Epistemology †Plato Essay

There were many great philosophers who have contributed in making philosophy what it is today, one of them being Plato. In addition to being an outstanding philosopher, he was also a mathematician and a writer. One of Plato’s biggest inspirations was his very own teacher Socrates. Socrates never wrote down a word of what he said, but thankfully Plato was able to record it all down for him and wrote many dialogues about Socrates words and teachings. One of Plato’s most famous works was his dialogue, The Republic which was written in 380 BC. The Republic consists of ten books total each consisting of different topics concerning ancient philosophy. From reading a short excerpt from the philosophical text: Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Second Edition) edited John Cottingham, Cottingham takes an excerpt from (Plato, Republic [Politeia, c. 3800 BC], Bk V, 474b-483e. Trans. B. Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon, 1892), vol. lll, pp. 171-9)), Plato writes about knowledge versus opinion and Socrates views on each from a first person point of view. In the following excerpt there is an ongoing conversation between Socrates and Glaucon discussing their personal views and thoughts on knowledge and opinion. Socrates does not oppose of having opinions, he says they can later be turned into knowledge. These beliefs and opinions will only act as a guide to our knowledge. Socrates believes that opinions are very good and can be useful while one has them as they stay in our minds, but they are only temporary and eventually will leave our minds. Opinions are not of great value and will escape from our minds. This means they will not be worth much until they are tied down and figured out by working out the reason. Once they are tied down those opinions will evolve into knowledge. This knowledge is permanent and overall much better than true opinion. Knowledge is when one can thoroughly and fully explain why a certain belief is correct. Knowledge can be used to back up ones opinion by using facts and explanations from prior experience. Socrates believed that philosophers were to rule the polis’ of Greece because they were better than all the others due to the knowledge they held. He believed that anyone who did not have knowledge and rather held to their opinions should remain as followers, that it is only possible for a leader to have knowledge and only philosophers can have knowledge. Socrates felt philosophers were the only ones who could have knowledge because they knew the process of reason. Knowledge is what makes a philosopher who he is and separates him from the rest of mankind. Philosophers are a different kind, special people, being able to see and know more than what meets the eye. Socrates believes that philosophers should be rulers and kings of Greece. Knowledge is so power that one could mange to be a king. In Socrates mind, philosophers would be the best fit to being a king and having all rule. Knowledge and opinion are very different powers, therefore they must have different objects. Everyday objects can be told and described to be what they are in detail. For example, Iona College has a beautiful campus. This very statement is in between what is, and what is not. Knowledge is relevant to what is, and opinions are just assumptions. This is where Plato introduces us to his theory of the forms, which are absolute true objects of knowledge. Forms cannot be obtained from any of the senses, only from true knowledge. Forms are absolutes such as justice, happiness, goodness, etc. Forms are responsible for making sense of our surroundings and making sense of why things are as they are. On page 13 in John Cottingham’s book, Socrates says, â€Å"I need not remind you, that a lover, if he is worthy of the name, ought to show his love not to some one part of that which he loves, but of the whole. † meaning when someone loves something they love the entirety of it, not just a part but every part. Socrates knows that the average human is unable to love something for all that it is because they do not have any knowledge. The philosopher loves all knowledge and wisdom and will always be curious and stay open-minded until they find knowledge. During this dialogue Glaucon disagrees with what Socrates says, Glaucon believes that you do not need to be a philosopher in order to be curious and know things. Socrates says that the difference between a person of that type and a philosopher is that philosophers are lovers of truth. On page 14, Socrates says, â€Å"The lovers of sound and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fond of fine tones and colours and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of them, but their mind is incapable of seeing or loving absolute beauty. † He is saying that philosophers are very different from the lovers of sight and sound because they claim to know all about the beauty of things but cannot claim to have any knowledge. Those lovers of sight and sound do not see the beauty itself, they are only lovers of opinion. These lovers cannot, and will not ever be philosophers. Whereas philosopher embrace each and every thing for itself and each part that it is. Socrates is defining a true philosopher as someone who desires the entirety of knowledge and loves the sight of truth. A lover of truth is a knower of truth. This knowledge that philosophers possess are the forms. Socrates does not actually know of the World of Forms, he never gives a name to these realities and form of true knowledge. Plato is the one who introduced the world of forms based off of Socrates ideas. When reading The Republic, one must infer that Socrates is talking about the forms. Socrates knows the forms are present, that there is a higher level of knowledge and reality, but never puts a name to this object. Knowledge is certain and can never change due to the forms. Socrates is a firm believer in that knowledge as a whole is relative to being and knows being. He then will go further and divide all being into classes. The classes are, what is completely and what is not at all. These classes can be further divided into what is both and what is not. What is completely is knowable, which is also the forms because only they can count as what is knowable. The forms are certain knowledge and unchangeable. Only philosophers have knowledge because only they have access to the forms. What is in no way is inexperience and what has not used by the senses. What both is and is not is the matter of opinion. Knowledge and opinion can be separated since they are such different objects. The philosopher is known for being wide awake on top of having knowledge. The philosopher is awake to reality of the world and his eyes are wide open to understanding truth and consuming knowledge. Being in his actual world he is able to use reason and come to conclusion of obtaining knowledge. The non-philosopher, the one who only has opinions is a dreamer, living in a dream world. This dream world is only a reflection of the forms, which are only minor images and are not existent. This dreamer can be awoken from his slumber of the world of forms once his temporary turn into more permanent knowledge. Socrates now introduces faculties of our mind which are knowledge of the real and our notion in appearances. One can use reason to understand the properties of the form of beauty, when doing this that one has achieved the power of knowledge of beauty for its true self. But if one only see some parts of beauty they only believe in its general appearance. His senses can deceive him if that is all he is doing. This person cannot be a philosopher for believing in only the appearance of a thing. Glaucon compares the attempt to separate knowledge from the belief in appearance by saying this process is so weak that it reminds him of riddles and children’s puzzles. On page 17 Glaucon says, â€Å"They are like punning riddles which are asked at feasts or the children’s puzzle, and upon what the bat was sitting. A man who was not a man (a eunuch) threw a stone that was not a stone (a pumice-stone) at a bird that was not a bird (a bat) sitting on a twig that was not a twig (a reed). † Glaucon is expressing the misperception of the intellect and how it is hard to actually separate knowledge from the appearances of things. As one can see from The Republic, Socrates has generally the same repeating ideas about those who have knowledge and those who have opinions. It is extremely clear that Socrates only believes that philosophers are the only ones who have knowledge. The non-philosophers consist of those who only have opinions meaning they only view the appearance of things. These non-philosophers are quick to judge a thing not for itself due to the fact that they are lacking from knowledge in their minds. Plato introduces us to a new concept the world based off of the teachings of Socrates. This new concept is the world of forms and will take us into a deeper understanding of knowledge more than one could ever think to have known. The forms are what lead us to true knowledge. With the help of the knowledge from the forms one can now know reason, and why things are the way they are. The world we live in now makes sense and everything can come into place. In conclusion Socrates says knowledge is much more powerful than opinions, that the philosophers who love the truth in each thing are to be known as lovers of knowledge, they are not and never will be lovers of opinion due to how much knowledge they have.

Brain Response of Behavior

The communication process of neurons in the brain is a complex electrochemical process from one neuron to the next in a series of chemical reaction to pass the message (Charles, 2002). However, the message to be passed precedes the process of communication involved. The message to be communicated to the brain neurons originates from the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and sound.The neuron’s dendrites usually receive a chemical message from the neighboring neuron which generates or triggers off a chemical reaction to form nerve impulse.The generated nerve impulse or action potential travels down the neuron tube referred to as axon through the terminal button at the end of that neuron. At this end, the message carried is passed to the next adjacent neuron through a synapse. However, the synapse has a gap called synaptic cleft that message neurotransmitters should diffuse through to the next nerve cell’s dendrites. The electrical message to be diffused through synapti c cleft is contained in synaptic vesicles with several neurotransmitters.The neurotransmitters on the presynaptic neuron or neuron that has the message to diffuse through synaptic cleft to the postsynaptic neuron or on the receiving neuron must be in appropriate key and fit structures (Charles, 2002, p. 63). This is necessary to enhance successful neurotransmitters binding after diffusion. Once the neurotransmitters are diffused through the synaptic cleft, they bind to the dendrites of postsynaptic neuron and release the chemical message that triggers off or stimulates neuron chemical changes.Thereafter, the process repeats as the previous one for this neuron until it moves message to the next nerve cell and communication enhanced. It is a point of worth to note that, once message diffuses through the synaptic cleft to the postsynaptic neuron, there are several neurons that shall receive the message but only specific neuron that is compatible to the message is shall successfully rec eive and pass it by to the next neuron.For example, if there is need for body temperature control, the neurons that are specialized in body temperature control messaging only shall facilitate communication to the brain; and after interpretation by the brain the same neurons shall carry message to the hypothalamus. Then hypothalamus gland shall release hormones to increase liver activities, constriction or vasodilatation of blood vessel, follicle hair behavior and personal behavior to respond to cold by warming or wearing heavy clothes or hot weather by wearing light clothing (Albert, 2002).Neurotransmitters and their effect on behavior The observable behavior is a result of brain interpretation and stimulated action course. However, it should be noted that the brain ability to influence behavior is highly dependant on neurotransmitters contained in the synaptic vesicle. The neurotransmitters have the capacity to influence the message being passed and the outcome in terms of behavior exhibited. In this regard, neurotransmitters are chemical agent in the neurons that are responsible for facilitating message movement from one neuron to the adjacent one through axon (Charles, 2002).To this effect, neurotransmitters are either excitatory which allows communication or inhibitory that hinders information passage depending on the nature of message being passed on. But effects of neurotransmitters whether inhibitory or excitatory are different depending on the nature or receptor. Some common examples of neurotransmitters are: Acetylcholine which is an excitatory neurotransmitter dealing with the muscle tissues especially the heart muscles to facilitate blood pumping mechanism.Epinephrine is concerned with energy provision for urgent confrontation such as immediate flight or fight by producing glucose as a ready energy to an individual. Another neurotransmitter is the Serotonin which is concerned with person’s mood and insufficient leads to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders. Oxytocin is concerned with maternal related behaviors such as mammary glands, sperm production and ovary release in sexual related behaviors. On contrary to excitatory neurotransmitters, Dopamine is an example of exhibitory neurotransmitter that inhibits action potential in motor neuron.Abnormal quantity of Dopamine results to Parkinson’s disease and substance addition (Charles, 2002; Albert, 2002). Part II: major regions of the brain and their functions on behavior The brain is a complex structure that is divided into specialized parts or regions that perform specialized function. The importance of specialization and brain parts division is not only in brain processing information and generating responses, but the specific impact on behavior of an individual generated by each specialized part. In this regard, the brain has three main regions: cerebral cortex, limbic system and the brain stem (Charles, 2002).The brain stem is the most primit ive part of the brain that is located at the joint where the spinal cord enters the brain (Charles, 2002). This part of the brain contains such sub-parts as reticular activity system, medulla and the Pons. The main function of this part of the brain is for autonomic functions deemed as necessary for survival such as health, food, shelter and security seeking behaviors. For instance, when a person falls ill, the brain stem triggers off the course of action to seek medication or health care, thus such an individual shall move towards the hospital premises than to any other direction of food or security.The cerebral cortex is brain region that is on outer part that covers the brain (Charles, 2002). By virtue of covering the brain, the cerebral cortex is considered as the largest part of the brain. The behavioral function of the cerebral cortex involves higher cognitive processes such as memory process that enhances language, thought and learning. Therefore, behaviors such as performanc e in academic work, ability to retain and remember, verbal fluency and speech development are controlled and generated by the cerebral cortex.Limbic system (Charles, 2002) is the third region of the brain with structures such as hippocampus, thalamus, amygdale and hypothalamus. This part of the brain is responsible for emotional related behaviors of individuals such as motivation, memory functions, and physiological functions. For instance, amygdale is responsible for behaviors such as anger, fear and aggression. The hippocampus sub-structure involves the functions of memory such as information coding and processing into short term and long term memories. Hypothalamus is responsible for emotional behaviors such as hunger, sexual feelings, thirsty and reproduction behaviors.

