Research Paper on Stereotype Threat

Stereotype Threat in a High Stakes Testing Environment Jennifer J. Krebs Wilkes University Abstract Given the rapidly changing demographics of today’s classrooms combined with the high-stakes testing environment created by the passage of No Child Left Behind, it is important to understand potential explanations for the persistence of achievement gaps. Explanations for the achievement gap have included high populations of English Language Learners (ELLs), socioeconomic issues, lack of resources at the school, teacher, and student levels, and even inherent differences in the intellectual abilities of stereotyped and non-stereotyped groups.A theory developed by Steele and Aronson, called stereotype threat, provided a radical view into how knowledge of stereotypes affects performance (McKown & Strambler, 2009). Stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. The pur pose of this research was to determine how and when children begin to develop knowledge of stereotypes and how stereotype threat affects academic performance. IntroductionThe diversity of student demographics increases every day. Therefore, teachers must be increasingly more aware of the cultural differences and challenges that students from diverse backgrounds bring to school. Not only are these students likely to learn differently based on their cultural expectations, but these students are also likely to possess knowledge of commonly held social stereotypes which can negatively impact their performance (McKown & Strambler, 2009). The current emphasis on high-stakes testing makes the achievement of all students extremely important.Experimental research into performance gaps was limited prior to a groundbreaking study that focused on the possibility of stereotype threat. First described by social psychologist Claude Steele and his colleagues, stereotype threat (ST) has been shown t o reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups (McKown & Strambler, 2009). Since its introduction into the academic literature in 1995, stereotype threat has become one of the most widely studied topics in the field of psychology.However, a major assumption of this theory was that children possess knowledge of commonly held social stereotypes. In order to address this assumption, the following qualitative studies were implemented to determine how and when children begin to develop knowledge of stereotypes. This research is combined with quantitative studies to determine how ST affects academic performance. Method Schaffer and Skinner (2009) examined student interactions within four fourth grade classrooms at a diverse public school in the southeastern United States.Upon observing student interactions and conducting interviews, the researchers discovered several patterns. First, white children were less likely to engage in explicit race talk, whil e black students frequently engaged in openly racial discussions and often used commonly held stereotypes to identify themselves. Second, most minority students who performed at the high end of the class and participated in challenging academic programs relied heavily on racial stereotypes to bridge the social gap between themselves and their racial peers.These students sought to distance themselves from the white students with whom they took advanced classes. Third, white students were more likely to describe students of other races as â€Å"loud† or â€Å"troublemaking† (Schaffer & Skinner, 2009). These observations suggest that students were not only aware of commonly held stereotypes, but strategically used them to organize their social world and dictate social functions. Another study, which examined high school students, suggested that these trends continue as students mature rather than diminish. Lisa M.Nunn (2011) observed six classrooms across three different high schools, and conducted 57 interviews with students to determine the ways in which students’ classroom interactions reflected ideas about commonly held stereotypes. In one school, nearly half of the students interviewed said that race matters for school success. At another school, students expressed frustration with being racial targets and felt they had done nothing to provoke degrading views from their classmates. Furthermore, in a remedial English classroom consisting of eight students, the researcher noticed a ommon occurrence. Five of the students in this classroom were Latino, and three were white. The white students all had learning disabilities which hindered their language usage, while the Latino students’ only handicap was that English was not their native language (Nunn, 2011). Combining ELLs with students with disabilities effectively treats the native language of ELLs as a learning disability. Between the racial views of the students and the systematic reinforcement of prejudices, it is easy to understand why students tend to hold views that race matters for success.The question that remains is how does this knowledge of stereotypes affect student academic performance? McKown and Strambler (2009) conducted a study of 124 students ranging in age from grades K-4 in a suburban Chicago area. The students were given a series of vignettes to determine their ability to identify stereotypes and then placed in diagnostic or non-diagnostic groups to complete performance tasks. Consistent with prior research, minority participants in the diagnostic group performed worse than in the non-diagnostic group; and majority participants performed equally well in both groups (McKown & Strambler, 2009).Desert, Preaux, and Jund (2009) administered Raven’s APM to 153 children within first and third grades. In the diagnostic group, students were given the standard administration instructions as provided in the Raven’s APM Administration Ma nual. In the non-diagnostic group, students were given instructions explaining that the test was actually a series of games that the researchers developed and were testing to determine their appropriateness for the students’ age groups.Researchers stratified the results based on socioeconomic status, arguing that negative stereotypes about the performance of low-SES students could result in ST. The results of the study showed that low-SES students in the diagnostic group performed significantly worse than those in the non-diagnostic group. The performance of high SES students did not differ significantly among the two groups (Desert, Preaux, & Jund, 2009). These results suggested that children in the early elementary years are not immune to ST, even on a test that is supposed to be culture free. While all of these experiments support he theory of ST, one of the strongest arguments to date relies heavily on developing technologies. Derks, Inzlicht, and Kang (2008) offered an o verview of breakthroughs in social neuroscience research that highlighted biological factors underlying conditions of stereotype threat. The researchers discussed several experiments that used functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and event-related potentials (ERP) to measure the neurological activities of participants when asked to perform tasks under diagnostic and non-diagnostic conditions.One study tested women under mathematical performance stereotypes and found that the conflict monitoring systems of the brain showed a mis-regulation of neural responses. This information supported the hypothesis that emotions aroused by ST conditions lead to a decrease in cognitive ability. The decrease in ability occurred because emotion-regulation centers of the brain experienced increased activity while areas of the brain associated with academic performance and cognition experienced decreased activity. The researchers cautioned that neuroscience expe riments in the area are too new to allow for generalizations and definitive findings.However, they argued that development of this area is crucial to the study and understanding of stereotype threat (Derks, Inzlicht, & Kang, 2008). Results The assumption that the performance gap between stereotyped and non-stereotyped groups is solely rooted in cultural differences and limitations of students’ background is restrictive. Research has shown that there is also a factor of social psychological threat related to knowledge and perceptions of stereotypes, which can depress test scores of stereotyped individuals.The use of high-stakes testing in an overall environment of racial inequality perpetuates that inequality through the emotional and psychological power of the tests over the test-takers. While researchers have begun to delve into the intricacies as to how stereotype threat causes decreases in performance and other negative effects, there is still much research that needs to b e conducted in order to completely understand the mechanisms that underlie the performance deficits that occur as a result of stereotype threat. ConclusionIn conclusion, stereotype threat is a pervasive phenomenon that has the ability to impact a variety of individuals in a number of ways. Current research offers us insight as to what stereotype threat is, how it impacts individuals, what mechanisms drive the relationship between stereotype threat and performance, and how we can begin to remediate some of the damaging impacts of this threat. Since the current emphasis on high-stakes testing does not appear to be diminishing, teachers and mentors should at a minimum equip students with knowledge about the possible effects of stereotype threat.In this way, proactive strategies might transform a powerless situation into one where students are actively participating in discussions that illuminate the complexities and strengths of their educational futures. Teacher education programs sho uld review their course curriculum and address any gaps in the discussion of standardized testing and methods to improve test scores. Changing test directions from diagnostic to non-diagnostic, educating students in malleable intelligence theories, and reducing the general stress of the testing environment are all methods which could be implemented.References Derks, B. , Inzlicht, M. , & Kang, S. (2008). The neuroscience of stigma and stereotype threat. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 11(2), 163-181. Desert, M. , Preaux, M. , & Jund, R. (2009). So young and already victims of stereotype threat: Socio-economic status and performance of 6 to 9 years old children on Raven’s progressive matrices. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 24, 207-218. McKown, C. & Strambler, M. J. (2009).Developmental antecedents and social academic consequences of stereotype-consciousness in middle childhood. Child Development, 80, 1643-1659. Nunn, L. (2011). Classrooms as racialized s paces: Dynamics of collaboration, tension, and student attitudes in urban and suburban high schools. Urban Education, 46, 1226-1255. Schaffer, R. & Skinner, D. G. (2009). Performing race in four culturally diverse fourth grade classrooms: Silence, race talk, and the negotiation of social boundaries. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 40, 277-296.

Gold Mining in South Africa Essay

The critical issue facing the mining industry according to Zoli Diliza chief executive, chamber of mines is ensuring that the mineral policies of South Africa aligns with the highest standard of administrative justice, promote an internationally accepted level of security of tenure and invariably promote an enabling environment that will attract investors into south Africa, hence, improving her competitiveness. Gold’s rarity, beauty and durability have ensured its use as a medium of exchange as well as astore of value There has been a power crises issue in South Africa which has led to the shut down temporarily of major gold operations. This is a serious problem that in that there is limited capacity to bring the mine workers of the enclosed spaces in the mine due to ventilation breakdown. Continues power outages which have resulted in disrupted operations in the goldmines obviously have a significant impact on world gold supplies mine, this is one of the reasons South Africa is taking the backseat as the world’s largest producer of gold with china taking the front seat. Lawrence William) (2008) It was recorded in 2010 that gold production was down to 200 tons. Despite the substantial increase in the real price of gold in recent years, there has been a continuous decline in gold production , unless substantive new capital investment in new mines is attracted the decline in production is likely to continue. There is also a decline in engineering and manufacturing activities associated direct ly to the gold mining industry. Inorder words, the consequence of the decline in gold production in south africa has been the loss of major sectors of South Africa’s previous substantive heavy engineering and manufacturing capacity The gold industry in the early 1990s experienced a tight profit squeeze and voilatility in prices, that period was also seen by rampant inflation. The pressure that generated the profit squeeze was as a result of workers demand related to their salaries as awell as housing, health and safety. Another important cause was due to stagnant prices which reducesd reserves amd discouraged exploration of mines. And as expected, the profitabilitu constraint led to retrenchment of workers as a management mechanism for the mines. The gold industry in SA faced a tight profit squeeze in the early 1990s. The gold price was kept at a constant nominal rand value by the Reserve Bank from 1988 to 1992 despite rampant inflation. The 1987 great mineworkers strike was the highpoint of employment numbers. Profit margins were under severe pressure both from worker demands–related to wages as well as housing and health and safety–and from stagnant commodity prices which reduced reserves and discouraged new exploration. In addition to profitability constraints, retrenchments were a weapon of mine management to reduce the effectiveness of the National Union of Mineworkers as it recovered from the strike–which had seen the dismissal of many union leaders. There was common cause that the industry needed to restructure in order to extend its life. The article put forward proposals from a labour perspective.

