Benefits of Reading Aloud

Benefits of Reading Aloud Reading  hasnt always been a silent activity and  the experience of reading aloud can be enjoyed by people at any age. Back in the fourth century, tongues started wagging when Augustine of Hippo walked in on Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, and found him . . . reading to himself: When he read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.(St. Augustine, The Confessions, c. 397-400) Whether Augustine was impressed or appalled by the bishops reading habits remains a matter of scholarly dispute. Whats clear is that earlier in our history silent reading was considered a rare achievement. In our time, even the phrase silent reading must strike many adults as odd, even redundant. After all, silently is the way most of us have been reading since the age of five or six. Nevertheless, in the comfort of our own homes, cubicles, and classrooms, there are both pleasures and benefits in reading aloud. Two particular advantages come to mind. Benefits of Reading Aloud Read Aloud to Revise Your Own ProseReading a draft aloud may enable us to hear problems (of tone, emphasis, syntax) that our eyes alone might not detect. The trouble may lie in a sentence that gets twisted on our tongue or in a single word that rings a false note. As Isaac Asimov once said, Either it sounds right or it doesnt sound right. So if we find ourselves stumbling over a passage, its likely that our readers will be similarly distracted or confused. Time then to recast the sentence or seek a more appropriate word.Read Aloud to Savor the Prose of Great WritersIn his superb book Analyzing Prose (Continuum, 2003), rhetorician Richard Lanham advocates reading good prose out loud as a daily practice to counter the bureaucratic, unvoiced, asocial official style that anesthetizes so many of us in the workplace. The distinctive voices of great writers invite us to listen as well as to read. When young writers ask for advice on how to develop their own distinctive voices, we usually say, Keep reading, keep writing, and keep listening. To do all three effectively, it certainly helps to read out loud.

