More Efficient Software System for the University Research Proposal - 1

More Efficient Software System for the University - Research Proposal Example Apart from direct cost implications, the current system forces the University personnel to work overtime in an effort to clear up work baggage. This unfolding is not only inconveniencing to the staff but also results in additional costs of labor for the overtime work. In line with the above challenges facing the current computer system used in the University, I have opted to present a proposal of that, if implemented, will see the entire system replaced with a more efficient software system. The new system targets to improve efficiency in all University departments by minimizing on the cost of maintenance, enhance the rate and quality of service delivery and minimize the instances that University staff is forced to work overtime (Miner, J. T., and Miner, L. E., 2008). The Problems Related to the Previous System The University has in recent years seen an unprecedented rise in the number of students enrolled for various programs. According to the records from the admissions department, the total number of in-session students at any moment is estimated to stand at 10,000. In relation to the system used to serve these students, it is undeniable that its capacity is by far being outstretched. The current system was installed when the university was starting implying it was meant to serve just but a few numbers of the students in the University at the time. As such, the current system has become exceedingly slow thanks to the high number of records it has to keep. This has resulted in unnecessary and frequent delays in most of the departments. The consequence is that both the students and staff end up wasting their precious time which could otherwise be utilized in some constructive businesses. Secondly, it is not unusual for a student to visit the finance department only to be informed that the system has either crushed or developed delays and, therefore, they should come sometime later. The cumulative impact of these cases results in excessive commotion when the ex am period approaches as students scramble to get clearance from the accounts department. It is also at such moments when errors are magnified and the system could end up breaking completely. Suggested Solutions To resolve the almost perennial challenges experienced in most of the University departments, it is imperative for the University to totally overhaul the entire computer and software system and replace it with a more efficient system. Therefore, I propose that the University considers replacing the current computer system with new hardware as well as software. I further propose that the new computerized system is purchased from Systemic Company. Systemic Company is one of the renowned and dealers in computer hardware and software. If the system is installed, the University would be guaranteed of better returns with minimum cases of hiccups. To facilitate stable operational activities and processes in the University Finance department, an efficient and trust worth the computer system needs to be implemented. Such a system could be in form of application software that permits the management, tracking, and reporting of all processes that takes places in the department. Systemic Software is designed to achieve this purpose.

Strength as a Teacher Essay Example for Free

Strength as a Teacher Essay I have come to believe -after receiving some of my students ´ feedback- that as a non-native speaker I did fairly well in teaching my lessons in the first two weeks. The students compared me to other non-native teacher they had been taught by before (in other Celta courses) and confirmed that I provided the most easily understandable explanations in the field of  ´lexis ´. Even though sometimes it did not work out as planned, I know that one of my major strength lies in explaining things in an extremely simple way. I enjoy teaching vocabulary by creating little stories. Not only but also do I derive from my tutors ´ feedback that a further strength of mine can be spotted in lesson planning. Although I need to express my aims more succinctly and clearly the lesson plans are sound, clear and thorough. To plan a lesson is not always easy, because it can never be foreseen what will happen during the class. So it is important to make sure not to be caught in the act with a lack of knowledge or information to present the students or at least not to let the students realize. Therefore, to think about more than one plan to fall back on is of major importance. Despite of the fact that I struggle with nervousness and tentativeness, I handle to lead a class. I give them time to think before they express themselves. I do not rush thing. I intend to spot my own mistakes immediately and correct them for the students, trying to not let them be aware of it. I do my best to fit in the time limit when to start and when to finish, trying to include all the points from my lesson plan. 2.) My major weakness is grammar. I am confident in using the basics of English grammar but when it gets into anything intricate Im a little lost as to how to explain it in a way that students can understand. Another fact that I have to focus on is to firstly learn from the students what they already know instead of teaching them something that they have already heard of from scratch. Here, providing exercises to check their knowledge and giving them further practice would be the best possible way. For example, I taught a grammar class in the second week of the course that was a bit of a dud because I just didnt really have the background knowledge required to present some easy understandable explanations. Moreover, the students had already heard of that grammatical structure I intended to teach them. I could have just checked and applied my teaching to their needs. I make every effort to give students sufficient feedback, but unfortunately this is another weakness that I am facing. Due to unexpected events in class, sometimes activities take longer and therefore need to be planned more thoroughly beforehand. Therefore there is not enough time to support students with enough feedback. One student once told me that she had not understood the purpose of the last activity in class because she wasn ´t given any feedback at the end. Though my lesson plans are well structured I need to follow this structure meticulously and make sure not to be distracted by anything that would lead to its collapse. Due to the shortness of my practical experience I am definitely struggling with being holistic but still concentrating too much on doing the single parts of a lesson perfect. 3.) Observing my colleagues, experienced teachers and videotaped teachers has certainly helped me to develop my teaching so far. Not only have I skilled and talented colleagues for demonstration, but especially observing one teacher in the last week helped me realize the most important thing for me while teaching: to keep calm and relaxed! This teacher had not only style but also a philosophy because she seemed to be very reflective about what she expressed. Moreover, she kept the  ´Teacher-Talk ´ at a minimum and asked her students generated, topic-related and intriguing questions exploiting the topic fully. She gave the students enough time to answer; not rushing them or giving them a feeling of insecurity. Teacher-type: the enabler. Students have a tendency immediately detecting an insecure or tentative teacher. It reflects in their class behavior and in their responses. I have come to realize that contrary to using my voice efficiently I am likely to speak in a low, soft sometimes even faint manner. True, not every teacher I observed spoke at full volume – and it is always important to note that the amount of students in a classroom is decisive but I have learnt that a certain system of when and how to use one ´s voice helps to effectively reach the aim of teaching successfully.

Strategic Human Resource Management And Challenges Commerce Essay

Strategic Human Resource Management And Challenges Commerce Essay Managers use the term human resource strategies to refer to the specific human resource management courses of action the company pursues to achieve its strategic aims. For example, Dell The essence of Dells competitive strategy has always been to a low- cost leader. Thats why human resource managers use various HR strategies to support Dells low-cost aim Dell deliver most of its human resource services, not through a conventional human resource department, but via the web. A manager tools section on Dells internet contains about 30 automated web applications. This allows mangers to perform human resource tasks that previously required costly participation by human resource personnel. The internet also check job posting, and monitor their total compensation statements. This dramatically reduces the number of human resource people required to administer these activities, and thus the cost of doing so. This is turn support Dells low-cost strategy. Now a days human resource managers face three strategic challenges. 1- One (as at Dell) is the need to support corporate productivity and performance improvement efforts. 2- Employees play an expanded role in employers performance organizations like Toyotas such a high technology team-based production are largely useless without extraordinary high level of employee competence and commitment. 3- The third challenge is that employers see that their human resource units must be more involved in designing not just executing the companys strategic plan. Todays stress on going competitive advantage through people renders such arrangements inadequate. Instead, top management needs the input of the human resource team in designing the strategy, since it is the team charged with hiring, training, and compensating the firms employees. Human resource managers will therefore need a basic functional understanding of how the firm makes money. What activities and process are most critical for value creation as defined by customers and capital markets? Human resource professional need to understand the basis of strategic planning and of the basic business functions such as accounting, finance, production, and sales, so they can take their seat at the table when top management is crafting the firms strategic plan. What factors should management consider in HRM? Recruitment: Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employee and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. Recruitment Methods:- Internal existing employee Self-Applicant Supervisor/Manager Recommendation Succession planning Using Existing Contracts Unsolicited Enquires Previous Applicant Previous Employees Existing Employees Contracts. External Contacts:- Professional Referrals Job Centers Private Selection Consultants Management Selection Colleges/Universities Resettlement services Temporary Agencies Advertising/Media Press T.V/Radio Cinema/Posters Career Exhibitions Conferences/Open days 2-Job Analysis:- This is the process of getting detailed information about job. Here we give the importance of job analysis according to HRM. The Importance of job analysis to HR Manager. Job analysis has been called the building block of everything that the personnel department does. Some of the human resource activities that use job-analysis information includes selection, performance, appraisal, training, and development, job evaluation, career planning, work redesign and human resource planning. The Importance of Job Analysis to Line Manger:- Manager must have detailed information about all the jobs in their work group to understand the work-flow process. Managers need to understand the job requirements to make intelligent hiring decision. Since the Manager is responsible for ensuring that each individual is performing his or her job manager must clearly understand the satisfactorily, the task required in every job. Job Analysis Information A job description is a list of the tasks, duties and responsibilities (TDRS) that the job entitles. A job specification is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAO) that an individual must have to perform the job. 3- Training and Developing Employees. The process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs. This might mean showing a new web designer the intricacies of your site, a new salesperson how to sell your firms products, or a new supervisor how to fill out the firms weekly payroll sheets. Here I again quote an example of Wisconsin-based Signicast Corp. Decided to build a new, high- tech plant, or computerized plant. Terry Lutz, the firms president, know signicast would need a new type of employees to run that plant, and new screening and training programs to hire and train them. EXAMPLE The U.S armed Forces are taking army developed video- game-type training programmers called Full-Spectrum Command and Full- spectrum Warrior for training troops in urban warfare. Honda example: When Honda decided to build a new plant in Alabama, it had to hire thousands of new employees in an area where few people worked in manufacturing. Honda and the Alabama state employment agency first screened the applications by eliminating those who lacked the education or experience. And then gave preference to applicants near the plant. About 340 applicants per six-week session received special training at a new facility about 15 miles from the plant, two evening a week. It included classroom instruction, watching videos of current Honda employees in action, and actually practicing particular jobs. Finally HR department do the final screening. They interview the candidates, review their training record, and decide which ones to hire. 4- Performance and pay/Motivation and Incentives: Financial rewards paid to workers, whose production exceeds some predetermined standard. Basically this system was started in late 80s.If any of the worker or employee gives the best of him; he/she should receive some reward in shape of pay increase or incentives. 5-PROBLEM SOLVING GROUPS Being a good manager, he should make some department or group which can help employees problems. These problems can be helping new employees or helping the old staff with legal stuff or work issue. It can be personal issues as well. Like sometimes employees are having bad time in domestic life and cannot concentrate on their work. So these groups can help and guide the employee with more broad vision. 6-IMPLENTATION OF EMPLOYE S SUGGESTIONS In SHRM this factor is very important to listen to the all employees suggestions, whether the employee is new in the company or working in it for long. New comers sometimes bring new ideas with them; it might be from their previous work place or educational institute. And the old worker can help with their experience in the same work place. Good management always keeps on having employees meetings to keep them up to date and listen to all their new and good ideas. 7-Benefits and Services:- Indirect financial and non-financial payments received by the employees for continuing their employment with the company. They include things like health and life insurance, pension, time off with pay, and child care assistance.(Gerry dessler) Verizon Example:- Verizon communication, facing strong competition and the need to reduce its employees after several managers, needed a way to convince thousands of its employees to take early retirement. In this case, Verizon required a plan that was economically sensible, as well as one that complied with different laws that apply to retirement and other benefits. 8-Coaching / Mentoring:- Employees are trained and educated through methods other than teaching classes and seminars. Chief among these are management responsibilities of coaching, mentoring, and building your organization into a learning organization. Find coaching, mentoring, consulting, knowledge management and how to build a learning organization resource. In every company now a days there is new innovations and technologies are being introduced for profit maximization and customer satisfaction, due to that every employee need to be trained and come to know about innovation how to work with this new technology. EXAMPLE: Tesco is one of leading brand in supermarket industry; recently Tesco had introduced self checkout tills. This is a big innovation in supermarket industry and due to that customer who buys only few things has been no need to stand in a long queue he just use these tills, but some time customers dont know how to use it thats why Tesco trained their employees about this innovation for the better service provided to the customers. Creating a Mentoring Culture Build a Mentoring Culture Coaching for Improved Performance Leadership Success Secrets: Leadership Inspiration Group Mentoring Tips for Effective Coaching Mentoring and Baby Boomers: Mentoring Is a Strategic Business Imperative What Do You Mean My Company 9- Team Building / Work Teams Employee contribution, teams, and employee empowerment allow people to make decisions about their work. This employee involvement, teambuilding approach, and employee empowerment increases loyalty and fosters ownership. These ideas tell you how to do team building and effectively involve people. In this concept good or experienced managers built teams in which old and experienced employees leads these teams and these peoples know system of the company and know as well how to do smart work thats why new comers follow these peoples and done better job in few days. CONCLUSION: Strategy Human resource management is relatively a new term in the management but has very many important implications. By the introduction of SHRM the organizations have managed to improve their potentials. The employees and the organizations are connected to each other through SHRM. It has been the want of the organizations to formulate new ways to produce goods and services. It is the duty of the SHRM to find the right person for the right job for the growth of any company. It is the responsibility of the HR department to find the goal achieving people from the market and also train them to gain excellence. There have been introduced new techniques in SHRM which are useful for the HR managers for the uplift and perfection of the organizations. It is the responsibility of the HRM department to find and know the problems of employees and then to solve them. By this way they can retain low employ turnover, attract new employees and also improve of the employ development. In the modern world it is important for each organization to use its full potential. SHRM helps the organization to move forward and move forward quickly

