† fuels – those renewable sources that can be used without major investment in infrastructure in the U.S. where storage and distribution has long catered to petroleum. That current investment in infrastructure isn’t small potatoes. There is about $7 billion in pipeline expenditures alone each and every year. Defining Drop-in Fuels What defines a drop-in fuel? The alternative fuels industry itself isn’t exactly clear, with some defining it broadly to mean any renewable fuel making use of at least some of the costly existing petroleum infrastructure. Others have taken a more narrowed approach. One of the most popular definitions is that drop-in fuels are those renewable fuels which can be blended with petroleum products, such as gasoline, and utilized in the current infrastructure of pumps, pipelines and other existing equipment.    Under such a definition, a biofuel would require some percentage of gasoline blender , derived from unique gasoline stocks, to form the fuel’s base. Examples of drop-in fuels defined in this way include the terpenes, butanol and isoprene, among other. Often, the technology is applied to diesel fuel, forming a biodiesel, rather than to gasoline. There are even some next-generation biofuels proponents who are developing mixtures of chemicals to form a biofuel without the gasoline or diesel base. Algae Most Common Drop-in Fuel With well over 50 companies investing in the development of algae as a biofuel, the little green plant reigns supreme among drop-in fuels. Yet, despite this general interest, most biofuels experts agree that at least another decade of research and technological breakthroughs will be necessary before this drop-in fuel is deemed commercially viable. That’s a long- and costly- trail ahead. As with most drop-in fuels, the challenges come in moving the technology from the lab to full-scale commercial production. An additional challenge with algae specifically has been the wide variance among algae and the extensive processing necessary. Butanol Also Sees Growth But algae isn’t the only show in town. Last year, a leading biobutanol company, Gevo, announced plans to acquire ethanol facilities in the Midwest and convert them to commercial production of the drop-in fuel isobutanol, also known as isobutyl alcohol.    The move was seen by industry players as a step forward in the development of butanol as an alternative drop-in fuel, with the company hoping to begin isobutanol production by 2012. Although able to make use of existing infrastructure, unlike algae, there is some concern over potential safety threats. Vapors can travel long distances and collect in low-lying areas to form an explosion hazard. However, its proponents are quick to point out the biofuel’s many fuel and chemical applications make it an attractive venture. Big player DuPont has also tested the waters of biobutanol as a drop-in fuel and plans to likewise rely on existing under-utilized ethanol capacity and conventional feedstocks as it gets its operations off the ground. The investment to retrofit existing ethanol facilities is more economical than building new structures and require only minor changes to the fermentation and distillation processes. Broadening Portfolios DuPont says it plans to follow a multi-step approach to drop-in fuel development, first focusing on n-butyl alcohol and conventional feedstocks before moving on to other drop-in fuels like isobutanol as well as non-feed crops, such as cellulosic feedstocks.    Yet another company, ButylFuel, LLC, has gone on record as having said it has now developed fermentation-derived biobutanol at a cost that is competitive with petroleum products. Its drop-in fuel can be blended at a variety of percentages with gasoline or diesel fuels. How competitive? The company claims it can produce its drop-in fuel from corn for about $1.20 per gallon. Like algae players who are benefiting not only from algae as a drop-in fuel, but from the many byproducts as well, research and development in other drop-in fuels sectors are looking at diverse portfolios of products, causing some to characterize this next generation of alternative fuels as a means to produce hydrocarbon blend stock that can have a multitude of applications.

Immigrants, Emigrants, and Migrants

Immigrants, Emigrants, and Migrants Immigrants, Emigrants, and Migrants Immigrants, Emigrants, and Migrants By Maeve Maddox A reader asks: Emigrate, immigrate, migrate.   What is the proper usage of these words?   It seems like the [use] is indiscriminate. All three words trace their origin to the Latin verb migrare, â€Å"to remove from one place to another.† This common ancestor gives English four verbs: migrate: to move, either temporarily or permanently, from one place, area, or country of residence to another emigrate: (e, â€Å"out† + migrate) to remove out of country for the purpose of settling in another. immigrate: (im, â€Å"in, into† + migrate) to come to settle in a country not one’s own; to pass into a new place of residence. transmigrate: (trans, â€Å"across† + migrate) of the soul: to pass after death into another body. The verbs yield several noun forms, some of which are also used as adjectives: migration migrant emigration emigrant immigration immigrant transmigration Usage examples from the Web: There is a challenge for policy-makers to understand the obstacles migrants face in Australia. Committee on Migrant Workers discusses role of migration statistics for treaty reporting and migration policies. Although not common, two additional adjectives sometimes seen are immigrational and migrational. From Multiculturalism to Immigrational Survavalism [sic] (headline at novitiate.com) Immigrational Background Affects the Effectiveness of a School-based Overweight Prevention Program Promoting Water Consumption (title of research paper) A common error is to confuse immigrant and emigrant. Here’s an instance when etymological information can help with spelling. Just remember that the prefix im- means â€Å"in† and that the prefix e- means â€Å"out†: When Charles Darnay fled France to escape the guillotine, he was an emigrant. When he settled in England, he was an immigrant. A migrant is simply on the move, not necessarily planning a permanent change of address. Plants and animals also migrate, as do things on computers. 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 Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply withWhat's a Male Mistress?List of 50 Compliments and Nice Things to Say!

