HPE †Tennis Research Assignment Essay

By using my knowledge and understanding of skill acquisition principles, psychology of learning and biomechanics, I have produced a six-week tennis training program. Incorporated in this report are the types of feedback used, the research laboratories carried out, and the design, analysis and evaluation of my coaching program.  Research Laboratories  Three research laboratories (See Appendices A, B and C) were carried out to assist in the development of my coaching program. These laboratories were on different types of feedback, the importance of accurate feedback and the use of feedback in mental rehearsal. The results from these labs provided me with a guide as to which type and the amount of feedback needed for a successful coaching program. Background Overview  Types of Feedback  There are many different types of feedback that can be used to enhance one’s performance. Generally, â€Å"the more precise the feedback, the more accurate the performance will become.† (Amezdroz, G., Davis, D., Dickens, S., Hosford, G., 1999, 2001. Queensland Senior Physical Education, Macmillan Education Australia, South Yarra, Australia.) The types of feedback used in my coaching program were: Knowledge of performance-general performance – this was used for the early stage of my coaching program when I needed a clear picture in my head to compare my actual performance with, eg. correct stance when serving. This type of feedback was provided to me by the coach, teacher and/or fellow participants in my program. I also watched my performances on video so I actually saw where I was going wrong and could then work on my motor skills. Positive feedback – this was given when I successfully completed a task. Positive feedback encouraged me to try again and persevere with the learning. This was used throughout the whole duration of the coaching program.  Knowledge of performance-specific – this was used in the later stage of my program. When I completed executing a movement or skill I was told on what I was doing wrong, and what to do to improve on my performance, eg. my ball toss was too low and I would therefore rush to hit the ball or simply miss it. By throwing the ball higher I give myself ample time to raise the racquet to hit the ball. Knowledge of performance gave me more detailed technical information to improve my skills. Concurrent (continuous) feedback – this was, as the name states, a continuous form of feedback given throughout the coaching and practice sessions.  Augmented (external) feedback – this type of feedback was provided both visually and verbally. I viewed a video of my performance and analysed what I was doing in/correct.  Design and Analysis of Coaching Program  At the beginning of my training I was at the late Cognitive stage of learning. I had little experience and knowledge of the game of tennis. During the six weeks of training I learnt and began to understand the skills needed and the rules of the game. I have now progressed through to the early Associative stage as demonstrated by my ability to effectively serve in both courts. The coaching program was based on distributive practice. This is where I would have short, practice sessions of a skill followed by a short break. For example, after doing 10 serves in both right and left court I was given a 2 minute break. During the break I would visualise in my head, the skills I had just learnt, and then the correct way to execute it. After the rest interval I would then carry out the skills. Improvements could be seen by me placing 50% of first serves and 75% of second serves in court. Whole-part learning was incorporated into the coaching program. This is when I would learn the whole skill at once, then break it down and concentrate on certain components that I was having difficulty with. Eg., learning to serve in tennis:  1. An explanation and demonstration on how to serve the ball was given  2. I carried out the serve like I had been shown  3. The serve was broken down into each skill associated with it that I was having problems with. Ie, stance, ball toss.  4. Each skill was then learnt and completed with success  5. All skills were then put together and a full serve was executed Mental rehearsal was also a very important factor in improving my tennis performance. By ‘zoning out’ before a training session I would allow myself to block out all factors including spectators, noises, etc., and concentrate fully on the task at hand. An example of one of the main mental rehearsal activities I undertook was bouncing the tennis ball 2-4 times before serving. The research laboratories carried out gave an indication on why the types of practice and feedback I incorporated in my program would be more useful than any others. For example, a lab indicated that the more precise feedback we were given, the greater improvement we made on our performances.

Our National Duties

Once Martin Luther King said, â€Å"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly†. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says that, â€Å"In this new era, people’s actions constantly-if often unwittingly-affect the lives of others living far away. Globalization offers great opportunities, but at present its benefits are very unevenly distributed while its costs are born by all. He emphasizes six shared values, which are of particular relevance to the new century: freedom, equity and solidarity, tolerance, non-violence, respect for nature and shared responsibility. The modern world is becoming smaller, highly integrated and technologically more advanced. It is also becoming highly fragmented, less peaceful and unsafe for both present and future generations. Spectacular advances in science and technology over the last five decades have revolutionized the entire world. Investments in research and development have resulted in innovations and inventions in both product and factor markets. The benefits of these advancements however, have yet to reach the poor living in many countries across the world. Poverty is on the increase and we are sitting on millions of human landmines. The world today is passing through an environment full of tensions, violence, declining values, injustice, reduced tolerance and respect for human rights. The gun culture has already taken a dominant position in most of the developing countries, threatening the future of the youth who deserve a peaceful and better quality of life. There is a greater need to create a culture of Youth Leadership in society through an active participation of youth in civic activities. Adult leaders, parliamentarians and policymakers at community, municipality, state, national and international levels should agree that they are responsible for ensuring that the 21st century is characterized as a century of Youth Leadership. The world today is indeed in search of a new culture and a common system of values and new behavioral patterns for individuals, groups and nations, because, without them, the major problems of international and internal peace cannot be solved. The replacement of the existing culture of violence by a culture of peace can only be achieved in a longer perspective. In a period of transition and accelerated change marked by the expression of intolerance, manifestation of racial and ethnic hatred, violence towards those regarded as â€Å"others† and the growing disparities between the rich and the poor. Action strategies must aim at ensuring fundamental freedom, peace, human rights, and democracy and at promoting sustainable and equitable economic and social development all of which have an essential part to play in building a culture of peace. What do we expect from the youth with the creation of the culture of peace? The youth with their new ideas, new energy and neutral background, can contribute to peace development. They are ready to participate in community work. Youth should be treated as partners-partnership by youth in all social activities, of governance, community activities-should start in an active manner with the entry of the child into the golden age phase of 15 to 25 years. Youth should realize that they should not wait for the inheritance of the world; they must realize they have already inherited the world while entering into the golden age. Development of youth as productive citizens and peace workers could be a starting point for developing the peace culture. In the world today, one person in five is between the ages of 15 to 25, which is an accepted UN definition of the age that defines youth. There are altogether more than one billion youth, constituting a formidable force. About 85 percent live in developing countries with 60 percent in Asia, or about 800 million youth in the Asian region. Moreover, two thirds of these youth are growing in countries, which have extremely low per capita incomes (PCIs), below the PCI of $700 per annum. The needs and aspirations of young people are still mostly unmet. The youth employment and livelihood problem is particularly acute and growing in the developing countries while the bulk of corporate resources are controlled by developed countries. Moreover, action on youth employment and livelihood remain poorly defined. Poverty breeds an environment, which encourages social deviations like drug-addiction, excessive smoking, alcoholism, and tendencies towards suicide. Most problems among youth in developing countries are nurtured by their perception of an uncertain and unstable future. However, one thing is clear among all youth: that they want to make something of them, and to sustain the value of family solidarity. Today’s youth are often skeptical about adult leaders and they may express the desire to participate in society through volunteer work but not in politics. Alienated youth, particularly when they form a large proportion of the population, will turn their energy to drugs, crime, violence and even revolution. Unengaged youth represent a wasted economic resource. Youth of today is in search of its identity. They are less inclined towards conflicts and wars unless external forces compel them to do so. International studies clearly indicate that today’s youth are concerned about issues relating to family, education and employment. The youth express their need for a sense of independence, competence and participation in the mainstreams of society. They should be perceived as key agents for social change, including peace development, economic development and technological innovation. The paradox is that even as they represent societies’ greatest hope, they are a group who risk an uncertain and unstable future. How to involve these young men and women in building and designing their future, and the future of coming generations, is the key issue confronting the progress of our societies. The world today stands at a crossroad. However, the path of peace ahead remains clear for the world if we pursue three goals: firstly, a common vision of our future society anchored on peace; secondly, the core of shared values that animate our desires and preferences, grounds for peace which is acceptable to all religions, peoples, nations, families and communities, and hirdly, the power for united venture that brings people-empowered action for the attainment of a peace vision guided by the values we cherish. The peace factor must be used to resolve prime issues such as: (i) the persistent poverty of people, especially those in rural areas, (ii) the social injustice that continues to prevail in our societies and then often divisive and counter-productive ways of governance. The index to development, theref ore, must be human in dimension, content and lifestyle anchored on peace. In the case of the National Peace Development Policy for Youth, we must deviate from tradition and formulate policy with active participation of the youth. In this case, policy definition and strategy have to be applied flexibly by involving and energizing the youth right from the very start. It should not begin with elders and senior policy-makers and leaders, but take grassroots hold with the youth from day one. The youth must be empowered to find their own niche and roles in the totality of national development, and be the major force for peace development. All steps in the exercise should be taken in consultation with the different levels of participating youth from the national down to the state, district, municipal and village levels. Youth constitutes the richest wealth of a country. They develop quality of personal integrity, personal discipline and open mindedness. It is enriched further when they develop an open attitude and universal outlook. As youth is a period of passions, emotions, activity and vigor, they should be trained to combine enthusiasm with patience. Youth should develop an open attitude and universal outlook. This is the real empowerment of youth. Empowering or enabling is like a process similar to teaching and fishing. For preserving peace, youth must play a decisive role. Youth should be exposed to merit of tolerance and nonviolence. Youth should realize the importance of living together and should be responsible to defend the frontiers of peace and non-violence. This warrants the promotion of a new culture and thus a different mindset. Hence, a comprehensive rethinking is required in all walks of life with a total commitment to the issues of youth development. Educational experiences should be provided to youth with an objective to enhance their tolerance level and help them understand the merits of tolerance and respect for â€Å"otherness†. â€Å"Respecting the others† goes much farther than tolerance. Education must promote an aptitude of free inquiry, frank and vigorous discussion and willingness to work in teams. Education should teach the youth not only to tolerate differences but also to respect differences. In spiritual development, the youth can form a new phalanx of peace missionaries building up volunteers and NGO networks at the grassroots, concentrating on values education and spiritual renewal among children, women and the youth to reverse the process of family values in which traditionally, it is the elders who impose on the youth; this time it will be the young helping shape family values through dedicated youth peace missionaries. In the area of ethnic development, the youth of different ethnic groups can forge links between cultural minorities and popularize shared values, shared religious values, and shared cultures and traditions handed down from generation to generation. In political development, youth can be trained to form the cadre of youth animators to expose the rural poor to democratic processes and institutions, to consensus building and voting mechanics, to party and government platforms. In socio-economic development, the youth can join internship/training programs with agricultural, manufacturing, and service industries, sharpen their skills to become the forward-looking manpower needed by their countries to help their economies compete favorably against international competition. In political/government development, the youth can engage in internships in the parliamentary institutions, join in political awareness-building, reform political parties and remove the ugliness of partisan politics, and at the same time force reforms in the bureaucracy to ensure good governance, accountability, transparency, and citizenry participation. E-government strategy can effectively support such programs. In military affairs, the youth can become the country’s elite guards dedicated to patriotism, protection of children, women, oppressed and poor, and through collective vigilance and closeness with the people, provide the moral counterpart to the abuses of ambitious generals and military demagogues. Finally, in regional and international development, the youth can become peace ambassadors of their respective countries, promoting exchange programs in education, culture, science and echnology, sports and games, and in tourism promotions, to link all the youth of the region and the world in the pursuit and maintenance of peace and democracy. Youth Leadership activities cannot be confined to schools. They should be exposed to the real socio-political environment. That is missing today. In addition to peace development, these youth forums should, from time to time, include planning and implementation of environmental programs, family planning, information technology, health and sani tation, etc. Forum participants should focus on the benefits of peace, non-violence to strengthen tolerance through participation in community affairs, anniversaries in which all can participate thereby fostering a culture of peace and tolerance through a system of community education in order to promote respect and mutual understanding. The new millennium offers the world’s people a unique opportunity to reflect on their common destiny, at a moment when they find themselves interconnected as never before. In this New World, groups and individuals interact directly across frontiers more often, without involving the state. This also has its dangers in terms of crime, narcotics, terrorism, weapons, refugees and migrants; all move back and forth faster and in greater numbers than in the past. But new technologies also create opportunities for mutual understanding and common action. If we are to get the best out of globalization and modern technologies as well as avoid the worst, we must learn to govern better with emphasis on good governance and strengthening of civil society, and how to govern better together. People are looking to their leaders to identify and act on the challenges ahead. There is no denying the fact that youth are important asset of any nation, making up 800 million of Asia’s population. They should be the primary concern of political leaders, religious leaders, policy makers, planners, administrators and others interested in development including peace development. The youth are creative and innovative. They are in a better position to introduce new dimensions contributing to the current socio-political and economic dialogue, particularly in the area of peace development. Hence, the national governments should give priority to the UN declarations of National Peace Policies and Action Programs. Nations are underdeveloped for many reasons, but certainly the major reasons are inadequate leadership, and absence of youth participation. We must now look to the youth. The modern electronic media have an essential role to play in the preparation of youth in a spirit of peace, justice, freedom, mutual respect and understanding, in order to promote human rights, equality of rights between all human beings and all nations, and economic and social progress. Equally, they have an important role to play in making known the views and aspirations of the youth with special focus on good governance, transparency, tolerance and democracy. In the ultimate analysis, my dear fellow participants and youth leaders, I am sure that together we can lay the foundations of our shared future, together we can build bridges of love and tryst; and together we can help translate the dreams and visions espoused at hundreds of such conferences before this one. With hope, faith and courage, soon we shall be able to tell our elders that yes when given the chance to deliver, we have done and done it in style. At least, we would leave this world as a much better place to live than we had inherited. Times cry for action and action here and now. Mark Twain said this for you, me and all of us: â€Å"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the thing you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover†¦! †

