Audism Unveiled Essay

Audism Unveiled Audism by it’s very definition is a negative or oppressive attitude towards deaf people by either deaf or hearing people and organizations, and a failure to accommodate them. This documentary really opened my eyes as to what deaf people have gone through since the beginning of time. They have been treated with prejudice and oppression. They have been looked down upon- as if they are some sort of â€Å"subhuman† not worthy of being classified as a normal person because of the fact that they cannot hear. Audism goes under the same category as racism, sexism, discrimination, etc. In the movie, â€Å"Audism Unveiled,† they were many testimonials of different deaf people explaining their stories of oppression simply because of the fact that they’re deaf or hard of hearing. Deaf people often have difficulty communicating with the hearing world and thus, they have been looked down upon with sympathy. They need to be healed. They’re disabled. They can’t have the same jobs as hearing people. It’s sickening how deaf people get treated. There was a deaf man in the film who explained how his parents would take him to a religious shrine and have a priest and his mother pray for him so his deafness can be â€Å"healed.† It, obviously, did nothing and he is still deaf and he seems happy that way. Another deaf man exclaimed how his parents made him go to a medicine man in a smoke filled hut, hoping that this kind of ritual will help him. But since he did not take the ritual seriously, his parents said that’s why it didn’t work. But, religion is not going to help the situation anymore than screaming at them will. But some stories were sad: A deaf man explained how his mother never learned to sign even though the man has been deaf since childhood. One day, when she was in her 80’s, she asked him if she should have learned sign language, baffled, the man asked why she was asking this. But she shrugged it off, and a year later, she was on her death bed, trying to write a note to her son and mid-write, she passed away. The man never knew what her last words to her son were going to be. Now, he is an advocate for parents of deaf  children to learn sign language so that no one would ever have to experience what he had to. I think that all parents with deaf children should embrace their child and their new culture and learn the language that is most easy for their child to communicate in. Most deaf children feel lonely and abandoned from their families because no one ever bothers to include them into family conversations. Whenever the deaf person would ask what’s going on, they would say â€Å"Oh we’ll tell you later.† Always the same thing and deaf people are tired of it. They want to know now and be included! It’s not fair that they have to be left out just because they’re deaf. It causes depression and resentment in the deaf person when the family constantly excludes the deaf family member. In some situations, deafness was viewed as evil. One man said that his aunt told him that he must have been a bad man in his past-life and as punishment, he was born deaf in this life-time. Hearing people do view being deaf as a misfortune, but that does not justify the way that they get treated by hearing people. I think it’s horrible how they are viewed as unable. I would hate to imagine someone treating me like I’m not able because I’m Hispanic or because I’m gay. It would tear me apart and I’m sure most deaf people feel the same way. Audism needs to be a bigger issue among hearing people and they need to know that being deaf is not a handicap, deaf people are not looking for sympathy. They want to be treated as equals.

How to Write a Research Paper Essay

â€Å"This should be sent to a journal† â€Å"Very good work, but I’m not sure why Alan Bundy hasn’t written this? † Anonymous review: â€Å"Clearly the author fails to understands Walsh’s previous work on this topic† †¢ 1st Lesson †¢ Don’t lose heart †¢ Even if you do everything right, reviewing is imperfect Good papers will be rejected But try to learn from your knock-backs! †¢ †¢ Why you? †¢ Academic career †¢ Publish or perish †¢ Have an impact †¢ †¢ Communicate your results Many have not had the impact they deserve for being bad writers †¢ Writing is fun! Outline †¢ How to get your paper rejected †¢ There are many traps even experienced researchers make Myself very much included †¢ †¢ Hints about how to write a paper †¢ Writing is a craft not a science! How to be rejected †¢ Submit over-length †¢ Blind man: send in 7 pages even though the instructions clearly say 5 Once they see quality of work, they’ll be pleased you sent in more material †¢ How to be rejected Submit over-length †¢ †¢ Diplomatic immunity: put extra 2 pages in appendix Appendices clearly don’t count Similarly, bibliography doesn’t count †¢ †¢ How to be rejected †¢ Submit over-length †¢ LaTeX hacker: †¢ †¢ †¢ change from 11 to 9 point font squeeze inter-line space †¦ †¢ No one will ever notice How to be rejected †¢ Submit late †¢ †¢ †¢ Deadlines are meant for everyone else Review schedules have plenty of slack Your paper is worth the wait! How to be rejected †¢ You don’t have room for space wasters like: †¢ Motivation, Background, Related work †¢ Why do review forms always have these on them anyway? How to be rejected †¢ Annoy reader/reviewer †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Proof is trivial, when it isn’t Prove the trivial Fail to cite their work Only cite yourself How to be rejected †¢ Annoy reader/reviewer †¢ Don’t bother to spell check †¢ What do computers know about spelling anyway? †¢ Use all the old cliches †¢ â€Å"There has been a lot of interest recently in global constraints. † How to be rejected †¢ Annoy reader/reviewer †¢ Be pompous, boring, †¦ †¢ This is science not literature guys, who said it should be fun? †¢ Be overly formal †¢ Theorems and formulas add weight How to be rejected †¢ Annoy reader/reviewer †¢ Make them really work †¢ After all, these are dif? cult concepts and it took you some time †¦ †¢ Ignore reviews †¢ Just keep sending paper in, eventually it will be accepted How to write a paper †¢ Hints about how to write †¢ †¢ †¢ Preparation Writing itself Ethics Preparation †¢ Read, read, read! †¢ To learn how to write, read a