Classical Style vs. the Renaissance

Classical Style vs.. The Renaissance One of the most influential artistic styles in western culture is the Classical Style. This term describes the art and architecture produced in Ancient Greece between the late sixth and early fourth centuries B. C. E. The harmonious order that governs almost all the aspects of Ancient Greek Civilization, including politics and philosophy, was the basis of this rich artistic period which has always had a strong influence on Western culture. Nevertheless, there have been some periods in history where the Classical influences were more prevalent.This influence could not be more evident than in the Renaissance, which refers to the rebirth of the Classical Style. The Renaissance which spread through Europe started in Italy around 1300 C. E. And lasted though the seventeenth century. In this period, the artisans did not Just copy the Greeks but also revived their principles of harmony, order, proportion, and realism. In this paper, I'm going to exam one sculpture and one building from each of these two periods to identify the similarities and differences between them.Hermes with the young Dionysus by Parallaxes vs.. David by Michelangelo Hermes with the nuns Dionysus was made by Parallaxes around 340 B. C. E. This marble statue represents Hermes, which was the messenger of the Greek Gods, holding the young Dionysus (Cambric). This freestanding Greek statue was made during the Golden Age of the Classical Style, and it features the key characteristics of this period (realism, harmony, and proportion). Hermes appears nude leaning against a tree trunk draped with material which is wrapped around his arm.He is leaning in a relaxed pose with most of his body positioned on the left side of the artwork. Parallaxes balances the overall composition by putting the young Dionysus on Hermes' arm which connects the figure to the supporting tree trunk on the right side. Like other sculptures from this period, Hermes with the young Dionysus is ve ry realistic. According to Gloria Firer, author of the book The Humanistic Tradition â€Å"the male nude of the High Classical Age seems to fulfill Aristotle idea of excellences as the exercise of human will dominated by reason†.Hermes' idealized body is perfectly symmetrical, and it absolutely fits into the Greek canon (set of rules for determining physical proportion). In addition, the almost tactile texture of the smooth marble exposes Hermes' well developed muscles and bones which seem to be alive and moving under his soft smooth skin. His facial features are symmetrical and proportionate, and his expression is relaxed while smiling as he looks upon the baby Dionysus. In this statue, Parallaxes reflects the Greek ideal of beauty.The realism and perfection of the Greek statues of the Classical period were the inspiration for sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. Michelangelo created David between 1501 and 1504. The work is a representation of the young shepherd who slays t he giant Goliath with his meager sling and who eater goes on to become the king of Israel (Firer). Like Hermes with the young Dionysus, David is a freestanding, statue of a nude male, created at the peak of its period, the Renaissance. Michelangelo created this sculpture in the early sixteen century, which is consider the high Renaissance.Similarly to Parallaxes' statue, David is very realistic, and the smooth marble shows the perfectly developed muscular structure beneath the skin. However, unlike Hermes, Davit's posture is not relaxed but rigid with his muscles tense and veins protruding from the surface. He appears leer and focused on his opponent, awaiting some action that is about to happen. In addition, while Hermes' scale and proportion are realistic, Davit's is oversized standing 14 Ft. 5 in. High, and his head hands, and feet are oversized and not proportionate to the rest of his body. Michelangelo deliberately violated classical proportions by making the head and hands of his figure to large for his trunk. The body of the fearless adolescent is tense and brooding, powerful rather than graceful† says Firer. Although both sculptures share common characteristics, David is different room Hermes in that Parallaxes' creation is Just a celebration of beauty and perfection while Michelangelo creates beauty and also enhances human accomplishment. Parthenon vs.. Saint Pewter's Basilica The Parthenon (448-432 B. C. E. ) is a Classical Greek temple that was designed by architects Stations and Calibrates.It is located in Athens, Greece, and it crowns the high plateau called the Acropolis. The temple is dedicated to the city's main Goddesses, Athena, and it is surrounded by other smaller temples (Firer). Like most of the buildings from this period, the architects used the post-and-lintel system, and hey did not use mortar. The Parthenon floor plan is rectangular and very simple. It only has two rooms surrounded by a colonnaded walkway. The order used for the columns is Doric, which has no base, and its capital is a simple cushion.The Greek principles of perfection such as order, harmony, and symmetry govern the whole construction. The ideal and concern with perfection of order and balance caused the architects to use wider columns on the corners of the structure to offset the visual reduction of their size due to the bright light of the sky behind them according to Firer. In addition, the Parathion's pediment was decorated symmetrically and balanced with relief carvings of the Greek Gods featuring the king of the gods, Zeus, directly in the center.Similar to the revival of the classical style in Renaissance sculpture, the principles of the Classical Greek architecture were the inspiration for building during the Renaissance. Saint Pewter's Basilica (1506-1612 C. E. ) is a catholic church constructed during the high Renaissance. Ten architects worked on its construction including Donate Aberrant, who started the project, and Michelangel o, who designed of the dome (The World Book Encyclopedia). Similarly to the Parthenon, it is intended for worshiping and is located in the middle of a religious area, Vatican City.It is dedicated to Saint Peter who is considered the fist pope of the Christian Church and whose remains lay beneath the building. Saint Pewter's Basilica has also some decorative features that resemble the Greek temple. The columns in the fade are inspired by the Classical Style although they are a different order, Corinthian, and above the columns there is a pediment. Crowning the fade are thirteen statues upon the balustrade, which although are not exactly the same, they mimic the ones in the Parthenon.The figure in the center is Jesus, king of heaven, and the rest are Saint John the Baptist and eleven apostles. The major differences between the two temples are the construction methods. Saint Pewter's Basilica uses mortar, and it has stone arches inside supporting the ceiling, which are construction tec hniques developed by the Romans. The floor plan is a Latin cross that is inspired by the medieval cathedrals. In addition, the building is crowned with a huge dome, which is an architectural feature and innovation from the Renaissance.Although the Renaissance architecture is more complex than the Classical, the architects included key classically styled features in their designs and the Classical ideal of proportion and order in their construction. After examining the sculpture and architecture from these two periods, it is clear that they have a direct relationship to each other. The renaissance borrowed the Classical principles of order, harmony, and proportion from the Greeks. This is clear in the comparison of the two statues. In the case of the architecture, the Renaissance took the Classical elements, but they utilized more advanced techniques.Although the Renaissance was a brilliant period in which innovation and creativity was rich, the use of the Classical examples and the honoring of them clearly confirm their timeless and lasting influence. Works Cited Firer, Gloria. The Humanistic Tradition Volume l. 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005. Print. Cambric, E. H. The Story of Art. 15th edition. All Saints Street, London: Phaeton Press Limited, 1999. Print The World Book Encyclopedia. Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. 1962. Print.

