A Secure Internet Banking Information System in Distributed and Research Paper

A Secure Internet Banking Information System in Distributed and Heterogeneous Computing Environment - Research Paper Example It will provide information regarding the investigation approach, method of data collection and analytical approach to be used in the study. In today's volatile environment banking and financial institutions are implementing information systems in order to achieve growth and increased market share. The implementation of Information Technology provides the benefits of increased reliability and accuracy by reducing the chances of failures in the business system. The interdependencies in the business can be managed better through the implementation of an information system. With the provision of economies of scale, implementation of Information Systems in a banking organization also leads to several other problems, which should be addressed for the maximization of benefits attached. It is important to develop a deeper understanding of the importance of security issues related to the implementation of secure online banking information system in a distributed and heterogeneous computing environment. Previous research in the field provides a recognized conceptualization regarding the information system as an important source of competitive advantage for service organizations. The organizations should take necessary steps in order to save the technology from being copied by other organizations (Barney, 1991). The open nature of information technology and the ability of competitors to gain access to the same technology do not allow the hard aspect of e-commerce to become a source of competitive advantage. The implementation of an information system in a bank leads to customer benefit by reducing the transaction costs and providing the customers with increased bargaining power. With the increasing awareness in the industry players regarding the information technology, it has become inevitable for the firms to find a competitive advantage in the soft aspect of information management (Brynjolfsson & Hitt, 2000). Even if hard elements are easily accessible, two possible sources of comp etitive advantage remain effective utilization of these hard technologies within the wider organization of the firm, and unique combinations of the soft organizational and hard systemic aspects of the e-commerce revolution. Organizations need to change to make optimal use of new technologies (Penrose, 1959).  Ã‚  

The factors affecting the deflection Essay Example for Free

The factors affecting the deflection Essay The factors affecting the deflection of a cantilever when weights are added onto the end. What I think will happen: I think that as the weights are added to the cantilever, the deflection will increase. I think this will happen because: I think the deflection will increase because gravity will push down on the cantilever and weights while the atoms in the cantilever will be resisting this force: I know that MOMENT = FORCE(N) X DISTANCE This means that the moment of the weights is the distance from the bench (or pivot) multiplied by the number of Newtons attached to the hook. As I know that the moment increases as more weight is added, I can use this to back-up my prediction by stating that more weight (or moment) causes more deflection e. g. I predict that weight is directly proportional to deflection. This could also be likened to a bimetallic strip, which will bend more as it is increasingly heated or cooled. The atoms in a solid are rather like a spring in that if they are stretched, they will try to return to their original position when released (unless stretched beyond their elastic limit). An example is a cube (see next page): When one atom is pulled, any atoms connected to this atom will try to pull each other back into their original shape. The atoms in the cantilever are being stretched so that the beam deflects downwards. The top of the cantilever gets stretched (called tension) and the bottom of the cantilever gets squashed (called compression). A cantilever that has a high cross-section will bend less than one with a low cross-section. This means that as more weight is added to the cantilever, the more tension and compression there will be. I think the atoms at the middle of the cantilever will look like this at first To this when weight is added PLAN To do this experiment, I will need: 1. A wooden meter rule 2. A G-Clamp + small block of wood 3. A Hook 4. 7, 1 Newton weights 5. A small coil of string First fit this equipment up like so: The string is used to attach the hook to the ruler. String is useful for this, as it is thin and can be placed at a measured position with fairly good accuracy. The block of wood goes in-between the G-Clamp and the ruler to stop the pressure damaging the wood. If I were to set-up the ruler without the G-Clamp I could not call it a cantilever, as a cantilever is defined as a projecting structure, fixed in position and direction at one end, and free at the other. In my preliminary experiment I found that there was no way to hook the weights onto the ruler and that using too many weight would snap or split the ruler. I used this information in my primary experiment by using string a certain distance from the bench and also adding no more than 7 Newtons onto my ruler. I have also decided to measure the deflection from the top corner of the ruler, as the bottom corner is 1/2cm away from 0 deflection. I have decided to keep it fair and accurate by changing only one variable. This is mainly due to the time constraint on the practical. I will always use the same ruler, weights and hook. I will take at least 2 readings and use the average in my results. After each reading I will verify it to see if it is near my prediction. If not, I will test it again to check if it was correct. EXPERIMENT 1 As my variable is length, for this experiment I will position my hook at the end to the meter rule: I am leaving 20mm at the end of the ruler so that I can avoid the wear on the ruler that may cause the string to slip. EXPERIMENT 2 Instead of attaching my hook to the end, this time I will position my string 450mm from the bench. Half of what it was before: EXPERIMENT 3 Putting my hook at 225mm would not be a good position as the small results would be harder and less accurate to measure. To stop this I will put the hook at 675mm. This is halfway between my previous positions. RESULTS: My results show that The results show that the bigger the surface area, the greater the amount of oxygen produced in the reaction. As the surface area increased, so to did the oxygen readings e. g. surface area = 4, average = 1. 3, surface area 12 (4+8), average = 2. 5. The 3rd and 4th results increase the surface area less that the 1st to 2nd and so do the averages of them. Also, the oxygen readings fluctuated so taking three recordings and averaging them out was a beneficial idea. My prediction was correct. EVALUATION: The test could have been more reliable if the concentration of acid was kept the same each lesson as this caused higher or lower results depending on which concentration was used. The pieces of potato were overlapping on top of each other in the test tube, which detracted from the accuracy of the result as the experiment was trying to make a correlation between surface area and oxygen produced. A conical flask with a thin mesh just above the bottom would have helped keep as much area exposed as possible. The odd/fluctuating results were mostly due to the acid concentration problem as the overlapping happened every time. I am more certain that my conclusions are correct because I have checked and recorded my results and found no unexplainable anomalies. I could do more research into enzymes and how fast they convert their substrate into the components to enable me to work out the experiment using maths and practical experience.

