Do media images of family or marriage help us or hurt us Essay - 1

Do media images of family or marriage help us or hurt us - Essay Example The first point that supports my view is that what media most of the time provides is an altruistic picture that rarely comes true. For instance, it is rather impossible for most males to become the so-called Mills and Boon hero with a highly masculine body, high cheekbones that indicate intelligence, and a repertoire full of romance. In addition, he is supposed to possess unlimited wealth and influence, that is, the minimum standard set is a James Bond. In the case of female, the picture the media provides is that of an alluring goddess who always smells nothing less than rose, and who is always eager to have her ‘right man’ holding her hand and leading her gently to the most expensive restaurant. As people are fed this picture, they get unsatisfied in their marital life when they come to realize that their partners fall short of their expectations. Thus, for many ladies, a husband who does not look like Tom Cruise is a matter of inferiority complex that they have to su ffer due to bad luck. Thus, evidently, the beautiful picture provided by media on family and marriage is most of the time far from reality and hence highly destructive when taken to heart. Now, a look into the works of various scholars will confirm this opinion as truth. For example, studies have proved that heavy viewers of television tend to perceive being single as negative and believe that families in real life show support and concern for each other. However, the ones who are addicted to soap operas believe that the number of illegitimate children, divorces, extra marital affairs and happy marriages are all higher in number than they really are. Yet another point that goes strongly against media is that it promotes the stereotyping of male and female roles in families and marriages. For example, the general notion that media is interested in promoting is that females are the happiest at home raising

Write a six to eight page paper on Joe Salatino, President of Great Essay

Write a six to eight page paper on Joe Salatino, President of Great northern american case study - Essay Example Additionally, the paper explains the role of self-efficacy in enhancing performance and hence productivity of a company. Any effective leader must pay attention to perception and attribution because they are important aspects of leadership. Perception is the process by which the mind organizes, identifies, and interprets sensory information to form a mental representation. All perceptions start as signals in the nervous system initiated by stimulation of sense organs. It is possible to shape perceptions through learning, memory, and expectation. To perceive something in certain way depends on the complex function of the nervous system. Employees of a company constantly receive huge sets of information that they need to disseminate and process. According to Hellriegel and Slocum, â€Å"perception is the process by which people select, organize, interpret, and respond to information around them,† (Hellriegel, Slocum, 2011, P. 71). It represents the psychological process by which people use their five senses to take information from the environment and make a meaning to their world. Different people will interpret and organize things differently in similar situations. It is important for a leader to watch the difference in perceptions keenly since some differences may arise because of perceptual errors. Such errors include stereotyping, projection, halo effect, impression management, and perceptual defense. Attributions theory explains how an average person constructs meaning of an event based on their knowledge of the environment. Attributions enable an individual to acquire a cognitive mind that can understand the causes behind different happening in life and around them. Additionally, attributions help in understan ding the behavior of others finding explanations to their behavior. Attributions support perceptions. A person makes attributions in

