Free Online Classes for West Virginia K-12 Students

West Virginia offers resident students the opportunity to take online public school courses for free. Below is a list of no-cost online schools currently serving elementary and high school students in West Virginia. In order to qualify for the list, schools must meet the following qualifications: classes must be available completely online, they must offer services to state residents, and they must be funded by the government. Virtual schools listed may be charter schools, state-wide public programs, or private programs that receive government funding. List of West Virginia Online Charter Schools and Online Public Schools West Virginia Virtual School Online Charter Schools and Online Public Schools Many states now offer tuition-free online schools for resident students under a certain age (often 21). Most virtual schools are charter schools; they receive government funding and are run by a private organization. Online charter schools are subject to fewer restrictions than traditional schools. However, they are reviewed regularly and must continue to meet state standards. Some states also offer their own online public schools. These virtual programs generally operate from a state office or a school district. State-wide public school programs vary. Some online public schools offer a limited number of remedial or advanced courses not available in brick-and-mortar public school campuses. Others offer full online diploma programs. A few states choose to fund â€Å"seats† for students in private online schools. The number of available seats may be limited and students are usually asked to apply through their public school guidance counselor. Choosing a West Virginia Online Public School When choosing an online public school, look for an established program that is regionally accredited and has a track record of success. Be wary of new schools that are disorganized, are unaccredited, or have been the subject of public scrutiny. Evaluating virtual schools is important to ensure that it meets the students needs and fulfills educational requirements.

The Performance Evaluation Of Databases - 2218 Words

Final Report Abstract Acknowledgement Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. Chapter 1 Introduction My project is based on Performance Evaluation of Databases. Basically testing and analyzing the system performance, usability, reliability and measures of different database systems using many kind of SQL queries and statement then compare the result and finding out which one is better in terms of performance and optimization techniques. For the evaluation purpose I have used two database systems, they are Microsoft SQL server management 2012 and Oracle database 10g. I need to evaluate the performance by running some set of queries on both of the systems which I used for my evaluation purpose and have to†¦show more content†¦Predominantly evaluation performance is being done to determine how fast and reliable database system can execute and process queries to give optimize results. 1.1 Objective My objective of the project is to determine which database management system gives better, efficient and optimize results after the performance evaluation techniques applied to that specific database system. In my project I have used Microsoft SQL server 2012 and Oracle 10 g databases. I need to effectuate which one is best to use efficiently according to different specific measures and perspective of databases. Current trend in the world of information technology is that relatively every organization is managing tens of petabyte of data. There are large proportion of data which need to be store and managed in database. So there is immense requirement of efficient and reliable database management system. Database systems need to be constructed in high reliability methods and techniques in terms of their functionalities and design. System Performance is an analytical metric that must need great output for an effective database system. Complex database system is outrageous and difficult to analyze so performance evaluation is very important concern since databases are one of the most compelling affair in today’s business revolution. Chapter 2 Background Research Database System is one of the most important concern in the field of Informational technology. It contains the most reliable

Biopure Solution Free Essays

Biopure Corporation has two new products that are Oxyglobin and Hemopure. Oxyglobin is the first new blood substitute for the veterinary market and is ready for consumer use. Hemopure is another new blood substitute for the human market and it will take two years to launch the product from now on. We will write a custom essay sample on Biopure Solution or any similar topic only for you Order Now Ted Jacobs, vice president for Human Clinical Trials, is concerned about creating an unrealistic price expectation for Hemopure by marketing Oxyglobin before Hemopure. On the other hand, Andy Wright, vice president for Veterinary Products, believes that selling Oxyglobin has benefits for the company in terms of generating revenues for the use of launching Hemopure and learning how to market and make mistakes prior to the launch of Hemopure. Carl Rausch, the president and CEO of Biopure Corporation, has to decide if the release of Oxyglobin would be beneficial for the company without jeopardizing the potential of Hemopure. The Solution: I think that launching Oxyglobin has many benefits for the company. For this reason, I agree with Andy Wright’s decision to begin by selling Oxyglobin. Ted Jacobs indicates that the veterinary market is small and price sensitive. He also believes that if the company prices Oxyglobin around $150, it will be very difficult to price Hemopure at $800 because of the huge difference in price for the same product. I disagree with Ted Jacobs because although the production processes and physical characteristics of these two products are identical, Oxyglobin is targeted for the animal market whereas the target customer for Hemopure is the human market. Just because products are identical does not mean that the company prices separately; it is all about the supply and demand. The determining factor of price is the market itself, so Ted Jacobs thinks that Biopure can achieve the price points of $600 to $800. He can only estimate these price points based on the market price. Additionally, even though the veterinary market is small and price sensitive, being the first in any market will make a huge difference and impact the company’s reputation in a positive way if the product satisfies the needs and wants of the consumers. 84% of veterinary doctors complained about the lack of alternatives to the blood transfusion in the marketplace. I believe that this is a big opportunity for Biopure to enter the veterinary market because Oxyglobin has already passed an FDA – approval process specific to the veterinary market. If the competitors want to get a share for animal blood substitutes, they have to wait at least for two years. Waiting for Hemopure to launch both products at the same time will also put the company in a risk because of the possibility of competitors’ entrance to the veterinary market. Once Oxyglobin achieves its purpose for animals and satisfies the veterinary doctors and pet owners, the success of this product will help Biopure to easily launch Hemopure and attract the human market. The Implementation: Andy Wright and his team can have a successful launch for Oxyglobin by implementing the followings: †¢ The Pricing Strategy: Even though the surveys show that veterinarians recommend less-expensive treatments over more-expensive, 90% of pet owners are willing to be informed about all the available alternatives to treat their pets. For this reason, giving the many advantages of Oxyglobin relative to donated animal blood and being the only animal blood substitute in the market, Oxyglobin should carry a premium price of up to $200 per unit. The Distribution Strategy: Instead of making a contract with one of the distributors, Biopure should consider of distributing Oxyglobin by using its salesforces. By doing so, the company does not have to pay 20% of the selling price on a more-established product and 30% of the selling price on a new product. Since the estimated cost of distributing Oxyglobin is $10 to $15 per unit, Biopure would save money compared to the cos t of contracting with one of the distributers which would be $60 per unit. How to cite Biopure Solution, Papers