Howard Zinn Chapter 13 Analysis Essay

Zinn opens chapter with the recognition that â€Å"war and jingoism might postpone, but could not fully suppress, the class anger that came from the realities of ordinary life†. Despite the brief interlude that momentarily quelled class conflict, the issues at home had never been resolved and resurfaced with a vengeance. More and more writers were writing from a Socialist mindset: Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906, as a commentary on Chicago’s meatpacking industry. In writing the book, Sinclair was influenced by writers like Jack London, a Socialist who had grown up in poverty in the Bay Area. London publish The Iron Heel in 1906, warning Americans about fascism and indicts the capitalist system† In the face of the facts that modern man lives more wretchedly than the cave-man, and that his producing power is a thousand times greater than that of the cave-man, no other conclusion is possible than that the capitalist class has mismanaged criminally and sel fishly mismanaged†. Even an exiled Henry James condemned the U.S. when he visited in 1904. The corrupt actions of the American government and business elite were on the lips of activists, writers, and artists around the world Socialism couldn’t help but spread. One of the most notable labor incidents in this era occurred at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. New York had more than 500 garment factories, mostly staffed by women, and the conditions in all were equally as deplorable. In the winter of 1909, women at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. organized a strike, they were doubtful that many more than 3,000 women would turn out with the cold weather and not all the factories participating, but more than 20,000 showed up. The recently organized Ladies Garment Workers Union was growing by the thousand every day. The strike went on through the winter, despite police, arrests, scabs and prison.† In more than three hundred shops, workers won their demands. Women now became officials in the union. However, the conditions of the factories themselves did not change all that much, and on the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the TS Company on the 8th-9th floors too high for fire ladders to reach. The factory doors had also been locked to manage workers, which was against the law. In fact, TS Co. broke several safety codes, ultimately causing their female employees to be trapped and burned to death†146 Triangle workers, mostly women, were burned or crushed to death†. These were not the only tragedies† in the year 1904, 27,000 workers were killed on the job†. Millions of workers toiled in dangerous conditions to fatten bank accounts of the wealthy. Zinn keeps the starting numbers coming: â€Å"In 1914, 35,000 workers were killed in industrial accidents and 700,000 injured. The women’s movement of the time was an interesting one, with women often divided between suffragism and socialism. Many women were skeptical of the suffrage movement and spoke out on other issues. Margaret Sanger was one of the first women to speak out about birth control† No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose conscientiously whether she will or will not be a mother†. Emma Goldman believed the suffrage movement to be a waste of time, noting, â€Å"Every inch of ground has gained has been through constant fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through suffrage. Her development, her freedom, her independence, must come from and through her only that, and not the ballot, will set women free†. Helen Keller also believed in this â€Å"struggle outside the ballot box† these women wanted something more immediate and direct than the vote. This is an issue with I am constantly torn. There is something so simple and almost beautiful in a people voting and deciding as a group can’t we just vote our way to utopia? However, when you think about the politics behind what even ends up on a ballot, you can start to feel powerless, and the vote meaningless; I understand why these women would want to fight for something greater. Zinn touches on demands and protests to end child labor, before moving on to the deteriorating situation for blacks across the nation, or what he calls â€Å"the low point†. Blacks were being beaten, lynched, murdered and the government sat by and did nothing. But what surprised me is that â€Å"the Socialist party did not go much out of its way to act on the race question† either. One member wrote about Debs, â€Å"he always insisted on absolute equality. But he failed to accept the view that special measures were sometimes needed to achieve this equality†. Ah, the early disc ussion of affirmative action and the thought that after century of oppression, laws would just make things equal. Blacks began to use this momentous period to organize as well, and formed the National afro-American Council, as well as the National Association for Colored Women. W.E.B. DuBois had just written The Souls of Black Folk and called black leaders together for a conference near Niagara Falls–the start of the â€Å"Niagara Movement.† These leaders called for a much more radical and revolutionary approach, attacking the moderate ideas of men like Booker T. Washington. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed after a race riot in Springfield, IL in 1910, but whites dominated the leadership. The NAACP focused mainly on legal action and education, but DuBois, one of the officers, championed the notion that â€Å"Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty†. It’s interesting to note that this was the start of the nation’s â€Å"Progressive Period† a time when new amendments and laws were being passed all t he time. However, these laws didn’t necessarily benefit blacks, women, labor organizations, or Socialists; they were more a response to the shifting social tide what doesn’t bend, breaks, and right? As Zinn notes, â€Å"it was a reluctant reform, aimed at quieting the popular risings, not making fundamental changes†. In addition to numerous food, drug, and safety regulations, the nation witnessed the 16th Amendment graduated income tax and 17th Amendment election of Senators by popular vote. However, these reforms were less about actual social change and more a necessary response to growing social agitation in order to create â€Å"a middle-class cushion for class conflict†¦an attempt by the system to adjust to changing conditions in order to achieve more stability. Zinn quotes Harold Faulkner: ‘Through rules with impersonal sanctions, it sought continuity and predictability in a world of endless change. It assigned far greater power to government†¦and it encouraged the centralization of authority†. What happened was the emergence of â€Å"political capitalism,† in which â€Å"businessmen took firmer control of the political system because the private economy was not efficient enough to forestall protest from below. The businessmen were not opposed to the new reforms; they initiated them, pushed them, to stabilize the capitalist system in a time of uncertainty and trouble†. No longer did we have a government throwing the occasional big bone to business, but a government that was bent over a chair, pants around the ankles with big business. Zinn closes his chapter focusing on the idea that â€Å"much of the intense activity for Progressive reform was intended to head off. ’The Rising Tide of Socialism† and zooms in on one key event: the Colorado Coal Strike which began in September 1910 and culminated in the Ludlow Massacre of April 1914. 11,000 miners worked for the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation. When a union organizer was murdered, the workers began to strike in protest of low pay, dangerous conditions and â€Å"feudal domination.† Immediately, the miners were evicted from their shacks and forced to live in tent colonies in nearby hills. Gunmen hired by Rockefeller interests raided the colonies and were eventually joined by the National Guard. The strikers held out through the winter of 1913-1914 and it became clear that only drastic measures would break the strike. So, on April 20th a machine gun attack was opened on the tents, and the strikers fired back. The Guards set fire to the tents, burning some people to death. Eventually federal troops were brought in to restore order, but only after 26 men, women, and children had lost their lives. It was clear once again that unrest at home would not stop, so the government, once again, looked outside its borders for a distraction.

Bleak House Imagery of Bleakness

The Imagery of Bleakness and Disease in Charles Dickens’s â€Å"Bleak House† Having been referred to as one of Dickens’s best novel, â€Å"Bleak House† is a novel which stands out, not only through its narrative technique, but also through the complex imagery the author conveys, managing somehow to relate this imagery to the real world, namely the XIXth century England. Thus, in spite of some instances of humorous, ironical scenes and a few comic characters, the novel reveals the sordidness and disease which seemed to prevail in England during those times. From the opening sentence of the novel, the Court of Chancery is introduced, being associated with the symbols of fog and mud: â€Å"Never can there come a fog too thick, never can there come mud and mire too deep,†¦ holds, this day† The word â€Å"fog† appears thirteen times in one paragraph, and many times throughout the novel, the author conveying thus a bleak imagery, symbolic for the English society of the XIXth century. Making use of a special narrative technique, Dickens chooses to have his story told by two different narrators, an omniscient third-person narrator and a first-person narrator, Esther Summerson, who is presenting her life from her own viewpoint. Unlike the generalizing, highly rhetorical voice which opens the novel, Esther’s voice begins hesitatingly, almost self-deprecating herself. This manner of presenting her story is highly relevant as it is seen as a result of her life as an orphan in the sordid house of a cruel, merciless aunt. Thus, regarding the imagery of bleakness, Esther can be deemed to have passed through a series of symbolic â€Å"bleak houses† before she reaches the real Bleak House, which proves to be the least bleak of all. Consequently, it can be considered that the names of the two houses – â€Å"Bleak House†, is nothing more than Dickens’s irony which becomes obvious only in the end of the novel. With regard to Esther’s evolution throughout the novel, the first and apparently worse bleak house is that of her childhood, where she is raised by her cruel aunt who tells her that â€Å"It would have been better †¦ hat you had never been born†. The little girl is taught to make use of submission, self-denial and diligent work so as to compensate for her guilt of having been born. Another bleak house situated in Esther’s long evolutionary path is the house of Mrs Jellyby, an apparently philanthropic woman who is more preoccupied with Africa than w ith her own numerous family. This was meant as a metaphor of imperial England, which was so much engaged around the world in those times, that it became out of touch with the problems it had at home. The imagery of bleakness is here complex, revealing a dirty, unkept for house, with children running all around it, without having anyone to care for them. The imagery of bleakness and disease is also evident in the description of Krook’s rooming house, an emblem of waste and neglect. Krook is described as a ragged man who keeps documents, â€Å"the detritus of legal London†(Davis,42) in his bottle shop, while his apartments are the home for the victims of Chancery, little Miss Flite and the ill law writer Nemo, two characters who represent two powerful instances of the imagery of disease. What is interesting is the way Dickens chooses to relate the bleakness of these houses to the law and the system of injustice, which serves itself, but ignores the effects its actions have upon humans. But even the law is perceived inside a bleak house, namely Tulkinghorn’s house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which is described as having been â€Å"let off in sets of chambers; and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts†¦ Here among his many boxes labelled with transcendent names, lives Mr. Tulkinghorn. Everything that can have a lock has got one; no key is visible. † As far as the disease metaphor si concerned, this seems to be very complex in Jo, the illiterate sweeper, who is seen most of the time starving and begging. Given the society with no public education, Jo is allowed to know nothing, he is neglected by the system itself, being somehow forced to move on, regardless of his deprivations. The most seemingly bizarre expression of the disease metaphor is found in the figure of Krook, the illiterate rag and bottle merchant who seems to be the underworld equivalent of the Lord Chancellor. Just like him, Krook collects legal documents but he is not able to understand their content, and so they cannot help justice. As a warning for the established legal system stands the episode of Krook’s improbable death by spontaneous combustion, which is symbolic for legal England ending in fire, as â€Å"When the law becomes totally absorbed with itself and its own procedures, it is bound to destroy itself†, according to Dickens. In the light of the above-mentioned evidence, it can be said that the imagery of bleakness and disease in the lives of his characters is used by Charles Dickens so as to reveal the bleakness of England itself and how a sick system caused many injustices and perils for the poor, while the rich had a life of luxury and abundance. Works cited Primary sources: Dickens, Charles, Bleak House, Collins, London and Glasgow, 1953 Secondary sources: 2. Davis, Paul, Charles Dickens A Literary Reference to his Life and Work, Infobase Publishing, 1999, pp 41-45 3. Aubrey, Brian, Novels for Students, Gale Publishing, pp 84-86