The Development Of Multisensory Integration In Humans Psychology Essay

The Development Of Multisensory Integration In Humans Psychology Essay Understanding how multisensory integration develops in children and how it assists them to understand the ambiguous information in the environment is now a question at the forefront of Science. This study set out to examine and compare three different age groups of children 4-5 years old attending Reception, 6-7 years old attending Year 2 and 8-9 years old attending Year 4 in a local Primary School, to see if they benefit from multisensory information (e.g. integration of sound and vision) to disambiguate ambiguous figures that has more than one representation provided in an experiment. The results revealed that children in Year 4, 8-9 years old, showed an advantage in reaction time in congruent trials (where sound is assisting the participants to see the ambiguous figures facing the direction of the target, incongruent trials (where ambiguous figures were presented with a simultaneous acoustic cue and the auditory cue is incongruent to the subsequent target presented), and finally n eutral trials (where sensory auditory cue was not related to ambiguous figures at all). The results of this study showed that childrens increasing age is having an important and positive impact in processing multisensory information by enabling and enhancing childrens ability to understand and to recognise ambiguous figures more effectively. Key words: Multisensory integration, Ambiguous figures, Visual attention. Introduction: The development of multisensory integration in human beings: Humans and animals are hardwired with a sophisticated and unique multisensory system which enhances their understanding of the environment that they live in (Stein et al., 1996; Gillmeister Eimer, 2007) and allows the integration of information between various senses. These different senses are touch, sound, vision, smell, taste and self motion. These extraordinary senses not only exclusively provide us information about our surroundings (e.g. assists us in hearing, seeing etc), but also complex understanding that cannot always be understood through just a single modality but requires multimodal integration. Multisensory or multimodal integration refers to the idea that multiple senses interact with each other to help provide us a coherent representation of various objects, events or situations to promote better understanding of our perceptual environment. We tend to recognise an object or an event better when it is represented through more than one modality (Gondal et al; 2005; Mol holm, Ritter, Murray, Javitt, Schroeder Foxe 2002). Scientists and Psychologists have been studying how multiple senses integrate to support us to make sense of complexity of our environment for centuries. In the early years these senses were studied independently (e.g. Berkeley 1709; Locke 1690). In 1980s scientists began to study the in depth processes involved within and how these senses interact together at the level of the single neuron. The recent research has been improved immensely which has contributed productively in order for us to understand the processes involved in multisensory integration (e.g. Campbell 1987; Stein Meredith 1994; Naumer Kaisar 2010). New and improved methods like functional imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation etc has enabled us to better grasp the under lying processes involved in multisensory integration in the human brain. Psychologists and Researchers are at a stage where newly developed methodologies are being applied to different questi ons in development of multisensory integration at a neural level (Wallace, Meredith Stein 1998). There have been empirical studies in the past showing how multisensory stimuli benefit adults, but there is a gap in research with regards to when and how it develops in children. To date there has not been any research, which has explored the role of multisensory information in recognizing ambiguous figures in children. As human adults our multisensory system integrates various signals from our senses to unify functional representations. Electrophysiological, behavioural and neuroimaging studies has made it evident that different senses through our nervous system that are related to a same situation or event and are congruent in time and space increase the possibility of accurate and effective encoding a lot more than individual senses. Ernst and Banks (2002) Alias and Burr (2004) have suggested that human adults integrate excessive information in a statistically optimal manner. A fundamental question that stands is whether the optimal multimodal integration is present in children at the time of birth or does it develop during their childhood and when do children start to use multimodal integration to understand their ambiguous environment? It is fundamental to learn if early multisensory development could benefit the developing brain. The human sensory system is immature at birth, but refines as it develops essentially. Paus (2005) pointed out that brain mapping between sensory and motor conformity is updated frequently and that it is a continuous process where neural reorganisation and cognitive changes occur up until early adolescence. (Neil et. al; 2006; Barutchu, Danaher et. al 2009) pointed out that if adults benefit from the multisensory inputs; naturally children are expected to have an advantage of multisensory inputs via their nervous system as well. Numerous behavioural studies reported that human infants can identify relationships between various multisensory inputs (Bahrick and Lickliter 2000, 2004; Bahrick et al. 2002; Lewkowicz 1988a, 1996; Neil et al. 2006). Research has shown that in very early development multisensory binding is formed (Kohl and Meltzoff 1982). During the phase of gestation between 6-7 months, touching its lips results in foetal Humphrey (1964). Streri Gentaz, (2004) suggested th at even though infants are able to transfer the multisensory information across the senses at birth the advantage of multisensory integration is not observed generally until after birth (Gogate and Bahrick, 1998, Hollich et al., 2005, Bahrick et al., 2002, Walker Andrews, 1997). At the age of 8 months an infant shows multisensory facilitation of reflexive head and eye movements during spatial localization and this theory is consistent with the co-activation models Lewkowicz Shimojo, (2006). Patterson and Werker (2003) performed a preferential looking paradigm study on 2 month old infants and observed that infants were able to match voices with faces showing that infants are integrating some multisensory information. Lewkowicz (1992) studied development of multisensory information in infants 4, 6, 8 and 10 months of age, he presented the participants audio visual stimulus, (e.g. a bouncing object on the monitor) the results revealed that infants were sensitive to the temporal associ ations amongst the visual and auditory stimuli. Processes that involve multisensory facilitation tend to develop with postnatal experiences in humans and other species (Jamie Lickliter, 2006; Lickliter et al., 2006, Wallace Stein, 1997, Wallace Stein, 2001). On the contrary studies using the McGurk effect has shown that speech perception is not influenced by our vision as much in infants or young primary school age children as in adults (Massaro, 1984, McGurk MacDonald, 1976). The leading question is when do children start combining multisensory information to understand their complex environment? Two classical theories shed light in this area, The developmental integration view, which states that in newborns the ability to perceive multisensory coherence develops gradually through childs exploration experiences of the world (Piaget 1952). The second theory is the Developmental differentiation view which states that at the time of birth some of the multisensory perceptual abilities are present in infants but the other more com plex abilities emerge later in life through perceptual learning Gibson (1969, 1984). Recent research has showed us evidence that neural and behavioural limitations and the relative experience play a central role in the typical development of multisensory processing (Walker 1997). Another complexity in humans is that different senses are developed at different rates. For example, senses like touch, vestibular chemical and auditory senses begin to function before birth and finally vision develops (Gottlieb 1971). The differential rates in developmental period could worsen the challenges for adjustment and cross modal integration for example eye length, intraocular distances, growing limbs etc in humans. In contrast, some perceptual skills do not develop early in life (e.g. auditory frequency discrimination), Olsho (1984); Olsho et al; (1988). Brown et al (1987) suggested that projective size and shape are not understood until children are about 7 years of age, and research has shown that contrast sensitivity and visual acuity carries on developing until the age of 5-6 years of age. (Rentschler, et al 2004) suggested that the understanding of object manipulation also carries on developing until the age of 8-14 years. (Morrongiello et al 1994) suggested that tact ile object recognition in sighted and blind children does not develop until the age 5-6 years. Various other complicated capacities that are dependent on experiences e.g. (Elliot 1979; Johnson 2000) facilitation of speech perception in noise is immature throughout their childhood. The developmental time frame when audio visual integration is developed in children is still unclear. Hearing and vision are two of the most important multisensory modalities that humans constitute. Audio visual integration plays a vital role in many tasks e.g. understanding of speech in noisy environments or orientation towards a novel stimulus. Development of auditory system begins before vision but is not certain when these two senses begin to integrate in humans. When presented with auditory and visual stimuli, it can be perceived as a same unitary event or as two separate unimodel events. Radeau Bertelson (1977). The binding and segregation of unimodal stimuli is dependent on low level structural factors (e.g. the temporal and spatial co-occurrence of the stimulus), as well as more cognitive factors (e.g. If the stimuli are semantically congruent or not and whether the person observing is assuming that the two stimuli should go together). Numerous recent studies have shown evid ence that auditory stimuli can be mislocalized towards visual stimuli when they are presented at the same time Welch Warren 1980, P. Bertelson Gelder (2004). It has been argued in the past that when two or more sensory inputs are presented and that they are highly consistent the observers tend to treat them as a single audio visual event (Welch Warren, 1980, Jackson, 1953) therefore it is more likely to assume that they share a common spatiotemporal origin and consequently there are more chances of them to bind them in to a single multisensory event. The binding of a specific pair of visual and auditory stimuli is dependent on various different factors. Spatiotemporal coincidence plays a vital role in different forms of audio visual integration (Slutsky Recanzone 2001, Zampini, Guest, and Shore Spence 2005) but research has also shown that there are exceptions Vroomen Keetels (2006). Neil et al, (2006) examined reflexive orienting in infants, 8-10 months old. The infants showed reaction time advantage for single visual auditory cues over combined cues. On the contrary, Barutchu et al, (2009) performed a study with young children by testing them in a manual button pressing task, and revealed that most children are unable to show the same multisensory advantages until the age of 7 years old. It was proposed that the differences showed in development of audio visual integration reveals the possibility of differential development of reflexive orienting, which depends on the superior colliculus and sensory decision making, is dependent on cortical integration of sensory evidence. Barutchu et al (2009) performed a similar study in order to examine the development of multisensory orienting and button pressing for the same audio visual stimuli where eye movements were recorded of children aged 4-13 years old, N = 19 in response to auditory beeps, visual flashes showed at 20Â ° eccentricity. It was observed from the results that the total mean AV saccadic latencies were significantly shorter than either Audio or Video and the results revealed a trend towards shorter Audio visual latencies than those hypothesised by statistical support or facilitation Miller (1982). Results of this experiment showed that children aged 4 years old when examined in a saccadic orienting task are capable of showing reaction time advantage consistent with cue integration and that this ability is dependent on the early development of sub cortical multisensory processing Wallace Stein (1997). Research on children in their later childhood around 6 years and older showed the influence of multisensory information on speech precepts, balance and size judgements Gori et. al (2008). In the brain multisensory integration occurs across various different levels which involves sub cortical areas like the superior colliculus, early cortical areas like the primary auditory and visual cortices and higher cortical areas like the superior temporal sulcus and intraparietal areas. For example freezing effect Vroomen de Gelder (2000) or pip and pop effect Van der Burg et al (2008) in which auditory temporal information is needed to form illusory visual onsets tend to occur in the primary visual areas while illusions for example Mc Gurk effect, McGurk Mac Donald (1976) takes place at a higher cortical areas due to the complexity of information. The areas involved in brain that facilitates audio visual integration in humans can be seen in figure no 1. C:UsersLocstaPictures1-s2_0-S0001691810000715-gr2.jpg Figure number 1: Showing brain areas involved in audiovisual attention Studying the sensory system and multimodal integration development matters to humans as it plays a very important role in cognitive processes. Numerous anecdotal reports from clinicians and parents have stated that significant percentage of sensory impairment, atypical ties are found in children and adults suffering from autism spectrum disorder (Cesaroni Graber, 1991; Grandin 1992; ONeill Jones 1997). In 1970s scientists dedicated a large amount of research in sensory processing whilst exploring the field of ASD, and researchers found evidence of impaired sensory modulation (Stroh Buick, 1964), this study provided initial evidence for anecdotal and clinical reports of problems in multisensory integration among individuals with ASD. Multisensory processes facilitate children in numerous cognitive processes that are important in learning. Fifer et. al (2011) tested the link between auditory noise in the background, multisensory integration and childrens general cognitive abilities in children. Eighty eight children participated in this study with the mean age of 9 years and 7 months. A simple audiovisual paradigm was used for detection. The results showed that children who have enhanced ability for multisensory integration in both quite and noisy conditions are more likely to score above average on the Full Scale IQ of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). 45%. Children with low verbal and non verbal ability showed reduced multisensory integration in either quite or noisy condition. About 20% showed better multisensory integration when there was background noise present. The findings of the experiment showed evidence that consistent multisensory integration in quiet and noisy conditions is some ways related to the development of general cognitive abilities. Ambiguous figure recognition: Ambiguous figures are figures that represent themselves in more than one way. In the past decades idea of ambiguous figure reversal has been meticulously studied by psychologists. The earliest designs of picture ambiguity may be as old as prehistoric cave art Melcher Wade, (2006). Another famous example of ambiguous figures is the Necker cube, the founder of Necker cube was a Swiss naturalist Necker (1832) and after that era other ambiguous figures were seen e.g. duck/ rabbit (Jastrow 1900) and the vase faces (Rubin 1958). Psychologists have been very interested in ambiguous figures as it provides insights to cognitive and sensory processing by means of visual processing. (Toppino 2004) performed a thorough review of ambiguous figures research, and stated that ambiguous figures opens a wide window in the fundamental mechanisms involved in the processing of the visual system which includes sensory, cognitive, motor and physiological processes. Perceptually ambiguity is the norm with regards to its special features. Particular features of an object for example distance or size cannot be seen only by our retinal input, our experiences drive our perception and information about our environment that we live in so in other words our knowledge of past experiences derived helps us in disambiguation of precepts. These experiences could be visual or involve other senses for example taste, smell, hearing, temperature or pain (Gregory, 1966). The history has showed two main theories of reversing representations of bi stable figures satiation theory and cognitive theory. Toppino et al (2005). Satiation theory states that reversing two different representations of ambiguous figure happens through a process analogous that leads to neuronal exhaustion due to tiredness when images of colours are perceived (Kohler, 1940; Long Toppino, 1981). When participants stared at a green patch and then shift their view to a white patch they eventually see red colour. What actually happens is that staring at a green colour patch fatigues the green neurons being fired in the brain and when the attention is shifted to white colour patch then the red neurons that are not fatigued dominate. Keeping this theory in mind when participants perceive a duck as an ambiguous figure, will weaken the neurons that represents the duck, and then representation of rabbit is perceived. Cognitive theory states that reversal of ambiguous figure can only happe n if the person observing the figure is aware consciously that the figure is ambiguous. (Girgus, Rock, Egatz, 1977; Rock Mitchener, 1992; Rock, Gopnik, Hall, 1994; Rock, Hall, Davis, 1994). Satiation theory and Cognitive theory map on to top down vs. bottom up processing debate. In a study performed by Girgus et al, (1977), high school students were shown ambiguous figures and they were made aware beforehand that the figures are reversible but they were not told the possible alternatives. Results showed that one half of the students made spontaneous reversal. In another study performed by Rock Mitchener, (1992), about one third of participants were able to reverse spontaneously. Cognitive development in children is a very complex developmental process and certainly is not as simple as it seems. Martin J. Doherty and Marina C. Wimmer looked at which cognitive processes and developments are important for children to experience reversal to understand ambiguous figures in children. 138, 3-5 year old children participated in these two studies to test the idea that a complicated understanding of ambiguity is needed to learn bistable stimuli (Gopnik et al 2001) Duck or rabbit? In the first experiment a novel Production task measured the ability to recognise ambiguity of the figures. The children found this task easier than the Droodle task and the level was similar to the False Belief task and was significantly correlated to the False Belief Task. The same findings were tested again in second study and the results showed that it was much more difficult to perceive the reversal of ambiguous figures than the Production or the False Belief task. The results revealed v ery interesting findings that children only try to reverse the figures when they understand the representational relationship amongst the figure and its ambiguity. The process that helps in reversal of figures is difficult, and most probably need developments in areas such as executive functioning and imagery abilities. Ambiguous figure reversal studies are also been found to be useful in showing indications of the presence of autistic traits in a big number of population. In a study performed by (Best, Owens, Moffat, Power and Johnstone 2008) showed evidence that the performance of adolescents in reversing ambiguous figures has showed in advance, the probability of participants to have characteristics of autism, poor mental abilities and superior visio- spatial attributes. (Best et al) has emphasized that there is clear evidence that ambiguous figures studies is a very important modality to be studied in understanding autism on the contrary there is also evidence that even though autistic children who are unable to reverse ambiguous figures appropriately later in life they develop the ability to reverse Ropar, et al (2003). Capps, Lisa, Gopnik Alison, Soble David (2005), performed a study on young children to examine ambiguous figure perception and theory of mind. They observed that about one third of 5-9 year old children were successfully spontaneously able to reverse the ambiguous figures where as autistic childrens did not perform well in reversing ambiguous figures as normal children. It is surprising though that ambiguous figure studies and multisensory integration being such an important modality in understanding cognition and visual processing etc there has not been extensive research done on childrens understanding and perceiving of ambiguous figures. Gopnik, Rock and Hall (1994) studied the perception of ambiguous figure task in children and suggested that figure reversal is much more complex than just low level perceptual process, they also found that even though children were informed of the ambiguity of the figures, 3 year old children still failed to reverse and only 50 percent of the 4 year old children were successfully able to reverse the main result is that young children aged under 5 are unable to reverse ambiguous figures Gopnik and Rosati (2001), Rock Gop nik and Hall (1994). Centuries of long term research with adult participants suggests that bottom up (lower level) processing in our brain and higher level cognitive processes (top down) processes play a fundamental role in assisting us to disambiguate ambiguous figures. Top down processing theory suggests that there is a voluntary control over the ability to reverse; knowing that we are dealing with ambiguous figures which have more than 1 interpretation to them is an important element and the willingness to reverse the ambiguous figure. On the contrary bottom up processes in our brain assists us in disambiguating ambiguous figures are related with neural weakness/ satiation as predicted by Gestalt Psychologists. Marina et al (2005) performed four studies with 63 children, 3, 4 and 5 year olds, results showed evidence that in young children the concept of more than 1 interpretation develops around the age of 4 but the perception of ambiguity develops around the age of 5. The role of visual attention in processing multisensory information in humans: Visual attention plays an important role in processing multisensory information which helps humans to select information across the visual field. It is considered that genes are somewhat or partly responsible for the development of our attentional networks in the brain but there are other important factors (e.g. particular experiences provided by caregivers and also the culture that we live in play a vital role). We attend to the visual information in our surroundings by simply looking at various locations. The centre portion of our eyes is called fovea, as fovea tend to have better vision it provides us a benefit when viewing different locations. There are two types of attention covert attention and overt attention. Simply looking at different locations e.g. finding your motorcycle in the parking lot or your friend in a restaurant this type of attention is called overt attention when its easier to observe their eye movement, another type of attention which enables us to attend to va rious locations without the movement of our eyes is called covert attention. According to John Colombo (2001) Rudimentary forms of various attention functions are present at birth, but each of the functions exhibits different and apparently dissociable periods of postnatal change during the first years of life. Susan E. Bryson (2010) suggested that humans ability to move attention in space effectively plays a vital role in our ever changing world. From very early in life, our ability to selectively orient or redirect attention allows us to connect with key others, to learn about and make sense of the world, and to regulate our emotional reactions. The functional anatomy reveals that orienting system is connected to areas of the parietal and frontal lobes in our brain. Posner (1980) suggested that orienting can be implied by showing a cue where you want the participants attention at a specific space which provides a platform for the participant to pay attention towards the cued position by moving or not moving their eyes. FMRI studies have showed evidence that superior parietal lobe is connected with orienting after the presentation of cue Corbetta et al (2000). The alerting mechanism tends to be associated with parietal and frontal regions of the brain. It has been seen that ongoing vigilance and performance tasks activates specific levels of alertness and these tasks has the ability to activate parietal and frontal areas of the right hemisphere in the brain Coull et al (1996); Marrocco et al (1994). Neuropsychological experiments have shown evidence in animals that an unexpected sound can enhance perceptual processing of suc ceeding visual stimuli. Recent studies Nadia et al (2002) have shown that perceptual processing enhancement also exists in humans. This phenomenon can be explained by means of cross modal interaction effects. Nadia et al (2002) showed in a study that auditory stimuli can enhance visual system in a detection task in humans as well. Michael Posner (1994) has performed very interesting research in order to study attention in humans and the three attention networks using the ANT (Attention network test) flanker task, which is an effective tool and allows us to test voluntary and involuntary attention. It helps us to study how brain pays attention to emotional events Fan et al. (2002), Posner and Peterson (1990). In this study subjects were asked to keep their eyes fixated at a point when flanking stimuli are presented on the right or left side of the fixated points. Posner stated that flanking stimuli can be detected easily even when their eyes are fixated on the cross hairs Posner (199 4). In conclusion Multisensory facilitation starts at a very early age and continues to develop throughout the childhood. Nardini et al (2006) suggested that children automatically combine auditory and visual information and this multimodal integration is matured around the age of 9-10 years. One possible domain is when children use auditory and visual information to disambiguate ambiguous figures in order to understand how multisensory integration assists young children to disambiguate ambiguous figures. Therefore this study employed an experimental design similar to Posner Michael (1994), flanker task. The role of multisensory integration in understanding ambiguous figures can be very useful for young children and atypically growing children suffering from (e.g. autistic spectrum disorder or dyslexia). Thus I proposed a study to examine what role does multisensory integration specifically audio and visual integration play in disambiguating ambiguous figures in young children. Hence it was decided to investigate the possibility that participants performance will be faster in congruent trials (where an ambiguous figure is shown with a simultaneous sound, and the auditory cue was congruent with reference to subsequent target). For example an ambiguous figure showing a duck and a rabbit, the sound accompanying it was quack representing, the duck which is facing towards the left side and the target (star) appears on the left side as well. Whereas for Incongruent trials (auditory cue is not congruent with reference to the subsequent target). Finally neutral trials where ambiguous figures are presented with non related simultaneous sound (e.g. sound of a motorcycle racing) presented with an ambiguous figure showing a duck and a rabbit and then a target appears on the left or right of the screen. Method: Participants: After seeking ethical approval from the Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck University of London and authorisation from all parents of young children, 45 young male and female healthy children from a local primary school were randomly employed to participate in this experiment. Three participants (1 female from reception class, 1 male from year 2 and 1 female from year 4) did not complete the study so their incomplete data were extracted from the study. Six children with learning disabilities also participated in this study but their data was discarded due to ethical purposes, as performing this experiment with disable children was not one of the aims of this study, I aimed to perform this study with healthy children, and so the results could be generalized to a healthy population of children. The experiment was performed on three different age groups of children. The first group consisted of 4-5 year old children who attended reception class, the second group had 6-7 year old children who attended grade 2 and third group 8-9 year old children who attended Year 4 in a local Primary School. The study was completed in three different early morning sessions. Stimuli: The stimuli (ambiguous figures) were displayed on the laptop screen using an e-prime programme developed by Dr Denis Mareschal. The ambiguous figures were black in colour the background was white as shown in figure no 2. The target was presented on either the right or left side of the screen. The participants were to respond to the target according to which side it appears on by pressing the corresponding right or left key on the mouse. On the Incongruent trials the target appeared in the opposite direction and congruent trials the flanking target appeared in the same direction and in neutral trials the ambiguous figure was shown with a non-related sound. Participants viewed the screen from about approximately 64 cm. The target used in this study flanker (star) can be seen in figure no 3. Figure number 2: Showing ambiguous figures used in this study representing more than one interpretation in one figures. Figure no 3: Showing the flanker (Star) presented on either right or left side of the ambiguous figure to alert the children in this experiment. Design: This non-routine experiment is based upon Michael Posner (1994) and Eriksen and Eriksen (1974) flanker task experiment. The computer based programme called E-prime Ambiguous Figures (a commercial experiment programme application) that runs on Windows XP presented on a 12 inch monitor to study the role of multisensory information in disambiguating ambiguous or bi stable figures in children. Trials are divided in to 6 blocks and each block consisted of 45 trials, 15 congruent, 15 Incongruent and 15 neutral trials. At the initial stage of the programme it asks for session number, gender of the participant and finally for his or her date of birth, upon completion of all this information press OK. Instructions appears on the screen Look for the star click the right mouse button if it is displayed on the right side of the screen and click the left button if it is displayed on the left side of the but

