New Media in Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

New Media in Art - Essay Example The merger of the digital and physical space alters not only our perception of space but also the sense of reality... (Space and Perception). Over the years, artists, scientists, media researchers and technology experts have shared their creative discoveries, theories and researches that have taken place in the fields related to space and perception. Identifying the common in these different views on realities and perception of space has lead to contextualizing and setting up the conceptual background for the development of emerging field of Mixed Reality. This has also activated the collaborative potential of art, and its relation to sciences, technology and other creative fields of present day society. In an attempt to root the theory of aesthetic experience of new media art, experiments to identify a "new philosophy" in a process to understand the new space have surfaced. The digital manipulation of space and time is indeed a revolutionary moment for philosophy (of art). Hansen has made his observations on the nature of embodied experience of new media (art) more precise in terms of philosophical aesthetics. (Hansen chapter 3-4) New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including computer graphics, computer animation, the Internet, interactive technologies, robotics, and biotechnologies. The term differentiates itself by its resulting cultural objects, which can be seen in opposition to those deriving from old media arts, the traditional painting, sculpture, etc. New Media concerns are often derived from the telecommunications, mass media including the digital modes of delivery involving the artworks, with practices ranging from conceptual to virtual art, performance to installation. New Media generally applies to disciplines such as Digital art, Generative art, Hacktivism, Information art, Interactive art, Internet art, Performance art, Robotic art, Software art, Sound art, Video art, Virtual architecture and Video Game Art in the virtual space of the electronic media. (Wikipedia) Tracing the evolution of the concept of time in psychology from ancient to modern periods, a current and comprehensive review can be had on various physical, philosophical, and psychological theories and definitions of time, focusing on the methodological concerns of psychologists regarding the scientific investigation of time. Recalling the digital image, Hansen says : The image in a digital era is no more a cut into the flux of the real. It rather consists of processural realization of information in time where bodily intervention plays the constitutive, productive role of rendering of data. This fundamental reconfiguration of the image goes beyond many "interface" metaphors that have accompanied theories of new media claiming for "interactive access" to information. "In sum, the image can no longer be restricted to the level of surface appearance, but must be extended to encompass the entire process by which information is made perceivable through embodied experience." (Hansen 10) Following a notion of embodied perception, it is the human body that not only selectively filters images (Henri Bergson) but does create them in a process of enframing the digital information. Even though technical frames often appear to be primary they are rendered here secondary as a matter of principle. New media

It is not possible to be a disciple of Jesus in the modern world Essay Example for Free

It is not possible to be a disciple of Jesus in the modern world Essay It is not possible to be a disciple of Jesus in the modern world I disagree with this statement, although I recognise that it is not always easy to be a disciple I believe it is possible for those who have faith. We are first called to discipleship at Baptism where the father of the child lights a candle from the Pascal candle as a sign of his responsibility to enable his son/daughter to grow in full faith. I believe that faith makes everything possible, if we have faith in God and his teaching we can achieve our hopes and dreams. If we have faith then living, as a true disciple is part of our way of life, we as Christians in todays world should try to live our lives as Jesus lived his. Without faith what meaning would life itself have for us, what would be the use in perusing life if it had no meaning to us. If we believe then we can reach goals and discipleship can bring joy and purpose to our lives we can achieve goals and targets we set for ourselves. Nothing is impossible to he who believes Faith in God is not always easy to maintain; if we pick up a newspaper what headings do we usually see? Usually something related to drugs, alcohol, kidnapping, and murder. What example is this setting to children? While there parents are teaching them about how caring we should be, and how we should love our neighbour as ourselves, these children look at the newspapers or even the news and see people who have lost arms or legs as someone has shot them. What kind of example is this of loving your neighbour? What affect is this going to have on these children in the long term? They will grow up with the opinion that this is acceptable and everybody does it why should they be different to the rest? To be a true disciple we must have immense faith in God, if we have faith nothing is impossible. But there are many difficulties which disciples of Jesus have to face when trying to carry out the work of God, one of the most difficult to deal with is peer pressure. Many people, particularly the young people, feel unable to resist the pressures put upon them by their peers and therefore behave in a way which goes against the teaching of the gospel. There are many pressures maybe to smoke, drink, vandalise others property, tell lies, use foul language, and have a sexual relationship before marriage. If enough pressure is put on these people it is very difficult to say no! And therefore they are going against the teaching of Jesus not because they want to it is because they are not strong enough to resist temptation, and they are afraid others will treat them differently. Other pressures come from the media we usually get a picture from the media of very anti-Christian values and standards. Take magazines for example they tell stories of unmarried people having a sexual relationship or young people smoking and drinking, and this is all classed as Normal and acceptable in our world. They do not present the Christian way of life as being worthwhile and Cool or up to date. We also get a lot of anti-Christian standards from the television, films, and videos. These can have a very powerful influence on the lives of many people; most soap operas and films present a non-Christian way of life. How often do you see a Christian family in a soap opera, and if there is Christian families do you ever notice that they always seem to be laughed at by the rest of the families as they are seen to be out of date and definetly not trendy. Television I believe influences many people, who is going to get up early on a Sunday morning to watch the Christian services carried out in different chapels, while they could be watching Eastenders or a popular music show! There are many ways television influences us they give us pictures of what is normal in our society such as sex before marriage, abortions are acceptable, divorce is a fact of life, the only purpose in life is to search for pleasure, and violence is acceptable and part of everyday life. Media can make Christians feel confused and unsure of their own beliefs The way of life presented by the media is often made to seem more attractive, more enjoyable, easier, and more glamorous. However we as Christians should always remember that Jesus never promised that being a disciple would be easy, in fact we must deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him. We should make up our minds whether we want to be a disciple; many people are unable or incapable to make such decisions in life because of addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling, and solvent abuse. Becoming addicted to any of these can make people lose all sense of reality of right and wrong, of what being a Christian really means. If a person is not in total control of their life then being a Christian is almost an impossible task. The family is an extremely important unit and source of Christian discipleship in our society, it is within the family that children first learn about the love of God, right and wrong and acceptable and unacceptable modes of behaviour. Parents are the first teachers of their children and the church relies on these parents to pass on the faith to their children by what they say and through their actions. There are many broken families in todays society and many children do not receive the Christian teaching and example, which they need, such as love and understanding and therefore grow up not using the example in their life. So to be a good disciple is extremely difficult but not impossible. In todays world there are many distractions and other Gods, which can lure us away from love of the one true God. Things such as money, possessions, wealth, search for pleasure, and success, laziness, indifference, friends, and Greed. These things all tempt us in many different ways, it is as if they are trying to make us forget our first priority which is God. The easier route in life is often to give into these temptations, to become distracted by worldly and materialistic values and to become neglectful to our Christian duties. If we consider all the pressures people today face we see that it is not always an easy task to follow Jesus through thick and thin, but it is not an impossible one. When Jesus chose his first disciples he knew that it would not be easy for them, nor is it easy for us in the twentieth century. The world as we know it is becoming less and less accommodating to the Christian way of life and it is not going to get any easier, this is why we should never give up and our faith should see us through even the worse times in life. We should not become what society wants to become and is encouraging us to become we should not be lured away from God so we can fit in and act like people want us to. This is the challenge of Christian discipleship.

A,merican Colonies Essay -- essays research papers

The Early American colonies We have been one nation for so long that it is hard to imagine a major difference between the thirteen original colonies. After all a quick glance at a map of these thirteen original colonies will tell you that they all where established along the East Coast and where most generally located on a river or body of water. What is strange about this is just how different each of these separate areas of settlement turned out to be. After all they where located relatively close to one another and should have had adequate communication available to them by the numerous water channels close at hand. So why was there such a huge difference in the way that they developed? The two most contrasting of these would have to be the Puritans and other religious groups that chose to settle in the New England region, and the colonies founded for profit in the Chesapeake Bay region. If you look closely at these two concentrations of people you will see that they have great differences in their religion, government, family, economics and the very geography that they where established in. These differences coupled with a very different reason for journeying to the New World helped to form two very unique cultures that exist to some extent today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the major differences between the colonies of the Chesapeake Bay region and the New England colonies is in their view on religion. The very reason that the Pilgrims journeyed to this new land was to escape religious persecution and set up a haven for people of their faith. In contrast the colonies of the Chesapeake Bay region where established by people who where looking for fame and fortune rather than spiritual enlightenment. This fundamental difference is one of the major reasons that these colonies developed so differently. People in the New England colonies generally knew their neighbors because they worked and prayed with them. In a Chesapeake region so dependent on the cash crop of tobacco, plantations served to separate the people and slow the process of socialization. Although church attendance was required in both the New England colonies and some of the Chesapeake Bay colonies it was enforced for much different reasons. The New England colonists where very concerned with education and spirituality while generally those colonists in the Chesapeake Bay colony whe... ...used natural resources at this time, the difference is that the colonists in the New England colonies took the greatest advantage of this.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While there are undoubtedly a number of similarities between the Chesapeake Bay colonies and the New England colonies their original purposes for being here set them on different paths from the moment that they set foot in the New World. It should also be said that not only the people’s disposition has an affect on the direction of the society, you must also take into account the geography of the region. The differences between the Chesapeake colonies and the New England colonies are numerous and varied. However if all of the colonies established in the new world had the same culture it is far less likely that our ancestors would have been as successful in their bid to change the way civilization operates. They accomplished this with the American Revolution, which relied heavily on different characteristics from each of the thirteen colonies and has been more than successful in blending the very different values and beliefs of the Chesapeake Bay colonies an d the New England colonies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

