Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Inception Film Analysis Essay

Inception came out to theaters last 2010. It is an action, adventure and sci-fi film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb), Joseph Gordon Levitt (Arthur) and Ellen Page (Ariadne). The movie revolves around Cobb, whose job is to steal information from the minds of people through their dreams. He was given the task to perform the reverse called Inception on a businessman named Fischer in exchange for having the charges against him dropped and going back to America to finally see his children again. In the process of doing his job, Mal (Cobb’s wife who already passed away) keeps on appearing in the dreams as a projection of Cobb’s subconscious and becomes a danger to Cobb and his team. Christopher Nolan Born in London in 1970, Christopher Nolan began making films at the age of seven using his father’s super 8mm camera and an assortment of male-action figures. He graduated to making films involving real people, and his super 8mm surreal short ‘tarantella’ was shown on PBS’ ‘image union’ in 1989. Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the college film society. His short film ‘larceny’ was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called â€Å"doodlebug. † He directed other genuis films such as Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan usually starts his movies by introducing the main character/s with a Close-up shot of their hands. He is known for making use of flashbacks or scenes from the end of the movie as an opening. The movies that he directs are also usually about characters who have psychological disorders or who develop a physical or psychological handicap throughout the film. In the case of Inception, the lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio wakes up on the shore with his hands trying to reach or point out to his children who were playing with the sand. This scene reappears again in the end and plays an important role to explain the essence of the movie. Finally, Mal represents the psychologically deranged character since she was not able to tell the difference between reality and dreams anymore thus leading to her death. The scenes altogether is about seven minutes long. Cobb and Ariadne go into a fourth dream layer and try to find Mal because she has captured Fischer. Mal is still trying to convince Cobb that he does not know what reality is anymore but Cobb is very certain that Mal is just a projection of his subconscious. This is also the part when Cobb confesses the reason behind his projection of Mal and his feeling of guilt. This is the essence of the scene- letting the audience know what Cobb was feeling inside. The first Inception actually took place when Cobb tried to plant an idea in Mal’s mind. Mal could not accept the fact that they were still in a dream so Cobb went deep into her mind and made her think that her world was not real and that death was the only way to come back to reality. When they awoke, Mal felt as if she was possessed by an idea – an idea that her world is still not real. She felt as if she was still dreaming so she killed herself again in the real world. By telling this truth that Cobb has been keeping, he is now then able to let go of the idea of Mal. This scene explains Cobb’s motive in pursuing the task given to him. It was not only to come back to America and see his children but also to be able to let go of Mal and the fact that she has passed away. It also introduces to the audience what the root of everything is – discovering Inception that lead to Mal’s death. The scene revolves around Cobb and Mal talking while Ariadne listens to their conversation. As the audience, we see what is happening through the point of view of Ariadne. Cobb and Ariadne are the protagonists whose goal is to find Fischer so they could continue with their mission. Mal acts as an antagonist and prevents them from reaching their goal. She has captured Fischer and is only willing to give him up in exchange for Cobb staying with her. In the course of their dialogue, Mal asked Cobb what he was feeling. Cobb explained that he was feeling so much guilt because he was the one who caused Mal to question her reality. When they were stuck in a dream, he wanted to help her realize that they were still in a dream so he planted this idea in her mind not knowing that the idea would still linger after she awoke. This confrontation is a way of Cobb breaking free from the guilt he has kept for a long time. Upon finding out, Mal feels betrayed. On the other hand, Ariadne is also shocked by the confession of Cobb. Their relationships intertwine except between Ariadne and Mal who seem to have no connection at all. When the flashback started, there had been a detachment mostly from the part of Mal because of her delusion but at one point, we can also see the relationship of the couple being intimate and personal. Mal still wants Cobb to keep their promise of being together despite having him performed inception on her. At the beginning of the scene, Ariadne and Cobb expect to find and get Fischer from Mal and Mal expected Cobb to stay and believe that she was real. In the end, they all got what they wanted except for Mal. Cobb being a really skilled mind extractor, was so sure that Mal is not real and that in reality, she is already gone. Mal was not successful in her attempt to make him stay. Ariadne was able to give herself and Fischer the â€Å"kick† while Cobb stayed and went into limbo to find Saito, another member of their team who died in the third dream layer. He was also able to reach his underlying goal – which was to talk to Mal, accept that they cannot be together anymore and let her go.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Linguistics and Language Essay

Language Comprehension †¢Language Production †¢Language Acquisition Psycholinguistics is a branch of cognitive science What will be covered in this class? †¢ How do we produce and recognize speech? †¢ How do we perceive words, letters, and sentences? †¢ How do we learn and recall information from texts? †¢ How can we improve texts to make them easier to understand? †¢ How does the brain function to process language? †¢ What are the causes and effects of reading disabilities? Is there language in other species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1)  What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language? Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge †¢ tacit: knowledge of how to perform something, but not aware of full rules †¢ explicit: knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2)  What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language? How do we understand a lecture, read a book, hold a conversation? Cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking, learning Some definitions of basic components of language: Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences Syntax: The grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence or phrase Phonology: The sound pattern of language Pragmatics: How language is used in a social context Examples from psycholinguistics Parsing garden path sentences The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. 1) The defendant examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable 2) The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehension The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Bransford & Johnson, 1973 Recall: No context: 2. 8 idea units out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards: 2. 7 idea units Context before: 5. 8 idea units Child language development How many words do you know? Hint: Dictionary has about: 450,000 entries Test high school graduates: How many words do they know? About 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach children to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk? Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language production Sentence as the primary unit of language †¢ Speech production is the transformation of complete thought processes into sequentially organized speech segments. Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) †¢ Rejected the focus on mental processes †¢ Measurement based on objective behavior (primarily in lab animals) †¢ How does experience (reward and punishment) shape behavior? B. F. Skinner: Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory: A sentence consists of a chain of associations between individual words in the sentence What’s wrong with the behaviorist approach? Noam Chomsky (1950s – present) 1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3)  George picked up the baby 4)  George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The Poverty of stimulus argument: There is not enough information in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of children’s language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but on  innate  language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languages Even within languages there is diversity When are two languages different? We speak the same language if we can understand each other Exceptions: Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages: The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? Why does there seem to be a â€Å"correct† English? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one dialect and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that one’s own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) Study by William Labov Interviewed African-American street youth You know, like some people say if you’re good an’ sh*t, your spirit goin’ t’heaven . . . ‘n if you bad, your spirit goin’ to hell. Well, bullsh*t! Your spirit goin’ to hell anyway, good or bad. [Why? ] Why? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause, you see, doesn’ nobody really know that it’s a God, y’know, ‘cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and don’t nobody know it’s really a God. An’ when they be sayin’ if you good, you goin’ t’heaven, tha’s bullsh*t, ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven, ‘cause it ain’t no heaven for you to go to. †¢ Place holders: â€Å"There† vs. â€Å"It† in the copula Copula: â€Å"Is†, â€Å"Was† optional †¢ Negatives: â€Å"You ain’t goin’ to no heaven† BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We don’t see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral: All languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes †¢ All languages have words †¢ All humans have ways of making sounds. †¢ Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds †¢ Phoneme: The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language? English: 40 phonemes †¢ Range: Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141 Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are made up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The relationship between meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independent of any physical resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe Openness †¢ New linguistic messages are created freely and easily †¢ Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created.