How to Meet Service Users Needs Essay

In this report the service users I am going to be focused on is disabled people and how Ealing promotes diversity. The legislation that relates to disabled people is the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This act makes it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people. This legislation is designed to: * Make sure that people who have a disability get their medical needs * Makes sure that service providers access for disabled people by making reasonable adjustments * Ensure the rights of people with disabilities with regard to employment, access to education, transport, housing, facilities and services. This group of service users might be at risk of discrimination because of their disability. For example, an employer refuses to employ someone even though they are suitable for the job, because they are in a wheelchair. This is direct disability discrimination. Another example, they may be a policy applies to all individuals in a work place, puts those who share the same disability at a particular disadvantage when compared with those who don’t share it. This is indirect discrimination. Carers must take responsibility and work with service users without discriminating against them. A health and social worker is very important in a disabled person’s life, and they play an important role because they make sure that they are in safety at all times. (They may be someone that is partially deaf, so she needs her hearing aid to communicate with people. So a health and social worker will probably show her how to put her hearing aid in effectively and keep them clean, or the health and social worker may do it for them) A health and social care worker needs to help them maintain their dignity so that they keep their self-respect. The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and The Disability Discrimination Act (2005) organisations to protect individuals from being discriminated against in employment, education and management activities. They also protect people from discrimination in facilities and services. In 2002, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 were introduced. This Act requires schools, colleges, universities, adult education providers and youth services to take the same steps as other service providers in ensuring that they do not discriminate against disabled people and make reasonable adjustments to their services and premises. The Codes of Practice provide a clear guide to the standards of practice and conduct that all those who work in UK social care should meet. Every social care worker should have a copy  of the Codes. It is important that social care workers and their employers understand how the Codes link with other care standards. The types of health care workers that support this group are nurses, doctors, home care workers and support workers. These health care workers work in a hospital, or they come to your house and support you from your home. GSCC makes sure that service user’s rights are protected. In the GCSS Code of Conduct it says that Social Care workers must: * Protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers (treating each person as an individual and supporting service users’ rights to control their lives) * Strive and establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers (being honest and trustworthy, and communicating in a appropriate, accurate and straightforward way) * Promote the independence of service users white protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm (promoting the independence of service users and assisting them to understand and exercise their rights) * Respect the rights of service users whilst seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people (Taking necessary steps to minimise the risks of service users from doing actual or potential harm to themselves or other people) * Be accountable for the equality of their work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving their knowledge and skills. Ealing promotes diversity. For example, they have provided ramps at the back of all Ealing buses for people with wheelchairs so they are able to get on. This would make them feel like they are just as important as someone that can walk, as they are just important. Also, a Freedom Pass is provided by Ealing borough to give older and disabled people free travel on almost all public transport in London. Ealing is also giving three disabled people the chance to make their voices heard at this autumn’s political party conferences. They are willing to pay for a conference pass and travel costs for one disabled campaigner at each of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and  Conservative conferences. A pass and travel for a carer can also be arranged if extra support would help them to attend the conference. I think this is very good because it shows that the community cares about what disabled people think as well, in result I feel that disabled people will feel very happy & important. There is also The Willow Tree PlusBus service which offers dedicated journeys, mostly for shopping and leisure purposes, from the Islip Manor area. There’s The PlusBus service that is available for disabled people who cannot use public transport. Ealing also has a couple of day centres for disabled people. Like for example, Carlton Road Centre is a council-run day service for adults with learning disabilities. The service provides support to adult’s learning disabilities. The centre provides art, games, independent living skills, health promotion, a sensory room, community based projects, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and music therapy. The service is provided to promote and support people to become more independent and access their community through community-based projects. There is also The Michael Flanders Centre. This is a day care for residents over the age of 65 with physical disabilities or sensory impairment . The centre’s aim is to enable older people with physical disabilities to live as independently as possible in their community. These day centres promote diversity because they are providing centres for disabled people that have disabilities. I think the disabled people that attend these day centres feel equal & accepted because it shows that Ealing cares about them & if they didn’t they wouldn’t have day centres available. Also, it’s a great way for disabled people to make friends because there’s going to be people there that are just like them & they can relate to what they go through in life. I think that if these services were not in place, there would be no diversity in Ealing whatsoever. I think that disabled people in Ealing will feel like their individual rights have not been met. If there were no ramps on buses, then disabled people will feel like they’re not being respected and that they’re not able to use preferred methods to travel. This will make them feel useless. They may be disabled but they have places to attend and people to see just like everyone else. I think that these services are all good. However, it’s hard for people that are in crutches or wheelchairs to walk up and down the stairs in a tube station. So if a person that was unable to walk, and they had no one there to support them I think they will feel like the individual rights have not been met (to be treated equally and not be discriminate and to be respected) So to improve the service I would suggest for them to install stair lifts. A stair lift is a motorized seat that runs up and down a staircase on a track / rail. Stair lifts are also known as ‘stair elevators’, ‘inclinators’ ‘stair chairs’, ‘staircase lifts’. Or they could get Stair climbers. These are operated by an assistant or carer and are designed to climb up and down a flight of stairs. They are not attached to the staircase so they can be transported and used on different staircases.

My nursing theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

My nursing theory - Essay Example The primary purpose of the interaction between humans and the environment is adaptation. Humans’ exposure to stressors (stimuli within the environment) triggers the development of coping mechanisms, which enable them to adapt to the changing environment. Each individual has two major subsystems; the regulator and cognator internal processing subsystems, which help them, cope with stimuli from both the external and internal environment. The regulator subsystem functions through the autonomic nervous system (perception and neural pathways, endocrine system) whereby the mechanism prepares individuals for dealing with environmental stimuli. On the other hand, the cognator mechanism comprises of perceptual/information processing, emotions, judgment and learning. The process of perception bridges or connects the two mechanisms. Roy asserts that nursing’s primary goal is to facilitate a patient’s development of health, which she defined as the process of becoming and be ing a whole and integrated person (Roy, 1980). Fundamental to all human beings, is their need to cling to their concept of a Higher Power. For some, acknowledging the existence of an existential being that possesses supernatural powers, which one cannot research quantitatively or qualitatively defines their conceptualization of God (Higher Power). Conversely, others negate the existence of a God, as they instead chose to focus on universal moral principles, which are not culture specific and promote equal and humane treatment of all; for example, they believe that it is wrong to kill or steal as it compromises another person’s quality of life. My personal nursing philosophy is primarily centered on acknowledging the existence of cultural diversity. Cultural diversity influences the differences in individual’s conceptualization of God. As such, it is crucial for nursing professionals to respect each patient’s

The understanding of genre in animatedfilm Essay

The understanding of genre in animatedfilm - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that choosing on a genre to narrow down on and may be discussed more it is going to form the basics and outline of this proposal. The present research has identified that the reason behind this fact is that going by the different genres in the film industry; one is always tempted to follow their heart in arriving at a conclusion. Therefore, as a result, this paper would love to give out the very impression that the choice of selection lies entirely on my field of interest. The researcher states that science fiction film may perhaps fall onto the author’s field of interest and become the lead topic of discussion. Since in the researcher’s earlier statement, it was indicated that science fiction films will be my area of specialization, not all science fiction movies will earn a direct entry into the discussion panel. The author has rightly presented that a close look at the marketing strategies employed to sell out the film and most importantly production of the film will be the key factors to consider in the vetting process whose key mandate will be to sieve the very best from the rest. The aim of passing these films through a stringent vetting process will be to ensure that our end result will be able to meet our expectations and set standards. These and other considerations will be put in place to ensure that we come up with an appealing to all end result.

