Staffing Plan for a Growing Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Staffing Plan for a Growing Business - Assignment Example The assembly-line employees have to take a practical test in order to prove their proficiency in their area of expertise whereas, any experienced lawyer can join the organization as contract administrator. The post will be part-time in nature because the company will not be able to afford a legal expert as a regular employee. The assembly line technicians will get paid on daily basis in order to keep the relevant costs lower in order to enhance the profitability of the company in the opening days. However, once the orders are secured, and the company will start supplying surveillance cameras to different states then, it will be in position to take traditional approach towards organizational structure and culture. In the meanwhile, it has to operate with a loosely coupled system because the future is uncertain to say the least. The volume of sales will cement the identity of the organization or it will destroy the company altogether. The post of control engineer will be permanent beca use his presence will be required at all times. The company will have to make a serious effort in order to provide the employees with healthy environment to work in, and if it cannot do so then, the workers will reserve the right to proceed with legal proceedings upon finding working conditions unsatisfactory. The company at the same time has to offer them minimum wages so that they cannot take the matter to the court as well (Fevre, Robinson, Lewis, & Jones, 2013). Larger percentage of the employees will be doing temporary work, and therefore, they will not have any right to claim healthcare benefits. However, the company has to maintain onsite emergency healthcare service in order to deal with unfortunate mishaps. The practice of staffing does not constitute a random process, but it is rather a sophisticated one indeed, because it has to establish job descriptions, job analyses, and payrolls as well. All of the abovementioned

The Criminal Justice System Essay Example for Free

The Criminal Justice System Essay America imprisons 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the worlds average. About one in every 31 adults in this country is in jail or on supervised release. Either we are the most evil people on earth or we are doing something very wrong. (Webb, 2009, p. 4) This paper will look at basic criminal law, the reasons for lives of crime, a brief outline of the modern criminal justice system, and its future. Criminal LawCriminal law seeks to protect the public from harm by inflicting punishment upon those who have already done harm and by threatening with punishment those who are tempted to do harm. Most people accept that there are consequences for criminal conduct. The consequences are generally unpleasant and take away from the law breaker either his liberty or his property. One purpose of criminal law is to respond to harmful acts committed by individuals. However, each type of law provides different responses. A person who acts in a way that is considered harmful to society in general may be prosecuted by the government in a criminal case. If the individual is convicted (found guilty) of the crime, he or she will be punished under criminal law by a fine, imprisonment, or death. Once someone is found guilty of a crime, either a felony or a misdemeanor, punishment is imposed. The reasons for punishing law breakers are varied, and in some instances the reason may vary with the crime. Each reason has its own purpose, with the principal reasons being: Deterrence, Incapacitation, Retribution, and Rehabilitation. (Davenport, 2009)DeterrenceImposing a penalty for a criminal act is also intended to deter that person from repeating the act. If the penalty is significant enough, the law breaker will think twice before doing it again. Also, when the penalties are well known and there is public dissemination of penalties for a particular crime, it is expected that others who might contemplate the crime would be deterred from engaging in the prohibited activity. (Clarkson, 2005, p. 38) When there is a trial, sentencing, and punishment imposed, there is often a lot of publicity. This publicity is part of the deterrent factor in imposing a criminal penalty. Deterrence is frequently an  argument used to support the death penalty. IncapacitationJail or prison terms generally lengthen with the seriousness of the crime. The longer sentences serve as both revenge and deterrence, and also can serve another purpose. The longer a person is in custody, the less opportunity that person has to commit new crimes. This is particularly true of repeat offenders, which is why there has been a movement toward laws known as three strikes which impose long prison terms or even life sentences on individuals with multiple convictions. When an offender has not been deterred by prior penalties, protection of potential victims from that offender becomes an important consideration. Long jail or prison terms for individuals with multiple DUIs are becoming common as a protection for society. At some point it is in societys best interest to protect itself by certifying that a dangerous person is unable to harm others and incapacitation through custody serves that interest. (Farrington, 2003)RetributionA crime is considered an act that not only injures the specific victim, but also harms society at large. (Davenport, 2009, p. 12) A persons harmful acts may outrage the society as a whole. This gives rise to a desire for revenge, and punishing the criminal tends to satisfy that need. Additionally, having a person punished by society provides some measure of revenge for the specific victim of the act. If society provides an adequate punishment, the need for an individual to seek revenge personally is diminished and provides incentive to seek retribution through law enforcement. (Davenport, 2009)RehabilitationThere is also a value that every human life has meaning and worth, that there is a spark of good in everyone, even those who have chosen to break the laws of society. With that thought in mind, places that were previously known as jail or prison have become Departments of Correction. Some rehabilitation may come from within a person who is incarcerated. Criminals who are imprisoned may evaluate their actions and reshape their behavior so that when their liberty is restored they are able to readjust to  the boundaries of the law. Often programs are offered to offenders to assist in dealing with certain problems. Participation in programs such as drug and alcohol counseling or domestic violence education serves to potentially rehabilitate an individual. Involvement in such programs is often a condition of either continued freedom or reduction of jail time. (Davenport, 2009, p. 41)Justification for criminal punishment is not mutually exclusive. A particular punishment may advance several goals at the same time. A term of imprisonment, for example, may serve to incapacitate the offender, deter others in society from committing similar acts, and, at the same time, provide an opportunity for rehabilitative treatment of the offender. On the other hand, the goals of punishment may at times conflict. Retribution and deterrence call for the infliction of unpleasant experiences upon the criminal, including harsh prison treatment; but the prison environment may not be conducive to, or may even defeat, rehabilitation. Some offenders may even learn to become better criminals while incarcerated. Criminal CareersWhy do criminals pursue careers in crime? To understand the life of a career criminal we must first look at some Historical Backgrounds and Criminal Career Patterns. Historical BackgroundsThere are many theories as to why criminal activity occurs. The classical school theory has five basic concepts. One; everyone has free will. This means that a person chooses to do right or wrong. It also states that the two main determinates of human behavior are pleasure and pain. This theory also states that crime is immoral because of the bond that the act puts between the individual and their society. Also, that punishment is a necessary evil that can keep violators from repeating the crimes and sets examples for others. Finally they believe crime prevention helps to offset the gains of criminal behavior. (Davenport, 2009)Criminal Career PatternsThere appear to be ten widely accepted conclusions about the development of offending (Farrington, 2003):1 The age of onset of offending is most typically between ages 8 and 14, earlier with self-report data and later with official records, while the age of desistance from offending is  typically between 20 and 29 (though a small subset of offenders continue well into adulthood). 2 The prevalence of offending peaks in the late teenage years: between ages 15 and 19. 3 An early age of onset predicts a relatively long criminal career duration and the commission of relatively more offenses. 4 There is marked continuity in offending and antisocial behavior from childhood to the teenage years and adulthood. In other words, there is relative stability of the ordering of people on some measure of antisocial behavior over time, and people who commit relatively many offenses during one age range have a high probability of also committing relatively many offenses during a later age range. 5 A small fraction of the population (chronic offenders) commit a large fraction of all crimes; chronic offenders tend to have an early onset, a high individual offending frequency, and a long criminal career. 6 Offending is more versatile than specialized; violent offenders in particular appear to offend frequently in other kinds of offenses. 7 The types of acts defined as offenses are elements of a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior that includes heavy drinking, reckless driving, promiscuous sex, and so forth. 8 It appears that, as people enter adulthood, they change from group to lone offending. In fact, most offenses up to the late teenage years are committed with others, whereas most offenses from age 20 onward are committed alone. 9 The reasons given for offending up to the late teenage years are quite variable, including excitement/enjoyment, boredom, and/or emotional or utilitarian reasons. From age 20 onward, utilitarian motives become increasingly dominant. 10 Different types of offenses tend to be first committed at distinctively different ages. This sort of progression is such that shoplifting tends to be committed before burglary, burglary before robbery, and so forth. In general, diversification increases up to age 20; but after age 20, diversification decreases and specialization increases. Analysis of criminal careers has great value. Understanding why or how offenders get involved in a life of crime can lead to policies and procedures that can prevent criminal careers from developing. I have asked offenders in the prison I work in why they did their crime. Most answered that they needed money, some were gang related, and others done out of fits of rage. Most of them thought they would not get caught while some others just did not care or showed no remorse those are the scary ones. The Criminal Justice SystemThe criminal justice system has three component subsystems, they are: Police, Courts, and Corrections (Schmalleger, 2007). PoliceThe first step in the criminal justice system is the police officers or federal agents. When a crime is committed the police investigate the crime scene and if the suspect is still present they arrest the person. The police officer must always read the suspect his/her rights before questioning. During the questioning the suspect has the right to refuse to answer any questions at anytime during the questioning and ask for a lawyer. If the suspect is not at the scene of a crime, after an investigation the police will make a report and a judge or magistrate will issue a warrant for the suspects arrest. After an arrest the suspect is booked. This is a process where he/she has a picture taken, finger printed, and personal information is recorded (Schmalleger, 2007). CourtsThe prosecutors office becomes involved after an arrest. The information that is collected at the scene of the crime is turned over to the prosecutions office so they can determine if enough evidence exists for a conviction. It is not a good idea for a prosecutor to be involved in the beginning of an investigation because the defense counsel does not have the  opportunity till after they are either hired by the defendant or appointed one to them. The defense attorney is not involved in a criminal case until he/she is appointed or hired by the defendant. They cannot be involved prior to an indictment or arrest. At a preliminary hearing the defense attorney will hear the evidence presented and then determine if the evidence presented by the prosecution is strong enough for a plea bargain or a trial (Schmalleger, 2007). A judge or magistrates function begins with issuing a warrant if one is needed. A warrant is needed only if the criminal has not already been arrested. After a criminal defendant has been arrested, he/she is brought before a judge for a first appearance. This is when the judge will inform the defendant of the charges brought against him/her, read the defendant his/her rights again, and sometimes provide the defendant the opportunity to make bail. The next step for the criminal defendant is the preliminary hearing. During the preliminary hearing a judge will determine if there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and if there is enough evidence to show the defendant committed the crime. This is when the prosecution presents the evidence to the judge and the defendant has the right to hire an attorney or if he/she cannot afford one the court will appoint the defendant a defense attorney (Schmalleger, 2007). The first appearance for a criminal defendant before the court that has the authority to conduct a trial, is called an arraignment (Schmalleger, 2007, p. 18). In this process the judge will hear the information (charges) and read it to the defendant, and again his/her rights are read to him/her by the judge. This is when the criminal defendant will enter a plea of either; not guilty, guilty, or no contest (Schmalleger, 2007). CorrectionsOffenders are then turned over to the correctional authorities, from the court system after the accused has been found guilty. Depending on the sentence, offenders will serve their time either in a jail or a prison. Jail is where you are held until you are sentenced. Jails are maintained by  municipalities or counties, and are generally used for incarceration sentences of less than one year. In most states, jail is for pre-trial detention for those who cannot raise bail (if bail is available), and also for post-conviction detention of those convicted on misdemeanor charges, which are defined as those convictions carrying a sentence of a year or less. Jails are generally run by counties, and every countys system will be different. Prisons are maintained by states or the federal government, and are used for sentences longer than one year. Prison is for post-conviction only, and is exclusively for felony convictions, that is, those charges with a sentence of a year or more. Prisons are operated by a states department of corrections (or equivalent agency), and tend to be more standardized; manning them are corrections officers from a statewide pool. The FutureLocal, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year. Our overcrowded, ill managed prison systems are places of violence, physical abuse, and hate, making them breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior that they are intended to prevent. (Webb, 2009) One way that we can reverse this trend is through privatization. Corporations can bring more effective management and turn a tax drain into a profitable business. This can be done by employing the inmates as labor and giving them job skills at the same time. Another way we can reduce costs and prison overcrowding is by legalization and decriminalization of certain drugs. Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. According to data supplied to Congress Joint Economic Committee, those imprisoned for drug offenses rose from 10% of the inmate population to approximately 33% between 1984 and 2002. Experts estimate that this increase accounts for about half of the dramatic escalation in the total number imprisoned over that period. Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. We need to save prisons and jails for  the more violent offenders. It is time to change the law. As a Correctional Officer, I have witnessed firsthand the results of the modern legal system. While there is clearly a lot of progress to be made there is also many educational and vocational programs available to offenders. The largest obstacle to their reform, however, is that the offender has to want to change. He must develop a conscious and be aware of the harm he has inflicted upon others. More importantly, he must have a desire to live productively, peacefully, and within the laws of society. References Clarkson, C. (2005). Understanding Criminal Law. London: Sweet Maxwell Ltd. Conklin, J. (2009). Criminology. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Davenport, A. (2009). Basic Criminal Law: The Constitution, Procedure, and Crimes. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Press. Farrington, D. (2003). Evidence-based Crime Prevention. New York: Routledge PressSchmalleger, F. (2007). Criminal Justice Today. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Publishing. Webb, J. (2009, March 29). Whats Wrong With Our Prisons? Parade, 4-5.