My Growth as a Writer :: How I Have Changed As A Writer

In my past writing assignments it seemed to be that we were learning everything step by step, where as in college more is expected from me as a writer. As a high school student it was quite easy to push everything off till the last moment. Those two o'clock nights were very frequent when a six-page research paper was due the next day. As a college student the requirements are more challenging and not something that can be pushed back till the very last second. It seems strange to me that starting earlier for a college paper and working twice as hard on it, receiving a lower grade on it than I would have in high school is upsetting to think about, but is so true. When coming into the semester I was unaware of what was expected from me, but as the semester progressed I was able to get a better understanding of the course and how to look critically at myself as a writer. I know that these are qualities that I will use for many years to come. Now that I have been through a semester at the University of Dayton I feel much more confident about myself in different aspects. I feel that as a writer I am able to give good detail when I feel strongly about a point. This is good because it gives my readers a real chance to envision what I am describing. Another strong point that I feel I model is my ability to incorporate sources into my papers. Although this may be very little, I feel that it is an important quality that I have obtained. These strengths have helped me to improve papers and be the best writer I know how to be. The weakness I portray are very difficult for me to think of. I know that I have quite a few but to change them is something that I have not full conquered yet. A weakness I know I have is sentence structure. I am not very good at putting sentences together and making them strong and well developed. Another weakness that is obvious is word choice. I don't always know the exact wording to use in different parts of a paper, this makes it hard to understand sometimes not very well written.