Strategic business management and planning

Strategic business management and planning 1. Introduction: Easy jet is the leading cheapest flight service company in European Airline Companies. The mission of the company is â€Å"to offer Low cost airline service to the masses†. Easyjet was established by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou   in 1995 .Easy jet is the fourth leading European airline, the UKs leading budget airline and one that contests the ‘number two LCC in Europe. Easyjet board had been disagreement of extension with his creator sir stellios since last two years (daily mail 2010). Newly joined(2010,July 14th ) chief executive Carolyn McCall with aid of easy jet chairman sir mike rake made a deal with brand licensing (daily mail 2010). She is very fresh for airline industry. Now I am going to critically evaluate how she is going to face future challenges ahead of her. Source: Map of the destination points www.easyjet.com 1. a) Strategy: in art of war book sun Tzu giving answer for what is strategy? A way of thinking; an aware and deliberate process; a concentrated implementation technique; the art of ensuring future success. According to Mintzberg H., (1994)† Strategy is a unified, comprehensive, and integrated plan and designed to ensure that the basic objectives of the enterprise are achieved†. A strategy or general plan of action might be formulated for broad, long-term, corporate goals and objectives, for more specific business unit goals and objectives. Easy jet believes that people make the difference. Its through the efforts of all our people to deliver our four strategic priorities such as Safety is our No.1 priority, Build Europes No.1 air transport network, Develop a winning customer proposition, Deliver low cost and maximise margins that we will realise our vision: to become the best low fares airline in the world.(Easyjet 2009) 1. b) Strategic Business planning: Strategic business planning serves to bridge the gap between development goals and planning for implementation of specific tactical measure. Internationalization: Welch and Luostarinen (1988), defined as ‘the process of increasing involvement in international markets. Internationalization and strategic management: Welch and Welch (1996) have tried to develop a longitudinal theoretical model to identify the interrelationships between the two flows of international business inquiry, that is,They give meaning of ‘strategic foundations (knowledge, skills and experience, networks, etc.) of the enterprise and its external environment, and identify planned and unplanned routes to internationalization, with networking important in both. They conclude by calling for ‘empirical studies that specifically focus on strategy and internationalization Process interconnections (Welch and Welch, 1996: 25). Bell et al (1998): Internationalization and Business Strategy EasyJet have influenced by both internal and external environment in any strong grow stage. Internal environment: decision-maker characteristics has more influence in easyjet. We can say particularly sir stellos founder of easyjet and who has 38% share in easyjet. He had been last two years dispute with easy jet board for expansion of easy jet. (Thisismoney,2010).he has no problem with strategy of easy jet. EasyJet announced that it had agreed to purchase the entire share capital of GB Airways from the Bland Group. The deal was worth  £103.5 million and was used to expand EasyJet operations at London Gatwick Airport (anna.euro,2007) Easyjet has grown internationally acquiring GB airways on 25 october 2007. Sir stellos not happy with board accounting policy. He didnt like approach of board single cash generating unit. He insisted to be a he macro-economic climate to benefit of all shareholder.(abtn 2009) â€Å"EasyJet had reached an agreement on the pace of growth with Sir Stelios after he had questioned the strategy. The LCC now plans to increase future capacity by 7.5% per annum, following yearly increases of 15% from 2005 to 2008 and will increase its fleet to 207 aircraft by 2012. Sir Stelios declared himself â€Å"a lot happier† with the carriers shift to a more modest growth strategy† and insisted it was more resilient than that of Ryanair, which cancelled a large order with Boeing in 2009, though it will continue to receive aircraft from previous orders for several years to come†.then he changed his mind and resign from the board on may 2010 and again start his backward, too much over speed of   growth plan(capa 2010) Easy-jet influence by management competencies: No stability management in easyjet due to the action of sir stellos .management changes four year who worked hardly to develop the company Andy Harrison punished by sir stellos who has more share in the company. Sir stellos concentrated on account department he changed account management people. The shake-up will result in all three of the companys top jobs changing within the space of a year, following the departure in May of Jeff Carr, Easyjets chief financial officer(uk.yahoo,2009) .(abtn 2009) http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/easyjet-unveils-management-shake-up-ftimes-9106396619e0.html Rrapid management change create the conflict between management and employee External environment: Global influence: (Richard L. D,aft 1997 ) explaning that No company out-of-the-way from global influence. All international company influenced by global governing body. OPECs (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) set prices of oil and gasoline. OPECs globally influencing the airline industry.(tucker l,2008) CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and IATA (International Air Transport Association) those bodies regulating the airline industry all over world. BAA is a leading airport monopoly company. We own six airports in the UK including the largest, London Heathrow, and we have interests in a number of others overseas. IATA and CAA fixing or reviewing price fare the airlines(price regulation). EasyJet Claims that   (CAA)Regulator Favoured BAA Over Fees and supporting monopoly company(gardian,2009 pg 28) Global warming: Global warming refers to the documented historical warming of the Earths surface based upon worldwide temperature records that have been maintained by humans since the 1880s.Its Is the combined result of Anthropogenic (Human-Caused) emissions of greenhouse gases and solar irradiance in exchange According To The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), The Decade Of The 2000s (2000-2009) Is the warmest one record. The global mean surface temperature for 2009 IS Currently Estimated at 0.44  ° C/0.79  ° F above-the 1961-1990 Annual average of 14.00  ° F C/57.20 (Ecoearth3009), Volcanic ash cloud: Global warming may prompt more hazardous geological events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides, scientists have warned- Prof McGuire (telegraph3010) acid rain: volcanic explosion can change the Earths climate both for short periods and long periods. Volcanoes that release large amounts of sulfur compounds as sulfur oxide or sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere more strongly than those that eject just dust. The sulfur compounds are gases that rise easily into the stratosphere. Once there, they combine with water (limited) available to form a mist of fine droplets of sulfuric acid (volcanoes 2010) Andy Harrison said that â€Å"Easy Jet is planning to cut CO2 emissions by 50% by 2015.The aviation industry have an excellent record in reducing the environmental footprint of aircraft. Todays aircraft are typically 70% cleaner and 75% quieter than their 1960s counterparts. Now we are planning the next generation that will help towards taking the plane out of the emissions equation. Easy Jet is already setting the environmental standard in the airline industry. Our fleet of 131 aircraft has an average age of only 2.3 years the youngest of any major airline in Europe. We have recently called for over 700 of the dirtiest aircraft to be banned from Europes skies† (ecojet2010) Ash cloud crisis: Andy Harrison gave Q3-IMS-2010-Analyst-presentation-final report saying that how global warming affected the easyjet limited. Significant impact on results from volcanic ash 7,000 flights cancelled impacting one million passengers Estimated cost and lost contribution  £65 million Future challenges on 21st century: Drucker p., (2007) observe that In the middle of 19th century they exposed to many radical changes as we compare to this transition period. As during world warII many structural changes have been occured,then here comes the second industrial revolution started. According to Drucker argumentation, the future is not soo far because for the formation of business strategy there are five social and political certaintiesThe collapse of the birthrate in the developed world, changes in the distribution of disposable income and a redefinition of corporate performance, international competitiveness and the rising conflict between economic and political reality.Then he looks at the leadership requirements, the characteristics of information revolution,   Productivity of knowledge worker and finally their responsibilities in the system management. 1. Rivals for EasyJet now airberlin grown as a competitor in eroupe region looking share price movement on 3rd November 2010(capa2010a). The Challenge Facing (mccall) tougher has-been made by exchange at Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary WHERE IS planning a move to larger Airports near city centers, scrapping A Strategy is based Solely less-costly, out-of-town airports (businessweek2010) 2. Stability management competence frame in EasyJet. * â€Å"McCall will also want more boardroom stability following a spate of resignations. Chairman Colin Chandler and Finance Director Jeff Carr resigned in 2009, Stelios and his nominee Bob Rothenberg stepped down in May and Cor Vrieswijk, the operations chief, quit two weeks ago after just 3 1/2 years at the company† (businessweek,2010) * There is a some money changes in management last two years. 3. Globalization impact: The impact of globalization will lead to make a major challenge strategically to culture and language in the environment   business 4. Managing Across borders: The main creteria of an organisation is to survive in the 21st century and to succeed the workforce in business environment. 5. Revolution of Information Technology: The usage of internet, e-commerce and wireless are supported by a new world of infrastructure. 6. Security issues and increase demand for knowledge worker in an oranizations. 7. Leadership Challenges â€Å"Generational leadership managing an older workforce, as well as the digital generation Sustainability Defending todays environment and addressing consumers needs The developing world responding to a changing economy Diversity leading a workforce comprising ethnic minorities, mature workers, etc Globalisation managing an extended workforce, and social responsibility.† Organizations facing rapid change, unprecedented global competition, unpredictability and the constant threat of acquisition. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly aware of corporate social responsibility and global sustainability challenges in the broad sense. The 21st century is one in which we will need a servant leaders more than ever. It is difficult, fascinating and full of possibilities. If organizations are to thrive and survive, they must innovate. They need all the energy and creativity of their people. This requires a revolution in culture in the workplace the workplace that limit, deter the poor and those that release energy, enterprise and spirit. They also need to be led by world citizens. The best people want to work for ethical organizations that meet the needs of society and avoid prejudice. Sustainability focus on environment, charity corporate and social safety in EasyJet: Environment: Easyjet is giving high priority for environment safety. To be environmentally efficient in the air and on the ground as well. To lead shapes a greener future for aviation. Charity: EasyJet supports a charity of the year. The airline gives a corporate donation and provides access to staff and passengers to raise funds, and promotes the charity through brand awareness. Following a Europe-wide staff vote, EasyJet is proud to announce that our current ‘charity of the year is the Alzheimers Society. Corporate and social Safety: Safety is our first priority for both customers and staffs. Easyjet aims to provide its customers with safe, good value, point to point air services and believes in the goal of excellence of achievement in all its activities. Easyjet sees starving for excellence in environmental, social and ethical activities as a key behaviour for a successful and sustainable business Recommendation: Entrepreneur: the person who has great vision with innovation with optimistic personality. An entrepreneur is a person in charge of creating value, not only for him, but also for his investors, clients and for the society Entrepreneurship: entrepreneurship, which is defined as the pursuit of opportunities, acquisition of resources, construction of a team and discovery of markets adapted to offer the specific product (Dr.Zacharakis A,2009) Why it is important for Entrepreneurship: Its very important for global entrepreneurship to monitor the projects over all. Loyalty to customer, employee and government also paying right tax. To compete and set the goals to meet the globalization competitor To develop a acquire company. Bell et al.,(1998) state that organic growth and acquisition are good tool to make organization successful in internationally with entrepreneurship skill of management. Strategy: 1 Diversification strategy: Pils F (2009) discussing about Diversification, impact of diversification, advantage of diversification .diversification for company is a form of corporate strategy . It aims to increase profitability through higher sales volume resulting from new products and new markets. Diversification can take place either at the business unit or enterprise level. At the business unit, it is more likely to develop into a new segment of an industry where the company is already at the firm level, very interesting to enter a promising venture outside the scope of Business Unit. Sir stellios have been insisting about future of fleet expansion. When the fleet and the route to increase, we have more customers in the summer (six months) and festivals time, remaining six months, flights are in the ground(Businessweek2010). My opinion sir stellios has matured person in airline industry and also stellos Haji-Ioannou is a member of the New Enterprise, a group established to advise the Conservative Party on business policy (market watch3007). He is not against strategy of the company but against fleet expansion (capa2010) .so McCall can go for other sector diversification expect fleet. She has to considered about rivals also, when rivals increasing the fleet and route, mccall also has go for it. Otherwise she cant compete with her rivals .now easy jet share growing. Now main rival of EasyJet is ryanair share reduced in Europe.(capa2010a). Good news for easyjet: 1. Ryan air, the second airline in the United Kingdom, announced its intention to reduce the ability of winter in the UK by 16% compared to November of 2010, outlining the decision will result in the loss of over 2 million Passengers at airports across the UK during the winter of 2010 on a year-on year basis. (capa2010b). 2. New deal with sir stellos brand licensing ,easy brand not for flight,easyjet can use ther purpose aswell. new deal creates a lot opportunity for new ceo Carolyn mccall .she can go for cobranding, removing ancillary revenues(the so called 75:25 rule), â€Å"freedom for easyJet to lease-in non easyJet-branded aircraft to meet operational requirements within annual limits without the need for easyJet Group consent†,new product and new services.(capa2010c). Strategy 2: According to Sun Tzu art of war: â€Å"If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.† Strategy: 2 divided boards strategy. Its not a best strategy not when the dissenter controls nearly 40% of the voting stock (capa2010) Sir Stelios is used to make his way. He now argues for drawing on growth. In some ways it may be perfectly justified in seeking to improve his win by EasyJet, a company that has not paid any dividends money although it has generated considerable revenue from the IPO, as well as royalty payments. In this regard, his argument against the expansion only up batteries if a more static fleet would turn into immediate dividends and will continue to provide under Sir Stelios strategy slow growth. He probably did his homework, he believes (and other shareholders) would be the winners, if not in the long term, at least in the coming months. However, so far it seems to be still in the minority, as the company continues to occur. If following a public campaign as now seems likely it will surely be disruptive. A public war is not what every company needs. The company is difficult enough as it is. The board of directors and chief executive officer of the airline however insist that the growth agenda had been agreed before Stelios commonly alleged change tack probably because of the difficult situation. The Chairman, Sir Michael Rake, in a letter to shareholders on 18-May-2010, said: â€Å"The Board is both surprised and disappointed to find itself in a public debate over strategy as Sir Stelios and I had agreed principles of engagement in May 2009 specifically to avoid such situations. In the view of the Board there are simply no grounds for a dispute.† New CEO insisting Easyjet never paid dividend. Stelios rising question our rivals paying the dividend, why cant we do that? (Business week, 2010)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Strategy 3: (osama el kadi 2008) strategizing using sun tzu art war. About stunning growth : strategizing the easyjet pocess of negotions,sales and innovations.easy can develop the company international level with most sucessful.   Strategizing Wynn Ellis said that† EasyJet still has capacity to enlarge capacity 5 percent to 10 percent a year, an analyst at Numis Securities in London with a hold recommendation on the stock.McCall needs to weigh the interests of all shareholders in making her decisions and be prepared to stand up to Stelios if necessary. The U.K. market may be relatively mature but there are opportunities in overseas markets.† (Business week, 2010)   Easy jet share growing well in Europe (capa2010a).easyJet shares were up 1.3%, while airberlin was up 1.2%. Ryanair shares lost 0.4%, with the carrier reporting strong traffic growth. Aer Lingus shares dropped 1.3%.So mccall strategizing the company to make stunning growth   using this method. Conclusion: After resovling the dispute of brand licencing with sir stellos ,carolyn mccall got more support from shareholder; because the deal creates more corporate-governance flexibility in EasyJet decision making in future. She got bit releaxed achieveing deal with founder easy jet .now she has to concentrate set up the managemtment competence framework. If she follow servent leadership at this present.she can resolve all the conflict in organization easily get the way to obtain new corporate strategy to achive vision with orgnational people.as I discussed in recommendation she can choose any one the strategy or both. My opinion she can go for diverfication and strategizing.because she is has strong negotion power(Sun Tzu: â€Å"The ultimate art of war is to restrain the opponent without fighting.†), sales techniquie (I can see her ability from gmg grop development , her vission and care about sustainability(gardian,2010)) and innovation. finally:mccall has to have answer for this que stion, what makes a business functioning in this sector victorious? While deciding diversification.