Reservoir Dogs :: essays research papers

1. A cult film. It is a known fact that taste in movies is something that is different for every person. But that doesn’t mean people can’t agree on anything in this matter. Some films capture the hearts of many people all over the world, and are loved and remembered by all. These films deserve a place in history books. We refer to them as ‘Classics’. E.g. Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather †¦ Of course not all films that are viewed by millions of people are classics. Some film producers like Jerry Bruckheimer are known to produce action-packed, hyped up, commercial films with low artistic value and make billions of dollars. These films are called box office hits, because their main success is at the box office. E.g. Pirates of the Caribbean, American Pie, Titanic †¦ But what exactly is a cult hit? Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary defines ‘cult’ as someone or something that has become very popular with a particular group of people. What is a particular group of people you might ask. Well the answer to that question can be traced back to the beginning of the art of cinematography. Since the beginning of cinema there have been film fans and film fanatics. The latter were - and still are – those who live and die for movies, people who see five new films a week. These people are what one would call ‘particular’. They are no longer satisfied by the average Hollywood movie. They want something special, something that sets the film above others. But what exactly makes ‘Reservoir Dogs’ a cult film?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2. Tarantino In January of 1991 a film titled Reservoir Dogs (1992) hit the Sundance Film festival. The writer-director was a first-timer by the name of Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend in the England, UK and the cult film circuit. The fact that it was directed by Tarantino was enough to make sure this movie would be one. Of course this did not happen over night: after having seen his three first films it became clear that he had some trademarks of his own that made his movies original. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is always a long pointless conversation that is remotely or not at all relevant for the course of the movie. E.g. ‘the Madonna conversation’ in the beginning sequence of ’Reservoir Dogs’, ‘the the differences of European fast food conversation’ in ‘Pulp Fiction’ †¦ †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He always ads a Dutch element to his films:

Optimal Capital Structure Essay

The optimal capital structure for a company should be the mix of equity, debt and hybrid instruments that minimizes the overall cost of funding, i.e. it should minimize the company’s weighted average cost of capital. In practice, however, it is not possible to specify this optimal capital structure exactly, for any individual company. It clearly makes sense to obtain funds at the lowest possible cost. In the long run, debt is cheaper than equity. However, when a company’s financial leverage increases as it takes on more debt capital, there is an increasing risk for stockholders. The cost of equity therefore will rise, perhaps offsetting the benefits of raising cheap debt capital. Although management cannot be specific about the optimal capital structure for their company, they should at least be aware of †¢how banks and the capital markets might respond to an increase in the company’s leverage level if it were to borrow new funds, and †¢Whether the company is sufficiently low geared to make new debt capital an attractive option, compared to a new issue of equity as a fund-raising measure. There are two approaches to managing a company’s capital structure: a reactive and a proactive approach. The reactive approach is to take funding decisions when a requirement for more—or less—funding becomes apparent, and to raise or reduce capital by the method that seems best at the time. The proactive approach that is found in companies with large and well-organized treasury functions is to †¢forecast future funding requirements or funding surpluses as much as possible †¢establish targets for capital structure, in particular a target leverage level (a target range) and a target maturity profile for debt capital †¢If appropriate, raise funds early when new funding requirements are anticipated, in order to take advantage of favorable conditions in the capital markets or low bank lending rates. This approach calls for accurate and flexible forecasting skills, and good treasury management systems. A proactive approach also can be taken to reducing funds, whenever a company considers its current funding to be in excess of requirements for the foreseeable, long-term future. By having a target leverage level and a target debt maturity profile, management can decide which method of removing surplus capital might be more appropriate, i.e. †¢reducing equity, by raising dividends or buying back and canceling stocks, or †¢Redeeming loans early. Company’s capital structure is never static and will change over time. Retained earnings that should be earned continually add to equity and reduce leverage levels. It is not unusual, therefore, for companies to experience funding cycles of high leverage, as new loans are obtained to fund capital expansion, and decreasing leverage, as retained earnings are earned. The cash flows generated from profits could be used to redeem loans and thereby replace debt capital with equity in the company’s capital structure.

Are we happier than out forefathers? Essay

The word ‘Forefather’ is the word of great honor and regard, and it may be one of the biggest controversy and irony if we entangle ourselves whether we are leading a happy life or our forefathers were. Though science and technological development has made our lives comfortable and easy, providing all luxuries and comforts yet, the side effects of it’s are worst as we have lost the peace of mind and the time has come that we people are now resisting on YOGA and meditation i.e. the teaching of our forefathers. Flourishing of YOGA and meditation centers in town and cities are the instance of it. Internet makes us close to the people of the world yet we have lost the warmth and charm of physical meetings and physical presence. The warmth and charm our forefathers felt by traveling abroad and by physical meetings to the people concern. Although science advancement has opened many phases of employment yet it is not fulfilling the proper needs of employments as we have seen the youths wandering here and there in search of jobs. In this concern, our forefathers were at much better place as heredity occupation system was in existence and children very often applied the same profession of their forefathers. Imaginations have been lost in literature arena as today mostly our findings are in the shape of Medical journals and technological journals, but the emotions, sentiments and even the voice of the people crafted by our Forefathers in their time has been totally missing out. If it is not so why so far we have not been able to give birth any other Shakespeare, Milton, Mirza Ghalib, Iqbal or Kabir Having all the advancement of science, we people have become much centralized and selfish that hardly we have enough time to take care of the emotions and sentiments of the members of our family and relatives as our forefathers stuck to it very hard.

