Monday, September 30, 2019

The Causes and Effects of Smoking Among Students

A cause effect essay The causes and effects of smoking among students Smoking is one of the most dangerous widespread phenomena that threatens lives of a huge number of people worldwide. It starts as a way of having fun, but ends as an addiction that is therefore so difficult to give up. Today, we often hear of â€Å"smoking among students†. So why do students smoke and what effects smoking has on them? There are many reasons behind the phenomenon of smoking among students. To start with, students smoke because they are curious and want to discover the world of those who smoke.They are just trying to have some fun when they smoke the first cigarette. Other students take up smoking due to the family problems, especially when they see their parents having quarrels. Moreover, some students smoke since they think a cigarette would relieve stress they had during the day, especially at school. Last but not least, students try to imitate adult smokers because they want to show that t hey are adults, too. If we look at the consequences of smoking, we will find so many. Smoking causes cancer. As a result, the addict students would suffer from health problems that end in death.Another effect is that after certain years, the addict would develop respiratory problems and will face a lot of problems in running without losing breath. So, asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema are always a lingering threat. One more important effect of smoking is that it causes a lot of anger for the addict. Whenever they lack cigarettes, they start reacting angrily and strangely. To sum up, smoking is an ongoing threatening danger for addicts and might affect the next generation. The best solution is prevention according to the proverb that says â€Å"Prevention is better than cure†.A cause effect essay The causes and effects of smoking among students Smoking is one of the most dangerous widespread phenomena that threatens lives of a huge number of people worldwide. It starts as a wa y of having fun, but ends as an addiction that is therefore so difficult to give up. Today, we often hear of â€Å"smoking among students†. So why do students smoke and what effects smoking has on them? There are many reasons behind the phenomenon of smoking among students. To start with, students smoke because they are curious and want to discover the world of those who smoke.They are just trying to have some fun when they smoke the first cigarette. Other students take up smoking due to the family problems, especially when they see their parents having quarrels. Moreover, some students smoke since they think a cigarette would relieve stress they had during the day, especially at school. Last but not least, students try to imitate adult smokers because they want to show that they are adults, too. If we look at the consequences of smoking, we will find so many. Smoking causes cancer. As a result, the addict students would suffer from health problems that end in death.Another e ffect is that after certain years, the addict would develop respiratory problems and will face a lot of problems in running without losing breath. So, asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema are always a lingering threat. One more important effect of smoking is that it causes a lot of anger for the addict. Whenever they lack cigarettes, they start reacting angrily and strangely. To sum up, smoking is an ongoing threatening danger for addicts and might affect the next generation. The best solution is prevention according to the proverb that says â€Å"Prevention is better than cure†.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Implementation of E-Business Systems: A Case Study of Baderman Island

The strategy of Baderman Island Enterprise requires constant updating. With the changing conditions of market and industry it is important for the organization to keep its strategy in tact with the changing environment. An out dated strategy cannot fulfil the needs of today’s global environment (O’Brien, 2005). In order to go through the updating process the Baderman Island Enterprise should carry on an audit to analyze which aspect requires improvement.It also specifies what strategy is necessary to support the business operations, the information people use currently and the gaps in these functions and the business goals. Most managers fail to analyze the current situation of their business and lack a sense of intuition and forecasting. Often it is also a draw back that the strategy of some organizations neglects the change in the functions of some important departments. It is important for a strategy to serve all the needs of departments, which require change.Through a strategy audit it becomes easier to find out which departments and operation require to be revolutionized or updating. By assessing the knowledge possessed by Baderman Island Enterprise about its competitors and market environment the mangers can effectively take decisions in order to find the most feasible way for their businesses to maximize profits and improve market share. It is also important to calculate the extent to which change needs to be introduced to the organization.Although the identification of the problem is a big issue but the finding a solution making sense with business world is the main purpose of change in the Baderman Island Enterprise. In case of Baderman Island Enterprise it is important to have the knowledge of how to present the product/service in effective manner in order to reach the customer in an effective manner. With the changing business needs the new marketing techniques such as product differentiation, branding and advertising are also gaining i mmense importance.The successful product positioning and promotion is only possible if all the required information in this lieu is gathered and used in the right direction. In order to fulfill modern information needs, new information technologies have also been evolved. The information regarding the buyer preferences and behavior plays an important part in helping the Baderman Island Enterprise management to take important decisions regarding the product such as pricing, promotion, competition etc. It is important for the company to establish a system in order to acquire a large amount of information for the marketing managers.â€Å"Competitive companies study their managers’ information needs and design marketing information systems (MIS) to meets these needs. A marketing information system (MIS) consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision markers. To carry out their analysis, planning, implementation, and control responsibilities marketing managers need information about developments in the marketing environment.The role of the MIS is to assess the manager’s information needs, develop the needed information, and distribute that information in a timely fashion, the information is developed through internal company records, marketing intelligence activities, marketing research, and marketing decision support analysis. † (Kotler, 2000) In the case of Baderman Island Enterprise the MIS can play an important role in successfully marketing the new products and services which the company is planning to launch. An effective MIS will also help in enhancing the exposure level of the company from local market to national market.It is important for the company to design the MIS system in an effective manner. In most of the cases the companies lack information sophistication. Some of them collect a large amount of information but the data is not stored in a proper way to be handled easily. Without an effective marketing information system it will become impossible for the Baderman Island Enterprise to reach to the desired customer. The MIS will help the company in understanding the customer’s perception, taste, needs and desires regarding the new product.Without the proper MIS the investment in the production and innovation will not be of any use. â€Å"The MIS represent a cross between what managers think they need, what managers really need, and what is economically feasible. † (Kotler, 2000) The MIS will provide support to the management in the areas of reduction of price risks, planning for an effective and cheap marketing strategy with technology assessment and development, particularly in evolving and popularizing entertainment and recreational activities offered by the company.An effective Management information system can help in the company in motivating other intermediaries to pass along important intelligence. Through the components of MIS the Company will able to collect information regarding order-to-payment cycle and sales reporting system. The managers will be able to get the information about the developments in the marketing environment. The MIS will also assist the managers in collecting, analyzing and reporting data relevant to the market situation. The decision support system will help the managers to take important marketing decisions by interpreting the gathered information.(O’ Brien, 2006). Hence MIS is the most important instrument without which the Company cannot market its product successfully in market. As per the requirements of the Baderman Island Enterprise SAP Enterprise System: The SAP ERP 2005 application and Duet software drives future growth. The SAP ERP 2005 provides clear vision, superior product functionality and support for midsize companies. Adopting SAP solutions based on the SAP NetWeaver will automate all of its business proce sses, including financial and human capital administration, compliance reporting and real estate management (SAP, 2007)Northwind Enterprise Solution: Maestro suite includes PMS, Sales & Catering, Club/Spa Management, Corporate Reservations Office, GDS Connectivity, and ResEze (Internet Reservations). The Maestro PMS system from NORTHWIND has three main characteristics: â€Å"It is an enterprise system, not a legacy system, with an open database that allows us to data mine for marketing information; it refreshes the numbers real-time as new reservations are entered; and it is user-friendly. † (Northwind Enterprise Solution, 2003) PROS Hotel Revenue Optimization System: PROS next generation system provides revenue lift of 6-12%.It automatically separates yield-able from price sensitive demand and automatically controls each system at the property, campus, or market level. It is Centrally installed with remote access through web-enabled browser. Built with high performance, high ly scalable architecture on thin client platform. The system allows forecasting at any level of detail Dynamic bid prices offer real-time adjustment to environment. It upgrades logic and an overbooking routine maximizes revenue and provides independent forecasts of demand for each product, including length of stay (PROS Hotel Revenue Optimization System)SAP NetWeaver is the most recommended technology in the above mentioned technologies as it will automate all of Baderman Island Enterprise’s business processes, including financial and human capital administration, compliance reporting and real estate management and will match the strategy of the Company. With the choice of most suitable technology it is also important for the company to undertake some important measures in order to effectively implement the chosen technology. Chilcott (2001) presented a 7-Step Development Process in order to effectively under take an IS project: 1. Identify and List Stakeholders:The identific ation and listing of stakeholders is very important and the initial step in an Is project. The list of the stakeholders should include all the people who have the power to effect the system. The second category of stakeholders includes the people whose position and power will be affected by the project. The third and most important category is the users of the project. It is important to recognize the actual stakeholders of the project. The representatives of these stakeholders should be included in all the discussions related to the project in order to sketch the clear vision and necessities of project.After the identification process it is important to determine the problem statement. The entire stakeholder should reach an agreement on the definition of problem in order to design a project to fit the problem size for all the stakeholders. 2. Identify and List Actors The perceptions of the stakeholders regarding the project must be analyzed or in other words it should be found that what all the stakeholders want from the project. The stakeholders can be divided into different groups according to their expectations regarding the project. The use and expectation of the stakeholders will help in designing the project in right way.It is seen in case of different projects that the developers and the involved stakeholders do not know about what they exactly want from the project. The development of an internal model regarding the perceptions of developers and stakeholders regarding the project will help all the people involved to expect, create, build and effectively use and support the system. 3. Identify and List Use Cases Use cases are the core of the whole process. The use cases present the complete functionality of the system. A use case in defined as an interaction between the user and the system.The use cases of the different stakeholders differ according to their expectations. They are effective and meaningful tools to manage and organize the project. The u se case collection in undertaken according to three steps: 1. To discover the use case while discussing with the stakeholders this step involves a general overview of two to three sentences of the use case. 2. At the second stage an analysis of the user case is undertaken according to the business rules and the system relationship components. 3. The next step is the decision making about the implementation of the user case. All the scheduling and development steps are designed.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Tajikistan civil war (1992-1997) Research Paper

