Enzyme Lab

Purpose and BackgroundThe purpose of this lab is to explain how enzymes act as catalysts for biological reactions in different temperatures. This lab relates to enzymes, proteins, and substrates; that we learned in class. The union of the enzyme and the substrate is called the enzyme-substrate complex. The make-up of an enzyme is proteins and made up of chains and amino acids.Enzymes are considered to be organic catalysts, they speed up chemical reactions that might otherwise take too long to occur and be of use in the body. They also allow reactions to occur in regions of the body that are unfavorable because of the level of pH or the lack of heat. HypothesisA reused and ground enzyme will have the greatest reactions compared to the other types of enzymes. Materials 1. Avocado 2.Petri Dish 3.Hydrogen Peroxide 4.Vinegar 5.Vinegar SubstrateProcedure1.Place a small piece of cooked avocado/avocado/soaked avocado in a Petri dish. 2.Place 10 drops of hydrogen peroxide/vinegar substrate on the avocado 3.Observe for enzyme activity by looking for bubbles4.Rate the amount of oxygen bubbles produced on a scale of 1-5 5.Record your data in the chartDataConclusionAfter placing 10 drops of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar substrate in the different forms of avocado, the results were interesting. The ground and reused enzyme had the most evident reactions. It also shows me that enzymes can be reused, because of the reaction rating. Enzymes can be affected by temperatures because the regular enzyme reaction is low. Also enzymes aren’t affected by pH because it had a low reaction. Enzymes are specific because different types of enzymes work for different substrates.DiscussionMy hypothesis was supported and proved in the lab. I predicted that the ground and reused enzyme would have the greatest reaction rating, and they did. Evidence that occurred in the lab would be the hydrogen peroxide and vinegar substrate dropped onto the different forms of enzymes. I don’t thi nk any improvements can be made, the lab was straight forward and proved what needed to be known

Shakespeare Henry V

Henry V Shakespeare Essay After looking at the Lawrence Oliver's, Kenneth Branch's and the Henry V classic comics extensively, we have a clear view of what Henry V was really like. The re- telling of this famous story have shown that he was a humble, down to earth leader that wants the best for his army. In Lawrence Oliver's re-making of the famous Shakespeare play ‘Henry V, we see Henry V as a confident and influential man. Throughout the speech we see him yelling at the top of his voice. His army gets right into his speech which is showing that he is a persuasive person.This also shows that he is liked by his army. In Lawrence Oliver's version, we see a large and wide camera view which shows Henry standing above the entire English army. This view shows us the shear size of the English army and Henrys power above them. The soldiers are all dressed in shining armor and the background is nice and colorful. It makes the scene nicer to look at. During Henrys speech, his voice stay s at a loud level. The crowd gets into his speech. In Lawrence Oliver's version we can tell that he is liked throughout the English army cause the army is following him in his speech.After looking at Kenneth Branch's re-make of Henrys famous SST Christian's day speech shows us that Henry is a down to earth guy. In this version Branch makes Henry seems more apart of his army than he is King. We see this when he comes down from his high position down to the level of his fellow citizens. One technique Branch uses is camera position. We see the camera at the height of the army looking up at Henry. This shows us that Henry is powerful. We see him lower his voice lower down from a yell to unite the brothers.Branch gives us the idea that Henry is a loyal and down to earth person who cares about every single man in his army. In the Classic Comic ‘Henry V, we see Henry as a guy that's very powerful and a loyal leader. We see Henry leading a special formation of Calvary soldiers. He say s ‘For we today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother'. We see Henry from a high view to really show the formation of the men on there horses. We also see that there is a crowd looking up at Henry which really shows the power Henry has got.This lassie comic of Henry V really shows the power Henry has over his army. After looking at these three re-telling of the famous story of Henry V ‘s SST Crispin day speech, I have found out that Henry is a very powerful, liked, down to earth, loyal and honorable man. These three re-telling of this story have shown different techniques to show these characteristics of Henry. Some techniques used are camera height (how high Henry is above the army), voice projection, color of clothing and the way his army follows him. We see him as a man, leader and warrior, soldier and

Impact of the Internet and Media for Modern Youth

INTERNET ON MODERN YOUTH The content of the current media culture is often blind to a young person’s cultural,economic and educational background. The concept of a media culture has evolvedowing to the increased volume, variety and importance of mediated signs and messagesand the interplay of interlaced meanings. In the world of young people, themedia are saturated by popular culture and penetrate politics, the economy, leisuretime and education. At present, the global media culture is a pedagogic force that hasthe potential to exceed the achievements of institutionalized forms of education.AsHenry Giroux puts it:â€Å"With the rise of new media technologies and the global reach of thehighly concentrated culture industries, the scope and impact of theeducational force of culture in shaping and refiguring all aspects of  daily life appear unprecedented. Yet the current debates have generallyignored the powerful pedagogical influence of popular culture,along with the implicat ions it has for shaping curricula, questioningnotions of high-status knowledge, and redefining the relationship  between the culture of schooling and the cultures of everyday life. 6The concept of media culture encompasses not simply symbolic combinationsof immaterial signs or capricious currents of old and new meanings, but an entire wayof life7 in which images, signs, texts and other audio-visual representations are connectedwith the real fabric of material realities, symbols and artificialities. 8Media culture is pervasive; its messages are an important part of the everydaylives of young people, and their daily activities are structured around media use.Thestories and images in the media become important tools for identity construction. A  pop star  provides a model  for clothing and  other style choices, and language used  bya cartoon character becomes a key factor in the street credibility of young people. Under the present circumstances, there are few places left i n the world where onemight escape the messages and meanings embedded in the televised media culture.In a mediated culture, it can be difficult for young people to discern whose representationsare closest to the truth, which representations to believe, and whichimages matter. This is partly because the emergence of digitalized communication and the commoditization of culture have significantly altered the conditions under whichlife and culture are experienced. Many are still attached to the romantic image of  organic communities in which people converse with one another face-to-face and livein a close-knit local environment.Digital communication is gradually undermining thistraditional approach:â€Å"Most of the ways in which we make meanings, most of our communicationsto other people, are not directly human and expressive, butinteractions in one way or another worked through commodities andcommodity relations: TV, radio, film, magazines, music, commercialdance, style, fashion, co mmercial leisure venues. These are major  realignments. † 9In the world of young people, the media culture may be characterized primarilyin terms of three distinct considerations. First, it is produced and reproduced bydiverse ICT sources.It is therefore imperative to replace the teaching of knowledgeand skills central to agrarian and industrial societies with education in digital literacy. A similar point is made by Douglas Kellner, who contends that in a media culture it isimportant to learn multiple ways of interacting with social reality. 10 Children and young  people must be provided with opportunities to acquire skills in multiple literacies toenable them to develop their identities, social relationships and communities, whether  material, virtual, or a combination of the two.Second, the media culture of youth extends beyond signs and symbols, manifestingitself in young people’s physical appearance and movements. The media cultureinfluence is visible in how youth present themselves to the world through meansmade available by prevailing fashions; the body is a sign that can be used effectivelyto produce a cultural identity. Furthermore, various kinds of media-transmitted skillsand knowledge are stored and translated into movements of the body. This is evidentin a number of youth subcultures involving certain popular sports, games andmusic/dances such as street basketball, skateboarding and hip hop.The body is highly susceptible to different contextual forms of control. Whilethey are in school, pupils’ movements are regulated by certain control mechanismsand cognitive knowledge. In the streets, youth clubs and private spaces, however, their bodies function according  to a different logic. Informal knowledge absorbed throughthe media culture requires some conscious memorizing but also involves physicallearning, quite often commercialized. 11Third, in the experience of young people, media culture represents a sourceof pleasure and relative autonomy compared with home or school.As P. Willis states:â€Å"Informal cultural practices are undertaken because of the pleasuresand satisfactions they bring, including a fuller and more roundedsense of the self, of ‘really being yourself’ within your own knowablecultural world. This entails finding better fits than the institutionally or  ideologically offered ones, between the collective and cultural senses  Ã¢â‚¬â€the way it walks, talks, moves, dances, expresses, displays—  and its actual conditions of existence; finding a way of ‘beingin the world’ with style at school, at work, in the street. 12Experts on young people have long appreciated the complexity of the conceptof youth, especially when examined from a global perspective. The best summation is  perhaps that the concept of youth today is historically and contextually conditioned;in other words, it is relative as well as socially and culturally constructed. 13 In the presentmedia culture, the age at which childhood is perceived to end is declining, and the  period of  youth seems to be  extending upward.It is useful, however, to recall that the majority of young people in the worlddo not live according to the Western conceptions of youth. For them, childhood andadolescence in the Western sense exist only indirectly through media presentations. The same media culture influences seem to be in effect outside the Western world,  but their consequences are  likely to be somewhat different owing mainly to variationsin definitions of childhood and youth and to the different authority relationships  prevailing in individual cultures.Children and young people are often seen as innocent victims of the pervasive and  powerful media. In the extreme view, the breakdown of the nuclear family, teenage  pregnancy, venereal disease, paedophilia, child  trafficking and child prostitutionspreading through the Internet, drug use, juvenile crime, t he degeneration of manners,suicide and religious cults are all seen as problems exacerbated or even inflicted upon