Archibald Prize Art Gallery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Archibald Prize Art Gallery - Essay Example Archibald Prize Art Gallery Australia has an evident record that it treasures its art heritage because of the established national gallery. The Archibald art gallery has existed for some time in Australia and has qualified to become one of the influential events in the art history. Archibald was one of the Australian journalists who found pleasure in art. He exhibited immense interest in journalism, initiating the publication of an influential bulletin. Although the bulletin tackled diverse topics, he reserved space for upcoming artists to use it as an avenue for displaying their inherent talent. Due to his undying interest for young artists, he received the privilege of becoming a trustee of the New South Wales art gallery. As he served in this position, his interest for art became more apparent, a factor that motivated him to designate a certain amount in his will that would afford an annual prize for an artist exhibiting exemplary talent. He intended the prize to motivate artists to use art as an avenue of presenting honor to any Australian exhibiting exemplary contribution to the society either through art, science or politics. The Archibald prize is one of the significant events both to the art world and in the public domain. The prize was the idea of the journalist Archibald who exhibited a lot of interest in art. In his efforts to support artists, and foster the celebration of people of exemplary contribution to the society, he allocated some funds for the Archibald prize.... The prize has also served as a motivation for upcoming artists. After his death, the trustees of the gallery sought to grant him the honor and publicity that he had so often turned down during his life. Through his demonstrated interest in art, he made sure that the great men and women who existed before to receive honor in form of portraits. A portrait made in his honor and the regard of the gallery with his name after death served as evidence of the art culture that he had begun and has progressed until now2. His portrait was a commission from the board of trustees in honor of hi support towards art. The Archibald Prize The New South Wales art gallery has had trustees who have demonstrated ardent interest in fostering the art culture of the Archibald Prize began by Archibald in 1921. The trustees have adhered to a culture of awarding the prize annually to any artist who represents an influential person, with a reputation of contributing positively to the Australian society. Since t he award seeks to honor Australian men and women who exhibit an exemplary contribution to the society through different fields, the competition only includes works from Australian artists3. The competition remains an open affair for any interested artists who exhibit interest in doing portraits of the reputable people in society. The board of trustees of the New South Wales art gallery takes up the responsibility of judging the presented art pieces from artists all over Australia. In the recent years, there are several prize won contrary to the earlier years when only the Archibald prize was up for grabbing for the many artists. Usually, the board of trustees would judge the portraits presented by different artist who make portraits of celebrated men and women. In the

Contemporary hospitality industry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Contemporary hospitality industry - Assignment Example ng to the British Hospitality Association, (BHA) the hotel and tourism sector comprises of an approximate of 127,000 businesses and employment for about 1.6 million people. This is anticipated to rise in the future as more investors come into the industry. Approximately, the industry contributes about 19% of the total national income. This kind of labour is either directly or indirectly related to hospitality and tourism (Reid et al, 2010). There are distinguishing differences between a 4* hotel and a Bed and Breakfast. Different travellers settle on where to stay based on specific needs. Bed and Breakfasts are usually run by a family providing a friendly and caring environment. It is appropriate for people who want to have the home away from home experience. A 4* hotel is mostly a member of a conglomerate which is larger and consists of other hotels. The inns are privately owned mostly private homes that have been renovated for commercial use. The Bed and Breakfast food is provided by the owners and usually gourmet which is informal and quality food. The food could be eggs, meat or what is available in the house. A four star hotel offers a continental breakfast which is a variety of fruits, cereal, yogurt, and batter for those who wish to make waffles. The food is prepared by professional chefs. A four star hotel is offers a more complex style of living with uniform rooms and decor whereas Bed and Breakfasts are more like homes rented out to guests with an open kitchen and variations in rooms. A four star hotel has a large staff employed to perform several duties such as cleaning, checking in guests and other services while a Bed and Breakfast is equipped with lesser staff who treat guests as members of the house. The main distinguishing factor between a tall and flat organisational structure is the levels of management. In a flat organisational structure, there is usually just one level of authority. This could be the CEO whom everybody reports to. In a

American Bibliographical Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

American Bibliographical Article - Essay Example Juliann Garey is a great writer, having written various screenplays as well as TV pilots, specifically to Sony Picture, as well as other TV works such as NBC, Columbia, CBS, and Lifetime TV among others. She is a journalist by profession and has made many publications. This novel, inspired by the experience of the writer (Silverman ), narrates Greyson Todd’s struggle for happiness and stability in the face of bipolar disorder (Nelson). This author is typically a creative writing professor, literature, and novelist; best known for The Emperor’s Children novel. Her novel focuses on three friends in their early thirties, who lived in Manhattan, a few months before the 9/11 attack. They are well educated as very privileged, although they are forced to struggle to realize the lofty expectations regarding personal as well as professional lives. The novel was ranked among the top 10 books of 2006 (The New York Times). Along the lines of Chekhov’s short story, The Lady w ith the Pet Dog (Kakutani ), Claire Messud’s novel has been considered great. The books were authored by a Canadian-American novelist and filmmaker who has been working in media production and commercial television for over ten years. Regarding this novel, two characters narrate the work. They include Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo and a writer who lives on an island off British Columbia (Downer). Nao keeps a diary that the writer finds on the seashore in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. Ozeki’s story has been described ad meditative and era-flipping (Jensen ). The author chosen for this bibliographical essay is Claire Messud.

Walmart Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Walmart - Assignment Example Retuned items and goods whose shelf life is about to elapse are sold at lowered prices in bulk as well. In turn, impulse buying by the customer is evident. The wastage of such goods is then relieved from the business. The location of these goods is the he cashier’s stand that the customer accesses every time. The location plays a vital role in effortless accessibility and capturing of the individuals attention. The allocation of coupons for items to the customers after every visit to the retailer promotes moneyless or little money in use when purchasing goods. Consumers collect as many coupons as possible overtime. The coupons purchase bulk items when presented to the cashier. There are instances where the buyer is relieved from using money at all where the coupons available satisfy the number of goods. The other outcome is paying extra for the goods where the items shopped exceed the value of the coupons. On both accounts, a negligible or low price on items purchased respecti vely is evident. The mentioned methods for lowering of prices are a future cost anticipated by the business on transactions based on established goals and forecast (Boyd, 23). Budgeted costs define the cost incurred for discounting and couponing to the business. It is safe to say the management should utilize the method on price lowering. The discounts allow for increased purchasing power on the consumers end. Goods bought are more in comparison to anticipated purchasing by the consumer at a given time. The mechanisms attract more consumers for this reason. The business creates a loyal large customer base. Overtime the business is able to foot the budgeted costs incurred. Increased demand of products is a merit on its own. Wal-Mart is reputable for quality goods. The methods for price reduction promote continuous flow of goods in the business. For this reason, expired or outdated goods evade the business. It is an advantage to the retailer because

Biology and Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Biology and Psychology - Essay Example The psychological state of anger,fear or ability to understand differs from one being to another (individualistically) yet it does not differ from an organism to another -this depends on how it has from efforts and abilities to react and act according to what it is able to do and unable to do physically. The dimensions of one abling himself to understand what their abilities could be and what he could get from reactions both categorized as pleasant and unpleasant could allow him to fail or succeed in what he wants to do and is able to get from things and objects of pleasurea and desirable to him. The way of receiving and perceiving things makes one able or unable to get thoughts and actions properly fit together to be able to find a way of compromising how to work in a certain frame to be able to get what he wants and push away what he does noit want. Such things exist such as in obesity which occurs when one has a feeding disorder and is unable to stop because the food pleasure is something which takes their mind off something else and is unable to get other pleasures such as attracting the females in his life. This biological defect brings him to seclusion, deluding ideas and inability to communicate in a manner to be able to find the pleasure he would like to have outside the sphere of food. Yet not all people have this problem who are obese. A lot of people are unable to get thoughts out of their minds which help them not work what they want they want which brings them to be dysfuntional in their ability to face the 'fear factor' of refusal,discharge from a job due to lack of beauty,etc. Yet,although this affects a great number of people,alot of obese people live a normal life by adjusting to their desires of food for the fun of eating and loving food and the fact that they are humurous and sociable and a well wished for companion in a party. Another example of thoughts which affect the biology of the person is the fact that they could not think properly and adjust their ideas to fit what they want and are unable to get what they seem to wish for and want due to the fact that they could not keep up with the track of ideas they have in their minds. This occurs due to an inability to face and track the speed of thoughts that occur in the mind and heart from confused feelings weld and yielded by the inability to handle the self and thus results in the fact that they become explosive as a manner of what they think is a relieving of the ideas and thoughts that rush through their veins and ideas and thoughts do not leave but just fester inside and help the person just take up such belief as a habit. Biological factors and differences in hormone diffusions inside the body do not show or work the fact that such physiological differences between man and woman,child and adult have any effect except for the way that they arrange their thoughts and ideas and how they understand themselves and how they frame the meaning of communicating and how they understand the other and what it means to them to face the other and what they need and desire the resulting actions of communications to be with such people. Also,grammatical and lexical meanings in the