Tajikistan civil war (1992-1997) - Research Paper Example Ethnic groups: Tajik 80%, Uzbek 15%, Russian and others 5%.Religion (2010 Embassy est.): Sunni Muslim 95%, Shi'a Muslim 3%, other 2%. Language: Tajik (the official state language as of 1994, with follow-up legislation in 2009); Russian is widely used in government and business; 74% of the population lives in rural communities where mostly Tajik is spoken. Education: Literacy (according to the Tajikistan Living Standards Survey for 2007)--97.4%. The Tajik education system has been struggling through a period of decline since independence, however, and some evidence suggests functional literacy is much lower. Health (2010 est.): Life expectancy--62.29 years men; 68.52 years women. Infant mortality rate--41.03 deaths/1,000 live births. Work force (2010): The official work force is 2.1 million. The actual number of working age citizens is closer to 4 million. As many as half of all working age males, and an increasing number of females, seek jobs outside of the country, primarily in Russ ia. The Republic of Tajikistan gained its independence during the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) on September 9, 1991 and soon fell into a civil war. From 1992 to 1997 internal fighting ensued between old-guard regionally based ruling elites and disenfranchised regions, democratic liberal reformists, and Islamists loosely organized in a United Tajik Opposition (UTO). Other combatants and armed bands that flourished in this civil chaos simply reflected the breakdown of central authority rather than loyalty to a political faction. The height of hostilities occurred between 1992 and 1993. By 1997, the predominantly Kulyabi-led Tajik Government and the UTO had negotiated a power-sharing peace accord and implemented it by 2000. Once guaranteed 30% of government positions, former oppositionists have almost entirely been removed from government as President Rahmon has consolidated power. The last Russian border guards protecting Tajikistan's 1,344 km border w ith Afghanistan completed their withdrawal in July 2005. Russia maintains its military presence in Tajikistan with the basing of the Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division that never left Tajikistan when it became independent. Most of these Russian-led forces, however, are local Tajik noncommissioned officers and soldiers. Tajikistan's most recent parliamentary elections in 2010 and its 2006 presidential election were considered to be flawed and unfair but peaceful. The parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party secured 55 of the 63 seats, failed to meet many key Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) standards on democratic elections, and some observers saw them as even worse than the flawed 2005 elections. In June 2003, Tajikistan held a flawed referendum to enact a package of constitutional changes, including a provision to allow President Rahmon the possibility of re-election to up to two additional 7-year terms after his term expired in 2006.† Civil War Brief Summary of The Conflict After the civil war in 1992, sporadic fighting continued in remote areas. The road to peace in Tajikistan has been long and tedious. (Tajikistan Civil War), â€Å"The process of national reconciliation in this impoverished Central Asian country was set in motion by a June 1997 UN-mediated settlement between Tajikistan's Moscow-backed government and the

Friday, September 27, 2019

Define the socio-economic aspects that make Limoges distinctive Essay

Define the socio-economic aspects that make Limoges distinctive - Essay Example Its is at a physical as well as socio-economic defining moment. It has no way to make use the ocean, very less trains come to their stations and there airport is not even large enough for an airplane, Limoges largest industry is in cattle. (http://molly.com/2006/02/04/limoges-france-the-vision-the-joy-the-pain/). Limoges has just seen a minor raise in its population due to positive migration balance. However it is still the most aged population in the whole of France, this has no effect on their socio-economic indicators. It consists of an urban region of 230 000 customers, their town centre has 137,502 residents, 12,942 organization as well as 66,610 employees. The rate of unemployment is fairly average which 8.5% is. 80 % consist of less than 50 employees and 5% of the organizations have more than 200 employees. With a population around 140,000. Its famous for its ceramics industry; the citys porcelain workshops employ more than 10,000 people (http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/17f82/1a119/). Limoges consists of an intense network of diversified, high-performance SME-SMI and specializes in electricity, electronics, wood/furniture, ceramics, precision mechanics, plastics and cosmetics. The segment is the key employer in Limoges accounting for more than one third of the employees on industrial sites. It is open to original ideas and developing quickly; it is as well the area’s most important sector when it comes to terms of exports. Limoges is the seat of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Limoges and of High-Vienna which manages the AÃ ©roport of Limoges Bellegarde. It is also the seat of the Regional court of trade and industry the Limousin Poitou-Charentes (which manages Innov ia (http://www.speedylook.com/Limoges.html). At the beginning of industrial growth in Limoges in the nineteenth century, this activity consists of two key areas of

Thursday, September 26, 2019

The consumers of Coca-Cola Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The consumers of Coca-Cola - Essay Example is advertising campaign is also carried to other targeted customers located in different parts of the globe through satellite broadcasting as well as the internet. These forms of communication are fast and instantaneous and they can reach different parts of the globe. The figure below shows the product involved in the mentioned advertising campaign. The consumer buying process is comprised of five stages namely: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternative, purchase decisions and post purchase decisions (Strydom, 2004). For real, this is a process not an event given that it goes through different stages. In most cases, it can be noted that consumers are always aware of their needs and they often search for information they can use to satisfy their needs. This is when the advertising campaign comes in handy when people are looking for information that can be used to satisfy their needs. In the case of Coke Zero advertising campaign, the target audience is men and th is can go a long way in providing the required information about the ideal product that can satisfy their needs. The advertising campaign is designed in such a way that it conveys the information that can influence the targeted group to develop a positive attitude towards Coke Zero. The message in this advertising campaign is: â€Å"defender and celebrator of guy enjoyment.† This message is designed in such a way that it captures the attention of the targeted customers such that they can be influenced to try the product. The other important aspect of the buyer decision process is related to evaluation of alternatives. According to Berry & Wilson (2001), marketers should always be aware of the fact that there are various alternatives in the market hence they should design their advertising... This essay aims to mainly draw from the case of Coke Zero advertising campaign to establish the extent to which it has or can influence the buying process of the targeted consumers. The paper starts by defining key terms as well as outlining the chosen advertising campaign. It can be concluded that consumer buying process is mainly influenced by a variety of factors such as advertising campaigns. This refers to a series of advertisements that are intended to positively change the behaviour of the targeted buyers. Carefully designed advertisement campaigns are likely to remind the customers about the existence of a certain market offering. These campaigns also raise awareness among the consumers about the product. However, as discussed above, the success of an advertising campaign mainly depends on the quality of the message presented by the marketers to the customers. As illustrated by the case of Coke Zero, the message is: â€Å"defender and celebrator of guy enjoyment.† This message is tailored in such a way that it appeals to the interests of the targeted male consumers. The way the message is presented in the campaign also has a bearing on the likely response of the customers. The case of Coke Zero shows that the product is presented as unique and different from other similar products found in the market. This is very effective since the strategy helps the company to gain a competitive advantage in its operations. This helps it to operate viably and effectively since it would be able to attract a lot of customers.

Work shop activity .Words and Words formation Essay

Work shop activity .Words and Words formation - Essay Example For instance, some students find it tricky to retrieve single words especially nouns, adjectives, calendar dates, verbs and general numbers. For this reason, it is very difficult for them to respond comfortably to questions that require them to use facts in arguing their points out (Finch, 2000). This does not mean they lack information about the question but instead are not good at clearly distinguishing characters, places, numbers and other facts. In some cases commonly referred to as discourse retrieval contexts, students find it difficult to take part actively in discussions, which relate to some events or some experiences in life (Finegan et al, 1992). A lexeme is a language unit, which bears lexical meaning in that in whichever form they appear, they bear a common meaning. Lexeme derive its origin from language morphology because a lexeme word or phrase helps people understand a concept which links to that word even though they write and express it differently. Since a lexeme reduces a word, it makes it easy for people who have difficulties in word definition to get a basic meaning of such words. For instance, a word like water in simple terms is a noun. The same word can be a verb to mean the act of giving water to something for example plants. It makes it easy for a student to remember words and quickly fix them in their right context (Yule, 2010). Lexeme makes it easy for learners to understand and compare words. For instance, medical processing uses a series of scientific terms. Unless students are good at such terms, they cannot understand the medical products. The use of lexeme acts as a bridging factor since it reduces the differences of language representation (Schendi, 2003). Similarities that stem from perception have a hug role in learning especially during the early stages of language development in children because it enables them in grouping objects to a particular category thus supporting them in identifying the name

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Since over 50% of foetuses survive when born at 24 weeks, the current Dissertation

Since over 50% of foetuses survive when born at 24 weeks, the current law on abortion should be amended to reflect this - Dissertation Example a common law country itself has adopted in most of the states. When other EU countries have only 12 weeks and less, U.K. also can also follow suit. The Abortion Act 1967 is the oldest Abortion law in the world now and therefore needs to be amended for less than 24 weeks. Table of contents Chapter No Particulars †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Page no Abstract 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 1.2 Problem statement 6 1.3 Aim 6 1.4 Objectives 6 1.5 Dissertation structure and Methodology 6 1.6 Conclusion 7 Chapter 2 Literature review 7 2.1 Defense of necessity 7 2.2 Rights of unborn child 10 2.3 Ethics of abortion 12 2.4 General law applicable to abortion 13 2.5 Prolife movement 15 2.6 Prochoice movement 15 2.7 U.S. law for 20 weeks or lesser 16 2.8 British M.P. Nadine Dorries’ 20 reasons for 20 weeks 17 2.9 24 reasons for 24 weeks by Laurie Penny 17 2.10 Conclusion 16 Chapter 4 Data Findings, discussion and conclusion 19 Bibliography 22 Chapter 1 Introduction The big question is whether abortion is â€Å"killing of foetus or removal of a piece of tissue from a woman’s body?† It is argued that Abortion Act 1967 is medicalisation of deviance. According to Friedson, power accorded to doctors to have control over abortion has led to problematic segments of social behaviour. Thus, the judge decides what legality is and who is guilty, the priest, what is holy and who is profane and the doctors, what is normal and who is sick. In order to overcome the problematic area of abortion, medical profession have managed to influence the decision on when abortion is criminal and when it is therapeutic. The influence by the medical men has been on two levels. one, the political level where they supported legislatio n on abortion from 1803 to 1861 that helped establishment of medical profession’s status and in 1967 in furtherance of professional interests with the passing of Abortions Act 1967. The second level is the practical level in which the medical man exerts his extensive autonomy to decide on an abortion if it could be therapeutic 1 Section 58 of the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861 provides â€Å"every woman being with child, who, with intent to procure her miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or noxious thing or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent, and whosoever, with intent to procure miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or not with child, shall unlawfully administer to her or cause to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent , shall be guilty of felony and being convicted thereof shall be liable at th e discretion of the court or kept in penal servitude for life or for any term not less than three years or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years with or without hard labour and with or without solitary confinement†2 Though it may appear from what has been stated above that abortion in the U.K. is technically under the control of medical profession, liberal approach is the norm in that it is now â€Å"abortion on demand† given the fact that U.K. is the highest among European countries with reported cases of abortion 90 percent of which is conducted in the first trimester (12 weeks). The U.K. law has been more permissive than other countries