Community Health Project Part 3-4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community Health Project Part 3-4 - Assignment Example lity of 1 percent, by 2030 there could be dependent upon 26.8 million new instances of growth and 17.1 million malignancy deaths consistently, and in addition 80 million individuals living with cancer within 5 years of analysis. In 2007, there were in excess of 12 million new cancer cases, 7.6 million cancer deaths, and in excess of 24 million disease survivors globally. The most well-known cancer diagnosed universally were lung cancer (1.5 million), breast disease (1.3 million), and colorectal cancer (1.2 million). Lung cancer caused roughly (1.45 million deaths) positioned first in the mortality scale, emulated by stomach disease (800,000 deaths), and prostate cancer (680,000 deaths) (Resnick & Thompson, 2000). Among men, the most well-known reasons for disease mortality are lung, stomach, liver, colorectal, throat and prostate; among ladies they are bosom, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. This study compels the authorities to look for ways through which they address the problem amicably. As indicated above, rate, prevalence, and survival rates for particular growths uncover much about wellbeing value inside and between nations. This is less clear for poor-prognosis of cancer, for example, pancreatic disease, where generally little is thought about their reasons and the death rates for those diagnosed methodologies 100 percent around the world. Those tumors that are very defenseless to preventive measures, screening, and treatment recount an alternate story. Effortlessly treatable if women experience standard Pap screening cervical cancer is a reasonable situation where optional aversion and treatment can lessen a huge number of deaths of moderately young people around the world. Also, new information on the basic part of the HPV as an immediate reason for cervical growth has prompted improvement of viable immunizations against this disease, which has opened the likelihood of controlling and possibly dispensing with this malady – in any event in ranges

Common Myths of Black Americans and the historical reality Research Paper

Common Myths of Black Americans and the historical reality - Research Paper Example During the 1800’s, there was a high threat of slavery that existed in America. Many black Americans were brought and sold and were forced to work as a slave property. Even the families of the black people were broken and were sold as slaves in various parts of the nation, which certainly imposed a grave challenge to the existence of the race during the then period. However, the Black community also had an advantage to migrate back to their homeland, Africa, escaping from the colonization practices, with the help of the then activists. To be precise, the then American society witnessed a polarization effect within the thoughts and actions of philanthropists, abolition lists and clergy.In the year 1890, following the 11th Census of the US, with the end of the frontier, the miners of the west began recruiting African immigrants or the Black Americans, which attracted the population at large percentages towards the West. As a consequence, the farmlands of the west also began to be filled, witnessing massive reconstructions in the legal framework, simultaneously with the changing social norms and perceptions. Overall, the closing of the frontier had immense effects on the perceptions of the African Americans as well as the Whites in the community, forming myths to shape its history (Turner). Majority of the myths identified in this period of the American Frontier were argued to deprive the Black Americans from their fundamental rights to be free and rather made them subjected to racial discriminations.

A Comparison between Islamic and Non-Islamic banks and companies in Research Paper

A Comparison between Islamic and Non-Islamic banks and companies in terms - Research Paper Example The key difference of the two banks is that, The Islamic Banking is based on Sharia foundation. And therefore, all its transaction, business approach, investment focus, product feature, responsibility and many more are derived from the Shariah law, this lead to the significant difference in many part of its operations with as that of the conventional banks.Furthermore,the foundation of Islamic bank is based on the Islamic faith and tends to stay just within the within the limits of this Islamic Laws or the Shariah to be specific in all of its operations and decisions. The Arabic word Shariah has means; the way to the source of life Being the first National bank in Qatar, The Qatar national bank was the first bank to launch a financial services subsidiary. The bank then launched the launch of QNB Financial Services in the year 2011. Through this project, the bank has offered a range of financial services to both the domestic and international institutional investors. As it continues to grow, the QNB is determined to place itself as a leading financial institution that is able to use its assets in making positive difference throughout its market ,the bank therefore seems to be the pace setter for the other Banks like the Commercial Bank of Qatar The financial market of Qatar is considered small and hence relies on its regional dimension. The GCC investments contributes on the Qatar Stock Exchange estimated at 62.5 billion ($17 billion) Qatari riyal .Generally the Qatar economy depends on its neighbors when it comes to trade, more specifically Saudi Arabia, in consideration to export and import and also marketing of Qatar products. The Qatar economy really depends on its Gas. The Qatar gas is the worlds largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) company. It produces annually and supplies the globe with over 42 million metric tons of LNG from across its four

Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 46

Discussion - Essay Example The law provides the direction to be used in paying workers that dedicate their extra hours in the business, better known as overtime (Beck, 2011). The wages and hours Act guides the business on employment of children below the required legal age. In this case, according to this act, children below 18 years should not be employed especially in risky jobs. In the agricultural sector, children below 16 years should not be employed to work during school days; instead, they should be given time to take their studies. One of the laws that has the biggest impact on business practices is the sexual harassment law. Initially, people thought that sexual harassment was only meant for women; however, a court decision happened to increase the scope of this law by including same-sex sexual harassment (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). This came after some male employees in an oil company complained of sexual harassment from other male employees, including unwanted touching and a crude sex play. This decision is important in business practices because it aims at punishing those people fond of sexually harassing fellow employees. Sometimes, people may want to perform certain activities without knowing the boundaries they should go. This decision spells the extent to which people should make their interactions in the work place. It is important to note that some laws can be actually outdated and have to be amended. Changing lifestyles often mean news ways of life in human societies and the same should be for their laws governing their existence (Brooks & Weatherston, 2011). For instance, the sexual harassment law was initially meant to protect the welfare of women employees at the work place. However, male employees have also reported sexual harassment form other male employees and even female employees, something that has necessitated its reform and amendment. The age

Evaluate Rival Views On the Cultural Implications of Globalization Essay

Evaluate Rival Views On the Cultural Implications of Globalization - Essay Example This paper stresses that globalization has intensified the economic competition among the developed nations of the world and to increase this competitiveness, they have come to adopt policies aimed at influencing other countries to adopt their cultures so that they can be able to find markets for their products. Advertisements promoting the western way of life have come up all over the world, and many educated youths have been influenced by them. Nowadays, it has become a trend for the youth to adopt aspects of the west culture stating that their own cultures are either backward or archaic. This report makes a conclusion that globalization has come to have a profound influence on the cultures of many people in the world, and this influence has been both positive and negative. In certain regions, it can be said to be a blessing to those cultures which it has come to influence, because it has not only enriched these cultures, but it has also ensured that some of their characteristics have been spread all over the world. However, it has also been noted that globalization has led to the erosion and near extinction of some cultures and these have come to be replaced with the dominant western culture, which is the driving force behind globalization. One would even go as far as to suggest that globalization is a force which is inevitably going to destroy other cultures, and if not, it will change these cultures beyond recognition. It is an irresistible force of cultural change which cannot be stopped without the isolation of other cultures from the globalised, western one.

Final project for LING 4100 topic2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final project for LING 4100 topic2 - Assignment Example The two English languages are widely spread through out the world. For instance, Indian people were colonized by the British and hence adapted to the British English. Their English differs from that of American people, with strong annotation on the accents and pronunciation. The analysis will concentrate on Indian English, pointing out differences and similarities in relation to the North American English. English is the native language spoken in India, and everyone can communicate using English. However, their English is pretty much different from the American English. We concentrate on the dialogue in the news cast between the anchor interviewing Mr Davender Ghai. The interview is in relation to Ghai’s fight to acquire an open funeral pyre while in United Kingdom. Cremation is not allowed in the United Kingdom and the Hindu activist fights to acquire the chance to be cremated after his death. They engage in a tough interview that is carried out in the Indian studios at New C astle. We concentrate the analysis from the first question that the anchor asks Mr. Ghai. The question demands to get an answer as to why Mr. Ghai engaged into the fight of an open pyre when he is in the United Kingdom. The analysis will also cover the answer he gives and the process he follows to answer the directed question. The second question directed to him by the anchor seeks to enquire if Ghai fought for the legalization of open cremation for himself or for the entire Hindu people in the United Kingdom. The analysis looks into the second question and the answer given. Data Sample Ghai starts by interrupting the anchor with a â€Å"thank you† before he is welcomed. It shows a difference in response between American English and Indian English. The first question that the anchor asks is; â€Å"Can you tell us what made you go in for this legal battle, what did you really want to do? Ghai responds; â€Å"Well, see. My father always wanted a funeral pyre when he died in 1 979, because we could not send the body to India, we couldn’t afford it. So, when he died I was very very upset. Okay, then I found out in 1932, the princess of Nepal was given open funeral pyre in London.† The second question is; were you fighting this battle for yourself or for all Hindus in the United Kingdom? The dialect language used is the official English spoken world wide by the Indian people. Ghai answers; â€Å"Okay, hear, I am a man of charity and I run a charity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Date sample analysis Critically analyzing the first question, one can see that the language used differs from the North American English. The first difference noted is the pronunciation of the English words, and the use of verbs in the sentences. Going by the American way, the question is wrongfully constructed. Pronunciation of the entire sentence differs from the American way. Secondly, a verb is the most critical part of a sentence since it explains the subject’s action. The verb used in the question â€Å"go† is followed by adverb. This is uncommon with the American English. The use of an adverb after a verb is said to be grammatically incorrect in the American English. The other significant difference that can be noted in this dialect is the phonetic aspect. It can be learned that the Indians use the middle of their tongue just before the end to pronounce. This is the reason that the pronunciation is different from the American pronunciation.