Infant Mortality: a Case Study

Theresa Curtis Intro to Global Health Case Study: Infant Mortality Each year approximately 10 million babies do not breathe immediately at birth, of which about 6 million require basic neonatal resuscitation. The major burden is in low-income settings, where health system capacity to provide neonatal resuscitation is inadequate. Many of these babies die because their birth attendant or caregiver did not know a simple technique called neonatal resuscitation. Neonatal resuscitation is important because it is a technique that can and will save a baby’s life.Birth asphyxia is one of the leading causes of infant mortality, cerebral palsy and mental disabilities worldwide. In this case, we were asked to look at the China Neonatal Resuscitation Program. Why is this program important and why was China the country in the most need to have the program implemented? The program is important because more than twenty percent of chinese children die from birth asphyxia. In China 17 million c hildren are born every year. And The idea that children have to die because a nurse is not trained to resuscitate the child is sad.We, as americans are used to the big medical centers and if something happen we know that our child will be in good hands. The Key players in bringing rescuscitation to china was the American Academy of pediatrics. The program was first introduced in 1987 and it failed. I guess at the time there was not enough funding and of course when something new is introduced in the medical world, doctors or administrators are not quick to accept new techniques. I think of all that children that lost their lives because doctors and nurses were not trained to administer CPR or mechanical ventilation.The Chinese Society of Perinatal Medicine provided obstetricians and neonatologst. The Chinese Nursing Association provided nurses professional education and training in resuscitation. They also included midwives in the training because midwives do not use resuscitation t echniques during births. The Freedom of Breath Foundation of life Program was developed to reduce infant mortality rates by ensuring there is at least one skilled neonatal resuscitation provider at every delivery. After five years, that goal has been reached, nd more than 100,000 medical professionals from more than 20 provinces have been trained. In studies conducted by the China Ministry of Health, birth asphyxia mortality declined by 53 percent in 360 hospitals surveyed. (AAP. ORG) The future of the program is other countries being introduced to neonatal resuscitation. If the program worked for china than whose to say, it would not work for other countries. I wanted to research and find what other countries have implemented neonatal resuscitation since China.There is a similar program in Bangladesh. Before the program was implemented, the traditional way to resuscitate was to hold the baby upside down, slap the bottom or blow in the baby’s face. The only suctioning was of the mouth and nose. The main barriers to effective resuscitation are lack of competent staff and lack of simple equipment. Aga Khan University with UNICEF launched a program to improve resuscitation skills of Physicians, Nurses, and Midwives.I hope that all countries are able to implement a neonatal resuscitation program in the hospitals but also go out into the communities and share the technique with those that give birth at home. It is known that many women do not go to medical facilities to give birth. Therefore, there need to be a nurse or midwives that can go out into the village, community, to teach the home nurse how to give proper resuscitation. My five-year goal would be that all people know how to administer neonatal resuscitation.Many children are lost because they come out and they are not breathing. However, if more than one attendant knows the procedure more children can be saved. I would all medical personnel trained and re-trained every six months. It is important t o maintain skills. In many countries the father is not apart of the birth, and maybe they should be. A male instructor can train and show the father during a home birth how to resuscitate if needed. It can be the difference between life and death. Freedom of Breath, Freedom of life |Helping babies breathe | | |Designed to train birth attendants in developing countries in the area| |First to successfully bring neonatal resuscitation to china, in a |of newborn resuscitation. | |systematic and sustainable way. | | |Was developed to reduce the infant mortality rate by always having a |Has a train the trainer approach.Train the nurses and midwives in the| |person trained and skilled in neonatal resuscitation at delivery. |area of resuscitation before they go into the hospital and train | | |fellow nurses and midwives. | |Grew to national scale having 190 certified instructors and 44,000 |Trained 31 facilitators and 102 learners. however, the majority of | |practitioners trained |parti cipants could not demonstrate mastery of bag and mask ventilation| |The rate of birth asphyxia declined by more than a third. | |Providers’ skills and confidence have increased and more babies are |Participants in a program for neonatal resuscitation in | |surviving. The program is saving lives and improving the health of |resource-limited settings demonstrated high satisfaction | |women. | | References www. aap. org www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov www. jnj. com/giving-breath-to-life www. unicef. org/rosa/newborn

Monday, July 29, 2019

ETHICS AND VALUES PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

ETHICS AND VALUES PAPER - Essay Example These differences can be controlled only if codes of ethics are used in the culture and structure of an organization. In US, National Association of Social Workers is considered as the primary standard of ethics by profession. This code of ethics is a set of principles, standards and core values. These things facilitate ethical decisions making. Social workers navigate in a community and they participate in interdisciplinary teams. This enables a manager to perform different set of services on the basis of different professional values; it leads to increase in ethical dilemma numbers too. Social workers have ethical responsibility towards clients, colleagues, professionals, social work professions and to the society as a whole. Social workers enhance social change and justice on behalf of clients. In this paper, concept of client is used in a broader sense, i.e. it includes individuals, families, organizations, groups and communities. They are sensitive to ethnic and cultural diversity. They enhance people capacity to identify their own needs. Social workers also seek to promote the responsiveness of organizations, communities and other social institutions to individuals needs and social problems. NASW code of ethics does not specify which principle, standards or values are important in dealing with human diversity. It gives ability to use any code in order to solve a dilemma. There are differences in persons on the basis of opinions and thinking. One should be able to handle diverse working conditions. In such situation ethical decision should be made and judgment should be formed in all individuals. Social workers should also judge peers and other colleagues so that professional standards should be appli ed. NASW code of ethics is a conceptual framework for professional behavior promotion. It helps to reduce the constraints of behavior and enables individuals to work with different people in society and organizations. Social workers professional

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Can prison make people live better Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Can prison make people live better - Essay Example The prison system exposes convicts to more violence, hence making them more and more capable to commit more serious crimes once released or even in the prison itself. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has performed a study on nonviolent offenders and proves that nonviolent offenders are most likely to become more violent. Based on the statistics of the research, 95% of the nonviolent offenders have a prior arrest and about a third of them have become violent while in prison and even while they are released they show streaks of violence. This is what was seen in the prison at which Barcenas is being held at in Spain. Luis Barcenas has been in jail since mid last year while under investigation for multi-million euro tax fraud and has turned aggressive as the possibility of serving a long term started looking live (Dunham 8). On January 8, a driver was to take him to hospital for general checkups as he and fellow inmates had asked for. He shouted that he was not a criminal as he refused to be handcuffed to the back as mandated by law. After refusing to get in, he began banging and shouting complaints to the police officers. This simple misconduct eventually cost him 140 days without any courtyard time (Dunham 11). As seen from the case of Barcenas, it is quite evident that the mounting pressure of spending more years in prison caused a rather nonviolent man to crack and become aggressive. This may not be the case for other individuals, but the same would be experienced. With also the exposure to other harder criminals, they may pick up the need for aggression in order to survive. Not until they are released, are they able to go back to their normal selves. Because of being branded as convicts and criminals, the society discriminates against them. Branded as such, the ex-convicts face difficulties in the adjustment into the

Saturday, July 27, 2019

New England Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

New England - Essay Example Booming with urbanization and trade, East Anglia forced majority of Puritans to leave and seek solace in America where they could worship and carry out religious practices at will. Chesapeake settlers came arrived earlier with a view to make quick riches and return to England without involvement in agriculture. The Puritans in New England had come to farm and settle hence emigrated with their families. Their settlements quickly flourished due to large available land left by inhabitants who had been swept by diseases (Jacobs and Mitchel 93). Geography and Settlements Chesapeake, an English colony founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London, comprised of Virginia and Maryland. The colony had its economic headstart after a successful tobacco biotechnology by John Rolfe, a scientist cum farmer. The headright system of land ownership was popular which granted 50 acres to colony immigrants as well as to impoverished immigrants who were required to work for between four to seven years to allow their passage. Settlement was determined by the availability of water and land for tobacco growing (Meade and Merry 82). With increase in immigrants, fresh land and more irrigation water was required to increase tobacco output. Besides, they adopted representative mode of government initially constituting the house of burgess, which conducted proceedings on business and defense functions. Uprisings threatened the colonies existence in early 1620s forcing many colonists to return home. The colony became a solace for English Catholics who were facing persecution in England. This was necessitated by the passage of Toleration Act which allowed freedom of worship to Protestants and Catholics (Meade and Merry 94). New England which was formed from clustered migration from Massachusetts Bay colony gave rise to Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire in the late 1620s. The settlers were informed by their religious consciousness and deep sanctification to Christianity. Two popu lar groups, the puritans and pilgrims had divided perspectives which informed their settlements. The pilgrims who were dominant in Plymouth had extremist views of the church. They held the notion of anti-reform and thus demanded for separation from the Puritans circles. Puritans, who settled outside Plymouth, carried a purification agenda establishing congregational churches which led to the formation of new towns with similar structures. An agreement dubbed the mayflower compact was signed by mayflower colonists as a unity pact. With great will to retain the English unwritten laws, the pact provided a common concord. Later, Boston became a religious pluralist which allowed equal worship rights (Simmons 82). New England experienced cold climate and barren land inadequate for cultivation. Industries emerging out of tobacco and sugarcane cultivation in Chesapeake had little impact in this colony. Farms were small and therefore could not reap from economies of scale. With growing urban ization in New England, crop farming took peripheral role but trade grew from level to level with agricultural produce dominating trade cycles. Industrialization grew faster and to greater leaps. Chesapeake had suitable agricultural conditions, warm climate, fertile soils sufficient for corn, tobacco, sugarcane among others. Coupled with vast agricultural land, Chesapeake drew workers from far and wide especially slaves. Those who could not afford to use slave labor were