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Business Research Methodologies Resit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Research Methodologies Resit - Essay Example Research Methodology Research Design Research Philosophy The research shall contain elements of both positivism and interpretivism. The interpretivism philosophy is quintessential to our understanding of how and why international students arrive at a preference for certain mobile phone over another in London. This research incorporates identifying and analyzing the factors behind mobile phone selection by international students in London which have not yet been discussed in the context of UK in various past studies. Since this requires significant level of involvement, the subjective element associated with interpretivism will remain dominant. At the same time, the lack of objectivity related with using the interpretivist approach makes it necessary to adopt a quantitative approach and positivist philosophy for the establishment of our research instrument. Research Approach An inductive approach shall be used to identify common factors behind choice of mobile phones in London by inte rnational students which shall be picked up from raw data with subsequent generalizations made for the entire group. Key factors shall be grouped into categories such as cost, availability etc. from raw data and theory shall be developed capturing those factors that are judged to be significant by the researcher. Since the nature of research is qualitative, multiple interpretations may be made from open-ended data obtained through focus groups. Therefore, the findings shall be in large part interpreted in the context of the researchers’ prior experience and/or assumptions. Research strategy Reflecting a blend of positivist and interpretivist approach in our research, a combination of research strategies shall be used including surveys and focus groups. While the surveys are a reflection of the positivist approach, focus groups are suggestive of an interpretivist approach. Inferences regarding the factors that affect choice of mobile phone by international students in the UK s hall be made and relationships between these factors shall be determined using quantitative techniques. Focus groups have been defined as a series of discussions that are systematically planned and that obtain target audience’s perceptions in a particular area of interest under an environment that is tolerant and â€Å"non-threatening† (Krueger & Casey, 2009). The focus groups shall enable the identification of open-ended, sub-conscious responses from the students that they would otherwise not reveal through direct questions. Projective techniques such as those using images of various types of mobile phones (flip cover, sliding, QWERTY keypad, big screen) shall be shown along with various brands including Samsung, Nokia, Apple, Blackberry and others. This exercise particularly attempts to unravel social motivations such as peer pressure in their new place of study as well as the effect of factors such as security (little/no thefts) and supporting infrastructure such as mobile hotspots and e-shopping that may not be available in the countries to which these foreigners belong. Data Collection As suggested earlier, data shall be collected using focus groups and surveys. The surveys shall include both interviews and questionnaires.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Financial Statement Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial Statement Analysis - Essay Example Please see Appendix A. The same behaviour may be observed in terms of operating margin and gross margins for the same years respectively. These are all relevant evidence of poor performance for the poor performance of Vodafone. It was only for the years 2004 and 2003 that the company had positive gross margin. In other words, the company has in fact been losing money for the years 2003 through 2006. For purposes of comparing the company’s operating margin of the two companies against the industry average, Vodafone is performing poorly compared France Telecom where average for operating margin 17% as taken from MSN (2008) under the telecommunication services. France Telecom had actually the same 17% average for the last four years while Vodafone’s average for the same period, was -29%. Please see Appendix A. Even in terms of Return of Assets (ROA, Vodafone had -8%, -7%, -7%, and -7% for the years 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003 respectively which faired poorly again compared with France Telecom’ s 6%, 23%, 19% and 32% for the same years respectively. The results of these ratios further confirmed earlier observation in negative net profit margin for Vodafone. The same less desirable or profitability is further observed in terms of Return of Equity where Vodafone showed -6%, -5%, -6%, -6% for the years 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003 respectively which are definitely lower than that of France Telecom which showed -6%, 2%, 5%, 3% and 4% for the same years respectively. Please see Appendix A. Although France Telecom also reflected negative ROE for 2006, it may be pointed out that years before the company were indeed clearly more profitable. It may be asserted that two ratios have different purposes. ROA measures how efficient management of company was in terms of assets employed in business while ROE measures how

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Hitler Became Chancellor in 1933 Because He Was Leader of the Most Popular Party in Germany Essay Example for Free

Hitler Became Chancellor in 1933 Because He Was Leader of the Most Popular Party in Germany Essay Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 because he was leader of the most popular party in Germany. How far you agree with this opinion? Hitler’s appointment in 1933 cannot be put down to just one factor. There were many influential occurrences leading up to his appointment but overall the Great Depression seems to be the biggest factor as it started a ‘chain reaction’ that overall led to Hitler being Chancellor of Germany. Therefore, despite being the leader of the most popular party in Germany playing a part in Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor it was not solely responsible and was also not the most important factor. An argument that could be used to show that Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 because he was leader of the most popular party in Germany is the idea that the Nazis used effective tactics which not only allowed them to gain extreme popularity but also their leader, Adolf Hitler. Essentially, the Nazis clever strategies allowed Hitler to gain recognition. For example, the Nazis were incredibly good at changing their policies to suit their audiences at rallies. The Great Depression was also used to their favour; promoting Hitler as the saviour in their propaganda to incredible effect. Goebbels’ propaganda campaign was very effective and it won support for the Nazis and Hitler. Also, Hitler moved away from violence and realised that the only way he could receive true power was through the Reichstag. The Nazis were able to win over the working and middle classes by using their anti-Jewish propaganda for the working classes and for the middle classes and farmers they focussed on their policies on powerless and honourless Germany, making it great again. No other party focussed more on propaganda than the Nazis; they were masters of propaganda. Their propaganda skills had the ability to change the public’s opinions and views. It encompassed every aspect of Weimar Germany to entice millions of people into following them, their policies ranged from unemployment to the stab in the back myth of Versailles. This increased the appeal of the Nazis and as a result they increased their vote in the Reichstag in the next election of July 1932, increasing their number of seats to 230 and becoming the largest party in the Reichstag. The Nazis used the problems with the economy and the Weimar republic to boost their support; this is evident in the fact that as unemployment got worse, Nazi support increased. Therefore clearly, being the leader of the most popular party did have extreme benefits for Hitler in terms of helping him become Chancellor due to gaining popularity through the party. Having said that, the idea that Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 because he was leader of the most popular party in Germany to an extent can be argued to be untrue; as briefly discussed the weaknesses of the Weimar government also played a clear role. More specifically, events happening outside of Germany such as Wall Street Crash; The Great Depression. Germany suffered the consequences due to the collapse of share prices on the New York Stock Exchange more than any other country. US loans and investment ceased and demands quickly followed for the repayment of previous short-term loans. Also, the crisis caused a further decline in the price of food and raw materials as the industrialised nations reduced their imports. As demands for exports collapsed world trade slumped and German industry could no longer pay its way. The argument could therefore be made that without this event the Nazis may not have become the most popular party. After all, the party’s popularity came from anger and bitterness of Weimar. Therefore, people turned towards the extremist political parties. Yet many workers turned to communism but this frightened wealthy businessmen, so they financed Hitler’s campaigns. Many middle-class people, alarmed by the obvious failure of democracy, decided that the country needed a strong government. The depression of 1929 created poverty and unemployment, making people angry with the Weimar government. Overall, this argument clearly signifies that Hitler’s appointment to become Chancellor was not just down to him being leader of the most popular party in Germany; events outside Germany lead to Weimar failing miserably which also played a clear role. Nazis electoral success in 1932 did to an extent have an impact and therefore, can be used to argue that Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 because he was leader of the most popular party in Germany. After all, the elections to the Reichstag in July saw the Nazi percentage of the vote increase to 37. 3 per cent, making it the largest party in the Reichstag. This was a sensational breakthrough. As the largest political group in the Reichstag, they had a mandate from the German people to be involved in the government. Clearly, this indicates that whilst the Nazi party looked increasingly powerful, their leader Hitler did so too; making him more well known throughout the country. This argument is also strengthened by the thought that it is after all, down to being the leader of the Nazis because the moderate parties would not work together despite the fact that together they would be stronger than the Nazis and therefore, weaknesses of other parties contribute to Hitler and the Nazis looking stronger. This strength made Hitler more established as a political figure giving him a clear advantage. However, in comparison to the previous argument another reason for Hitler’s Chancellorship was Von Papen; indicating that Hitler did not become Chancellor just due to being the leader of the most popular party in Germany. After all, the Nazis gained electoral success in 1932 but Hindenburg still refused to make Hitler Chancellor; indicating despite being the leader this did not put Hitler in an advantageous position. Yet, Von Papen had been Chancellor before Hitler and had become close friends with President Hindenburg. This played much to Hitler’s advantage as Papen offered to convince Hindenburg that Hitler was the right choice for the new Chancellor provided Papen could be Vice Chancellor. Von Papen managed to convince Hindenburg, along with various other politicians that Hitler was the best choice. Without Von Papen, Hitler may not have managed to initially become Chancellor or at least not until later than January 1933. This combined with the idea that previous governments were weak and lacked support made a clear sign for that Germany needed change. Hitler was something new and had clearly opposed the idea of a democracy from the start. As the German public started to go against the Republic their support turned to the opposing and completely differing view of Hitler. He was different to the past chancellors such as Von Papen who represented failed governments. He portrayed himself through propaganda and in speeches as a strong and powerful leader who could lead Germany out of this depression and unrest and that’s what the German public needed at the time. After all, Hindenburg had no other alternative but to place Hitler as Chancellor due to the failures of previous governments and Hitler’s growing support from people close to Hindenburg. Also, other conservative elites believed that Hitler was a man that could easily be tamed and kept under control. This gave him an advantage over the Communists, as Hindenburg believed he wouldn’t be able to control the communists if he supported them. This is therefore important in the eventual appointment of Hitler as Chancellor as without the support of the conservative elites, it is debatable as to whether or not Hitler would actually have gained power. Even, when in the July 1932 the NSDAP won 230 seats, becoming the largest party in Germany, Hindenburg did not appoint Hitler Chancellor. Hence, it is hard to imagine why anything would have changed without considerable pressure being mounted on Hindenburg from business. In particular, without the support of von Papen and his supposed ability to control Hitler, Hindenburg would certainly not have been persuaded. Clearly then, these conservative elites had at least some impact in bringing about Hitlers time as Chancellor. Also, the misjudgement of von Papen and Hindenburg in believing that they could control Hitler is crucial in explaining the overall Nazi seizure of power.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Prevention Strategies for the Development of Pressure Ulcers