Henry Howard Holmes, One of Americas first Serial Killers

I researched who is to be believed as the one of america’s First Serial Killers, Herman Webster Mudgett aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. He had confessed to 27 murders, but only 9 could actually be proven. He had several victims during his time and choose what he felt was the perfect place for these murders. Herman was born on May 16th, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price, both of whom were descended from the first settlers in the area. His father was a very violent alcoholic and his mother was a Methodist who would often read the bible to her son. Holmes had a privileged childhood. It has been said that he appeared to be unusually intelligent at an early age. Still there were haunting signs of what was to come. He expressed an interest in medicine, which reportedly led him to practice surgery on animals. Some accounts indicate that he may have been responsible for the death of a friend. As a child Herman was scared of the local doctor and when this got out bullies at his school forced him to view and touch a human skeleton. It turns out that this fascinated Herman so much that he actually scared the bullies who forced him into very badly. During much of his life he was considered a loner and very shady. Herman would later graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1884, but while he was enrolled there he began to explore a new area or hobby. He would steal bodies from the lab disfigured the bodies, and claimed that the people were killed accidentally in order to collect insurance money from policies he took out on each deceased person he had stolen. After Graduation he began to dabble in more shady work such as pharmaceuticals, real estate and promotional deals under his created alias H.  H. Holmes. On July 4th 1878, Holmes married Clara Lovering in Alton, New Hampshire; their son, Robert Lovering Mudgett, was born on February 3rd 1880 in Loudon, New Hampshire (in adult life Robert was to become a Certified Public Accountant, and served as City Manager of Orlando, Florida). On January 28th 1887, while he was still married to Clara, Holmes married Myrta Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota; their daughter, Lucy Theodate Holmes, was born on July 4th 1889 in Englewood, Illinois. (in adult life Lucy was to become a public schoolteacher). Holmes lived with Myrta and Lucy in Wilmette, Illinois, and spent most of his time in Chicago tending to business. He filed for divorce from Clara after marrying Myrta, but the divorce was never finalized. He married Georgiana Yoke on January 9th 1894 in Denver, Colorado while still married to Clara and Myrta. He also had a relationship with Julia Smythe, the wife of one of his former employees; Julia later became one of Holmes's victims. While in Chicago, Holmes had started to grow even more shady and criminal. Holmes took a job in a drugstore which he would buy and promise to let the current store owner live even after her husband died. When her husband died however she simply disappeared and as people began to question where she was Holmes lied and told them she went to California and liked it there so much that she decided she would stay there. These people would actually turn out to be his first victims in his long murder spree and it is unknown how and when he murdered them. Holmes purchased a lot across from the drugstore and built what would be later known as his Murder Castle (which is where it is believed that he hid the bodies of Dr.  E. S. Holton and his wife). Holmes would open it up as a hotel for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, with part of the structure used as commercial space. The ground floor of the Castle contained Holmes's own relocated drugstore and various shops, while the upper two floors contained his personal office and a maze of over one hundred windowless rooms with doorways opening to brick walls, oddly angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, doors opened only from the outside, and a host of other strange and labyrinthine constructions. Holmes repeatedly changed builders during the construction of the Castle, so only he fully understood the design of the house, thus decreasing the chance of being reported to the police. Holmes selected mostly female victims from among his employees (many of which were required as a condition of employment to take out life insurance policies for which Holmes would pay the premiums but also be the beneficiary), as well as his lovers and hotel guests. He tortured and killed them in some of the worst possible ways you could imagine. Some were locked in soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them at any time and some were locked in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office where they were left to suffocate. He would then take the victims' bodies and drop by secret chute to the basement where some were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then sold to medical schools. Holmes also cremated some of the bodies or placed them in lime pits for destruction. Holmes had two giant furnaces as well as pits of acid, bottles of various poisons, and even a stretching rack which he would use to help dispose of the bodies and any evidence. Through the connections he had gained in medical school, he sold skeletons and organs with little difficulty and therefore was able to get rid of even more evidence. He had some of the best methods for disposing of all of his victims and the evidence that anything had ever even happened which is why it is so difficult to determine just how many victims he actually had and who they were. There were also trapdoors and chutes so that he could move the bodies down to the basement where he could burn his victims’ remains in a kiln there or dispose of them in other ways. All the while, Holmes continued to work insurance scams and it was one of these scams that led to his undoing. He joined forces with Benjamin Pitezel to collect $10,000 from a life insurance company. Holmes would leave Chicago due to the economy and move down to Fort Worth, Texas, to a property that he inherited from two sisters he promised to marry and later murdered. He had planned to build another castle, but would abandon that idea and move about the US as well as Canada and he was believed to have killed several more victims on his travels, but no evidence of this could be found. Holmes's murder spree finally ended when he was arrested in Boston on November 17, 1894, after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons(a national detective agency). He was held on an outstanding warrant for horse theft in Texas, as the police had little more than suspicions at this point and Holmes appeared ready to leave the country, with his unsuspecting third wife. After the custodian for the Castle informed police that he was never allowed to clean the upper floors, police began a thorough investigation over the course of the next month, uncovering Holmes's efficient methods of committing murders and then disposing of the corpses. While Holmes sat in prison in Philadelphia, not only did the Chicago police investigate his operations in that city, but the Philadelphia police began to try to unravel the Pitezel situation, the fate of the three missing children. Philadelphia detective Frank Geyer was given the task of finding out and his quest for the children, like the search of Holmes's Castle, received wide publicity. He would eventually discover their remains essentially sealed Holmes's fate, at least in the public mind. Holmes was put on trial for the murder of Pitezel and confessed, following his conviction, to 27 murders in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto, and six attempted murders. Holmes was paid $7,500 ($197,340 in today's dollars) by the Hearst Newspapers in exchange for this confession. He gave various contradictory accounts of his life, claiming initially innocence and later that he was possessed by Satan. His faculty for lying has made it difficult for researchers to ascertain any truth on the basis of his statements. On May 7, 1896, H. H. Holmes went to the hangman's noose. His last meal was boiled eggs, dry toast, and coffee. Even at the noose, he changed his story. He claimed to have killed only two people, and tried to say more but at 10:13 the trapdoor opened and he was hanged, it took him fully 15 minutes to strangle to death on the gallows. Afraid of body-snatchers who might capitalize on his corpse, Holmes had made a request: He wanted no autopsy and he instructed his attorneys to see that he was buried in a coffin filled with cement. This was taken to Holy Cross Cemetery south of Philadelphia and two Pinkerton guards stood over the grave during the night before the body was finally interred in a double grave also filled with cement. No stone was erected to mark it, Larson states, although its presence is recorded on a cemetery registry. Holmes attorneys had turned down an offer of $5,000 for his body, and even refused his brain to Philadelphias Wistar Institute, which hoped to have its experts analyze the organ for better understanding of the criminal mind. Larson recounts a series of strange events afterward that gave credence to the rumors that Holmes was satanic, including several weird deaths and a fire at the D. A. s office that destroyed everything there save a photograph of Holmes. During this case, another American phenomenon arose from society's fascination with sensational crime. Thousands of people lined up to see the Chicago murder site, so a former police officer remodeled the infamous building as â€Å"Holmes's Horror Castle,† an attraction that offered guided tours to the suffocation chambers and torture rooms. But before it opened it mysteriously burned to the ground. So many people who'd rented rooms from Holmes during the fair had actually gone missing that sensational estimates of his victims reached around 200, and some people perpetuated this unsubstantiated toll even today. Its likely that Holmes own figure from his recanted confession is low, but there is no way to know just how many he actually killed. In the end he was so worried that someone would want to do to him what he had done to so many others that he felt the only way he could rest in peace was to be encased in concrete. He was one of the first ever serial killers and one of the worst. It was horrible what he did and all of the lives lost because of this man. In my opinion his request for a protected grave was one of the things that show you how crazy this man really was and how smart he was all at the same time. In my opinion the starting point in H. H. Holmes spiral to murder would be that as a child, schoolmates forced him to view and touch a human skeleton after discovering his fear of the local doctor. The bullies initially brought him there to scare him, but instead he was utterly fascinated, and he soon became obsessed with death. He started by stealing bodies from the morgue, would disfigure them and then claim they were accidentally killed so he could collect on an insurance policy he would take out on each person. Some of his fellow students became scared of him while trying to bully him, he was a bigamist, some felt he was charming, he was manipulative, and many of those around him viewed him as suspicious and shady. H. H. Holmes seemed to have the perfect idea on how to get rich and how to get away with murder and in fact he did for a long time. He was a very smart man and that is the reason that I believe he was able to go so long without getting caught. On New Year's Eve, 1910, Marion Hedgepeth, who had been pardoned for informing on Holmes, was shot and killed by a police officer during a holdup at a Chicago saloon. Then, on March 7, 1914, the Chicago Tribune reported that, with the death of the former caretaker of the Murder Castle, Pat Quinlan, â€Å"the mysteries of Holmes' Castle† would remain unexplained. Quinlan had committed suicide by taking strychnine. Quinlan's surviving relatives claimed Quinlan had been â€Å"haunted† for several months before his death and could not sleep.