House of Wisdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

House of Wisdom - Essay Example It is  impossible  to  envision  Western civilization without fruits of Arab science. Al- khwarizmi’s art of Algebra, the well researched and explained medical teachings and  philosophy  of Avicenna, the new geography and cartography introduced by al-idrisi or the  thorough  rationalism of Averroes (Jonathan, 2009). It is  evident  how uneducated the westerners were. Their leader was an  implacable  cleric who had appeared from nowhere to massive  popular  acclaim; he exhorted his charges to holy war against the infidels with promises of a home in paradise. Diseases and malnutrition were  rife. Medical care often involved exorcism or the amputation of the injured limb. Torture and other ordeals settled criminal cases. Few had any  learning  at all.  The little  education  that they had consisted of memorizing out dated texts under the watchful eyes of  hidebound  doctors of religion.  They did not understand basic technology, scien ce or mathematics. They could not  date  their most significant holy days nor could they  chart  the  regular  movement of the sun, moon and planets. Natural phenomena such as  eclipse  of the moon or a sudden change in  weather  terrified them; they thought it was black magic. Pope Uban II appealed to the princes in the French town of Clermont to end their  ceaseless  warring to  turn  their murderous energies on the unbelievers of the East. The  fighting  and denouncing of the Muslims by the European Christians and the Westerners began to  obscure  any  recognition  of the Muslim way of life and their contribution to science. This message consisted of four themes, some of which still resonate today. One was that Islam distorts the word of God, and the other was that Islam  was  solely  spread  by  violence. The third one was that Islam promoted pervertedsexuality  of humans by encouraging the  practice  of polygamy, for examp le, the way the sultans behaved in their Kingdoms, and through their excessively  modest  way  they carried themselves out. Finally, they also believed that the Antichrist was a muslim(Jonathan, 2009). These were just prejudices because some of the European philosophers, who had earlier denounced the Muslim way of life, later appreciated and acknowledged their contribution to  education  (Jonathan, 2009). As most Westerners denounced the Muslims, an Englishman named Aderlard of Bath one of the early pioneers of the Arab teachings who brought about the wonder of astronomy geometry astrology and other fields to the medieval West, looked at the Muslims differently, he left his home in search for education. In addition, he believed that the Muslims had the best education. He had no interest in the debaucheries of his fellow Europeans. Unlike the holy warriors unleashed by Pope Uban II, he had the  determination  to learn from the Muslims rather than killing them under the sign of the cross. While the crusaders saw only evil in the Muslim infidel, Aderlard sought the  light

Foundations of Finance and Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Foundations of Finance and Investment - Essay Example The Repo rate is the short-term interest rate at which financial institutions such as banks and building societies can borrow money from the BOE for a two-week period. The MPC meets monthly to set the Repo rate as part of its monetary policy function to control inflation. Its decision on what this rate should be acts as a signal to the money markets of how much to pay savers and charge borrowers for the use of money. The Repo rate therefore acts as the baseline for the cost of money that can be loaned to customers, which can include other banks, in the form of mortgages and overdrafts (BOE, 2005). Many households and firms, however, borrow for longer time periods and prefer to fix borrowing costs in advance, either because this helps them plan their cash flows better or protects them from the future risk of rising interest rates. This is a gamble some lenders and borrowers take, since interest rates may also move the other way. Fixed long-term borrowing or interest rates are relevant to those who want fixed-rate mortgages for housing or to firms with long-term investment plans like expanding a factory that needs some years to pay off. Long-term interest rates ranging from one to ten years are calculated simply by taking an average of forecast short-term interest rates over the desired period. Short- and long-term interest rates are closely related, but differ on the basis of MPC decisions; the expectations of how the national economy will fare; the expected future inflation rates; and how likely the MPC will achieve its inflation targets (BOE, 2005). The direction of short-term rates is easy to determine because the figure depends on the latest interest rate decision of the MPC that can either raise or lower the Repo rate. Long-term rates, however, may go either way, determined by how the economy will perform many years from now. It can happen that whilst the MPC raises the Repo rate next month, ten-year rates may go down if the market thinks such a decision will cause rates to fall in the future. Future rates depend on how reliable the market finds the MPC (Barrell et al., 2006, p. 60). In deciding to keep the Repo rate at the same level in April 2006, the MPC considered several rigorously monitored variables such as U.K. inflation (down from 2.0% to 1.8%), money supply (M4, the sum of notes, coins, and so-called broad money consisting of what is held in bank and building society accounts, grew 12% in the year to February), economic growth (in line with first quarter trend rate at 0.6%), U.K. consumer spending and manufacturing (growing steadily), asset prices (rising prices of equities and houses), the sterling exchange rate (weakening or depreciating to the dollar and the Euro), risk of higher inflation (rising due to the increase in energy and oil prices), the economic performance of the U.S., the so-called Eurozone (EU countries that have the Euro as its common currency), and Japan (inflation, exchange rates, asset prices, etc.), wage pressures (rising average real product wage balanced by lower growth of average real consumption wage; the first refers to the re al cost incurred by employers whilst the second refers to the take home pay of employees), and consumer surveys on inflationary expectations (rising), a key emotional factor that influences personal decisions to either save or spend. Inflation - the rise in prices of a basket of goods and services in the whole economy - if

Issues in sports 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Issues in sports 2 - Essay Example 2. The issue of performance-enhancing drugs has been created in medicine and sport to ensure fair-play. It is considered vital that athletes should compete on a level playing field, on equal grounds, with the same advantages and liabilities provided to players from opposing teams. To articulate and enforce the concept of fair-play, there are anti-doping policies which prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The use of these drugs goes against the rules of sports and is viewed as cheating (Kayser et al 2). 3. Management of the issue of performance-enhancing drugs is through the â€Å"physician involved in the athlete’s health supervision† (Kayser et al 9). The established ethics of the medical profession dictates that the physician’s role should be one of preserving the athlete’s autonomy. This is required to be done by maintaining a balance between ensuring the treatment leads to the highest degree of present and future health, while concurrently permitting the athlete to maintain a preferred life style. Principles of good practice for the role of sports physicians is an ethically rigorous need that has to be fulfilled. For this, employing independent physicians with status comparable to other sports officials, is possibly the best strategy for developing good practice. 4. The ways in which the above management action will affect the sport and society at large is an important aspect of the issue of performance-enhancing drugs. In contemporary times sports are increasingly significant for economic and political reasons. Elite sport is a self-sustaining enterprise, with extensive financial returns from â€Å"advertisement, media and audience revenues† (Kayser et al 9). Doping control cannot be considered as an internal matter of the sports community, since considerable public funds as well as governmental resources are provided for sports, for the purpose of health promotion and other sound reasons.

Strategic Management Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Management - Research Proposal Example The signing of new contracts and venturing into new partnerships is a way in which this can be achieved. However, there is the question of the transaction cost. That is to say, the cost incurred during the process of an exchange. Williamson’s transaction cost approach assumes that the transaction is the fundamental unit of analysis and through understanding its economization one is able to evaluate how their governing structures serve in their economization. In short, to understand a transaction, one must scrutinize the terms under which the transaction is taking place and ensure it is in the interest of the business. Asset specificity refers to the features of an asset that make it useful for single or multiple specific purposes and is the most important dimension (The economics of organization: The transaction cost approach – AcaWiki 4). Based on this, the more the specificity of an asset, the lower its chances for resale or redeployment. An example is workers trained to perform only a single task. Uncertainty basically is the state of an asset being unreliable to the goal. Uncertainty differs from risk in that risk can be measured through prior or situational probability while uncertainty is not measurable at all. Being a multidimensional aspect, it holds an important role in the decision making process of the stakeholders, thus must be taken into consideration before contracts are signed. Lastly the frequency is the repeated times in which a transaction will occur between specific or multiple parties. Also, one has to consider the frequency of disturbance in the market. This is to say, the adaptation of the market to the change that is brought about with the transaction. This has to be accounted for, such that it must be known if the transaction is a one time deal or will it will be repeated. Having considered all the above in the for the transaction

Progress Statement and Development Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Progress Statement and Development Plan - Essay Example Misunderstandings occurred occasionally due to communication breakdown and conflicts arose between team mates when there were different thoughts and ideas. I attempt to develop my communication skills and work in a multicultural group by slowing down my speaking speed and pronounce the words correctly in order to convey my ideas and messages clearly. I also try to improve my vocabularies by extensive reading. Besides that, I would like to make effort in developing my interpersonal skills by practising patience and high tolerance rather than being aggressive when facing conflicts. Two-way communications, mutual understanding and positive feedbacks are important in resolving conflicts and disputes (Agar, 1994). Thus, I have learnt to be a good listener and be open to constructive feedbacks and comments. This is especially important if I am to work in a diversity workplace in the future. Time management is another challenge which I have encountered. I faced obstacles in balancing my in- class time, time spent on assignments, study and entertainment. Time management skill is important in overcoming the problem such as careful planning of work, tight monitoring of progress and revision of plan when necessary (Smith, 1994). It would be useful to set a personal goal and develop a flexible schedule to assist me in prioritising my activities. I plan my day ahead and maintain a list of activities which must be done daily at the same allowing room of flexibility for unexpected incidents. It enables me to recognize tasks which are urgent and in need of special focus and attention followed by the important ones. In this case, I would be able to meet deadlines such as assignments deadline without any last minute rush. This skill would definitely assist me in future career success as the optimum use of time would lead to increase work efficiency and productivity. On the other hand, it ensures that I am not overloaded with work contributing to less stress and pressures. Additio nally, numerical skill is another area which is in need of improvement as it is critical for my accounting module. Numerical skills involve the ability to recognise and utilize numerical data and reflect on a person’s general intelligence and ability to rapidly perceives, processes and calculates numbers (Psychometric Success, 2011). Employers often recognise the importance of numerical skills in work practise and incorporate it as one of the selection criteria in the recruitment process. This is evidenced by the compulsory completion of numerical ability test by candidates during a job interview. The level of tests would however depend on the relevance of skill to the job (Royal Holloway University of London, 2011). As practise make perfect, I am commit to perform mathematical exercise on a weekly basis and apply it on a daily basis to resolve practical calculations. Moreover, I attempt the numerical skills test available online to assess my skills and continuously monitor m y progress. This would not only assist in my current academic success but also increase my employability. Besides that, I would require to enhance my presentation skills as it is useful in every aspect of work and life. Effective presentation and public speaking skills are essential in my university as it is part of the assessment requirements. From a business perspective, it is insufficient to only display capability in work but also be able to be presentable and talk and write well in order to be