Prevention Strategies for the Development of Pressure Ulcers This assignment will examine the process and methods used when gathering empirical evidence, for a chosen based care issue, using different search strategies and medical databases. An appraisal and discussion of the chosen evidence will also be made, identifying how the evidence was gathered and its relevance to the chosen based care issue. The process of collecting such evidence and the importance of its use will be reflectedupon using a specific reflective model. The practice based care issue which has been chosen is ‘prevention of pressure ulcers’. A pressure ulcer is an area of localised damage to the skin and underlying tissue (EPUAP, 2009) which develops when there is persisting pressure on a bony site, obstructing healthycapillary flow , leading to tissue necrosis (Lyder, 2003).The rationale for selecting this type of research is due to the high prevalence rate of pressure ulcer among patients and the current lack of knowledge concerning guidelines of pressure ulcer prevention (Moore Price, 2004). I am very interested in this topic and feel a deeper knowledge of pressure ulcer development and risk assessment tools will enable me to provide better clinical practice. According to Davies (2008) health care professionals are striving constantly to improve and develop standards of care which evolves from the integration of research evidence, clinical expertise and patient needs and values (Institute of Medicine, 2001),this is al so known as evidence-based practice. The reflective model that I will be using is Rolfe et al (2001) ‘what’ model which composes of three main areas, what? So what? Now what? This model aims to identify the following; what was I trying to achieve? What is my new knowledge of understanding? What information is needed to face a similar situation again? Ichose this particular model compared to John’s model of reflection (1994) as I found it the easiest model for organisation and meaning to the process of reflection. .Reflection involves accessing previous experience to help in developing tacit and intuitive knowledge (Johnsand Freshwater, 2005) and the main principles of reflection include becoming mindful, understanding and learning from experience. Reflection facilitates an evaluation of one’s own practice, both as individuals and with their teams (Sines, Saunders Burford, 2013). It is vital that Nurses reflect and practice reflectively as it allows them to learn from experience and make better future judgement, becoming critical practitioners and facilitating excellent patient care. The critique model I will be using for the critical appraisal and discussion is the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) as it is a clear tool which identifies the worth of the articles I have found (CASP, 2013). Critical Appraisal After researching for relevant articles, I decided to choose three of the most relevant articles to critically appraise. Each of these three articles involves a study evaluating the effectiveness of prevention strategies for the development of pressure ulcers. The first single blind randomised control study by Webster et al (2011) aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of two pressure-ulcer screening tools against clinical judgement in preventing pressure ulcers. This study had a very clear and focused objective which stimulated the reader to continue reading due to the study avoiding the use of jargon or buzz words (Carr, 2001). This was an experimental and correlation study showing the link between two factors with the aim of producing quantative results. 1231 patients were randomly allocated to either a water low or ramstadius screeningtool or to a clinical judgement group. Randomised Control Trials (RCT) are comparative studies with an intervention group and a control group; the assignment of the subject is assigned through randomisation(Melnick Everitt, 2008). The advantages of using RCT are that it removes potential of bias in the allocation of participants and that randomisation tends to produce comparable groups; that is, measured as well as unknown or unmeasured prognostics factors and characteristics at the time of random allocation will be balanced (Friedman, Furberg Demets, 2010). The researchers ensured that patients allocated were excluded if their hospital stay was expected to be less than 3 days or if they had been in hospital 24 hours prior to the baseline assessment occurring. This is to allow thorough and regular direct observation of the incidence of hospital acquired pressure ulcers, allowing the researcher to attempt to control the studies validity and reliability (Marshall, 2004). In a research study it is vital that the researcher ensures that the subjects are aware of the process of the study and have given informed consent. In the case of this study, for pressure ulcer screening and observation, consent was not required. However, signed consent was sought from any patient who developed a pressure injury in order to validate the assigned pressure ulcer through clinical photography. The researchers also obtained institutional ethics approval which included the right to access the patient’s medical record for audit purposes. The incidences of hospital acquired pressure ulcers were similar between all groups. The authors found no evidence to show that two common pressure ulcers risk assessment tools were superior to clinical judgement to prevent pressure injury. The authors felt that resources associated with the use of these tools might be better spent on careful daily skin inspection and improving management targeted at specific risks. This is supported by the work of Sarabahiand Tiwari (2012) who suggests a regular and rigid schedule of inspection must be followed as part of the patients daily routine. Nurses undertaking the trial were more familiar with the Water low scoring system which could have led to contamination in the clinical judgementgroup. The limitation of this study is that they did not use patients from acute settings who could be at risk and therefore cannot use these results as a representation of all hospital settings. The second randomised controlled study by Nixon et al (2006) aimed to compare whether differences exist between alternating pressure overlays and alternating pressure mattresses in the development of new pressure ulcers. This criterion for this study involved participants aged at least 55 years who had been admitted to vascular, orthopaedic, medical, or care of elderly wards, and had limited mobility. The methodology used for this study was pragmatic, open, multicentre and randomised controlled trial. An open label study is where the investigator and experimental units knows which treatment the experimental unit is to receive. Although this type ofstudy is simple and easy to design, it could cause the individual to favour the type of treatment, leading to possible bias (Ambrosisus, 2007). A multicentre method involves the study being conducted by several institutions. An advantage to conducting a multicenter is that it increases the number of patients available to participate (Bhandari Joensson, 2011), which in the this trial is a large 1972, leading to the findings beinghighly likely to be representative of what would happen in usual clinical practice. The design of this study involved patients beingallocated to either an alternating pressure overlay or an alternating pressure mattress, within 24 hours of hospital admission, with the expected length of stay of at least seven days. Clinical research nurses assessed skin status twice weekly for 30 days and then once a week up to 60 days for the development of pressure ulcers. A limitation of this study is the lack of blinded outcome assessment due to difficulty in disguising or masking the mattresses, however, according to Khan, Kunz, Kleijen Antes (2011) only few observational studies manage to implement appropriate measures to achieve blinding. The researcher tried to combat this through independent skin assessments which were taken by the Nurses to avoid any bias.Ethical approval for this study was approved by theNorth West multicentre research ethics committee and local ethics committees in order to undertake this research. This study had a clear aim to evaluate the effects on p ressure ulcer risk and was able to undertake the study with fairly low rates of ulcer incidence, meaning the patients were subjected to minimal harm.The most important issue arising in the ethical review of scientific research involves preventing human participants, is risk of harm (Smith Waddington, 2013)therefore it was extremely important that the researchers were able to conduct this study with low incidence rates. The results of this study were that the patients allocated to either an alternating pressure overlay or alternating pressure mattress that developed a new pressure ulcer of grade 2 or worse did not differ, highlighting the need for other preventive measures. The final study by Moore et al (2011) aimed to compare the incidence of pressure ulcers among older persons nursed using two different repositioning regimens. The researchers aim is very clear, evaluating the effectiveness of positioning patients 3 hourly and 6hourly at night time. The methodology used was a pragmatic, multi-centre, open label, prospective and cluster-randomised controlled trial, similar to the study above, the findings are highly likely to be representative of what would happen in usual clinical practice due to a multicentre approach being commonly accepted as providing a more representative population (Luchetti Amadio, 2008). Cluster randomised control trial involves randomizing professionals so it is much easier to keep the intervention separate from the control groups but methodological, statistical and ethical issues must be taken into account in making sense of cluster trials(Gilbody Bower, 2010). This study did indeed ensure that ethical approval was received by participants before the study commenced. The results obtained through the research were that repositioning patients with a pressure ulcer every three hours at night, using the 30 degree tilt, reduces the risk of pressure ulcers compared with usual care which issupported by the recommendations of the International pressure ulcer prevention guidelines (2009). Arguably, the research is well written with a good amount of supporting literature, stating clearly the incidence of pressure ulcers with a good rationale for the studies aim. This study included results of other similar researchers who have found similar results of repositioning, giving scope for further research such asDefloor et al (2005). The limitation of this study is that the target of 398 participants was hard to find which caused the variance in the size of the clusters to be different, which could have had a major effect on the research gathered. Another limitation is that most participants were 80 years or older which means it cannot be a representative of mos t patients, as expected. Reflection Using the Rolfe et al (2001) reflective model, I will evaluate the actions in undertaking my searches and what I found. As mentioned above, the stages of the reflective model includes what? So what? Now What? The first stage (what?) involved the process of searching for my articles in relation to the subject issue‘pressure ulcer prevention’. Using the databases,Pubmed, Scopus and JSTOR I searched for articles using key words such as, prevention, pressure ulcer, pressure sore and risk assessment. In order to limit the amount of results gathered I used the Boolean operators ‘and’ and ‘or’ as well as advanced searches such a ‘UK based’ and ‘No older than 2005’; ensuring a realistic amount of hits were gathered, relevant to the subject issue. In order to identify relevant articles, I read through the titles and abstracts, as this gave me an idea of how relevant the articles were. Once I read through a few studies, I was able to choose 3 studies to critically evaluate. The second stage (So what?) involved identifying the difficulties which I encountered when conducting the search. I found the searching quite challenging as many of the results either came back as a large amount of hits or a small number of hits based around irrelevant research to my subject. Using keywords and re wording phrases such as ‘pressure sores’ instead of ‘pressure ulcers’ enabled me to widen my search. The final stage (Now what?) involved reflecting on the search which I had undertaken as well as the results obtained. I had to conduct many different searches and keywords to find effective results. The problem I encountered was that many results obtained were regarding wound care and not prevention; if I was to repeat this search again I would ensure I put ‘NOT wound care’. I feel further exploration of medical databases would be beneficial for future research to give me a better understanding of search terms and criterion available. Prior to carrying out this assignment, I was certain that risk assessment tools played a major part in the role of pressure sore prevention. However, risk assessments such as water low, have been criticised due to its poor validity, particularly for the tool to underestimate the numbers at risk (Pancorbo Fernandez, 2006). Thestudies which I have critically evaluated have made it clear that observation and repositioning is key to pressure sore prevention. As identified by Guyatt et al, (2000) Nurses do not feel sufficiently competent to be able to appraise research findings because they lack the necessary understanding of information retrieval techniques, research design and data analysis and therefore it is important that Nurses are educated in pressure sore management, for clinical practice to be effective. This assignment has expressed the importance of evidence based practice for effective clinical practice,although contradictory findings from different sources and a lack of critical appraisal skills can make interpretation of evidence difficult. It has taught me the value of observation when caring for patients and made me become mindful of reading and evaluating research to learn and improve my clinical practice. I am aware that repositioning and skin integrity checks are a major pressure ulcer prevention and that risk factors such an nutrition also need to be monitored closely, I feel I will confidently use the knowledge I have obtained when in practice. This assignment has put into perspective the importance of identifying all factors when caring for a patient and aiming to prevent pressure sores. For future development I would like to do further research on methodology as I believe this will help me to evaluatethe studies in much more depth, especially seeing ascertain study methodological designs are likely to be more reliable compared to others. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay demonstrates an effective search strategy for research studies on ‘preventing pressure ulcers’ which have each been critically appraised. A reflection on the process of the research was carried out using Rolfe model of reflection (2001) highlighting learning outcomes as well as encouraging me to exploreimprovements for my future practice and search strategies.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

