First Ancient Civilizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

First Ancient Civilizations - Essay Example Religion is of crucial importance to society since it facilitates the guarding of morals in society. The word Mesopotamia in the Greek language means ‘the land between two rivers’, because the civilization began between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It was in the Eastern Mediterranean, had the Zagros Mountains to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula to the southeast, and corresponded to the present-day Iraq, most parts of Iran, Turkey and Syria. It was called Al Jazira by the Arabs and has been termed to as the Fertile Crescent. This civilization is the earliest in world history and, one which lasted for the longest time having begun around 3500 BC and ended in (Chadwick, 2005). It had much influence in western civilizations and most of these civilizations laid their foundations based on its example. Unlike other civilizations, Mesopotamia was a collection of various cultures, which were only bound together by their gods, writing and how they treated women. Mesopotamia is regarded as the cradle of civilization because it was the first to build cities, use the potter’s wheel, to develop writing, to organize armies, use large quantities of bronze and is called the place where history began. The yellow river civilization in china began in 4000 BC in China. Since water is known to play a critical role in the development of a civilization, the yellow river civilization owed its origin and development to the yellow river. The yellow river occupies a place of importance in china and has been known as the mother river of china. Just as the Egyptians credit their existence to the river Nile, the Chinese also attach great importance to the yellow river, referring to it as the cradle of Chinese civilization. The yellow river population was the centre of politics, economy and culture of the Chinese. It was also the center of science and technological advancement. It existed for 2000 years, covering the period

Online Vs. Classroom Instruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Online Vs. Classroom Instruction - Essay Example Aspects of the text that the author discusses that are risky are looking at two different types of being a student. Online learning can be controversial because some people may think it is not the same as earning a real degree and think the classroom requires more hands-on work. She takes a stance against online learning and uses a source to stand behind her thoughts saying that online classes keep students away from interacting with both fellow students and their professors, making it harder to work on group projects and getting support from peers and instructors. While Morgan is making this comparison, it is hard to know where she is coming from. While it states at the bottom her author biography, it does tell that she has earned a degree. It makes me curious what her education was like. Does she really know what it is like to be in both types of classrooms? Has she ever taken an online class? If she has not, then that does not really give her any credibility behind her argument. People that have taken classes under both circumstances are the people that really can give their true opinion on which is more effective and it also depends on a person’s learning style. One of the risks she takes in writing this is that her credibility is really at stake. If someone were to dig in her background on this opinion piece, it might be discovered that she only took structured classes within a classroom. However, she might also have been a student that only earned her education from a university such as University of Phoenix which is strictly online. No one really knows who she is which makes it difficult to know how she developed her opinions. There are many factors that could determine if online education or traditional structured classroom education is best and these are some topics that the author did not necessarily address. She might be a person who is middle-aged and never had the option to take an online class. This

Investigatory Project Essay Example for Free

Investigatory Project Essay It is said that Lemon Grass is an excellent insect repellant. The ancients were familiar with this attribute. This action, bug repelling, does not carry the same punch that it did in the days of the Israelites. Egypt was fertile because it had good soil and lots of water. An abundance of water meant lots of insects, specifically mosquitoes. Mosquitoes carry malaria, which was bad news in the ancient world. The ancients burned lemon grass to keep the bugs away just as we do. However, they were worried about a little more than unsightly bump on the legs. Keeping bugs away was a life or death situation. Using coconut oil for the skin is healthy, the natural way. Tropical dwellers have known this fact for at least a millennium or two. Unlike superficial cosmetics formulated in labs of profit-hungry corporations, coconut oil contains absolutely nothing that will harm your precious skin, including the rest of your body. Related Study This essential oil proved to be one of the top performers in a comparative study of insect repellents published in July, 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The two commercial sprays tested kept bugs away from 1 to 3 hours. The results of a 2004 California State Science Fair project show that lemongrass is 30 percent less effective than commercial preparations containing DEET, or diethylmetatoluamide, in repelling mosquitoes. Lemongrass, or cymbopogon ciatrus, may still be a suitable substitute for persons who cannot tolerate DEET. A study published on the CBS News website compares natural-based insect repellents against DEET products. According to the news network, natural products like lemon grass and citronella work by scent and must be reapplied more often than DEET-based products. On coconut oil as a skin friendly product, Leading biochemist Raymond Peat, Ph.D., has this to say. It is well established that dietary coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has both direct and indirect antioxidant activities.