Analyse Organizational Citizenship Behaviour †Free Samples for Studen

Question: Discuss about the Organizational Citizenship Behaviour. Answer: Introduction In industrial and organizational psychology, organizational citizenship behaviour or organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is a person's voluntary commitment within an organization or company that is not part of his or her contractual tasks. The objective of this report is to discuss and analyse the three articles of organizational citizenship behaviour. The articles are: 1.Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior 2.Organizational citizenship behavior in work groups: A team cultural perspective The costs of exhibiting organizational citizenship behavior The paper would discuss the similarities and differences between the articles and the paper would also discuss the integrated and common view from the articles. The similarities between the articles can be discussed as: Similarities between the articles One of the similarities between these articles is the effective and efficient use of literature review. All the authors did a detailed literature review. Another similarity is the focus on employee development as part of organizational behavior. All the authors accepted that organizational development couldnt happen without employee development. Therefore, it is important that employees goals and objectives should match with the organizational goal and objectives. All the authors agreed that the idea of organizational citizenship behaviour are inherently positive. Authors agree upon the single point that the idea and notion of organizational citizenship behaviour does more positive and negative. Obviously there exist a negative or the dark side of organizational citizenship behaviour; however, it is not something that could not be avoided. All the authors also tend to agree on the part that organizational citizenship behaviour would have positive relationship with the performance of the employees and performance ratings given to them. It is expected that a healthy organizational citizenship behavior should have a positive impact on employee performance. There also exist some differences in these articles. The differences in these three articles can be discussed as: Differenced between the articles There are not much of the differences between these three articles. There is some difference in the approach of authors towards the research. In the article, Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior, authors did a detailed analysis of organizational citizenship behaviour and they based their research on three assumptions. In the article, Organizational citizenship behavior in work groups: A team cultural perspective, authors have taken a case study approach. The case study around organizational citizenship behavior is developed and an effective literature review is done. his study examines how OCB influences job performance ratings within different team cultures, as measured by team collectivism and individualism. Authors collected the data from 81 teams working for a multinational bank in Hong Kong. In the article, The costs of exhibiting organizational citizenship behavior, authors started the article with a hypothesis. In the article, authors did the hypothes is testing through literature review in the area of organizational citizenship behavior. In this article, authors were more focused to link organizational citizenship behavior with job performance. Reconciliation of opposing points in the articles One thing that can be reconciled from the articles is value creation for different stakeholders in the organization. To fully understand this definition of value creation it is important to understand what is known as capitals. In an organizational setting, capital can be defined as financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital. It is from these capitals that value can be created or indeed destroyed. An organizations business model seeks to combine, transform and leverage on these capitals to create value for the organisation. Value can also be created for other stakeholders like customers, the general public etc. In the article, Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior authors made the statement that the organizational culture has to encourage knowledge sharing across the organization. In this context, the cycle of organizational learning can be observed, however, since it is based on repetitive tasks, the knowledge has been institutionalized in the organization and the role of the new employee is to learn already established knowledge ingrained into the department. Furthermore, the interest on both parties to convey the information is important, as this is a crucial stage of the employee to learn the organization; procedures, culture, etc. Organizational development through smooths knowledge acquisition and eventually transfer of learning between the same organisation employees and also between different borders and countries is made only possible by todays highly technological software.It is important to mention that intuition is an implicit part of organizational citizenship behavior exhibited by leaders. Intuiting: which is the process where organization individuals develop their own new insights and ideas. In this process, Line-of-business software can support by capturing the business daily transaction then extract patterns and trends and generate reports that are used to build insights about business operations and support new ideas generation. It is also important to mention that knowledge management is also and important part of organizational citizenship behavior. such process, knowledge management solution could be used to exploit existing knowledge and ingrate it with the new knowledge, performance managemen t solutions to capture and analyze the KPIs related to the application of learning outcomes, and project management solutions to plan and manage the implementation of the learning outcomes and related initiatives. Integration of the information All the authors agreed that trust is the key to establish a healthy organization. If there is no trust, organization cannot get an employee to share its knowledge. Trust paves way for employees to open up themselves to the organization growth of which knowledge sharing is one of them. Another useful information is the use of principles like job rotation. Rotationas a means of ingrained organizational knowledge seem to be very practical because every employee get the opportunity to understand each unit individually and how it interconnect with the mission of the department. Thus, increasing (possible) commitment. Rotation, however, may also create stagnation because the tasks are performed based on what is learned and there is no incentive or motivation to do it differently.Therefore, in relation to organizational learning and the 4i's framework, the department remains at a stage where the knowledge learned is institutionalized and there is no mean for the cycle of learning to be repe ated.Additionally, the responsibility of conveying or transferring the correct knowledge to the employee in the new unit is immense as not always the information is conveyed in a correct manner; interrupting organizational learning through this means to be inadequate. The observation is that some personnel may refuse to share knowledge (precisely) because it is interpreted that by sharing the knowledge he/she may release his/her power to the next individual. In so, in organizations where the nature of the job is repetitive is important to accompany job rotation (for organizational learning), which can be very beneficial to the organization, with other tools to ensure knowledge transfer is accurate. Another common point among the articles is that the leaders should be intuitive for effective organizational culture. In an organizational setting, the individual act need to have very clear vision on the environment the organization are operating, and aside of that the individual act which is the intuition also need to know what are acceptance level of staff in his team or organization in dealing with new opinion, because if the staff intuition will not be welcome among the team than staff intuition will not reach anywhere. One may be led to believe that Structural and leadership barriers can affect organizational learning based on organizational culture or the belief of individuals. For example women leadership. Male dominance is said to be the greatest obstacle encountered by women rising to top positions. The "gender role " issue based on societies belief is said to have prevented may women from climbing the corporate ladder, "the glass ceiling" has created limitations the old-boy network is said to create a barrier to prevent women from entering top management and another barrier is "sex discrimination" that may imply that women may not be aggressive enough to take on a particular position. Due to these barriers women are encouraged to have their own businesses in order to experience the leadership role. Hewlett-Packard had elected a female leader in 1999 that believed that this barrier was broken until after seven years it was stated that she admitted to being a victim of sexism. Organizations have mentioned that they are losing talent as women may leave and seek opportunities that will help the to break "the glass ceiling. The organizations must be cautious to use the integration of knowledge in an effective manner. It is important that organizational citizenship behavior should be established as a culture in the organization. The culture should be established from top down to bottom up manner. The leaders should take the responsibility to establish the organizational citizenship culture. Application of knowledge to organizational situation The key things learned from article are that organizational culture should be the key thing for senior management. In this era of globalization, employees often have work together with the employees of different regions. Lets apply the organizational citizenship and cultural perspective to an outsourcing example. For instance, in an organization, consultants are employed for a specific period of time, either in Information Technology department or other services. Within this period, they will share their knowledge and expertise on the particular area in which they are specialized and when they are done, they will leave and the employees of that department will have the knowledge of such task and how to go about it. It happened when the company wants to upgrade the flex-cube software for operations department, certain experts on (IT) from India were employed for the number of weeks and months the tasks lasted. It is important that organizations should have a thorough understanding of internal and external environment before making any decision. The concepts of organizational citizenship behavior could also be applied to small and large organizations. It is critical that the organizations should have the plan to make continuous improvement in the organization through organizational citizenship behavior. The organizations should also have a long term plan in place with respect to organizational citizenship behavior. The plan would ensure that organization is able to Conclusion A lot of learning can be made from these three articles. The subject of organizational citizenship behavior is particularly more important for contemporary environment in globalized environment. When we talk of Technology, we think of globalization with all the good things that came with it as the act of globalization has made the world to be a global village. One of the benefits of globalization to the world in general is the technology innovation which has made every economy a connecting village to the other, Wu, (2012) Said Globalization is an ongoing process of the flow of capital, information, labour, technology, and goods across national boundaries to form an interconnected global economy. Though as it has the advantage which it has brought to the world same also it has its bad side effects on some economies. Without the Information or communication technology, the access to organizational strategic alliance will not be visible and favorable as their will be much hindrance both in learning and communication thereby hinders the knowledge sharing. When its not shared among the employees for organizational usage and their own personal purpose it brings down a lot of organizational competitiveness. Finally, when it comes to visual employees, Information Technology has been their only source of easy and fast organizational learning including communication between them and their head office with other subsidiaries. For instance, in my organization, the invent of technology has been a tool that brought the entire subsidiaries in one umbrella, in the sense that it provided solution for video conference organizational training among the whole subsidiaries which makes it easy to reach all in one bit and saves costs, time and stress in travelling for the management and not only that it has improved in the competitive advantage of the company. It can be said that the organizations must use the new avenues of Information Technology to manage its operation and to ensur e high level of organization citizenship behavior. References Bolino, M.C., Klotz, A.C., Turnley, W.H. and Harvey, J., 2013. Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior.Journal of Organizational Behavior,34(4), pp.542-559. Deery, S., Rayton, B., Walsh, J. and Kinnie, N., 2016. The Costs of Exhibiting Organizational Citizenship Behavior.Human Resource Management. Lai, J.Y., Lam, L.W. and Lam, S.S., 2013. Organizational citizenship behavior in work groups: A team cultural perspective.Journal of Organizational Behavior,34(7), pp.1039-1056.

Nuclear Energy Essays (1847 words) - Radioactivity,

Nuclear Energy Nuclear Energy Radioactive wastes, must for the protection of mankind be stored or disposed in such a manner that isolation from the biosphere is assured until they have decayed to innocuous levels. If this is not done, the world could face severe physical problems to living species living on this planet. Some atoms can disintegrate spontaneously. As they do, they emit ionizing radiation. Atoms having this property are called radioactive. By far the greatest number of uses for radioactivity in Canada relate not to the fission, but to the decay of radioactive materials - radioisotopes. These are unstable atoms that emit energy for a period of time that varies with the isotope. During this active period, while the atoms are 'decaying' to a stable state their energies can be used according to the kind of energy they emit. Since the mid 1900's radioactive wastes have been stored in different manners, but since several years new ways of disposing and storing these wastes have been developed so they may no longer be harmful. A very advantageous way of storing radioactive wastes is by a process called 'vitrification'. Vitrification is a semi-continuous process that enables the following operations to be carried out with the same equipment: evaporation of the waste solution mixed with the borosilicate: any of several salts derived from both boric acid and silicic acid and found in certain minerals such as tourmaline. additives necesary for the production of borosilicate glass, calcination and elaboration of the glass. These operations are carried out in a metallic pot that is heated in an induction furnace. The vitrification of one load of wastes comprises of the following stages. The first step is 'Feeding'. In this step the vitrification receives a constant flow of mixture of wastes and of additives until it is 80% full of calcine. The feeding rate and heating power are adjusted so that an aqueous phase of several litres is permanently maintained at the surface of the pot. The seco nd step is the 'Calcination and glass evaporation'. In this step when the pot is practically full of calcine, the temperature is progressively increased up to 1100 to 1500 C and then is maintained for several hours so to allow the glass to elaborate. The third step is 'Glass casting'. The glass is cast in a special container. The heating of the output of the vitrification pot causes the glass plug to melt, thus allowing the glass to flow into containers which are then transferred into the storage. Although part of the waste is transformed into a solid product there is still treatment of gaseous and liquid wastes. The gases that escape from the pot during feeding and calcination are collected and sent to ruthenium filters, condensers and scrubbing columns. The ruthenium filters consist of a bed of condensacate: product of condensation. glass pellets coated with ferrous oxide and maintained at a temperature of 500 C. In the treatment of liquid wastes, the condensates collected contain about 15% ruthenium. This is then concentrated in an evaporator where nitric acid is destroyed by formaldehyde so as to maintain low acidity. The concentration is then neutralized and enters the vitrification pot. Once the vitrification process is finished, the containers are stored in a storage pit. This pit has been designed so that the number of containers that may be stored is equivalent to nine years of production. Powerful ventilators provide air circulation to cool down glass. The glass produced has the advantage of being stored as solid rather than liquid. The advantages of the solids are that they have almost complete insolubility, chemical inertias, absence of volatile products and good radiation resistance. The ruthenium that escapes is absorbed by a filter. The amount of ruthenium likely to be released into the environment is minimal. Another method that is being used today to get rid of radioactive waste is the 'placement and self processing radioactive wastes in deep underground cavities'. This is the disposing of toxic wastes by incorporating them into molten silicate rock, with low permeability. By this method, liquid wastes are injected into a deep underground cavity with mineral treatment and allowed to self-boil. The resulting steam is processed at ground level and