History of American Education Essay

The Colonial Period (1607–1775) †¢ 1642 †¢ Massachusetts Bay Colony law requires proper teaching of children. In 1642, the Mass Bay Colony ruled children not taught properly would be apprenticed (practical work experience under the supervision of skilled workers in the trade and arts) to the town. The Early National Period (1775–1820) †¢ 1805 †¢ First elementary school established in New York, Formed by a wealthy businessmen to provide education for poor children. Run on the â€Å"Lancastrian† model that the older students learn and pass it down to the younger children. The Common School Movement (1820–1865). †¢1825 †¢ Noah Webster standardizes word meanings. First edition of Noah Webster’s â€Å"An American Dictionary† is published. The Evolution of the American High School (1890- 1920) †¢ 1895 †¢ First achievement test devised. Joseph Rice develops a spelling test, which he gives to over 16,000 students in eighth grade. The spelling test is made of 50 words. The Modern Era (1946 – present) †¢ 1954 †¢ Brown vs. Board of education, Topeka case makes segregated schooling illegal on the grounds that segregated schools generate feelings of racial inferiority and are inherently unequal. The Colonial Period (1607–1775) †¢ 1642 †¢ Massachusetts Bay Colony law requires proper teaching of children. In 1642, the Mass Bay Colony ruled children not taught properly would be apprenticed (practical work experience under the supervision of skilled workers in the trade and arts) to the town. This even in education history has shaped today’s classroom and proposes great reflection of what children are to become tomorrow. In this even, societies are molding a future for children, boosting their education in hopes that someday they  will have made a wise career choice and make something of them. Not intended for the children to work under someone’s care, but to work for themselves. This is still practiced in today’s classroom. The curriculum gets more complicated and the lessons get harder to accomplish. This paves the way for children to challenge themselves and others around them in order to succeed. Teachers are to encourage students to be what they want to be in life and not to settle for less. Children are encouraged by parents, teachers and society to become successful no matter what they plan to achieve with their education. This method is started before birth for many children and parents. Parents practice things such as singing, playing music, reading and talking to unborn children to stimulate them in the womb. This stimulation helps children progress faster and learn easier when they are born. Society has stressed to children that they should learn, learn, and learn some more to be as successful as they can possibly be.

Federal Medical Malpractice Reform Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Federal Medical Malpractice Reform - Case Study Example The American Medical association and several Congressional work groups including the Simpson-Bowles commission and the Domenici-Rivlin Debt Reduction Task Force have voiced strong opinion that reform in the sector lies at the heart of servicing federal deficit and securing justice for injured patients. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that in the next decade up to $ 62.4 billion will be spent on a defective medical malpractice system. In light of these facts and the majority public support for reform in the sector, the failure of the bipartisan malpractice reform bill at the senate that was slated to cap non-economic damages at $250, 000 and indeed countrywide failure to comprehensively enact reform legislation requires a return to the drawing board. Medical liability reform is at the heart of health care access. Key Concepts of Malpractice Reform The sky-rocketing premium costs incurred in covering doctors from malpractice suits much publicized court cases involving phy sicians has been argued to be behind the cut-backs in risky medical procedure that deprived ordinary Americans much needed medical services. This feature termed defensive medicine has ramifications that go beyond just the health department. In certain states physicians are planning to move to states where premiums are lower and insurers are exiting the industry. The problem is partly judicial as out-of-control jury awards have caused the unrestrained rise in costs, (Pozgar, 2011). Because of these hefty insurance costs that are passed on to patients, they drive inflation in the medical sector. Thus any health plan that is directed at liability reform should have measures aimed at stabilizing these rising costs. Of importance is the cap on non-economic damages which has the effect of stemming surges of indemnity losses by lowering the severity of claims and consequently premiums. Non-economic damages, sometimes termed hedonic damages, compensate harms that are hard to quantify. Every aspect of malpractice award can be quantified save for this and left to the discretion of the jury. The cap could be enhanced by allowing punitive damages. These have also been shown to have a significant impact on costs tied to the medical malpractice system (Kachalia & Mello, 2011). An offset for collateral payment could also lower the financial exposure of physicians and also the multiplicity of suits at which damages are collected. There have been recent developments that have impacted how much premium health care providers paid and the possible exposure risked. Among these are; physician exit of carriers in the market that offer affordable rates and over which physicians have some degree of control; growth of hospital self-insurance that creates a risk pool enabling more high-risk features; by affiliating with their institutions, hospitals that buy policies for their doctors stabilize insurance costs passed to doctors and finally the emergence of joint underwriting association s and patient compensation funds that cover losses exceeding the care provider’s policy limit. Other developments work to raise these costs. These are claim-made policies as opposed to occurrence policies that leave wide berth for a multiplicity of suits on which further damages are collected since they are filed once a year; increases in re-insurance costs are passed on to the doctors by their primary insurers. A dip in investment returns also

Parenting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Parenting - Essay Example This is by instilling essential values and beliefs whose core purpose is to ensure that they live harmoniously with others. Undeniably, the existence of a healthy communication in a family setting prompts its members to create enmeshed relationship, hence maintain the required cohesion (Hepworth 255). Therefore, they end up depending on each other whereby they are capable of finding solutions meant to confront certain life’s predicaments, which are difficult when, tackled singlehandedly (Hepworth 255). Communication in the family system also develops a sense of belonging among its members. This is due to the closeness characterizing diverse members’ interactions and attention they normally enjoy (Hepworth 255). Mainly, this is in the form of both material and emotional assistance. Therefore, this equips them with the necessary skills meant to fit in the larger society and contribute as necessitated, for instance, the children. Additionally, communication helps to strengthen family bonds whereby individual members through their actions and talking where they constantly assure each other unco nditional support (Denise & Theiss 298). Since, they always act as a team especially when trying to resolve a predicament affecting one member whereby he or she could not have managed to solve it singlehandedly (Denise & Theiss 298-299). Therefore, communication is an essential tool meant to improve and strengthen coexistence in a family system (Hepworth 255). Behavioral science information has significantly enabled parents provide effective parenting to their children. Since, its core purpose entails equipping them and older children with adequate knowledge meant to interpret diverse behaviors characterizing their immediate members. This is especially by scrutinizing their behaviors and ascertaining what they could be experiencing (Beaver & Kristy 114). Since, some members owing to their physical conditions or other incapacities might not be in a position to

Screening the Project with R-W-W Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Screening the Project with R-W-W - Essay Example This satisfied our curiosity on whether people actually need the service. We will be mostly focusing on UBC campus area where our market ranges from students to faculty members to visitors. The market for Cargo exist and is pretty wide, Umbrella2go won’t focus on a specific segment, but rather all who use an umbrella during the day (Statista 2015). Demand for umbrella is highest in a rainy season. However, the umbrella is becoming an all-whether necessity with changing lifestyle and fashion needs. University students are reported to take Umbrellas in a big way (Scaria 2015). There is a market for about 96 lakh pieces of umbrella that is not adequately met (Krishnakumar 2015). U2Go will mostly be competing with all umbrella sellers on campus, which range from the UBC bookstore, Sear shop, Shoppers, University Pharmacy, London Drugs shop, and the Umbrella Shop at Granville Island. However, as this service is new, there will not be any direct competition facing our organization, establishing a monopoly advantage. Those shops are located in fixed places and have single outlets. Our salespeople will be quite mobile and distributed in major streets where students are likely to pass through especially in the rainy or weather. Therefore, we will reach out to our customer and they will not look for us like the other shops (Vancouver Umbrella). The business will open 6.00 am in the morning and close 7.00 pm to cater for hours that students get in and leave school. However, the business will open overtime in rainy seasons when it is expected sales will be high when our competitors have closed. The price of an umbrella depends on the quality and durability. We are determined to provide all varieties to meet our customer’s interests. The average cost of an umbrella in Vancouver and particularly around UBC campus is $ 10-50.  