molecular structure :: essays research papers

Molecular Structure Lab Objective: For this experiment we took two different molecule and virtually dissected them finding everything about them including: bond length, bond angles, the charge on each atom, the non bonded distances between atoms and the energy difference between the highest and lowest molecular orbital. Procedure: The procedure is to use HyperChem Lite to get the information needed from each molecule. But explained in full on page 16 and 17 in the lab manual. Data: The following data was found about CH4 (methane). †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The bond length from Carbon to all four Hydrogen atom was the same measurement that came to be about 1.113Ã… †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Not only are the lengths between all the Hydrogen atoms to the Carbon atoms the same so are the angles between the hydrogen atoms, all coming out to be about 109.47 °. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The non-bonded distances between all the parts of the molecule are 1.818Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The charge on the Carbon atom is -.143 †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All of the hydrogen atoms have the same charge being .036 The following data was collected by HyperChem Lite for C2H5OH (ethanol). †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All the distances between bonded Carbon and Hydrogen atoms were 1.115Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The distance of the bonded oxygen (3) to hydrogen (9) was .942Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The distance between bonded Carbon (1) to Oxygen (3) was 1.40Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bond angle 5,1,4 was 109.8 ° †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bond angle 3,1,2 was 108.9 ° †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bond angle 6,2,8 was 107.9 ° †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The smallest non-bonded distance was between atoms 9 (hydrogen) and 6 (hydrogen) it was 4.067Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The largest distance between two atoms was from 6 to 8 1.802Ã…. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The charge on the Carbon atoms were: Carbon 1=.466, and Carbon 2=-.076 †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hydrogen charges were as follows: Hydrogen’s 4,5=-.004, 6=.021, 7,8=.020, and the charge of hydrogen 9=.447 †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  And lastly the charge on the oxygen atom was -.891 Calculations: Formulas used in the lab†¦ E = hv = hc/ 1 ev = 1.6022E-19 Joules E is the energy difference between the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO and LUMO). h = Plank’s constant = 6.63E-34 Js c = speed of light = 3.00E8 m/s formal charge = number of valence electrons – (# of unshared electrons + # of bonds) Volume of an ellipsoid is V = /6 (a + 1Ã…)(b+1Ã…)(c+1Ã…) = xÃ…3 A,b,and c are the skeletal lengths of the molecule. CH4 E = (-15.51ev)-(-24.49ev) = 8.98ev = 1.44E-18 J  = hc/E = (6.63E-34 Js)(3.00E8 m/s)/(1.44E-18 J) = 1.38E-7 m = 138nm The wavelength of CH4 is 138nm and this resides in the ultra-violet spectrum and is not visible to the naked eye. Formal charge of Carbon = 4-(0+4) = 0 Formal Charge of Hydrogen’s = 1-(0+1) = 0

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Edwin Hubble :: essays research papers

Edwin Hubble was a man who changed our view of the Universe. In 1929 he showed that galaxies are moving away from us with a speed proportional to their distance. The explanation is simple, but revolutionary: the Universe is expanding. Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889. His family moved to Chicago in 1898, where at High School he was a promising, though not exceptional, pupil. He was more remarkable for his athletic ability, breaking the Illinois State high jump record. At university too he was an accomplished sportsman playing for the University of Chicago basketball team. He won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he studied law. It was only some time after he returned to the US that he decided his future lay in astronomy. In the early 1920s Hubble played a key role in establishing just what galaxies are. It was known that some spiral nebulae (fuzzy clouds of light on the night sky) contained individual stars, but there was no consensus as to whether these were relatively small collections of stars within our own galaxy, the 'Milky Way' that stretches right across the sky, or whether these could be separate galaxies, or 'island universes', as big as our own galaxy but much further away. In 1924 Hubble measured the distance to the Andromeda nebula, a faint patch of light with about the same apparent diameter as the moon, and showed it was about a hundred thousand times as far away as the nearest stars. It had to be a separate galaxy, comparable in size our own Milky Way but much further away. Hubble was able to measure the distances to only a handful of other galaxies, but he realised that as a rough guide he could take their apparent brightness as an indication of their distance. The speed with which a galaxy was moving toward or away from us was relatively easy to measure due to the Doppler shift of their light. Just as a sound of a racing car becomes lower as it speeds away from us, so the light from a galaxy becomes redder. Though our ears can hear the change of pitch of the racing car engine our eyes cannot detect the tiny red-shift of the light, but with a sensitive spectrograph Hubble could determine the redshift of light from distant galaxies. The observational data available to Hubble by 1929 was sketchy, but whether guided by inspired instinct or outrageous good fortune, he correctly divined a straight line fit between the data points showing the redshift was proportional to the distance.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Essay --

Ethics of Dissection The use of dissection in classrooms is able to expand the knowledge of students by giving them a hands-on approach to anatomy. Dissection is one topic that is highly debated among all people who question whether it’s an ethical thing to do. According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of the word ‘ethical’ means morally right and good or pertaining to right and wrong. The line between right and wrong is often a very thin line and many people don’t know where one ends and the other begins. I believe that dissection is an ethical way to get students more involved in learning and can give students a better understanding of the anatomical and physiological make-up of a once living organism. Creating an environment where kids are able to move around to learn instead of sitting in desks all day is important in the teaching process because the kids are able to participate directly, especially in dissection, without a teacher doing it for them. The National Science Teachers Association supports the idea of bringing in animals for dissection. â€Å"Student interaction w...

