Сompare and contrast the way nature is represented in the following Romantic poem and extract from a Romantic poem

Percy Bysshe Shelley's ‘Mont Blanc' and lines 452-542 from Book Sixth of The Prelude by William Wordsworth (Romantic Writings: An Anthology, pp.329-32 and pp.133-5 respectively) Both literary texts that we will be dealing with in this essay, Percy Bysshe Shelley's ‘Mont Blanc' and an extract from Book 6 of The Prelude by William Wordsworth belong temporally to the Romantic Period (1780-1830), with the former having been written in 1816, and the latter completed in 1805, although it was not published until 1926. Wordsworth belongs to the ‘first generation' of Romantic writers, whose Romantic literature was wartime literature. Thus he had lived through the Revolutionary period and had also witnessed the aftermath of it: the dissipation in a long war. Despite his initial sympathy towards the early ideas of the Revolution concerning man and human liberties, he came to abandon them, turning from a fervent progressist into a resigned conservatist. He began to argue against the received idea of poetic language as a refined mode of eloquence available only to those with an education in previous literary models, employing the ‘language of men'. The ‘second generation', however, in which Shelley is included, belong to the post-war period, and having lived neither through the Revolution itself nor the reaction, they saw this change of view as a betrayal. Shelley's writing can be characterized as a continuous rebellion aiming at the establishment of the reign of love and freedom in human society. ‘Mont Blanc' constitutes an impressive statement of his belief in a benevolent force in Nature and of moral activity in man. Likewise, Wordsworth's Book 6 from The Prelude, entitled ‘Cambridge and the Alps', aims at charting ‘the growth of a poet's mind', with particular emphasis on the importance of Nature, which is always a key notion in his philosophy and poetry. Having given this background, we will start comparing and contrasting the way Nature is represented in the two writings with reference to their characteristics in terms of poetic form and language. ‘Mont Blanc' ‘Mont Blanc' is a 144-line ode composed during the writer's journey to Chamounix Valley in South-East France and intended to reflect the scenery through which he travelled. It is divided into five stanzas, with diversity in the number of lines in each, and is written in irregular rhyme as well as rhythmic pattern. This abandonment of regularity of pentameter iambics expresses a sense of freedom which aims, in turn, at bringing about feelings of sublimity evoked by such a close contact with Nature. The point of view is of first-person, conveying, thus, immediacy. The poem begins with the claim: ‘The everlasting universe of things/flows through the mind.', with which Shelley states his response to Mont Blanc: to consider what the landscape before him can teach about the merging of Nature and the mind. In this first stanza, Shelley develops his understanding of the mind participating in Nature, comparing the human mind to a small stream surrounded by waterfalls and a river: ‘The source of human thought†¦such as a feeble brook†¦where waterfalls around it leap forever†¦' (ll.5-9). Later in the poem as well, several ways in which the mind participates in the creative forces evident in the landscape are indicated, as in Lines 37-41, where his mind ‘now renders and receives fast influencing†¦.One legion of wild thoughts†¦'. He realises that knowledge is a combination of sensory perceptions and the ideas of the mind. The river can then serve as a symbol for the mind, a conscious power and a source for imaginative thought when he finishes the stanza with ‘thou art there!'. Also, at the end of the poem, addressing the mountain, he states that ‘the secret strength of things/which governs thought, and to the infinite dome/of Heaven is as a law, inhabits thee!' (ll.139-141). However, at certain parts, this response is implied as impossible; this world of thought is too great for a human to comprehend (‘for the very spirit fails/Driven like a homeless†¦among the viewless gales', ll.57-59). By these means, the sublime of Nature is being foregrounded. The starting lines of the second stanza talk of the scene before him, the Arve, which is represented as the Power: the universal realm of thought, which surprises us by ‘bursting' into view like lightning (‘Thus thou; Ravine of Arve†¦Bursting through these dark mountains†¦', ll.12-19). The syntax of these lines is unusual; ‘Thus' probably confirms evidence for the previous claim, although it is not clear what is being demonstrated; then, we have sentence fragments, the use of dashes, even the word order of ‘dark deep', that reverses typical locution. This disrupted, unusual syntax denotes the pressure of this overwhelming experience, causing Shelley's senses to instantly break down. Finally, we have an animating metaphor: the Ravine, which is addressed as if it were animate (‘Thus thou'), and the Arve, which descends as Power from ‘his secret throne' (ll.16-17). This allows for the writer to later address direct questions to Mont Blanc, suggesting a presence in it that finds an answering response in us (‘Is this scene†¦once this silent snow?', ll.71-74). In this third stanza, Mont Blanc is presented as ‘piercing the infinite sky' (l.60), whose subject mountains have ‘unearthly forms' (l.62) and the deeps are ‘unfathomable' (l.64), introducing thus its connections to this higher power. The alliteration in Line 78 ‘so solemn, so serene' foregrounds the perception that Nature can be both benevolent and malevolent, depending on the relationship one chooses to establish with it. In any case, even though the power is too great for mankind, it can indeed serve as a teacher who ‘teaches awful doubt' (l.77), or a faith in human nature that will revolutionise the world. This language encourages us to conceive the mountain as a consciousness something like-if not superior to-human thought, leading imagination to expand itself to the dimensions of it. In Lines 139-144 the power of the universe is symbolised by Mont Blanc, denying thus the existence of a natural religion, but for that power to have any meaning, one must exercise the imagination. The questions with which Shelley ends the poem grant the reader freedom to ponder the ultimate question of what is Nature if it doesn't merge with human mind and imagination, reflecting perhaps the freedom that he has experienced. The Prelude, Book 6 Let's move to the extract from Book 6 of The Prelude now, which is structured as a narrative, telling a story which is complete in itself, as well as being part of The Prelude as a whole, and which forms part of Wordsworth's autobiography. It is also lyrical in that in recounts his feelings and actions at a unique or typical moment: during his crossing of the Alps. It is written in blank verse, which perhaps helps avoid monotony, and the rhythm is iambic pentameter. In Lines 453-456, Wordsworth expresses his disappointment in Mont Blanc: it is a ‘soulless image', which ‘had unsurp'd upon a living thought/That never could be'. A ‘living thought' is better than ‘a soulless image': it is better to ‘think' than merely ‘to see'. Here, political language is applied to nature and the working of mind (‘unsurp'd), which could imply his disappointment in the contemporary political events. However, the sight of the Vale of Chamounix is quite compensatory: it is a ‘book' from which the young and old learn (ll.473-7). He finds fascination in the landscape, which did ‘make rich amends' and ‘reconciled us to realities' (ll.460-1). The imagery of country life, such as small birds co-existing with eagles, a reaper at work in the fields, and the threat of Winter in the autumn sunshine, which is similed to ‘a tamed lion' (ll.466), are all experienced as edifying. The climax comes at Line 524, when it dawns on them that they have crossed the Alps without knowing. The element of surprise is prominent in this climax: ‘I was lost as in a cloud' (l.525), which is perceived as the ‘Power'. The writer experiences a spiritual catharsis by being revealed of the power of the mind and the free-flowing spontaneity of the language conveys to us this uplifting rush of exaltation. Wordsworth celebrates the way ‘that power†¦came†¦athwart' him' (ll.527-9). So, impotence in the presence is followed by a future of infinite possibility, which is achieved through imagination and moves the poet from the disappointing place to time. The ‘living thought/that never more could be' (ll.455-6) is succeeded by a reference to ‘something evenmore about to be' (l.542). He is lost in the realm of time along with imagination, which transcends the human senses. Nevertheless,'the light of sense/goes out in flashes that have shown to us/the invisible world' (ll.534-6). This image conveys a denial that the normal faculties of consciousness are adequate to discover ‘our destiny, our nature, and our home' (l.538). The repetition of ‘hope' in Line 540 strongly foregrounds Wordsworth's desire to reconstitute its grounds in a dark time of post-revolutionary reaction and despair. Conclusion On balance, these two literary works share an interesting similarity in their use of apocalyptic and millennial imagery to express the relationship of man to Nature and to higher powers; they are both successful in making their readers aware of the greater harmony of the universe, both within and outside the boundaries of time. However, where Wordsworth admitted his disappointment on the view of real Mont Blanc, Shelley's reaction was the opposite. Furthermore, while Wordsworth places great emphasis on the interaction of the human mind with its environment, Shelley emphasises the passivity of the mind in the ‘unremitting interchange' with ‘the clear universe of things around' (ll.39-40); Nature is the messenger and the imagination acts upon it only after having received it.