Children with Linguistic Differences Essay

In today’s classroom, it is common to have a student who speaks English as a second language. The teachers today should have knowledge of linguistic diversity and apply what they know to assist those children. According to our text, language is one of the aspects that define diversity and it is one of the fundamental tools of cultural acquisition and a part of a child’s cultural identity (Robles de Melendez & Beck, 2009). As educators, we must assure those children who speak English as a second language have the same education as English speaking children. In a child’s learning environment, no matter what language that child speaks, they should be comfortable and familiar with the things that surround them. It is important to label a child’s environment with the different languages that the children speak in the classroom. If a child’s native language is Spanish, French or German, there should be a corresponding labels in that language on shelves, tables, toys and doors. Other materials that is used in a classroom that assist with linguistic diversity is age appropriate books, printed materials such as newspapers, flyers and signs in different languages and music from diverse cultures (Robles de Melendez, 2009). When you have a classroom of different languages, it is necessary to understand what is going on in the children’s mind as you speak a language that they are not familiar or comfortable with. We need to understand, expect, and feel comfortable with the natural responses (e.g., laughter, first language use, silence and fatigue) that occur when our students  participate in interactions in which they are not completely proficient in their language (Curran, 2003). Teachers should respect the fact that students that are English Language Learners or ELL may want to speak their native language. It could get frustrating at first trying to learn and understand what they are saying but it is the say when the tables are turned and the student get frustrated when they do not understand what the teacher is saying. Individual lesson plans can be used to connect with a child and build their language skills. Themed lesson plans also help children connect with their own language. In any classroom, educators must not assume what a child knows or what they need to know. Assessments must be done to know what steps are needed to teach the children in the class. This is especially important when you have children with linguistic diversity. Teachers of young children in today’s diverse classrooms need to confirm that their teaching strategies meet the needs of their students (Robles de Melendez & Beck, 2009). To make sure that the teachers are getting the right information, the classroom should be assessed for linguistic diversity. Some ways to do this is to talk to the parents and family members, doing observations of bilingual interactions and using questionnaires and surveys. Once you know what kind of diversity you have in the classroom, then the classroom should be analyzed to figure out how to teach the students. This is done by assessing the topics that are taught, how they are taught and what resources are used to teach. It is important to maintain open communication with the child’s parents and families. We as educators should not try to eliminate the child’s first language but preserve it and assist them with the second language. Through different activities geared towards a child’s first language will help keep the child culture meaningful. Parent can assist by singing songs in their native language or just playing games that are native to their country. Continue to invite the families into the program to allow them to share their experiences with the classroom and this would help the children and families feel welcomed. There are two typed of knowledge that is necessary to teach linguistic diversity and they are the knowledge of practices of second language acquisition and the knowledge of cultural ideas. Having the mere knowledge of how important it is to preserve the first language and acquire the second language and knowing a little something about the culture that is being taught. As early childhood educators, it must be understood that the role that language plays in the life of a child vital to their learning environment. It is important that children with linguistic differences be supported. Through the classroom environment, experiences, assessments, keeping an open communication with the parents and the information that the teacher knows, the children will be able to get the best education not matter whether English is their first or second language. References Curran, M. (2003). Linguistic Diversity and Classroom Management. Theory Into Practice, 42(4), 334-340. Robles de Martinez, W., & Beck, V. (2009). Teaching young children in multicultural classrooms: Issues, concepts, and strategies. (3 ed.). Belmont, Canada: Wadsworth.

Police Suicide

Police suicide is a thing for police that has become way too common. Police as a career is very difficult job that brings along many different stresses. It is a job that comes with a lot of things that you don’t want to think about. You see the problems in society that occur every day that not everyone wants to see, things from suicide to murders to just everyday crimes that people commit. Police officers have more things that they have to deal with than most other professions. It is one of the most stressful jobs to have. Police have a large amount of helplessness. Helplessness stemming from why things are happening and why they cannot control more of what happens. It is very stressful to see things that happen on a daily, makes arrests for it then see the sentences get reduced to almost nothing. When this happens the officer feels as though they are helpless and nothing they do is worth it. Repeat offenders bring this upon them the most seeing them over and over again come back to doing the same type of stuff that got them arrested in the first place. Another thing that may lead to police suicide is just everyday duties of the job that may take a turn for the worse. No person no matter if they are a cop or not does not want to shoot someone or take another one’s life. Taking someone else’s life is terrible and something that can stick with a police officer forever. A memory like that can stick in someone’s mind forever even if the reason they did it was justified it’s still something that is hard to get out of their mind. These reasons along with many others will lead police to believe that taking their life is better than having to deal with the issues that they have in the life from police work. Knowing that they took another life is something that cannot be chocked down very easily. Another terrible thing that they have to see is suicide. Seeing someone else take there life makes them think about doing it themselves.

The Donation of Constantine

The Donation of Constantine The Donation of Constantine  (Donatio Constantini, or sometimes just Donatio) is one of the best-known forgeries in European history. It is a medieval document which pretends to have been written in the early fourth century, giving large areas of land and related political power, as well as religious authority, to Pope Sylvester I (in power from 314 – 335 CE) and his successors. It had a little immediate impact after being written but grew to be heavily influential as time went on.​​ Origins of the Donation We’re not certain who faked the Donation, but it seems to have been written circa 750-800 CE in Latin. It might be connected to the coronation of Pippin the Short in 754 CE, or the grand imperial coronation of Charlemagne in 800 CE, but could easily have been to aid Papal attempts to challenge Byzantium’s spiritual and secular interests in Italy. One of the more popular views has the Donation being created in the mid-eighth century at the behest of Pope Stephen II, in order to aid his negotiations with Pepin. The idea was that the Pope approved the transfer of the great central European crown from the Merovingian dynasty to the Carolingians, and in return, Pepin would not just give the Papacy the rights to Italian lands, but would actually ‘restore’ what had been given long before by Constantine. It appears that the rumor of a Donation or something similar had been traveling around the relevant parts of Europe since the sixth century and that whoever create d it was producing something people expected to exist. Contents of the Donation The Donation begins with a narrative: Sylvester I was supposed to have cured Roman Emperor Constantine of leprosy before the latter gave his support to Rome and the Pope as the heart of the church. It then moves into the granting of rights, a ‘donation’ to the church: the Pope is made the supreme religious ruler of many great capitals- including the newly expanded Constantinople- and given control of all the lands given to the church throughout Constantine’s empire. The Pope is also given the Imperial Palace in Rome and the western empire, and the ability to appoint all kings and emperors ruling there. What this meant, if it had been true, was that the Papacy had the legal right to rule a large area of Italy in a secular fashion, which it did during the medieval period. History of the Donation Despite containing such a massive benefit to the papacy, the document appears to have been forgotten in the ninth and tenth centuries, when struggles between Rome and Constantinople raged over who was superior, and when the Donation would have been useful. It wasn’t until Leo IX in the mid-eleventh century that the Donation was quoted as evidence, and from then on it became a common weapon in the struggle between the church and secular rulers to carve up power. Its legitimacy was rarely questioned, although there were dissenting voices. The Renaissance Destroys the Donation In 1440 a Renaissance Humanist called Valla published a work which broke the Donation down and examined it: the ‘Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine. Valla applied the textual criticism and interest in history and classics which grew so prominent in the Renaissance to show, among many criticisms and in an attacking style we might not consider academic these days, that the Donation was not written in the fourth century. Once Valla had published his proof, the Donation was increasingly seen as a forgery, and the church couldn’t rely on it. Valla’s attack on the Donation helped promote humanist study and in a small way helped lead to the Reformation.