Islamic Religion Zakah

Islamic Religion Zakah The Islam religion in addition to giving spiritual guidance, also gives economic guidance one of which is the Zakah. Zakah is listed among the five pillars forming the basic foundations of the religion of Islam; it is the third of the five. The word ‘Zakah’ in Arabic means to be purified, to grow and receive blessings. In some texts it is also referred to as Zakat.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Islamic Religion: Zakah specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Khan describes Zahra as a mandatory levy paid on wealth and agricultural products that are in excess of a specified minimum (the nisab) (Islamic Economics and Finance 195).  During the time of Prophet Muhammad, there was a list of the nisab for each asset one could own for example the nisab for gold was 85grams and the nisab for silver was 595grams. At that time value 595grams of silver was equivalent to the value of 85grams of gold. Times have changed a nd gold and silver are no longer used as currency. We now have paper money. The value of silver has decreased while that of gold has remained almost the same. Muslim scholars differ on whether to use the nisab of gold or the nisab of silver when calculating the nisab for the current currencies. Those who support the nisab of gold to be used argue that its value has remained the same over time. Those who argue for the nisab of silver argue that it would be of more benefit to the poor if the nausea of silver is used. Using the nisab of silver will lower the minimum hence increasing the number of people to pay Zakah and hence increasing the amount of money. The nisab of silver is used in some countries like Saudi Arabia; although the nisab of gold is the most common (Khan 1994).  Therefore, Nisab’s value is directly dependent on the retailing price of gold (or silver for the countries that use the nisab of silver) in the world markets as it is equal to a specified amount of go ld. In 2012, it was an equivalent of USD$5200. The nisab should be calculated based on the price of gold on the day that the individual pays the levy. The regulations governing the collection and spending of this fund are based on the Quran and the Hadith; works attributed to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad but are not found in the Quran. In some countries the calculation of nisab is based on the poverty level of the country rather than the price of gold or silver (Ahmad 2010). The levy has a lot of importance in the Islamic faith. In the Quran it is equated to prayer. The funds collected are given to the needy and therefore act to bridge the differences between the rich and the poor. This levy leads to the development of the economy as the rich cannot just keep their wealth as it will continue decreasing over time as the levy is imposed, thus it forces them to invest (Ahmad 2010).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It develops in people the virtue of generosity and condemns selfishness. It prepares one to get used to the act of giving and when they are required to give up all their wealth for the act of faith they will be ready to do so. Muslims believe that all wealth belongs to Allah and humans are just entrusted with the wealth. They are therefore required to use the wealth as required by the owner. Giving reminds them not to lay too much emphasis on material wealth. Making the contribution purifies wealth and souls of those who give (Khan 1994).  Zakah is not based on all the property one owns since some wealth is considered taxable while other types of properties are exempted from the levy. Wealth that is considered taxable include; livestock, minerals, investments in business including stock, and agricultural products while properties for personal and home use such as furniture and houses are tax exempt. Property that does not have a speci fic owner such as taxes collected by the government is exempt from Zakar as it is used for the benefit of everyone including the poor. Property and businesses that are owned by the public such as schools and mosques are also exempted from the levy. An individual cannot pay Zakah on property that was acquired through stealing, corruption or cheating. The property does not belong to them they therefore cannot pay Zakah for it.  Muslim scholars make it clear that if an asset is not named in the Quran or Hadith as Zakatable it does not mean that it is exempted from the levy. The Prophet Muhammad who was the founder of Zakah only mentioned in his works assets that were available during his time. As people continue to develop new products the zakatable products should be revised in accordance with the current trends.  Zakah is usually paid as a percentage. The percentage of Zakah to be paid varies with the type of asset for which one is paying the levy. It is 2.5% of profits from inve stment and income from work; 5% of Agricultural products that are irrigated; 10% of agricultural products that do not require irrigation or are watered by natural means such as the rain and 20% for minerals. The percentage is a minimum of what should be paid, if someone is willing to pay more, they can.  Wealth has to meet some requirements before the owner pays the levy. The levy is based on the wealth that is with the owner for a lunar year; 355days.An individual begins counting the days once his wealth exceeds the nisab. Agricultural products are an exemption to the rule of the lunar year; Zakah is paid after harvesting. Zakah for mineral wealth is also paid after acquisition of the mineral and not annually. The levy is imposed only on goods that are developing and increasing.  The rule requiring that an asset has to be growing to be zakatable has some limitations; individuals who intentionally make their wealth not to grow are required to pay Zakah. Prophet Muhammad warns su ch people and calls them lazy.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Islamic Religion: Zakah specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Wealth that is not growing as an exemption to payment of the levy is limited to people whose property has been stolen or destroyed or whose lack of growth is due to the characteristics of the asset and not the individual’s choice.  The goods also have to be under the individual’s control, debts owed are not included in the calculation. Gold or other precious stones that are in the form of jewels are exempted from the levy as long as they are used for the purpose of looking good and not for business. In the case of land that is used for Agriculture, if it is in the hands of the owner, then the owner pays the levy. In the case that the owner rents out the land without payment, the person who uses the land for farming will pay the levy.  Debts are another area where the payment of th e levy is unclear. The debtors cannot pay the levy as the money is not rightfully their neither can the creditors because the money is not under their control. In this century loans which fall under the debt category are common, Muslim scholars differ on opinions whether one should pay the levy for loans or not. It becomes more difficult when one has loans on assets that are tangible. Some people argue that the creditors should be levied as the property belongs to them while others argue that the debtors should be levied as they are in possession of the asset. Levying taxes on both of them will be against the Muslim laws (Shariah) which warn against duality.  Duality in Shariah is defined as dual payment where an asset is levied more than once in the same lunar year. Another issue that has come up with this century is savings such as retirement benefits. The payment of the levy will vary depending on whether the savings are within the control of the individual or they are within t he control of the employer. In the case that an individual is paid retirement benefits, he would be required to pay Zakah when he is given the money.  The Quran and Hadith give a description of who should pay the levy. The individual has to meet the requirements of nisab. The individual also has to be an adult of sane mind; children and mentally ill are not required to pay. There is debate on whether children and the mentally ill can pay Zakah. The Hadith requires that children cannot pay until they reach puberty and the mentally ill cannot pay until they recover.  Those who support that the levy should not be imposed on children and the mentally ill argue that it’s an act of worship and therefore requires one to be willing. The intention is compromised in children and those with psychiatric illness. They also argue that those who have a compromised state of mind cannot develop their wealth. Those who are arguing that those who have a compromised state of mind should be t axed say that the Quran does not provide any exemptions for them (Ahmad 2010).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The individual has to be Muslim in order to make the contribution. Non Muslims are required to pay Jizyah. Zakah is an act of worship and belief in the religion; it therefore cannot be paid by someone who does not believe. In the case that a non believer converts to Islam, he cannot be asked to pay Zakah for the years he did not believe in the Islamic faith. In some states a tax an equivalent of the Zakah is levied on non Muslims to ensure economic balance. The individual to pay the levy has to be free; Prisoners are exempted from the levy (Ahmad 2010).  Zakah is considered mandatory for all Muslims. The Quran also requires that one does it voluntarily. In the case that an individual is too mean and refuses to pay, the state has the authority to collect the payment by force and impose a penalty on the individual. The penalty is equivalent to half of the defaulter’s wealth. A group of people may decide to evade the levy. War should be declared on them as they would be consid ered to have rejected the Islamic faith. Some people claim that this law was used during the establishment of the Muslim religion and has since been done away with. There is no evidence to the effect that the law was nullified and therefore most states are considered to have a right to forcefully collect and to impose penalties on those who have defaulted. Those who evade paying the levy will face the wrath of Allah on the Day of Judgment. Those who evade payment are not considered part of the Muslim brotherhood unless the individual is ignorant of the requirements of Zakah or is new to the Islamic faith (Ahmad 2010). When calculating the percentage of Zakah to be paid, the individual first calculates all his assets and subtract liabilities. The difference should be more than the price of 85grams of gold. The Individual can then group assets of the same kind together and get the percentage of the total. In the case of money, 2.5% of the total amount of money he has. The laws of Isla m prohibit grouping of different kind of wealth when calculating the percentage profit. The laws of Islam discourage double payment of Zakah. An asset can only be levied once in a lunar year. Zakah on investments is based on the profit and not on the total amount while the Zakah on money and cattle is based on the total amount of assets. Products that are not money such as cattle should be calculated based on the market price at the moment (Ahmad 2010). Zakah is collected through various means; in some countries it is collected by the state while in others it is collected by organizations specifically for that purpose. The Hadith gives regulations for state collection of the fund. Ahmad says that in as much as the state may collect the contribution, the laws of Muslims require that it should be separated from the national budget (49). The separation is done to ensure that the money collected achieves its purpose of helping the needy.  Payment of Zakah can be traced back to when th e Muslim religion was established. Its origin is from the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Khan says that Zakah has existed in all Muslim societies throughout history although during the colonial period it was neglected but it was later restored following the Second World War (An Introduction to Islamic Economics 81). The main objective of collecting this fund is to provide support to specific groups of people especially those in the lower socioeconomic status. The Quran gives a list of those people who qualify to receive funds collected through this levy and they include; those in need, street children, people who have gotten debts when trying to earn an honest living, individuals who want to convert to the Islamic religion, travelers who have encountered difficulty, debtors, The people who collect Zakah and people who work for Allah (Ahmad 2010). The needy are those whose assets are below the nisab and those whose property cannot cater for them for the whole year. The poor on the other h and are described as those who have no assets and do not have the capability to work to earn a living. The fund is given to those in debt only if the debts were incurred when they were seeking to satisfy their basic needs (Khan 2012). Those who incurred debts through gambling or mismanagement of money do not qualify for this fund. This fund is also given to those who fight in the Holy War. Travelers are defined as those who are far away from their homes. In the past slaves also qualified for this fund but they are no more slaves. Allowing collectors of the fund to take part of it ensured that they are not tempted to steal or mismanage the fund. Some funds were donated to people who wanted to convert to Islam to aid in spreading the religion (Khan 2012).  The Hadith prohibits investment of the money collected through the means of Zakah. The money should be given directly to those in need. The family of the prophet Muhammad and his descendants are prohibited from benefiting from thi s fund. The Hadith warns that there would be punishment for people who receive funds from Zakah collection yet they are not qualified. It also warns the collectors not to take more than they deserve. There is debate on whether poor people who are not Muslim can qualify for the fund. Some states prefer that before the fund is given to non Muslim; all the Muslim needs should be met. In addition to the uses listed in the Quran, the fund can also be used for administration purposes in Organizations that manage the fund (Ahmad 2010).  According to Muhammad Khan, Zakah has not achieved its expectations because of the limits imposed by governments. Zakah is also not well managed due to a lack of proper methods of accounting and inadequate monitoring. These are the problems frequently encountered by institutions collecting this fund and should be addressed to ensure Zakah meets its expectations (81). A case in point is Pakistan, they began a centralized way of collecting the fund but to d ate they still have problems like interruptions in the collection and distribution of the funds (Khan 2012). The levy is distinguished from other kinds of religious payments by various ways. Most religious contributions are voluntary, Zakah is mandatory. Unlike the other payments, which even the poor can make, this is paid by a specific group of people. The spending of other forms of payments is based on the agreement of the religious leaders. The spending of funds collected through this means is dictated by the church. In the event that one does not pay other voluntary religious contributions, no punishment is imposed on them. If a person who is Muslim refuses to pay Zakah, they are given a penalty which is half of their wealth (Khan 1994).  In summary, Zakah is an obligatory contribution of Muslims who fulfill the requirements of Nisab. Its main function is to help the needy in society and a means of giving back to Allah the greatest. There are many issues that have changed sinc e the time Zakah was founded by The Islamic Prophet Muhammad to date. The means of collection and the distribution have to be reviewed to be in line with current trends. This should be done in a way that ensures that the reason for the collection of the fund is still met. Ahmad, Abu Umar Faruq. Developments in Islamic Banking Practice: The experience of  Bangladesh Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2010. Print. Khan, Muhammad Akram. An Introduction to Islamic Economics, Pakistan, Islamabad:  IIIT, 1994. Print. Khan, Muhammad Akram. Islamic Economics and Finance: A Glossary, New York:  Routledge, 2012. Print.

Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci and ambulation ( evidence based Dissertation

Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci and ambulation ( evidence based practice ) - Dissertation Example In most instances, recognition of a practice problem prompts an evidence based practice (EPB). For instance, an EPB team with the goal of conducting an EPB project in a given duration would have to consider what outcomes by the patient need more improvement (Jones, 2004). Once a practice problem has been realized or determined, data both internal and external is collected. This data should be relevant to the practice problem to confirm that there is indeed the need for change and in the long run, improvement. It is crucial that the focus of evidence based practice is justified because it is resource intensive. A practice problem statement is also prepared so as to clarify what the evidence based practice is exactly (Fulton, 2010). The best evidence is also located using key actions. These are identifying the types and sources of evidence, making arrangements for the search for evidence, and conducting the search for best evidence. Types of evidence could include clinical practice gui delines, systematic reviews, expert reports, single studies as well as critical appraisal topics. The search of evidence is planned as a rigorous, systematic review, which would include formulating the research question to guide the search, selection of the research strategy, choosing the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and planning the synthesis (Kathleen, 2011). Clinical Question The nursing practice to be detailed is based on a hugely serious clinical question. The question seeks to establish whether patients acquired with Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE) more likely to recondition due to physical therapy limitations. This is a clinical problem that requires research on how to handle it. The evidence also in his case is that patients with VRE are more likely to recondition due to physical therapy limitations. This is the main objective of evidence based research and what it entails (Parke, 2011). Literacy in significant information is required and access to adequate infor mation so that evidence based practice (EBP) can be researched. The patient is the main stakeholder, and their health is vital. Besides the fact that the infection brings various disadvantages to their movement, policies should be put in place that would encourage movement by them without increasing the risks of spreading the infections. Physical therapy has extremely strict rules in relation to ambulation, but still there exists other kinds of infections that are not warranted to this policy measure. Even though, lobby privileges are awarded to some patients, risks are still there related to spreading the infection because of the infectious risks the VRE has. The patient can still walk and not undergo confinement to bed. The only set back is that infection makes them confined in their rooms leading to physical inactivity. This has its health related hazards like muscle problems for instance muscle atrophy (Lawrenceville, 2006). Synthesis of Literature Literature reviews have been a ble to provide details of primary research in human health policy as well as their care. These are considered as the highest standards in evidence based health care. They help in the provision of evidence during the investigation of the responses to the interventions of prevention, rehabilitation as well as treatment. They also detail about how valuable and accurate a diagnostic test for a given

Suicide In Mental Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Suicide In Mental Health - Essay Example The paper is issued by the UK Parliament as Command Paper, Cm 4386. The site provides access to the full-text of the report". (Intute:Social Sciences,2006). The objective is to improve the health of everyone and the health of the worst off in particular. The program emphasizes on the fact that good health is inherent need of all, but many people spend most of their lives ill or die young from preventable diseases, this need should be effectively addressed with good support and the first comprehensive Government plan focused on the main killers: cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke, accidents, mental illness. They emphasize on the tougher but attainable targets. The objective is to reduce the death rate in people under 75 suffering from cancer by at least a fifth. The focus is to reduce the death rate in people under 75, suffering from coronary heart disease by at least two fifths. The death rates caused by accidents by at least a fifth and serious injuries caused by accidents by at least tenth. In the sensitive area of mental illness, to reduce the death rate from suicide and undetermined injury by at least a fifth. If these targets are achieved there is opportunity to save lives by preventing up to 300,000 untimely and unneces sary deaths. To achieve this target the government is putting in more money: twenty one billion pounds for the NHS alone to secure a healthier population. The focus is also to raise awareness first by tackling smoking as the single biggest preventable cause of poor health. The aim is to integrate Government, and local government work to improve health, stressing health improvement as a key role for the NHS. The emphasis is on high health standards for all, not just privileged few. can make a difference. We want to see a new balance in which people, communities and Government work together in partnership to improve health. "Our drive for better health is in line with a background of real improvement in health: people live longer and healthier lives life expectancy is now 80 for women and 75 for men many infectious diseases of the past - such as cholera, diphtheria and polio - have been brought under control death in childbirth is now rare. But new problems arise, including AIDS and v ariant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease". (Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation,1999). People can improve their own health, through physical activity, better diet and quitting smoking. Communities can tackle poor health, which springs too from a range of wider, community factors - including poverty, low wages, unemployment, poor education, sub-standard housing, crime and disorder and a polluted environment. (Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation,1999) Health inequality is widespread: the most disadvantaged have suffered most from poor health. The Government is addressing inequality with a range of initiatives on education, welfare-to-work, housing, neighborhoods, transport and the environment which will help improve health. As well as taking action on our key targets, we are also tackling other important health issues like sexual health, drugs, alcohol, food safety, water fluoridation and communicable diseases - to put our new approach into practice. We want to see healthier people in a healthi er country. People improving their own health supported by communities working through local organizations against a backdrop of action by the Government. We want to see everyone take the

The Business Environment in Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Business Environment in Asia - Essay Example The top 30 companies in Indonesia belonged to the Salim Group and to Suharto's children. After the recession, new family conglomerates entered the scene but the structure of the private sector did not undergo substantial change. The economy continues to boom and the family businesses benefit. In Indonesia, the state plays the most vital role in the growth of the business groups. Lobbying and corruption are prevalent in conducting business and due to their continued influence, businessmen become politicians (Mahmood, 2011). Large-scale towns in Indonesia have their own police and their own government including private taxation collection. All public facilities such as health, water, sewerage, and sanitation are controlled by this self-styled government in individual townships. The business has so much of political clout and influence that they are able to sustain opaque ownership pyramid structure which originates in some other nation and develops monopoly as in the case of Instant No odles that belongs to the Salim Group. Such a system has its own disadvantages and advantages. While it provides capital, infrastructure, and source of business talent and entrepreneurship, it creates moral hazard, ethnic tensions, and state capture.Importance of building relationships is critical to the success of business in Indonesia. Relationships with the government officials help in expediting the bureaucratic process. It helps in streamlining the applications for obtaining licenses, permits, and information.... Indonesia The top 30 companies in Indonesia belonged to the Salim Group and to Suharto’s children. After the recession new family conglomerates entered the scene but the structure of the private sector did not undergo substantial change. The economy continues to boom and the family businesses benefit. In Indonesia the state plays the most vital role in the growth of the business groups. Lobbying and corruption are prevalent in conducting business and due to their continued influence businessmen become politicians (Mahmood, 2011). Large scale towns in Indonesia have their own police and their own government including private taxation collection. All public facilities such as health, water, sewerage and sanitation are controlled by this self-styled government in individual townships. The business have so much of political clout and influence that they are able to sustain opaque ownership pyramid structure which originates in some other nation and develops monopoly as in the case of Instant Noodles that belongs to the Salim Group. Such a system has its own disadvantages and advantages. While it provides capital, infrastructure and source of business talent and entrepreneurship, it creates moral hazard, ethnic tensions and state capture. Importance of building relationships is critical to the success of business in Indonesia. Relationships with the government officials help in expediting the bureaucratic process. It helps in streamlining the applications for obtaining licenses, permits and information (Facing the Challenge, n.d.). The national officials or pegawai negeri such as the notary in Indonesia are treated with respect. Such initiatives have facilitated the