Assignment 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Assignment 4 - Essay Example So pick a card, any card. Wouldnt you think that your odds of finding a number starting with 1 would be the same as finding a number starting with 9? Or 3? Or 7? (See Figure 1) After all, you gathered as many different numbers from as many different locations as possible, so they should all be evenly distributed, right? Wrong!!! Here comes Benfords Law, bitch! Benfords law says that the odds of obtaining 1 as the first digit of a number are much higher than obtaining any other digit. (See Figure 2) And nobody can really explain why! Creeeepy. But the coolest thing is that the broader the sampling of numbers, the more accurately they conform to Benfords law. For example, if you only examined the numbers in a New York City phone book, it wouldnt fit with Benfords law because your data would favor 2s and 7s (because of the popular area codes 212 and 718). But mix a phone books numbers with an almanacs numbers with an encyclopedias numbers and without a doubt youll start seeing a "Benfordian" distribution. Didnt I tell you this shitd freak you out? But the most important part of Benfords law (and partially why its so fascinating) is that it only works with numbers observed and gathered from the real world. So if you were to randomly generate a list of numbers with a computer, or by simply making them up, their first digits would most likely be evenly distributed from 1-9 and NOT in accordance with Benfords law. (See Figure 1 again). For this reason, Benfords law is used by the IRS to spot defrauders who make up phony numbers, because if the numbers dont follow Benfords law, they werent from real transactions. Fascinated by all this, I decided to test it for myself. Rather than spend years gathering numbers from all over the world, I decided to turn to Google - arguably the broadest source of data in existence. Seeing how many results Google finds for a number is a surefire way to judge how many times

The Significance of Wilson v UK [2002] IRLR 568 Essay

The Significance of Wilson v UK [2002] IRLR 568 - Essay Example Respecting the right of association implies that governments need to ensure that its individual members of the public freely come together to express, defend and pursue unified goals and interest (Gross & Compa, 2009.p124) As such public authorities are refrained from interfering with individual’s right to assemble and associate. It is noteworthy that freedom of association goes beyond coming together for a common good taking into consideration that it also recognized joining associations aimed at attaining a specified goal. Freedom of association is recognized both locally and internationally in the context of industrial relation. Employees have been granted the freedom to assemble and associate for common interest in respect to the terms and condition of employment. This means that workers have the right to join trade unions and collectively bargain. According to Novitz (2002. P 176) this right is recognized by two vital conventions C 87 and C98 of the International Labour O rganization (ILO). This means that any action or inaction by the employer aimed at discouraging employees from joining trade unions is tantamount to infringement of the Freedom of association and as such is illegal. ... This claim can be justified by the enactment of the â€Å"Ullswater amendment†. This legislation was put in place by the Conservative government to limit operations of trade union activities Barnard, Deakin, & Morris, 2004. P150). Regulation of industrial relation by the UK government can be considered a breach on the ILO standards and ECHR conventions in three perspectives. First the regulations does not make necessary provisions for rights to participate in industrial action, secondly it does not protect organizers and participants in collective bargaining( Hepple 2005.p23) Finally the regulations places unreasonable constrains on the autonomy of trade unions, which is categorically granted to individual employees under Article 11 and 3 of the ECHR and ILO No.87 respectively. The case Wilson v United Kingdom case, which would later bring about far reaching consequences on the British labour laws after several year of court battle involved discrimination of an employee becaus e of his stand on trade union (English, 2011). Dave Wilson was an employee of an Associated Newspaper at the Daily Mail. Wilson was denied 4.5% salary increase because he refused to denounce membership of National Union of Journalists (NUJ) (Thompsons Solicitors, 2012). The condition for pay hike was that the entire team of journalists had to give up their right to the terms and condition put in place by the collective bargain. The aim of the management was to discourage participation industrial action. Wilson refused to sign the contract offered by his employer whereby he ended up losing on the pay incentive. Wilson through his lawyer later filed an application by the courts protesting action of his employer. Significance of the ECHR ruling It is no

Cross-cultural Communication Essay Example for Free

Cross-cultural Communication Essay In order to accomplish the task I decided to interview my friend from Italy who arrived to the USA after having won a language competition to live and study here and whom I recently visited in Italy. So, below you may see some differences and similarities of American and Italian culture. First of all he decided to rent a car since it was more convenient than a train or other transportation vehicle. He noted that there are almost no pedestrians in the streets as everybody drives a car. Also, he stated that American people take care of their life as no other culture in the world because they have a list of emergency calls in every household and therefore are rightfully scared to death of Italian drivers. The system of driving in Italy is almost beyond American understanding. The basic difference is that Americans like lanes and pretty much expect everybody to stay in one. Italy does not work like this at all. Instead they use a surprisingly tolerant system of swerving, tail gating, and other go-as-you-please driving etiquette that Americans would be driven to homicidal road rage by if it happened in the hometown. Traveling through Italy American person will never see anyone irritated or aggressive while driving. Italians just casually drive like maniacs and know that everyone else is too. Along the way, they adore chatting and laughing with each other. As a huge generalization Italians are very attractive people. It felt like people are living in an Armani commercial. But as he says they smoke everywhere, all the time. As expected, he liked American food everywhere: in restaurants, in coffee shops, etc. although he was more accustomed to have a dessert and a thimble of coffee. It was quite a surprise for him to reveal that dinners last an hour or an hour and a half at most while in Italy they go on for hours. Time in general moves differently in the USA, as he says. In the USA days start earlier than according to the Italian standards. In Italy the whole country shuts down from one oclock to three or four oclock every afternoon. There is also a great difference in architecture of these two cultures. Italy is full of narrow streets, plazas and buildings. He says if you want to live in an apartment that is several hundred years old and is probably built on top of even older building you can do it. In the USA it is hard to find something older than about 200 years old. In my essay I would like to refer to the idea of the context of situation (Kramsch 25) that includes three major parts: o The field of discourse o The tenor of discourse o The mode of discourse The field of discourse covers the situation of visiting another country and penetrating into its culture. The tenor implies the participants, while the mode includes the role of the language in this situation. Therefore, it would be appropriate to note that Italian tradition of driving may serve as a good example of the context of situation. First of all, it involves such important factors as high level of emotionality, hot weather, narrow streets, and their somewhat confusing location. As the tenor of discourse investigates the members of the situation, it is necessary to mention here the importance of the origin of the participants. As we may see from the interview and from my own experience Italians and Americans drive in completely different way and both of them believe that their driving tradition is the best and most convenient. In conclusion, I may add that cultural diversity implies different traditions that require understanding, open-mindness, and tolerance. References Kramsch, Claire. (2003). Language and Culture (4th edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Effective Communication Essay Example for Free