The Best Way To Practice ACT Reading

The Best Way To Practice ACT Reading SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips At last, the time has come when you must tackle the ACT Reading. How can you practice for the ACT Reading? Where can you find ACT Reading practice questions? Is it even possible to practice for the Reading section? Read on for the answers to these questions. feature image credit: Insomnia by Lauren Hammond, used under CC BY 2.0/Cropped from original. A Brief Breakdown Of ACT Reading To start off, I’m going to do a quick runthrough of the structure of ACT Reading. Feel free to skip over it to the Important Tips (â„ ¢) (alas, not actually trademarked, unless I can trademark things just by typing the symbol...in which case I just trademarked that). Also, a quick disclaimer: all of this information is for the current ACT. If there are any significant changes, we'll be sure to update this article accordingly. Currently, the ACT Reading section consists of 40 passage-based multiple choice questions (each with four answer choices) which you must answer in 35 minutes. ACT Reading is always the third section of the test, and contains passages in four different content areas: Prose Fiction or Literary Narrative, Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science. The 40 questions are divided up equally among all the content areas. Historically, there were only four passages on the ACT, with one passage in each content area; since June 2014, however, ACT, Inc. has begun to incorporate paired passages (two short passages with questions ask you about each passage and to compare the two passages in several ways) into the exam, which means that you may face up to 5 passages (across 4 subject areas) on the ACT. Unfortunately, there aren't really any good study materials for these paired passages out there yet - but more on that in an upcoming article. If you want to read more about the ACT (and the Reading section in particular), look into our articles on the length of the ACT and what's actually tested on ACT Reading. Now that you have a better idea of what exactly is on ACT Reading, let’s segue into tips for how to practice the ACT Reading section in the most effective way. ACT Reading Practice Tip 1: Use Official ACT Tests When you are practicing for the ACT, you MUST use official ACT questions. Why? Because only official ACT questions will test you the same way the real test does. Part of what is difficult about the ACT is that it takes concepts everyone knows (since it's standardized, it has to stick to standard knowledge) and then asks about them in weird ways. Therefore, the best way to insure you get used to the weird ways of questioning is to do actual ACT questions. As PrepScholar co-founder Allen Cheng has said, â€Å"If you train yourself on questions that aren't anything like what the ACT writes, you're going to learn the wrong patterns.† So where can you find official tests? Well, to start out with, we've compiled a complete list of all the available free complete ACT tests. You can also buy The Real ACT (3rd edition) as well as ACT Inc's online prep program to gain access to additional official tests (more about where you can do that in this article). Finally, the PrepScholar test prep platform integrates up to 5 offical ACT tests as part of your customized study program. ACT Reading Practice Tip 2: Practice Under Realistic Conditions When you take the ACT, you’ll be constrained not only by the amount of time you have to answer Reading questions (35 minutes), but in when you take the Reading section. What do I mean by this? Only that on test day, you'll be taking the Reading section third, having already spent the first two hours or so on the English and Math sections. In all likelihood, your brain will be tired, and you won't get a break from Reading questions partway through - you must do all 40 at once. If switching back and forth between sections sound like it might be more up your alley, try reading our article on the differences between the SAT and ACT to see if the SAT might be a better match for you. Bottom line: I recommend not only practicing Reading questions in isolation, but also doing Reading questions as part of at least one full-length timed practice test so you can get used to what it will feel like to have your brain possibly liquefied by the time you get to Reading. Additionally, make sure to take at least one practice test at the same time of day you would be taking the ACTual ACT (I will never stop doing this) so that you'll have a good idea of how tired you might be. For example, if you're not a morning person, an 8 am test might mean you don't pay as much attention when reading a passage, as compared to studying and practicing Reading questions and passages in the afternoon. snoozy 260515 by Daemyeong Middle School, used under CC BY-SA 2.0/Cropped from original. If this is you in the mornings, then a practice Reading section done in the afternoon may not be the best gauge of how you'll do on test day. ACT Reading Practice Tip 3: Review Your Mistakes Effectively The most important part of studying that many students skip over is EFFECTIVELY reviewing mistakes. Learning from your mistakes isn’t just a saying - it’s the single most useful tool for improving your test score. Yes, it’s tempting to just look at a question and go â€Å"oh, I made a stupid mistake† and just move on (I mean, what person wants to dwell on what she/he got wrong?). KLAXON! KLAXON! Failing to review your mistakes is the biggest mistake of all. To see real improvement in your score, you really need to get down into the nitty gritty of WHY you made the mistake. For example, what kinds of QUESTIONS or PASSAGES do you struggle with? Do you tend to have problems with Prose Fiction passages, no matter what the question is asking? Maybe you struggle when answering inference questions on passages (Line 42 primarily suggests that†¦), or finding the main point of a paragraph. Identifying the types of questions you struggle with most is necessary for creating the most helpful study plan - there's no point in wasting precious prep time practicing questions you already know how to answer. If your problems are with particular types of passages, you're in luck - we have an article with detailed explanations of each of the types of ACT passages. Have problems with passage-based questions? Go through our skills articles on vocabulary-in-context, big picture,little picture/detail, function and development, and inference questions. You can also brush up your passage reading skills with our article on the best way to approach the passage on ACT Reading. What about the kinds of MISTAKES you tend to make? Why did you make them? Don't just stop at surface explanations. Surface reason: oh, I just ran out of time for this question because it was at the end of the Reading section. I totally could have gotten it since it was asking about a detail that was really easy to find. This response is not helpful, because it doesn't make you learn from what you did wrong (and if you don't learn from your error, there's nothing to stop you from continuing to mess up). Nitty gritty:I ran out of time because I spent too much time on the Prose Fiction passage and ran out of time by the time I got to the Natural Science questions. How can I avoid this in the future? I should figure out which passages are easiest for me and which are hardest, then make sure I start with the easiest ones (since I don't have to do the section in order). I also need to make sure that I really only skim on my first readthrough or read the questions first and do all the detail ones that don’t rely on having to read the whole passage. Here's another example of possible reactions to getting a question wrong: Surface reason: There were two answers that seemed like they were kind of right, and I went with the wrong one. Oh well. Nothing I can do about that. A good start, but WHY did you go with the wrong one? You must look deeeeeeeeper. Nitty gritty: I didn’t read the question carefully enough to get what it was really asking. Because of this, when I went back to the passage I wasn’t able to eliminate three wrong answers. Next time, I'll really focus on exactly what the question is asking and make sure I answer the question based only on the information in the passage, not based on my outside knowledge. For even more detailed advice and suggestions on how to make sure you review mistakes in a way that improves your score, read my article here. Action Plan 1. Get official tests to practice from. Learn the way the ACT asks you about concepts to avoid tripping up on questions you know the answer to. 2. Practice under realistic conditions. Don't neglect to do timed reading sections as well as full-length practice tests, so you can get used to switching from Reading to other subject areas and back to Reading again. 3. Mark questions you are unsure of when you are taking the test. This way, you’re not just reviewing questions you got wrong - you’re also reviewing questions you were shaky on. 4. Review your mistakes so you can pinpoint your higher level weaknesses and drill them. If there's a particular type of question you tend to mess up on, focus your studying on that skill type. 5. Do it all over again: never give up [your test prep], never surrender. As you study, your weak areas may shift, so don’t hesitate to adapt your studying plan to fit your current skill level. For instance, if you had planned to spend a week studying each type of question, but find that after a couple of days you’ve already got the hang of answering questions that ask you to search for details in the passage, don’t waste your time spending five extra days on it - reallocate that time to an area that needs your attention more. For more guidance and suggestions that might work for you, try reading our articles on how to get a 36 on ACT reading and tips from a 36 full scorer. If you're really struggling with your prep, consider getting a tutor to help you structure your study and learn missing content. Contrary to what ACT Inc claims, the Reading section is much more about critical thinking skills than it is about knowing a particular curriculum, which means content-focused tutoring isn't necessarily helpful. However, it can still be helpful to get a tutor to help you create a structured study plan. On a completely unrelated note, one magnificent option for online tutoring can be found right here. Curitiba future bus stops by Sasha Aitkin, used under CC BY 2.0. Get off the struggle bus and taxi to success with these strategies! What’s Next Want more tips on the best way to study for the ACT? Read our guide to improving your ACT score by 4+ points. Go to the PrepScholar blog for articles targeted to each type of ACT Reading Question as well as articles about answering paired passage questions. Interested in adding some tutoring to the mix? PrepScholar Tutors might be right for you! Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Reading lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

10 Functions of the Comma

10 Functions of the Comma 10 Functions of the Comma 10 Functions of the Comma By Mark Nichol A comma is a versatile punctuation mark, serving ten basic functions. Here’s an enumeration, with examples. 1. Separate the elements in a series: â€Å"Groucho, Harpo, and Chico developed the philosophy called Marxism.† Many periodicals and websites, and most colloquially written books, omit the serial, or final, comma, but it is all but mandatory in formal writing and is recommended in all usage. As language maven Bryan Garner observes, â€Å"Omitting the serial comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will.† 2. Separate coordinated independent clauses: â€Å"I like the Marx Brothers, but she thinks they’re too silly.† (An independent clause is one that can stand on its own as a sentence but is linked with another by a conjunction and/or a punctuation mark.) Exceptions include sentences with closely linked clauses (â€Å"Go to the window and see who’s there†) and those with a compound predicate (â€Å"The Marx Brothers are known for their puns and their sight gags†). 3. Separate an introductory word (â€Å"Naturally, I agree with you†), phrase (â€Å"Last summer, I went on a long vacation†), or subordinate clause (â€Å"If you’re too busy now, wait until later†) from the remainder of the sentence. 4. Separate an optional parenthetical element from the remainder of the sentence. â€Å"We have, in a manner of speaking, won despite our loss.† (The phrase â€Å"in a manner of speaking† could also be set off by em dashes or parentheses, depending on whether the writer wishes to emphasize the interruption of the statement â€Å"We have won despite our loss† or wants to diminish it as an aside.) 5. Separate coordinate adjectives from each other: â€Å"I could really use a tall, cool drink right now.† (Do not separate noncoordinate adjectives with a comma; this post explains the difference between these two types of adjectives.) 6. Separate an attribution from a direct quotation: â€Å"She said, ‘Neither choice is very appealing’†; â€Å"‘That’s not my problem,’ he replied.† (A colon may be precede a formal pronouncement or an attribution that forms a complete thought, as in, â€Å"He had this to say: ‘Her point is irrelevant.† Omit punctuation when the attribution is implied, as in â€Å"Your response ‘Her point is irrelevant’ is evasive.†) 7. Separate a participial phrase or one lacking a verb from the remainder of the sentence: â€Å"Having said that, I still have my doubts†; â€Å"The deed done, we retreated to our hideout.† 8. Separate a salutation from a letter (â€Å"Dear friends,†) or a complimentary close from a signature in a letter (â€Å"Sincerely,†). A colon should be used in place of a comma in a formal salutation. 9. Separate elements when setting off a term for a larger geopolitical entity from that for a smaller one located within it (â€Å"Santa Barbara, California, is located on the coast†) and for elements of street addresses (â€Å"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC†) (and dates (â€Å"January 1, 2013†). 10. Separate groups of three digits in numbers: (Let me tell you how to make your first 100,000,000 dollars.† (Because large numbers are difficult to scan, it’s usually better to use one of the following forms: â€Å"100 million dollars,† â€Å"one hundred million dollars.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Using "a" and "an" Before WordsOne Fell SwoopPhrasal Verbs and Phrasal Nouns