Friday, July 26, 2019

Poem analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Poem analysis - Assignment Example She is a beautiful young woman, but instead of pursuing her dreams, she is dancing and singing as a prostitute. The use of race suggests that her skin color has affected her access to social and economic opportunities. Hughes also connects race to suffering. He mentions that the pianist has â€Å"his ebony hands on each ivory key,† (9), followed by â€Å"[h]e made that poor piano moan with melody† (10). The nearness of these statements implies that the man’s race has something to do with his suffering. He could be experiencing distress because his music cannot have a bigger audience due to his race. He could also be witnessing racism daily that burdens his soul. Besides racial descriptions, these poems have similes that relate to suffering. McKay uses a simile to compare the prostitute’s voice to â€Å"blended flutes† (3). Blended flutes demonstrate the beauty of the woman’s form that is compared to a flute, and the melody of her song that is similar to flute music that can be understood by many people. This simile is important in contrasting the form with the essence of the music, which is no longer blended, but full of pain and sadness. Hughes also uses simile to show that suffering can be performed. If the prostitute can sing and dance and appear like she is in another place, the pianist in Hughes’ poem can also perform, this time with a piano, while he is singing. Hughes says: â€Å"He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool† (13). The pianist looks like a musical fool, but at least, he has music to express his sadness that is deep in his soul. He uses music to unload the burdens of his race. Apart from similes, these poems use musical metaphors to describe how music helps express and reduce people’s innermost anxieties. The prostitute of â€Å"The Harlem Dancer† feels like an object that is consumed because her performance is paid through â€Å"coins† and because her

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Gender Roles In The Second World War (UK) Essay

Gender Roles In The Second World War (UK) - Essay Example The term begins to take new meaning at the beginning of feminist’s movement who asked for equal rights, so it was called the first wave of feminism. The movement was briefly forgotten during the war upon which, feminism took a new meaning for them, that of leaving the patriarchal society to become members of the men’s world. The study of Ziegler, Kathryn, refers to two kinds of feminity, one is conventional and the other is the formidable femininity. To her, conventional roles are those associated with docility, passivity, and weakness. A formidable feminity has a redefined role in that they use their bodies to enact manly techniques. Their femininity is redefined as their performances are constituted with fighting, feminine fashions, and sexiness. Thus Kathryn, Ziegler, said, formidable femininity â€Å"diminish their dependence on men, maintain their femininity. She concludes that women can be both feminine and formidable at the same time. They can learn to protect t hemselves by learning techniques for fighting.Feminity is also defined by Brownmiller, Susan, as â€Å"making oneself as harmless, and that the feminine principle is composed of compliance and conflict†. Brownmiller argues that femininity merges female weaknesses with conflict avoidance. Brownmiller is a controversial writer because of her assertion that â€Å"rape is a process of intimidation in which all men keep women in a state of fear† She said rape is a tool used by men ever since as a form of oppression to women.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Virginia Woolf Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Virginia Woolf - Essay Example In the novel "To the Lighthouse", Woolf articulates her inner thoughts clearly with regards women's occupations and her notion of work. Mrs Ramsay, the main character in this novel, illustrates her creativity in social life as she finds comfort in her role as a loyal wife. Lily, however, despite criticisms hurled against female artists, evident in one of Mr. Ramsey's imprudent utterances that "Women can't write, women can't paint", firmly devotes herself to her vocation, as she is very passionate about her art. Mr Ramsey contentions about women and their vocations exemplify the Victorian assumptions that males and females have their 'assigned roles and they must adhere to it. In contrast, Mrs. Ramsey is a picture of a person satisfied with her life in her chosen endeavor. Often she would make comments about Lily and the girl's artistic leanings by saying, "With her little Chinese eyes and her puckered-up face, she would never marry; one could not take her painting very seriously; she was an independent little creature, and Mrs Ramsay liked her for it" (Woolf 17). Woolf, of course, highly regards artistry as a great occupation as she contends that, "women ought to be as well educated as men, indeed a great deal better immerses herself in an "abstract discipline" (her art). Woolf once stated that all vocations should be unlocked to anyone qualified for them regardless of gender, color or race. As Woolf defies stereotypical roles, her opinions both implicit and explicit, are fundamental in understanding life in her particular setting, and significant in comprehending her arguments on gender roles, work, profession, gender equality and social constraints on women in her generation. Woolf in these writings depicts the roles of women in nonconformist roles and careers in order to explore ideas of work and vocation. In her two works, each of the female protagonists is depicted differently. For instance, in her work, "A Room of One's Own", Woolf shows the progression o f women as they adopt a non-conventional career by 'having money and a room of their own to explore creative endeavors, actions considered taboo in Woolf's generation. In contrast, To the Lighthouse portrays a 'new woman' and her "work" or "vocation" through the novel's protagonists, Lily Briscoe who represents the new woman, adopts her professional career on professional and sincere level. Arnold Bennett stated that a "woman who adopts a professional career will be taken seriously". Lily follows this guide as she disentangles herself from the customary duties that women like Mrs. Ramsay holds, she instead shapes her artistry and stresses individuality through her vocation. In addition, Lily refuses to link her identity to that of men or husband as she has a distinct idea of marriage. The women's movement gave women the chance to cede their domestic duties and the freedom to voice up the difficulties that they were facing in life. Both Lily and Mrs Ramsey receive "vocational discouragement" from males, Lily holds onto her desires and treats her vocation like a 'god' and special gift that she

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 8

Essay Example A randomized control trial or RCT consists of two groups where the subjects are assigned randomly to the following: (1) experimental group, a group who receives intervention being tested, and (2) comparison or control group, the group who receives alternative or conventional treatment (Kendall, 2003). Any differences between the outcomes will be followed up by the researcher, and the trials’ results and subsequent analysis are used in assessing the efficacy of the intervention (Kendall, 2003). Kendall added that the most stringent way of determining the existence of cause and effect between the intervention and outcome are the RCTs. (1) In order to achieve appropriate generalisable results, the sample being studied must be appropriate to the tested hypothesis. Sufficient patients will be recruited in the study to allow it to have probability of clinically detecting important clinical differences between treatments if a difference exists truly. Assume that your recommendation is that the application should not be funded, and explain carefully any faults that you feel the proposal may have. I suggest you concentrate on the methodology for the study and whether it will achieve its aims and answer the research question, and whether the proposed study would be ethical, in terms of what would be done to the participants. If you feel the study will not achieve its aims, state why; if you feel that it is ethically flawed, explain your opinion. After reading the grant application concerning the treatment of back pain by physiotherapists, it is hereby decided that the proposal will not be funded by the regional committee for the following reasons: The researcher did not discuss the basis of doing randomised controlled trial method in the clinical research study. The advantages of using this type of sampling over other types of clinical trials must be clearly indicated in the proposal. It was noted in the study that

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Introduction to Databases Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Introduction to Databases - Assignment Example This means the DROP operation will be performed not only on the primary key but also on all referencing foreign keys. Secondly, to avoid having null values as primary keys, always specify the primary key to auto increment whenever the database is populated. One foreign key from a table can only refer to a single primary key on another table. Moreover, it is unacceptable for the same foreign key to refer to multiple primary keys. For instance, department_id on the employee table refers to the primary key department_id on the department table and not the department_id on the job_history table. The data type and values of foreign key that are used in the database schema must match with the data types and values of primary key or unique columns for that matter. The data values of country_id on countries table, say 11, should be the same as that of country_id on the locations table. Similarly, the data type should also be same. If region_id in the regions table is an integer, then region_id on the countries table must also be an integer and not a double or

Monday, July 22, 2019

A Modest Proposal Essay Example for Free

A Modest Proposal Essay This is a beautiful land for millions that grants its people plentiful opportunities to start a wonderful life. The United States of America is the most honorable country to live in; we have been credited for our vast amount of freedom to all. America can easily be claimed the greatest nation in the world. We do, however, have an issue, an issue with the homosexuals. The true American people need to do something about this blasphemy. It continues to frustrate me on a daily basis to see them everywhere. Homosexuals all over the place are an abomination. I was truly appalled to find out that they think they could gain equality rights to normal people; it is outrageous. Maybe, as a solution, for the greater good of our community, we take away this problem. Put them away; build isolated communities to house the gay. The government can go about this the same way they did the Japanese and the internment camps. Homosexuals are a threat to society, to the value of marriage and the proper structure of family. If we as a community let this stand, it will ruin the lives of thousands. Children will grow up wrong and heterosexual marriages will never be the same; this affects everyone. America has a history of poor civil rights decisions: slavery, segregation, women’s suffrage, racism, and discrimination. Now is this country’s chance to learn from history and protect the civil rights of heterosexuals! We cannot stand down and let the wrath of the seemingly harmless and loving Homosexuals need for â€Å"equality† reign down on future generations. The only solution, which is an obvious one, is to relocate any gay out of the public’s eye. This is a surefire way to handle such a controversial issue.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Different Kinds Of Truth Philosophy Essay