Working at Mcdonalds

Dillon mundy Mr. Varner Composition 1 11/4/21 â€Å"Working at McDonalds† Amitai Etzioni In the passage â€Å"Working at McDonalds† by Amitai Etzioni he starts off by stating that â€Å"McDonalds is bad for your kids†. He doesn’t feel this way because of the food, but instead of the mass production jobs they offer our youth. He says studies show two thirds of high school students have part time jobs in the food chain business, and McDonalds is the pioneer, trend-setter, and symbol.Amitai states that of course at first these jobs seem right, and may seem to bring up work driven, self-reliant youngsters, but what they really do is undermine school attendance and involvement, teach you few skills that are useful in life, and demean the values of teenagers. He thinks work should teach you the fruits of labor and self-discipline. He said that McDonalds has a job that is uneducational in several ways.He says it is far from providing opportunities for entrepreneu rship, self-discipline, self-supervision, and self-scheduling. He feels most teenage jobs these days are what most social scientists call â€Å"highly routinized† which means that everything you do at the job is the same all the time, which offers no room for creativity or initiative. There are very few studies on if today’s jobs are turning our youth into assembly line robots, but one of the few is a study conducted by Ivan Charper and Bryan Shore Fraser in 1948.The study relied mainly on what youth wrote on a questionnaire rather than observations of fast food jobs. The study revealed that the jobs have nothing to offer skill wise. A 1980 study be V Harrel found that among students that worked 25 hours per week while in school their unemployment rate years later was half of that of the seniors who didn’t work. This goes to show that most kids that work in fast food while in school are usually stressed to drop out of school and get swallowed up in the fast food world.The studies conducted do show that they develop teamwork and working under supervision, however it must been seen that this learning is not exactly educational or wholesome and that it’s trying to teach us blind obedience. It shows that teens are more interested in the reward of money, and status, than credits in a calculus course. So parents should see that teen employment isn’t exactly educational though it does offer some things, but it can also be abused.I have to agree with Etzioni, I myself have worked in fast-food jobs and have gained nothing from them except a quick dollar. He is very persuasive in this essay, and makes some really good points. I like when he talks about today’s jobs turning the youth into assembly line robots, I completely feel him on that, because the job is so repetitive you never do anything different. He really caught my attention with this essay. Working at Mcdonalds Teens and Jobs In the essay, â€Å"Working at McDonald's,† Malta Textron talks about his belief that working, especially at fast food chain restaurants can be bad for teenagers. Working, for teenagers under some circumstances can be bad for them but sometimes its good depending on the daily schedule of whomever is working. If the teen is still in school, working is bound to affect their involvement and attendance in negative ways. Though it's true that while working you gain on the Job experience, Edition believes it ant really help If it comes at the cost of education while teens think the opposite.Fast food Jobs do have an advantage earning money while also learning how to manage the money they make. It boils down to whether or not risks outweigh the benefits when working Jobs like this which all depends on the current situation of the teen. To begin, the Edition writes how he believes Jobs don't go well with keeping up schoolwork and can get In the way of attendance. This i s the same for nearly all extracurricular activities most are after school so It's likely to get In the way.When I as in high school I had a friend John who tried to juggle a job, schoolwork and a football altogether but in the end he chose to give up football because he couldn't make it to any of the practices. The author also takes into account that if students don't have enough time to study their grades will drop without question. It comes down to the decision of which activity to give up to make room for work. More than half the time students will abandon the sport to find more study time Like in my friend John's case. Second, the author addresses the problem that I think has two sides to the coin.He believes that jobs generally don't give any training that would help outside of the work they would be currently doing. This is true because most of the skills taught in fast food restaurants are for the simple things like running the register or working the fryer. Many of the Jobs themselves could be done as good or better by a nine- year-old because of how simple the work Is. Most aspects of this type of job wouldn't help anyone In the future much less a teenager. Once they no longer work there anymore, the skill is useless unless they still plan on working in the same type of Job.There are a couple of things that can be learned from a fast food Job that might help with other Jobs the future. If you've ever been too McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant and had a bad worker serving you, you might have gotten a little annoyed. Work ethic Is very Important at a fast food place or any workplace for that matter. In other Jobs, If you are not quick and efficient, you might not make It very far in your work. Also, workers learn how to work with different types of people this helps them in later experiences in a work force.Getting an impatient customer is a good example, when presented with a problem like this it helps prepare you for other situations like it in the future. This is not always easy but will serve as great experience for jobs in the future. Lastly, Textron explains that working doesn't teach teens how to manage their is that you learn the value of a dollar from your own mistakes. Having money and working for that money helps teens to understand that money isn't free and shouldn't be wasted. When teenagers want to buy something they'll simply go buy it only to mind later that they could have gotten it at half price had they waited on a sale.Also teens will try to rent things they want from â€Å"pay later† businesses like rent a center instead of buying it when they have the money to do so Just to learn that not only is it more expensive this way but if they miss a payment the rightful owners could repossess it at any time. Often times this could lead to debt, but if they are lucky their parents might help them out. â€Å"Students who worked at least 25 hours per week while in school, their unemployment rate four years later was half of the noirs who did work. This means that most of those that began in fast food Jobs stayed in that area of work or simply became unemployed. There are plenty of pros and cons to working at an early age, while it could interfere with school it can also help teens develop a good work ethic and learn from their mistakes. If they don't get the chance to make these mistakes before they move away, the consequences could be a lot more devastating. The question the author wants the reader to consider in all this is, can the risk worth the reward?

Compliance with Nursing Homes Regulations Essay

Determine how compliance with the regulations and development of risk-management and quality-management systems for each type of organization contribute to the organization’s overall performance-management system. Nursing homes contribute to their overall performance management systems by making sure that management offer an opportunity to set goals, while clarifying expectations, always being able to reinforce a job well done, initiate change, and foster a healthy working relationship between supervisor and employee which is most important because that will affect the work performance of staff and the quality of the care that is being provided. ( Julie Ditzler â€Å"Developing an effective system for performance appraisal†. Drug Manufacturers contribute to their organizations performance management systems by applying the competency process of Control, Optimize, Reduce, and Extend ,better known as the CORE process. This stands for Control – You can leverage contract templates and extensive term and clause libraries with process-specific authoring and approval cycles that eliminate non-standard terms and prevent rogue contracts from cutting into an organization’s revenue. Optimize – Analytical tools and template-based authoring are just some of the tools that help you create an advanced workflow to drive the best possible deals for you, your partners, and your share holders. Reduce – You can reduce use of non-standard terms and conditions, and thus shorten time-to-contract and increase your margins, using a clause-level, multi-conditional approval hierarchy built into the authoring process. Extend – You can expand the way your organization uses contract-based risk profiles by identifying and aggregating contract-specific language that normally would be locked in a file cabinet. (www.invistics.com/drug-manufacturers-pursuing-operational-excelle†¦) ââ€" ª In mental clinics and hospitals the management teams in quality, development, and risk support their organization’s contribution to performance management systems by Treat people fairly and respectfully regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or preference, sex, or age. ââ€" ª Regard, recognize and value differences in the needs and views of others. ââ€" ª Take advantage of the rich backgrounds and diverse talents of their staff. ââ€" ª Consider and honor different opinions, styles and ways of working. (www.linkedin.com/title/physician/at-allina+hospitals+clinics/) All hospitals want to be on top in regards to quality of care and revenue and although getting to the top is a hard job it is even a tougher job to stay there once you reached the top. The performance management systems in hospitals allows management to identify areas for improvements, plan systematic performance improvements initiative, while setting targets and tracking metrics continuously.

Maternal stress as a potential risk factor for having an offspring Research Proposal

Maternal stress as a potential risk factor for having an offspring with a ventricular septal defect - Research Proposal Example ency, misalignment or failure of fusion of the components of the interventricular septum, viz., endocardial cushions, aorticopulmonary septum and the muscular part of the septum, is the primary cause of the ventricular septal defects (Shinebourne et al, 2006). A hole or complete absence of the septum allows the blood to mix in the ventricles, which is supplied to the lungs as well as the rest of the body giving rise to symptoms like ‘blue babies’. Soto et al (1980) gave an objective classification of the ventricular septal defects (VSD). On the basis of angiograms of 220 children with VSD, they observed that the defects in the septum could present with the following morphologies - perimembranous defects; muscular defects and subarterial infundibular defects. Perimembranous defects as well as the muscular defects were further divided into three sub-groups each. A stressful life of the mother has been studied as a risk factor for a number of congenital malformation in the offspring, e.g. orofacial cleft (Montenegro et al, 1995), neural tube defects (Carmichael and Shaw, 2000) and conotruncal heart defects (Suarez, 2003). Carmichael et al (2007) have conducted a comprehensive population based case-control study involving 1355 mothers and calculated a ‘stressful life event score’ based on exposure to 18 possible stress-events and its association with congenital birth defects. Their results showed that a 3-point increase in the stress score increases the odds-ratio of a birth defect to 1.45 ( C.I. 1.03-2.06) and the risk is further aggravated to O.R. of 2.35 (CI = 1.47 – 3.77), if the mother is not taking vitamin (folic acid) supplement during early pregnancy. Hansen et al (2000), in a rare 12 year prospective study with a 16 months retrospective component, reported an increased incidence of cranial-neural-crest malformatio ns as well as other congenital malformations in children born to mothers exposed to severe life events like death, hospitalization for