Assignment 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

2 - Assignment Example In the current methodology of commissions for the front-line salesmen, the annual break-even point in dollar sales and in unit sales for Shop 48 is sales of 12,500 pair of shoes for gross sales of $375,000. Appendix 1 shows a graph from zero to seventeen thousand units sold in a given year, with both fixed and variable expenses taken into account. Based upon projected annual sales of 17,000 pairs of shoes, potential profit for Shop 48 would be $54,000 on annual sales of $510,000. Another question raised was what the profit or loss would be on 12,000 pairs yearly. After expenses, the store would realize a net loss of $6,000. In the next circumstance, the company is toying with the idea of offering the store manager of Shop 48 an incentive commission of $0.75 (seventy-five cents) per pair of shoes, leaving the salespersons’ commission intact. What would this added commission have on the break-even point in dollar sales and in unit sales? It is clearly shown that the break even point would indeed rise considerably. Technically there would be no â€Å"break even point†, for at 13,333 pairs the shop would be operating at a loss of $3.75 and one more pair (13,334) would give them a net profit of $7.50. Either way, sales would have to be roughly $400,000 per annum to achieve a profit, or an increase of $25,000 in gross sales annually. As an another option to the situation above, what if the store manager was given fifty cents commission on each pair of shoes sold beyond the break-even point? Their question on this was what the shops net operating income would be based upon 15,000 pairs of shoes sold annually. This would include the data as discussed for current operations in that 12,500 pair of shoes for gross sales of $375,000 is the BE point. With this, 15,000 pairs of shoes would give the store gross sales of $450,000 annually. With the added expense of the fifty cent commission on 2,500 pairs net profit would then be

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

Strategy Implementation - Term Paper Example Introduction The main purpose of the paper is a complete investigation of the various significant strategies that have been implemented by Southwest Airlines in order to attain its desired business objectives. The analysis of the strategy implementation of Southwest Airlines will be conducted on the basis of the organizational design, key strategic control procedures, providing primary concern towards human resource issues and the cultural factors that are present in Southwest Airlines. Moreover, the effect of these significant facets upon the implementation of the strategy of Southwest Airlines will also be taken into account in this particular paper. Thus, it can be stated that the analysis regarding the implementation of the assorted business strategies of Southwest Airlines will be accomplished by acquiring a brief idea about the above mentioned facets of Southwest Airlines. Organizational Design of Southwest Airlines The organizational design of Southwest Airlines is known to co mprise several areas that principally include the issues relating to control and authority, division of products, communication and potential market structures. Southwest Airlines emphasizes and possesses strong capability with regard to these significant areas. Due to the expansion of the business of Southwest Airlines, the organization follows a hybrid, complex, multi-divisional arrangement that is based upon vertical as well as horizontal differentiation and is quite concerned with maintaining a good relationship with the customers by offering them superior quality of service. The major reasons for Southwest Airlines to follow the multi-divisional organizational arrangement are the need for augmenting the competence of the organization, ensuring profitable growth as well as firm control. Moreover, according to the multi-dimensional organizational structure of Southwest Airlines, the organizational behavior is learnt to be controlled through an important aspect of internal upward mobility. This particular facet means that especially the divisional managers of the organization are usually groomed in order to enter the corporate world of Southwest Airlines. They are provided with attractive financial rewards in the form of incentives on the basis of their performance in order to get promoted to higher positions. Additionally, the organizational structure of Southwest Airlines is designed in such a way as to focus upon the demand of the consumers for the purpose of making effective decisions on the basis of their level of satisfaction and reaction (Dearinger, 2010). Key Strategic Control Systems of Southwest Airlines The most important key strategic control system of Southwest Airlines is about the establishment and the execution of point-to-point flights rather than employing the approach of â€Å"hub-and-spoke† mechanism. The application of point-to-point flights instead of utilizing hub or spoke arrangement is regarded as one of the vital airport hub strategies of Southwest Airlines. The other significant strategic control system of the organization is the application of online bookings for its large customer base through the website of the company. It has been apparent that a considerable amount of passenger revenue of Southwest Airlines is generated by the execution of online boo

Organizing Function Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizing Function - Essay Example In this the firm has to handle five areas namely, division of labour, departmentalization, establishing span of control and delegation, (Boone 2005). Within division of labour else called work specialization, the manager tries to match the work demands with the skills, knowledge and experience of the employee. Division of labour is more effective when the most qualified employer by means of skill level and experience is assigned a given task. The more compatible a worker is to the work process requirements, the greater the extent of possible specialization. In departmentalization, the manager seeks to group employees or jobs into manageable entities. This can be done in five ways, (Plunkett et al (2005). Functional departmentalization is done according to the nature of activities in the department. Product departmentalization brings together all the functions necessary for successful production and distribution of a particular product. Process departmentalization is based on the cycles that a product goes through. The cycles determine the department. Geographical departmentalization uses zones to create a department e.g. ... Customer departmentalization is defined by possession of a shared set of characteristics like the mental hospitals as a source of clients for an establishment working with mentally retarded persons. Span or control means the manager defines the extent to which the chains of command run and the limit in number of employees within one line of production or level of command. One employee ought to be accountable to only one supervisor, in what is called the unity of command. In the scalar principle, the line of authority should be clearly outlined for each worker. The manager is also concerned about delegation, which is the transferring of tasks and responsibilities and the issuing of authority commensurate to the tasks assigned to subordinates. This improves the flexibility of operations meaning the organization is better able to address the needs of its clients, (Boone 2005) In organizing, the manager is also concerned with knowledge management, which is the ability to organize and control gathered information within an organization. A manager gathers information from various sources. He empowers his team to be able to use the available information to better the organization that way the team can be said to have for knowledge (the capacity of people or groups or organizations to act on information). Opportunities, threats strengths and weaknesses of an organization can best be addressed only in the event that the organization is able to use information available. The process involves a conscious effort to use the information. For the information to be useful to the organization however, it has to be accurate, reliable and up to date. This can be said to an organization's intellectual