Nature and Love in the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym :: Poetry

Nature and Love in the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym Essay is 1550 words in length Dafydd ap Gwilym has been acclaimed as the greatest poet of the Welsh language. As Rachel Bromwhich commented, Dafydd’s life "coincided miraculously in both time and place with an unprecedented opportunity to mate the new with the old" (Brom 112). Perhaps "mate" is a more appropriate choice of words here than Rachel intended. As his poetry depicts, Dafydd tried to mate a great many things in his time; the man is immortalized as a ball of raging hormones. A self-proclaimed "Ovid’s man," Dafydd took pleasure in identifying himself with the authoritative source of courtly love, a fresh trend in Wales during his life (Summer 29). Love, specifically courtly love, was among the new themes Dafydd merged with the traditional themes like nature. Even the ancient topic of nature, under Dafydd’s molding, took on new forms. Dafydd personified elements of nature to be his trusted messengers in poems such as "The Seagull." In the "Holly Grove," nature is subtly described a s a fortress or protector of sorts. Variations of these elements of secret, protected, and secluded love mesh with images of nature throughout Dafydd’s poetry. However, nature seems to be much more than a confidant or mere factor in his search for love; Dafydd’s poems such as "Secret Love" suggest that nature is essential in this endeavor. Though Dafydd’s attempts at love are not limited to the natural realm, poems such as "Trouble in a Tavern" make it evident that only in the natural setting is Dafydd a successful lover. Elements in the poetry of courtly love express the need for a love affair to remain secret. The object of a poet’s love in these poems is typically a married woman, or unattainable by some other means. Andreas Capellanus’s The Rules of Courtly Love captures this element of forbidden love by saying, "marriage (was) no real excuse for not loving" (Cap 115-116). As Patrick Ford wisely pointed out, the need to maintain secrecy in a forbidden affair is not a new idea to modern readers. These elements of courtly love do not escape Dafydd’s poetry. His poem "Secret Love," among others, emphasizes the level of secrecy necessary in maintaining a love affair. Dafydd considers himself a learned lover, who found that "The best form of the words that work / Is to speak love in secrecy" (Sec 1-2).

Four Seasons Goes To Paris Essay

One of the worlds leading operator of luxury hotels in business for the last thirty years Four Seasons is successful due to exceptional personal customer service, adhering to standards, at the same time adopting to local customs and blending with the environment. While staying at Four Seasons guests can be assured they will get individual personal attention and exceptional service with no excuses whatsoever. At Four Seasons the hotel makes sure that the guest is comfortable and goes way out of the normal to do what the guest wants even if they have to bend the rules. The Four Seasons Hotel adheres firmly to its standards, according to the hotel management its standards are the foundations for all its properties, and every manager in the hotel has a clear perception of what the standards are, and they adhere to them, over a period of time these standards shape relationships between people and these relationships contribute in building a culture. The hotel has the policy that each individual property should blend with the environment, like if the property is in Chicago when a guest wakes up he should feel that he is Chicago, if the hotel is in Paris and the guest wakes up he should feel he is in Paris. In blending with the environment it still adheres to its standards of individual personal attention, prompt and exceptional service. Strong corporate culture with top management being in the firm for long time 25 + years, corporate and field managers thinking of themselves as part of a  family and treating each others as their own has been a big factor in the hotel’s success. The has a human resource Golden Rule which stipulates that â€Å"One should treat others the way they wanted to be treated themselves†. The firm believes in the fact that people make the strength of the company, the basic human needs stays the same all over the globe, people need respect, care, thoughtfulness. When the firm takes care of its employees as its own the employees takes care of the firm in return. An example of how this golden rule is implemented is the hotel provides the employee with several uniforms and there is nothing saying that they should change it once per day or at some specific time whenever they feel dirty they can change their uniforms, at the end it goes to their dignity almost no one feels comfortable in dirty clothes. Four Seasons has enough properties across the globe and has enough experience and expertise from different areas of this world with diverse cultures that its managers claim that they can go to any city or town and pull people who can follow its mission to provide the best luxury class environment for its guest. It says that even tough the culture and environment is really different but the process of opening a new property is exactly the same everywhere. With all these claim entering into business in France was a big challenge for the four seasons, they had to adhere to the American building code, adhere to the French laws for building and of the work force , modify the property to meet all these requirements and at the same time maintain the French George V look. The way four seasons entered the French market is one of the best ways to do business a business should adopt to the local cultures and blend in the environment, people are generally not that much in favor of a change and if  you blend with the local environment the local community will adapt to the new business in the area and things will go smooth. The hired a French interior designer whose policy was to make the guest rediscover the hotel and make them feel how much better the new redesigned place was. They had issues in adhering to the French labor laws. It’s a country with strong unions in short lots was different in what goes on in US so the firm had to change its way of working. In France they have an emotional way of doing things, the French did not take the company’s golden rule seriously they thought it was too American. They had an incredible pride in being French. The good thing about French is they can be very joyous and encouraging but at the same time French Temper also lashes out. It all ended up to how the four seasons came in to France was almost as important in what Four Seasons did. I would say they way they entered the French market was good but it required a great deal of tact and judgment. The way four seasons done business across the globe according to the policy of Diversity and Strength their belief in diversity and singularity should be a guide to any business entering the global market. Look at the case of McDonald its almost uniform and unique all over the world, now in its vision this mite be the good thing about it but people are generally not that easy to adopt to new tastes, if a community favors more spicy food then for starters they mite visit a McDonald restaurant for a change but in the long run they mite avoid it. Same goes if it sells food that is not consumed in that community no one is going to buy it.

20 Signs You Are a College Nerd

20 Signs You Are a College Nerd They say college can change your life and theyre not kidding. You might start college with the same mindset you had in high school but chances are youve done a full 180 (or three) by the time the first semester ends. Weve rounded up the Top 20 signs that your might be going down the path of Geek Chic †¦ or just plain Geek. 1. You set your alarm early for Back to School sales. Some people think the Friday after Thanksgiving is the most important shopping day of the year, but not you. No, you march to the beat of a different drum †¦ one that starts mid August with Back to School sales. Face it, you just cant pass up 10 for $10 deal on boxes of staples, oddly shaped push pins and novelty folders. 2. Texting, IMing or pinging your roommate is the norm. No matter if your roommate is off campus, at the game or just across the room – if you need to talk, you do it by device. 3. Arguments about Star Trek can change the course of your dorm life. If you can name all the movies, have a passionate opinion about best captain and crew or have ever requested to change rooms because your roommate was a â€Å"Picard Man† then youre deep within the College Nerd Quadrant. 4. Star Wars counts, too! Were you standing in line at midnight for the Collectors Edition Blu-Ray Bonus Digital Content release party? We thought so. 5. You skip classes to get a head start on the paper you know your professor will assign. After all, youve already read ahead seven chapters so why not get going on that paper you know will be due in five weeks? 6. You rotate the names for your WiFi. Usually you stick to the names of favorite alien races but sometimes you mix it up with your favorite Star Dates. 7. Everything runs off your PC. Youve set up your computer to control the lights, temperature and playlists so you never have to get up. 8. You have specific playlists for certain classes or projects. You cant crack a chemistry book without cuing up Weird Science and that Feminism paper isnt going to get done until youve made it through Aretha Franklins Greatest Hits. 9. Your friends ask you to audit their class just so they can have your notes. Between the pie charts, keyword breakdown and abstract you provide, what you get out of a lecture is better than the textbook. 10. You have textbook editors in your email address book. Looking for misspellings, outdated information and poorly constructed chapters is your favorite past time. Youre on a first name basis with editors though oddly enough they never thank you for your regular correction notes each semester. 11. You started offering to repair computers as a way to meet people. After a few weeks, however, you realized you preferred the company of the computers. 12. Class numbers can be an issue. Did you want to take Prehistoric Pottery until you found out the course number was even? Or did you only sign up for Modern Dance because that number was odd? College nerds put a lot of stock in lucky numbers. 13. Resolving arguments can be difficult. When you and your roommate or study group have a disagreement its usually resolved by Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock or Evens-Odds-Binary. 14. Your plans for a long weekend tend to be a bit different. While others might be planning for parties, bar crawls and concerts, youre packing your holiday weekend with LARPing, Star Trek RPG and a Harry Potter marathon. 15. If its worth doing, its worth tracking. Youve been following – and charting – your study to grade ratio since the first grade. 16. Your idea of a Care Package is slightly different. Other students may look forward to boxes of photos and cookies, but your family knows to send Anime DVDs and supplies for your next cosplay project. 17. Integration is everything. Youve made it your personal mission to work with every instructor you have to integrate Pinterest, Twitter, DropBox and 4Chan into the curriculum. Youre saving Flipboard, Seesmic and ProPublica for next semester. 18. Semantics are important. Theyre not dolls or action men, theyre collectible figures. Its not a waste of an entire weekend, its an Epic Dungeons and Dragons Campaign. 19. Your College criteria was highly specific. Some students check out concert venues, party spots or sports teams when considering college. You wanted to know how close the libraries were, how many bookstores there were and whether or not there was an active RGP/LARP/MMOG community. 20. Your friends can turn your room into a drinking game. Rules include one shot for every calculator and double shots for pamphlets or promotional materials for Starfleet Academy, Hogwarts and other not-technically-actual schools. If most the listed points above are true, congratulations one more college nerd is among us! To know for sure, you can also take the quiz to find out which type of student you are. Did we miss a giant red flag of college nerdom? Add your own nerd signals in the comments section below.