Comparative character analysis Research Proposal

Comparative character analysis - Research Proposal Example The reason for Paul and Dave’s sense of entrapment stems from their lack of social and economic power. While Paul was born to a middle-class worker who had â€Å"a worthy ambition to come up in the world†, Dave was condemned to the life of a farm laborer. Disillusioned by their surroundings, both of them felt the need to salvage their situation. Whereas Paul thought money could transform his identity, Dave was misled to believe that owning a gun could help him earn respect. Though both Paul and Dave share a common goal - to rise above their ordinary existence, they end up adopting different means to achieve it. Whereas Dave sweet talks his mother into giving him the two dollars required to buy the gun, Paul does something drastic – he steals one thousand dollars. These different actions cast both of them in different lights. The reader finds Dave childish in his strategy for getting a gun. â€Å"Mebbe Ma will lemme buy one when she gits mah pay from ol man Hawkins,† Dave speculates, sounding every bit a boy as he resolves, â€Å"Ahma beg her t gimme some money.† After he procures the gun, he is mighty careful in hiding it. Later, when he is overcome by the desire to hold it, he makes sure that he is safe and he plows â€Å"two whole rows before he decide[s] to take out the gun† . He then casts careful glances in all directions and then after being sure that he is not being watched, carefully unfastens the gun from his leg, a nd proudly flashes it before the mule: â€Å"Know whut this is, Jenny? Naw, yuh wouldn know! Yuhs jusa ol mule! Anyhow, this is a gun, n it kin shoot, by Gawd!† . He promptly then issues a warning to Jenny: â€Å"When Ah pull this ol trigger, Ah don wan yuh t runnacka fool now!†. It is an irony that he tells Jenny exactly what he should be paying heed to. The silly words that Dave utters, only amuses the reader and they instantly

Global warming Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Global warming - Research Paper Example While considering meat’s entire lifecycle, a meat eater is said to contribute to 1.5 tons more greenhouse gases per year compared to a vegetarian. This fact has been revealed by a study conducted by the University of Chicago (Michael, 2009). By contrast, changing to a hybrid Toyota Prius from a Toyota Camry is expected to help humans get rid of one ton of greenhouse gases per year (Michael, 2009). Global meat production is increasing every year. This is found to be adding more global warming gases. Therefore it is said that one of the easiest ways to decrease the collective greenhouse gas emissions is to consume less meat. Similarly every human activity is blamed to be causing global warming. These findings appear to be amusing when we properly understand the nature of the process, global warming. Global warming is believed to be primarily caused by carbon dioxide emitted into atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels in vehicles. However we forget that natural water cycle is causing much more carbon-dioxide to come in and out of the atmosphere. Even though we cannot deny that human activities are contributing to warming of earth, it would be wrong to comment that global warming is completely human-made. Some of the causes of global warming are in the arctic region. The polar ice caps melt faster than they get evaporated. This process would be reversed in ten to twenty years. Human activities are causing less than three percent of greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere. Average world temperature is gradually increasing; this process is happening in the last one million years. This is long back the human activities started on earth. Global warming has been happening long back industries started emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are of the belief that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere today will negatively affect human beings several hundred years later. This is however not true. The lifespan of carbon dioxide is only 20 year s. After 20 years, the emitted carbon dioxide would completely disappear from atmosphere. Sun has little role in heating the atmosphere. The high frequency radiation of sun does not heat atmosphere. Hot bodies like sun cannot release low frequency radiation called infrared radiation. Rather, the heat from the sun heats the earth’s surface. This process reduces the radiation to infrared. Heat moves into the atmosphere by different processes like conduction, convection and evaporation. The infrared radiation gets absorbed by carbon dioxide. Instead, the sun’s rays heats the Earth’s surface, this weakens the radiation to infrared. From there it moves in to the earth’s atmosphere by any means necessary (Conduction, convection, evaporation). Then the inferred radiation is absorbed by the CO2. Almost 97 percent of the heat in the atmosphere is caused by evaporation or convection. Greenhouse gases are not responsible for this warming of atmosphere (Mintzer, 1992 ). The climatic changes of these ages are negligible compared to the climatic changes of the ancient periods (Mintzer, 1992) (Mike, 2006). Water evaporation is the chief cause of global warming. Water evaporation is causing global warming 100 times more than carbon dioxide emission (Mike, 2006). Human activities

Cloud Computing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cloud Computing - Essay Example Although this technology has many advantages to a global society, it has a number of risks that make it disadvantageous in its application. The development of the cloud computing technology spans a long historical period that has seen it the common phrase today in the in information technology today. In the 1950s the mainframe computer technology had many drawbacks that necessitated the need of sharing resources within computer networks in public institutions. During this time, the mainframe computers were slow and expensive and it was virtually impossible to provide each person with a mainframe computer. Consequently, the need for sharing information arose in public institutions where the number of computers were much less than the number of clients. To achieve this, the static terminals, which were used for communicating but had no processors, were invented to ensure that the CPU clock speed and the resources within the mainframe memory could be shared among various clients. Betwee n the year 1960 and 1990, cloud computing became more common as scientists suggested that it was possible to connect the whole world through the use a few data centers and numb terminals located from all over the world (Furht, and Armando 10). At this stage, this technology was foreseen as an invention that would globalize the world and connect all human beings within a cohesive network. The period between 1990 and 2000 has been a period of rapid transition of cloud computing technology. Telecommunication service providers adopted the virtual private network (VPN) in which their clients could access networks remotely. Also, this was the time when the cloud computing symbol was used by service providers to mark a separation between the core network and the client side of the network. After the proliferation of the internet technology, the internet formed common network where information could be shared and distributed within virtual computer systems. In 2000, companies such as the Am azon modernized their data centers and provided high capacity networks where information could be accessed by many clients in their online presence. Today, this technology has been adopted within the business systems to synchronize global business operations and form high capacity networks that can provide data to all clients in the world (Furht, and Armando 15). Cloud distributors have become popular as they adopt hardware Virtualization and utility computing that have become the drivers of the cloud computing technology. The cloud computing architecture is divided into two ends that separate the storage and the access sides. Strickland (2) regards the two sides of the cloud computing architecture as the front end and the back end. The front end side is constituted by the client’s computer network and the associated applications that facilitate access of the networks. Mozilla Firefox and the internet explorer are just some of the applications that are commonly used by client s to access the internet on the front end. On the other hand, the back end side constitutes the computers, servers and the autonomous data storage systems that allow the formation of a cloud that can be accessed from the front end. The internet forms a link between the front end and the back end as it forms the channel of communication between the clients and storage servers.

Thesis Project Essay Example for Free

Thesis Project Essay My senior year of college required me to do a thesis project.   As a drama major I had to choose and direct a full length play.   From the moment I began choosing this project, until its completion; I learned a lot about myself, mainly how I approached and solved problems.   I had two primary goals to focus on while working on this.   The first and biggest, I had to satisfy the panel of reviewing professors before opening night.   The second, I had to please a college audience of savvy theatergoers, in addition to making good changes requested by the professors.    As one might imagine the road to completion came with some bumps. First off, I had to choose my play, and then the cast of characters.   Choosing it came more easily to me than most.   I wanted a contemporary play and found one I liked very much in the library quite easily, David Rabe’s Hurlyburly.  Ã‚   Finding the right cast proved more difficult than I imagined.   We had a few good actors who I knew I wanted for the principal roles.   Generally the department frowned on having more than one set of auditions. However, I could call myself a friend of several of these key players; so I approached them before auditions and begged them to try out for the play.   I had an open mind to any surprises, and some occurred, but I ended up casting my preconceived choices in the main roles.   I never had high hopes for some of the lesser roles, but luckily the right people auditioned for those.   So with some luck and begging, I had my cast. It turned out that casting the play was the easiest thing I had to do, next part editing.   If I had not edited this play it would have gone on for well over three hours, which I could not accept, nor could the professors.   I had an editing assistant who simply started crossing out pages haphazardly.   I basically ignored her recommendations and made edits of my own.   I stubbornly kept the play too long, which I regretted later. Lastly, came directing.   I quickly found that conceiving an entire play differed greatly from directing a single scene for a class.   Mainly, with all the time on our hands until opening, I had to get the most out of my actors.   At the same time, actors do not enjoy a director telling them how to do their job.   One simply needs to elicit more out of them.   I learned to do that over the course of rehearsals, by asserting myself more, coupled with having a clear vision of how I wanted things to look. Luckily the play opened to good reviews.   I learned a lot about myself in the process.   I met each of my challenges choosing a play, casting, editing, and directing head on.   I enjoyed it, but would give serious thought before doing it again.

