First World War Essay

Map of the  participants in World War I:  Allied Powers  in green,  Central Powersin orange, and neutral countries in grey In the 19th Century, the major European powers had gone to great lengths to maintain a  balance of power  throughout Europe, resulting by 1900 in a complex network of political and military alliances throughout the continent. These had started in 1815, with the  Holy Alliance  between  Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Then, in October 1873, German Chancellor  Bismarck  negotiated theLeague of the Three Emperors  (German:  Dreikaiserbund) between the monarchs of Austria–Hungary, Russia and Germany. This agreement failed because Austria–Hungary and Russia could not agree over Balkan policy, leaving Germany and Austria–Hungary in an alliance formed in 1879, called the  Dual Alliance. This was seen as a method of countering Russian influence in the  Balkans  as theOttoman Empire  continued to weaken. In 1882, this alliance was expanded to include Italy in what became the  Triple Alliance. After 1870, European conflict was averted largely through a carefully planned network of treaties between the German Empire and the remainder of Europe orchestrated by Chancellor Bismarck. He especially worked to hold Russia at Germany’s side to avoid a two-front war with France and Russia. When  Wilhelm II  ascended to the throne as  German Emperor  (Kaiser), Bismarck’s alliances were gradually de-emphasised. For example, the Kaiser refused to renew the  Reinsurance Treaty  with Russia in 1890. Two years later, the  Franco-Russian Alliance  was signed to counteract the force of the Triple Alliance. In 1904, the United Kingdom sealed an alliance with France, the  Entente cordiale  and in 1907, the United Kingdom and Russia signed the  Anglo-Russian Convention. This system of interlocking bilateral agreements formed the  Triple Entente. HMS Dreadnought. A naval  arms raceexisted between the United Kingdom and Germany. German industrial and economic power had grown greatly after  unification and the foundation of the Empire  in 1870. From the mid-1890s on, the government of Wilhelm II used this base to devote significant economic resources to building up the  Kaiserliche Marine  (Imperial German Navy), established by Admiral  Alfred von Tirpitz, in rivalry with the British  Royal Navy  for world naval supremacy. As a result, both nations strove to out-build each other in terms of  capital ships. With the launch of  HMS  Dreadnought  in 1906, the British Empire expanded on its significant advantage over its German rivals. [21]  The arms race between Britain and Germany eventually extended to the rest of Europe, with all the major powers devoting their industrial base to producing the equipment and weapons necessary for a pan-European conflict. Between 1908 and 1913, the military spending of the European powers increased by 50  percent. Austria-Hungary precipitated the  Bosnian crisis  of 1908–1909 by officially annexing the former Ottoman territory of  Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. This angered theKingdom of Serbia  and its patron, the  Pan-Slavic  and  Orthodox  Russian Empire. Russian political manoeuvring in the region destabilised peace accords that were already fracturing in what was known as â€Å"the  Powder keg of Europe†. Ethno-linguistic map of Austria–Hungary, 1910 In 1912 and 1913, the  First Balkan War  was fought between the  Balkan League  and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting  Treaty of London  further shrank the Ottoman Empire, creating an independent  Albanian State  while enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked both Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913, it lost most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece and  Southern Dobruja  to Romania in the 33-day  Second Balkan War, further destabilising the region. Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serb student, was arrested immediately after he assassinated  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of AustriaOn 28 June 1914,  Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serb student and member ofYoung Bosnia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria  in  Sarajevo, Bosnia. This began a period of diplomatic maneuvering among Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain called the  July Crisis. Wanting to finally end Serbian interference in Bosnia, Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a series of ten demands intentionally made unacceptable, intending to provoke a war with Serbia. When Serbia agreed to only eight of the ten demands, Austria-Hungary declared war on 28 July 1914. Strachan  argues, â€Å"Whether an equivocal and early response by Serbia would have made any difference to Austria-Hungary’s behavior must be doubtful. Franz Ferdinand was not the sort of personality who commanded popularity, and his demise did not cast the empire into deepest mourning†. The Russian Empire, unwilling to allow Austria–Hungary to eliminate its influence in the Balkans, and in support of its longtime Serb proteges, ordered a partial mobilization one day later. When the German Empire began to mobilise on 30 July 1914, France, angry about the German conquest of  Alsace-Lorraine  during the  Franco-Prussian War, ordered French mobilisation on 1 August. Germany declared war on Russia on the same day.

Cat’s Cradle Essay

As â€Å"Papa† Monzano dies, he tells Jonah that Bokonon â€Å"teaches people lies and lies and lies,† and then asks Jonah to â€Å"kill him and teach the people the truth. † Papa says the truth is science. Shows ridiculousness of jumping from one form of comfort, religion, to another, science, without careful consideration. – Irresponsibility of the scientists: Felix Hoenikker says â€Å"Why should I bother with made-up games when there are so many real ones going on? † He never understands that the games he is playing will have a disastrous effect on the human race. After Felix Hoenikker wins noble peace prize, he says he is â€Å"still playing† -> treats science like a game, doesn’t take it srsly. Religion – Jonah says to Mona â€Å"could I have your religion, if I wanted it? † -> religion is so easy to take up – Newt compares religion to the cat’s cradle. See the cat? See the cradle? † Bokono nism is a religion of â€Å"shameless lies. Monzano attempts to create a utopia, but just like in today’s society, he makes promises to his people, and then fails to fulfill them. But he allows the best for himself and his staff, while his people struggle. – Frank Hoenikker gave his ice-nine to â€Å"Papa† Monzano in return for a position in government -;gt; corrupt, irresponsible, only use 4 personal gain w/out thinking of consequences – Horlick Minton’s speech attacked patriotism as an irrational denial of the senselessness of wartime slaughter. Irony -> The Hundred Martyrs were sent to their pointless deaths in the name of â€Å"democracy† by a dictatorship. Love – Jonah says Mona can â€Å"make me far happier than any woman had so far succeeded in doing. † Yet, we find later that Jonah does not really love her once he knows he can have her and that she will not give up her ways for him. – Angela uses her ice-nine to get herself a beautiful husband who treats her poorly and gives the ice-nine to the American government.

Advanced applied quantitative methods in finance Essay

Advanced applied quantitative methods in finance - Essay Example Financial time series have features that are represented well by models with dynamic variances. In this part, we focus at modeling the financial time series of the Italian Stock market index as well as the Spanish stock market index. We thus intend to examine the volatility in the Italian Spanish markets by understanding the change in commodity prices over a period of time. Finally we aim to present the various processes through which financial decisions are taken by aid of volatility modeling. Uses regression to provide possible estimates of the disturbance variances at each sample point and the original relation is then re-estimated by the weighted least squares procedure that corrects for the heteroskedasticity. The data is a time series data that includes 4255 daily market index prices for the Italian stock market spanning over the period 12/31/1997-22/01/2014 we also have the Spanish stock market data that includes 7122 daily market index prices spanning from 1/5/1987 to 4/22/2014 The series are characterized by random, rapid changes and are said to be volatile. The volatility seems to change over time as well. There has been upward and downward effects in volatility for the Italian market while the time series plot for Spanish market shows somehow an upward increase with slight variations (decreases) in between the years. The variations in volatility could be as a result among other factors, political factors or the international market changes. The histograms of the empirical distribution of the series are given below. For both the two market indexes, we observe that the series are leptokurtic. That is, they have lots of observations around the average and a relatively large number of observations that are far from average; for the Italian market index, the centre of the histogram has a high peak and the tails

Virtual Private Network Tools Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Virtual Private Network Tools - Term Paper Example This research tells that VPNs create a virtual tunnel over the publicly available internet through the use of symmetric encryption. Common encryption and decryption keys which are used to encrypt all traffic in both directions are shared by both sides of the tunnel. In addition to the provision of an alternative to the use of the proxy server for remote access to campus resources, VPN also ensures secure methods to authenticate to the campus wireless network hence data security through the use of encryption technologies such as PPTP, L2TP, IPSec, and SOCKS. For a smooth establishment and maintenance of a virtual private network, one is required to have appropriate networking software and hardware installed in their computers and the local network. VPN software enables a client to join a private network as if they are at a local computer within the network despite the physical distance the client might be away from the network. This software ensures the security of the private network through the use of cryptographic tunneling protocols to ensure confidentiality and message integrity. In order to completely set up a virtual private network, certain software and hardware tools known as the VPN tools are necessary.T his paper discusses in depth four VPN tools namely, OpenVPN, Cisco VPN Client, LogMeIn Hamachi, and Windows built-in VPN. OpenVPN is an open source software application for virtual private network implementation, meaning it can be downloaded and used for free. Its main role is to securely tunnel encrypted data from the server to the client or client to the server through a single port over an unsecured network. Its popularity among VPN users comes from the fact that it’s a multi-platform application that supports different platforms unlike most of the other VPN software applications. It

How Slavery Affects the Institution of Marriage by novel The Beloved Essay

How Slavery Affects the Institution of Marriage by novel The Beloved - Essay Example She mainly focuses on master, slave, and marriage. Of the three, the master holds the most authority, the slave is victimized, and the marriage institution suffers because of the exploitative relationship between the master and slave. According to Maschler, women are important players in the marriage institution, and therefore, the effects of slavery on slave women will affect the entire institution of marriage. Tolman notes that in Morrison’s The Beloved, women are portrayed as having unconditional love for their children and families, although mothers are not portrayed as perfect or flawless. However, motherhood, which is equally important in marriage, is greatly affected by slavery, as mothers in slavery underwent great troubles to raise their children. In this novel, Morrison shows women as the central figures in families of former slaves. The men are often missing because of the slavery heritage. In this case, men were still regarded part of the family. However, they did not have time for their families, and could hence not play the main role in the family. During the slavery period, men were sold, while some escaped slavery. This has continued to affect the psyche of women who experienced this. During slavery, the society was paternalistic, and women headed families, as Morrison shows in his novel. The women were used to living without their men around. This is because black men would be sent away, or would leave their families for reasons related to slavery. On the other hand, women could not leave; they were caged in their homes, as they were responsible for the upbringing of their children. Davis argues that this largely denied these women their freedom as they were forced to stay at home and could not leave.