Evaluating Online Sources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Evaluating Online Sources - Essay Example Her credential speaks for itself and this makes her article useful and reliable. Furthermore, being a scholar, she must have written the article after conducting several studies and observations. Katrina article is published in the Dialogue Journal, an international journal of thought, faith and action. It is a non-profit organization aimed at nurturing intelligent, deepening reader’s commitment to Jesus Christ and the Bible, as well as articulating biblical responses to the contemporary issues in humanities, philosophy, arts, and sciences. In her article, Katrina strives to explain whether the benefit human beings obtain from animal usage in medical research justifies the act. Additionally, she aims at pointing at the biblical support for using animals in medical research. She asserts that Jewish teachings claim that animals were created to serve the interests of human beings; thus, their use as companions, food, and for labor (Katrina, n.d). Animals were to serve humans so long as they were treated in a manner that they were not subjected to pain and suffering. Therefore, Katrina supports the use of animals in medical research so long as they were handled with care and not subjected to pain. Katrina also claims that human beings are superior to animals; thus, their interests should be served first. This implies that animals should be used for goals that improve the conditions of human beings. Since medical research aims at improving the health standards of human beings, Katrina argues that animal research is justifie d. As much as she gives reasons that support animal usage in medical research, Katrina also points out that the animals should be handled in a manner that reduces unnecessary stress (Katrina, n.d). She reinforces that animals should be used in research that they are needed and that the research personnel conducting the test should be well trained on research principles and ethics that concern animal welfare (Katrina, n.d). In this way, using

The Impact of Every Child Matters on Workplace Case Study

The Impact of Every Child Matters on Workplace - Case Study Example Aside from briefly discussing the context of â€Å"Every Child Matters†, this report will examine the different UK public policies such as Equality Act 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, Employment Rights Act of 1996, Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, and Race Relations Act of 1976 as a way of examining how the promotion of cultural diversity within the educational system could help each child prepare and protect themselves as soon as they are ready to look for employment opportunities. After discussing the significance of cultural diversity in the work environment, strategic ways on how to develop and create an effective inclusive learning environment for children with or without learning difficulties will be tackled in details. Specifically, the educational support needs of each child vary depending on their individual learning capabilities. Some students are fast learners whereas students who were born with mental or physical health problems may have difficulty in learning (Learning and Teaching Scotland 2007). In order to remove all the barriers to learning, the Scottish government has exerted so much effort on increasing the social complexity of each school. Under the current Scottish Executive Education Department, the Education Act 2004 promotes an equal opportunity for education regardless of the mental and physical condition of a child. The said Act includes rendering additional short- and long-term support needs related to social, socio-economic status, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, disability or family and care circumstances which may hinder a child’s learning development (Scottish Executive Education Department 2004; Killean 2003). Similar to Children Act of 2004, â€Å"Every Child Matters† was developed to ensure that the educational and health services that each child will receive equal benefits regardless of their physical and mental condition.  

Design and the New Ornament Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Design and the New Ornament - Case Study Example The Latin term memento mori stands for - remember that you must die. They remind that everyone is mortal. 'Memento' also stands for 'a point of departure'. A deviation. Perhaps even signifying unfaithfulness. 'Memento Mori' is also the title of a story written by Jonathan Nolan. The complex story is centered around a man named Leonard in a mental institution. Leonard has problems with his memory and so has to depend on notes and pictures to daily remind himself about what he has to do, even simple chores like brushing his teeth. The extend of his brain damage could be gauged from the scenes of Leonard trying to cope with his daily life. The main cause of his problem is the rape and murder of his wife. This is all he can think of, and he carries on with notes written in italics to himself stuck all over the ceiling where he stoically explains why he could never lead a normal existence. He seeks revenge for his wife's murder knowing he cannot get over it. This is the only scene fresh in his mind and memory. The story is interspersed with five brief scenes in Leonard's life - waking up in a mental institution, trying to go through the process of brushing his teeth, waking up fully clothed in bed, and then reading the note on the ceiling telling him he must escape the institution to find his wife's killer.He opens his eyes to find himself getting a tattoo, waking up in a hotel room, and examining all his tattooed facts and instructions, including a sketch of a man's face; looking out a car window at a dead man on the sidewalk with a face matching his tattoo, then finding that he is handcuffed and can't find a pen as the car pulls away from the scene.The human mind, conditioned largely by what we read, learn and are told, is rather crazy. The images it creates in people's minds, seen or unseen, largely influences the person to go in for a particular tattoo design at a specific spot in his or her body. Earlier, tattoos were largely used by ruffians, outlaws and biker gangs. But now even ce lebrities sport tattoos and complement their piercings. (www.tattoos-the.com). History of the tattoo The word 'tattoo' comes from the Tahitian word tatau. In the 1800s tattoos were particularly popular in England where sailors would get them as permanent souvenirs of their travels (www.tattoos-the.com). Tattoos have been around for thousands of years. They have been found in 3,000 years old Egyptian mummies. They are sported in designs of all kinds, plain, elaborate, colorful, almost always personal. Permanent once etched, they serve as amulets, status symbols, love emblems, adornments, and even signs of religious beliefs. Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of York in Britain, describes the history of tattoos and their cultural significance to people around the world, from the famous " Iceman," a 5,200-year-old frozen mummy, to today's Maori. www.smithsonian.com1. If you're thinking about getting a tattoo, make sure you are up to date with your immunizations, and plans about where to go for medical care if your tattoo becomes infected.Added to these, you have to take the precaution of consulting your doctor if you

Marketing decisions and planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing decisions and planning - Essay Example For Hemopure, competitive market is represented by the donor blood market and substitute products. The main competitors of Biopure are Baxter and Northfield. Both companies are market leaders relying on the high quality of products and selling history. Competition refers to the creation of differential advantage particularly by the effective management of innovation to meet changing marketing opportunities (Cooper et al 133). Programmed innovation, like Hemopure, is the method of achieving continuous market adjustment; competition is its stimulus. The main difference between Baxter’s and Northfield’s products and Hemopure is that the latter is based on cattle blood used as the main source of hemoglobin. External factors that place a limit on competition and innovation include various types of governmental regulation, accepted industry practices and agreements, and the social. The main strengths of Hemopure are innovative methods of production and hemoglobin extraction. The main weakness is that the product is not ready for immediate launch and will need two additional years of research and development. Also, Northfield laboratories received FDI approval in 1999 (Biopure Corporation 8-9). Veterinary market proposes enormous opportunities for Biopure because it will be the only company producing such products. The main strength is that for the next 3-5 years, Biopure will be the only market leader in this sector. The main weakness is that any other company can enter this market and reduce the price level. Thus, even such lead

Leader of a Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Leader of a Business - Research Paper Example One more thing that justifies the discussion about the person in this paper is that the hotel belonging to this group (Taj Mahal, Mumbai, India) has born the brunt of terrorist attacks and has been reopened within a month. As a result, the author of this paper felt that one can find organizational behavior/management as well as conflict management techniques in the actions of the person mentioned in this paper; Ratan Tata, who succeeded the group as part of the legacy of Tata's family. The personality of Ratan Tata is reflected in his activities as he developed management of Tata Sons into a think tank that contemplates group's vertical as well as horizontal expansion. His leadership prompted the directors of the company as well as heads of various industries to innovate the products and to reach a common man as well as middle-class people in third world countries as well as targeting the rich customers. Regarding personality development of this person, he has transformed a lot from the date he received his bachelor degree in 1962 and transformed his company to a strategic think tank from just a manufacturing think tank. The important trait in Ratan Tata is that he inherited the fact that the holding company can manage with minor share along with the fact that enables a company to expand through acquisitions. With the revenues of his group companies, his group successfully acquired Corus Group Plc for 6.2billin GBP, which demonstrates his cash utilizing techniques for expansion of the business. Hence, one can state that he has good management techniques as his group is able to manage the companies with a minor stake and he is able to convince the group companies to mobilize cash for acquisitions. This demonstrates his planning that is able to convince the majority shareholders and directors, who have real control over the company with a major amount of shares. As a result, his personality is a mix of organizational management (managing the group with minor share) and planning future endeavors.

Cheating in baseball Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cheating in baseball - Essay Example Thornton et al, also presents their view on the deeper roots of cheating in baseball. The author present a case study, founded on cheating, about Mark Schelereth who was an offensive linesman in the NFL Denver Broncos. The case study present the implication of a creative cheating whereby coating their arms with Vaseline thereby making them â€Å"slimey† such that no individual could grab onto them. Their actions lead to the Broncos winning the game over their opponents. Further, there was no action taken against them implying that their cheating strategy worked to their advantage although it presented an unfair competition. Considering this case study, the authors asserts, â€Å"cheating in sports is generally considered unethical; however, in baseball circles it is tolerated† (Thornton et al, p. 12). This is enough evidence to support the fact that cheating is moral in baseball especially when exhibited in a skillful way. Mills, Dorothy S. Chasing Baseball: Our Obsession with Its History, Numbers, People and Places. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2010. Dorothy Mills uses her book in order to show the extent of cheating in baseball. She asserts that cheating is an everyday aspect in baseball and other sports, with every individual associated with the game facing the consequences. The cheating individuals normally end up gaining unfair advantage against their competitors thereby affecting both the latter and their fans. Dorothy asserts, concerning the fans associated to cheating team â€Å"we cheer when our teams cheat†¦ ... The cheating individuals normally end up gaining unfair advantage against their competitors thereby affecting both the latter and their fans. Dorothy asserts, concerning the fans associated to cheating team â€Å"we cheer when our teams cheat†¦ that’s because all we care about is winning, fans do not care about being fare to the other guys† (Mills, p. 113). This excerpt acts as evidence that cheating forms a significant part of a baseball game considering that it may affect the results from the referee. Despite a team presenting all their efforts to play their game, a residing official may end up frustrating them when the latter does not realize cheating from the other team. Cassuto, Leonard, and Stephen Partridge. The Cambridge Companion to Baseball. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Cassuto presents an instance of Beckley who had miss the third base by fifteen feet but the residing official still considered that a win. Cassuto asserts that the p layers normally use this blatant trick in order to gain unfair advantage from the residing officials. Even though many fans in the game may have witnessed Beckley miss the third base, they did not present any effort towards complaining about the game. Cassuto uses this to confirm the truth that cheating is part of baseball besides other sports and fans condone it. He asserts â€Å"fans understand cheating and even condone cheating†¦.that puts cheating in unusual moral category, wrong doing that the baseball lovers would rather have in the game than not† (Cassuto&Stephen, p. 186). This quote is enough evidence that the baseball fans consider the act of cheating as moral and would feel unease for any game that does not have cheating. Cassuto & Stephen use the book as