Customers' and firms' views of using drones in business Essay

Customers' and firms' views of using drones in business - Essay Example A drone resembles and acts like an airplane. Lack of a pilot flying the drone is the major difference between a drone and an airplane. A person in a certain station controls a drone. The individuals are responsible for monitoring areas covered by the drone. In addition, the individual controls the movement of the drone. Drones are common among the military and army squads as they use them to survey enemies’ movement. They also act as bombs for attacking enemies. Development of drone abilities attracted executives who used for surveying areas that was not within the businessperson reach. Therefore, the drone has been of great service as it save time. Businessperson, use the drone for purposes such as delivery, providing internet services, news, photography, agriculture, population and monitoring public service.1 Apparently, the firms using drone and consumer have different views considering the use of drones in business activities. Some view them as advantageous while some view them as a disturber. Nevertheless, it depends on the service the drone offers to the individual. This paper attempts to views and explains the difference and similarities between the customers and the firm’s view on the usage of drones in business activity. The paper also adds the differences that firms and customers have while viewing the usage of drones in the business. It adds that the difference in people view is the main reason for the difference in how people view drones. Despite the many benefits of using drones in business, some firms and customers complain of the services produced. Some firms view the usage if drone in business and efficient. They lay their view upon the fast services produced when using the drone especially when delivering products. It is clear that most firms have experienced a challenge when delivering products and services to consumers in time when delivering products locally. The main problems that firms experience is a

Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizations - Essay Example The actions carried out by the organization are aimed towards preventative measures and strengthening the healthcare systems. The program is has an aggressive approach in fighting the current prevalent diseases in Africa which would be considered an emergency in developed countries. To be more specific, one of the main causes of death in Africa is HIV/AIDS. Approximately 68% of the entire AIDS infected population in the world resides in Sub Saharan Africa. However, only 10% of these individuals are offered the appropriate access to anti-retroviral drugs. The African community also has a problem of drug resistant strains of TB. The main killer of African children is Malaria, whist approximately 5Â  000 children are living with diarrhea at any given time. African women are also at a risk of 1:16 of dying during their pregnancy. Comparing these figures with developed countries shows the urgency of the matter and will help illustrate the approaches taken by AMREF in addressing these pro blems. The organization has started awareness campaigns and free testing facilities in an attempt to prevent new infections of HIV and reducing the progression of the disease in individuals who are already infected. Awareness campaigns have also been created among HIV patients about tuberculosis as early intervention prevents further spread. Specifically, the organization educates the community about the main symptoms, stages of the disease and diagnostic procedures. To reduce the occurrence of malaria the organization has donated mosquito nets and repellents and also educated people on the symptoms and signs of malaria. In an attempt to reduce the number of deaths due to delivery and complicated pregnancies, the organization has improved the education on maternal health. To prevent the spread of water borne diseases the organization has improved the level of education on water safety and sanitation. The above mentioned approaches may appear as non emergency actions; however, one mu st consider that the organization is based in a developing country. Education is the first step in improving health and preventing certain diseases and this aspect of healthcare is not fully developed in these countries. Therefore, the emergency approach would be too increase people’s knowledge as treatment provision alone is insufficient in alleviated the above mentioned health issues. As mentioned above, the organization is located in Africa and currently has establishments in 30 countries. These offices have several different functions which include technical support, laboratories, on- ground projects and training. The organization also has supporting offices in Europe and North America whose main function is to provide financial support for the African branches. As illustrated above, the main functions of the organization are educating purposes and targeted at developing countries. Therefore, in a usual emergency crisis the organization will not intervene. If the situatio n was serious and required the involvement of many healthcare organizations AMREF would be influential in spreading the message across the country. However, other modes of intervention in the United States would also be inhibited by the fact that the organiza

Website Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Website Project - Essay Example According to the people involved in the protest marches, a lot of these protests are trying to make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens so that they can share in the civil rights laws that were created the last time large groups of ethnic people gathered together. This peaceful, yet attention-getting response by such large numbers of people on the city streets made the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s stand out in even greater detail as a significant period in US History. While searching, I found a student’s website that detailed a lot of information about African American history, including an entire chapter devoted exclusively to the Civil Rights Movement. Based upon what had already been learned, the African American History website seemed well-researched and informed for this project. Unlike many of the other websites that I went to, this one actually provided me with much of the information I think it would be important to know in terms of the Civil Rights Movement as well as the documentation to back it up. Not only did the author of the site provide her name, affiliations, and other information necessary for a complete bibliographical entry, but for each section of the site, she indicated when and why this section was written so that her readers would have a good idea of her experience and expertise level at that period in time. These are things that are not normally included as a part of the website features, which automatically excluded several websites I found during my search that might have contained the same information, but were not as well organized or documented. In addition, throughout each essay within the site, the author made sure to keep her own bibliographic references as part of the page, so that her information could be verified from the origi nal source or so that I, as a reader, could go find out more information about that

Russian literature Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Russian literature - Research Paper Example The history of Russian literature is quite old and the ‘Old Russian Literature’ includes masterpieces produced in old Russian languages. Many anonymous works illuminate the history of the Russian literature during this era and the works like ‘The Tale of Igor’s Campaign’ and ‘Playing of Daniel the Immured’. The popular entity by the name of â€Å"Lives of Saints† evolved as a distinct genre of literature in Russian language during this period. ‘Life of Alexander Nevsky’ stands as an exemplary creation of this era. Old epics blended with the literary elements and traditions of Christian and Pagan elements illuminate the literary pieces of this period. Medieval Russian literature bears religious overtones in excess and the adaptations from Church Slavonic languages with major influences from many South Slavic elements have been widely incorporated in the literature during this period. ... Suicide happens to be an infallible theme of all the major works of the period and needs a wider exposition in this regard. Thesis Statement The essay intends to explore and discuss the major theme of suicide is pertinent in almost all the works of the â€Å"Golden Age† of the Russian literature of the nineteenth century evolving as a distinct cultural dimension dissipating men and women in the society. Golden Age of Russian Literature and the Theme of Suicide Nineteenth century literature in Russia is also known by the name of â€Å"Golden Era† of literature in Russian language. Romanticism inspired poetry and the names of the luminaries like Vasily Zhukovsky and afterwards his protege Alexander Pushkin came into prominence. Pushkin instrumented both crystallization and manifestation of innovative parameters of artistic excellence and artistry in Russian literature. His most popular novel written in verse form is â€Å"Eugene Onegin†. This precise period in Russ ian literature witnessed the evolution of a fresh new set of poetic talents in the works of Mikhail Lermontov,  Yevgeny Baratynsky,  Konstantin Batyushkov,  Nikolay Nekrasov,  Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy,  Fyodor Tyutchev and  Afanasy Fet. All these poets followed the creative style of Pushkin and are known in the history of Russian literature as his ardent followers. In the domain of prose, considerable contribution was notified during this period and keeping parity with the development of poetry, prose was also flourishing its canon well. The great Russian novelist of this period was Nikolai Gogol and following him were the names of the luminaries like Nikolai Leskov, Ivan Turgenev, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, who appeared in the monumental history of Russian literature during this era. All

Genetic diseases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Genetic diseases - Essay Example The latter mode of inheritance entails involvement of environmental factors besides multiple genes’ alterations in an individual’s body. For illustration, different genes that cause breast cancer where researchers have unveiled the presence of 6, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 22 chromosomes besides environmental factors (Doak 10). Other multifactorial inheritance disorders include diabetes, obesity, cancer and arthritis (Doak 29). Single gene inheritance mainly emanates from mutation changes, which take place in the DNA sequence (Doak 10). Presently, there are no effective methods meant for the treatment of many genetic diseases affecting humanity globally, though medical practitioners can advocate for various prevention methods (Doak 29). This is due to their diverse complexities once they reach at an advanced stage. For example, breast cancer and diabetes where after they have reached at advanced stages, medical practitioners normally result to the application of their respective management practices. This is to length the patient’s lifespan, and it entails occasional gene therapies coupled with doctors advising relatives to offer the ailing person both the necessary material and moral assistance (Chantal & Farndon 550). Most of the gene therapies advocated by medical practitioners; their core purpose entails alleviating the patients’ severe pain. This is a short-term resolution meant to give patients the necessary comfort while still