The dictionary definition

The dictionary definition of a linguistic communication is stated as a system of communicating consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communicating used by the people of a peculiar state or profession in Cambridge Advanced Learner ‘s Dictionary ( 2nd edition, 2005 ) . And that means, larning a linguistic communication to pass on decently in that linguistic communication requires get the hanging all parts of a linguistic communication system such the vocabulary, the grammar and the sound system. Harmonizing to Dawani ( 2006 ) in order to pass on in a linguistic communication one should analyze a balance of four basic linguistic communication accomplishments which are reading, listening, composing, and speech production. That ‘s why instruction and rating of these accomplishments have ever been peculiarly of import. In this paper, the rating of one of the four basic linguistic communication accomplishments, viz. â€Å" Reading Skill † will be discussed in item. However it is indispensable to put some basic facts about â€Å" reading † before get downing to discourse its rating. Reading in a different linguistic communication has traditionally stemmed from the demand of accessing the written literature of a higher civilization. Subsequently with the visual aspect of communicative attack, alternatively of high civilization literature, reading texts started to be chosen harmonizing to the reading purposes like utilizing mundane stuffs such as newspaper articles, coach agendas, etc. , for intents to develop communicative competency. As a consequence, instruction of reading and reading drills at any degrees became a cardinal portion of linguistic communication instruction. As a definition, reading accomplishment is called an expertness which turns composing into significance and enables the eloquence and comprehension of the proprietor. Agring that, Rasinski ( 2004 ) provinces, accurate and automatic decryption of the words by giving expressive readings of it to accomplish maximal comprehension means reading eloquence. Consequently, reading does non simply average accurate decryption of the words like instructors thought for old ages. And that ‘s why the appraisal of reading should affect the ability of eloquence and comprehension, for certain. From another point of position, harmonizing to Stages of Reading Development of Chall ‘s ( 1983 ) Reading is a accomplishment which develops through some phases and a uninterrupted procedure. Agring that, Beers ( 2006 ) adds that in instance of a skip in a reading development phase, pupils will fight in their reading ability and finally this will besides impact their authorship accomplishments. That ‘s why instructors should be entirely attentive to pupils ‘ comprehension of each phase of reading procedure before go oning with the following degree. Harmonizing to Carnine & A ; Silbert ( 2004 ) , â€Å" Appraisals supply the information that will enable pedagogues to supply kids with direction that starts where they are and so construct on that base to assist kids progress to the higher levels. † ( p. 13-15 ) As it is evident from all these research workers ‘ statements, the rating of reading is a important portion of learning a linguistic communication. Although most of the researches of that field unite in the importance of rating, they differ in the sentiments for the rating mediums. No affair how much a peculiar rating type is praised by pedagogues, in world all of them has some advantages and disadvantages and usage of these rating types is merely a affair of penchant. Hughes ( 2007 ) states that, all appraisals are fundamentally designed to develop the acquisition of pupils. As it is stated in Hughes ( 2007 ) , appraisal is the procedure of:Gathering information from a assortment of beginningsSupplying pupils with descriptive feedback for future developmentMiscue AnalysisIn this type of appraisal, the mistakes a kid makes during the reading procedure are diagnosed. Using this method, a instructor can be more easy cognizant of the pupils ‘ comprehension by looking at the errors he/she makes.The 6 Types of MiscuesCorrection: A child self-corrects his/her mistake and re-reads the section/word without motivating. Interpolation: A kid adds a few words which are non on the page. Omission: A kid omits a word while reading. Repeat: A kid repeats a word or part of the text. Reversal: A kid will change by reversal the order of the text or the word. Substitution: A kid inserts a different word, alternatively of reading a specific word. Some regulations about utilizing miscue analysis:Use unfamiliar text, non something the kid knows from memory.Do non utilize miscue analysis on novice readersGive the pupil some pick in the reading choice.You will necessitate a quiet topographic point without breaks, it can be really ready to hand to enter the kid which provides you with an chance to listen to the transition more than one time.Photocopy the choice the pupil will read, utilize this to enter the miscues.Record each miscue. ( Use hypens for skipped words, record each permutation ( Internet Explorer, went for when ) , use ^ for interpolation and record the word ( s ) , circle omitted words, underline repeated words, you may besides desire to utilize // for repeated words.What do the miscues tell you?Correction:This is good! We want readers to self-correct. However is the reader reading excessively fast? Is the reader mis-correcting accurate reading? If so, the reader frequently does n't see himself as a ‘good †˜ reader.InterpolationDoes the inserted word detract from intending? If non, it may merely intend the reader is doing sense but besides inserts. The reader may besides be reading excessively fast. If the interpolation is something like utilizing finished for coating, this should be addressed.Omission:When words are omitted, it may intend weaker ocular trailing. Determine if the significance of the transition is affected or non. If non, skips can besides be the consequence of non concentrating or reading excessively fast. It may besides intend the sight vocabulary is weaker.RepeatTonss of repeat may intend that the text degree is excessively hard. Sometimes readers repeat when they ‘re unsure and will reiterate the word ( s ) to do sense of the transition.Reversal:Watch for altered significance. Many reversals happen with immature readers with high frequence words – of for for etc.Substitutions:Sometimes a kid will utilize a permutation because they do n't understand th e word being read. Does the permutation make sense in the transition, is it a logical permutation?In SummaryUsing miscue analysis is an of import diagnostic tool that should be done every 6-8 hebdomads to see how the reader is bettering in the schemes used. Making sense of the miscues will assist you with following stairss to better the kid ‘s reading. It is worthwhile to hold a few inquiries prepared that Lashkar-e-Taiba you know about the kid ‘s comprehension of the transition read as miscue analysis tends to trust on reding you of the schemes used. Miscue analysis may look clip devouring ab initio, nevertheless, the more you do, the easier the procedure gets.

Myth of Gilgamesh Analysis

Liliana Magdaleno Ken Hiltner, Miss Russ English 122 LE October 27, 2011 Word Count: ~1450 Hero or Villain? In all epics, we read about the endeavors of heroes who have to conquer an evil entity in order to ensure the peace of their constituencies. They exhibit great virtues such as courage, pride, intelligence, wit, patriotism, and love for the people of their land, among other things.Those are typically the qualities that come to mind when we think of a hero; however, when we think of the evil force that compliments the hero, we think of someone/something that causes harm onto the land, and thus brings fear to everyone when the name of that entity is spoken. In the case of The Myth of Gilgamesh, the distinction of hero or villain is distorted. There is significant evidence that suggests that not only is Gilgamesh a villain, but also he is an environmental hazard. In the Myth of Gilgamesh, we are introduced to the so-called â€Å"hero† and leader behind the great walled city of Uruk.Gilgamesh â€Å"had seen everything†¦had journeyed to the edge of the world†¦had carved his trials on stone tablets†¦restored the holy Eanna Temple and the massive wall of Uruk†¦Gilgamesh suffered all and accomplished all. † (2-3) This introduction leads us to believe that Gilgamesh does possess some of the qualities that would make him be considered a hero; his soldiers refer to him as â€Å"the fortress† and â€Å"protector of the people, raging flood that destroys all defenses. † (3) It is rather instinctual for the reader to feel an admiration towards the character. However, one must not be so quick to judge.Words are just words, but actions are far louder. What is true of the statements that are said by his soldiers is that Gilgamesh destroys all defenses, in the ecocritical perspective; he destroys the defenses of the Cedar Forest. As the story unfolds, we begin to see Gilgamesh more as a villain than a hero. For example, Gilgam esh â€Å"does whatever he wants, takes the son from his father and crushes him, takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior’s daughter, the young man’s bride, he uses her, no one dares to oppose him. † (4) Gilgamesh abuses his role of the hero/ruler of Uruk so that he can rape women and command his soldiers.He is inconsiderate of the feelings of others and only does as he pleases without thinking of the well being of his people. Gilgamesh feels like he is above men, king of kings. The people of his land don’t respect him, they fear him; thus the people of Uruk beg the gods to bring a force strong enough to calm Gilgamesh. That is when we are introduced to Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s double. Enkidu is the exact opposite of Gilgamesh, he is what epitomizes the desired ideal of a hero: he protects the animals from poachers, protects women from the lust of Gilgamesh, and is sensible. He is strong, witty, and has a love of nature.Enkidu is everyth ing the people of Uruk wished Gilgamesh to be. If Enkidu is the person that suits the role of the hero, it is fair to say that Gilgamesh is not a hero at all. Gilgamesh is ambitious, and wants to be forever known by the people of his land. Thus, he wants to preserve the great walled city of Uruk and make it a relic for the great empire ruled by the greatest the Fertile Crescent had ever seen. This need for an unnecessary relic that will require heavy resource consumption (in this case lumber) is an anachronism for a similar phenomenon that occurs within industrialized countries, affluenza.Affluenza is the suggestion that material possessions will bring joy to the individual. This is detrimental to the environment because it causes resource overuse and is very unsustainable. The latter part of the myth begins to show environmental degradation due to Gilgamesh’s greed. The Cedar Forest is the unknown and savage realm beyond the walled city of Uruk that is protected by an evil f orce named Humbaba. From an ecocritical perspective, the wilderness beyond Uruk is just nature or the environment.It is human anthropocentricism that makes it hard to realize that the wilderness is not something to fear just because we don’t have complete control over it. Man above nature is the cause of the Cedar Forest’s demise. Our villain-disguised hero needs to venture into the wilderness in order to face himself with his enemy Humbaba; it is during this section of the myth that another character flaw is revealed: Gilgamesh is a coward for being afraid of the force that is Humbaba (nature manifested as the Cedar Forest). He convinces his double, Enkidu, to embark on the same journey and help him defeat the deity.Gilgamesh is quick to talk about how he wants to be remembered for his glory and ensure that every inhabitant of Uruk will remember the great ruler he was. Yet, he is such a coward that he cannot do this alone. He has nightmares about entering the forest a re a psychological indication that he is not as mighty as he thinks he is. These nightmares are also critical of the environment, Humbaba is portrayed as a ruthless monster that will â€Å"tear [Gilgamesh] from limb to limb,† and â€Å"crush [him]† leave him â€Å"bloody and mangled on the ground. (29) This perspective of the environment as ruthless and relentless is the driving force for Gilgamesh to want to destroy it, to rid himself of the fears of what nature bestows. Nature is not a scary nor evil as this classic literature suggests, in modern contemporary times and even in the pastoral times, nature is giving and beautiful, once the value of the environment is known, it becomes less frightening. Gilgamesh had a fear for the unknown and a thirst for power; in essence, destroying nature would be the only way to realize how important nature truly is.After the fall of Humbaba, Gilgamesh stripped the forest of its tall and luscious trees. Not only did Gilgamesh rape the women of his soldiers, but he raped the forest as well. This was the ultimate goal of our villain’s quest: Gilgamesh gained full access to the Cedar Forest in order to create the relic that he so desired. Gilgamesh needs to feel that he is in control of everything, including nature. On the night of the attack, the weapons Gilgamesh used to combat Humbaba were axes, instead of swords or other conventional weapons. This story is a great metaphor for deforestation.Gilgamesh is the modern day logger in thirsty for virgin lands to satiate his thirst for common pool resources. At the moment, Giligamesh only cares about the reputation and glory, not about how much damage he is causing to the land. This damage turned out to be one of the greatest environmental mishaps of all time. The Myth of Gilgamesh took place in ancient Mesopotomia. This area was previously referred as the Fertile Crescent. After this large-scale deforestation, there wasn’t really anything fertile abou t it. In A Forest Journey by John Perlin, we learn about the technologies created within the era of Gilgamesh.It is evident that as human ingenuity kept rising, environmental degradation followed. The people of the Third Dynasty at Ur, 2100 B. C. harnessed the power of lumber to create â€Å"axes, hammers, hoes, and sickles [to] facilitate work. † (37) Tragedy of the Commons, another anachronism, surfaced as the people of the land began the exploitation of the common pool resource of the Euphrates poplar. With the rising demand of wood, policy and trade became instituted and modern day problems such as selling resources at low prices, not including the environmental impact, in addition to transporting these resources long distances.The physical environment also changed with excessive silt and high salinity. Silt was a huge problem because the â€Å"Euphrates, Tirgis, and Karun rivers became full of silt and salt† (38); water levels declined which made it difficult for irrigation and transportation by ship. High salinity also damaged the agriculture industry as high amounts of salty minerals inhibited successful crop yields. Throughout history we have read about marvelous civilizations with great empires and feats, majestic lands with beautiful relics to preserve their culture forever. Learning about their rise is as amazing as learning about their fall.In the case of Mesopotamia, greedy leaders such as Gilgamesh who wish to preserve his era by means of environmental degradation not only make him an incompetent leader by virtue of not being humble and lack of desired qualities, but also one of the key reasons that this great civilization became a barren land. Works Cited Mitchell, Stephen. â€Å"Book One to Book 5. † Gilgamesh: a new English version. New York: Free Press, 2004. 1-32. Print. Perlin, John. A forest journey: the role of wood in the development of civilization. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. Print.