The Poor But Efficient Hypothesis Economics Essay

The Poor But Efficient Hypothesis Economics Essay In Chapter one we set in motion the purpose for this research and explain to the reader the essence of quantifying the amount the household is willing to pay for abating malaria both in the present and in the future. In this chapter we go a step further by reviewing literature in this area. This chapter is important because it provides the reader with a sort of history into this area of research. It also gives the reader an opportunity to understand where our research stands vis-à  -vis other researches in this area. Obtaining a value for the marginal effect of malaria on farmers technical efficiency is one of the live wires on which precise estimates for our Willingness-To-Pay depend. We therefore want to start by reviewing literature in the area of efficiency measurement; afterwards, we will research into literature in the area of Willingness To Pay. Before we go ahead we highlight the purpose of measuring technical efficiency to the reader. Technical efficiency primarily enables one to understand the relationship between input used and the output (total harvested crop). It also enables us to measure the performance of individual farms in an industry as well as provide an index for the average performance of the overall industry. This then leads us to propose policy recommendations that could help shift the production frontier- the maximum attainable harvest from each input- of the farm closer to the industry frontier at the prevailing technology. As we progress in this research the reader will further appreciate this concept and the reason why it is one of the most talked about concepts in development/resource economics. At the moment, our aim is to examine some literature that relates to our area of research. We therefore start Section 2.1 by reviewing literature relating to the poor but efficient hypothesis of Schultz (1964). Section 2.2 reviews some agriculture-based literature on efficiency and health. In doing this we divide the study on inefficiency into two; the Frequentist (Section 2.2.1) and the Bayesian (Section 2.2.2) studies. Using another method of classification, we classify the study of efficiency into single output studies (Section 2.2.3) and multiple output studies (Section 2.2.4). This puts us in good standing to review literature on Willingness-To-Pay in Section 2.4. Productivity/Efficiency Studies in Agriculture The Poor but Efficient Hypothesis The huge volume of research on efficiency in agriculture draws motivation from Schultz (1964) book Transforming Traditional Agriculture. In the book he explains why rural farmers are efficient in the management and allocation of resources. He advances a hypothesis popularly called the poor but efficient hypothesis. Researchers try to verify this hypothesis quantitatively; in doing this, a lot of issues come to the fore, part of which is; the best way to measure productivity. Before the advent of the deterministic measure of productivity pioneered by Aigner and Chu (1968), and, Afriat (1972) researchers attempt to measure efficiency. Of great importance to us in this area are the works of Welsch (1965), Chennareddy (1967) and Lipton (1968) because they specifically test the validity of Schultzs poor but efficient hypothesis. Chennareddy (1967) utilizes the linear regression analysis on a data of one hundred and four rice and tobacco farmers in South India using a Cobb-Douglas production function. His findings were in accord with Schultz hypothesis. He recommends that South Indian farmers should adopt modern technology and extension education in order to move to a higher frontier. Lipton (1986)  [1]  disagrees with this recommendation. He argues that if Schultzs findings are correct then the rural farmers do not need any expert advice to improve their productivity in other words moving to a higher frontier should not be a problem for them. He further queries Schultzs assertion believing that it only works under a neo-classical theory of perfect competition; he affirms that if Schultz uses linear programming to analyse his data his findings would show that the rural farmer is inefficient. Welsch (1965) in his study on Abakaliki rice in Eastern Nigeria makes use of the linear regression to affirm that peasant farmers respond to economic inducement by allocating efficiently among several resources at their disposal. Hence, he supports Schultzs hypothesis. One thing we want the reader to note in the above groups of literature is; the writers who concur with Schultzs assertion use parametric techniques to arrive at their conclusion while Lipton (1968) employs a non-parametric linear programming technique that assumes at least one factor is not fully employed. Just as the argument is about to cease, Sauer and Mendoza-Escalante (2007) involve themselves in it. Their work serves to reconcile these diametrically opposing schools of thought. It puts to use a parametric normalized generalized Leontief (GL) profit function technique to analyse joint production of Cassava flour and maize by small-scale farmers in Brazil. The small-scale farmers are allocatively efficient, they assert, but they show considerable inefficiency in the scale of operation. At this juncture, we remind the reader that our digression is intentional. Our aim is to show how Schultzs assertion has brought an upsurge in the number of efficiency studies in agriculture with special focus on the developing economies of the world. We like to say that the work not only instigates research in development/resource economics but it also prompts research in anthropology and sociology (see Adams, 1986 and the review by Michelena, 1965 pp. 540-541). Proper measure of productivity starts with Aigner and Chu (1968), Afriat (1972) and Richmond (1974) where they propose a deterministic method of frontier measurement. Though their studies are obsolete they however underscore the popularity of the Cobb-Douglas functional form in the early literature to show the relationship between input and output. Aigner, Lovell and Schmidt (1977), Meeusen and van den Broeck (1977), and, Battese and Corra (1977)  [2]  introduce the modern stochastic frontier analysis as we know it today simultaneously. Their model apart from incorporating the efficiency term into the deterministic model it also includes the effect of random shock, hence, the name stochastic. Lau and Yotopoulos (1971) also introduce a dual profit function model to measure efficiency but their method is not as popular in production analysis because it only yields efficiency measures for a group of farms while the frontier method gives efficiency values for individual farms in the industry (Fà ¸rsund et al 1980). The reader should note that the linear regressions of Chennareddy (1967) and Welsch (1965) give the shape of the technology of an average farm in the industry while the stochastic frontier model gives the shape of the technology of the most productive farm in the industry against which the efficiency of every other farm is measured (Coelli 1995). In other words, Chennareddy (1967) and Welsch (1965) use an average response model for their analysis. The specification of a functional form and/or distributional assumption confers on a technique the nomenclature parametric while the non-specification of a functional/distributional form confers on a technique the non-parametric nomenclature. The non-parametric nomenclature means, in the words of Koop (2003), you are letting the data speak. This he says is very difficult to achieve as even in the non-parametric system, just like in the parametric, one need to impose certain structure on a particular problem in order to achieve ones objectives. The use of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) (another technique is the Free Disposal Hull, FDH) overshadows every other technique in the non-parametric class. Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (1978) introduce this technique and gave it the name as we know it today. The data envelopment analysis technique uses the linear programming method to generate a piece-wise envelop over the data points. The technique is widely used in technical efficiency studies but it has the shortcoming of not incorporating randomness in measuring efficiency. Also, the envelop curve is not everywhere differentiable. Our focus in this research is the parametric technique. The parametric technique has progressed so much in the literature that there are now two different econometric schools of thought for estimating efficiency. The first school of thought are the Frequentists who dominate this field since its inception and the second school of thought are the Bayesians into which our research belongs. The Frequentist Studies The first set of Frequentist study is deterministic in nature and use the technological structure of the mathematical programming approach (see Aigner and Chu, 1968; Timmer, 1971; and, Fà ¸rsund and Hjalmarsson, 1979 for exposition on mathematical/goal programming). Richmond (1974) introduces the Modified Ordinary Least Square (MOLS) approach to analyse the efficiency of Norwegian manufacturing industries specifying a Cobb-Douglas production function. Richmond (1974) is a modification of the Corrected Ordinary Least Squares (COLS) approach. Winsten (1957) introduces this model by assuming a distribution (such as half normal or exponential) for the disturbance term. The Corrected Ordinary Least Square technique involves a two step process. The first step involves the use of the Ordinary Least Squares to obtain consistent and unbias estimates of the marginal effect parameters; on the contrary, the intercept parameters are consistent but bias. The second step involves the shifting of t he intercept upwards so the frontier envelops the data from above. Greene (1980) takes Richmond (1974) work a step further as he assumes a gamma distribution for the random error term using the maximum likelihood approach. He uses the data from Nerlove (1963) which is a sample of one hundred and fifty five firms producing electricity in the United States in 1955. Apart from replicating the results of Aigner and Chu (1963), Greene (1980) tries to explain the statistical relevance of his model. The reader should note that Greene (1980)s model is deterministic. One of the early applications of the deterministic frontier were Shapiro and Mà ¼ller (1977), Shapiro (1983), Belbase and Grabowski (1985). Shapiro and Mà ¼ller (1977) attempt to estimate the technical efficiency of forty farms in Geita district of