Object Oriented Databases Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Object Oriented Databases - Research Paper Example This paper has discussed some of the major advantages and disadvantages of object oriented databases in comparison with relational database management systems. An object oriented database stores data and information in the form of objects. Actually, OODBMS stores objects instead of data, such as real numbers, strings and integers. These databases are believed to be very useful for businesses when they have huge data and high performance is required. There are a number of languages that support objects, for instance C++, Java and Smalltalk. In fact, these languages provide an excellent support for modeling, inheritance and creating objects of the data. In addition, OODBMS allow developers to extend the capabilities of the programming languages such as control the consistencies, easy data recovery and improved database features (Rouse 2005, Stajano 1998, Bagui 2003). Basically, OODBMS store data in the form of objects, which consist of attributes and methods. A method is used to graphically demonstrate the objects. Normally, unified modeling language (UML) is used to demonstrate these objects. In addition, data stored in a database have some characteristics, which are called attributes. For instance, a ball is an object and its attributes are its color and its shapes. Similarly, the operations or functions that an object performs on data are called methods. For instance, a doctor performs some actions to check their patients and these actions are known as method (WBT-Master Server Map 2014, Carlsson 2003, Atkinson, et al. 2003). â€Å"A relational database stores data in the form of a set of appropriately defined tables from which data could be reassembled or accessed in a lot of diverse means without reorganizing the database tables† (Stajano 1998). E. F. Codd invented the relational database at IBM in 1970. Additionally, a relational database is a collection of tables holding data fitted into properly arranged groups. Every table (that is sometimes acknowledged

Struggle for Economic Justice by women in Australia Essay Example for Free

Struggle for Economic Justice by women in Australia Essay This is a term that has been used in reference to movements that have had the aim of politics, culture as well as economy. These movements have the motive of superior rights as well as chance of participation in matters of the society for women and girls within the region in target. These are rights and chances of participation that are aimed at making sure that those of the female gender share a rather equal platform in various fields of life as with their male counterparts (Ellen, 2007). These fields include legal protection, politics, businesses, scholarships as well as the recognition and eventual building of a culture and power for women. These movements have been sparked by the fact that since traditional times the position of the woman in the society has been in the house where she is expected to raise the family. This is the bond of contention that feminist movements disagree with and are fighting to change. Most people view feminism being controversial based on the fact that it has challenged the values held by tradition. This has highly been witnessed in the political scenes where women never had a chance but have fought their way through (Gilligan, 1977). Feminism in Australia Feminism can be considered to have revolved on the basis of the fact that the history of feminism can be divided into three based on the reforms that each group was pushing for during its time. The second wave of the movements which run between 1960 to the 1980’s was much concerned with inequality that women faced in the face of the law as well as culture. This was a vital time frame for the feminist movement based on the fact they were fighting against something that they had lived with and had been seen as part of life. The third wave in the groping of the feminist movements reigned as from the 1980’s to the early 2000’s. This wave might not have a distinct task that it can be linked with but can rather be viewed as a continuation of the second wave and might as well be viewed as a response to the failure that the other waves might have made (Anita Dorota, 1998). Feminism in Australia as from the 1980’s can be deemed as radical based on the fact that it has focused on a eliminating a system of power that arises from the theory of patriarchy. In their view, this has been used to organize the society such that it is more complex of relationships on the basis of an assumption of male supremacy that has been used as a tool to oppress women. This radical movement has had the intention of challenging and overthrowing the patriarchy. This has been by means of opposing standard gender roles, opposition of the oppression of women as well as making calls that perpetuate a reordering of the society which is expected to be radical. In the onset of the radical feminist the movement at the time viewed patriarchy as a phenomenon that was transhistorical and deeper as compared to other sources of oppression towards women. In this case it was viewed as an old universal source of oppression that acted as the model for the structure of other forms. Within a near future the group witnessed a change in their politics over a range of cultural feminism to more vibrant politics that brought about issues of class as well as economics to a level that was at par with patriarchy as sources of women’s oppression (Alcoff, 1998). In Australia in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the radical feminist movements took part in a number of squats with their underlying aim being the establishment of a range of women’s centres. Time was dawning and by mid 1980’s many of the consciousness riding groups that had formed the original movement had dissolved. This was in a systematic way as they got associated in universities that were loosely organized. This paved way to modern feminism which can be witnessed in a more precise way with student activism as well as with women who form the working class population of the nation. Over the period in the 1980’s, the government of Australia came up in support of feminism. This was expressed through funds that that the government offered to the feminist social organization of which most accepted. This was an aid that did not last for long based on the fact the election that preceded this event resulted in the election of a new government that abolished the fund (Reina Sara, 2003). Feminism, after the year 1980 has faced many obstacles some of which are as a result of its achievements. These include the rights of the woman to work which was seen as a means of economically empowering the women (Ellen, 2007). The idea was brilliant based on the fact that it has economically empowered the woman but has as well created a burden for the women. This is based on the fact that the job opportunities have created added responsibility to the women bearing in mind the role that they play in the homes. Though feminism might have made a significant growth in Australia the benefits of the growth can not be said to have been equally distributed between the women. This is in line with the Aboriginal women who form part of Australia’s indigenous population. This is a population that can not be said to share the light of the developments made in the country based on the fact their livelihood depends on survival. The Aboriginal women who form part of this population suffer great violence, proportions that have been said to violate human rights. This is a situation that has been created by factors of race, gender, post-colonial effects, unequal access to resources of the society as well as the unequal development of the community. Indications from both social and economic perspective prove that Aborigines are most disadvantaged in Australia while their women fare worst. The violence against these women is an indication that feminism has not yet accomplished its aim of eradicating women oppression in the country. Though we might say that the movement has had significant achievements this has been in varied areas and especially the urban centers where the movement has been able to draw its message. The case with the women of Aboriginal is an indication that the economic battle that feminism is fighting has not yet been accomplished (Heather Jackie, 1998). The Equal Pay Act of 1970 The equal pay act of 1970 was made with the purpose of addressing the inequality that existed between men and women over their pay. This was prompted by the fact that the women through feminist movement had resented over the poor pay that they earned at their work places. This was despite the fact that in most cases the women worked more that the men did. This was an issue that needed urgent address leading to the formulation of the act. The act might have been made but the country has not yet fully witnessed the success of this act. This is based on the fact that women in Australia still earn less than men in the region. This is despite the fact that the act was made in which women were expected to be paid equal amounts when they did the same job. However, the act stipulated instances when the pay might not be equaled based on the fact one employee might have higher credential than the other thus the imbalance in the pay rates. Despite this aspect of the act the pay towards women has been poor as compared to that of men with the difference between today and in the eighties being that the pay has been raised (Socialistworld. net, 2007). The underlying factor is the fact that despite the fact that the act was made it did not meet its intended target. From a point of view this can be seen a way through which the oppression of women continues even in today’s society based on the fact that women are viewed as inferior to men. The act can not be ignored on the basis that the pay has not been equalized but is to be applauded based on the fact that it had a significant impact in leading the pay of women to where they are today (Coote Beatrix, 1987). Though it may not be the target that was intended half a loaf is better than none. The economic progress that feminism wished to realize has not yet been achieved and the journey to its realization has as well proved hard. This can be attributed to the traditional aspect that never gave opportunity to women. These are the opportunities that women through the feminist movement are seeking to earn but it has proved difficult based on the fact that people are not yet ready to abandon this culture and offer women the demands that they are making. Conclusion Feminism is a movement that has aimed to advocate for equal treatment of women in all aspect of the society in the same way as men. This has been a battle based on the fact that the inferiority aspect of women originates from tradition which has proved hard to eradicate completely. The movement has had significant success in the uplifting of the economy of women though these are fruits that have been witnessed in the urban centers. This is a major limitation of the movement based on the fact women in the rural areas continue to suffer with little attempt being made to liberate them. The journey of the movement over the years has not been smooth based on the fact that the movement has encountered denial in its operations that have proved the women liberation task an uphill one. The success that the movement has achieved needs to be moved to the rural areas as well for the movement to have full achieved its goal. The economic liberation of women has witnessed significant success though more needs to be done. This is in account of the fact that women are still being oppressed economically.