George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 :: essays research papers

1984 I think that today's society is a "half version" of George Owell's novel, 1984, in some ways it is similar and in others, uniquely different. The closest we come today to a "Big Brother" is the mob. The people are also controlled by watchful security cameras and subliminal messages. However, something in life today is very different from that of 1984, it is the people. In the words of the famous lyricist, "Power to the People." In analyzing "Big Brother," there are similarities between it and the mob. The Mafia is a crime family that can see everything, there is no going against the mob or else someone is going to die. The Mafia is so widespread that it has operatives all over keeping an eye out for cops or law enforcement, this is the Mafia's "telescreens" (Orwell 6). Another startling similarity between the mob and "Big Brother" is the Mafia's strange way of making someone disappear or "vaporize" (Orwell ). Almost unknowingly a person's identity can be changed, altered, or deleted. Authorities use security and surveillance cameras to observe criminal activities or possibly every day activities. Too much surveillance liberties are given to police or FBI. By using hi-tech cameras which can actually document a person's life. Unknowingly, there may be a cute little camera installed in the bedroom. Another way that today's society controls the masses is subliminal messages. Illegal now, subliminal messages were widely used in the entertainment business, especially during the fifties. An example is that movie makers would add a split-second commercial add for popcorn and soda during a movie. Customers would actually be manipulated into buying these products. Even though, this kind of brainwashing is illegal, it is still very hard to detect, who's to say that we are not bombarded by subliminal messages just by watching commercials on television. This is too risky, to think that a person's actions and emotions can be swayed by someone else's perversion's. Again, this is very similar to 1984. Of all the things there are today that would make it impossible for there to be an inner or outer party, as in 1984, is that there is each other. No matter how hard our government tries, they cannot reach everyone. Contrary to 1984, where they do get everyone, I feel that was extreme and unlikely. I find it highly unlikely that a form of government can find a way to get the whole