Discovery of a Novel Oral Antithrombotic Drug Apixaban

Discovery of a Novel Oral Antithrombotic Drug Apixaban Shuangyu Ma Background Thrombosis, which is generally defined as the formation of blood clot inside blood vessels, is a major health issue in western world. Thrombosis associated disease, such as ischemic stroke and high blood pressure, remain to be the leading causes of morbidity and mortality each year in developed countries [1]. To make things worse, thrombosis is also known as a chronic disease with episodic recurrence [2]. According the American Heart Association, thirty percent of the patients diagnosed with venous thromboembolism develop recurrence within the next 10 years [2]. The balance between thrombosis formation and bleeding is prudently regulated by the blood coagulation cascade, one of the most delicate systems in human body (figure 1, [3]). The signal transmission and amplification along the cascade was conducted by a series of trypsin-like serine proteases with high specificity, often referred as zymogens [4]. The zymogens are cleaved by the previous coagulation factor to become activated proteases, which can thereby cleave the next zymogen along the cascade and achieve the signal amplification. Blood coagulation process can be triggered by intrinsic pathway or extrinsic pathway; both are followed by the activation of common pathway. The prothrombin is then cleaved by activated factor X to generate thrombin, eventually lead to the formation of stable fibrin clot. Fig 1. Blood coagulation cascade: (figure extracted from Haematology (2nd edition) by C. J. Pallister and M. S. Watson [4]) Until now, the most well-known oral anticoagulant is warfarin, which is the current standard therapy for clinic thrombosis treatment and prevention. Despite its widely application, warfarin has a huge draw back on its dosing issue. Many of the coagulation factors, including factors II, VII, IX and X are Vitamin K dependent; the ÃŽ ³-carboxylation by Vitamin K is essential for their biological activity. Targeting on vitamin-K conversion cycle, warfarin produces an anticoagulation effect by reducing activities of the four vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors. However, the responses to warfarin can be interfered dramatically by genetic and environment factors, such as the common mutation on cytochrome P450 encoding gene, disease states variation, drug-drug interaction or even diet change [5]. Hence, warfarin treated patients need blood test regularly (often once a week or even worse) to determine a safe dosage case by case. Despite handling with great cautious, the anticoagulant-asso ciated intracerebral hemorrhage keeps increasing [2]. Thus, many efforts have been put on developing a novel antithrombotic drug with low risk and high potency. From lead to drug: the development of apixaban The drug Apixaban, approved by FDA in 2012 for thromboembolism treatment and prevention, is developed by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb to serve as an optimized risk-benefit oral anticoagulant. The mechanism of apixaban is entirely different with warfarin it specifically targets on activated coagulation factor ten (FXa), rather than vitamin K. Several clinical trial has proved its higher efficacy compared to asparin and lower risk compared to warfarin treatment [6]. Given the central position in the blood coagulation cascade, FXa evolved as an attractive drug target for developing anticoagulants. The DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company first launched a high throughput screening on FXa inhibitor in 1997 [7]. Because of the substrate similarity between FXa and the GPIIb/IIa receptor, they screened the compound library which was originally designed to be GPIIb/IIa receptor antagonist. A hit was found with low micromolar FXa affinity (coumpound 1, Ki= 38.5 ÃŽ ¼M). However, most of the reported FXa inhibitor in literature at that time posse the bisamindinoaryl structure, such as 2 and 3 (figure 2a). Inspired by these compounds, they modified the hit to be bisamidines and obtained the first list of leads (including compound 4), as shown in figure 2b. Aiming at a higher potency, molecular modeling studies were conducted to further optimize the lead compound, which resulted in the removal of methylene unit between the isoxazoline ring and the amidine carbonyl together with the à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™ substitution to the carbonyl. After the comparison of different substitution groups, they obtained compound 5 with Ki of 94 nM (Figure 3) [7]. Fig 2 a. The structure of hit compound and several known FXa inhibitor b. The bisamidine lead compounds (figure extracted from [7]). Fig 3. Effects of the amidine group position and à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™ substitution (figure extracted from [7]) However, as an oral drug candidate, this dibasic lead compound might not have good oral absorption due to its hydrophilicity. Therefore, the next goal is to reduce its basicity by replacing one of the amidine groups with a neutral species. The molecular modeling of compound 5 bound to FXa indicated that the p-amidine group fits in an hydrophobic aryl-binding pocket of FXa, which is consist of three aromatic residues (Trp215, Tyr99 and Phe174, figure 4a) [8]. Therefore, it is possible to replace the p-amidine with aromatic functional groups without largely interrupt the affinity. They employed a biaryl group and obtained compound 6 with only 2-fold decrease in potency. Further investigation on different substitution at the terminal phenyl ring resulted in large enhancement on potency, such as compound 7 (Ki = 6.3 nM). (Figure 4b) Fig 4 a. Effects of substitutions on terminal phenyl ring (figures extracted from [8]). b. Chemical structure of compound 6 and 7 Nevertheless, another concern emerged to be the metabolic instability, as compound 7 bears an ester side chain, which is labile to esterase once it gets inside human body. Since the corresponding acid metabolite is three-fold less potent than the original ester [9], replacing the ester side chain appears becomes the imperative next step. Again, a list of compound 7 analogs bearing different side chains were synthesized and tested. Among all the functional groups, tetrazole substitution was found to be most potent, and compound 8 (Ki= 0.52 nM) was developed with additional modification on the biaryl ring motif (figure 