20 Informative Essay Topics Discuss Controversial Redistricting Issues with Ease!

20 Informative Essay Topics Discuss Controversial Redistricting Issues with Ease! Redistricting is a political topic which deals with the segmentation of large cities into smaller districts. As this is a research topic with a big spectrum, your course instructor might be tempted to assign it. If you have been asked to write a detailed paper or essay on this topic, you can go over to our 10 facts on redistricting for an informative essay and find a lot of details on the subject. However, if you are looking for direct topics which will make your research a lot easier and narrow, here are 20 you can pick out from for your essay. Here are 20 topics regarding redistricting for your informative essay: The General History of Redistricting Vs. Current Redistricting How The Baker Vs. Carr Trial Played Part in Contemporary Redistricting The Necessity of Redistricting The Logic Behind Its Concept Discuss The Origins of the â€Å"1-Person-Equals-1-Vote† Statement The Effects of Geographical Contiguity on Redistricting A Detailed Look at Partisan Gerrymandering Its Setbacks Bipartisan Gerrymandering Its Benefits What is Biased Redistricting? History of Litigations Against Biased Redistricting What Role Does Redistricting Play In Eliminating Incumbents? Reasons Why Richard Cranwell Didn’t Run for Re-Election after Redistricting How Minority Votes are Rendered Useless in Redistricting The Strategic Dilution of The Latino Community Votes in 2003 Adverse Effects of Redistricting on Small Communities Effects of Redistricting of Regions with Certain Predominant Ethnic Populations The 92’ Race Riots Their Adverse Effects on Koreatown How States Use Legislators for Redistricting Commissions Their Reliabilities on Redistricting Backup Commision Vs. Political Commission Independent Commission Its Role in Legislations You can elaborate on these topics extensively and if you are just getting started, look at our guide on how to write an informative essay on redistricting for tips and tricks. To assist and inspire you to write the best essay, here is an example of an informative and authoritative essay. Sample Informative Essay on the History of Redistricting Redistricting is an example of how the American democratic system handles equality. This political strategy is used to adjust the population of the country to districts. Redistricting has a huge impact on our daily lives and it is important that we study its topics in detail so we can make an informed decision for our communities. Federal, state and local legislatures are elected from districts and their size is usually the same as the entire jurisdiction. For example, if we talk about the members of a school board, they may be elected from the area of the same boundaries and not the overall district of the school that the board governs. However, a lot of times, the district lines subdivide territories. This results in one city or a state controlling multiple districts. When this happens, an entity is needed that can create a system to decide where the lines are. In the colonial times, constraints of a district were defined by borders of individuals or collection of towns and counties. Legislatures were formed by assigning a particular number of representatives to each district. The 1777 New York State’s constitution, which had assigned a total of 9 representatives to the city, is a good example of this. However, because the overall population had grown exponentially, the growth was not equal; while some towns and counties grew larger, others didn’t. Some jurisdictions didn’t update their systems and as a result, there was an imbalance between the number of representative and district lines. Districts that didn’t modify their borders and number of representatives presented various reasons. While some complained about conflicting policies, others failed to follow because of personal political interests. Some states blankly refused to redistrict, as in the case of the state of Tennessee. There was also a lack in equality with regards to the size of the district because the Los Angeles county was 400 times larger than the smallest district in California. Before the 60s, there was unjust manipulation of district borders to enforce a certain political impact. Unfair drawing of district lines helped incumbents increase their likelihood to gain points in electoral campaign. After the 60s, the rules changed due to a series of Supreme Court cases and it was firmly decided that no such biases would be tolerated. Redistricting became a constitutional right of a citizen and it was imperative for the population for each district to be equal. District boundaries were then regularly adjusted so new information about the population could be accounted for. Though this is a good example of a redistricting essay, you can produce an even better one if you put your mind to it. So instead of waiting for the deadline and writing a poorly researched essay, start right away and your instructor will soon begin singing your praise. References: U.S. Const. art. I,  §2, cl. 3. See, e.g., N.Y. Const. art. III,  § 4 (setting the size of the State Senate). Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Congressional Apportionment, at http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/congApp/. Act of Aug. 8, 1911, ch. 5, Pub. L. No. 62-5, 37 Stat. 13; Reapportionment Act of June 18, 1929, ch. 28, Pub. L. No. 71-13, 46 Stat. 21, 26–27. Hanh Quach Dena Bunis, All Bow to Redistrict Architect, Orange County Register, Aug. 26, 2001. The â€Å"hand,† at the eastern end of current district 11, excised a portion of what had been Cranwell’s district 14. Lindsey Nair, Redistricting Effectively Moves Cranwell, Roanoke Times, Apr. 24, 2001. See Ill. State Board of Elections, Search Vote Totals, at elections.il.gov/electioninformation/GetVoteTotals.aspx

No preference Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

No preference - Research Paper Example It was used in brewing beer, making soups and stews, and barley bread in various cultures. Ships and vessels transported it across city-states in cases of warfare or trade activities. If someone found my pottery today, I would want the pottery itself to reflect on the revolutionary element of Greek society. The artistic movements of Greek, as a society, should focus on narrating the story of the birth of the first democracy, ancient Athens, through an artistically based kind of life. In the brutal world of the 5th Century BC, there emerged a society of equals in Greek, which was the ultimate reflection of the pottery artistic work if it were to be seen today. The aspects of life in Athens that encouraged cultural contribution of various philosophers, writers and artists include the following factors; firstly, the inbuilt spirits of Greek inhabitants is of an ever formulated trial and era aspect of the society. Secondly, Athens gave rise to various philosophers because of the emergence of educational activities through artistry. For instance, the Greek revolution overly began at the dawn of a simplified democracy in 508 B.C. with the revolution of common people against the aristocratic rule. This shows the complex nature of Greek subjects towards their leaders and the epistemological view of the world. The Greeks defeated the Persian Empire through an extraordinary self-sacrifice. When the Persians confidently arrived in the battlefield to tackle their Greek counterparts, their courier Phidipphides had already sought a 140 mile run to Sparta in two days. This was done in order to solicit help from Sparta’s army. The outnumbered Athenians henceforth fought to uphold their freedom rights, defeat the Persians and send them to Asia. The institution of ostracism was a formally implemented Athenian democracy. This democracy had a function of expelling defiant citizens from the

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Summary - Essay Example Pediatric trauma causes enormous psychological tolls on patients, parents and families alike. This also is true for the nurses who handle such cases. In cases of posttraumatic and acute stress disorder, nurses need more education. Most hospitals do not have a formal screening process, any consensus guidelines, a lack of advanced information, lack of processes to investigate and distribute pediatric best practices and develop research with nurses and their colleagues. Whether from reading about a teen involved in a motor vehicle accident, trying to calculate an infant drug dose, wondering if we are trained well enough and moving forward and paving the way for the doctors and nurses that are upcoming, we advocate for those who cannot do it themselves. Regardless of whether in a pediatric level 1 or a rural hospital, it is imperative that we strive to find new information and drive changes in the hospital society. We will move forward and create new infrastructures, develop and discover new and better practices, and create outreach with professional colleagues. We have made headway in the impact of pediatric outcomes, but there is still an extensive body of work left to do. There are confounding issues facing the pediatric trauma patient population. The Society of Trauma Nurses prides itself on being one of the strongest, most successful special interest groups that is committed to the pediatric trauma issue.

Case study for The David Beckham Brand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Case study for The David Beckham Brand - Essay Example Beckham, married to ex-member of the pop group Spice Girls’ Victoria Adams, became one of the most popular celebrity couples of the time. They were admired by a tremendously large number of fans and were considered as fashion icons for youth. Beckham’s most popular endorsements include Pepsi, Vodafone, Nike, Brylcreem and Marks and Spencer. According to (HUNTER, 2009, p34-36) the value of Beckham’s brand was estimated to be over 200 million pounds. Great hype in media was created when Beckham got shifted from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2003. However, this transfer was basically because of his commercial appeal instead of his game skills. In the following document we will analyse the reasons for successful endorsements by Beckham, the values and the principles which were followed in the endorsements and which led to those tremendous successes. Besides, the advantages and the disadvantages will be discussed that companies obtain from these endorsements. The case of Real Madrid will be analysed deeply and discussed in a separate section followed by the concept of celebrity endorsements in general and the benefits that can be achieved by celebrity endorsements by a company. There are generally three reasons for a customer to buy an endorsed product or service which are: quality of the product of service, quantity and price of the product or service and thirdly because of the endorser. David Beckham was sought for a large number of product or service endorsements in the late 90s era and the beginning of 21st century. He was undoubtedly one of the most successful endorsers of that era and the reasons of his success were many. He was not only a stylish soccer player but his popularity was increased due to his marriage with a famous pop star Victoria of former music band Spice Girls. His good looks, pleasant personality and his outclass performance in soccer had made him a style icon for not only the youth but