Effective Communication Essay Effective communication is essential in any workplace, especially within a criminal justice organization. In this paper, the author will discuss the process of verbal and nonverbal communication and the associated components of each, the differences between listening and hearing in communication, the formal and informal channels of communication in criminal justice organizations and the strategies that may be implemented to overcome communication barriers therein. Types of Communication and the Process Involved  Communication is defined as â€Å"a process involving several steps, among two or more persons, for the primary purpose of exchanging information. † (Wallace Roberson, 2009). This process can involve two types of communication: verbal and nonverbal. Verbal Verbal communication includes transmitting information orally. This type of communication can involve sharing information or exchanging ideas between two people or a group. Speaking is just one aspect of verbal communication. Verbal communication does not solely involve the sender transmitting the message to the receiver. Verbal communication also involves listening from the receiver and giving feedback to the sender as a confirmation that the message was understood. In a criminal justice organization, â€Å"oral communication skills are necessary to talk with members of the general public, request assistance from other officers, advise suspects of their Miranda rights, and inform supervisors that certain actions have occurred. † (Wallace Roberson, 2009). Being an officer requires a lot of verbal communication to fulfill some of the essential duties of working in law enforcement. Nonverbal Nonverbal communication includes written communication via reports, memorandums, notes from meetings, notes taken from accounts between officers and witnesses, victims, suspects, etc. Nonverbal can also include facial expressions. Facial expressions and body language oftentimes are used to convey emotions when words are absent. The Process of Communication The process of communication involves transmitting an idea, sending the idea through a medium (verbal/nonverbal), receiving the message, understanding the idea, and providing feedback to the message sender. The first step of transmitting an idea â€Å"implies the formation of one or several thoughts and the desire to express these ideas†. (Wallace Roberson, 2009). The next step involves choosing a method of communicating that idea. This can be done through verbal or nonverbal communication. Despite what method is used, it is imperative to know who the audience is and decide what tone the message is to be delivered. The tone, especially with oral communication, can make a world of a difference in how the receiver interprets the message. When the receiver then receives the message, his interpretation may not be how the message was originally intended to be received. The understanding of the idea or message relies strongly on interpretation of the person receiving the message. The process is then completed when the receiver provides feedback to the message sender by clarifying what he or she understood and then agreeing or disagreeing with the message itself. All these steps are part of the communication process, if one step fails then the communication becomes ineffective and invaluable. Listening vs. Hearing  According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, the word hearing is defined as â€Å"the sense by which sound is perceived; the capacity to hear† (2009). Hearing can include the capacity to hear the audio of the message being received and the words being enunciated, but it cannot ensure whether the message was indeed understood. Hearing is only one part of the communication process. The ability to comprehend by actually listening to what is being said, understanding the message by using the aids such as tone, facial expressions and body language completes this process. Active listening is important to effective communication. Channels of Communication Channels of communication in a criminal justice organization help demonstrate how the information flows from one person or group to another. The flow of communication or channels can include formal or informal methods. Formal Formal channels of communication include orders, directives and written memorandums that follow a chain of command. Communication in this scenario usually flows downward from the highest level of the totem pole, such as a police chief down to its subordinates. This type of channel of communication has both its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of using a formal channel promote uniformity within the department. All officers, despite their rank, receive the same information. The disadvantage of using formal channels is that it sometimes stops the free flow of communication. If this channel type of communication is used it does not leave much room for officers to exchange freely any information within their department. That is to say that patrol officers usually are not encouraged to communicate amongst their peers but rather just receive instruction from their superiors. This hinders the department because officers are not encouraged to help one another, communicate with each other and possibly provide or exchange crucial information that might help them execute their responsibilities. Informal Informal channels of communication include â€Å"unofficial routes of communication within a law enforcement agency. These channels do not appear on any organizational chart, and they may not be officially sanctioned by the department. † (Wallace Roberson, 2009). This type of communication usually allows a free flow of information within all those employed in criminal justice organization. The direction of communication usually does not go up or down the ladder of chain of command. It opens up and encourages communication between officers and the different departments that make up the law enforcement agency. It promotes the sharing of information amongst peers that may ultimately contribute to successfully completing their duty of serving and protecting the community together as a team. Barriers to Effective Communication There are many barriers to effective communication. These barriers include emotional, physical and semantic barriers. Ineffective listening can also be construed as an important barrier as well. Emotional barriers can include an officer having low self esteem. This officer in question perhaps feels the need to refrain from communicating anything because he lacks self-confidence and is afraid to be put down by his peers. Many agencies have confronted this type of barrier by providing peer support groups so that they can work together to break these feelings of insecurity and promote a sense of trust. Physical barriers can breakdown communication. Physical barriers can include the use of faulty equipment where messages cannot be transmitted from one to another because the radio transmitters are not working or the computers in the vehicles or in the office are down. Having readily available and working technological equipment can help with communication between officers. Other types of physical barriers is perhaps the distance between officers when they are communicating. Shortening the distance can help provide a feeling of camaraderie and trust. Semantics involve the selection of words you choose to aid you with your communication. Obviously if you choose the wrong word, the communication will not be as effective and the entire message can be misread. Ineffective listening can also play a role in hindering the communication process. If one is not engaged in the speaker because perhaps they do not find the speaker or his/her topic interesting enough, or perhaps you already have your biases or set opinions on what is being said and so your are listening with a closed mind, this can lend to ruining the communication between you and the sender. Strategies to Overcome Barriers In order to overcome the above mentioned barriers, you must first understand what kind of barrier is preventing the flow of communication. Once pinpointing the type of barrier you can proceed to try and remove those barriers so that you can become an effective communicator. Emotional barriers can be dealt with by working on self improvement such as going to counseling for depression or self esteem issues can help. Law enforcement agencies can provide help with finding the right person to talk to or by providing a peer support group you can join to help deal with these types of emotional barriers. Physical barriers can be handled by ensuring that all equipment used within the department is adequately functioning and therefore the lines of communication can remain open. If the physical barrier involves distance between officers, then that distance needs to be shortened so that the communication between these officers allows for better exchange between them. Barriers that involve semantics can be improved upon by going to school or studying grammar, and word selection. The internet is a great way to explore tools that can help with improving your communication skills with words. Identifying what barriers are preventing someone from exchanging information and finding appropriate solutions to overcome these challenges will ensure a better and more effective way of communicating. Conclusion As children we learned early on how to communicate first without words then learning to speak and finally learning to write. Communication is a vital part of life. Without proper communication, the exchange of ideas and messages cannot be conveyed between people in either a personal or professional setting. Communication within a criminal justice organization is just as important. Learning how the process of communication works and identifying the barriers that breakdown this communication are tools that are needed. Communication is crucial to helping overall with the execution of law enforcement.