Systems installation and configuration Essay Example for Free

Systems installation and configuration Essay You can is the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the drop-down menu. To select and option, highlight the item on the drop-down menu and press Enter. An ellipse after a menu item signifies additional options; if you select that option, a dialog box will appear. Toolbars The standard Toolbar The Formatting Toolbar Toolbars provide shortcuts to menu commands. Toolbars are generally located just below the Menu bar. Before proceeding with the lesson, make sure the Toolbars we will use -standard and Formatting- are available. Follow these steps 1. Point to View on the Menu bar 2. Click the left mouse button 3. Press the down arrow and key until Toolbars is highlighted 4. Press Enter 5. Standard and Formatting should have a checkmark next to them 6. If both standard and formatting, have a checkmark next to them, press Esc three times to close the menu. 7. If one or both do not have a checkmark, highlight customize 8. Press Enter 9. Point to the box next to the unchecked word and click the left mouse button. A checkmark should appear. Note: you turn the checkmark on and off by clicking the left mouse button. 10. Point to close and click the left mouse button to close the dialog The Ruler The ruler is generally found below the main toolbars. The ruler is used to change the format of your document quickly. To display the ruler: 1. Point to View on the Menu bar. 2. Click your left mouse button. 3. The option Ruler should have a checkmark next to it. If it has a checkmark next to it, press Esc twice to close the menu. If it does not have a checkmark next to it, continue to the next step. 4. Press the down arrow key until Ruler is highlighted 5. Press the Enter key. The ruler should display below the toolbars. Creating a Template . BIOS Keeping your PC, secure Setting a password on your BIOS is an excellent way to make your computer more secure. A password in Windows only restricts access to Windows and can be bypassed with a little knowledge; a BIOS password protects the computer from the moment it is switched on. There are two kinds of password that you can set in the BIOS. The first and most important password gives permission to change options in the BIOS itself and is commonly called a Setup password. This is particularly useful if you have stopped the computer from booting from CDs or floppy disks and do not want anybody to change this. This would be protecting my user from unauthorized usages. The other password should be typed in as soon as the computer is switched on, even before the option to enter the BIOS appears a User password. This is the first line of defence you can add to your computer and is very effective. A word of warning about getting too overconfident about these passwords, however. It is possible to reset the BIOS if you can access the inside of the computer and it does not stop someone from removing the hard disk to read on another system. If the files on your computer are secret, consider buying a case that can be locked to stop people from changing these options. Get your boots in order A very useful setting the BIOS allows you to change is how your computer boots. When it first starts, the BIOS looks for a disk containing an operating system to boot from. Usually, this is the hard disk but there may be times when you want to boot from a floppy disk or a CD-Rom. Which drives are checked and in what order is determined by the Boot Order in the BIOS. Changing the Boot Order can make your computer more secure as it gives you more control over how it starts. Even if Windows is password-protected, it is possible for someone to start the computer with a floppy disk or a CD. Alternatively, if you want to stop someone messing around with your computer, you can do so by restricting how the computer starts and make your computer look on your hard drive for an operating system first. Enter your BIOS in the usual way and enter the Advanced BIOS Features screen. You will either see a list of the devices the BIOS checks, or an option to change the boot order. To make our computer more secure we are going to change the first boot device to HDD-0, which is short for Hard Disk Drive 0, or the first hard disk, in other words. Move down to First Boot Device and press Enter to see a list of devices the computer can boot from, Move down to HDD-0 and press Enter again. Changing the boot order for troubleshooting is effectively the reverse of this process. You can load many very good troubleshooting tools from CD or floppy disk. If there are problems with the hard drive, you may need to make the computer look elsewhere first. This might be necessary if Windows has a fault that stops it from loading properly or if you want to boot from the Windows CD-Rom in order to reinstall it. Return to the Advanced BIOS Features screen and change the First Boot Device to the media that you want to boot from. Unlike many other manufacturers that stick to BIOS, MSI often prefers BIOS from AMI. Well, there is nothing wrong as the new AMIBIOS versions, unlike the previous ones, offer a wide range of Setup settings and often show better performance than the BIOS versions from Award. And now lets dwell upon the Setup settings. Memory timings located on the separate page of the BIOS Setup come first. You can see that all the key timings in MSI KT4 Ultra can be modified. Besides CAS Latency, you can change Trp, Tras and Trcd settings as well as DRAM Command Rate, Memory Interleaving and DRAM Burst Length. All the parameters can vary in usual ranges, while CAS Latency can even be set to 1. 5, although we couldnt power up MSI KT4 Ultra with such a CAS value in our test lab. As for hardware monitoring, MSI KT4 Ultra keeps track of system and CPU temperatures, rotation speeds of two fans, processor core voltage and six other voltage values. Of course, MSI KT4 Ultra has something to offer over clocking fans. These tools are listed in a separate BIOS page called Frequency/Voltage Control, and deserve a closer look. Here is a list of options an over clocker receives from MSI KT4 Ultra main board: Â  Bus frequency adjustment. You can set any frequency from 100MHz to 280MHz. Well, the top FSB frequency is just an attraction. The maximum working FSB rate you can set on MSI Ultra KT4 is 233MHz. If you choose a frequency above this value, the bus will actually work at half the desired rate. CPU multiplier adjustment. The range is from 6x to 15x. Â  Manual adjustment of the CPU core voltage. The values available are Auto, 1. 625, 1. 650, 1. 675, 1. 700, 1. 725 and 1. 750V. Therefore, the options here are rather scarce (the regular core voltage is usually 1. 65V). Â  DDR DIMM slots voltage adjustment. The values available are Auto, 2. 6, 2. 7 and 2. 8V. It is also possible to set Termination Voltage (Auto, 1. 27 and 1. 29V). Therefore, MSI KT4 Ultra has every right to boast cool means of memory voltage adjustment. Â  AGP voltage can be set to Auto, 1. 6, 1. 7 and 1. 8V. This would be important for my user because it would let he/she know what facts and settings the BIOS have to offer. After checking all the options in practice, we can state that the entire range of FSB frequencies up to 233MHz is working, that is, the mainboard is stable at any FSB frequency up to 233MHz. Overclockers should really enjoy it and continue the AMDs initiative about raising the FSB frequency of their Athlon XP above 166MHz. But at 166MHz FSB, the memory in MSI KT4 Ultra can be clocked only synchronously due to the restrictions in the VIA KT400 chipset. Moreover, the minimum divisor of the PCI bus thats activated at the FSB rate over 166MHz is 1:5. So, when overclocking the FSB above 166MHz, the system may lose some of its stability because of certain problems with the memory or expansion cards. There is one more unpleasant peculiarity I noticed when overclocking the CPU in MSI KT4 Ultra. This mainboard turned to have no means to reset CPU parameters in case of over-overclocking. So, when the mainboard doesnt start up after a change in BIOS Setup settings, the only way to reanimate the system is to use the Clear CMOS jumper. Practical Components and fittings of a PC Motherboard This is the main circuit board of the computer. The motherboard contains connectors for attaching additional boards. The motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices such as the monitor, screen, and disk drive. A motherboard. Fitting the motherboard The case has a slide-out tray, which provides a very elegant way to install the motherboard and all of its components. Cheaper cases will have a mounting case plate fixed permanently to the case. If I had that type of case, I would first lay the case on its side. Next, I screw in the spacer mounts for fixing the motherboard as seen in the photo above. There are usually more holes drilled in the mounting plate than you actually need. There are standard locations for these holes on the mounting plate, which correspond to the holes on the motherboard. How many of these are actually used depends on the board manufacturer. Fitting the Hard disk Photo of a Typical Hard disk The hard drive is secured with four screws, usually the coarse thread type, and the end of the drive with the connectors must point towards the inside of the case. There are usually a couple rows of holes in the cage, make sure the holes you pick let the screws clear the opening at the front of the case when you put the cage back in. Normally, the second set from the cage bottom is used The Ribbon Cable Always install the ribbon cables before replacing the drive cage in the case. As the cage is being installed back in the case, you can see that the ribbon cable is already connected to the floppy drive and has been fed through the opening prior to sliding the cage in. Note also the position of the screws securing the floppy drive to the cage, all the way forward in the slots, which is the norm. The hard drive is mounted in the second set of holes from the cage bottom. Do not forget to reinstall the screws back in the cage, even though it snaps into place. The CD drive has already been installed in the top bay of our mini-tower, though you can wait until after you restore the plastic faceplate to the case, particularly if you are not sure which set of screw holes will align the drive flush with the cover. The ribbon cable has been installed on to the motherboard; with the red key wire in the ribbon towards pin one on the connector.

Analysis of literary elements in Harlem

Analysis of literary elements in Harlem What is a deferred dream that is not pursued? Published in 1951 by Langston Hughes, Harlem poses several questions using similes, imagery and culturally aimed words of the 1951 time period as to what happens to a deferred dream of equality. Most critics would agree that the dream Langston Hughes presented in the first line of the poem symbolizes African American longing for equality in most all aspects of American Society. Critic Mark Scott, for example, wrote that Hughes devoted his poetic genius to the realization of that dream deferred, the dream of racial equality(Scott 1). This longing that is deferred means that that most aspects of inequality such as racism and restrained opportunities still exist for African Americans in Society. In particular the first four questions Hughes delineates in Harlem direct the reader through his use of images and similes, to accentuate the deprivation of African American equality and success in American Society. Using bold images the poet helps readers to imagine the ideas in the poem. Beginning with the first question Hughes chose the image of a dried raisin to portray the idea of withering and uselessness. Of course the fruit was once appealing at a certain time in its growth. Critic Harry Phillips asserts a valid point in the first question, However, when the fruit, like the dream of equality, remains unharvested, it metamorphoses into something shrunken and less appealing(Phillips 1). In other words Phillips is saying that just like the raisin being uncollected is the same as the dream of equality being deferred. In the same question Hughes uses a simile to compare it, being the deferred dream of equality, with the dry raisin in the sun. For instance in the second question, Hughes uses the image of a festering sore to convey that continuously enduring racism and inequality is painful to pursue the dream of equality. Similarly in the third question there is the smell of rotten meat which again is compared to a dream that is no longer viable. The fourth question brings in to view sweet candy which seemingly may have been good to eat, but like the previously mentioned rotten meat the candy has lost its significance. After reading the previous questions and understanding the concept of the comparisons, the idea of the heavy load in the next section of the poem is understandable. In Phillips view, for example, he signifies that, Images are piled into â€Å"a heavy load,† and the weight of keeping ones eyes on the prize of genuine emancipation after repeated defeats causes the dream to sag and puts the prize seemingly out of reach(Phillips 1). In acknowledgment to Phillips view he emphasizes on the heavy load as se emingly a obstruction of hard ships that make it difficult for the dream to be realized. Finally the last line of the poem, is italicized for the poet to exemplify the importance that even though the dream for equality may be subdued and oppressed the persistent longing for the dream of African American equality will one day be reality. However the explosive nature of the dream signifies that it is not a gradual process but rather an forceful or extreme event that will take place to essentialy bring an end to racial inequality in American Society. In conclusion the literary elements such as the repetitive similes and strong imagery that Hughes uses in Harlem help the reader to understand the significance in the ideas that are depicted in the text by putting images in the readers memory to present the underlying theme.