Rapid Sequence Induction and Intubation. Incidence Reflection Essay

Rapid Sequence Induction and Intubation. Incidence Reflection - Essay Example In this reflection I have ensured that I maintain confidentiality in line with the Health Professional Council code of Conduct that demands the observance of the same, under code number two that states â€Å"You must respect the confidentiality of service users.† It informs me that I must treat information about service users as confidential and that I must not release any personal or confidential information to anyone not entitled to it (HPC, 2008, pp. 8-9). Therefore all names of the people involved in the process are treated as anonymous and I will different letters to refer to each one of them. I decided to choose this area for my reflection basing on a few reasons. First is that as a student ODP doing my clinical placement, it was my first time to come across such a major incident and therefore it made me curious. Secondly is that, I realized that this procedure is applied to all EG operations, making it commonly used. As a student on placement I realize the need to familiarize myself with the incident and procedures of operation as it is a common phenomenon in our daily lives. The last point is that, I engaged myself in massive research on this topic thereby developing skills and knowledge in this particular area. Rapid Sequence Induction Intubation (RSII) Rapid Sequence Induction and Intubation (RSII) is a medical procedure involving the fast induction of general anaesthesia and following intubation of the trachea. It is generally used in an emergency (EG) situation or for patients who have an increased risk of aspirating gastric contents into lungs (EL-Orbany & Connolly, 2010). The main objective of this technique is to minimise the interval time between loss of protective airway reflexes and tracheal intubation with a cuffed endotracheal tube (ETT). If the intubation is not attained within a maximum 2 minutes, the patient could suffer extreme morbidity or even death from hypoxia (lack of oxygen in body tissue). Therefore airway management is the most important skill for an emergency practitioner. Failure to secure an adequate airway can cause disability (EL-Orbany & Connolly, 2010). The decision to intubate the patient is sometimes very difficult to reach. The difficulty emanates because t he situation requires high clinical experience so as to recognise the signs of an imminent respiratory failure. The concept of RSI was gradually evolved after introduction of Suxamethonium chloride/succinylcholine (paralytic drug) in 1951, and the description of cricoid pressure (CP) in 1961 (EL-Orbany & Connolly, 2010). The procedure include; oxygen administration, rapid injection of a predetermined dose of thiopental/barbiturate (group of drugs), immediately followed by succinylcholine, application of CP and tracheal intubation. It seemed from these components that the term; RSI which is used in both anaesthesia literature and emergency medicine are both inadequate. Because, the technique includes both anaesthesia induction and tracheal intubation, therefore the term RSII is more accurate and descriptive of the technique (EL-Orbany & Connolly, 2010, pp. 18-25) Reflective models My essay will employ the Rolfe et al. (2001) model of reflection to reflect on what I learnt and the exp eriences I went through. Reflective practice is an approach to learning and practice development that is patient centred and which acknowledges the untidiness and confusion of the practice environment

Philosophy and Religious Belief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophy and Religious Belief - Essay Example tion of helping humans to be able to deal with aspects of life they are not able to understand, or are afraid of and therefore not entirely necessary for meaningful human existence. There have been all types of explanations for religion. Many professional have written about. For instance, Tolstoy (58), after going through an episode of meaningless of life, concluded that only faith (or religion), can be able to explain life and that only faith can help people to understand life and thus help them have a meaningful life. This argument by Tolstoy seems to prove Freud’s (10), argument about faith; that faith and religion are used by man as a way to deal with the aspects of life they do not understand. In his book, Theism as Illusion, he argues that people ascribe to religious beliefs because it helps them deal with aspects of life they are not able to comprehend or that give them anxiety. He argues that men ascribe to the belief of life after death because they are scared of death. Death is a scary phenomenon for most people because of two main factors. First, the finality of death scares people. Death is not undoable; once it happens, the diseased is gone and gone forever. The second issue about death that may make people want to believe in a second life after death is the fact that they are do not know what happens after it There is no way to know what happens to a person after they die. This finality and unknown nature of death comes as a scare for most humans and therefore the idea of an afterlife acts as a beacon of hope, as a way to overcome death. Almost every religion there is, from the early Egyptian religion to modern Christianity to Hinduism and Islam, believe in an afterlife, even if they do not believe in the same God. The Egyptians took it a little too far by building massive pyramids for their kings in order to immortalize them and thus also immortalize themselves. This may be an indication that religion serves the purpose of assisting people to deal

GENETICS AND GENE MUTATION Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

GENETICS AND GENE MUTATION - Coursework Example What meaning do these mRNA codons have for protein synthesis? Explanation: mRNA is essential in protein synthesis because it transports genetic information from the DNA contained in the nucleus to its place in the ribosome. In short, mRNA contains the genetic information needed to make proteins during transcription. The protein molecule that results from the process therefore has genetic information identical to the original genetic material of the individual (Clark, Protein Synthesis, 2007). Did the two mutations result in a change in the final proteins? If so, describe the change. Response/ explanation: All mutations will definitely result in the production of different final proteins, such as the changes caused by the three mutations in the diagram above. Specifically, the two genetic mutations above were significant. In the first mutation, the mutation coded for ILE when in fact MET should be the normal initiation code. The second mutation coded for ASP and PRO instead of HIS and ARG when the gene is normal. However, the third mutation is not that significant since UAA is also a termination codon just like UGA. Such mutations that result in significant changes in proteins may actually manifest as physiological problems in the individual later on (Clark, DNA Mutations, 2007). In general, why might a change in amino acid sequence affect protein function? Explanation: Protein function may be affected even by slight changes in amino acid sequence. This happens in protein synthesis. These changes may manifest as genetic disorders in the individual or even death (Clark, DNA Mutations, 2007). Part II Punnett Square a. Chances (%) for healthy child, not a carrier b. Chances (%) for child that is carrier for cystic fibrosis trait c. Chances (%) for child with cystic fibrosis Fill out/adapt Punnett Square: ___C___ __c___ ___C___ CC Cc ___c___ Cc cc a. Chances (%) for healthy child, not a carrier: 25% (CC) b. % for child that is carrier for cystic fibrosis trait: 50% (Cc) c. % for child with cystic fibrosis: 25% (cc) Part III: Essay How do both meiosis and sexual reproduction (fertilization) produce offspring that differ genetically from the parents? Include steps in meiosis that increase variability Include the process of fertilization. Explanation: Crossing over, or the exchange of genetic material, which takes place during meiosis is responsible for the variation that may show up in the offspring. Prophase I of meiosis is the one responsible for crossing over. The result of this particular process is the production of chromosomes, some of which have maternal and some have paternal traits. During metaphase I, there is another method of variation and this is known as the independent assortment of homologous chromosome pairs. In anaphase I, there is also variation as there is random mixed variation of maternal and paternal chromosomes. Variation is also produced through fertilization because sex cells from both parents combine in many different ways in order to form a new individual. The chromosomes of the father

International Bond and Currency Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Bond and Currency Markets - Essay Example In precise, it also helps in pre-determining the fluctuation of the currency appreciation or depreciation in respect to countries and influenced cross border trade prospects by a substantial extent. It is noteworthy that the volatility of exchange rate, in the short run and also in the long run depends on multiple factors such as the demand and supply prospects in the financial market. Arguably, forecasting in the long run and short run is considered as quite difficult, which can be explained with reference to the Theory of Speculation in the market and the collective belief of the investors about the future prospects (Andreou & Zombanakis, 2006). Based on these underpinnings about the importance of forecasting exchange rate fluctuations, this essay will aim at emphasising the challenges commonly witnessed by analysts when obtaining the intended forecasting results in the short run as well as in the long run performance of the exchange rate. Challenges in Forecasting Exchange Rate in Short Run Arguably, in the short run, the forecasting of exchange rate is nearly impossible. Forecasts, which are delivered by the macroeconomic factors, are generally less accurate than the results obtained through Random Walk theory application. In general, the Random Walk Theory presumes that market changes, in terms of stock-prices changes, are unpredictable. Even though in the long run forecasting, the theory has been considered by many financial investors and analysts, the short run implications of Random Walk theory remains under considerable scrutiny. It is in this context that no claims to substantiate a perfect Random Walk model in the short-run stock price fluctuation were firmly made. On the contrary, arguments centralised on the theory that forecasting stock-prices changes in the short run is challenging owing to the fact that in the short run, the volatility of the exchange rate is less but the speed of convergence based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is slower than that recorded in the long run (Babazadeh & Farrokhnejad, 2012). Correspondingly, it has been argued that the level of exchange rate in the short run is not very predictable, but is also not entirely unpredictable, as the volatility of the currency and the correlation between them vary with time and hence, forecasting becomes challenging (Mitra, 2008). The current account balances, real income of the people, interest rates, the preferences of the consumers regarding the domestic or foreign products, are all signified as market fundamentals influence the stock-prices in the short run, as per the conceptual framework of PPP. As explained by Taylor & Taylor (2004: 135), â€Å"PPP is a disarmingly simple theory that holds that the nominal exchange rate between two currencies should be equal to the ratio of aggregate price levels between the two countries, so that a unit of currency of one country will have the same purchasing power in a foreign country†. Subsequently, it is the m onetary policies, the fiscal policies and the market speculations affect the forecasting decisions in the short run. These factors are important when considering the financial transfers with regards to the

Journal #4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Journal #4 - Essay Example The functions enumerated by the author are: creating an identity, organization of time and management of feelings (Frith). Based such sociological approach, Frith concludes that value and preferences of pop music both derive from social identities and contribute their development. This gives reasons to consider popular music and the notion of its aesthetic tightly connected with social environment it evolves in. 2. Unlike the previous article, this article â€Å"Music and Morality† written by Roger Scruton, a professor of moral philosophy, raises awareness of non-critical nature of our modern culture in terms of music, relying on Plato’s perspective of music and society (the property of music to evoke and foster both moral virtues and moral vices instead of being neutral). Keeping in mind moral effect music can produce, Scruton stresses musical, i.e. rhythmic and instrumental aspect of music, distancing himself from vocal and lyrics. The key concern of the article is drawn through description of previous ‘sociable’ patterns of dancing to the music with others and the modern way of dancing at others imposed by the contemporary nature of beat and rhythm pulsations created in music. Submitting to the rhythms completely deprives one of critical evaluation of moral properties held by music, while listening to the music critically is stated to enable identifying moral i mplications of musical pieces. 3. Venise Berry in the article â€Å"Redeeming Rap Music Experience† explains the peculiar nature of rap music, viewing it from the perspective of urban experience of the black community and realia it comes across. Asserting rap to be the original means of cultural communication and proclamation of racial identity for black people in American society and drawing the line between assimilated pop-crossover rap and ‘raw’ cultural

Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Advertising - Essay Example In excess, advertising helps in the branding of a product in that it identifies the distinct traits of the manufacturer of the product from the other manufacturers. In effect, it helps to emphasize the brand to which a consumer associates with the product (Trehan 67). It also serves as an informational tool as the price of the product may sometimes reflect in the advertisement. In other instances, an advertisement also serves as an assurance to employees and the company shareholders that the company is still operational. Usually, sponsors pay adverts to run on various media tools, which may be either audio or visual depending with the sponsor preference. They are mainly for commercial purposes as they seek to brand products and services through repetitive showing of an image or product name in their showing. Through the repetition, the consumer is able to familiarize him or herself with the qualities of a product or service through the advert. In contrast, some advertisements may be non-commercial in that their intention is not make any profit but just passing information. Mainly, political parties, faith based and non-governmental organizations explore these commercials by spending money to air them as a public service announcement. In essence, this paper will examine an advertisement placed on a popular magazine to bring out its effectiveness in achieving an anticipated wider market base. How the advertisement functions This product is new to the market. Therefore, this advertisement serves as an introductory approach to the consumer. It gives the product name and an appealing design that instantly attracts the eye. The colors used also reflect the sophistication in that the product is of high quality. Essential, an advertisement can appeal to a consumer in two ways. For one, the information given may have a rational appeal in that it reflects the quality of the product (Trehan 226). This may be in terms of its durability, great performance, and affordability of the product and its location. On the other hand, the product information given in the advert may have an emotional appeal in that it gives a sense of assurance, pride, customer satisfaction levels, and its recognizable ability in the market (Trehan 118). For instance, this advertisement gives the emotional appeal to the market as it portrays all the above-mentioned qualities. In addition, this advertisement has the fear appeal in that it portrays the consequences of not using this product, which would be to go to a dentist (Trehan133). This evokes fear to the readers, thus, they have no option but to buy the product. How the constitutive elements combine to try to sell the product There has been effective color use to try to draw the attention of the reader into taking notice of the advert. Essentially, when dull colors take centre stage the chances of the advert making impact are very low. In addition, the advert portrays the image of the product that is available for retail. T herefore, the reader is able to relate to the product’s appearance. This will be helpful when they go to buy the product, as they will be able to spot it in a store’s shelf. Additionally, the wording involved is one that cannot escape one’s eye, as they are readable and clear. They are visible enough from a distance thus a reader needs not strain to capture what the advert is trying to sell. Moreover, it is the giving of the location where the product is available at makes it easy for the intended consumer to know where to get it. As an additional element, the advert gives all the good attributes associated with the use of their product, which draws a

Puritans Paper Essay Example for Free

Puritans Paper Essay Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   America has become the world’s superpower for quite a long time since after the Depression Years. It is able to sustain its position then and now depending on anybody’s viewpoint. If the Religious Right, the Evangelicals or Fundamentalists, were to be asked why America is what it is today in the world’s affairs, they’d readily attribute it to the spiritual dimension: the favor of God is with this country since its pioneering days when the early Christians settled here from England. Among the pioneers are now popularly known as the Puritans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Who they were, how they lived, what their basic or fundamental beliefs were, and how much they played a part to what America or even the world has become, no one could possibly estimate to its closest description. All we know is the heritage which they passed on to this great country. They played a great role in establishing the first free schooling, first formal education, and first American college, Harvard in Cambridge, and the first to write books for children expressing the distinct difference in communicating with this age level (Kizer). These were some of their contributions and they are no small feats if one has to consider their impact to civilization. This paper attempts in prà ©cis to describe the Puritans, peeking into their distinctiveness and their other contributions to the country and the world. Discussion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Puritanism was a movement within the Anglican Church in England during the time of Oliver Cromwell which was in reaction to the growing discontent regarding the religious, moral and societal practices of their day. They were considered dissenters and deemed that those in the leadership were beyond reform, hence, the many that set sail and settled in America during the colonial era. New England had become their home and from there, sprang the shapers of this country’s religious character. This was best attributed to the works of the great American preacher Jonathan Edwards and other leaders like him in what was recognized as the Great Awakening. The Puritans acknowledged only the tenets of the Bible, and only from its pages are the only valid or authentic laws which are to be applied to all aspects of living. It was the Puritans who tore away the established church’s ruling that only those in the clergy have the access to God. They somehow succeeded to remove the rituals and formalities that â€Å"Christianity† in general has accumulated from the early years (Johnson Woloch, â€Å"United States (History)†, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are some myths or misinformation carried down the years that form a wrong perception of the Puritans. Firstly, the original/actual English Puritans were not a small group of dissenters, but in fact a big organized people who succeeded in the Parliament of England with Cromwell at the helm. However, this was not for long, the fact that some of them were forced to immigrate to America to escape religious and political persecution. Secondly, stories abounding about witchcraft trials and all that only came later after the hundred plus years that they have already settled and â€Å"multiplied† and successfully built their communities. From 17, 800 in population around 1640s, they grew to 106,000 by 1700. Being exclusive was forefront in their religious stand including the strong spirituality that spilled over their laws in communal living and relations. Nonetheless, their isolation was the main danger that they had posed to themselves. The apostolic church in the New Testament served as their model for way of living and the accountability is both individual and by church congregations wherever they were. They believed in predestination which actually affected their understanding of other aspects of their lives. One of which was what was termed as a strong Protestant work ethic (Kizer, â€Å"Puritans†). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Much can be said about the reformation that started in England which was successful in their day and the migration to America that further changed the landscape of what this country has since become after they came. After spirituality that they protected and communicated down their descendants and shaped others who came to their influence, the Puritans’ foremost contribution is the intellectual development and progress that marked America. Religion was the fuel for this intellectual pursuit, and even scientific breakthroughs came about as a result of the Puritans’ emphasis in education. The resulting healthy economy, strong political convictions from the biblical emphasis, and consistent formal learning hallmarked the Puritans and perhaps no other group of people contributed much to the preservation of the American way of life even until today. Works Cited Page Kizer, Kay. â€Å"Puritans.† Accessed August 28, 2007 http://: www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html 9k   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Johnson, Paul E., and Woloch, Nancy. United States (History). Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.

Cezannes Apple Notes and Quotes Essay Example for Free

Cezannes Apple Notes and Quotes Essay Schapiro’s psychoanalytic approach, that is, his search for the underlying meaning and relevance to the painting, * Thesis: While Schapiro’s argument shows a well-considered analysis of the artist’s life as a source of interpretation of Cezanne’s work, much of it is based on suggestion and fantasy. As in all historical interpretation, Cezanne’s work should be viewed within the context of the artist’s historical and biographical framework, but with a formalist analysis of the works that enables the viewer to interpreted not only their personal value, but their intended communication. riticism of Cezannes art cannot and, I believe, should not be limited by critical schools of thought. Also, though perhaps it has been the nature of critics to make vastly differentiating interpretations of Cezanne’s work, both forms of analysis add to the richness of the dialogue that can expand one’s preconceived notions of the work and widen the scope of understanding and perspective. Contrary to views of critics such as Roger Fry whose formalist analysis deduces Cezanne’s works as only a problem of form and color, Schapiro seeks more symbolist meaning within the subject matter chosen by the artist. * Schapiro argues that the objects placed within the still-life display â€Å"a game of an introverted personality who has found for his art of representation an objective sphere in which he feels self-sufficient, masterful, free from disturbing other spheres. Schapiro believes that fruit is never the theme, rather, they are a symbol of his emotion and personal concerns. * Schapiro makes the case against a purely formal interpretation: â€Å"It might be supposed that in still-life painting the meaning of the work is merely the sum of the denotation of the separate parts, yet there may be connotations and a comprehensive quality arising from the combined objects and made more visible and moving through the artistic conception. (i. e. black clock 1870, still w. compotier 79-82, blue vase 83-85, still w. cupid 95, or pples and oranges 95) There is in still like a unity of things like the unity of a scene of action, one must recognize the context of the objects in reality, their connection with a mood or interest or type of occasion. (24) * Cannot look at these as purely sexual, an element in a painting serves more than one function. Apples could be chosen means of emotional detachment and self-control, the fruit providing an objective field of colors, and sensuous richness lacking in his earlier passionate art and not fully realized in his later nude pa intings. Sexual displacement could be an unconscious factor. Certainly, Cezanne has a strange relationship with the human figure in his earlier works. In his early works, sexual gratification is directly displayed or implied. A modern Olympia (1873), Bacchanal, and his other pictures of the nudes show that he could not convey his feeling for women without anxiety. In his painting of the nude woman, where he does not produce an old work, he is most often constrained or violent. there is no middle ground of simple enjoyment. In Leda and the Swan, the writer argues that it is a striking instance of the defusing of a sexual theme through replacement of a figure by still-life objects. Cezannes fruit is not yet fully part of human life. Suspended between nature and use, it exists as if for contemplation alone. (25) In Cezannes painting of landscape, too, and sometimes of the human being, we recognize the same distinctive distance from action and desire. He seems to realize a philosophers concept of aesthetic perception as a pure will-less knowing. * The still-life objects bring to awareness the complexity of the phenomenal and the subtle interplay of perception and artifice in representation. (19) Still-life engages the painter in a st eady looking that discloses new and elusive aspects of the stable object. At first commonplace, it may becomes in the course of that contemplation a mystery, a source of metaphysical wonder. (20) Still-life calls out a response to an implied human presence. The represented objects, in their relation to us, acquire meanings from the desires they satisfy as well as from their analogies and relations to the human body They are a symbol or heraldry of a way of life. (23) * Yet, though the nature of the Apples seems to deserve far richer analysis of simple line and form, the use of apples as a restraint of Cezanne’s â€Å"morbid fantasies† (29), seems to evoke some fantastical properties of its own. * Apple as a displaced erotic interest? Apple has erotic sensesymbol of love, an attribute of Venus and a ritual object in marriage ceremonies. The apple is a natural analogue of ripe human beauty (6). Philostatus, Greek writer of 200 AD, describes a painting of Cupids gathering apples in a garden of Venus, which serve as the source of Titians painting of the cult of Venus, and indirectly Rubens picture of putti carrying a parland of the fruit. * Apples (1875) For Cezanne, the apple is equivalent to the human figure. He could project typical relations of human beings as well as qualities of the larger visible worldsolitude, contact, accord, conflict, serenity, abundance and luxuryand even states of elation and enjoyment. * In passing from the painting of fantasies to the discipline of observation, Cezanne made of colorthe principle of art allied to sensuality and pathos in romantic painting but underdeveloped in his own early pictures of passionthe beautiful substance of stable, solid object-forms and a deeply coherent structure of the composition. It is extremely doubtful that he could have reached his goal had he followed Delacroix in his choice of subjects. But in the self-chastening process, the painting of still-lifeas latent symbol and intimate tangible realitywas, perhaps more than his other themes, a bridge between his earlier and his later art. (33)