Attentional Control and Working Memory

Attentional Control and Working Memory Attentional control and working memory over top-down, bottom-up factors Complicated activities rely on attention to selectively focus on task-relevant stimuli while overlooking salient distractive stimuli. For instance, drivers need to able to attend to oncoming traffic while simultaneously ignoring distracting stimuli such as eating, looking after children, or hearing the bell of a cellphone receive a message. Most models pertaining to the selectivity of attention suggest that our attention is biased to either stimulus-based factors (bottom-up selection) and/or goal-driven factors (top-down selection) (Theeuwes, 2010). Physically salient properties of objects that draw attention involuntarily are bottom-up factors, in contrast, past knowledge, goals, and future plans are top-down factors that automatically guide our attention (Katsuki Constantinidis, 2014). Attentional control researchers have continuously argued whether goal-driven factors or stimulus-based factors have a larger influence on attentional control. However, this assumes that attention co ntrol involves a dichotomous selection between stimulus-based factors and goal-driven factors. This is an assumption that is incorrect and does not consider attentional control research that exists beyond this dichotomic viewpoint (Vecera et al, 2014). Past theories of attention focusing on the biases between goal-driven (top-down) and physically salient stimuli (bottom-up) do not take into consideration findings that persist outside of these factors, such as, the influence of experience with distractors on future search tasks. Attentional control, using working memory of distractor experience and strong biases, is a more effective posit than the dichotomic bias between goal-driven factors and physically salient factors. Although the dichotomy of bottom-up and top-down does not account for selection biases that are not goal-related nor physically salient, it still provides a highly acceptable theory of attentional control. The first visual sweep is completely driven by stimuli (Theeuwes, 2010). Theeuwes (2010) claims that the most physically salient item drives attention during the first visual scan, it is not until later in time that visual selection is biased in a top-down manner. This top-down manner involves feedback processing and voluntary control based on willful plans and current goals. Theeuwes (1992) found that when looking for a circle among diamonds of all the same color, the response time was a lot slower when one of the diamonds was red. Their study demonstrated that salience has an impact on visual attentional control. Goal driven selection matches targets that most fit the observers goal template. For example, when at the supermarket, if the goal is to buy a red apple, the observer wi ll prioritize red items. Overall, the bottom-up and top-down model offers a much more simplistic approach to attention and is one that can be easily accepted due to its lack of complexity in reasoning. For instance, it is easy to comprehend that items that pop out are more likely to grab attention, as well as, current selection goals of the on looker. However, this theory suggests that irrelevant items are not learned and cannot be used in future search tasks. Both stimulus-based and goal-driven factors influence attentional control, however, researchers have recently started to notice the impact experience has on the selective nature of attention (Awh et al., 2012). For example, participants point out noticeable, color targets quickly if the target-color is repeated throughout subsequent trials (Maljkovic Nakayama, 1994). They found that even when observers have a strong stimulus-based bias towards the target, experience strengthens this bias. Accordingly, priming of pop out of targets in repeated trials demonstrates the ability of experience to change the efficiency and overall efficacy of attentional control (Lee, Mozer, Vecera, 2009). These findings further support the idea that experience can influence attentional control, an idea that is not supported by bottom-up and top-down theories. In contrast to research done in favor of bottom-up, top-down posits, one memory system that falls in favor of experience and attentional control is priming of pop out (PoP). PoP occurs when individuals can point out a target faster if the essential feature of that target is constant in subsequent trials (Maljkovic Nakayama, 1994). In their study, they had their participants look for a colored diamond and had them identify if the diamond had a feature missing from either side. They found that PoP helped individuals and increased their response times. Their findings suggest that by continually showing a targets defining features, it reinforces the selective bias towards that targets features. In a similar vein, Tulving and Schacter (1990) found that representation systems based on perception allow for perceptual priming to occur. These representation system process new information in short-term memory. This short-term memory hastens the processing of similar information in future task s. Thus, when the visual information sweep frequently encounters similar items to process, these items are processed in a faster manner because short-term memory already has a memory trace of that item. Priming of pop out further demonstrates how learned experience with physically salient items benefits subsequent search tasks. It demonstrates that passive priming can provoke strong selection biases that have nothing to do with goal-driven selection. The bottom-up, top-down attentional control model does not consider these findings. Large amounts of research on attentional selection cannot be accounted for by the tendency to group attentional control in either top-down or bottom-up factors (Awh et al., 2012), for example, memory. There are two types of memory that have different roles and first need to be distinguished. Visual working memory depictions are different from visual long-term memories (VLTM). Visual working memory depictions are held for a limited amount of time, while visual long-term depictions continue throughout time (Luck, 2008). The constant maintenance of information limits the length of time for which visual working memory (VWM) depictions are upheld in memory. Lastly, VWM can only hold three to four items at the same time, while VLTM depictions are not bounded to a specific amount of objects (Brady et al., 2008). Although VWM is important in memory, VWM, in regards to attentional control, is specifically important for building experience with distractor rejections, but, is not useful for fut ure use. Visual long term memory (VLTM) uses information (information that is no longer relevant to the task) encoded in the past to guide attention (Fan Turk-Browne, 2016). In their first experiment, Fan and Turk-Browne (2016) found that VLTM for the associated location of a target guided spatial attention during visual search for the target, even when this location was not relevant to the task. Their second experiment expanded on these findings by discovering that VLTM for the associated color of a target influenced attentional capture in a different task. Memories can guide attention toward associated features, even when these features were encoded incidentally and were never relevant to any task (Fan Turk-Browne, 2016). An items features are automatically retrieved from long-term memory based on environmental cues encoded into working memory. These working memory representations bias selection toward items perceived in the world that match with features in memory through react ivation. An example of this would be shopping at a supermarket frequently gone to. When shopping at the local supermarket looking for your favorite cereal, for example, you are less likely to be distracted by other grocery items because you know where youre going and do not have to scan the visual area as often as opposed to it being the first time at that specific store. Observers find targets more easily when knowledge is given beforehand concerning the physical features of the target, like location, identity, and color (Moher Egeth, 2012). This is a process known as visual cueing. Observers find targets more easily, when they are told beforehand, not to look at certain irrelevant areas of the display areas that will not have any targets pop up. For example, an individual is more often than not to find their friend at a mall if told that their friend will be wearing a bright yellow shirt. In the same manner, Woodman and Luck (2007) found that targets were located faster if distractor items that were in the color that had to be ignored were present versus the distractors not being there at all. They concluded that participants used a template for rejection wherein items that match any beforehand features that had to be ignored, could be avoided during search, thus, items possessing the feature that had to be ignored were quickly rejected, ultimatel y, minimizing the size of the search. Knowing what not to look for reduces the number of items needed to be scanned, inadvertently reducing the time it takes to search through items. Further extending current research on the theory that individuals can use cues to bias attention away from salient distractors, individuals need experience with distractors before the distractors can actually be ignored (Cunningham Egeth, 2016). Experience with irrelevant stimuli can improve search in tasks. Learning to ignore features can result in a benefit in search tasks because time spent learning about these features, that need to be ignored, enhances its ability to be used by individuals in future search tasks (Cunningham Egeth, 2016). Results from their experiment found that within the same task, observers only benefited from cues that were consistent and not by cues that changed trial by trial. This demonstrates that cues can only be beneficial in search tasks if the cues are repeatedly shown ; developing a more concrete trace in long term memory in which participants can use. The mentioned studies establish that memory is an important part of the attentional selection process. The concept of memory cannot be put into a category that is either stimulus-driven or goal-driven, but rather makes its own valid case in the plethora of selection phenomena. Biased competition proposes that attentional control mechanisms occur when several neuronal axons land in the same receptive vicinity (Desimone Duncan, 1995). They found that when several stimuli fall into one receptive field, a neuron has multiple choices as to which of these stimuli it should respond to; this is quite an uncertain process. However, attentional mechanisms solve this uncertainty through two processes: attention is biased towards matching target objects with templates held in VWM. And, attention is biased towards items that are physically salient. Objects that are held in VWM are preferred over objects that are not because cells that have the objects features show higher rates of activity (Miller Desimone, 1994). Features of items in the external world are represented by these cells held in VWM, thus, the higher the activation rate, the more probable these neurons are to reach supra-threshold and fire an action potential when an external item matches that of the ite m in working memory. In support of experience and attentional control, biased competition reveals that past experience directs learning towards novel characteristics in settings and plays an important role forming the long-term memory system (Hutchinson et al., 2016). Frequent studies of attention have looked at task-related goals and its effect on memory encoding, but not much research has investigated the role of memory guiding itself during selection (Awh et al., 2012). According to Hutchinson et al. (2016), memory allows for the brain to differentiate between old information (information in which the individual has already encountered) and new information that will give the best representation of the surroundings. Thus, in circumstances that involve both the presence of old and new information, old information will affect how new information is processed and interpreted. Biased competition further supports that experience has an effect on what enters the memory system, which then, subsequently affect s the attentional systems use of templates in the prioritization of certain items. Cases that cannot be explained by the traditional dichotomy of attentional control can be further expanded by reward control. Although attentional selection can be voluntary, in the case of goal-driven tasks, subsequent selection can be provoked be rewards. Hickey et al. (2010) had participants look for a diamond shape while also ignoring irrelevant color stimuli at the same time. Participants were given a low or a high monetary reward depending on whether they answered right. The researchers found that rewards could bias attentional selection to either the target or to the irrelevant stimuli trial after trial.ÂÂ   For instance, if the target color stayed the same on subsequent trials, participants had a fast response time after given a high monetary reward. However, when the distractor had the same color as the previous target, reaction times were slow after given a high monetary reward. This study suggests that monetary reward influenced attention towards the color that was gi ven the high reward, irrespective of whether the color was associated with the distractor or the target. Several studies have shown that attentional selection is biased towards monetary reward. These findings cannot be explained by the voluntary, top-down or the physically salient, bottom-up attentional control dichotomy. Monetary reward further demonstrates that the dichotomic posit of attentional control is one that is incomplete and that monetary reward only expands on the present findings related to selection phenomena. Rewards are one of the strong biases that have a significant influence on selective processes. When encountering physically noticeable distractors, the experiences built on these distractors allows individuals to focus in future search tasks. This finding reveals that experience with physically noticeable distractors, and not only target templates held in working memory, benefits the high functionality of attentional control. Like further posits of attentional controls dependence on experience, learning to reject irrelevant stimuli depends on visual long term memory. This is an acceptable finding to grasp because long term memory possesses the ability to direct attention to target items in the present and later on, and, away from distractors. This finding further validates that attentional control cannot be explained by purely using the dichotomy of goal-driven and physically-salient-driven efforts. Rather, attentional control is an active process founded on creating experience with specific objects. Consequently, attentional control is a skill that is increasingly sharpened a s we gain experience out in the world. By not having much experience, the skills used in controlling attention is rather basic and depends on the simple use of the physical noticeability of object features. However, as individuals experience increases with certain tasks, the skills involved in attentional control sharpens and focuses on specific features. Once our attention is focused on a specific set of features, top-down control of attention can operate more efficiently. The importance of attentional control can be further seen in everyday life, especially in the realm of mental health. Several findings have found that there is a high correlation between those who suffer with mental illnesses and levels of attentional control. Individuals who have Alzheimers disease, for example, have trouble maintaining goal-directedness (Coubard, et al., 2011). They found that Alzheimers disease affects the ability of switching attention, suppressing, and preparing attention for random events. Further, individuals who suffer from schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a fast response time in tasks when levels of anxiety and depression are lessened (Sarter and Paolone, 2011). Emotional processing is an important of human interaction and communication. Low attentional control would hinder the ability to shift attention away from potentially threating information which would increase ones susceptibility of developing harmful psychological effects (Fergus et al., 2012). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another mental illness that is also affected by attentional control. Individuals with PTSD and low attentional control show attentional avoidance (Schoorl et al., 2014). Attentional avoidance is the concept of biasing attention away from threatening situations. These threatening situations serve as triggers that remind individuals with PTSD of the traumatic events they have experienced. This cognitive avoidance can be dysfunctional becaus e individuals with PTSD do not face threatening stimuli head on and avoid it, which, deprive them of the chance to realize that the traumatic event will not occur again (Schoorl et al., 2014). This was only the case when post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were high and attention control levels were low. Works Cited Awh, E., Belopolsky, A. V., Theeuwes, J. (2012). Top-down versus bottom-up attentional control: A failed theoretical dichotomy. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 16(8), 437-443. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.010 Brady, T.F., Konkle, T., Alvarez, G.A., Oliva, A. (2008). Visual long-term memory has a massive storage capacity for object details. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(38), 14325-14329. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0803390105 Cunningham, C. A., Egeth, H. E. (2016). Taming the white bear: Initial costs and eventual benefits of distractor inhibition. Psychological Science, 27(4), 476-485. doi:10.1177/0956797615626564 Coubard, O. A., Ferrufino, L., Boura, M., Gripon, A., Renaud, M., Bherer, L. (2011). Attentional control in normal aging and Alzheimers disease. Neuropsychology, 25(3), 353-367. doi:10.1037/a0022058 Desimone, R., Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Reviews of Neuroscience, 18(1), 193-222. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.18.0030195.001205 Fan, J. E., Turk-Browne, N. B. (2016). Incidental biasing of attention from visual long-term memory. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, And Cognition, 42(6), 970-977. doi:10.1037/xlm0000209 Fergus, T. A., Bardeen, J. R., Orcutt, H. K. (2012). Attentional control moderates the relationship between activation of the cognitive attentional syndrome and symptoms of psychopathology. Personality And Individual Differences, 53(3), 213-217. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.03.017 Hickey, C., Chelazzi, L., Theeuwes, J. (2010). Reward Changes Salience in Human Vision via the Anterior Cingulate. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(33), 11096-11103. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1026-10.2010 Hutchinson, J. B., Pak, S. S., Turk-Browne, N. B. (2016). Biased competition during long- term memory formation. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(1), 187-197. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00889 Katsuki, F., Constantinidis, C. (2014). Bottom-up and top-down attention: Different processes and overlapping neural systems. The Neuroscientist, 20(5), 509-521. doi:10.1177/1073858413514136 Lee, H., Mozer, M.C., Vecera, S.P. (2009). Mechanisms of priming of pop-out: Stored representations or feature-gain modulations? Attention, Perception, Psychophysics, 71(5), 1059-1071. doi: 10.3758/APP.71.5.1059 Luck, S.J. (2008). Visual short-term memory. In S.J. Luck A. Hollingworth (Eds.), Visual Memory (pp. 43-85). New York: Oxford University Press. Maljkovic, V., Nakayama, K. (1994). Priming of pop-out: I. Role of features. Memory Cognition, 22(6), 657-72. doi: 10.3758/BF03209251 Miller, E.K., Desimone, R. (1994). Parallel neuronal mechanisms for short-term memory. Science, 263((5146), 520-522. doi: 10.1126/science.8290960 Moher, J., Egeth, H.E. (2012). The ignoring paradox: Cueing distractor features leads first to selection, then to inhibition of to-be-ignored items. Attention, Perception, Psychophysics, 74(8), 1590-1605. doi: 10.3758/s13414-012-0358-0 Sarter, M., Paolone, G. (2011). Deficits in attentional control: Cholinergic mechanisms and circuitry-based treatment approaches. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(6), 825-835. doi:10.1037/a0026227 Schoorl, M., Putman, P., Van Der Werff, S., Van Der Does, A. W. (2014). Attentional bias and attentional control in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal Of Anxiety Disorders, 28(2), 203-210. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2013.10.001 Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception Psychophysics, 51(6), 599-606. doi:10.3758/BF03211656 Theeuwes, J. (2010). Top-down and bottom-up control of visual selection. Acta Psychologica, 135(2), 77-99. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.02.006 Tulving, E., Schacter, D.L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Science, 247(4940), 301-306. doi: 10.1126/science.2296719 Vecera, S. P., Cosman, J. D., Vatterott, D. B., Roper, Z. J. (2014). The control of visual attention: Toward a unified account. In B. H. Ross, B. H. Ross (Eds.) , The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 60 (pp. 303-347). San Diego, CA, US: Elsevier Academic Press. Vogel, E.K., Woodman, G.F., Luck, S.J. (2006). The time course of consolidation in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,32(6), 1436-1451. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.32.6.1436