Concept of HRD Essay

‘Dhanesh â€Å" Auto Inc. has been a major global manufacturer of automotive product. In December 2002, Lumax Industries acquired it. Headlight, side indicator and brakelight are among their leading products. One of the challenges that both the former Dhanesh Auto Inc. and the present Lumax Industries have faced is the fact that over half of their employees not regional employees. Lumax Industries executives recognised that there was a need for more company leaders with global expertise, as Lumax Industries then became a publicly traded company in February 2004. They wanted executives with expertise concerning issues in more than one country. They also wanted leaders who could help promote a â€Å"Seamless† organization, that is, an organization that had fewer boundaries between functions, business units – and countries. Dhanesh auto had already established an executive development program that it called the Business Leadership Program (BLP). This program was aimed at developing the top one percent of â€Å"promotable† employees. The BLP addressed issues such as global strategy, leadership style and behaviour, culture and organization capabilities. The program used various techniques during the formal training portion, including lectures, discussions, individual projects, case studies, and team building interactions. There was also an â€Å"action learning† module, where trainees worked on actual issues that the company was currently facing. Approximately thirty-five people at a time went through the BLP process. An assessment made by Lumax senior managers was that, in general, Lumax management did not have the level of global competency that was required to manage their increasingly global corporation. In particular, the company’s succession planning process had identified a sufficient gap between the global skills required and those possessed by their top managers. This led them to refocus their Global Leadership Program (GLP). This was also connected to their performance appraisal, professional development, and succession managerial management process. Questions: If you were part of the leadership development team at Lumax, what type of global issues would you like to see emphasised in the new GLP? What types of training methods do you; think might be appropriate for training top managers and executives? Why? Are there other things that you would include in addition to formal training? Increasingly more importance is given to â€Å"people† in organizations. This is mainly because organizations are realising of all assets. This emphasis can also be partly attributed to the new emerging values of humanism and humanisation. Moreover with the increased emphasis on creativity, and autonomy, which people are increasingly acquiring and enjoying in the society, the expectations of people are fast changing. People cannot be taken for granted any more. If you said â€Å"yes† to any of the above questions, you have been involved in some form of human resource development†. Organisation of all types and sizes, including schools, retail stores, government agneices, restaurants, and manufacturesrs have al least one thing in common: they must employ competent and motivated workers. The concept of HRD was formally introduced by Leonard Nodler in 1969 in a conference organised by the American Scoiety for Taining and Development. Leonard Nodler defined HRD as, â€Å"those learning experiences which are organised, for a specific time, and designed to bring about the possibility of behavioural changes†. Definitions: A comprehensive definition of a term provide clear understanding and scope of the subject. HRD’s main concern is the development of skill and abilities, knowledge and competencies of employees/ people. 1. According to TV Rao: A process by which the employees of an organisation are helped in a continuous planned way to: i)acquire and sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles. ii)develop their general capabilities as individual and discover and exploit their own potentials for OD. iii)development an organisation culture. In HRD employees of an organisation are helped / motivated to acquire knowledge and competencies. 2. According to TN Chabbra: HRD is a continuous process to ensure the development of employee competencies, dynamics, motivation and effectiveness in a systematic and planned ways†. 3. According to Jon M. Werner: HRD can be defined as a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organisation to provide its members with the opportunities to learn necessary skills to meet current and future job demands. 4. According to Jennifer Joy and David Megginson: HRD is the term we use to describe an integrated and holistic, conscious and proactive approach to changing work-related knowledge and behaviour, using a range of learning strategies and techniques. HRD activities should begin when an employee joins an organsiation and continue throughout his or her career, regardless of whether that employee is an exceutive or a worker on an assembly line, HRD programs must respond to job changes and integrate the long-term plans and strategies of the organisation to ensure the efficient and effective use of resources. Features of HRD On the basis of the above definitions, important featues of HRD may be summarised thus: a.HRD is a system: It is a system having several interdependent parts or subsystems such as procurement, appraisal, development etc. Change in any one subsystem leads to changes in other parts. For example, if there is a change in the promotion policy where seniority is replaced with merit, the chain reactions on affected individuals, unions shall have to be assessed – keeping the difficulties in framing acceptable guidelines regarding ‘merit’ in mind. b.HRD is a planned process: It is a planned and systematic way of developing people. Further, it is undertaken on a continuous basis. Learning, as we all know, is a life-long process and goes on and on. c.HRD involves development of competencies: Basically it tries to develop competencies at four levels. At the individual level, employees are made to realise the importance of playing their roles in tune with overall goals and expecitations of other people (regarding such roles). By enriching and redesigning jobs, the roles of employees are made more meaningful and interesting. At the interpersonal level, more stress is laid on developing relationships based on trust, confidence and help. At the group level, task forces, cross functional teams are created to cement inter-group realtions. At the organisational level, the organisation is made to nurture a ‘development climate’, where every effort is made to harnes human potential while meeting organisational goals. d.HRD is an interdisciplinary concept: HRD is an amalgamation of various ideas concepts, principles and practices drawn from a number of soft sciences. e. Learning is at the core of all HRD efforts. Four agents of development: (i) The person or role (ii) the immediate boss of the person (Dyad) (iii) HR Department (Group) (iv) the organisation. There are many strands to HRD, e.g., Personal developemnt; development for a current job on situation; development in or for new work settings; activites through which individual and organisational goals may be reconciled; and development leading to a better, fuller life for individuals, organisations and wider communities. In a way broad sense HRD may also be seen as ‘the capacity to incorporate learning into behaviour’. ACTIVITY: CREATE YOUR OWN DEFINITION OF HRD Take a few moments to think about your own position and scope for HRD by defining what HRD means to you. Start by writing ‘Human Resource Development’ in the centre of a landscape page, draw ten radiating lines and attach to each one a key word or short phrase you associate with the words in the centre. It can be illuminating to compare your own result with that of colleagues. What proportion you think you will have in common? _________________________________________________________________ HRD Goals and Beliefs The goal of HRD system is to develop: †¢the capabilities of each employee as an individual; †¢the capabilities of each individual in relation to his or her present role; †¢the capabilities of each employee in relation to his or her expected future role(s). †¢the dyadic relationship between each employee and his or her employer; †¢the team spirit and functioning in every organisational unit; †¢collaboration among different units of the organization; †¢the organization’s overall health and self-renewing capabilities, which in turn, increase the enabling capabilities of individuals, dyads, teams and the entire organization. The basic philosophy of HRD is based on certain beliefs. BELIEFS Human beings are capable of enlargement. Even ordinary mortals can produce extraordinary results. Common men can do uncommon things. Trust them, give them a chance and leave them on their own, with occasional help wherever needed. They not only grow but also help the organization realise its goals and progress. There will be amazing improvements in production, productivity and quality. †¢Human resources are the most important assets in the organization. †¢Human resources can be developed to an unlimited extent. Two plus two could be five, six or ten. †¢A healthy organisational climate (openness, trust, collaboration) is essential for developing human resources. †¢HRD can be planned and implemented to benefit both individuals and organizations. †¢ If the organization is able to inculcate a spirit of ‘belongingness’ in its employees, they will be more loyal and committed. †¢To ensure this healthy feeling, the organization has to provide for their basic as well as higher order needs through appropriate management styles and systems. †¢The commitment of employee increases when he / she is able to find opportunities to use his / her potential while at work. †¢The managers must clear the paths, create a development climate and help employees realise their full potential. †¢The higher the level of the manager the more attention should be paid to the HRD function in order to ensure its effectiveness. †¢The maintenance of a healthy working climate and the development of its human resources are the responsibilities of every organization. Why HRD HRD is needed by any organization that wants to grow continuously in the fast changing environment organizations can scale new heights only through the effective and efficient use of human resources. Appropriate personnel policies help maintain employee motivation and morale at a high level, but this alone may not help the organization achieve success and venture into new fields. To this end, employee capabilities must be continually trained, developed and expanded. The employees must be encouraged to take risks, experiment, innovate and make things happen in an atmosphere of mutual trust, goodwill and cooperation. â€Å"People need competencies to perform tasks. Higher degree and quality of performance of tasks requires higher levels or degrees of skills. Without continuous development of competencies in people, an organization is not likely to achieve its goals. Competent and motivated employees are essential for organizational survival, growth and excellence†. BENEFITS OF HRD 1.HRD improves the capabilities of people. They become innovative and enterprising-ever eager to take the risk and get ahead. It improves the all round growth of an employee. Feedback and guidance from superiors help employees grow continually and show superior performance. 2. HRD improves team work. Employees become more open and trust each other. The organizational climate too, improves a lot. 3.HRD leads to greater organizational effectiveness. Appropriate employee-centred policies help the organization achieve the goals more efficiently. 4.Performance related rewards help employees realize the importance of utilizing their skills fully in the service of organizational goals. The organization’s overall health and self-renewing capabilities, too, improve quite significantly. HRD MATRIX The HRD matrix shows the interrelationships between HRD instruments, processes, outcomes and organizational effectiveness. a.HRD instruments: These include performance appraisal, counselling, role analysis, potential development, training, communication policies, job rotations, rewards, job enrichment programmes, etc. These instruments may vary depending on the size of the organization, the internal environment, the support and the commitment of the top management, the competitive policies, etc. b.HRD process: The HRD instruments led to the generation of HRD of processes like role clarity, performance planning, development climate, risk-taking, and dynamism in employees. Such HRD processes should result in more competent, satisfied and committed people that would make the organization grow by contributing their best to it. c.HRD outcomes: HRD instruments and processes make people more c ommitted and satisfied, where they tend to give their best to the organization enthusiastically. d. Organizational effectiveness: Dimensions: such HRD outcomes influence the organizational effectiveness, which in turn, depends on a number of variables like environment, technology, competitors, etc.

Free Essays on And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None / Identity Murder mysteries are a type of literature/film which always contain a storyline which keeps the reader/viewer on the edge of their seat. Suspense, action, horror, and drama are all elements which add to the perfect murder mystery. These types of stories, when done right, take your mind on a thrill ride that doesn’t let up until the end in a dramatic plot twist that leaves the reader/viewer baffled and intrigued. This is the case in the story And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and the film Identity, written by Michael Cooney. â€Å"Identity is just what you want a horror-thriller to be: energetic, lurid, tense and, above all, unpredictable." Marshall Fine, JOURNAL NEWS (WESTCHESTER, NY). Amazon.com claims And Then There Were None to be â€Å"considered the best mystery novel ever written†. AudioFile.com described it as being â€Å"..Agatha Christie at her best with her classic drawing room murder mystery with extra tension to boot†. Both these stories a re similar in that they keep you hooked to the point you can’t do anything but read on or keep viewing. Amazon.com claims Identity is â€Å"a tasty blend of And Then There Were None and Psycho, with a dash of Sybil for extra spice and psychosis†. They also coined it as â€Å"a thriller with a twist, its one of the most original to come around in a long time†. Both these stories deal with a â€Å"who did it† type of plot where the killer isn’t revealed until the very end, to the reader/viwers dismay. These stories are best for those who enjoy being intrigued by what happened, what could happen and what shouldn’t happen. The more you read or view on, the more you come to find whether your predictions were precise or whether they were off. Identity is a dark, disturbing film about 10 strangers that wind up having to spend the night at a hotel once a storm causes a flash flood to block the roads out. It is set in the middle of the desert, a... Free Essays on And Then There Were None Free Essays on And Then There Were None / Identity And Then There Were None / Identity Murder mysteries are a type of literature/film which always contain a storyline which keeps the reader/viewer on the edge of their seat. Suspense, action, horror, and drama are all elements which add to the perfect murder mystery. These types of stories, when done right, take your mind on a thrill ride that doesn’t let up until the end in a dramatic plot twist that leaves the reader/viewer baffled and intrigued. This is the case in the story And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and the film Identity, written by Michael Cooney. â€Å"Identity is just what you want a horror-thriller to be: energetic, lurid, tense and, above all, unpredictable." Marshall Fine, JOURNAL NEWS (WESTCHESTER, NY). Amazon.com claims And Then There Were None to be â€Å"considered the best mystery novel ever written†. AudioFile.com described it as being â€Å"..Agatha Christie at her best with her classic drawing room murder mystery with extra tension to boot†. Both these stories a re similar in that they keep you hooked to the point you can’t do anything but read on or keep viewing. Amazon.com claims Identity is â€Å"a tasty blend of And Then There Were None and Psycho, with a dash of Sybil for extra spice and psychosis†. They also coined it as â€Å"a thriller with a twist, its one of the most original to come around in a long time†. Both these stories deal with a â€Å"who did it† type of plot where the killer isn’t revealed until the very end, to the reader/viwers dismay. These stories are best for those who enjoy being intrigued by what happened, what could happen and what shouldn’t happen. The more you read or view on, the more you come to find whether your predictions were precise or whether they were off. Identity is a dark, disturbing film about 10 strangers that wind up having to spend the night at a hotel once a storm causes a flash flood to block the roads out. It is set in the middle of the desert, a... Free Essays on And Then There Were None / Identity And Then There Were None / Identity Murder mysteries are a type of literature/film which always contain a storyline which keeps the reader/viewer on the edge of their seat. Suspense, action, horror, and drama are all elements which add to the perfect murder mystery. These types of stories, when done right, take your mind on a thrill ride that doesn’t let up until the end in a dramatic plot twist that leaves the reader/viewer baffled and intrigued. This is the case in the story And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and the film Identity, written by Michael Cooney. â€Å"Identity is just what you want a horror-thriller to be: energetic, lurid, tense and, above all, unpredictable." Marshall Fine, JOURNAL NEWS (WESTCHESTER, NY). Amazon.com claims And Then There Were None to be â€Å"considered the best mystery novel ever written†. AudioFile.com described it as being â€Å"..Agatha Christie at her best with her classic drawing room murder mystery with extra tension to boot†. Both these stories a re similar in that they keep you hooked to the point you can’t do anything but read on or keep viewing. Amazon.com claims Identity is â€Å"a tasty blend of And Then There Were None and Psycho, with a dash of Sybil for extra spice and psychosis†. They also coined it as â€Å"a thriller with a twist, its one of the most original to come around in a long time†. Both these stories deal with a â€Å"who did it† type of plot where the killer isn’t revealed until the very end, to the reader/viwers dismay. These stories are best for those who enjoy being intrigued by what happened, what could happen and what shouldn’t happen. The more you read or view on, the more you come to find whether your predictions were precise or whether they were off. Identity is a dark, disturbing film about 10 strangers that wind up having to spend the night at a hotel once a storm causes a flash flood to block the roads out. It is set in the middle of the desert, a...