lot †¢ I spend over 20% of my time reading †¢ 1 day/week in library Read, Read, Read †¢ Related literature †¢ †¢ †¢ So you can cite it So you don’t re-invent wheels So you know what others think are important research questions Read, Read, Read †¢ Other conference/journal papers where you intend to publish †¢ †¢ So you learn the â€Å"house† style So you can place your work within the bigger picture So you learn how to ask good questions †¢ Read, Read, Read †¢ Any sort of literature †¢ Magazines, novels, biographies, †¦ †¢ Writing is a skill, learn from others †¢ I read approx one novel/week as a way of trying to learn how to write And I have the luxury of writing in my own language! †¢ Review, Review, Review †¢ Review as much as you can †¢ †¢ †¢ So you see good/bad writing So you see the newest results (but see ethics) So you ask yourself good questions †¢ What is the contribution here? What are the weaknesses? †¦ Write, Write, Write †¢ The best preparation to writing is to write †¢ †¢ Writing gets easier the more you do it Writing is easier if you’ve drafted much of what you already need Writing is the best way to organize your thoughts Writing is a good way to record what you have done. †¢ †¢ Writing †¢ Work out the timetable †¢ †¢ †¢ Rushed papers frequently rejected Late papers are almost always rejected If you always write to deadlines, writing will seem more painful than it is Writing †¢ Work out the message †¢ You should be able to convey this in one sentence †¢ â€Å"We propose a new global constraint, provide a ? ltering algorithm and show it useful on some standard benchmarks† Writing †¢ Work out the message †¢ You should be able to convey this in one sentence †¢ â€Å"We identify an important class of symmetry, and show how to break it† †¢ Write to the message! Writing †¢ Distribute the work †¢ †¢ Play to your strengths If you have a native speaker, have them write intro/conclusion †¦ †¢ Write to length †¢ Brutally cut papers are frequently rejected Writing †¢ †¢ Structure paper before you write it I write template for paper with sections and subsection headings ? rst †¢ Intro, Background, Theoretical results, Empirical results, Related work, Conclusions Writing †¢ †¢ Start where you are most happy Often write from the middle outwards †¢ Theoretical results, Experiments, †¦ , Conclusions, Introduction, Abstract Writing †¢ †¢ Rule of Three Say everything 3 times! †¢ †¢ †¢ Introduce idea (introduction) Develop idea (body of paper) Summarize result (conclusions) †¢ But don’t copy verbatim the same text! Title †¢ Make it meaningful and brief †¢ †¢ Don’t make a joke Remember someone reading reference needs to be able to work out likely contents Good: the TSP phase transition Bad: Easy Problems are sometimes Hard †¢ †¢ Abstract †¢ Executive summary †¢ Try for one sentence or so on: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Motivation Method Key result Conclusions Introduction †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ What is the problem? Why is it interesting? What are your contributions? What is the outline of what you will show? Introduction †¢ Lure the reader in a with a good ? rst sentence †¢ Bad: There has been a lot of work recently on phase transition behaviour†¦ Good: Global constraints are central to the success of constraint programming†¦ †¢ Background †¢ Often need to set scene †¢ †¢ †¢ De? ne formalism Get reader up to speed Identify research problem Body of Paper †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Derive theoretical results Propose new algorithm Describe system engineered †¦ Results †¢ Bullet proof paper †¢ Theoretical results †¢ Experiments only provide a limited view †¢ Experimental results †¢ Theory doesn’t show if results are useful in practice. Related work †¢ Has many purposes †¢ †¢ †¢ You give proper credit to prior work You are not re-inventing wheel You can compare what you do with what has been done before Conclusions †¢ †¢ Remind reader of what you have done Place work in wider context †¢ â€Å"What general lessons might be learnt from this study? † †¢ Flag all the exciting open research directions Acknowledgements †¢ Thank all who have helped you †¢ Provided code, data sets, †¦ †¢ Thank ? nancial sponsors Writing †¢ Keep it simple! †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Active, not passive Present, not past or future Long words Short sentences Writing †¢ Avoid temptation to include every result you have †¢ †¢ †¢ Paper needs to be coherent Paper needs to be understandable Many papers are rejected for having too many results! Ethics of Writing †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Authorship Citation Submission Publication Authorship †¢ Who should be an author? †¢ Anyone who has made a signi? cant contribution May not have written any text! Always err on the side of caution †¢ †¢ Authorship †¢ Who should be an author? †¢ †¢ †¢ Ask! You’ll be surprised how often people refuse You can be sure they’ll not work with you again if they feel they should be Authorship †¢ Should my advisor be an author? †¢ †¢ †¢ In ? rst few years of thesis, probably yes .. Once you graduate, you should (be able to) write papers on your own Again, ask! †¢ Citation †¢ Cite all relevant work †¢ †¢ †¢ Reviews always ask about Related Work You’ll want them to cite you It’s central to the scienti? c method †¢ We stand on the shoulders of others Citation †¢ Do I cite myself for a blind review? †¢ †¢ †¢ Yes! You must credit all previous work Either cite [Author, 2004] Or write â€Å"As Walsh has shown previously [Walsh 2004] †¦ † Submission †¢ Can I submit to multiple conferences? †¢ What’s the deal with the disclaimer (†This paper is not under review ..†)? †¢ Can I submit to a journal immediately? †¢ †¢ No hard and fast rules My rule, once reviews are back and paper is effectively in press †¦ Publication †¢ Can I publish my conference paper as it is in a journal? †¢ Probably not, even though conference is not archival Most journals ask you to extend conference paper substantially †¢ †¢ Proofs, more experiments, †¦ Final words †¢ It takes time to learn how to write †¢ Don’t be put off if at ? rst your have papers rejected All of us have papers rejected †¢ †¢ Spend time learning how to write †¢ It will be worth the investment.