Public Policy Reporting Class :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pending approval from the General Assembly, the funding for older Illinoisans will receive nearly an eight percent increase in the fiscal year 2001 budget for the Illinois Department on Aging.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The state’s portion of the overall spending is $234.9 million and funds the Department’s Community Care program at $205 million. The program provides senior citizens with home care services, adult day services and custodial care.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The eight percent increase is drastically needed according to Carol Aronson, spokesperson for the Shawnee Alliance for seniors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Senior programs are underpaid compared to the services of Department of Children and Family Services with a much lower rate of funds for seniors, even with an eight percent increase,† Aronson said.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An additional $7 million has been allocated to the Elder Abuse and Neglect Program, an increase of 11 percent. Community based agencies will be able to respond to over 8,600 reports of abuse and neglect, which account for a projected increase. The Elder abuse reports have been on the rise every year, prompting Gov. Ryan to also respond to the problem by forming a new Elder Abuse Task Force.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Illinois Department on Aging’s Elder Abuse and Neglect Program responds to all reports of abuse of people age 60 and older. The program provides investigation, intervention and follow-up services to victims. Reports are increasing about 10 percent a year, as the older population grows and awareness of the problem increases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jones 2 â€Å"The spring session was certainly fruitful for all Illinois seniors,† said Illinois Department on Aging Director Margo E. Schreiber.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The budget will help the Illinois Department on Aging fulfill its mission, and we are grateful to the Governor and legislators for their diligent work in addressing the needs and quality of life for the seniors in our state.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While the bill awaits approval, a similar proposal for seniors, the 100 percent campaign, has been passed and is a working success according to Susan Patterson, field coordinator for the Egyptian Area Agency on Aging, Inc. Specifically, Senate Bill 677, increased access to the state’s Medicaid program for those whose income is less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level, or $687 a month. Currently, the eligibility is set at $308 a month, or 47 percent of the federal poverty level. Through the 100 percent plan, in July 2000 the 47 percent income threshold will jump to 70 percent of the federal poverty level, which will change their income by an additional $184.

Upton Sinclairs Purpose in Writing The Jungle Essay examples -- Upton

Upton Sinclair's Purpose in Writing The Jungle Upton Sinclair wrote this book for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he tries to awaken the reader to the terrible living conditions of immigrants in the cities around the turn of the century. Chicago has the most potent examples of these conditions. Secondly, he attempts to show the advantages of socialism in helping to remedy the problems of a society such as the one that exists in Chicago at this time. Sinclair accomplishes his objectives with an extremely powerful story. Jurgis Rudkus and his family seem to be an average immigrant family of the period. They are not wealthy and they are easily fooled by schemes designed to take what little they have. The language barrier encountered by these people is a major factor in allowing them to be swindled. The immigrants of this period tend to trust anyone who is fluent in their native language. This fact is put to use twice early in their time in America. A Lithuanian lawyer is sought to read over the contract for the purchase of their house. Jurgis is suspicious when the lawyer and the agent are on a first name basis. However, when the lawyer tells him that it is a legal and fair document, Jurgis believes him. The lawyer does not tell him of the loopholes that will eventually lead to the loss of the house. After Jurgis works in the packing house for a while, a man tells him in Lithuanian that he can now become a citizen. Jurgis is then registered to vote, and told about one of the candidates. Nothing is said of the other candidate, so he votes for the man that he is told of, and receives money for this vote. Another problem faced by most of the immigrants of Chicago is making a living. Jurgis gets a job on the first day trying. He is paid the princely sum of $1.25 a day. In Lithuania, this is a lot of money. With the wages of himself and his brother, the entire family should be able to keep solvent. Due to the hidden charges for the house, he finds that he is dreadfully wrong. Eventually, all of the family members must seek work, just to survive. Life becomes a 'hand-to-mouth' proposition. Even after the family loses the house, things do not get any easier. During this time period, there is no such thing as job security. All of the packing houses have a 'speed-up' polic... ... This work paints a very vivid picture of the world of the immigrant of the early 1900's. It makes the reader think about the injustices that existed then, and to some extent, still exist. The story seems to be true to life, and not the least bit contrived. The reader is wrapped up in the life of Jurgis Rudkus. Every time he seems to be on top of things, he is knocked off by some unseen force. The book is very difficult to put down because the fate of the main character always seems to be hanging on the brink. This book is an indispensable insight into the history of the era. However, the socialist propaganda at the end seems to be a bit hard to accept. It is too large of a dose, and seems to abandon Jurgis. This appears to be the only problem with the book, and can be almost overlooked by the reader, if it is desired. Upton Sinclair wrote a very impressive work. It is definitely worth the time to read it. It shows many facets of life during the period. The storyteller has a very dynamic person to narrarate. The hopes and dreams of a generation of immigrants to the United States are presented in a very thought-provoking manner.

Religion Versus Government Essay -- Government

Over two thousand years after Aristotle’s said, â€Å"There are two parts to a good government; one is the actual obedience of citizens to the laws, the other part is the goodness of the laws which they obey,† (Frank 328) his words still rings true in modern societies. America is full of opinions and various ideas, but the government itself is steady. The leaders and key decision makers on the other hand are not. These people, who are entrusted with the responsibility of running the government, often use this power to thrust their personal opinions into the laws the citizens must abide by. Thus their choices bring turmoil within the country. A common difference among Americans is people’s spiritual and heavenly belief. Some call it religion and others call it a lifestyle. The passion people feel for each of their personal experiences and the integral part it plays in people’s lives makes it a complicated to fix. This fissure between religion and govern ment causes a conflict in society, it halts progress, causes unnecessary deaths and it creates a gaping crevasse that splits America at its very heart. Christianity, Muslim, Islam, Atheism, and many other religious beliefs are practiced in the United States of America. Each of these religions has its own doctrines that guide its followers, producing disagreements on many important issues. For one, the â€Å"War on Terror† is a major source of conflict. It is a massive clash between Iraq’s Muslim nation and America’s Christian nation. It began when on September 11, 2001 an Islamic religious terrorist group called Al Qaida hijacked two American planes and crashed them into the World Trade Centers in New York. In response, â€Å"’Born-again’ Christian, George W. Bush, has disclosed his inst... ... 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012 . Poole, Shelia M. "Catholics Upset by Federal Health Insurance Mandate."  | Ajc.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012 . Samuels, Dorothy. "Back to First Principles on Religious Freedom." New York Times. 25 Feb. 2012. Web. . Stiglitz, Joseph E. and Linda J. Bilmes "The True Cost of the Iraq War: $3 Trillion and beyond."Washington Post. The Washington Post, 5 Sept. 2010. Web. 1 May 2012 .