Tablets vs. Textbooks Essay Example

Tablets vs. Textbooks Essay Example Tablets vs. Textbooks Paper Tablets vs. Textbooks Paper Technology is advancing more and more everyday. From phones to Droids the things you can do is endless. These advances are making every day life easier and easier whether its doing your banking from home or keeping up with social media. Technology is becoming so advanced that kindergarten through twelfth grade students will soon be relieved of the burden of carrying books to and from school five days a week, which would be extremely beneficial. However, some people oppose this dea because, tablets are more expensive than print text books, they are dangerous to our kids health, and the tablets may be difficult to use for some students. First of all, those who oppose this idea believe that a tablet is more expensive than a print text book. Technology does not necessarily translate into more expensive though. According to a report from the Federal Communications Commission schools kindergarten through twelfth grade spend on average around eight billion dollars a year on text books. If these schools switched from text books to the ever popularizing E-book these schools can save anywhere from two hundred fifty to one thousand dollars per student per year. If you calculate this an average school has about five thousand to seven thousand students which translates to a 5 to 7 hundred thousand dollar savings that can go towards other things in the school. Most E-books cost about four hundred fifty dollars where as a textbook can cost upwards of six hundred dollars. So, this idea of tablets being more expensive is preposterous, and comes from the common idea of technology means more money which has no factual vidence to back it. Secondly, the opposition will say that tablets are dangerous to our kids health. Those who oppose tablet usage will use the argument that staring at the screen of the tablet will cause irreversible damage to the eyes, but this claim is only a half truth though. There is no permanent damage caused to the eye, but there is a slight strain that can be relieved from a good nights rest. This slight strain however, is nothing in comparison to what can happen to an individuals back from carry all those heavy books all day. Pediatrician and chiropractors recommend that only fifteen percent of ones total body weight should be held on the back, but the weight from all of a childs courses easily out weighs that fifteen percent mark. A report from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, during the 2011-2012 school year an estimated thirteen thousand seven kids aged from five to eighteen, were treated for some sort of back pack related injury. So where is the real danger to our kids health really at? Lastly, the individuals who oppose these tablets in school will say the tablets may be oo difficult to use for some students. The opposition will argue that with all these books and documents a student will have difficulty with opening any of them and thus make learning much harder for that child, this claim is extremely outlandish however. In the third world country of Ethiopia, the One Lap Top Per Child organization dropped off boxes full of tablets with educational applications loaded onto the device in two rural cities. These children had no prior education up to this point and were able to use the device properly within five days of opening it. Within two weeks these children were reciting the alphabet, and withing five months the children were able to get passed the security systems on the device and customize the background of the tablet. So, if these children who have never even seen the inside of a classroom can easily work the device within five days and become experts with it within five months, there is no telling what the children of modern day America would be able to do with such an educational device. Using a tablet in school over text books is Just so much more beneficial than it is unhelpful. The students of today will be much safer carrying around a one pound tablet everyday than a fifteen pound book. Using these tablets will also save our school districts so much more money as well. Also students today will be able to easily adjust and use these tablets for educational purposes which is Just much more beneficial towards their learning. Tablets are Just so beneficial why would we deprive our students of something so great. Tablets will revolutionize and increase learning ability so much, we can not Just turn our backs to this great opportunity technology has provided for us.

AP Spanish Literature and Culture LITERARY MOVEMENTS Essay Example

AP Spanish Literature and Culture LITERARY MOVEMENTS Essay Example AP Spanish Literature and Culture LITERARY MOVEMENTS Paper AP Spanish Literature and Culture LITERARY MOVEMENTS Paper and feminist literature vanguardismo avant-garde movements of literary experimentation; includes the surrealist movement (concerned with dreams and hallucinations); Pablo Neruda, Dragà ºn, Lorca teatro del absurdo with the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose, these works are intentionally ridiculous, showing man in an illogical, incomprehensible world yet still carrying a meaningfull message; dialogue includes clichà ©s and word games; Dragà ºn Generacià ³n del 98 a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish-American War; criticism, ideals, creativity; included Miguel de Unamuno (religious themes), Antonio Machado (personal and universal themes) costumbrismo a literary interpretation of local everyday life and customs (19th century); romantic interest in extravagant expression + realistic, precise focus on a particular time and place; preceded (and led to) both Romanticism and Realism barroco a 17th-century cultural and artistic movement that was the evolution of ideas and themes formulated during the Spanish Renaissance; included culteranismo and conceptismo; Gà ³ngora and Quevedo in Spain + Sor Juana in Mexico romanticismo in response to neoclassicism, this movement focused on the beauty of imagination, the irregular nature of human spirit, and the natural world; Rima LIII (Bà ©cquer), En una tempestad (Heredia) Siglo de Oro period from 1942 (Christopher Columbus, end of Reconquista) to 1659 characterized by a flourishing in Spanish arts and literature that included romantecismo and barroco; Don Quijote, Garcilaso, Gà ³ngora, Quevedo neoclasicismo movement in which writers looked back to figures such as Garcilaso and Quevedo and were inspired by classical ideals; later prompted a negative reaction from romanticists, who were themselves criticized by realists

Cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Cancer - Essay Example This often typically leads to a lump or a mass called a tumor, which are usually benign. Malignant cancers are capable of spreading to other organs as in the case of lymphoid vessels. In blood tissue, cells such as the erythrocytes or leucocytes get affected and cause leukemia. This is often characterized by an increase in the viscosity of blood. In this paper, I would like to discuss the commonly occurring types of cancers, causative factors, chemotherapy and radiation as treatment options, expenses and adverse effects associated with these treatment regimens, and the role of a healthy diet to minimize the occurrences of this disorder. Common types of cancers: As stated in the thesis outline, the most frequently observed sarcomas or cancers are those of the liver, breast, colon, prostate and lung, and has been the leading cause of death in the past five decades. Breast cancers are typically observed in post-menopausal women, and thus, it is extremely essential for periodic screening . Mammography is the technique used in this case and is usually recommended annually. Recent trends include biopsy of the breast tissue, followed by analysis for RNA content, as this biotechnology procedure sheds light on the expression of the gene responsible for cancer. A subtle marginal increase in these biological indicators, could suggest the initial phases of breast cancer. (1Popat and Smith, 2006) Prostate cancer, which is exclusive to men, is observed beyond the age of 50. Early detection is key, as the cancer could be prevented from metastasizing by surgical removal of the gland. Diagnostic procedures for liver, lung or pancreatic cancers usually entail a measurement of enzymatic levels in the body, by biochemical assays. For example, the presence of serum based prostate specific antigen (PSA) or Kallikrein indicates the possibility of prostate cancer in men or ovarian cancer in women. Or, elevated levels of alpha-fetoprotein are typical in liver cancers due to cirrhosis. ( Ullah and Aatif, 2009) Thus, biomarkers are excellent tools in the early diagnosis of various types of cancers, which help the clinician in designing the appropriate treatment protocol. Chemotherapy and radiation: The management of cancers by the administration of cytotoxic chemical agents is termed as chemotherapy. There has been a surge in the discovery of various chemical classes of cytotoxic compounds in the past few decades. Recent methods of treatment for certain rare forms of cancers include administration of a novel category of biological drugs called monoclonal antibodies. In some conditions, chemotherapy alone cannot control rapidly growing tumors and cancers. In such cases, radiation therapy is often used, either standalone, or in combination with chemotherapy. (Verweij and de Jonge, 2000) Radiation, as the name suggests involves targeting the affected tissue with high-energy electromagnetic rays (beta or gamma rays), which, on account of their short wavelength, have high penetrating powers. The energy associated with this radiation kills cells on contact. A major drawback of chemotherapeutic agents and radiation is their non-selectivity. They cannot differentiate the cancerous from the healthy cells, which results in damage to viable cells, although precision techniques such as the gamma knife are employed. Other unpleasant effects such as hair

Discuss the British foreign policy under Tony Blair with respect to Essay

Discuss the British foreign policy under Tony Blair with respect to balancing the trans-Atlantic alliance and maintaining relations with the European Union - Essay Example ts of the United Kingdom after the events of September 11, who have openly expressed their strong resentment toward extended British participation in the U.S. intervention in Iraq, were stunned but later the events of 7/7 London bombings escorted Britain to think from a different point of view. The goal of the United Kingdom, and of Blair, has been to act as a bridge between the United States and Europe, fostering dialogue between the two power blocs in the hopes of preserving the Atlantic alliance that has survived for 60 years. (Janelle Osmann) As Blair is in a desperate need to prove himself as a world leader and establish himself as a peacemaker, he wants U.S instead of taking the matters emotionally, he must concentrate on the matter of pushing for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Blair hopes that his support in Iraq will make America to think several times before making an attempt and to think seriously on expedition of a lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Thus, by coordinating American efforts with E.U interests, Blair is aiming to narrow the trans-Atlantic lacuna and thrust himself back into the good graces of international diplomats. (Janelle Osmann) Blair, being conscious in maintaining the balance between transatlantic alliance and EU possesses the view that conflict is created on the basis of a misunderstanding. At times he has declared that the class struggle was over and that the formation of the Labor Party through a break with the Liberals was a mistake. But the conflict of interests between the US and Europe cannot be overcome so easily. Blair recognizes that the Europeans, however tentatively, are seeking to challenge US domination through the EU project. At one point, he asks â€Å"Europe is to become 25 nations, one Europe for the first time since Charlemagne, but will it be as a union of nation states or as a centralized superstate? (Chris Marsden) The Constitutional Treaty sets out to address the new

Effective leaders_WK4 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Effective leaders_WK4 - Research Paper Example Furthermore, given that majority of transportation infrastructure investments are federally funded even though locally implemented, such a piecemeal method halts constrains smooth assimilation of local and state policies with those of the federal government. This then hinders the President and transportation secretary to offer synergies across projects. Furthermore, the existing federal NextGen transportation policies, are steered by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA-LU), which does not help the President to deal with the utilization of economic analysis for the transportation decision-making (Weiner, 2013). Given that the transportation program does not have a greater standardization or lucidity, the President cannot be able to come up with an executive-level modification without substantive legislation. Najeeb Halaby is an example of an effective leader in public administration, since in 1965 as administrator of the independent Federal Aviation Agency; he proposed the creation of Department of Transportation (2013). He saw this as a means of securing decisively the US transportation policy expansion. Thanks to his efforts, the agency has done tremendous job over the years by being part of the executive departments which integrated other administration transportation programs. Secondly, Samuel K. Skinner, a former transportation secretary appointed by President Bush senior, initiated the formation of the National Transportation Policy, as well as the extension of the department responsibility in crisis management reaction. Hence, the handling of subsequent natural and human induced disasters, such as Lockerbie plane bombings in 1988 and Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 were made easier by his policies of maintaining and developing the national transportation system, and to ensure that it

Hunger, How is Our Perception of Hunger Different From That of Essay

Hunger, How is Our Perception of Hunger Different From That of Starving Children and How We Have Become Immune to the Plight of Others - Essay Example Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help. (http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html) Although the problem of hunger has been addressed by the Governments and numerous non-governmental organizations including the UN, the problem still looms large and requires adequate measures and serious tackling. However, do we really realize what is it like to be hungry How do people who are actually affected by it feel and how do they respond to this malady Could we, the so-called problem-solvers and solution-givers find a way out for these craving for a loaf of bread and do we really realize the extent of suffering How do we perceive hunger and how do those affected by it see it This paper tends to critically appraise these questions and tries to find answers to them. It is indeed very easy and simple to make assumptions regarding hungry people when one himself/herself is well-fed and is sitting in cozy rooms trying to find perfect solutions for the hungry and ill-fed masses. In such a scenario, the whole problem of hunger and poverty is seen through rose-tinted glasses and it becomes very convenient for the people on this side of the bridge to indulge themselves in a myriad of facts and figures and toy around with them. Our perception of hunger is vastly... This essay approves that the present age of industrialization and Mcdonaldization has also brought with it some negative symptoms as well. Due to the values of materialism, commercialism and consumerism becoming a part of the psyche of modern man, we no longer care and show respect to the needs of other men and women that are our fellow beings. We, in negation of all humanitarian values and morals, no longer seek to help out those who are less fortunate or are caught in unfavorable situations and circumstances. Thus, we just because are not affected by such maladies forget about those who are caught up in such problems. This paper stresses that there are people and organizations that still care about people that are hungry and do not enjoy all privileges as the minority of world does. There are various organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, that are trying their level best to alleviate the sufferings of the hungry millions and who think of this problem as their own. This report makes a conclusion that people need to contribute more and more to anti-hunger causes and governments should take steps to end the unequal distribution of wealth and ensure a mechanism for quick and efficient supply of food products to all. Organizations should, in their individual capacity as well as with collaboration with various Governments should think of ways to do the same. Only then we would be able to achieve the dream of a hunger-free world where no child goes to bed without food.

Heathcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Heathcare - Essay Example On top of that he is further indulging in alcohol abuse on weekends which should ideally be totally banned in his case as his SGOT and SGPT levels are raised. Moreover he has existing Staphylococcal urethral infection. As he is presently suffering from acute respiratory distress, his habit of smoking is not going to help his case in any way. He has taken erratic medication for aids and that too using AZT and Zidovudine which has been administered in unaccountable time spans and compliance is also not known for sure. His musculo skeletal and cardiovascular systems however show some signs of integrity and proper functioning. The patient should be guided to change his food habits drastically and stick to high energy cereals and fresh fruit juice in the morning. He should be encouraged to have breakfast as the heaviest meal which should include citrus juices and vegetarian protein diet. Curd, yoghurt and milk should be used liberally and he should avoid coffee and sodas altogether. He should have a light lunch and have his dinner in the evening before 7 PM. He should desist from having late meals and should drink hot milk at night before going to bed. He should be assisted and encouraged to follow this schedule by his partner or any other well wisher. As the patient is into intellectual pursuits like poetry, he should be made to realize the gravity of his problem by a psychologist. The diet supplementation and pattern should be prepared by a qualified nutritionist. 1. Anxiolytics for reducing anxiety: A low dose of Alprazolam could be started in consultation with a psychiatrist to alleviate his desperation. This is one of the safest anxioltics and minimum dosage of 0.25 milligrams should be started initially. However, the selection of the anxiolytic should be made by a qualified psychiatrist after careful assessment of the patient’s EEG and other parameters. 2. To check acute coughing

Tax Breaks as Spending Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tax Breaks as Spending - Article Example The tax code in the United States also offers help by giving parents tax breaks to pay for child care. A reduction in the taxes families has to pay puts more money in the hands of American citizens. There is a tax break that exists that allows parents to put aside $5,000 to pay for child care. Those wages escape the burden of being taxable income. The effect of this tax break for people that are in the 25% tax bracket is $1,250 a year in savings, while parents in the 39.6% tax bracket are able to save $1,980. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provide families with a tax credit of up to $6,000 to cover eligible child-care expenses. These two tax breaks have the effect of saving American families $3.1 billion in taxes. The use of direct subsidies benefits more low-income families, while tax breaks target middle income and upper-income households. A second major way in which the government gives back to the community is through student aid. The subsidy mechanism that is used to he lp out students of low-income families is the Pell Grant. On the tax side, there are numerous credits and deductions for education purposes that benefit middle and upper-income families. Not all tax breaks are considered spending. For instance, the lower tax rate on dividends is not considered spending. The reason for the lower tax rate on dividends is to offset the effect of double taxation. It is estimated that nearly 67% of all tax breaks in the United States are a form of spending in disguise.... The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provide families with a tax credit of up to $6,000 to cover eligible child-care expenses. These two tax breaks have the effect of saving American families $3.1 billion in taxes. The use of direct subsidies benefit more low income families, while tax breaks target middle income and upper income households. A second major way in which the government gives back to the community is through student aid. The subsidy mechanism that is used to help out students of low income families is the Pell Grant. On the tax side there are numerous credits and deductions for education purposes that benefit middle and upper income families. Not all tax breaks are considered spending. For instance the lower tax rate on dividends is not considered spending. The reason for the lower tax rate on dividends is to offset the effect of double taxation. It is estimated that nearly 67% of all tax breaks in the United States are a form of spending in disguise. The article pro vides a very interesting discussion about the effect of tax breaks and subsidies in America. Most people do not realize that the government is hiding its spending through the tax code. The actions of the government should be praised since the government is looking for ways to help out poor people and provide social justice. A more detailed discussion about the effect the government’s strategy has on the national deficit would have made this article better. Barack Obama has to negotiate a deal with the Republicans to ensure the economic future of the nation. It is imperative for the government to continue to help out poor parents that can not afford child care. These types of incentives allow a lot of people to join the

Hunger, How is Our Perception of Hunger Different From That of Essay

Hunger, How is Our Perception of Hunger Different From That of Starving Children and How We Have Become Immune to the Plight of Others - Essay Example Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help. (http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html) Although the problem of hunger has been addressed by the Governments and numerous non-governmental organizations including the UN, the problem still looms large and requires adequate measures and serious tackling. However, do we really realize what is it like to be hungry How do people who are actually affected by it feel and how do they respond to this malady Could we, the so-called problem-solvers and solution-givers find a way out for these craving for a loaf of bread and do we really realize the extent of suffering How do we perceive hunger and how do those affected by it see it This paper tends to critically appraise these questions and tries to find answers to them. It is indeed very easy and simple to make assumptions regarding hungry people when one himself/herself is well-fed and is sitting in cozy rooms trying to find perfect solutions for the hungry and ill-fed masses. In such a scenario, the whole problem of hunger and poverty is seen through rose-tinted glasses and it becomes very convenient for the people on this side of the bridge to indulge themselves in a myriad of facts and figures and toy around with them. Our perception of hunger is vastly... This essay approves that the present age of industrialization and Mcdonaldization has also brought with it some negative symptoms as well. Due to the values of materialism, commercialism and consumerism becoming a part of the psyche of modern man, we no longer care and show respect to the needs of other men and women that are our fellow beings. We, in negation of all humanitarian values and morals, no longer seek to help out those who are less fortunate or are caught in unfavorable situations and circumstances. Thus, we just because are not affected by such maladies forget about those who are caught up in such problems. This paper stresses that there are people and organizations that still care about people that are hungry and do not enjoy all privileges as the minority of world does. There are various organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, that are trying their level best to alleviate the sufferings of the hungry millions and who think of this problem as their own. This report makes a conclusion that people need to contribute more and more to anti-hunger causes and governments should take steps to end the unequal distribution of wealth and ensure a mechanism for quick and efficient supply of food products to all. Organizations should, in their individual capacity as well as with collaboration with various Governments should think of ways to do the same. Only then we would be able to achieve the dream of a hunger-free world where no child goes to bed without food.

Tax Breaks as Spending Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tax Breaks as Spending - Article Example The tax code in the United States also offers help by giving parents tax breaks to pay for child care. A reduction in the taxes families has to pay puts more money in the hands of American citizens. There is a tax break that exists that allows parents to put aside $5,000 to pay for child care. Those wages escape the burden of being taxable income. The effect of this tax break for people that are in the 25% tax bracket is $1,250 a year in savings, while parents in the 39.6% tax bracket are able to save $1,980. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provide families with a tax credit of up to $6,000 to cover eligible child-care expenses. These two tax breaks have the effect of saving American families $3.1 billion in taxes. The use of direct subsidies benefits more low-income families, while tax breaks target middle income and upper-income households. A second major way in which the government gives back to the community is through student aid. The subsidy mechanism that is used to he lp out students of low-income families is the Pell Grant. On the tax side, there are numerous credits and deductions for education purposes that benefit middle and upper-income families. Not all tax breaks are considered spending. For instance, the lower tax rate on dividends is not considered spending. The reason for the lower tax rate on dividends is to offset the effect of double taxation. It is estimated that nearly 67% of all tax breaks in the United States are a form of spending in disguise.... The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provide families with a tax credit of up to $6,000 to cover eligible child-care expenses. These two tax breaks have the effect of saving American families $3.1 billion in taxes. The use of direct subsidies benefit more low income families, while tax breaks target middle income and upper income households. A second major way in which the government gives back to the community is through student aid. The subsidy mechanism that is used to help out students of low income families is the Pell Grant. On the tax side there are numerous credits and deductions for education purposes that benefit middle and upper income families. Not all tax breaks are considered spending. For instance the lower tax rate on dividends is not considered spending. The reason for the lower tax rate on dividends is to offset the effect of double taxation. It is estimated that nearly 67% of all tax breaks in the United States are a form of spending in disguise. The article pro vides a very interesting discussion about the effect of tax breaks and subsidies in America. Most people do not realize that the government is hiding its spending through the tax code. The actions of the government should be praised since the government is looking for ways to help out poor people and provide social justice. A more detailed discussion about the effect the government’s strategy has on the national deficit would have made this article better. Barack Obama has to negotiate a deal with the Republicans to ensure the economic future of the nation. It is imperative for the government to continue to help out poor parents that can not afford child care. These types of incentives allow a lot of people to join the