Seven Ancient Wonders Of The World

Seven Ancient Wonders Of The World The seven ancient wonders of the world are one of the most extraordinary lists of artifacts in history. Even today there are several different branches of this list that include different categories of wonders in the world. Some of the other popular lists include wonders of the modern, medieval, natural world, and several others. Among the latest seven wonders is the Wilder beast migration scenario visible Maasai Mara game reserve in East Africa, which is being claimed to, seen from outer space great distances in the atmosphere. The great walls of china are also visible from outer space, built in 200 years B.C and stretches over eight thousand kilometers have also been featured in this list. Listing of the seven wonders can be traced back to the ancient Greek historians who developed a trend of documenting the most amazing sceneries and features in their land together with the surrounding regions that they had knowledge about during their time. The very first list of seven wonders wa s documented around first or second century before Christ (B.C) by Greek historians and consisted of constructions or natural sceneries around the modern day Mediterranean region together with some parts of Asia (Roberts, 16). This list came to be known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The list is credited to historians like Antipater of Sidon, Diodoros and Herodotus although Antipater is given much of the credit. In this regard, this paper aims at discussing which of the ancient wonders should not have been included in the list. The first seven wonders to have been documented in human history included the great pyramid of Giza, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Hanging gardens of Babylon, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes and Lighthouse of Alexandria. During that time, the above named were classified as the most spectacular and remarkable manmade structures but some people have argued that this would not have been the case had the Greek historians and travelers had more knowledge about other regions of the world. Different people point out that certain wonders In the list should not have been included but according to my own point of view, the hanging gardens of Babylon should not have been included in that list for a number of reasons. For a long time now, there has been a raging debate on the actual existence of the gardens in question (Optic 6). Up to date, there has never been concrete proof that the gardens of Babylon actually existed in the areas documented during the first account. In Babylonian history both now and in the past, there is no such documentation of its existence, which casts doubt about whether the Greek historians were right or wrong (Price Clayton, 22). Compared to the other wonders of the time, there has been sufficient proof of existence and has been presented with ruins of some being seen even as of date. In fact, the Great pyramid of Giza is still physically visible even today. People living in regions where other members in the list had documented the existence of the respective structures in the writings, drawings and other types but Babylonians had not. This is a strong reason as to why the hanging gardens should not have been included considering prove of existence of the other six. Secondly, it cannot be said as to who really was responsible for building the gardens if they indeed existed. The Greek historians who developed the list attributed the building to Nebuchadnezzar II, a powerful king who reigned around 600 B.C but other documentation shows otherwise. It is now a well-known fact that no artifacts, ruins, and walls of Nebuchadnezzars kingdom have ever shown that he was responsible for building the gardens (Price Clayton, 32). Other historians of the ancient times recorded that a man named Sennacherib was the one who built the hanging gardens after he took over the kingdom of Assyria in the year 705 B.C. Other historians of both modern and ancient times argue that the Gardens were a creation of the mind and artistry build upon stories that were taken to Greece by visitors who came from Babylonia. Being a land that had great architecture, tower of Babel, fertile soils, Palm tree plantations, beautiful gardens and great prosperity, merchants and soldiers who went back to Greece gave exaggerated stories about the region ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. On hearing this, artists and historians created mental pictures of the place and eventually came up with drawings. For this reason, I think hanging garden should have been excluded from the list. Largely, the intention of constructing a building determines whether it will have great value or not. Some buildings are constructed for use as residential areas, places of worship, food stores, recreational and libraries among other reasons. In ancient times, buildings were built for various reasons some of which are explained above. With respect to the seven manmade structures that were listed as wonder of the world, all of them had a distinct purpose for their creation but according to my own personal view, the main intention for constructing the gardens was relatively less valuable or meaningless compared to the other six. The great Pyramid of Giza was built to act as a tomb for pharaohs, temple of Artemis at Ephesus as a place of worship, Lighthouse of Alexandria as a guide to seafarers or sailors. Similarly, Statue of Zeus at Olympia as a depiction of matured artistry, and Colossus of Rhodes a symbol of one of many gods worshipped by Greeks called Helios. On the other hand, the hanging gardens had been built to make Nebuchadnezzars wife feel more as if she was at her ancestral home (Woods Michael, 69). In short, it was built to satisfy the ego of only one person resulting to wastage of massive financial resources, human labor, and time. All the other structures had been for a noble course of either helping humanity, understanding life aspects more or helping create a better link between humans and their God but the gardens had been built to impact just one person who happened to be the wife of a king. The actual location of the gardens is a matter of speculation and not factual like is the case with the other constructions (Clayton Prince 58). Given that, ruins the other six structures have precise locations that are known to historians and ordinary persons, documentation of the gardens in relation to different historian of the time confirm that the precise location of the place is not known. There is a possibility that the gardens, if they ever existed may have been built elsewhere and not in the place recorded by historians as Babylonia (Woods Michael, 97). Studies conducted by modern day archeologists strongly show that the place believed to be the zone where hanging gardens were situated based off ancient Greek historical accounts is actually Nineveh gardens, modern day Tigris which used to be in the kingdom of Assyria. This is strong evidence that Greek historians must have confused the two places making it odd to be included in the list of seven wonders of the ancient worl d. There also exists a major difference between type of architecture used in construction of hanging gardens and others in the record. The gardens had been built using a mixture of clay and straw, which underwent a hardening process to make construction bricks. All the others were constructed using tough or special stones that had the capability of withstanding all types of unfavorable weather conditions for a long period. According to ancient records, walls of the hanging gardens could be fully destructed by exposure to water only that it was it a desert region that experienced region. It is said that the gardens were easily destroyed by an earthquake to an extent where not even ruins remained, an indication that they were less superior to the other wonders. In relation to height, the hanging gardens of Babylon are documented to have been about eighty feet. Others like the Lighthouse of Alexandria were approximately one hundred and twenty meters high and could be seen from long distances. Sailors of the time could see the tower from as far as twenty-six miles and the great pyramid remained to be the tallest manmade structure on earth for over three thousand years. This means that the other six structures were appealing to the human eye compared to the hanging gardens. Having trees and other plants together with a river around it, the gardens could never have been appealing when the desert sun dried up the waters and made vegetation turn brown. From all the above arguments, it would be right to conclude that the hanging gardens should not have been included in that list of ancient wonders given the many weaknesses it had compared to the others.

Physics of the Lathe :: physics lathe wood

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" An age old tongue twister that has never been answered. In this rhyme, the common assumption is that the woodchuck is a small furry groundhog like creature, but there is another kind of wood chuck that is not as common but could chuck wood. Here we will explore this path of answering this age old riddle. In the production of many wood products a common manufacturing tool known as a lathe is used, and to hold the wood in the lathe a chuck is used. In order to calculate the amount of wood a wood chuck can chuck we must first define how the wood will be chucked. When wood chucking the chuck will be spinning around the spindle and an attachment will be used that will act as a catcher that will be on the outer radius of the chuck. We will also be able to calculate the velocity of the wood leaving the chuck and the kinetic energy. Lathes & Chucks A LATHE is "a machine tool designed primarily to do turning, facing, and boring. Their versatility permits multiple operations to be done with a single setup of the workpiece. Consequently, the lathe is the most common machine tool." The lathe used to theoretically calculate the amount of wood that can be chucked is the TECHNO CNC WOOD LATHE. This lathe has a spindle speed rate from 500 to 2000 RPM, which will be used to calculate the amount of wood chucked. The Chuck is an attachment that is the most commonly used way to hold a workpiece on the lathe. It attaches to the spindle on the lathe and is spun by it at speeds up to 4000 RPM depending on the lathe. The chuck that will be used for our calculations will have an approximate mass of 4 kilograms and a diameter of 6 inches. Wood Chucking To calculate the amount of wood that is chucked, and the other properties of wood chucking, using the TECHNO CNC WOOD LATHE the following values and assumptions will be used: * The spindle speed of the lathe has a range of 500-2000 RPM * The diameter of the chuck is 6 in. approximately 15 cm. * A one kilogram block of wood made out of American Spruce with a density of .