Contemporary Approaches Essay

Explain how the four contemporary approaches to management are different from one another. Define â€Å"open systems† and describe the internal, competitive, and macro environments of an organization. Lastly, indicate whether the four contemporary approaches to management are relevant in these three environments and why or why not. You may research external sources to support your answer. Cite any external sources used. Sociotechnical Theory suggests that organizations are effective when their employees have the right tools, training, and knowledge to make products and services that are valued by customers. Sociotechnical promotes the use of teamwork and semiautonomous work groups as important factors for creating efficient production systems. They believed that workers should be given the chance to correct problems at an early stage of production rather than wait until products were finished creating waste. Quantitative Management helps a manager make a decision by developing mathematical models of the problem. Computers facilitated the development of specific quantitative methods. It included techniques such as: statistical decision theory, linear programming, queuing theory, simulation, forecasting, inventory modeling, network modeling, and break even analysis. Despite having all these methods, many managers will use results that are consistent with their experience,  institution, and judgment. Many managers have not been trained to use these techniques. Organizational Behavior studies and identifies management activities that promote employee effectiveness through an understanding of the complex nature of individual, group, and organizational processes. Organizational behavior draws from a variety of disciplines, including psychology and sociology, to explain the behavior of people on the job. Systems Theory organizations are open systems, dependent on inputs from the outside world, such as raw materials, human resources, and capital. They transform these inputs into outputs that meet the market’s needs for goods and services. The environment reacts to the outputs through a feedback loop; this feedback provides input for the next cycle of the system. System Theory also emphasizes that an organization is one system in a series of subsystems. â€Å"Open Systems†/ organizations are open systems meaning they are affected by and in turn affect their external environments. They use inputs like goods and services from their environment to create goods and services that are outputs to their environment. Open System is a system that interacts with its environment by exchanging energy, materials, and information with an aim of system renewal and growth. A feature of an open system is negative entropy, where the open system continues to import energy, information and resources to function while becoming more heterogeneous and complex.- http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/open-system-in-management-definition-example-quiz.html#lesson. Internal Environment is the conditions, entities, events, and factors within an organization that influence its activities and choices, particularly the behavior of the employees. Factors that are frequently considered part of the internal environment include the organization’s mission statement, leadership styles, and its organizational culture.   Competitive Environment is the immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rival and the like. This includes the consisting of rivalry among existing competitors and the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute and complementary products, and the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers. Macro environment is the general environment that includes governments, economic conditions, and other

Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination

Why looks are the last bastion of discrimination In the 19th century, many American cities banned public appearances by â€Å"unsightly† individuals. A Chicago ordinance was typical: â€Å"Any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting subject . . . shall not . . . expose himself to public view, under the penalty of a fine of $1 for each offense. † Although the government is no longer in the business of enforcing such discrimination, it still allows businesses, schools and other organizations to indulge their own prejudices.Over the past half-century, the United States has expanded protections against discrimination to include race, religion, sex, age, disability and, in a growing number of jurisdictions, sexual orientation. Yet bias based on appearance remains perfectly permissible in all but one state and six cities and counties. Across the rest of the country, looks are the last bastion of acceptable bigo try. We all know that appearance matters, but the price of prejudice can be steeper than we often assume.In Texas in 1994, an obese woman was rejected for a job as a bus driver when a company doctor assumed she was not up to the task after watching her, in his words, â€Å"waddling down the hall. † He did not perform any agility tests to determine whether she was, as the company would later claim, unfit to evacuate the bus in the event of an accident. In New Jersey in 2005, one of the Borgata Hotel Casino's â€Å"Borgata babe† cocktail waitresses went from a Size 4 to a Size 6 because of a thyroid condition.When the waitress, whose contract required her to keep an â€Å"an hourglass figure† that was â€Å"height and weight appropriate,† requested a larger uniform, she was turned down. â€Å"Borgata babes don't go up in size,† she was told. (Unless, the waitress noted, they have breast implants, which the casino happily accommodated with paid medica l leave and a bigger bustier. ) And in California in 2001, Jennifer Portnick, a 240-pound aerobics instructor, was denied a franchise by Jazzercise, a national fitness chain.Jazzercise explained that its image demanded instructors who are â€Å"fit† and â€Å"toned. † But Portnick was both: She worked out six days a week, taught back-to-back classes and had no shortage of willing students. Such cases are common. In a survey by the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, 62 percent of its overweight female members and 42 percent of its overweight male members said they had been turned down for a job because of their weight. And it isn't just weight that's at issue; it's appearance overall.According to a national poll by the Employment Law Alliance in 2005, 16 percent of workers reported being victims of appearance discrimination more generally — a figure comparable to the percentage who in other surveys say they have experienced sex or race discrimination . Conventional wisdom holds that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but most beholders tend to agree on what is beautiful. A number of researchers have independently found that, when people are asked to rate an individual's attractiveness, their responses are quite consistent, even across race, sex, age, class and cultural background.Facial symmetry and unblemished skin are universally admired. Men get a bump for height, women are favored if they have hourglass figures, and racial minorities get points for light skin color, European facial characteristics and conventionally â€Å"white† hairstyles. Yale's Kelly Brownell and Rebecca Puhl and Harvard's Nancy Etcoff have each reviewed hundreds of studies on the impact of appearance. Etcoff finds that unattractive people are less likely than their attractive peers to be viewed as intelligent, likable and good.Brownell and Puhl have documented that overweight individuals consistently suffer disadvantages at school, at work and beyond. Among the key findings of a quarter-century's worth of research: Unattractive people are less likely to be hired and promoted, and they earn lower salaries, even in fields in which looks have no obvious relationship to professional duties. (In one study, economists Jeff Biddle and Daniel Hamermesh estimated that for lawyers, such prejudice can translate to a pay cut of as much as 12 percent. When researchers ask people to evaluate written essays, the same material receives lower ratings for ideas, style and creativity when an accompanying photograph shows a less attractive author. Good-looking professors get better course evaluations from students; teachers in turn rate good-looking students as more intelligent. Not even justice is blind. In studies that simulate legal proceedings, unattractive plaintiffs receive lower damage awards. And in a study released this month, Stephen Ceci and Justin Gunnell, two researchers at Cornell University, gave tudents case studies involving real criminal defendants and asked them to come to a verdict and a punishment for each. The students gave unattractive defendants prison sentences that were, on average, 22 months longer than those they gave to attractive defendants. Just like racial or gender discrimination, discrimination based on irrelevant physical characteristics reinforces invidious stereotypes and undermines equal-opportunity principles based on merit and performance.And when grooming choices come into play, such bias can also restrict personal freedom. Consider Nikki Youngblood, a lesbian who in 2001 was denied a photo in her Tampa high school yearbook because she would not pose in a scoop-necked dress. Youngblood was â€Å"not a rebellious kid,† her lawyer explained. â€Å"She simply wanted to appear in her yearbook as herself, not as a fluffed-up stereotype of what school administrators thought she should look like. † Furthermore, many grooming codes sexualize the workplace and jeopardize em ployees' health.The weight restrictions at the Borgata, for example, reportedly contributed to eating disorders among its waitresses. Appearance-related bias also exacerbates disadvantages based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and class. Prevailing beauty standards penalize people who lack the time and money to invest in their appearance. And weight discrimination, in particular, imposes special costs on people who live in communities with shortages of healthy food options and exercise facilities.So why not simply ban discrimination based on appearance? Employers often argue that attractiveness is job-related; their workers' appearance, they say, can affect the company's image and its profitability. In this way, the Borgata blamed its weight limits on market demands. Customers, according to a spokesperson, like being served by an attractive waitress. The same assumption presumably motivated the L'Oreal executive who was sued for sex discrimination in 2003 after a llegedly ordering a store manager to fire a salesperson who was not â€Å"hot† enough.Such practices can violate the law if they disproportionately exclude groups protected by civil rights statutes — hence the sex discrimination suit. Abercrombie & Fitch's notorious efforts to project what it called a â€Å"classic American† look led to a race discrimination settlement on behalf of minority jobseekers who said they were turned down for positions on the sales floor. But unless the victims of appearance bias belong to groups already protected by civil rights laws, they have no legal remedy.As the history of civil rights legislation suggests, customer preferences should not be a defense for prejudice. During the early civil rights era, employers in the South often argued that hiring African Americans would be financially ruinous; white customers, they said, would take their business elsewhere. In rejecting this logic, Congress and the courts recognized that custome r preferences often reflect and reinforce precisely the attitudes that society is seeking to eliminate.Over the decades, we've seen that the most effective way of combating prejudice is to deprive people of the option to indulge it. Similarly, during the 1960s and 1970s, major airlines argued that the male business travelers who dominated their customer ranks preferred attractive female flight attendants. According to the airlines, that made sex a bona fide occupational qualification and exempted them from anti-discrimination requirements. But the courts reasoned that only if sexual allure were the â€Å"essence† of a job should employers be allowed to select workers on that basis.Since airplanes were not flying bordellos, it was time to start hiring men. Opponents of a ban on appearance-based discrimination also warn that it would trivialize other, more serious forms of bias. After all, if the goal is a level playing field, why draw the line at looks? â€Å"By the time you' ve finished preventing discrimination against the ugly, the short, the skinny, the bald, the knobbly-kneed, the flat-chested, and the stupid,† Andrew Sullivan wrote in the London Sunday Times in 1999, â€Å"you're living in a totalitarian state. Yet intelligence and civility are generally related to job performance in a way that appearance isn't. We also have enough experience with prohibitions on appearance discrimination to challenge opponents' arguments. Already, one state (Michigan) and six local jurisdictions (the District of Columbia; Howard County, Md. ; San Francisco; Santa Cruz, Calif. ; Madison, Wis. ; and Urbana, Ill. ) have banned such discrimination. Some of these laws date back to the 1970s and 1980s, while ome are more recent; some cover height and weight only, while others cover looks broadly; but all make exceptions for reasonable business needs. Such bans have not produced a barrage of loony litigation or an erosion of support for civil rights remedies gener ally. These cities and counties each receive between zero and nine complaints a year, while the entire state of Michigan totals about 30, with fewer than one a year ending up in court.Although the laws are unevenly enforced, they have had a positive effect by publicizing and remedying the worst abuses. Because Portnick, the aerobics instructor turned away by Jazzercise, lived in San Francisco, she was able to bring a claim against the company. After a wave of sympathetic media coverage, Jazzercise changed its policy. This is not to overstate the power of legal remedies. Given the stigma attached to unattractiveness, few will want to claim that status in public litigation.And in the vast majority of cases, the cost of filing suit and the difficulty of proving discrimination are likely to be prohibitive. But stricter anti-discrimination laws could play a modest role in advancing healthier and more inclusive ideals of attractiveness. At the very least, such laws could reflect our princ iples of equal opportunity and raise our collective consciousness when we fall short. [email  protected] edu Deborah L. Rhode is a Stanford University law professor and the author of â€Å"The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law. â€Å"