Research Ethics Stanford Prison Experiment Summary Essay Example for Free

Research Ethics Stanford Prison Experiment Summary Essay The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) was conducted in 1971 at Stanford University in the basement of the psychology building. Philip Zimbardo as lead researcher headed the research team to study the impact of situational variables on human behaviour. Zimbardo and his team advertised for volunteers to a social experiment offering $15 in payment per day. Wanting to examine the â€Å"dark side† of human nature, applicants were required to have no criminal record, no psychological issues and no major medical conditions. Each of the 70 applicants were psychologically tested and the 24 most â€Å"normal† were selected to take part in the SPE. The 24 selected participants were then divided into two groups randomly, with one half being prisoners and the other half being guards. The guards were taken to the mock prison before the prisoners arrived to help in the final stages of the prison’s construction and to help select their military style uniforms, this was to give the guards a sense of ownership over the prison environment. Alternatively the prisoners were surprised with real police and authentic processing before being incarcerated into the prison. Despite it being an artificially created environment the guards and prisoners quickly altered their behaviour in response to the situational variables of the experiment. Prisoners were dehumanized and their individuality stripped away, while the guards became increasingly more sadistic and degrading towards the prisoners. After the guards crushed an early attempted rebellion by the prisoners, one prisoner was released for acting irrationally to a point that seemed pathological. After this some of the prisoners became super-conformist, following rules to the letter. While other prisoners began to act crazy in an effort to passively escape like the first released prisoner. The guards fell into three categories with some acting sadistically and degrading towards the prisoners, others going completely by the book and some guards acting kindly and doing small favours for the prisoners. None of guards ever intervened or questioned the actions of other guards however no matter what kind of guard they were. The experiment was terminated early after just six days when an outsider, a recent PhD graduate came in from the outside and saw how out of control the experiment had become. Ethical issues that arose during the SPE were the harm done to the participants. Guards were allowed to inflict real pain and humiliation on the prisoners over an extended period of time. The experiment was allowed to continue for longer than it should have because the participants and observers fell too deeply into their roles. There was also little or no regard for the participants’ confidentiality during the SPE.

Approaches to obesity: Behavioural measures

Approaches to obesity: Behavioural measures Issue for reflection: Can obesity be controlled through behavioral measures? Content brief description One of the global concern that we are facing now is obesity, not only has it increase, the prevalence rate has also doubled since 1980 (Anderson, Quinn Glanz et al., 2009). Behavioral theories suggest the increase in obesity is link with decrease physical activity and unhealthy dietary behavior and thereby altering our behavior would help to decrease risk of obesity (Heather, 2004). However, despite enormous research and interventions, the prevalence rates are still on the climb. Thus, casting doubts on behavioral approaches. This paper shall reflect on the issues on controlling obesity and practical implication in workplace setting. (99 words) Inter-relationship between theory, research and practice Theory and research In the basis of behavioural approaches, it is assumed that there is two main reasons that results in obesity epidemic, firstly, there is an imbalance in energy intake (excess) and energy output (inadequate). Secondly, these actions that contributed to the energy imbalance are learned behaviour (Jeffery et al., 2000). For example, we observe the purchase of fast food from others or advertisement, it increases our chances of buying it. If it was a learned behaviour then in order to decrease obesity rates, we should be able to acquire new behaviour to make better decisions that promote our health and well-being. It is also argued that when we engage in physical activity we are using our energy from food, however, the improvements in transportation and technological advancement has greatly reduce our level of physical activity, accounting at least 30% of the worldwide population and half of the adults in United States did not meet the recommended level of physical activity (CDC, 2007;WHO, 2009). Studies have collected epidemiological data that compared activity levels and found two associated variables with increasing trend namely, car ownership, and time spend in television viewing with obesity (Prentice Jebb, 1995). Other than the drop in energy output, it can be seen that our energy intake has increased significantly together with obesity rates. Studies show that calorie intake of food increased from of 335 calories per day for females and 168 calories for males from 1971 to 2004 (Wright et al., 2004). Moreover, within this time frame it was the bloom of economics for processed food accompanied by the increase portion size and fast-food trends, which leads to excess calorie intake, resulting in rapid weight gain (Rolls, 2007). Thus, the extra calories input might be from food choices that consist of high energy density. Practice As of workplace environment, these research has helped in developing behavioural modification program in treating obesity. Reports show that companies that adopted obesity interventions have significant improvements for the employees, and also helped the employers in decreasing absenteeism rate, job stress experience, workplace injuries and increase in work productivity in workers (Jensen, 2011; Mhurchu, Aston Jebb, 2010). These health outcomes has been revealed to be commonly experienced with obese workers (Bungum et al., 2003; Nishitani Sakakibara, 2005; Poston et al., 2011). These behavioural programs often includes the combination of self-monitoring measures such as monitoring dietary intake (e.g. diary), cues and encouragement for appropriate behaviour (e.g. extrinsic incentives) (Stuart Davis, 1972), group exercise and providing healthy meal options, as well as, equipping workers with nutritional knowledge. Moreover, employees who had adhere to the program has considerably increase their daily intake of fruits and vegetables, and reduce their fat intake from food, along with improvements in mental and physical health (Maes, Cauwenberghe Lippevelde, 2012; Hutchinson, 2011). Therefore, with a better health profile, it could help in issue of absenteeism, productivity and benefited both employers and employees. (486 words) Personal reflection For: Behavioural theories could help in controlling Obesity The Contribution of extensive research Firstly, research on behavioural approaches could aid in implementation of interventions and modification of existed programs in the workplace environment. Perhaps, we could develop a framework that identify the contributing factors of obesity in the workplace setting. Then, analysing the trend between the contributing factors and workers through survey data and using statistical methods to samples different groups (e.g. normal weight, overweight and obese employees). Next, we could design the program making sure to modify the contributing work system parameters (e.g. providing healthy food options) to create behavioural changes (e.g. ordering healthy meal) that could improve health conditions. Most employers and employees acknowledge the impact of obesity Secondly, studies have found that both employers and employees has consider weight management program at work settings to be appropriate and effective in controlling obesity (Gabel et al., 2009). These shows that employers might be concern about the rising medical cost, expenses incurred due to the loss of productivity and an increase in work injuries. Employers understand the impact of obesity that imply health cost towards employees and indirectly affecting the company as well, as such they are more willing to provide cooperate health benefits to reduce obesity. However, the employees must also have personal responsibility and discipline to attend the welfares provided. Thus, when both parties work together the chances of reducing obesity would be possible in workplace. Against: Behavioural theories does not help in controlling Obesity Obesity is genetically inherited Firstly, in contrast to the behavioural theories, researchers have also investigate the genetic approaches towards obesity epidemic. Studies have explored the chances of inheriting obesity by looking at samples of first-degree relatives, which indicated moderate association (0.20 to 0.30). In addition, they looked into samples of monozygotic twins, which results in a higher heritability rate (0.60 to 0.70), indicating that genetics have contributed approximately 25% to 40% of the variance in BMI (Price, 2002). Furthermore, early research has also discovered that the distribution of fat in body parts and individual’s metabolic rate are also genetically predisposed (Levine, Eberhardt Jensen, 1999). This might support the notion that obesity could not be reduce. The complexity of contributing factors to obesity Secondly, with the vast variety of potential factors that could contribute to obesity, it would be challenging to target all factors. Workplace influencers include, high job demand, insufficient sleep, lack of physical activity, stress, low job control (Parhizi, Pasupathy Steege, 2012). Likewise, while considering the workplace effects, there are additional domain such as individual difference, psychosocial factors and genetics factors that could cause further complexity to provide solution to reduce obesity rate. Additionally, there may be multiple association between factors creating the difficulties in providing optimal levels of treatment for each individual. Inconsistent interventions results Thirdly, considering most of the research being done has a significant outcome improvement in health related issues (Hutchinson, 2012). Nonetheless, when evaluating the results of interventions that included promotion of physical activity and nutritional programs in accordance to the obesity measures of BMI, fat percentage and body weight, there were inconclusive evidence of the efficacy of reduction in these areas (Vuillemin, 2011). Similarly, such studies does not identify which of the interventions are effective for specific types of employee population. For example, is there a need for two different programs for office-based workers and retail-based workers? Additionally, most of the programs does not measure its long-term effects on weight maintenance which could provide overestimation of the positive outcomes from intervention and employees might actually gained weight in the long run. Thus, the inconsistency and methodological flaws of these studies might have an impact on its efficacy level. Conclusion Obesity is drawing massive attention and growing as a health problem that consisted undesirable consequences on individual’s health measures such as heart diseases, diabetes and cancers. To add on, obesity also greatly influences our workplace productivity, absenteeism, work injuries and job stress. These not only have negative effects on individual level but also pressures the employers with rising healthcare cost and expenses incurred from obese employees. As a result, vast majority of studies has examine the cause of obesity, in which, the most common approach was applying behavioural modification methods such as increasing physical activity and changing dietary intake. Yet, with great effort being place in weight management programs, obesity rate is still up-trending. This provides doubts and challenge to conventional methods in combating obesity. Such that, explanation of genetics, complexity of the contributing factors, flaws and inconsistent results of interventions from studies have come to doubt the effectiveness of these methods. Final Word Overall, obesity is a health problem that has variety of contribution factors that are complex and there is no definite model or program that cater to majority of the obese community. Nevertheless, it might be possible to be able to start from the workplace setting of individual and creating little changes that hopefully decrease obesity rate overtime. (818 words) References Anderson LM, Quinn TA, Glanz K et al. (2009). The effectiveness of worksite nutrition and physical activity interventions for controlling employee overweight and obesity: a systematic review. Am J Prev Med. 37:340.C357. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Prevalence of regular physical activity among adults. United States. MMWR 56:1209.C1212 Gabel, Jon R, Whitmore, Heidi,Pickreign, Jeremy Pickreign, Ferguson, Christine C, Anjall Jain, Hilary Scherer. (2009). Obesity and the Workplace: Current Programs and Attitudes among Employers and Employees. Health Affairs. 28, 1. ProQuest pp. 46 Heather O. Chambliss. Behavioral Approaches to Obesity Treatment. (2004) QUEST, 56. pp.142-149 Hutchinson AD, Wilson C. (2012). Improving nutrition and physical activity in the workplace: a meta-analysis of intervention studies. Health Promotion Inter 27:238Â ¨C249. Hutchinson AD, Wilson C.(2012).Improving nutrition and physical activity in the workplace: a meta-analysis of intervention studies. Health Promot Int 27:238Â ¨C249. Jensen JD. (2011). Can worksite nutritional interventions improve productivity and firm profitability? A literature review. Perspect Public Health 131:184Â ¨C192. Levine, J. A., Eberhardt, N. L., Jensen, M. D. (1999). Role of non-exercise activity thermogenesis in resistance to fat gain in humans. Science, 283, 212Â ¨C214. Maes L, Van Cauwenberghe E, Van Lippevelde W et al..(2012).Effectiveness of workplace interventions in Europe promoting healthy eating: a systematic review. Eur J Public Health 22:677Â ¨C683. Ni Mhurchu C, Aston LM, Jebb SA. (2010). Effects of worksite health promotion interventions on employee diets: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 10:62. Price RA. (2002). Genetics and common obesities: Background, current status, strategies, and future prospects. Wadden TA,Stunkard AJ (eds) Handbook of obesity treatment. New York: The Guilford Press Rolls BJ. (2003). The Supersizing of America: portion size and the obesity epidemic. Nutr Today 38(2):42Â ¨C53 World Health Organization. (2009). WHO | Physical Inactivity: A Global Public Health Problem. Wright JD, Kennedy-Stephenson J, Wang CY, McDowell MA, Johnson CL. (2004). Trends in intake of energy and macronutrients. United States, 1971Â ¨C2000. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 53 (4): 80Â ¨C2. PMID 14762332 Vuillemin A, Rostami C, Maes L et al.. (2011). Worksite physical activity interventions and obesity: a review of European studies (the HOPE project). Obes Facts,4:479Â ¨C488.