Technology Entrepreneurship in Malaysia

Technology Entrepreneurship in Malaysia INTRODUCTION Technology entrepreneurship is a recent field which has its roots in the now established field of entrepreneurship. The aims is to study the specificities of entrepreneurial activities in technology-intensive environments. Thus the technoprenuer is different form the entrepreneurship because needs the understanding of the concept of technological opportunity seen as an anticipated profitable business so as to enable researchers and practitioners to develop procedural knowledge. Moreover, technopreneur seems to involve both high potential future profits and high uncertainty which means have been implemented the creation and early growth of high tech ventures. The lack of funding and support are sort being discuss in the technology-based industry, so an example Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd is an agency under the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia, has their own objective to support and provide an ecosystem that help the technology entrepreneur. Through their program to initiate as the provider of the early stage funding that innovate and aspiring the technology-based entrepreneur by encourage, support, stimulate and nurture the development of Malaysian entrepreneurship in high growth technology industries and the generation of ideas for an innovative knowledge-based society and economy. We can see the success that have been achieved, for example, The Unified Alert Messaging System, which has achieved sales of above RM100,000 and is expanding its market overseas, is designed for ease of use by both small and medium sized businesses and corporations. According to Jeffrey Tan, the leader of the team that developed the Unified Alert Messaging System, an enterprise-level unified alert messaging system that grew from the WebNiche UAM (WebNiche Unified Alert Messaging) says the innovation is a natural extension of their business model. Tan says their first project provided unified communications services to SMEs, where they noticed a lot more potential if they could move up the value chain to offer hosted contact center solutions to corporations and public sectors. Those example should encourage the young technopreneur to more success and generate more idea to overlapping the advancement of the technology industry. FINDINGS The call for the Malaysian society to be a highly-technocratic one is not a new idea. In his Vision 2020 working paper in 1991, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad highlighted the need to establish ‘a scientific and progressive society’ as the sixth challenge out of nine outlined in the national agenda. In Budget 2011 tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last year, the government would provide the ‘Entrepreneurship Enhancement Training Program to train 500 new technopreneurs and attract more investors. Additionally, the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) would be provided with a startup fund amounting to RM100 million to furnish soft loans that allowed loan repayments only after companies had generated income. Obviously, the government wanted to see more technopreneurs running the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. â€Å"SMEs had to grow at about 8.5 per cent annually in order to contribute about 41 percent to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020,† stated SME Corporation Malaysia’s (SME Corp) chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim recently. As futuristic as it may sound, a technopreneur is basically an entrepreneur with both business and technical training background or one who applies technology and innovation as the business core operating model. In Malaysia, this branch of enterprise is usually represented by ICT and multimedia SMEs, either at seed level or already over the startup stage. According to Bank Negara Malaysia, a general definition of an SME refers to an enterprise with shareholders’ funds of less than RM10 million. On the other hand, SME Corp stated that an enterprise that generated an annual sales turnover not exceeding RM25 million and with full time employees not exceeding 150 people was considered an SME. â€Å"Its contribution to the country’s economy remains significant,† stated SME Corp’s Hafsah. The Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia â€Å"TeAM† has been formed by a group of Malaysian Technopreneurs to further the interests of Technopreneurs and to assist in the development of the technology based industry in Malaysia. Membership to TeAM is open to all individuals related to technology industry in Malaysia. Membership to TeAM is divided into 3 types namely, Member, Honorary Member and Student Member. Since its founding, TeAM’s efforts in accelerating the adoption, growth and development of the ICT industry in Malaysia has resulted in a number of successful key initiatives such as the Cradle Investment Programme (CIP), Excite the Entrepreneur Programme, TeAM Clinic, Malayisan ICT Trade Directory (with Matrade), MSC Global Technopreneur Forum 2004 (with MDeC formerly known as MDC) among others.At the same time, TeAM takes an active role in fostering ICT development efforts in support of initiatives by the Government of Malaysia to make Malaysia a major ICT and Biotechnology player in the region. TeAM annually participates in the Malaysian Government’s annual budget dialogue and proposed ideas and initiatives to enhance the technopreneur sector in the country. IMPACT AND INFLUENCES Malaysian technopreneurs are likely to face an uphill climb growing their businesses this year due to several ongoing challenges, say industry observers. The lack of seed-stage funding, slowdown in global economy, shortage of innovative ideas and absence of relevant skillsets, will hinder the countrys tech entrepreneurs expansion plans this year. Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan said there is still a gap, commonly known as go-to- market funding, which exists for companies between the pre-seed and seed stage of commercialization. Established in 2003 by the Malaysian government under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance, Cradle provides pre-seed funding and advice to Malaysian technopreneurs. Deepening and expanding market access for local technopreneurs to secure deals and contracts still remain a major challenge, be it locally or overseas, said Nazrin, who is also the former president of the Technopreneur Association of Malaysia (TeAM). He noted that about 80 percent of local technopreneurs are at the early stage of development, but many of them cannot grow further due to the lack of funds. There is a gap that exists between the pre-seed and seed stage of funding, he explained. Pre-seed funds only help technopreneurs to develop their ideas, but good ideas will need a bridge to get to the next level. Nazrin said. According to Michael Ta, CEO of the FSBM Groups multimedia arm, technopreneurship in Malaysia is often about positioning the right people, in the right places to secure a project. This is why many local technopreneurs only do well in Malaysia but not when they are pitted against the other players in the world arena, Ta told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview. The Malaysian IT services company has made inroads in China with Java- based mobile applications. According to Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), â€Å"The Malaysian government has consistently urged the SMEs and the industries to innovate and utilize technology and ICT solutions to remains competitive as a way of charting a new path out of the present global economic turmoil†. He also added that ICT industry is the main pillars of the Malaysian economy and the New Economic Model (NEM). He also stressed that the development of the local entrepreneur were the crucial to position Malaysia as a developed status nation by 2020. He also mention that the SME should adopt the abundance enterprise software as a management tools, content and data delivery mechanism to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. DISCUSSION Technology industry is still in early stage in Malaysia and still in developing. The government should give huge essential toward the technology industrial because it can generate tremendous profit and growth of economic. Our product are still in the in research and try to penetrate the market as well try to fit in the technology advancement. According to this issue Malaysia still lack knowledge and funding compare to Japan and Korea that mostly have full facilities and high technology. Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), the custodian of the Multimedia Super Corridor Malaysia (MSC Malaysia) initiative, launched the ‘Icon2 – Second MSC Malaysia Integrated Content Development Program’, the sequel of the first content development program. Similarly to its predecessor, Icon2 would furnish local developers with the skills and means including the startup capital to create content-based products. The program was also initiated to provide a platform for the younger generation to play an active role in the country’s transformation into a fully-digital economy, following the target outlined in the Economic Transformation Program (ETP). Furthermore, Malaysia still lack of training and expertise in the development of the technology. Lack of conventional training and support also become barrier to development of industrial-based technology, there for the youth generation should have early exposure regards technology as we can generate more technpreneurs in the future that can globalize the Malaysian towards technology. Last but not least, developing THE Technopreneur Center (TEC) to play the role of an information Center that spreads information about technopreneur development and commercializing technology. TEC will create a synergy with activities that is being organized by other units in the university and any place of study. RECOMMENDATIONS First of all, the technopreneur flagship should have their own representative on their committees entrepreneur that have involve in the technology industry. To make sure this can encourage more technopreneur show their interest efficiently represented and the more representative should be extended in the flagship application. Therefore the MSC should success to ensure that broadband access are available nationwide, which means allow ICT companies enjoy pioneer status and tax incentives. Next, Malaysia need showcase locally breed technopreneur winner. Aside from the publicity, Malaysia should highlight the viable ICT business environment to foreign investors. By these the government should introduce sponsored programmes on the development that aims and sharpen the new technopreneur business skills, this will facilitate buyers to sources for expertise among technopreneur. The government also need playing field by channeling the bidding of some government contracts to certain classes of startup companies while excluding establish companies, this will show the government act as catalyst. Moreover, technopreneur need to be more resourceful and exhaust all available sources of fund before seeking institutional funds. Friends and families intend to invest in the early stages. There is agency that help the technopreneur to understand ICT and promote funds to the industries, such as TeAM or any others government agencies. They also need to create their own forum to match international financiers with Malaysian ICT companies. By establishing a virtual web forum to aggregate and promote Malaysian business can be interest the investor that can cause an impact. They also should create an one stop agency that assist technopreneur to apply for various grants and other government aids. Furthermore, technopreneur should work together with existing development authorities in traditional sectors such as Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and Malaysian embassies abroad to collectivity market local ICT companies. As ICT is enabling technology that transcends various industries to develop marketing channels into Malaysia. With this establish Malaysian sponsored exhibition booths at major international trade fairs where local technopreneurs can participate more affordably by sharing costs. As current government sponsored exhibits are not well publicized, that ensure these initiatives are communicates down all entrepreneurs Lastly, government should grants assist Malaysian companies to create the necessary software support infrastructure in foreign markets that may be shared with others Malaysian companies in pooled basis. For start, regional markets that are closer to Malaysia should be targeted. With the foreign competitor have better resources and marketing tools, local entrepreneur need to find a place that takes advantages of local expertise and product that have local comparative advantages. By all these we can develop more technopreneur in technology-based industry. CONCLUSION Technology-based industry has reached all corners of the world. There are a lot achievement and success have been made appeals to emotions and drive decisions. With numerous programmes set up by the government to develop ideas into products, all parties should team up to take these ideas to next stage of full commercialization. On the support provider’s side, the government and its respective agencies should promote these programmes more aggressively. On the recipients’ side, they should explore more which meant they must ask around, seek around and act. Prime Minister Najib summed it quite poignantly during the launch of the 23rd MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting in October. â€Å"Do we want to just be achieving what is expected; or do we want to springboard ahead of the pack?†. Thus, government support is needed necessary, as the local technopreneurs are definitely not in the same league as other global technology-bases industry entrepreneurs. BIBLIOGRAPHY SHARIZA ABDULLAH  ON 27TH OCTOBER 2014 http://www.nef.org.my/v_2010/ Cradle 2014 http://www.cradle.com.my/2012/03/mobile-network-radio-optimisation-gis-tool-or-xeus/ TeAM 2014.http://www.team.net.my/ Borneopost.com http://www.rightsarawak.com/rightv2/subpressrelease/2011/11_Dec_2011-Technopreneurship_A_promising_call_for_the_unemployed.pdf Bernama.http://www.cruisegpssystems.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=90:malaysia-sme-mukhriz-technopreneurs-crucial-for-economic-growthca Mohd Abdullah Jusoh, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia Hazianti Abdul Halim, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia : Role of Technopreneurs in Malaysian Economic Abdul talib bon : NEW MODEL AND CONCEPT FOR TECHNOPRENEURSHIP STUDIES IN UNIVERSITY THROUGH EXCELLENCE CENTER Handbook of Research on Techno-Entrepreneurship : Franà §ois Thà ©rin Edwin Yapp, ZDNet Asia. Malaysian technopreneurs are likely to face an uphill climb growing their businesses this year due to several ongoing challenges, say industry observers.