The Effect of Full House on My Life Essay -- Sitcom Television Compare

The Effect of Full House on My Life When I look back at my childhood, I see it as a highly colored, exaggerated version of what it must have been. Everything seems brighter, and bigger than reality allows. It’s the ideal â€Å"child’s world,† full of Barbies, dress-up, and playgrounds. But, if I try hard enough, I can remember the feeling of being there. The feeling of being small, and nearly innocent. Most of the time when I think of my childhood, I look back on two specific years, kindergarten and first grade, and the summers before and after the two. Both of these took place in Schaumburg, Illinois, in a two-bedroom town-home that I still call â€Å"my old house† even though it’s not that anymore. I’m not sure if these are the years I simply remember the best, or if that was actually the time I felt most like a child. I had many friends, and we had plenty of time to play games and use our imaginations. Nevertheless, I don’t usually reminisce about the shows and movies that I used to watch, and certainly not how these things affected me growing up. When prompted, however, I can remember specifics. I even begin to see how visual texts, like The Little Mermaid and Full House, have influenced me throughout my life and especially in my childhood. I have felt the impact of these things in my life as recently as this year, and I can see not only how the shows I watched influenced my behavior, but also that I chose to watch shows and movies that I thought were representative of me. The show I remember watching most is definitely Full House. I mean, I thought I was D.J. Tanner. I had exact replicas of some of her outfits (like the blue, polka-dot blouse and pants set), and I was constantly asking to have my hair blown out just like hers.... ...less impossible. Full House, The Little Mermaid, and Under the Tuscan Sun all held examples, and lessons that I have often applied to my own life. Whether I was looking up to straight-laced D.J. Tanner, or the mischievous mermaid named Ariel, these visual texts have been an important influence on my life. All were things to aspire, and look forward to. The things I watched on TV. and in movies as a child definitely helped to shape my personality and views on life. Equally important are more recent movies and experiences that I can relate to my childhood favorites. Whether I’m looking back to my past in Schaumburg, or remembering moments as recent as last summer, by analyzing what it is I like about specific visual texts, I can learn a lot about myself. They are all representative of the kind of person I am, and the kind of person that I have always wanted to be. The Effect of Full House on My Life Essay -- Sitcom Television Compare The Effect of Full House on My Life When I look back at my childhood, I see it as a highly colored, exaggerated version of what it must have been. Everything seems brighter, and bigger than reality allows. It’s the ideal â€Å"child’s world,† full of Barbies, dress-up, and playgrounds. But, if I try hard enough, I can remember the feeling of being there. The feeling of being small, and nearly innocent. Most of the time when I think of my childhood, I look back on two specific years, kindergarten and first grade, and the summers before and after the two. Both of these took place in Schaumburg, Illinois, in a two-bedroom town-home that I still call â€Å"my old house† even though it’s not that anymore. I’m not sure if these are the years I simply remember the best, or if that was actually the time I felt most like a child. I had many friends, and we had plenty of time to play games and use our imaginations. Nevertheless, I don’t usually reminisce about the shows and movies that I used to watch, and certainly not how these things affected me growing up. When prompted, however, I can remember specifics. I even begin to see how visual texts, like The Little Mermaid and Full House, have influenced me throughout my life and especially in my childhood. I have felt the impact of these things in my life as recently as this year, and I can see not only how the shows I watched influenced my behavior, but also that I chose to watch shows and movies that I thought were representative of me. The show I remember watching most is definitely Full House. I mean, I thought I was D.J. Tanner. I had exact replicas of some of her outfits (like the blue, polka-dot blouse and pants set), and I was constantly asking to have my hair blown out just like hers.... ...less impossible. Full House, The Little Mermaid, and Under the Tuscan Sun all held examples, and lessons that I have often applied to my own life. Whether I was looking up to straight-laced D.J. Tanner, or the mischievous mermaid named Ariel, these visual texts have been an important influence on my life. All were things to aspire, and look forward to. The things I watched on TV. and in movies as a child definitely helped to shape my personality and views on life. Equally important are more recent movies and experiences that I can relate to my childhood favorites. Whether I’m looking back to my past in Schaumburg, or remembering moments as recent as last summer, by analyzing what it is I like about specific visual texts, I can learn a lot about myself. They are all representative of the kind of person I am, and the kind of person that I have always wanted to be.

Sacred Scripture :: essays research papers

The term 'Scripture' refers to the sacred writing of the Old and New Testament. Sacred Scripture are the books which 'contain the truth of God?s revelation and were composed by human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit' (CCC 105). Sacred Scripture is one of the several names denoting the inspired writings which make up the Old and New Testament. The words of the Sacred Scriptures, 'for their part proclaim the works and bring light to the mystery they contain'. The term 'Tradition' refers to the living transmission of the Gospel in the Church. ?The oral preaching of the Apostles, and the written message of salvation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are conserved and handed on as a deposit of faith through the apostolic succession in the Church? (CCC 77-78). Sacred or apostolic tradition consists of the teachings that the apostles passed on orally through their preaching. These teachings overlap with those contained in Scripture, but the mode of their transmission is different. However, Tradition generally refers to Christian teachings and practices outside of the Bible that are handed down from generation to generation. Sacred Scripture and Tradition consist of similar teachings, but these teachings are transmitted in different ways, Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit (CCC 81) while, Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit (CCC 81) Scripture and Tradition are related in Catholic Theology. They are connected to one another, ?Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single deposit of the Word of God? (CCC 97). ?Both the living Tradition and the written Scripture have their common source in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ? (CCC 75-82). Catholics view Scripture and Tradition as two sources of revelation. Revelation is the way in which God reveals his divine plan to all mankind, it is ?God?s communication of himself, by which he makes known the mystery of his divine plan? (CCC 50). God reveals himself through Sacred Scripture and Catholic Tradition. God revealed himself most fully through the Son (The Word), Jesus Christ, and there will be no further Revelation after him. However, through Scripture and Tradition, the mystery of God has been passed down through the ages.

The Life of Christopher Marlowe :: Free Essays Online

The Life of Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as "Kind Kit" and "The Muses' Darling," is most famously known for being a pioneer in English drama. Introducing blank verse, villain-heroes, and revenge dramas to the stage, Marlowe had a huge influence on other playwrights of that time including William Shakespeare. Marlowe was born in Canterbury in 1564 to John Marlowe, a shoemaker, and Katherine Arthur, a Dover native (Henderson 7). On February 26th that year he was baptized at St. George’s Church in Canterbury (8). During the Elizabethan era, it was important that bright young boys receive proper education. A local philanthropist would usually pay tuition for a boy whose family could not afford it. When Marlowe was accepted into the King’s School, usually for sons of wealthy men, Sir Roger Manwood, a local philanthropist, allegedly paid for his education. When he died, Marlowe wrote a Latin elegy for him ("The Life"). While he was at King’s School, Marlowe studied religious instruction, learned Latin grammar, and Latin and Greek Literature. He was also well studied in ancient and modern history and was encouraged to write Latin poetry and perform plays in Latin and Greek. Upon finishing King’s School, he received a Matthew Parker Scholarship to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where he attended from 1580-1587 to further his studies and demonstrate a â€Å"mastery of Latin syntax and grammar.† He received his BA in 1584 to become ‘Dominus’ Marlowe ("The Life"). During the Elizabethan era, many of the best college students were recruited into the Secret Service to protect the Queen and her government. In 1584, after receiving his BA, Marlowe was recruited into the Queen’s Secret Service by Sir Francis Walshingham, England’s Secretary of State. During his time as an agent he gained respect from the Queen and her court, getting recognized as a talented writer. His political insight was â€Å"reflected in his political play about the turmoil in France, The Massacre at Paris† ("The Life"). Marlowe’s most important assignment was uncovering the Babington Plot, aimed at the Queen’s assassination and the assassination of her chief ministers in order to place Mary, Queen of Scots, as England’s Catholic queen. The Life of Christopher Marlowe :: Free Essays Online The Life of Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as "Kind Kit" and "The Muses' Darling," is most famously known for being a pioneer in English drama. Introducing blank verse, villain-heroes, and revenge dramas to the stage, Marlowe had a huge influence on other playwrights of that time including William Shakespeare. Marlowe was born in Canterbury in 1564 to John Marlowe, a shoemaker, and Katherine Arthur, a Dover native (Henderson 7). On February 26th that year he was baptized at St. George’s Church in Canterbury (8). During the Elizabethan era, it was important that bright young boys receive proper education. A local philanthropist would usually pay tuition for a boy whose family could not afford it. When Marlowe was accepted into the King’s School, usually for sons of wealthy men, Sir Roger Manwood, a local philanthropist, allegedly paid for his education. When he died, Marlowe wrote a Latin elegy for him ("The Life"). While he was at King’s School, Marlowe studied religious instruction, learned Latin grammar, and Latin and Greek Literature. He was also well studied in ancient and modern history and was encouraged to write Latin poetry and perform plays in Latin and Greek. Upon finishing King’s School, he received a Matthew Parker Scholarship to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where he attended from 1580-1587 to further his studies and demonstrate a â€Å"mastery of Latin syntax and grammar.† He received his BA in 1584 to become ‘Dominus’ Marlowe ("The Life"). During the Elizabethan era, many of the best college students were recruited into the Secret Service to protect the Queen and her government. In 1584, after receiving his BA, Marlowe was recruited into the Queen’s Secret Service by Sir Francis Walshingham, England’s Secretary of State. During his time as an agent he gained respect from the Queen and her court, getting recognized as a talented writer. His political insight was â€Å"reflected in his political play about the turmoil in France, The Massacre at Paris† ("The Life"). Marlowe’s most important assignment was uncovering the Babington Plot, aimed at the Queen’s assassination and the assassination of her chief ministers in order to place Mary, Queen of Scots, as England’s Catholic queen.