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients Free Online Research Papers Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic condition, which results in a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. The disease leads to loss of neurons in the striatum, with more severe neuronal loss as the disease progresses. The present study aims to investigate how such degeneration may affect social stereotyping. Perspective taking has been used by numerous authors to try and reduce stereotypes, and bias against groups outside of one’s own. It was hypothesised that due to degeneration of brain areas thought to be key to the process of perspective taking and reducing bias, that HD patients would be unable to use a perspective taking task to reduce their in-group bias. The participants for this study were nine HD patients attending the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital HD clinic, and fourteen control participants, matched for educational background. A number of measures were used, including a relative positivity scale andtrait overlap to measure in-group bias, and tests of prefrontal cortex function. Analysis showed no support for the hypothesis, with no significant differences found on the measures of relative positivity and trait overlap. However, a number of methodological problems are discussed, along with directions for future research. Introduction Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, degenerative illness, thought to affect between four to ten individuals of Caucasian origin in every 100 000 (Reddy, Williams and Tagle, 1999). The disease results in a variety of motor and psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms usually begin around the age of 40 to 50 years. In the early stages of the disease, these symptoms include fidgeting, clumsiness, dance like movements referred to as chorea, absentmindedness, depression, apathy, irritability and psychosis. As the disease progresses, these symptoms worsen, with speech deterioration, facial grimacing and the development of an inability to swallow. There is also a decline in cognitive functions, especially spatial deficits, and executive function (Brandt, Leroi, O’Hearn, Rosenblatt and Margolis, 2004). In its juvenile form, the age of onset is much earlier, and the symptoms more severe. The disease eventually leads to death. Snowden, Gibbons, Blackshaw, Doubleday, Thompson, Crauford, Foster, Happe and Neary (2003) also reported some social cognition deficits in patients with HD. In their study, HD patients were found to have deficit compared to controls in the comprehension and understanding of humourous cartoons and story vignettes, although these deficits were more pronounced in patients with frontotemporal dementia, another disorder affecting the frontostriatal systems. HD is an autosomal dominant genetic condition. The disease has been linked to a mutation of the IT15 gene on chromosome 4 (the Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group, 1993). The mutation of this gene causes the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat of the sequence CAG, which codes for the huntingtin preotein, to expand to over 36 repeats. This in turn causes the protein Huntingtin to fold abnormally (Li and Li, 2004), initiating a protective cellular response meant to prevent the build up of the Huntingtin protein. However, this response puts the endoplasmic reticulum of the mitochondria under stress (Rao and Bredesen, 2004), affecting mitochondrial homeostasis (Bezprozvanny and Hayden, 2004). This eventually leads to cell death. The number of CAG repeats is inversely proportional to the age on onset that the symptoms of the disease begin to manifest themselves (Andrew and Hayden, 1995). It has been suggested that the number of CAG repeats also correlates to psych iatric symptoms experienced by HD sufferers, however studies have failed to find any such correlation (Berrios, Wagle, Markova, Wagle, Ho, Rubinsztein, Whittaker, Ffench-Constant, Kershaw, Rosser, Bak and Hodges, 2001). Although the IT15 gene is found in many body tissues, the primary site of degeneration is the brain (Reddy at al, 1999), in particular the striatum. In the early stages of the disease, the dorsomedial striatum is affected, then as the disease progresses, there is more pronounced degeneration of striatal neurons, with damage spreading to the cerebral cortex. The localised pathological changes found in HD patients account for the symptoms it produces. The degeneration of the basal ganglia, in particular the striatum, affects all five of the frontal subcortical neural circuits, which have been summarised by Cummings (1993). These circuits begin in the frontal cortex, which then project to regions of the striatum, the globus pallidus and the thalamus (Tekin and Cummings, 2002). The disruption caused to the motor circuit accounts for the movement disorders seen in HD, the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit the executive function problems, the orbitofrontal circuit the depression, and the anterior cingulate circuit the apathy (Tekin and Cimmings, 2002). Cummings (1993) also reported HD patients with antisocial personality disorder, and suggested a link between HD and obsessive compulsive disorder, thought to be due to the degeneration of one of the frontal subcortical neural circuits. Previous work has highlighted the role of the prefrontal cortex in the capacity to attribute thoughts and feelings to others, therefor it is plausible that HD patients may have a problem in doing this. Ruby and Decety (2004) used a perspective taking task in their neuroimaging study to highlight the importance of the frontalpolar, the somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobe in distinguishing the self and the other. Furthermore, Ehlers and Bratt (1996) showed that patients with serious injury to the frontal lobes had a general lack of empathy and inability to see situations from a perspective other than their own. The ability to see the perspective of others and the reduction of stereotypes has long been discussed in social psychology. Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) cite the early writings of Allport in 1935 and his opinion that attitudes are ‘rigid’, and unlikely to be changed or modified unless ‘under the provocation of serious affective disorganisation’. However, recent theories have taken the view that attitudes are more fluid and subject to change (Dasgupta and Asgari, 2004). Being able to take the perspective of another (perspective taking) is essential for avoiding the over use of social stereotypes. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) investigated perspective taking in normal subjects. They found that perspective taking was an effective strategy for reducing bias against members of a social group outside of the participants’ own. Research using caregivers of cancer patients has also shown that perspective taking ‘helped to prompt adjustments down from a self orientated viewpoint’ (Lobchuk and Voruer, 2003). Davis, Conklin, Smith and Luce (1996) have also looked at perspective taking in normal participants. In their study, it was found that the use of perspective taking resulted in the participants attributing traits to novel targets that they had previously used to describe themselves. In the second part of their study, the participants were given a memory task as a distracter while completing the original perspective taking task. In this condition, it was found that there was a reduced overlap between traits assigned to self and the novel group. This would imply that persepctive taking is only effective if the perspective taking task is remembered clearly. Memory is an executive function. Using the assumption of executive function being controlled by the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit as proposed by Cummings and Tekin (2002), is it possible that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit, such as that caused by HD, could cause some patients to also have a reduced overlap in t raits assigned to a novel group and the self? Galinsky (2002) suggests that bias between out-groups and the self may be due to internal psychological processes, in particular categorisation and egocentrism. Work conducted by Filoteo, Maddox and Dais (2001) has shown that patients with HD perform poorly on categorisation tasks, such as simple line stimuli categorisation into one of two groups, leading them to conclude that HD causes deficits in learning categorisation rules. Furthermore, a neuropsychological theory of categorisation published by Ashby, Alfonso-Reese, Turken and Waldron in 1998 highlights the role of caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices in category learning. . A similar category learning deficit has also been found in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Ashby, Noble, Filoteo, Waldron and Ell, 2003), which has similar pathology to HD, affecting the brain areas involved in frontal subcortical circuits. The above evidence has illustrated a number of deficits and potential deficits in HD patients, linked to the degeneration of the striatum and frontal subcortical circuits. Given this evidence, the present study aims to investigate the potential deficits in ingroup bias and the effect of perspective taking to reduce in group bias in patients with HD. It is hypothesised that due to the degeneration of the striatum and associated prefrontal dysfunction caused by HD, and the loss of psychological functions associated with the damaged frontal subcortical circuits, HD sufferers will be unable to use a perspective taking exercise, similar to that used by Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000), to reduce their ingroup bias. This hypothesis will be tested using asylum seekers as an out group, as it is unlikely any of the participants will have had any direct contact with members of this group. Trait lists containing positive and negative items will be used to measure any bias. Method Participants Information packs about the study were sent to all patients attending the Huntington’s Disease clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, whom the Clinic Consultant deemed able to participate in the study (a copy of this pack can be found in Appendix A). All of these patients had a confirmed diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, via genetic testing. Of these, eleven patients volunteered to participate in the study. Two patients’ data was excluded from the data analysis due to failure to complete the experimental protocol. The remaining nine participants were four males and five females, with a mean age of 52.4. These participants were at various stages of the disease, however, due to time constraints, no formal measure of the severity of the disease could be taken. Control participants were recruited by opportunity sampling. A total of fifteen control participants were tested, of which one participants’ data was discarded due to a large number of outliers in their performance across all tasks in the experimental protocol. These participants had no diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, nor any family history of the disease. The fourteen control participants whose data was used were seven males and seven females, with a mean age of 59.4. Procedure Patients were tested either in their homes or at the Huntington’s Disease Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, in accordance with their preference. Patients were permitted to bring one friend or relative into the testing room if they desired. The control patients were tested in their homes. At the beginning of each testing session, all participants were asked to sign a consent form, and complete a short questionnaire regarding demographic information, including age, gender and educational background (a copy of this questionnaire can be found in Appendix B). Participants were then asked to complete each task from the experimental protocol (a copy of the protocol can be found in Appendix B). The testing session was recorded using a Dictaphone recording device in all sessions. After analysis, these recordings were destroyed. If any participant was unable to complete the pen and paper elements of the protocol due to reading difficulties or difficulties associated to their movement disorder, these sections were read to the participant and recorded by the experimenter. At the end of the testing session, each participant was debriefed, and given a debriefing letter to take away with him or her (a copy of this debriefing letter can be found in Appendix A). Measures FAS The FAS Word Fluency Test was used as a general measure of prefrontal cortex functioning. In this test, participants were asked to generate as many words as they could in one minute which began with the letter F, then repeat the task with the letters A and S. This test was used to assess if there was any significant difference in prefrontal cortex functioning between the patient and control groups. Emotional Stroop The Emotional Stroop tests were used to evaluate prefrontal functioning, and to measure reduction of in-group bias. This task was repeated before and after the perspective taking task. Three conditions were used; an XXXX condition, in which rows of XXXX were presented to serve as a control for the word conditions, neutral words, and words seeded with words salient to the out-group (asylum seekers). The words salient with the out group were gained via a pilot study. Initially, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were interviewed and asked to generate words they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The words collected from this pilot study were then compiled into a questionnaire used in a second pilot study. Again, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were used, and asked to tick the ten words from the list they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The ten highest scoring wo rds from this pilot study were then used in the stroop test. Words for the neutral and seeded conditions were matched for word frequency and word length. Perspective Taking Task A perspective taking task was used in order to try and reduce in-group bias. The participant was given a picture of a mythical asylum seeker, with a number of prompting words printed under the picture, and asked to ‘Adopt the perspective of an asylum seeker and imagine the day in their life as if you were that person, looking at the world through his/her eyes and walking in their shoes’, and describe a typical day in that persons’ life. The prompting words can be found in the experimental protocol, in Appendix B. Trait Lists Trait questionnaires were used to assess in-group bias before and after the perspective taking task. The trait list contained ten positive and ten negative traits, and the order of the words on the trait lists was randomised as such that the traits listed were not in the same order for the second presentation. Analysis Relative Positivity A measure of relative positivity was obtained. This was achieved by first subtracting the number of negative traits from the number of positive ones for each pair of trait lists (self on first presentation, out-group at first presentation, self at second presentation, outgroup at second presentation). This created a measure of positivity. The numbers generated from this exercise were then used in a second calculation. The positivity of the out-group before perspective taking was subtracted from the positivity of self before perspective taking. This was repeated for the after perspective taking results. Trait Overlap In order to gain the data for the trait overlap analysis, traits assigned to both the self and the out-group for each repetition of the task (before / after perspective taking) was measured. Where a trait was shared, a score of 1 was recorded, and where a trait was not shared, a score of 0 was allocated. Results FAS Word Fluency Test Table 1.1 Mean number of words generated in the FAS test. Group Mean number of words generated Standard deviation Patients 25.00 17.62 Controls 53.50 17.99 Participants in the patient condition generated fewer words (mean score = 25, SD = 17.62) than the control condition (mean score = 53, SD = 17.99). The 95% confidence interval for the estimated general population is between –12.64 and –44.36. An independent t-test showed that if there was no significant difference between the scores of patients and controls, this result would be highly unlikely (t = -3.737, DF =21, p