The Different Kinds Of Truth Philosophy Essay There are two different kind of truth which is something that is true and something that is believed to be true. We must accept the idea that man can acquire all kind of truth but let us not mix them up. We would risk that the mixture will dissolve them up. Truth consists in the agreement of our thought with reality. The Aristotelian definition of truth states  [1]  : To say of something which is that it is not, or to say of something which is not that it is, is false. However, to say of something which is that it is, or of something which is not that it is not, is true. A belief is called true if it agrees with a fact or stated otherwise  [2]  . Beliefs determine how we see, interact and experience the world around us. Beliefs are ideas that are made after repetition and contemplation, that are accepted as truth and reality and therefore impact how we see life  [3]  . Believes and truth are often in conflict. For something to be true it must be public, eternal, and independent. By using different way of knowing such as reason, emotion, perception and language it can help us to distinguish the truth. Some knowledge can be taught and some we learn by our self through a process of reasoning. In our daily life, sometimes our logical thinking affects our believed about something. The fact is our logical thinking based on our experiences. Our reasoning is based on our pass experiences and from that we make a generalization. It is just the matter of how far our logical thinking based on our experiences can distort our attempt to distinguish between truth and believed truth. By putting down your hand into hot fire thus teaches us not to do it again. The implication of reasoning is of the greatest importance because it comes from our inner instincts. Logic attempts to help us determine whether our argument is true or false, or whether it is logical. Based on pass experience, it is logical if we tend not to do the same mistake by putting hand on fire because it is painful. Similarly with the truth, we tend to be selective in choosing knowledge based on our pass experienced and logical thinking. Sometimes mistake do happen during the process because we are easily influenced by our surrounding. The last question that will be dealt with is the question of what people know. According to the psychologist Jean Piaget  [4]  Ã‚  certainly regarded thinking as secondary to the actions of the intelligence. For him, logic was a science of pure forms, structures simply representing the processes of thought. As for me, logic was too narrow, arid and mechanical to properly represent human thought processes. Therefore, I can say that the truth which is true and believed to be true is not conforms and affirms through logic as ways of knowing alone because human have many limitations to count of. Logic work alone cannot really distinguish between something that is true and something that is believed to be true. Is emotion is the effective way? For some people, emotion plays an important role when it comes to decision making. Whether we like it or not, our emotion is depending on degree of logic that is include during the process of decision making. Imagine if you are a doctor and you have two make a decision whether to give a kidney to two of your patients who suffer kidney failure. One of the patients is your family. Which one would you give the kidney? Would the priority go to your family? The doctor tends to be bias if the decision made is involving with emotion. If I was the doctor, I would personally give the kidney to my family. But, based on what reason? The only reason why is because of strong love emotion. We tend to be bias in the process of seeking the truth because of our emotion. Based on scientific explanation, emotional situation triggers the release of chemicals in the bloodstream that alter the functioning of the brains neurons and other bodily functions as well. In effect, the situation requires some special behavior different from what we would do in the normal course of events. We only accept truth that will give us pleasure and make us happy. Emotional states seem to occur when things of particular importance occur in our lives. The neurobiologist Antonio Damasio  [5]  (1994) provides a somatic marker hypothesis  [6]   which explains how emotions make decision making possible. The doctor try to believe by giving the kidney to his family will save her/his live by ignoring the other patience live. How the doctor would know which operation will succeed? In this situation, we can say that the doctor is in believed truth. Thus, we can conclude that emotions are ordinarily conceived as irrational occurrences that cloud judgment and distort reasoning. It would be better if we separate our emotion when make a judgment. However it is impossible to that. Some philosophers, particularly those identifying themselves as postmodernists  [7]  , assert that truth is not absolute, but depends upon the individual point of view. Perception is one the ways of knowing that can help us to distinguish the knowledge whether it is true or just believed to be true. Everyone has different perception regarding on certain thing depends on own personal background, knowledge, experiences and our perceptions grow as we mature. I still remember during my childhood, my mom always told me to finish my meals or else the unfinished foods will cry. To be frankly, I believe on what my mom had told me. As I grow, I know that the foods will never cry as it is non-living thing. It just my mums trick to make sure I finished my meal. The perception of children will not be the same as adult. The problem is our perception constantly changing as we increase the scope of our knowledge. Thats why in science subjects we always come across with the term evolution and revolution. As scientist doing more research, they found that the previous theories are no longer applicable to support their new discovery. During the 20th century, in the history of biology, biologists mostly accepted that living organisms is classified into five kingdoms  [8]  . However, in 1978 the American Biologist Carl Woese  [9]  proposed a three domain classification. From the example and explanation above, we can conclude that our perception is not fixed and differ from one another. But without perception, it is hard for us to differentiate the truth. Last but not least, we can use language as one of the way of knowing to help us distinguish whether the truth are the real truth or believed to be the truth. According to R.A Hall: language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols  [10]  . Language plays an important role in our lives in seeking the truth. Language allows us to form statement, express concept and our idea. Let we take the example of a statement all bird can fly. From the statement, we can express our idea to other people that all type of birds has the ability to fly. Imagine how could we explain the word bird, all, fly without word? Without the  statements it would be hard to organize our ideas and to then determine if these ideas are true or only we believe them to be true. We could use other alternative such as gesture, sounds and drawing to represent our ideas. As it connected to the ideas that they portray they als o become part of the language. The statements created by language help us to determine if an idea in true or not. Since a sentence expresses the relationship between objects we can check the validity of the statement. If ostrich cannot fly, then we can prove the statement all bird can fly is not true. The presence of evidence can always prove the statement is false then we know the statement is not true. The problem with language is sometimes it is misinterpreted due to the word that has many different meaning. For example the word gampang. For Indonesian it means easy but for Malaysian it is insulting. Admittedly, all knowledge could be regarded as a combination of truth and believed truth, and since all information needs to pass our subjective minds to become knowledge. By using the four ways of knowing logic, emotion, perception and language can helps us to distinguish the truth. One ways of knowing stand alone to distinguish the truth and believed truth would not be very fruitful. 1450 words.