Mba Syllabus

Master of Business Administration (MBA) – 2 Years (Syllabus 2007) SEMESTER I DBA 1601 MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT – Evolution of Management thoughts – Contribution of Selected Management Thinkers – Various approaches to management – contemporary management practice – Managing in global environment – Managerial functions. UNIT II PLANNING – Importance of planning – TypesImportance of planning – Types of planning – decision making process – Approaches to decision making – Decision models – Pay off Matrices – Decision trees – Break Even Analysis.UNIT III ORGANISING – Departmentation – Span of ContDepartmentation – Span of Control – Delegation – Centralisation and Decentralisation – Commitees – Line and Staff relationships – Recent trends in organisation structures. eading – Leadership styl es and qualities – Communication – process and barriers. UNIT V CONTROLLING – Managements control systems – techniques – Types of control. TEXT BOOKS: * Stephen P. Robbins and David A. Decenzo, Fundamentals of Management, Pearson Education, Third Edition, 2001. *   J. S.Chandan, Management Concepts and Strategies, Vikas Publishing House, 2002. REFERENCES: * Tim Hannagan, Management Concepts and Practices, Macmillan India Ltd. , 1997. * Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum, Management: A Competency-Based Approach, South Western, 9th edition, 2002. * Stewart Black and Lyman W. Porter, Management – Meeting New Challenges, Prentice Hall, 2000. * Koontz, Essentials of Management, Tata McGraw-Hill, 5th Edition, 2001. * Bateman Snell, Management: Competing in the new era, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2002. DBA 1602 STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT UNIT I PROBABILITY -Basic definitions and rules for probability, conditional probability, independent of events, Bayeâ€⠄¢s theorem, random variables, Probability distributions: Binomial, Poisson, Uniform and Normal distributions. UNIT II SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION AND ESTIMATION – Introduction to sampling distributions, sampling techniques, sampling distribution of mean and proportion, application of central limit theorem. Estimation: Point and Interval estimates for population parameters of large sample and small samples, determining the sample size. UNIT III TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS -Hypothesis testing: one sample and two samples tests for means and proportions of large samples (z-test), one sample and two sample tests for means of small samples (t-test), F-test for two sample standard deviations, Chi-square test for single samples standard deviation. Chi-square tests for independence of attributes and goodness of fit. UNIT IV NON-PARAMETRIC METHODS – Sign test for paired data. Rank sum test: Mann – Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test. One sample run test, rank correlation. UNIT V CORRELATION, REGRESSION AND TIME SERIES ANALYSIS – Correlation analysis, estimation of regression line.Time series analysis: Variations in time series, trend analysis, cyclical variations, seasonal variations and irregular variations. TEXT BOOKS: * Levin R. I. and Rubin D. S. , â€Å"Statistics for management†, 7th edition, Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. , New Delhi, 2001. * Aczel A. D. and Sounderpandian J. , â€Å"Complete Business Statistics†, 5th edition, Tata McGraw – Hill Publishing Company Ltd. , New Delhi, 2004. * Anderson D. R. , Sweeney D. J. and Williams T. A. , â€Å"Statistics for business and economics†, 8th edition, Thomson (South – Western) Asia Pte. Ltd. , Singapore, 2002. REFERENCES: Levine D. M. , Krehbiel T. C. and Berenson M. L. , â€Å"Business Statistics: A First Course†, Pearson Education Asia, 2nd edition, New Delhi, 2002. * Hooda R. P. , â€Å"Statistics for Business and Economics†, 2nd edition, Macm illan India Ltd. , 2001. * Morse L. B. , â€Å"Statistics for Business and Economics†, HarperCollins college Publishers, New York, 1993. * Bowerman B. L. , Connel R. T. O’ and Hand M. L. , â€Å"Business Statistics in Practice†, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill / Irwin, 2001. * Gupta S. C. and Kapoor V. K. , â€Å"Fundamentals of MathematicalStatistics†,Sultan Chand & Sons, New Delhi, 2002.DBA1603 ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT UNIT I NATURE AND SCOPE OF MACRO ECONOMIC ISSUES – Macro economic variables – national income, investment, savings, employment, inflation, balance of payment, exchange rate – circular flow of income – national income concepts – measurement of national income – role of economic planning – Indian economic planning. UNIT II ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL INCOME – Determination of national income – Keynesian perspective – multiplier – accelerator – busi ness cycle – the role of fiscal policy – Indian fiscal policy and experiences.UNIT III ANALYSIS OF MONEY MARKET – Demand and supply of money – money market equilibrium – the role of money – monetary policy – Indian perspectives. UNIT IV INTEGRATION OF COMMODITY AND MONEY MARKET – Analysis of inflation and unemployment – the role of economic policies – Indian experiences. UNIT V ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL SECTOR – International trade – trade multiplier – linkage model – the role of trade policy – analysis of performance of Indian economy in external sector. TEXT BOOKS: * Ahuja H. L. , Economic Environment of Business, Macroeconomic analysis, S.Chand & Company Ltd. , New Delhi, 2005. * Gupta, G. S. Macroeconomics, Theory and Applications, Tata McGraw-Hill publishing company Ltd. , New Delhi, 2001. REFERENCES: * Samuelson, Paul A. , and Nordhaus, W. D. , Economics, Tata McGraw-Hill pu blishing company Ltd. , New Delhi 2004. * Ruddar Datt and K. P. M. Sundharam, Indian Economy, S. Chand & Company Ltd. , New Delhi, 2003. * Government of India (Ministry of Finance), Economic Survey (Latest issue), New Delhi. DBA1604 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR UNIT I FOCUS AND PURPOSE -Definition, need and importance of organizational behaviour – nature and scope – frame work – organizational behaviour models. UNIT II INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR – Personality – types – factors influencing personality – theories – learning – types of learners – the learning process – learning theories – organizational behaviour modification. Attitudes – characteristics – components – formation – measurement. Perceptions – importance – factors influencing perception – interpersonal perception. Motivation – importance – types – effects on work behavior. UNI T III GROUP BEHAVIOUR -Organization structure – formation – groups in organizations – influence – group dynamics – emergence of informal leaders and working norms – group decision making techniques – interpersonal relations – communication – control. UNIT IV LEADERSHIP AND POWER – Meaning – importance – leadership styles – theories – leaders Vs managers – sources of power – power centers – power and politics. UNIT V DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOURS – Organizational climate – factors affecting organizational climate – importance. Job satisfaction – determinants – measurements – influence on behavior.Organizational change – importance – stability Vs change – proactive Vs reactive change – the change process – resistance to change – managing change. Organizational development †“ characteristics – objectives – team building. Organizational effectiveness – perspective – effectiveness Vs efficiency – approaches – the time dimension – achieving organizational effectiveness. TEXT BOOKS: * Stephen P. Robins, Organisational Behavior, Prentice Hall of India, 9th edition, 2001. * Hellriegel, Slocum and Woodman, Organisational Behavior, South-Western, Thomson Learning, 9th edition, 2001. REFERENCES: Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, Organisational behavior, John Wiley, 7th edition, 2001. * Jit S. Chand, Organisational Behavior, Vikas publishing House Pvt. Ltd. 2nd edition, 2001. * Fred Luthans, Organisational Behavior, McGraw Hill Book Co. , 1998. * New Strom & Davis, Organisational behaviour, McGraw Hill, 2001. * Jaffa Harris and Sandra Hartman, Organisational Behaviour, Jaico, 2002. DBA1605 COMMUNICATION SKILLS UNIT I COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS – Systems approach, forms of business communication, managemen t and communication, factors facilitating communication. UNIT II COMMUNICATION PROCESS -Interpersonal perception, selective attention, feedback, variables, listening, barriers to listening, persuasion, attending and conducting interviews, participating in discussions, debates and conferences, presentation skills, paralinguistic features, oral fluency development. UNIT III BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE – Business letter. Memos, minutes, agendas, enquiries, orders, sales letters, notice, tenders, letters of application, letter of complaints. UNIT IV TECHNICAL REPORTS – Format, Choice of vocabulary, coherence and cohesion, paragraph writing, organization. UNIT V PROJECT REPORTS – Project proposal, project reports, appraisal reports.TEXT BOOKS: * Sharan J. Genrson and Steven M. Gerson – â€Å"Technical Writing – Process and Product† – Pearson Education – 2000. * Raymond V. Lesikar, John D. Pettit and Mary E. Flatley – Lesikass Bas ic Communication Tata McGraw Will 8th Edition – 1999. * Stevel. E. Pauley, Daniel G. Riordan – Technical Report Writing Today – AITBS Publishing & Distributors, India 5th edition – 2000. * Robert L. Shurter, Effective letters in business Thrid Ed. 1983. REFERENCES: * McGraith – Basic Managerial Skills for all Prentice Hall of India – 6th Edition 2002. * Halliday, M. A. Ky R. Hasan, Cohesion in English, Longman, London 1976.DBA1606 ACCOUNTING FOR MANAGEMENT UNIT I FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING 1. 1 Introduction to Financial, cost and management accounting, generally accepted accounting principles, conventions and concepts. The balance sheet and related concepts, the profit and loss account and related concepts/ Introduction to inflation accounting, introduction to human resources accounting. 1. 2 Accounting Mechanics – Basic records, preparation of financial statements, revenue recognition and measurement, matching revenues and expenses, In ventory pricing and valuation, Fixed assets and depreciation accounting, intangible assets. . 3 Analysis of financial statements – Financial ratio analysis, cash flow and funds flow statement analysis UNIT II COST ACCOUNTING AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING 2. 1 Cost Accounts – Accounting for manufacturing operations, classification of manufacturing costs, Accounting for manufacturing costs. Cost Accounting Systems: Job order costing, Process costing, Activity Based costing, Costing and the value chain, Target costing, Cost-Volume – Profit Analysis, Standard cost system. 2. 2 Management Accounting:Relevant Cost for decision making, Incremental analysis, Special order decision, Production constraint decisions, Make or buy decisions, sell, scrap or rebuild decisions, Joint product decision, Responsibility accounting and performance evaluation. Budget: As a planning and control tool. TEXT BOOKS: * M. Y. Khan & P. K. Jain – Management Accounting, Tata McGraw Hil l publishing company Ltd. , 2004. * M. A. Sahaf – Management Accounting (Principles & Pratice): Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. , New Delhi, 2004. REFERENCES: * R. S. N. Pillai & Bagavathi – Managemnt Accounting S. Chand & Co.Ltd. , New Delhi, (2002). * R. Narayanaswamy – Financial Accounting – A managerial perspective Prentice Hall India Pvt. , Ltd. , New Delhi. * Bhattacharya S. K. John Dearden Accounting for Managemnt text and cases – Vikas publishing house, New Delhi, 2000. * Charles T. Hornegren – Introduction to management accounting Prentice Hall, New Delhi, 2001. DBA1607 LEGAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS UNIT I MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL LAW The Indian Contract Act 1872 – Essential of a valid contract, Void Agreements, Formation of a contract, performance of contracts, breach of contract and its remedies, Quasi contracts.The Sale of Goods Act 1930 – Sales contract, transfer of title and risk of loss, warranties in s ales contract, performance of sales contracts, conditional sales and rights of an unpaid seller. Negotiable instruments Act 1881 – Nature and requisites of negotiable instruments, transfer of negotiable instruments and liability of parties, enforcement of secondary liability, holder in due course, special rules for cheques and drafts, discharge of negotiable instruments.Agency – Nature of agency – How created, Agent’s authority and liability of principal and third party: Rights and duties of principal, agents and Third party, liability of principal or agents torts, termination of agency. UNIT II COMPANY LAW – Major principles – Nature and types of companies, Formation, Memorandum and Articles of Association, Prospectus, Power, duties and liabilities of Directors, winding up of companies, Corporate Governance. UNIT III INDUSTRIAL LAW – An Overview of Factories Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act, Minimum Wages Act, Industri al Disputes Act.UNIT IV INCOME TAX ACT AND SALES TAX ACT – Corporate Tax Planning, Overview of Sales Tax Act, including Value Added Tax. UNIT V CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND INTRODUCTION OF CYBER LAWS. TEXT BOOKS: * N. D. Kapoor, Elements of mercantile law – Sultanchand and company, New Delhi – Latest edition. * Sen & Mitra – Commercial and Industrial law – The world press, Pvt. Ltd. , Calcutta – 1996. REFERENCES: * P. P. S. Gogna, Mercantile Law, S. Chand & Co. Ltd. , New Delhi, 1999. * Dr. Vinod K. Singhania Direct Taxes Planning and Management (Latest edition). * Respective Bare Acts.