A Short History of Violent Buddhism

A Short History of Violent Buddhism Founded around 2,400 years ago, Buddhism is probably the most pacifistic of the major world religions. Siddhartha Gautama, who reached enlightenment and became the Buddha, preached not just non-violence toward other human beings, but non-harming of all living things. He said, As I am, so are these. As are these, so am I. Drawing the parallel to yourself, neither kill nor convince others to kill. His teachings stand in stark contrast to those of the other major religions, which advocate execution and warfare against people who fail to adhere to the religions tenets. Dont Forget, Buddhists Are Only Human Of course, Buddhists are human beings and it should come as no surprise that lay Buddhists over the centuries have sometimes marched out to war. Some have committed murder, and many eat meat despite theological teachings that stress vegetarianism. To an outsider with a perhaps stereotypical view of Buddhism as introspective and serene, it is more surprising to learn that Buddhist monks have also participated in and even instigated violence over the years. Buddhist Warfare One of the most famous early examples of Buddhist warfare is the history of fighting associated with the Shaolin Temple in China. For most of their history, the monks who invented kung fu (wushu) used their martial skills mainly in self-defense; however, at certain points, they actively sought out warfare, as in the mid-16th century when they answered the central governments call for aid in the fight against Japanese pirates. Tradition of Warrior-Monks Speaking of Japan, the Japanese also have a long tradition of warrior-monks or yamabushi. During the late 1500s, as Oda Nobunaga and Hideyoshi Toyotomi were reunifying Japan after the chaotic Sengoku period, most of the famous temples of warrior monks were targeted for extermination. One famous (or infamous) example is the Enryaku-ji, which was burned to the ground by Nobunagas forces in 1571, with a death toll of about 20,000. The Tokugawa Period Although the dawn of the Tokugawa Period saw the warrior-monks crushed, militarism and Buddhism joined forces once more in 20th century Japan, before and during the Second World War. In 1932, for example, an unordained Buddhist preacher called Nissho Inoue hatched a plot to assassinate major liberal or westernizing political and business figures in Japan so as to restore full political power to Emperor Hirohito. Called the League of Blood Incident, this scheme targeted 20 people and managed to assassinate two of them before the Leagues members were arrested. Once the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II began, various Zen Buddhist organizations in Japan carried out funding drives to buy war material and even weapons. Japanese Buddhism was not quite so closely associated with violent nationalism as Shinto was, but many monks and other religious figures participated in the rising tide of Japanese nationalism and war-mongering.   Some excused the connection by pointing to the tradition of samurai being Zen devotees. In Recent Times In more recent times, unfortunately, Buddhist monks in other countries have also encouraged and even participated in wars - particular wars against religious minority groups in predominantly Buddhist nations. One example is in Sri Lanka, where radical Buddhist monks formed a group called the Buddhist Power Force, or B.B.S., which provoked violence against the Hindu Tamil population of northern Sri Lanka, against Muslim immigrants, and also against moderate Buddhists who spoke up about the violence. Although the Sri Lankan Civil War against the Tamils ended in 2009, the B.B.S. remains active to this day. Example of Buddhist Monks Committing Violence Another very disturbing example of Buddhist monks inciting and committing violence is the situation in Myanmar (Burma), where hard-line monks have been leading the persecution of a Muslim minority group called the Rohingya. Led by an ultra-nationalist monk called Ashin Wirathu, who has given himself the bewildering nickname of the Burmese Bin Laden, mobs of saffron-robed monks have led attacks on Rohingya neighborhoods and villages, attacking mosques, burning homes, and assaulting people.  Ã‚   In both the Sri Lankan and Burmese examples, the monks see Buddhism as a key component of their national identity. They consider any non-Buddhists in the population than to be a threat to the unity and strength of the nation. As a result, they react with violence.   Perhaps, if Prince Siddhartha was alive today, he would remind them that they should not nurture such an attachment to the idea of the nation.