Comparison of Goldman Sachs and Close Brothers Annual Report

Comparison of Goldman Sachs and Close Brothers Annual Report International Financial Accounting – Comparison of the Annual Reports 2005 of Goldman Sachs and Close Brothers Description of activities and source and type of revenues Goldman Sachs has three main types of activities Investment banking. This covers services like merger and acquisition advice, helping clients raise debt. Trading and principal investments. This covers trading and investing in fixed income and equity products, currencies and commodities. This is the largest division in terms of net revenues and generated 66% of net revenues in 2005. Asset management and security services. This division provides advisory and financial planning services including brokerage and advisory services to wide range of clients like pension fund and hedge funds. Table 1 shows the net income of the above three divisions in 2005. Table 1 – Goldman Sachs: Net income in the year ended November 2005[1] Division Net revenues, $ billion Revenue as % of total Investment banking 3.67 15% Trading and principal investments 16.36 66% Asset management and security services 4.75 19% Total 24.78 100% Close Brothers provides following main activities Investment banking. Close Brothers has three main divisions under investment banking: Asset management. This division manages assets of private clients, trust funds and offshore funds. Corporate finance provides merger and acquisition, financial restructuring and debt advisory services to corporate clients. Market-making division specialises in providing liquidity to the London retail market-making markets in UK and many international shares. Banking division normal banking services like deposits and foreign exchange facilities to personal and professional clients. Table 2 shows the distribution of operating income, as a measure of revenues, of different divisions Table 2 – Close Brothers: Operating income in the year ended 31 July 2005[2] Division Operating income as % of total Asset management 21% Corporate Finance 7% Market-making 24% Investment banking 52% Banking 48% Total 100% Profitability of the two companies from the company and shareholders perspectives The table 3 shows the profitability of Goldman Sachs in the years ended November 2004 and 2005 Table 3 – Goldman Sachs: Profitability[3] 2005 2004 % change Net revenues, $ billion 24.78 20.55 20.6% Pre-tax earnings, $ billion 8.27 6.68 23.8% % of revenues 33.4% 32.5% Net earnings, $ billion 5.63 4.55 23.7% % of revenues 22.7% 22.1% Diluted earnings per common share, $ 11.21 8.92 25.7% Return on average common shareholders equity 21.80% 19.80% 10.1% Goldman Sachs increased its net revenues by 20.6 % in 2005 whereas pre-tax earnings increased by 23.8 % in the corresponding period. This shows that the company achieved not only higher profits in 2005 but also increased the profitability by limiting growth in expenses. This is supported by the fact that pre-tax earnings as a percent of net revenues were 33.4 % in 2005 compared to 32.5 % in 2004. Net earnings also increased by 23.7 % in the year 2005 in line with growth in pre-tax earnings. The higher growth in net earnings compared to net revenues shows that higher sales were not achieved at the expense of lower margins. Profitability for shareholders is measured in terms of diluted earnings per share. The growth in diluted earnings per share was 25.7 % in 2005. This was even higher than the growth in net-earnings. Shareholders’ profitability is also measured in terms of return on shareholders equity which is net earnings divided by the shareholders equity. This increased by 10% from 19.8 % in 2004 to 21.8 % in 2005. Higher return indicates Goldman Sachs is using equity to earn higher profits. The table 4 shows the profitability of Close Brothers for the years ended July 2004 and 2005 Table 4 – Close Brothers: Profitability[4] 2005 2004 % change Operating income,  £ m 448 401.2 11.7% Pre-tax profit,  £ m 108.62 101.34 7.2% % of operating income 24.2% 25.3% Profit after tax,  £ m 70.75 67.42 4.9% % of operating income 15.8% 16.8% Diluted earnings per common share,  £ 0.47 0.45 4.4% Profit attributable to shareholders,  £ m 68.58 65.21 Shareholders equity,  £ m 540.32 509.26 Return on average common shareholders equity 12.69% 12.80% -0.9% Close Brothers increased its operating income by 11.7 % in 2005 whereas pre-tax earnings increased by 7.2 % only in the corresponding period. This shows that the increase in pre-tax profits was countered by a much higher increase in expenses. The operating margin dropped by 1% from 25.3 % in 2004 to 24.2 % in 2005. Operating margins of Close Brother were about 9 % lower than that of Goldman Sachs indicating that Close Brothers operates in a more competitive environment. Similarly profit after tax as a percent of revenues were 7 % lower in case of Close Brothers – 15.8 % for Close Brothers compared to 22.7 % for Goldman Sachs. The growth in diluted earnings per share was only 4.4 % in 2005. This is much lower than the growth in Goldman Sachs earning per share. The return on common shareholder equity was only 12.70 % in case of Close Brother which means that from shareholders point of view return in Goldman Sachs is higher than Close Brothers. Long-term financial structure of two companies Table 5 shows the financial structure of Goldman Sachs looking at its short and long-term borrowings along with shareholders equity. Table 5 – Financial structure of Goldman Sachs[5] 2005 2004 $ billion % $ billion % Short term borrowings 55.22 36% 54.96 41% Long term borrowings Secured 15.67 10% 12.09 9% Unsecured 84.34 54% 68.61 51% 100.01 64% 80.7 59% Total borrowings 155.23 100% 135.66 100% Cash and cash equivalent 10.26 4.36 Net debt 144.97 131.30 Shareholders equity 28.00 25.08 Long term debt to equity 78% 76% Net debt / (net debt + equity) 84% 84% The % of long-term borrowings has increased from 59 % to 64 % in the year 2005. This has mainly come from the increase in unsecured long-term borrowings. The company is highly geared and its net debt to total capital ratio is 84 %. As of November 2005, 84 % of Goldman Sachs was financed through net debt, i.e., out of every $1 of its capital, 84 cents came from debt. The table 6 shows the financial structure of Close Brothers. Table 6 – Financial Structure of Close Brothers[6] 2005 2004  £ m %  £ m % Short term borrowings 132.22 15% 287.36 40% Long term borrowings 729.28 85% 434.00 60% Total borrowings 861.5 100% 721.36 100% Cash and cash equivalent 1.25 0.85 Net debt 860.25 720.51 Shareholders equity 540.32 509.26 Long term debt to equity 57% 46% Net debt / (net debt + equity) 61% 59% Company’s long-term borrowings have increased significantly from 60 % to 85 % in the year 2005. Close Brothers gearing are more on long-term borrowings as compared to Goldman Sachs. The net debt to total capital ratio is 61 % which means that Close Brothers is less geared compared to Goldman Sachs. Because of higher equity percent in Close Brothers, the long-term debt to equity ratio of Close Brothers is only 57 % in 2005 as compared to 78 % of Goldman Sachs. Analysis of difference in cash flow from profit Cash flows differ from profits because of the following major items: Inclusion of non-cash items like depreciation and amortisation in net profits Cash inflow and outflow in purchase and sale of property and businesses. In case of purchase, no impact is on profit and loss. In case of a sale, only profit or loss over the cost price is included in the profits and not the full amount of sale. Cash inflow or outflow from the financing activities like raising or retiring loan, issue of equity. This impacts cash flow but is not included in the profit and loss statement. We now look at the above sources of difference for both Goldman Sachs and Close Brothers. Table 7 shows the cash flow calculation from net profits of Goldman Sachs for the year 2005. Table 7 – Comparison of cash flow and profits of Goldman Sachs[7] $ bln Net profits 5.63 Cash flow Net profits 5.63 Non-cash items in net earnings 2.16 Cash used in assets and liabilities -20.203 Cash used in operating activities -12.413 Cash from investing activities -1.06 Cash from financing activities 19.37 Change in cash 5.90 Goldman used $12.4 billion of cash in operating activities in 2005 and this includes $20.20 billion of cash used in assets and liabilities. Operating activities also include $2.16 billion of non-cash items like depreciation and amortisation, deferred income tax and stock options. Another $ 1 billion of cash was used in purchase of businesses, property and leases. The cash outflow from operating activities was compensated by cash inflow from financing of $19.37 billion. This was mainly made up of cash inflow of $43 billion from long-term borrowings. Table 8 shows the cash flow calculation of Close Brothers for the year 2005. Table 8 – Comparison of cash flow and profits of Close Brothers for the year ended 31 July 2005[8]  £ m Profit after tax 70.75 Cash flow Cash flow from operating 521.52 Tax -37.82 Net cash flow from operating activities 483.70 Cash from investing activities -171.23 Cash from financing activities -67.98 Change in cash 244.49 While the profit after tax was only  £70.75 million, cash increased by  £244.49 million in the year 2005. This was mainly due to net cash inflow from operating activities of  £483 million. The differences in the sources of cash generation arise between Goldman Sachs and Close Brothers arise from the way they include cash items under different categories. Close Brother was able to show high cash inflow from operating activities because of classification of reduction in loan advances of  £190 million and loan notes issuance of  £260 million under trading activities. If we take out the above two ash inflows form operating activities, then net cash inflow from operating activities would be only  £33.7 million (483.7 – 190 – 260). Also then the cash flow form financing activities would change from - £68 million to  £382 million. Examples of accounting transactions subject to different GAAP Goodwill amortisation and impairment. Goldman Sachs is listed at New York Stock Exchange and subject to US GAAP. Under US accounting SFAS No. 142 â€Å"Goodwill and Other Intangible Asset†, Goldman Sachs tests goodwill each year for impairment[9]. It amortises intangible assets over the useful life which was on average 16 years in 2005[10]. Close Brothers follows Financial Reporting Standard No. 10 and amortised the goodwill over 20 years[11]. Where Goldman Sachs has an option to choose the useful life, companies in UK normally follow the option of 20 years. The change in amortisation years results in difference in profits even though this is a non-cash item. Share based compensation. Goldman Sachs followed US accounting principles SFAS 123 and SFAS 148 under which the compensation expense is recognised over the relevant service period[12]. Close Brother didn’t expense the share based compensation in the year 2005 and expects that future alignment with International Financial Reporting Standards on expensing of share based award will reduce profits by  £ 4 million[13]. Summary of non-numeric information in the annual report and importance to the shareholders Summary of information for Goldman Sachs Investment banking backlog increased in 2005 over 2004[14]. This means that the company was expecting more business to materialise in fees in 2005 and also shows the healthy environment in financial markets. The company increased its market risk in equities and interest rate products in the second half of 2005 assuming that market conditions will remain favourable[15]. If market conditions turn against Goldman Sachs assumption, the riskier investments would lead to higher losses. The business is very prone to financial market conditions and hence it is difficult to predict future earnings[16]. Investors with good knowledge of financial markets – mainly sophisticated institutional investors – can predict with some reasonability future earnings of a company like Goldman Sachs. It would be difficult for individual investors to do the same and hence they have to rely on credible sources for future earning potential of Goldman Sachs. Summary of information for Close Brothers The business performance is subject to economic conditions in UK[17]. Bad debt charge was low in 2005 due to low interest rate and full employment. Increase in interest rate and low employment would increase bad debt charge and reduce profitability. Reputation risk is the most importance and any public failure can lead to significant reduction in income[18]. Implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards could have a material impact on income because of issues like recognition of share based awards[19]. BIBLIOGRAPHY Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our_firm/investor_relations/financial_reports/annual_reports/2005/ Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, http://www.closebrothers.co.uk/uploads/cbg2005full.pdf Footnotes [1] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005 [2] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005 [3] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005 [4] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005 [5] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005 [6] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005 [7] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005 [8] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005 [9] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 74 [10] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 89 [11] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 31 [12] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 73 [13] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 8 [14] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 24 [15] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 25 [16] Goldman Sachs, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 25 [17] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 5 [18] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 6 [19] Close Brothers, Annual Report 2005, Pg. 8

Beautiful Disasters: Pearl As A Living Breathing Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

Sometimes beauty is found in places as unexpected as a rosebush growing outside of a prison in a puritan colonial village. Pearl Prynne is an unearthly beautiful child with a wild spirit born under unimaginably sinful conditions, all of which are somehow related to the ideas, actions, and views of others on Hester’s punishment. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Pearl serves as Hester’s living, breathing Scarlet letter. Pearl evokes the same emotion and reactions from the townspeople, as does the scarlet letter. The people look at the slight sense of pride Hester has in her letter in the same way they look at the way Hester lets Pearl do whatever she wants. They feel Hester isn’t fit to raise the child. The extremity of gossip from the females of the village in the beginning of the book is only matched by the amount that Pearl’s wild attitude stirs up later on. Hester’s â€Å"A† is the example for all of what sin is. The â€Å"A† makes Hester much avoided and the parents tell their children to watch out for her. Theses same parents say the same things to their kids about avoiding Pearl, who is infamous for her uncontrollable behavior with her peers and other adults. Just as infamous as Hester’s â€Å"A† for the wild sinful actions it symbolizes. Like Hester’s scarlet letter, Pearl shows extreme beauty in a form that is not traditional, positive, tame, or fully accepted. When Hester crafts the â€Å"A† that she has to wear on her chest, She uses a deep, passionate shade of red and embroiders it very intricately with bright gold thread. The â€Å"A† was meant to mark Hester in a negative manor; its purpose is to let everyone know that Hester is a sinner. Hester takes something extremely negative and makes it appear as passionately beautiful. Hawthorne portrays Pearl in a very detailed specific manor, meant to put emphasis on the similarities between Pearl and the â€Å"A†. She is the symbol of Hester’s sin but the tone that is used when referring to her makes her out to appear as a stunningly beautiful creature. The narrator states, â€Å"There was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue, which she never lost† ( ). Even the adjectives he uses in describing Pearl suggest something color related (â€Å"hue†). There is a feeling of wildness and uncontrollably in Pearl’s appearance; more specifically in her eyes.