Mt everst

Have you ever thought about climbing Mt. Everest? Well, Sir Edman Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people who did. The simarities and differances of â€Å"View from the Summit† by Sir Edman Hillary and the â€Å"The Dream comes True† by Tenzing Norgay are similiar about the events to the top of Mt. Everest, but they're also different in their backgrounds and emotions. They are similiar because they both made it to the top of Everest at 1 1 :30 am. A example is Hillary said, â€Å"At 1 1 :30 am May 29th they reached the top. † Tenzing also said the same thing. They're also similiar because they both had flags at the top of the summit.A example would be Hillary took a picture of Tenzing with the flags at the top. Another example is Tenzing held the United Nation flag the highest under British, Nepals, and Indians below his picture. Finially, they're similiar in the hard challenge they took on before the summit. A example is that Hillary said, â€Å"The ic e cornice would be a challenge. † A second example would be Tenzing said, â€Å"The last chalenge was a struggle. † The two stories are different in their backgrounds. Examples of this is Hillary was a famous climber from Britain while, Norgay was a local guide from Nepal. They were also different in their styles of writing.Hillary wrote more about facts. Fro example 1 5-27'C. Thenzings has more emotional opinions. Finally, they were also different on how they performed the prestiage of Everest. A example is Hillary said, â€Å"l didn't need Tenzings help. † Although, Tenzing said â€Å"Hillary did need my help. † Those are only Just a few similarities they had in their climb to the top of Mt. Everest. They're similiar in the time they reched the top, the flags, and the challenge before the summit. They're different in their backgrounds, styles of writing, and how they performed. Do you still think you would want to climb Mt. Everest or not?

Use the first of the prompt 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Use the first of the prompt 1 - Essay Example Furthermore, the essay also intends to differentiate why or why not the liberal approach has made a difference in Rodriguez’s attitudes as compared to Delbanco. It was in this context that the thoughts of Rodriguez were emphasizing a much liberal form of education as compared to Delbanco. As Rodriguez (597) quoted – â€Å"The boy who first entered a classroom barely able to speak in English, twenty years later concluded his studies in the stately quiet of the reading room in the British Museum†. While on the other hand, Delbanco states - â€Å"The educational imperative is clear: A class should be small enough to permit every student to participate in the give-and-take of discussion under the guidance of an informed, skilled, and engaged teacher†. Again, presenting his views in â€Å"Achieving of Desire,† Rodriguez describes few major difficulties faced by students when balancing life in both academic and working class family stages. His critical emphasis was on learning the attitude of stereotypical students, assuming their relation with a particular working class, who are more likely to spend times in books and class notes rather than spending times with family members or friends. For instance, Rodriguez asserts that a stereotypical student, belonging from a working class family background, often finds a new environment of learning to reward him/her with mental calmness. It is in this context that the findings obtained by Rodriguez rationalize that the school environment as completely different from a working class family. He further asserts that in such a home environment, parents have strong influence on students because of the positive environment, which further increases their chances of academic excellence in their educational career (Rodriguez 597-607). On the other hand, Delbanco in â€Å"College at Risk† provides a distinctive definition of education. Delbanco agrees, â€Å"What those statements have in common—and there is truth in both—is an