Peace and Democracy US Impacts in the Middle East

Peace and Democracy US Impacts in the Middle East Introduction During the cold war era, the United States of America and the United Social Soviet Union embarked on an arms race that put the entire world in a state of dilemma.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Peace and Democracy: US Impacts in the Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Although the era came to an end without the death of any individual as a result of direct confrontation of the two powers, its after effects left the involved nations to have adverse deficits on their budgets amongst other technicalities. However, one thing that became clear after the end of the cold war is the fact that the United States of America remained to be the worlds strongest single force (Maguire, 2009). Since the end of the cold war, USA has had a number of political interests on several regions of the world. To be particular, USA has had a huge interest in the Middle East. From the political interest that the worlds su per power has on the world the region coupled by the policies that the nation has developed towards its actions in the region and the natives, it is evident that the fact that a nation has supreme powers may have huge impacts on other nations whether positive or negative. However, the aim is to determine the view of those individuals who are for the rules and policies that the United States has formulated towards the Middle East and its impacts on the region and those individuals who are against US policies and activities on the region. To determine this, this paper shall focus on the reign of Bill Clinton and the impacts of the Clinton government in the Middle East and compare the same activities during George W. Bush administration. This analysis shall provide a clear platform as to the factors that determine the foreign relation policies that the US comes develops with regards to US foreign policy interests. US Interests in the Middle East After the end of the cold war, USA has c ome up with a number of foreign policies that affect the Middle East in one way or the other. It is due to this fact that several debates with regards to the US foreign policies have always emerged.Advertising Looking for essay on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More One of the main foreign policies that the US has advanced to support its activities in the Middle East is to encourage and fight for democracy in the region (Maguire, 2009). This may seem as a genuine political move that aims at improving the political, social, cultural and economic status of the region. However, the above initiative can be viewed from different perspective. The Neo-Isolationist approach is the first perspective that can be used to view the situation. According to the people who support this ideology, the conflict that arose between Israel and its Arab neighbours is a regional affair. Such matters fall under the juris diction of regional bodies that have the power and mandate to come up with mediation to calm down the situation and formulate long lasting solutions to the conflict. Thus, according to the people who are in favour of this approach, USA did not have the mandate or the jurisdiction to be involved in such issues (Maguire, 2009). However, since the US involved itself in the issue political critics have always stated that the United States foreign policies on the issue are in favour of the Israeli government. This is the very same strategy that Islamist terrorist recruiters exploit while integrating new followers into their armies. Thus, the people who believe in this school of thought advocate for the US government to cease getting involved in the issues of the Middle East. According to them, the involvement of USA in the Middle East has brought about animosity from a few influential people in the region who use the shortcomings of US foreign policies to their advantage. Such people nor mally do not look at the efforts to the United States in bringing peace and advocating for democracy in the region but look at the policies that the US has for the region and use it against USA and its initiatives in the region (Maguire, 2009). According to Neo-Isolationists, this has been the main factor that has encouraged anti-Americanism among local communities in the Middle East despite the fact that the United States is in most cases engaged in peaceful negotiations of peace and democracy in the region.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Peace and Democracy: US Impacts in the Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Another perspective that can be used to describe the engagement of the United States of America in the Middle East and its resultant foreign policies is the national interest perspective. According to the people who believe in this theory, the United States is involved with the Middle East in orde r to sustain its political, economic, diplomatic and military interests (Maguire, 2009). According to this theory, the United States develops stable relationships with bodies that play a critical role in the international system. Once this is achieved, the United States shall only be involved in regional conflicts such as the one in the Middle East only if such an issue affects other the United States or its interest. This includes the world economy and the status of its allies. This will ensure that the world economy is maintained and at the same time, USA shall still be able to access and secure its oil interest in the Persian Gulf (Maguire, 2009). This doctrine has been put into practice with Theodore Roosevelt and George H. W. Bush who, during their reign as the presidents of the United States, ensured that the interest of the United States of America have been kept first in all matters. Thus, in accordance to this belief, the United States is involved in the conflicts of the Mi ddle East for economic and military reasons. The nation has developed foreign policies that will ensure that their oil interests are kept intact. In addition, the department of defence is particularly interested with the Middle East. Due to this fact, the department of defence has formed alliance with local governments in the region. In the process, the military is normally engaged in local mission within the gulf region. In addition, the military also gets access to ample resources that are essential in reducing the cost of development of warfare weaponry. The vast lands that are available in the region also provide a serine environment for testing these weapons and training the US military. In the course of these actions, the United States involvement in the Middle East also strives to ensure that Israel remains as a sovereign state. Thus, the need to secure its national interests thus plays a critical role in shaping the foreign policies of USA especially with regards to the Midd le East. The Clinton Administration During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton came up with a strategic plan that managed him to attract majority of the US voters. In his campaign, Bill Clinton focused on democratic development; a strategy that made his campaign to take a different approach as compared to his rival, George W. H. Bush. His new strategy and ideas were against the realism ideas that Bush was advocating for.Advertising Looking for essay on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the process, Clinton managed to have more supporters, a move that made him to win the presidential elections of 1992 (Maguire, 2009). As a result of his democratic ideas, Clinton managed to gather the support of individuals from different cultures, backgrounds and political ideologies. For instance, Clinton managed to gather the support of neoconservatives Joshua Muravchik being one of them. Muravchik had developed to be an influential conservative and in the process, he had gathered the support of many individuals who wanted to end the reign of Saddam Hussein (Maguire, 2009). The neoconservatives however felt that George H. W. Bush had let them down since he failed to deliver a New World Order, a promise that he had made to the American people. As a result, neoconservatives turned to Clinton for hope. However, Clinton would also disappoint the neoconservatives. The reign of President Clinton was marked with a remarkable accord in a bid to fight for peace in the Middle East. In S eptember 1993, the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed in Washington DC in the presence of Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat who was the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister. The Oslo Declaration of Principles was the framework which the two parties in the Israel-Arab conflict would base their negotiations on in the process of trying to achieve peace between the two parties. The Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed in the United States. However, USA had not been involved in its initial developments. Therefore, the fact that USA was involved in the last minute in this peace initiative developed negative attitudes from Israeli-Palestinian veto players. In addition, this move led to the development of Islamist terror groups that posed danger both to the United States and to its regional partners. Therefore, policy makers in Washington DC had the challenge of coping with the short-term effect development of resistan ce from Islamist terror groups and long-term effect of political reformation in the affected states. Although at that time it was not visible, the role played by regional actors in the efforts to bring peace between Israel and Palestine provided a conducive environment for the development of conflicts between the parties involved. In addition, the fact that the United States spearheaded the Oslo Declaration of Principles would have adverse effects especially from regional actors. It is due to this fact that Laura Drake asserted that these two issues that seem to be so apart from one another would intersect in the process of mediation (Maguire, 2009). In addition, Drake asserted that the fact that USA supports undemocratic states in its efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East would definitely undermine all its diplomatic efforts in the region. The Senate committee that was in charge of foreign affairs saw the authenticity of these allegations and published a report on the same. I n this report, the main question that was posed was whether local Islamist movements played a critical role in the peace process in the Middle East. However, this issue was not considered given the fact that the United States foreign policy to such issues normally focused on its national interests. In such a process therefore, the initiatives of USA in the region normally undermine the political activities of local groups and put a lot of its emphasis on its national interests. Therefore, with regards to this, USA pressed on with its efforts to solve the Israel-Arab conflict without neglecting the Arab democratic wave that had developed during the Eastern Europe revolutions after the end of the cold war. The outcomes of this issue led to the release of the National Security Strategy of 1996. According to this strategy, the US government had developed a foreign policy based on the concept of engagement and enlargement (Maguire, 2009). However, political analysts and critics suggested that this strategy ignored the interest of influential stakeholders and most importantly, it lacked direction. They viewed this strategy and the policies that supported it as a means of encouraging democracy in the Middle East to ensure that these regimes are based on a market economy that will provide a serine environment for the US government to benefit from its Middle East interest. Therefore, in the eyes of many analysts, this strategy mainly focused on the United States domestic agendas (Maguire, 2009). However, as the USA continued with its efforts of democratizing the Middle East, it experienced a huge obstacle. This was a clash of civilization that was brought about by a huge conflict between Islam and the influence from the West. This thus led to the development of extremist and radical regimes in the Middle East. These acts came true as per Laura Drakes prediction. As a result of the intense conflicts between the two groups, Clinton declared a state of emergency as a resu lt of the increased violence that aimed to disrupt the peace process between Israel and Palestine. In addition, he froze all the assets of individuals who were linked to any terror group that supported these acts of violence in the region. The Bush Administration George W. Bush became the president of the United States in the year 2000. A year later on September 11th 2001, USA experienced the most lethal terror attacks that have ever been witnessed in the history of the nation. A day later on CNN, Abdullah II, the King of Jordan, in his statement, asserts that these attacks would not have occurred if Israel and Palestine has come into a consensus at the camp David summit that was held on the summer of the year 2000 (Maguire, 2009). However, Dennis Ross who was the special envoy to the Middle East during the Clintons administration stated that the two incidences were completely unrelated. He believed that Osama bin Laden had used the situation to his advantage to ensure that his prop agandistic ideas are realized. Thus, the prevailing political reformation process in the Middle East gave local politicians within the region to bring out their differences that in most cases did not have the interests of Palestinians at hand. However, the debate that was at hand at this time was the responsibilities of the United States on the attacks. Many scholars believed its involvement in the democratization of the region played a critical role in the development of Islamic threats. As Martin Kramer asserted, the United States would have suspected of such attacks and that the nation should be prepared for even tougher times ahead (Maguire, 2009). This was due to the huge growth of anti-Americanism in the region. Daniel Brumberg presented a different strategy that would solve the issue. He stated that a time had come of the United States government to differential between Islamists and national ideologues. To ensure this strategy was successful, the public in the Middle East wa s not to be involved in the prevailing politics. This brought about the suspicion of whether USA wanted to honestly push for political reforms in the Middle East. Thus, at this time, the national interest perspective of the United States had failed. According to an article that was published in the Foreign Affairs, Martin Indyk admitted that the United States has seen a window of opportunity in the Israel-Palestine negotiations (Maguire, 2009). This made them to push back the democratic demands of the region. However, as a result of their actions, adverse consequences have occurred and this time, it was in US soil. These acts were regarded to as a threat to the national security of the United States. This therefore made the political reformation process in the Middle East to be a matter of national interest to the United States. This view was supported by most policy makers in Washington DC. There were also anti-Israeli and anti-America protests in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These prot estors viewed Americans as infidels while the Arab nationalists viewed them as imperialists. This division of interest provided a serine environment for terrorists such as Osama bin Laden to have an easy time to support their activities. These issues made it necessary for the United States to reconsider the Oslo process. However, the United States felt that Israel did not have a willing partner (Palestine) to ensure that the goals and objectives of the initiative were arrived at. To make matters worse, the Israeli navy managed to capture a Palestine vessel that was with over 50 tonnes of weaponry that had originated from Iran (Maguire, 2009). This clearly showed that Arafat supported the political war over the peace process. This made Ariel Sharon to ask President Bush not to welcome Yasser Arafat to the White House. This acts made President Bush to talk about the issue in his famous Rose Garden speech. In the speech, he advocated for a peaceful process to mediate the Israeli-Arab c onflict. To ensure that this is achieved, Bush supported the idea an independent Palestine state to push in for the renewal of Palestinian leadership. In addition, he also supported the UN reform of land for peace and urged for the end of the ongoing political war in the region. Thus, according to this speech, Bush viewed that it was essential for the region to have democracy as a tool that will push towards the development of peace between Israel and Palestine and the larger Middle East region. Conclusion Since the end of the cold war, the United States has focused its attention to the Middle East. The main aim of their interest in the region is to push for a political change in the region by bringing in the idea of democracy in the region. However, the actions of the nation in the region can be viewed on two different perspectives; the Neo-Isolationist and the national interest. Given these views, the United States involvement in the middle east has led to the development of sever al foreign policies during the Clintons and Bushs administrations in order to support their activities in the region. These policies have been formulated to safeguard the national securities and interest of USA within and outside of the country and to ensure that its democratic mission in the region is achieved. Maguire, Lori. The Foreign Policy Discourse in the United Kingdom and the United  States in the â€Å"New World Order.† Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. Print.

Kelloggs A Michigan Traded Company Essays - Kelloggs, Free Essays

Kelloggs A Michigan Traded Company Essays - Kelloggs, Free Essays Kelloggs A Michigan Traded Company Financial Statement Analysis Executive Summary Objective: Our goal in composing a financial statement is to construct the most comprehensive, thorough document possible, in order to attract investors and to confirm that we have taken the time to explore as many potential issues for your business as may arise. Summary of findings: Our level of cereal marketing investment early in 1998 was not sufficient in the face of extremely competitive market conditions. This situation hurt our volume performance for much of the year and, combined with other issues in markets around the world, led to a decline in both sales and earnings. Nonetheless, we continue to have the utmost confidence in the future of our grain-based businesses, and we are fully committed to return to both top-line and bottom-line growth. Appendix # 1- Market Research Description of firm and its management: Kellogg's products are manufactured in 20 countries on 6 Continents and distributed in more than 160 countries. Mr. Langbo has been employed by the Kellogg's Company since 1956. He was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1990 and became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in 1992. In June of 1998, Mr. Carlos M. Gutierrez was named President and Chief Operating Officer. The competitive environment: The Company has experienced intense competition for sales of all of its principal products in its major markets, both domestically and internationally. The Company's products compete with advertised and branded products of a similar nature as well as unadvertised and private label products, which are typically distributed at lower prices, and generally with other food products with different characteristics. Principal methods and factors for competition include new product introductions, product quality, composition, and nutritional value, price, advertising and promotion. Economic climate and outlook: Although our 1998 business results were below our performance expectation, it was a year in which we put in place key elements of a stronger foundation for future growth. This included investments in new product development and a complete overhaul of our corporate headquarters and North American organizational structure. Should suitable investment opportunities of working capital needs arise that would require additional financing; management believes that the Company's strong credit rating, balance sheet and earnings history provide a base for obtaining additional financial

Robert Hooke and the Coil Spring

Robert Hooke and the Coil Spring Robert Hooke was perhaps the single greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century, responsible for developing a concept hundreds of years ago that would result in coil springs that are still used widely today. About Robert Hooke   Hooke actually considered himself a philosopher, not an inventor. Born in 1635 on England’s Isle of Wight, he studied classics in school, then went on to Oxford University where he worked as an assistant to Thomas Willis, a physician. Hooke became a member of the Royal Society and is credited with discovering cells.   Hooke was peering through a microscope one day in 1665 when he noticed pores or cells  in a piece of cork tree. He decided these were containers for the â€Å"noble juices† of the substance he was inspecting. He assumed at the time that these cells were unique to plants, not to all living matter, but he is nonetheless given credit for discovering them. The Coil Spring Hooke conceived of what would become known as â€Å"Hooke’s Law 13 years later in 1678. This premise explains the elasticity of solid bodies, a discovery which led to the development of tension increasing and decreasing in a spring coil. He observed that when an elastic body is subjected to stress, its dimension or shape changes in proportion to the applied stress over a range. On the basis of his experiments with springs, stretching wires and coils, Hooke stated a rule between extension and force which would become known as Hooke’s Law: Strain and the relative change in dimension is proportional to stress. If the stress applied to a body goes beyond a certain value known as the elastic limit, the body does not return to its original state once the stress is removed. Hookes law applies only in the region below the elastic limit. Algebraically, this rule has the following form: F kx. Hookes Law would eventually become the science behind coil springs.  He died in 1703, never having married or had children. Hooke’s Law Today Automobile suspension systems, playground toys, furniture and even retractable ballpoint pens employ springs these days. Most have an easily predicted behavior when force is applied. But someone had to take Hooke’s philosophy and put it to use before all these useful tools could be developed. R. Tradwell received the first patent for a coil spring in 1763 in Great Britain. Leaf springs were all the rage at the time, but they required significant maintenance, including regular oiling. The coil spring was much more efficient and  less squeaky.   It would be almost another hundred years before the first coil spring made of steel found its way into furniture: It was used in an armchair in 1857.