Essay --

1. INTRODUCTION Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in our ability to collect data from various sensors, devices, in different formats, from independent or connected applications. This data ood has outpaced our capability to process, analyze, store and understand these datasets. Consider the Internet data. The web pages indexed by Google were around one million in 1998, but quickly reached 1 billion in 2000 and have already exceeded 1 trillion in 2008. This rapid expansions accelerated by the dramatic increase in acceptance of social networking applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, etc., that allow users to create contents freely and amplify the already huge Web volume. Furthermore, with mobile phones becoming the sensory gateway to get real-time data on people from different aspects, the vast amount of data that mobile carrier can potentially process to improve our daily life has significantly outpaced our past CDR (call data record)-based processing for billing purposes only. It can be foreseen that Internet of things applications will raise the scale of data to an unprecedented level. People and devices (from home code machines to cars, to buses, railway stations and airports) are all loosely connected. Trillions of such connected components will generate a huge data ocean, and valuable information must be discovered from the data to help improve quality of life and make our world a better place. For example, after we get up every morning, in order to optimize our commute time to work and complete the optimization before we arrive at once, the system needs to process information from trace, weather, construction, police activities to our calendar schedules, and perform deep optimization under the tight t... ...Data explains that in 2012, 23% (643 exabytes) of the digital universe would be useful for Big Data if tagged and analyzed. However, currently only 3% of the potentially useful data is tagged, and even less is analyzed. CONCLUSIONS Big Data is going to continue growing during the next years, and each data scientist will have to manage much more amount of data every year. This data is going to be more diverse, larger, and faster. We discussed in this paper some insights about the topic, and what we consider are the main concerns, and the main challenges for the future. Big Data is becoming the new Final Frontier for scientific data research and for business applications. We are at the beginning of a new era where Big Data mining will help us to discover knowledge that no one has discovered before. Everybody is warmly invited to participate in this intrepid journey.

Assumptions of Monopoly Market Essay

The monopoly describes an industry by comprising a single firm. In other words, the firm and the industry are one and the same. In the absence of regulation, monopolists can exercise control over the prices they charge for products and services. Of course, in reality, it is often difficult to define industries (whether in terms of product produced or area covered), which often causes problems in defining monopolies. The three main assumptions of monopoly are: †¢ Single firm In a monopoly, there is a single firm which produces all the output of the industry. In other words, the firm and the industry are synonymous. Consequently, the demand curve the monopolist faces is in fact the same as the industry demand curve. †¢ Unique product Unlike perfect competition (where all firms produce identical products), the monopolist produces the only product. In other words, there are no close substitutes being produced by other firms. This means that consumers can only buy output from one firm. For example, traditionally in the UK before the deregulation of the 1980s and 1990s, customers could only buy gas (British Gas), telephony (British Telecommunications) and postal services (Post Office) from a single supplier. †¢ Barriers to entry One of the main reasons why monopolies arise and are sustained, is that barriers to competition exist – more specifically, barriers to entry and exit. Barriers to entry can be defined generally as anything that places a potential entrant at a competitive disadvantage relative to firms already established in the industry. Entry barriers can arise in three ways, namely government regulations (legal barriers), the technical conditions prevailing in the industry (structural barriers) and by the actions of established firms (strategic barriers). Legal barriers come in the form of various acts and regulations. They can arise because of various forms of regulation, which affect either industry structure (the number of firms in an industry) or how firms behave. Examples of legal barriers include registration, certification and licensing of businesses, patents, taxes, tariffs and quotas. Structural barriers arise from the inherent structural and technical characteristics of an industry. In other words, the extent of product differentiation, the size distribution of firms, the availability to firms of economies of scale and scope all determine the extent and nature of barriers to entry in any given industry. Finally, strategic barriers are erected by established firms to deter the entry of new firms. Such barriers include various forms of pricing and non-pricing strategies. Overall, in the case of a pure monopoly, the monopolist is effectively insulated from competition, by barriers to entry. Given that the monopolist faces a downward sloping demand curve and produces a unique product or service, it consequently has complete control over the prices it charges. Reference: http://classof1.com/homework-help/economics-homework-help/

American Election

Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing voter participation, the Electoral College actually enhances the status of minority groups. This is so because the votes of even small minorities in a state may make the difference between winning all of that state’s electoral votes or none of that state’s electoral votes. And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to concentrate in those states with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number.The same principle applies to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists and so forth. Most states use a winner-take-all system, in which the candidate with the most votes in that state receives all of the state's electoral votes. This gives candidates an incentive to pay the most attention to states without a clear favorite, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.For ex ample, California, Texas and New York, in spite of having the largest populations, have in recent elections been considered safe for a particular party; Democratic for California & New York; Republican for Texas, and therefore candidates typically devote relatively few resources, in both time and money, to such states It is possible to win the election by winning all of eleven states and disregarding the rest of the country. In the close elections of 2000 and 2004, these eleven states gave 111 votes to Republican candidate George W.Bush and 160 votes to Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry. Part 2. How the Electoral College system in the general election fail to ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the most votes becomes president. One way in which a minority president could be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that there were three or more presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained the necessa ry majority. This occurred in 1824 and was successfully attempted in 1948.Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct popular election generally do so on four grounds: the possibility of electing a minority president, the risk of so-called faithless electors, the possible role of the Electoral College in depressing voter turn out and its failure to accurately reflect the national popular will. A faithless voter is one who pledge to vote for his or her party’s candidate for president but nevertheless votes for another candidate.In this way the Electoral College may fail to ensure that the presidential candidate who has the most votes becomes president. On the concern of the possible role of the Electoral College in depressing voter turn out critics argue that since each state is entitled to the same number of electoral votes regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive to encourage voter participation. The college fails to accurately reflect t he national popular will in at least two respects. First the distribution of Electoral votes in the college tends to over-represent people in rural states.This is because the number of Elector for each state is determined by the number if members it has in the House (which more or less reflects the state’s population size) plus the number of members it has in the senate (which is always two regardless of the states population). A second way in which the Electoral College fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stem primarily from winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most poplar votes in the state wins all the Electoral votes of that state.One effect of this mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third-party or independent candidates ever to make much of showing in the Electoral College. If for example, a third party or independent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the voters nationwide, he m ight still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a plurality of votes in at least the state. And even if he managed to win a few states, his support elsewhere would not be reflected.By thus failing to accurately reflect the national popular will, the argument goes, the Electoral College reinforces a two party system, discourages third party or independent candidates and thereby tends to restrict choice available to the electorate. Part 3 How some groups have much higher turnover rates than? Low turnout is often considered to be undesirable and there is much debate over the factors that affect turnout and how to increase it. Its case has been attributed to a wide array of economic, demographic, cultural, technological and institutional factors.A high turnover is generally seen as evidence of the legitimacy of the current system. Socioeconomic factors significantly affect whether or not individuals vote. The most important socioeconomic factor in voter turnout is education. The more educated a person, the more likely he or she is to vote, even when controlled for other factors such as income and class that are closely associated with education level. Income has some effect independently. Wealthier people are more likely to vote regardless of their educational background.Other demographic factors have an important influence: young people are far less likely to vote than the elderly and single people are less likely to vote than those who are married. Occupation has little effect on turnover with the notable exception of higher voting rates among government employees in many countries. Generally speaking, the lower voters’ education level and lower voters’ income level, the less likely they are to vote. For example, college graduates in some recent election have had turnout levels nearly twice that of those who have not finished high school.Some individuals possess more politically relevant sources, like income and education, th an others, some are more interested in public affairs and some are more likely to be recruited to participate. These factors arise from early socialization at home and in school and from affiliations with voluntary associations, workplaces and religious institutions. Public policies can confer resources, motivate interest in government affairs by trying well-being to government action, define groups for mobilization and even shape the content and meaning of democratic citizenship.These effects are positive for some groups, like senior citizens, raising their participation levels. A surge in black voters’ turnout is often cited as a central factor in Jimmy Carter’s 1976 election victory. Beginning with Parenti (1967), many scholars advanced an â€Å"ethnic community† theory to explain why members of major ethnic groups in American cities (particularly the Irish, Italians and Jews) participated politically at rates much higher than their levels of education and in come would predict.According to this theory, socially marginalized groups developed strong communal norms of participation to which there is considerable pressure within the group to conform. Political and social participation in elections asserts the importance of minority groups within the larger society. As such, all members of the group are expected to have interest. Part 4 How campaign contributions from Political Action Committees may tilt the political system toward big moneyed interests.Citizens with lower or moderate incomes speak with a whisper that is lost on the ears of inattentive government officials, while the advantaged roar with a clarity and consistency that policy-makers readily hear and routinely follow. As people become more concentrated and the flow of money into elections has grow campaign contributions give the affluent a means to express their voice that is unavailable to most citizens. Government is expected to help ensure equal opportunity for all, not to tilt toward those who already have wealth and power. Even more clearly, Americans celebrate and expect equal democratic rights.Americans fervently believe that everyone should have an equal say in our democratic politics, helping to shape what government does. They embrace whole-heartedly the ideal enunciated by the U. S. Declaration of Independence that â€Å"all men are created equal, â€Å"which in our time means that every citizen regardless of income, gender, race, and ethnicity should have an equal voice in representative government. The government is run by a few big interests looking out only for themselves. Campaign contributors do not represent the interests of the majority citizens.In 2000, an income of over $ 100,000 was found only in 12 percent of American households. 95 percent of campaign contributors were from these households. Political contributors or moneyed interests are not bribing politicians directly. What moneyed interests and wealthy citizens do gain from contributing hugely is influence on the people who run for office and an audience with these people once they get to power. Essay #2 Part 1 Why the US has only two parties represented in its legislature unlike other established democracies. Too much partisanship can be fatal to democracy.The weakness of parties can also pose dangers. In a legislature with weak party attachments, it may prove impossible to pass needed legislation. The result, as in Yeltsin’s Russia is often resort to presidential decrees or even the forcible disbanding of the legislature. Conversely, legislators may be easily wooed by a president through patronage or less savory means. In countries with weak parties like the Philippines and Korea, it has been common for presidents elected without a legislative majority to acquire one through massive party defections.Indeed, one of the areas in which the dozens of new democracies established in the past two decades have been least successfully is the creation o f strong and stable political parties committed to democracy. In part, this reflects the impossibility of crafting a party system unlike most other key democratic political institutions, parties cannot be legislated into existence. At the same time it reflects a global trend, as political parties seem to be increasingly enfeebled institutions in the more established democracies as well.Almost everywhere, parties no longer command the loyalty or confidence they once did and the number of independent voters and ticket-splitters has grown. The US uses the principle of proportional representation which in essence means that parties or blocks of like minded voters should win seats in legislative assemblies to their share of the popular vote. A two party system is the only way to practice this principle. The cultural diversities in US are well catered for in a two party system. Having many parties in such a diverse society would mean that the real views of the people would not be reflecte d.More over a majority would be hard to achieve with many parties being represented in the legislature. Part 2 Why turnout in the US is so low compared to other established democracies? The US is one of the few countries require citizens to get themselves registered to vote, rather than having the government pro-actively making sure that all voters are on the electoral rolls, usually through some form of automatic and permanent registration on achieving voting age. On the one hand, in the United States, registration requirements are a serious barrier to political participation.There are many reasons why turnout in the US is as low as it is. Voters have to want to go to the polls and believe that their votes will matter. Many voters are disaffected from two political parties, turned off by negative campaigning, intimidated by the long ballots, and bothered by the lack of clear accountability in the crazy guilt federal system. The election laws themselves make it more difficult for pe ople to participate. For example Election Day is usually on a weekday (the first Tuesday in November for presidential and congressional elections) and it may be difficult for people to get away from work to vote.A more direct reduction in participation is brought about by laws in many states that bar convicted criminals from the political process. Approximately five millions Americans are unable to participate in the elections for these reasons. Other countries have found more direct ways to ensure high voter turnout such as making voting compulsory. In Australia, citizens who do not vote are subject to paying a fine and in Belgium, repeated failure to vote can lead to having your right to vote permanently cancelled. In America voting is not compulsory.The governments of most established countries take the responsibility of registering as many eligible voters as possible. In the US it is the sole responsibility of the individual to register for voting. If the costs and benefits that Americans encounter are markedly different than those encountered by citizens of other countries, then that should explain why the US turnout rate is so low. America’s unique registration laws accounted for roughly half the difference between US turnout rates and those of other advanced industrialized democracies in the 1960s and 1970s.Part 3. Advantages and disadvantages of the American style of candidate centered politics. The decline of American political parties in recent decades has made strength of partisanship even more important in predicting who votes. The rise of candidate-centered politics and the decline of partisanship can explain this phenomenon. When the focus of campaigns was on two parties rather than many candidates for many offices, everyone gained at least somewhat from picking choosing ones favorite candidates from both parties.Thus even those who did not identify with a party in the past could benefit from the partisan manner by which the campaigns were conducted. In the candidate-centered environment now, by contrast, the mobilizing effects of party competition have been felt more disproportionately according to ones level of party identification. The result has been rising inequality of turnout rates according to partisan strength. Voters in parliamentary systems are becoming more candidates centered in their voting, compared to voters in presidential systems.At the same time, it would appear that voters in presidential systems are evaluating candidates in a more instrumental and less partisan way. More so than in the past, candidates’ campaigns are self sufficient organizations indirectly dependent on political parties. And as agents of information, campaigns are replacing parties as the primary source of information about the candidates. Reference: Franklin, Mark (2001) â€Å"The Dynamics of Participation in the Electoral Process†. In Comparing Democracies: Elections and Voting in Global Perspective 2, ed. Lauren ce Leduc, Richard Niemi and Pippa Norris. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, in press