Quantitative Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Quantitative Research - Essay Example This paper tries to analyze critically of two academic papers published in the European Journal of Business Management. One paper is titled â€Å"The Impact of Structural Capital on Business Performance in Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Companies.† The other is titled â€Å"The Effects of Customer Prospecting Methods on Sales Force Performance.† The papers have been selected to consider how they have approached their respective research methodologies to deal adequately with the research questions, but are analyzed separately. Both methods of research analysis will be considered; quantitative and qualitative, on how much they were used. The objective of the analysis is that it will try to highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of the research methodology used to arrive at the aims, objectives, and design and to propose an alternative strategy. This will result in either agreeing with the methodology or proposing a better methodology which could have adeq uately delivered on the research question. ... He sought to determine the influence of Structural Capital (SC) on Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (JPM) Companies’ Business Performance. The study surveyed 132 managers by administering a questionnaire. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics and correlation were used. According to the paper, to confirm the suitability of the data collection instrument, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, Cronbach’s Alpha and factor analysis as they were used. The findings were that there were significant positive relationship between SC and JMP Companies’ BP. This indicates that, SC performance can be clearly explained productivity and profitability more than market valuation. Objectives and rationale As a major research question of the study is to find out, â€Å"if there is a relationship between the direct impact of SC and JPM organization’s business performance.† The main objective is to provide useful recommendations about performance measur ement within SC context by identifying and trying to define the main attributes of productivity. This will extend to the quality of SC by pointing out critical factors of SC and to find out suitable ways for measurement and management context. The study developed a hypothesis which states that there is no significant impact SC on JPM organization’s BP. It went further to divide the hypothesis into three mini hypotheses. The first states that there is no significant impact of systems and programs (S&P) on JPM Company’s BP. The second hypothesis states that â€Å"there is no significant impact of research and development (R&D) on JPM Company’s BP.† The last is that, there I no significant

Early modernist art movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Early modernist art movements - Essay Example Futurism is clearly an innovative movement which was launched in Italy in 1909. Nonetheless, there were parallel art movements in Russia, England, and other regions. It is one of the first and among the most critical early modernist art movements that were not centered in Paris-this is evidently the reason why France does not take the movement seriously. Futurism was responsible for exalting the modern world dynamism, particularly in the field of science and technology. Futurism had begun in literature but spread its wings covering painting, industrial design, sculpture, and so on and their ideology influenced all other types of art. This piece, The City Rises, is considered to be the first painting in the futurism movement. The artist, Boccioni, illustrates a modern city in construction. In the image, it is clear that the artist depicts chaos and movement that resembles a war scene. Some people state that this work shows that the futurism movement believed that war was the only viab le means toward culture progress. The racing horses into the work’s foreground as workers are seen struggling to gain control indicate a struggle between animals and people. Animals shown are not very clear indicating movement while other objects are painted more realistically. Boccioni also shows the influences of Impressionism, Cubism, and Post-Impressionism as seen in the broken exemplification of space. Constructivism happened in Russia and was the most influential in the 20th century, it was also the modern movement.

Answers follow questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Answers follow questions - Essay Example 2. There was growing tension in the college after one of our beloved student was mugged and killed by people believed to be from the surrounding community. Students planned a peaceful demonstration to pass their messages of condolences and bereavement. The peaceful demonstration turned into a riot. As a student leader, I was able to influence the rioting students and controlled the tempers. I reminded them of the importance of dialogue in solving such problems. Striking and demolishing properties would not help bring our friend back but only cause more harm to our surrounding community. The students adhered to my speech and continued with a peaceful demonstration. 3. I come from a poor community where most of the students are unable to raise fee for their education. I am a good example of those helped by Imani Education Fund Group for needy students to attain their education. Every year the group conducts a thanks-giving ceremony. The ceremony provides a platform for raising more funds for needy students. I have been participating actively in this activity by soliciting funds and encouraging the society to contribute and help raise the next generation. With the help of my friends, I also organize and visit children orphanages. We usually give them our physical, mental, and spiritual support. 4. Once I am through with my college, I intend to be employed by big companies like Google, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Microsoft and may others in the department of marketing or human resource manager. Completion of my education successfully will furnish me with good skills and knowledge on how handling such multinational companies in terms of human resource management and marketing. My knowledge of management will help me in controlling, directing, staffing, evaluating my staff at work. My knowledge of marketing will furnish me with knowledge of understanding the aspects of supply chain, comparative

Battle Against Evil Essay Example for Free

Battle Against Evil Essay Night by Elie Wiesel and Hangman by Maurice Ogden both make strong points of view towards the battle between mankind and evil. Wiesels personal experiences give the reader very specific and down to the point accounts of the Holocaust. In contrast, Ogden musical poem gives the reader a very indistinguishable idea of what is taking place. One must examine rhyme over and over to be given the full impact of the poem. The battle against evil may be compared on the basis of their narration, their subject, their language usage, and their tone and mood. The narration of both Night and in Hangman can be compared and contrasted in several ways. The first person narrative is the main point of view used in both Night and Hangman. In the last section of Hangman Ogden reverts to the point of view, first person singular as contrasting to the rest of the poem, which is presented in the point of view, first person collective. Another way Night and Hangman contrast themselves is one is an actual real life experience and the other is a fictions poem. The narrator in Hangman and the author in Night differ in how the affected the events of the novel or poem. The narrator in Hangman was more of a witness to the events that happened. Now one must not think that the author of Night did not witness any accounts of evil though. The author of Night participated in many of the brutal acts of violence committed in the concentration camps, in contrast to the narrator of Hangman who only found himself in the action near the conclusion of the poem. The subject that both Hangman and Night revolve around is essentially the same idea; kill anyone you see of a certain group of people. The only difference between the two is that in Night the Jews and only Jews are slaughtered and in Hangman a foreigner, a man with a big mouth, a Jew, and a black man are all killed. The rest of the killings that the hangman committed are not explained in detail, but the reader knows he murdered many more. The use of language in both Night and in Hangman is similar at times, but  then they vary greatly from each other at other times. When the authors are describing the setting it is a time when they are alike. Weisel describes one the concentration camps in Night like this, The camp looked as though it had suffered an epidemic: empty and dead. (Wiesel 45). The next days sun looked mildly down/ On roof and street in our quiet town (Ogden 134). Is how Ogden describes his setting of the third section of his poem. A huge difference in the style of writing between the two works by Weisel and Ogden is that Weisel uses very dull and direct writing and Ogden uses very rhythmic and musical style of writing. Both Wiesel and Ogden set a negative tone in their writings. In Hangman the narrator never does a thing while he watches person after person is being executed hoping that that was the one who served the hangman best. All through out Night Elie never tries to help anyone, except his father. But even in the end he gives up all hope and has the same motive as the rest of the young men who were at the concentration camps, that it is every man for him self. The moods that are set by the authors are negative as well. Both Wiesel and Ogden start there writing off with a depressing and awful occurrence. Such as when Wiesel tells how Mochà © described the concentration camps he saw. Also how Ogden starts off his poem by saying Into our town the Hangman came, /Smelling of gold and blood and flame- (Ogden 134). Both of the works start with a negative tone and mood that pull one closer to the battle of evil. The battle of mankind verse evil is expressed many ways thought out the context of Night and Hangman. It is expressed in the narration with the use of real life experiences and awful occurrences. The subjects of two writings generally deal with the same thing, killing. The language usage, tone, and mood all present examples of the battle against the evil.