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Essays -- Science Genetics Papers embryo

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Embryonic stem cell research is a controversial topic nationwide, because of its clash of ethical and moral values. Many people, including those suffering from diseases that this research is seeking to cure, do not believe in killing a living embryo in order to advance research and science. â€Å"Even though having Parkinson’s Disease is something I’d rather not go through, I cannot find it in me to support embryonic stem cell research at this time in my life, simply because my improvement or being cured shouldn’t depend on the killing of an innocent life,† said Wilbanice Ayala, 22, of Hudson, New Hampshire. President George W. Bush is one who also does not believe in the â€Å"killing of an innocent life† for research that could potentially lead to the cure of many diseases. In 2001, Bush announced that federal funds would only be distributed for research on the 60 stem cell lines already in existence. This address brought an outcry from those afflicted with diseases that could possibly be cured by stem cells and by those who strongly support the research for the betterment of the society. With so many different groups of researchers wanting to explore this topic, 60 stem cell lines simply cannot be stretched for everyone’s use. In addition to that, the lines have been used so much that many of them are starting to show chromosomal abnormalities. There are, however, alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. For those not familiar with the study of embryonic stem cells, it is derived from the cells that make up the inner cell mass of the embryo, blastocyst. What is unique about these cells is that they are capable of generating any and all cells in the body. Some alternatives to this study incl... ... the day Proposition 71 was passed was an important day for all patients, researchers, and people who depend on medical research for treatment and cures. Harvard will no longer be alone in the search for cures using stem cell research. California’s passing of Proposal 71 offers a lot of promise to the field of science and its advancements. Is this just another example of â€Å"lazy research,† or is this the only option left that can provide treatments to many people suffering from different diseases? The bottom line is that this new wave is rapidly growing in popularity and alternatives to embryonic stem cell research are fading, to some seeming virtually non-existent. â€Å"At some point there was excitement that adult stem cells could be changed into cells from another tissue, but this has now been unequivocally been put aside as experimental artifacts,† said Kadereit.

Surgery :: essays research papers

Surgery   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My stomach and throat seemed to be playing ping pong with my heart as I entered the hospital’s waiting room. All week I had been playing it cool telling everyone that the surgery was not that big of a deal, and that I was enthused about all the attention I would be receiving. But today reality had hit me. I had never been through anything like this before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The waiting room was sparsely filled with families waiting for their loved ones. I tried to look at the various magazines, but nothing helped relieve the tight feeling in my stomach. Finally after what seemed like an eternity the nurse called my name. I slowly got up, and headed through the door with my family. I was thankful that they were there. Their presence made me feel more at ease.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was asked to change into the attractive dress without a back, and then I was handed some funny looking socks. I looked like an eighty year old lady in a fifteen year-old’s body with my new outfit. Another nurse entered the room to take my vitals, and give me an IV, the needle that she pulled out of the plastic looked huge. I had had shots before, but an IV was a completely different deal. After the IV was secured, I was afraid to move my arm, in case the IV fell out, because I was not having the nurse stick me again. With my vitals recorded, and my first shot administered to relax me, I was feeling slightly better about the procedure. Just when I was convincing myself that this would not be so bad, a nurse with a sour disposition came to wheel me away. Then it hit me, my family could not follow me to this next part, I was on my own. I had hardly noticed their presence for the last half hour, but now I was suddenly aware of their pending absence. As they w heeled me down the hall away from my mom, dad and sister, I had the urge to jump out of the Gurney, and race back to them.

Festival “Woodstock Essay

Introduction: The colorful history of the human services agency is attached to a famous event in America’s history. There was a festival in 1969, and this festival was called â€Å"Woodstock.† The once quiet little town of Woodstock was becoming engulfed with young people sleeping on benches in the town’s well known â€Å"green.† People hitchhiking in and out of town, camping in parking lots and seeking out food and clothing. One member of the town, Gail Varsi realized that there was a problem. Ms. Varsi opened her home and her phone line to these people. The famous Family of Woodstock Hotline still has the same number that was Ms. Varsi’s home telephone number in 1969. Along with the help of local businesses, clergy, and residents, Ms. Varsi organized food drives, clothing exchanges and transportation back to where the young people came from. These are the roots of Family of Woodstock Inc. Today, the agency services all of Ulster County, organizing programs such as the only domestic violence shelter in the county, a teen runaway shelter, several homeless shelters, several walk-in centers(still providing a â€Å"free store† and a food pantry) and case management services for adults and adolescents. Family of Woodstock was born when a community need was recognized and addressed; continuing in this line of thinking was the reasoning for the MidWay Program. Many young people, although adults at the age of 18, were unable to live independently and did not have the skills necessary to maintain a manageable life style. Young people who were not technically â€Å"runaways,† but were homeless due to many circumstances; some were victims of domestic violence, sexual assault in their homes, some had parents who were unable to provide for them due to financial restraints, substance abuse issues, incarceration, and some just did not have anywhere to go. Many fell through the cracks, before the early 90’s when divorce became common place, opening the door for the new concept of the â€Å"blended  family† and many of these kids became unwanted as younger children. These kids were the basis for MidWay. The Kingston House was the site for the original MidWay. Family of Woodstock Inc. owns the house where the program stands in a small residential neighborhood, close to the center of the small city. The Ellenville site exists in the small, rural village of Ellenville, also in a quiet neighborhood. They are site homes to 6 adolescents, ranging from 16-20. The program is co-ed, and manages three parenting teens in each program. The length of stay in the program is 18 months, or up to 24 months if the client enters the program at age 16 in order to allow them to complete high school while in the program. There are staff members in the program 24 hours a day. The case managers are there from 9 to 5 and are available for consultation, transportation, assistance with appointments and referrals. Life Skill Managers are there from 4:30 to 9:30, for assistance with imperative daily living skills, like budgeting, laundry, grocery shopping, and other skills such as communication and relationship building. The overnight shift starts at 9:00pm and ends in the morning. There is only one staff member on at a time, which they are referred to as a â€Å"cross –over,† where the staff leaving the program provide the staff coming on the shift with a summary of events that took place on the previous shift. Clients accepted into the program are referred to local service providers for mental health and substance abuse counseling. The clients program serves as high need and may not be able to live independently. The residents sign and receive a contract upon entry of the program. Their status is tracked and discussed in a bi-weekly case conference with all of the program staff, program director, and mental health consultant to communicate the events of the program from the previous week. If a resident is doing poorly, he/she schedules a meeting with the program director to decide whether or not he/she will remain in the program. The residents are expected to maintain their house; they have evening chores, checked nightly by the two residential counselors of the program. They are responsible for the condition of their rooms. They are assisted in grocery shopping, but cook their own meals, often together because of the â€Å"home-like† environment the program strives to create. The residents also create schedules, crafted for every individual with his/her specific needs in mind with the help of the case manager. Schedules are developed to occupy forty hours a week of  residents time; that contains work, school (sometimes college, high school, or GED course)substance abuse and mental health treatment, or any combination of these. In Conclusion, the programs are run with the assumption that the staff and the program are performing the roles that parents would take in a healthy family atmosphere. The program as an opportunity for the residents to experience a healthy and supportive family environment.