Corporate Governance Practices of Indian Companies

Corporate Governance Practices of Indian Companies The paper uses disclosure scores to examine corporate governance practices of Indian listed companies. A content analysis of 50 companies listed on the NSE has been carried out. A disclosure index compiled by SP has been developed to determine how much listed Indian companies disclose. This study reveals that Indian companies are quite transparent. The research findings shall enable the investors in estimating how much disclosure listed Indian companies make. It will also add to the increasingly inadequate literature relating to corporate governance and disclosure practices in developing countries. This study though has limitations since the focus lies only on 50 companies listed on the NSE which are the largest and most followed stocks and may not represent all Indian companies. Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction Corporate governance has received increased importance in the aftermath of collapses of large companies worldwide such as Enron and WorldCom. Economies worldwide are now realizing the importance of good governance (Standard Poors 2008). The developed countries realized the importance of governance mainly following corporate scandals of the west (Reed, 2002). In some cases these scandals led to a direct response e.g. the Cadbury Report (Boyd, 1996 cited in Reed, 2002, p.228). On the other hand, in developing countries such as Brazil and India, poor economic performance had often led to economic crisis. Consequently, these countries came under the control of bodies such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These bodies impose many regulations which require increased attention to governance issues (Reed, 2002). As opposed to developed countries, developing countries paid no attention to governance issues until the financial crisis of East Asia in the late 90s (Oman C., 2003, Mangena and Tauringana, 2007). However, Sobhan and Werner (2003) view that these countries started giving importance to governance issues not because of the East Asian financial crisis but by problems in their own financial markets. Goswami (2003) reiterates this by writing that corporate governance movement began in India due to some corporate scandals that came to the forefront during the first phase of economic liberalization in the country in 1991. Transparency and disclosure are at the heart of corporate governance. Transparency and disclosure helps reduce the information gap between the management of a company and its shareholders and thus helps resolving agency issues in corporate governance (Patel, Balic and Bwakira, 2002). Background Fig. 1 below depicts clearly that India ranks quite high among the developing countries with respect to its governance practices next only to South Africa and Poland. Figure : Governance Ratings of Developing Countries, 2008 (Source: Governance Metrics International) Corporate Governance in India As opposed to developed countries, developing countries paid no attention to governance issues until the financial crisis of East Asia in the late 90s (Oman C., 2003, Mangena and Tauringana, 2007). However, Sobhan and Werner (2003) view that these countries started giving importance to governance issues not because of the East Asian financial crisis but by problems in their own financial markets. Goswami (2003) reiterates this by writing that corporate governance movement began in India due to some corporate scandals that came to the forefront during the first phase of economic liberalization in the country in 1991. One of these was a major securities scam of over Rupees 35 billion (Rupee 1 =  £ 0.0125, approx.) that was uncovered in April 1992 which involved a diversion of funds from the banking system to stock brokers for financing their operations. Bank executives, brokers and even politicians came under the scanner. The stock market had to be shut down for an extended period. Investors and brokers panicked. This led to the first step towards corporate governance in India when the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was created by an act of Parliament to protect the interest of investors in the securities market and to regulate the stock market (Goswami, 2003). In 1998, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an industry association published Indias initial corporate governance code, the implementation of which was voluntary by companies and thus very few companies adopted it. Until 2000, the CII Code was Indias only corporate governance guideline. In 1999 the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), constituted a committee to promote and raise the standards of corporate governance in India which was patterned on UKs 1992 Cadbury Report. On the recommendations of this committee, a new clause 49 was incorporated in the Stock Exchange Listing Agreements (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Listing Agreementsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?). Since 2001, the CII Code has been supplemented by Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement (SEBI, 2003). These corporate governance requirements are applicable to all listed companies in India (Government of India, 2009 and SEBI, 2009). Aims, Objectives and Research Questions The aim of the research is to develop an understanding of the practices of corporate governance in developing economies by investigating the disclosure practices of Indian listed companies. This study will cover 50 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) which comprise the NIFTY which is the benchmark index of the NSE. SP CNX Nifty is a well diversified index comprised of 50 stocks across 23 sectors of the economy. The objectives of this study are: To develop an understanding of the importance of corporate governance and transparency and disclosure using literature review; To examine Practices of corporate governance of listed Indian companies using content analysis by studying annual reports of the companies and allocating disclosure scores. The study addresses the following research question: RQ1. How far are Indian listed companies transparent and how much do they disclose? Structure of the project The rest of the research is organized as follows. Chapter 2 provides a review of the relevant literature followed by research design and methodology in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents the findings and discussion. The study ends with chapter 5, conclusion which outlines the main points and findings of this study together with limitations and also raises future research questions. Chapter 2: Literature Review Introduction In the sections that follow, the existing literature on corporate governance and disclosure is reviewed. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the importance of corporate governance; the second part presents the agency theory. The third part provides a discussion of the importance of disclosure and transparency and its relation with corporate governance. Corporate Governance is an issue of growing importance in developing countries. The Cadbury Report (1992) defines corporate governance as the system by which businesses are directed and controlled. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Corporate governance involves a set of relationships between a companys management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? -The preamble of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Principles, 2004 (OECD) Though there have been several studies on corporate governance in developed countries, very little work has been done on developing countries. Most studies have been limited to specific countries. Developing countries encounter a lot of problems such as less developed and illiquid capital markets, economic uncertainties, and weak legal controls and investor protection (Rabelo and Vasconcelos, 2002). Due to these reasons, effective corporate governance in these countries is essential (Tsamenyi, Enniful-Adu and Onumah, 2007). Importance of Corporate Governance Good corporate governance in companies and also across the whole economy helps in providing a level of assurance necessary for the appropriate performance of a market (OECD, 2004). If the governance is weak, equity markets will be thin and thus there will be slower economic growth. On the other hand, in countries where corporate governance systems are strong (like stronger accounting standards), better investment and growth performance can be achieved (Gugler, et al., 2003). Institutions when making investment decisions, give a lot of importance to the fact as to whether the companies follow the basics of corporate governance. Thus if countries wish to attract capital for a long time, they must follow the globally accepted governance principles. Good governance also helps increase the confidence of investors within the country and thus helps reduce the cost of capital (OECD, 2004; La Porta et al, 1998; Bopkin Isshaq, 2009). Foreign investors refrain from investing in developing countries because of weaker governance mechanisms in these countries (Mangena Tauringana, 2007). Thus, companies needing external financing in the future should start adopting better governance measures in the present (Klapper et al, 2004). Many authors support the view that for the development of capital markets, effective governance mechanisms are very crucial (Rabelo Vasconcelos, 2002; Levine Zervos, 1998; Rajan Zingales, 1998). Capital markets can function efficiently if there is effective flow of information between the company and its stakeholders (Akhtaruddin, 2005). Agency Theory Many theories such as stakeholder theory, agency theory among others, express the importance of transparency and disclosure. This paper uses the agency theory as a theoretical framework and models that effective corporate governance practices including transparency and disclosure help resolve agency problems à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" such as extraction of personal gain by majority shareholders and under or over-investment (Aksu and Kosedag, 2006). Agency theory models the relationship between the principal and the agent (Barako, Hancock and Izan, 2006). Agency relationship is a contract under which one or more persons (the principal) engage another (agent) to perform some work on their behalf. Thus the shareholders (the principal) delegate the decision making function to the manager (or the agent) (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). This separation of ownership and control leads to the incurring of certain costs also known as agency costs (viz. expenses incurred by the principal to monitor agents activities) which are not incurred if the owner and manager are the same person (Barako, Hancock and Izan, 2006). In an agency relationship, managers have an information advantage which they may misuse for their own personal interest. Conversely it may so happen that agents may disclose more information to enhance the value of the firm and to increase the flow of investment in the company by reducing the cost of the agency relationship (Bara ko, Hancock and Izan, 2006). Patel et al. (2002) opine that the agency problem in corporate governance can be resolved in many ways à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" by a vigilant board of directors, by timely, accurate and sufficient disclosure of financial information and by transparency in the ownership structure. This study deals with one aspect, viz. disclosure and transparency. Disclosure and Transparency Transparency and disclosure are at the heart of corporate governance. The OECD Principles of corporate governance (2004) state that the corporate governance structure of any association should make sure that well-timed and precise disclosure of all important matters of the organization pertaining to its performance, ownership and overall governance is made. Transparency and disclosure (TD) practices followed by firms are an important component and one of the main indicators of the quality of corporate governance (Aksu and Kosedag, 2006). Companies mainly disclose through their annual reports; thus these should contain information that will allow its users to make correct decisions on efficient use of scarce resources (Akhtaruddin, 2005). In fact, a lot of what a company discloses in its annual reports and financial statements reflect its corporate governance quality (Bokpin and Isshaq, 2009). A firm if makes correct and adequate disclosure, reduces information asymmetry thereby reducing investors risk (Bushman and Smith, 2001). Similarly, Lang and Lundholm (1996) view, that by removing asymmetry in information, disclosure and transparency reduce the level of surprises relating to a firms performance thereby making its stocks less volatile. Chapter 3: Research Methodology With the aim of examining the disclosure practices of Indian listed companies, the focus of this study is the examination of annual reports of listed Indian companies using content analysis. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first deals with research design which is content analysis for this research. The second part presents the method of collection and data analysis. Research Design Research design embodies a structure which directs the implementation of a research method and the data analysis (Bryman and Bell, 2007). It tries to describe the best way to design the research so that the best data for the research can be obtained (Lee and Lings, 1975). The research designs that may be employed include experiment, survey, case study, action research, grounded theory, ethnography, archival research, content analysis among others (Saunders, Lewis Thornhill, 2009). The aim of this research is to examine the disclosure practices of listed Indian companies. Annual reports are intended to disclose information about the companys activities and performance to shareholders and other stakeholders. In order to examine the level of disclosure, in lines with previous research, this study seeks to identify the presence or absence (disclosure or non disclosure) of certain identified corporate attributes in the annual reports of the companies. An examination of annual reports of companies could be one of the justifiable ways of assessing their disclosure practices; consequently, the research design used is one of content analysis. Content analysis is an analysis of documents and texts (which may be printed or visual) that seeks to quantify content in terms of pre-determined categories and in a systematic and objective manner. Objectivity ensures that there is transparency in the procedures for assigning the data to categories so that analysts personal biases are ruled out to a large extent (Bryman and Bell, 2007). This study entails analysis of annual reports of listed Indian companies by quantifying content in terms of pre defined categories. Content analysis has been conducted on annual reports by a number of researchers such as Tsamenyi et al. (2007) and Patel et al. (2002) among others, as they are a good instrument to measure comparative positions and trends in reporting. As a technique for collecting data, it involves codifying qualitative and quantitative information into pre-defined categories in order to derive patterns in the presentation and reporting of information (Guthrie et al., 2004). The following paragraphs explain the method of collection of data, its quantification and classification and its analysis. This study uses the method of content analysis which itself is not free from limitations. The major limitation is the subjectivity involved in coding (Frost and Wilmshurst, 2000). In order for valid inferences to be drawn from content analysis, the reliability of both the data and the instrument of collecting and coding the data must be achieved (Milne and Adler, 1999). This research uses the coding method used by many previous researchers such as Patel et al. (2002) and Tsamenyi et al. (2007) and hence can be regarded as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"reliable. Data Collection and Analysis This study entails the examination of annual reports of Indian companies. Data is collected on 50 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and representing the NIFTY, which is literally the barometer of the Indian Capital Market. The sample thus consists of 50 companies listed on the NSE. The SP CNX Nifty is the National Stock Exchange of India Ltds main exchange. The CNX Nifty tracks the performance of a portfolio of blue chip companies, which are the largest and most liquid of the Indian securities. It consists of 50 of about 935 companies listed on the NSE consisting approximately of 60% of the market capitalization and reflects correctly the Indian stock market. The SP CNX Nifty consists of 22 sectors of the Indian economy (Standard Poors, 2010). This research studies the annual reports of these 50 companies. Analysis is limited to only one year because disclosure practices usually do not change dramatically over time (Botosan, 1997). All annual reports are available online on the respective company websites and have been accessed thus. The annual reports studied for most of the companies are for 31st March 2010. All data has been collected from annual reports of 50 companies which make up to 60% of the total market capitalization. Annual reports are one of the most important devices to convey information and are hence the principle focus of the disclosure index (Alsaeed, 2006). This study uses 98 attributes in all to measure corporate governance and extent of disclosure in India (Appendix 2). These attributes have been compiled by Standard Poors and used in many previous studies on disclosure. Using an objective methodology, annual reports are analyzed for common disclosure items grouped into three sub- categories: Ownership structure and investor relations Financial transparency and information disclosure Board and management structure and process A Transparency and Disclosure Score is developed for every company from a binary evaluation of the number of items present in their annual reports, i.e. if a company discloses a particular attribute, a score of 1 is awarded and if not a score of 0 is awarded. This paper analyzes the TD score for 50 Indian companies representing the NIFTY. Previous studies on disclosure and corporate governance such as those by Patel et al. (2002) and Tsamenyi et al. (2007) had followed a similar approach. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion This chapter presents the findings of this study and also compares the same with previous studies. A disclosure index has been constructed based on a thorough and rigorous examination of the annual reports of the sample companies. Disclosure is defined as the appearance of an item of information in the annual reports of the companies under study (Karim and Ahmed, 2005). If an item is disclosed in the annual report, a score of 1 has been awarded and if the item is not disclosed, then a score of 0 is awarded for that attribute. Thus this disclosure method measures the overall disclosure index (ODI) of a company as additive as follows: Where, d=1 if the item di is disclosed d=0 if the item di is not disclosed n=number of items 4.1 Disclosure Scores and Descriptive Statistics The disclosure scores for each firm are presented both as actual scores and as percentage of the total number of attributes assessed in annual reports. The overall level of disclosure and disclosure score together with the percentage is presented in Table 1 below. Overall, disclosure and transparency register an average score of 72.04 which is quite good. Considerable variation can be noticed in the disclosure practices among the sample companies in India with a range of 54-82. The descriptive statistics are presented in Table 2. Table 1: Disclosure Scores Company Names Disclosure Scores % of Score ACC Ltd. 80 80% Ambuja Cements Ltd. 56 56% Axis Bank Ltd. 76 76% Bajaj Auto Ltd. 75 75% Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. 68 68% Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. 69 69% Bharti Airtel Ltd. 78 78% Cairn India Ltd 73 73% Cipla Ltd. 72 72% DLF Ltd. 73 73% Dr Reddys Ltd. 75 75% Gail India Ltd. 76 76% HCL Technologies Ltd. 54 54% HDFC Bank Ltd. 71 71% Hero Honda Motors Ltd. 74 74% Hindalco Industries Ltd. 54 54% Hindustan Unilever Ltd. 70 70% Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd 72 72% ICICI Bank Ltd. 77 77% ITC Ltd 78 78% Infosys Technologies Ltd. 82 82% Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd 81 81% Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. 76 76% Jindal Steel Power Ltd 75 75% Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. 75 75% Larsen Toubro Ltd. 74 74% Mahindra Mahindra Ltd. 65 65% Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. 64 64% NTPC Ltd. 62 62% ONGC Ltd. 65 65% Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. 65 65% Punjab National Bank 65 65% Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd 54 54% Reliance Capital Ltd. 75 75% Reliance Communications Ltd. 81 81% Reliance Industries Ltd. 82 82% Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. 76 76% Reliance Power Ltd 77 77% Sesa Goa Ltd 75 75% Siemens Ltd 74 74% State Bank of India 74 74% Steel Authority of India Ltd 75 75% Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. 62 62% Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. 63 63% Suzlon Energy Ltd 75 75% Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. 76 76% Tata Motors Ltd. 75 75% Tata Power Ltd. 80 80% Tata Steel Ltd. 81 81% Wipro Ltd. 77 77% . Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of Dependent and Independent Variables Mean Range No. of firms Overall Disclosure Index 72.04 54-82 50 Chapter 5: Conclusion This paper reports on the level of disclosure of a sample of Indian companies listed on the NSE by examining their annual reports. The study uses a transparency and disclosure (TD) index for determining the level of disclosure among listed Indian companies. The index is developed by assigning scores to 50 companies on pre-determined attributes; the study uses the binary scoring method. Using a dataset relating to listed companies for 2009-10, the study reveals that firms on average report 72% of the items compiled by SP to assess level of disclosure. The results of this study can be useful for investors to help them in gauging the level of disclosure by listed Indian companies. It will also be of interest to researchers, managers, regulators and market participants. The findings of this study must be interpreted in the light of the following limitations. Firstly, the sample used for this study is small in size and is composed of the largest and most followed companies on the National Stock Exchange and thus may not be representative of the population of Indian companies. Secondly, the index used to find the level of disclosure, is that which has been compiled by SP. No distinction has been made between compulsory and voluntary items of disclosure. Also, this study uses the unweighted or binary approach to measure the level of disclosure. Thus, if a company disclosed an item voluntarily, it did not get any extra score for that. Finally, the study gives at best a broad overview of the level and quality of disclosure among Indian companies since the results are based on the data of one year only and lacks longitudinal analysis. Further research is needed to evaluate the trends in the disclosure and also to assess if the level or quality of disclosu re has improved over time. Even with these limitations, there are some important contributions that this study makes. This study reports that the level of disclosure among Indian listed companies is quite high.