Standard Costing

Introduction to Management Accounting Lecture: Albert De Jonge Student: John Alejandro Eusse Agudelo Submission date: 20/04/12 Contentpage Introduction3 Standard Cost3 History of Standard Costing4 Disadvantage of Standard Cost4 Advantage and benefits of Standard Costing 5 & 6 The relevance of standard in Brittan and rest of the world6 Overhead 7 Conclusion8 Reference and Bibliography9 IntroductionThis report is based on the relevance of standard costing in Modern Britain, the report will include so fact and evidence that standard costing is relevant or not relevant for a 21st century Britain. To clarify more on this topic and to support my argument and discussion it will be necessary to use empirical evidence such as case studies from social scientist and scholars specialised in the subject. The assignment will focus on how standard costing is relevant in the UK compare to Germany and Japan.The aim of this report will be to present an argument for and against standard -costing. My fi ndings will determine what evidence to use so that, the report will be unbiased and well presented according to the assessment task. Lastly there will be difference between standard price and standard cost, this will be made clear and explain further. My research will be done through Internet source textbooks. Standard Cost â€Å"Standard cost is usually associated with a Manufacturing Company’s cost of material and direct labour and manufacturing overhead†.Standard cost is different from Actual cost because standard cost is an estimate put together, Standard costing is a reliable technique used to manage and improve the performance of an organisation, standard costing can be seen to the same or similar to Activity based costing (ABC) but has often been criticized to be outdates and lost relevance but it was also suggested that the best techniques for controlling cost and performance management is to use ABC and standard costingStandard costing is a management tool use d to estimate the over cost of production assume normal operations in other words, the estimate cost of material, labour overheads and other cost for each unit of production or purchase in a given accounts period. The basic concept of standard costing should be discuss clearly because it form the bases of the argument s to weather standing is relevant or not in the recent times. The charted institute of management Accounting, London, defines standard costing as â€Å"the preparation of standard cost and analysing cost the causes of variation with a view to maintain maximum efficiency in production.From the above definition, there are some key words that needs to be noted and explain for clarity of this report, one of which is standard cost – which is defined by the institute of cost and work Accountants as standard cost are prepared and used to clarify the final result of a business particularly by measurement of variations of actual cost from standard cost and the analysis of causes of variation for the purpose of maintaining efficiency of executive action. History of Standard CostingFor over 100 years, standard costing has been used for valuing stock and work in progress â€Å"some historians say the origins of costing go back even further and have found evidence it was used in American Civil war by quarter master as a means of controlling cost. It doesn’t really matter when the technique was invented what is more important is that it is still in use today† â€Å"In 1989 a survey showed that standard costing was being used by more than 75% of British Industries e. g. brewing, textile, electronics and Pharmaceuticals. Disadvantage of Standard CostThere are many article and books that criticise standard costing as a technique that’s in appropriate as capital intensive industries with high level of fixed overheads. Some Journals articles from the US in recent years indicate in use and although a 100 years old has definitely survive d the test of time. It can be used effectively to those industries which are producing standardised product and are repetitive in nature , examples are transport for London, Salt industries etc. Standard costing is not suitable in situations where a variety of different ind of tasks are being done e. g. this is one of the weakness of standard costing it does not include overheads Standard cost variance report is usually prepared on monthly bases and often is released days even week after the end of month. As a consequence the information in the report may be so stale that it is almost useless. Timely frequent report that are very precise but out of date by the time they are release some companies are now reporting variances and other key operating data daily or even more frequently.If managers are intensive and use variances report as a club, morale may suffer, employees should receive positive reinforcement for work well. Increase in Labour doesn’t necessarily mean productio n will increase because output is depended on processing speed of machine. â€Å"(George Brown 2000) mentions that they can be improvements and changes which may be aided though the monitoring of variance trends though time. Trends may be monitored in order to establish whether the situation is deemed to be in control with variance fluctuating within acceptable limits.Alternatively, the variance trend may indicate an out of control situation which must be investigated with a view to improving and changing product design, production methods. Etc† â€Å"Many candidates are unable to carry out necessary computational aspects of an examination question. This is likely caused, at least in part because of a lack of understanding of physical situation which the data is intended to represent. A further problem is lack of ability to relate the physical information that has been calculated and the discussion about it relevance as a business tool in planning, control etc. Advantage and benefits of Standard Costing The benefits of using standard costing is that it can be used by management and managers as marks against which the performance of an organisation or of a department can be measured, it’s a good control tool for every activity it is not only a cost control tool but also help in help in production planning and decision making policy formulation and allows management by exception. â€Å"(George Brown,2000 ) states that it’s a useful part in management accounting tool kit which has also been increasingly questioned.The extent to which standards have a role to play in modern business is linked to the adaptation of progress, market and policies in changing business environment. â€Å" The rate of change in product type and design due to technological improvements, customer requirements and increased competition has led rapid to change in how business operate. The need to respond to customer demands for speedy availability of products, shorten ing product life cycles and higher quality standards has contributed to a number of changes in the way in which business operate.These include: Just in time system allied to flexible manufacturing systems aimed to ensure that customers demand may be satisfied on a pull though basis. Stock and work in progress Will be minimised and the business operating cycle tailored to cater for the specific customer requirements. Total quality programmes aim at continuous improvement, with the identification and elimination of non value added activities and the effective provision of added activities.Great emphasis on the value chain, from close link with suppliers of input materials and services to identification of customer needs in respect of quality, deliver and changing requirements though time. cost control standard costing system help to improve cost control and cost reduction, This involve the whole process of setting the standards second is a routine comparison and analysis of performanc e and expenditure against these standards and lastly is the ability to express and study the variations in monetary terms and implement corrective measure. (George Brow, 2000) asks what of standards in modern business? Can planning and decision making be accomplished in an effective manner without reference to some standard or based and without recourse to some measurement though time of achievements of, progress towards or variation from such standard or base? What elements of traditional stand cost will still have some relevance?This question has been raised and discussed in a number of areas in which standards may feature:† Right decision making – It provides information to the operational staff, accountant and the management about the expected utilisation of production lines, machines, vehicles, cost, of all activities and raw material & standard processing time. Performance management the target of different individuals, are fixed if the performance is according to predetermined standards.This standard can be used by managers as yardstick against which the performance of an organisation or department can be measured with this the management has no worries, the responsibilities are fixed and everybody tries to achieve his or her target and with hoe the are appraised Benchmarking standard costs are good yard stick for comparison between different plants at different locations standard develop for a production line in manufacturing company A can be compare with standard develop in another manufacturing company of the same production line.Budgeting and planning It helps the management to prepare forecast for the rest of the year and sometimes more year’s e. g 5 years etc. The relevance of standard in Brittan and rest of the world Standard costing is arguably less relevant according to authors and professional in the accounting world this method is out dated and should be replace with more up to date method such as JIT TQM and ABC. The use of standard costing is relevant to an extends however the more current method are prefer and are widely used in most manufacturing company’s. Dr. Reef Lawson, IMA vice president of research and Professor-in-Residence; Jiliang Yang, retired professor from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Pinzhun Ding, IMA senior China advisor, formerly of the PRC Ministry of Finance and the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA). These are the researchers that worked on the evolution of the finance and accounting (F&A) function in Chinese companies and management accounting technique (costing practice) they use.The study found significant differences between the costing practices followed by most Western companies and those followed by Chinese companies. † â€Å"It has been claimed that the use of standard costing is less expensive than an actual or normal costing system (Hilton et al. , 2003). Accordingly, standard costing has been widely used for both cost control and product costing purposes as well as to evaluate performance. Overhead Standard costing techniques do not include any overheads because standard costing always include elements for fixed overhead due to a larger percentage or the total cost of a product in manufacturing plants.In this case, there are two ways of approaching overheads treatment when using standard costing in management reporting. â€Å"Whelden (1932) in the first edition of cost Accounting and actual overhead costing methods, simply record the over or under applied overhead as the difference between actual overhead cost and a standard charge to work in progress. † In 1950 W Coutts Donald (CA,FCWA) used the innovation of calendar variance as part of the overhead volume variance.The calendar variance was a self adjusting variance that allowed for the under or over absorption of fixed overhead cost due to the varying number of working hours or days in any given accounting period. Where the bu dgeted fixed overhead was broken down into twelve equal parts, the calendar variance was in effect and used to flex the fixed overhead budget. In this case on a later date it was analysed into expenditure and volume variance. The volume variance was then subdivided into capacity and efficiency or productivity variance.Separate sets of overheads variances for fixed and variable overheads were also calculated. As mentioned earlier, the calculation of a calendar as part of fixed overhead capacity variance was probably the least understood of all variance. The Puxty and Lyall and Drury surveys show that 60% and 89% of respondents respectively, reported an overhead expenditure variance. Much lower numbers (28% and 41 %) reported an overhead volume variance. This could indicate a high level of use of a contribution approach in reporting system. 1) Overhead can be completely I ignoredOr (2) assumed to be fully absorbed by some cost drivers, these are the activities that consumes resources such as machine labour hours the mileage or the truck fleet etc. Conclusion The evidence showed that standard costing is less relevant in Britain because the country is more relying on service rather than manufacturing, The way standard costing as lasted over time also suggest how useful it has been and the alternative option such as TQM,JITand ABC could not replace the standard costing in the near at the moment.It is well known among the social scientist that this process is less common and even less in the United Kingdom because of the lack of manufacturing output in all the sectors compare to other countries such as USA, China, Japan and Germany. The way the report set out it support the argument that standard costing is relevant but the threat of it being extinct is something that need to be considered, even though it as survived many years, it is inevitable that the other method will come into practice more often for the newer generation.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Abstract Somnambulism

Somnambulism, commonly known as sleepwalking, is a parasomnia that has six diagnostic criteria that must be met according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV. It is marked by inappropriate physical behaviors that disrupt sleep. Upon awakening the individual is confused and has no memory of the episode. Sleepwalking peaks in childhood and usually resolves itself in adolescence. Adults that experience sleepwalking are more likely to have had episodes as children. The disorder is most prevalent in females during childhood and men in adulthood.Individuals with mood disorders such as anxiety or depression are more likely to present symptoms of somnambulism. Genetic predispositions are very important when determining whether an individual will develop the disorder. However, it is essential to remember that environmental influences like stressful events are usually needed to galvanize the genetic predisposition. The use of medications can both trigger and correct somnambulism. Along with medications, hypnosis, and anticipatory awakening have also been shown to relieve the symptoms of sleepwalking. Somnambulism can be a dangerous disorder.While asleep individuals have been known to put their own lives, as well as the lives of others at risk. There have even been reports of a people who suffer from somnambulism committing murder while asleep. Courts have acknowledged the excuse of somnambulism to declare an individual innocent of their crime. However, this proposes several dangers. How are we supposed to control these individuals from committing another crime? Also, there have not been enough studies on successful treatment, so how will we know that these individuals will be corrected with treatment?It seems as though the consequences for crimes committed while sleepwalking are inadequate. Somnambulism and the Dangers Sleep disorders are separated into two categories, parasomnias or dyssomnias. Dyssomnias are those that produce extreme sleepi ness or difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep. Parasomnias are those inappropriate physical behaviors that happen during sleep. Somnambulism, or more commonly sleepwalking, is a parasomnia. What do you picture when you think of a person sleepwalking? Waking up in the middle of the night and aimlessly without consequence aimlessly walking around their room?I bet you didn’t think of a person committing murder. The latter is the least known aspect of somnambulism. This paper will address the dangers, and consequences of somnambulism and whether these consequences are appropriate. According to the authors of the DSM IV, to be diagnosed with somnambulism the patient must meet six specific criterions. The individual must have multiple episodes of rising from bed during sleep. Since sleep walking episodes occur during slow-wave sleep, the somnambulism must take place during the first third of the night (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).During the incident the individu al will have reduced alertness and responsiveness (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). They will also don a blank stare and be unresponsive to the efforts of others to wake them up (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Upon awakening the individual will not remember the events from the night before and will suffer from confusion and disorientation (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). However, after the confusion and disorientation the individual will regain full cognitive processes (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).Most importantly, the sleepwalking must cause some sort of distress and or impairment in different aspects of their life (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Sleepwalking cannot be diagnosed as the formal diagnosis if it is due to substance use or medical conditions (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The individual must meet all of the criteria above to be properly diagnosed as an individual with somnambulism. ree because they were sleepwa lking. More precautions need to be taken before somnambulism can be used as an excuse for murder.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Canculus