Family and Cousin Essay

Human behavior can be explored by taking a look at the different aspects of a person’s life. These aspects include the biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual. These aspects can help social workers better understand the background history of a person’s life and gather information in order to do an accurate assessment of a person. This paper does not intend to make an assessment but it’s rather an informative paper in order to discover and understand the various systems of a person’s life. Furthermore this paper will also focus on how these systems interact with one another. I chose to do this paper on my cousin who just became a mother and she is currently learning how to adapt to her new way of life. I think she is in an interesting stage in her life and that is also why I chose her. My cousin and I are only a year apart in age and she chose a different path from the one that is expected after she graduated from high school. She decided not to go to college and began to work doing random retail jobs until she found a permanent job as a hostess. We are so different now but a few years ago we did get along and had a lot of things in common. Her relationship with her mother has also changed and now that my cousin is a mother, they seem to understand each other better. BIO-PHYSICAL My cousin’s name is Carla Sanchez and she is twenty two years old and the youngest of three. She is 5’5 and before she had the baby she had lost so much weight but now she regained some of that weight back. She has dark long hair and dark brown eyes. Before she became pregnant she fell in love with her baby’s father and lost a lot of weight. During her teenage years she was not as determined to lose weight as she was when she was nineteen when she met her significant other. During her pregnancy her body went through some physical changes. She did not have impulsive cravings and she ate the foods she normally eats but in larger portions. She gained around sixty pounds and now she looks like the way she did before she lost the weight. Her weight when she was a younger child before the teenage years resembles that of her mother. My aunt had an average weight because she was not skinny but she was not overweight either. My cousin’s weight then was average like her mother’s because due to the genes that were passed down to her through her mother. My cousin’s baby is a girl and looks more like her father but she has my cousin’s straight hair. Now that it has been several weeks after childbirth my cousin plans and is determined to lose the weight again. She looks like her mother and both have a healthy mother and daughter relationship. She is very open-minded and very out spoken. Her mother is also an open-minded person. According to the biological determinism theory it is evident that a person’s personality and physical appearance is embedded into a child from birth trough genetics. My cousin’s parents divorced when she was a young child and therefore she has always been close to her mother and that is why my aunt has been able to greatly influence my cousin’s behavior. Most of her life she has been more attached to her mother. PSYCHOLOGICAL According to Erikson’s theories of psychological development my cousin is in the intimacy versus isolation stage. My cousin’s childhood and teenage years have passed by. All that is left of her childhood and teenage years are memories. She began working at restaurants during her high school years and has stayed with that career. She has gone from being a waitress when she was sixteen to a hostess. However she is thinking of going back to school because she was her daughter to look up to her when her daughter is older. My cousin did not get married and she is not living with her boyfriend. She lives at home with her baby and her mother. All her time is devoted to her baby however there have been times when she is overwhelmed with the task of raising a child and her mother helps her so that she can at least have some time to rest. According to Paiget my cousin is at the stage four which is based on formal operations. At this level problems are now approached using logic, reason and combinational thought. Also individuals at this stage with formal operations can think about their own thoughts, feelings and think about thinking. I think that at this point Paiget is focusing on how we can look back at our past and reflect. My cousin is able to do this now and she now reflects on how her mother raised her so that she can raise her daughter the same way. My cousin constantly worries whether or not she is raising her child in a proper way or to the extent that it is expected of a mother to raise her child. She lives with her mother and her mother helps her by giving her advice from how to comfort the child to how to give the baby a bath. My cousin’s friend had her baby before my cousin and when her friend met my cousin’s child she was also giving her advice on hoe to take care of the baby. She is acquiring knowledge on how to raise her child from people such as her mother that have had years of experience raising children. Her friend told her that she worries to whether she is taking care of her baby the right way. My cousin has to endure a psychological as well as physical adaptation. Paiget describes adaptation as the process by which structures of the mind develop over time to achieve a better fit with the environment and external reality. My cousin is still eating food in large portions as she did when she was pregnant but now she is drinking more milk because she chose to breastfeed her baby. Therefore she keeps gaining weight and is also stressed out. As far as her mental state she is stressed and cannot focus on herself because she is constantly thinking about the well-being of her baby. She worries just as much as other mothers do because she wants her baby to be happy. She said that her baby seems to be cranky most of the time and basically she is dedicating all her time to comfort the baby. My cousin had learned to adapt to her new role as a mother and she will need to keep up as the baby goes through different stages of her life. SOCIAL She has not been working since July and her social life is not as it used to be before she had the baby. However she was visited by her godparents and many friends when she brought the baby home. They have showered the baby with gifts and seeing how other people have acted towards the baby makes her happy. My cousin is trying her best to imitate her mother because she loves her mother and wants to follow her advice so that she can raise a happy child. According to the social learning theory behaviors are mediated by thoughts, expectations as well as emotions and stresses the importance of observational learning or modeling. In my cousin’s case she sees her mom as a model mom that she wants to imitate. As far as I know my aunt really sacrificed a lot so that my cousin’s could have a better life than the one she had. I have seen how selfless my aunt has been especially with my cousin Carla because she is the youngest one. My cousin wants the approval of her mother in everything she does because she has been very attached to my aunt. Her brother and sister live far away from them. My cousin has kept in touch with her fellow co-workers and many of them came to visit her when she brought the baby home. One of her friends who is a teacher and brought her a huge box of pampers. He also gave her some parenting advice because he, as a father of three, thinks that he has had enough experience with kids. He was very happy to see the baby and many of her friends came to see the baby as well. Even though my cousin has not gone out since she gave birth in November 30th, she has had her friends come over to her place to see the baby. However her weeks have turned into the same routine of just staying at home to take care of her baby. The baby’s father also visits her but not too often because their relationship is not in good standing. My cousin is trying to be the mother that society expects her to be but most importantly she is trying to imitate her own mother. My aunt is a fervent believer in the Catholic faith and she raised her children in the same faith as she was raised in. All of her three children were baptized, did the communions and attended mass on Sundays. Until this day my aunt does not miss a mass at her local church. Her children however have not been as devoted as my aunt has been. My cousin Carla stop attending church after her teenage years when she graduated from high school and spent her weekends working. However my aunt always tries to make sure that my cousin does not loose her faith. According to James V. Fowler’s theory of faith development my cousin is at the stage 5 which is the individuative-reflective faith. In this stage young adults question the beliefs and stories they have received from family, friends and other social groups. My cousin does not believe everything that my aunt was taught about Catholicism. For example my cousin did not get married and decided to raise a child as a single mother. My aunt did not approve of this because she was taught that a woman must be a virgin until she gets married. Her other daughter moved in with her boyfriend and then got married. My aunt did not approve of this either. My aunt believes that salvation is obtained by following the church’s sacraments but my cousin believes that no one really knows how to obtain salvation. She also thinks that God is everywhere and therefore she does not need to attend mass every Sunday. My aunt was raised in a very religious home and in her native country religion plays an important role in life but her children who were raised in the United States have found a way to practice their religion however way they think is the proper way. My cousin plans to baptize her daughter and she has picked the godparents already. My family is from Ecuador which is in Latin America so that makes us part of the Latino community. My cousin Carla was born in New Jersey. She had to learn about the Ecuadorian culture and the American culture. When she was a kid my aunt would travel with her and her other siblings to Ecuador so that they could visit their grandmother and learn their cultural roots. My cousin had to learn both languages English and Spanish. She now knows them fluently and this has helped her a lot because she was able to make a lot of friends. In Ecuador gender roles are so delineated. Men are expected to work and women are expected to stay at home raising the children. It is not common for females to work outside the home. Most females graduate from high school and after high school they start raising families. My cousin knows both cultures but since she was born and raised in the United States she identifies more with the American culture. When her baby gets older she expects to go back to work and even go back to school so that she can be able to provide a better living for both. She is a single mother but has learned a lot from her mother who got divorced from her husband when my cousin was a young child. In conclusion these several aspects of a person’s life help us understand how each one relates to the other and how they affect human behavior. Human behavior can be affected by the people we associate with and by the culture we are raised in as well as other factors. These several theories described in this paper are very helpful to understand why a person behaves a certain way.