Identity of Women in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road Essay -- On The Road e

The Identity of Women in On The Road      Ã‚  Ã‚   The women in Jack Kerouac's work, On The Road, are portrayed as superficial and shallow, while the men display depth in character. Women are stereotyped as falling into one of three categories; virginal, maternal or promiscuous, and, throughout the novel, are referred to in a facetious, derogatory manner. ‘Sal’, the protagonist, expresses sexist attitudes, which are a result of both his upbringing and societal attitudes of the time. Although the novel does highlight the problem of sexism, ultimately it does nothing to criticise it, but in fact projects it.    In On The Road, there are many instances in which female identity is diminished. These arise in the novel’s treatment of female characters such as ‘Marylou’ (a friend of Sal’s and one of two wives of another central character, Dean), Sal's Aunt, and ‘Terry’ (a girlfriend of Sal’s). Marylou, for example, is treated as an object with the sole purpose of satisfying Dean wishes. He uses her for his own sexual gratification and, in some instances, the sexual gratification of his friends, but does not view her as a complex individual, nor does he value her for her personality. Thus, Marylou is perceived by the male characters to fall into the ‘promiscuous’ category, and is referred to in the novel as a ‘whore’.    At the end of ‘part one’ of the novel, the reader witnesses the unjust treatment of Sal’s aunt. Sal has just returned from his first trip west, and is tired and starving. Taking advantage of his aunt’s sympathy, he eats everything in her house. He does not, however express any gratitude toward this kindness, but takes it for granted. Thus, his aunt is perceived only as a maternal figure. He does not look bey... ...This perception of female identity causes the men in the novel to feel superior and dominant. The sexual discrimination and denigration of female identity evident in On The Road, is a reflection of societal attitudes of the time. Works Cited and Consulted: Bartlett, Lee. The Beats: Essays in Criticism. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 1981. Cassady, Carolyn. Heartbeat: My Life With Jack and Neal. Berkeley: Creative Arts Books Company. 1976. Cassady, Neal. "Letter to Jack Kerouac." March 7, 1947. Challis, Chris. Quest For Kerouac. London: Faber and Faber Limited. 1984. Dardess, George. "The Delicate Dynamics of Friendship: A Reconsideration of Kerouac's On The Road." American Literature. v46: 200-206. 1974. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road. New York: Penguin Books Limited. 1955. Watson, Steven. The Birth of The Beat Generation. New York: 1978    Identity of Women in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road Essay -- On The Road e The Identity of Women in On The Road      Ã‚  Ã‚   The women in Jack Kerouac's work, On The Road, are portrayed as superficial and shallow, while the men display depth in character. Women are stereotyped as falling into one of three categories; virginal, maternal or promiscuous, and, throughout the novel, are referred to in a facetious, derogatory manner. ‘Sal’, the protagonist, expresses sexist attitudes, which are a result of both his upbringing and societal attitudes of the time. Although the novel does highlight the problem of sexism, ultimately it does nothing to criticise it, but in fact projects it.    In On The Road, there are many instances in which female identity is diminished. These arise in the novel’s treatment of female characters such as ‘Marylou’ (a friend of Sal’s and one of two wives of another central character, Dean), Sal's Aunt, and ‘Terry’ (a girlfriend of Sal’s). Marylou, for example, is treated as an object with the sole purpose of satisfying Dean wishes. He uses her for his own sexual gratification and, in some instances, the sexual gratification of his friends, but does not view her as a complex individual, nor does he value her for her personality. Thus, Marylou is perceived by the male characters to fall into the ‘promiscuous’ category, and is referred to in the novel as a ‘whore’.    At the end of ‘part one’ of the novel, the reader witnesses the unjust treatment of Sal’s aunt. Sal has just returned from his first trip west, and is tired and starving. Taking advantage of his aunt’s sympathy, he eats everything in her house. He does not, however express any gratitude toward this kindness, but takes it for granted. Thus, his aunt is perceived only as a maternal figure. He does not look bey... ...This perception of female identity causes the men in the novel to feel superior and dominant. The sexual discrimination and denigration of female identity evident in On The Road, is a reflection of societal attitudes of the time. Works Cited and Consulted: Bartlett, Lee. The Beats: Essays in Criticism. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 1981. Cassady, Carolyn. Heartbeat: My Life With Jack and Neal. Berkeley: Creative Arts Books Company. 1976. Cassady, Neal. "Letter to Jack Kerouac." March 7, 1947. Challis, Chris. Quest For Kerouac. London: Faber and Faber Limited. 1984. Dardess, George. "The Delicate Dynamics of Friendship: A Reconsideration of Kerouac's On The Road." American Literature. v46: 200-206. 1974. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road. New York: Penguin Books Limited. 1955. Watson, Steven. The Birth of The Beat Generation. New York: 1978   