TUTORIAL 3: FUNCTIONS Problem 1: For f( x) = 2Ãâ€"2+ 5x+3 and g(x) = 4x+1 find the following a) (f+g)(x) b) (f-g)(x) c) (f. g)(x) d) (f/g)(x) e) f0g(x) Problem 2: The number N of cars produced at a certain factory in 1 day after t hours of operation is given by N(t) = l00t- 5t2, 0? t? 10. If the cost C (in dollars) of producing N cars is C(N) = 15,000 + 8,000N, find the cost C as a function of the time t of operation of the factory. Problem 3: Find the inverse of the following functions. a) f(x) = 2x-3 ) f(x) = x3-1 c) f(x) = x2-1 Graph f, f-1 , and y = x on the same coordinate axes. Problem 4: The price p, in dollars, of a Honda Civic DX Sedan that is x years old is given by p(x) = 16,630(0. 90)x a) How much does a 3-year-old Civic DX Sedan cost? b) How much does a 9-year-old Civic DX Sedan cost? Problem 5: When you drive an Ace Rental compact car x kilometers in a day, the company charge f(x) dollars, where Describe Ace Rental’s pricing policy in plain English. (Be sure to interpret the constants 30, 0. 7, and 100 that appear in the pricing formula) Problem 6: For the following demand and supply functions of a product, state the economically sensible ranges of price and quantity for which they are defined. Draw the market diagram for this product. What are the equilibrium price and quantity? QD = 16 – 2p QS = -4 + 3p Problem 7: Consider the following demand and supply functions for a product. q = 500 -10p and q = -100+5p a) Find the inverse demand function and the inverse supply function. b) Draw the market diagram for this product. c) Find the equilibrium price and quantity. TUTORIAL 4: SEQUENCES, SERIES, LIMITSProblem 1: Write down the first five terms of the following sequences 1n;n-1n;12n Problem 2: Determine the convergence or divergence of the following sequences 1n;n-1n;12n Problem 3: Compute the following limits 1)limn>? n2-2n+32n2-1 2)limn>? -2n+32n2-1 3)limn>? (n+25-n) Problem 4: Determine the convergence or divergence of the followin g series. 1)n=1? 25n-1 2) n=1? 1n3n 3) n=1? 13n Problem 5: Determine the sum of the following geometric series, when they are convergent. 1)1+16+162+163+†¦. 2)1+123+126+129+†¦. 3)132-134+136 – †¦. 4)1+326+3462+3663+†¦. Problem 6: 29(577) Problem 7: 33(577)