A Thousand Splendid Suns ISU Essay

In a world full of immorality, a human being is inclined of undertaking an act of evil towards another. Some people perform evil actions for good intentions, but some do because of their selfish interests and desire for power. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, it is questionable whether the characters and the society have displayed cruelty and inhumanity among other characters. Cruelty of mankind is evident in the novel. By examining the corrupted values, abuse, and the discrimination of women visible in society; it will become evident how evil humankind can be. Corrupted values are detrimental in society because it takes away one’s freedom, education, and a chance to live. First, the Talibans set laws for the Afghans to follow: You will not wear charming clothes. You will not speak unless spoken to. You will not make eye contact with men. You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten. You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger. (Hosseini 278) Freedom is a basic fundamental right that every person deserves to have. The opportunity to speak, believe and pursue happiness without any restriction defines freedom for an individual. It is the government’s responsibility to distribute and secure the freedom of every citizen by imposing laws and rules that are beneficial for the common good. However, one of the corrupted values evident in this novel is that the society is deprived with freedom. Instead of enforcing laws to promote freedom, the Talibans have barred Afghans to express themselves. This corrupted value will cause the affected citizens to resist, in which will inevitably prompt to create chaos between the oppressors and the victims; the Talibans and the Afghans respectively. Additionally, taking away one’s freedom is like taking away their right as a human being. If one’s rights are deprived, their actions will be manipulated. Furthermore, Nana prohibits Mariam for going to school even though Mariam is willing to pursue it: â€Å"If the girl wants to learn, let her, my dear, let the girl have an education†¦. What’s the sense of schooling a girl like you? It’s like shining a spittoon†¦And you’ll learn nothing of value in those schools. There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don’t teach it in school. Look at me. (Hosseini 17-18) Nana’s point of view about Mariam not going to school is a blinded, selfish and ironic characteristic of a typical mother. Usually, a mother will always want the best for her child, but in this case, she displays the contrary. Her belief deteriorates her moral and ethical values, in which, it also affects the likelihood of her daughter’s education. Every human being should have the right to an education, as it is like a key for success in life. If society deprives this fundamental right for children, necessary actions should be done in order to fix this corrupted value. Lastly, the Talibans also declared another sanction for those people who commit the crime of stealing. This is shown in the following excerpt, â€Å"If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again your foot will be cut off† (Hosseini 277). Retribution is an idea where the amount of punishment given to the offender must be equivalent to the action that has been done. The penalty for theft is too severe to the extent that it can be described as inhumane and cruel. The concept of retribution is unhealthy in a society due to anger and revenge that cause such impaired judgement. Therefore, enforcing corrupted values into a society greatly harms the lives of the people. Abuse is any behaviour or action that is used to scare, harm, threaten, control or intimidate another person. It comes in many different forms including physical, mental, sexual, financial, or spiritual abuse. First, Rasheed and Mariam have an argument about the loss of their baby, â€Å"I don’t know, but ever since the baby–-is that the kind of man you take me for, after everything I’ve done for you? No. Of course not. Then stop pestering me! I’m sorry. Bebakhsh, Rasheed. I’m sorry. † (Hosseini 95). Mariam finds ope in her marriage as something that could lead to happiness and possibly love, but the marriage actually transforms into abuse and oppression. Marriage in Islam is usually a sacred union of two people who chose to respect and honour each other in all situations. It is generally a joyous occasion for females. In the novel, marriage is a nightmare in which both women are abused emotionally. Aditionally, since the marriages in the novel tend to be forced, they are not likely influenced by love. In this marriage, Mariam tries to love her husband as a commitment, but in return, what she receives is emotional abuse. If love cannot be established in a marriage, abuse is inevitable when someone makes a mistake. Furthermore, Rasheed forces Mariam to eat pebbles, this is shown in the following excerpt, â€Å"Put these in your mouth. What? Put These. In your mouth. Stop it, Rasheed, I’m–His powerful hands closed her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her mouth, and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it. Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in, his upper lip curled in a sneer. Now chew, he said. Through the mouthful of grit and pebbles, Mariam mumbled a plea. Tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes. (Hosseini 104) Rasheed’s brutal action towards Mariam proves that a human being is capable of harming other people, even very significant ones. The abuse Mariam experiences from her husband is a result of their failed marriage. Furthermore, Rasheed furthers his characteristic into an evil and heartless person who does not care about how painful and harsh his actions are. Lastly, Rasheed finds out that Tariq has met Laila, and this prompts him to lose his temper, and physically harm them. This is shown in the following quote: They crashed to the ground, Rasheed and Laila, thrashing about. He ended up on top, his hands already wrapped around Laila’s neck†¦Rasheed didn’t notice her coming back into the room. He was still on top of Laila, his eyes wide and his hands wrapped around her neck. Laila’s face was turning blue now, and her eyes had rolled back. Mariam saw that she was no longer struggling. Heâ⠂¬â„¢s going to kill her, she thought†¦Rasheed. He looked up. Mariam swung. † (Hosseini 347-348) This shows the peak of all Mariam’s life experiences: the pain and sorrow Rasheed has caused her, as well as the joy and love she shares with Laila. When the person that she loves is threatened, Mariam realizes that all of her endurance has not once increased her worth in Rasheed’s eyes. For the first time, Mariam sees her worth and believes that she never deserves the anguish she’s had to endure. Her powerful motivation is shown when she saves Laila’s life. Mariam realizes after her first swing at Rasheed that if she does not kill him, he will kill them both. Even if Mariam is ready to die, she’s not ready to lose Laila. In summary, abuse is an unjust action, and its presence is very obvious in this novel through physical and emotional mistreatment. The role of women in Afghanistan is an unjust and unreasonable position in which they are continuously denied many freedoms and rights. The women of the story grab the interest and sympathy of the reader; their personalities are almost real and existent. It is amazing that Hosseini, a man, could have so much insight into the feelings of women in a circumstance such as this. Hosseini positively depicts the persona of Afghan women and their ability to endure gender inequality, denied education and Taliban rule. In A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the harsh and cruel conditions which women face under Taliban rule are depicted through Miriam and Laila’s horrifying experiences. The Taliban take over was a huge step back for Afghanistan and its blossoming age for women. At first, it was believed the Taliban were saviors for the Afghan people, a lot of people assumed they would solve the problem, people like Rasheed,†Let them come, I, for one, will shower them with rose petals† (Hosseini 275). The people had no idea what the Taliban were doing; they fully supported it, until the Taliban started to impose laws. Most of these laws were strictly towards women: â€Å"You will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a male relative. If you are caught alone on the street, you will be beaten and sent home† (Hosseini 278). Laila was beaten on several occasions by the Taliban every week when she would go see her daughter, Aziza, at the orphanage because Rasheed refused to take her. The Taliban went as far as forcing women to one central hospital with limited doctors and supplies, which made child birth for many women to be a terrifying situation.