Who are the winners and losers in the arms trade Essays

Who are the winners and losers in the arms trade Essays Who are the winners and losers in the arms trade Essay Who are the winners and losers in the arms trade Essay The prolific and largely unregulated transfers of arms, particularly small arms and light weapons, has resulted in tremendous human suffering. Tens of millions of people have been killed in wars since 1945. By the end of the 1990s, a large percentage of war-victims were non-combatants and at least half of these were children. The arms trade fuels these wars, wasting life, natural resources and vast sums of money. Despite this, world military expenditure has increased sharply over the last decade; US, Japan, UK, France and China are the top 5 spenders, which equals 62% of world military spending. In particular, several countries like UK and US use military exports as a tool of foreign policy. In this essay, I will examine the profit and cost brought by the arms trade, and try to justify whether there are winners or losers in the arms trade. First of all, let us look at why there are several countries continuing to support the export of military equipment. Let us take Britain, which continues to rank as one of the worlds largest arms exporter (WMEAT, P. 470) as an example. The British government claims, support for military exports helps employment, bring budgetary savings, benefit the balance of trade and deliver other wider economic benefits. ( deso. mod. uk/policy. htm) Since 1995, three reports have begun to estimate the overall net costs to government of engaging in this kind of activity. Estimates vary mainly because of different approaches to research and development spending but they all show that exports benefit from considerable subsidies- between 228 million pounds up to a possible 990 million pounds per annum. WDM, 1995) It is obviously to see that with larger export of the military equipment, there is always a great profit coming with. Furthermore, the British government claims that defence exports help support a strong UK defence industry and contribute to the security of our friends and allies overseas; defence exports can also contribute to international stability by strengthening bilateral and collective defence relationships. ( deso. mod. uk/policy. tm) In addition, the British government believes that a strong defence industrial base is important for the United Kingdoms defence. It enables us to manufacture the equipment to meet our armed forces requirements, including the development of future systems and the regeneration of capability at times of crisis. The skills of our defence industry workers are themselves a valuable defence resource. For an average in each year of 86,000 jobs in the UK are working in defence industry. Without a large export trade, the whole size of the industry will have a dramatic decrease. deso. mod. uk/policy. htm) all above seems to be a very strong evidence of supporting arms trade despite some of the factors might be still debatable. The situation in Britain can roughly reflects the benefit brought by the arms trade in other countries. If all the policy based on the benefits to their own Defence and international security, arms trade can play a powerful role in deterring aggression and promoting stability, it would not be difficult to see the advantages of arms trade. In some extend, we have faced the fact that a number of major initiatives were approved making a significant contribution to the fight against terrorism. These included tightening controls over Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) and agreeing to enhance transparency of transfer of small arms and light weapons (SALW). But does all above mean that the countries which exports military equipment are the winners of arms trade, the answer is: it does not tell the whole picture. The United Kingdom enforces very strict control of defence equipment exports. Export licences are not approved if to do so would fail to comply with UKs international obligations or if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression or international aggression, or may affect regional stability in any significant way. ( deso. mod. uk/policy. htm) However, there always is hidden potential for arms exports, which is also called the invertible hand by some press. Because there is high value of profit, it is not difficult for people to guess there are people selling arms by illegal methods such as trading arms in a black market, otherwise there would be less properly armed terrorists. It can be a direct impediment to the achievement of peace and international security. Now, let us look at one of the biggest arms exporter France as an example. All wars have winners and losers. The war in Iraq is no exception. France is a big loser. France lost billions to Saddam Hussein by selling the Iraqi dictator arms on credit. France lost billions in oil contracts and business deals when the Iraqi dictator fell. France also lost a major alliance with the United States by putting up such a sham over Iraq. The lost alliance between Paris and Washington will cost France. (WWW. newsmax. com) The evidence shows that there are still some arms being exported to destinations where they are likely to be used to commit grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, owning to the fact that there is always uncertainty such as misusing of the arms imported. In practice, however, successive governments have failed to close the loopholes in arms export laws and have even failed to abide by their own guidelines. The decision-making process is weighted heavily in favour of the arms dealers and, time and time again, concerns of human rights are overridden in the interest of exports. A recent example of this was in late 2001 when BAE Systems were granted a licence to sell a i 28million military air traffic control system to the Tanzanian government despite the fact that: Tanzania has a sum total of eight military aircraft and such a system could only provide limited support for civilian air traffic control. A civilian ATC system costing a quarter of the price would have met the countrys needs. The cost of the system will add to Tanzanias debt burden and do nothing to address poverty in the country. Adding to the debt burden seems especially short-sighted given that some sections of the UK government are trying to cancel debt. The UKs export licensing criteria state that account must be taken of the compatibility of arms exports with the technical and economic capacity of the recipient country, with this information gathered from the IMF and World Bank. In this case the World Bank criticised the proposed export for the first two reasons above. (CAAT, 2002) The UK government continues to allow the export of military equipment to many countries with records of sustained human rights abuses, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Indonesia and China. Indonesias military, for example, has an appalling human rights record and continues to wield considerable power. (CAAT, 2001) The UK government argues that it has received assurances from the Indonesian army that equipment will not be used for internal repression. It chooses to believe this despite the militarys record and evidence of previous use of that, or similar, equipment. In addition, the export of arms can also make a very bad effort fuelling conflict. Many of the UKs arms customers are situated in areas of actual or potential conflict. The 2001 Annual Report 1 lists exports to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Angola, Algeria and Colombia. Where more than one country is involved, the UK is commonly willing to sell to both, or all, sides. The above report lists exports to India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, Turkey and Greece, Israel and many of its Middle East neighbours, and Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe during their involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict. Countries with massive development needs, such as India and South Africa, are among the UKs most lucrative customers for military equipment. The governments support for arms sales encourages such countries to waste money that could be spent to meet peoples basic health and education needs. (CAAT, 2002) Any of this military equipment imported for these countries will be a risk, If any of these arms is used in the war or even local conflict, it would be doubtlessly for us to see how disastrous it can be for their people. In general, I could say that thousands of lives are suffering from these trade arms. All above shows that, the exporters of arms like France are not the final winners and many countries, which imports lots of arms are suffering. Most of the people believe that arms exports are a useful tool in foreign policy and giving us some control over other nations. Honestly, they could be in some cases, but in practice they arent. For example, the government happily granted export licences for the supply of spare parts for Hawk fighter jets to the Zimbabwe government for use in the terrible conflict over the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was in spite of opposition from human rights campaigners and some members of the cabinet, who suggested that the government might like to refuse the licences and thereby show their displeasure that Zimbabwes actions. (Brittan, 2001,p2) The tool has lost its power simply because you cannot have total control on other nations. On the other hand, people argue that if we do not sell these arms, someone else will. I have to confess the fact is true. This will need lots of co-operations and trust between nations. In conclusion, I would like to say there are no absolute winners and losers in the arms trade. In the past, the main victims of war have been soldiers and other armed combatants. However, nowadays, as the opening quote states, the majority of causalities in modern wars are innocent civilians. Anyone who is involved in arms trade, will have a risk of being accused of any tragedy happened. In general, lots of the arms deals are being processed, and all we hope to see is, more and more countries are working together, having more control on arms trade, and create a better environment for the world itself.

Ireland Vital Records - How to Obtain Information

Ireland Vital Records - How to Obtain Information Government registration of births, marriages and deaths in Ireland began January 1, 1864. Registration of marriages for non-Roman Catholics began in 1845. Many of the early years of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths have been microfilmed by the Mormons and are available through Family History Centers worldwide. Check the Family History Library Catalog online for details on what is available. Address:Office of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and MarriagesGovernment OfficesConvent Road , RoscommonPhone: (011) (353) 1 6711000Fax: (011) 353(0) 90 6632999Â   Ireland Vital Records: The General Register Office of Ireland has records of birth, marriage, and death occurring in all of Ireland from 1864 to 31 December 1921 and records from the Republic of Ireland (excluding the six north-eastern counties of Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone known as Northern Ireland) from 1 January 1922 on. The GRO also has records of non-Catholic marriages in Ireland from 1845. Indices are arranged in alphabetical order by name, and include the registration district (also known as the Superintendent Registrars District), and the volume and page number in which the entry is recorded. Through 1877 indices were arranged alphabetically, by year. From 1878 onwards each year was divided into quarters, January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December. FamilySearch has the Ireland Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958 available for free searching online. Enclose the correct fee in Euros (check, International Money Order, cash, or Irish Postal Order, drawn on an Irish bank) made payable to The Civil Registration Service (GRO). The GRO also accepts credit card orders (the best method for international orders). Records are available by applying in person at the General Register Office, any local Superintendent Registrars Office, by postal mail, by fax (GRO only), or online. Please call or check the Web site before ordering to verify current fees and other information. Web Site: General Register Office of Ireland Ireland Birth Records: Dates: From 1864 Cost of copy: â‚ ¬20.00 certificate Comments: Be sure to request a full certificate or a photocopy of the original birth record, both of which contain the date and place of birth, given name, sex, fathers name and occupation, mothers name, informant of birth, date of registration and the signature of the Registrar.Application for an Irish Birth Certificate * Birth information prior to 1864 may be available from parish baptismal records which are kept at the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin, 2. Online:Ireland Births and Baptisms Index, 1620-1881 (selected)Irish Family History Foundation – Baptismal/Birth Records Irish Death Records: Dates: From 1864 Cost of copy: â‚ ¬20.00 certificate (plus postage) Comments: Be sure to request a full certificate or a photocopy of the original death record, both of which contain date and place of death, name of deceased, sex, age (sometimes approximate), occupation, cause of death, informant of death (not necessarily a relative), date of registration and Registrars name. Even today, Irish death records do not usually include a maiden name for married women or date of birth for the deceased.Application for an Irish Death Certificate Online:Ireland Deaths Index, 1864-1870 (selected)Irish Family History Foundation – Burial/Death Records Irish Marriage Records: Dates: From 1845 (Protestant marriages), from 1864 (Roman Catholic marriages) Cost of copy: â‚ ¬20.00 certificate (plus postage) Comments: Marriage records in the GRO are cross-listed under the surname of both the bride and groom. Be sure to request a full certificate or a photocopy of the original marriage record, which contains the date and place of marriage, names of bride and groom, age, marital status (spinster, bachelor, widow, widower), occupation, place of residence at time of marriage, name and occupation of father of bride and groom, witnesses to marriage and clergyman who performed the ceremony. After 1950, additional information provided on marriage records includes the dates of birth for the bride and groom, mothers names, and a future address.Application for an Irish Marriage Certificate * Marriage information prior to 1864 may be available from parish marriage registers which are kept at the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin, 2. Online:Ireland Marriages Index, 1619-1898 (selected)Irish Family History Foundation – Marriage Records