Carbon Mesoporous Material Hybrid Catalyst

Carbon Mesoporous Material Hybrid Catalyst Facile and clean transformation for synthesizing secondary arylamines through one-pot reductive amination of aniline, using aldehyde catalyzed by the supported nickel and poly(vinyl sulfonic acid) on mesoporous carbon CMK-3 (Ni/PVSA/CMK-3) as a novel acid-metal bi-functional heterogeneous catalyst. Sodium borohydride was used as the source of hydrogen for the reduction of imine. The reaction was performed at room temperature, in a short reaction time, without any by-products. Various characterization techniques including FT-IR, XRD, TG, BET, SEM, TEM, DRS-UV and AAS were employed to reveal the relationship between catalyst nature and catalytic performance. Reaction results demonstrate that the optimized Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 catalyst shows comparable catalytic performance thanks to the nickel metals and the acidic nature of polymer in mesopore channels of CMK-3. This method has several advantages such as, eco-friendly (used water as solvent), moderate to high yields, simple work-up procedure and catalyst filtered easily and reused without obvious loss of activity. 1. Introduction Nowadays, amines are privileged in industry that have found prevalent applications as intermediates for pharmaceuticals, biologically active compounds, rubber, solvents, fine chemicals, dyes, herbicides, and in the manufacture of detergents and plastics. Reductive amination demonstrate one of the most versatile and convenient methods of amine synthesis. This reaction has two steps including formation of an imine during reaction between primary amine and a carbonyl substrate, and reduction of the imine with adequate hydride source. There are two detached approaches for the reductive amination: the direct approach, which uses the in situ-generated imine, and the indirect approach, which uses the prior isolated imine. The former approach has several advantages such as one-pot procedure, increasing yields, having simple setup, easily separated from the product, being stable and compatible reagents, and the mild reaction conditions. To this end, over the past decades, researchers have been reported several studies on reductive amination reaction with several different catalysts, which among them, heterogeneous catalysis are prominent than homogenous catalysis owing to separate and recover capabilities. Moreover, it has been proven that accomplish this reaction needs two character including metallic and acidic; consequently, bi-functional heterogeneous catalysts are useful in this reaction. Recently, several metal nanoparticles acted as a hydride transfer such as Pt, Ni, Cu, and Pd. Despite of the fact that an effective control of particle size and a uniform distribution of nanoparticles in catalytic applications are generally predicted, nanoparticles typically accumulate together in bulk-like materials that hardly reduce selectivity and the activity of catalysts. To overcome with this problem, mesoporous silica, zeolites, polymers or macromolecular organic ligands have been used in order to immobilize metal nanoparticles in their pores. Mesoporous silica materials and zeolites have excellent order and surface area than other materials like polymer and etc.; subsequently, they are sufficient for catalysis approaches. Lately, mesoporous silica used for producing mesoporous carbon (CMK-n) as hard template. These materials contain several benefits compared to mesoporous silica and zeolites for instance, high mechanical stability, high thermal stability in nitrogen atmosphere, superb stability in strong acids and bases, and other engrossing properties such as narrow pore size distributions, high surface areas, and ordered frameworks. In addition, mesoporous carbon materials have hydrophobic nature on their surfaces and it helps to embed nanopolymers in their pores. In our previous studies, it asserts that when polymer embedded into mesoporous materials, they have perfect function. Owing to the fact that they have small particles and subsequently having high surface areas. Moreover, polymer nanoparticles fix in porous and they could not leach from their supporters. Accordingly, in this work, we will introduce a novel heterogeneous organic hybrid catalyst based on a carbon mesoporous material. In this circumstance, mesoporous carbon CMK-3 replicating from mesoporous silica SBA-15 was prepared and used as suitable support for Nickel nanoparticle/poly vinyl sulfonic acid/CMK-3 (Ni/PVSA/CMK-3). Furthermore, the catalyst was used effectively for the one-pot reductive amination of amine compounds using aldehyde in the presence of a small amount of NaBH4 as a mild reducing agent and two sort of solvent containing water and acetonitrile at room temperature without any by-products. 2. Experimental method 2.1. Catalyst characterization The samples have been analyzed by FT-IR spectroscopy (using a PerkinElmer 65 in KBr matrix in the range of 4000-400 cm-1). The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) data were obtained by a Setaram Labsys TG (STA) in a temperature range of 30-650 -C and heating rate 10 -C min-1 in nitrogen atmosphere. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) of the catalyst was carried out on a Bruker D8Advance X-ray diffractometer using nickel filtered Cu KÃŽ ± radiation at 40 kV and 20 mA. The BET specific surface areas and BJH pore size distribution of the samples were determined by adsorption-desorption of nitrogen at liquid nitrogen temperature, using a Series BEL SORP 18. For the measurement of nickel, a Perkin Elmer AAnalyst 300 atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used. The slit width, linear range and wave length for Ni were 0.2 nm, 2 and ppm232 nm, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies were performed on Philips, XL30, SE detector. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observati ons were performed on a JEOL JEM.2011 electron microscope at an accelerating voltage of 200.00 kV using EX24093JGT detector in order to obtain information on the size of nickel nanoparticles and the DRS UV-vis spectra were recorded with JASCO spectrometer, V-670 from 190 to 2700 nm. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) was recorded on ESCA SSX-100 (Shimadzu) using a non-monochromatized Mg KÃŽ ± X-ray as the excitation source. The products were characterized by 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectra (Bruker DRX-500 Avance spectrometer at 500.13 and 125.47 MHz, respectively). Melting points were measured on an Electrothermal 9100 apparatus and they were uncorrected. All the products were known compounds and they were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. All melting points are compared satisfactorily with those reported in the literature. 2.2. Catalyst preparation The employed mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) was synthesized following the method reported by Ryoo using SBA-15 as template. 2.2.1. Preparation of SBA-15 Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was prepared using block copolymer Pluronic P123 (EO20PO70EO20) template as a structure directing agent and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica precursor through the addition of H3PO4 by novel method as described in the literature. In a general synthesis, Pluronic P123 (2 g) was dissolved at room temperature in deionized water (75.4 mL) and H3PO4 (4.2 mL, 85%), after that TEOS (4.6 mL) was added to the solution and synthesis was fulfilled by stirring at 35 -C for 24 h in sealed Teflon breakers, and it was consequently placed at 100 -C for 24 h. Afterwards, the solution was filtered, washed with deionized water, and lastly dried at 95 -C for 12 h in air. Template removal was accomplished by calcination in air using two successive steps; first heating at 250 -C for 3 h and then at 550 -C for 4 h. 2.2.2. Preparation of CMK-3 Mesoporous carbon CMK-3 was prepared using mesoporous silica SBA-15 as template and sucrose as the carbon precursor. 1.0 g SBA-15 was added to 5 mL aqueous solution containing 1.25 g (3.65 mmol) sucrose and 0.14 g (1.42 mmol) of H2SO4 (98%). The resulting mixture was heated in an oven at 100 -C for 6 h and next 160 -C for another 6 h. In order to obtain entirely polymerized sucrose inside the pores of the SBA-15 template, 5 mL aqueous solution containing 0.8 g (2.33 mmol) sucrose and 0.09 g (0.917 mmol) of H2SO4 were added again, and the mixture was subjected to the thermal treatment described above one more time. Then, it was carbonized under nitrogen gas flow at 900 -C for 6 h with a heating rate of 5 -C min-1. Finally, the resulting solid was washed with 1 M NaOH solution (50 vol. % ethanol-50 vol. % H2O) twice to remove the silica template, filtered, washed with ethanol until pH = 7, and dried at 100 -C for 4 h. 2.2.3. Preparation of Poly(vinyl sulfonic acid)/CMK-3 2.2.4. Preparation of Ni nanoparticle-poly(vinyl sulfonic acid)/CMK-3 At first, Vinylsulfonic acid sodium was converted into its acidic form using the ion exchange resin (Amberjet 1200 H, 2 equiv. L-1, Aldrich). Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 was synthesized as follows: in the first place, 1 mL aqueous solution of NiCl2.6H2O (0.5 M) was added to the obtained PVSA/CMK-3 (0.1 g) together with 3 mL of H2O. The mixture was heated for 5 h at 353 K. Next, the solution of NaBH4 [0.057 g (1.5 mmol)] dissolved in 5 mL methanol was added to the mixture drop by drop in 20-30 min. Then, the solution was stirred for 3 h. After that, adding the same amount of NaBH4 was repeated and again the mixture was stirred for 3 h. Consequently, the solution was filtered and washed sequentially with deionized water and methanol to remove excess NaBH4 and NiCl2, and was dried in room temperature to yield Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. The Ni content of the catalyst was estimated by decomposing. Known amount of the catalyst by perchloric acid, nitric acid, fluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, and the Ni content was estimated by atomic absorption spectrometer. The Ni content of Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 estimated by atomic absorption spectrometer was 2.1 mmol g−1. 2.3. General procedure for one-pot reductive amination of aldehydes. A mixture of Aniline (2 mmol) and benzaldehyde (2 mmol) in water or acetonitrile (3 mL) was placed in a round bottom flask and stirred for 1 min at room temperature. Afterward, to the resulting mixture, Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 (0.04 g) and NaBH4 (6 mmol) were added and the mixture was stirred at room temperature until TLC showed the complete disappearance of the benzaldehyde. Then, the reaction mixture was quenched with water (10 mL) and the product was extracted with diethylether (2 10 mL). After they finished, the organic phase was dried over anhydrous Na2SO4, filtered and concentrated. In the end, the products were obtained very pure just by extract with diethylether in the majority of the reactions. The product was identified with a melting point, FT-IR spectroscopy techniques, 1HNMR and 13CNMR. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Catalyst characterization Figure 1 shows the FTIR spectra of CMK-3 (a), PVSA/CMK-3 (b) and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 (c). A broad band at around 3380-3470 cm−1 was observed in all samples. The O-H stretching vibration of the adsorbed water molecules mainly caused it. Moreover, in the CMK-3 spectrum, there are not any signals belong to organic bonds, resulting from the complete carbonization of sucrose (Fig. 1a). The presence of a new absorption bands at 1041 and 1186 cm-1 attributed to the S=O group of PVS, affirming the existence of the grafted PVSA chains on the CMk-3. In addition, the band at about 1650 cm-1 is attributed to adsorbed water, which is similar to related reports[]. The presence of peaks at around 2940 cm−1 and 1450 cm−1 correspond to the aliphatic C-H stretching and bending in PVSA/CMK-3, respectively (Fig. 2b). The appearance of the above bands shows that PVSA has been attached into mesoporous of CMK-3 and the synthesis of PVSA/CMK-3 has been successful. The profiles of thermogravimetric analysis of PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 under nitrogen atmosphere are shown in Fig. 2. The degradation of Poly(vinyl-sulfonic acid) commences at 150C and this stage continues to a little less than 300C. The next stage involves only a little degradation and occurs over the temperature range of 300 to 500C. These evidence are shown Poly(vinyl-sulfonic acid) cannot tolerant the temperature due to polymers are not protect by any supporter. The TGA curves of PVSA/CMK-3 shows a small mass loss (around 5%, w/w) in the temperature range of 100-330 -C, which is apparently associated with degradation of SO2 and ethylene from PVSA (Fig. 2). At temperatures above 330 -C, PVSA shows one main stage of degradation. The mass loss for PVSA in the second step is equal to 11.5% (w/w) which correspond to the degradation of the methane. In light of the difference between the PVSA and PVSA/CMK-3 curves, it is clear that PVSA/CMK-3 has higher thermal stability and slower degradation rate than PVSAP. Hence, after hybridization, the thermal stability is enhanced significantly that is beneficial for the catalyst application. In addition, Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 shows two separate weight loss steps that are almost similar to the PVSA/CMK-3. The only difference is temperature between 330 and 445 C, which Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 shows slower degradation rate than PVSA/CMK-3 in these range. It asserts that the hybrid Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 had higher thermal stability than PVSA/CMK-3. It may be related to the presence of Nickel nanoparticles in the composite structure. Consequently, it is proper thermal stability is boosted after hybridization because of intense the catalyst application. Figure 1 shows the powder XRD patterns of SBA-15, CMK-3, PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. The low angle diffraction pattern of SBA-15 shows three reflections at 2à Ã‚ ´ values from 0.5 to 2 ° including one strong peak at (100) and two weak peaks at (110) and (200), which corresponds to the well-known ordered arrangement of SBA-15 in the space group p6mm of 2-D hexagonal symmetry. The silica SBA-15 used as template to synthesis CMK-3. As can be seen, the