“No Sugar” by Jack Davis Essay

The stage drama No Sugar, by Jack Davis explores the bad treatment of minority groups and their responses to this treatment. The performance set in the 1930’s presents the Milimurra family who are the minority group fighting against the injustices inflicted on them by white authorities. No Sugar provides a voice for the aboriginal people, confronts European Australians with the past, restores Aboriginal culture and pride and explored the value of equality. All these ideas are used as a way to convey its message to the audience. It appears that the stage performance of No Sugar provides the Aboriginal people with the voice they have lived without for decades. The Milimurra family are used in the play to represent the voice of the Aboriginal people who stand up against white authority. Milly and Gran who refuse to give in without a fight, go to the Sergeant and confront him about the reasons why their rations have been cut, and push for him to provide them with blankets. Characters such as Topsy and Billy are representations of those Aborigines who did not fight for their rights. These characters bowed down to white authority, Billy who does not speak his own language, but broken English is happy to work for the white authorities tracking down members of his own race who escape their clutches. Milly’s response to the Sergeant when he tells her that her problem is she has three grown men budging off her, who are too lazy to work, is by asking him â€Å"Where they gonna get work?† she asks the Sergeant â€Å"Do you want em to work for nothing?† and Gran backs her up by saying â€Å"Their not slaves you know Chargent!† The staging is also used as an added technique to provide the aboriginal people with a voice, the white colonies are positioned on the outskirts of the stage and the Aborigines are given center stage, as a means to respond to their mistreatment in Australian society so many years ago. No Sugar also confronts the European Australians with the past, the truth about the treatment of Aborigines and the injustices committed against them. Mary Dargaru exposes the treatment of Aboriginal women to the audience, through her conversations with Joe and her fears of working for Mr. Neal at the hospital. She tells Joe that when Mr. Neal asks a girl to work at the hospital it means he wants that girl for himself. The audience also learns  through Mary that this is a common tragedy faced by Aboriginal girls at the time. After the birth of her child Mary is fearful that Matron will take her child away and provide it with the same fate as her friend Lillian’s baby, who was buried in the pine plantation. In order to escape these injustices Joe and Mary run away to Northam, when caught and returned to the Moore River Settlement, Mary responds by refusing to work at the hospital. Mary’s response gives her the desired outcome she wanted, but at a cost, Mr. Neal beats h er, but not before Mary tells him â€Å"Go to hell.† The stage performance restores the Aboriginal people with their pride and culture which were stolen from them so many years ago. Jimmy in Act one reveals the resentment the aboriginal people feel towards the whites. When Joe reads the newspaper article about the Australia Day celebration, Jimmy responds by saying â€Å"them bastards took our country and them blackfellas dancing for em bastards.† Later in the play the males of the Milimurra family engage in a Carobaree, this shows that they are not prepared to give in to the white authorities and allow them to take their culture and identity without a fight. The aboriginal people also use their own language throughout the play, indication to the audience their perseverance and determination not to give in. The stage performance of No Sugar greatly explores the value of equality, presenting a contrast to the ideal equal world, and conveying the injustices and inequalities faced by the aboriginal people. It shows how the unemployment allowance for aboriginals was 2 shillings, whilst everyone else received 6 shillings. Use of props is also an affective medium in portraying certain inequalities, for example the sign for the Aboriginal department reads â€Å"The department of fisheries, wildlife and Aborigines†, this department also has two separate entrances, one for Aboriginals and one for Europeans. The Aboriginal people are not even allowed to consume alcohol. Jimmy responds to these inequalities, by ignoring the signs and goes to talk to Neville when told to wait around the back he refuses to budge and waits until they give the train ticket he wants. Jimmy also chooses to ignore the alcohol restrictions. In doing so he is put on trial which arouses another injustice. His trial is not a fair one and the Justice of the Peace conveys  the attitude that he would rather be somewhere else. Jimmy does not stop, he responds to further injustices in the courtroom by talking out of turn and attempting to defend himself, he also turns up late to the trial showing that he is not intimidated by white authority. The stage performance of No Sugar presents the Aboriginal people as they were treated in the 1930’s they are presented as being an inferior race and this is an accurate representation of their treatment during this time period. The performance conveys the groups responses to their poor treatment and is used as a means to finally give these people their much deserved voice, confronting Australian with the horrible truth of the past, restoring culture and pride to the Aboriginal people and exploring the value of equality.

Ka Ching Tone Assignment

In Margaret Atwood’s Ka-Ching!, the dominant tone of the passage is nostalgic and contemplative. When Atwood describes her first job, working for a small hotel coffee shop, she refers to it as being a clean, well-lighted, with booths, counters and waitresses. She is looking back on what seemed to be a poor experience.The basis of the Machiavellian characteristics was to do whatever it took to gain power and maintain that power. During the time of William Shakespeare being a ruler had nothing to do with being a good person, nor did it ever mean doing the right thing. The characteristics that Claudius possess are that he manipulates people, he is unapologetic, and extremely selfish.The dominant tone of the passage is cynical and satirical.The idea that a baby or child could be used as a snack is cynical and satirical. Swift presents his point of view on cannibalism as if it were something completely normal, ignoring the fact that it is taboo, and not socially acceptable. When re ading, we are able to understand that eating children would never happen, but due to his use of diction, a sarcastic and a cynical tone is used. With use of proper connotative diction the author allows us to understand the terrible conditions in Ireland and reveals the dominant tone. â€Å"I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.† It may seem that the narrator may be serious when proposing his solution, but we are able to detect plenty of cynicism.â€Å"For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.† An awful lot of extremity is  portrayed when Jonathan Swift explains how humans could possibly be exported to other countries in order to be sold and eate n. This demonstrates plenty of sarcastic diction. The denotation of cynical is showing the belief that a person could be solely motivated by selfish concerns.In this passage Swift is able to support his points of view towards the conditions of Ireland with valid reasoning although not realistic. The denotation of sarcasm is not necessarily ironic, but rather a rude or bitter remark toward a thought or point of view. Again, Swift uses sarcastic diction in a connotative way in order to explain to the reader that eating and selling humans is a valid option to better the country and the citizens.

Marriage in Other Countries Essay

This paper will be about a traditional dress from my native land and other countries. The traditional dress I will be writing about is called a wedding dress. A wedding dress is used throughout the world in various countries including China, Japan, India, and Vietnam. This paper will also detail different cultures, religions, types and colors of wedding gowns that symbolize the bride or groom wealth, occupation and or belief. In the Americas, weddings performed during and immediately following the middle ages were often more than just a union between two people. They could be a union between two families, two businesses or even two countries. Many weddings were more a matter of business than love, particularly among the wealthy people. Brides were therefore expected to dress in a manner that made their family seem more presentable, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony. Brides from wealthy families often wore rich colors and exclusive fabrics. The amount of material a wedding dress contained also was a reflection of the bride’s social standing and indicated the extent of the family’s wealth to wedding guests. In the 1920s, wedding dresses were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style wedding veils. Today, Americas traditional wedding color is white because of the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria wore a white gown for the event to incorporate some lace she prized. Before then, white was a mourning color, it represented a bride whom had recently lost a loved one. Black was actually a color that was worn by the lower class because it was more favorable and could be worn again on many occasions. In the eastern cultures, the traditional wedding color was red, the color red symbolizes good luck and favorable. In modern Chinese weddings, the bride will opt for Western style dresses and traditional costumes for the official tea ceremony. In India a choice for a bride is a wedding sari, which is a traditional garment for Indian women. Over time color options and wedding fabrics have changed throughout the eastern countries. Fabrics have expanded and today, fabrics like crepe, georgette, tissue, silk, and satin have been used. Colors such as gold, pink, maroon, brown and yellow have also expanded. It seems as if the other countries around the world are starting to adopt the western tradition. At Japanese weddings, brides will often wear three or more dresses throughout the ceremony and subsequent celebrations with a traditional kimono, white and color dress combination being popular. The Javanese people of Indonesia wear a kebaya, a traditional kind of blouse, along with batik. The Native Americans have traditions different from most other countries. A Hopi (A Native American tribe) bride traditionally would have her garments woven by the groom and any men in the village who wished to participate. The garments consisted of a large belt, two all-white wedding robes, a white wedding robe with red stripes at top and bottom, white buckskin leggings and moccasins, a string for tying the hair, and a reed mat in which to wrap the outfit. A Pueblo bride wore a cotton garment tied above the right shoulder, secured with a belt around the waist. In the traditions of the Delaware, a bride would wear a knee-length skirt of deerskin and a band of wampum beads around her forehead. Wedding dresses are very diverse and unique. There are a few things that all weddings dresses have in common among all cultures. The most important thing is that bride’s want to look and feel beautiful. The wedding dress is plays a significant part in the wedding ceremony. The wedding dress gives the bride the opportunity to stand out. A wedding dress represents one of the most precious garments that a woman will wear in her lifetime. It represents religions, cultures and family traditions. Although it’s just material, the wedding dress is very important because it symbolize marriage, the union of two people who love each other.