Development of Sexual Identity

Ethical relativism means, that I reject the Idea that there Is a single correct moral view. I think this because I believe that everyone has a right to choose and have their own moral view. I also think that in my own opinion that everyone that wants to do or say or feel a certain way should be able to and that no matter how much people say it may be wrong they should be able to show how we feel. I have also thought about critical thinking a lot different when it comes to sexuality. I think that we as younger adults, considering I am only 28, need to stop and think about the decisions that we eke as we are growing up.Now a days kids are getting younger and younger when they are having their babies, but the problem is that they are still babies themselves. They are ruing their lives and in some cases their baby's lives as well. Society needs to stop with all the media and showing the good things with babies and show the more negative things. With me though if I would have known what I know now I do not think that I would have had a child at 20, but no matter what I would not change it for anything and I know it is hard but in my opinion it was and is worth it. ;Describe the effect of environment and historical perspectives on your sexuality. In the environment that I was raised, I was raised to be tough and to be a manly man. My father really did not like gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual people and even treated them like they were nothing. I understand that if I was gay I would have been â€Å"disc- owned† and probably thrown out of the family, I did though have a lesbian cousin and I think that it must be the way my dad and his family were raised because her dad was very, very rude and really disheartening towards her.Being that my dad Is Native American and his family Is very proud I think that Just being raised around this type of family and their values can really affect you as a person. I think that the historical perspectives have really had no Influence on me personally because I think that we should learn from the past and historical events but we can choose whether or not to actually use them In our lives or make our lives ;our lives† that we live. ; Discuss the development of your gender Identity.A few things that have helped me In determining my gender Identity are that I have always felt that I need to take care of my family and to do my best when I am trying, his is one of the reasons that I chose to go back to school and further my education Ana try to get a netter JODI winner I can earn more money Ana Tell netter Dialectally secure about our future. I always feel that growing up my dad did a lot of working and really never spent time with us kids and I was always told that it was because he needed to take care of us kids and the family.And if I have gotten anything from him it was that taking care of your family was the first and most important thing to do. Another is that I am a sports fanatic and love the competitio n that comes with it. While watching TV. Hen I was younger I really never got what was happening but I knew that my dad did it so I thought it was the right thing to do. And when our team lost he was disappointed and really showed, so I thought that was normal activity, but I know now that it is Just a game and am now teaching my son that it is k to loose but having fun is the main goal.And lastly, and one of the most important things that I would say helped me with my gender identity was that growing up boys were the ;tough† ones and the girls were the ;weak' ones of course now that I am older I know that this untrue and that some girls are in fact stronger than some guys. Even though now that I think about it I and how wrong I really was I Just laugh about it because we were kids and it was only the perception of other kids that influenced me. ; Analyze the effect of attraction and love in your relationships.I think that the effect that attraction has had on me in my relatio nships has a lot of who I dated when I was younger. I used to see a girl that I felt was attractive and try to ask her out on a date. Then as I got older I used to see a girl that was attractive to me and I would try to take her out and start a relationship with her based solely on the first initial attraction. I understand that a real and stable relationship takes a whole lot more than Just looks to be a successful relationship and to be serious.I now am married to the most wonderful women on this planet and really and truly understand love. She is my best friend, my lover, and my world. We have nothing in common but that is what makes it so much fun, every day we either try something different or Just hang out together. Being different I think is Just like people say ;opposites attract† well in our case it has and I believe that life could not get any better. To me love really means something a to deeper than to other people.To me it means to love unconditionally and no matt er what you do not give up on that person Just because you or they are mad. So when I say ;l love you† I really mean it with all my heart and it is not Just a turn of phrase to me, like some of these kids that Just through it out there to Just say it. ; Discuss another topic of this course that is interesting and useful to you. Relate this topic to your life. I think that after taking this course another topic that has interested me and really related to my life is that of child and sexual molesters.The reason that this topic has really interested me is because I personally think that these men and women are very mentally and physically sick people. I think that these people should be giving help but only if they admit that they have done wrong and need the help. Now some people that think that this may be something they need to say to get out of Jail or whatever else that they are being held in, but they are only saying this to get out and are more than likely going to refine d and hurt someone else's child or them personally by raping them.I think that we as a society need to make a law that is a en strike for these offenders and be put away for life. I have a child and I know that being a father and if one was to hurt or molest my son I would be engulfed with rage Tanat may not De addle to nylon Deck IT I met ten person won a a It. So In my pollen I think that this would not only be looking out for the children but for the person who did this and to the parents or loved ones that the sex offender has done this to.Many people think that there should be either stricter rules for sex offenders and some think that the laws are fine as long as they register as a sex offender, but I think that story has shown that many of them go out and refined and hurt another child or person. So instead of stopping this while we could at the first time that they did it we let them out and they go out and destroy another life. I think that this is Just too risky and should leave them in the prisons to live their life out.An idea that I would suggest is that maybe build a facility on an island to serve as a place to put offenders and let them live a normal life but far, far away from people they may hurt and the children they may hurt. Now that I am done with this class I will still be doing my own research on a lot of he things that we have learned here and I hope to be able to pass them on not only to my kids but to anyone that may want to learn about this as well.This class has not only taught me a lot but it has opened my eyes to things that I may have never known or even thought about learning. I thank you and I hope that one day I may be able to share this with people to ensure that we understand our bodies and how they work, and what to do when things happen to us. Format your personal response consistent with PAP guidelines. Post your personal response as an attachment.