Culture Theory and Popular Culture Essay Example for Free

Culture Theory and Popular Culture Essay The study of culture has, over the last few years, been quite dramatically transformed as questions of modernity and post-modernity have replaced the more familiar concepts of ideology and hegemony which, from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s, anchored cultural analysis firmly within the neo-Marxist field mapped out by Althusser and Gramsci. Modernity and post-modernity have also moved far beyond the academic fields of media or cultural studies. Hardly one branch of the arts, humanities or social sciences has remained untouched by the debates which have accompanied their presence. They have also found their way into the quality press and on to TV, and of course they have entered the art school studios informing and giving shape to the way in which art practitioners including architects, painters and film-makers define and execute their work. Good or bad, to be welcomed or reviled, these terms have corresponded to some sea-change in the way in which cultural intellectuals and practitioners experience and seek to understand the world in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Storey claimed that â€Å"postmodernism has disturbed many of the old certainties surrounding questions of cultural value. † This work will consider the issues of postmodernism versus modernism mostly from the perspective of the critics of postmodernism with reference to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste. Post-modern cultural movements first emerged in the 1960s in painting, architecture, and literary criticism. Pop art challenged modernist art by experimenting with new cultural forms and contents that embraced everyday life, radical eclecticism, subcultures, mass media, and consumerism. Sociologist Daniel Bell was one of the first to take up the challenge of postmodernism. In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976) he identified a moral crisis in Western society bound up with the decline of Puritan bourgeois culture and the ascendence of a post-modern culture that he described in terms of an aesthetic relativism and a hedonistic individualism. Yet the most formidable critic of postmodernism and defender of modernity has been German philosopher and heir to the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory — Jurgen Habermas. There are two problems with postmodernism. The first problem comes into focus around the meaning of the term fragmentation. This is a word which, through over-usage in recent cultural debates, has become shorn of meaning. Post-modernity has been associated by Fredric Jameson (1984) with the emergence of a broken, fractured shadow of a man. The tinny shallowness of mass culture is, he argues, directly reflected in the schizophrenic subject of contemporary mass consciousness. Against Jameson, Stuart Hall (1981) has recently said that it is just this decentring of consciousness which allows him, as a black person, to emerge, divided, yes, but now fully foregrounded on the post-modern stage. So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centred at last. Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel so dispersed I become centred. What Ive thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be the representative modern condition! This is coming home with a vengeance (34). These are, then, two perspectives on the problem of postmodern fragmentation. There is Jameson, who looks back nostalgically to the notion of unity or totality and who sees in this a kind of prerequisite for radical politics, a goal to be striven for. And there is Hall, who sees in fragmentation something more reflective of the ongoing and historical condition of subaltern groups. Jamesons unified man could be taken to be a preFreudian, Enlightenment subject, and thus be discredited by those who have paid attention to Lacans notion of the fragmented subject. But the endorsement of post-modern fragmentation is equally not without its own problems. Have we become more fragmented than before? Can we specifically name a time and a place for the moment of fragmentation? Is fragmentation the other of humanity? Or is the representation of fragmentation coincidental with political empowerment and liberation? Christopher Norris (1990) has argued that post-modernity (and postmodern fragmentation) stands at the end of the long line of intellectual inquiry which starts with Saussure, works its way through post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis and ends with Baudrillard. In Norriss terms fragmentation is to be understood as marking an absolute and irreparable break with the unified subject, a break which is now writ large in culture. Present-day fragmented subjectivity is captured and expressed in post-modern cultural forms, a kind of superficial pick-and-mix of styles. According to Jameson, however, unfragmented subjectivity, by contrast, produced great works of uncluttered heroic modernism. There is a degree of slippage in the connections being made here. The problem lies, at least partly, in the imprecise use of the word fragmentation. There is a vacillation between the high psychoanalytical use of Lacan and a much looser notion, one which seems to sum up unsatisfactory aspects of contemporary cultural experience. Modernists, however, also felt confused and fragmented. Fragmentation, as a kind of structure of feeling, is by no means the sole property of those living under the shadow of the post-modern condition. Bewilderment, anxiety, panic: such expressions can be attributed to any historical moment as it is transposed into cultural and artistic expression over the last a hundred and fifty years. The category of fragmentation seems to have become either too technical to be of general use (i. e. in Lacans work) or too vague to mean anything more than torn apart. The second question which might be asked of neo-Marxist critics of postmodernity, concerns determination, and the return to a form of economic reductionism in cultural theory. Fredric Jameson argues that postmodernism is the cultural logic of capital, but his argument, as Paul Hirst writing about trends in both New Times and post-modern writing, has suggested, slips from a rigid causal determinism into casual metaphor (45). Jameson, going back to Mandels Late Capitalism, has argued that the kinds of cultural phenomena which might be described as post-modern form part of the logic of advanced or late capitalism. This does away, at a sweep, with the difficult issue of explaining the precise nature of the social and ideological relationships which mediate between the economy and the sphere of culture and it simultaneously restores a rather old-fashioned notion of determination to that place it had occupied prior to Althussers relative autonomy and his idea of determination in the last instance (67). Quoting Lyotard, Harvey (1989) takes up the notion of the temporary contract as the hallmark of post-modern social relations. What he sees prevailing in production, in the guise of new forms of work, he also sees prevailing in emotional life and in culture, in the temporary contract of love and sexuality. Like Jameson he decries this state and looks forward to something more robust and more reliable, something from which a less fractured sense of self and community might emerge. He views postmodern culture disparagingly, as aesthetic rather than ethical, reflecting an avoidance of politics rather than a rising to the challenge of a politics posed by new or changing conditions of production. Despite their sweeping rejection of post-modern writing, both Jameson and Harvey take advantage of the conceptual and methodological breadth found in these theories to circumvent (or short-circuit) the key problems which have arisen in cultural studies in the attempt to specify and under-stand the social relations which connect culture to the conditions of its production. Their conceptual leap into a critique of postmodernism allows these writers to avoid confronting more directly the place of Marxism in cultural studies from the late 1980s into the 1990s, a moment at which Marxism cannot be seen in terms other than those of eclipse or decline. Postmodernism exists, therefore, as something of a convenient bete noire. It allows for the evasion of the logic of cultural studies, if we take that logic to be the problematizing of the relations between culture and the economy and between culture and politics, in an age where the field of culture appears to be increasingly expansive and where both politics and economics might even be seen, at one level, as being conducted in and through culture. Structuralism has replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls and womens magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Andreas Huyssen in his 1984 introduction to postmodernism draws attention to this high structuralist preference for the works of high modernism, especially the writing of James Joyce or Mallarme. There is no doubt that centre stage in critical theory is held by the classical modernists: Flaubert†¦in Barthes†¦Mallarme and Artaud in Derrida, Magritte†¦ in Foucault†¦Joyce and Artaud in Kristeva†¦and so on ad infinitum (Huyssen, 1984:39). He argues that this reproduces unhelpfully the old distinction between the high arts and the low, less serious, popular arts. He goes on to comment: Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape†¦and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernisms relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. Nor did it ever show much enthusiasm about this set of forms, perhaps because pop has never signified within one discrete discourse, but instead combines images with performance, music with film or video, and pin-ups with the magazine form itself’ (Huyssen, 1984:16). In recent article, where Hebdige (1988) engages directly with the question of postmodernism, he disavows the playful elements in Subculture†¦and, more manifestly, in the new fashion and style magazines. In contrast with what he sees now as an excess of style, a celebration of artifice and a strong cultural preference for pastiche, Hebdige seeks out the reassuringly real. He suggests that the slick joky tone of postmodernism, especially that found on the pages of The Face, represents a disengagement with the real, and an evasion of social responsibility. He therefore insists on a return to the world of hunger, exploitation and oppression and with it a resurrection of unfragmented, recognizable subjectivity. He fleetingly engages with an important characteristic of the post-modern condition, that is, the death of subjectivity and the emergence, in its place, of widespread social schizophrenia. Hebdige seems to be saying that if this rupturing of identity is what postmodernism is about, then he would rather turn his back on it. The position of Clement Greenberg in his 1980 lecture entitled The Notion of the Post-Modern could be summarized in the following terms: modernism in painting has been, since its inception with Manet and the impressionists, a heroic struggle against the encroachment of bad taste or kitsch in the domain of art; postmodernism is only the latest name under which commercial bad taste, masquerading as sophisticated â€Å"advancedness,† challenges the integrity of art. Any deviation from modernism, then, involves a betrayal or corruption of aesthetic standards. Seen from this vantage point, the â€Å"post-modern† cannot be much more than a renewed â€Å"urge to relax,† particularly pervasive after the advent of pop art, with its deleterious effects on the art world. This type of argument (modernisms self-conscious mission, to exorcise bad taste from the domain of high art, is today as urgent as it ever was) appears in a variety of forms and shapes in the writings of the defenders of modernist purity against the infiltrations of commercialism and fashion. This realized art, however, is not in a harmonious universal style as Mondrian was envisaging. It consists mostly in forms of art considered banal, sentimental, and in bad taste by most in the Fine Art artworld. Further, because so many people have no interest in Fine Art, it is often thought that visual art has somehow lost its relevance and potency. People ask what the point of art is, and whether it is worthwhile spending public money on art. When people think of art, they think of Fine Art, and the influence of Fine Art seems to be in decline. However, although Fine Art seems to be in decline as a cultural force, visual art has more power in culture now than it ever had. Visual art is not all Fine Art. There is a diversity of kinds of art in contemporary culture. Besides Fine Art, there is also Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. What Fine Art does for us is just a small part of the total cultural value we get from art. As traditional culture recedes from memory, and technology changes our lifestyles, people look for new values and lifestyles. These new values and lifestyles are carried by the art broadcast over the mass media and on the products we buy. The mass-media arts define our heroes and tell us about the good. Advertisements define pleasure and lifestyle. With mass-market goods we dress our bodies and houses in art, thus using art to define who we are. These contemporary visual arts play a large part in shaping our values, fantasies, and lifestyles. However, conventional art histories tend not to treat the other powerful visual arts of our own time beyond Fine Art, namely, Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. Advertising is not considered â€Å"art† because it is not functionless beyond being aesthetic. Also, the advertising does not typically show personal expressive creativity. So, the Design Arts are typically considered mere decoration. Popular Art is thought of as in bad taste, banal, sentimental, and so not worthy of consideration either. Since art histories are only looking at â€Å"good† art, they tend not to consider these other arts. Standing as they most often do within the Fine Art art world, art historians use the ideology and sense of artistic value of Fine Art to evaluate all art. From the perspective of the contemporary art world, Popular Art is thought of as a kind of Fine Art; that is, bad Fine Art or Fine Art in bad taste. It seems hackneyed and banal to the Fine Art art world. From their perspective, popular taste is bad taste. For example, Osvaldo Yero, an artist who emerged in the 1990s, has based his work on the technique and poetics of the plaster figures. These figures, mostly decorations, but also religious images, were perhaps considered the last gasp of bad taste. They constituted the epitome of â€Å"uncultivated† appropriation of icons from the â€Å"high† culture as well as from mass culture, done in a poor and artificial material par excellence, worked clumsily in a semi-industrial technique and polychromed with pretentious attempts at elegance. They symbolized the triumph of â€Å"vulgarity, † the failure of the â€Å"aesthetic education of the masses† proposed by socialism. By the 1920s business and advertising agencies had realized that putting style and color choices into the products they made increased consumption. Through the use of advertising and by designing stylistic variety into their products, manufacturers elevated things into the category of fashion goods that had before just been utility goods, like towels, bedding, and bathroom fixtures. Previously these items did not have any style component, but now designers added decoration to their functional design. This meant that now consumers could choose products not just for function, but also for style. People could now have pink sheets, green toilets, and blue phones. There is a tension in design style between aesthetic formalist styles like the international style, and design styles that are figurative. Those favoring figurative design tend to think of products as coming in a great variety and designed to appeal to the various tastes of consumers. Here the style of the products are not dictated by function, but by market pressures. This is a further development of design for sales. This gave rise to what is known as niche marketing, where the styling is targeted to a smaller, more specific group than mass marketing is. Thus, they shun the idea of a unified worldwide machine aesthetic. For example, a razor can be pink with flowers on it to target it to female users, and black with blue accent lines to target it to male users. The razor is the same, but the razor is packaged with different styling to sell the product to different markets. In designing for niche markets, the styling reflects the class, age group, profession, and aspirations of the target group. This goes hand in hand with advertising, and requires a great deal of research to discover what these values are and what styling motifs succeed in communicating them. The exemplary text or the single, richly coded image gives way to the textual thickness and the visual density of everyday life, as though the slow, even languid look of the semiologist is, by the 1980s, out of tempo with the times. The field of postmodernism certainly expresses a frustration, not merely with this seemingly languid pace, but with its increasing inability to make tangible connections between the general conditions of life today and the practice of cultural analysis. Structuralism has also replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls and womens magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Huyssen argues that â€Å"Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape, and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernisms relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. † References Bell, Daniel. (1976). The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books. C. Norris, Lost in the funhouse: Baudrillard and the politics of postmodernism, in R. Boyne and A. Rattansi (eds) Postmodernism and Society, London, Macmillan, 1990. Hall, Stuart, Connell, Ian and Curti, Lidia (1981). The unity of current affairs television, in T. Bennett et al. (eds) Popular Television and Film, London: BFI. Harvey, David (1989). The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell. Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Routledge. Huyssen, A. (1984). Mapping the postmodern, New German Critique 33. Jameson, Fredric (1984). Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism, New Left Review 146.