International human resource management mini essay

International human resource management mini - Essay Example Multinational companies often integrate corporate social responsibility into their business model, which regulates the actions of the firm. In short, corporate social responsibility guides a corporation in having a positive impact in all its activities. This impact is based on how the company treats the environment, its consumers, its employees, stakeholders, communities and other members of society. Through corporate social responsibility, companies develop and promote their principles and standards. These principles and standards are for both the internal and external actors. The International Labour Organization (ILO) considers corporate social responsibility as a company’s contribution to promoting decent work agendas to its employees. This principle is central in ILO’s efforts of promoting progress in the economic and social realms (Deakins, 1995, p214). The ILO has set standards for CSR policies, which guide companies in developing their principles Several incidences concerning the violation of working conditions among multinational companies prompted the ILO to promote the improvement of employees working conditions (Sengenberger, 2006, p32). The Bangladesh incident in 2013 resulted in heated discussions concerning the labour standards among workers of multinational companies. This is not the first case where multinational companies have provided poor working conditions for their employees. In the past China and Vietnam have had similar cases, where multinational companies provided sub-standard labour conditions for their employees. The ILO popularized Corporate Social Responsibility as a way of improving the labour standards of multinational companies (Sachdev, 2011, p121). To ensure minimum labour standards are met in international trade, the ILO has integrated a social clause in all trade agreements. However, developing countries oppose this clause despite its

Compare the moral theories of Kant and Aristotle. Argue for the Essay

Compare the moral theories of Kant and Aristotle. Argue for the superiority of one or the other. Qualify your position however y - Essay Example There are similarities in their views on the role and nature of knowledge and morality in the lives of human beings, while there are differences in the tenets that make up their philosophy. Aristotle, in his philosophy, maintains the importance of the soul in the acquisition of moral virtue. It is only by fulfilling the dictates of this soul, which is guided by reason that one would be able to achieve happiness. This happiness could be achieved by man, who was at the highest position in Aristotle’s teleological view of things. Man was at the highest position in his scala naturae, which means the Great Chain of Being, as a result of the possession of rationality and reason, unique to man, who maintains his superiority as a result of this rationality. The rational human person, the creature at the top of the biological ladder, would have a good character that arose out of the creation of moral virtue. To create this character, he would need the fortune to be tutored by somebody higher than him like a teacher, something that would be available only to the elite sections of the society. Aristotle himself was tutored by people like Plato and he was tutor to Alexander the Great. Contemporary Greek ideas and practices were thus, a great factor in the development of the theories of Aristotle.

Micro-structure and Mechanical Properties Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Micro-structure and Mechanical Properties - Essay Example The metallic bonds ensure enhances the strength of the metals. Metals exhibit different levels of strength especially when they are subjected to heat. Mechanical properties of ceramics. The thermal properties of ceramics, on the other hand, are normally determined by the type of bonding present and the number of existing bonds in the ceramic material. The bonds found in ceramic materials are covalent bonds. The toughness of ceramics decreases with increase in temperature as the bonds become weaker. This is because the bond is weakened by the vibrating atoms due to heat and vice versa. Ceramics show a number of optical characteristics such as transparency, translucency, and color which are dependent on the visible light interaction with pigments. The presence of light increases its brittleness significantly. Mechanical properties of polymers. Polymers show different levels of strength particularly tensile strength and flexural strength. Unreinforced polymers normally have a tensile st rength of 10-100Mpa. Polymers also have different levels of elongation which is the change that occurs on the shape of the polymer as a result of stretching due to change in temperature.The change in microstructure makes Polymers have different values of the modulus. Polymers lose their toughness when subjected to high temperatures and become brittle when subjected to sub zero temperatures. This is as a result of the strengthening of the covalent bonds between molecules. To enhance strength polymers should be subjected to low temperatures.

Pakistan Today Essay Example for Free

Pakistan Today Essay Pakistan has faced many problems ever since it came into existence. 63 years have been passed and the situation is getting worse day by day. Today Pakistan is facing all kinds of problems e.g. Inflation, Illiteracy, Unemployment, Corruption, Feudalism, Terrorism, Natural Disasters. Before the water goes over the head, it’s the time that the youth of Pakistan stands and plays their role in development of the country which we got after many sacrifices. The bud of nation’s future finds a fragrant blooming in the hands of its youth. It’s the time of culmination when the youth must realize and individually shoulder the responsibility of resuscitation of Pakistan in every aspect viz. social, economical, political, administrative etc. Development of a strong nation demands youth possessing steely will power, mighty determination and tremendous grit. For this the youth itself must be fully sound and armor itself with all essential qualities so that modern Pakistan sees its unprecedented growth and development by skilled finishers. Youth are the real sculptors of the nation. What is actually required in the present scenario is to unleash the immense latent patriotism and chauvinism among youth, which will lit the fire of responsibility and will dedicatedly involve them in the upliftment of the nation. Albert Einstein once said,†Problem cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them†. So in order to eradicate these crux youth with double toughness are required. The main motto of the youth should be† to nip the evil in the bud†. Our political system is governed by desperados, hooligans and such miscreants of society who have attired themselves in the robes that present them as the saviors of the nation. Infact they are eating away the nation like worms slowly and gradually. Criminalization of the politics has infact obfuscated the image of fair play in government. So this is now a â€Å"Wake up Call†, for the youth of the Pakistan to wake, rise and move ahead and prove their hegemony over such corrupt leaders and take the command into their hands to run the government. Only few selected families are always elected in the government. Read more:  Pakistan Political System Pakistan has never seen any ‘common man’ to rule the country e.g. Prime Minister of President. It has always been the feudal lords or big industrialists running the show. According to me the blame goes on the public. In the previous elections, out of the population of 17 crores, less than 2 crore people voted. It’s unfortunate but the youth of Pakistan doesn’t take part in voting. This is one of the prime reasons that feudal lords are ruling our country, emptying the national treasure and increasing their bank balances. I am sure if we all go to vote in the elections then we would be able to elect the most deserving candidate. This could assure that are country is in the right hands. The most important problem of Pakistan is education. People are not aware what is good for them and what is not. There aren’t any schools in rural areas which are providing good quality education. Unfortunately in Pakistan, only those are getting education who can afford it. It’s the responsibility of the youth to create awareness about the importance of education. In rural areas people are not willing to send their sons/daughters to acquire knowledge. This is one of the prime reason that Pakistan is lagging behind other countries. We, the youth of Pakistan should take this responsibility in spreading the awareness. We could help directly by constructing schools providing free education or by teaching voluntarily. People are not willing to invest in our country. It is just because of the negative image created about our country. This is affecting our economy. Our exports have decreased, no new jobs are been created, no roads are being built. the tourism industry of Pakistan has just nearly finished. I think it’s the responsibility of the Pakistani youth to correct the image of Pakistan in the international arena and attract investment. We can do so by showing the positive side of the Pakistan and achievements of Pakistanis. I believe that if we could all be responsible enough and bring a change in ourselves then it could do wonders for our country. We always wait for the government to take some action. If we all fulfill our responsibilities and duties honestly than I believe no one could stop Pakistan from being a developed country. If all the people just clean the area outside their homes and plant trees than whole Pakistan could become clean and green. â€Å"Little drops make great oceans†. We should obey all the rules and laws of our country. Lets pledge that we won’t throw any rubbish on the streets, never break a traffic signal, never give bribe, achieve things on merit rather taking shortcuts. Above all we should realize that we all are Pakistanis. We should stop all the grouping and discrimination on basis of language, place, color, and culture. Events and activities should be organized to promote brotherhood. People should realize that in the eyes of Allah all people are same. The communities should help each other whenever required. We should send a message to the entire world how united we are. It’s time that we should stop fantasicing about other countries and cultures and instead be proud to be a Pakistani. Learn to respect Pakistani leaders, cultures, languages, talents etc. It’s the time that we should value our talents and resources. We, the youth of Pakistan are the future of tomorrow. It’s our responsibility to take Pakistan out of this crisis. It’s high time that we should stand up for our country before it’s too late. For us the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam said â€Å"Pakistan is proud of her youth who are the nation builders of tomorrow†. Pakistan is the best country in the world; we know it, now let the world also know it.