Tanzania. They follow Timmer (1971) method of analysing technical efficiency by applying the linear programming to a Cobb Douglas production frontier. Their result which is similar to that of Chennareddy (1967) shows that the traditional farmer can improve his technical efficiency by adopting modern farming practices through easy access to information. This, they say, will be at the expense of non-economic costs like the farmer being branded unsociable by his community. Shapiro (1983) working in the same district as Shapiro and Mà ¼ller (1977) tries to confirm the poor but efficiency hypothesis but discovers the hypothesis may not be applicable in terms of peasant agriculture in Tanzania because their output could still be increased if all farmers had the same efficiency as the most efficient farmer in the sample. These assertions echo the conclusion of Lipton (1968). He uses the same model and method of analyses as Shapiro and Mà ¼ller (1977). Belbase and Grabowski (1985) introduce a technique that is different from the other two stated above. They apply the Corrected Ordinary Least Square (COLS) approach of Winsten (1957) on cross-sectional sample of farms in Nuwakot district of Nepal. They record an average technical efficiency value of 80% for joint production of rice, maize, millet and wheat. The average technical efficiency value for individual frontier calculation for rice and maize is given as 84% and 67% in that order. They find correlation between technical efficiency and other variables which are nutritional level, income and education. Technical efficiency is however not correlated with farming experience. Some studies investigate the impact of certain agricultural policies on productivity. A priori one expects these policies to actually increase productivity but this is not always the case. One of such study; Taylor, Drummond and Gomes (1986) use a deterministic production function and discover the World Bank sponsored credit programme PRODEMATA did not impact positively on the technical efficiency of farmers in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Their result shows that there is no difference between the technical efficiency of farmers who participate in the programme and those that did not participate. This paper is one of the few that compare both the results of the Corrected Ordinary Least Square and the maximum likelihood approaches. Unexpectedly, the participant farmers in the PRODEMATA programmes have slightly lesser allocative efficiency than non-participant farmers. The researchers also favour Schultzs hypothesis. We want the reader to note that the deterministic frontier is still popular in the literature for example, Alvarez and Arias (2004) use Lau and Yotopoulos (1971) dual profit function model to measure the effect of technical efficiency on farm size using data from one hundred and ninety-six dairy farms in Northern Spain. They introduce technical efficiency as a parameter to estimate in a simple production function. They observe a positive relationship between technical efficiency and farm size after they control for output prices, input prices and quasi-fixed inputs. Also Amara et al (1999) use the deterministic frontier to discover the relationship between technical efficiency and the adoption of conservation technologies by potato farmers in Quebec. They found that farming experience and the adoption of conservation technologies have positive influence on technical efficiency. Croppenstedt and Demeke (1997) use a fixed-random coefficients regression to analyse data for small-scale farmers growing cereal in Ethiopia. They observe that land size is a major constraint to crop production and large farms are relatively less productive than small farms other things being equal. They note that most of the farms are inefficient. They also observe inefficiency in the use of inputs especially labour and fertiliser. Share cropping is positively correlated to technical efficiency. Karagiannis et al (2002) propose an alternative for separating technical change form time varying technical inefficiency. Their proposition uses the general formulation index to model technical change (Karagiannis et al 2002 cites Baltagi and Griffin 1988). They also model technical change as quadratic function of time. Their proposition does not assume any distributional assumption for the one sided stochastic error term. They then apply their proposition to the United Kingdom dairy sector from 1982 to 1992 using a translog production frontier. They obtain a mean technical efficiency value of about seventy-eight per cent for the dairy industry with this period. One major disadvantage of the deterministic frontier model is that it over-values our inefficiency estimates. For example, Taylor and Shonkwiler (1986) discover the deterministic frontier gives over seventy per cent inefficiency while the stochastic frontier gives twenty per cent value for inefficiency. At present, a lot of papers utilize the stochastic frontier model in their analysis. Coelli et al (2003) makes use of the stochastic frontier to calculate the total factor productivity for a panel data of crop agriculture in Bangladesh. The data contains thirty-one observations collected between 1960/61 and 1991/92 from 16 regions and the result reveals technical change is convex in nature with increase starting about the time of the introduction of the green revolution varieties in the 1970s. Technical efficiency reduces at an annual rate of 0.47 per cent during the period they investigate. This has an effect on the total factor productivity which declines at the rate of 0.23 per cent per annum with the rate of reduction increasing in later years. This, they say, raises questions of food security and increase in agricultural productivity in Bangladesh. They point out the non-use of price data in their analysis which makes their work different from other authors (Coelli et al; 2003 c ites Pray and Ahmed, 1991, and, Dey and Evenson, 1991). Wadud and White (2000) compare the stochastic frontier approach with the data envelopment analysis and discover both methods indicate efficiency is significantly affected by irrigation and environmental degradation. There are a few papers that attempt to analyse technical, allocative and economic efficiencies at once in a single research. Bravo-Ureta and Pinheiro (1997) carry out a frontier analysis using the self-dual Cobb-Douglas production function to analyse farm data from Dominican Republic. They justify the use of the Cobb Douglas production function because the method they adopt requires both the use of the production and cost frontiers. Their research is important because they use the maximum likelihood technique to emphasize the essence of not only estimating the technical efficiency but also, the allocative and economic efficiency. Another paper that follows in this light is that of Bravo-Ureta (1994) who attempts to measure the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of cotton and cassava farmers in eastern Paraguay. He estimates economic efficiency for cotton and cassava farmers to be around forty per cent and fifty-two per cent respectively. There could be spatial differences in the technical efficiencies of different farms based on ecological differences, farm size and interactions between these two variables. Tadesse and Krishnamoorthy (1997) set out to investigate this in their research on paddy rice farmers in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. They remark that the farmers still have opportunity of increasing their efficiency by seventeen per cent. They observe significant variation in the variation of mean technical efficiency in the four zones that make up Tamil Nadu. They use a two stage approach where the first task is to obtain farm-specific technical efficiency and then use a Tobit model to compare the differences in the technical efficiencies of each region and zone. Wang and Schmidt (2002) note a bias in the results obtained by this process and they went ahead to use the Markov chain Monte Carlo technique to prove that there is serious bias at every stage of the procedure. Chen et al (2009) also examine the technical efficiency of farms in four regions of China. The four regions are North, North-East, East and South-West. They observe that different inputs need to be put to efficient use in the different regions. For example, inefficient use of industrial input is the main problem in the East while in the North it is capital. They assert that farms in the North and North-East are relatively more efficient than farms in the East and South-West. They recommend a change in the land tenure system to eliminate land fragmentation in China. Other researchers have used the stochastic production frontiers to investigate the impact of government programmes on farmers efficiency. For example, Seyoum et al (1998) use the Battese and Coelli (1995) stochastic production function to compare between farmers that participate in Sasakawa-Global 2000 project and those who do not in Ethiopia. They collect twenty samples from two different districts (Keresa and Kombolcha) of eastern Ethiopia and show the difference in the levels of production in these two districts by use of a dummy for one district. The data is panel in nature which justifies their use of the Battese and Coelli (1995) model. Battese and Coelli (1995)  [3]  is a panel data extension of the Kumbhakar et al (1991) research work. Seyoum et al (1998) recommend that policy makers should expand the Sasakawa-Global 2000 project as farmers who participated have better output, productivity and efficiency than farmers that did not. Still on the impact of government programmes on efficiency, Abdulai and Huffman (2000) look at the impact of the Structural Adjustment Programme on the efficiency of rice farmers in Northern Ghana using a stochastic profit function. Their results show rice producers in the region are highly responsive to market prices for rice and inputs. They support the introduction of the structural adjustment programme because it makes the farmers more market oriented. Also, Ajibefun and Abdulkadri (1999) find the Cobb-Douglas production function as being adequate to represent the efficiency of Nigerias National Directorate of Employment Farmers Scheme. They reject the half-normal distribution assumption for the inefficiency term. Ajibefun (2002) simulates the impact of policy variables on the technical efficiency of small-scale farmers in Nigeria. He discovers that increase in education level and the farming experience would significantly