Kathryns Stocketts The Help and 1960s Feminism

Kathryns Stocketts The Help and 1960s Feminism The Help is set in Mississippi during the early 1960s, when the groundswell of feminisms second wave was still building. Kathryn Stocketts novel revolves around events in 1962-1963, before the womens liberation movement, before Betty Friedan and other feminist leaders founded the National Organization for Women, before the media invented the myth of bra-burning. Although The Help is an imperfect depiction of the 1960s and the author stifles the budding feminism of some of her characters, the novel does touch on many issues that were relevant to 1960s feminism.   Issues Worth Exploring Skeeters Rebelliousness/IndependenceA hint of feminism in The Help may be most evident in post-college Skeeter, the young woman who questions restrictions placed on her by societys traditions. Her Southern socialite best friends have conformed to expectations by marrying, having children (or trying to) and even questioning why Skeeter stayed four years at Ole Miss to finish her degree, while they were dropping out of school. Skeeter is still trapped and still trying to fit in, but her inability to do so is partly due to her discomfort with the myth of femininity she is expected to live. White Women and Women of ColorThe so-called second wave of feminism is often criticized for being too white. Betty Friedans classic The Feminine Mystique and other 1960s feminism accomplishments often came from a limited, white, middle-class point of view. Similar criticisms have been applied to The Help. This is partly because it is written by a white author who narrates in the black voices of Minny and Aibileen, and partly because of the way white voices in the U.S. continually tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement from a limited point of view. Many critics have questioned Kathryn Stocketts ability to speak for the help. Although the story is about white and black women working together, it is difficult and even dangerous for them to do so. The Help reminds readers that some 1960s feminists were perceived as busily organizing, protesting and advocating without bringing women from other races to the table. Women and Civil RightsWhich comes first for African-American women, civil rights as blacks or liberation as women? This theme was explored by many black feminist activists, with some theorists responding that it is clearly an unfair question. The either/or dichotomy is part of the problem. No woman should be asked to give up any part of her sense of self. SisterhoodThe term sisterhood became a theme and rallying cry of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Use of the word was criticized by some, in part because of the racist and classist assumptions ascribed to white womens liberation activists who used the word. The Help emphasizes the solidarity of women in many different situations, often crossing racial boundaries. MarriageDespite her independent streak, Skeeter feels the pressure to marry, and nearly does so even when both emotional and logical signs point toward no. The marriages of various characters in the book - Skeeters parents, her friends, Aibileen, Minny, Stuarts parents, Celia Foote - are nearly all presented with problems that are intertwined with gender power dynamics. Domestic ViolenceMinny faces abuse from her husband Leroy with some degree of resignation. However, author Kathryn Stockett does seem at times to approach it with an ironic awareness of the public attention that would soon come to the issue of domestic violence. Feminist organizations such as NOW addressed domestic violence as one of their priority issues. Women in PublishingElaine Stein, the editor from New York who helps Skeeter, freely states that she will help because she recognizes the need for a woman to have a mentor, a connection or some kind of in to the male-dominated publishing industry. Economics, Maids and the Pink-Collar GhettoAfrican-American women depicted in The Help had to earn a living as maids in white families homes. Few other opportunities were available to them - very few. Feminists of the 1960s are often remembered for getting women out of the home. The truth is, many women did work outside of the home already, but one of the chief concerns of feminists was that women were relegated to lower paying jobs of less prestige with less advancement opportunity and less satisfaction. The term pink-collar refers to the traditional, lower-paid womens jobs. Empowering the Help: How the Personal Is PoliticalThe books main plot is about women telling their stories in a society that has long refused to hear their voices. Whether or not the novel is flawed or the author can properly speak for African-American maids, the idea of women speaking their truth as a path to greater social enlightenment is considered the backbone of feminism.

Book review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Book review - Essay Example With the little savings of Jurgis, the voyage of the immigrants which include the father of Jurgis Dede Antanas, Teta Elzbieta and her children, and Ona’s cousin Marija Berczynskas came to reality. The family settled in Packingtown, a district of Chicago known for its meatpacking industry. Jurgis has resolved that he would work hard. Soon the family realized that life for immigrants in Packingtown is not easy. They all have to work, including women and children, in the slaughterhouses for twelve hours a day to survive. The family encountered numerous problems such as falling prey to scrupulous real estate agent, corruption, unsanitary working condition, unfair labor practices, and poverty. Jurgis was jailed when he attacked Phil Connor, the boss of Ona, when he learned from Ona that Phil had raped her and threatened to fire her from her job if she will not give in to his sexual demands. After his imprisonment, Jurgis returns to his family, only to be told that they were alread y evicted from their house. The fate of Jurgis and his family was turning very bad and came to its worst turn when Ona dies giving birth to her second child at the age of eighteen. This was followed by the death of their first child who drowned in the muddy street. These series of misfortunes led Jurgis to seek sojourn in the rural part of the country. Jurgis found out that even outside Packingtown, he could not escape poverty. Jurgis returns to Chicago and worked several odd jobs outside of the meatpacking industry such as digging tunnels, being a political hack, and con-man. But his self-worth and sense of personal pride and integrity continue to bother him, thus he drifts in life with no meaning and direction. One night, as Jurgis was seeking for a warm place to stay, he found himself listening to a speech of a charismatic Socialist speaker. The message struck him and he realized that the company of these people advocating socialism gives him the sense of belonging and has given him a purpose in life. From then on, Jurgis attended socialist gatherings and it beckons to him that socialism as well as labor unions are the answer to his and his family’s sufferings and to all the others who have endured what he went through in life. The story ends with a socialist rally that comes after a victorious win in the political arena of the socialist group. The speaker gives remarkable encouragement to his fellow socialist and proclaims â€Å"Chicago will be ours!† Part Two – Context of the Novel The novel was written in 1906, a time when a huge number of immigrants from Europe come to the United States to answer the call inscribed clearly on the famous Statue of Liberty – â€Å"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.† It was written to strongly uphold that socialism was the answer to capitalism and as such was truly polemic in nature. Uston Siclair was successful in presenting the negative impacts of capitalism such as corruption among the capitalists and wage slavery among workers. Sinclair has introduced the â€Å"goodness† of socialism in every turn of event in the story particularly to the immigrants who were unskilled and therefore employers offer low wages for measly jobs. The workers could not demand better wages because there were so many immigrants willing to do the work.

Scientific discoveries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Scientific discoveries - Essay Example Molecular electronics face two types of challenges. The first challenge is building molecular structures that act as switches and the second challenge is combining these molecules into a complex circuit in order that they are able to perform a specific function. These two tasks demand reproducible organic molecular conductors and insulators. Polyphenylene based molecules besides carbon nanotubes have been considered as possible candidate molecules capable of these tasks (3). In October 2009 a team of researchers led by bio-designer N. J. Tao reported success in the development of key electrical component of the diode on a phenomenally tiny molecular scale, namely the single-molecule diode. (4). Diodes constitute critical components for a wide range of applications that include power conversion equipment, radios, logic gates, photodetecters and light emitting devices. In all these applications diodes make up the components that permit current to flow in one direction, but not in the other direction in an electrical circuit. To bring this specific function down to the level of a molecule, the molecule should be physically asymmetrical, where one end of the molecule has the capacity to form a covalent bond with the negatively charged anode terminal and the other end capable of bonding with the positively charged cathode terminal. A symmetrical molecule allows current to flow in both directions, which is similar to an ordinary resistor. On the other hand an asymmetrical molecule allows current to flow in only direction similar to a diode, which is the more important and difficult component to replicate. With the size of a transistor in the field of electronics nearing a few te n nanometers or about twenty times larger than a molecule, the development of a molecular diode is exciting. (5). The Tao led research team studied conjugated molecules for the purpose of developing a molecular diode. In conjugated molecules the atoms are stuck together by alternating

Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 16

Abortion - Essay Example The focus in the essay "Abortion" is on this operation that allows a woman to put an end to a human life. Abortion gives a woman the right to terminate a pregnancy if she feels that she is not in a position to give birth to a child owing to emotional, psychological, social, medical or financial reasons. There are people who say that abortion is immoral and should be made illegal because it violates the rights of a fetus (Maguire 155). These people believe that actually speaking human life does not begin at birth, but it begins right from the time when two people conceive a fetus. Hence, a fetus is as much a human as any other individual. Thereby, by the virtue of being a human, a fetus does have the right to life and aborting a fetus deprives it of the right to life (Maguire 155). So women should not be allowed to have an abortion and if possible, abortion should be made illegal. However, on a closer analysis, one finds that this line of argument is also utterly wrong and faulty. Even if one assumes that a fetus is a human and has the right to life, the rights of an unborn fetus could not be given precedence over the rights of a woman who carries that fetus. No individual can be given a right over another individual’s body. Hence, it would be logical to say that a fetus does not have the right to occupy a woman’s body and to draw sustenance from her body, against her wishes and desires. Therefore, the right to life of a fetus is subject to the will and intentions of the woman that carries that fetus.

Media Study Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Study Assignment - Essay Example Primary journalistic beats and comparison with other newspapers The stories covered in the newspaper are mostly issue-centric related to public cause and the role of the politicians in improving the current scenario like â€Å"Occupy Ann-Arbor†, â€Å"Ann-Arbor City Council Candidates Discuss Public Safety†. It also covered news on some exclusive events and developments in the university campus like â€Å"Hundreds of E-mails Spam Students on U List serve†. The theme of the newspaper seems to have ample material to grab the interest of the readers. In comparison, another student newspaper THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON mainly focused on stories related to the university campus like â€Å"Campus Watch: Guns on College Campuses†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"A Catwalk to Education†. The difference between the two is in their unique style of presentation and layout. THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to have two segments of stories. The ones related to Ann-Arbor commu nity are thematic as they are issue based and the others about the campus are episodic as they are event based. But the other daily covers stories that primarily revolve around information about the university activities. Therefore the stories are mainly episodic as each one records a specific action. In way of presentation THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to hold a neutral stand and opts for a non-committal role whereas THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON seems to be more direct in its approach and tone. The news story and the four information biases The story that I have chosen for my analysis is â€Å"Occupy Ann-Arbor† from THE MICHIGAN DAILY. The article is the follow-up of the article â€Å"Occupy Wall Street† by the same writer and discusses about the protest movement undertaken by the common people of Ann-Arbor against the politicians for protecting the rights of the common people. The reason for selecting this particular beat is that it reflects the four informat ion biases mentioned by Lance Bennett. The article starts with the lines â€Å"In the middle of Occupy Ann Arbor’s assembly on the Diag last night, University alum Matt Bussey asked the crowd of about 200 students and Ann Arbor residents to take out their cell phones and call U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D–Mich.).† The effect is clearly one of dramatization. The story is captured right in the middle of an extremely provoking action. Throughout the article the focus has been on maintaining the high drama quotient by the use of action words, direct quotations and criticizing remark. But drama does not seem complete without the involvement of some personality and a collision with authority. This explains the attempt to personalize the story by referring to characters and at same time making an implication towards authority-disorder. In this article people like Whitney Miller and Luciana Sabgash who were involved with the movement are directly quoted. Sabgash’s di sappointment with the system is conveyed in her words â€Å"I voted for none of this. I voted for change and saw all the same.† Most of the readers would share the same feeling and immediately connect with the story. The disgruntled attitude of the common people towards the political rulers is the bottom line of the article. The authority-disorder bias underpins the entire argument. Though the