Frankenstein :: English Literature

Frankenstein The murder of William is the first monstrous act the creature commits. The murder of William came about when the creature arrived in Geneva, when he gazed his eyes on the young boy, the creature’s idea was to not harm the boy but to seize him educate him as a companion an friend, but the idea of the creature backfired when he found out that the boy was related to victor Frankenstein, his creator. When the creature approached William, William’s first reaction was to be frightened scared because from his eyes he could see nothing more than a monster wanting to kidnap him. The creature tried ensuring William that he wasn’t going to hurt but William continued screaming and struggling to escape. The creature said to William â€Å"child what is the meaning of this? I do not intend to hurt you; listen to me†. William wasn’t convinced and then there was a struggle between them. William said to the creature â€Å"let me go, monster! Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces†, that of course wasn’t what the creature had in mind, what he was looking for was companionship, a friend, someone who accepted him for who he was. The boy then told the creature â€Å"my papa is a syndic he is M. Frankenstein that was when the creature became furious, because of what he had discovered. The creature grasped William’s throat to silence him and killed him instantly. We encouraged to understand things from the creatures perspective because of the way he is just abandoned by Victor and the way in which the Delacey’s deserted him and we also sympathise with him when he is shot by the father of the young girl that he saved from drowning. We are made to understand the creature’s anger and frustration because for all the good he did for humans he only got treated badly in return. After knowing that he could not continue living with humans any longer, the creature asks victor to create him a companion, someone that he could interact with someone as hideous as him and someone that he could be happy with. In chapter 17 victor takes over telling the story. He is asked by the creature to create a companion for him. At first victor refuses at the creature’s request because he thinks that creating a second monster may only bring joint wickedness and that both creatures may desolate the world. We sympathise with Victor at this point because at that point the creature had killed most of his family, the creature was very malicious at this point. Victor began making the companion for the creature when he saw the

Adopting an Energy-Efficient Lifestyle Essay -- Environment Research P

Adopting an Energy-Efficient Lifestyle â€Å"Energy is critical for economic growth, social development and human welfare,† said the Honorable Shri Dilip Ray at the 1999 International Conference on Financing of Energy Sector in Developing Countries (Chaturvedi 29). However, it can also be detrimental to these necessary features of human life by affecting the environment we live in. The environment, comprising â€Å"both social/economic and physical/environmental elements,† is currently being damaged by the side effects of energy wastage (Cloke and Park 35). This damage to the environment, including biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, health problems, and decreasing abundance or degradation of natural resources, is primarily due to the immense requirement of energy needed to fuel electric power plants which supply home appliances such as electric lights and heating and air conditioning systems with energy. â€Å"The total electric energy consumed in the United States annually is more than 20 trillion ki lowatt-hours. Electric motors consume about 58 percent of that, or 13 trillion kwh† (Qayoumi 1). If we did not require as much energy to sustain our lifestyles, or in other words, if we lived in more energy-efficient homes and used more energy-efficient products, environmental damage could be substantially reduced. We could then derive the added benefit of having a reduced monetary cost for energy usage. Not much is required to reduce both monetary cost and environmental damage. â€Å"If the efficiency of every [electric] motor were improved by only 2 percent, and with an average electric cost of 6 cents per kwh, it would translate into annual savings of more than $1 billion† (Qayoumi 1). However, we cannot expect to help heal the wounds we ... ...Countries. New Delhi, India: Concept Publishing Company. Cloke, P. and Park, C. Rural Resource Management. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. Earth Sheltered Home from Ecolution, the Eco-Home Network Newsletter. Eco-Home Network. 30 Sept. 1999 . Motors and Maintenance: Enhancing Energy Efficiency. Mohammad H. Qayoumi. 30 Oct. 1999 . ST-96-20R Estimates of Housing Units, Households, Households by Age of Householder, and Persons per Household: July 1, 1996. The U.S. Bureau of the Census. 30 Oct. 1999 . Sub-claim: Propose to show this with other examples of energy efficiency (passive solar heating, insulating homes, active solar heating, geothermal energy, hydropower, wind energy)

Such power – Creative Writing

The lattices unfolded, releasing images and numbers†¦ people became clear, their lives known to me, a child of the mind†¦ daughter of telepathy Can you see? Can you smell, hear, touch a million senses that aren't yours? Can you sense a person's innermost thoughts? See through their eyes, until all you feel is a shell of a world, just one small view of the complex image you know is there. Look around, with your inner eye; a whirlwind of images, sounds, words. Faces stare in the vortex; old voices test new phrases; a smell revives a stranger's memory. How do you hold it all? Whose feelings are real? It could engulf you, this power, the helplessness of the feeble minds you enter, until your cry enough! rings through so many heads†¦ You can bury yourself in one mind, or open up to the cacophony of the world. What surfaces? More complex than the physical world; thoughts can scatter to dark corners, or collect in the forebrain; how much can you read in the blackness that mere mortals cannot see? Subconsciousness. In there a part of us lurks, suspicious of everyone, waiting till our defences are torn to shreds and we can show our true nature, our first strength. Some people snap early; succumb to pressures, do what the voices say. Life can seem easier when you don't have control†¦ frustrating for some, for many it is simple release. How then can you cope? The responsibility, the knowledge – gleaned from others – of the consequences you might unknowingly inflict. That word seems nonsensical: you, the mind reader, the gifted, not knowing something. But if you don't – can't see the future, should you still control people? Do you? Do you learn from yourself as well? Either you become ruthless, manipulative, or terribly afraid of your gift. How could such a child grow normally, with those thoughts – unsaid, but not unheard. Decisions. They fill our lives, and the child sees. Yet do we truly decide for ourselves? We are influenced by every experience we have, every choice we make. We become the product of the life we lead; but somehow we made those decisions, often early on, about our future. Somewhat paradoxical is this world; clearly personality does not spring into existence, yet it influences itself in an unending spiral. No two choices are the same size, without ever becoming unimportant. Suppose, a most whimsical choice, someone wears light, loose clothing – on the very day a fast car whips past, catching on it and tearing†¦ everything could have any impact. A normal human cannot foretell the future; but we can imagine. If you see a thousand people's dreams, and learn their hopes and experiences, read a million thoughts for the future; is that not a style of precognition? Intentions are clear and what the normal person does not think of may be obvious to the next one along; you could change people's lives! You could change your own life. You must choose. You have power; knowledge, predictive ability and intelligence; you must choose whether to help others†¦ or yourself. You could have the world. When you can see what others want, need, expect from you, will you play up to it; or twist their thoughts, even their world? You look through a thousand eyes, and see how a thousand worlds could be better. How they could affect each other. Having this feeling from birth – this weight of knowledge, this heavy understanding; you may perhaps be bitter. You ask yourself again why something happened, when you could have prevented it. The child looked about him, his face pale and calm†¦ He knew the answers instantly for they were not his own. His eyes never shifted, they focused on his work, His answers coming fluidly although his mind would jerk. From one head to another, the little boy did pry†¦ His eyes skimming patterns that meant so much to his third eye. No one knew this was his talent, not math or science, but the ability to know, Know what others were thinking, and that's how he did not grow. He plundered and stole his way right to the top, Telling people what they thought†¦ his treachery unseen. The compliments were many†¦ yet he was alone, trapped in his own lies, And that is where he stayed until the day he died Can normal people comprehend how a telepath's mind would be shaped? If the â€Å"gift† comes later in life, how tempted would a person be by power, tempted to make decisions for others, or just to help†¦ a little more than is necessary? The darkness in your own soul may be more difficult than another's†¦ people lie to themselves, you thought you were above that, but you're still one of us. Dark undercurrents sway emotions and surface as fits of depression, anger, violence†¦ then regret. You watch as our emotions surge, fighting back your own. A normal teen? No†¦ a thousand normal teens. And you cannot tell a soul, for there are institutes for mad people like you†¦ they would not understand. Do you dream? Do you scream when, released at nights, your mind flits back and forth; thoughts unstructured, pieced together from other brains: †¦why †¦hurt †¦need †¦but †¦not †¦pain †¦remember†¦ and the images flicking, picture after picture, so fast, so quickly gone, old friends, places, a deathbed, a favourite dog, a tree which conjures sorrow†¦ a true nightmare, impossible to decipher so much pain. The world itself is the nightmare; why can you not put it to rights? But there are days without torture, days when the sun shines and you find a happiness to feed upon. You drown those who are hurting out, listen only to the sunshine and peace in a child's head. Somehow†¦ eventually†¦ you piece together some sort of education†¦ learn to select what you open your mind to; how much easier it would be, were you not alone of you kind. A teacher, a real teacher, who understood†¦ now that would be something†¦ Concentrate now. One mind at a time, please. No damage must be done. This man, read him, but learn the taste of your own thoughts; you know his prejudice is wrong. Don't just take, add of your own. Think for yourself, or be locked away. Would you? So many people so frightened, so scared of being â€Å"disappeared† – you pick up that fear, but – an idea! Couldn't you†¦ change the minds around you? Are you able to change thoughts, after reading them? Influence minds without saying a word†¦ This is why your power inspires fear; no one knows how much you can control. Maybe all you need is the knowledge, the knowledge of what people want to hear. You would never be locked away, so long as you listen, and speak those magical words to convince them. This is a curse, you think-feel-sense-absorb. You are destined never to be alone, do not understand the search for companionship. All you want is solitude, an empty mind. They would have thought you insane, had they known the fiery maelstrom in your head. A child cannot think without words, and you had so many, so many†¦ one of the first things you deciphered was not to be different. Different is scary. But of course, you were smart. You met smart people, and gained their â€Å"smarts† too. You understood anything a tutor told you – almost before they spoke†¦ necessarily, with the â€Å"gift† comes intelligence; or your mind could not cope with the data flowing so unhesitatingly. With the gift comes cunning. You are – different; and powerful. You are a world healer†¦ or a destroyer.