The Middle Ages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Middle Ages - Essay Example The medieval age was characterized by ignorance. During this age, people were not concerned to know the truth about their surroundings. Religion was a central aspect of people’s lives; people obeyed and believed everything that was taught by religion without caring about the come. This is evident from the relationship that existed between the religion and the society. During the medieval period, Christianity was the main religion in Europe. Christianity remained critical to the people and everything reflected the teachings of Christianity. Works of literature written during this era were classified as secular or Christian literature. It is obvious that secular literature was not celebrated as Christian literature was. This is because people did not appreciate change in the society or change from the known to unknown. The ignorance period that characterized the medieval age resulted from people’s lack of appreciation for change. The medieval age was also characterized by major calamities such as Black Death, famine and civil wars. The Black Death is considered as the worst calamity that affected Europe during the middle ages. Although the Black Death affected Europe during the upper middle age, its effects continued to be experienced even in the early modern age. This calamity is believed to have caused the deaths of nearly one third of the European population. The great famine of the middle ages and the civil wars also caused numerous deaths. The conservative nature of the people or their lack of accepting changes was responsible for the calamities that affected people during the middle ages. For instance, the great famine never resulted from bad weather condition, but due to lack of crop rotation and adopting the cultivation of new crop. In addition, the conflicts that led to the civil wars resulted from the need of the people to deviate from the known ways of life or governance. Anyone who tried to introd uce change was considered as the enemy of the people. These facts are well captured in medieval literature. During this time, books or any other literature material reflected what was already known by the society. Introduction of new ideas or knowledge was greatly opposed by the people. This explains why the middle ages experienced minimal advancement in literature. The classification of literature between secular and Christian literature also explains lack of development in middle age literature. The preference of Christian literature among the people of the Middle Ages also indicates that artists had few things to write about. This is because artists could only write finite things about Christianity as compared to the secular literature. People’s lack to appreciate change is the main factor that caused low intellectual developments during the middle ages. Although religious leaders and scholars knew the truth about nature, they kept the knowledge to themselves due to the fe ar of victimization. Most of this knowledge was in the fields of science and astronomy. Although science and astronomy were significant bodies of knowledge during the middle ages, they were dependent on philosophy and religion. This is a contradiction since both science and astronomy depends on facts and logical analysis. For example during the middle ages, the earth was considered flat. However, scholars and some religious leaders knew

Genetic diseases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Genetic diseases - Essay Example The latter mode of inheritance entails involvement of environmental factors besides multiple genes’ alterations in an individual’s body. For illustration, different genes that cause breast cancer where researchers have unveiled the presence of 6, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 22 chromosomes besides environmental factors (Doak 10). Other multifactorial inheritance disorders include diabetes, obesity, cancer and arthritis (Doak 29). Single gene inheritance mainly emanates from mutation changes, which take place in the DNA sequence (Doak 10). Presently, there are no effective methods meant for the treatment of many genetic diseases affecting humanity globally, though medical practitioners can advocate for various prevention methods (Doak 29). This is due to their diverse complexities once they reach at an advanced stage. For example, breast cancer and diabetes where after they have reached at advanced stages, medical practitioners normally result to the application of their respective management practices. This is to length the patient’s lifespan, and it entails occasional gene therapies coupled with doctors advising relatives to offer the ailing person both the necessary material and moral assistance (Chantal & Farndon 550). Most of the gene therapies advocated by medical practitioners; their core purpose entails alleviating the patients’ severe pain. This is a short-term resolution meant to give patients the necessary comfort while still

Black People and Affirmative Action Essay Example for Free

Black People and Affirmative Action Essay Please be advised that Assignment One on the printed Tutorial Letter 101/3/2013 on pages 12 14 has a number of both typographical and numerical mistakes. This happened as a result of a number of factors: the initial assignment reading was too costly for the Department to commission in terms of copyright and had to be retracted at the last minute. The reading on Affirmative Action: a losing battle? was then included but with an almost impossible deadline, which resulted in the errors reflected therein. This is regrettable and we apologise for any inconvenience this might have cost you. The corrected version of the assignment is on page 3 and is attached to this TL and again on my UNISA for your convenience. The marks are out of 100 marks 50 for Section A and 50 marks for Section B. NB: Please note that the due date has not changed in any way (4 March 2013). 2 ENN103F/102 8. 4. 1. FIRST SEMESTER ASSIGNMENTS The purpose of this assignment is to teach you how to read an article and to critically engage in academic reading and reflecting on the material in an academic manner by answering the short paragraph questions provided as well as an essay. Assignment 01 will be marked fairly fully and sent back to you. Affirmative action: a losing battle? There are considerable reasons to suppose that this topic, which affects all citizens of South Africa, in particular, seems dated. In some instances it is a policy viewed with hostility as it is said to discriminate against sections of the population, yet in others it is seen as beneficial to women, black people and the disabled. Studies show that in many instances this form of historical redress has proven a hindrance to performance and makes the beneficiaries doubt their abilities when viewed by their superiors. This has a negative effect on an organization since the quality of work is seen as being sub-standard. Equally, there are significant indicators, both in industry and the private sector, that the opening up of previously closed avenues through the policy of affirmative action made companies perform better since the beneficiaries of such workplace selection viewed their work as a challenge. Where beneficiaries claim stigmatization by such a selection process, it means they prefer not to have been selected through such efforts. Either way, the battle seems to go on and on. In the light of this ongoing and divisive debate, the level of debate regarding the policy has not progressed further since comparative studies of the policy have not been seriously undertaken. There has been no systematic study of the developments in how the policy actually proves beneficial as a tool of redress. Part of the reason is that, firstly, there is a lack of monitoring of what goes on in organizations, and secondly, that the regulations are not strictly enforced. For instance, companies will usually ‘front’ a black person, a woman or a disabled person, as a chief executive officer and leave the matter of compliance as a secondary issue. Rarely do such companies face serious consequences even if they do business with the government. The question then is whether a time limit should be placed on the policy and Act or whether it should be declared unconstitutional. Consideration has not been taken, for instance, of measures used in other countries to actively promote privilege. Very few advocacy groups ever mention the Naturalization Act of 1790, the Homestead Act of 1862 or even the Federal Housing Administration Loan Program of the 1930s used by the government of the United States of America to promote racial preference; or that such Acts were also used as models for other racially divided societies. Advocacy groups for and against the policy and Act have routinely made it a point that the policy is unsettling, needless and discriminatory, on the one hand, while others argue forcefully that the amelioration of past injustices justifies its implementation. Whichever side is on the ascendancy cannot take the other side’s viewpoint, and in the end the past divisions are set to continue. 3 SECTION A: Short questions Answer the following questions in short paragraphs. Please note that each question will be marked out of 10 marks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Is the affirmative action policy morally defensible? Explain. In your opinion, which country has successfully implemented the policy of affirmative action and why did it succeed? In your view, why did the South African government choose to implement the Affirmative Action policy and Act, and was it ever justifiable? Does the policy need to be discontinued after a certain length of time, and why? In your opinion, why is it that people from a different racial group are unemployable in certain sectors of the economy and not in others? [10 X 5 = 50] SECTION B: Essay Write an essay of approximately one and a half page on either of the questions below. Please note that each essay will be marked out of 50 marks: 1) Do you think cultivating an equal opportunity society has helped countries such as South Africa and America to move forward? In a carefully worded essay, show why this is the case or why it is not. OR 2) To what extent do you consider such a policy and act relevant to the needs of any society today? [50 marks] Best wishes The ENN103F Team 4.