Race and Your Community Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Race and Your Community - Research Paper Example I am an Afro-American, living in a White dominated community in Maryland, US and can vouch from personal experience that the racial discrimination is still very much in vogue, though in a more subtle form! In the community I am living, there are overt and covert means of racial discriminations. There is distinct air of superiority displayed by white members. There are two Churches and blacks are discouraged to attend the Sunday congregation in the Church where the white members go. Once, when I was new to the area and had inadvertently attended the Sunday mass in their church, I could sense the displeasure in their stiff faces and silent stares that had made me very uncomfortable. I had later realized that the Sunday mass was conspicuous in its absence of any black church goer, barring myself, of course. Afterwards, I was subtly informed by the white priest that it would be better for me to go to the other church where I would be able to find more ‘friends’. Maryland has a long history of racial intolerance but after getting educated and gainfully employed, I was fairly certain that the old prejudices against the blacks would have considerably reduced. But living in the present community which has people coming from diverse background but still dominated by white population, was an eye-opener. Few of the Asians and Hispanics, who were my neighbors, were also wary of displaying any open friendly gestures. Though, they talked and were not averse to be helpful when I needed something, they did not come forward to make friends with me, on their own. They had probably been fed erroneous information about us from the white leaders of the community. It has been about a year since I have moved in this area. Two major and many minor religious festivals and occasions have passed. The various community based functions, rallies and charity walks were held during the period. In all those occasions, no invitations for participation

Effective Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Effective Communications - Essay Example All supplies of Tylenol were pulled directly off the shelves of every store in the United States. The cost to the company to accomplish this act was over $50 million dollars, yet Johnson and Johnson accomplished this with grace and humility and gained the respect of Americans in the process. After a period of time, Tylenol was replaced on store shelves complete with new, tamper-resistant packaging, telling the public loudly and clearly that the first priority of Johnson and Johnson is the safety of the public who purchased their products, thus keeping them in business. As the text states, because of the response to the incident and their overwhelming regard for human lives, Tylenol recovered an even larger share of the market and "gained credibility, public trust, and esteem." (Federal Register). Once Johnson and Johnson issued "Our Credo," they had public opinion firmly and positively on their side. Johnson and Johnson stated to consumers that their goal was to meet the needs of those who use their product, but to do so in a responsible way. They acknowledge that they have the right to make a fair profit, which, again, puts public opinion firmly in their corner. ... Another public might be considered the people such as doctors, nurses and the institutions of hospitals that regularly dispense Tylenol to their patients. This sector of the public had a grave responsibility in the face of the Tylenol tragedy, in that they had to make absolutely sure that none of the product that could possibly have been contaminated remained in their hospitals. A possible third public could be the press, who, in many cases become the most direct line to the general public. What the press is told and what they release to the general public is extremely important and akin to walking a tightrope. The internal public would be the employees and stockholders of Johnson and Johnson. The employees were put into a difficult situation in that if public opinion, fickle as it is, had gone the "other" direction; the employees of Johnson and Johnson could well have borne the brunt of public righteous indignation. It would have become rather non-politic to answer the question "Where do you work," because the employees would have been guilty by association. The stockholders, another faction of the internal public would have been seen as equally "guilty," and it is likely that rumors would have abounded concerning the culpability of the stockholders in the aftermath of tragedy. The external public, on the other hand, I would see as the consumer of Johnson and Johnson products. I'm sure every mother and father in America experienced a sense of panic and horror when they learned of the cyanide laced Tylenol capsules, thinking it could have been their child or another parents' child that fell victim to the capsules. It was

Guide to Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) Written PowerPoint Presentation

Guide to Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) Written Report - PowerPoint Presentation Example This has consequently resulted into most network security stakeholders doing all their best to ascertain that there is maximal security against any unauthorized acts of intrusion. On this regard, this paper aims at delivering a high quality analytical report on the different types of intrusion detection, prevention systems via an account of the article, Guide to intrusion detection and Prevention Systems (Scarfone & Mell, 2007). In simple terms, an intrusion detection and prevention system entails a well-designed and configured set of tools used to monitor all the inbound and outbound network activity. This is to facilitate identification and prevention of any suspicious patterns of unauthorized access to an organization’s computer network. That is, the IDPS performs monitoring of the organization network traffic, identifies the potential network threats and responds to them in a manner that maintains a highly secure network environment in an organization. In essence, IDPSs focus on ensuring that, only the authorized users and devices have access to the computer network resources (Scarfone & Mell, 2007). It is important to clarify that there are several types of intrusion detection and prevention systems currently in use in most organizations. The target of these products is to protect organization from the ever-advancing hacking techniques that create immense threats to the integrity and safety of most organization data and trade secrets. Upon a thorough analysis of each of the sections in the article, the following different types of IDPS data was gathered (Rash & Henmi, 2005). The need to protect computer network resources is always very important in promoting successful protection of organization data from unauthorized access. To be specific, the intrusion detection system on its own is of great importance particularly in monitoring the events that take place in a certain

Long-term financing of companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Long-term financing of companies - Essay Example If a company that has already undergone an IPO needs to raise substantial capital again and it chooses to issue new equity in order to finance it, this is called seasoned equity offering (Butler, Grullon & Wetson 2005). Seasoned equity offerings come in different variations as regards the terms of the offer such as offering the stocks at investors-at-large or through a rights offerings. Under the rights offering, the company can issue rights to the purchasing the new shares to recipient investors on a proportionate basis (Weller 1962). These rights can either be sold or utilised depending on the recipient investors (Weller 1962). In 2008, Tesco Plc has seasoned equity offering that amounted to 130 million pounds; this is consist of 3 million pounds in issue capital, and 127 million pounds in share premium (Tesco Plc 2009). According to Tesco Plc, part of this seasoned equity offering is to issue shares as stock options are exercised. The rest of it is used for additional financing to the company. On the other hand, Marks & Spencer has issued 0.5 million pounds in equity (Marks & Spencer 2009). In contrast to Tesco Plc, this issue of shares by Marks & Spencer is due to exercise of options. However, seasoned equity offerings are used by the two companies in raising funds to finance their operations. One major advantage of this source of long-term funding is the huge amount of capital that large companies such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer have access in the form of the stock market. As regards the size of the capital raised, seasoned offerings in the stock market really provide huge advantages to these companie s. Seasoned equity offerings also have some shortcomings. For one, after an SEO, it is very usual that the stock price of the company gets lower because of the increase in price. There is a period of time before the price of the stocks will incorporate the information about the company, and this

Economic Improvements in California Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economic Improvements in California - Essay Example Marois and Pei differentiate between opinion and facts. The article is full of statistical evidence from cited reports published by acknowledged institutions such as World Bank, U.S. Census Bureau, and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp (Marois and Pei 2015). It is difficult to identify any political bias in the article because of the use of numerous statistical findings. However, a likely political bias in the article is Marois and Pei ‘s observation that Brown’s â€Å"proposed state budget show the gains† is purely personal (Marois and Pei 2015). The writers offer no evidence for this observation, which adds more suspicion to the fact that the revise figures will not be available until June 2015 yet this article was published in January. From this perspective, one can easily question why the writers did not wait for the revised figures to observe Brown’s â€Å"gains,† which brews a republican agenda when discussing big governments (Ma rois and Pei 2015). The economic development and related political figures are very important to California. This importance shows the results of efforts made to improve infrastructure and alleviate unemployment and poverty. More specifically, living standards in California are high in comparison to other states. Californians living on and below the poverty threshold might not be thought of as poor in states such as Seattle and Texas.

Internet communities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Internet communities - Essay Example [2] Online Communities are social networks found online. It is supported by a computer mediated space where people from all cultures come together for some common purpose or some activity forming 'webs of relationships'. The communication that happens between the people can take place with only one person or hundreds of people simultaneously. It is conversation that does not depend on geographical location or social hierarchies. It is a place where people can commune with others on topics of their own choosing. It is, in fact, a virtual village where a series of interactions between community members take place. [2] [3] Some experts foresaw the evolution of virtual communities when the first email message was sent in 1973. They saw the potential of long distance communication with loved ones and business executives. With the growth of online services like AOL and MINITEL in the 1980s, this idea was further expanded to include communication with all known people around the globe. Lotus Notes in the late 1980s further evolved the concept of communication by forming communities of people who can work together online. Then came in commerce communities, like Amazon and Ebay, which started selling products and interacting online with their customers. Slowly the shift came towards 'blogging' in late 1990s. Yahoo and Google groups started to become increasingly popular when suddenly in 2003 the world was hit by the MySpace.com that provided the users the opportunity to interact with people sharing similar activities. With the increasing user base of MySpace.com, other online communities started to creep up to form the new way of life we have come to know of now. [1] Popular Online Communities My Space.com My Space was formed in August 2003 with the goal of providing a chance for people to meet new people. It is an online community that lets a person meet their friends' friends. The website requires a person to register and then add friends their respective profiles. People can add their pictures, videos, music etc and write blogs. Orkut.com Orkut is an online service which was started in January 2004 by Google. It is another online community that allows a person to build personalized webpages which other people can view. Initially any body could view anybody's profile but to some privacy concerns, the site now offers a restricted access depending on user's needs. Users can share pictures and send scraps of messages to maintain existing relationships and build new ones. Facebook.com One of the most popular online communities currently is Facebook which has a user base of over 59 million active users with this figure doubling every six months. The website offers an extremely comprehensive coverage of activities and communities that people can join. Applications can be attached to personalized pages and contests can be held through these applications with other users. ManHunt.net Manhunt is an online social network for gay men. It gives an opportunity for men to meet other men online, date them and to get to know them better. Men can post their pictures and information which other people can search and find the ones with similar interests. The website has seen an increasing number of men posting nude pictures and vulgar messages. Match.com Match.com was formed in 1995 with the purpose of giving men and women chances to meet their matches online. It's an

Economic Improvements in California Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economic Improvements in California - Essay Example Marois and Pei differentiate between opinion and facts. The article is full of statistical evidence from cited reports published by acknowledged institutions such as World Bank, U.S. Census Bureau, and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp (Marois and Pei 2015). It is difficult to identify any political bias in the article because of the use of numerous statistical findings. However, a likely political bias in the article is Marois and Pei ‘s observation that Brown’s â€Å"proposed state budget show the gains† is purely personal (Marois and Pei 2015). The writers offer no evidence for this observation, which adds more suspicion to the fact that the revise figures will not be available until June 2015 yet this article was published in January. From this perspective, one can easily question why the writers did not wait for the revised figures to observe Brown’s â€Å"gains,† which brews a republican agenda when discussing big governments (Ma rois and Pei 2015). The economic development and related political figures are very important to California. This importance shows the results of efforts made to improve infrastructure and alleviate unemployment and poverty. More specifically, living standards in California are high in comparison to other states. Californians living on and below the poverty threshold might not be thought of as poor in states such as Seattle and Texas.