5a). Variation on the position of amide moiety attachment and isoxazoline aromatization resulted in compound 9 (Ki= 0.15 nM, figure 5b) [10], while further investigation on a series of five-membered heterocyclic ring gives compound 10 with equal potency (Ki= 0.15 nM, figure 5c) and lower basicity [11] . Fig 5. Chemical structure of compound 8, 9 and 10 Despite the high potency and selectivity, compound 10 is still far from perfect due to potential mutagenicity of the biarylanilines motif [12]. Therefore, the cleavage of amide bond must be prevented by either ligating or eliminating the nitrogen (figure 6). Compound 11 was developed to have the optimized pyrazole with an even higher FXa affinity (Ki = 0.03 nM). After the scaffold was settled, more compound 11 analogs with various substitution groups and terminal aromatic rings were synthesized and compared to afford the final drug candidate as compound 12 (apixaban, Ki= 0.08, figure 7a) [1]. The optimized drug selectivity towards FXa was shown in figure 7b. The therapeutic index of the final drug compared to warfarin was demonstrated in rabbit thrombosis models and shown figure 7c) [6]. The drug candidate was sent for preclinical studies followed with several clinic trials, and eventually approved by FDA for venous thromboembolism prevention after hip/knee replacement and artrial fibrillation treatment. Another clinical trial for acute venous thromboembolism is still in progress. Fig 6. Compound 11 bearing the optimized pyrazole. Fig 7 a. Apixaban (compound 12) b. In vitro Ki values of apixaban for FXa and other human enzymes with structural or functional similarities (figure extracted from [6]). c. Therapeutic index of apixaban and warfarin in rabbit models (figure extracted from [6]). Conclusion Comparing to the initial lead compound, the eventual drug changed dramatically in chemical structure, while its FXa inhibiting potency was enhanced by 107. Tracing back to each modification step, the comprehensive consideration in drug potency, selectivity, absorption, metabolism and toxicity is truly impressive and reveals the tremendous efforts embedded in a single drug. It is worth noting that molecular modeling with FXa structure played a critical role during the rational drug modification process. The discovery of apixaban also demonstrated the importance of defining new drug target in modern drug development. The success of apixaban is largely attributed to the better drug target FXa. However, the clinical trial of apixaban on acute coronary syndrome was discontinued due to increased bleeding events [6], which suggests that other anticoagulants are still in demand for treating various type of thrombosis. Reference [1] Pinto, D. J.; Orwat, M. J.; Koch, S.; Rossi, K. A.; Alexander, R. S.; Smallwood, A.; Wong, P. C.; Rendina, A. R.; Luettgen, J. M.; Knabb, R. M.; He, K.; Xin, B.; Wexler, R. R; Lam, P. Y. Discovery of 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-7-oxo-6-(4-(2-oxopiperidin-1-yl) phenyl)-4, 5, 6, 7-tetrahydro-1 H-pyrazolo [3, 4-c] pyridine-3-carboxamide (Apixaban, BMS-562247), a highly potent, selective, efficacious, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of blood coagulation factor Xa.Journal of medicinal chemistry. 2007,50, 5339-5356. [2] Go, A. S., Mozaffarian, D., Roger, V. L., Benjamin, E. J., Berry, J. D., Borden, W. B., Turner, M. B et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: 2013 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2013, 127, 143-146. [3] Pallister, C. J.; Watson, M. S. Haematology, 2nd ed. Scion Publishing: Banbury, 2010; pp 336–347. [4] Krishnaswamy, S. Exositeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ driven substrate specificity and function in coagulation. Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis. 2005, 3, 54-67. [5] Hirsh, J., Fuster, V., Ansell, J., Halperin, J. L. Foundation guide to warfarin therapy. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2003, 41, 1633-1652. [6] Wong, P. C.; Pinto, D. J.; Zhang, D. Preclinical discovery of apixaban, a direct and orally bioavailable factor Xa inhibitor.Journal of thrombosis and thrombolysis. 2011,31, 478-492. [7] Quan, M. L.; Pruitt, J. R.; Ellis, C. D.; Liauw, A. Y.; Galemmo, R. A., Jr.; Stouten, P. F. W.; Wityak, J.; Knabb, R. M.; Thoolen, M. J.; Wong, P. C.; Wexler, R. R. Bisbenzamidine isoxazoline derivatives as factor Xa inhibitors.Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 1997, 7, 2813-2818. [8] Quan, M. L.; Liauw, A. Y.; Ellis, C. D.; Pruitt, J. R.; Carini, D. J.; Bostrom, L. L.; Huang, P. P.; Harrison, K.; Knabb, R. M.; Thoolen, M. J.; Wong, P. C.; Wexler, R. R. Design and Synthesis of Isoxazoline Derivatives as Factor Xa Inhibitors 1. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 1999,42, 2752-2759. [9] Quan, M. L.; Ellis, C. D.; Liauw, A. Y.; Alexander, R. S.; Knabb, R. M.; Lam, G.; Wright, M. R.; Wong, P. C.; Wexler, R. R. Design and Synthesis of Isoxazoline Derivatives as Factor Xa Inhibitors 2. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 1999,42, 2760-2773. [10] Pruitt, J. R., Pinto, D. J., Estrella, M. J., Bostrom, L. L., Knabb, R. M., Wong, P. C. Wright, M. R., Wexler, R. R. Isoxazolines and isoxazoles as factor Xa inhibitors.Bioorganic medicinal chemistry letters,2000, 10, 685-689. [11] Pinto, D. J.; Orwat, M. J.; Wang, S.; Fevig, J. M.; Quan, M. L.; Amparo, E.; Cacciola, J.; Rossi, K. A.; Alexander, R. S.; Smallwood, A. M.; Luettgen, J. M.; Liang, L.; Aungst, B. J.; Wright, M. R.; Knabb, R. M.; Wong, P. C.; Wexler, R. R.; Lam, P. Y. Discovery of 1-[3-(Aminomethyl) phenyl]-N-[3-fluoro-2-(methylsulfonyl)-[1, 1-biphenyl]-4-yl]-3-(trifluoromethyl) -1H-pyrazole-5- carboxamide (DPC423), a Highly Potent, Selective, and Orally Bioavailable Inhibitor of Blood Coagulation Factor Xa 1.Journal of medicinal chemistry. 2001, 44, 566-578. [12] Pinto, D. J.; Orwat, M. J.; Quan, M. L.; Han, Q.; Galemmo, R. A., Jr.; Amparo, E.; Wwllsg, B.; Ellisj, C.; Hek, M. Y.; Alexanderf, R. S.; Knabbb, R. M.; Mersingerg, L.; Kettnera, C.; Baih, S.; Hed, K. Wexlera, R. R.; Lam, P. 1-[3-Aminobenzisoxazol-5†²-yl]-3-trifluoromethyl -6-[2†²-(3-(R) -hydroxy-N-pyrrolidinyl) methyl-[1, 1†²]-biphen-4-yl]-1, 4, 5, 6-tetrahydropyrazolo-[3, 4-c]-pyridin -7-one (BMS-740808) a highly potent, selective, efficacious, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of blood coagulation factor Xa.Bioorganic medicinal chemistry letters. 2006,16, 4141-4147.