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

Critical Review - Essay Example The article is based on a study in an organization where people were more tested with the new method of work and they thoroughly enjoyed it because people had the ease of being watched by their colleagues and friends rather than being watched over by their extremely â€Å"strict rules (Snook 2008 16) bosses. The management realized that the â€Å"employees want to know where the business is going and what they need to focus on† (Kaplan 2007 87). This idea was although introduced in the early 21st century, it was still to be tried and tested upon though â€Å"management fads shift all the time† (Brown and Duguid, 2000, p80). The article deals with the issue of surveillance at the work place "that is becoming the focus of much attention" (Sewell 1998 397) Core Questions: The article emphasizes on a few special pointers. The main one was probably to test how the workers work when they are around their peers who act like their bosses and not actually around their real boss es; who they think can be stricter. Also it shows how workers responded to managerial changes from bureaucratic to concertive control. Throughout this control the workers had their peers manage a group which was specially assigned to do a particular task, for them. Also the main purpose of it was to check how much labor, time and money is saved through concertive control and how quickly the negative or positive changes take place in the organization. Assumptions of the Study: The assumption made on the study was weather concertive control can affect any organization in a positive way or not. Also it was a controlled task to all self managers. They had to act responsibly for all actions. They had to initiate all actions and also commit to them. They had to be responsible for the organization’s performance. They had to be responsible for the quality of the work provided to an individual or of a group. They had to make a balanced group that is that every group should have high e xperienced workers, knowledgeable workers and able workers. Also the assumption was to take it in three stages. The first stage being the simple control one, allowed hired bosses to boss his employees. The second stage was the technological control. This control allowed the technology to look upon the workers. The third stage was the bureaucratic control. This was rather the most systematic stage of the control. And after this was the stage of concertive control that was to change the managing way of the organization, this change allowed self control throughout the organization and also control over the staff by a certain worker was introduced throughout this control How the analysis undertaken in the article helps to achieve these objectives After a lot of brain storming the idea of concertive control was started, hence, it should have at least been represented in a better way. The mangers should have had to have proper rules they had to follow and probably the basic rule for the m anagers should have been to be a little easy going on their staff. Also the research should have been carried out in many organizations instead of being carried out in two or three organizations for a longer period of time. Also discrimination between new and old staff members should not have been made. If an old staff member made a mistake he was punished but if the new staff member made the same mistake he was overlooked. The workers should have been given some time to get adjusted to the environment. The iron cage should have been

Fashion Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fashion Marketing - Essay Example The essay "Fashion Marketing" concerns the marketing in fashion. With a success story that continues even today, Hanes has defined the clothing industry like no other company ever has. Hanes, in 2012 used the social medium Facebook to help grow their relationship with their consumers. Underwear isn’t the first thing you would think of when listing your passions, but Hanes thought it can build an â€Å"emotional connection† with underwear shoppers and get them talking. This type of marketing succeeded. Social media, like Facebook, is at the center of this strategy. On Facebook, where it has 2.5 million likes asked open-ended questions on what your favorite underwear type is or posts that ask you to share your first experience wearing a bra. The brand is trying to get consumers talking. â€Å"Hanes wants to be able to connect with consumers beyond just the transaction,† said David Robertson, director of marketing at Hanes. â€Å"We want to communicate what the bra nd stands for. We want to hear from them and we want to establish more of an emotional connection. That ongoing relationship will lead to increased loyalty and advocacy.† H&M opened its first store in Sweden. Hennes, the name at the time specialized in women’s fashion. The franchise slowly grew opening its first store outside of Sweden in 1963. Today the company has over 2,800 locations worldwide and they specialize in clothing for women, men, and kids, and now underwear. In 2013, H&M incorporated location-based campaigns into their marketing mix.

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 4

Report - Essay Example The following report is going to discuss two companies and their growth – Lazy Oaf Company and Bay & Brown Company. These two companies are major UK textile and apparel manufacturers. This report examines the growth prospects for the two companies trends in fashion have been listed at the close of the report. The aim and objective is to analyze the growth of the industry as a whole with the two companies presenting the model for growth behavior. A company with a vision to originate unconventional, vibrant outfits and frills was well established back in 2001 in East London. It initiated its work by printing t-shirts in a different style called â€Å"Screen Printed T-Shirts† This innovation got great appreciation and got famous in no time. The brand for its quality and uniqueness became reputable and spread its network in Japan, Paris and Italy. Creative designs and distinct style distinguish it from other brands. The company has mission to en light your day with it diverse product range, catering to all ages (Lazy Oaf Company, 2009). Witnessing the current economic downfall throughout the world the company has done remarkably well to maintain its place in the market by taking timely initiatives and launching campaigns and promotional offers that helped it securing its share in the market (Lazy Oaf Prices, 2009). The prices of products have been kept in accordance with the buying ability of masses, not to deprive them their right to buy quality brand. At this critical juncture the performance in terms of growth is uphill with innovation in Fashion stands as essential standpoint. A UK design studio that promotes exclusive compilation of ideas, print designs and notions fabricate for UK and various international fashion industries. Bay and Brown is playing a key role in boosting the image of the company all over the world in terms of setting a benchmark regarding the fine prints and designs famous for their innovation and cost effectiveness (Bay &

Incentive Plan (paraphrase) for my HR class Essay

Incentive Plan (paraphrase) for my HR class - Essay Example It is the responsibility of the supervisor to conduct a performance appraisal on the employees so as to ensure that the desired performance outcome is achieved in the organization. To do this, different performance appraisal methods can be used. One of the methods is the critical incident method in which the supervisor will write positive or negative performance behavior of a particular employee throughout the performance review period. Another method that can be used is the weighted checklist method where by a large list of descriptive statements of effective and ineffective behavior of the job are rated on each employee. The whole idea of performance appraisal is to ensure that the business retains efficient employees who can collectively perform towards the target goal of the business. Performance appraisal is also used in incentive programs of employees in the business. Incentive plans and acknowledgment programs often overlap to accomplish a common goal by being supervisor that increased motivation to perform. But there are differences. Traditionally, incentives are reserved for salespeople and tied to specific behaviors or outcomes like selling a specific product or line of products.