BHM 443 -Legal Aspects of Health Care (Module 4-SLP) Essay

BHM 443 -Legal Aspects of Health Care (Module 4-SLP) - Essay Example The case was rather simple and the death of the victim could have been prevented. In fact, the cause of his death resulted from Clostridum difficile infection ( complication of antibiotic therapy ). The patient had dental abscess in which the doctor prescribed antibiotic therapy. Due to the aforementioned infection, the patient experienced severe diarrhea for five days that led to dehydration and shock. Unfortunately, the doctor did not even suspect that the cause could have been the antibiotics administered to the patient that led to C. dif infection. Later, the patient was transferred to Eden Medical Center since he was already in shock and undergoing respiratory distress on November 24, 2005. He died the following day and the coroner’s report showed that his death was the result of â€Å"cardiovascular collapse due to clostridium difficile infection.† What is unfortunate here is the fact that the patient’s death was not related to his mental illness nor its symptoms. Moreover, other medications such as Flagyl could have prevented the diarrhea if only the physician checked the charts well and studied the prolonged cause of diarrhea. â€Å"a cause of action for the death of a child who leaves no surviving spouse, issue, or issue of deceased children, caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another, may be asserted by decedents parents.†( CCP Section 377.60(a), Probate Code Section 6402, Nelson v County of Los Angeles (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 783). The case was a clear manifestation of neglect from the doctor’s side since she did not even consider the idea that Clostridum difficile could have caused the diarrhea considering that the doctor was even a medical internist. The facility was also sued ( vicarious liability ) since the staff did not even inform the doctor that the patient’s condition worsened as he began soiling his

Analysis of performance management of Marks and Spencer with interview Essay

Analysis of performance management of Marks and Spencer with interview questions - Essay Example From this research it is clear that the multi-channel sale is one of the reasons why the company is successful in the U.K. The customers are also more fashion conscious and are less sensitive to prices. They would be ready to go for the trendiest clothes even if it is overly priced. The existences of competition in the market with other brands that are equally high priced have helped the brand to survive in the U.K. market with the high end products. There is abundance of shoppers in Britain who make their purchases from the high end stores. The people of the British Market are more conscious about their health. Therefore they would go for the luxury food products. The sales of these products reach the peak during Christmas. The company also has a strong brand presence in UK. Most of the shoppers go to the stores and are ready to pay high because of the label under which they are buying. Company’s approach towards dealing with the customers and understanding the pulse of the m arket was the reason for company’s sudden growth. When the strategy that our team took became successful in the homeland of the brand the senior management of Marks & Spencer took a decision to engage our entire team in China to understand the market situation and to help increase the sales figures in the country. Hence sending this team for handling the China market was again a strategic move by the senior management of M&S to increase the market share in China. ... The customers are also more fashion conscious and are less sensitive to prices. They would be ready to go for the trendiest clothes even if it is overly priced (Kurtz, 2010, p. 147). The existences of competition in the market with other brands that are equally high priced have helped the brand to survive in the U.K. market with the high end products. There is abundance of shoppers in Britain who make their purchases from the high end stores. The people of the British Market are more conscious about their health. Therefore they would go for the luxury food products. The sales of these products reach the peak during Christmas. The company also has a strong brand presence in UK. Most of the shoppers go to the stores and are ready to pay high because of the label under which they are buying. Company’s approach towards dealing with the customers and understanding the pulse of the market was the reason for company’s sudden growth. When the strategy that our team took became successful in the homeland of the brand the senior management of Marks & Spencer took a decision to engage our entire team in China to understand the market situation and to help increase the sales figures in the country. Hence sending this team for handling the China market was again a strategic move by the senior management of M&S to increase the market share in China. Our team had been entrusted with the duty of analyzing the market properly and to find out how the sales can be increased. The target market had to be identified and the pricing strategies had to be developed to make an impact on the bottom line. The brand commenced its operations in China in 2008. We opened up 14 stores in different parts of China. The shop

The Making of a Rebellion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Making of a Rebellion - Essay Example Because of the colonization of the British, the economies of Europe, Africa and the Americas were ties together. These economies were tied together by the triangular trade. Because of the economic conquests and ambitions, wars were experienced among the European themselves and these fighting spilled across into the Americas and thus causing a lot of social and political unrest among the Native Americans. The war politics during this period was characterized by alliances among the Native Americans, the French and the Europeans themselves. This essay discusses the political status of the Native Americans and the Europeans colonial empires in 1750s and the political implications of the Seven Years War among these political entities. The political and economic interests of the Europeans in the Native American region led to conflicts and unrest among the Europeans themselves (Boyer 89). Since the European rule applied to its colonies, the colonialists and explorers who were driven by econ omic conquest ambitions were opposed to the economic and political limitations that the European governor Sir John Andros implicated on them. The colonialists wanted the parliamentary system of governance in Britain because it catered for their colonial and economic interests. As a result, Sir Andros was removed from power in 1688. William of Orange and Mary who became the new governor in Britain promised to provide full support for the parliamentary system of governance. The colonists thus pledged their loyalty to the new monarchs but they wanted to know the kind of governance that they wanted to adapt. The colonialists were surprised to find out that William and Mary also advocated for full control of Britain for all colonial affairs and interests. This led to revolts such as the Catholic Maryland conflicts because the colonialists wanted the British government to limit its control over the colonial affairs. The conflicts among the Europeans had political impacts on the Native Ame ricans. For example the fighting between the French and England over economic and political dominions led to the British and French allies being formed among the Native American tribes (Cobb 103). The natives were therefore involved in the European fighting. The economic and political oppression of the Europeans on the Native American communities eventually led to the Great Awakening because the indigenous people would not stand economic exploitation and political cruelty of the British any more. The political implication of the Great Awakening was demonstrated by the use of religious leaders who advocated for social equality to motivate the native communities to fight or their rights. The social rebellions which characterized this awakening increased within the American British colonies. These rebellions were fueled by the religious questioning of the European political and economic authority in the Americas. These rebellions and revolts against the Europeans eventually led to the Seven Years War (Boyer 92). The formation of alliances among the Native American Indians, the British and the French led to divided political and economic interests which eventually led to the Seven Years War. The diversity of interests caused a lot of tension among the three political entities. The Seven Years War is termed as a global conflict which began as soon as the British and their Indian allies declared war on the French (Cobb 102). Even though the British and t

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima Essay

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima - Essay Example After three days allied forces used another bomb which dropped on Nagasaki, which easily killed 37000 people and injured 43000 people who also consequently died in the following days1. The bombings were intense, and were soon followed by the surrender of Japan to USA on August 14, 1945. These bombings were the first in history and till date is the only time when nuclear power has been used in the whole world2. Japan and the Atomic bombings Japan was devastated after the bombarding of US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the after effects of which were seen through a number of years. Apart from heavy destruction, the bombs resulted in a lot of human loss, people suffered from Gamma radiation which caused instant deaths in just 2 seconds of the explosion, others died from burns as a result of the fires which were caused by the explosion along with mechanical injuries which were caused by the falling of debris resulting from the collapse of buildings. Many who did not die instantly after the e xplosion, suffered injuries from radiation and consequently died in the following days. ... The United States president, Truman provided a justification to the US citizens that the bombing was to save the lives of US citizens and to impress the Soviet Union from playing a role in the war and further making the war last many more days and even years. It was also argued that Japanese had demonstrated a very brave fanatical resistance in surrendering and so without the bombings it would have been nearly impossible for them to surrender. On an event of being asked that there should have been first a demonstration of the nuclear bomb over an unpopulated area to warn Japan and to force it to surrender, Truman said that it would have been a very risky decision to waste one bomb when there were only two available. Another justification in the favor of the bombings provided by the United States was that the two targeted cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, would have been destructed in any case with the use of fire bombs which were already being used in the war. Therefore, they justify t hat the use of the nuclear bombs did not cause more destruction than that from the fire bombings on Japan. The use of nuclear power has always been criticized, therefore, US states that they used the bombs also in order to fear people from the use of it in the future. Nagasaki and Hiroshima already had to be destroyed during the prevailing war and so the use of bombings also saved the life of US citizens, did not harm Japan more than the already predicted outcome of war and also prevented the future use of nuclear power by the rest of the World. The bombs use also ended the war quickly, which in any other scenario was not possible. In the result of the bombarding, the Soviet Union got intimidated by the US and USSR dropped the idea of demanding a joint