XRD pattern of CMK-3 show three diffraction peaks at 2à Ã‚ ´ = 1.04 °, 1.79 ° and 2.05 ° (Fig. 3b). It could be marked to (100), (110) and (200) diffractions of the 2D hexagonal space group p6mm, which is compatible with previous articles. After polymerization by poly (vinyl sulfonic acid), the X-ray diffraction of PVSA/CMK-3 shows the same pattern with CMK-3. This evidence indicates that the structure of the CMK-3 was retained after the polymerization (Fig. 3c). Albeit, the intensity of the characteristic reflection peaks of the PVSA/CMK-3 is found to be diminished (Fig. 1b). Composite contains less CMK-3 due to the dilution of the carbon material by PVSA; subsequently, this dilution can be responsible for a decrease in the peak intensity. By the way, the XRD patterns of CMK-3 and PVSA/CMK-3 are almost similar to SBA-15, which it shows CMK-3 is a accurate replica of the mesoporous silica SBA-15 and the polymerization process does not damage the structure of CMK-3. After immobilize nickel in the PVSA/CMK-3, Ni peak cannot be seen in XRD since the homogeneity of Ni particles in the Ni/PVSA/CMK-3, and it lonely shows an amorphous pattern at 2ÃŽ ¸ values of about 44ËÅ ¡ (Fig. 3, inside). In order to demonstrate the e xistence of Ni nanoparticles in the Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 catalyst was exposed to temperature (400ËÅ ¡C). Meanwhile, amorphous Ni changed to crystalline and appear a peak with low intensity at 2ÃŽ ¸ = 44.29ËÅ ¡, which can be attributed to the small size of nickel nanoparticles and the plane (111) of fcc nickel. Eventually, after immobilize the nickel nanoparticles on composite, structure has not changed and it is represented a successful synthesis of the catalyst. The specific surface area, pore volume and the pore size of the CMK-3, PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 samples are summarized in Table 1. All samples exhibit a type IV adsorption isotherm with an H1 hysteresis loop by capillary condensation at relative pressure around 0.3-0.7 (Fig. 4). It is clear in table 1 that the PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 exhibits a smaller specific surface area, and pore volume in comparison to those of pure CMK-3. Thanks to the successful incorporation of the poly(vinyl sulfonic acid) into the mesoporous carbon. As can be seen, pore diameter increases in the PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 in comparison to CMK-3. This evidence shows the incorporation and growth of hyperbranched polymers and consequently produces the pressure (physical pressure on the wall of the channels) inside the CMK-3 mesoporous. By adding Ni nanoparticles into the PVSA/CMK-3, the specific surface area and pore volume decrease, asserting that nickel nanoparticles are located inside the pores o f the CMK-3. In spite of the fact that there are significant decreases in the pore volume and surface area, the pores of Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 were not blocked by deposition of the hyperbranched homopolymer and nickel nanoparticles. Moreover, the BJH pore size distribution curves of the PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 are exhibited a narrow pore size distribution (Fig. 5). It clarifies that the homopolymer and nickel nanoparticles are satisfactory distributed on the channels of the Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. This result is agreement with TEM analysis and shows the effective role of the hyperbranched polymer to entrap and uniformly disperse nickel nanoparticles. , , Fig. 6 gave the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs of CMK-3 and PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. All the SEM images are shown rod-like morphology, which is attributed to carbon mesoporous. Although, virtually no significant differences observe in surface morphology between CMK-3 and PVSA/CMK-3, it is obvious that after hybridization the surface of CMK-3 is become coarser; indicating the most of polymerization of PVSA occurred in the pores of CMK-3, which was also supported by the decrease in surface area and pore volume as shown in Table 1. In addition, by immobilizing Ni nanoparticles, several spherical beads are seen on the mesoporous carbon. However, most of them are incorporated inside the carbon mesoporous structure, which is not observable in the SEM images. It is necessary to mention that after loading nickel nanoparticles on the surface of CMK-3, the structure of the mesoporous carbon is remained. Moreover, XRD analysis and TEM images confirmed this claim. The PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 were inspected by means of TEM micrographs technique (Fig. 7). The ordered hexagonal p6mm mesostructure of PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK- 3 can be seen, indicating after polymerization and incorporation of PVSA and Ni nanoparticles, the ordered structure of mesoporous carbon is retained. Additionally, the places with darker contrast could be assigned to the presence of Pd particles with different distribution (Fig. 7c-d). As can be seen, the small dark spots could be ascribed to nickel nanoparticles with ∠¼X nm average diameter, presumably located into the mesoporous channels. On the other hand, larger dark spots are shown in fig. 7 c-d, which are corresponded to Ni nanoparticles agglomerate on the external surface with average diameter of ∠¼5-10 nm. Fig. 8 shows the DRS-UV of PVSA/CMK-3 and Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. previous reports were proven that DRS-UV of the cationic nickel have only d-d transitions peaks including 3T1g(P)↠3A2g (F) (368 nm) and 3T1g (F)↠3A2g (F) (576 nm), which these two peak do not show in Ni/PVSA/CMK-3. Moreover, the DRS-UV of Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 shows feature bands around 205 nm and 330 nm, which are attributed to the presence of Ni nanoparticles in these samples. By comparing these data, it can be found that cationic nickels are converted to the nickel nanoparticles by reduction of NaBH4. 3.2. Catalytic activity Synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by different methods in the former section. This section is introduced the application of this bi-functional catalyst to the reductive amination reaction. During two decade, enormous investigation devoted to develop environmental friendly synthesis. Since, using water as a reaction medium in transition metal-catalyzed processes is one of the most essential goal of sustainable chemistry. Water is nontoxic solvent, readily available, an inexpensive, nontoxic solvent and non-inflammable. It provides privilege over organic solvents from an environmental and an economic aspect. Accordingly, the effect of several parameters on the one-pot tandem reductive amination of aldehydes with aniline over Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 as acid-metal bifunctional catalyst was perused in water at room temperature and the outcome are as follows: At the first monitoring of experiments, diverse amounts of NiCl2.6H2O were tested to identify the effect of nickel nanoparticles concentration on the reductive amination reaction. Hence, the amount of NiCl2.6H2O to prepare Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 was changed from 1 mmol/g to 15 mmol/g and then measured by the Atomic Absorption spectroscopy technique (AAS) which are shown in Table 2. It is clear that the activity of catalytic steadily improved by increasing NiCl2.6H2O form 1 mmol/g to 5 mmol/g. According to the catalytic reaction mechanism, nickel nanoparticle mediated electron transfer from BH4- ion to the imine intermediates (Scheme 1). Subsequently, the amounts of H- sites on the catalyst surface are grown by increasing nickel nanoparticles. Thus, larger amount of hydrides can be transferred to the imine groups through the catalyst. On the other hand, by further increasing the amount of NiCl2.6H2O (more than 5 mmol/g), the catalytic activity was diminished, which can be attributed to after a certain amount of nickel chloride increases, a larger amount of nanoparticles is loaded on the surface of the CMK-3 that may have caused the mesopore channels to narrow. In Fact, the nanoparticle size will increase by increasing the amount of NiCl2.6H2O. Therefore, in some places, the pore size will narrow and it is able to lessen the rate of reactants diffusion into the porous. In one word, lower performance of the catalyst produced with higher NiCl2.6H2O concentration will be anticipated. Despite of this fact, it does not mean the pores are throughout clogged. According to these results, the catalyst provided by 5 mmol/g NiCl2.6H2O presented the best catalytic activity. To identify the effect of NaBH4 amount (as a hydride donor) on the reductive amination the reaction was carried out using various amounts of NaBH4 in the presence of Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 as catalyst. As shown in Table 3, the yield was increased by increasing the amount of NaBH4 (until 6 mmol). The excess values did not have any effect on the reaction. Therefore, 6 mmol NaBH4 was the best value to perform reductive amination reaction. The influence of the solvent on catalytic activity was investigated in the reductive amination reaction using Ni-PVSA/CMK-3 catalyst and NaBH4 as hydride donor, at room temperature. The results are gathered in Table 4. Four vital factor acts to fulfil reductive amination reaction including dielectric constant, dipole moment, solubility in NaBH4, hydrophobic effect, protic and aprotic solvent effect. The results revealed that the reaction time in ethanol solvent is slow due to NaBH4 hardly solving in ethanol and the reaction rate is tardy. In addition, the reaction rate in water solvent is slow because although dielectric constant and solubility of water in NaBH4 is high, carbon mesoporous CMK-3 have hydrophobic nature. It causes substances and catalyst cannot have perfect interaction together. The hydrophobic nature of acetonitrile and oxolane are higher than other solvent that presented above; thus, these two solvent have more similarity to hydrophobic nature of CMK-3. Moreover, dipole moment of acetonitrile is higher than other solvent. Thanks to this feature, the reaction rate increase. Whereas the methanol solvent has mediate circumstance of dielectric constant, solubility in NaBH4, and hydrophobic effect aspect, the reaction time diminish. It is noteworthy to mention that the combination of all these factors together cause this process. Regarding these situation, water and acetonitrile were finally selected as the solvent for the reaction because of their environmental friendly and highly efficient, respectively; and all other optimization and reaction separately accomplished by these two solvent. The effect of the amount of catalyst was defined for reductive amination reaction (Table 5). Due to the fact, the catalyst synthesized is worthy, it is decided that the amount of catalyst optimize by decreasing down to the 0.04 g, nevertheless the reaction time were increased. However, reducing the amount of catalysts until 0.02 g was not sufficient. Since, the quantity of 0.04 g for both solvent was found to be the best weight of catalyst. The reusability of the catalyst was studied by using Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 in water and acetonitrile solvent (Chart 1). After each cycle, the catalyst was filtered off, washed with water (10 mL) and ethanol (3 mL 5 mL). After that, catalyst dried at 60 ËÅ ¡C and reused in the reductive amination reaction with a fresh reaction substances. It might be noted that after each run, a slight amount of the catalysts were lost in the filtration process. Herein, to overcome this problem, after each experiment the amount of remaining catalyst was specified and the molar ratio of the reactants was adjusted according to the remaining amount of the catalyst. The catalyst was reused up to 5 times. The catalyst that react in acetonitrile solvent have serious loss activity. In further investigation, it recognized that the catalyst used in acetonitrile solvent was somewhat destroyed. It can be attributed to the interaction between acetonitrile as a solvent and PVSA/CMK-3 composite. In other cases, not o nly the reusability of the catalyst that performed in water was adequate, but also the catalyst exhibit high stability in this status. This result obtained by SEM and XRD characterization, which can be seen in Figure 9 and 10. As shown in SEM images of reused catalyst in water as reaction solvent is well retained, which is very essential for the catalyst applications. Similarly, the XRD pattern shows a diffraction peak at low angle (1.04 °). It display that the catalyst structure remain. Because of this fact that the reusability in the heterogeneous catalysts is fundamental, water in reductive amination reaction chosen as a compatible solvent. The catalytic activity of the Ni/PVSA/CMK-3 in the reductive amination was compared with CMK-3, PVSA/CMK-3, and without a catalyst. The results are available in Table 6. The consequences affirm the significance role of the acid-metal heterogeneous catalyst in sort of reaction. As shown, the reaction dose not fulfil up to 5% without catalyst. There is the important issue that NaBH4 function as a mild hydride donor agent, which is incapable reagent for reducing imine groups solely. In a similar manner, this result obtained by using CMK-3 due to the fact that mesoporous carbon CMK-3 does not have any active sites to carry out the reaction. By using the PVSA/CMK-3, with improve acidic feature of the mesoporous carbon the carbonyl group activated and thus the yield moderately increased to 40% and 35% in acetonitrile and water solvent, respectively. In addition, using Ni/PVSA/CMK-3, the reaction efficiency was increased to 97% in 35 and 63 min in acetonitrile and water solvent, respectivel y; Because of the role of nickel nanoparticles as species to transfer hydride ions from NaBH4 to imine groups. The interesting point in catalyst investigation is heterogeneous nature. In this regard, the catalyst was separated from the reaction mixture at approximately 50% conversion of the starting substances by filtration and then centrifugation. The reaction progress in the filtrate circumstance was monitored (data not shown). No further reductive amination reaction occurred even at addition times, representing that the nature of reaction process is heterogeneous and there is not any progress for the reaction in homogeneous phase.