How Friends Goes Bad Essay Example

How Friends Goes Bad Essay Example How Friends Goes Bad Essay How Friends Goes Bad Essay The Meselson Stahl Experiment Exist a lot of experiments in life, but I want to write about one specific because is one of the most important in biology, it is called â€Å"Meselson Stahl Experiment†. It was an experiment by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958. They supported the hypothesis that DNA replication was semiconservative. Semiconservative replication means that when the double stranded DNA helix was replicated, each of the two double stranded DNA helices consisted of one strand coming from the original helix and one newly synthesized.It has been called â€Å"The most beautiful experiment in biology†. The concluded three hypotheses that had been previously proposed for the method of replication of DNA. In the semiconservative hypothesis, proposed by Watson and Crick, the two strands of a DNA molecule separate during replication. Each strand then acts as a template for synthesis of a new strand. The conservative hypothesis proposed that the entire DNA m olecule acted as a template for the synthesis of an entirely new one.According to this model, histone proteins bind to the DNA, revolving the strand and exposing the nucleotide bases for hydrogen bonding. The dispersive hypothesis is exemplified by a model proposed by Max Delbruck, which attempts to solve the problem of unwinding the two strands of the double helix by a mechanism that breaks the DNA backbone every ten nucleotides or so, untwist the molecule, and ataches the old strand to the end of a newly synthesized one.This would synthesize the DNA in short pieces alternating from one strand to the other. Each of these three models makes a different prediction about the distribution of the â€Å"old† DNA in molecules formed after replication. In the conservative hypothesis, after replication, one molecule is the entirely conserved â€Å"old† molecule, and the other is all newly synthesized DNA. The semionservative hypothesis predicts that each molecule after replica tion will contain one old and one new strand.The dispersive model predicts that each strand of each new molecule will contain a mixture of old and new DNA. The results Nitrogen is a major constituent of DNA. 14N is by far the most abundant isotope of nitrogen, but DNA with the heavier (but non-radioactive) 15N isotope is also functional. E. coli were grown for several generations in a medium with 15N. When DNA is extracted from these cells and centrifuged on a salt density gradient, the DNA separates out at the point at which its density equals that of the salt solution.The DNA of the cells grown in 15N medium had a higher density than cells grown in normal 14N medium. After that, E. coli cells with only 15N in their DNA were transferred to a 14N medium and were allowed to divide; the progress of cell division was monitored by measuring the optical density of the cell suspension. In conclusion data from generation one conflict with conservative replication hypothesis. Data from gene ration two conflict with dispersive replication hypothesis. Replication is semiconservative.

Cars enslave us rather than liberate us. Do you agree essays

Cars enslave us rather than liberate us. Do you agree essays Cars have been in use since the year 1870. Since then their number on the roads has increased many times over. They also went through a lot of changes, both on the outside as well as on the inside. Cars seem to have made our live easier, more convenient. Nevertheless in my opinion more cars give us much more problems than they solve. The first problem is money. You have to earn a considerable amount of money to be able to afford one. The prices of new cars are so high that you usually need to take a credit to buy one. The subsequent costs of insurance, tax and repairs also tend to be quite expensive. This leads to another problem, meaning car theft. This is a serious threat to consider as it is not uncommon that cars are stolen. You can try to protect you car by installing car alarms or buying a place in a guarded parking lot. Unfortunately such solutions generate more costs and make having a car even more expensive. Last but not least there are problems connected with society. The large amount of cars has led to an increase of noise levels in city areas and along main road routs. It has also lead to a decrease of air quality in previously mentioned areas. This makes life more and more difficult in large city areas as people become ill from breathing toxic fumes or from noise and large amount of stress caused by traveling in heavy traffic. In contrast it must be admitted that cars make certain things easier for us. For example we can get from on place to another without having to wait for a bus or a train and you can get straight to the derided spot not only to the bus stop or a station. To conclude, cars help us a lot but enslave us even more. It is time to think what can be done to lessen the cars bad influence on our lives. Or are we too used to our present lives to look for alternatives for cars? ...

kids on death role essays

kids on death role essays The Juvenile Justice System consists of a more or less integrated network of agencies, institutions, organizations, and personnel that process juvenile offenders. This network is made up of how enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and courts; corrections, probation, and parole services; and public and private community-based treatment programs that provide youth with diverse services. This definition is qualified by the phrase more or less integrated, because the concept of juvenile justice has different meanings for individual states and the federal government. Also, in some jurisdictions, the diverse components are at best loosely coordinated, if they are coordinated at all. Many criminologists and criminal justice professionals express a preference for process rather than system when they refer to juvenile justice. This is because system components. Furthermore, system implies coordination and coordination annoy juvenile agencies, organizations, and personnel in the juvenile j ustice system are often inadequate or nonexistent. Children who are physically, psychologically, or sexually abused by parents or other adults in their homes are brought within the scope of juvenile court authority. In law, juveniles are referred to as infants. A legal definition of a juvenile delinquent is any infant of indecent, or immoral conduct, and is in need of treatment, rehabilitation, or supervision. Applied to juvenile matters, parens patriae means that the sovereign is in charge of, makes decisions about, or has responsibility for all matters involving juvenile conduct. The underlying thesis of parens patriae was that the parents are merely the agents of society in the area of childbearing, and that the state has a primary and legitimate interest in the upbringing of its children. Some of these measures included placement of children in foster homes or their assignment to various work tasks for local merchants. ...

My Bicycle

My Bicycle I knew my bicycle was in the old house and that I wanted to get it back. The bicycle had become as much a part of my existence as the clothes I wore to go out. I say to go out, because it represents me, just like clothes.I nurtured the bicycle like a baby, replacing all the worn cables, carefully oiling all the necessary parts, aligning the brakes. Every now and then I stripped down to basics and reassembled it to ensure it was in original working condition. I even manually replaced all of the ball bearings once, a task that almost drove me insane and one that is infinitely more unbearable than replacing a soiled diaper.It was my window to the world, the screen from which I watched life go by, observing the smallest yet all important passing details. It was my sanctuary in the storm and even when it had a flat tyre it was still my best friend.Until the day I had to move to Australia. I sold my bicycle to a man when I had to leave. I tried to find a bicycle that'll replace the one I h ad, but somehow, I just don't like any of them. I just want my old bike back! And today, we landed on Taiwan. It's the first time I came back to Taiwan and the first thing I thought at that time was to look for the bike.There's this old house that bothered me. I knew the bike was in there but don't know why. It was just one of those inexplicable in life you know the things. You know they are there and you know everything about them except the explanation.The light was fading when I finally plucked up courage to approach the...

The Uses of The

The Uses of The The Uses of â€Å"The† The Uses of â€Å"The† By Maeve Maddox A reader has a question about the use of the definite article the: I have been searching without success for a good and thorough explanation of how and when to use the. I have an Iranian friend, and his English is excellent, save for his use of the. Neither he nor I have been able to find anything that clearly and comprehensively explains all of the different uses. Any suggestions? I doubt any source can be found that explains â€Å"all of the different uses of the clearly and comprehensively.† One researcher has called the English article system a psychomechanism, â€Å"a system through which native speakers use articles correctly but unconsciously.† The misuse of the does not impede communication, but it is a clue that an email purporting to be from an English-speaking friend supposedly stranded in a foreign country is a scam. The only suggestion I can offer about the use of the is that the secret lies in the concepts of definiteness and countability. Definiteness A noun has â€Å"definiteness† when there is something unique or specific about it. Here are some examples: The sun was worshipped by the ancient Aztecs. (In this context, sun is uncountable) The driver found an injured cat. He took the cat to an animal clinic. (First it’s â€Å"a cat,† one among many. Once mentioned, it’s â€Å"the cat,† the specific cat that was picked up by the motorist.) She’s waiting for the bus. (In this context, â€Å"the bus† is a service.) Other examples: We took the train to Chicago. I prefer the telephone to email. The Salvation Army feeds the hungry and ministers to the poor. (The is used with adjectives that are used as nouns to denote a group.) Countability Nouns are said to be countable or uncountable. Other terms are count nouns and noncount nouns. Because countable nouns can be counted, they have a singular and a plural form: one cat, two cats. The difficulty with this category is that some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, depending on context. Compare: Major crops are cotton and rice. Fido takes the cotton out of all his toys. You prepare the salad and I’ll cook the rice. I don’t much care for coffee. They ordered three coffees and a tea. Here, you take the coffee. I don’t want it. His brother is still looking for work. She quit her job because she didn’t like the work. ESL speakers struggling with the uses of the will benefit from the use of a dictionary designed for them. Regular dictionaries don’t always categorize nouns as to count and noncount, but beginners’ dictionaries do. Nouns that are usually noncount can be learned according to certain categories. For example: Agricultural crops: coffee, rice, sugar, etc. Natural phenomena: rain, snow, gravity, etc. Liquids: water, wine, blood, etc. Abstractions: honesty, courage, intelligence, etc. The British Council site offers a thorough discussion of the uses of the. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"Homogeneous vs. HeterogeneousUsing Writing Bursts to Generate Ideas and Enthusiasm