Theology Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Theology - Case Study Example Even though, I understand that this is a matter which people need to decide for themselves, I am a little troubled that this point of view was not even regarded to be significant. In my view, it calls into question the value of the notes as it is tough to envision going through the Bible separated from Gods authority and influence on the world. It is an excellent counterpart to the NIV version of the bible, which offers a reader a more religious perspective, for instance offering proof that Timothy was composed by one person derived from similarities in the text all through (Meeks 1750). Again, a person must make up their own mind, but the NIV version does grant both viewpoints. A person would want to know more concerning the historical information, as well as a peep into what the new texts must say. However, for studying Gods will for man, as well as how to establish a closer relationship with Him, I would advise people to go through the NIV version of the Bible than

A Book Review on ‘A Man on the Moon’ Essay Example for Free

A Book Review on ‘A Man on the Moon’ Essay Not all great authors can come up great educational book such as Andrew Chaikin’s ‘A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts’. Moreover, not all true-to-life-stories writers are lucky to deliver such factual account having first-hand information gained through interviews. As Chaikin have provided necessary details such as scientific technicalities, knowledge and feelings involved, running down from the role of politics, biographies, competitions, emotions, failures, accomplishments, trials, motives, sacrifices, faults, private thoughts and comments, up to the extent of constructing the blueprint, plans and programs of planetary explorations, his readers might not just be well-informed about it but completely aware of the ins and outs of manned space flight and landing on the moon. See more:Â  The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay In this book, what the author wants is to expose most of the elements of the Apollo missions that only few people could know. He makes it possible as he did a thorough investigation of his craft. Doing a series of in-depth interviews to almost hundred percent of the people behind the Apollo missions especially the twenty four moon voyagers is never easy. Likewise, pretending that the time doing the interview is dramatically inflict as it is makes his audience feel very closely enough to the scenario if not apprehensively feel updated. Hence, to be hooked in this astonishing book is nothing but normal. The main argument of the author is set to make available for everyone his own discovery of the profound history behind the historical explorations and discoveries from the initial first manned flight of the Apollo 8 around the moon’s vicinity in 1961 to the successful first landing on the moon of the Apollo 11 in 1972 and even beyond that as he reveals reflections of the sixth landing on the moon of the Apollo 17, which is also the last landing as of today. This thesis is well-supported by first-hand interviews, academic reviews, scientific approach, and the legal and technical aspects which played very important roles in the Apollo missions’ golden age and its declination. Writing his work in a very comprehensible approach for easy reading and understanding of every historical detail paints the colorful adventures and voyages of every man and events behind the mission. Thus, it could also serve as a very rich reference for any research about space technology. Having been read ‘A Man on the Moon’ inspires me not to stop believing of my every potential. As Chaikin discloses man’s unlimited discoveries once ignite and properly supported of external factors, enlightens young minds to seek for the infinity. However, knowing that the final landing, as written on the book, happened decades ago can trigger the notion of stopping one’s eagerness to dream and explore. Personally, I could say that the book is not just a thought-provoking one but heart-stopping as well. With those vivid illustrations of the interviewees that are intelligently interpreted and written by the author, it could make me feel as if I myself have competed for the moon’s flight seat or even touched moon’s face. Therefore, making me feel reviving my innermost interest to liberate my wildest dream of becoming an astronaut is the best proof that this book is truly an amazing masterpiece. R E F E R E N C E Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Atronauts. New York: Penguin, 1998.

Effect of Calpain-calpastatin System in Meat Tenderness

Effect of Calpain-calpastatin System in Meat Tenderness 1.0 Introduction Meat quality is the freshness of the meat. This is the most crucial things which supplier always find and think in order to fulfill the high demand from the customer. This shows researcher play an important role in increasing the quality of meat because of the high demand from the wholesalers or consumer. The critical point of appraisal of meat quality occurs when the consumer eats the products and they comment on the colour, nutritional value, and price determines the decision to repurchase (Boleman et al., 1997).In addition, consumer evaluation of eating quality is the most determination of meat quality as tenderness, juiciness and flavor of meat are the most important elements (Tarrant, 1998; Bindon Jones, 2001). The variability in tenderness cause by a lot of factors before post mortem, like the feeding types and the environment (French et al., 2001) and after post-mortem, like temperature, pH, sarcomere length and proteolysis (Charlotte Maltin et al., 2003). In this study it focusing majorly on the role of genetic traits which play an important function in order to get the high quality of meat (Williams, 2008). Interest of this study is to identify the relationship between the microsatellite repetition and the calpastatin type1 promoter region effects in meat tenderness. In mid 1980s (Mullis Faloona, 1987; Saiki et al., 1985) as the advent of Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR), microsatellites were detected in eukaryotes genome and they are the most promising PCR-based markers. Microsatellites are simple sequence tandem repeats (SSTRs) of variable length that distributed throughout the eukaryotic nuclear genome in both coding and non-coding region (Jarne Lagoda, 1996). This can be amplify and identify by the PCR method (Sunnucks, 2000, Strassmann et., 1996, Shriver et., 1995). Due to the high mutation rate of microsatellites, they are potentially the most informative marker with advantages of easy and low-cost detection. Thus, the microsat ellites repeat in calpastatin can influence the tenderness of meat because of the different types can produce with different role. The aim of this findings is to characterise the expression of microsatellite repeat in calpastatin type I promoter region in bovine, to identify the  regulation of CAST gene inhibitory calpain system in affecting the tenderization of meat and to develop a mechanism that can control the calpastatin gene in maintaining the tenderization of meat. 2.0 Literature review 2.1 Meat Quality and consumer perception Meat quality is a term used to describe a range of attributes of meat. Those factors such as post mortem factors, pH, temperature, proteolysis, sarcomere length, and the most important elements is tenderness and juiciness that affect the consumer to repurchase the meat (Warris, 2000). Besides that, meat quality also determine by color, flavor and texture which influence the consumer to enjoy the meat product (Glitsch, 2000). However, the main cause of failure of consumer complain to repurchase is the variability in eating quality, especially in tenderness. Some of the consumer that has more knowledge will concern on the safety of consuming meat. They will think of the health implication like the composition of the polyunsaturated fat and saturated fat, and the microbial contamination especially during handling the meat products. According to the statistical of meat consumption in Ninth Malaysian Plan, the Malaysian government targets to increase the production of beef in order to reduce the import dependence. As per capita consumption which 0.5 kg in 2003 of mutton is very low, more attention is paid to the beef market which increased from 2.3 kg to 5.8 kg (FAO, 2007). Due to the high demand, the qualities of meat need to be increased in order to make sure consumer will repurchase. Anderson and Ferguson (2001) emphasize that quality as the top priority in making decision to buy and consume more meat. Similarly , factors that effect the consumer to repurchase red meat other than economic one is meat quality (Taljaard et al., 2006). 2.2 Tenderness Tenderness is a primary factor that influencing the consumers reaction (Glitsch, 2000).Tenderness is an integrated textural property made up of mechanical, particulate and chemical components (Paerson and Young, 1989).The appreciation of tenderness when eating is not explained by the force required to cut through a piece of meat, but is affected by the way the muscle fibers breakdown and the release of juices and flavor while chewing. Several independent studies have identified a locus on bovine chromosomes 29 with affect on tenderness. The caplain1 (CAPN 1) gene that codes for a calcium dependent protease involved in meat tenderization post- mortem. According to the research Miller et al., 2001, meat tenderness (texture) is the most important organoleptic characteristics that influence the acceptability for consumer. Tenderness is the consequences of postmortem physicochemical and biochemical changes in muscle of myofibrillar. After slaughtering, muscle is extensible and elastic until the onset of the rigor mortis, when the energy for muscle relaxation is depleted (Alberle et al., 2001). 2.3 Tenderization phase 2.3.1 Pre-rigor phase The duration of pre-rigor phase is dependent on the animal species. After the slaughtering of animal, blood, oxygen and nutrient supply are cut to the muscle and these triggers the pre-rigor phase to start (Lawrie, 1998).For chicken is less than 0.5 to 1.0 h and for beef 4 to 6 h (Aberle et al., 2001). The muscle will becomes gradually stiff and its tension reaches maximum on the completion of rigor. This is due to the formation of an irreversible actomysin complex in muscle which lead to the shorten sarcomere length. This will cause the toughening of muscle at the beginning of the post-mortem process (Koohmaraie et al., 1996). 2.3.2 Rigor phase At this phase, muscles maintain the homeostasis by metabolize muscle glycogen by aerobic glycolysis. Thus, it will continue supply of ATP. During this phase, the depletion of ATP will increase the concentration of calcium ion in sarcoplasma. Sarcoplasma reticulum functioning in removing of calcium ion across the membrane utilizing the calcium ATPase pump and dependent on ATP for this active process (Robbins et al., 2003). In the meat process, anaerobic glycosis is take place in order to maintain the production of ATP. From this the lactic acid will produced and decrease in pH value and lead to the depletion of creatine phosphate because of lack of ATP. Thus, the availability of substrate required to maintain the contractile proteins actin or myosin in relaxation state. The irreversible cross bridge and rigor mortis occur because of actin and myosin and these will made the muscle reaches to the maximum toughness as the consequences of shortening the sarcomere length (Goll et al., 1995 ). 2.3.3 Post-rigor phase In the post-rigor, the proteolytic enzyme system are responsible in continuing the tenderness (Kemp et al., 2010; Koohmaraie et al., 1996). This phase started about 24 hours to 14 days of meat storage. The rate change is variable due to the proteolytic degradation of myofibrillar and cytoskeletal proteins cause the loss of structural integrity of myofibrils which enhancing the meat tenderization (Koohmaraie et al., 1996). The calpain/calpastatin(calcium-dependent), proteosomal and lysosomal systems have been extensively investigated for their involvement in post-rigor proteolytic degradation and meat tenderization (Kemp et al., 2010; Koohmaraie et al., 1996). 2.4 Factors that affect the meat tenderness 2.4.1 Muscle pH After the bovine is being slaughter, they need to maintain their homeostasis. So, the muscle will undergoes anaerobic respiration and regenerate the production of ATP by aerobic respiration. The amount of ATP produced is less than normal. During anaerobic, the glycogen is metabolized into pyruvate and then converts into lactic acid. The lactic acid will gradually decrease the pH value of the muscle tissue (Maltin et al., 2003).This level of of pH will give varies effects on glycogen level, ATP turn over and the metabolic characteristic of muscle tissue (Lawrie, 1998). The high level of pH which is greater than 7.5 , typically dark and easy to bacteria to survive on it. This will shorten the shelf life of the meat and this bring to the variability if the tenderness as the low of glycogen substrate (Watanabe et al., 1996). 2.4.2 Temperature Temperature during the pre-rigor and post-rigor phase will affect on the metabolism of the muscle tissue of meat(Hertzman et al., 1993).Meat toughness will increase during the higher temperature (Bruce and Ball, 1990). The declination of muscle temperature will lead to the shortening of muscle. This is because of the reduced calcium sequestering ability by the sarcoplasmic reticulum as a result of the depletion of energy compounds which cause the muscle to contract and increase the toughness of meat (Huff Lonergan et al., 2010). There are a researched found that, at 15 Celsius is the best temperature for maintaining meat tenderization (Geesink et al., 2000). 2.4.3 Juiciness Juiciness is defined as the feeling in the mouth of moisture from cooking meat and chewing. The juiciness is closely related to the attribute of flavor as this latter attribute is also affected by the level of IMF in the meat. The high the intramuscular fat content (IMF) , the higher the meat quality (Kerry et al., 2002). 2.4.4 Proteolysis Proteolysis is a conversion of muscle to meat entrains changes in tenderness due to changes in the properties of muscle fibre and connective tissue. The steps are toughness increase into rigor, proceed with proteolysis and last the rigor is resolve. Proteolytic system is divided into four which, first, cathepsin-lysomal system second, ATP-dependent ubiquitin –proteasome system, third, calpain-calpastatin system and last is matrix Metalloproteinases (MMP) (Thompson and Palmer, 1998). Tenderization increasing during ageing and it is primarily a result of calpain-mediated degradation of myofibrillar and cytoskeleton proteins. Most of researcher doing the investigation on proteolytic system and the have a A1QWdebate on these. But most of the studies agreed that the calpain system has play the major role in post-mortem tenderization (Boehm et al., 1998; Koohmaraie.1992b; Taylor et al., 1995a). Proteolysis involve calpain occurs between 3-14 d post mortem when activity of  µ-calpain low ,  µ-calpain maybe bound to the myofibril and inactivated during post mortem storage but the m-calpain active when the level of calcium arise. Calpain is calcium-dependent which function in softening the muscle tissue of the meat. In proteolysis it involve the calpain proteases and caplain-specific inhibitor, calpastatin. When the low level of calpastatin produce, the more calpain protease produce .Then, the tenderness of meat will increase. 2.5 Microsatellite Microsatellites are simple sequence tandem repeats (SSTRs).The repeat units are generally di-, tri-, tetra- or pentanucleotides (Powell et al., 1996) .Like repetition in birds is ACn, where it`s means two nucleotides A and C are repeated in bead-like fashion a variable number of times. The n could be range from 8 to 50.This always occur on a non-coding region of DNA. On the each side of the repeat unit are flanking regions which consist of unordered DNA. This flanking region is dangerous because they will allow the development of locus-specific primers to amplify the microsatellites with PCR. By having a forward and reverse primer on each side of microsatellites it will be able to amplify a fairy short (100 to 500bp) locus-specific microsatellite region(Sunnucks, 2000, Strassmann et., 1996, Shriver et., 1995). Microsatellites were designed for generative neurology disease in human but it shows a great applicability in other species. Microsatellites act as markers was classified based on the number of bases like short repeats are microsatellites while longer repeats are minisatellites. Besides that, it also classified by the type of repeated sequence present whether it is perfect, imperfect or composite. Imperfect means the repeated sequence was interrupted by different nucleotides which are not repeated while composites when two or more different motifs in tandem (Selkoe Toonen, 2006).In addition, microsatellites is co-dominant and it is widely distributed throughout the genome and transferable between species. These features provide their successful function in these fields (Chistiakov et al., 2006). 2.5.1 Microsatellites mutation Microsatellites are useful genetics markers because they tend to be polymorphic. Normally, human microsatellites with 20 or more alleles ad heterozygosities. This is because their mutation occurs different from the â€Å"classical† point mutations, where the substitution of one nucleotide to another occurs. The mutation in microsatellites occur through slippage replication where two strands could slip relative position a bit but still manage to get the zipper going down the beads. One strand can be lengthened or shortened by the addition or excision of the nucleotides. So, the repeat unit can be one longer and the other is shorter than the original (Selkoe et., 2006). 2.6 Calpastatin Study of calpastatin gene promoter activity had been done by some of the researcher .Calpastatin is proteinase inhibitor for calpain which family of calcium-activated neutral proteases that regulate the of Ca2+. It is encoded by single gene in mammal which produces proteins isoforms through the alternating splicing, There are four types of CAST which are Type I, Type II, Type III has been characterized in porcine with the study of the three promoters directing expression(Parr et al., 2004) while in bovine calpastatin transcripts including Type IV had been characterized with the studied of four functional promoters in the gene (Raynaud et al., 2005).This four types of CAST can bind to the calpain and inhibit proteolytic activity. A single calpastatin can inhibit several caplain molecules in vitro. Several isoforms of calpastatin exist due to the alternative promoter usage and differential splicing (Parr et al., 2001; Raynaud etal., 2005).Increasing response on calpastatin expression to ß- adrenergic stimulation has been associated with skeletal muscle hypertrophy in livestock (Parr et al., 1992; Killefer and Koohmaraie, 1994) and related inversely with the tenderization rates(Koohmaraie, 1996). ß- adrenergic stimulation act by the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responsive elements in calpastatin promoter regions(Cong et al., 1998a, b).three types of promoters located in the 5 region of gene upstream of exons 1xa, 1xb, and 1u generate calpastatin mRNA transcripts the types I, II, and III respectively (Takano et al., 2000; Parr et al., 2004).In pig, these promoters have putative motifs for another transcription factors that will imply other signaling pathways of calpastatin expression(Parr et al., 2001; Raynaud etal., 2005). 2.6.1 The types of calpastatin genes From the previous studies, there were found calpasatin has four types of repetitive-inhibitor domains which are Type I, Type II, Type III and Type IV. The isolated cDNAs from the various mammalian species have conspicuous differences in the regions encoding the N-terminal sequences. These four different types has different function and from the different sources. The Type I and Type II in mouse and bovine respectively also differ from each other in the uttermost N-terminal sequences, possess longer domain L sequences than those of rabbit, pig and human inhibitors which are Type III.The previous obtained mouse calpastatin cDNA is encoded by as many as 31 exons including the first exon. The other three additional exons specifying the N-terminal sequences of the types were identified in the mouse genomic DNA sequence. The mRNAs for Type I and Type III were expressed in the liver, the Type II high in heart and skeletal muscle .Besides , the Type IV abundance in testis. These findings sho w that the calpastatin isoforms possessing different N-terminal sequences are generated by the alternative transcription initiation from their own promoters and skipping of the mutually exclusive exons (Takano et al., 2000). Cong et al. (1998), reported cAMP-dependent transactivation of the bovine calpastatin gene whose promoter located on the upstream of exon .They identified a sequence GTCA which was important for the cAMP responsiveness and corresponded to the half site of the full CRE(a consensus palindromic cAMP-responsive cis-element; TGACGTCA).They demonstrated that mutation of GTCA at -76 nt to ATCT completely abolished the dibutyryl-cAMP .Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the mouse and bovine genomic DNAs did not show a high similarity but little similar sequence GTGCGGTGTCAGCCGG (identical residues are underlined) containing GTCA was found. The differential expression patterns of the type I, II, III mRNAs among different animal suggests that the presence of different transcriptional regulatory elements upstream of the respective promoters. Besides that, the differences in N-terminal sequences might affect the intracellular distribution of the action calpain-calpastatin system in stimula tion of meat tenderness (Takano et al., 1999). 2.7 Calpain Calpain were intracellular calcium-dependent cysteine proteinases which present in all mammalian(Goll et al., 2003; Sorimachi et al., 2001).In catalysing the limited proteolysis of cytoskeletal and membrane protein , the calpain were play a big role.This regulation occur with help of specific protein inhibitor calpastatin.In striated muscle, the calpain/calpastatin system has been proved in regulation protein turnover especially in meat texture development (Sensky et al., 2001). 2.8 The effect of calpain-calpastatin system in meat tenderness The calpain and calpastatin proteolytic enzyme system is believed to be the main contributor to the tenderness of meat at post mortem.The present of calpastatin in meat influence the calpain by acting as inhibitor. Calpastatin is a marker in order to determine the tenderness of meat. The researcher found the activity of the calpastatin in meat at 24 hours was highly related to shear force value after 14th day after post mortem. It showed that an early event after the animal being slaughter could be predictive of ultimate shear force because of the low activity of calpastatin (Whipple et al., 1990). The findings was repeated in pork. The higher level of calpastatin after 2 hours of post mortem is increasing the toughness (parr et al., 1999).We can conclude that the activity of calpastatin was responsible in variation of tenderness of meat by the differences in proteolytic rate of the animals. A more complex study is performed by the Shackleford et al.(1994) that correlate between both calpastatin level and meat toughness and the possibility of using these for selection purposed to improve the meat quality.