Why Stalin Emerrged as the Leader of the USSR in 1929 rather than Trotsky :: essays research papers

Why did Stalin rather than Trotsky emerge as the leader of the USSR in 1929? A power struggle for control of the Bolshevik party began after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. Among the several contenders, two of the most important names in this struggle were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Ultimately, Stalin was able to secure power and vote out Trotsky. In the following essay I will discuss the reasons why Stalin rather than Trotsky emerged as the leader of the USSR in 1929. First of all, Stalin was lucky. Trotsky remained ill for most of the power struggle and Lenin died at an opportune time. Indeed, had Lenin lived, Stalin would probably have been sent to the provinces to work for the party. Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka and political adversary to Stalin, also died fortuitously in 1926. His death facilitated the infiltration of Stalin?s supporters into the political police which Stalin eventually used against his opponents. It was also fortunate for Stalin that Lenin?s testament was not publicized. If Lenin?s negative views on Stalin succeeding him had been aired, there would have been no possibility for Stalin?s victory. Another reason for Stalin?s victory was his influence over the party machine through his key positions in the Politburo and Orgburo and as General Secretary. This power allowed Stalin to appoint his supporters to key positions in the party. He also controlled the membership of the party by admitting members likely to support him and expelling those members likely to support Trotsky. Stalin?s control of appointments and membership also made him a valuable ally to other contenders who needed his ability to deliver votes in the congresses. Stalin was also politically skillful and cunning. In the Politburo, when matters of high policy were being discussed, Stalin never imposed his views on his colleagues. He carefully followed the course of the debate and invariably voted with the majority. To the party audiences he appeared devoid of personal grudge and rancour and even seemed to be a detached Leninist, a guardian of the doctrine who criticized others only for the sake of the cause. Stalin always adopted policies that were broadly approved by the majority of the Communist party. Hence, using his political dexterity, he maintained a good reputation within the party. Stalin also made full use of Lenin?s funeral to advance his position. He tricked Trotsky into not attending the funeral by letting him know that he would never make it on time (of course this was not true).

Health care Transparency Essay

Health care Transparency is openness about the quality of healthcare provided, sharing information whether it be good or bad for the purpose of improvement. In the past, health care transparency was secretive, people did not want to share patent information for reason of privacy to their clients as well to avoid law suits. However there is a way in which you can share information without violating doctor patient privilege. The future of health care transparency looks as though it is going to improve, I say improve because I agree with Dr. Patrick Crawley that the movement will allow sharing of information therefore allowing improvements to be made leading to less law suits. Really kind of taking on a best practices type of mentality as well sometimes we need others to step in and help work through issues that may arise. Overall I think that hospitals becoming transparent will force improvement, at first I am sure there will be a struggle just as in any new process however once the kinks are worked out improvement will shine through. Health care transparency will help patients make more informed decisions when deciding where to go when care is needed, this may cause longer wait times at first however raising the standards and outing the facilities that are not providing good treatment cause only force them to do whatever it takes to increase standards and service provided. We as consumers need to become more informed decisions makers however with information available to us is limited we are unable to make accurate decisions on where to receive our care. We have systems/sites in which we can choose babysitters, plumbers and other types of services we made need why would we not want to choose our health care facility with the same type of research. Some of this information is already made available by some facilities, such as checking out wait times and even being able to sign up to be seen before even arriving improving the time in which we would wait to  receive care. The more we alignment with this advancement the better the care we will see.

3 m’s Conundrum in Efficiency and Creativity

3 m’s Conundrum in Efficiency and Creativity 3 m’s Conundrum in Efficiency and Creativity The success of any company depends on its efficiency And what can we consider as efficiency? From the point of view of business policy the main goal of any business activity is the income which appears when the sufficient number of people fulfill particular objectives, for instance, buy products, use services, conclude contracts, etc. On the other hand, efficiency of the business is connected with creativity which is applied within the company. Effective innovation requires a delicate balancing act between play and discipline, practice and process, creativity and efficiency, where firms need to learn how to walk the fine line between rigidity which smothers creativity and chaos where creativity runs amok and nothing ever gets to market(p. 363) It is not a secret that when in 2000 James McNerney became the CEO of 3M, his plan was to transform radically the corporate culture of the company. The applied new system of corporate management known as Six Sigma bore fruits. 3M stocks boomed up to 20 % and McNerney met with general approval. However, Six Sigma was worked out in order to reveal problem cycles in operational process and strictly control them in future. Other variants of resolving any problem were excluded. With such corporate culture creativity would have become a victim of iron routine. Any innovations and especially revolutionary ones always represent a conflict with those which are long-present. The present Chief Executive of 3M George Buckley outlined that invention of something is a process that cannot be controlled a priori. And Six Sigma is not an appropriate system for this very sphere. 3Ms employees can not think in a way that if they invented nothing on Monday, they must integrate two new ideas on Wednesday and three on Friday. Creative process can not be limited by any system and rules. Officially nobody studied the level of contradiction between Six Sigma and innovations. But some experts notice that with Six Sigma innovation process flows slowly, without bright rise. Serious debates based on the rational use of time with regard to choosing one essential idea to be implemented in production continue. Adherents of Six Sigma in 3M convince that stage process of new product implementation would allow to introduce innovations to the market more quickly. According to developers opinion innovations are the result of long-time searching and testing. In order to find one brilliant idea they have to sort out several thousands. Six Sigma does not allow doing this, but proposes to reject trash and present something worthwhile. The present Chief Executive of 3M George Buckley tries to resolve the conundrum in efficiency and creativity. In conclusion I would like to point out that Sometimes Six Sigma is very useful For instance in the end of the year line manager can count how much money has company saved because of green belt projects. However, there were cases when developers in order to complete the deadline created ideas out of nothing. On the other hand nobody has a doubt that the former CEO has brought positive changes to 3M. At the mean time many employees say that now they work with enthusiasm because company is focused not on profitability and production discipline but on rise and innovations. Thus, the director of Department of Strategical Business Development emphasised that George Buckley returned the so-called creative sparkle. And the overwhelming majority of 3Ms personnel now can say with a proud that they feel they are able to dream again! And this means the great success not only for the 3Ms leaders but for all people involved in this dream as well.

Free Essays on Hipocricy And Self Delusion In “The Enormous Radio”