The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton Essay

The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton - Essay Example The author, Thomas Merton, vehemently declares the inevitable existence of the spiritual glow from heavens over human beings for their guidance and supervision to protect and shield them from going astray into the hands of evil because of the continuous temptations of satanic forces haunting the hearts and minds of the children of Adam and Eve. The book narrates, in a very strong manner, the always changing human nature while passing various phases of life. Merton explores the very reality that individuals witness divergent experiences during the course of their life, which certainly influence both their minds and activities. Merton also indicates the power of spirituality to keep the direction of activities towards the right way of commitment, truthfulness and faithfulness. The autobiography reveals the inner feelings of the young man while interacting with so many individuals and institutions prevailing in his surroundings, culture and environment. In the same way, the courageous a nd sympathetic words produced by the writer boost up the morale of the seekers of truth, justice, vigilance and wisdom for the perpetual peace and tranquility of head and heart. The autobiography under study discusses different aspects of the writer’s life from his birth onward. Merton submits him the descendant of the Kiwis, as his ancestors belonged to New Zealand. His parents had settled in France, where the writer was born in January, 1915. The autobiography concentrates on the troubles and problems faced by the writer in his early childhood. The first great tragedy of Merton’s life was the death of his mother, as his mother kicked the bucket in 1921, when Merton was a small child of six years only. He had become as a rolling stone because of remaining busy in traveling from France, to England and the USA to accompany his father on the one hand and for the completion of

Netflix - SWOT analysis and managemetn characteristics PowerPoint Presentation

Netflix - SWOT analysis and managemetn characteristics - PowerPoint Presentation Example Finally, the Netflix model is future-proofed, because the streaming business that originally augmented dvd rentals can grow with the demand for streaming content. Netflix has relatively few weaknesses, but those that exist revolve around the novelty of its business model. People who are not comfortable with the internet (such as aging or rural people) will be resistant to this radical change in rental – furthermore, the subscription service is a barrier to entry to occasional renters or those that rent movies only occasionally. There are extensive opportunities for Netflix. Its robust distribution network, able to get items to consumers in one business day, could be used to distribute other content or products should Netflix decide to expand. Video games or related media spring to mind as an especially viable option, but perhaps Netflix could also expand to book rentals, music rentals and so forth. Netflix is currently also a leader in online streaming video distribution. The obvious growth opportunity here is the development of original material for Netflix online, giving consumers a reason to stick with Netflix rather than go to the numerous copy-cats that exist and have sprung up after Netflix’s success. Netflix, though robust, is not immune from outside threats. One of the biggest threats is the threat to the rental industry in general: the future of media delivery is streaming, but Netflix still relies heavily on dvd rentals for its profit margins. There is danger that Netflix could hurt its own dvd business by building a more robust streaming business, and vice versa. Classic wisdom indicates that people will choose to watch content on one of those two ways, not both. Furthermore, now that Netflix’s model has proven profitable, they will face major competition from upstart companies that might have less pressure to make a profit and lower initial costs. Netflix has a

The Invention and history of Coca Cola( in the United States) Research Paper

The Invention and history of Coca Cola( in the United States) - Research Paper Example Coca-Cola was made-up by him in a three legged brass kettle as a result of serendipity when he was experimenting with the coca leaf and cola nut (The History of Coca-Cola). After preparing the syrup for Coca-Cola, he took the jug along the street to Jacobs Pharmacy. It was at this place that the sample was termed "Excellent!!". The drink was highly appreciated and it was sold at five cents per glass. He accomplished first coke commercial and gave it a slogan "Delicious, Refreshing, Exhilarating!!!" (Fascinating Facts about the Invention of Coca-Cola ®). Pemberton fought during the Civil War for the South. He shifted to Atlanta after the war and started selling patent medicines. He was innovative and this made him operate his own laboratory under the name "Pemberton Chemical Co." The most popular drink sold by Pemberton was "Pembertons French Wine Coca", a drink prepared with wine and coca extract, and was widely accepted to cure nervous disorders, headache etc. The innovation continued and he came up with the "brain tonic", a temperance drink; Frank Robinson, a bookkeeper of Pemberton, first scripted this drink "Coca Cola" and this became the logo of the brand (Inventor of the Week Archive). Later, Asa Griggs Candler made Coca-Cola a popular drink in 1888. With his efforts and alterations he rectified the drink and made it more palatable by eliminating alcohol and cocaine. He popularized the drink through advertisements; moreover, he spent 20% revenue on advertising. Candler was a pioneer to have advertisement pay off in such a grand manner for the company (The History of Coca-Cola). The sale turned over to 4000% between the years 1890-1900. This gargantuan and massive success is attributed to the advertising potential that the company has shown. The advertisements were initiated by Candler, but later Coca-Cola became the most preferred soft drink of small town and big city inhabitants (The History of Coca-Cola). People used to gather to have the

Issue in Sports Essay Example for Free

Issue in Sports Essay Introduction The element of well-being is a natural concern for the whole of mankind. It involves the maintenance of a balance, within him or her, with his or her fellow being and with the environment. The integral role of the individual’s health however is of extreme importance. The spectator of health care verses medical care. Health care refers to the prevention, remedy and handling of illness and the upholding of mental and physical stature through the services of the allied institutions include social insurance, which is a government undertaking for the underprivileged, injured, aged or even jobless citizenry. A pool of contributions from employers and also government income funds social insurance. Health care also includes medical aid, and is a federal state funded program that avails health care form the needy. Primary health care is the aspect of professional health care availed to the patients or distressed at first contact with the health care system. Medical care or Medicare is an insurance section of health care for the aged, focusing on the age 65 and over, that is funded and managed by the federal system. Whereas medical care is dedicated to serving a given age, health care is a broad section (that also includes medical care). The relationship between Health care, and the roots of our cultural convictions; Cultural convictions, existing as ethical and social values dictate the context within which systems function. Civil values like the special stewardship for safeguarding the sacredness of life and the Hippocratic oath influence health care immensely. The relationship of health care and other society demands creates another set of values i. e.availing consumers their respect, high quality service, provision and good value for money whereas consuming employee safely, fairness and a sensitive system (to their plight) they can be proud of. † Religion; essentially spirituality counts more so in matters of health care. Take the example of the Salvation Army movement on the blood transfusion debate. Some other religions will not allow the grafting of tissue from other individuals other than the patient. Constraining health care outreach to the desired of subject, as doctors and nurses refuse to perform medical procedures due to their personal beliefs. Dr. Saha Somnath in the study of the â€Å"Relevance of Cultural Distance between Patients and Physicians to Racial Disparities in Health care† portends that; â€Å"patients reported better relationship when seeing physicians of their own ethnicity or race. † explains the cultural racial disparities in health care. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As addressed to the health care forum, in May 1998 by Daniel Yankelovich† Americans have embraced an expanding pluralism of groups, ways of thinking, points of view, subcultures and values. † That as the world changes and newer systems are embraced its necessary that our social values which concurrently impact on the economy and spiritual (belief) beings be on a balance with the health policy we pursue. References 1. Harold G. , A cross cultural Dialogue On Healthcare Ethics, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999, USA. 2. Lee G. , A Cross Cultural Analysis of Values and Political Economy Issues. Greenwood/Praeger 1994, USA. 3. Susan H. , Religions, Culture and Healthcare: A practical handbook for use in Healthcare Enviroments, Radcliffe Publishing, 2006.