Why companies pay dividend Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Why companies pay dividend - Essay Example The different tax treatment between dividends and capital gains however generally work against the former. A number of companies pay dividends and in some, it is a given in the way their organizations are run. This paper will explore why anyone cares about it at all. Specifically, this paper will address the questions why companies pay dividends; why investors pay attention to it; do dividends affect an organization’s value and how do managers use dividends in the organizational financial management; among others. The idea is to identify whether dividends have any bearing or effect on an organization particularly in terms of equity and firm value. The review on the current dividend literature provided in the following section is particularly focused on the areas related to the positive and negative characteristics of dividends to business organizations. Such outline of studies was aimed at determining how other scholars answered the question posed by this paper. The review summarizes the current studies and research on dividends policy, particularly. An important dimension to the review, however, which would have a pivotal effect on this paper as a whole was the passage of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. The corpus of literature available in regard to corporate payout policy and dividends is extensive. However, this review would focus on two major areas: why do dividends matter for corporations and does it matter how business organizations distribute cash to its shareholders. Miller and Modigliani are considered to be the authorities in regard to framing dividend questions in their finance research. They, particularly focused on how dividend policy is considered a choice between financing with internal equity or financing with external equity. In their study, Miller and Modigliani offered proof that dividends do not matter in a world that is characterized by

A7 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A7 - Assignment Example When talking about permanent employment, public employers have a responsibility to provide the employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan. This is because the employer will most likely work with the employee for all his or her working years until he or she retires. In this perspective, the employer has the chance to plan with the employee for his or her retirement based on the position that the employee holds in the organization (Walsh, 2006). Even where the employee may leave the place of work for another place or be fired because of misconduct, the employer still has a responsibility to provide a secure plan so that the employee knows this beforehand. The plan can be cancelled when the employee leaves ahead of time. Public employers do not have a responsibility to provide employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan where the employee works for a short-term contract or where the organization offers employment only on short-term contract plans. In this perspective, it will be difficult to provide such a plan because the employee will not stay with the company until they retire. As much as the public employer might have the responsibility to provide employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan, employees must also plan for themselves because the organization might close down any time within the employment period because of money problems or other issues. This would definitely put pressure on the employee in case he or she did not have a proper retirement plan. Comment on first thread: the writer comments on the issue in an excellent manner because he links current practice to past practice. He also links the issue with the current problems making it difficult for retirement plans to work. Comment on thread two: while the second thread is short, the writer offers reasons as to why he feels that public employers should provide their employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan. The

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima Essay

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima - Essay Example After three days allied forces used another bomb which dropped on Nagasaki, which easily killed 37000 people and injured 43000 people who also consequently died in the following days1. The bombings were intense, and were soon followed by the surrender of Japan to USA on August 14, 1945. These bombings were the first in history and till date is the only time when nuclear power has been used in the whole world2. Japan and the Atomic bombings Japan was devastated after the bombarding of US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the after effects of which were seen through a number of years. Apart from heavy destruction, the bombs resulted in a lot of human loss, people suffered from Gamma radiation which caused instant deaths in just 2 seconds of the explosion, others died from burns as a result of the fires which were caused by the explosion along with mechanical injuries which were caused by the falling of debris resulting from the collapse of buildings. Many who did not die instantly after the e xplosion, suffered injuries from radiation and consequently died in the following days. ... The United States president, Truman provided a justification to the US citizens that the bombing was to save the lives of US citizens and to impress the Soviet Union from playing a role in the war and further making the war last many more days and even years. It was also argued that Japanese had demonstrated a very brave fanatical resistance in surrendering and so without the bombings it would have been nearly impossible for them to surrender. On an event of being asked that there should have been first a demonstration of the nuclear bomb over an unpopulated area to warn Japan and to force it to surrender, Truman said that it would have been a very risky decision to waste one bomb when there were only two available. Another justification in the favor of the bombings provided by the United States was that the two targeted cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, would have been destructed in any case with the use of fire bombs which were already being used in the war. Therefore, they justify t hat the use of the nuclear bombs did not cause more destruction than that from the fire bombings on Japan. The use of nuclear power has always been criticized, therefore, US states that they used the bombs also in order to fear people from the use of it in the future. Nagasaki and Hiroshima already had to be destroyed during the prevailing war and so the use of bombings also saved the life of US citizens, did not harm Japan more than the already predicted outcome of war and also prevented the future use of nuclear power by the rest of the World. The bombs use also ended the war quickly, which in any other scenario was not possible. In the result of the bombarding, the Soviet Union got intimidated by the US and USSR dropped the idea of demanding a joint

A7 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A7 - Assignment Example When talking about permanent employment, public employers have a responsibility to provide the employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan. This is because the employer will most likely work with the employee for all his or her working years until he or she retires. In this perspective, the employer has the chance to plan with the employee for his or her retirement based on the position that the employee holds in the organization (Walsh, 2006). Even where the employee may leave the place of work for another place or be fired because of misconduct, the employer still has a responsibility to provide a secure plan so that the employee knows this beforehand. The plan can be cancelled when the employee leaves ahead of time. Public employers do not have a responsibility to provide employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan where the employee works for a short-term contract or where the organization offers employment only on short-term contract plans. In this perspective, it will be difficult to provide such a plan because the employee will not stay with the company until they retire. As much as the public employer might have the responsibility to provide employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan, employees must also plan for themselves because the organization might close down any time within the employment period because of money problems or other issues. This would definitely put pressure on the employee in case he or she did not have a proper retirement plan. Comment on first thread: the writer comments on the issue in an excellent manner because he links current practice to past practice. He also links the issue with the current problems making it difficult for retirement plans to work. Comment on thread two: while the second thread is short, the writer offers reasons as to why he feels that public employers should provide their employees with a secure and predictable retirement plan. The

Preliminary Screening of Bioactive Natural Products Essay Example for Free

Preliminary Screening of Bioactive Natural Products Essay The plants which are used to cure diseases are called medicinal plants. This property of plants is due to the presence of certain chemicals namely Phytochemicals which include alkaloids, Glycosides, flavanoids, volatile oils, vitamins, resins, gums etc. These chemicals terminate the growth of micro organisms by obstructing one or many metabolic activities of microbes. World Health Organisation has estimated that perhaps 80 % of the Earth’s inhabitants rely upon traditional medicine for their primary health care needs and a major part of this therapy involves the use of plant extracts or their active principles. Plants form the major resource in the preparation of drugs in many ancient systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Unani, Homoeopathy, Naturopathy, Siddha and Allopathy. Our present work mainly aims at the screening of Bioactive compounds present in wood and fruit of Terminalia pallida Brandis Terminalia pallida is a semi evergreen tree belongs to the family Combretaceae and its telugu name is called Tella-Karaka. Wood and fruit are highly medicated due to the prescence of bioactive compounds. These parts are widely used by the tribals of various districts of Andhra Pradesh to cure diarrhoea, peptic ulcers and diabetes. Fresh plant parts were collected, shade dried and ground in to coarse powder. Extraction of Bioactive compounds can be done with different type of solvents for further phytochemical analysis. Results obtained in the present study reveals the presence of Flavanoids, Indoles, Leucoanthocyanins, steroids, Phenols, Saponins, Tanins in the wood of Terminalia Pallida. Fruits consist of all the above bioactive compounds along with alkaloids. These bioactive compounds are responsible for antidiarrhoeatic, anti-ulcer and anti-diabetic properties of the plant. The present communication attempts to assess the status of phytochemical properties in wood and fruits of Terminalia Palllida , Brandis to develop the awareness among the local people. It is also useful to the advanced research in the Pharmacertical field.