Satan is No Hero in John Miltons Paradise Lost :: Milton Paradise Lost Essays

Satan is No Hero in Paradise Lost There have been many different interpretations of John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost. Milton's purpose in writing the epic was to explain the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Although the epic is similar to the Bible story in many ways, Milton's character structure differs from that of the Bible's version. Through-out the epic Milton describes the characters in the way he believes they are. In book II of Paradise Lost, Milton portrays Satan as a rebel who exhibits certain heroic qualities, but who turns out not to be a hero. Milton's introduction of Satan shows the reader how significant Satan is to Paradise Lost. He uses Satan's heroic qualities to his followers, and his ability to corrupt to show the thin line between good and evil. Satan was one of the highest angels in Heaven and was know as Lucifer, meaning, light bearer. This shows he was once a good angel. Milton makes the reader see him as a leader and a strong influence to all in his presence. He best describes Satan's ways when stating, "His pride/ had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host. / Of rebel angels, by whose aspiring/ To set himself in glory above his peers" (Milton Book I). Satan's pride was the main reason that God banned him from heaven. Satan always tried to be number one and a leader, instead of following in God's shadow. He would of lived a life in Paradise forever, but he had to follow his feelings as he states, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 31). This shows how strongly he felt about not being abo ve everybody else. Milton uses many events like the ones listed above to encourage the reader to view Satan as a hero. "Satan is described to be the brightest and most important angel" (McColley 32). These traits of Satan show how one might recognize Satan as the second in power right below God, who was the highest power of all. Before Satan decides to give up what he has and to rebel against God, he was one of the wisest and most beautiful of all the angels in heaven (McColley 24). Although Satan was beautiful, the most important trait that makes him fit into the hero category is that he was the most powerful angel in heaven.