Grauballe Man (Denmark) - European Iron Age Bog Body

Grauballe Man (Denmark) - European Iron Age Bog Body The Grauballe Man is the name of an extremely well-preserved Iron Age bog body, the 2200-year-old body of a man pulled from a peat bog in central Jutland, Denmark in 1952. The body was found at depths of more than one meter (3.5 feet) of peat. The Story of Grauballe Man Grauballe Man was determined to have been about 30 years old when he died. Physical inspection indicated that although his body was in near-perfect preservation, he had been brutally murdered or sacrificed. His throat had been cut from behind so deeply that it nearly beheaded him. His skull was bludgeoned and his leg was broken. Grauballe mans body was among the earliest of objects dated by the newly invented radiocarbon dating method. After his discovery was announced, his body displayed in public and several photographs of him published in newspapers, a woman came forward and claimed that she recognized him as a peat worker she had known as a child who had disappeared on his way home from a local pub. Hair samples from the man returned conventional c14 dates between 2240-2245 RCYBP. Recent AMS radiocarbon dates (2008) returned calibrated ranges between 400-200 cal BC. Preservation Methods Initially, Grauballe man was investigated by Danish archaeologist Peter V. Glob at the National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen. Bog bodies had been found in Denmark beginning in the first half of the 19th century. The most striking characteristic of bog bodies is their preservation, which can be close to or surpass the best of ancient mummification practices. Scientists and museum directors tried all sorts of techniques to maintain that preservation, beginning with air or oven drying. Glob had the Grauballe mans body treated to a process similar to tanning animal hides. The body was kept for 18 months in a mixture of 1/3 fresh oak, 2/3 oak bark plus a .2% of Toxinol as a disinfectant. Over that period, the concentration of Toxinol was increased and monitored. After the 18 months, the body was immersed in a bath of 10% Turkish-red oil in distilled water to avoid shrinkage. New bog body discoveries in the 21st century are kept in wet peat in refrigerated storage at 4 degrees celsius. What Scholars Have Learned Grauballe Mans stomach was removed at some point during the process, but magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigations in 2008 discovered plant grains in the vicinity of where his stomach had been. Those grains are now interpreted as remnants of what likely was his last meal. The grains indicate that Grauballe man ate a type of gruel made from a combination of cereals and weeds, including rye (Secale cereale), knotweed (Polygonum lapathifolium), corn spurrey (Spergula arvensis), flax (Linum usitatissimum) and gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa). Post-Excavation Studies The Irish Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney often wrote poems for and about bog bodies. The one he wrote in 1999 for Grauballe Man is quite evocative and one of my favorites. As if he had been poured / in tar, he lies / on a pillow of turf / and seems to weep. Be sure to read it yourself for free at the Poetry Foundation. The display of bog bodies has ethical issues discussed in many places in the scientific literature: Gail Hitchens article The Modern Afterlife of the Bog People published in the student archaeology journal The Posthole addresses some of these and discusses Heaney and other modern day artistic uses of bog bodies, specifically but not limited to Grauballe. Today Grauballe mans body is kept in a room at the Moesgaard Museum protected from light and temperature changes. A separate room lays out the details of his history and provides numerous CT-scanned images of his body parts; but Danish archaeologist Nina Nordstrà ¶m reports that the separate room keeping his body seems to her a calm and contemplative reburial. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to Bog Bodies and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Granite G. 2016. Understanding the death and burial of northern European bog bodies. In: Murray CA, editor. Diversity of Sacrifice: Form and Function of Sacrificial Practices in the Ancient World and Beyond. Albany: State University of New York Press. p 211-222.Hitchens G. 2009. The Modern Afterlife of the Bog People. The Post Hole 7:28-30.Karg S. 2012. Oil-rich seeds from prehistoric contexts in southern Scandinavia: Reflections on archaeobotanical records of flax, hemp, gold of pleasure, and corn spurrey. Acta Paleobotanica 52(1):17-24.Lynnerup N. 2010. Medical Imaging of Mummies and Bog Bodies – A Mini-Review. Gerontology 56(5):441-448.Mannering U, Possnert G, Heinemeier J, and Gleba M. 2010. Dating Danish textiles and skins from bog finds by means of 14C AMS. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(2):261-268.Nordstrà ¶m N. 2016. The Immortals: Prehistoric individuals as ideological and therapeutic tools in our time. In: Williams H, and Giles M, editors. Archaeologists and t he Dead: Mortuary Archaeology in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p 204-232. Stà ¸dkilde-Jà ¸rgensen H, Jacobsen NO, Warncke E, and Heinemeier J. 2008. The intestines of a more than 2000 years old peat-bog man: microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging and 14C-dating. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(3):530-534.Villa C, and Lynnerup N. 2012. Hounsfield Units ranges in CT-scans of bog bodies and mummies. Anthropologischer Anzeiger 69(2):127-145.

Analytical Report - Acquisition as a Growth Strategy Essay

Analytical Report - Acquisition as a Growth Strategy - Essay Example Apart from continuous development of products and services, there are several strategies for organisations in order to achieve growth quickly. One such strategy is acquisition strategy which is often considered as the exclusive province of business for large organisations. Growth by using acquisition strategy is quicker and a less risky proposition compared to other strategies such as increasing the market or sales. Moreover, acquisition provides organisations with numerous benefits such as easier funding, complete managerial control and higher economies of scale (Mustafa & Horan, 2010). The advantages of expansion through acquisition is not merely restricted to marketing, but also expanded for attaining several other advantages such as easier finance, lower risk and increased product portfolio. The paper will analyse the acquisition strategy of Virgin Money by using techniques such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis and Ansoff Matrix. Furthermore, the paper will also define the other alternatives which might be pursued by Virgin Money as a growth strategy. The paper will also recommend how Virgin Money can build a sustainable advantage by using the four cornerstones of â€Å"competence based strategic management†. Task1 Critical Analysis of Acquisition Strategy of Virgin Money In November, 2011, Virgin Money had acquired a British bank named Northern Rock which was critically affected by the mortgage crisis. This acquisition would help Virgin Money to expand its business reach in the UK banking market (Anderson, 2011). SWOT Analysis of Acquisition Strategy of Virgin Money Strengths The acquisition of Northern Rock by Virgin Money will provide easy integration of all facilities provided by Northern Rock and will have positive impact on the growth of Virgin Money. The acquisition strategy can ensure Virgin Money to make a strong presence in the banking industry of the UK. Virgin Money has the capability to incorporate acquisition with fewer disturbances an d it will provide great advantage not only to Virgin Money but also to the complete Virgin Group, because the acquisition will help to provide financial support to other Virgin Group businesses. In banking industry, it is significant for a company to constantly improve the distribution of their products. Through acquisition of Northern Rock, Virgin Money can definitely increase and improve services such as internet banking, retail banking and other facilities. Therefore, the acquisition can provide excellent growth prospects for Virgin Money in the banking business of the UK. The other advantage of Virgin Money due to the acquisition of Northern Rock is the increased source of income. Through acquisition, Virgin Money can inevitably acquire the client base of Northern Rock which can provide immediate income from them. Besides, the acquisition will also help to gain experienced employees from Northern Rock, which will make much easier for Virgin Money to implement new strategies whic h can be feasible for

Strategic Management Analysis assignement Assignment

Strategic Management Analysis assignement - Assignment Example Unique Resources / Capabilities 25 10.0 Sustainable Competitive Advantage 26 11.0 Summary of the Strengths and Weaknesses 27 Task C 28 12.0 Strategic Direction 28 12.1 Market Penetration 29 12.2 Product Development 29 12.3 Market Development 29 12.4 Diversification 30 13.0 Strategic Fit 30 14.0 Summary on Strategic Fit 33 References 34 1.0 Introduction The aim of the study has been to conduct a strategic analysis of an UK based airline company offering package holiday. Therefore, in this context, the company that has been chosen for the study is British Airways. British Airways is based in the UK and is the biggest scheduled airline that runs internationally (Scribd, 2009). It offers flight services of low fares for customers availing its holiday packages and carries the passengers to and from the centrally located airports. The company also offers holiday packages that consist of super value packages for hotels as well (The Telegraph, 2011). A person can enjoy both the flight facili ty as well as hotel facility and thus visit numerous destinations with British Airways which can save time as well as cost (British Airways, n.d.). Tour operators tend to put the numerous elements of the holidays and thus sell them as a package. The packages are sold either to the public directly or through travel agents. There are innumerable tour operators offering enormous ranges of the holidays as well as destinations (Holiday Bargains, n.d.). The term ‘package’ generally is defined as a set combination of two services at minimum. They must be offered at inclusive prices and must include components such as transports, accommodations or other services that are important for the tourists. The holiday market of the UK seems to be quite competitive and the industry tends to operate at quite low margins (BIS Department for Business Innovation & Skills, n.d.). The main rationale for choosing the company is that it is the leader in airline industry that offers both the fli ght as well as the holiday package services. The company chosen will assist in comprehending the trends of the airline company offering the package holiday in the UK. Task A 2.0 PESTEL Analysis The PESTEL analysis tends to classify the environmental components into political, socio cultural, economical, technological, environmental as well as legal. It assists in comprehending the main drivers leading to change as well as the external factors affecting an organization. Political Factors The political environment of the UK is quite stable. However, the terror attack had a major impact upon the package holiday industry of the UK. Such terror attacks led to tight security as well as strict immigration laws. The package holiday industry suffers in the long-term if such turmoil keeps on continuing. This tends to affect the perception of the tourists. In recent times, strikes called by the staffs of the British Airways had an impact upon its holiday business. In future, such scenario can occur which might have an impact