Hipocricy and Self Delusion in â€Å"The Enormous Radio† Everyone likes to get away from their daily lives and forget about their troubles every once in a while. We may take a vacation or escape from reality by watching a movie. Once the film or trip is over though, we must face our problems once again. In â€Å"The enormous Radio† however, Irene Wescott is on a permanent hiatus, denying her own flaws and constantly criticizing others. This story is about the way people can distract themselves from their own lives by getting involved in other people’s lives. Irene is shown to be a supercilious person through her actions. We first see Irene’s denial in her â€Å"coat of fitch skins dyed to resemble mink.†. She was â€Å"proud of her living room, she had chosen its furnishings and colors as carefully as she chose her clothes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  . Although she â€Å"was struck at once with the physical ugliness of the large gumwood cabinet,† she â€Å"decided that tone was most important and that she could conceal the cabinet behind a sofa† . Also her arrogance comes out when she tells her husband that â€Å"some woman in this building is having an affair with the handyman- with that hideous handyman.† She is more disturbed about who the woman is having the affair with than the fact that she is having an affair at all. Irene is so caught up in other peoples lives and so intent on escaping from her own reality, that she â€Å"had two Martinis at lunch, and she looked searchingly at her friend and wondered what her secrets were. They had intended to go shopping after lunch, but irene excused herself and went home.† It is no small thing for Irene to skip shopping as we see later in the story that she has run up quite a clothing bill. Her self delusion is never more evident in the story than in her response to Jim’s question, â€Å"Why do you have to listen to this stuff if it makes you so miserable?† Irene says, â€Å"Life is too terrible, too sor... Free Essays on Hipocricy And Self Delusion In â€Å"The Enormous Radio† Free Essays on Hipocricy And Self Delusion In â€Å"The Enormous Radio† Hipocricy and Self Delusion in â€Å"The Enormous Radio† Everyone likes to get away from their daily lives and forget about their troubles every once in a while. We may take a vacation or escape from reality by watching a movie. Once the film or trip is over though, we must face our problems once again. In â€Å"The enormous Radio† however, Irene Wescott is on a permanent hiatus, denying her own flaws and constantly criticizing others. This story is about the way people can distract themselves from their own lives by getting involved in other people’s lives. Irene is shown to be a supercilious person through her actions. We first see Irene’s denial in her â€Å"coat of fitch skins dyed to resemble mink.†. She was â€Å"proud of her living room, she had chosen its furnishings and colors as carefully as she chose her clothes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  . Although she â€Å"was struck at once with the physical ugliness of the large gumwood cabinet,† she â€Å"decided that tone was most important and that she could conceal the cabinet behind a sofa† . Also her arrogance comes out when she tells her husband that â€Å"some woman in this building is having an affair with the handyman- with that hideous handyman.† She is more disturbed about who the woman is having the affair with than the fact that she is having an affair at all. Irene is so caught up in other peoples lives and so intent on escaping from her own reality, that she â€Å"had two Martinis at lunch, and she looked searchingly at her friend and wondered what her secrets were. They had intended to go shopping after lunch, but irene excused herself and went home.† It is no small thing for Irene to skip shopping as we see later in the story that she has run up quite a clothing bill. Her self delusion is never more evident in the story than in her response to Jim’s question, â€Å"Why do you have to listen to this stuff if it makes you so miserable?† Irene says, â€Å"Life is too terrible, too sor...

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Psychology - Essay Example I begin to focus all of my attention on this tooth, wiggling it more and more. The tooth does not hurt when I wiggle it, but I am sure that if I can just work the tooth loose, I will be able to get relief from the oppressive feelings I am having. Finally, the tooth pulls free and I have an instant feeling of relief. I feel so good to have that loose tooth out of my head! But almost immediately, I feel as though I need to check again for another loose tooth so that I can increase my amount of relief. I have had this dream several times over the course of my life. Some times, I have followed this process to remove as many as three teeth from my head before the dream ends. I really am not sure about what to make of this dream. I think I have connected it to concerns about my personal safety. I have always had this dream when I have been living in dangerous neighborhoods or under dangerous circumstances. I think that part of me is concerned about my safety and so I need to do something extraordinary in order to ensure my safety. But why pulling my own teeth? How is that going to make me safer? I know that it is irrational, but my teeth are something I have great pride in. They are the one part of my body that is flawless. I have never had braces or a cavity. I don’t need to whiten or treat them in any way other than basic hygiene. I believe that my dream represents my willingness to do anything to stay safe when I am in difficult or dangerous circumstances. That includes making great personal sacrifices for my own safety and I hope, the safety of those that I love. This dream is a highly visual dream. I often only have dreams about feelings, but in this dream the colors were vivid. I am in a lush forest. The trees and grasses are all the deepest shades of green. It is not lush in a tropical sense, but more in a fairytale sense. There are bugs and all manner

The Financial Performance of Seward Inc Assignment - 18

The Financial Performance of Seward Inc - Assignment Example The Liquidity ratio of the company is below the Industry ratio, which means that the company is less liquid i.e. the company must raise the liquidity in order to gain the trust of the creditors. The liquidity ratio shows the capability of a company to pay off its current liabilities. The company is lacking in the days in receivables and days in inventory compared to the Industry ratios. The company must be reduced in order to generate more efficiency in the processes. The Operating profit margin is less than the Industry margin this explains that the company is doing a good job. However, it is generating a low return on its assets as it could be due to the large value of assets employed as compared to the industry. The company is relying on debt financing and the ratio of debt is higher than that of the industry (36%). The company must introduce Equity Financing. The equity is well organized by the managers and the returns generated are higher than the Industry average.  Ã‚  

Office Management report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Office Management report - Essay Example Communication Every person who wants to become a professional must have good communication skills. These skills include writing and oral communication that has a large influence on how one conveys ideas about products or services. For example, we learned how to take down notes of a meeting as well as prepare an agenda for meeting. Even beforehand, we had to inform attendees about a certain meeting, and this calls for writing skills. Some format must be followed and writing must clearly convey the purpose of the said meeting. Likewise, the minutes of the meeting would be disseminated later, which must not only be free from typographical errors but factual as well. When it comes to oral communication, this is very useful when making presentation to a group. Besides, we also learned how to facilitate a meeting so the group would not be sidetracked to other topics that may be irrelevant. There were many instances wherein we had the chance to improve our communication skills; thus, everyt hing we learned can be useful one day. Telephone Techniques The telephone has been the medium for dealing or transacting with customers for almost fifty years before computers came into the scene. Good salespeople always used the telephone to make sales calls and close contracts. No matter how advanced technology may be using online transactions ( chat support) ,nothing comes close to the assuring human voice at the other end of the line. The lessons about telephone techniques were helpful but each company has their own way of using the telephone for business means. The lesson about telephone technique was rather basic, but it covered enough details so new employees can transact over the phone politely. Customer Service In this lesson, I learned that the success of a business largely depends on the type of customer service that it renders. Why? Simply, because competition among companies is very intense nowadays; hence, buyers are not only after a good price. They also value after s ales support and this where the value of customer service comes in. Some of the things that I learned included good customer service behavior, handling customer complaints and determining customer/client satisfaction. I realized that from the very moment that employees start greeting customers, a relationship is established that can lead to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In real life, I have witnessed bad examples of sales people making the wrong choice of words that can turn away customers. When customers feel that their needs are given due attention, they feel valued and get interested about a certain product. During the sessions, I practiced the steps of good customer behavior by looking myself in the mirror. I tried to analyze how I project warmth or if my expression were sincere enough. Indeed, I realized that successful sales people have charisma because they can easily persuade a person by just using their charm. Lastly, I also gained a lot by understanding the LEAF Theory regarding handling customer complaints. This is a very touchy subject since dissatisfied or angry customers can bring bad business by telling other people about a company. This lesson made me interested in jobs that handle complaints on services because it is challenging to appease customers. Nevertheless, the more you experience such situations, the better your customer service skills become. Time Management Even as a student, time management skills are crucial because

Interview with a Record Store Owner Essay Example for Free

Interview with a Record Store Owner Essay On a less then pleasant day the weather was cold and rainy so before I left the safety of my car I turned my collar up to face the cold and made a bee line to the store so fast it would put Usain Bolt to shame. When I walked in the store I was greeted by the smell of coffee and sound of The Rolling Stones song Monkey Man playing over the store speakers with the owner of the store john singing along to the song and throwing his arms up like a monkey. As soon as you walk into the store your face to face with a giant rack of used DVDs ranging from Driving Miss Daisy to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre the store itself is not very big on the left side of the store is a shelf contain records from Abba to Rob Zombie on the right side is a shelf holding the cds. I was immediately welcomed by john who sitting down in behind his cash register with a sign on it that read â€Å"No Personal Check† behind him was a giant poster of Frank Zappa which seemed like one of his most prized positions john had. John had on a tie dyed rolling stones shirt john had looked tried and he seemed to be discomfort later I found out he looked that way due to having MS. Before john and I stared talking I asked if we could take a walk around the store john told me that he is not able to â€Å"move very well because I have Multiple sclerosis† so he called for his employee Jack to walk with me and directed Jack to answer questions I have. Jack was tall and in his early 20s ,jack and I walked around the store looking at vinyl they had they had seemed to have every record you could ask for and if they didn’t have it they could order it for you . I asked jack to explain the process of how they value the used records that come in the shop jack pulled a random of the shelf and proceeded to go over the check list â€Å"first we look at the condition of the album sleeve any bends or damage to it second we look for the labeling mono, monophonic, monaural, stereo or stereophonic on the sleeve and record label, which identifies the recording process and helps us determine the value and finally we Evaluate the condition of the record by looking for any obvious damage to the vinyl. Jack holds the record up to the light on a slight tilt Look for scratches, record edge nicks or damage to the paper label† we have music here for everyone’s price range after that I thanked jack and retuned to talk to john. When I came back to talk to john he had offered me a cup of coffee I accepted and went on to ask john how long has the store been open john told me that â€Å"I am the fifth owner of Rainbow Records; it first started out in Park Ridge in the mid-1970s. Then the store was moved to Palatine in 1993 by the fourth owner, who offered me the opportunity to buy the store from him in 1997 I then eventually moved the store to here†. I asked john what was the first record he had ever purchased john though for a minute and said â€Å"Surfin Safari by The Beach Boys when I was 9-years-old† I ask john why do you think vinyl sales are going up while CD sales are falling â€Å"There is nothing like vinyl It has a totally different sound than CDs or that MP3 stuff. I’m sorry, but you don’t listen to music on a phone and really get to appreciate it.† I said to john it looks like your store buys all types of records and CDs is there any type of music you won’t buy? â€Å"Classical no one asks for it so I don’t want it besides this is a rock and roll store† John what do you think about kids that have never heard a record on vinyl? They are really missing out Vinyl has a great in-depth sound to it,† he says. â€Å"There is an art to what I call albums and what everybody called albums back in the day. From the cover, which is a piece of art in itself, to listening to, and appreciating the way songs are arranged from side to side, you don’t get that with any other music format.† Looking around the store and seeing I was the only person in there besides jack maybe because of the weather but maybe because the store isn’t doing so well I asked john what got him into the record business â€Å"If you think about how much money you’re going to make, that’s a mistake. You’re not going to get rich doing this. What you’re doing is sharing your love of music with other people,† after john told me that a smile came across both of are faces. Before I had left the shop I walked around the store and picked up three records I think john would approve of the first one I got was The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, Second album I grabbed was Surfin Safari by The Beach Boys and the third one was Frank Zappa Over-Nite Sensation. When I went up to john for the last time he could not help but to laugh as he rang them up as he handed me the bright yellow bag he said â€Å"enjoy† when I had made it home the first thing I did was put on my new rolling stones record put the needle on Monkey Man and turned my record player up to eleven.