HIV Vaccine Clinical Trials: The Standard of Care Debate Essay

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus infecting approximately 35.3 million people worldwide that leads to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV-1 selectively infects certain host immune cells, including CD4+ T cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells, resulting in the continual depletion of the host immune system (Global Report, 2013). More specifically, HIV-1 prevalence is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries worldwide. In recent years, there has been much effort devoted to developing an effective vaccine against HIV-1. The vaccine clinical trials are typically held in these developing countries where HIV-1 prevalence is highest. The dilemma that continues to plague vaccine trials in developing countries pertains to the standard of care that should be provided to the participants who inevitably become infected with HIV-1 during the trial (Bloom, 1998). This standard of care debate revolved around top ics such as what type of treatment should be provided to the participants, how long should the treatment continue, will treatment continue after the trial has concluded, who has the obligation to ensure the standard of care protocols are enforced, what are the repercussions in failing to do so, and most importantly, who is paying for all of this (Berkley, 2003). The Declaration of Helsinki clearly endorses the view that all trial participants are entitled to the worldwide best standard of care (Lie et al, 2004). Unfortunately, efforts to devise an accepted standard of care have continued without success since the 1990s (Berkley, 2003). The root of the problem revolves around the expenses associated with treatment. This is an especially difficult ... ... 7. Lie RK, Emanuel E, Grady C, Wendler D. (2004). The standard of care debate: the Declaration of Helsinki versus the international consensus opinion. J Med Ethics 30: 190-3. 8. Macklin R. (2008). Standard of care: an evolution in ethical thinking. The Lancet 372(9635): 284-5. 9. Scott BR, Tsevat J. (2006). Is antiretroviral therapy cost-effective in South American? PLoS Medicine 3(1): 14. 10. Shapiro K, Benatar SR. (2005). HIV prevention research and global inequality: steps towards improved standards of care. Journal of Medical Ethics 31: 39. 11. Specter, M. (2003). The vaccine. The New Yorker 78(45): 56. 12. The Kaiser Family Foundation. Health expenditure per capita (PPP; $US). 2002. 2007. 13. UNAIDS/WHO, 2007 WHO/UNAIDS. Ethical considerations in biomedical HIV prevention trials: guidance document. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Weed Kill Experiment Report :: essays research papers

Weed Kill Report ABSTRACT - The objective of this experiment is to determine which of three weed kill methods will be most successful in killing the Cobblers peg weed over a five day period. Two of the weed kill methods are natural - boiling water and vinegar solution. One of the weed kill methods is a weed spray Yates ZERO. The most effective weed kill was found by examining how fast and effectively each weed kill treatment killed its group of seventeen weeds which were separated into one of three foam boxes over a period of five days. The most successful method was found to be one of the natural methods, boiling water. The next best method was the herbicide and then the least successful method was the vinegar solution which killed none of its weeds. INTRODUCTION – My initial observation was that simple conservation actions such as reducing the use of pesticides can achieve measurable improvements in habitat quality and environmental health. Herbicides are toxic to most mammals as well as to the beneficial insects that you want to encourage in your garden. Sometimes herbicides seep into the ground water; causing contamination of which the long term effects are not known. Herbicide application can also result in drift or movement in the soil, this endangers wanted vegetation nearby. Herbicides are used far too rampantly. Excessive use of toxic herbicides is used when not necessary and because most are not aware of the many other natural alternatives. We must find more ways to cut back on the use of chemical herbicides and change to biological weed control methods. Foreign plants which turn into weeds are continuously being introduced to Australia both accidentally and intentionally. They can cause extreme damage to Australia’s environment, as they threaten the survival of many native plants. They are successful in growing as they - usually grow faster than native plants competing for nutrients, water, space etc, they survive better as they do not have the pests and diseases that would normally control them in their natural habitats, they take over the native plants that the native animals use for shelter, food and nesting. The Cobblers peg (Bidens pilosa) also known as farmers friend, Spanish needle and beggars tick was introduced from South America and has become a weed in Australia. Individual flowers are yellow with white petals and do not last for very long, eventually turning into seeds.