Huntington Disease: An overview

Huntington Disease: An overview Huntington Disease Huntington disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant disorder, characterized as disease of progressive brain degeneration in late adulthood with subsequent brain atrophy. The affected areas of degeneration are the basal ganglia, which play an important role in the control of movement. This degeneration causes various motor problems such as behavioral abnormality, chorea, incoordination and dystonia (Folstein, 1989). George Huntington was the first man that described HD in the 19th century in detail especially its hereditary nature of chorea (Huntington, 1872). New findings have shown that HD involves the mutant protein huntigtin. This protein is translated from a CAG repeat forming a polyglutamine strand of variable length at the N-terminus. The molecular mechanism of HD is not fully understood but new findings using animal models have provided valuable information. The gene associated with HD is termed the HD gene and can be found on the short arm of chromosome four. As the disease is autosomal dominant, only one HD gene is sufficient to cause the disorder. The HD gene is composed of a trinucleotide CAG repeats.The alleles of the HD gene are grouped as normal, intermediate or HD-causing. Each group has a characteristic number of CAG repeats. The normal alleles have 26 or fewer CAG repeats whereas intermediate alleles have 27-35 CAG repeats (Potter et al., 2004). Carriers of normal alleles and intermediate alleles are not at risk of developing HD. However, individuals with intermediate alleles are at risk of giving birth to a child with an allele of HD-causing characteristic (Semaka et al., 2006). Thus, intermediate alleles are also termed mutable alleles as they may mutate to cause HD phenotype in the offspring. The reason for the mutation lies in the instability of the replication. The longer the number of trinucleotides, the greater the insta bility. In 73% of the cases, the instability leads to an expansion of the trinucleotide repeats and thus an increase in the risk of developing HD whereas only 23% show a contraction of the number of repeats associated with a low risk of developing HD (Chattapadhyay et al., 2005; Djousse et al.,2004, MacDonald et al., 1999). HD-causing alleles usually contain 36 or more CAG repeats and pose the carrier at an increased risk of developing HD. HD-causing alleles have been categorized into two groups: Reduced-penetrance HD-causing alleles and Full-penetrance HD-causing alleles. Reduced-penetrance or incomplete HD-causing alleles are composed of 36-39 trinucleotide CAG repeats (Rubinsztein, 2003; Rubinsztein et al., 1996; McNeil et al., 1997). Carriers of this allele may be asymptomatic and not show the symptoms. On the other hand, full-penetrance HD-causing alleles are characterized by 40 or more CAG repeats and carriers of this allele have a high probability of developing HD (Rubinsztein et al., 1996; McNeil et al., 1997; Langebehn et al., 2004). The instability of the trinucleotide repeats occurs more often in males (spermatogenesis) than in females (oogenesis). This phenomenon can also be observed in the offspring with paternal inheritance of the HD gene where the onset of HD is more potent and occurs in the early youth. In addition, families with no history of HD may develop HD via new mutations arising by the amplification of trinucleotide CAG repeats and most of these new mutations come from the paternal side (Anca et al., 2004; Squitieri et al., 2003). Somatic instability of CAG repeats can also arise and have been observed in human beings as well as animal models. Furthermore, identical twins demonstrate different clinical syndromes and have almost a similar age of onset. Twins that are carriers of homozygous alleles have no difference in the age of onset (Georgiou et al., 1999). Carriers of the HD allele are clinically healthy before the onset of the HD disease symptoms. However, in the so called presymptomatic phase, there are slight changes occurring in motor skills, cognition and personality (Walker, 2007). The onset of HD disease symptoms usually occurs in the mean age of onset which is 35 to 44 years (Bates et al., 2002). In 66%, initial symptoms are abnormalities in the neurological function or psychiatric changes. Other symptoms are minor involountary movements, difficulty in mental planning, depression and slight changes in the eye movement. In 25% of HD carriers, the appearance of initial symptoms such as chorea, dysphagia and gait disturbance is delayed until after 50 years with the disease symptoms taking a more prolonged and gentle course. At the same time, the lifestyle of the affected individuals does not change and they can still continue with their current employment. The initial onset of the symptoms is followed by an increased symptomatic chorea, difficulty in controlling voluntary movement as well as exacerbation of dysarthria and dysphagia. As a result of the worsening symptoms, the affected individuals must leave employment and may require additional help to cope with some activities in their daily life. The final stage of HD demonstrates severe motor disability. The symptoms have worsened so much that so that the carriers cannot deal with their impairment at all and require the assistance of other people. The carriers are mute and incontinent and show a median survival time of 15 to 18 years after the first onset of HD related symptoms. The life expectancy is suggested to be at 54 to 55 years (Harper, 2005). The diagnosis of HD is based on mutation analysis. For this purpose, PCR based methods can be utilized which spots alleles up to about 115 CAG repeats. Likewise, southern blot is employed for alleles with more than 115 CAG (Potter et al., 2004). Such large expansions are linked with juvenile-onset of HD triggered by homozygous HD genotypes. Moderate-to-severe Huntingtons disease illustrate larger frontal horns of the lateral ventricles and deficiency in striatal volume when routine MRI and CT scans are performed (Stober et al., 1984). However, scans are not helpful for the diagnosis of early disorder. Functional MRI studies and data from PET have displayed that affected brains started to alter before the onset of symptoms (Kunig et al., 2000, Paulsen et al., 2004). Using these techniques, it is possible to recognize caudate atrophy as easrly as 11 years before the expected onset of the disease, and it is possible to recognze putaminal atrophy 9 years before the expected onset (Aylwar d et al., 2004). Tensor-based magnetic resonance morphometry demonstrates increasing loss of striatal loss in individuals who are presymptomatic carrying the HD gene and do not show evidence of progresson by clinical or neuropsychological tests over 2 years (Kipps et al., 2005). Genetic testing for HD is only considered by 5% of HD risk carriers due to family planning and employment. Many HD risk carriers do not undergo testing as there is no efficient treatment for HD available (Laccone et al., 1999). Moreover, predictive testing can have psychological consequences for HD risk carriers leading to suicide due to mental depression (Almqvist et al., 2003). Therefore, it is crucial to identify suicidal patterns in young HD risk carriers and give pretest counseling. Epidemiological studies suggest that HD is most prevalent in the white Caucasian population with 5-7 people affected per 100000. There are also exceptions in areas where the entire population is derived from a few founders such as in Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela or Tasmania (Pridmore, 1990). Across most of Asia and Africa the incidences of HD are much lower. The reason for the various distribution of HD incidence lies in the CAG repeats. White Caucasians have a much higher frequency of HD alleles that are composed of 28-35 CAG repeats (Kremer, 2002; Harper Jones, 2002). The high frequency of this HD alleles in the white population is not fully understood. The HD gene may give a health benefit as in other genetic disorders such as sickle cell trait. It is thought that the HD gene is associated with a lower risk of developing cancer, possibly due to the upregulation of TP53 in HD disease (Bae et al., 2005; DiFiglia etal., 1995). The pathogenesis of HD involving the protein huntingtin is poorly understood. Even though orthologs of that protein have been detected in zebrafish, drosophilia and slime moulds, the role of the protein is still unknown (Jones, 2002). Huntingtin has a high dominance in all human cells. Most of it is expressed in the brain and testes whereas heart, lungs and liver show moderate amounts of it (DiFiglia et al.,1995). One hypothesis suggests that happloinsufficiency plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of HD. This would mean that insufficient amounts of huntingtin protein are generated for the cells to function properly (Ambrose et al.,1994). However, this hypothesis also have been refuted by other findings which suggest that a deficiency of HD gene in man does not cause HD in man (Rubinsztein, 2003; Ambrose et al., 1994). This is also supported by transgenic mouse models. One allele of the HD gene does not cause HD in transgenic mouse models and complete absence of the HD gene is linked to mortality in mouse embryos (Squitieri et al., 2003). Thus, new findings explain the pathogenesis of HD as a toxic gain of function derived from the mutant HD gene. Likewise, this phenomenon can also be observed in other genetic diseases such as muscular atrophy or dentatorubropallidoluysian (Ambrose et al., 1994; Andrew et al., 1993). There is not sufficient evidence to support the claim of happloinsufficiency in any of these genetic disease but an accumulation of polyglutamines with subsequent neurodegeneration. This is further supported by the relationship between length of polyglutamine repeat and age of onset. Longer polyglutamine repeat chains are associated with more aggressive progression of HD disease symptoms and the juvenile onset of HD (Mahant et al., 2003; Squitieri et al., 2002; Forproud et al., 1999). The biological structure of polyglutamine gives more insight into the toxic gain of function in HD. Experiments performed in vitro show that polyglutamine aggregates by forming dimmers, trimers and oligomers. For this aggregation to be efficient, a minimum number of 37 glutamine residues in sequence is required. The rate of aggregation increases as more glutamine repeats are added to the long chain of glutamine polypeptide. This in vitro observation may be an explaination why some individuals experience late onset of HD while others have a juvenile onset of HD. Some key points have been discovered in the mechanism explaining how aggregated polyglutamine leads to neuronal dysfunction. The mutant huntingtin protein is more prone to proteleolysis than its wild type counterpart. This higher risk of protein degradation creates truncated proteins, which lead to the formation of aggregates of truncated huntingtin. Additionally, shorter glutamine repeats are less likely to form steric clashes than longer ones. It is believed that these aggregates are toxic and locate in the cell nucleus. (Saudou et al., 1998; Peter et al., 1999; Wellington et al., 2000). Eventually, the rate of aggregation overcomes the rate at which proteosomes or autophagic vacuolization degrade the proteins in the cell. This further exacerbates the formation of aggregated protein in conjunction with the ability of aggregates to recruit normal body proteins to their matrix. Examples of normal body proteins are those proteins that interact with the wild type form of huntingtin dir ectly (Mills et al., 2005). Some papers also propose that the protein huntingtin may exert not only a toxic gain of function but also a dominant negative effect on the typical function of the wild type protein huntingtin. This way, mutant huntingtin could interfere with proteins that regulate transcription, apoptosis, tumor suppression or axonal transport (Bae et al., 2005; Busch et al., 2003; Charrin et al., 2005; Gauthier et al., 2004 , Hickey Chesselet, 2003). Lastly, one other hypothesis states that mutant huntingtin may interfere in neuron-neuron interaction. This has been illustrated in mice where the mutant protein huntingtin disrupts the axonal transport and vesicle release of neurotrophic factor in neurons leading to intrinsic dysfunction of striatal neurons (Pulst et al., 1996; Komure et al., 1995). References Almqvist EW, Brinkman RR, Wiggins S, Hayden MR. Psychological consequences and predictors of adverse events in the fi rst 5 years after predictive testing for Huntingtons disease. Clin Genet 2003; 64: 300-09. Ambrose CM, Duyao MP, Barnes G, et al. Structure and expression of the Huntingtons disease gene: evidence against simple inactivation due to expanded CAG repeat. Somat Cell Mol Genet 1994; 20: 27-38. Anca MH, Gazit E, Lowewenthal R, Ostrovsky O, Frydman M, Giladi N. Diff erent phenotypic expression in monozygotic twins with Huntington disease. Am J Med Genet 2004; 124: 89-91. Andrew SE, Goldberg YP, Kremer B, et al. The relationship between trinucleotide (CAG) repeat length and clinical features of Huntingtons disease. Nat Genet 1993; 4: 398-403. Aylward EH, Sparks BF, Field KM, et al. Onset and rate of striatal atrophy in preclinical Huntington disease. Neurology 2004; 63: 66-72. Bae BI, Xu H, Igarashi S, et al. P53 mediates cellular dysfunction and behavioral abnormalities in Huntingtons disease. Neuron 2005; 47:29-41. Bates G, Harper P, Jones L (2002) Huntingtons Disease. Oxford University Press, New York. Busch A, Engemann S, Lurz R, et al. Mutant huntingtin promotes the fibrillogenesis of wild-type huntingtin: a potential mechanism for loss of huntingtin function in Huntingtons disease. J Biol Chem 2003; 278: 41452-61. Charrin BC, Saudou F, Humbert S. Axonal transport failure in neurogenerative disorders: the case of Huntingtons disease. Pathol Biol 2005; 53: 189-92. Chattapadhyay B, Baksi K, Mukhopadhyay S, Bhattacharyya NP. Modulation of age at onset of Huntingtons disease patients by variations in TP53 and human caspase activated DNase (hCAD) genes. Neurosci Lett 2005; 374: 81-86. DiFiglia M, Sapp E, Chase K, et al. Huntingtin is a cytoplasmic protein association with vesicles in human and rat brain neurons. Neuron 1995; 14: 1075-81. Djousse L, Knowlton B, Hayden MR, et al. Evidence for a modifier of onset age in Huntington disease linked to the HD gene in 4p16. Neurogenetics 2004; 5: 109-14. Foroud T, Gray J, Ivashina J, Conneally PM. Differences in duration of Huntingtons disease based on age at onset. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1999; 66: 52-56. Folstein S. Huntingtons disease: a disorder of families. Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. Gauthier LR, Charrin BC, Borrell-Pages M, et al. Huntingtin controls neurotrophic support and survival of neurons by enhancing BDNF vesicular transport along microtubules. Cell 2004; 118: 127-38. Georgiou N, Bradshaw JL, Chiu E, Tudor A, OGorman L, Phillips JG. Diff erential clinical and motor control function in a pair of monozygotic twins with Huntingtons disease. Mov Disord 1999; 14:320-25. Harper PS, Jones L. Huntingtons disease: genetic and molecular studies. In: Bates G, Harper P, Jones L, eds. Huntingtons disease. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: 113-58. Harper B.Huntington disease.J R Soc Med.2005;98:550. Hickey MA, Chesselet MF. Apoptosis in Huntingtons disease. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2003; 27: 256-65. Huntington G. On chorea. Med Surg Rep 1872; 26: 317-21 Kipps CM, Duggins AJ, Mahant N, Gomes L, Ashburner J, McCusker EA. Progression of structural neuropathology in preclinical Huntingtons disease: a tensor based morphometry study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005; 76: 650-55. Kunig G, Leenders KL, Sanchez-Pernaute R, et al. Benzodiazepine receptor binding in Huntingtons disease: [11C]fl umazenil uptake measured using positron emission tomography. Ann Neurol 2000; 47: 644-48. Kremer B. Clinical neurology of Huntingtons disease. In: Bates G, Harper P, Jones L, eds. Huntingtons disease. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: 3-27. Komure O, Sano A, Nishino N, et al. DNA analysis in hereditary dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy: correlation between CAG repeat length and phenotypic variation and the molecular basis of anticipation. Neurology 1995; 45: 143-49. Jones L. The cell biology of Huntingtons disease. In: Bates G, Harper P, Jones L, eds. Huntingtons disease. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: 348-62. Laccone F, Engel U, Holinski-Feder E, et al. DNA analysis of Huntingtons disease: fi ve years experience in Germany, Australia, and Switzerland. Neurology 1999; 53: 801-06. Langbehn DR, Brinkman RR, Falush D, Paulsen JS, Hayden MR.A new model for prediction of the age of onset and penetrance for Huntingtons disease based on CAG length.Clin Genet.2004;65:267-77. MacDonald ME, Vonsattel JP, Shrinidhi J, et al. Evidence for the GluR6 gene associated with younger onset of Huntingtons disease. Neurology 1999; 53: 1330-32 Mahant N, McCusker EA, Byth K, Graham S. Huntingtons disease: clinical correlates of disability and progression. Neurology 2003; 61:1085-92. McNeil SM, Novelletto A, Srinidhi J, Barnes G, Kornbluth I, Altherr MR, Wasmuth JJ, Gusella JF, MacDonald ME, Myers RH.Reduced penetrance of the Huntingtons disease mutation.Hum Mol Genet.1997;6:775-9. Mills IG, Gaughan L, Robson C, et al. Huntingtin interacting protein 1 modulates the transcriptional activity of nuclear hormone receptors. J Cell Biol 2005; 170: 191-200. Paulsen JS, Zimbelman JL, Hinton SC, et al. fMRI biomarker of early neuronal dysfunction in presymptomatic Huntingtons disease. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2004; 25: 1715-21. Peter MF, Nucifora FC Jr, Kushi J, et al. Nuclear targeting of mutant Huntingtin increases toxicity. Mol Cell Neurosci 1999; 14: 121-81. Potter NT, Spector EB, Prior TW.Technical standards and guidelines for Huntington disease testing.Genet Med.2004;6:61-5. Pridmore SA. The large Huntingtons disease family of Tasmania.Med J Aust 1990; 153: 593-95. Pulst SM, Nechiporuk A, Nechiporuk T, et al. Moderate expansion of a normally biallelic trinucelotide repeat in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2. Nat Genetics 1996; 14: 237-38. Rubinsztein DC. Molecular biology of Huntingtons disease (HD) and HD-like disorders. In: Pulst S, ed. Genetics of movement disorders. California: Academic Press, 2003: 365-77. Rubinsztein DC, Leggo J, Coles R, Almqvist E, Biancalana V, Cassiman JJ, Chotai K, Connarty M, Crauford D, Curtis A, Curtis D, Davidson MJ, Differ AM, Dode C, Dodge A, Frontali M, Ranen NG, Stine OC, Sherr M, Abbott MH, Franz ML, Graham CA, Harper PS, Hedreen JC, Hayden MR.et al.Phenotypic characterization of individuals with 30-40 CAG repeats in the Huntington disease (HD) gene reveals HD cases with 36 repeats and apparently normal elderly individuals with 36-39 repeats.Am J Hum Genet.1996;59:16-22. Rubinsztein DC. Molecular biology of Huntingtons disease (HD) and HD-like disorders. In: Pulst S, ed. Genetics of movement disorders. California: Academic Press, 2003: 365-77. Rubinsztein DC, Leggo J, Coles R, et al. Phenotypic characterization of individuals with 30-40 CAG repeats in the Huntington disease (HD) gene reveals HD cases with 36 repeats and apparently normal elderly individuals with 36-39 repeats. Am J Hum Genet 1996; 59:16-22. Saudou F, Finkbeiner S, Devys D, Greenberg ME. Huntingtin acts in the nucleus to induce apoptosis but death does not correlate with the formation of intranuclear inclusions. Cell 1998; 95: 55-56. Squitieri F, Cannella M, Simonelli M. CAG mutation eff ect on rate of progression in Huntingtons disease. Neurol Sci 2002;23 (suppl 2): S107-08. Squitieri F, Gellera C, Cannella M, et al. Homozygosity for CAG mutation in Huntingtons disease is associated with a more severe clinical course. Brain 2003; 126: 946-55. Stober T, Wussow W, Schimrigk K. Bicaudate diameter: the most specifi c and simple CT parameter in the diagnosis of Huntingtons disease. Neuroradiology 1984; 26: 25-28. OHearn E, Holmes SE, Calvert PC, et al. SCA-12: tremor with cerebellar and cortical atrophy is associated with a CAG repeat expansion. Neurology 2001; 56: 299-303. Walker FO.Huntingtons disease.Lancet.2007;369:218-28. Wellington CL, Leavitt BR, Hayden MR. Huntington disease: new insights on the role of huntingtin cleavage. J Neural Transm Suppl 2000; 58: 1-17.