Nandos Management and Leadership Structure

Nandos Management and Leadership Structure Nandos started in 1987 in Rossetthenville, South Africa when two friends, Robert Brozen and his friend, Fernando Duarte went into a restaurant and ordered the offer that was on the menu. The friends had the flame grilled chicken with peri peri and they enjoyed the meal so much that they decided to buy the whole restaurant, Chickenland and changed the brands name to Nandos. Nandos has moved to the UK five years later and since become a world re-known brand name associated with flame grilled chicken. Nandos first restaurant in the UK was based at Ealing, from which they created a unique vision encapsulating many aspects of the South Africa Portuguese experience which played an important part of the ethos of how they developed their restaurants. Robby wanted all restaurants to individually reflect the location and retain the character. He recruited engaging and inspiring people to manage the business, maintained quality of the product by flame grilling the product to be consumed by customers not far from where they seated, over time, the brand was born. Grant, R M (2002) From this time onwards, a remarkable and unique major multi-million dollar business serving in many parts of the world. Today, it employs around 7000 workers in the UK with about 228 restaurants and is growing at a rate of 15 to 20 more restaurants on year by year growth rate. On the international scene, it has developed a strategy by which it expands using Franchising model that allows it to stay close to the core business. It maintains its core values, culture and location attributes making it stay focussed on the nature of the business in its franchise relationships. Culture and leadership According to (Johnson and Scholes 2006): Nandos allows flexibility for the culture of the countries they operate in to be incorporated. The companys leadership has achieved a great deal in the short time that they have been around. The major achievement recently was recorded when in March 2010, the company was awarded first place in the Sunday times top 25 best companies to work for in the UK. The classification is based on being able to employ at least 5000 or more workers. White, C (2004) Grant, R M (2002) Nandos achieved a maximum of three stars in the Best Companies Accreditation Award in 2009. Nandos is the only worldwide company to receive three stars in the United Kingdom. The award measures eight significant areas that include well-being, personal growth and leadership. And in 2010 the company entered the Sunday Times Best Companies to work for and came out first, beating other companies such as Goldman Sachs and Price Waterhouse Coopers. The company again received the full three stars, showing not only quality but sustained commitment to the leadership and management development across the organization. Grant, R M (2002) Training and development The National Training Awards (NTAs) have been running for quarter of a century, the awards recognise and celebrate Investors in People accredited organisations that have delivered outstanding organisational benefits by directly linking the training needs of their people to the business needs of their organisation. Nandos, over the years have achieved awards for five of their in-house training schemes. These are: buddy systems (buddies are much experienced staff who help train new staff); new restaurants opening training; working in management teams (team building); Nandos inductions; and coaching programmes. In addition, Nandos was first recognized as an Investor in People in 1998. They are now celebrating ten years of recognition. White, C (2004) So, what is behind the outstanding set of achievements? According to Nandos human resources director Julia Claydon, Its not just one thing; its a whole mix of different things. At the heart of the business is a unique culture and a set of fundamental values and ways of doing things. Pride, passion, courage, integrity, and family are the five values that drive behaviours and decision making in the company. Fun, friendly, and different, is the way one employee described the feeling of working at Nandos and the sense of belonging that is found within the company or family as it is described. I wanted to be part of a success story and be with a family of like-minded people. They even use different words, tone of voice, and language in everyday life at Nandos. The board of directors are referred to as the Full Monty, restaurant managers are called Patrao (head of the family in Portuguese), Nandoca is a waiter, Grillers are the chefs, and the head office in Putney is referred to as Central Support. All throughout the restaurant interior, on the menus, the walls, internal documentation, company website, and marketing material, you will see the same fun, funky, and different style of language. Barcelos is the Cockerel, was chosen as the symbol of Nandos because Robert and Fernando like the explorers of yesteryear believed in faith, justice and good luck. They refer to CSR (corporate social responsibility) at Nandos as Do the right thing. The spirit of Nandos is alive in each of their restaurants through the hand-selected, diverse mix of global music usually South African, and unique features to ensure you enjoy the Nandos experience. They have the largest collection of art by South African artists in the UK and the support and investment in this industry has changed many lives for the better in deprived areas of South Africa. On the green energy front, a new Nandos restaurant which is located on the Junction 27 on the M62 in West Yorkshire is an eco-restaurant, where h eat energy from the grills are recycled to warm up the water and heat up the central-heating system. Also, the frying fat is recycled for fuel. This approach will be gradually introduced to all the Nandos group of restaurants. The members of staff are encouraged to participate in community projects in their locations of their own sites, and schools and colleges partnerships and the funding of community improvements, as well as the donation of staff time and effort is strongly supported and is also seen as a staff development opportunity. Grant, R M (2002) Pride, passion courage, integrity, and family, the five business values drive the everyday ethical and honest behaviour, and this engaging culture results in an impressive level of 45 per cent of appointments that are filled through career progression within the businesses. The management ethos is to allow as much leadership responsibility and authority for decision making to be at the local restaurant level as possible, once the restaurant has been approved and signed off personally by Robert Enthoven himself. In essence, the leadership and management style is one that can be associated with a hands-on action-orientated, situational, and contingency approach. There is a fairly tight framework, as you would expect, to ensure consistency around the product and brand, that is centrally controlled by the support functions of procurement, marketing, and distribution. Yet almost all else is down to the local leadership of the Patrao (manager/family leader). That is, the recruitment/select ion, resourcing, motivation, training of staff, and the customer service and profitability of the restaurant. Training and facilitation in the Nandos way as well as developing the business profitability and the personal growth of the Patraos themselves, and spotting future talent, are promoted up to the next level up of management, the MDs (managing directors). Even below the conventional management level, all Nandocas are encouraged to challenge substandard quality and service in line with the company values. White, C (2004) There is a widespread development process to support career paths at Nandos. There are some specific and technical courses that member of staff must undergo, such as food hygiene, licensed house, health and safety regulations, etc. Then also many other sessions; coaching, people management, finance, and leadership development, etc. Staff can select as many sessions as appropriate that have been identified in the success management process. In terms of speed of career progression, it usually takes approximately 12 to 18 months to get to first assistant position and a further similar period to get to be Patrao. As can be seen, Nandos investment in training is given high priority as this is considered a key enabler for business success. In fact, the training of staff members costs amount to approximately 75 per cent of the human resources budget. Nandos human resource department is faced with improving the training and development evaluation systems and looking for continuous improvement methods that will really measure worth and added value of this level of training and development. Whilst there is a strong intuitive sense and informal evidence that this investment in training is linked to the success of the business, Nandos would ideally like stronger, more specific assessments. Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003). Diversity is also a major factor which differentiates Nandos from any other restaurant groups. It has always employed staff from a wide diverse culture, regardless of their level of English. They are trained in ways that work best for that individual and provided with development opportunities. These members of staff are given opportunities to develop within Nandos and to be the best they can and there are numerous stories and examples of employees from abroad who have fitted in well with the Nandos family culture and gone on to develop successful careers within Nandos. Recruitment and selection are carried out by each restaurants manger itself and the team members are also heavily involved. Normally, a trial shift is set in order to see if a new recruit has the right skills and capabilities, if they have the right attitude, and if they get involved in the fun and delivery of good service within the restaurant. Participation and a high level of involvement by all staff are significant to Nandos. It is a regular occurrence for conferences and formal get-togethers, where staff are consulted and included in introducing new working practices and processes. But its not all work; they also like to enjoy themselves, and one thing about the people at Nandos: they have great annual Nandoscars, which are parties thrown by the company and awards are given to the best members of staff. White, C (2004) Leadership in the organisation In 1987 two major reports Handy et al., and Constable and McCormick, acknowledged that the UK had the lowest number of qualified and degree-educated managers when paralleled to chief competitors of the time and that there seemed to be an association between productivity or organizational success and educational achievement of managers and leaders (Constable and McCormick, 1987), the development of leaders and managers has grown in importance. Handy et al. (1987) found that most managers had little higher education and when a manager got a new managerial role they generally learned about the new job through gaining experience at work. These reports led to the professionalization of managers in the UK and to the realization that leaders were not just heroic characters who appeared in an organizations hour of need, but that there was a diversity in leadership and that individuals could be assisted to develop leadership and management skills. Debates about the connections between leaders and managers similarities and differences are one of the key sections. White, C (2004) Variety plays a vital role in the restaurant since the need for developing and educating leaders and managers was recognized, an increasing range of methods with different interventions were developed, mostly focusing on within the company. Leadership and management development has matured, often in seclusion, from the remainder of personnel and human resources manager, and sometimes even as a separate function from employee training and development. Whilst there may have been worthy reasons for such separation, however, it is important that clear links are made within the major human resource management and development areas-and that these, in turn, are able to contribute to and be part of business strategic planning to secure an organizations future senior managers and leaders. The importance of horizontal and vertical integration of business strategy, organizational development, and the management and development of human resources has never been more obvious as organizations, fro m all sectors struggle for survival in an increasingly difficult national and international environment. Grant, R M (2002) The growing importance of continued improvement of those who are future leaders and managers can be acknowledged by reviewing changes in the external environments in which organizations operate. Within the UK, there are major changes and debates about the nature of work and the working population, with increasing diversity, changing opportunities, and increased external political, economic, environmental, and social influences. Globally, changes and influences are very easy to identify through new developing economies and cultures. Recent crises help to demonstrate that all nations and economies are critically linked and that survival of each is reliant on all. Managers and leaders therefore have to learn how to work in such organizational and international environments, taking account of diversities within. For organizations, there are more opportunities due to greater employee mobility, but with technological development there are requirements to manage increasingly distant and div erse employee groups through technological networks. Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003) Theories of motivation Many theories have been proposed by many authors on the subject of motivation in organisations. Among some of the notable contributors to this debate was an industrialist named Frederick Winslow Taylor, who put forward the concept that workers are motivated by rewards in pay. In his Theory of Scientific Management, he argued that workers do not necessarily enjoy to work and therefore need to be controlled and closely supervised. In order to achieve this, managers need to breakdown the production into a number of small related tasks and given training to improve their skills sets which should result in efficiency over a period of time for the tasks they are assigned to do. The second major observation was that workers should be paid according to the production levels they attain over a given period of time, this he called piece rate pay, which as a result would encourage workers to produce more achieving the maximisation of productivity. These methods later were adopted by the business world as they saw the benefits that they offered through increased production levels resulting in lower unit cost of production. Henry Ford was the first to use the methods on a large scale when he introduced the production line to make ford cars. This was the beginning of the mass production systems as we now know them to be. Within Nandos there is a resemblance of the Taylorism which is applied by the workers having division of labour. There are those who simply welcome the dinners and those that serve them on the till. Yet still some ensure that the flame grills are going on smoothly so that the patronage is served on time. There is a good case for a classical production system within Nandos restaurant. Taylors methodology has close relations with the concept of an autocratic management style, where managers decide on all the decisions and simply give orders to staff members that are below them, and Macgregors Theory X methodology to workers in which workers are viewed as lazy and wish to avoid responsibility. Further down the line, the workers soon came to dislike Taylors methodology as they were only given boring, on challenging, repetitive tasks to carry out and were being treated little better than human machines. Businesses could also afford to lay off workers as productivity levels increased which in turn led to an increase in strikes and other forms of industrial action by dis-satisfied workers. Elton Mayo understood that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better encouraged by having their social needs met whilst at work (a factor that Taylor ignored). He presented the Human Relation School of Thought, which concentrated on managers taking more of an interest in the workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy interacting together. Mayo carried out a series of experiments at the Hawthorne factory of the Western Electric Company in Chicago where He secluded two groups of women workers and studied the effect on their productivity levels of altering factors such as lighting and working conditions. He anticipated to see production levels decline as lighting or other conditions became progressively worse but what he actually discovered astonished him: whatever the change in lighting or working conditions, the productivity levels of the workers improved or remained the same. From this series of experiments Mayo came to the conclusion that workers are best motivated by three major factors: Improved communication between managers and workers (Hawthorne workers were consulted over the experiments and also had the opportunity to give feedback) White, C (2004).Greater manager involvement in employees working lives (Hawthorne workers responded to the increased level of attention they were receiving) Working in groups or teams. (Hawthorne workers did not previously regularly work in teams) In practice therefore businesses should re-organise production line in order to encourage greater use of team work and introduce personnel departments to encourage greater manager involvement in looking after employees interests. His theory most closely fits in with a paternalistic style of management. Abraham Maslow along with Frederick Herzberg introduced the Neo-Human Relations School in the 1950s; the main focus of the school was the psychological needs of employees. Maslows theory states that there are five levels of human needs in which are essential for employees to have in order to be fulfilled at work. All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy (see below) and only once a lower level of need has been fully met, would a worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied. For example a person who is dying of hunger will be motivated to achieve a basic minimum wage in order to buy food before worrying about having the respect of others. Grant, R M (2002) A company should therefore offer different enticements to workers in order to help them fulfil each of the needs in turn and advance up the hierarchy (see below). Managers should also be aware that not all workers are motivated in the same way and do not all move up the hierarchy at the same pace. They may therefore have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from worker to worker. Frederick Herzberg had a close relationship with Maslow and believed in a two-factor theory of motivation. He argued that there were certain factors that a business could introduce that would directly motivate employees to work harder, the motivators. He also believed that there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder, the Hygiene factors. Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003) Motivators are more concerned with the actual job itself, for example how thought-provoking the work is and how much opportunity it gives for extra accountability, credit and advancement. Hygiene factors are factors which surround the job rather than the job itself. For example a worker will only turn up to work if the company has provided a reasonable amount of pay and safe working environment but these factors will not make him work harder at his job once he is there. Importantly Herzberg viewed pay as a hygiene factor which is in direct contrast to Taylor who viewed pay and piece-rate in particular. Herzberg understood that businesses should motivate employees by accepting a democratic approach to management and by improving the nature and content of the actual job through positive methods. Some of the methods managers could use to motivate employees are: Job enlargement, in which workers are given a greater assortment of tasks to perform (these tasks are not necessarily more challenging) which should make the work more stimulating. Job enrichment which involves workers being given a wider range of more difficult, exciting and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement. Empowerment means allotting more decision making power to employees to make their own choices over areas of their working life. Managing diversity Multiculturalism is a system of beliefs and behaviours that recognizes and respects the presence of all diverse groups in an organization or society, acknowledges and values their socio-cultural differences, and encourages and enables their continued contribution within an inclusive cultural context which empowers all within the organization or society. White, C (2004) There are the four pairs of action phrases that give substance to the Definition of multiculturism: beliefs and behaviours, recognizes and respects, acknowledges and values, encourages and enables, and a fifth one, empowers. Multiculturalism is a system, a set of interrelated parts-in this case, beliefs and behaviours-which make up the whole of how humans experience and view todays world. It includes what people believe about others, their basic paradigms, and how this impact, and are impacted by, behavior. The outcomes of this framework of beliefs/behaviors are seven important actions. The first is acknowledgement of the rich variety in a given society or organization. For the longest time racial/ethnic minorities, the physically disabled, and women have not been given the same acknowledgement as others. The one-sided approach to history and education has been a testimony to that fact. Grant, R M (2002) With acknowledgement should also emanate respect. Respect and acknowledgement are not the same, since be acquainted with the existence of a group does not necessarily produce respect for the group. In a slave economy, for example, the presence of slaves was recognized but their humanity was not respected. For example, in the United States of America, the presence of   American Indians in the Western expansion of the continent was constantly recognized by whites, but their environmentally conscious cultures were never respected. Thecontribution of women has usually been relegated to a footnote status.   Multiculturalism also entails recognizing the validity of the cultural expressions and contributions of the various groups. This is not to imply that all cultural contributions are of equal value and social worth, or that all should be tolerated. Some cultural practices are better than others for the overall betterment of society. Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003) These cultural expressions and contributions that differ from those of the dominant group in society are usually only acknowledged when there is an economic market for them, such as music for African Americans, native Indian dances for tourism or cuisine from India. When the business sector wants money, the advertising industry pictures people of colour in a positive light. But in most other cases the entertainment media simply misrepresentate minority stereotypes, such as women usually in supportive background roles. Multiculturalism means valuing what people have to offer, and not rejecting or belittling it si mply because it differs from what the majority, or those in power, regard as important and of value. Multiculturalism will also encourage and enable the contribution of the various groups to society or an organization. Grant, R M (2002) Women and persons of colour, for example, often experience dissuasion because what they bring to the table for discussion is often regarded as of little value or worth. Not everything can be utilized, however, nor is of the same worth Many different organisations in society, such as colleges, churches, businesses, corporations, as well as communities have also achieved diversity well, but again, for purposes of segregation. Audre Lorde 2010 explains, we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. Without such patterns or models, the prevalent attitude and behavior toward persons of colour and others with biological, physical and sociocultural differences, or those with operating out of different thinking systems, has been one of exclusion and control. Today, to reach potential as organizations and society,that attitude has to shift to one of inclusion. White, C (2004) states that managing diversity is an non-stop process that unleashes the various skills and abilities which a varied population bring to an organization, community or society, so as to create a wholesome, inclusive environment, that is safe for differences, allows people to reject rejection, delights in diversity, and maximizes the full potential of all, in a cultural context where everyone profits. Multiculturalism, as the art of managing diversity, is an inclusive process where no one is left out. Diversity, in its core, then is a safeguard against idolatry the making of one group as the norm for all groups. Therefore, one of the dangers that must be avoided in grasping a proper understanding of multiculturalism is bashism. Bashism is the tendency to verbally and/or physically attack another person or group based solely on the negative meaning given to group membership-due to natural, cultural, political or socioeconomic differences (such as sex, age, race/culture, political party, class, education, values, religious affiliation environmental destruction), one of the principal problems confronting world society today is the problem of racial/ethnic hostility and cultural insensitivity-the new wine of racial/ethnic ferment in conflict with the old wineskins of intolerance. Cultural diversity What is Cultural Diversity? Cultural Diversity means a variety of different cultures or peoples with different ancestries, religions and traditions all living and intermingling together. Britain has profited from its vast cultural diversity throughout its history and is currently one, if not the most culturally diverse countries in the world. The diet we eat, the music we listen to, and the clothes we wear have all been influenced by different cultures coming into Britain. Foreign food, for example, is part of an average British diet, the most common example would be the Indian curry that has been served in Britain from 1773. Nandos restaurant recognises its origins as South Africa, with Portuguese influence and therefore has a policy that encourages inclusion in the work force. Hence appointments at all levels tend to reflect the nature of diversity within the organisation. Conclusion Nandos is relatively young company has the right type of leadership to drive it into the future. Their policies are well inclined to be inclusive taking into account the nature of diverse societies where it operates in. According to Adalfer, workers are motivated to produce efficiently and effectively if they are managed adequately through a good payroll system. Adalfer called these as the Hygiene factors. This position is supported by Maslow who suggested that the basic needs tend to be fulfilled first after which higher needs are sought after until such a time when the individual attains self actualisation.