Customer-Driven Learning at Radisson Hotels Essay

In the case study titled â€Å"Customer-Driven Learning at Radisson Hotels Worldwide† the background, growth, and service guarantees of the Radisson Hotel chain is discussed. Radisson Hotels was founded in 1938 by Curtis L Carlson of Carlson Companies Inc. The company’s headquarters were located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was divided into four operating groups – Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Carlson Marketing Group, and Carlson Leisure Group. In 1975 Radisson only had ten hotels but quickly grew to three hundred and sixty locations in forty seven countries by 1998 by partnering with existing hotel companies creating Radisson SAS Worldwide under the â€Å"growth at any cost† model. By 1998 Carlson Hospitality Worldwide included Radisson Hotels Worldwide, Country Inns & Suites by Carlson, TGI Friday’s, Regent Hotels, Italianni’s, Friday’s Front Row Sports Grill, Friday’s American Bar, and Radisson Seve n Seas Cruises (Schroeder, pg 454). Also in 1998 Curt Carlson’s daughter Marilyn Carlson Nelson took over as CEO of the Carlson Companies. It was at this time that Brian Stage, Radisson’s president, and Maureen O’Hanlon, Radisson’s executive vice president, started taking initiatives to transform the â€Å"growth at any cost† model to becoming a more customer-focused brand. To achieve this transformation from the current diverse hotel quality, they included a service guarantee, a guest satisfaction measurement program, and employee satisfaction measurement program, and an information technology initiative. Their goal was to make Radisson the â€Å"most trusted and respected brand worldwide† (Schroeder, pg 454). To support these strategies, Stage and O’Hanlon initiated a 100% guest satisfaction program, a fully integrated guest information system, guest and employee satisfaction measurement programs, guest recognition and rewards program, and a genuine hospitality program . Customer satisfaction is a relative concept that varies from one customer to another (Schroeder, pg. 147). A service guarantee is a promise by a company to compensate the customer in some way if the defined level of service delivered is not duly met. An effective service guarantee sets clear standards of performance for customers to expect and to which employees adhere (Al, 1993; Rose, 1990; Hart, 1988). It communicates to workers the level of service the organization intends to offer to its customers, as well  as provides a clear and strong task identity (Cahill & Warshawky, 1995). It mandates that every decision and employee must focus on the customers. Successful implementation of a service guarantee would require managerial emphasis and proper allocation of resources on key determinant variables. Management staff is primarily responsible for the formulation and communication of service priorities to frontline staff as well as the design of recovery measures for resolving customer complaints. Quality of service and the ability to attract and retain customers dictate the success or failure of hotel service providers. Hotels typically measure quality through inspections and with customer-satisfaction data. David Kearns once said â€Å"Performance benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as the industry leaders.† In today’s competitive environment, customers are quick to abandon services that do not meet expectations. The ease with which customers can switch from their current service to another, demands that providers deliver the highest possible levels of service quality and performance. To be successful, hotels must deliver positive customer experiences with rich, value-added services supported by comprehensive service quality management. Significant changes are occurring in the hotel industry that affect how providers run their businesses as well as what services they offer. There is a greater need to attract new customers, find new revenue sources, reduce operational costs and increase customer satisfaction. Successful quality management of next-generation services requires end-to-end service management across complex, multitechnology, multivendor infrastructures. Providers need to be able to quickly assess the impact of events on the performance and availability of revenue-generating services, establish and ensure aggregate service quality levels, and provide a detailed analysis of an individual subscriber’s experience that correlates back to broader service quality trends. In effect, providers need to be able to visualize service quality, prioritize their efforts and communicate relevant information to all stakeholders. This means they need to consolidate key data from disparate systems and from multiple vendors. They  need to be able to model relationships and dependencies between the network, applications and databases so they can see what resources are critical to their service. Communication plays a vital role in managing overall service quality. Providing relevant service intelligence to those who need it such as operations, IT, executives and customer care, helps providers rapidly resolve issues and minimize service impact on customers. They can quickly relate performance to business metrics. They can get a real-time view to better understand the customer experience. By improving communication across all levels of the value chain, they can help improve overall service quality and customer satisfaction. With the improved communication, Radisson must train all employees from all franchises in the same fashion to create a more consistent customer-driven concept. Many companies and franchise systems have found themselves in a situation where rapid change and deployment is critical to the company’s success. It’s absolutely essential to have a roadmap under these conditions. Once training is completed, studies and surveys must be done that include guests and employees to provide information that can be used to increase customer and employee satisfaction as well as help shape the direction for a defined service guarantee. Once defined, the service guarantee should be implemented to continually provide quality measurements and improve employee motivation. Providers also need a real-time view to understand the customer experience. How many customers are experiencing the service? Who is impacted by service issues? Providers need to be able to quickly assess the impact of events on service performance and availability, as well as how the business is affected. By providing a detailed analysis of an individual subscriber’s experience and correlating it back to broader service trends, providers can better manage the overall customer experience. Information technology software delivers comprehensive service quality management and customer experience management that help service providers  differentiate through improved service quality and lower operational costs. It gives them the ability to monitor and manage, from a single, central location, the availability, performance and quality of services. Information technology software equips them with a complete view of all the resources that comprise a service, from very beginning all the way to the customer. Information technology software not only plays a part in accelerating the drive to improve service quality but additionally measures information needed to improve customer and employee satisfaction. It can measure and create reports against key measurements to more effectively monitor availability, quality of virtually any service. By delivering new, high-quality services to market, they can attract new customers and generate new revenue streams. By enabling an improved customer experience, providers can help reduce churn, positively affect the uptake of that particular service and impact a subscriber’s willingness to try new services. Delivering consistent high-quality services to customers in a franchise business is more difficult than in a non-franchised business. In a franchised business, all employees must be trained in the same manner as well as have access to the same information. There are no exact guidelines, nor books to follow, nor formulas to adhere to when it comes to establishing and maintaining strong franchisor-franchisee relationships. It must be a strategic choice that is constantly enhanced, nurtured, and developed (Howe, 2003). Once a relationship is commenced it must be sustained, and any effort to maintain a high-quality affiliation requires the vital component of effective, two-way, communication. The franchisor is responsible for providing the channels for communication. A commitment to high-quality communication will also help to align the goals of the management team, hotel workers, owners, corporate management, and corporate staff. There are other benefits that come from this commitment to a two-way exchange of ideas and perspective. It cultivates a mutual respect and commitment between the employees, building trust and therefore solidifying a fully functional and working relationship. This should be designed to keep in touch with the franchisees’ core needs and goals, and provide an environment that enables  franchisees to approach the franchisor with questions, concerns, or ideas for improving the programs or recommended changes. Another means of communication is an intranet site accessible only by the franchisor, franchisees and their employees that provides a forum for questions, news updates, and other business information. Through these various forms of communication the franchisor can educate franchisees on the brand strategies and enhance their ability as keepers of the brand (Howe, 2003). Through a commitment to each of the key elements of effective two-way communication franchisors and franchisees can strengthen the strategies and consumer level execution that will drive their brand’s performance (Howe, 2003). Since the beginning of the change that Stage and O’Hanlon brought about, services have been implemented to acquire and satisfy customers. These services include the Express Yourself pre-arrival online check-in, the â€Å"Curtis-C† reservation system, the â€Å"Yes I can!† training program, the gold points plus customer reward program, and their 100% guest satisfaction service guarantee. These programs are designed to link the customers with the staff. The information technology used to create the check-in and reservation systems is an amazing service that benefits both the guest and the staff. The â€Å"Yes I can!† training program has been developed to train all employees consistently throughout the franchises to assist in aligning the goals of each franchise with their new brand strategy. The gold points plus reward program is a program that allows it’s customers to earn reward points that can be used for free stays or air miles. It also gives its members access to exclusive hotel and travel offers as well as in-hotel benefits. The website for the gold points program also lets it’s members make online reservations, check-in online, and select their stay preferences. In the matter of the last ten years, Radisson Hotels has escalated from a once â€Å"unfocused† brand into one of the world’s leading, full-service global hotel companies. This has been successfully accomplished through the organization of its franchises and implementation of information technology systems. Radisson Hotels & Resorts is committed to change and innovation in  all key areas including its growth strategy, operations, franchising, sales and marketing, and technology, to operate with maximum effectiveness in a highly competitive business environment (The Radisson Story). Technology will undoubtedly continue to develop and Radisson Hotels should continue to progress along with it to stay on top of the service industry as one of the best global hotel companies out there. References Al, L. (1993). Service guarantees in outpatient clinics: a case study. Health Care Management Review, 18 (3), 59-65. Cahill, D. J., & Warshawky, R. M. (1995). Beyond competence: unconditional guarantees as a customer-service tool. Journal of Customer Service in Marketing and Management, 1 (3), 67-77. Hart, C. W. L. (1988). The power of unconditional service guarantees. Harvard Business Review, 88 (4), July/August, 54-62. Howe, Michael C. (2003). Keys to a successful franchisor-franchisee relationship: through a commitment to each of the†¦ Franchising World. http://www.allbusiness.com/management/657315-1.htmlImprove service quality and enhance the customer experience. December 2007 ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/tivoli/whitepapers/GMW14002-USEN-00_SP.pdfKearns, David. Chairman of the New American Schools Development Corporation, formerly chairman and CEO of the Xerox Corporation and Deputy U.S. Secretary of Education. Rose, M. D. (1990). No strings attached. Chief Executive, 60 (Jul/Aug), 30-33. Schroeder, Roger. (2008). Operations Management: Contemporary Concepts and Cases 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill. New York, New York. The Radisson Story. http://www.radisson.com/section/aboutus.story/aboutus.sidemenus