To What Extent Did City Life Improve in Victorian Britain Essay Example for Free

To What Extent Did City Life Improve in Victorian Britain Essay In Victorian Britain life was busy and overcrowded because of the industrial revolution. During this time people who live in villages moved to cities and coal was found in Wales. The coal that was found led to new factories and more jobs. Life in a industrial city included transport so people could get around and not have to walk everywhere, education for younger children and adults to led to better jobs, working conditions for all those who worked in the factories and mining this was a improved, the hygiene meant people could be cleaner and more cures for diseases, entertainment for peoples enjoyment and physical happiness and the diet of people for newer tastes and better or healthier eating. All of these factors improves life in Britain and has changed life for us now. The transport in Victorian Britain has changed by making longer journeys shorter. The most significant change is the invention of trains and boats this helped to transfer things off quicker and receive them quicker. For transport the new developments were in 1830 the invention of the train came along, this decreased the amount of time to get to places. The trains were powers by steam also known as the steam train. That same year the canal boats were invented these were used to carry goods from places. Then in 1885 bikes were invented this meant people were to get more exercise. In the 19th century the first car was made, the car went up to 4 mph. The impact of these changes are it make life a lot easier by helping food and other goods to get to places quicker this means the food and other goods will not rot or rust on there journey. But the most significant improve meant is the inventions of the train and boats because trains help the people and boats help the peoples health by giving them fresher food. The invention of the car has had the greatest impact on today’s way of living from Victorian Britain. The car has been improved through out the years and is now seen as the biggest invention in Britain. The people who benefited from these changes are the poor because they can go on holiday and have a fun time whereas the rich can go anywhere on the new transport inventions and us in the 21st century because we have improved on what was invented back in Victorian Britain. The people who suffered from these changes are the people who worked on the trains because they suffered from the poisonous fumes. The poison can cause breathing problems and then led to death. Another bad point is the boats because if the weather is bad the boats were not built with strong enough materials so they would be damaged or broken and this could cause deaths for the people abroad the boat. In my opinion transport was better for the people in Victorian Britain because it made life faster and it saved time. The new inventions were affordable for the rich and the poor so everyone could enjoy going on journeys. The education in Victorian Britain has changed by many children and adults would now get a good education. The education for children is free with no charge this will led to the children having a better future, with more jobs and more money. The education has many new developments which are in 1870 children aged 5 to 13 were expected to attend school for free from Monday to Sunday. Then by 1883 children were expected to have two hours of school everyday, this is good because the children in Victorian Britain will be able to make new inventions in the future because of their education now. In my opinion the impact of these changes of children being able to work for free is it will make them cleverer and they will have better knowledge the improve life in Victorian Britain and life now. But the most significant change is children were expected to have two hours of education everyday because that is fourteen hours a week of education. The amount of hours that children are educated has impacted on our education today. The negative points about the education are the lessons were boring because the children only copied of the board and did not learn anything. The lessons need to be more fun to make the children more interested in learning. If they misbehaved or they did not understand the teachers would be punished the children by whipping them or hurting them by getting the cane out. I my opinion the children’s education was better because the children are given the chance to learn and with the knowledge they learn they can led to better jobs and more money in the future. By the children being educated for free it stops the children from working in the factories which causes many deaths. So there is a greater population of children in Victorian Britain. The working conditions in Victorian Britain have changed by the children’s health and safety in the factories. There were many injures and many deaths. But the main change was how many hours everybody worked. The working conditions in 1832 changed by children aged 9 were banned from working whilst children aged 13 could not be made to work more than 9 hours a day. Then by 1847 there was a maximum of 10 hours a day for women under 18 and children aged 13 were no longer allowed to work more than thirty hours a week. Then in 1871 workers were allowed trade unions which allowed the people to gain more money. In the early 19th century a man called William Wilberforce helped bring an end to slavery in Britain. In my opinion the impact of these changes are the children’s working conditions because throughout the years the children’s health and safety has changed because in the 18th century the working conditions the very bad and there would be many injures and deaths of children. The most significant change is the amount of hours everyone worked because the hours have decreased massively even though woman are still being paid as much as they were before. The negative points on the working conditions are in 1820 children were forced to work from Monday to Saturday for 12 hours and 6 hours on Sunday. This means they would work 78 hours a week and still not make any money from what they did. That same year in 1820 40% of the people who worked suffered from injures, poor health and safety. Then in 1842 conditions in coal mines were terrible. Something had to be done so the people in Victorian Britain called for change. Mining was profitable but the owners provided very little protection for their workers; there were over 1000 deaths every year. People who worked in factories were not paid very well. The owners would pay the workers with tokens that were not very valuable, these tokens were only allowed to be spent in the factory shops which there weren’t many off anyway. In my opinion it made life worse because of the working conditions in the factories. People had to work because they were poor and needed money but if they were only being paid with non valuable tokens then the workers are not being treated fairly. Also the workers were putting their lives at risk by working in the factories or by working in coal mines this could lower the population of Victorian Britain. The hygiene in Victorian Britain has developed by the nurses and doctors wore cleaner clothing and small pox cure was invented. There was a new sterilisation room and more medicines were available. There were cleaner water supplies and the reinforcement on the sewers helped the whole of Britain. The impact of hygiene and living conditions has changed by the nurses and doctors wore cleaner clothing this means their cloths do not carry as much dirt and germs as they did before. The small pox cure was a big impact of change because the illness, small pox, has caused many deaths which have decreased the population in Victorian Britain but the new invention of the cure for small pox will cause fewer deaths. The new sterilisation room and the greater verity of medicines meant people could be worked on and have a greater chance of living from the new medicines such as Anaesthetic and Antiseptic was introduced in the mid 19th century. But the most significant change is the cleaner water supplies and the reinforcements on the sewers, because with the cleaner water there would be fewer illnesses caused and more people would drink less beer and have the cleaner water instead. As for the reinforcements on the sewers, the sewers will not be as weak as they were and the sewage won’t flood into people’s houses or cause any illnesses. With less sewage around Britain, Victorian Britain will be a lot more hygienic city. People who benefited from these changes are all the people in Britain because the improvements were open to anyone in Britain may they be rich or poor. The new hygienic ways was meant for everyone there was no one who genially suffered from the changes. In my opinion the hygiene and living conditions have been better for Britain because the death rates lowered by 60% due to hygiene and 40% of the people who suffered from the hygiene were strong enough to join the army. So the hygiene has improved significantly in Victorian Britain. The entertainment in Victorian Britain has changed by there is a bigger variety for people to choose an entertainment. The entertainment changed significantly over the 19th century. In 1824 blood sport was banned so there would be less deaths and more entertainment in Britain. That same year in 1824 the first public bath came out. This meant people could be cleaner and enjoy meeting friend and socialising more. Then in 1835 the first camera came out, this brought huge amount of entertainment to the people in Britain and everywhere else around the world. In the 1840’s the train was the new biggest transport. This brought new experiences and it was a more entertaining way to travel and go on holidays. In my opinion the impact of these changes are there is a bigger variety for the people to choose an entertainment. People socialise more with each other and made friends with a lot more people. By the new entertainments people got more exercise by going to the baths or on the trains, by doing this the people of Victorian Britain will live a longer and more entertained life. But I believe the most significant change was the variety of new sports that people could watch or do themselves. The negative point is that for entertainment people went down to the pub and would drink too much beer and end up being drunk. This is because the landlords put salt in the food and the beer so people would get thirsty and drink more then they would get drunk. When they are drunk they cause violence and glass bottles would be thrown at them for being drunk. This could cause death or injures. In my opinion it made life better for Britain because the entertainment now is the same as it was in the 19th century. In Victorian Britain this is where it all started too led to the entertainment we have now in the 21st century. The most significant thing that made the entertainment change was the stop to blood sport and violence for entertainment instead the people of Victorian Britain began to love animals and use them for their own entertainment. The diet in Victorian Britain has changed by improvement of the quality of food because of inspectors. This means the people will live longer lives because of the food they ate. There will be less disease going around because of the people in Victorian Britain’s diet. In 1824 a man called John Cadbury opened a shop which sold drinking chocolate which it better than drinking beer and alcohol. Then by the 19th century John Cadbury sold his chocolate in bars to eat which was one of the biggest sold items on the market. In my opinion the impact of these changes has improved the quality of food because the people of Victorian Britain get to taste new flavour which healthier food. But the most significant change was the new inspectors that can round to look at all the food that was being made in the factories, to see if it was safe and healthy to eat. By the inspectors coming round this meant there would be less diseases because the food should be good to eat. The negative points of the diet are the healthier the people are the more they are made to work because the stronger they are. Also the working class of food could not afford to bring in new healthier food so they were still unhealthy and the people of Victorian Britain were not getting a healthy diet. This led to diseases still being caused but because of the new transport the food was getting better and not rooting. In my opinion the diet was better because less people were drunk because of the new drinking chocolate and people would get addicted to the chocolate so it did not cause problems. Food businesses grew bigger making new foods and more affordable food that will still taste as good for the people in Victorian Britain. My conclusion is in Victorian Britain people have changed significantly in all the factors. But the main factor that has changed Victorian Britain is the transport because I believe it is the biggest factor of the industrial revolution. The transport has linked up all of the factors, the transport is part of the entertainment because the people get to see new places and have more experiences. The transport links with the diet because if the food does not come over quick enough then in will rot. The transport and the working conditions because the working conditions on the train were terrible and people died from the poisonous fumes and people need to get to work fast then they should take a faster transport. The transport links with the hygiene because if someone was to be rushed of to the sterilisation room then they would take the fast transport to get there. The transport lastly links in with the education because the children need to get to school so they could take the train to get there. These entire factors link in with the transported so I think this is the most improved Victorian Britain.