Crucial Effect Of The Cuban Missile Crisis Essay -- History, Nuclear W

Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, tension and problematic situations have arose between the United States and Cuba (US-Cuba Relations 1). Before America helped Cuba fight of the Spanish for their independence, the Americans had strong political and economical affairs within the island (US-Cuba Relations 1). But, since the Cubans created a nation of their own, they blocked the Americans from many freedoms within Cuba (US-Cuba Relations 1). Although there are many examples of the tension between America and Cuba, the Cuban Missile Crisis had the most crucial effect on their long lasting feud. The main reason for the crucial effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis comes from the fact that this event was the closest the world has ever been to a nuclear war. In 1962, America was very prepared with their nuclear weapons, being able to attack the Soviet Union with missiles if necessary (Overview of the Crisis 1). But the disadvantage to the Soviets was that their missiles could only be used within Europe. As a result, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev proposed the idea of placing their missile launching centres in Cuba, making their distance from the United States very slim (Overview of the Crisis 1). Since Castro was fearing another American attack, he approved the proposal of placing missiles on his island. By 1962, the Soviets had started placing missiles in Cuba, and that was when the crisis began (Overview of the Crisis 1). On October 15, 1962, photos were taken from American airplanes revealing the missions of the Soviet missiles in Cuba (Overview of the Crisis 1). On Octob er 22, President Kennedy took matters into his own hands by announcing the reveal of missiles in Cuba (Overview of the Crisis 1). He announced his mission to q... ...was a powerful source of the tension that still exists between America and Cuba, but since it remains to separate the two countries from each other, it does not prove as significant as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Therefore, the strength of the Cuban Missile Crisis proves to be the strongest of all events that represent tension between the United States and Cuba. In conclusion, the Cuban Missile Crisis proves to have had a large impact on our world today. Whether it is through the way we consider how we avoided a nuclear war, learnt a lesson of resolution, or compare it’s significance to other events between Cuba and America, this crucial event has shown a significant part in North American and European history. Although there are many examples of the tension between America and Cuba, the Cuban Missile Crisis had the most crucial effect on their long lasting feud.

In What Ways May Different Groups Of English Speakers Differ In Their Conversation Style? Essay

Question 2 In what ways may different groups of English speakers differ in their conversation style? For word restriction purposes the focus for this essay will be primarily on material from chapter one of the Open University course book 2 (CB 2) and The Open University audio cassette 3 band 3(AU3B3). It would be most interesting to look at all the different examples of different groups; unfortunately doing this would mean exceeding the word limit. Therefore the focus will be restricted to only three or four different groups. First of all it is a good idea to examine the semantics behind the phrase of â€Å"conversation style† before looking at the different groups of English speakers. â€Å"Conversation is without doubt the foundation stone of the social world – human beings learn to talk in it, find a mate with it, are socialized through it, rise in social hierarchy as a result of it, and, it is suggested, may even develop mental illness because of it.† (Beattie, 1983, p.2) 1 This is a very captivating statement and helps to sum up the incredible power that the actual word â€Å"conversation† has in the social world Due to lack of more precise materialistic evidence, it is possibly more interesting to look at â€Å"conversation style† and then briefly discuss the different styles that exist amongst social groups giving specific examples rather than focusing on one specific area only (such as gender). That would make it easier to find out if there are any resemblances amongst the different social groups and their conversation styles. The term â€Å"conversation† can be interpreted in a multiplicity of different ways. The varieties range from a formal speech (that has been pre-scripted and is just simply read out) to a casual conversation between friends. As a result of this wide range of speech types, there are great many different conversation styles present. Conversation is not necessarily simply informal talk between speakers; it can also be used in more loser terms for example to give sense of the diversity of ways in which English is used in modern society in everyday talk. Everyday talk refers to anything from political speech making to language at work. The idea of conversation is also about how people are using language to express and pursue relationships. What does â€Å"conversation style† actually mean? A â€Å"conversation† is a means of â€Å"communicating† with others. The â€Å"style† here refers to the combination of features that relate to meaning and management of conversation such as rhythm, pronunciation or intonation. The style of an individual is said to be related to his/her social background, his/her class, his/her age and/or his/her gender. There are a great variety of styles within even one particular social group. It can be said that generally each individual has his/her specific â€Å"style† of talking.2 In modern society there are a great many different groups of English speakers and they vary widely in the way that they communicate with each other or with different groups. There are many interesting investigations taking place. It would now be appealing to have a look at what sorts of investigations have been made and how these groups of English speakers differ in their conversation style There is an interesting example of how people with different socio-cultural backgrounds can differ in conversation style in CB 2. (The example being referred to is on page 17.) It is based on a study by Deborah Tannen (year unknown). A group of what primarily appear to be all Americans, however one selection comes from California, and the second from New York and there is one woman from England meet for dinner. Deborah Tannen’s first discovery was how dominant the New Yorkers were in conversation throughout their meal. They were so dominant that even the Californians picked up on how dominant they were. One of these Californian men remarked upon how the New Yorkers conversations tended to overlap a great deal more than in California that in California at least people pause between conversations. The Californians also thought that the New Yorkers tended to ask a great deal of personal questions, their response to this was just that it was â€Å"their† way of being polite. As for the English woman, the Americans found her hard to understand as her intonations were very monotonous. Deborah Tannen’s findings are parallel to other studies that have been carried out amongst other cultural groups or gender groups, as shown in the following paragraphs. Another interesting issue brought up in chapter one of CB 2 is that of gender differences. Most men appear to be under the impression that it is women who dominate in conversations. They always have the tendency of saying that women talk too much. However, recent research has found that in fact when women are amongst a mixed group of male and female members will talk less than the men. The women are also found to be less competitive and more cooperative in conversations. Women are also said to use more tag questions, intensifiers and hedges. According to research, women are the dominant compliment givers. They also tend to use rhetoric more often than men such as â€Å"What a nice dress!† It is could also be due to the way that woman are brought up, having a less dominant position in society or perhaps due to the way that men and women are in different subcultures even as children. In the latter, this could lead to misunderstandings between the sexes because of the way men and women interpret different speech behaviours. There is one particular ethnic group that fluctuates in conversation style which is the Aboriginal English group found in minority groups across Australia. Aboriginal English has been found to differ from Standard Australian English. Diane Keats researched on Aboriginal English groups in Australia and discovered that particularly in the more rural areas of Australia there were several distinctive features that were different from Standard Australian English. She found that they differed from the Standard in pronunciation, vocabulary and even actual interaction between people was different. There were even difficulties that arose when the Aboriginal groups mixed with the Standard groups. It is particularly when they communicate cross-culturally that problems and misunderstandings may occur. For example, in Aboriginal society it is natural to have frequent silences in a conversation. It is a particular sign of politeness allowing for the other person to opt their opinion. Sometimes the answer or the conversation itself even, will last over a time period of several days. There are several reasons why they are unlike the Standard Australian groups, amongst others it is due to their different ways of living. â€Å"The Aboriginal people experience much personal privacy, unlike the mainstream Australian society, through their indirect style of verbal interaction.† (CB 2, chapter one, p.28) An example of their indirect style is the use of direct questions to elicit orientation such as asking â€Å"You been to shop?† The speaker appears to demonstrate known or presumed information for conformation or rejection. They tend not to make direct requests; they rather use indirect forms if they have a specific request such as â€Å"Can you give me a lift to town?† They will ask â€Å"You going to town?† They are also very discrete about their own opinions. If they discover that they have conflicting opinions they will minimize their own opinions. There are some more typical features in the transcription of the conversation between two Aboriginal English women on AU03B2. (See Appendix A) The first thing noticeable in the transcript is the frequency in which the deletion of the letter â€Å"h† occurs. Already in the Lorina’s first line the letter has been deleted. And the way both women say â€Å"yea† instead of â€Å"yeah†. There is also a tendency for utterances to latch on to another with pausing takes place repeatedly such as when they are talking about a big frog. Their sentences are regularly incomplete und unstructured such as in the very first sentence â€Å"‘Igh school was all right, I reckon, in Bourke† this is not a grammatically correct sentence structure and an incomplete sentence at the time when Lorina says â€Å"In Weel. Yea†. This is the sort of expression a person uses when thinking and speaking simultaneously. A final aspect, other then the ones listed in the Study Guide is their use of verb tenses. For instance, when Karen says â€Å"Sit down there, never used to move.† she started a sentence in the present tense â€Å"sit† and finished in the past tense â€Å"used to†. This is interesting as this can also occur amongst Standard English speakers when talking fast. After reading the transcript, the comprehension of what the two women said, becomes easier. If the tape is listened to on its own it can be quite hard at times to understand as the pronunciations do not sound like the Standard English, whereas the transcript, with the exception of a few slightly more Aboriginal features, mirrors the Standard English much more strongly. Diane Eades research showed that there are still problems in communication style between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal social groups in Australia that are worked on to this day. It is also interesting to briefly look at the extract on p.15 of CB 2 about the conversation between a policeman and a black man in the 1960s. This today is often considered to be a form of racism. It is intriguing to see how â€Å"bad† language was used back in the 1960s even by law enforcers. The policeman has used the typical racist term of â€Å"boy† as term of address for the black man, if the man had been white he would not have referred to him as â€Å"boy†. People, white people, â€Å"labelled† black people as trouble makers. So you were immediately categorized a criminal just if you had darker skin. It is extremely shocking that a police man would have even used name-calling to address the black man, before even knowing anything about him. If you are black then you must be evil, that has been an ideal for many people until fairly recently. However this exists to a certain extent even today, in that due to the fact that in Europe there are many black drug dealers from Northern Africa so that as soon as someone who is black shows up in a well-known drug dealing area, they are frequently then instantly questioned by the police. The way different groups of English speakers vary in their â€Å"conversation styles† is a fascinating and fairly broad topic to examine. It appears that there is no actual â€Å"Universal Standard English†. There is a world-wide (not just refined to the United States of America) multicultural mosaic/ melting pot3 of cultural groups even within a single language society which is to a certain degree trying hard to mould into a salad bowl4. An ideal solution would be a mixture of a melting pot and a salad bowl where people are still able to maintain their own cultural habits and can still communicate with other social group easily. A final point to make is that it is also important to realise how essential language is when engaging in social activities and relationships. Hence, to notice how language and society are interlinked. Language and indeed communication is used to share knowledge and experience between speakers. Communication is also about binding people together in order to allow them to negotiate joint understandings of the world. Communication has different functions in different contexts. This could be due to age difference and respect from the pupil’s part. Without language society could not exist to the same extent by which it does today. Remark: * CB 2 refers to Maybin, J. and Mercer, N.(2002) , Using English from conversation to canon, The Open University and Routledge Appendix A: * Transcription of conversation between two Aboriginal English women in Australia taken from Study Guide 2, Open University Bibliography: > Maybin, J. and Mercer, N.(2002) , Using English from conversation to canon, The Open University and Routledge > U210 Audio Cassette 3, Band 3, The Open University > Study Guide 2,U210, The Open University 1 Introduction section 1.1. p 5 in CB 2 2 Section 1.4 p 16 in Chapter 1 of CB 2 3 lots of different cultural groups living together (perhaps an ideal way of living) 4 loss of individual identity to become a uniform cultural group (cultural assimilation)