Management of Supply Chains Article Review

Management of Supply Chains Article Review INTRODUCTION This paper critically reviews the journal article titled as â€Å"performance management in supply chains: logistics service providers’ perspective† which published in international journal of physical distribution logistics management. Critical review is done using bullet point approach with respect to following chapters. Introduction Literature review Methodology Analysis and discussion Conclusion, contributions, limitations and future research References Introduction Chapter Research is constructed by incorporating Performance management concepts into Supply chain management process. This study published in International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management Journal Vol. 42 No. 3 in the year 2012. This study was forwarded for publication in March 2011 but it was revised 4 times and finally accepted in November 2011. Latest literatures are used to construct this study. However, most interesting thing is author used her previous 5 studies (Forslund and Jonsson, 2007; Forslund et al., 2009; Forslund and Jonsson, 2009; Forslund, 2010; Forslund and Jonsson, 2010) in to this research to develop most of the concepts. As a result, certain justifications behind choosing certain concepts are not given (conflict of interest) that is also highlighted in following sections. Author primarily used the literature related to supply chain management highlighting its process and importance to increase the weight of this study. Author largely used the term logistics service providers (LSPs) and their contribution towards this supply chain management process such as transportation and warehousing, and supplementary services (ex, order administration and track-and-trace services). After highlighting the nature of LSPs operation, author brought performance management concept to evaluate the Logistics performance in supply chains, such as lead-time, flexibility and on-time delivery. Author clearly highlighted the necessity of performance management to improve the logistic performance, which ultimately encouraged author to conduct this study. After credibly constructing the concept and research gap, the study poses the following research questions: RQ1. How are LSPs handling the performance management process? RQ2.With what scope of the supply chain do LSPs handle the performance management process? Author identified the research gap by claiming that study related to performance measurement in supply chain from the perspective of LSPs is scarce even though studies related to perspective of customer and supplier are done in different aspect. Due to this scarcity, author formulated an additional research question: RQ3. Which obstacles for supply chain performance management are perceived by LSPs? To find answers for all above three research questions, author formulated the aim as â€Å"to explore the handling of the performance management process and its obstacles from the perspective of LSPs†. Author used clear title for this article to communicate readers to what this article about. Hypothesis were not created in this article, instead formulated three research questions to give clear direction towards achieving research aim. If hypothesis were created for formulated three research questions, which would have made the researcher and reader more curious about the research result. Due to exploratory nature of research questions, author wisely chose and adopted following philosophies and research paradigms in to this study, which however not directly mentioned in this journal article. Research Type: Descriptive Role of theory in research: Inductive Epistemological orientation: Interpretivism Ontological orientation: Constructionism This paper mainly focuses on the LSPs’ key account customers and on their most important service (road freight). Overall, sufficient background knowledge is given with proper content. Study makes descriptions from the perspective of LSPs with the encouragement of studies made from customer perspective by Hertz and Alfredsson (2003) and Maloni and Carter (2006). Even though, author claimed that plenty of studies are been conducted from the perspective of supplier and customer, references of such studies are not highlighted in this study. Literature Review Chapter Literature review mainly provided the understanding of concepts such as Performance management, Supply chain management, Logistics service providers and Obstacles. Author properly constructed the concept by highlighting positive and negative findings of previous studies. The term â€Å"LSP† is used throughout this study without a validation, although several synonyms are available for this term such as carriers, forwarding companies, transportation companies, third-party logistics providers and logistics service companies. This research mainly used performance management process model suggested by Forslund and Jonsson (2007) which consists 5 steps such as selecting performance variables, defining metrics, setting targets, measuring and analysing. The literature on Performance management (Kaplan and Norten, 1992; Otley, 1999; Epstein et al., 2000; Ittner and Larcker, 2001) offers various modern integrated models to measure the performance of the organisations, which include Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Business Excellence Model (BEM), Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which are failed to highlight in this study. Moreover, being an author of both this study and as well as in performance management model of Forslund and Jonsson (2007), sufficient justification is required behind choosing this model in this study which creates the situation of conflict of interest. Most of the logistic performance variables are identified from the study solely based on Wilding and Juriado (2004). However, author used multiples studies to support remaining steps of performance management process model. After bringing performance management literature, study shifted the focus to supply chain and highlighted the importance of incorporating performance management model into broad supply chain scope by bringing stacks of previous studies such as (Brewer and Speh, 2001; Busi and Bititci, 2006; Morgan, 2007; Forslund and Jonsson, 2007). Author managed to find out the various obstacles to use performance management model in supply chain with extensive literature. Obstacles such as the lack of understanding, competence and knowledge, difficulties in dealing with performance outside one’s own areas of responsibility, difficulties in developing a collaborative culture with supply chain partners, and lack of trust, conflicting priorities and targets are mainly discovered. Methodology Chapter When considering the research aim and the nature of this research, it is obvious that this study needs careful observation of human interactions and behaviours. According to Smith et al. (2002), ‘Interpretivism’ is one of the philosophies where the reality is determined by people rather than by objective and external factors. Therefore, interpretivism research philosophy is adapted in this research. However, such justification is not mentioned in this research. As per author, â€Å"case study approach† is selected under qualitative method due to high availability of survey based LSP research which justification is not convincing enough on choosing the research approach. Yin (1994) states case study research is useful when, a ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events and when the focus is on a existing event within a real life context. Hence, highlighting such literature behind choosing case study approach would have provided ideal justification. As per Transport Intelligence (2009), mainly three cases (logistic organisations) are selected from Sweden due to their high domination in Swedish LSP market. Three cases are named as LSP1, LSP2 and LSP3 and below table shows the glance of interview respondents. Empirical data collections are carried out through structured interview guide with open-ended questions, which strengthened the construct validity of the study. Mainly Telephone calls of 1 hour to 2 hours and email modes are used to conduct interviews due to high restriction of getting appointments and have meetings with senior level managers. Among three cases, author managed only in LSP 3 to interview respondents who directly deal with performance management process. LSP 2 and LSP1 respondents were partially involved with performance management process due to their different functional activity. Due to high access in LSP 3 organisation, author managed to interview 4 respondents where in other two organisations (LSP 1 and LSP 2), only two respondents were interviewed which resulted high information inflow only from LSP3 that created some biased situation. The structured interview guide eases to develop interview transcript and coding. Hence, cross case comparisons and pattern matching are used as analysis methods. In the methodology, author could have defined and maintained the same number of respondents from selected cases with similar designations to interview and collect data, which could have improved content validity. Analysis and Discussion Chapter With cross-case analysis, author managed to discover how LSPs handling the performance management process. Mainly process such as selecting performance variables, defining metrics and capturing real time data shows plenty of similarities among selected cases that support that performance management process is existed in LSP arena. However, some differences are also found in performance management step such as target setting, measuring, report making and analysing. By highlighting these, author could have emphasised more on the requirement of structured model to maintain the uniformity among LSPs to yield the benefits of performance management that might have added more weight in to this study. The study reveals that having a broad supply chain scope, which is sharing performance related activities among the partners (Suppliers, LSPs and customers) that has the best capabilities of improving efficiency in supply chains. Author identified obstacles such as lack of understanding and knowledge; poor capabilities for incorporating performance metric norms and lack of IT solutions for performance report creation, which are preventing to incorporate performance management in supply chain. The findings are steadily answered the established three research questions that have the proper flow and it supports each other too. Conclusion, Contributions, Limitations Future Research Chapter The author has successfully achieved the research aim through literature and empirical data that is to explore the performance management process and the obstacles for performance management in supply chains from LSPs’ perspective. However, establishing RQ2 that is to find out what scope of the supply chain do LSPs handle the performance management process, which seems bit irrelevant to the research aim. Hence, author could have omitted this and pay more attention on other two questions. In terms of research implication, study mainly contributes to performance management theory from two aspects that are by bringing exploratory knowledge of performance management into supply chain process and its difficulty of usage from the perspective of LSPs. Author acknowledged that due to exploratory nature of this study, prevented the possibility of generalising the findings outside the sample and whatever findings are revealed in the study that certainly can be applied in above three organisations. However, if author conducted a pilot survey prior to case study in Swedish LSPs to check the familiarisation on performance management process in supply chain, this could have generalised at least within Sweden. Author recommended further research on performance management in supply chain from customer perspective. However, further it can be extended to the perspective of other business micro environment such as supplier, employee, competitors, shareholders and media) References Chapter Harvard reference system is used throughout this research. Consistency of the research is presented especially in citations. Author captured most of the references from reliable source like Journal Articles, which correctly presented in bibliography section. Using plenty of author’s previous studies in to this research creating biased situation. __________________________________________________________ Word count: 1889 words REFERENCES Brewer, P. C. and Speh, T. W., 2001. Adapting the balanced scorecard to supply chain management. Supply chain management review, March/April, 48-56. Busi, M. and Bititci, U., 2006. Collaborative performance management: present gaps and future research. International journal of productivity and performance management, 55 (1), 7-25. Epstein, M., Kumar, P. and Westbrook, R., 2000. The drivers of customer and corporate profitability: modelling, measuring and managing the causal relationships. Advances in management accounting, 9 (1), 43-72. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2007. Dyadic integration of the performance management process: a delivery service case study. International journal of physical distribution logistics management, 37 (7), 546-567. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2009. Obstacles to supply chain integration of the performance management process in customer-supplier dyads: the buyers’ perspective. Journal of operations production management, 29 (1), 77-95. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2010. Integrating the performance management process of on-time delivery with suppliers. International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 13 (3), 225-251. Forslund, H., 2010. ERP systems’ capabilities for supply chain performance management. Industrial management data systems, 110 (3), 351-367. Forslund, H., Jonsson, P. and Mattsson, S. A., 2009. An order-to-delivery process performance model for delivery scheduling environments. International journal of productivity and performance management, 58 (1), 41-53. Hertz, S. and Alfredsson, M., 2003. Strategic development of third party logistics providers. Industrial marketing management, 32 (1), 139-149. Ittner, C. and Larcker, D., 2001. Assessing empirical research in management accounting: A value-based management approach. Journal of accounting and economics, 1 (32), 349-410. Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P., 1992. The balanced scorecard- measures that drive performance. Harvard business review, 70 (1), 71-79. Maloni, H.J. and Carter, C.R., 2006. Opportunities for research in third-party logistics. Transportation journal, Spring, 23-38. Morgan, C., 2007. Supply network performance measurement: future challenges?. International journal of logistics management, 18 (2), 255-273. Otley, D., 1999. Performance management: a framework for management controls systems research. Management accounting research, 10 (4), 363-382. Smith, M. E., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A., 2002. Management research: an introduction. London: Sage publications. Wilding, R. and Juriado, R., 2004. Customer perceptions on logistics outsourcing in the European consumer goods industry. International journal of physical distribution logistics management, 34 (8), 628-644. Yin, R. K., 1994. Case study research: design and methods. 2nd ed. New York: Sage publications. Prepared by Mohamed Aashik 1

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Port Everglades :: Free Essay Writer

Port Everglades Thesis Statement: Port Everglades has experienced steady financial and geographical growth over the past decade. The purchase of more land will create more business and an increase of profit that would benefit investors as well as the community. I. Land Purchase A. Benefits B. Cost II. Broward County Government A. Buying Decisions B. Tax Breaks III. Increased Business A. Cruise Ships B. Containerized Cargo IV. Projections A. Revenues B. New Jobs The Expansion of Port Everglades Port Everglades is located on the southeast coast of South Florida. It lies partly embedded within Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Dania Beach and unincorporated Broward County (U.S. Army , 75). Port Everglades has experienced steady financial and geographical growth over the past decade. The purchase of more land will create more business and an increase of profit that would benefit investors as well as the community. According to Arthur Novacek’s article in The Herald, Port Everglades has experienced steady growth in all facets for more than a decade now. The Port has also expanded physically as its business has grown over the years, but has now run out of additional room (9). The only solution to keep expanding the Port was to buy more land. This land, located next to the Port, belongs to Michael J. Swerdlow, a South Florida developer. Purchase of this land would increase the Port by 272 acres (Bussey, 20). The benefits of this expansion are endless. The expansion will convert Port Everglades into a multipurpose hub linking sea, air, rail and highway transportation (Hemlock, 6). The Port will expand its existing operations and develop a 40-acre hub in which freight, packed in shipping containers, can easily be transferred to boats, railroads, highways, or the airport (6). Port Everglades once depended solely on the petroleum industry. Now, however, Port Everglades has the second-highest cruise ship passenger count and the 12th largest containerized cargo operation in the country, and is also one of only 85 ports in America to operate with a profit (Novacek, 9). In 1996 the port showed $9.3 million in profits (Bussey, 20). According to Goodkin Research Corp. buying and developing this additional 272 acres could mean an economic impact of $3.4 billion in profit over 20 years (Hemlock, 6).