Biodiversity Impact Of Invasive Plants In Tropical Biodiversity Biology Essay

Biodiversity Impact Of Invasive Plants In Tropical Biodiversity Biology Essay Tropical zone is the biodiversity hot spot (Briggs, 1996) about three-quarters of the worlds species are confined to the tropic of the world (Wilson, 1992). Though tropical forest ecosystems are more resistant to invasion by alien plants than other biome (Edward, 2009), they are exceedingly threatening by invasive species (Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, biotropica, 2010). Invasive species are creating significant challenges to the management and conservation of the indigenous biodiversity. The distribution of invasive plant species occurred at ecosystem level, community level and at the species level (Meyer et al., 2004). At least one exotic species is present in almost all tropical areas (Usher 1991). Invasive plants alter the local environment more favourable to them but less favourable to the native species (Hoffmann et al., 2004) and thus modified local ecosystem. Biological invasion has become a considerable economic, social, and particularly ecological problem of global impact (Cavalcante and Major, 2006). The important ecological impacts identified include reduction in native plant species richness, abundance and alternation in ecological function (Vitousek Walker, 1989; Adair Groves, 1998; Levine et al., 2003; Ogle, Reiners Gerow, 2003; Vila et al., 2006; Hejda, Pysek Jarosik, 2009 cited in Martin and Murray, 2010). Invasive plant species can covert the large area tropical vegetation to an exotic monoculture and greatly reduce the biodiversity, for example, the number of birds, mammals, tree seedlings were greatly reduced in Australia after the invasion of the area by alien plant species (Braithwaite et al. 1989) and Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) forms large, monotyp ic expanses, with Asia reporting over 35 million acres affected (Garrity et al. 1997). Invasive species are posing a serious threat to biodiversity (IUCN, 2000). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) has pointed that the impacts of invasive species on the tropical ecosystems are increasing rapidly. Similarly, recognizing the increasing issue of impact of invasive species, Convention on Biological Diversity, call on contracting parties to prevent the introduction of, control or eradicate invasive species that threaten ecosystems, habitats and species Article 8 (h). This systematic review attempt to summarises, appraise and communicate the results  of the available studies to address the impact of invasive plants on tropical biodiversity. This protocol will provide a priori guide and allow scientific communities to comment on methodology and other relevant issues. Diverse studies are available related to impact of invasive plant species on tropical biodiversity. Some studies suggest that invasion of native vegetation by the non native plants does not always lead to decline in native biodiversity (e.g. Sax Gaines, 2003; Sax, Kinlan Smith, 2005). Biological invasions have been the subject of intensive ecological research during the last two decades (Fine 2001). Comprehensive studied have been done for many tropical forests e.g. the Hawaiian Islands (Fine, 2002) but some authors argues that the biological invasion research has generally ignored tropical forests ( Drake et al. 1989, Groves Burdon 1986, Williamson 1996 cited in Fine, 2002). In such contentious situation, it seems quite reasonable to syntheses these studies to improve the efficiency of the conservation efforts in preserving biodiversity of the tropics and develop a concrete evidence base on the impact of invasive species which will provide unbiased scientific evidence base to help decision-makers to decide and implement necessary policy intervention to stop further invasion of the tropical biodiversity and identify areas where evidence is lacking to direct research and funding on more crucial agendas. Objective of the review Primary question What are the effects of invasive plants on biodiversity of the tropical zone? Table 1: Definition of components of the primary systematic review question Subject Intervention Comparator Outcomes Biodiversity in the tropical zone Invasion by invasive plant species in tropical zone Biodiversity in forest, savannas or grassland before the invasion or any relevant or any relevant Any reported change in tropical biodiversity e.g. Species richness, abundance of native plant species, tree density Methods 3.1. Search Strategy Relevant published and unpublished literature and data will be collated by following strategy. Due to the resource constraints only English language literatures will be taken into consideration. 3.1.1 Scope of search I will use the following database search to retrieve the literatures and data ISI Web of Knowledge Science Direct Wiley InterScience Cambridge Journal Cab Direct CSA Biological Sciences Database (CSA/CIG)   BIOTROPICA In addition to grey literatures are searched in the website of relevant organization as listed in section 3.1.5 which helps to reveal important information about the tropical forestry and invasive species interaction. First searches are conducted on title, keyword and abstract basis and followed by full text searches. Hits are then checked for the relevance. 3.1.2 Search terms Effective and comprehensive list of related key words as described in the table -2 will be used to retrieve the literatures from the database specified above. Table 2: Search terms for review Subject term Intervention term combine with OR AND combine with OR Tropic* biodiversity Species richness Invas* plant non native plant exotic plant alien plant introduced plant Search term combinations Table: 3 Search term combinations and no of hits Key word 1 Key word 2 Total hits (Topic search) Refined hits in Web of science Tropic* biodiversity AND Invas* plant 54 Tropic* biodiversity AND Non native plant 32 Tropic* biodiversity AND exotic plant 74 Tropic* biodiversity AND alien plant 63 Tropic* biodiversity AND non-indigenous plant 07 Tropic* Species richness AND Invas* plant 38 Tropic* Species richness AND Non native plant 30 Tropic* Species richness AND exotic plant 60 Tropic* Species richness AND alien plant 34 Tropic* Species richness AND non-indigenous plant 04 tropical biodiversity AND (exotic plant) OR (invasive plant) OR(non native plant) OR (non indigenous plant) 7,109 425 No of hits and the retrieval of relevant literature varies between the data base searches, in the above table hits obtained by web of science is mentioned as an example. The same search tem combination give quite different hit in another database search, for example, for the first search term [tropic*biodiversity AND invas*plant] Cab direct retrieved 56 articles. In addition to the web of science the search databases mentioned in section 3.1.1 have been used in the preparation of this protocol and will also be used in final systematic review. 3.1.3 Specialist web sources will be conducted www.conservationevidence.com www.conserveOnline.org www.conservationevidence.org www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov 3.1.4. Internet Search The internet will be searched using the search engines. The first 70 hits for each search will be recorded and examined for relevance. www.google.com www.scholar.google.com www.scirus.com www.scientific.thomsonwebplus.com 3.1.5 Specialist agencies and organization data search At global level: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) IUCN/Invasive species specials group CABI- invasive species compendium Convention on biological diversity (CBD) International Weed Science Society (IWSS) UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) In addition to this regional level agencies and organization in tropical countries will also consulted. Asia: Association of Southeast Asian Nations , Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC) Invasive Alien Flora of India Weed Science Society of Japan Weed Science Society of China Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN) Australia: Invasive Species Council South America: Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network IABN Invasive Information Network 3.2. Study Inclusion criteria The relevant studies (articles, literatures, book sections) to be included in meta-analysis will be based in hierarchical judgment by first scanning the article titles followed by key words, abstracts and full text. The relevancy is determined by criteria as described below. If the data presented in the studies are not clear and needed to take more detailed description original authors and their respective organization will be contracted. Kappa analysis will be carried out for repeatability. Disputes between two reviewers will be solved by third independent reviewer. Geographical location: Study area of the relevant studies should be within the tropics (23.438 °S to 137 23.438 °N). 3.2.1. Relevant subjects: Any studies related to biodiversity changes in the tropical zone because of invasive plant species. 3.2.2. Types of intervention: Invasion of the tropical zone (forest land, agriculture land, grass land or savannas) by invasive plant species 3.2.3. Types of comparators: Any relevant studies and studies comparing the biodiversity of the tropical zone assessing before and after the effect of invasive plant species 3.2.4. Types of outcomes: Any study which shows biodiversity change (indicators like relative species richness or abundance) 3.2.5. Types of studies: Any study which describes qualitatively or quantitatively the effect of invasive plant species in the biodiversity (species richness, abundance) in forest land, grassland. Range land, agriculture land, savannas. Those studies which present comparison of before and after the invasion or the comparison of the proportion of exotic species to native species will be included. Studies can be articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters or grey literatures 3.3. Potential effect modifier and reasons for heterogeneity Different edaphic, biotic, topographic and climatic condition which governs the vegetation type of the tropics such as soil quality, altitude, aspects, forest types and intensity of human disturbances which may respond to plant invasions in different ways affect the study outcomes. Furthermore, the biological characteristics of the invasive species also affect the study. 3.4. Study quality assessment The searched articles, grey literatures and documents will be assesses according to the previously designed study inclusion criteria. These are then checked independently for validity, reliability and applicability. A Quality assessment checklist is developed as shown below with the consultation of the review team and will be amended after stakeholders feedbacks. Internal and external validity will be checked using a set of criteria. Table 4: Quality assessment checklist for checking validity, reliability and applicability Variables Yes No 1 Target population and intervention defined 2 Sample representative 3 Experimental design/randomization 4 Base line information 5 Valid data collection 6 Description of confounding factors 7 Applicability of the research 8 Any biases Source: Adapted from class notes, 2010 and literature review 3.5. Data extraction strategy Qualitative and quantities information will be extracted from the studies included for the review. Information on invasive species, their effects on tropical biodiversity (species richness, abundance and competition) will be extracted in to a specially designed extraction form as shown in annex-1. Where data are available, data will be extracted as before and after data and other data will be extracted as appropriate. 3.6. Data synthesis and presentation Data synthesis method will be determined by the availability of the data and data type. The studies will be grouped according to the type of information available e.g. review article, original research. If sufficient quantitative information is available meta-analysis will be conducted to know the significance of the effect of invasive plant species to the tropical biodiversity. If in sufficient quantitative information is available qualitative analysis of evidence will be undertaken.

IT and the Business Cycle :: essays research papers

IT and the Business Cycle There is a regular business cycle, which lasts for about 9 years. The cycle is characterised by a period of growth, then strong growth and then recession. Unfortunately, the cycle isn't exact and it isn't dependable, or else you could make money out of it, by gambling on it. Sometimes it lasts 7 years, sometimes 10 or 11. In the later stages of the last business cycle some odd things were happening. Growth in the US economy was much higher than anyone expected and unemployment much lower. Productivity statistics from the US Government suggested that from 1996 productivity was improving at an average 2.2 percent per year, which was a dramatic improvement on the 1 percent average for the previous 25 years. The point at which productivity turned up coincided with the point at which the Internet started to become visible. That may have been a coincidence, but there was another strange quirk in the figures. Investment by US companies since 1990 has been static in every area except in IT, where it rose dramatically by a factor of 14 over the decade. And to cap it all, the bulk of the productivity improvement in the US economy was confined to the IT industry itself. In theory, IT should be counter-cyclical and it usually is. The benefit that IT is supposed to deliver is automation. It either cuts costs and/or improves productivity, accordingly. The figures from the US suggest that it was doing the latter in the glorious 90s and particularly in the later years. In the current part of the business cycle it will be cost cutting that matters. The heady days of optimism are over and the era of cautious IT investment has arrived. So what are the information technologies that will do well in this era? Here's one thought. Consider the anomaly of Moore's Law. This suggests that CPU power will double every 18 months and it has done just that for over 30 years. Actually Moore's law doesn't just apply to CPUs, but also memory, disk, buses and just about every aspect of a computer or network. One would think then, that it would have brought down the cost of computing as a matter of course. However, it didn't have that effect until recently, because most of the accelerated capability was delivered to the PC where its contribution to productivity was minimal.