Zen Buddhism Essay -- essays research papers

Ch’an and Zen Buddhism Throughout the early years in many East Asian countries, there were many people who were looking for answers to this world’s, and otherworldly, questions. When Gotama became enlightened, and began preaching the practices of Buddhism, it came at such a time when the Han dynasty was collapsing, citizens were tired of Confucianism and looking for a new ideology that they could put there hearts and souls into. Over the years, Buddhism proved to be much more than just a religion; it became a way of life. But over time, the powerful orthodoxy transformed, and many different Buddhist sects emerged. One of the more popular sects, Ch’an, or Zen, Buddhism, has become one of the most influential religions in China and Japan, and is still flourishing today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the year 220 AD, as the Han dynasty was collapsing, Confucianism, then the state ideology, began to lose its popularity. This, along with the demise of the Han order, set up a situation in which the people of China were hungry for new ideas. There were also many dignitaries within the Chinese government that were looking to gain good political footing in order to ensure staying power. These factors all opened up the gate for Buddhism to enter Chinese society and gain popularity with the Chinese culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At first, Buddhism was transmitted to the different East Asian countries via the Silk Road, but as its domination grew, many people began to interpret their own meaning of the Buddhist doctrines that had been translated from Indian to Chinese. â€Å"By the fourth century AD a much greater number of sutras were available in both north and south China, and the Chinese were beginning to realize the immensity of Buddhist literature.† Buddhism did not reach Japan, however, until October 13th, 538, from the Korean kingdom of Paekche.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At this point in time, there were two major schools of Buddhism in China. The first form to emerge was known as Hinayana, or Theravada Buddhism. This loosely translated means, â€Å"The Lesser Vehicle.† Theravada Buddhism was mainly concerned with reaching individual enlightenment; how one could rise above the cycle of samsara and reach nirvana. Mahayana Buddhism, or, â€Å"The Great Vehicle,† became the popular form practiced in most of China, Japan and Korea. The followers of Mahayana believed that the entire world could reach salvation, and that those who f... ... other religions. Many of the new centers are combinations of Soto and Rinzai from Japan, Ch’an from China, and Son from Korea. It is still too soon to tell if these new factions throughout our country and Europe will be as much of a success as those of the Eastern Asian countries proved to be; as one Japanese Zen master recently stated, â€Å"The first hundred years are the hardest.† This statement seems to be true so far, with modern Zen’s popularity growing and subsiding. There is an old Zen adage that offers some of the new Zen teachers encouragement: Though the bamboo forest is dense, Water flows through it freely. Many people believe that the water is beginning to make its way through the forest, opening people’s eyes and hearts to the reality of Zen. Japan and China have always remained very similar in most everything that is done within the countries. Borrowing from each other, the two countries have shared quite a lot in common. So it comes as no surprise to learn that Ch’an and Zen Buddhism are very similar. While many people were not sure if these two factions of Buddhism would remain strong in both countries, followers of the two religions have proved the skeptics wrong.