improve the small-scale farmers technical efficiency. Ama za and Olayemi (2002) investigate the technical efficiency of food crop farmers in Gombe State, Nigeria and arrive at similar mean technical efficiency as Ajibefun and Abdulkadri (1999). However, the difference between the minimum and maximum technical efficiency score for Amaza and Olayemi (2002) is seventy-six per cent while for Ajibefun and Abdulkadri (1999) is about sixty-six per cent. Jara-Rojas et al (2012) look at the impact of the adoption of soil and water conservation practices on productivity and they discover a positive relation between soil and water conservation and technical efficiency. They discover that an enhancement of the technical efficiency also improves the net returns on investment. The use of the stochastic frontier model to estimate the effect of health on farmers efficiency is also very important in the literature. Croppenstedt and Mà ¼ller (2000) take up this challenge when they research into the role of the Ethiopian farmers health and nutritional status on their productivity and efficiency. They find that distance to the source of water as well as nutrition and morbidity affect agricultural productivity. Surprisingly, elasticities of labour productivity regarding their nutritional status are strong. They further affirm that this strong correlation continues with technology estimates and wage equations. However, they record considerable loss in production due to technical inefficiency even after accounting for health and nutrition of workers. Ajani and Ugwu (2008) look at the impact of adverse health on the productivity of farmers living in the Kainji basin of North-Central Nigeria. Their study shows the health variable as being positive, large and statistically significant. They therefore conclude that health capital is an essential input in agriculture. A paper that successfully combined the non-parametric technique of data envelopment analysis and an econometric model is Audibert et al (2003). They use a combination of the data envelopment analysis and the Tobit model to infer on the social and health determinants of the efficiency of cotton farmers in Northern Cà ´te dIvoire. They use the high density of the malaria parasite in the blood of an individual as a proxy for the health of the household. They use a two step process; firstly, they use the data envelopment analysis to arrive at relative technical efficiency values and then they regress this efficiency scores against factors they think will affect efficiency. The high density of malaria parasite in the blood variable enters the model at the second stage. Their results show that malaria greatly reduces farmers technical efficiency. They further conclude that it is intensity of infection by the disease that is important rather than its presence. Our research collects data on the prevalence of the disease in an area rather than just hospital reported cases; this we believe will give further credence to our results. Ajani and Ashagidigbi (2008) use numbers of days of incapacitation as a proxy for malaria incidence in Oyo State, Nigeria. Surprisingly, they ran a normal linear regression to investigate the effects of malaria on agricultural productivity. Their analysis shows that age and days of incapacitation are insignificant statistically. Olarinde et al (2008) explore the factors that affect bee keepers technical efficiency in Oyo state, Nigeria. They observe that the bee keepers are efficient by about eighty-five per cent there is still room for to increase their efficiency by fifteen per cent. They point out that some of the farmers do not take bee-keeping as their main occupation. This, they say, is a major determinant of efficiency. Marital status is also another variable that affects technical efficiency, they note. They observe that a farmer who is single is likely to be more efficient than a married farmer. Mochebelele and Winter-Nelson (2000) examine the effect of migratory labour (to mine fields in South Africa) on farm technical efficiency. They try to establish if migrant labour actually complement farm production or not. They establish that households with migrant farmers have higher production and are more efficient than households without migrant farmers. In the use of the panel data for efficiency estimation, some researchers try to see if differences exist in efficiency values between the fixed effect model and the stochastic frontiers. Ahmad and Bravo-Ureta (1996) use panel data of ninety-six Vermont dairy farms between the periods 1971 to 1984. They carry out statistical tests to investigate the better model between the fixed effect model and the stochastic frontier model. The fixed effect model gave better results than the stochastic frontier model. Hence, they conclude that the fixed effect model needs to be considered in panel data analysis. Reinhard et al (1999) estimate the technical and environmental efficiency of a panel of dairy farms. They assume the production of two outputs dairy and excessive use of Nitrogen. They analyse their efficiencies separately. Their objective involves investigating whether farmers can both be technically and environmentally efficient. They also examine the compatibility of these two types of efficiencies. They obtain a mean output-technical efficiency of 0.894 while the input-oriented environment efficiency is 0.441. They remark that intensive dairy farming is both technically and environmentally more efficient than extensive dairy farming. Reinhard et al (2000) examine comprehensive environmental efficiency in Dutch dairy farms. This paper is a continuation of Reinhard et al (1999) paper. In this paper, apart from surplus Nitrogen which they use in their earlier work, they also investigate excess use of phosphate and total energy use of these farms. They compare efficiency scores in the stochastic frontier analysis with the data envelopment analysis. The mean technical efficiency values for the two methods of analysis are different. The stochastic frontier has an output technical efficiency value of eighty-nine per cent while the data envelopment analysis has an efficiency value of seven-eight per cent. There is significant difference between their environmental efficiencies also. The stochastic frontier analysis records a value of eighty per cent while the data envelopment analysis records a value of fifty-two per cent. It is evident from the result of the two efficiencies that the stochastic frontier method over-valu es efficiency scores. Before we close this section we refer the reader to a work by Strauss (1986). The work is important because it attempts to investigate the effect of nutrition on farm labour productivity in Sierra Leone. He uses an average response model to capture this effect. He estimates a Cobb-Douglas production function which accounts for simultaneity in input and calorie choice. His exercise shows calorie intake has significant impact on labour productivity. He, however, places a caveat on this result because individual-level nutrient and anthropometric data are not included in the analysis. His result supports the nutrition productivity hypothesis to a great extent. In the last few pages we attempt to explain to the reader the preponderance of the Frequentist method of analysing the stochastic frontier especially in agriculture. We emphasize the diverse uses of the parametric method of efficiency measurement in agriculture. We believe that other literature in agriculture will fall into one of the categories we peruse above. Next, we take a look at the Bayesian econometrist view. The reader should note how few the literature is compared to the Frequentist method. Also, for a thorough perusal of the literature from the Frequentist perspective we refer the reader to Bravo-Ureta et al (2007) Delete. The Bayesian Studies The works of van den Broeck, Koop, Osiewalski and Steel (1994); Koop, Osielwalski and Steel (1994, 1997); Koop, Steel and Osielwalski (1992), and, Fernà ¡ndez, Osiewalski and Steel (1997) herald the Bayesian technique for estimating the compose-error model. van den Broeck, Koop, Osiewalski and Steel (1994) is a primer for estimating a Bayesian cross-sectional composed-error data. They resolve the problem of choosing the best functional form experienced in classical econometrics by mixing over a number of distributions. They use the Bayesian model averaging to average over the results of the Jondrow et al. (1982) and Greene (1990). In other words van den Broeck, Koop, Osiewalski and Steel (1994) solve the problem of choosing the better distribution between the two. They also carry out predictive inference on their results using the Monte Carlo technique of importance sampling. In continuation of van den Broeck, Koop, Osiewalski and Steel (1994) work; Koop, Osielwalski and Steel (1994) show how to use the Gibbs sampling Monte Carlo method to arrive at estimates for the stochastic cost frontier model. They fit an asymptotically ideal price aggregator, non-constant returns to scale composed error cost frontier. They use Barnett, Geweke, and Wolfe (1991) method for generating the asymptotically ideal price aggregator (Koop, Osielwalski and Steel, 1994 cite Barnett, Geweke, and Wolfe 1999). They caution that care should be taken in the choice of functional form for frontier analysis. We believe the use of the Bayesian model Averaging technique should circumvent this problem. Also, they discover that imposing regularity condition on the price aggregator is found to reduce the spread of the Mà ¼ntz- Szatz expansion. Koop, Steel and Osielwalski (1995) essentially show how to draw the different parameters in the composed-error model using the Gibbs sampler. They provide an algorithm to draw the different parameters of choice in the composed-error model. They show the ease with which this can be done using the Gibbs sampler. They also note the use of 0.875 as an informative prior for the inefficiency value. van den Broeck, Koop, Osielwalski and Steel (1994) propose this value. Fernà ¡ndez, Osiewalski and Steel (1997) introduce the Bayesian method for estimating panel data using a class of non- or partly-informative prior. They assert that using this type of priors for a cross-sectional data will make its posterior inference unreliable and inaccurate. This is because the total number of parameters in the entire model is larger than the sample size. They circumvent this problem in the panel data where the researcher can impose a structure on the inefficiency terms. Koop, Osielwalski and Steel (1997) take Fernà ¡ndez et al (1997)