Good Governance Essay

Good Governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society. But there is one characteristic I like most, it is the Accountability. Accountability is a key requirement of good governance. Not only governmental institutions but also the private sector and civil society organizations must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. Who is accountable to who varies depending on whether decisions or actions taken are internal or external to an organization or institution. In general an organization or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions. Accountability cannot be enforced without transparency and the rule of law. Maybe some of you will ask why is accountability important to Governance? It is because it evaluates the ongoing effectiveness of public officials or public bodies ensures that they are performing to their full potential, providing value for money in the provision of public services, instilling confidence in the government and being responsive to the community they are meant to be serving. Being accountable is also being liable, responsible for every person that affects your decision. For example, me as a Student leader we are here to serve students, to fight for their rights. Therefore, we must consider first the sake of the students before we make a decision. Because when we took our positions there is a corresponding responsibility that we must face. Reproductive Health Bill informally known as the RH Bill, are proposed laws in the Republic of the Philippines aiming to guarantee universal access to methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care. For sure you are wondering why this issue is in this essay, well I believe this issue is related on being accountable. Why? Did government even consider that our country is well known to be a religious country? That, in every time they use those contraceptives they are actually killing an innocent life? They always say that this is the only way to surpass, lessen poverty. But it’s actually wrong, do they consider the effect of this or should I say to they consider themselves accountable/liable for this? Corruption is definitely one of the problems seen by the citizen and the government as well. There have been lots of controversies relative to government officials being involved with money issues. The thing is that even though there are hearings and investigations, the truth never seems to come out–whether it’s positive or negative news. Poverty and employment would also be among the problems. There are more people that are going hungry. Government and Us are all accountable to it. Why? We as a citizen we can make a living among ourselves because at the end of the day we are still the driver of our own life. But, as a citizen we voted those who are on the position now because we believe that they will minimize our burdens. At the point that we elect them they are already accountable. But after they got what they want all their promises turn to trash. They do things without even considering us. In the end, nothings happen. Accountability or being accountable can be achieved by putting and doing all our jobs in our hearts. Yes, it’s hard but we chose to be in this place all we need to do is face it effectively and do the best we can for the better. Don’t be scared to commit mistakes because those are our experiences and lesson learned. Remember, think first before you make a decision.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing Katey Andersen Bethany Degner Jessica Fulton Natalia Pitts Chelsy Stadler Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach developed by Professor William R. Miller, Ph. D and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph. D Miller is a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico and received his Ph. D in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon in 1976.Stephan Rollnick completed his Masters in research in Strathclyde University in Glasgow and his professional clinical psychology training in Cardiff, Wales. Motivational interviewing was first thought of y Miller in 1983 in his article Behavioural Psychotherapy and was elaborated on in 1991 with Rollnick. It is a goal-orientated approach (Hall, Gibbie, &Lubman, 2012). There are some specific strategies that have been used to work with individuals. SAMHSA believes that by employing these, MI is a successful method for clients with co-occurring disorders.Motivational interviewing includes: assessing the client's view of the issue and seeing if they understand their condition, finding out if the client wishes to pursue a treatment plan and, if so, having them attend sessions, and astly, helping the client see that there are possibilities for them to change (SAMHSA). MI also assists clients in exploring their motivations for changing. It is important to remember that this approach isn't about counselors telling clients what to do, but clients realizing their potential for change (Hall et al. 2012). Motivational interviewing is helpful for clients that are going through different stages of treatment, but it is thought that it is the most helpful in early treatment. This might be because clients have difficulties realizing the depth of their problems (SAMHSA). Motivational interviewing is a good method to connect with clients because it is a joint and collaborative decision process. The choice for change is up to the client (Hall et al. , 2012).The counselor often uses t echniques to engage the client such as open-ended questions, affirmation, and retlective statements S important to note that only the individual can commit to a change even if goal plans are made between the client and counselor (SAMHSA). When practicing motivational interviewing, the counselor helps the client realize discrepancies in their behavior ersus their goals but otherwise lets the counselor do a lot of the listening to gain information from the client (SAMHSA).They are directive with the client so, together; they can examine goals and resolve ambivalence, therefore; motivational interviewing is solution based (Sobell, 2008). Counselors use multiple techniques to help clients reach their goals for change. The first is eliciting/evoking change talk, which is usually associated with stressful outcomes (Sobell, 2008). It can be used to address discrepancies that the counselor notices. Different questions the counselor can ask include: â€Å"What would you like to ee different about your current situation† or â€Å"What will happen if you don't change† (Sobell, 2008).Counselors could also invite the client to look forward in time to see how their life would be if they do or do not change (Sobell, 2008). Other tactics that are used are reflective listening (SAMSHA) and normalizing (Sobell, 2008). Reflective listening is a tactic of responding to the client in the form of a hypothesis as well as building rapport between the client and the counselor (Sobell, 2008). A specific example is, â€Å"It seems to me that you want to start eating better ecause you have concerns about your health but it is hard to eliminate Junk food from your house. Clients will either agree or disagree with the hypothesis given back to them (Sobell, 2008). Normalizing is letting the client know that they are not alone in their situation and that others find change difficult (Sobell, 2008). Lastly, our research found the Columbo Approach to be intriguing. It is also a means of showing the client discrepancies and sometimes can sound a bit unsympathetic (Sobell, 2008). It got its name from the 1970's TV series Columbo and when counselors evoke discrepancies, it is usually done without bringing about a efensive behavior from the client.The client is also more likely to elaborate on their story (Sobell, 2008). An example would be, â€Å"So, help me to understand, on the one hand you say you want to live to see your 12-year old daughter grow up and go to college, and yet you won't take your medicine your doctor prescribed for your diabetes. How will that help you live to see your daughter grow up,† (Sobell, 2008). Researching motivational interviewing was a good experience for our group. We liked how it was a client-based process because the client has to want to change;Katey especially liked that Motivational Interviewing holds the client accountable. If the client is not following through with their goals and the planning (and counselors hav e tried to suggest those discrepancies), motivational interviewing is not right for the client. We also liked that this form of counseling is adaptable for different types of problems that a client could be experiencing such as substance abuse, health coaching, dual diagnosis, or gambling problems. There doesn't seem to be limits to the help a client can receive with this process if they are willing.These different ypes of problems and addictions are difficult to change if the client doesn't own up to them; which is critical with Motivational Interviewing. One thing that was more of a challenge for us (it could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing) was a lot of our sources had the same information. This means that it was good information and solid work, but it also made it harder to tind tresner sources until we knew about the Riverland search engines. Once we knew how to log into that, there were an abundance of opportunities for more sources that were otherwise unknown about bef ore. Motivational Interviewing Motivational Interviewing Katey Andersen Bethany Degner Jessica Fulton Natalia Pitts Chelsy Stadler Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach developed by Professor William R. Miller, Ph. D and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph. D Miller is a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico and received his Ph. D in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon in 1976.Stephan Rollnick completed his Masters in research in Strathclyde University in Glasgow and his professional clinical psychology training in Cardiff, Wales. Motivational interviewing was first thought of y Miller in 1983 in his article Behavioural Psychotherapy and was elaborated on in 1991 with Rollnick. It is a goal-orientated approach (Hall, Gibbie, &Lubman, 2012). There are some specific strategies that have been used to work with individuals. SAMHSA believes that by employing these, MI is a successful method for clients with co-occurring disorders.Motivational interviewing includes: assessing the client's view of the issue and seeing if they understand their condition, finding out if the client wishes to pursue a treatment plan and, if so, having them attend sessions, and astly, helping the client see that there are possibilities for them to change (SAMHSA). MI also assists clients in exploring their motivations for changing. It is important to remember that this approach isn't about counselors telling clients what to do, but clients realizing their potential for change (Hall et al. 2012). Motivational interviewing is helpful for clients that are going through different stages of treatment, but it is thought that it is the most helpful in early treatment. This might be because clients have difficulties realizing the depth of their problems (SAMHSA). Motivational interviewing is a good method to connect with clients because it is a joint and collaborative decision process. The choice for change is up to the client (Hall et al. , 2012).The counselor often uses t echniques to engage the client such as open-ended questions, affirmation, and retlective statements S important to note that only the individual can commit to a change even if goal plans are made between the client and counselor (SAMHSA). When practicing motivational interviewing, the counselor helps the client realize discrepancies in their behavior ersus their goals but otherwise lets the counselor do a lot of the listening to gain information from the client (SAMHSA).They are directive with the client so, together; they can examine goals and resolve ambivalence, therefore; motivational interviewing is solution based (Sobell, 2008). Counselors use multiple techniques to help clients reach their goals for change. The first is eliciting/evoking change talk, which is usually associated with stressful outcomes (Sobell, 2008). It can be used to address discrepancies that the counselor notices. Different questions the counselor can ask include: â€Å"What would you like to ee different about your current situation† or â€Å"What will happen if you don't change† (Sobell, 2008).Counselors could also invite the client to look forward in time to see how their life would be if they do or do not change (Sobell, 2008). Other tactics that are used are reflective listening (SAMSHA) and normalizing (Sobell, 2008). Reflective listening is a tactic of responding to the client in the form of a hypothesis as well as building rapport between the client and the counselor (Sobell, 2008). A specific example is, â€Å"It seems to me that you want to start eating better ecause you have concerns about your health but it is hard to eliminate Junk food from your house. Clients will either agree or disagree with the hypothesis given back to them (Sobell, 2008). Normalizing is letting the client know that they are not alone in their situation and that others find change difficult (Sobell, 2008). Lastly, our research found the Columbo Approach to be intriguing. It is also a means of showing the client discrepancies and sometimes can sound a bit unsympathetic (Sobell, 2008). It got its name from the 1970's TV series Columbo and when counselors evoke discrepancies, it is usually done without bringing about a efensive behavior from the client.The client is also more likely to elaborate on their story (Sobell, 2008). An example would be, â€Å"So, help me to understand, on the one hand you say you want to live to see your 12-year old daughter grow up and go to college, and yet you won't take your medicine your doctor prescribed for your diabetes. How will that help you live to see your daughter grow up,† (Sobell, 2008). Researching motivational interviewing was a good experience for our group. We liked how it was a client-based process because the client has to want to change;Katey especially liked that Motivational Interviewing holds the client accountable. If the client is not following through with their goals and the planning (and counselors hav e tried to suggest those discrepancies), motivational interviewing is not right for the client. We also liked that this form of counseling is adaptable for different types of problems that a client could be experiencing such as substance abuse, health coaching, dual diagnosis, or gambling problems. There doesn't seem to be limits to the help a client can receive with this process if they are willing.These different ypes of problems and addictions are difficult to change if the client doesn't own up to them; which is critical with Motivational Interviewing. One thing that was more of a challenge for us (it could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing) was a lot of our sources had the same information. This means that it was good information and solid work, but it also made it harder to tind tresner sources until we knew about the Riverland search engines. Once we knew how to log into that, there were an abundance of opportunities for more sources that were otherwise unknown about bef ore. Motivational Interviewing It is one of the most carefully defined and rigorous treatment for substance abuse (Miller, 1991). It was developed my William Miller, Stephen Rollnick, and other colleagues over the past 2 decades. It uses a concise psychotherapeutic intervention for helping people change an addictive behavior such as a substance abuse. It is intended to assist and enhance a person’s intrinsic motivation to change addictive behavior in a highly empathetically supportive but strategically directed conversation about the person’s use of substance and related life events.Variety of techniques are used that will increase intrinsic motivation for change. Some useful techniques used are micro skills (open – ended questioning, affirmations, reflections, and Summary or OARS) and strategies (creating discrepancies between a person’s current behavior and his or her goals, his values, the way he perceived himself, establishing and exploring ambivalence and handling resistance skillf ully.