Financial Crisis

The latest global financial crisis was exploded in 2008. This was the most serious financial crisis since the economic depression which occurred in sass and it severely impacted the global financial market. Lots of corporations collapsed during the 2008 financial recession which was caused by breakage of capital chain. Although some companies did not bankrupt during that period, they also had suffered huge loss. The 2008 global financial crisis began from America. American financial crisis came from the prosperity of real estate.Before the 2008 global financial crisis, a large umber of financial derivatives were generated and financial bubble became more and more serious. Finally, American sub-prime crisis occurred which leaded to a large number of bank failure. This paper will analyze the reason of American sub- prime crisis and indicate the relevance between Shoal's article, agency theory and the 2008 global financial crisis. This essay will argue that agency theory contributes to the 2008 global financial recession. 2 Review of the literature 2. Agency theory Agency theory has described a relationship between principals and agents. It also an solve this relationship through a contract that ‘one or more persons (the principal(s)) engage another person (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf which involves delegating some decision making authority to the agent' denser and Neckline, 1976:308, citied in Lehman and Continue, 2013). 2. 2 Bad theory and humans morality and ethic After the collapse of Enron, Shoal (2005) strongly argues that business school does not need to do lots of things.In contrast, they Just need to terminate some old courses which they are teaching for their students. The reason is that the root of the issues in management practices can be found in the theories of management. Additionally, management practices which are condemned are enhanced by these ‘theories and ideas' (Shoal, 2005: 75). Moreover, business school ca nnot address the issues of moral and ethic. Clansman, Setback and Heckler (1998: 77, citied in Shoal, 2005) claim that management studies is regarded as ‘a branch of' the social sciences.Namely, the issues of business studies can be analyzed and resolved in method of social sciences. However, Ghosted (2005: 77) strongly argues that people use ‘scientific' way o explore regulation so that they have ignored the moral and ethics of humans. Because there are some underlying basic diversities between physical sciences and business studies, some theories of physical sciences are not suitable for business studies. Furthermore, the parts of business studies which are related to physical (2005), even though ‘scientific methods' (p. 7) exerts some positive influences, the cost is expensive. Therefore, this approach denies the subjective initiative of human. In addition, humans morality and ethic which are neglected by individuals are inevitable in human intentionality. Jense n and Michelin (1976, cited in Shoal, 2005: 75) assert that an idea which ‘mangers cannot be trusted' was taught to their students in business school. As a result, when these students graduate, they hardly trust their leaders and do not realize that they should strictly maintain personal integrity.Additionally, Even though Friedman (1953, citied in Shoal, 2005) acknowledges that the duty of agents is to maximize the profit of shareholders, Shoal discounts this view and argues that compared with finding a new Job by employees, it is easier that shareholder can sell their corporation (Shoal, 2005). Furthermore, shareholder value minimization is the fundamental of the agency theory. However, Shoal (2005: 81) strongly asserts that they are not relevant and points out that these research and analyses are built on incorrect assumption, which meaner they are ‘unrealistic'.Moreover, ‘Chicago Agenda' extreme emphasis laws and rules and against human intentionality and indic ates that ethic and morals which are only relevant with persons can be removed from social science (Shoal, 2005). Nevertheless, Shoal disagrees this view and approves of the stewardship theory, because it can effectively give consideration to he profit of ‘customers, employees, shareholders' and their ‘communities' (Davis, Chairman and Donaldson, 1997, citied in Shoal, 2005: 81). 2. 3 Background of financial crisis The 2008 global financial recession has been described a ‘once in a century credit tsunami' (Earl, 2009: 785).This is a disastrous blow to global financial community. Ballard (et al, 2009, citied in Huh et at, 2012) points out that many economists regarded the global financial crisis as the most serious global finance disaster since sass. Compared with only 11 banks was bankruptcy during 2003 to 2007, at least 160 American banks went broke in 2008 and 2009 (Fide, 2011, citied in Huh et al, 2012). From this statistics, it is not difficult to know how stro ng influence brought by this financial crisis. There is a close link between the 2008 global financial crisis and sub-prime crisis.Bernard (2007, citied in Hellenize and Chaos, 2012) asserts that ‘sub-prime mortgages are loans made to borrowers who are perceived to have a high credit risk, often because they lack a strong credit history or have other characteristics that are associated with high probabilities of default'. Furthermore, during 1990 to 2000, cause of the IT bubble economy, the American government took some steps to prevent economic downturn, such as reducing interest rate, cutting tax, decreasing the cost of sub-prime etc.Even though there were higher risks that some of sub- prime borrowers cannot repay currency punctually, the sub-prime mortgage had become an extremely phenomenon in that period, because this kind of debits can get more return due to the higher interest rate. In addition, secondary market had Thus mortgagor can easier receive mortgage credit, no matter he or she is the sub- prime borrowers or prime borrowers. As a result, sub-prime mortgage market had developed rapidly.Furthermore, a large portion of American preferred to buy a house in installment plan before the 2008 global financial crisis and some of them were sub-prime borrowers. Basic and Chine (1996, citied in Change and Chine, 2013: 14) claim that people need ‘more than enough' fortune to certify their social status. This is why lots of American purchased a house in installment plan. Because of the higher interest rate, local banks were pleasured to borrow currency to these sub- prime borrowers. Goodhearted (2007) claims that in order to assess the default risk, here is no experience that the price of house has declined in the whole of America.However, the price of house started to fall from the end of 2006 in lots of areas of America (Goodhearted, 2007). Because the value of mortgage is less than the debts and the growing interest rate, increasingly sub-prime borrowers gave up repaying currency to banks. Consequently, even though lenders had sold these mortgages, it cannot cover the loss. In other words, the income gained by selling houses was not enough to offset the values of the credit and interest. As a result, these banks were suffering serious loss and some of them had to close down. 4 The link between Shoal' article, agency theory and financial crisis In recent years, agency theory is widely used in lots of corporation and regarded it as the fundamental theory of corporate governance. Agency theory has played an important role in traditional control systems. Moreover, in this theory, shareholders use the method of supervision and reward to control mangers and employees. It is the foundation of agency theory to maximize the value of shareholders. Principals need to supervise agents whether they focus on shareholder' interest when they are operating a corporation.However, Shoal (2005) strongly points out hat this theory does not im prove the company's performance, because it is analyzed by physical science and then neglect the moral and ethic of human. Because the different perspectives between shareholders and agents, they can make the diverse decisions. Thus some primary issues should be focused on in agency theory. Firstly, because of the diverse goals between principals and agents, how to ‘align' them has become thorny (Lehman and Continue, 2013: 1). Secondly, how to guarantee agents carry out according to principals' ideas. Lehman and Continue, 2013). Shareholders are interested in long-term strategies which can sustainable evolve their corporations. In other words, in long-term strategies, shareholders' value, such as stock price and dividends, can be maximized (Klein, 2009). In contrast, agents focus on short-term strategies so that they reject long-term strategies. In this way, they not only can effectively avoid unpredictable emergency which usually occur in long-term strategies, but also can ge t profit in a short time. It is why leaders Just pay attention to currently profit and overlook long-term development.For example, they may use ‘inferior raw material' to manufacture (Lehman and Continue, 2013: 1). As a result, current margin can increase; however, they have overlooked some more corporation. Obviously, the loss of long-term cannot be estimated. This is similar as the sub-prime mortgage. Lenders prefer to lend currency to sub-prime borrowers, because of the higher interest rate. They can collect more properties in a short time. In addition, if the housing price is higher than the price of