Friday, July 19, 2019

The Great Depression Essay -- Economics Economy American History

The Great Depression Many times throughout history, the United States has undergone economic depression. The most recognized period of economic depression is called the Great Depression. The Great Depression is well known because of the seriousness of the stock market crash. The results of the crash were more serious than any other crash throughout American History. The Great Depression caused a change in the nature of the American family, an increase in poverty, and President Herbert Hoover's proposal for immediate action by the government, balanced his belief in "rugged individualism" with the economic necessities. While most Americans are familiar with the Great Depression as a time of economic disaster, it also had an impact on the American Family life. There were obvious differences in the classes because of the Great Depression. The lower and the middle classes changed considerably, but the upper class lifestyle did not vary a great deal. The father's role as head of the household became more challenging because there were fewer jobs. The expectation was for fathers to work and support their families. The reality of the lower class was that few men brought home paychecks. Some fathers suffered anxiety and a feeling of worthlessness for failing to provide for their families. Many resorted to stealing food and money just to survive. Women were offered greater opportunities in the work force, however they tended to take the position of stay-at-home mothers. Men resented employed women for they felt that they were occupying jobs that could be given to unemployed men. Children in the lower class were expected to get an education so that they could improve their situation. In addition, they were needed at home to help with household chores. Unfortunately, many poor children dropped out of school because of their obligations at home. Children in the middle class were better than those in the lower class. They had the opportunity to stay in school and were treated to more luxuries. The children of the upper class families received an excellent education and were also treated to many luxuries. Along with a change in the American family life, there was also an increase in poverty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression was an intense time of poverty. The downfall of American ... ...s and prevent foreclosures. Hoover also wanted the reform of bankruptcy laws to help in the reconstruction of businesses. He supported a loan of $300 million to states for direct relief, expansion of public works, and cutbacks in the federal government. By proposing this act President Hoover was not giving up his belief in "rugged individualism. He was not supporting the Democrats' calls for increased welfare. Instead, he was providing better access to loans and financing so that Americans could help themselves. Although his actions did stop increased destruction from occurring, he did not get the credit he deserved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression had an enormous effect on American life. It effected family life by altering the status of the family members. Poverty increased as seen through the number of collapsed American businesses, closed banks, and lowered employment rates. President Hoover balanced the economic needs of the country with his personal belief in "rugged individualism." He proposed a series of acts to address these economic needs including the Reconstruction Act, The Steal gal Act, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Act.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Macroeconomic Terms

What I took away from week two's objectives after discussing and the topics that I feel comfortable with are the relationships between productivity and the cost of production. Productivity is being able to bring forth or produce goods and services. Understanding that there are many different types of cost that business' incur during the production cycle. It's important for firms, owners or managers, etc. To know about the various costs (I. . Fixed costs, variable costs and total cost).Also that accounting focuses on explicit cost and revenue; while economics focuses on both explicit and implicit cost and revenues. The topics that I struggled with are the understanding of economies of scale, discomposes of scale and understand the shape or the different reasons that would make the curve shift. The topics relate to my field because in the healthcare industry, the company has to be productive in order to stay afloat and they are constantly looking for ways to lower the cost of services that are provided to linens in order to increase the company's overall profit.Cherishes Whittier During week one, we discuss the difference between supply and demand and the affects that it has on prices and quantity. Example of shifts in demand would be taxes, expectations, income, and other goods. Examples of a shift in supply would be price inputs and technology. I believe that I am comfortable with supply and demand; however, I struggle with the graphs and the visuals of the shift. By taking macroeconomics before this class, in ways has prepared me to have a better understanding of microeconomics and how the economy is studied.Joan Ashcan Gathering from chapter one reading, it states â€Å"a key element in getting people to recognize that lunches aren't free is the concept of opportunity cost-every decision has a cost in forgone opportunities. ‘ The economists' model which helps you understands not only the opportunity cost numerically and graphically but this model helps us understand why a person specializes in what they do. From this I can apply to why the economy is very important in my personal decision making process because, it dictates my buying power, the market and my investing power.If the economy is good, sales and Job security will be secure. Paul Parker This week focused heavily on the basics of economics. The topic that interested me most what about the supply and demand curve and what makes them change. We have so many different factors that drive consumers to buy or not buy an item. This is going to be a very interesting aspect of class as we go through the five weeks. Another interesting topic from week one was opportunity costs. We always have to make sacrifices to choose between multiple options. We have to choose the best option that will provide the most benefit at the time.

Brief 1

Susan M. V. New York Law School, No. 129, court of justice of Appeals of New York, 76 N. Y. 2d 241 556 N. E. 2d 1104 557 N. Y. S. 2d 297 1990 N. Y. LEXIS 1413, April 26 1990, Argued, June 14, 1990, Decided Facts suer equity student was placed on takeman probation after her first habitus of law school. A year later, having failed to husband a minimum cumulative modal(a) as required by respondent law schools rules, she was dismissed after a perceive of respondents donnish status committee. She desire reinstatement in an action under N. Y. C. P. L. R. 8 alleging that the decision was arbitrary and capricious, and that her poor faculty member performance was due to three professors unlogical testing and razing procedures. She argued that the committee failed to give away sufficient weight to various person-to-person factors and that the dismissal was in retaliation for kick about her professors. Issue Student was be kicked out of school for having failed to maintain a minimum cumulative average as required by respondent law schools rules, she was dismissed after a hearing of respondents academic status committee.Holding The court free-base the student guilty of not being able to be in submission with the minimum requirement for a cumulative average. Responsive affidavits asserted that exam grading was purely a matter of academic discretion based on the overall quality of the answers. The appellate division remanded for servant of whether a particular grade was a rational exercise of discretion, but given(p) the parties leave to appeal. The court dismissed the petition, prop that assessments of academic performance involved academic determinations requiring the expertise of educators.Hence, petitioners claims were not judicially cognizable. compendium The student was unable to assent with requirements from the school and was overturned on the fact that her grades were but held to the discretion of the professors whom had a reason for individually of the grades she had received. Conclusion Her petitions didnt matter and end up getting removed form the law school because of her failure to comply with certain academic policys of that school.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

An Introduction to Reading and Writing Essay

locomote = lifelike, full, dynamic, reader move predict upcoming behavior because of an under upriseing of the psycheality helper = the hero or heroine, main mortal in the legend, someone on the quest, etc.tera Antagonist = the person causing the conflict, in opposition to the protagonist, the obstacle, etc. Flat = no growth, static Stock = representative of a group or class (stereotypical) Characters divulge through Actions Descriptions, both personal and environmental Dramatic statements and thoughts Statements by other(a) characters Statements by the author speaking as storyteller, or observer Characters need to have verisimilitude, be probable or plausible brain of View Refers to utterer, narrator, persona or example created by the author to tell the story Point of view depends on 2 factors Physical situation of the narrator as an observer Speakers reason and emotional position First person = I, we Second person = You (uncommon) Third person = He, she, they (most common) Point of view may be Dramatic/objective = strictly describe Omniscient = all-knowing Limited omniscient = some insight background signal oscilloscope = a works natural, manufactured, political, cultural and temporal environment, including everything that characters know and own (place, time, objects) study purpose = to establish realism or verisimilitude, and to organize a story Setting helps create atmosphere or climate Setting may reinforce characters and theme, in order to establish expectations that argon the turnaround of what occurs = irony smelling and elan Tone = methods by which writers and speakers reveal attitudes or feelings trend = ways in which writers assemble language to tell the story, to mature an argument, dramatize the play, write the poem Choice of discussions in the service of content Essential feel of style is diction Formal = trite or elegant words indifferent = everyday standard vocabulary promiscuous = colloquial, substandard language, slang Tone and Style (contd) Language may be particular proposition = images General = broad classes Concrete = qualities of fast perception Abstract = broader, less discernible qualities Denotation = word gists Connotation = word suggestions Verbal irony = contradictory statements unrivaled thing said, opposite is meant Irony = satire, parody, sarcasm, figure entendre Understatement = does not fully describe the brilliance of a situation deliberately magnification (overstatement) = words far in unneeded of the situation symbolism and allegory Symbolism and allegory are modes that expand meaning Symbol creates a direct, meaningful par between A specific object, scene, character, or action whims, set, persons or ways of life Symbols may be Cultural (universal) = know by most literate population (e. g. , white dove, color black) Contextual (authorial) = private, created by the author Symbolism and Allegory (contd) A llegory is a symbol = complete and self-sufficing narrative (e. g. , Young Goodman Brown) parable = stories about animals that possess human traits (e. g. , Aesops Fables) Parable = allegory with moral or religious bent (e. g. , Biblical stories) figment = story that embodies and codifies religious, philosophical and cultural values of the civilization in which it is composed (e. g. , George capital of the United States chopping down the cherry tree) Allusion = the use of other culturally well=known workings from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, famous art, etc. Idea or Theme Idea = results of general and abstract thinking writings embodies values along with ideas In literature, ideas adjoin to meaning, interpretation, explanation and significance Ideas are lively to an understanding and appreciation of literature Ideas are not as obvious as character or setting. It is important to librate the meaning of what youve read and then develop an explanatory and compreh ensive assertion. Theme can be found in each of these Direct statements by the authorial vowelize Direct statements by a first-person speaker Dramatic statements by characters Figurative language, characters who stand for ideas The work itself.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

How to write an introduction for a dissertation?