Reading assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reading - Assignment Example Raustilia and Sprigman discount statistical provisions by proponents of Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) who are poignant that the US economy forfeits at least 200 billion dollars and 750,000 US job vacancies every year. Raustilia and Sprigman argue that there is no lucidity in these figures, since the job vacancy figures double the number of employees who got enrolled in the filming industry in 2010. Raustilia and Sprigman also quote Tim Lee who argues that it is not unusual for statistics to be punctuated with estimations, double and triple counting. The same duo continues that at times, piracy can substitute for legitimate transactions, and may therefore not be bad. The same also contend that piracy may also trigger the saving of more money, and the economic relevance of increased savings may not be sidestepped (Raustilia and Sprigman, 1). However, on a personal standpoint, the opinions that Raustilia and Sprigman advance seem less plausible, logically and e thically sound, as shall be seen in the discussion that ensue forthwith. In the first place, piracy in itself is a crime, being a form of copyright infringement. This is because, like any other form of piracy, P2P file sharing program infringes copyright laws by copying and distributing a recording company and an artiste’s work without the consent of both. In this light, the Copyright Act of 1909 exists and is in force, even though more strictness is attributed to written work. Conversely, had piracy been attributed as a less injurious crime or as a tolerable and beneficial undertaking as Raustilia and Sprigman opine, then there would be no need of forming institutions and agencies which guard against piracy. Of particular concern is the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as a powerful lobby group which represents the recording industry and favors stricter laws and heavier punishments for those who pirate music. RIAA is poignant that since 2002, music revenue ha s plummeted by 7% as the sales of CDs receded from 882 million to 803 million units. RIAA is also specific that the information immediately above showed that three times as more CDs were shared via P2P than the CDs that had been bought. It is obvious that this trend must have cost music producers and artistes. Furthermore, Gorski points out that doing away with the provisions and enforcement of Title 17 of Sections 501 and 506 of the United States Code is bound to create a very confused and lawless situation which may override the gains that Raustilia and Sprigman taut as reasons that legitimize music piracy. Title 17 of Sections 501 and 506 of the United States Code states that it is illegal to create copies of another person’s creative work. It is at this point that gives the federal law the mandate to protect artistes from unlawful and unauthorized reproduction, distribution and transmission of copyrighted material. It is against this backdrop that several people and compa nies have in times past been subjected to legal suits because of music piracy through the use of P2P file sharing. The same has also led to five year jail terms and an imposition of fines totaling 250,000 US dollars (Gorski, 161). As if all the above is not enough, the No Electronic Theft Law (NET Act) prescribes copyright violations which

Media Study Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Study Assignment - Essay Example Primary journalistic beats and comparison with other newspapers The stories covered in the newspaper are mostly issue-centric related to public cause and the role of the politicians in improving the current scenario like â€Å"Occupy Ann-Arbor†, â€Å"Ann-Arbor City Council Candidates Discuss Public Safety†. It also covered news on some exclusive events and developments in the university campus like â€Å"Hundreds of E-mails Spam Students on U List serve†. The theme of the newspaper seems to have ample material to grab the interest of the readers. In comparison, another student newspaper THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON mainly focused on stories related to the university campus like â€Å"Campus Watch: Guns on College Campuses†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"A Catwalk to Education†. The difference between the two is in their unique style of presentation and layout. THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to have two segments of stories. The ones related to Ann-Arbor commu nity are thematic as they are issue based and the others about the campus are episodic as they are event based. But the other daily covers stories that primarily revolve around information about the university activities. Therefore the stories are mainly episodic as each one records a specific action. In way of presentation THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to hold a neutral stand and opts for a non-committal role whereas THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON seems to be more direct in its approach and tone. The news story and the four information biases The story that I have chosen for my analysis is â€Å"Occupy Ann-Arbor† from THE MICHIGAN DAILY. The article is the follow-up of the article â€Å"Occupy Wall Street† by the same writer and discusses about the protest movement undertaken by the common people of Ann-Arbor against the politicians for protecting the rights of the common people. The reason for selecting this particular beat is that it reflects the four informat ion biases mentioned by Lance Bennett. The article starts with the lines â€Å"In the middle of Occupy Ann Arbor’s assembly on the Diag last night, University alum Matt Bussey asked the crowd of about 200 students and Ann Arbor residents to take out their cell phones and call U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D–Mich.).† The effect is clearly one of dramatization. The story is captured right in the middle of an extremely provoking action. Throughout the article the focus has been on maintaining the high drama quotient by the use of action words, direct quotations and criticizing remark. But drama does not seem complete without the involvement of some personality and a collision with authority. This explains the attempt to personalize the story by referring to characters and at same time making an implication towards authority-disorder. In this article people like Whitney Miller and Luciana Sabgash who were involved with the movement are directly quoted. Sabgash’s di sappointment with the system is conveyed in her words â€Å"I voted for none of this. I voted for change and saw all the same.† Most of the readers would share the same feeling and immediately connect with the story. The disgruntled attitude of the common people towards the political rulers is the bottom line of the article. The authority-disorder bias underpins the entire argument. Though the

Desktop Publishing for Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Desktop Publishing for Business - Assignment Example The sub-headings to be included, the topics that require to be covered extensively and the ones to be glossed over, have all got to be taken into consideration. DTP offers a lot more flexibility for a person while creating printed materials but the new age student still needs to grasp the importance of learning how to utilise and understand basics of design principle elements like space , texture, value, balance so that he/she can create an effective design layout. Design Principles: What is a design? A design can be said to be â€Å"a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose† (Faimon & Weigand 2004: 13). A design is a creation of elements such as line, shape, colour, value and texture and is integrated with principles such as unity, variety, emphasis, balance and scale making it a design principle as a whole. Only when there is a proper integration of both design and principle, we can call it a successful design principle. The desig n principle can be said to be a form of communication through visual means. To communicate effectively, we have to use precise and correct language and likewise in visual communication, the designs we use will determine the efficacy of our communication. An examination of the individual components that make up the design principle in the given brochure, which include balance, white space, contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity reveals balance, in terms of design implies a distribution in visual weight of objects, colours, texture, and space. If we could arrange the designs on a linear scale, then both sides would have to be balance to make the design look and feel stable and if we arrange the design radially, then also the elements are arranged around a central point and may be similar. The rule of thirds is another interesting mode of presentation but looks to be more confusing to a layman when compared to the symmetrical and the asymmetrical mode of presentation. The white space is the empty space left between words or in margins. It is the absence of text and graphics. It can help to follow a layout easily, highlight a certain element or help rest the eyes. All the elements of white space have been very effectively portrayed in the BMW brochure and the best way to utilize it has also been communicated. Avoiding rivers of white space and claustrophobic presentation makes the point clear that a design element has to remain uncluttered to be effective and eye-catching. Contrast forms the crux to a dynamic design, which creates visual interest and enhances the organization and hierarchy of your content. Contrast involves making two or more elements very different (e.g. heading and text). The contrasts shown in the brochure proves weak and the effectiveness could have been better if bright colours were used instead of just black and white images. Black and white does create contrast but all the images look repetitive and uninteresting. â€Å"Repetition w orks with pattern to make the artwork seem active† (Principles of Design 2011: 1). Whenever the elements of a design are repeated, the elements of design create symmetry and unity within the artwork. Repeating certain visual elements of the design throughout, improves visual impact, consistency, and strengthens

Emotional Ability or Emotional Intelligence Essay Example for Free

Emotional Ability or Emotional Intelligence Essay Emotional ability or emotional intelligence is the ability to assess, identify and control the emotions of oneself. It is also the ability to recognize the impact of your own emotions upon your behavior and be aware of the emotions of others around you (Rosete, Ciracohhi, 2001). This is not always an easy task. It is a skill you have to work at constantly. Combine these sentences to make a direct comment. Since the brain tends to go into fight or flight mode quickly and easily, we have to figure out a strategy on how to think before we react. Reacting is instinctual and a way to combat an instinctual reaction is to hone your awareness of your own emotional state (Rosete, Ciracohhi, 2001). Knowing what events may trigger an emotional response will help you to be able to manage a reaction, manage your responses and move from being reactive to proactive. Several years ago I worked at a social service agency and had trouble with my supervisor. She was a chronic and consistent micromanager and always interrupted my tasks to assign another task that was menial and mundane. She would give me a project to work on and then check in on me constantly to see how it was going and how far along I had come. It drove me insane! I became so unnerved and agitated at her behavior that she provoked me to shut down and I became completely defiant. One task she gave me was so completely unnecessary that I flatly refused. I was stressed and highly emotional. I told her that task was a time waster and Im not going to do that task or anything else until she treated me with respect and stop micro managing me. I was angry, shaking and crying. She immediately went to HR and told them I was defiant, angry and verbally abusive. I knew that wasnt the case: I had just had enough. I agree to mediation with someone from the HR department whom I trusted to provide me with a fair mediation. If members of the team respect the lead negotiator, the process is manageable (lecture 8). Before the mediation, I tried to pull myself together so that I wouldnt be so emotional during the meeting. I knew I wouldnt have as much credibility if I was visibly too emotional. I tried to practice some self-management for the meeting. I wanted to focus on strategies for control of my motion and my emotional impulses (Mason, 2010). This was to no avail. I was so infuriated by the behavior of my supervisor that I completely broke down in mediation. I tried to suppress anger but it came out in my tears. I was an emotional wreck and knew that my emotions were too far gone to try and control at this point. In spite of everything, the mediation went well and we worked on some strategies that would have allowed me more freedom while giving my supervisor the assurance that the task would be done. Unbeknownst to them, I packed up and walked out at lunchtime and never returned. I knew that I would never be able to forge ahead after that day with any amount of dignity or respect after such an emotional breakdown and didnt even want to try. We all have emotions that influence our response to the world around but when employees have a high competence of emotional intelligence they have the ability to manage emotions and not let them influence their responses to their environment (Mason, 2010). People dont follow those who cant control their emotions and those kind of workers generally make for poor employees and poor leaders. References Mason, K. (2010, December 5). Why is emotional intelligence important in the business workplace? .The Thriving Small Business, 2-4. Rosete, D., Ciracohhi, J. (2001). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness .Leadership Organization Development Journal ,26(5), 288-296.