Looking At Laboratory Information Systems Information Technology Essay

Looking At Laboratory Information Systems Information Technology Essay INTRODUCTION Healthcare is always a top priority within any collection of individuals, whether it is the workforce, schools, churches, communities, states, countries etc. This is because mortality rates are directly affected by the level of healthcare available, and effective productivity is dependent on good health and high mortality rates. Developed nations tend to invest large sums of money into healthcare, in order to prevent most ailments before they become epidemics, however, due to lack of emphasis on the importance of healthcare, African nations suffer from low mortality rates caused by lack of proper laboratory procedures and equipment, to test and accurately diagnose problems ahead of time. Even though we are now in a highly advanced technological era, Nigerian hospitals still conduct tests, data collection, and calculations manually, leaving a huge opening for errors which could lead to wrong diagnosis and in turn, wrong treatment. As we humans become ever increasingly dependent on computer technology in our daily lives, it then would be appropriate to utilize technological solutions to problems conventional methods prove inefficient at. These problems can be solved with the use of a properly configured software system to manage all administrative tasks in the laboratories. The most effective use of technology to solve to these issues would be carried out using open source software popularly known as a Laboratory Information System (L.I.M.S). The model of this work seeks to provide an application which will enable vital functionalities such as proper documentation and storage of patient information, patient specimen/sample tracking, and most important, patient test results. In the light of the above, the proposed system applies the web application development approach in its information architecture and processing, however this system will run on a local machine as opposed to running on a remote server over the internet. Consequently at completion of this work, the end product should be a Laboratory information management system which handles activities in the lab from the entry of a patient to the laboratory to the generating of a test result or Laboratory report. BACKGROUND OF STUDY The study for the development of the laboratory information management system uses a medical laboratory facility: Bakor Medical laboratory as its case study. Investigations indicate that the following steps or procedures are undertaken in the process of getting tested in the medical laboratory. On entry into the laboratory a document known as the Patient Investigation form. This form holds information such as the Patients name, age sex, on filling this form the patient is then billed. The patient Investigation form is then transferred to a second laboratory attendant who then uses the information retrieved from the aforementioned form to fill the laboratory request book. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM In recent times, due to increase in population, there is constant pressure on providers of various services to provide innovative methods of dispensing a sizable amount of services to great amount of people in the shortest possible time. Consequently, organizations are constantly resorting to technological solutions to meet up with the ever increasing demand for quality and speedy service delivery and with virtually everything in our day to day lives being technologically driven, should there not be a scenario where paper documentation is completely annihilated from medical laboratories?, where a system is adopted in which patient records and data are properly stored such as to enable features such as patient/visitor history tracker, where a returning patients history can aid the laboratory in deducing what type of test a visitor would request for, statistical reports generation where useful statistical information is inferred based on test results e.g whether or not there is an incr ease or decrease of new HIV infections, should there not be a software/application where other stakeholders in the health-care delivery processes such as doctors and pharmacists have access to laboratory generated information to aid in their health-care administration?, should the retrieval of patient test records be slow and cumbersome?, why must results be entered directly on the result document, therefore a backup copy is unavailable. Questions such as these will serve as a guide to the development of a robust system than manages various tasks in the medical laboratory. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS Based on the statement of the problems above the research question for this study are: How will the development of a laboratory information management System greatly increase the laboratorys efficiency? OBJECTIVE OF STUDY To design a robust Laboratory information System that will efficiently aid in the running of the laboratory facility To hold and provide timely information about each visitor to the laboratory To reduce the need to hire staff through the proper application of technological solutions therefore cutting cost. With a proper functioning and comprehensively designed application, Laboratory tasks such the following can be achieved: SAMPLES MANAGEMENT A LIMS can automate the management of samples. An organization can configure its analytical parameters and calculations into the LIMS before implementing the software in the laboratory. After sample registration, the system can print barcodes which it can scan at the end of the analysis when loading results into the LIMS. The system can check the completed results, automatically validating those which comply with specifications; and reporting (but not validating) out-of-specification results. A LIMS may release or retain lots and batches, according to a laboratorys specifications and calculations. Once results come available for the labs clients or owners, they can extract them in  PDF, XML  or spreadsheet files from the LIMS interface. (Note that moving insufficient data to a spreadsheet may lose the traceability of changes). LABORATORY USERS One may configure a LIMS for use by an unlimited  number of users. Each user owns an interface, protected by security mechanisms such as a login and a password. Users may have customized interfaces. A laboratory manager might have full access to all of a LIMS functions, whereas technicians might have access only to functionality needed for their individual work-tasks. ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS AUTOMATION As of 2009  LIMS implementations can manage laboratory sampling, consumables sampling schedule and financial (invoices). SCOPE OF STUDY Bakor Medical centre has various departments and sections based on the issue at hand to be dealt with; however this study focuses mainly on the lab processes, including data collection and management. This study takes the patient from the moment of entry into the medical centre, filling forms, up till the moment the test is taken, from that point onwards the study will focus on the methods used by the laboratory attendant to collect and store data, through recording of findings and submission of results This study will also concentrate on data backup and retrieval methods and will highlight potential errors and problems that could be encountered if the entire process was carried out manually instead of using a well configured computer application. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY The Computer based Laboratory information management System is quite desirable as it will benefit the laboratory in the area of repetitive task automation. It will serve as an assistant to the medical laboratory scientist. It will also benefit patients as they will be able to retrieve record from previous visits to the laboratory. LIMITATIONS OF STUDY The limitations of this study include: Inability to obtain actual test result document, as this goes against medical ethics for a third party to view Laboratory specimen or test results. Unavailability of qualified laboratory scientist at the study locations to properly explain terms and laboratory procedures. LITERATURE REVIEW From tasting urine to microscopy to molecular testing, the sophistication of diagnostic techniques has come a long way and continues to develop at breakneck speed. The history of the laboratory is the story of medicines evolution from empirical to experimental techniques and proves that the clinical lab is the true source of medical authority. Three distinct periods in the history of medicine are associated with three different places and therefore different methods of determining diagnosis: From the middle ages to the 18th century, bedside medicine was prevalent; then between 1794 and 1848 came hospital medicine; and from that time forward, laboratory medicine has served as medicines lodestar. The laboratorys contribution to modern medicine has only recently been recognized by historians as something more than the addition of another resource to medical science and is now being appreciated as the seat of medicine, where clinicians account for what they observe in their patients. The first medical diagnoses made by humans were based on what ancient physicians could observe with their eyes and ears, which sometimes also included the examination of human specimens. The ancient Greeks attributed all disease to disorders of bodily fluids called humors, and during the late medieval period, doctors routinely performed uroscopy. Later, the microscope revealed not only the cellular structure of human tissue, but also the organisms that cause disease. More sophisticated diagnostic tools and techniques such as the thermometer for measuring temperature and the stethoscope for measuring heart rate were not in widespread use until the end of the 19th century. The clinical laboratory would not become a standard fixture of medicine until the beginning of the 20th century. Ancient diagnostic methods In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the earliest physicians made diagnoses and recommended treatments based primarily on observation of clinical symptoms. Palpation and auscultation were also used. Physicians were able to describe dysfunctions of the digestive tract, heart and circulation, the liver and spleen, and menstrual disturbances; unfortunately, this empiric medicine was reserved for royalty and the wealthy. Other less-than-scientific methods of diagnosis used in treating the middle and lower classes included divination through ritual sacrifice to predict the outcome of illness. Usually a sheep would be killed before the statue of a god. Its liver was examined for malformations or peculiarities; the shape of the lobes and the orientation of the common duct were then used to predict the fate of the patient. Ancient physicians also began the practice of examining patient specimens. The oldest known test on body fluids was done on urine in ancient times (before 400 BC). Urine was poured on the ground and observed to see whether it attracted insects. If it did, patients were diagnosed with boils. The ancient Greeks also saw the value in examining body fluids to predict disease. At around 300 BC, Hippocrates promoted the use of the mind and senses as diagnostic tools, a principle that played a large part in his reputation as the Father of Medicine. The central Hippocratic doctrine of humoral pathology attributed all disease to disorders of fluids of the body. To obtain a clear picture of disease, Hippocrates advocated a diagnostic protocol that included tasting the patients urine, listening to the lungs, and observing skin color and other outward appearances. Beyond that, the physician was to understand the patient as an individual. Hippocrates related the appearance of bubbles on the surface of urine specimens to kidney disease and chronic illness. He also related certain urine sediments and blood and pus in urine to disease. The first description of hematuria or the presence of blood in urine, by Rufus of Ephesus surfaced at around AD 50 and was attributed to the failure of kidneys to function properly in filtering the blood. Later (c. AD 180), Galen (AD 131-201), who is recognized as the founder of experimental physiology, created a system of pathology that combined Hippocrates humoral theories with the Pythagorean theory, which held that the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), corresponded to various combinations of the physiologic qualifies of dry, cold, hot, and moist. These combinations of physiologic characteristics corresponded roughly to the four humors of the human body: hot moist = blood; hot dry = yellow bile; cold moist = phlegm; and cold dry = black bile. Galen was known for explaining everything in light of his theory and for having an explanation for everything. He also described diabetes as diarrhea of urine and noted the normal relationship between fluid intake and urine volume. His unwavering belief in his own infallibility appealed to complacency and reverence for authority. That dogmatism essentially brought innovation and discovery in European medicine to a standstill for nea rly 14 centuries. Anything relating to anatomy, physiology, and disease was simply referred back to Galen as the final authority from whom there could be no appeal. Middle Ages In medieval Europe, early Christians believed that disease was either punishment for sin or the result of witchcraft or possession. Diagnosis was superfluous. The basic therapy was prayer, penitence, and invocation of saints. Lay medicine based diagnosis on symptoms, examination, pulse, palpitation, percussion, and inspection of excreta and sometimes semen. Diagnosis by water casting (uroscopy) was practiced, and the urine flask became the emblem of medieval medicine. By AD 900, Isaac Judaeus, a Jewish physician and philosopher, had devised guidelines for the use of urine as a diagnostic aid; and under the Jerusalem Code of 1090, failure to examine the urine exposed a physician to public beatings. Patients carried their urine to physicians in decorative flasks cradled in wicker baskets, and because urine could be shipped, diagnosis at long distance was common. The first book detailing the color, density, quality, and sediment found in urine was written around this time, as well. By a round AD 1300, uroscopy became so widespread that it was at the point of near universality in European medicine. Consequently, the clinical laboratory became a standard fixture of medicine at the beginning of the 20th century; it is now an integral part of the health-care delivery process and is seen as the basis for medical diagnosis. In recent times a medical laboratory scientist (MLS), formerly known as a medical technologist (MT) or clinical laboratory scientist (CLS), functions as a medical detective, performing laboratory tests that provide physicians with information that assists them in preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases and maintaining patient wellness.   The medical laboratory scientist performs a wide variety of laboratory tests, ranging from simple dipstick urine tests to complex DNA tests that help physicians assess risk of diseases. Using test results, physicians can uncover diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, infections and many other diseases.   Medical laboratory scientists interact with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other members of the healthcare team to provide timely, accurate information so the patient can receive the correct medical treatment.   Medical laboratory scientists use sophisticated biomedical instruments and technology, microscopes, complex electronic equipment, computers, and methods requiring manual dexterity to perform tests on blood, body fluids, and tissue specimens. Clinical laboratory testing sections include clinical chemistry, hematology, Immunohematology (Blood Bank), immunology, microbiology and molecular diagnostics. EFFECTS OF MEDICAL LABORATORIES Medical Laboratories have played a pivotal role over the years. As stated above, in ancient times, physicians relied on various inaccurate means of disease diagnosis such as urine tasting, listening to the lungs etc. However with the advent and subsequent evolution of modern medical laboratory facilities, plus the discovery of the cellular nature of human tissue and the invention of the microscope, medical diagnosis made a tremendous leap from a 50-50 accuracy ratio to an 80% accuracy rating for laboratory based medical diagnosis. Therefore the use of medical laboratories has greatly increased the accuracy of diagnosis; hence the physician can administer the proper kind of treatment. The use of laboratories has also led to various discoveries, such as new strands of Viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi. It also acts as a monitor for new strands of drug resistant bacteria. CHALLENGES FACED BY MEDICAL LABORATORIES The main challenges and bottle-necks encountered by medical laboratories over the years include. Inability to preserve patient samples or specimens such as blood, sputum, stool, over a long period of time for reference purposes hence making patient to specimen matching and tracking, Efficient information sharing and retrieval between the laboratory scientist and those administering treatment has been a problem. MEDICAL LABORATORIES: IMPROVEMENTS AND THE FUTURE For the efficient functioning of the diagnosis system, health-care delivery, scientific research into bacteriology and disease causing organisms, technology should be applied to automate administrative tasks, such as the visitor registration and result documentation. By making judicious use of computer software to automate and manage tasks in the laboratory there will be a dramatic increase in its efficiency. Consequently this will greatly reduce the need to recruit and pay personnel to carry out administrative duties therefore such resources can be channeled towards more important needs of the laboratory. TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM/PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO BE USED IN STUDY The technologies to be used in the development of this Laboratory Information Management system is an open source programming language known as PHP, together with a MYSQL driven database, a solid browser based application will be developed. PHP: PHP also known as Hypertext Pre-processor, it belongs to a class of languages known as middleware (Needham, 2006). These languages work closely with the web server to interpret the request made from the web, processes these request, interact with other programs on the server to fulfill the request and then indicates to the web server exactly what to serve to the clients browser. It is the leading web programming language for design of web applications. It possesses a language similar to C, Java or Pearl. Its uses include: retrieving user input and saving it in a database, retrieving information from a database and general data manipulation processes. THE CLIENT: Simply refers to end users of an application that connect to a remote server to carry out computational processes THE SERVER: An application known as a web server listens for requests a client makes, responds to those requests and serves out the appropriate response (Greenspan, 2002) MYSQL: Refers to an open source relational database management system with a set of programs that access and manipulate these records. (Descartes, 2003). It is a  relational database management system (RDBMS)  that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. APACHE WEB SERVER: Apache is a web server notable for playing an important role in the initial growth of the world-wide web. It is responsible for accepting Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from web client (web browsers) and serving the HTTP responses along with optional data content which usually are HTML pages. These platforms are used in this research work because: There are open source meaning there are free to use and develop with without having to purchase licenses or fulfill any legal obligation to the owners of the technology. It is easy to deploy on a local machine Its hardware requirements are minimal therefore making its installation and usage less cumbersome. Developer tools and support services for the platform/technology are readily available at absolutely no cost. DATA COLLECTED FOR LABORATORY TEST Lab Investigation Form: This form is used for general patient registration and data collection. Data collected on this form include Patient Name Patient age Hospital Number Specimen Blood Specimen Sputum Stool Urea Various Swap Investigation Record Clinic Details Name of Doctor Lab Request Book: Used to record Patients data for that day. Name Lab Investigation Done Amount Time in Data Collected for lab tests Lab result book (Used for recording patients results) Patients Name Date of birth Gender Test Results Date Hospital registration Number Extra Comments SUMMARY The use of technological solutions greatly reduces costs, increase profits, save human effort and provide better services to customers/clients The use of an LIS (Laboratory information System) in the running of a medical laboratory facility greatly improves the documentation process; makes patients records retrieval a lot easier and faster, records are not lost and are kept safe via regular backup of the available data. With the use of a Laboratory information system, various kinds of data deductions, surveys and reports can be easily generated for statistical purposes such as the average percentage of persons with a certain kind of disease, Genotype or blood type etc. CONCLUSION A properly developed Medical Laboratory information system will greatly increase productivity, increase the quality of services delivered by the facility and greatly reduce the amount of man hours put into the delivering the laboratory services