mortgages, borrowers will try their best to repay the debt, because they do not want to lose their house.To assume, if a mortgagor cannot timely repay, house, as a mortgage, will belong to the bank. Namely, when the bank sale this house, it can get extra property immediately. In this case, lending currency to borrowers, even though they are sub-prime borrowers, it is hardly to get damage to lenders. However, loaners have only noticed the short-term profit, therefore, they loaned mortgage to sub-prime borrowers instead of prime borrowers; however, they had neglected sustainable development, especially when the price of house dramatically declined.In fact, when the housing price decreased, some borrowers preferred to give up the mortgage to lenders, especially the value of house is lower than the loans (Klein, 2009). In other words, banks only can receive these mortgages instead of the loans. As a result, huge loss derived these banks collapse. Furthermore, mortgage lender also can resell theses mortgage to investment bank. However, some of them had hided some information in order to a higher price (Klein, 2009). In this way, some drawback of mortgage cannot be known by a new buyer.What is worse, these shortcomings may be modified to become some advantages to attract others. This fraud and sharp practice had continuing occurred. Namely, there are increasin gly investing companies were involved in this event. Nevertheless, because the housing price decreased, these mortgages had devalued, which caused a serious debt crisis. Shoal (2005) points out that business school should open some ethic courses to teach their students more accountable. Obviously, he has predicted this perspective.Initially, if lenders do not only pay attention to short-time strategies, they did not only pursue the minimization of value in a short time and preferred to lend currency to prime borrowers rather than sub-prime borrowers. Even though the price of house decreased, borrowers are bound to consider their reedit, because they do not want to be classified in sub-prime borrowers. Additionally, they had stable Jobs to ensure the possible of repayment. Namely, banks may not consistently suffer such a huge blow.Furthermore, in order to earn greater profit, some agents had lent more than 20 times cash than the value the company's security assets. Was (2010) convinc ingly points out that ‘highly leveraged balance' existed in some financial institutions. For example, investment banks' liabilities-to-assets ratio was 0. 96 at the end of 2006 (Was, 2010). In other words, the majority of assert was borrowed. Even though these agents used insurance to transfer risk, blind pursuit of interests had brought some huge hazard. Sometimes, if an agent is indeed regarded as a selfish man, it will damage the benefit of his or her corporation.Even though it may be reasonable that agent should some underlying differences between physical science and business studies. In other words, some theories which are correct in physical science cannot be reasonably used in business studies. Eisenhower (1989, citied in Lehman and Continue, 2013: 1) points out that it is a significant issue that if an agent makes a decision, it will be fisticuff for principals to check whether this decision is beneficial for the company, such as ‘creative accounting' which is s eriously harmful the profit of corporation.Furthermore, managers may not want to spend capital on ‘long-term research and development', because it can reduce the short-term interest (Lehman and Continue, 2013: 2). Therefore, even though it seems exact that mangers should maximize the value of shareholders, Shoal discounts this view. He (2005:81) convincingly argues that this is the ‘unrealistic assumptions' and humans moral and ethic have been overlooked in this theory. In fact, shareholders and agents have the diverse goals, which meaner that shareholders are interested in long-term strategy; oppositely, agents prefer to focus on the short-term strategy.Because of the unrealistic assumptions, agency problems which contribute to the 2008 global financial crisis are ignored. 3 Implication in article 3. 1 Stewardship can remit financial crisis In Shoal's article, he argues that stewardship theory which can be alliterative to replace the agency theory can remit the problem between principals and agents (Shoal, 2005). Stewardship theory does not advocate personal interest, but the elective profit. In this theory, collective profit is higher than the personal benefit.Hernandez (2008) points out that agents' and shareholders' benefit can be aligned in stewardship theory. ‘Responsibility' and ‘psychological ownership' are combined with the profit of shareholders (Block, 1996; Davis, Chairman, and Donaldson 1997; citied in Spheres et al, 2012:2). In other words, they have become a collective and the interests of collective have closely linked with personal profits. According to Hernandez (2008), employees can feel more responsible and fulfill their obligations in stewardship theory.Because the interest has become consistent, the conflicting goals may not exist. Compared with agency theory which monitoring is necessary between shareholders and agents, shareholders and staff can cooperate in a harmonious environment. Furthermore, stewardship is a lso beneficial for realizing the interactions between sales personnel and consumers (De Router, De Gong and Wetness 2009; Hernandez, 2008, citied in Spheres et al, 2012). Therefore, it is good for a corporation to pay attention to customers, staff and shareholders simultaneously.Take sub-prime crisis makes an assumption, if the majority of corporation accepted he stewardship theory instead of the agency theory before the 2008 global financial crisis, the credit tsunami might not occur or it was not as heavy as this. Interest among agents', shareholders' and customers' are tightly relevant. In other words, agents and shareholders may not only focus on the short-term profit and ignore long- place. Therefore, they may prefer to lend currency for prime borrowers while limit the amount of loans which is loaned to sub-prime borrowers.In addition, when lenders resell their mortgage, they may not deliberately hide weak information and ay not modify shortcomings in order to resell a higher p rice. Even though the agency theory has been extensively used in the world, Shoal has realized the drawback of it and try to replace it. The agency theory has contributed to the 2008 global financial crisis to a large degree. Namely, Shoal has forecasted the issue which has widely existed in the majority of companies. Furthermore, the stewardship theory advocated by Shoal can effectively remit the problems between shareholders and agents.It also can decrease the harm brought by financial crisis to some extent. 4 practice relevance 4. The power of government While it can effectively decrease the probability of financial crisis that using the stewardship theory replaces the agency theory, it is not enough. Therefore, the power of government cannot be overlooked. Because it can cause economic bubble that a government continually slash interest rates or dramatically reduce interest rates. However, American government had constantly reduced the interest rate thirteen times from 2001 to 2 003.As a result, it caused the boom of American real estate. In addition, the application condition of sub-prime mortgage had decreased. A large umber of people preferred to purchase a house in installment plan, which caused the 2008 global financial crisis. Therefore, except for the stewardship theory, government also should pay attention to the frequency and the range of decreasing rate. Excessively fast decline the interest rate or oversize decrease them may cause economic bubble, which can harm for the domestic financial market.What is worse, it can lead to global economic crisis. Thus improper regulations may indirect lead to financial crisis. In addition, it is important that government should limit the rate of the sub-prime mortgage in any investment bank. Klein (2009) points out that regulation which can defend financial marker should be built by government. In other words, reasonable legislative can effectively prevent financial crisis. Consequently, the effect of governmen t cannot be ignored. It also can effectually protect financial market and prevent huge loss.While the dominant economic system is free marker, governmental macro-control, which is beneficial to the current economic system, is inevitable. 5 Conclusion Agency theory has described the relationship between principals and agents. Even Hough the foundation of the agency theory is to maximize the value of shareholder, Shoal (2005: 81) convincingly points out that it is incorrectly built on an ‘unrealistic crisis. Because sub-prime borrowers have the lower credit and lower repayment ability, when the value of mortgage was less than the loan, they preferred to give up repaying the debt.As a result, sub-prime lenders had to sustain the huge loss. However, agents only focused on the short-term profit. They preferred to loan currency to sub-prime borrowers. Therefore, borrowing currency to sub-prime borrowers had become a common phenomenon in that period. Even though Shoal's article was p ublished before the international financial crisis, he was still aware of the problems of agency theory in economic system. While agency theory is accepted by the majority of corporations, it still has some serious problems.