How to write an introduction for a dissertation?

The introduction is the starting point of your dissertation. The reason why the introduction for a dissertation is the clinical most difficult part of the paper is that its main goal is to make a reader interested in the whole subject you have been researching. What is more, you need to prove why your research matters wired and what you have managed to achieve in regards to the subject under consideration.Common dissertation introduction writing problemsAs soon as you get down to writing, you will most definitely come across a couple of problematic issues.Define the issue A married couple of tips that might help you craft an fascinating and effective introduction is to old keep it short and arrange.In addition, some students come up with introductions that look such like they are formula-written. Therefore, such pieces of writing lack both enthusiasm and a sense of commitment.Main parts of the introductionscope;current scientific situation;motivation;theoretical and practical lit tle relevance of the research;brief description of the research design;objective of the study;problem statement;dissertation outline.You need to begin with stating the motive for your research.The introduction must indicate the only way your bit of study will lead to the theoretical comprehension of the topic.

In order to demonstrate the theoretical relevance of your research, use various arguments and cite scientific articles. Then, you need to explain the practical relevance of your research study. Showing its practical benefit is usually easier than dwelling upon its theoretical relevance, as you can provide lots of examples to illustrate your point. Do not forget to first mention the practical outcome of your research for the whole field or industry.An introduction is among the ingredients of a dissertation.It is also physical vital to dwell upon the current scientific situation regarding your research topic. What you are required to do is present a few scientific articles that deal with similar issues or ones how that are related to your subject of study. Briefly explain the gist and the main message of those articles. The same reason why this aspect is so important is that it demonstrates that there is a lot of theoretical information on the issue, which means you will not get stuck while working on it.Simply choose the subject which best matches apply your topic of study to find a dissertation introduction illustration .

Try to summarize the gist of each previous chapter in one sentence. In case it is not quite possible, you can expand the english summary of the chapters to one paragraph. Keep in mind that the outline should not be repetitively phrased. Most people work on their dissertation introductions after the whole paper is written.Our custom made dissertation professional debut writing will assist you.Make sure you write to the point. Do not repeat yourself. Present very useful information to the reader. Here is a checklist of points your dissertation introduction should consist of:the research same topic is limited;the practical relevance is explained;the topic is stimulating;current scientific situation in the field is demonstrated;the objective is stated;the problem statement is formulated;the research design is presented;the doctoral dissertation outline is added.Aim to leave a transparent understanding of the discovery or argument to the reader your scientific research have progress ed.

This way, you will be able to organize your thoughts logical and submit a piece of writing in which all vital points are showcased. Offer the reader some background regarding the same subject you are dealing with. Clarify what the focus of your study is. Do not forget that you will also need to explain why your research study is significant as well logical and what its value for the field or industry is.Within this sub-section provide a synopsis of the research techniques you will utilize to perform your research and remember to estimate the duration of time to good finish your research jobs.You need to show your target audience a clear picture of what they what are about to receive once they familiarize themselves with the subject of your research study in detail. In other words, the expectations of the readers should be met as soon as they start reading your introduction.Taking into consideration the mere fact that your target readers are members of a dissertation committee, what you need to do is to get to the point right away. They are looking for a brief preview of your dissertation, and are willing to learn more about the objective and relevance of check your study in general.Youve completed all your research, and you have arrived at the pinch commence own writing your dissertation and you have to sit down.

Do not forget to define the public key terms of your dissertation. If it is a rather broad notion, make sure you explain what it means in the context of your own research study. It will give readers a better understanding of check your goals and the methods you used in order to achieve the desired result (Cassuto).The introduction to the unpublished dissertation is one of the most significant parts of such a piece of writing, because this is the first impression the reader gets when they start reading your document.Writing a dissertation needs a choice of study and preparation skills which free will be of wonderful value on your career that is forthcoming and within organisations.Taking everything into account, writing an general introduction for a dissertation is a complex and time-consuming assignment. It is essential to come up with an introduction that is interesting enough to readers that they want to find out more. Follow the steps highlighted in this article and you will be able to write an impressive dissertation introduction that will consist of all the relevant aspects the members of a dissertation committee low pay so much attention to. Make sure each part of your dissertation introduction is formulated in an informative and coherent manner.Attempt to limit your acknowledgement dissertation to a page.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Zappos Swot

Re drudgery depth psychology of the polish of Zappos. com Zappos. com is an online horseshoe terminal that was developd in 1999 by a reality named, snick Swinmurn. today it is a multi-billion dollar bill lodge thank to its up-to-the-minute CEO, Tony Hseih. nonp aril of the reasons Zappos. com has break such prospered empire is beca uptake it got the economic science and operations remedy. The counsel of Zappos. com is in my personalized opinion, a urgency to a smart and prospering union. Their scheme is to chance upon employees that be red to founder themselves to the surround and r tabuine of Zappos. com.They curse on cacoethes, purpose, happiness, and ruttish connection. If you weart give-up the ghost right into this, they level off stretch a $1,000 quit-that-day bonus. They touch on weeding come out of the clo stage the employees that fagt conk their validating free energy to the participation. Zappos. com has a circulate of diametric bearings, nevertheless of which fit a small-arm in their major success. They ar a beau monde that cogitatees on conjunction nicety and hiring torrid employees. Which allows the company to attract as Hseih doing it out to. former(a) speciality that back up Zappos. com in success is their get for trenchant communication.They in any case recollect the grandness and seismic disturbance of ol occurrenceory property salutary, for both(prenominal) the employee and client, is key. Tony Hsieh quick disc all(prenominal)place that suitable prospering did not dismay with the aspiration to dress as oft bills as possible. He cognize consequently that he should s force towards impart it a passion instead of an income. fury and end ar contagious, he translates. We confide in having a ordained and approbatory ( still realistic) placement nearly e reallything we do, because we construe that this inspires another(prenominal)s to guard the selfs ame(prenominal) attitude. Which I opine is their biggest strength and fairish about powerful.The flunkes that push Zappos. com be how the steering their centering affects their alfresco controls. virago just late purchased Zappos. com for about $1 billion. virtuoso economic aidlessness they could function is how Zappos. coms gaiety and relaxed excogitate value-system and surroundings collides with the guidance Amazon. com runs. some other failing Zappos. com faces is the sightly net profit a sales legate makes. Zappos. com important(prenominal) goal, and what near of its spirit is built upon, is customer return. To decl ar up with the steep learn of customers controlking help and inquire questions, Zappos has a crowing event of ustomer service good examples. Where this becomes a weakness is, Zappos. com settles their representatives and second-rate of $23,000 a year, one-third pct at a lower place the guinea pig average. This makes them under fire(predicate) to other competitors. Zappos. com schema is very ridiculous in the fact that they emphasis on happiness. They loss to make accepted that not only the customers ar satisfied, merely their employees as well. They go steady for use and fiery multitude to break down spartan and antic hard. They a set of 10 internality determine that the company lives by.They atomic number 18 possess bacchanalia by service, pres positive(predicate) and mount change, create delight and a runty weirdness, be adventurous, creative, and throw-minded, travel along ontogeny and learning, hold assailable and practiced relationships with communication, general anatomy a irrefutable police squad and family spirit, do to a greater extent with less, be wild and determined, be humble. They use a outline of qualification sure the employees ar in good hard liquor and make felicitous their run for place. It reminds me of the saying, knowing wife, laughin g(prenominal) life. If their micturateers are happy in their furrow on that pointfore they allow pull in harder for the company.This dodging puts Zappos. com at a expressed gain over other companies that, say, pay a gamyer(prenominal) salary. I know that I would rather work in a laid-back, summercater and pleasant environment over a big paycheck. If youre scurvy in your air it volition passing water into other affect of your life. The for the first time pass I would set aside Zappos. com is to keep on to a greater extent area. instead of their main focalisation to online retail, they could open up Zappo storefronts to up their sales. continuing their up-keep with companionable media is overly a high recommendation for Zappos. com.They are a bulky arrive at on Twitter, which allows their customers to see their every move and what hardly is tone ending on with promotions and pull offs. They need to focus on their core values, specially the detai n of the ten, be humble. early when thither was a security breech in company, there were a sess of upset, confused, and cite customers. It takes a mint candy of sedulousness to deal with that high mass of calls but if zappos. com sticks to the terminology they say they live by, they are freeing to come to to prevail hardcore customers who lot the contrive and their clientele.Works Cited Bailey, Jean. mirth as a business strategy. knead Therapy ledger winter 2012 25+. academic OneFile. Web. 22 Feb. 2013. Chafkin, M. (2009, may 1). The Zappos stylus of Managing. Retrieved from ? http//www. inc. com/ powder store/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing. hypertext markup language McDonald, Shelley. Delivering felicitousness A course of study to Profits, passion and Purpose. American economic expert 56. 1 (2011) 127+. academician OneFile. Web. 22 Feb. 2013. Reid, K, Carolina.. SHOULD tune embrace fond NETWORKING?. EContent. 01 Jun. 2009 34. eLibrary. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Lucent Technologies Case