Final Teen Pregnancy College Essay Essay

There are many short phrases that can impact a person’s life from â€Å"will you marry me† to â€Å"I love you† all the way down to â€Å"I’m pregnant† but when you’re a teenager hearing the last phrase is something that will change your life in a scary and shocking way. Nearly one million teen girls experience this shock each year when they come to find that their pregnancy test is positive. In our society today teenage pregnancy isn’t just a problem but an epidemic. Unfortunately I have seen all stages of the situation unfold recently when my best friend who is almost like a sister to me found out she was having a baby. At the age of seventeen a normal teenage girl is deciding what dress to wear to prom or where they want to apply for their first job. But for my best friend Anna the first big decision she got to make was whether she should keep her baby or not. This choice lead her into a deep depression as different people in her life pressured her to make different choices. While her close friends told her to keep the baby the father of her baby and his family wanted her to abort it. After a long month of fighting over what to do she chose the baby’s life over the â€Å"love† of her boyfriend who ended up leaving after finding out she was not going to get an abortion. Sadly enough she is not the only one who has experienced this, unfortunately more than half of girls who become pregnant in their teens have to go down this path alone without the father of the baby in the picture. It is apparent that becoming pregnant changed Anna’s life and her future as a whole. This happens to every teen mom weather they decide to keep the baby, get an abortion, or give their baby up for adoption their life is still changed forever. Theses girls went from a life where their parents made decisions for them to a life where they have to make parental decisions themselves. Overall teenage pregnancy is a social issue because it affects many aspects of life like economic wellbeing, the mother’s wellbeing, and the child’s wellbeing. If teenage pregnancy were reduced all of these problems would be reduced as well. Each year the United States is spending around eleven billion dollars as an affect of teen pregnancy. The US has to spend this much money because eighty percent of teen moms are on welfare. Economic wellbeing contributes to the reasons so many teen moms have to be  supported by the government. At such a young age these teens can not meet the demand for education in the job world while still caring for their new born. The national campaign sites that almost ninety percent of teens who did not get pregnant finish high school where as only fifty percent of teen moms get a high school diploma. The children of these mothers end up being affected by their mother’s struggles. From conception odds are against these children to succeed. At birth a teen mothers baby is at risk of low birth rate and infant mortality. Once the child gets passed these odds they have to deal with the struggles of being less prepared when they enter kindergarten because their mothers are less experienced on how to prepare their child. In later life sons of teen mothers are two times more likely to end up in prison than sons born to mothers over the age of twenty-one, this may be because of the absence of a father figure in their lives. Studies have also concluded that daughters of teen mothers are three times more likely to have a baby in their teens. Teen pregnancies disturb our society today by using our tax dollars and affecting the success of our future generation. Not only is teenage pregnancy seen at school and in other public places it is also all over the television. Some say that the popular television shows sixteen and Pregnant glamorizes teen pregnancy and I would have to agree. Why should girls get rewarded for becoming pregnant as a teen and even become famous because of it? The answer is that they shouldn’t but in our world today sadly these girls hardships our becoming our generations entertainment. But it is not much of a loss to them as they are being paid a â€Å"reported $60,000 per season† according to OK magazine. Many teens who see the show sixteen and pregnant or see other pregnant teens think that it will never happen to them. The fact of the matter is that my best friend was one of those people. Teenage pregnancy is not an issue that is going away in our society. Preventing teenage pregnancy will not only help our countries teenagers to have a more successful life but it will also help the children that will be our countries future to have a better life. The United States needs to stop putting this problem on the back burner and accepting it as â€Å"normal† and start to take action. In the world today the United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates doubling that Canada and five times the rate of Japan. American teens that are sexually active are becoming more and more careless. Some suggest that these teens become pregnant because of  the lack of education or lack of positive parental influences in teens lives. I think some teens just become so consumed with how â€Å"in love† they feel that they are with their boyfriend or girlfriend that they forget the consequences of their actions. America as a whole needs to find better ways to control teen pregnancy weather it be through education of the consequences or education of birth control. Because the true fact of the matter is that pre marital sex leads to broken homes, high school dropouts, and tough financial situations. These teens our still children themselves and should not make a decision that leaves them with the responsibility of another child’s life.

Newton’s Preface to Principia Mathematica

The preface of Sir Isaac Newton to Principia Mathmetica is an introduction of the book—its origin, its contents, a brief explanation of what is inside, and how the book got published. Newton explains the difference between mechanics and geometry and their relationship in the first part. On the latter part, he explains how postulations on the first part of the book may lead to calculations on the movement of celestial bodies. Finally, Newton thanks the sponsor of the book at the end. Mechanics, Philosophy, and Geometry are words that are mentioned in frequency in the opening parts of the preface. Mechanics today would be thought of something related to machines, but back in Newton’s day, it is possibly the old name of Physics because the word â€Å"Physics† is not mentioned anywhere in the preface, and the way he describes mechanics is very much like how we see Physics today. Geometry, on the other hand, is pretty much the same way as we use it today as it was in Newton’s time, as it pertains to the study of different shapes and their measurement. Lastly, Philosophy then was seen as more related to science, whereas today, people would not really think of science when they first hear the word â€Å"philosophy,† or at least the common person would not. The preface is divided into three parts—information about the first two books of Principia Mathematica, the third book, and then the thank you message with a disclaimer. In the first part, Newton explains the difference between geometry and mechanics and their relationship with each other. Though there are differences, Newton states that geometry is part of mechanics and concludes that geometry is founded in mechanical as part of universal mechanics. By using geometry and mechanics, Newton aims to find out more about natural forces and explain their phenomena. The second part is about the third book. Newton states that by using the information gathered in studying geometry and mechanics, he says that movement of celestial bodies can be calculated (which is based on an already existing Kepler’s law). The third part is where Newton mentions the man who made the publication of the book possible, and that man is Mr. Edmund Halley (who was famous for calculating the return of the comet now credited to his name). Newton thanks Halley for being such a major influence in the publication of Principia Mathematica and an unfinished book about celestial movement. Finally, after crediting Halley for his efforts and influence, Newton moves on to a sort of disclaimer in the en d, saying that he has put off the publication of the prospective book about celestial movement, and that delay may have caused imperfections in the current publication. As far as writing style is concerned, hints of Newton being a scientist is quite evident. Newton attempts to keep his preface as brief and concise as possible, but there are segments in the preface where he could not let go of the urge to explain more and give more examples. To illustrate, consider as an example the latter part where he starts his â€Å"disclaimer† about not being able to publish a book and the defects found in the current book. Other than that, everything else seems very well written, especially how he alludes to the past (by mentioning ancient times) and moving to the present. It gives a sense of chronological order to his preface.