Top Ten Reasons For Legalizing Euthanasia :: Argument in Favor of Euthanasia

Euthanasia has always been a taboo subject in some cultures. People all over the world so openly engage in conversation in matters of life. But when it comes to the other half of life, death, no one likes discussing it. Only terrorists claim how glorious death will be. These are some of the reasons that many people in society feel that euthanasia is morally wrong. Who is to say when it is time for someone to die or how much a person should suffer before they are allowed to end their life? How does someone know what the right age is that people should die? Should people be allowed to end their life when they feel their health is degenerating? Just keep in mind the word euthanasia comes from the Greek words eu â€Å"good† and thanatos â€Å"death.† Literal translation is â€Å"good death.† There are a variety of meanings and ways to be euthanized. The meaning of euthanasia is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is â€Å"intentional†. If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia.) Euthanasia by action is intentionally causing a person’s death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia by omission is intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water. What euthanasia is not: there is no euthanasia unless the death is intentionally caused by what was done or not done. Thus, some medical actions that are often labeled "passive euthanasia" are no form of euthanasia, since the intention to take life is lacking. These acts include not commencing treatment that would not provide a benefit to the patient, withdrawing treatment that has been shown to be ineffective, too burdenso me or is unwanted, and the giving of high doses of pain-killers that may endanger life, when they have been shown to be necessary. All those are part of good medical practice, endorsed by law, when they are properly carried out. (Euthanasia definitions) Euthanasia also includes assisted suicide. If a doctor is involved with the death of a patient or person it is called physician assisted. Until recent times the word euthanasia was thought of as dying from old age or a natural death. In the nineteenth century is when physicians and politicians started using it as a life shortening death, taking years away from someone that could live a long life if cared for properly.

Elizabeth I :: essays research papers fc

Elizabeth I King Henry VIII changed history in order to marry Anne Boleyn, hoping she could give him a son to be his heir. He already had a daughter, Mary, by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, a princess of Spain, whom he divorced. The Pope would not allow the divorce, so Henry declared himself the Head of the Church of England, and disallowed any power the Pope might hold on English religion. On September 7, 1533 in Greenwich Palace, Anne had a daughter, who was named Elizabeth. A few years later, Henry accused Anne of incest, which historians agree was probably untrue - but Anne was beheaded in May 1536, and Elizabeth, not even three years old, was sent to live with relatives so she wouldn't remind Henry of Anne. Henry had remarried Jane Seymour, who gave birth to Henry's son, Edward, later to be Edward VI, but died soon afterwards. Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth and final wife, brought Elizabeth and Mary back to court. As the Dowager Queen, she moved away from court and left the ruling of the country to Edward VI, who was still a young boy. Edward Seymour (young Edward's uncle) became Lord Protector of England. Elizabeth went with Catherine, but left after an incident with Catherine's new husband, Thomas Seymour, and rumors of the time suggested that Catherine caught them kissing, or perhaps even in bed together. Catherine died soon after Elizabeth's departure. Young King Edward was always sickly, and came down with consumption, or tuberculosis. It seemed that he would die too young to have a child to be his heir, and it became a dangerous time for Princess Elizabeth. She was Henry's daughter, she was in Henry's will as an heir, she was in line for the throne and so was a target of many marriage proposals. Thomas Seymour asked Elizabeth to marry him, but she refused. However, both were suspected of plotting against Edward. Elizabeth was not questioned, but Seymour was arrested and eventually executed for treason after an attempt to kidnap the young king. Elizabeth, upon hearing of the Lord Admiral's death, was marked as saying "Today died a man of much wit, and very little judgment." Edward's declining health began a movement of Protestants who did not want Mary, a Catholic, to gain the throne. Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry's sister Mary, was also considered a possible heir. When Edward died in 1553, Jane was proclaimed Queen by her father and father-in-law, but more people supported Mary.

Two Successful Business People Who Inspire Me

Two Successful Business People Who Inspire Me Success is something that we all aspire to. We cannot feel genuinely happy for long if we felt like a failure within. The most encouraging reality about success is that it is attainable to all irrespective of who we are what we are or where we are. Success also has a different meaning for each one of us. Success being a personal realization should logically be achievable by all, but we know that this is not really so. Most of us are unable to accomplish what we really want to do or what we really work for.When we struggle for success and do not achieve it. We become frustrated and this leads us further from our goal. This is what has inspired me to study and write about this complex subject. Achieving success is right and can realize it with the ease it provides you to go about the right way, you just have to know the rules and apply them in your life. Bill Gates was born on Oct 28th, 1955 and he is an American business magnate, philanthr opist and chairman of Microsoft. The software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people.During his career at Microsoft. Gates held the position of CEO and chief software architect and remains the largest individual shareholder. He has also authored or co- authored several books. Gates is one of the best- know entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. In the later stages of his career. Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. At Harvard, he met Paul Allen, who became Gates’ close friend.They got obsessed with the computers that they were late for some of their classes. They even skipper some classes to be in the computer lab. Unfortunately, their computer time finishes after spring. However, they did not graduate in the Harvard. Allen and Gates had to leave to devote their energy full-time and thriving company. They had a belief that the personal computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop in every home. Gates and Allen began developing software for personal computers. They collaborated together to make the language BASIC in the first Microcomputer, and in 1975, they started the Microsoft Company.Warren Buffet is the world’s most successful investor and self-made billionaire. He is consistently ranked among the world’s Top 3 wealthiest people. Buffet runs and owns about 31% of Berkshire Hathway, a 136 billion investment company that has substantial stakes in Coca Cola, Wells Fargo and American Express. A 1 dollar investment in Berkshire in 1965 would bring about 5000 dollars in 2005. Since 1951, Buffet has generated an average annual return of about 31%. The average annual return of the Standard Poor’s 500 stock over that period is 11%.Warren Buffet was once asked what is the most i mportant thing he looks for when evaluating a company to invest in, without hesitation he replied â€Å"sustainable competitive advantage. † Indeed, while business valuation matters. â€Å"it is the future growth and prosperity of the company underlying a stock, not it is a current price, that is most important. A company’s prosperity in turn is driven by how powerful and enduring it is competitive advantage are. Sustainable competitive advantage and marked category leadership give a company the edge that keeps competitors at bay and reap extraordinary growth and profits.Warren Buffet seeks to identify rare companies with strong competitive advantage that has a potential to grow even stronger over time, when a company is able to achieve this, it is investors can be rewarded to decades. Obviously, we can draw the conclusion that both of buffet and Gates influence to me is far from my imagination. Beside stocks, ideas, and investment, I learn many aspects from them, the ir team spirit and their friendship with partner. I hope there will be more and more people like them, who are not only successful, but also influencing other people.