Outline and Evaluate the Use of One Qualitative Method

Outline and evaluate the use of one qualitative method in the academic study of sport Denzin and Lincoln (2000a) believe that qualitative research is guided by 3 principles: assumptions, values and beliefs. These work against, alongside or within positivist and post-positivist models. Quantitative research is the use of numerical measurements and analysis that involves measurable ‘quantities’ by Gratton and Jones (2004). Quantitative data is collected through closed questions as it is in place to provide facts.While qualitative data, on the other hand, predominantly uses open styled questions to gain more information through follow up questions, extensive answers and debates. There are many differences between the two paradigms with the researcher being objective, and ‘detached’ from the subject under investigation within quantitative data said by Gratton and Jones (2004). Moreover, qualitative research is rather the opposite, with the researcher being in pl ace to gather more information from the participants in question.In addition to the previous, Morse, Swanson and Kuezel (2001) believe a quantitative research requires the researcher to carefully define variables that may be quantified with numbers. On the other hand, qualitative research is a more holistic perspective rather than a hypothesis confirmation. Berg and Latin (2008) believe qualitative research allows an open-ended and flexible approach to assessment. Within the qualitative paradigm there are several different data collection methods such as open questionnaires, interviews, observation, visual and textual analysis.I will be outlining and evaluating the use of interviews within the academic study of sport; this will be focused mainly on focus groups. Culver (2003) states that interviews are undoubtedly the most common method for collecting qualitative data within the study of sport. Pettigrew (1990) and Pettus (2001) also state ‘interviews offer a depth of informat ion that permits the detailed exploration of particular issues in a way not possible with other forms of data collection’.Within this type of research method there are 4 different types of interviews; structured, semi-structured, unstructured and focus group. Structured interviews are face-to-face (researcher & participant), consist of closed and pre-determined questions in addition to the structure being formal. Semi-structured interviews can be altered so that the participant(s) in question can ether clarify or elaborate on a particular topic/statement. The approach to data collection is flexible, with probes being used to gather additional information.Unstructured interviews have a set theme with the respondent leading the interview. The questions are developed throughout, as they are not pre-determined. These questions are open and flexible. A negative point to this interview structure is that there’s a chance the interview will lack focus. Focus groups lean toward s being semi-structured with a discussion thesis being used within an open environment; focus groups consist of more than one person. John Amis (2005) believes ‘focus groups allow members to challenge each other, develop positions of consensus, and build on each other’s ideas’.In addition to this previous statement, Gratton and Jones (2004) believe that this can become a negative point if the researcher doesn’t keep the participants on topic, stating that ‘participants may be tempted to provide false data to make an impression upon others in the group’. This can be potentially avoided if you use either a random, or stratified random sample which has a divided population. Furthermore these participants won’t know one another. Within focus groups there is a large quantity of strengths; participants are able to elaborate on the particular subject(s) especially when the researcher uses probes.In conjunction to this Yin (1994) notes that the interviewer ‘provides perceived casual inferences’ from the actor’s, rather than the researcher’s point of view. As a focus group is generally unstructured or semi-structured it enables participants to reveal certain insight into their attitudes and behaviours in addition to important themes and unexpected data to emerge, Gratton and Jones (2010). Focus groups are more flexible as you can also gain visual and vocal information; for example body language, laughter, silence or careful consideration, their tone of voice, or even simply what particular participants are saying.This can lead to the researcher probing as certain participants will be more passionate about certain themes/topics. Moreover you are able to gain a relationship with your participants, which can lead to them being more open and true to the information they give within the group. In conjunction with this, participants are informed that everything discussed is kept confidential, therefore this will relax and ease participants so they’re able to engage fully within the discussions. Interviews require more resources in comparison to questionnaires.This could be in terms of time consumption or travelling, as a consequence resulting samples can be small, Gratton and Jones (2010). Particular participants could take control of the interview therefore becoming dominant; researchers must then put particular probes into practice ensuring other group members get involved to gain a more diverse collection of data. On the other hand, participants could find focus group environments intimidating and/or off-putting; which can lead to the participant(s) in question feeling under pressure to agree with the dominant participant. Evalued[online]) Analysing data can also be difficult in addition to recording the interview. John Amis (2005) states that it is irrespective of the type of interview, that the way data is recorded should be established prior and it is standard proced ure to record the interview on audio tape. The researcher must also ensure that the data gathered is reliable. Gratton and Jones (2004) believe that this can be represented with the equation; ‘reliability = number of agreements/(number of agreements + disagreements)’.Psychological Qualities of Elite Adolescent Rugby Players is a research study extension on Holland and colleagues’ (2010) study into required psychological qualities of young talented rugby players, Woodcock et al (2011). Focus groups were completed following Kruger and Casey’s (2000) recommended size of 6 to 8 participants, ensuring that you don’t exceed 10. One group broke this guideline with 2 participants participating within SAS (Sports Administration Staff), which could hinder studied data with the chance of agreement being likely and information being limited.Stewart, Shamdasani, and Rook (2007) warn that fewer than eight participants can lead to a narrow discussion biased toward the views of a few individuals. Focus groups were held in familiar and comforting environments in addition to neutral locations for parents, which was in place to make participants feel more at ease. The focus group was semi-structured with the moderator using probes to gain a more in-depth insight into their views and beliefs. Furthermore the moderator gained a relationship with the participants on entry so that they’d feel comfortable along with this method aiding them to participate within group discussions.Through using focus groups Woodcock et al (2011) founded 5 new subgroups within the 11 higher order themes identified by young players in Holland et al, (2010). These 5 subthemes were: off pitch communication, reflection on their abilities in an objective manner, taking information and reproducing it as a physical action, dealing with injuries as well as attitude towards injuries and that players need to be problem solvers, able to adapt and overcome challenges.Parents and coaches supported development of individuals, not just in their rugby involvement but within other areas of life. Furthermore they discussed interactions that reinforced development within professional and performance environments. SAS highlighted within the study that the under-16 rugby programme was designed specifically to gradually challenge players and foster development of certain psychological qualities Woodcock et al (2011). This focus group helped gain further knowledge and insight within the psychological side of elite adolescent rugby players.Furthermore the ways in which parents, coaches and the SAS develop these players’ psychological in general day to day environments. A large majority of the research gathered corresponds Holland and colleagues (2010) study. Gender perception of Wrestling is a case study in place to gain research on whether or not wrestling is a sport primarily for male athletes. This focus group consist of eight participants from both gend ers (stratified random sample), which was also semi-structured.Sports managers and administrators for wrestling are presented with the opportunity to encourage women to take part. For this to take place sports managers and/or administrators need to understand how women perceive the sport. Pfister, (2010) and Ward, (2010) state that there is a growing number of women participating in sports with some women competing successfully in traditionally masculine sports. Data collected from the focus group was substantial, with views from each gender being different; this therefore made the study stand out more due to its hypothesis.The focus group underlined that they perceived wrestling to be more violent than other sports such as judo and taekwondo as self-defence wasn’t an explicit objective, Leng (2012). Participants also reviewed the physical attributes of a wrestler, as of this they clearly stated wrestling was a sport for athletes who possess more physical attributes. Moreover , participants didn’t regard wrestling as a sport favouring the participation of a particular gender.To conclude this case study qualitative data collected via participants within the focus group were views which outlined gender beliefs. It is clear to see that focus groups are irreplaceable when accumulating qualitative research data within the academic study of sport. Gibbs (1997) states that the purpose of focus group research is to draw upon respondents’ attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions. Focus groups gather a whole source of information that cannot be obtained without debates and different views.When structured correctly the researcher is able to gain rich data that he can then press forward to ether make changes or put different methods in practice. Focus groups are best used when gaining data on something meaningful to the participants and/or collecting data for something that affects a large majority of people. Something else gathered from this is that when the moderator/research gains a relationship with the participant it is easier to gain more in-depth information. Bibliography †¢ Andrews, D. L. , Mason, D.S. and Silk, M. L. (2005) Qualitative Data in Sports Studies. New York: Berg. †¢ Berg, K. E and Latin, R. W. (2008) Research Methods in Health, Physical Education, Exercise Science, and Research (3rd Edition). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. †¢ Gratton, C. and Jones, I. (2004) Research Methods of Sports Studies (1st Edition). London: Routledge. †¢ Gratton, C. and Jones, I (2006) Research Methods of Sports Studies (2nd Edition). Oxon: Routledge. †¢ Woodcock, C. , Holland, M. J. G. , Duda, J. L, and Cumming, J. 2011) Psychological Qualities of Elite Adolescent Rugby Players: Parents, Coaches, and Sport Administration Staff Perceptions and Supporting Roles. The Sport Psychologist, 25, 411-433. †¢ Leng, H. K. ; Kang, S. Y. ; Lim, C. ; Lit, J. J. ; Suhaimi, N. I. ; Umar, Y. (2012) Only For Males: Gendered Perception of Wrestling. Choregia, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p43. †¢ Gibbs, A. (1997) Social Research Update, Issue 19 [online]. Available: http://sru. soc. surrey. ac. uk/SRU19. html [8th November 2012] †¢ Evalued (2006) Focus Groups [online]. Available: http://www. evalued. bcu. ac. uk/tutorial/4b. htm [ 8th November 2012]