Using bones, teeth and joints for reconstructing activity in past human

During an individual’s lifetime the activities they involve themselves in impact on their many bodily tissues. Markers for these activities are left in the bones, joints and dentition which is useful for anthropologists as only skeletal material is left in the case of most ancient populations. Subsequently much research has been undertaken in this area with varying levels of validity.In this essay I seek to explain what information can be reliably gathered from skeletal material, it will focus on bone density and muscle attachments associated with heavy workloads, joint wear caused by repeated processes such as grinding grain, osteoarthritis and tooth wear associated with tool use. To aid this discussion I will detail the activity changes involved in the transition between a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and a sedentary agricultural lifestyle. I will also consider the strengths and weaknesses of this type of reconstructory speculation, arguing that unless the aforementioned markers are assessed in a non-subjective, quantifiable way the findings are not comparable to others displaying similar markers. It has been well documented that according to Wolff’s law, bone is constantly remodeling. Wolff's law states that bones within an animal will remodel due to the stress it is placed under. If stress on particular bones increase, bones will remodel over time becoming stronger, laying down bone tissue with higher levels of mineralisation. The opposite of this is also true, if the stress on a bone decreases, the bone will become weaker (Wolff, 1986). This correlates with the findings of Stock who reasons that ‘human skeletal robusticity is influenced by many factors, habitual behaviour being the most important’ (Stock, 2006). ... ...n the Georgia Coast. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 64,125-136. Shackelford L.L., 2007. Regional Variation in the Postcranial Robusticity of Late Upper Paleolithic Humans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133, 655–668 Stock T. J., 2006. Hunter-Gatherer Postcranial Robusticity Relative to Patterns of Mobility, Climatic Adaptation, and Selection for Tissue Economy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131, 194-204. Teaford M., 2005. Dental Microwear and Dental Function Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 3, 17 - 30 Valdes A.M., Spector T.D., 2008. The contribution of genes to osteoarthritis. Rheumatic Diease Clininics of North America 34, 581–603. White T., 2000. Human Osteology. Academic Press, London. Wolff J., 1986 The Law of Bone Remodeling. Springer, New York (translation of the German 1892 edition)

Management Philosophy Essay

Diversity trainer through the National Multi-Cultural Institute (NMCI) which is based out of Washington DC. Bahaudin worked as a manager, an Internal Consultant, Trainer, and Teacher at the Education and Training Development Department of Human Resources with Publix Super Markets Inc. for sixteen years. Bahaudin has been a visitor or speaker on conferences in the United States of America, Vietnam, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Brazil, Jamaica, Bahamas, St. Lucia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Grenada, and several other Caribbean countries. Bahaudin was born in Khoshie of Logar and raised in Kabul of Afghanistan. Bahaudin finished his high school degree and higher education in the United States. Management Philosophy: Some of Bahaudin’s favorite management concepts, which he has used in practice, happen to be Self-fulfilling Prophecy, Theory Y View of Motivation, Management by Objective and Management by Walking Around. Managers are likely to get exactly what they expect from themselves and their employees. Bahaudin believes that most people want to do a good job, especially when they are given the right tools, educational developments and performance opportunities. He prefers leading people and managing systems. Bahaudin likes to clarify his overall objectives, set realistic goals and then work to achieve them in a realistic timeframe. According to Bahaudin, the journey of working toward the achievement of one’s goals itself can certainly be one way to happiness. As they say, happiness is the way. Bahaudin truly believes that happiness is a journey, and not a destination. Happiness is the progressive realization of worthwhile and predetermined goals. So, set your goals and, as someone said, then â€Å"work like you don’t need money; study like you are a noble prize winner; love like you’ve never been hurt; and dance like no one’s watching. Have a positive attitude and, when possible, make a difference in at least one person’s life. Remember, if you can perceive and believe a better state of being, then you are very likely to achieve it as well. Overall, learn as much as you can; stretch yourself as far as possible, but not beyond; never settle for less than your capabilities; aim for total integrity; and be the best that you can be! As an effective manager and leader, may you have the hindsight to know where you have been; the foresight to know where you are going; and the insight to know when you are about to go too far.