Eyewitness Testimony Essay

Eyewitness Testimony Essay The use of eyewitness testimony is infamously a primary source of evidence used within the judicial system around the world; however its use has raised various questions as to its reliability and validity especially within court cases. This essay explored first of all, the biological factors of memory and recollection of memories within the human brain. Memories are believed to be stored and processed within the hippocampus part of the brain where it goes through the multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968). This is where danger of the reliability of memory occurs. It was argued that eyewitness testimony is a reliable form of evidence especially with its validity in terms of the events leading up to the use of EWT; what is deemed important information is believed to be remembered more clearly. Sigmund Freud (1920) suggested that memories can only be retrieved by encouraging remembering past episodes and re-instating these past memories into their consciousness. Psychologists N ibett and Ross (1980) quoted that the reason why eyewitness testimony is persuasive is that it influences the jury on a deeper level. However, eyewitness testimony posed more disadvantages than advantages with the various factors that affect it such as weapons focus in incidents involving weapons which cause distractions and loss of memories. The primary psychologist that tested the use of memory was Elizabeth Loftus who conducted various experiment to test this, such as the Automobile Destruction experiment in the 1970s. After having collated all the arguments together, it was suggested that improvements must be made in order to improve the quality of eyewitness testimony; these included the legal system and police forces involvement in collating information as quickly as possible. The most imperative form of evidence when investigating a crime is the honesty of witnesses on trial, the application of eyewitness testimony. Though the use of eyewitness testimony by juries is considered most valuable, the question of fallibility of witness statements poses various problems and issues. Eyewitness testimony has been a thriving aspect of the Criminal Justice System, an incredible amount of research into this element of cognitive psychology questions the reliability of peoples memory especially using it as evidence to determine the outcome of the trial and convictions. Research into the reliability of evidence, often referred to as witness psychology is renowned as being the longest established area of law and psychology, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.  [1]   The area of eyewitness testimony has always posed a problem with reliability and the effectiveness of human memory. Human memory is described by cognitive psychologists Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)  [2]  as a three stage theory in which memory is modelled in, this memory stage model is called the Multi-Store Model. The Multi-store model theory consists of the memory being divided into three stages, the first stage being the sensory store, the second stage is the short term memory (working memory) and the third being long term memory. The transfer of information from one store to another is controlled by the process of attention and rehearsal of memories. One of the most critical assumptions made by cognitive psychologists is that the human mind has a limited capacity for processing information. Therefore, any external information that the environment consists of is often very difficult for the human mind to assimilate and process; so people are selective about what information is to be retrieved and this is otherwise known as attention, where some information is assimilated while other pieces are ignored. The first stage of the multi-store model, the sensory store, is where the information from the senses (iconic, echoic, tactile, olfactory and gustatory), is transferred into but this is only for a very short period of time. The initial information retrieved by the senses is then transferred into the short term memory store; this is transferred through attention given to the information transferred from the senses involved. When the information has been transferred into the short-term memory store, this is the store concerned with forgetting information and this information is ultimately lost entirely. Therefore, for information to be remained in the memory, from the short term store into the long term store, the information must be rehearsed. Rehearsal is the cycling of information through the memory, this rehearsal of memory can be carried out in two different methods. Therefore this essay will investigate whether the application of eyewitness testimony statements is a reliable form of evidence to be used by the judicial system. Furthermore, this essay will argue whether eyewitness testimony is ideal to use as one of the most important pieces of evidence to use or whether the application of eyewitness testimony is fallible. After comparing for and against the reliability of eyewitness accounts, an evaluation will be drawn over how eyewitness testimony can be improved to an extent where it can be further accurate. This essay will explore the elements of eyewitness testimony and how these factors can determine whether an eyewitness account is accurate. These elements include the effect of weapon focus on witness memory, how leading questions can manipulate witness statements and recollection of memory, reconstructive errors of memory and the application of psychological experiments when exploring the function of these elements on the human memory. Th e application of the eyewitness testimony includes multiple formal questioning sessions with witnesses on trial, taking statements of the events witnessed and witnesses appearing in court with the jury. The issue of integrity when applying eyewitness testimony accounts is delegated to the jury, who are assigned the role of determining the judgement of whether the eyewitness statements are fallible or reliable  [3]  . The use of eyewitness testimony has a profound and compelling effect on the outcome of a trial and conviction, and this is why an accurate eyewitness testimony is needed in order to gain justice. The Aspects of Eyewitness Testimony As a consequence of the limitations of information processing in the human mind, witness statements need to be reviewed for accuracy and if any external factors of either the environment or the function of memory may have affected the outcome of the witness account  [4]  . Quite often, when the memory cannot recall the entire incident or situation, it may result in the unknown areas being replaced by events that may never have took place in reality but the mind may perceive as a potential occurrence and therefore causes fallibility in the eyewitness testimony. In essence, the memory may fill in gaps where it fails to recall what may have happened  [5]  . Many factors affect eyewitness memories which are illustrated below: Interference of Memory Processing: The period of time that has lapsed between the witnessing of the incident and the questioning of the eyewitness can determine the amount of information that the witness can recall. On the other hand, interference which is the loss of old stimuli as a result of new information can also subsequently reduce the accuracy of eyewitness accounts.  [6]   Leading Questions in Witness Interviews: A leading question in its form or content, suggests to the witness being interviewed what answer is desired or leads them to the desired answer. Some questions can often be made more suggestive than others and these questions the legal concept of a leading question. The main pioneer for investigating the consequences of particular leading questions was Elizabeth F. Loftus in 1974.  [7]   Schemas: The human mind has evolved its memory capacity and the ability to remember certain aspects by organising information into categories, otherwise known as schemas  [8]  . Schemas help organise memories that can consist of familiar people, objects and situations and allow people to understand and act appropriately to whatever is encountered. Arousal, Anxiety and Violence Distraction: Quite often, cognitive psychologists have questioned the poor recall of eyewitness accounts is primarily a result of where their attention is focused upon. A possible reason for arousal, anxiety and violence distraction could be that a violent incident, with the use of weapons, draws the focus of the witnesss attention away from who is causing this anxiety, which results in little or no processing of other information.  [9]   Weapon Focus: When a witness views a crime in which a weapon is used as a method of violence and distraction, the weapon achieves its purpose in distracting the attention of those witnessing the crime. The distraction affects the witnesss attention due to the potential threat of violence9. External Influences: Quite often, external influences can affect the accuracy of eyewitness accounts, especially if the media has been influencing the events that have taken place. The witness may re-interpret their witness statements to match what the media has claimed may have existed or happened. Apart from the media, other external influences may include other witness accounts of what happened and/or the type of environment that the situation may have occurred in, e.g. in darkness, low-lit room etc. Conformity: Through the questioning process that witnesses must endure, group questioning in particular, gives into reason the reliability of witness recollections as they may conform in order to fit each others interpretation of what happened. Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony The use of eyewitness testimony has provided crucial evidence that can often lead to the identification and arrest of a criminal suspect or a hazardous event can be avoided. Eyewitness testimony impacts strongly upon the trial process and the verdicts that are given by the jury are quite often influenced heavily by eyewitness accounts. Stern and Dunning, 1994  [10]  quoted that eyewitness testimony is perhaps the most compelling types of evidence presented to police investigations and criminal trials. Although the human memory and its information processing ability, has substantial amounts of limitations that can lead to invalidity and inaccuracy, it does however, demonstrate a unique ability to process information where the acquired stimulus information is stored. The human mind can potentially hold millions of pieces of information, though not all at once, which when acquired by the brain can be reinstated and remembered. The memories that the mind deems as important for growth and use consistently is life are episonic which represents the episode of the memory where as certain skill or piece of information; semantic which identifies what that piece of information consists of and what it is and finally procedural which processes who that information is to be used or handled. For example, teaching a child how to read a book at a particular age is episonic, knowing what a book is, is semantic and how to read the words in a book would be procedural.  [11]   The process of information being transferred from the short term memory into the long term memory was an experiment conducted by psychologists Welch and Burnett in 1924. The experiment was to test the theory of the serial position curve where it consisted of the subjects being presented with a list of 16 words in which they had to recall in order. The results of this experiment, illustrated the serial position curve in which the recollection of words and the results of the experiment were graphed and this illustrated a curve effect were the last recalled words were remembered best whereas the words in the middle of the recall were remembered poorly. Cognitive psychologist, Sigmund Freud believed that memories were allocated in the brain  [12]  . Freud referred to these memories as true memories and described that they lay deep in the unconscious element of the brain, where they lay undisturbed as a factor of surface mental activity. Freud insisted that these memories were never lost or forgotten as they are only inaccessible and latent, having become a part of the unconscious  [13]  . For these memories to be accessed, Freud promoted the technique free association. By encouraging witnesses to reminisce about past episodes that have occurred within their lives, Freud insinuated that they could reinstate long-forgotten yet important memories from their past into their consciousness. However, it can be argued that the true memories that Freud insisted exist in the human sub-conscious are in fact potential complex blendings of both fact and fiction. Memory is an extremely fragile aspect of the human mind that can potentially be supplemented, altered and reconstructed by external stimuli that can question an event that may never have occurred. However, it is argued that the human mind is capable of remembering significant pieces of information that is considered vital and important. This is considered one of the key factors in which juries do consider eyewitness testimony accounts as a vital piece of evidence. Psychologists Nibett and Ross, 1980 quoted that the reason why eyewitness testimony is persuasive is that vivid testimonies have a strong impact on observers so this conclusively means that they are easier to remember especially upon the jury  [14]  . Though the potential invalidity of eyewitness accounts is