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 18

18. Carpe Noctem MARVIN Marvin the big red cadaver dog had done his job. He sat and woofed, which translated from the dog meant, â€Å"Biscuit.† Nine vampire hunters paused and looked around. Marvin sat in front of a small utility shed in an alley in Wine Country, behind a particularly nasty Indian restaurant. â€Å"Biscuit,† Marvin woofed. He could smell death amid the curries. He pawed the pavement. â€Å"What's he doing?† said Lash Jefferson. He, Jeff, and Troy Lee carried Super Soakers loaded with Grandma Lee's Vampire Cat Remedy, other Animals had garden sprayers slung on their backs, except for Gustavo, who thought that making him carry a garden sprayer was racial stereotyping. Gustavo had a flame thrower. He wouldn't say where he got it. â€Å"Second Amendment, cabrones.† (The guy who sold Gustavo his green card had included two amendments from the Bill of Rights and Gustavo had chosen Two and Four, the right to bear arms and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. [His sister Estrella had had seizures as a child. No bueno.] For five bucks extra he threw in the Third Amendment, which Gustavo bought because he was already sharing a three-bedroom house in Richmond with nineteen cousins and they didn't have any room to quarter soldiers.) â€Å"That's his signal,† said Rivera. He was wearing his UV-LED leather jacket and felt like a complete dork. â€Å"When he sits and does that with his paw he's found a body.† â€Å"Or vampire,† added Cavuto. â€Å"Biscuit,† woofed Marvin. â€Å"He's fucking with you,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"There's nothing here.† â€Å"Maybe in the shed,† said Lash. â€Å"There's no lock on it.† â€Å"Who would leave anything unlocked in this neighborhood?† asked Jeff. â€Å"Biscuit please,† woofed Marvin. They had an agreement: As consideration for finding dead things, the cadaver dog, heretofore referred to as Marvin, shall receive one biscuit. There was some flexibility, however, and Marvin understood that in this case, they weren't looking for dead humans, but dead cats, and despite their inherent tastiness, Marvin was not to eat the findees. â€Å"Biscuit,† he rewoofed. Where was the biscuit? It had been months since he'd led them to the dead things. (Well, it seemed like months. Marvin wasn't very good with time.) â€Å"Open it,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"We'll cover you.† Rivera and Cavuto moved to the shed, which was aluminum and had a roof shaped like an old-fashioned barn's. The Animals moved in a semicircle and trained their weapons on the shed. (Grandma Lee had stayed home to watch wrestling on TV when she realized there weren't going to be any firecrackers.) â€Å"On three then,† said Rivera. â€Å"Wait,† said Cavuto. He turned to Gustavo. â€Å"No fuego. Comprende? Do not fucking light up that flamethrower.† â€Å"S,† said Gustavo. They had tested the flamethrower on the basketball court in Chinatown. It had a fairly short, wide spray. In other words, if Gustavo used it in the alley he would probably fry them all. Barry turned and sprayed the flamethrower's pilot light with a stream of vampire cat remedy. The flame went out with a sizzle. â€Å"Okay, go.† â€Å"On three, then,† said Rivera. They all raised their weapons. â€Å"One,† Rivera nodded to Cavuto and grabbed the switch to his jacket LEDs. â€Å"Two.† Troy Lee crouched and aimed his Super Soaker to the center of the doors, ready to strafe in any direction. Cavuto drew his Desert Eagle, cocked the hammer, and thumbed off the safety. â€Å"Three!† The cops threw open the doors and lit up their jackets, the Animals leaned in. Six surprised kittens and a mother cat looked out from a box set on stacks of five-gallon detergent buckets. They all looked around, not saying anything. The Animals lowered their weapons. The cops turned off their jackets. â€Å"Well, that's embarrassing,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"Biscuit,† Marvin woofed. They all looked at Marvin. â€Å"You suck, Marvin,† said Cavuto. â€Å"Those are normal cats.† Marvin didn't understand. He had followed the trail, he had made the signal when he came to the end of the trail. Where was his biscuit? â€Å"Bad dog, Marvin,† said Lash. Marvin growled at him, then turned to Rivera and woofed, â€Å"Biscuit.† He was not a bad dog. It wasn't his fault that no one had taught him how to point up. It wasn't his fault they weren't looking up, past the top of the shed, up the wall, to the roof, four stories up. Couldn't they hear them? â€Å"Biscuit,† he woofed. CHET Chet watched the vampire hunters moving below. He understood what they were doing and how badly they were doing it. The other cats had moved away from the edge of the roof, the smell of flame, the sunlight jackets, and the dog had made them weary. A few of them were survivors of the encounter with the little Japanese swordsman, and Asians in general still freaked them out a little. Although they couldn't see the life auras that a human vampire could, it was still in their instinct as predators to take the weak and the sick, and the group below appeared to be neither. Chet, on the other hand, was less and less of a cat every night. He was bigger than Marvin now, and had lost most of his cat instinct, and whatever he was now, it wasn't a cat. Although he was still a predator, words kept invading his mind, sounds that produced pictures in his mind. Abstract concepts whirled around in sound and symbols. His kitty brain had been rewired with human DNA, and what had resulted was not only an alpha predator, but a creature with the capacity for revenge, mercy, and conscious cruelty. Chet watched the group below move out of the alley, led by Rivera and trailed by Barry, the bald, portly scuba diver of the Animals. The kitty part of Chet's brain saw Barry's bald spot like a ball of yarn, teasing him to attack. He needed to get it. He went to mist and snaked down the side of the building. He liked climbing face-down, especially since he had grown thumbs, but stealth was the only way to pick off the last one without facing the whole group in combat. He rematerialized in front of Barry, on his hind feet, and before the hapless grocery clerk could call out, Chet thrust his entire paw into his mouth and unsheathed his claws. There was only a slight gurgling sound, and Clint, the born-again, who had been walking ahead of Barry, turned to see only an empty alley behind him. Chet was already three floors above him on the wall. Barry dangled from Chet's claws, twitching, as the huge, shaved vampire cat drank his life away. TOMMY â€Å"Foo,† Tommy said, right in Foo's ear. â€Å"I want you to remember, before you move, at all, that I was the one who wore your sun jacket to rescue Jody from Elijah. So if I see you even look like you're going to touch a switch of any kind, I'm going to tear that arm off, okay?† â€Å"I didn't want to put you in the statue,† said Foo for the third time. â€Å"I know,† Tommy said. â€Å"Where's Jody?† â€Å"She went looking for you.† Jared started to back away from the door into the kitchen area. â€Å"You too, Jared. If I don't see your hands for one second, I'm taking them off so I don't have to worry about it.† Jared waved his hands in front of him like he was drying his nails. â€Å"Whoa, badass much? I'm the one that let you in. I was going to get you some blood.† â€Å"Sorry, stress,† Tommy said. He had Foo by the throat, but lightly. â€Å"Give him the one that's already opened,† Foo said. â€Å"The one with the drugs in it?† asked Jared. Foo flinched as if waiting for the sound of his neck snapping. â€Å"Yes, that one, you fuckwit.† â€Å"I'm good for now,† Tommy said. Then to Foo, â€Å"Jody went where to find me?† â€Å"Just out. Right after she got you out of the shell. She took half the money and most of the blood. Abby said that she was at the Fairmont, but Rivera and Cavuto found her. We don't know where she is now.† â€Å"Where's Abby?† â€Å"She's at her mom's,† said Foo. â€Å"No, she's not.† Tommy choked him a little. â€Å"She's here. I can smell her.† He cocked his head. â€Å"I don't hear her heartbeat. Is she dead?† â€Å"Kind of,† said Jared. â€Å"She is nossssss-feratu. That's how she says it. I'm so jealous.† â€Å"Did I do that?† â€Å"No,† said Foo. â€Å"She did it herself. You were out of your mind, and you bit her, but Jody pulled you off of her and threw you through the windows. You don't remember?† â€Å"Not much. Probably a good thing for you, too.† â€Å"She's under the mattress,† Jared said. â€Å"Foo made me hide her there.† â€Å"I'm going to change her back. I told you I could do it and I can. I'm already working on her batch of serum.† â€Å"And she saw Jody last?† â€Å"Her friend Lily saw Jody coming out of the Fairmont a few nights ago. Abby went there to find her and saw Cavuto and Rivera.† â€Å"Then we don't know if they found Jody while she was out?† â€Å"They didn't. They didn't say anything when they came to get their jackets.† â€Å"Their jackets? Sun jackets? You gave them sun jackets?† â€Å"I have to do what they want. They were going to take me in for statutory rape and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.† â€Å"Really? Have they met Abby?† â€Å"Truth,† said Foo, as wistfully as you can when you're being choked. â€Å"Tommy, let me change you back. It's what you wanted. I can do you and Abby at the same time.† â€Å"No. And you're not changing her. Wake her up.† â€Å"What? Why?† â€Å"Because I'm going to go look for Jody and I'm taking Abby with me. I'm not leaving her here with you guys.† â€Å"Why? She's my girlfriend. I wouldn't hurt her.† â€Å"She's my BFF,† said Jared. â€Å"He's the one who can't be trusted.† â€Å"I'm taking her with me. I'm not going out there without someone watching my back. Haven't you ever seen a horror movie? When you split up and go off by yourself, that's when the monster gets you.† â€Å"I thought in this movie you were the monster,† Foo said. â€Å"Only if you don't do what I say,† Tommy said, a little surprised to hear himself say it. â€Å"Wake her up, Foo.† JODY The last thing she remembered before burning up were the orange socks. And here they were again, fluorescent orange, highway safety orange socks, at the base of a tiny, blood-encrusted man who was fussing about at some sort of workbench. â€Å"Well, don't you look yummy,† she said, and she was surprised at the sound of her own voice: dry, weak, and ancient. The little man turned, startled at first, but then he composed himself, bowed, and said something in Japanese. Then, â€Å"Sorry,† in English. â€Å"It's okay,† she said. â€Å"This isn't the first time I've woken up in a strange man's apartment where I can't remember how I got there.† This was, however, the first time she remembered where she had been on fire at the end of the night. Before it had gone quite that far, the girls she worked with held a lunchtime intervention in which each told her, frankly and sincerely, as people who loved her, that she was a drunken slut who took all the hot guys at the TGIF bar crawl every week and she needed to knock it the fuck off. So she did. Now, as in those days, she was disoriented, but unlike those days, it didn't even occur to her to be afraid. The little Japanese man bowed again, then took a square-pointed knife from his workbench and approached her shyly, his head down, saying something that sounded very much like an apology. Jody held up her hand to wave him off, say, â€Å"Hey, back off there, cowboy,† but when she saw her hand, an ash-white desiccated claw, the words caught in her throat. The little man paused just the same. Her arms, her legs? She pulled up the kimono-her stomach, her breasts-she was shrunken, like a mummy. The effort exhausted her and she fell back into the pillow. The little man shuffled forward and held his hand up. There was a bandage on his thumb. She watched as he raised his hand, pulled off the bandage, and put the point of the knife to the wound that was already there. She caught his knife hand and ever so gently, pushed it down. â€Å"No,† she said, shaking her head. â€Å"No.† She couldn't imagine what her face might look like. The ends of her hair were like brittle red straw. What must she have looked like before he had done this, done this too much, she could see. â€Å"No.† With him close, she could smell the blood on him. It wasn't human. Pig. It smelled of pig, although she didn't know how she might know that. When she had been at her best she would have smelled blood on someone just walking by on the sidewalk. It wasn't only her strength that was gone, her senses were nearly as dull as when she had been human. The little man waited. He had bowed, but did not rise up again. Wait, he held his head aside, his throat open. He was bending down so she could drink. Knowing what she was, he was giving himself to her. She touched his cheek with the back of her hand and when he looked she shook her head. â€Å"No. Thank you. No.† He stood, looked at her, waited. She smelled the dried blood on the back of her hand, tasted it. She had tasted it before. She felt something tacky in the corner of her mouth-yes, it was the pig blood. The hunger wrenched through her, but she fought it down. He had fed her his own blood, obviously, but also pig's blood. How long? How far had he brought her? She gestured for him to bring her paper and something to write with. He brought her a sketch pad and a broad square carpenter's pencil. She drew a map of Union Square, then drew a crude figure of a woman and wrote down numbers, many numbers, her sizes. What about money? Rivera would have her things from the room, but she had hidden most of the money in another spot. From the brick-work in the apartment, the window frames, the angle of streetlights coming down from above, she guessed she was in a basement apartment right near where she'd been running on Jackson Street. Nowhere else in the City looked like this, was this old. She pointed to herself and the little man and then to the map. He took it from her and drew an X, then quickly drew a stick version of the Transamerica Pyramid. Yes. They were on Jackson Street. She wrote a â€Å"$† where she'd hidden the money, then scratched it out. It was hidden in a locked electrical junction box high on a roof, where she had been able to climb easily, two floors above the highest fire escape. This frail little guy would never get there. The little man smiled and nodded, pointing to the dollar sign. He went to his workbench, opened a wooden box, and held up a handful of bills. â€Å"Yes,† he said. â€Å"Okay, then, I guess you're buying me an outfit.† â€Å"Yes,† he said. She made a drinking gesture, then nodded. He nodded and held up the knife again. â€Å"No, you can't afford it. Animal.† She thought about making a piggy sound, but wasn't sure that might not give him the wrong idea, so she drew a stickman on the sketch pad, then Xed it out and drew a first-grade stick piggy, a stick sheep, and a Jesus fish. He nodded. â€Å"Yes,† he said. â€Å"If you bring me a Christian petting zoo I'm going to be disappointed, Mr.-uh-† Well, this was embarrassing. â€Å"Well, you're not the first guy I've ever woken up with whose name I don't remember.† Then she stopped herself and patted his arm. â€Å"I'm sounding really slutty, I know, but the truth is I used to be afraid to sleep alone.† She looked around the little apartment, at the meticulously arranged tools on the workbench, the one pair of little shoes, and the white silk kimono he had wrapped her in. â€Å"Thank you,† she said. â€Å"Thank you,† he said. â€Å"My name is Jody,† she said, pointing to herself. She pointed to him, wondering if that might not be rude in his culture. But he had already seen her nude and burned up, so perhaps they were past formality. He seemed okay with it. â€Å"Okata,† he said. â€Å"Okata,† she said. â€Å"Yes,† he said, with a big smile. His gums were receded, which made him look like he had big horse teeth, but then Jody touched her tongue to her fangs, which it seemed were not retracting in her new, dried-up state, and she realized that she should probably be less judgmental. â€Å"Go, okay?† She pointed to the sketch pad. â€Å"Okay,† he said. He gathered up his things, put on his stupid hat, and was ready to leave, when she called to him. â€Å"Okata?† â€Å"Yes.† She made a face-washing gesture and pointed to him. He went to the little mirror over the sink, looked at himself covered with blood, and laughed, his eyes crinkled into high smiles themselves. He looked over his shoulder at her, laughed again, then scrubbed his face with a cloth until he was clean and went to the door. â€Å"Jody,† he said. He pointed to the stairs outside. â€Å"No. Okay?† â€Å"Okay,† she said. When he was gone, she crawled from the futon and stumbled from there to the workbench, where she rested before trying to move farther, to look at Okata's work. Wood block prints, some finished, some with only two or three of the colors on them, proofs perhaps. They were a series, the progression of a black, skeletal monster against a yellow futon, then the gradual filling in of the figure. The care, wrapping her in the kimono, feeding her his blood. The last print was still in the sketch stage. He must have been working on it when she awoke. A sketch on thin rice paper had been glued to the wood block and he was carving away the material for the outline-the black ink in the other prints. They were beautiful, and precise, and simple, and sad. She felt a tear rise and turned so as not to drip blood on the print. How would she tell him? Would she point at the first sketch, the one where the figure looked like a medieval woodcut of Death himself, and point to his frail chest? â€Å"The first thing I noticed when I saw you was the life aura around you, and it was black. That's why I wouldn't let you give me your blood, Okata. You are dying.† â€Å"Okay,† he would say. â€Å"Thank you,† he would say, with his newly found grin.