(Miller, 1990)Initially, Miller and his colleagues developed Motivational Interviewing to treat people who have alcohol substance abuse; they used principles of motivational psychology and clinical research. If clients have options for alternative approaches they are seem to have an improved treatment and a better outcome. This kind of therapy helped people become realistic, have a set of clear goals which are achievable and possible that will help him or her change for the better.What is motivation? It is the probability that a person will be ready to change, namely, enter into, continue, and adhere to a specific change strategy. Each one of us can be motivated, and those who are lifeless are only considered unmotivated. But, not only motivation will work alone on this kind of therapy, confrontation is also needed, it is a part of all psychotherapies. The question is not solely based if people should be confronted or not, but how to confront effectively and efficiently that ev entually will lead to a successful therapy.Change could not be achieved right away. It takes a lot of time, hard work, and perseverance both for the therapist and the client. Change is hard, but it is essential. Uncertainty or ambivalence is accompanied by change. Every client undergoes this kind of stage where he feels uncertain. This is just a normal part or process of change. Successfully addressing ambivalence is considered to be a crucial skill for a Motivational Interviewing. (Miller, 1990)There are four basic assumptions of Motivational Interviewing according to Miller (1990), they are as follows:Optimistic and humanistic perspectiveMotivation is considered to be a condition, not a traitApproaching change where ambivalence is constant, it is a normal, acceptable, and understandable aspect.Motivation is an interpersonal phenomenonPrimarily, clients do not seek therapy because they are motivated. It is the sole responsibility of the therapist to initiate change, and help his or her client to be motivated. It shouldn’t come within from the client, rather it is a process imposed by therapy and slowly accepting by the client.According to Miller (1990) there are 4 key principles of Motivational Interviewing, such as: Empathy should be expressed, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, and support self – efficacy. This should be applied into 2 phases, while building motivation for change to the client and be able to strengthen his commitment to change. Aside from this, there are 3 critical components of motivation: readiness, willingness and ability.The client should be ready for change. It is a step by step process, slowly the person begins to adapt new things to his system that leads to changes, and he is ready for change. Thus, readiness is relatively linked to priorities; you prioritize things which are important for you to change. Willingness, one should be willing to commit himself to change, not influenced by any factor rather he is ope n freely to change. The ability of motivation is of great importance both for the client and the therapist. It should be coming mostly from the therapist, to initiate change and be motivated.Rational Emotive Behavior TherapyIt was developed by Dr. Albert Ellis; it is a cognitive-behavioral approach to treatment. Therapy was done by identifying some ideas that are problematic and erroneous that is linked with emotional and behavioral problems that are correlated with irrational thoughts, assumptions and beliefs, thus irrational thoughts are then replaced with more rational, reality-based perspectives. In a therapy session, therapist teaches his clients to stay away from negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors for a more positive outlook in life. In this way, the client can achieve self acceptance and life satisfaction because he was able to gain and maintain realistic perception in life. (Dryden, 1990)Certain beliefs or thoughts that are considered to be irrational are confronted a nd other options or alternative are made that make more sense especially when it is examined logically and factually. Rather than focusing on historical or abstract theories, the focal point of the therapy is on the present and at the same time using scientific thinking. People who come for REBT are taught and encouraged to accept personal responsibility for their own thoughts, feelings and behavior, and empowered to change beliefs and reactions that are maladaptive, distorted, interfere with their goals and functioning, and thwart their enjoyment of life. With practice, the new ideas become part of the person, integrated into their way of being. (Dryden, 1990)It is a system of psychotherapy that was designed to help people live longer, decrease their emotional disturbances and self defeating behaviors, and actualize themselves so that they live a more fulfilling, productive, and happier lives ( Ellis & Bernard, 1985)ABC Model of REBTIrrational beliefs are defined as rigid, inconsis tent, illogical and detrimental to the persons’ pursuit of basic goals and purposes. The ultimate goal of REBT is to replace these irrational thoughts with rational thoughts, because it will help the client to live longer and happier through therapeutic process. Development includes (1) setting up for themselves certain happiness – producing values, purposes, goals, or ideals (2) using efficient, flexible, scientific, logico – empirical easy to achieve such values and goals to avoid contradictory or self – defeating results (Ellis & Bernard, 1985)ABC Model ApproachThe initial component of the ABC Model is the â€Å"A† or activating event. A’s are considered to be events that we attend to and that trigger our beliefs or thoughts. However, this doesn’t cause any emotional reactions. It is our beliefs that cause our emotional reponse.activating events could be external or internal to the person, whether the person is directly or indirect ly exposed to such event. Events can also refer to the past, present or future events ( Dryden, 1999)B stands for Beliefs in the ABC Model. Beliefs are fully and explicitly evaluative and are at the core of a person’s emotions and significant behaviors (Dryden, 1999). People take the activating events in their lives and formulate beliefs that could essentially affect their reactions or consequences. These beliefs can be rational or irrational and are usually based on their preferences. Preferences refer to the basic needs, wants, wishes, and desires of the person. When beliefs become unrealistic, illogical and impossible it can considered dysfunctional.C variable refers to the consequences of our beliefs in the context of a particular situation. When the individual preferences are not met, the person experience healthy negative emotions (Dryden, 1999). Examples of this are remorse, sadness, and sorrow. These negative emotions are regarded as to be healthy because they force p eople to change. People doesn’t like the way they feel because of these negative emotions, and in turn they seek for changes in their belief system.There are also unhealthy negative emotions; anxiety, depression, guilt and hurt. These feelings can become severe that they damage normal functioning. Thus, a therapeutic intervention is needed. REBT was designed to help those individuals change the experienced unhealthy negative emotions as a result of the beliefs they hold.Both therapies are beneficial for the people who are on a substance abuse. One significant difference is that motivational interviewing takes more time and is more in depth because of the actual process the person undergoes. The client should be ready for change, and the therapist gradually imposing change to the person. On the other hand, REBT is more concise and focus; it is directly targeted on the individual’s main problem.References:Dryden, W. (Ed.). (1990). The Essential Albert Ellis: Seminal Writ ing on Psychotherapy. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.Dryden, W. (1999) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Training Manual. New York: Springer Publishing Company, IncEllis, A., & Bernard, M.E. (Eds.). (1985) Clinical Applications of Rational – Emotive Therapy. New York: Plenum Press.Miller, W.R., & Rollnick, S. (1991, 2002) Motiovational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change ( New York, Guilford Press)Miller, W.R. (1999). Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment TIP Series 35. Rockville, MD: U.S. DHSS Publication No. (SMA)02-3693. Motivational Interviewing It is one of the most carefully defined and rigorous treatment for substance abuse (Miller, 1991). It was developed my William Miller, Stephen Rollnick, and other colleagues over the past 2 decades. It uses a concise psychotherapeutic intervention for helping people change an addictive behavior such as a substance abuse. It is intended to assist and enhance a person’s intrinsic motivation to change addictive behavior in a highly empathetically supportive but strategically directed conversation about the person’s use of substance and related life events.Variety of techniques are used that will increase intrinsic motivation for change. Some useful techniques used are micro skills (open – ended questioning, affirmations, reflections, and Summary or OARS) and strategies (creating discrepancies between a person’s current behavior and his or her goals, his values, the way he perceived himself, establishing and exploring ambivalence and handling resistance skillf ully.(Miller, 1990)Initially, Miller and his colleagues developed Motivational Interviewing to treat people who have alcohol substance abuse; they used principles of motivational psychology and clinical research. If clients have options for alternative approaches they are seem to have an improved treatment and a better outcome. This kind of therapy helped people become realistic, have a set of clear goals which are achievable and possible that will help him or her change for the better.What is motivation? It is the probability that a person will be ready to change, namely, enter into, continue, and adhere to a specific change strategy. Each one of us can be motivated, and those who are lifeless are only considered unmotivated. But, not only motivation will work alone on this kind of therapy, confrontation is also needed, it is a part of all psychotherapies. The question is not solely based if people should be confronted or not, but how to confront effectively and efficiently that ev entually will lead to a successful therapy.Change could not be achieved right away. It takes a lot of time, hard work, and perseverance both for the therapist and the client. Change is hard, but it is essential. Uncertainty or ambivalence is accompanied by change. Every client undergoes this kind of stage where he feels uncertain. This is just a normal part or process of change. Successfully addressing ambivalence is considered to be a crucial skill for a Motivational Interviewing. (Miller, 1990)There are four basic assumptions of Motivational Interviewing according to Miller (1990), they are as follows:Optimistic and humanistic perspectiveMotivation is considered to be a condition, not a traitApproaching change where ambivalence is constant, it is a normal, acceptable, and understandable aspect.Motivation is an interpersonal phenomenonPrimarily, clients do not seek therapy because they are motivated. It is the sole responsibility of the therapist to initiate change, and help his or her client to be motivated. It shouldn’t come within from the client, rather it is a process imposed by therapy and slowly accepting by the client.According to Miller (1990) there are 4 key principles of Motivational Interviewing, such as: Empathy should be expressed, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, and support self – efficacy. This should be applied into 2 phases, while building motivation for change to the client and be able to strengthen his commitment to change. Aside from this, there are 3 critical components of motivation: readiness, willingness and ability.The client should be ready for change. It is a step by step process, slowly the person begins to adapt new things to his system that leads to changes, and he is ready for change. Thus, readiness is relatively linked to priorities; you prioritize things which are important for you to change. Willingness, one should be willing to commit himself to change, not influenced by any factor rather he is ope n freely to change. The ability of motivation is of great importance both for the client and the therapist. It should be coming mostly from the therapist, to initiate change and be motivated.Rational Emotive Behavior TherapyIt was developed by Dr. Albert Ellis; it is a cognitive-behavioral approach to treatment. Therapy was done by identifying some ideas that are problematic and erroneous that is linked with emotional and behavioral problems that are correlated with irrational thoughts, assumptions and beliefs, thus irrational thoughts are then replaced with more rational, reality-based perspectives. In a therapy session, therapist teaches his clients to stay away from negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors for a more positive outlook in life. In this way, the client can achieve self acceptance and life satisfaction because he was able to gain and maintain realistic perception in life. (Dryden, 1990)Certain beliefs or thoughts that are considered to be irrational are confronted a nd other options or alternative are made that make more sense especially when it is examined logically and factually. Rather than focusing on historical or abstract theories, the focal point of the therapy is on the present and at the same time using scientific thinking. People who come for REBT are taught and encouraged to accept personal responsibility for their own thoughts, feelings and behavior, and empowered to change beliefs and reactions that are maladaptive, distorted, interfere with their goals and functioning, and thwart their enjoyment of life. With practice, the new ideas become part of the person, integrated into their way of being. (Dryden, 1990)It is a system of psychotherapy that was designed to help people live longer, decrease their emotional disturbances and self defeating behaviors, and actualize themselves so that they live a more fulfilling, productive, and happier lives ( Ellis & Bernard, 1985)ABC Model of REBTIrrational beliefs are defined as rigid, inconsis tent, illogical and detrimental to the persons’ pursuit of basic goals and purposes. The ultimate goal of REBT is to replace these irrational thoughts with rational thoughts, because it will help the client to live longer and happier through therapeutic process. Development includes (1) setting up for themselves certain happiness – producing values, purposes, goals, or ideals (2) using efficient, flexible, scientific, logico – empirical easy to achieve such values and goals to avoid contradictory or self – defeating results (Ellis & Bernard, 1985)ABC Model ApproachThe initial component of the ABC Model is the â€Å"A† or activating event. A’s are considered to be events that we attend to and that trigger our beliefs or thoughts. However, this doesn’t cause any emotional reactions. It is our beliefs that cause our emotional reponse.activating events could be external or internal to the person, whether the person is directly or indirect ly exposed to such event. Events can also refer to the past, present or future events ( Dryden, 1999)B stands for Beliefs in the ABC Model. Beliefs are fully and explicitly evaluative and are at the core of a person’s emotions and significant behaviors (Dryden, 1999). People take the activating events in their lives and formulate beliefs that could essentially affect their reactions or consequences. These beliefs can be rational or irrational and are usually based on their preferences. Preferences refer to the basic needs, wants, wishes, and desires of the person. When beliefs become unrealistic, illogical and impossible it can considered dysfunctional.C variable refers to the consequences of our beliefs in the context of a particular situation. When the individual preferences are not met, the person experience healthy negative emotions (Dryden, 1999). Examples of this are remorse, sadness, and sorrow. These negative emotions are regarded as to be healthy because they force p eople to change. People doesn’t like the way they feel because of these negative emotions, and in turn they seek for changes in their belief system.There are also unhealthy negative emotions; anxiety, depression, guilt and hurt. These feelings can become severe that they damage normal functioning. Thus, a therapeutic intervention is needed. REBT was designed to help those individuals change the experienced unhealthy negative emotions as a result of the beliefs they hold.Both therapies are beneficial for the people who are on a substance abuse. One significant difference is that motivational interviewing takes more time and is more in depth because of the actual process the person undergoes. The client should be ready for change, and the therapist gradually imposing change to the person. On the other hand, REBT is more concise and focus; it is directly targeted on the individual’s main problem.References:Dryden, W. (Ed.). (1990). The Essential Albert Ellis: Seminal Writ ing on Psychotherapy. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.Dryden, W. (1999) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Training Manual. New York: Springer Publishing Company, IncEllis, A., & Bernard, M.E. (Eds.). (1985) Clinical Applications of Rational – Emotive Therapy. New York: Plenum Press.Miller, W.R., & Rollnick, S. (1991, 2002) Motiovational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change ( New York, Guilford Press)Miller, W.R. (1999). Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment TIP Series 35. Rockville, MD: U.S. DHSS Publication No. (SMA)02-3693.