extensive, error made in witness accounts are extraneous when the observers are able to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate witnesses  [15]  . However, there may be a possibility that the eyewitness account is accurate but leading questions by the criminal investigation team may provoke the memory to be changed to fit the question or the most relevant and fitting answer  [16]  . The Unreliability of Eyewitness Testimony The malleability of eyewitness accounts demonstrates the excessive inaccuracy of it being used as a vital evidential piece in the courts and criminal justice system. Many hypotheses have been established that suggest reasons for the valued use of eyewitness testimony. Saunders et al believe that jurors tend to place too much faith in eyewitness testimonies; however the problem lies with whether eyewitness testimony is a reliable source of evidence to use  [17]  . The inaccuracy of witness accounts is demonstrated by the various aspects that intercept with each other and substantiate hesitation for its use as evidence. The use of leading questions can quite often alter information/intelligence or can quite often misinterpreted accounts to match the information that the witness has been presented with. An experiment conducted by Elizabeth Loftus and John Parmer illustrates the interaction between language and memory in 1974  [18]  . The reconstruction of an automobile destruction consisted of two experiments in which subjects were shown films of automobile accidents. After the observation, the subjects were then asked questions about the events that occurred in the films; How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? The use of the word smash demonstrated higher estimations in the speed of the car as opposed to other verbs used in place of smash such as collided, bumped, contacted and hit. When the experiment was repeated a week later, the subjects who received the word smashed were more likely to agree to the question asked Did you see any broken glass? even though there was n o recollection of broken glass within the video. These results highlight the theory that the questions asked in relation to an event can result in a reconstruction of a witnesss memory of that event. Though witness memory is quite often inaccurate in that they fail to distinguish the events that had occurred, quite often, the human memory can remember erroneous events and details that may be introduced by third party interference. In the 1970s, Elizabeth Loftus conducted an experiment to demonstrate how third party interference can invalidate witness accounts by introducing false facts. Subjects were shown a slideshow of a car at an intersection with either a yield sign or a stop sign. The experimenter then asked the participants questions which falsely used the word stop sign instead of yield sign which is what was actually shown in the slideshow. The results indicated that subjects remembered seeing the false image; the introduction of false cues altered the memory of the participants in the experiment. Bartlett conducted an experiment in which he read a story The war of the ghosts out loud to a group of participants where he concluded that participants attempted to fit the story into their western schemas and as a result, distorted it during recall  [19]  . This showed that they were not recalling the information exactly as it had been presented to them, but were making assumptions at the story, based on their own understanding. This correlates with what a witness may assume a criminal or crime scene may look like and therefore use this to describe the suspected. Schemas are an effective method of processing and encoding information  [20]  . The idea of schemas were originally established by Frederick Bartlett in the 1930s which involved a large number studies in which he showed ways in which participants made sense of whatever they were shown affects the way they recall it later  [21]  . For example, in one of his studies, Bartlett showed participants unfamiliar line d rawings and instructed them to memorise it. Bartlett then asked his participants to talk aloud at the same time as memorising the picture. He found that different participants made sense of the figures in different ways. Later in the experiment, the participants were asked to draw the figures as they remembered them and Bartlett discovered that the schemas which they established during their initial encoding influenced their recall. Therefore, schemas may influence what witnesses may define what a criminal looks like or behaves like and this may influence their account of events. Through the questioning process that witnesses must endure, witnesses can either be questioned on a one-to-one basis where the interviewer questions the witness independently or witnesses can be questioned as a group if the incident has been witnesses by multiple people. In particular, group questioning which gives into reason the reliability of witness recollections as they may conform in order to fit each others interpretation of what happened. This conformity can purposely invalidate information as the witness does not want to be isolated from the events that the other witnesss describe as having happened. This subjective information again affects the testimony because false information is being interpreted is invalid due to conformity of information. The weapons focus effect  [22]  perceives to be a result of the witnesss attention being predominantly directed towards the weapon, resulting in diversion of attention away from the situational aspects and the criminal suspect. When a witness views a crime in which a weapon is used as a method of violence and distraction, the weapon achieves its purpose in distracting the attention of those witnessing the crime. The distraction affects the witnesss attention due to the potential threat of violence. Although an incident has occurred, the attention of the witness is primarily upon the weapon so they are not observing the rest of the incident or the person who is posing the threat and this causes the witness to have lack of information about the incident. This area of eyewitness psychology is known as weapon focus; unfortunately this distraction results in a very poor eyewitness testimony as the witness is unable to recall events and descriptions. Unfortunately, most crimes involve the use of a weapon as a vulnerability tool, which in essence causes the stress and anxiety levels of the witness to rise and therefore will fail to encode and remember vital information. Eyewitness inaccuracy may also be a result of errors that occur within the memory process; the memory is divided into three distinct stages of processing: encoding, storage and retrieval. The occurrence of errors is very likely at any particular stage within the memory processing stages. Acquiring information or otherwise known as encoding is illustrated within the Yerkes-Dodson principle which according to its theorists, an increase in arousal improves performance up to a certain point. Once arousal has passed the critical point which is otherwise known as the optimum, performance tends to decline and these results in poorer memory performance. So, in essence when a person is moderately aroused, the information is encoded best as opposed to extreme arousal or stress where the information is lost or encoded insufficiently. The Yerkes-Dodson theory  [23]  demonstrates that if a witness observes a crime that is substantially violent and/or makes the witness experience high levels o f fear and anxiety, they are less likely to remember any significant levels of information because of the extreme stress which results in encoding of information inaccurate. This conclusively makes their eyewitness account unreliable because they fail to remember any substantial amounts of information and detail of what happened and of the perpetrator. The question of witness account accuracy raises questions about whether the time after the incident occurred, if the account is still valid as evidence because quite often, large amounts of time and substantial interference can deteriorate the information from memory. This deterioration refers to the loss of stimulus information as a result of passed time. The amount of time that has lapsed between the occurrence of the event and the questioning and testimony of the witness can quite often determines the amount of information the witness can recall  [24]  . This interference is due to the loss of old stimulus information caused by new stimulus information; this can also reduce the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. People are more likely to overestimate the duration of brief events but on the other hand underestimate the duration of prolonged events (Penrod, Loftus and Winkler, 1982). Other psychological research has demonstrated that the presence of a weapon also reduces the accur acy of eyewitness accounts. Evaluation of Eyewitness Testimony Taking into consideration the flaws in which eyewitness accounts may consist of, which effectively invalidates the testimony, these flaws can be avoided by both the eyewitness and the criminal justice system that use the accounts as a form of evidence. Most importantly, the way in which witness accounts are handled is vital in establishing a valid eyewitness testimony with as much truth as possible. The interviewing process which is conducted by the criminal justice system i.e. police, courtroom judges, need to be done in a careful and delicate way so that there is no decay or deterioration of information. Though the memory of the witnesses may differ, depending on age and memory capacity, quite often the initial first few hours after the occurrence of an incident is vital in collecting as much valid information as possible. So, the interviewing of witnesses should be conducted right after the incident when possible to avoid any decay of information and/or third party interference. In terms of the actual interviewing process, the use of leading questions should entirely be avoided unless the witness has mentioned specific events or descriptions which would not invalidate information as it has been confirmed by the witness. Leading questions  [25]  can quite often add new information that the witness may not have known about and will therefore mention false information in order to fit their account with what is evidently known by the police. Specific questions that can be used in the interviewing process may help the witness to run through their track of events which in some circumstances reveal any recollection of events without any external influence. Quite often through the criminal investigation, the witness needs to be interviewed many times to establish the course of events and important descriptions, whether this is through the crown prosecution trial or by the police. If later eyewitnesses need to be interviewed, they should be able to recall as much information that they reported initially, avoiding any extra information that they may have picked up from third party interference. So in essence, there is no uncertain information but information that the mind has remembered and rehearsed within their memory and indicates a positive recollection of events. Though no control can be given to what eyewitnesses will focus on and concentrate entirely on, measures on how information is collected can partially help to distinguish between valid and false information within accounts. Conclusion It can be concluded that the use of eyewitness testimony will also be used as a vital source of evidence by the criminal justice system for years to come. Eyewitness testimony can hold vital pieces of information that cannot be retrieved from any other source, without eyewitness testimony, the police would find it incredibly difficult to discover any potential clues and evidence of what happened or description of what the perpetrator physically looks like. Criminal cases in which there is not eyewitnesses to give evidence are usually those cases which find it incredibly hard to convict the guilty so have to rely upon other physical evidence such as CCTV, DNA, fingerprints etc. However, the use of eyewitness accounts seems to create a lot of doubt in whether it is a reliable source of evidence to be used because its accuracy is questioned based on interpretation. The use of leading questions and third party interference can decay any initial recollection of events that the eyewitness may have believed to have happened. But the human memory has flaws within itself regardless of extra information that can falsify or invalidate the recollection of what occurred and why. The initial pioneer of evaluating eyewitness evidence, Elizabeth F. Loftus  [26]  highlights the flaws of eyewitness accounts and of the human memory. The conclusions in which Loftus has discovered were advantageously used to improve quality of interviews and valid eyewitness accounts but unfortunately cannot eliminate all invalid information. So, in essence, the question as to whether eyewitness testimony is a reliable source of evidence still remains unclear on the basis that it is vital evidence which is needed to collate important information. However, its reliability is questioned in terms of validity and how much the witness is able to accurately recall all pieces of information especially having experienced high amounts of anxiety and stress. Eyewitness testimony will always remain a vital source of evidence but its use should be delicately considered to avoid any false information or invalid convictions.