Unequal distribution of resources in society

Unequal distribution of resources in society The following discussion will concentrate on social inequalities in health which have lead to the unequal distribution of resources in the society. Health inequalities refers to the differences in the prevalence of incidence of health outcomes between population groups and range by socio-economic groups and geographical area (Graham 2000). Gender which has socially constructed roles of female and male identity, can therefore compound health inequalities which generate the underlying socio-economic inequalities thereby affecting some social groups badly. Research on gender inequalities have developed but the rapid social change in the lives of men and women and an increased questioning of an oversimplified established wisdom about gender and health makes a critical retrospective timely development in social theory which raise new questions about gender inequalities (Fried, 2007). Gender inequalities in society lead to inequalities in health. Most societies give greater status and power to men and this has adverse impact on the health of women. Domestic abuse occurs mostly against women. Thus, womens health is profoundly affected by the ways they are treated and the status they are given in society (NHS Lothian, 2004). Distinct roles and behaviours of men and women in a given culture are dictated by their culture, gender, norms and values which gives rise to gender differences. Gender differences and gender inequalities can therefore give rise to inequalities between men and women in health status and the access to health care (World Health Organization, 2009). Apart from the internalized ideologies of gender that are acquired, all societies are structured around hierarchical systems whereby sex together with age form the vital organizing features. Gender differences in access to and control over key material and social resources result not only in inequalities of health and wellbeing, but also inequalities in power, knowledge, making independent decisions relating to sexual and reproductive decisions and to act on them in health seeking behaviour (Oakley, 1998). So, if biological predispositions form one basis for inequalities in reproductive health and cultural difference (Graham, 2000), then the distribution of resources within the household, family and community forms an additional layer of differences reflecting inequalities of gender. According to Walby (1997), gender norms and values and the resulting behaviours are affecting health in a negative way. Gender can be one of the major obstacles standing between men and women and the achievement of well-being. Women have lower incomes and make seventy-five percent of single pensioner households and are likely to bear inequality in health related to poverty (Scottish Executive, 2003).Walby (2000) writes that the actions of the European Union are limited by its primary concern with standard employment whereas women are often employed in non-standard forms such as part-time and temporary employment and thus many women do not benefit from its regulations. She went on to explain the extent to which the family form involves women as housewives or workers. This is therefore more complex than the use of gender norms because the different types not only by different types of values but also by the form of the welfare state. Gender as well as socio-economic position mediates exposure to material, psychosocial and behavioral risks (Annandale and Hunt 2000: 1996) Men have traditionally been exposed to the industrial injuries associated with skilled manual work yet women experience the disadvantages of contributing to affective disorder, poor home environment with heavy childcare responsibilities as well as low levels of social support since most women if they are employed, they are on low pay. Women bear extensive caring and nurturing responsibilities and a higher prevalence of poverty. According to Wobbe (2003) stress of making ends meet impacts the health of women leading to mental health illnesses. He explains that enforced childbearing, overwork and poorer access to food compared to men meant that womens life expectance in society was affected more than mens. According to Graham (2000) ,only females are exposed to problems relating to menstruation, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, childbirth and lactation. It is only women who experience breast or cervical cancer or pelvic inflammatory disease. (Lorber ,2000) says only men are at risk of prostate cancer, impotence or problems related to vacectomies. But, both sexes can experience infertility. Girls and women are at risk of more varied and serious sexual reproductive health problems than boys and men (Connell 2002). Gender based inequalities in health cut across and interact with class inequalities (Scott 1988)Thus, health problems such as iron deficiency, anaemia which is common among women, among the poor and in rural areas can result in highly class-specific patterns of reproductive morbidity and mortality among women. However males do have an excess mortality persisting through to later life. They are at risk of dying in childhood and adulthood from diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. Townsend and Davidson (1982:48) writes: The gap in life expectancy between men and women is the most distinctive feature of human health in the advanced society. The death of men in different social classes is in most cases double that of women leading to the cumulative health inequalities between the sexes. Gender and class therefore exert highly significant but different influences on the quality and duration of life in modern society. Connell (1987, 1995, 2002) analyses gender and health and writes t hat men was often reactive to feminism. Men was socialized into the sex-role system in ways which even though they were oppressive to women, they developed men in distorted ways as emotionally repressed and power oriented thus put men at greater risk of early death through suicide and heart disease. Feminist ideologies expressed through by rights and health oriented womens organizations aim at promoting the sexual and reproductive health services and restrictions on contraception methods that are thought to violate religious norms. Inequalities in access result from the denial of family planning services to the unmarried especially in the African culture and from requirements that married women must obtain their husbands consent among other restrictions. Annandale and Hunt (2000) say It is hard to argue that male-female mortality difference are statistical artifact. They suggest that female excess morbidity is socially constructed. Intense social pressure to conform to accepted ideals of masculinity therefore leads men to deny illness out of fear that it displays weakness and are less prepared to report symptoms or use health services compared to women. Health care professionals are faced with challenging social attitude to prevent and manage risk factors to ensure they do not lead to chronic health problems later in life. So professionals have a role in the prevention of abuse by taking challenging actions and condone violence and abusive behaviour that reinforce the gender stereotypes and underpin domestic abuse in women. Women need to be provided with appropriate response which is part of the high quality care that should be delivered. Professionals should feel confident, have access to training, support and adequate information to enable them to support women experiencing domestic abuse. (NHS Lothian, 2000) Professionals should be aware and able to recognize signs of potential abuse in women. They should respond to women in a supportive way and listen to them. The World Health Organisation (2000) say the goals of Gender and Womens Health Department are to increase health professionals awareness of the role of gender and inequali ty in perpetuating abuse, disease and death with the view to eliminate gender as a barrier to good health. The Department of Health (2000) aims to develop an approach to take into account performance management between health authorities about key health issues so as to make targets based on gender specific principles. Females and males think and act differently as a consequences of their socialization and of the gendered society (Walby 2004). The challenge still stands that healthy communities which recognize inequalities should be built and achieved by understanding social issues, changing they way things are done and accepting that the needs of people must be at the heart of everything a professional does. Working with individuals is vital on the part of health professionals and it is their duty to make service users welcome and comfortable especially the one-to-one support which should be client centred. Since women experience child birth, it is the health professionals duty to held the pregnant woman focusing on her individual needs and interest making her understand more about her health care and be able to make decisions about childbirth and caring for her baby. Women often approach health care professionals for help because they need up-to date advice on breastfeeding, solid foods, because the decisions made at the start of a babys life require sensitivity and understanding, thus mothers need reassurance and hence the need for health professionals to work with individuals. Even those women who might have suffered domestic abuse, it is essential to work closely with them individually reflecting on what happened and how best they can be assisted. When working with men as individuals , it should not only allow themselves to talk more openly about their problems, but helps the health professional to find out more about mens psychological ill health. Since most of them will be clinically depressed and the sense of isolation will be profound as they will not be talking to anyone about their concerns or feelings. Thus, health care should be accessible, approachable and achievable for everyone (Department of Health 2000). Working with group as stated by Drummomd (2000), it is essential to work with and understand the views of men and women of the local community for health promotions. The professionals should think laterally and work in small companies where men are under pressure. Services according to Drummond should be in youth centres, unemployment centres and many small groups in the community. The development of local strategic partnership offers opportunities or health authorities and local authority to discuss health issues. To build healthy communities, professionals need to work with local men and women by bringing them into partnership within the locality in which services are placed, working within a context of dialogue that leads to action. Young men are an especially different group to reach because they are not interested in the long-term results of an unhealthy lifestyle but can be persuaded to consider the immediate impact of current ill-health hence the need to change the way health is marketed. (Deville-Almond 2008) it is vital to work with peer support groups such as the prostate cancer a charity which offers men the opportunity to talk to other men to reduce embarrassment when discussing symptom thereby promoting autonomy. Townsend and Davidson(1988) states Inequalities exist also in the utilization of health services, particularly and most worryingly of the preventive services. According to the Health Promotion, women access health services more regularly and it is much easier for health professionals to consult women. Robinson, a community learning consultant explains that if health professionals are to work with men, they must go where they are thereby being flexible I delivering services. She further says that if one is a female professional she should not hesitate to go and work in a working mens club and talk about health issues as this would improve the younger mens health. The Department of Health (2000) argues that services should be sensitive to mens concerns and attitudes. The Health Department Agency (2001) says there should be more mens health clinics, telephone and online services should be developed since most men prefer the anonymity of such services. Opening hours should take into acco unt the commitment of people who work full-time. The role of occupational health services should be strengthened. Mens health needs should be taken into account by the local authority community thus providing the opportunity to take an over acting view of inequalities of all kinds. This essay has shown that women and men share many similar health challenges and the differences are such that the health women deserve particular attention. Even though women live longer men because of biological and behavioural advantages, their longer lives might not be healthy lives because of the biological and social processes they go through which carry health crisis and therefore require health care. Gender inequalities in health are therefore socially governed and thus actionable. Even in health, biology is not destiny, Sex and society, nature and nurture, chromosomes and environments interact to determine who is well or ill, who is treated or not, who is exposed or vulnerable to ill-health and whose health needs are acknowledged or dismissed (Equal Opportunities Commission 2002).