Essay on Global Companies Essay

International companies are characterized by many factors among them geographical dispersion, demand for rationalization and differentiation and cultural diversity. These factors pose numerous challenges to international HR managers on how to ensure successful performance of their functions. The paper highlights various challenges the mentioned factors presents to IHRM in their work. It assembles evidence and previous research findings done by other writers. The paper also demonstrates why managing international HR is more difficult than managing HR in a large domestic firm. Challenges presented by geographical dispersion to international HR directors As employees in an international company come from different backgrounds and possess diverse experience, it’s hard to standardize pay and conditions of work (Briscoe & Schuler, 2009). Doing so is likely to bring conflicts among staff doing similar jobs in different locations. Standardizing working conditions is also tricky because of diverse cultures, rules and laws of different nations. Home working conditions and policies cannot be transferred to another country due to existence of different legislations in host country. In such a case each host country could have a slightly different working condition (Paik and Vance, 2006). Due also to natural differences in each country, it is hard to standardize business processes and pay in a multinational company. One of challenges faced by international HR managers is dealing with multiple time zones. This time differences bring about difficulties for managers to consult with key decision makers (Herod and Yearn, 2002). These difficulties may result into ramifications on productivity. Closely associated with this problem is the continued heavy reliance on face to face communications since improvement in technologies has not completely bridged this gap (Punnett, 1989). Rolling out a non conflicting international compensation system is a challenge to international HRM. This is due to the fact that conditions of employment differ among various categories of employees (Mendenhall et al, 1987). In addition, there exist variations among countries on ways of compensating workers. Salary levels for the same job also differ amongst countries. As a matter of fact compensation packages can be a source of conflict . This is mostly occurs when local employees start comparing their salary to those of expatriates and may conclude that there is no fairness. Expatriates in most of cases have better compensation packages than local employees doing the same job. As a result local employees may feel unappreciated and treated unfairly. Consequently, it may result to resentment and eventually lower employees’ morale and productivity (Roberts et al, 1998). The process of hiring and placement of different national categories of workers is very complex in global context. International HRM involves movement of people across international boundaries (Briscoe & Schuler, 2009). In such a case staffing becomes very hard as managers face hard choices to make from three pools of employees categories: employees from host country where the company operates (HCN), nationals from home country where the firm has headquarter (PNC) and citizens of other countries that may be sources of labor (TNC). The three types of employee groups have different backgrounds. This therefore requires the managers to have international mindset and adopt policies that facilitate establishment of internationally oriented staff (Briscoe & Schuler, 2009). Distinct countries have different government policies and ethical requirements which can pose problems to international HR managers. For instance an international company situated in South Africa would have expatriates willing to work there required to undergo a compulsory HIV/AIDS test. This could result to loss of talented employees who may not be willing to comply with the requirement. It would be therefore a challenge to managers to convince such expatriates to accept the requirement (Roberts et al, 1998). International HR managers also face difficulties determining compensation package among various categories of workers. This is so because of varied nationalities of workers and different levels of economic development in home countries. It therefore becomes hard to determine some form of compensation for instance hardship allowance (Hofstede, 1992). International scene is also more complex due to language differences. This becomes a challenge in ease of accessing company’s documents such as vision and mission statements, company’s records and procedure manuals. Language barriers could also impede communication and sharing of information among the workers. This can only be solved by language standardization (Laurent, 1986). The nature of employee involvement also varies depending on country and institutional factors. Employee involvement is crucial in any organization and results into enhanced communication, coordination of tasks, enhanced information sharing and reduced turnover. Employee involvement is however is influenced by organization and national factors such as industrial relations, financial system, social forces and market forces (Petti and Fadel, 1997). Consequently in a global context, the nature of employment will vary due to diverse national forces. Challenges occasioned by need for rationalization and differentiation to international HR directors. Process of rationalization normally involves lowering of organizations operational costs and more improved control (Punnett, 1989). This requires timely provision of information. On a global context, it is a challenge to HR managers to obtain information quickly and to become proactive in achieving business objectives. Due to the complex nature of international organization, it becomes challenging to ensure faster access to high quality information at a significantly business processing cost . However due to rationalization demands in order for the company to remain competitive, managers have to carry out proper compensation, recruitment and placement (Punnett, 1989). Differentiation is the process of distinguishing firms’ products or services from those offered by competitors (Petti and Fadel, 1997). This is done by making them unique and more attractive to a particular target market. Differentiation is normally implemented by ensuring differences in functional features, quality, availability and reputation. Formulation of differentiation strategy is vital for making firms’ products more competitive in a competitive market. In global context it poses challenges for managers to adopt proper strategies in recruitment and selection to ensure the products remain unique and reputable (Petti and Fadel, 1997). Challenges presented by cultural diversity to international HR directors International companies operate in different countries with diverse regulations, standard of living and labor unions (Hofstede, 1992). In some countries, labor unions determine wage policies. In Australia for instance unions negotiate rates of payment on behalf of workers. In other countries like Hong Kong unions have little influence and pay rates are determined by free market. This makes the process of determining pay package very hard to HR managers in global scene (Hofstede, 1992). International HRM must be aware of cultural differences and develop culturally sensitive attitudes for business to thrive (Laurent, 1986). Majority of HRM functions such as compensation; training, recruitment and selection are done according to cultural practices of host nation. Sometimes adapting to local expectation and customs brings more problems. In Indonesia for instance local employees are obliged to employ members of their family. However, acting in such nepotism way may be detrimental to the company since the best fitted persons will not be hired (Punnett, 1989). Diverse norms on methods of motivating employees amongst countries are a key challenge. The use of incentives and gifts for instance may have varied results. In cultures such as America money may be a good motivator. In other cultures such as Japan, non financial incentives for instance job security, social acceptance and promotions may motivate employees better (Mendenhall et al, 1987). The international HR managers are hence challenged to match the motivators with cultural values. International businesses also operate in countries with different cultural differences amongst groups of people in the same country. This ultimately translates into different HRM policies procedures and system. The work of IHRM is therefore determined by cultural aspects of the host country (Petti and Fadel, 1997). This places a challenge to IHRM managers to reconsider each strategy in terms of the country’s cultural condition. Some strategies may work in some country but fail in others. A Hong Kong company dealing with dental services for instance decided to offer a ‘use it or lose it’ policy worth $1000 a year. Initially the company had a high staff turnover of 24%. After a short time, the company’s turnover dropped significantly to 4%. The strategy could not just work in that context (Petti and Fadel, 1997). As the case illustrates, research is required to be conducted amongst employees to establish the kind of strategies which are workable. People also have varied takes and attitudes with regard to contracts. People from western countries think of it just like a contract and will follow it after it’s signed. The Chinese however take it different and prefer continued relationship with their manager. So they will sign it, have a handshake and get to know their manager (Laurent, 1986). Therefore the IHRM has to consider acceptability and adaptability. Diversity management is also a challenge especially managing varying expectations in workplace. Some countries emphasize on gender equity and affirmative action while others do no (Hofstede, 1992)t. In such a case organizations with such policies face difficulties implementing them in some countries. In some parts of the world woman expatriates may experience difficulties in gaining acceptance (Hofstede, 1992). Culture is also a significant constraint in employee performance appraisals and feedback process. Western counties have been found to have different styles of performance appraisals which are difficult to transfer to non western countries (Briscoe & Schuler, 2009). The purpose of appraisal, acceptance of its result and the mode of conduct of the feedback process are also different amongst countries. In some cultures for instance Japan performance appraisal are not acceptable and are normally interpreted as sign of distrust. In other cultures such as Chinese performance appraisals are used to determine pay (Briscoe & Schuler, 2009). Why managing International HR is inherently more difficult than managing HR in a large domestic firm. Unlike domestic firm, international HR involves moving staff across many countries with diverse cultural and economic aspects. As such international HRM is more complex as it deals with different categories of workers from different countries. There are also many aspects and a broad range of issues o take into consideration (Paik and Vance, 2006). To begin with, there are more HR activities to deal with in an international environment. Foreign employees are normally subjected to both domestic and international tax liabilities. This necessitates need to design tax equalization policies to bridge this gap. There are also a lot of international relocation and orientation activities. This may take the shape of arranging pre departure training and providing information such travel details, shopping and schooling. Foreign employees must also be provided with housing, medical care and recreation services. The expatriates also require to be provided by administrative services within which the host country operates. In addition the international HR must provide language translation services (Mendenhall et al, 1987). The international HR manager is also required to take a broad view of issues. This is particularly due to the fact that the managers deal with more than one national group of employees all working together. One such broader perspective would be to ensure that employees working in foreign locations receive foreign premium regardless of their nationality. Such a policy should be implemented without showing preferential treatment to only employees working on overseas assignment but even to foreigners assigned to firm’s home country (Chan, 1994). The IHRM thus has to deal with equity issues with regard to compensation. International HR managers are also required to get more involved in employees personal lives (Herod and Yearn, 2002). The HRM needs to ensure that expatriate employees comprehends compensation package such as cost of living allowances, premium taxes among others. He also needs to ensure they understand housing arrangements and health care. This creates need for establishment of a section that provides services such as handling of employees’ investments, banking and coordinating home visits. If for instance there is to be a relocation or transfer, the HR department will need to know the employees personal life in order to provide the level of support required. This is particularly due to some governments requirements like marriage certificate in order to stay in some locations. In addition the HR managers may want to assist the family left behind at home country (Herod and Yearn, 2002). In the international context, there is always need to change emphasis in HR operations as workforce varies. This mostly occurs when more trained locals become available and hence the need of foreign employees decline. Resources which had previously allocated to allocated to expatriate issues have thus to be transferred to local stuff training and development. This broadens HR activities such as training, planning and compensation (Chan, 1994). International assignments increase exposure to risks that HRM has to deal with. There are more severe consequences resulting from expatriate failure and underperformance. Such a failure may be too costly to the company in terms of salary, relocation expenses and travel costs. There could also be loss of foreign share, market share and breakdown of foreign relations. The HR department must also consider possible acts of terrorism. On top of that the HR must put in place emergency evacuation procedures for assignments in locations susceptible to epidemic crises (Roberts et al, 1998). International HRM also has to deal with more and complex external factors. The company must comply with government’s requirements about staffing in foreign locations. Moreover, local codes of conduct and religious groups’ regulations must be obeyed (Roberts et al, 1998). Conclusion The research and evidence presented in the paper demonstrates that managing HR in global context is more challenging and complex than in domestic scene. There are many issues which constrain international HR managers and which are unique to each country. The managers are therefore required to be flexible and adopt a local responsive strategy in order to have successful and sustainable businesses.

Investment Options Essay

Mutual funds remain the central instruments investors use to achieve their financial goals. Whether for retirement or in the search for additional profits, individual and corporate investors choose mutual funds as a relatively reliable and non-volatile method of making investments. It appears, however, that apart from satisfying the needs of individual investors, mutual funds can successfully work to secure corporate market players from changes and shifts in external markets. In this context, J.  P. Morgan is the bright example of the way mutual funds are used to reduce the negative impact of financial crisis and to overcome the difficulties faced in tough bond markets. J. P. Morgan has probably been the first to use mutual funds as the instrument of protection against the negative impacts of financial crisis. In his article, Michael Pollock (2009) sheds the light on the way J. P. Morgan Strategic Income Opportunities fund helps the company deal with tough bond markets. It appears, that the fund â€Å"has few restrictions typical of bond funds that are marketed to general public† (Pollock, 2009); as a result, it is better equipped to help investors survive through the difficult financial times. The fund functions according to a predetermined set of principles, of which putting money only into places where potential profits overweigh potential risks is probably the most important. The mutual fund at J. P. Morgan does not avoid keeping a portion of assets in cash, so that investors can materialize their investment opportunities when the right moment comes. Short selling is just another instrument the fund uses to generate additional profits; Pollock (2009) also notes that short selling is becoming a widely spread investment tool among bond funds. The list of investment instruments J. P. Morgan uses to manage its mutual fund is not limited to short selling and cash operations. Here, investors are also given a chance to make short borrowings and then to sell these borrowed shares; â€Å"investors can also make similarly bearish bets by buying credit-derivative instruments whose value increases if the price of an underlying corporate bond declines† (Pollock, 2009). To a large extent, the fund relies on the whole set of quantitative techniques that work to identify significant investment opportunities. The fund is actively involved into managing long-term high-yield corporate securities and nonagency mortgage-backed bonds. As a result, the fund has been able to achieve the total return rate of 4. 3% this year (Pollock, 2009). Does that mean that beyond using mutual funds as investment targets and the sources of additional profits, companies can also utilize the benefits of portfolio investment to protect themselves from external crisis threats? There is no definite answer to that question, but J.  P. Morgan obviously tries to change traditional opinions about investment options available to consumers. The truth is that everything we currently know about mutual funds does not make them look as an ideal investment solution. Given that mutual funds are not usually guaranteed by the FDIC and are not insured by any government agency; that mutual funds’ past performance is not always indicative of its future positive prospects; and that to be a member of a mutual fund also means to bear certain costs associated with investments, the whole picture of a mutual fund does not look as much attractive. However, where J. P. Morgan was able to reach the point of total return rate of 4. 3%, investors may have some sort of confidence that the company will pursue the same set of investment principles, being extremely cautious in its investment options and using the mutual fund as an effective means of anti-crisis protection. Conclusion Mutual funds are included into the list of the most widely used investment options. It appears, however, that mutual funds can also be successfully used to protect companies and investors from the negative impact of the financial crisis. Despite the costs investors have to carry as well as unpredictability of external environments, which mutual funds cannot control, the latter remain relatively stable and non-volatile means of dealing with tough bond markets.