Geography and Environmental Determinism Essay Example

Geography and Environmental Determinism Essay Example Geography and Environmental Determinism Paper Geography and Environmental Determinism Paper History shows many examples of how geography and environmental determinism played a huge role in the development of early civilizations. It can be seen as early as Mesopotamia, where the constant tension between nomadic and settled lifestyles was an important aspect of early historical development. The Sumerian culture developed in southern Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf. The civilization was generally pessimistic in outlook, an observation based mainly on the evidence of religious sources that depict a gloomy picture of the afterworld as a place of misery, because of the uncertain floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that destroyed river valleys. Although the geography negatively affected the Mesopotamia civilization, it eventually had a positive effect because there was a strong push towards stronger irrigation systems and tech analogical advancements. Jarred Diamond, according to his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, characterizes an instance such as this as environmental determinism because a civilizations environment positively affected everyday life. Political systems were also influenced by the geography because regional city-states near the rivers plopped strongly under leadership of the upper class. Although, at first, the geography of Mesopotamia had a negative effect on the belief systems, it eventually produced widespread development in political, economic, and social organizations. : In contrast, Ancient Egypt developed and remained optimistic in history because of its environment. Geographically, the Nile River unified the region and made agriculture possible while the desert offered protection from nomadic invaders necessary for the evolution of centralized political authority. The Nile provided the civilization with optimism about the future because it produced soil-rich areas for agriculture. Egypt more defensible geography and sea-nourished Nile River resulted in a more politically, socially, and economically secure civilization. In Asia, geography plays a major factor in the development of many civilizations. Separate regions caused economic diversity, racial differences, and diversity of language. China development was very original because, just like Egypt, deserts, seas, and mountains isolated it. However, Chinas environment was characterized by the Yellow and Yanking rivers as well as patterns of mountain ranges that created disunity throughout Chinas history. Downfalls in dynasties inhibited political, social, and economic developments. It can be seen that a civilizations geography greatly contributes to its own future because of the major effect it has on whether it succeeds or does not. In the regions of Micronesian, civilizations developed based on intensive agriculture. Geographically, the region of Mesospheric was a complex patchwork of zones divided into tropical lowlands and coasts. These climatic variations created different possibilities for human exploitation. The Elms have been called the mother civilization of Mesospheric. They grew maize, especially along rivers, and it provided the basis for a state in which complex religion dominated life. Their impressive settlements, drainage systems, temple complexes, and ability to move stones weighing tons attest to a high degree of social organization and artistic skill. Geography influenced the development of this civilization because many other civilizations were developing elsewhere in Mesospheric and had influences on the Elms religiously, socially, and economically. There was shared technology, and cultural elements were diffused to indicate political expansions during the time. Lastly, geography and environment influenced development in the Andes, specifically the Chapin culture. This culture was characterized by artistic motifs that spread widely throughout the Andean region. The Chapin artistic style was so widely diffused that archeologist call this a horizon, a period when a broad central authority seems to have integrated a widely dispersed region. Geography played a part in the political, social, and economic development of this region because permanent agricultural villages were established in the Andean highlands where Maize was introduced, crops Were grown, and pottery was made. The highlands provided a place for irrigated agriculture to produce crops, for Llamas and related animals to be domesticated, and for dense populations and hierarchical societies to be formed. It can be seen throughout the world that the geography and environment of a specific civilization greatly affects its overall success and development through history.

A history of Science Fiction

A history of Science Fiction What made science fiction so popular throughout history? It was, unlike most literature, concerned with reality because unlike most literature it talked about new technologies and ideas for new technologies. Science fiction literature mentioned everything from genetic engineering to nuclear physics to cosmology. The radio, television, and newspapers did not focus much attention on science at all. The early science fiction writings surely inspired some of the greatest scientists of the late twentieth century.Two things that the author can remember about the day that he read his very first science fiction magazine. It was the cold winter of nineteen thirty to nineteen thirty-two. The author was shoveling snow and made a little extra money and wanted something to spend it on. He had came in contact with a science fiction novel earlier and was very interested in it and wanted to get more because he could not get a sufficient amount of the stories that his brain screamed for.The Best Scie nce Fiction Stories and Novels: 1956He enjoyed reading about such things as Martians, time machines, and cities of the future where everybody had a job and plenty to eat and everyone was always content.Science fiction helped make the great depression more great than depressing. The science fiction literature helped him escape the troubles of his day. He could flip open the pages of a pulp science fiction magazine and leave all the problems of his daily life behind. He could abscond from his hometown Brooklyn and travel to such lands as Mars or the land of the dinosaurs.Nowadays, science fiction is apart of everyone's life. A big reason is that it is not fiction any more. A large amount of the ideas of early science fiction writings are now reality. Along with that, there were not many science fiction novels being produced. Except...

International Market Entry and Development Research Paper - 1

International Market Entry and Development - Research Paper Example Increase in the purchasing ability of the people is another important factor along with easy access.    1. Explain the process for market research to assess foreign market potential.   Market research is crucial before an entry is made into the international market. Research conducted should be realistic and complete. Market research helps in developing an efficient positioning. Overall the analysis should have complete information about the general economic conditions and the market information about the target market. Detail information about the foreign customers should be present related to whom the services and products will be offered, detailed information about the segment and the niche. Detailed information about the suppliers working in that particular country and the details about how the supply chain is managed is also necessary. Also another important factor is the way and method of entering the foreign market, the way we can enter the foreign market and reach to our possible customers. The approach is an indirect approach which is using an intermediary or an agent in order to enter the market or directly entering the market. Another way is through collective exporting, trading house and consortium. 2. Explain the considerations for product adaptation in foreign markets and common  approaches to adjusting promotional strategy to fit foreign markets.   It is important for the firms to properly examine and adapt different market strategies once they enter the foreign market compared to the strategies they are already working with in the domestic market. The effect of these strategies on the performance of the firm is also an important factor which needs to be analyzed. Marketing mix plays an important role here which once adopted is very useful as it is based on the previous adaption strategies of the firm .Firms need to evaluate the importance if these marketing mix component so that they can analyze and check the possibilities of the firmâ⠂¬â„¢s success in it. The promotional strategies are also checked and analyzed again as a proper set of strategies defines the firm’s competitive advantage which is the basic tool for a firm’s success and performance in the foreign market. Market expansion helps a country in a lot of ways from increasing the sale of its product or the services offered which then increases the revenue generated from the products. Expanded market is great for the product category and also it helps in increasing the generic needs. It overall expands the size of the customer’s budget and acquires a share from it. 3. Explain the strategic marketing planning process, strategies for entering foreign  markets, and considerations for subsequent market expansion.   There are various ways and options which a firm can use once it has decided to enter the overseas market. Factors like cost, risk, degree of control and revenue generation are few factors which are kept in mind before the f inal decision is made of entering the foreign market. A simple form of entering into the foreign market is exporting which is through direct or indirect methods which include using agents when a former, countertrade or the final exporting decision is made. Another way of entering into an international market includes joint ventures or export processing zones (Blackwell Reference Online, 2012) Export strategy needs to be finalized along with deciding the specific channels

Best practices for teaching literacy for student with significant Research Paper

Best practices for teaching literacy for student with significant disabilities - Research Paper Example Literacy therefore, encompasses the lifelong as well as intellectual processes of generating meaning from a critical perspective presented in the form of a print or written text (Browder et al 2009). The primary role to all literacy relates to reading development that encompasses a progression of necessary skills for understanding spoken words as well as decoding the written words that eventually leads to deep understanding of the text. Developing reading encompasses a variety of complex language underpinnings that touches on awareness of speech sounds, patterns use in spelling words, meaning of words as well as grammar among others. Once a person acquires these skills, the person attains full literacy that also ensures the ability to apply critical analysis as well as inference and synthesis (Browder et al 2009). Writing accuracy as well as coherence together with basing the thoughts on creativity also serves as important factors in developing the literacy of individuals. However, there exists a significant challenge for teaching students with significant disabilities. Various approaches have been employed over the recent past to enhance students with severe disabilities to gain literacy. The paper therefore examines the best practices that ensure effective teaching literacy for these disadvantaged students. Achieving improved literacy improvements for students has been for long a major goal throughout the society settings. The trend towards enhancing students suffering from both moderate and severe intellectual disability has however remained elusive for a significant period of time until the recent past attributes towards ensuring equal opportunities for all. Limited opportunities, poor quality or absence of literacy instructions for the intellectually disabled students have for long made literacy acquiring challenging for students suffering from intellectual disabilities. The traditional