Division of Household Labor Essay

Using information presented in class lectures, discuss the division of household labor (DoHL) in the United States. Specifically, discuss: a) how the DoHL has changed since 1965 (with particular emphasis on core versus â€Å"other† tasks); b) the five factors that explain the DoHL; c) the effects of the DoHL on psychological well-being; and d) how the DoHL affects couples’ marital quality and stability (including material from class lectures and Hochschild’s Second Shift). The DoHL changes after having children which tends to be more equitable between the man and woman since they have to split their time to make sure that they can work on a safe and happy environment for everybody, especially children. The change in DoHL between 1965 to present has drastically changed because women started to have their own careers, so for example in 1965 women would put in 7. 2 hrs more than fathers in taking care of the household and in 1985, women would put in only 2 more hours than fathers. The reason that is, is because most women in 1965 were committed housewives whereas as time progressed, with more women rights, women were focused on establishing their own career path. The core tasks are tasks that simply cannot be ignored, so for example cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry are core tasks and now it has changed because it would usually be the women doing all of that back in the 60’s. Currently they don’t have time to do that so they learn how to split the chores with their husband. That’s why in the gender outline, you see the total hours under fathers generally increasing and the total hours under mothers decreasing as the years go by. If they are both working long hours, if they have enough money, they can hire someone to come and do the core tasks. There are five factors that explain DoHL; husbands’ and wives’ gender role attitudes, educational level, race and ethnicity, wives’ employment and presence of minor children. Starting with attitudes, it all starts with traditionalism. If the wife is a traditionalist, then by large she will do a lot more household labors compared to a wife who isn’t a traditionalist. If the wife isn’t a traditionalist, and her husband is, then there will be a struggle in DoHL, most likely she will end up doing most of the housework. Most successful marriages are when they are both non-traditionalists. Next factor is education, on average, the more education they have the more liberal attitudes they will hold on social issues in general, therefore being less traditional. However if they have quite some money, then gender attitudes may change, so for example, if he can support the whole family with a high salary, she may not see a need to work and would decide to stay at home with the children. In race and ethnicity white men tend to have the most traditional beliefs, black men have the least. Looking at core tasks, black men do the most, Hispanics next, then white last. Another factor, wives employment does change it because if she has a career the less time she will have to do the core tasks. If the wife is employed, her core tasks and her husband’s core tasks go down because of less time on both people. In other tasks (like paying bills), which is less time consuming, the numbers increased. The last factor is the presence of minor children, if they don’t have children, then as what we would expect, the disparity in terms of household labor is very small, however if they are both working and have children with childcare, then there is noticeable discrepancy, since women put in almost twice as many hours as men. The effects of DoHL on psychological well being varies. It can be very hard on both when they are tired and snappy from a long day at work and just not feeling like doing the â€Å"second shift† The single best predictor of long term relationships stability is common values and backgrounds because they would typically share similar interests and values. Now by looking at core tasks and distribution, the hours put in core tasks doesn’t effect the woman’s psychological well being however if the distribution is uneven (ie. She does more than 50 percent of the work) then the lower her psychologically well being. For men, it’s the opposite, it’s the hours that affected them even if the distribution was uneven. So the higher number of hours he puts in, the lower his well being psychologically. Looking at the studies on the effects of division of household labor on marital quality and stability, they found that in couples, if the wife perceived the DoHL as unfair at time one, they were 3 times more likely to get divorced 8 years later, however if the husbands perception of the DoHL was unfair at time one, it didn’t really affect the marriage, its mainly the wife’s perception that matters. In conclusion, if they both thought that the DoHL was fair, then it would predict their marital quality as good. Take for example, Nancy and Evan Holt in the book, â€Å"The Second Shift†, they would fight a lot based on DoHL, she was a feminist and he was a traditionalist, so having non common values didn’t help their fighting but because equality was so important to her, didn’t want to get divorced, and wanted things to be fair, she decided to do the upstairs (mainly the core tasks) and he would do the downstairs (other tasks, like cleaning the garage and taking care of the dog). Did the DoHL between them end up working? Yes because equality was so important to Nancy. For Carmen and Frank, the DoHL didn’t really bother them, first of all they both had similar values but its also because they really needed each other’s money and help. He did about half of the work especially cooking rice, using the ATM machine and doing bills simply because she wasn’t good at those things. She did the other tasks that she was good at, so there was truly quite a fair division; therefore their marriage was content.