Ethics in Todays Universities Essay -- Ethics Morals Morality College

"Beliefs; The university's role in instilling a moral code among students? None whatever, some argue" is an article written by Peter Steinfels. The article focuses on the opinion of several college professors about whether morality and an ethical code of conduct should be taught in universities. The article presents both sides of the argument and quotes from different educators but does not take a stand on whether ethics should be part of the university curriculum or not. My initial reaction after reading this article was that academic institutions should only focus on education. I believed that a code of ethics should be established by my parents and my family and to some extent by teachers in grade school. After all, I reasoned, by the time I was 18 and in university, I already knew what was right or wrong and there was no need to waste time on an ethics class. I started to agree with Dean Fish who is quoted in the initial paragraphs of this article as writing in "The Chronicle of Higher Education," "You can't make them into good people, and you shouldn't try." After all, people never agree on what is right or wrong and everyone has their own standards and opinions. Starting a discussion would only open up a whole can of worms so it was best for Universities to forget about teaching ethics and to do what John J. Mearsheiner says in this article, and to leave it to the student, "to figure out the truth if there is one." As I continued to read, I did figure out the truth, and changed my mind about my initial thesis--that the University should focus on academics and be "collectively silent on the issue of morality." That approach has not worked I believe. Cheating is very common within many univ... ...should be guided by what Dennis Obrien, President of the University of Rochester, mentioned in this article calls "ascetic morality inherent in the very notions of research, discovery and scientific truth," How can we have "ascetic morality," or morality of any kind if we do not talk about it, if we sweep it under the carpet and wash our hands of it, and fail to include it in the curriculum. In response to Dean Fish who said we must not address the ethics issue because it will promote "vulgar multiculturalism and a soft core version of 60s radicalism," I say, he is wrong. I feel the strength of our country derives from being a melting pot of so many cultures, beliefs and values. I agree with the author that there will be divergent views and that it may be difficult to arrive at a consensus--that should not stop us from offering Ethics as part of the curriculum.

John Bates Clark :: essays research papers

John Bates Clark John Bates Clark was an American economist who lived from 1847-1938. He played an important role in the development of marginal productivity, and had a great influence on the development of economic thought in the United States. Clark was educated at Amherst College and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He taught at Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota from 1875 to 1881. He then moved on to teach at Smith College, Amherst, Johns Hopkins and Columbia from which he retired in 1923. In formulating the Neoclassical theory of the firm, John Bates Clark took over the classical categories of land, labor, and capital and simplified them in two ways, this simplification was the theory of marginal productivity. First, he assumed that all labor is homogenous, which meant that one labor hour is a perfect substitute for any other labor hour, but when marginal productivity was decreasing, the industry found it more profitable to replace labor with machinery. Clark believed that to make a sound economy wages had to be equal to the marginal productivity of labor. This was also beneficial to both the industry and the labor. Secondly, Clark ignored the distinction between land and capital, grouping together both kinds of non-human inputs under the general term "capital," which he then assumed that the broadened "capital" is homogenous. John took this Neoclassical approach one step further than others in applying it to the business firm and the maximization of profits. One of the results was a theory of the distribution which demonstrated that market outcomes were just. Clark also believed that technological change would lead to an increase in the standard of living which he felt was one of the chief goals of any economic system. He felt that with this technological change, labor would be more productive and lead to higher profits for industry. When the labor would see that industry was making higher profits, they would demand its share of the profits for their hard work. The labor's higher wages and the industries' higher profits would increase incomes and better the social living for everyone. Among Clark's works are The Philosophy of Wealth (1886), The Distribution of Wealth (1899), and Essentials of Economic Theory (1907).