Impact of Genomics on the Future of Healthcare

Impact of Genomics on the Future of Healthcare The aim of this paper is to address genomics and how it can affect healthcare in the future. This paper contains an explanation what genomic sequencing is and how the sequencing can benefit the future of healthcare. Genome sequencing can allow scientists to predict diseases before symptoms show. It will also be discussing the ethical implications of genome sequencing and its current limitations. Genomics is the study of genomes; a genome is an organisms complete list or set of DNA, and all the genes it codes for[DS1]. Essentially it i all the information needed to make and sustain that organism. Genome sequencing is sourcing the exact order of the base pairs that make up DNA and genome. On 14th April 2003 the Human Genome Project was complete: it took 13 years to complete and cost $2.7 billion. Although this project took a large amount of time and money, it was definitely worth it. The completed genome has made it possible for scientists and researchers to find genes easily and has helped them understand how genes work together to direct the growth, development and maintenance of an entire organism (Genome News Network, 2003). A better understanding of the genome will also allow scientists to understand what causes certain diseases and in turn develop better treatments for them. It can also lead to more personalized medicine, for example how the variations in an individuals genome can affect how they respond to drugs. Further research into the human genome would revolutionise modern medicine and healthcare as we know it[DS2]. We attended regular meetings where we discussed futurology and topics such as DNA Health. There was also a workshop where we worked on and developed skills such as referencing. We independently conducted research by searching articles, journals, and websites online. We collected secondary data. Genomics can be used to predict illness before symptoms show. This would mean that treatment could begin as early as possible, and precautions could be taken to ensure that patients wont ever get the symptoms. The rapid development of DNA sequencing technology has now made it possible for individuals to get their genome sequenced affordably and practically, this is personal genomics. Dr. Stephen Quake sequenced his own genome and built a database of gene variations and their connections to a range of medical conditions and diseases. Using Quakes genetic profile they discovered that he had mutations that can cause a fatal and sudden heart attack, and over 50% chance of becoming diabetic and obese. It also indicated how Quake would react to different medications- there are many heart disease drugs which he may react badly to. This made it possible for doctors to take what they deemed necessary precautions to prevent heart disease and gave him statins. Being able to predict future disea se and make sure that only medicine which would work best for that individual is given would save our healthcare system a lot of money as drugs wouldnt be wasted on patients they wont benefit, and illness could be prevented instead of cures or treated which often takes a lot more money and time. Dr. Quake said, Were at the dawn of a new age in genomics, information like this will enable doctors to deliver personalised healthcare like never before. Couples who want children can also use personal genomics to find out if they are a carrier for a gene that may cause their child to have a disorder or disease, for example cystic fibrosis. If both of them have a carrier gene they can take the necessary precautions to ensure that their child does not. For example, having their baby through in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The Personal Genome Project is a long-term study which aims to sequence and analyse over 100,000 peoples genome. This could help research into personal genomics. Volunteers send in a DNA sample and information on their phenotype and medical records, this helps researchers to better understand the association between our genes, our environment, and our phenotype (our physical appearance). A survey conducted by Sermo (a social network site for doctors and physicians) revealed that 73% of physicians had not recommended that their patients get their genome sequenced. In another poll, 74% doctors stated they believed family medical history was more informative for diagnosing and treating patients than genome sequencing (Begley,2016). The field of genomics is relatively new; this could be why so many doctors are opposed to it. Dr. Girgis stated that there is a lack of treatment available to address whatever risks are identified and that there is no evidence for doing this testing (Begley,2016). Many doctors believe that genome sequencing is not evidence based and that there is not enough large scale research into its benefits. Some doctors suggested that information indicating that you will eventually have a heart attack is useless if nothing can be changed to prevent it. The benefits of genome sequencing will be more relevant and achievable when we have the technology to develop treatments which can ensure the prevention of any conditions that may be found in the sequence. Those who participate in genome sequencing research such as the personal genome project are susceptible to genetic discrimination from employers, or insurance companies. As it may be discovered that they have a variation that makes them more at risk of certain conditions or illnesses; or if they discover they are at risk of inheriting an illness[DS3]. To prevent this from occurring the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 was created. Title I of the Act prevents health insurers from being discriminatory, by making it illegal for them to ask customers to undergo genetic testing, or inquire about genetic information when deciding a persons insurance eligibility or coverage. This part began on 21st May 2005 (Genetics Home Reference, 2016[DS4]) Title II of the Act protects people from discrimination from employers by preventing them from using genetic information when making any decisions about hiring, promotions, salary, or dismissal. It also banns employment agencies from asking about genetic information, or requesting genetic tests. This part was implemented on 21st November 2009 (Genetics Home Reference, 2016). Another ethical issue concerning genome sequencing is the protection of participants privacy. Although the data collected needs to be shared broadly to maximize its value for ongoing exploration and research; the participants privacy also needs to be protected (National Human Genome Research Institute, 2015). However, because DNA is so unique to each individual it can never become 100% anonymised. There are a number of databases held by NIH where researchers can put up de-identified data. In 2013 a study by Homer et al pointed out that it was possible to identify participants using the data in the databases and public records (Wright et al, 2013). Since, NIH has control over who has access the to the data, ensuring that the privacy of participants is upheld. Before participation, volunteers are made aware of the potential risks they face if their genetic information were to be released, and are asked to sign an informed consent form. Informed consent forms should contain a description of the method of research; uses of the results; what results mean; if results show the risk of a condition that may affect family members or children. Despite being a relatively new field, genomics has come very far in a short amount of time, the Human Genome Project took 13 years and $2.7 billion. But today anyone can have their genome sequenced in 24 hours for $1000. Genome sequencing has already developed a lot; allowing scientists like Dr. Quake to predict illness and attempt to prevent it occurring by taking precautions, whether that means a change in lifestyle or taking medicine. Genome sequencing also makes it possible to determine which drugs work best for certain individuals and which drugs dont; this is very beneficial as it means money wont be wasted on giving ineffective treatment and medicine to those it wont help. However, genomics still has a long way to go. there is no benefit of being able to predict illness if you cannot treat the illness. Medical science needs to develop more and discover ways to treat more illnesses and diseases for the prediction of them to become very useful. Also, there are many ethical implications of genome sequencing e.g. privacy and discrimination. Although law and acts have been put in place to try and solve these issues there is still a chance that participants of sequencing will experience a breach of privacy; hence they have to sign an informed consent form. Genomics can definitely benefit and change healthcare in the future with more study and large-scale research. References      Ã‚   What is the human genome project? (no date) Available at: https://www.genome.gov/11511417/what-is-the-human-genome-project/ (Accessed: 9 September 2016) Wright, G.E., Koornhof, P.G., Adeyemo, A.A. and Tiffin, N. (2013) Ethical and legal implications of whole genome and whole exome sequencing in African populations, BMC Medical Ethics, 14(1), p. 21. doi: 10.1186/1472-6939-14-21. Begley, Sharon. Consumers Arent Wild About Genetic Testing Nor Are Doctors. STAT. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Sept. 2016. Reference, Genetics. What Is Informed Consent?. Genetics Home Reference. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 Sept. 2016. Sample, I. (2016) Healthy genome used to predict disease risk in later life. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/apr/29/healthy-genome-predict-disease-risk (Accessed: 9 September 2016). Collins, Francis et al. A Vision For The Future Of Genomics Research. Nature Publishing Group (2003): n. pag. Web. 9 Sept. 2016. J, 2004 (2000) Whats a genome? Available at: http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/whats_a_genome/Chp2_1.shtml (Accessed: 6 September 2016 What Is The Human Genome Project?. Genome.gov. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 Sept. 2016. [DS6] [DS1]Needed to b referenced. [DS2]All good   points made, but what you make factual statements you will need to support them with academic literature to back it up. [DS3]Good point, but you needed to show a reference to support it. [DS4]Good. [DS5]Should have given more attention to your reference list. [DS6]The diagram needed labeling.