The 7 Most Important Eminent Domain Cases

The 7 Most Important Eminent Domain Cases Eminent domain is the act of taking private property for public use. Enumerated in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it gives states and the federal government the right to seize property for public use in exchange for just compensation (based on fair market value for a piece of land). The concept of eminent domain is connected to the functionality of the government, because the government needs to acquire property for infrastructure and services like public schools, public utilities, parks, and transit operations. Seven key court cases throughout the 19th and 20th centuries allowed the judiciary to define eminent domain. Most eminent domain challenges focus on whether the lands were taken for a purpose that qualifies as â€Å"public use† and whether the compensation provided was â€Å"just. Kohl v. United States Kohl v. United States (1875) was the first Supreme Court case to assess the federal government’s eminent domain powers. The federal government seized a portion of the petitioner’s lands without compensation for the purpose of building a post office, customs office, and other government facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio. The petitioners alleged that the court did not have jurisdiction, the government could not acquire the land without proper legislation, and that the government should accept an independent assessment of the value of the land before compensating. In a decision delivered by Justice Strong, the court ruled in favor of the government. According to the majority opinion, eminent domain is a core and essential power afforded to the government through the Constitution. The government may develop legislation to further define eminent domain, but the legislation is not required in order to the use of the power. In the majority opinion, Justice Strong wrote: â€Å"If the right of eminent domain exists in the federal government, it is a right which may be exercised within the states, so far as is necessary to the enjoyment of the powers conferred upon it by the Constitution.† United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railroad Company In United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railroad Company (1896), Congress used eminent domain to condemn the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. The Gettysburg Railroad Company, who owned land in the condemned area, sued the government, alleging that the condemnation violated their Fifth Amendment right. The majority ruled that as long as the railroad company was paid fair market value for the land, the condemnation was lawful. In terms of public use, Justice Peckham, on behalf of the majority wrote, â€Å"No narrow view of the character of this proposed use should be taken. Its national character and importance, we think, are plain.† Furthermore, the court held that the amount of land needed in any eminent domain seizure is for the legislature to determine, not the court. Chicago, Burlington Quincy Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago Chicago, Burlington Quincy Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago (1897) incorporated the Fifth Amendment takings clause using the Fourteenth Amendment. Prior to this case, states had used eminent domain powers un-regulated by the Fifth Amendment. This means that states may have seized property for public use without just compensation. In the 1890s, the city of Chicago aimed to connect a stretch of road, even though it meant cutting through private property. The city condemned the land through a court petition and paid just compensation to the property owners. Quincy Railroad Corporation owned part of the condemned land and was awarded one dollar for the taking. The railroad appealed the judgment. In a 7-1 decision delivered by Justice Harlan, the court ruled that the state could take land under eminent domain if the original owners were awarded just compensation. The taking of the Railroad Company’s land had not deprived the company of its use. The street only bisected the railroad tracts and did not cause the tracts to be removed. Therefore, one dollar was just compensation for the taking. Berman v. Parker In 1945, Congress established the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency to authorize the seizure of â€Å"blighted† housing districts for rebuilding. Berman owned a department store in the area slated for redevelopment and did not want his property to be seized along with the â€Å"blighted† area. In Berman v. Parker (1954), Berman sued on the basis that the District of Columbia Redevelopment Act  and its seizure of his land violated his right to due process. In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Douglas, the court found that the seizure of Berman’s property was not a violation of his Fifth Amendment right. The Fifth Amendment does not specify what the land must be used for outside of â€Å"public use. Congress has the power to decide what this use might be and the goal of turning the land into housing, specifically low-income housing, fit the general definition of the takings clause. The majority opinion by Justice Douglas read: â€Å"Once the question of the public purpose has been decided, the amount and character of land to be taken for the project and the need for a particular tract to complete the integrated plan rests in the discretion of the legislative branch.† Penn Central Transportation v. New York City Penn Central Transportation v. New York City (1978) asked the court to decide whether a Landmark Preservation Law, which restricted Penn Station from building a 50-story building above it, was constitutional. Penn Station argued that preventing the construction of the building amounted to an illegal taking of the airspace by the City of New York, violating the Fifth Amendment. The court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Landmarks Law was not a violation of the Fifth Amendment because restricting the construction of a 50-story building did not constitute a taking of the airspace. The Landmarks Law was more closely related to a zoning ordinance than eminent domain, and New York had a right to restrict construction in the public interest of protecting the â€Å"general welfare† of the surrounding area. Penn Central Transportation could not prove that New York had meaningfully â€Å"taken† the property simply because they had lowered the economic capacity and interfered with the property rights. Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff Hawaii’s Land Reform Act of 1967 sought to tackle the issue of unequal land ownership on the island. Only 72 private landowners possessed 47 percent of the land. Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff (1984) asked the court to determine whether the state of Hawaii could enact a law that would use eminent domain to take lands from lessors (property owners) and redistribute them to lessees (property renters). In a 7-1 decision, the court ruled that the Land Reform Act was constitutional. Hawaii sought to use eminent domain to prevent a concentration of private ownership, a purpose generally associated with good democratic governance. Additionally, the state legislature has just as much power to make this determination as Congress. The fact that the property was transferred from one private party to another did not defeat the public nature of the exchange. Kelo v. City of New London In Kelo v. City of New London (2005), the plaintiff, Kelo, sued the city of New London, Connecticut for seizing her property under eminent domain and transferring it to New London Development Corporation. Susette Kelo, along with other property owners in the area, had refused to sell their private property, and the city had condemned it to force the owners to accept just compensation. Kelo alleged that the seizure of her property was a violation of the â€Å"public use† element of the Fifth Amendment takings clause because the land would be used for economic development which is not solely public. Kelo’s property was not â€Å"blighted† and it would be transferred to a private firm for economic development. In a 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Stevens, the Court upheld aspects of its ruling in Berman v. Parker and Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff. Redistributing the land was part of a detailed economic plan. The court ruled that this plan constituted a public use. Even though the transfer of land was from one private party to another, the goal of that transfer – economic development – served a definitive public purpose. In this case, the court further defined â€Å"public use† by explaining that it was not confined to literal usage by the public. Public use could mean public benefit or general welfare. Sources Kohl v. United States, 91 U.S. 367 (1875).Kelo v. New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005).United States v. Gettysburg Elec. Ry. Co., 160 U.S. 668 (1896).Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978).Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984).Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954).Chicago, B. Q. R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226 (1897).Somin, Ilya. â€Å"The Story behind Kelo v. City of New London.†Ã‚  The Washington Post, The Washington Post, 29 May 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/29/the-story-behind-the-kelo-case-how-an-obscure-takings-case-came-to-shock-the-conscience-of-the-nation/?utm_term.c6ecd7fb2fce.â€Å"History of the Federal Use of Eminent Domain.†Ã‚  The United States Department of Justice, 15 May 2015, www.justice.gov/enrd/history-federal-use-eminent-domain.â€Å"Constitutional Law. Federal Power of Eminent Domain.†Ã‚  The University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 7, no. 1, 1939, pp. 166–169.  JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1596535.â€Å"Annotation 14 - Fifth Amendment.†Ã‚  Findlaw, constitution.findlaw.com/amendment5/annotation14.html#f170.

Stiff Pen Shell (Atrina rigida)

Stiff Pen Shell (Atrina rigida) The stiff pen shell, or rigid pen shell, is one of the several species of pen shells. These mollusks have a long, triangular, or wedge-shaped shell and attach to rocks or shells in sandy, shallow ocean bottoms. Description Stiff pen shells can be up to 12 long and 6.5 wide. They are a brown or purplish-brown color and have 15 or more radiating ribs that fan out across the shell. They may also have erect, tubular spines. Pen shells may produce black pearls. Classification Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: MolluscaClass: BivalviaOrder: PterioidaFamily: PinnidaeGenus: AtrinaSpecies: rigida Habitat and Distribution Stiff pen shells live in warmer water from North Carolina to Florida, and also in the Bahamas and West Indies. They are found on sandy bottoms in shallow water. They attach with their byssal threads, pointed end down. Feeding Pen shells are filter feeders and eat small particles passing through the water. Conservation and Human Uses Pen shells have a scallop-like adductor muscle (the muscle that opens and closes the shells) and are edible. They also produce black pearls which may be used in jewelry. Pen shells in the Mediterranean (Mediterranean pen shells) were harvested for their byssal threads, which were woven into an expensive cloth. Sources Gofas, S. 2011. Pinnidae. World Register of Marine Species (Online) Accessed on May 24, 2011Meinkoth, N.A. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures. Alfred A. Knopf, New YorkScott, S. 2011. Pen Shells Provided Ancients Byssal Threads for Fine Sea Silk (Online) Accessed May 24, 2011

Alt as an Alternative to Alternative

Alt as an Alternative to Alternative Alt as an Alternative to Alternative Alt as an Alternative to Alternative By Mark Nichol The prefix alt-, an abbreviation of alternate, has appeared in the media lately, attached to the word right to denote a political movement supporting nationalism and opposing multiculturalism and liberal immigration policies. Although this prominence is a very recent phenomenon, the term alt-right- or, at least, its full form, â€Å"alternative right†- is not brand new: Coined in 2008, it was adopted two years later as the name of a website devoted to content espousing alt-right principles. However, it’s unclear when the abbreviated version of the term was coined; it might date back mere days or weeks at most. A dictionary entry offers this definition of alt: â€Å"Denoting a version of something, especially music, that is intended as a challenge to the traditional version.† (Alternative, in this sense meaning â€Å"not traditional or usual,† is an extension of alternate, which is ultimately derived from Latin alter, meaning â€Å"other.†) The coinage follows a format employed for a handful of terms, of which alt-rock is the most prominent: In 1979, various sources began to refer to underground music inspired by the punk rock movement with the adjective alternative; as such music, ironically, became mainstream, it was labeled, among other things, â€Å"alternative rock,† and thence alt-rock. As this movement was increasingly commercially exploited, the term’s popularity declined. However, the prefix has been affixed more recently to comedy that, like anything alt, is considered edgy or iconoclastic. Similarly, alt-fiction is the term given to novels and short stories that subvert and defy conventions of traditional fiction. There’s even alt-dating, the use of online dating websites that appeal to people outside mainstream society. Such terms are perhaps inspired in part by the use of the prefix alt in Usenet, a computer-based discussion system established in 1980, to denote groups outside the system’s conventional discussion categories. The abbreviation is also familiar to users of PC keyboards, which includes an Alt key used in combination with other keys to carry out a function distinct from that enabled by pressing the other key alone, but this term originates with alternate, not alternative. It’s quite likely that in our jargon-happy culture, the prefix may begin to appear more often, modifying additional nouns as a shortcut for signifying unconventional behavior or thought. In tandem, however, as often occurs when jargon proliferates, expect such terms to be used derisively or ironically as well as sincerely. 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 Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business Emails10 Techniques for More Precise Writing15 Names and Descriptions of Effects