An Analysis of Jack Londons To Build A Fire :: London To Build a Fire Essays

An Analysis of Jack London's To Build A Fire Charles E. May, Author of the article "To Build A Fire': Physical Fiction and Metaphysical Critics" was giving his psychological criticism on the Jack London short story. May was elaborating on the naturalistic behavior of man versus nature when it comes to survival. May's article suggests that the protagonist in the story did not only have a psychological discovery but a "simple physical discovery that self is body only"(23). In the story, "To Build A Fire", the protagonist has to accept that he was not invincible, but a human with a weakness. The man may have been psychologically apt in his own eye but weak against nature and the physical elements. The protagonist displayed defiance in authority when he "laughed" (152) at the advice of the Old-Timer on Sulphur Creek when he told him how cold it gets in the country. The protagonist felt he had everything under control when he made the first fire to keep warm in spite of the numbness of his fingers. The test of egos and wills began to surface when the man was ready to move on and the dog wanted to stay near the fire. However, just as "there was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man"(152) the dog would be the protagonist constant companion until the man's death. The man had to accept that the "fire provider had failed"(156) when he did not have control of his frozen fingers or the building of the fire. Nature had defeated him. The id in the protagonist wanted to kill the dog to keep himself warm. But the ego along with the man's inability to "neither draw nor hold his sheath knife"(157) caused him not to be able to kill the dog. The aura of death was prevalent. Realizing that he no longer had dominion over his own body as well as accepting his making a "fool of himself"(158) he had to accept the inevitable. Not only did he have to accept death, he had to acknowledge that the Old-Timer was right when warning him about traveling alone. Ironically, while the man was dying, he was angry at the dog because of its natural warmth, instincts that he had, and the survival skills that the dog used.

Judge Holden of Blood Meridian :: Blood Meridian Essays

Judge Holden of Blood Meridian Although Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian tells the story of the kid and his journey through the harshest of environments, much of the action in the novel centers around Judge Holden. Judge Holden is a mystery from his very first appearance in the novel and remains so until the very end of the novel, when he is one of the few characters surviving. The kid first comes face to face with Holden in a saloon after a riot and eventually joins with Holden and a gang of misfit scalp-hunters to roam the Mexican-American borderlands. Judge Holden has some historical foundation as a character. The Judge is mentioned in Samuel Chamberlain's My Confession, a personal narrative published in 1956. Chamberlain was a private during the war with Mexico and met Holden when he joined Glanton's gang of renegade scalp-hunters. Chamberlain describes Holden as gigantic and without hair, just as Holden is described by McCarthy (Sepich 125). One of the most mysterious qualities of Judge Holden is his ability to move from place to place and almost be in two places at once. As Tobin says, "every man in the company claims to have encountered that sootysouled rascal in some other place" (McCarthy 124). Holden's first appearance in the novel is a prime example of his ability to appear in two places simultaneously. The Judge manages to escape from the riot in Reverend Green's tent to a saloon where he is completely dry, even though it is pouring rain outside (7-8). The Judge also mysteriously appears next to the kid at the bar where the dancing bear has just been killed. He looks "little changed or none in all these years" (325). In both of these situations Judge Holden is the cause of the chaos around him. The Judge single-handedly incites the riot on Reverend Green and is the cause of the bear being slaughtered. These events are indicative of the entire novel in that there is constant chaos and violence w herever Judge Holden go es. Judge Holden's physical appearance seems unbelievable and full of contrast. Holden towers over everyone, yet he seems pre-pubescent because of his total lack of hair and his small hands and feet. Much of the imagery surrounding Judge Holden describes him in child-like terms. The features of the kid and the Judge tend to complement each other.