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations Abstract Regarding the ever increasing issue of water scarcity in different countries, the current study plans to apply support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) methods to assess groundwater potential by spring locations. To this end, 14 effective variables including DEM-derived, river-based, fault-based, land use, and lithology factors were provided. Of 842 spring locations found, 70% (589) were implemented for model training, and the rest of them were used to evaluate the models. The mentioned models were run and groundwater potential maps (GPMs) were produced. At last, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the efficiency of the methods. The results of the current study denoted that RFGA, and RF methods had better efficacy than different kernels of SVM model. Area under curve (AUC) of ROC value for RF and RFGA was estimated as 84.6, and 85.6%, respectively. AUC of ROC was computed as SVM- linear ( 78.6%), SVM-polynomial (76.8%), SVM-sigmoid (77.1%), and SVM- radial based function (77%). Furthermore, the results represented higher importance of altitude, TWI, and slope angle in groundwater potential. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred to other places with water scarcity issues for groundwater potential assessment and management. Key words: Geographic information system, Ardebil, Iran, Support vector machine, Random forest, Genetic algorithm Introduction Water scarcity is regarded as one of the most substantial soicio-environmental challenges in different countries. The demand on groundwater is increasing, and the overexploitation of this valuable resource is threatening future generations (Todd and Mays 2005; Rekha and Thomas 2007); Thus, its management is believed to be vital. A better water resources management plan would be possible when there is enough knowledge about the resources (i.e. high potential and susceptible zones). In recent years, researchers have made use of a variety of models to map groundwater potential such as frequency ratio (FR), weight of evidence (WofE), logistic regression (LR), index of entropy, evidential belief function (Oh et al. 2011; Ozdemir 2011a, b; Pourtaghi and Pourghasemi 2014; Davoodi Moghaddam et al. 2015; Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Naghibi et al. 2015). Also, some researchers used machine learning methods including boosted regression tree (BRT), classification and regression (CART), general linear model (GLM), and RF algorithms in this field of study (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). Lee et al (2012) employed artificial neural network (ANN) to assess groundwater productivity. Their results showed satisfactory performance of ANN. Recently [M1]Naghibi et al. (2017) used four recently developed data mining models including AdaBoost, Bagging generalized additive model, and naÃÆ' ¯ve bayes for groundwater potential mapping. They have also introduced a novel ensemble method from combination of the mentioned models and FR. In addition, Magaji et al. (2016) used geographic information system and evidential belief function model to produce groundwater recharge potential zones map. Theodossiou (2004) investigated how climate change influences the sustainability of groundwater in watershed-scale in Greece. Furthermore, Thivya et al. (2016) conducted a study to identify recharge mechanisms of groundwater in hard rock aquifers implementing stable isotopes. Support vector machine (SVM) algorithm has been employed in different fields of study such as flood susceptibility assessment (Tehrany et al. 2014; Tehrany et al. 2015), and landslide susceptibility investigation (Brenning 2005; Kavzogluetal 2014; Tien Bui et al. 2012; Yao et al. 2008; Yilmaz 2010; Tien Bui et al. 2015; Chen et al. 2017) with suitable efficacy. Genetic algorithm is one of the most advanced and pervasive developed heuristic search techniques in artificial intelligence and its application has been done in many fields of study including urban planning, ecological, climatic modelling, and remote sensing studies (Hasegava et al. 2013; Termansen et al. 2006; Chang et al. 2006; Chen et al. 2009). In the current study, we aim to investigate the performance of a novel method for optimization of random forest and its results are compared with RF and SVM models in groundwater potential mapping. Based on the literature review, application of different kernels of SVM and RFGA in groundwater potential mapping are two main novelties of this study. Also, the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential is discussed. The results of the current study could determine high potential and susceptible groundwater potential zones and be used by water resource managers. Material and Methods Figure 1 shows the methods and the flowchart implemented in the current study. Study Area: The study area lies from 48 ° 18à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 48 ° 53à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 16à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ eastern longitudes and from 37 ° 41à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 23à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 37 ° 09à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ northern latitudes in Ardebil Province, Iran (Fig. 2). It covers an area of 1,524 km2. The elevation in the study area ranges from 840 to 3,320 m above sea level with an average of 1,930 m. The mean annual precipitation of Khalkhal region is measured as 345 mm. The mean annual temperature of Khalkhal region is 12 degrees Centigrade. In the respect of land use, 89.69% of Khalkhal region is covered by rangeland, and other land use classes are forest, agriculture, orchard, and residential areas. In the respect of lithology, Khalkhal region comprises of 14 lithological categories. Eav class (andesitic volcanic) covers most of the study area. Khalkhal region is located in Ardebil province of Iran which includes 14 hydrological watersheds. The se watersheds are located in three main parts including central part, Khoresh Rostam, and Shahrood areas. In this area people exploit water resources by wells (42%), springs (47%), and qanats (11%); therefore, it can be seen that a high percent of the water requirement is obtained by springs. Data preparation Spring characteristics The springs location map was prepared for the study area using national reports (Iranian Department of Water Resources Management) and extensive field surveys in 1:50,000 scale. From 842 springs identified in the study area, 70% (589 springs) were considered for training purpose, and 30% (253 springs) were used as validation dataset (Fig. 2). Approximately ninety percent of the springs are permanent and ten percent of them are seasonal. Discharge of the springs in Khalkhal region alters between 0.1 and 100 liters per second having an average of 1 liter per second. It can be seen that there are different kinds of spring in the study area such as contrast, drainage, and fracture springs with 5.34%, 29.81%, 58.08%, and 6.77% of the springs, respectively. The average pH of the springs is measured as 6.68. The average electric conductivity (EC) of the springs is measured as 470 . Groundwater effective factors In this study, based on the literature review (Ozdemir 2011a, b; Oh et al. 2011; Naghibi et al. 2017), fourteen groundwater effective factors such as altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, slope length (LS), SPI, TWI, distance from rivers, river density, distance from faults, fault density, land use, and lithology were provided and mapped. The digital elevation model (DEM) of the Khalkhal region was created using the 1:50,000-scale topographic maps in 20 m resolution. Groundwater effective-factors such as altitude, slope angle, and slope aspect were prepared using DEM in ArcGIS 9.3 and represented in Fig. 3a-c. Plan curvature describes the divergence and convergence of flow and discriminates among basins (Fig. 3d). Profile curvature shows the rate at which the slope gradient alters in the direction of maximum slope (Catani et al. 2013) (Fig. 3e). Slope length is the combination of the slope length and slope steepness that shows soil loss potential from the combined slope features (Fig. 3f). SPI is a measure of the erosive power of flowing water based on the assumption that discharge is relative to specific catchment area (Moore et al. 1991) (Fig. 3g). The TWI affects accumulation and movement of surface runoff over the land surface (Elmahdy and Mostafa Mohamed 2014) (Fig. 3h). Distance from rivers and river density were created using topographical map of Khalkhal region (Fig. 3i, j). Also, distance from fault and fault density layers were produced using geological map (Fig. 3k, l). The land use map was created using Landsat images (Fig 3m). There are five land use classes in the study area such as agriculture, forest, orchard, rangeland, and residential area. Most of the study area is covered by the rangeland land use class. The lithology map was acquired using a 1:100,000-scale geological map and the lithological units were grouped into fourteen classes (GSI 1997, Fig. 3n, Table 1). Support vector machines (SVM) SVM is known as a supervised machine learning technique that is performed based on the (SRM: structural risk minimization) principle and statistical learning theory (Tien Bui et al. 2012). SVM transforms original input space into a higher-dimensional feature space to find an optimum separating hyper plane. Marjanovic ´ et al (2011) affirmed that separating hyper-plane is built in the original space of n coordinates between the points of two distinct classes. If the point is situated over the hyper-plane it will be classified as positive 1, if not, it will be classified as negative 1. Penalty (C) controls the trade-off between margin and training errors, which assists to prevent the models over-fitting (Marjanovic ´ et al. 2011). The kernel width (É ¤) controls the degree of nonlinearity of the model (Tien Bui et al. 2012). Parameter (d) is the polynomial degree in the PL kernel function and (r) is the bias term in the kernel function for two kernels of SVM including PL and SIG kernels (Tehrany et al. 2014). In the current study, the 10-fold cross-validation was used to select the optimal kernel parameters of SVM (Pradhan 2013; Zhuang and Dai 2006). Random forest (RF) model Random forests (RFs) are very flexible and powerful ensemble classifiers based on decision trees which were firstly developed by Breiman (2001). RF constructs multiple trees based on random bootstrapped samples of the training dataset (Breiman 2001). The algorithm runs random binary trees that implement a subset of the observations over bootstrapping approach, of the initial dataset a random choice of the training data is selected and implement to create the model, the data which is not included are described as out of bag (OOB) (Catani et al. 2013). The RF predicts the importance of a variables by looking at how much the error of prediction increases when out of bag data for that variable is permuted while all others are left fixed (Liaw and Wiener 2002; Catani et al. 2013). Random forests need two parameters to be tuned including the number of trees (ntree), and the number of variables (mtry). Genetic algorithm (GA) model A genetic algorithm (GA) is a search heuristic which mimics the natural selection process in the field of artificial intelligence. GA