Free College Essays - Symbolism in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Scarlet Letter Symbolism The Scarlet Letter is a book of much symbolism.   One of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.   Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol -   one that is always changing.   In the following essay, I will explore some of the symbolism which Pearl came to represent throughout the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In The Scarlet Letter, Hester, for her sins, received a scarlet letter, "A" which she had to wear upon her chest.   This was the Puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery.   The Puritan treatment continued, because as Hester would walk through the streets, she would be looked down upon as if she were some sort of demon from Hell, that committed a terrible crime.   This would give her much mental anguish and grief.   On the other hand, God's treatment of Hester for her sin was quite different than just a physical token: he gave Hester the punishment of a very unique child which she named Pearl.   This punishment handed down from God was a constant mental and physical reminder to Hester of what she had done wrong, and she could not escape it.   In this aspect, Pearl symbolized God's way of punishing Hester for adultery.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The way Hester's life was ruined for so long was the ultimate price that Hester paid for Pearl.   With Pearl, Hester's life was one almost never filled with joy, but instead a constant nagging.   Pearl would harass her mother over the scarlet "A" which she wore.   Pearl would also make her own "A" to wear, and sometimes she played games with her mother's, trying to hit it with rocks.   When Hester would go into the town with Pearl, the other children would make fun of her, and Pearl would yell and throw dirt at them.   So, in this case, Pearl symbolized the decimation of Hester's life and mental state.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although Hester had so much trouble with Pearl, she still felt that Pearl was her treasure.   Pearl was really the only thing that Hester had in life, and if Pearl wasn't in Hester's life, Hester would almost surely have committed suicide.   Once and a while, Pearl would bring joy to Hester's life, and that helped her to keep on living.   Pearl really symbolized a rose to her mother, at some times she could be bright and vibrant, and really love her mother, but at other times, she could be wilting.