Compulsory Education in Saudi Arabia

Education is very important as it greatly influences people’s behavior, interpersonal relationships, leadership and the general economy. When people are educated, they become more open minded to new ideas and it is this change in attitudes that enhances innovation and intelligence in society to make people skilled in certain areas such that they positively impact on the society (World Education Forum, 2000). Saudi Arabia is one of the countries in the Middle East whose economy is growing rapidly. The country therefore needs skilled people to work in the industries who will continue propelling the economy to greater heights. For this reasons, education in Saudi Arabia is something that the government considers as a necessity and that is why it is has dedicated itself to improve the literacy levels especially among people in the rural areas. Saudi Arabia being an Islamic state it is ensuring that the citizens follow the culture and traditions as stated in the holy Quran. To enhance this, the school curriculum follows the Islamic principles and belief system. This research will look at the various ways in which education in Saudi Arabia is enhanced in several ways so as to ensure that the children of Saudi Arabia have access to good education. Compulsory Education Compulsory education generally means that children are allowed to go to school without being asked to pay any fees. This is because the government will cater for the expenses that the public schools will incur which are mainly related to school tuition. Compulsory education in Saudi Arabia was initiated during the reign of the two Kings; Faisal and Khalid (1964- 1982). It was then that the education system was changed from the former Egyptian model and a five year plan was formulated so as to enhance human capital development via education and training. Initially, 50% of the best children after finishing primary education went to secondary and the rest were enrolled in the training institutions. Nowadays, compulsory education in Saudi Arabia generally includes primary and secondary education and partly higher education which is funded by the government. Compulsory education has been beneficial to the government as well as the people because the poor and marginalized children can now go to school, more people are becoming educated and skilled and the government now has leant to budget it s money well so that all sectors of the economy get enough funding. This initiative has helped in reducing the cases of unequal distribution of resources (OECD Staff, 230). For easy monitoring of academic progress, the kingdom is divided into school districts (Saudi Arabia, 2009). The Ministry of Education is responsible for formulating educational policies that are used by all schools in the different districts. We will now look at how compulsory education works in the different levels of education. Primary Education. Primary education was made free by the government so that everyone in the country could be educated such that when they become of age and are left on their own , they have high chances of finding a job so that they an meet their daily needs. â€Å"Since Saudi Arabia follows the Sharia Law even in the school system, boys and girls are separated and that is why there are separate schools for both genders but all follow the same education system as the exams set are the same (State University, 2009). † The system therefore includes traditional education for boys, general education for the boys and girls education system. Primary education constitutes the elementary school where upon successfully completing this stage, a child is awarded the general elementary schools certificate and the intermediate schools where after finishing at around the age of 15, one is awarded the intermediate schools certificate. The subjects that are learnt at the primary level are those that are meant to create a strong foundation so that the children can develop an interest on the areas that they would like to specialize (Sedgwick, 2001). The subjects studied include, mathematics, Arabic, English, science, art, history and religious studies. The boys on top of this, they study physical education. o Secondary Education Secondary education is supposed to shape the growing children’s behavior and build on the areas where they can specialize so that by the time they finish high school and get the general secondary education certificate, technical secondary school or the religious Institute Secondary Education certificate, they can choose either to further their studies if they have passed or to engage in other economic activities if they do not join training institutions. Under the secondary education, there is the general secondary education and the religious secondary school which mainly focuses on the social sciences and religious studies (Rothbard, 2006). † Subjects taught in the general secondary education may be optional but there are those that everyone has to learn which include scientific and literary subjects. The technical secondary school offers vocational, commercial and agricultural training progra ms as specified by the general Organization for Technical Education. This system is good as it makes people define at an early age the areas they would like to specialize on. After completion, there is further vocational and training that seeks to emphasize on the skills acquired. o Higher Education There are 7 public universities, teacher training colleges and colleges for women. The universities follow two systems, the modern system that is influenced by the western ways of doing things and the traditional Islamic system which mainly teaches students on Islamic laws and social studies. When students pass their secondary education specifically the Tawjihi or the General Secondary Education Certificate examinations, they will be admitted to the universities (Sedgwick, 2001). † University education is supposed to take four years but there are exceptions in disciplines like medicine, engineering and Pharmacy which can last for up to eight years. The women colleges mostly offer bachelor and masters degrees but there is also a doctorate in education following the provisions made by the General Presidency for Girls Education. The government has also established higher technical institutions and those that deal in financial and commercial sciences. The courses take about two to three years and after completion, certificates and diplomas are awarded. These non-university higher education institutions are governed by the General organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVT). The students who are admitted to these schools have to have undergone secondary education and specialized in the science subjects or gone to the vocational and commercial schools. Teacher training. The government of Saudi Arabia in wanting to offer the best teachers for the schools they have funded and built, they have invested in teacher training colleges. There are about 18 teacher training colleges and the Ministry of Education ensures that the colleges are well supported so that they produce competent and skilled teachers who will be recruited by the government after the completion of their studies to each in the public schools around the country. The teachers are trained for all the levels which include primary, secondary and higher education. King Abdul Aziz University usually trains the teachers who will concentrate in higher education (Sedgwick, 2001). o Special Education Specialized education include taking care of the disable in society, adult education, offering public administration services and educating and training the military personnel in various fields. ? Physically challenged educational initiatives The Saudi government in its quest of equitable distribution of resources has not forgotten the physically challenged people and children in society. Schools have been established within the kingdom to cater for disabilities like blindness, mental cases and the deafness. These schools generally create a safe haven for the pupils who would otherwise been shun away by society by ensuring that there are facilities that will cater for the physical therapy sessions they sometimes undergo through and proper training sessions. King Saud University teaches teachers so that they can take care of special children. The College of Applied Medicine also teaches educators on how they can deal with deaf children. Adult education Research has shown that the illiteracy levels are more in women than they are in men. That that is why adult education programs have been developed to deal with such cases. The ministry of education in conjunction with the General Presidency of Girls Education has opened up institutions that help the elderly in society to read and write. In addition to this, they undergo various vocational training classes so that they can gain skills which ah they can use to earn income. For example the women are taught about weaving and Pottery. Public Administration To enhance the skills that people gain in school, the government offers special training to people who work in hospitals so that they can offer the best health care to patients, people in the banking sector so that they can manage people finances well and also the governments resources as they will be more observant on the changes in the domestic, regional and global market trends. Special training is also given to the people who handle electronic data and secretaries. The goal of building on the skills of the public administrators is to ensure that they serve the public well, manage the country’s resources and perform their duties without any form of biasness (Abir, 1988). ? Military Training and Education The government in its commitment to protecting people’s lives and safeguarding their lives and property from any form of internal and external danger, it has set up military training camps for all the different divisions within the military. Where upon completion of the course, A military science degree is awarded. Health training centers are also in place which train doctors in various fields, nurses, laboratory assistants, pharmacists and intuitionalists who can therefore offer better health treatment to people all over the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also working with other institutions in conducting research on various things so that they can continue enhancing various sectors of the economy. Funding. The Provision of quality education is something that the government is working on and that is why the government allocates funds to schools in order to buy things like stationery, reading and writing books and also building of classrooms. In building schools, the Ministry of Education emphasizes on the rural development fast because a lot of people are now living in the cities and man people are migrating to the urban areas leaving them underdeveloped. â€Å"That is why they need to make sure that there are good schools in the regions and better facilities so that people stay and develop the areas (UNESCO, 2007). The ministry also offers scholarships to the children who have performed well and they would like to further their education in oversees countries. The ministry thus relies on the budget allocation set aside for educational purposes and several charities got from donors. â€Å"The state is developing ways that will make the private sector more involved in the prov ision of extra funding for educational programs (Raheed, 2008). † The ministry of Education ha therefore come up with ways that aim at increasing the support of the community for this initiative. Since some private institutions fund schools, they are being given a duty of monitoring and evaluating the activities that occur in such schools so that they can perform better and continue giving the funds. Challenges and Solutions Though the compulsory educational system is meant to make the citizens more knowledgeable, it is faced wit various setbacks that need to be addressed if the Ministry of Education objectives are to be fulfilled. One of the challenges is that the number of the children going to school is increasing and this has made the public schools especially the primary schools become congested. This situation is straining the learning process as the teachers have to cope with the large number of children and therefore they cannot address the individual needs of the children. Moreover, performance of the pupils in such schools is diminishing. That is why the private schools are starting to gain popularity because they are offering quality services hence their better performance. If policies are poorly designed, parents will keep their children at home and neither party will gain in the process (Field et al, 2007). For the state to be able to cope with this problem, they have to redefine their policies so that they can build more schools or hire more teachers. Another challenge is that the teachers or educators salaries have not been increased therefore they are not motivated enough to teach students. The ministry needs to adjust the teachers pay packages because if the problem persists, the people who are largely going to suffer will be the students as they will be caught in a tag of war between the teachers and the state. Women education is largely governed by Islamic principles and that is why it is difficult for the women to further their education. â€Å"The women especially those who want to pursue higher education in other countries are not easily allowed to travel to other countries and this restricts then from finding pleasure in careers they want to do (Arabic News, 2003). † On top of this, priority is always given to the boys therefore women have a limited chance again of enhancing their careers. The state as much as it is Islamic, it can allow exceptions and even provide guidelines that will help the women who would like to further their studies. Funding is a major issue and this can be attributed to mismanagement of some of the funds allocated to educational ventures and the leaders both of schools and the state not being accountable for the funds. There are cases where schools do not have records of the money they have spent and this makes it difficult to properly allocate funds (Ghonemy, 1998). The leaders therefore need to guide the people in proper ways and ensure that they positively then to follow in their footsteps. Moreover, they need to properly plan and budget for their activities. In conclusion, compulsory education has helped the state increase its human resource capabilities by supporting education and training programs in almost all sectors of the economy. If they implement the solutions to the various problems mentioned and continually monitor and evaluate the progress of schools, then they have a high chance of improving the education sector and likewise the lives of the people of Saudi Arabia.

How We Listen By Aaron Copland

In his essay How We Listen, Aaron Copland classifies and divides the listening process into three parts: the sensuous place, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane (1074). I believe by this mechanical separation, Copland succeeds in discussing difficult topic, so natural that most people tend to by pass it. He uses analogy and sometimes stresses on certain situation where these planes are abused or become a cause of a problem. The main purpose for Copland to separate the listening process is for the reader to learn and study how they listen. Coplands success in the clarification mainly because of two methods: (1) Categorizing the listening process in different parts and use an analogy to unite it to bring back the general idea of the listening process and (2) by answering and addressing to problems so the readers will understand and have a different view of the text. Categorizing the listening process People listen on the sensuous plane for pure entertainment. For example, turning one the radio while doing something else and absentmindedly bathes in the sound (1074). Copland continues talking about the sound stuff (1075) and how composers manipulate it differently. Good listener should realize that lovely sounding music is not necessarily great music. I believe putting the sensuous plane before the other two is a good technique, since this is the plane most people often relates to. Second plane is the expressive one. Copland now discusses the notion of meaning in music. In his view, music has a meaning but this meaning is not concrete and sometimes it cannot be expressed in words. This plane explains why we get moved or relaxed by music. It is more difficult to grasp and required more deep thought because Copland claims that meaning in music should be no more than a general concept (1076). This issue is very philosophical and one must accept the train to understand this plane. The next plane deals with the manipulation of the notes and offers a more intellectual approach in enhancing musical appreciation. The actual structure of the music as such the length of the note, pitch, harmony, and tone color are emphasized in this section of the essay. This basic study of the structure is a must to form a firm foundation in the musical piece and to understand the diagnosis of it. This technical and more scientific plane is contradictory to the philosophical sensuous plane. Therefore, it is another good technique of Copland to write one right after the other to cover the whole listening process. after expounding his theory on the way we listen, Copland uses the analogy of a theoretical play to drive the point home. This is yet another good technique used by Copland: allowing him to clearly demonstrate the interrelating of the three planes. Regarding the ideal listener, Copland says: In a sense, the ideal listener is both inside and outside the music at the same moment, judging it and enjoying it, wishing it would go one way and watching it go anotheralmost like the composer at the moment he composes it; because in order to write his music, the composer must also be inside and outside his music, carried away but it and yet coldly critical of it. (1078) It is obvious that in Coplands view the best approach consists of the balanced mixture of all three planes. Answering and addressing to problems Copland uses the three planes of the listening process to mark the division of his essay. For great clarity, the text is very clearly organized. He starts with the introduction and tackles the sensuous plane in the second paragraph. Many people may wonder what kind of a problem lies in a purely entertainment plane. He claims that the sensuous plane is abused by people who listens to music to escape reality, yet still addresses themselves as a good music lovers. Copland warns: Yes, the sound appeal of music is a potent and primitive force, but you must not allow it to usurp a disproportionate share of your interest. The sensuous plane is an important one in music, a very important one, but it does not constitute the whole story. The understanding of sensuous plane and the actualization that there are more planes in the listening process is stressed. Copland then continues with the expressive plane, objecting to the notion of simple-minded people that music should have concrete meaning. He argues that meaning cannot be explained by words and that people should simply be satisfied with a general concept: feel the music. Moving to the third plane -the sheerly musical one- Copland talks about music in terms of notes. This plane concerns musicians and audience alike. What may go wrong with the makers of music themselves According to Copland, professional musicians are sometimes too conscious of the notes: They [professional musicians] often fall into the error of becoming so engrossed with their arpeggios and staccatos that they forget the deeper aspects of the music they are performing. (1077) From this statement, I believe that theres a fear of losing the expressive plane, if this problem triggers. On the other hand, we have the general audience. Listeners often neglect them. He argues that a good listener should know the musical structure in order to enhance the enjoyment of music on this plane.

Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 9

Fifteen minutes later I stood next to my brother at the outskirts of the dance, waiting for the music to stop. Everyone twirled around, their skirts swishing in perfect synchronicity to the music, all of them oblivious to the fact that two dangerous murderers stood among them. â€Å"Follow my lead,† Damon said out the side of his mouth. â€Å"Go to hell,† I said out the corner of mine, smiling at Margaret as she passed. â€Å"Been there. Not to my liking,† he answered, taking two glasses of champagne off a tray and handing one to me. â€Å"There you are,† Bridget squealed, running up to me. She bounced up and down with excitement, causing all of the flounces on her dress to rise and fall like a giant stinging jellyfish. She grabbed my arm. â€Å"What were you talking about all this time? Me?† I turned and looked at her. She was beautiful and completely off-putting – self-centered, immature, always vying for attention. But Bridget Sutherland didn't deserve to die. I had been responsible for enough deaths in my short time as a vampire. I could never put to right the wrongs I'd committed in those early days, but saving this family from Damon's vengeance was my responsibility. I would not have their blood on my conscience. â€Å"Yes. Yes I was,† I answered, and then I drained my drink and motioned for the waiter to bring me another. â€Å"Attention please,† Damon called out, tapping on his glass with a silver spoon. The master of the dance, Reginald Chester, squinted at Damon curiously. The orchestra, looking confused, put down their instruments. Mrs. Chester first seemed put out that someone else was taking charge of the dance – but when she saw who it was, she began to beam like Damon was her own son. The murmuring crowd turned to us: young, old, with feathers, with gems, in wide lace shawls and massive silk dresses, like a flock of tropical birds at a zoo awaiting the keeper who would scatter grain for their supper. They whispered to one another and nodded, trying to claim connection to him: â€Å"I had dinner with him last week.† â€Å"He was having drinks with the Knoxes, that's where I met him.† â€Å"I recommended my best tailor to him.† It was difficult to tell if the crowd had been charmed by Damon's natural charisma, or if there was powerful compelling at work. But I wondered again how a vampire as young as Damon could command such Power. â€Å"My new friend and I have an announcement to make,† Damon called out, assuming his fake Italian accent once more. Lydia quietly slipped to the front of the crowd, coming to stand near Damon. â€Å"Many of you know the story of the night Miss Sutherland and I first met†¦ I, a stranger to your shores, and she, a beautiful damsel in distress†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The crowd smiled adoringly. Hilda and one of her girlfriends exchanged envious looks. â€Å"And in a shocking coincidence, my friend here, Stefan Salvatore, rescued her sister, the equally beautiful and charming Bridget Sutherland, just last night. I can't speak for him,† he said, drawing close to Lydia, his glass still raised, his attention still on the crowd, â€Å"but for me, it was love at first sight. I've already spoken to her father, and so before anyone else can grab her away from me, I, Count Damon DeSangue, beg Lydia for the honor of her hand in marriage, though I have nothing to offer her beyond my good name and lifelong devotion.† He got down on one knee and whispered, â€Å"Lydia?† Lydia's face flushed prettily. She was taken off guard. Though she was not the sort of girl who really looked forward to being asked to wed in front of a large crowd, she beamed. â€Å"Of course, Damon, with all my heart!† she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. The Sutherland family stood together at the front of the crowd. The look on Margaret's face wasn't so much a scowl as disgusted shock and sheer confusion. I knew how she felt, but wondered at her response. Wasn't she under Damon's compulsion to accept him – and me – completely? Bridget's reaction was equally human, and far more horrible. Her eyes burned with pure, searing jealousy. Maybe there was a tiny bit of relief that her older sister was getting married, which meant that now in turn she could. But it was obvious that the youngest Sutherland had been dreaming her whole life of exactly how her perfect suitor would propose, and that it involved being done in public, in front of all her friends and an admiring audience. The admiring crowd clapped and then Damon's eyes flicked back toward me. Just once. Like he had the power to compel me. And in a manner of speaking, he did. I knew exactly what he wanted me to do. I drained my second champagne before stepping forward, turning toward Bridget. Here I went again. It seemed only yesterday that I was in Mystic Falls, yearning to go to school in Charlottesville, waiting out the war in the lazy, endless summer, and being forced to court Rosalyn. Each time I called upon her it was with a leaden ball in my stomach, and each visit was an exercise in frustration and despair. I never wanted to marry her – our parents wished us to marry. My father expected us to marry. And so I was forced into an engagement I didn't want, anticipating a marriage I didn't desire. Once again I was being being forced into a marriage. But perhaps this was all part of the punishment I deserved. And if it meant saving lives†¦ â€Å"Bridget.† I turned to her, bent at my waist and holding my drink out, toasting her. I was the very form of romantic etiquette, exuding Southern charm the like of which these Yankees rarely saw. â€Å"From the very moment I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Saw your near-lifeless body covered in blood in Central Park and almost finished you off. â€Å"†¦ had the fortune to come to you in the hour of your direst need, I just knew you had to be mine. And thanks to the generosity of your parents, I already feel like family. Bridget, will you make this the happiest night of my life?† With a porcine squeal Bridget threw her arms around me – after first carefully handing her glass of punch to Hilda. â€Å"Good show,† Bram clapped, his cheeks flushing even redder. â€Å"I knew you were a decent chap! I could tell right away!† The crowd exploded with cheers and thunderous applause; buckets of champagne were ordered all around. Winfield Sutherland looked so puffed up with pride and joy I feared he would explode. Mrs. Sutherland looked quietly pleased now that the last of her daughters were matched. Only Margaret shook her head angrily before freezing her face into a good show of sisterly pride. The leader of the dance had a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne brought forth, a giant glass bottle that held the equivalent of twenty bottles' worth of champagne. In an elegant display of sabrage, he took a sword from his butler and dramatically sliced along the bottle, causing the neck to fly off in a beautiful explosion of sparkling golden liquid. â€Å"Let's have the weddings this weekend!† Damon cried out, as if caught up in the general excitement. â€Å"We've waited our whole lives to find these ladies – why wait now?† Yes, why wait? I thought. Let Damon's games begin.

Surah al-Fatiha

Surah al-Fatiha is the first surah of the Quran and is recited in each prayer as the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, declared, â€Å"There is no salah (valid) without the opening chapter of the Book.†[1] On accepting Islam, a person should first memorize Surah al-Fatiha to be able to perform the prescribed prayers. Its meaning should be learnt and contemplated every time we offer salah. Its name:   It is named Al-Fatihah, the Opening – because it opens the Book and by it the recitation in prayer commences.It is also named Umm al-Qur'an, the Mother of the Qur'an, and Umm al-Kitab, the Mother of the Book, according to the opinion of the majority. This was mentioned by Anas, however Al-Hasan and Ibn Sirin disliked this appellation reasoning that this was the most fitting description for the Preserved Tablet. Al-Hasan also said that the unequivocal verses of the Qur'an comprised the Mother of the Book. However, it is established in Sahih At-Tirmidhi from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him)? Main ThemeThis Surah is in fact a prayer to the Lord of the universe for seeking guidance to the straight path Who alone can grant it. He alone is worthy of worship and He alone is to be asked for help because He is the Cherisher and the Master of everything in the universe. He is All-Merciful and has bestowed countless of bounties on His creatures, but at the same time He is the supreme Justice and everybody will have to answer Him on the Day of Judgement for his worldly deeds. When believers implore for the straight path, He always showers blessings on them and protects them from going astray. Supplication is the core of worship and the Holy Quran encourages the believers for petitioning, â€Å"And your Lord said: Invoke Me, I will respond to your supplication†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ? VirtuesLet us look at greatness and benefits of this amazing Surah so that we are reminded of its greatness.1:Greatest Surah of Quran (Umm ul-Quran): Importance of its greatness is described in HadithProphet (SAW) said:†Do you want me to teach you a Surah the like of which has not been revealed in the Torah, the Injeel, the Zabur, nor the Quran?†, and also asked what He recited in His prayers. He replied Umm-ul-Quran (Surah Fatiha) the Prophet (PBUH) proclaimed, ‘By Him in Whose dominion my soul is, nothing like it has been revealed in the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, or the Quran and it is seven of the oft-repeated verses in the Mighty Quran which I have been given.From this hadith, we can say that Surah al-Fatiha has great importance as it is known as â€Å"Mother of Quran†. Also, it has no other match no matter whatever has revealed before Quran. Surah al-Fatiha is the prayer which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) recited in his prayer, that's why Surah al-Fatiha is the most important part of our prayer and without it our Salah is void. Pillar of the Salah: As we all know this surah has great importance in prayer whoever not read it in his prayer his Salah is invalid or void. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said Surah al-Fatiha is†The Mother of the Quran, the Mother of the Book, the Seven Oft-Repeated Verses and the Great recitation.† Cure of disease: Surah al-Fatiha is the cure for the disease as mentioned in the hadith:Hazrat Abu Saeed al-Khudri narrates:†While on a journey we halted at a place. A girl came to us and said: â€Å"The chief of this tribe has been stung by a scorpion and our men are not present, is there anybody amongst you who can recite something upon him to treat him?† Then, one of our men went along with her although we did not think that he knew any such treatment. However, our friend went to the chief and recited something upon him and the chief was cured. Thereupon, the chief gave him thirty sheep and gave us all milk to drink. When he returned, we asked our friend: â€Å"Did you know anything to recite upon him to cure him?† He said: â€Å"No, I only recited Umm al-Kitab (i.e. Surah al-Fatiha) upon him.† We said that do not do anything until we reach Madinah and ask the Prophet regarding this (practice and reward-whether the sheep were lawful or not for us). Upon reaching Madinah, we narrated this to the Prophet (PBUH), whereupon he remarked: â€Å"How did he come to know that Al-Fatiha can be used as a cure? (PBUH) Distribute your reward amongst yourselves and a lot a share for me as well. Light sent from heaven: An Angel addressed the Prophet (SAW) saying,†Rejoice in two lights brought to you which have not been brought to any prophet before you, Al-Fatiha and the last verses of Al- Baqarah†.Ibn ‘Abbas narrated:†While Jibril was with the Messenger of Allah, he heard a noise from above. Jibril lifted his sight to the sky and said: â€Å"This is a door in the Heavens being opened, and it has never been opened before now.† An Angel descended from that door and came to the Prophet and said: â€Å"Receive the glad tidings of two lights that you have been given, which no other Prophet before you was given: the Opening of the Book (Al Fatiha) and the last verses of ‘al-Baqarah.' You will not read a letter of them except that you will gain its benefit.† (Sahih Muslim) A cure for the heart: This Chapter of Quran have a supplication for protection from misguidance and from the anger of Allah. So this Surah protects the heart from corrupt knowledge and offensive motives.†You (Oh Allah) we worship and from You do we seek help†. (Ibn Qayim)As you can see this Surah has many benefits which we can utilize to protect ourselves from worldly difficulties? TAFSEERWhen we say Al-humdulillah, here ‘AL' means all or the entire hence meaning all praise is for Allah alone. The word ‘Rabb' stands for:(a) Master and Owner,(b) Sustainer, Provider and Guardian,(c) Sovereign, Ruler, Administrator and Organizer.This means that there's no one worthy of worship, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He is the Sustainer and Owner of all that He has created in both Alams (Worlds). No prophet, no angel, no human, no so-called god or idol is worthy of worship, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He alone deserves devotion, worship, gratitude and no one else. This indicates that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the Lord of the Universe in all these senses.Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem are two names derived from the same root Ar-Rahmah (the mercy). One of them is softer than the other, meaning, it carries more implications of mercy.The name Ar-Rahman is exclusively for Allah encompassing every kind of mercy. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Ar-Rahman for the entire creation regardless of what they believe in, whether they are evil doers or the righteous; they all receive their sustenance from Allah. On the other hand, the word ‘Ar-Raheem' is exclusively for the believers. Those who believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala receive special blessings from Him and they are the ones who are going to be happy and content in this life and in the Hereafter. Just look at how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right in the beginning of the Qur'an has informed us that He is a Merciful Lord. He doesn't want to punish people just like that rather He is Forgiving and Merciful. The condition to seek forgiveness or mercy is repentance. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among those who seek repentance as soon as they realize they have done something wrong that might have displeased Him. Aameen. After Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes that He is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, He immediately gives a warning, that along with His mercy, He is also the Master of the Day of Judgment. So that a person should not forget that along with His mercy He is also Just.We must therefore not allow ourselves to be misled. We should always remember that we are accountable to Him. He is not unaware of what we do in dunya. On the Day of Judgment, He will gather entire mankind from Adam aalyhi sallam to the last child born and ask each of us to give an account of our actions. He has the power and right to pardon us or punish us. We should be constantly striving to please Him. After the person has praised Allah and thanked Him, now he stands before Him, addressing Him directly; O' Allah our worship, obedience, submission and devotion is only for You alone, and we only serve You. O' Allah we know that You are the Lord of the Universe and You have the power over everything, therefore, we only turn to You for help, for our needs and requirements. By saying Iyyaka na'abudu wa'iyyaka nasta'aeen, we are acknowledging â€Å"You alone we worship and to You alone we pray for help.†The word iyyaka means â€Å"My whole attention is only on You or You alone. â€Å"The word na'abudu is derived from the Arabic word ‘Abd â€Å"Slave† (that is why the most beautiful name to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is ‘Abdullah meaning the slave of Allah) and â€Å"Na† in Arabic is used as a pronoun for We. So when we say na'abudu we are saying â€Å"We worship† hence Iyyaka na'abudu means â€Å"You alone we worship. â€Å"Wa in Arabic is used for the English word â€Å"and† so when we add wa'iyyaka, we are saying â€Å"And to You alone†.Nasta'aeen means to get help or to ask for help. When we recite â€Å"Ihdina alssirata almustaqeem† we are asking Allah subhana wa ta'ala to â€Å"Guide us to the path that is straight.†Siraat in Arabic means â€Å"The path†We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to show us the right path and in response to that He opens up the entire Qur'an as if saying, â€Å"This is the straight path you're looking for†. The straight path mentioned here and elsewhere in the Qur'an refers to Islam. We already mentioned the hadith in which the servant proclaims, ‘Guide us to The Right Way', and Allah says, â€Å"This is for My servant and My servant shall acquire what he has asked for†.When we make such a prayer to our Rabb, how do can we be led astray? Can we still have doubt and uncertainty in our life when we have asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to show us the Right Path? We can only get lost in labyrinths of doubt and uncertainty due to lack of true knowledge. Let us hold firm to the straight path that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has opened up for us. After asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to show us the straight path and protect us from deviation, we become specific in our prayer.We ask Him to show us the path of those upon whom He has bestowed His mercy i.e. people who are obedient to Allah and His Messengers. We seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from following the path of those who have earned His wrath, or of those who have lost The Way. From traditions we learn that those who have earned His wrath are those knew the Scripture; who had read in their Books about the coming of a Last Messenger and his description yet they concealed the truth (meaning the Jews).Who have gone astray? Those who are not in search of the truth. Those who have known what is right but their weaknesses have led them far away (meaning the Christians). In the last ayah of this beautiful Surah there is a lesson for each one of us; anyone who knows the truth but hides it has earned Allah's anger and anyone who is not in search of truth may go astray. We beseech Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to save us from following the path of such a person (or nation). We don't want that path Ya Allah, save us from treading in their footsteps. Aameen Ya Rabbil Alameen.? Impact of Surah Al-Fatiha on the life of a Muslim as servant of Allah.{In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.}– Always start your affairs with the name of Allah– His mercy is the first attribute used to introduce Allah to you{All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds}– Reflect on His infinite blessings– A practical tip is to remember one blessing in each rak`ah (unit) of your prayer{The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.}– The names of mercy are occurred FOUR times in a relatively short Surah– His mercy is the first attribute used to introduce Allah to you.  {Master of the Day of Judgment}  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Reflect on the Day of Judgment– Remember that this prayer may be the last one before you meet Him.  {It is You we worship and You we ask for help.}– This Ayah is the CORE of the Surah, and the essence of Tawhid (confirming the one-ness of Allah)– This is a perfect moment to think about what you want from Allah, and prepare for your upcoming supplication (du`aa') and wishes{Guide us to the Straight Path}– The number ONE request you definitely need from Allah is guidance, and from Him alone.Remember that If Allah guides you, then the whole world with its temptation won't matter, so be sincere in your request.The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.