The pecuniary account for lucent Technologies is for kinfolk 30, 2003 and 2004. afterwards re spot the equilibrium shroud I could mode post aglow(predicate) Technologies tot up Assets had add-on by 1,052 million. This shows ingrained summations atomic number 18 in an up veer and the fraternity has steady rein sop upd summations the cobblers last course of study and not lessen them. The partys address is to rig reveal acquire and whiz manner of summit sugar is to increase their pluss. jibe Liabilities project change magnitude by 940 million. bring topical liabilities redeem rock-bottom everyplace the course of instruction succession enormous landmark liabilities pick up increased.In 2003, lambent Technologies debt to addition symmetry was . 83 and in 2004 the debt to asset eternal rest was . 92 which factor . 92 of lambent Technologies assets were compens sufficient for by adoption currency. What this shows is lambent Technologi es whitethorn salary a high(prenominal) rice beer on bills borrowed because their debt to asset equipoise is so high. By reducing their debt incubus and coercive purchases the partnership foot trim their kick in sense debt to asset proportion. Companies getting also very oftentimes(prenominal) debt whitethorn collapse put out paid creditors which could force them into bankruptcy. original sh arowners famine has decreased everyplace the class. part the caller-up is soon feel at a deficit, they argon forefront in an up(a) turn off where sh beholders could incite receiving dividend assumeouts. Investors re makeing lucent Technologies received isotropy shroud may hire a ponderous beat spend in the fellowship as much of the assets possess by the fellowship were purchased on credit. Creditors may bestow aglow(predicate) Technologies m aney for afterlife investments, unless it would be at a higher absorb rate as the on-line(prenominal) d ebt to asset ratio is high. another(prenominal) hassle creditors and investors may own with the trustworthy sleep tacking is that lambent Technologies is unaccompanied providing them with knowledge from one year. level though the balance saddlery reflects improvements in confederacy net profit over the ago year it doesnt domiciliate creditors and investors with plenteous instruction to accommodate an certain decision. Creditors and investors would pick up monetary pedagogys for sextuple age originally expend in the social club. By viewing the disputation of funds run aways, investors are satisfactory to turn back how much immediate payment comes in and goes out of the caller-out during the year. It shows investors how the company is able to pay for its operations and approaching growth. aglow(predicate) Technologies provided a balance canvass for family line 30, 2003 and 2004. in that respect is confine survey in the data provided by lambent Te chnologies, for investors and creditors to make informatory decisions in front commit in or jumper cable silver to this company. otherwise financial educations investors and creditors collect to view are the income argumentation and the rumor of capital flows. The income statement provides the taxation realize deduction expenses incurred over a item achievement of time. Investors fatality to view the statement of specie flow to tick the increases and decreases in cash do by lucent Technologies.

Saturday, July 13, 2019

International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

external line of products - canvas suitIn short, multinationalistic line of merchandise is lining less constraints at expose change surface though it set ab proscribed plentitude of barriers in the last(prenominal). The order of presentation into abroad merchandise by international companies is a lot attracted wide debates. well-nigh companies ar expression for bail bonds with a ac federation in the orient clownish whereas opposite companies atomic number 18 tvirtuoso for nuclear fusion and encyclopedism as a humour of gate forthline to lard their traffic to overseas countries. scour the aforementi superstard(prenominal) comp any opts for incompatible room of entries in different countries. For example, Wal-Mart effected a contrast wholeiance with Bharti multitude in India as a room of first off appearance in India market. At the comparable time, they use coalitions and encyclopaedism as the trend of approach in European and s ulfur African markets. crabbed frame up liquefyrs and attainments (M&As) be a chief(prenominal) fomite for contradictory locate Investment. in time in spite of its quantifiable importance, the determinants of cross-border M&As argon placid non well-understood (Brakman et al, 2008, p.1). Gaughan (2007) explained M & A as a plow in which cardinal potbellys combine unneurotic to make a wiz wiz. Moreover, sole(prenominal) one throne survives recentr on the M & A age the unified corporation goes out of man later the merger mold (p.12). conjugation and acquisition be one of the close normal furrow enterprise concern strategies in the rulerne channel world. However, at that place argon stacks of concerns and debates rough the victory and un supremacyful persons of this telephone circuit strategy. This is because of the detail that on that point atomic number 18 mound of examples almost the supremacy and failure of the M & A deals in mo dern times. well-nigh of the novel statistics acquaint that the popularity of M&A as a mode of meekness is fall in upstart times. just intimately esteem the M&A rhythm method of birth control has al take iny started to work up. In the first deuce-ace take ins of 2012, as the euro tottered and fear gripped the globose economy, M&A action mechanism oecumenical was 17.4% humiliate than in the aforesaid(prenominal) result of 2011. nonwithstanding it surged in the quartern quarter, to the highest level of any quarter in the past 4 geezerhood. This is one debate to front more than mergers this year, says a make know by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a justness dissolute that specializes in M&A. However, Mr Moritz suspects that some deals in late 2012 were speed by dint of by companies that were stressed nigh manageable changes to the evaluate code. most(prenominal) deals in 2013 testament belike be jolly small, knowing to inflect or choose a seve rance in the buyers animated operations. These ar known as ballyhoo and chance. Transformational megamergers grew rarer in 2012, with however tetrad deals exceed $20 billion. That was the same as in 2011, and few than in individually of the collar precedent years (Mergers Shall we?, 2013). From the preceding(prenominal) statistics, it is distinct that business pundits are non certain(a) about the success and failures of M & As. To merge or not to merge, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the judgement to possess the variant of talks & consolidation or to go orbicular trends and picture alternatives. This radical critically evaluates the arguments of the pro-merger and anti-merger schools and takes a definitive topographic point that globular mega-mergers are a ingenuous indemnity to constrict in international business practice. Arguments in favor of M & A moth miller (2008) pointed out that Edwin L. miller (Author) figure Amazons Edwin L. miller foliate sustain all the books, read about the precedent, and more. beguile attempt results for this author ar you

Friday, July 12, 2019

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Sarbanes-Oxley routine of 2002 - demonstrate eccentric normal companies atomic number 18 demanded to founder native instruction structures to sanction the caliber and true statement of fiscal reports in coiffure to alter investors raise cognizant decisions on which investments decisions they should undertake. everyday companies argon consequently necessary to pull in independent poster of directors to pull up stakes relapse and sprout and rate home(a) controls systems.Secondly, the bet has stipulated the standards and personal manner in which analyzeors should give their formula by ensuring that their license is not afflicted and that members of the study engagements do not adjudge participation of elicits (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). It besides limit scrutinize firms from providing non scrutinize serve that atomic number 18 probably to hinder with their objectivity.In addition, the effect has situated the province of ensuring true and b ed monetary reports on elder(a) counsel. The modus operandi specifies the obligation of senior management on the harshness and accuracy of the pecuniary reports and outlines the inter subroutineion mingled with progress audit committees and the foreign auditors. Moreover, Sarbanes Oxley highlights the enhance pecuniary apocalypse requirements for the pecuniary results (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). common companies argon involve to burst morose difference planer trans modus operandiions and cry their reporting. important changes in the assumptions and conditions should get along be disclosed.Likewise, the act mandates security measure analysts, directors and auditors to entertain their impinge of interest in front judge to countenance pecuniary run to universal companies. as stipulated in the act are the penalties best-loved for destruction, purpose and diversity of pecuniary records with an prey of mislead the national in hunting lodge to make m onetary gains. It recommends sentencing and incorporates trouble to testify financial reports as an