Evaluate the Impact of Media such as Video Games, Film and TV on the Essay

Evaluate the Impact of Media such as Video Games, Film and TV on the Behaviour of Teenagers - Essay Example This means that their sexual behaviour is influenced in one way or another. As media exposure reaches out to teenage persons, pornography becomes a point of concern (Wallmyr and Welin, 2006, pg. 292). This is because different forms of media have made pornographic materials easily accessible to both intended and unintended audience. The readily available explicit materials have had immense effect on the behaviour of teenagers. While not all have succumbed to the force of pornography, others have plunged into the ditch of immorality and undefined sexual behaviour. This has been accelerated by the need for teenagers to identify with influential people in the world as they grow and develop physically, emotionally, and mentally. As a result, new trends keep emerging relative to sexuality and sexual behaviours. At the same time, sexual attitudes have enormously changed. The respect and importance accorded to sex and related activities have continued to lose meaning as this generation beco mes more and more exposed inappropriate sexual materials through the media. Even as the negative implication of media on teenage behaviour rages on, all is not lost in that regard. The media plays a very crucial role of sensitizing teenagers on safe sexual practices and the importance of using contraceptives. In so doing, more and more teenagers are becoming cautious and responsible for their sexual behaviours. Media advocacy in this respect is commendable but the challenge surrounding teenagers and explicit sexual exposure through the media still remains. Over and above the sexuality factor, the daily lifestyles and standards observed by teenagers have faced the influence of the media. As earlier mentioned, the media platform is characterized by global diversity and dynamism. For... The above discussion does not imply that the media only affects eating behaviours negatively among teenagers. In fact, there are key positive aspects associated with the media as far as eating behaviour is concerned. The media is a rich source of information on weight loss programs. These programs have made it possible for teenagers to manage their own weights from wherever they are all over the world. TV programs offer help to persons dealing with eating disorders. There are doctors’ reality shows that are primarily designed for teenagers and teenage life, and they are meant to enhance the quality of life that teenagers lead. Over and above that films have been developed that deal with eating behaviour among other issues that teenagers face. In the process, media also fosters a positive behaviour line among teenagers although both the open and underlying negative implications are still critical. This report makes a conclusion that all said and done about the positives of the media on eating habits, research indicates that most of the teenagers with eating disorders have developed them from watching too many model media shows such America’s next top model and in their emulation of these celebrities, they end up with the eating disorders. Video games have been the main mode of entertainment for the teenagers in the recent past. More evidence of this violence and even that which is seen in the television and action or thriller films is portrayed in their social life where most of them and especially boys constantly engage in fights and other violent behaviour all in the name of emulating their favourite character from the media.

Social Media Users in Finland and Poland Assignment

Social Media Users in Finland and Poland - Assignment Example In July 2012, during the 16 International Christian Internet Congress staged in Munich, the attending church representatives unanimously agreed there was need for Christian organizations to boost their internet connective and interaction through social media. The outcome of the Munich conference was later discussed by Christian leaders in Finland in their annual meeting. Although only 35% of Finnish Christians use Facebook and other social sites, churches had lost more forty thousand faithful in less than four months. This served as an indication of how important social media are in wooing loyalist including fundamentalist. Churches therefore saw the need to retain their flocks by going socially online. It is from then that religious institutions adjusted their marketing strategy. Churches went ahead to appoint a team of delegates to investigate the role of social media in the modern society and also respond onslaught of social media criticisms. Instead, churches in Finland and the r est of Europe proposed new ways of positively using social media to preach the gospel and win new converts. Churches therefore launched an interactive social websites where their followers can post comments, videos, blogs, and pictures which would encourage other website followers. However, because of increasing cases of hacking, churches were forced to deploy experts and administrators to manage and integrate their sites (Scott, & Scott, 2011, p.63-4). The increasing use of online and digital communication technologies.... From political, corporate, to religious, all the organizations currently embrace social networks or media. Churches across Finland and Poland were surveyed on their how active to they use social media as a marketing base. The result polled by Buzzplant marketing agency revealed that these institutions often used social media to popularize themselves. Even millennium old institutions were found to have joined social network train. The survey covered about 250 churches in Finland on their position towards social media. Surprisingly, the finding of the survey established that religious institutions strongly believed on the effectiveness of social media form of outreach (Scott, 2010, p.89). Over forty six percent of the respondents indicated their preference of social media as an effective way of reaching out to their followers with only 25% of them preferring knocking on the door, and 6% indicating that TV is a better way of gaining numbers. Similar to Poland, Facebook and twitter were the most popular social networks for a large number of religious followers. This was evidence by the frequency at which these churches updated their Facebook or twitter pages on a daily account (Armfield, & Holbert, 2003, p.129). In July 2012, during the 16 International Christian Internet Congress staged in Munich, the attending church representatives unanimously agreed there was need for Christian organizations to boost their internet connective and interaction through social media. The outcome of the Munich conference was later discussed by Christian leaders in Finland in their annual meeting. Although only 35% of Finnish Christians use Facebook and other social sites, churches had lost more forty thousand faithful in less than four months. This served as an indication of how

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 7

Research - Essay Example hat, in situations where there is the need to optimize the use of resources especially in the low income countries, there is a tendency to scale down the local strategies for quality to enable the practitioner and the constrained health providers to serve a larger population. The growth of the health sector has thus concentrated on geographical coverage and based more of their services to providing universal health at the expense of the quality. Most of the resources are focused to expansion leaving loopholes for inefficiencies and incompetence if not unprofessionalism. According to the article by the world health organization, there is a need to address the health issue from a systems perspective (World Health Organization, 3). For this research proposal, I will review previous data on the topic and develop the various problems encountered in health care, examine them in the light of the efforts to mitigate them and come up with a plan to work out the inefficiencies and ensure there is an optimal allocation of resources and optimal gains, as a result. When we look at health care in an economic perspective, health care involves the provision of services and the receipt of payment for the services (Lebrun-Harris, Lydie A., et al., 44). However, the rate with which an individual seeks health care largely depends on his/her resource endowments especially in cases where they are not covered by insurance cover and have to pay through an out-of –pocket basis. Access to health care is thus limited by the constrained resources. However, healthcare in the modern day has become more of an enterprise, and the providers are aiming at expanding more and reaping more profits for their services. This has led to the use of incompetent personnel in place of doctors, the use of low quality alternative medicine, application of procedures that undermine the patients’ health status, for better monetary rewards; among them carrying out a caesarian section where the patient can have

Compare 3 different conceptual approaches to global supply chains Essay

Compare 3 different conceptual approaches to global supply chains examining their differences and similarities - Essay Example Effective supply chain management is made possible by the use of effective communication, information, trust and cooperation. Global commodity chain (GCC) approach consists of â€Å"set of interorganisational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking households, enterprises and states to one another within the world economy† (Gereffi & Korzeniewicz, 1994). The global production network (GPN) approach involves the existence of circuits that function in an interconnected way to conduct operation and transactions for the production of specific services and products for distribution and consumption (Dicken, 2011). As opposed to the concept of ‘chains’ which follow a vertical mono-linear structure, the GPNs are ‘networks’ that spread in multiple directions i.e. vertical, horizontal, diagonal etc. Christopher (2011) asserts that it should be kept in mind that supply chain is different from ‘vertical integration’. As far as the complexity is concerned, the structures of GPNs are far more complex and inter-woven when compared to chains. This extreme complexity is driven by the patterns of demands that exist worldwide. Global supply chain management is more inclined towards addressing the issue of supply to the end users of products. As a result of this, the competition between different firms can be seen at grass root level. This is due to the fact that every firm is striving to achieve the aim of reducing costs in a competitive market to maximize profits. The GPNs on the other hands are more concerned with the issues of supply that are faced by producers of the products. At this end, the problems are more related to the matters regarding acquisition of raw materials on lowest possible prices from suppliers around the world. The areas of focus related to GPNs include territoriality, domestic actors like

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

DMI - Assignment Example Data was collected on the following variables: For the variable on the time of study, the histogram shows that 61% of respondents studied at night while the remaining 39% studied during the day. Studying until late in the night can have an impact on the results as a student takes exam while the brain is fatigued and is not functioning at its optimum. The histogram and summary statistics for number of hours slept is shown above. From the results, we see that the average hours of sleep for grade 12 students are 6.5 hours with a standard deviation of 1.35. It has been recommended that students should sleep for at least 6 hours to maximize their cognitive ability. A scatterplot of age versus hours slept shows a negative correlation, i.e. older persons tend to sleep fewer hours as compared to younger ones. Indeed, the results from the scatterplot are further confirmed by results from the correlation table. The correlation is -0.725 implying a negative correlation between the two variables. A plot of exam score against hours slept shows a positive correlation between the two variables. Further analysis through correlation shows a value of 0.617. Consequently, the preliminary analysis supports the null hypothesis that academic performance is positively related with the number of sleep hours. Further analysis through regression is needed to build confidence in this hypothesis. Final analysis of the data involved regression modeling using exam scores as the dependent variable and hours slept, age and food quality as the independent variables. The regression equation can be stated as follows: From the equation, it is observed that the intercept for the number of hours slept is positive implying that hours of sleep positively impacts test scores. This can be stated as follows: a unit increase in hours slept results into a 4.479 unit increase in examination scores. However, age and food quality have a