Business Mgt Essay Example for Free

Business Mgt Essay Part I. Assume you have taken over responsibility to play the lead Information Technology (IT) management role in Magnum Enterprises. Your boss, Rachel Heigl, is Magnum’s CIO. The IT management group is comprised of six people who you will be supervising. Ms. Heigl is an enlightened manager, and she believes that if you are to carry out your responsibilities effectively, you need to work with her in defining your IT management role. As a first step, she invites you to write a short statement where you describe what you see to be your role as head of the IT management effort at Magnum. Proper IT Management requires researching and discerning information technology as a company resource guiding both operational and crucial company capabilities. Using information technology to maximize satisfaction of the customer alongside productivity and profitability will ensure that our competiveness with other business stays at a maximum. In turn IT can make business processes more effective and efficient to provide said resources to customers. The lead IT shall ensure performance of the company through managing technology while encompassing priorities of the business into the role. Striving to be a partner with great initiative this business will discover its leader will have accomplished and achieved what they desired. My first role of business would be to establish the parameters and to understand the IT knowledge areas. These are made up of development processes; management challenges information technologies, business applications and foundation concepts. Concepts of the foundation are making sure the role of information systems paired with business and technical concepts are a familiarity with the end user. Familiarity of concepts in entry level information systems bind with a competitive strategy can lead to an overwhelming strategic advantage. Educating Magnum’s team upon the significance of information technology with the three roles that the business world performs in order to combine business management, software, and hardware capabilities. At the Management level, decision making would lead to significant improvements for IT utilization. Business operations see information systems as a huge support to review and collect data from financial operations, managing manufacturing processes that are very sophisticated, tracking company inventory, and productivity. The use of metrics paired with identifying trends to assist the company in making informed decisions faster to provide information about our competitors. IT  is used quite often to provide a strategic support advantage for the company. Automated inventory and ordering systems an assist with the savings costs. With this information we would need to review our mission statement that identifies the company’s functions, provides oversight on the overall goal, a sense of direction, and guides decision making. Investigating and development towards understanding how we generate money and ensuring a customer base for our company. Envisioning the business plan, mission, with current IT structure and the ability to communicate with senior leadership will guide me with necessary tools to assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO). To ensure a strategic IT plan is created in which will be shared and implemented with my team. Planning to have Magnum’s team familiar with data resource management capabilities, hardware, networks, telecommunications, and software within the company is the second area of information systems known as information technologies. In today’s society PDA’s (personal digital assistants; IE. Blackberry’s ETC.) Personal computers and network servers are integral computer hardware and are crucial in our business environment. Being extremely knowledgeable is vital to our team troubleshooting and resolving hardware issues instead of having to call anot her company for maintenance. We have the ability to break down our company’s software into two categories, application software and system software. Both types normally off the consumer shelf as commercial software instead of having an employee on the team write the software codes for these programs. I plan to ensure my teams are extremely familiar with all software programs and have a firm foundation when troubleshooting and resolving technical issues. Additionally, if not already formed, I will institute a configuration control board and implement test scenarios to ensure future hardware and software being purchased will not have compatibility issues. Also a part of information technologies is data resource management. This is essential in sustaining and maintaining our company. We will require a database management system of good quality that is capable of data consolidating into a database in turn can be accessed my several program applications. Within the past fifteen to twenty years networks and telecommunications software have played a vital role. To ensure the expansion and growth for Magnum Enterprises, we will need out network to be consistent, reliable, monetary sufficient. I would prepare the team to  either install or review and change as needed our network management system that assists with traffic management, capacity planning, network monitoring, and security in essence that our system will grow and change with modern day business culture and practices as the company expands. In order to have the most dependable and proven with the cost of it a ring network should be put into place. The next area, development processes, deals with designing, planning, identifying ideas, and implementing information systems to meet potential business opportunities. It is critical that we ensure our business management capabilities alongside our hardware and software are integrated successfully within our company. Basis within t he development process and depending upon the circumstance, there are a couple of processes we want our team to employ as resolving problems com along with our business systems. Those processes are considered or known as the prototyping approach and he systems development life-cycle. The synopsis of prototyping involves quickly developing or constructing test modules of a desired system in which we will engage when we cannot determine or classify the end user requirements. These systems would be used to assist our personnel with the capabilities to design or create an information system that will be intuitive and easy to navigate for consumers. Prototyping involves four steps with the first being investigation and analysis step. This step, requirements grouped and defined. Second, is the analysis and design step in which a model is developed and constructed to meet consumer business requirements. Next, in the design and implementation, this finalizes the model that was tested and begins the initial installation. The last step to this four step process is implementation and maintenance, which would consist of the business system being accepted, used, and maintained. Prototyping advantages are: decrease in the development time, development costs and requires user i nvolvement. This generates higher satisfaction results. I plan to employ this type of approach to small initiatives. The next area is business application for information systems. This will consist of being familiar with commerce and business applications for our employees and which are used within the company to make strategic leadership and management decisions. A few of the most used business applications within a majority of companies are accounting, human resource management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial management,  and supply chain management. An Architectural picture of or IT business applications will ensure that I will have familiarity with all applications that we use. This approach will identify the current interrelationships, interfaces with customer, employees, business applications, and stake holders. We will then need to review the chart and see if there are any potential process improvements that we can make to integrate those systems cross functionally and keep operational costs to a minimum. The systems devel opment lifecycle employs the systems approach to create IT solutions. This lifecycle is often utilized for large applications and it is composed of five processes that I expect my team to know and become familiar when employing the systems development lifecycle: systems investigation, systems analysis, systems design, systems implementation and systems maintenance. The first process, systems investigation, involves project brainstorming, planning and performing a feasibility study. During the brainstorming and planning initiative, a project management implementation plan is created identifying the detailed steps that will be accomplished during the creation and development of the system. The feasibility study is critically important as this outlines all requirements for the system. It also explores four major areas, organizational, economic, technical, and operational feasibility, which determines if it’s worthwhile to invest in potential business ventures. In reviewing the organization’s feasibility, we need to determine if the system is in line with and supports our company’s strategic objectives. The economic feasibility identifies and evaluates the project’s tangible and intangible cost and benefits. Technical feasibility is assessed by confirming if the necessary hardware and software will be available or can be developed and tested before implementation. Operational feasibility is determined by the motivation, desire, willingness, and competence of the stakeholders (management, employees, customers and suppliers) to use and operate the proposed system. Systems Analysis consists of consolidating requirements and includes a detailed breakdown of the business needs and requirements of the organization. This starts with an organizational analysis from one of the business end users. This individual must be keenly aware of the organizational management structure, business requirements, and current IT systems operati ons and its proposed relationship with the newly created system. Some of the outputs generated from the systems analysis  include system flowcharts, data flow diagrams, and connectivity diagrams which aid in the development of the analysis report The next process, systems design, focuses on the design, process diagrams, business rules, and developing specifications for the hardware, software, data resources that will meet the proposed requirements for new business system. The three major outputs produced from the systems design phase are user data, interface, and process design. The fourth process of the systems development lifecycle is system implementation. This encompasses either acquiring the hardware or software or developing it from company resources and then testing the products in a test environment to see how well they operate and integrate with your existing IT architecture. If testing goes well, an implementation plan including training end users and developing system documentation will be accomplished prior to incorporating and execu ting this system within our IT architecture. The final process, systems maintenance consists of consistently monitoring and evaluating the newly implemented system. This also includes correcting errors and discrepancies not identified during the testing phase and continuously making system improvements, advancements and upgrades. The final area of information systems is management challenges. There are numerous challenges that our IT team may be faced with at Magnum Enterprises. One challenge is addressing our security concerns which involve several areas. For instance, our IT team needs be constantly vigilant and on the alert for potential competitors trying to or actually hacking into our systems to steal or damage our data. Additionally, we may also be challenged with setting up restrictions and locking down the network for personnel to only use the network and its software applications for official business. Ensuring that our software is controlled and that employees are not illegally making copies of software for personal use is another area of concern. Preventing virus attacks to our network and installing anti-virus software to diagnose and remove computer viruses is of utmost concern. Failure to maintain a secure network can potentially halt our business from being productive and resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Additional challenges the IT team may be faced with may involve expanding our infrastructure and network to address our growing business. Ensuring our network provides our employees accessibility to the data they need, wherever they require it, regardless of their location will test our innovativeness.  The company may not have a backup plan to allow it to operate effectively and efficiently in the event of a forced relocation. If that is the case, I will recommend to our management staff that we establish a continuity of operations plan enabling us to relocate with minimum impact to our business operations like a hot site for temporary functionality. In the dynamic world of IT we will always be faced with challenges, however, utilizing IT and being on the leading edge of new IT systems provides our business with many benefits and makes our organization more effective and efficient. For example, IT can be used to improve and promote new business processes such as creating an automated inventory system which will save money in additional labor costs. Another use of IT in making it more efficient and effective is that using certain software programs enables us to identify and target our top customers in terms of profitability to our business. In summary, IT enables our company to successfully plan, integrate, manage, and carry out strategies which lead to profit. Part II. Six months after you take over the lead IT management role at Magnum, the CIO, Ms. Rachel Heigl, is pleased with your work. She has just attended a meeting of Magnum’s executive committee (the committee comprised of the most senior managers of Magnum), where the CEO and Vice President of marketing have indicated that Magnum’s mediocre e-business capabilities must be strengthened. As CIO, Ms. Heigl is given primary responsibility in improving Magnum’s e-business performance. She in turn puts you in charge of a small task force comprised of representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. In order to advance and improve Magnum’s e-business performance operations, it’s vital I establish a cohesive team with representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. Their input and perspective is necessary and essential in developing a way ahead and strategic plan for the future of our e-busin ess department. Developing success with our e-business begins with marketing the company. Marketing is concerned with developing and creating an innovative plan so that the product or service can be promoted and sold. Promoting our products and services are key and critical in attracting new customers as well as maintaining our current customer base. It is important that I develop an understanding of the marketing role and how it can benefit  by using Information Technology systems. Marketing information systems support well established and e-commerce processes that sustain major elements within the marketing function and is described as a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control. The major components of marketing information systems include interactive marketing, sales force automation, customer relationship management, sales management, product management, targeted marketing, and market research. Two of the seven components I will be discussing are interactive marketing and customer relationship management. In our environment today, marketing information systems aid marketing personnel in a variety of tasks associated with branding products and customer service initiatives. For instance, interactive marketing is largely dependent on utilizing the internet, which permits the business and its customers and potential customers to become partners in developing, socializing, acquiring and advancing products and services. With the IT department enabling this type of communication, the company benefits from generating new ideas for other products and services as well as establishing strong customer loyalty. Another area within the marketing information systems is C ustomer Relationship Management (CRM). This incorporates and automates many customer service processes. It consists of utilizing an IT framework to construct, automate, and integrate marketing processes with the company’s business operations. CRM is usually comprised of a software suite that allows a business to provide efficient, effective and reliable service to its customers. Additionally, CRM permits a company to identify and target their most important customers as well as facilitate real-time customization of products and services based on the customer’s wants and desires. Understanding the marketing department’s views and concerns enables the IT department to implement and install an IT infrastructure that will be capable of supporting various information technologies. Some of the benefits that can be obtained from the marketing department are: an opportunity to increase sales and revenue, a chance to touch new market areas, 24/7 accessibility for the customer, and more flexibility and convenie nce for the customers. The production and operations function is supported by  manufacturing information systems. Manufacturing information systems are designed to be used specifically in an operations and production environment. Different types of manufacturing information systems consist of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), process control, machine control and robotics. CIM involves using computers to control the total manufacturing process, from design to distribution, to produce produces products of the highest caliber. Process control involves utilizing computers to oversee and control continuing physical processes. Machine control consists of using a computer based system to direct the actions of a machine. Robotics involves designing, constructing, and building machines that have the intelligence of a computer and human like physical capabilities. It’s key I understand how the operations representative depends on these information systems to operate effectively as well as their expec tations for these systems. Working together as a team will enable the IT and operations department to develop better ideas to increase the manufacturing and production process. Developing an understanding of all the accounting and financial based systems within our business and discussing these systems with the finance representative enables our IT and finance departments to plan effectively when troubleshooting and performing upgrades. These systems include but are not limited to order processing, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, cash management, investment management, capital budgeting and financial planning. The success of these systems is integrally connected with its information technology and services. For example, the order processing system â€Å"captures and processes customer orders and produces data needed for sales analysis and inventory control and the accounts payable system keeps track of data concerning purchases from and payments to suppliers. Communicating with the finance representative is essential in setting up or modifying these systems to meet the needs of our business. Any interrupti on or degradation in service can lead to severe damage to the business and financial services that Magnum Enterprises relies on to function and operate. As with any business, competitors are always looking for an advantage to get them ahead in their particular discipline or industry. Unfortunately, being extremely aggressive and ambitious can sometimes cloud your decision making capabilities to the point that you may  be committing breaking privacy laws and monitoring and copyright violations. As the IT lead manager for Magnum Enterprises, I’m charged with ensuring our network infrastructure and IT systems are operating proficiently. However, when it comes to addressing privacy issues from an IT perspective, opinions and viewpoints from a legal expert are necessary. In regards to privacy, several websites accumulate usernames and passwords and personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers without authorization from users. Applying internet monitoring technology within the workplace raises concerns about where the boundaries lie between personal use and public resource use. Copyright concerns and violations has become an issue with the development of the Internet and upgrades to technology. Discussing these concerns with a legal expert and implementing and adhering to strict guidelines will help prevent our company from committing these violations. In addition to the goals of strengthening the capabilities of the e-business, attention must be paid to some key technical challenges. Overseeing secure information throughout our business is extremely difficult to implement and maintain successfully. Key technical issues that may be encountered when re-engineering our e-business include privacy and confidentiality, authenticity, data integrity, access control, availability and infrastructure. Privacy and confidentiality involves businesses protecting and securing personal information while being stored or t ransmitted through email. This can be accomplished by utilizing encryption devices or firewalls. Authentication is used to confirm an individual’s identity and during e-business transactions, the purchaser and buyer wants assurance that proper identity is established. A secure way to assist with confirming identity to both individuals is to utilize a virtual private network. Data integrity means the data is correct and has not been altered while being stored or transmitted. The use of firewalls assists in preventing unauthorized users and safeguarding data. Another way to ensure data integrity is through the use of antivirus software which also aids in keeping your data free from viruses. Access control exists when you’re authorizing certain individual’s permission to restricted systems or data. Several measures that can help with access control include firewalls, access privileges, passwords, digital certificates and virtual private networks. Availability is an issue when customers and employers need information  without any disruptions. Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, data backups and the use of anti-virus software assist with ensuring data is always available. Our e-business infrastructure constantly needs to be monitored to ensure its meeting the needs of our business. An infrastructure that is unable to consistently support the network traffic load can potentially cost our company thousands of dollars in lost sales. If the network is continually slow, increasing the speed of the network backbone will assist in providing faster and reliable support for our customers. In addition to increasing the speed of the network backbone, implementing cross-functional enterprise systems will assist in improving critical business processes throughout Magnum enterprises. A final technical challenge is ensuring all of our systems are compatible and can operate on several different hardware platforms. By having this capabi lity, our operating costs from a technical refresh perspective will decrease. While strengthening capabilities and addressing technical issues, there are management challenges within the e-business that must be addressed. As discussed earlier, our team must be vigilant in addressing security challenges such as hacking into our systems, software theft, and protecting our software applications. In addition to security issues, there are ethical concerns that must be addressed. Privacy has always been a serious and contentious issue amongst employers and employees. For instance, computer monitoring is considered by many personnel to be an infringement on the employee’s privacy and shouldn’t be allowed. However, employers argue that since the computer is a company owned resource, they should be allowed to monitor the work of their employer. In reality, many employers are concerned as to whether or not the employee is actually working and producing or just goofing off and surfing the internet. Utilizing IT equipment at work has been mentioned to cause a variety of health issues which management must address. For example, if your job consists of being in front of a computer all day, some of the health problems you may experience damage to the neck and arm muscles, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, job stress, poor posture and poor circulation. Resolutions to some of these health concerns can be through the science of ergonomics. The objective of ergonomics is to devise and create safe health work conditions with the goal of decreasing health issues and increasing employee morale and work productivity. If  Magnum Enterprises has customers internationally, they also may be faced with political, geo-economic and cultural challenges. From a political concern, there are countries that have restrictions regulating or denying the transfer of data across their borders which can potentially result in customers or businesses from having to pay import or export fees. Geo-economic concerns involve issues such as identifying and locating personnel with IT skills to work at remote sites and communicating with personnel across all 24 time zones. Cultural challenges â€Å"include differences in languages, cultural interests, religions, customs, social attitudes, and political philosophies†. For example, if Magnum Enterprises was conducting a business transaction via a Video Teleconference it would be disrespectful to look them in the eye when introducing yourself. Before meeting an international customer, it would prudent to review their customs and courtesies to ensure a smooth business relationship. Improving Magnum’s e-business performance faces several challenges. Consulting with key department personnel from operations, marketing, finance and legal as well as addressing technical and management obstacles will assist me in charting a plan to put our e-business on the right track towards success. Business Mgt. (2016, Oct 17).