beings with a population of presented random solutions in some structure series. Then, a number of operators are repeatedly implemented, until convergence is obtained. As a matter of fact, the optimization strategy in GA could be described as a global optimization procedure with the benefit of not being dependent on the initial value to gain the convergence. Crossover and mutation are implemented to produce newer and better chromosomes populations (Yetilmezsoy and Demirel 2008). Random forest optimization methods In this study, we used two different methods for RF parameter optimization including caret package and genetic algorithm. Both of the models were applied in the R software. At first, we presented a hybrid RFGA model to predict groundwater potential which was firstly introduced by Hasegawa et al (2013) in the field of commute mode choice analysis. A simple method is trial and error, but there are many mixtures of parameters, and it needs much iteration to evaluate the options. Another method for optimization of these parameters is to use caret package. So, we proposed a practical method for optimizing the parameters of RF by meta- heuristic optimization using GAs. The rgenoud package of the R program (R Core Team 2012); Mebane and Sekhon (2011) were used to implement the optimizing process of RF parameters ntree and mtry. Input parameters of the RFGA model are subject to the GA-based parameter optimization process. Only that pair of parameters that minimizes the OOB error rate in this step is used as input to the RFGA model. For running RFGA, maximum number of generations was considered as 100, the population size was 300 and the domain of allowable valu es for each parameter of the function being optimized (mtry values between 1 and 14, ntree values between 1 and 2000). The run time of this process till the calculation is complete was approximately 2 h 20 min. Validation of groundwater potential maps (GPM) In the current study, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine the performance of the GPMs produced using the implemented models. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) shows the quality of a forecast system by representing the ability of the system to predict correctly the occurrence or nonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ occurrence of specific events (Negnevitsky 2002). The area under the curve of ROC ranges from 0 to 1. The qualitative relationship between AUC and prediction accuracy could be classified as excellent (0.9-1), very good (0.8-0.9), good (0.7-0.8), average (0.6-0.7), and poor (0.5-0.6). Based on the reviewer comment, and in order to consider the discharge values of the springs, two weights were assigned to the springs to take their discharge into account in the evaluation process. For conducting this idea, median was calculated for discharge values of the springs. Then, weight 2 was assigned to the springs with greater discharge than the median value, while othe r springs were assigned to a weight of 1. Finally, for calculating ROC values, values of the springs with weight 2 were considered twice in the analysis, while other springs were considered once. This procedure enhances the influence of the springs with higher discharges in the evaluation process. Results Support vector machine In the current study, four kernels of the SVM model were optimized by cross-validation and GPMs were plotted in ArcGIS 9.3. Based on the results, the best SVM with LN kernel had a cost value of 0.001. The results of PL kernel showed that gamma=0.5, cost= 0.1, and degree= 2 had the best performance. In the case of SVM-SIG, best performance was gained by gamma= 1, and c= 0.01. The results of SVM-RBF showed that gamma= 0.5, c= 10 had the best performance. The resultant GPMs produced using different kernels of the SVM are represented in Fig. 5 and Table 2. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by SVM-LN occupy 15.88, 36.05, 33.75, and 14.32% of the study area, respectively. Low, moderate, high, and very high classes in SVM-PL cover 3.38, 22.12, 47.52, and 26.98% of the study area, respectively. In the case of SVM-SIG, 22.87, 32.98, 30.50, and 13.64% of the study area were designated to the low, moderate, high, and very high classes, respectively. The results of SVM-RBF showed that low, moderate, high, and very high classes cover 22.01, 45.85, 22.39, and 9.74% of the study area, respectively. Random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) As mentioned in the methods section, two methods were used to optimize RF model including caret and genetic algorithm. Final model by RF-caret had ntree= 1600, and mtry= 2, while final model by RFGA had ntree= 1744, and mtry= 2. The results showed that out of bag error for RFGA (0.316) was lower than its value for RF-caret (0.35%). Also, the results of the ROC analysis showed better performance of RFGA than RF-caret by area under the curve of ROC values of 86.5, and 85.6, respectively. Considering the better performance of the RFGA model, its results about the importance of effective factors and final GPM were represented and the results of RF-caret were ignored. Figure 4 represents the mean decrease accuracy, and mean decrease Gini obtained by RFGA. According to the mean decrease accuracy, altitude had the highest importance, followed by TWI, slope angle, and aspect, while the profile curvature, and plan curvature had lowest importance. On the other hand, results of the mean decrease Gini depicted that land use, and lithology were the least important factors in groundwater potential mapping. The GPM produced using RFGA is represented in Fig. 5. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by RFGA occupy 27.2, 32.4, 25.5, and 14.8% of the study area, respectively. Validation of the GPMs The ROC was calculated for all GPMs with springs validation dataset. The results of AUC-ROC are represented in Fig. 6. AUC-ROC for GPMs produced by the implemented methods in the current study ranges from 76.9 to 85.5%. AUC-ROC values for RF and RFGA were estimated as 84.6, and 85.5%, respectively. AUC-ROC values were estimated for SVM- LN, SVM-PL, SVM-SIG, and SVM- RBF as 79.3, 77, 77.7, and 76.9%, respectively. Discussion In this section, the results are discussed by three parts including (i) the performance of the models, (ii) the importance of the effective factors, and (iii) the precision of the GPMs. The performance of the models: The results showed that RFGA represented better performance than RF-caret. One of the advantages of GA is the capability to solve any optimization problem based on chromosome approach; another important characteristic of GA is its capability to handle multiple solution search spaces and solve the problem in such an environment (Tabassum and Mathew 2014). These advantages may have caused RFGAs better performance in the current study. Also, it can be seen that both RFs (i.e. RF-caret and RFGA) had better performance than different kernels of SVM model. The results of different SVM kernels showed that SVM-LN had the best performance, followed by SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL; However, their performance was similar. Based on the results, it is evident that SVM could be used as an efficient machine learning model in groundwater potential mapping. One of the drawbacks of the SVM relates to the needed time for the analysis. In addition, several criteria should be tested in order to find the optimum values for the modeling process (Tehrany et al. 2015). However, the efficiency of the SVM could be increased by making ensemble models. In a research, Tehrany et al (2015) used an ensemble weights of evidence and SVM model in flood mapping. Their results proved the efficiency and strength of the ensemble method over the individual methods. There are several potential reasons for error in the datasets implemented for groundwat er modeling, including measurement errors, limitations in field data collection, sampling bias, etc. The mentioned errors could affect the overall accuracy of the SVM models (Moisen et al. 2006). The importance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping The importance of effective factors was determined using RFGA as the best model in the current study. Based on the results, in total, altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors on groundwater potential. On the other hand, plan curvature, profile curvature, land use, and lithology were the least effective factors on groundwater potential. A growing body of literature investigates the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential mapping (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). The results of Naghibi and Pourghasemi (2015) showed that altitude, distance from faults, SPI, and fault density had the highest importance in groundwater potential mapping. In another research, Rahmati et al (2016) depicted that altitude, drainage density, lithology, and land use were the most influence factors on groundwater potential. Comparing the results of the current study and the results of the two mentioned researches shows that the impo rtance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping is dependent on the indicator, methods, and hydrological, geological, and climatic conditions of the target area. The precision of the GPMs: With this assumption that a better model is the one which determines the high and very high classes more precisely, a model with lower percent of high and very high classes area could be more helpful in water resources planning and management. A more precise GPM could help water resources managers to make better and more accurate decisions about areas for exploitation and even water conservation techniques. According to the results, SVM-RBF, and RFGA models had the lowest percent of the high and very high classes with 32.1, and 40.3% of the study area, respectively. Conclusion In general, the water crisis in the 21th century is much more related to management and planning than to a real crisis of scarcity and drought stress. Lack of knowledge of water resources and inappropriate water resources management plans and strategies have made water crisis worse in arid and semi- arid regions. Therefore, the first step in appropriate planning of water resources is to know and gain knowledge of these vital resources. Groundwater is one of the most important water resource supplies, especially in arid and semi- arid countries with extreme lack of water, growing population, and successive droughts. Considering the mentioned problems and issues, in the current study, we evaluated the performance of different kernels of SVM model and two strategies for optimization of RF (i.e. caret and GA). The results of the current study showed that RFGA had the best performance, followed by SVM-LN, SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL. The RFGA was successfully implemented in the current s tudy. Also, different kernels of the SVM were used for producing GPMs with acceptable performances. However, their result was not as well as RFs performance. Furthermore, it can be seen that altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors in groundwater potential assessment. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred and tested in other areas for producing GPMs. As a final conclusion, GPMs could significantly help water resources managers and planners for better understanding of water resources conditions, exploitation, and conservation plans.