Benjamin Franklin :: essays research papers

Benjamin Franklin believed that by watching and studying one’s own behavior, that person would be able to improve themselves by knowing their like and dislikes, wants and needs, etc. I agree with Franklin’s theory and think that this is one of the few things in life that a person has control over in order to change their overall being. For the best or worst knowing yourself makes it easier to decide things for yourself and gets a person to become, in a way, one with themselves. Analyzing one’s own behavior is very beneficial if the person is strong or willing enough to not only realize their good qualities but also recognize the bad things about themselves. By studying your behavior you can find things that make up your character and, individually change or eliminate those factors so that you’re a better person. If a person is mentally weak, the recognizing of their bad traits may discourage them or cause a downfall in some aspect of their lives. You would be able to focus more on how you want to be and work towards that goal b y â€Å"adding or subtracting† good traits for bad ones.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Working towards your goal would be fulfilling in that you’re working towards a physical and/or mental mindset of how you want to be. Of course, no one would have the same goal. One person’s goal may sound like another’s but our differing characters and ways of examining life will make them different and unique. In my own experience, examining my behavior helped me to begin exercising. Before I started to exercise, I had a lot of extra time on my hands and felt that I wasn’t where I wanted to be physically because of noticing that I wasn’t able to run as fast as I once could. After realizing this, I began to exercise and, enjoyed it to the point where after my running time returned I continued to work out. I felt good about myself and how exercising is a part of my schedule. I found out what I needed to fill the gap in my life through self-examination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although self-improvement by self-examination, in my opinion is good, there are limits. No human being is perfect! If you try to become perfect, you will fail. We all have our own faults and they may or may not exist all the time. No matter what, we always commits faults, even if we don’t act them out, thinking them is just as bad. Benjamin Franklin :: essays research papers Benjamin Franklin believed that by watching and studying one’s own behavior, that person would be able to improve themselves by knowing their like and dislikes, wants and needs, etc. I agree with Franklin’s theory and think that this is one of the few things in life that a person has control over in order to change their overall being. For the best or worst knowing yourself makes it easier to decide things for yourself and gets a person to become, in a way, one with themselves. Analyzing one’s own behavior is very beneficial if the person is strong or willing enough to not only realize their good qualities but also recognize the bad things about themselves. By studying your behavior you can find things that make up your character and, individually change or eliminate those factors so that you’re a better person. If a person is mentally weak, the recognizing of their bad traits may discourage them or cause a downfall in some aspect of their lives. You would be able to focus more on how you want to be and work towards that goal b y â€Å"adding or subtracting† good traits for bad ones.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Working towards your goal would be fulfilling in that you’re working towards a physical and/or mental mindset of how you want to be. Of course, no one would have the same goal. One person’s goal may sound like another’s but our differing characters and ways of examining life will make them different and unique. In my own experience, examining my behavior helped me to begin exercising. Before I started to exercise, I had a lot of extra time on my hands and felt that I wasn’t where I wanted to be physically because of noticing that I wasn’t able to run as fast as I once could. After realizing this, I began to exercise and, enjoyed it to the point where after my running time returned I continued to work out. I felt good about myself and how exercising is a part of my schedule. I found out what I needed to fill the gap in my life through self-examination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although self-improvement by self-examination, in my opinion is good, there are limits. No human being is perfect! If you try to become perfect, you will fail. We all have our own faults and they may or may not exist all the time. No matter what, we always commits faults, even if we don’t act them out, thinking them is just as bad.

Project Time Management Essay

This essay on project management will briefly give a proper description of the project management and what it entails. It will further discuss all the tasks that are normally involved in proper time management. The major focus of this particular essay will be on the time constraint and how time can be properly managed and the general importance of managing time in IT projects. It will then be concluded by giving reasons as to why project managers should actually have their projects well managed especially in the time part of it if at all he would want to realize success at the end of the projects. Introduction Project management is that discipline that is concerned with planning, organization and resource management to bringing a specific project to a successful completion of its major objectives and goals (Baker, 2000). The major challenge of managing projects is to achieve its set objectives and goals while at the same time adhering to the constraints of project management which are normally scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary challenge is normally the optimization of the allocation and to integrate the necessary inputs in such a way that the pre-defined objectives may be met. A project may be well defined as set of different or even similar activities that make use of available resources such as money, materials, people, space and many others to achieve the set project goals and objectives. According to Conn, M (2007) the job of managing a project is quite often the major responsibility of an individual person who in this case is the project manager or the project management team. In most cases the project manager seldom takes part in a direct way in the various activities that will produce the final result, but rather he will strive to make sure that the general progress and the mutual interaction between his workers is well maintained so that the overall risk of the project failing is reduced or eradicated. The manager of a project is often an ambassador of his clients and therefore the needs of his clients are well determined and implemented by the project manager and this is usually based on the kind of enterprise they are representing. In any given field, the project manager should be able to envision the whole project that is from start to finish. He should also have the ability to ensure that the vision is realized by the project. This clearly tells someone that before you become a project manager, one should make sure that he is well informed and be ready to listen to the needs of clients which in most cases they are varied. Just like any other human undertaking, all projects have to be done and delivered through some well known constraints. Traditionally, the constraints are listed as time, scope and scope. These constraints are better known as the triangle of project management, where constraints are represented by each side of the triangle. This particular essay will have its major focus on the time constraint of project management (Cable, D. 2004). Project time management Project time management basically means the planning of the processes and organization of resources in a project to ensure its well-timed completion. The management of time is an important skill that is very critical and any project manager should have this vital skill. From surveys done by scholars on project management, the survey reports claim that most of the successful project managers have the history of completing their projects within their stipulated time and the project budget. Project failure from the past may have been caused by lack or absence of schedule management that is, defining, scheduling and implementing these tasks or activities that are to be undertaken by the steering team or manager. In the present world, there are so many softwares that project managers can use in time or schedule management within a project (Brooks, 2001). Tasks in a project The first task in a project time management is the activity definition. Here the main activities in the project are defined so that the management team knows what they are dealing within as the progress goes on. In preparation of the project schedule, the manager of the project should be fully aware of the content of each given tasks that are involved in the project, the length of time the task will require to be completed, the kind of resources that the tasks will need and the exact order the tasks should be done. The project manager should know that each of the said elements normally will have direct bearing on the time or schedule of the project. And if the project manager omits certain tasks then the project stands higher chances of not being completed. Once more, if a manager of a task does not take seriously the amount of required resources or the length of time required for a particular task then the project manager stands higher chances of missing the time schedule for his project. The time schedule can also be missed or rather be blown if the project manager makes a bad sequencing of the project tasks. While project schedule can be build by either listing, in a particular order, all the important tasks that have to be completed in some specific manner. This task is often referred to as activity sequencing. Assigning of order and specific duration in which it should occur in every given task will also help the project management team a great deal. After assigning of this sequence requirement project management team should now allocate all the required resources for that particular task. This should be followed by determining the tasks that should first be completed (predecessors) and determining the tasks should be completed last (successors) and this is normally a pretty simple exercise. Normally difficulties do arise in managing project schedule. In most cases the difficulty will arise when there is not enough time and resources for the proper completion of the tasks of a given project sequentially. It is therefore advised that the given tasks in a project be overlapped in such a way that more than one task is attended to at the same time (Cable, 2004). The softwares that are commonly used in managing projects normally simplify the tasks that are involved in the creation and management of project schedules by handling all sorts of iterations in the time logic for the project manager. When all the required tasks have been put in an ordered list, then they have been well resourced and put in a correct sequence, the manager of the project will be able to notice that some of the laid down tasks are flexible in terms of start and finish dates. Such flexibility in project management is well known as float. And other tasks do not have any kind of flexibility at all and therefore are zero floats. Therefore any line through all the given tasks that have zero floats is referred to as the critical path. All the tasks that are found on the critical path, and there is possibility that there can be multiple of them, paths that are parallel, they must come to a completion on the stated time if the entire project has also to be completed on time. The key task of a project manager is time management and the management of the critical path (Cavendish, 2003). The project manager should however be aware of any items can be removed or even added in the critical path, this may be due to changing of circumstances that may occur during the project execution. Regardless of how well a project manager manages his time schedule and the available resources then the project manager would only have budget management as the only critical element left. At this particular point, it is therefore advised that all managers of different projects be fully aware of all the tasks that are involved in the projects that they are managing. This will enable them to have full control of every progress in the tasks and it will ensure that the project in progress is completed within the specified time in the budget (Clough, 2005). Importance of project time management Project time management is an important aspect of project management. The following are some of the major importance of project time management. Proper project time management will ensure that project managers deliver their projects within the stated time on the project budget. That means that time and good schedule management will always work to the advantage of the project manager in that the project manager will always be delivering his projects without unnecessary delays that are normally brought about by poor time management (Baker, 2000). Another importance of time management in an IT project is that the project manager will be in a very good position to allocate resources and everything that will be needed in that particular project because when time is managed properly, the manager will be able to tell all that will required by specific tasks in the project. This will have a very positive impact on the IT project in that time will be well managed and resources well allocated and the end result will completion of the project in good time (Cohn, 2007). With time management in a project, the project manager will be able to plan everything that will have to take in every step. And this is one of the most vital things of time management that most managers of different projects agree upon. Effective management of time in projects often motivates the participating team members in such a way that they will always be willing to actively involved in planning the project. Involvement of the fellow members of the team in planning for the project will definitely increase the chances of the project realizing success. Time management will help the project manager to have his deadlines set. Normally projects should be done within a set period of time, but deadlines most of the times if not so well planned become unrealistic. With proper project time management skills together with skilled project manager, proper and realistic deadlines will be set which will ensure that a sense of urgency has been inducted into the team members. Again, the use of project time management skills in managing IT projects will ensure that the project manager keeps good track of the progress of the project and he will also be able to make priorities in his own work (Duane, 2007). Another important task in time project management is the scheduling of the project activities in the order that they should occur. This is very vital because it defines the activities to be prioritized and the trailing ones. This helps in determining the most important step from the less important step at any given time. Project time management is an important tool in project management in such a way that it helps the manager of the project to sift and sort out ideas concerning the progress of the project before the manager of the project commits himself in allocating resources. This is normally achieved by having objective criteria for his project selection and this will enable the manager to only approve those projects that are on priority (David, 2000). Conclusion Drawing from the essay, it can be said that it is very important for a project manager to be fully aware of what his project entails. Putting down all the activities in an ordered list or manner will help in time allocation of the various activities in the project. Using all the available tools of project management, a project manager will be able to deliver his projects on time since his work will be well planned. Meeting the deadlines in project management is the most important thing and using project time management is the only way towards achieving it.