Study of Employee Behavior causing Accidents at the Workplace

Study of Employee Behavior causing Accidents at the Workplace Safety behavior is the key for reducing the injuries at the workplace and indirectly influencing the outcomes of the event before the injuries or accidents occurred (Johnson, 2003). There are many studies in occupational safety concluded that the root of the accident causes is human behavior (Geller, 2000; Cooper, 1998, 2000; Johnson, 2003). Therefore, it shows the relationship between the human and their behavior on causing the accident at the workplace. Studies indicate that more than 85% of workplace injuries and accidents can be linked to human error of commission or omission (LaBar, 1996). Granot (1998) also admits it in his review that industrial disaster is truly about people and their behavior. Most of studies in human safety behavior issues concerning only on the concept of safety culture (safety climate), defined as the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the organizations safety performance (Health and Safety Commission, 1993, p.23). Rasmussen (1990) expresses concern that despite the growing complexity, size and change in todays technical system, they continue to depend on human involvement for their safe operation. Previous researcher such as Mullen (2002), Subramaniam (2004) and Mahmood, Isa, Mustafa, Aziz Salleh (2009) did study several factors that have direct relationship with safety behavior such as organizational factors, safety commitment and human factors but they did not stressed out any variables that could mediated the relationship between those variables. Therefore, no study conducted to identify whether these relationship could be mediated by another factors such as attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, beliefs and personality. This study will not only help to improve the safety behavior at the workplace but it will also increase Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) knowledge and perception towards safety behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate what are the main factors that influence human safety behavior among SMEs manufacturing chemical products in Northern Area of Malaysia. It is also seeks to identify the crucial parts in safety and health that is human factors which will influence the safety measures at the workplace. Besides that, it is also to identify the factors that need to be improved to achieve excellent standards of safety management at SMEs. To dig deeper into the causes of accidents at the worksite, one must understand the role of human factors, which are often the cause of human error. It is also to understand the factors that influenced the safety measures at the workplace. Industry Background Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs), plays a major role in the Malaysian economy. The development of SMEs has received much attention since the implementation of the New Economic Policy (1971 1990). It was then emphasized in the Second Long Term Malaysian Plan (1991-2000). A survey done in 1994 found that there were 12,000 SMEs established in Malaysia made up of 88% small enterprises and 12% medium-sized enterprises. These SMEs employed 33% of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. The importance of small and medium-sized businesses in helping the economic development of our nation cannot be refuted. Besides creating job opportunities, SMEs play a crucial role in contributing to the prosperity of big and multinational corporations. They enhance the industry through their creativity and innovation. In Malaysia, various agencies adopt different definitions of SMEs depending on their business interests. However one common definition is that provided by the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC) which defines SMEs according to two main factors i.e. annual sales turn over and number of full time workers. Medium sized business is a business establishment with an annual sales turnover of between RM10 million and RM25 million and which employs more than 150 full-time workers while a small sized business is a business establishment8 with an annual sales turnover of not more than RM10 million and which employs not more than 50 full time workers. SMEs offer different and unique challenges to the manager who is generally the owner of the business. Considering their importance to the countrys economic development agenda, the governments commitment to the development of SMEs has been clearly evident since the early 1970s (Saleh Ndubisi, 2006). Various forms of assistance have been given by the government to ensure the successful development of SMEs. Examples of the assistance are access to market and financial support, RD, the use of ICT, technology to enhance productivity and quality control as well as access to skilled labors (SME Performance Report, 2005). As a result of the growth of SMEs, safety measures should be taken into account seriously. It is because accidents at workplace can be prevented if employers and employees are more sensitive or have good safety behavior (Makin Sutherland, 1994; Christian, Wallace, Bradley, Burke, 2009). Moreover, to get better understanding of safety behavior, employers need to cater the human factors that can contribute to accidents at workplace and the employees to have some responsibility towards their own safety. Accidents at workplace involve monetary cost as the amount of compensation paid out to employees cost more than what it is perceived. The amount has been high in the last few years and this costs a lot of money to the economy, which can otherwise be used for other productive purposes such as an investment in new technology to boost productions. In 2003, compensation due to accidents amounted to a staggering RM 745 million. The amount increased to RM 817 million in 2004 and continued to rise to RM 883 million in 2005 (Labor and Human Resources Statistics 2001-2005, 2009). According to Thye (2009), 70% of all occupational diseases are due to the chemical exposure, which results in problems like skin diseases, poisoning and respiratory disorders. Previous studies showed that the occurrences of diseases and sickness were partly due to the improper use of personal protective equipment, from selection of such equipment to its washing or disposal (Thye, 2009). Therefore, this study will focus on SMEs manufacturing chemical products for agricultural industries and cleaning services. It is because from the data obtained most of the SMEs company at the Northern Region are producing chemical products for the agricultural and cleaning services. Problem Statement One of the topics in human resource management that is gaining attention is safety management. Generally, previous studies on safety focused on areas such as safety and health legislative compliance (Townsend, 1998), OSH implementation (Surienty, Hong Hung, 2010), OSH performance (Surienty, Hong Hung, 2010) safety climate (Zohar, 2000; Flin, Mearns, OConnors Bryden, 2000; Dedobbeleer Belan, 1991) and safety culture (Abd. Aziz, 2008; Clarke, 1999; Cooper, 1998; Cox Flin, 1998). In term of the context of the study, previous research have concentrated more on investigating safety behavior and lifestyle involving employees in construction sites (Aksorn Hadikusumo, 2007; Tam Fung, 1998; Toole, 2002) and less research focusing on manufacturing. Review of related literature revealed studies that emphasized on human factors and safety behavior are relatively spare. For example, Granot (1998) in his review of human factor in industrial disaster comprises that human beings are at the heart of disaster. They frequently play an active role in causing industrial failure through their shortcoming and fallibility. Human error can occur in every stage of industrial activities. Similarly, Yon (2007) states that consideration in studying human factors that influence safety behavior and lifestyle at the workplace has been a crucial reason for the researcher to study further on these matters. Yons (2007) study involved SMEs in Penang which focused on the factors that associated to the chemical safety. The factors are management of chemicals, employees cooperation, training and education, process hazard analysis and hazard identification, safe work procedures and practices, chemical safety data sheets, personal protective equipment progra mmes, emergency measures and first aid, operational control measures, medical surveillance programme, monitoring of workers exposure, warning sign and recordkeeping. Yon (2007) admitted that human is the key factors to ensure safety at the workplace but since her study are not focusing on the human factors, no further discussion was made. Eventhough human factors can be one of the factors on that studies, little consideration had been given. Workers play an important role in causing occupational accident but many researches continue to see human factor in a very narrow perspective. Previous researcher such as Mullen (2002), Subramaniam (2004) and Mahmood, Isa, Mustafa, Aziz Saleh (2009) did study several factors that have direct relationship with safety behavior such as organizational factors, safety commitment and human factors but they did not stressed out any variables that could mediated the relationship between those variables. Therefore, no study conducted to identify whether these relationship could be mediate by another factors such as attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, beliefs and personality. One of the models that emphasized on safety behavior is a model proposed by Subramaniam (2004). According to his model, safety behavior is the outcome of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors. However, his model is lacking because the model did not take into account several important variables such as personality, communication, and knowledge and his model only proposed a direct relationship between human factors and safety behaviors. His study conducted at residential colleges in a local Malaysian university. Therefore, this study will conducted on the working environment because the situations are more expose to the hazard. This study will utilized his model and proposed predisposing factors as intervening variable in order to help gain further understanding of the antecedents of safety behavior at SMEs. In terms of theoretical perspective, Ajzens (1980, 1991) theory of planned behaviour (TPB) appears well-suited to the explanation of the link between human factors and safety behaviour in this study. This theory derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behavior. The theory was, born largely out of frustration with traditional attitude-behavior research, much of which found weak correlations between attitude measures and performance of volitional behaviors (Hale, Householder, Greene, 2003, p. 259). The key application of this theory is prediction of behavioral intention, spanning predictions of attitude and predictions of behavior. The subsequent separation of behavioral intention from behavior allows for explanation of limiting factors on attitudinal influence (Azjen, 1980). This theory will help refining the model that will be used to explain variance in the aspect of safety behavior. The TPB draws our attenti on to the role of subjective norms and the intervening construct of intentions, which in this case are the enabling and reinforcing factors as intervened by predisposing factors, which are useful additions to the network of variables that interact to influence safety behaviors. Why human factor should be related to safety behavior? Employee with high level of reinforcing and enabling factors will reflect a highly awareness (predisposing) employee. On the other hand, safety behavior is regarded as desirable among employees. So, we can expect that employees with high level of enabling and reinforcing factors that mediated by predisposing factors should be related positively to safety behavior. Meanwhile, SMEs in Malaysia continue to face many challenges both traditionally and new challenges. Previous studies by Watfa, Awan and Goodson (1998) showed that occupational safety and health conditions at the small medium enterprises (SMEs) were a cause for concern. One of the many challenges that SMEs face is the high workplace accidents rate which may reflect badly to the way safety and workers well-being are being handled by Malaysian SMEs. It is further supported by the Director General of Department Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH), Che Man (2010) who estimated about 80 to 90 percent of the accidents reported to workmen compensation scheme (SOCSO) is from SMEs. Also, the Chairman of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Thye (2009), studies showed that the occurrence of diseases and sickness in workplace were partly due to improper use of personal protective equipment, from selection of such equipment to its washing or disposal. He also s tated that almost 70% of all occupational diseases are due to chemical exposure, which results in problems like skin diseases, poisoning and respiratory disorders (Thye, 2009). The enforcement of applicable occupational safety and health legislation is also often limited to large enterprises due to inadequate inspection capacity of the SMEs by the competent authorities. Thus, millions of workers in SMEs are not sufficiently protected by the existing legislation. In addition, workers in informal sectors are often out of reach of most of safety and health programs. Hence, given the importance of safety behaviors among employees working with SMEs, this study will focuses on examining the effect of human factors; enabling and reinforcing factors mediated by predisposing factor on safety behaviors. This study is relevant in order to investigate the extent of safety implementation in manufacturing setting in particular in SMEs. In focusing on the human factors, the consequences in their aftermath also have to be considered. It is to see how they cope with them when its occurred. Any perspective should not to be overlooked when it deals with human factors because as stated earlier human play an important role in causing an accident at the workplace. Research Questions Whether dimensions of reinforcing factors (communications, societal influences and modeling) are related with safety behavior? Whether dimensions of enabling factors (resources, policies and skills) are related with safety behavior? Whether dimensions of predisposing factors (knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions and personality) mediated the relationship between the reinforcing factors (communications, societal influences and modeling) and safety behavior? Whether dimensions of predisposing factors (knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions and personality) mediated the relationship between the enabling factors (resources, policies and skills) and safety behavior? Research Objectives Generally, the purpose of the study is to find out whether the human factors will influence the safety behavior at SMEs. To identify whether dimensions of reinforcing factors (communications, societal influences and modeling) are related with safety behavior. To study whether dimensions of enabling factors (resources, policies and skills) are related with safety behavior. To examine whether dimensions of predisposing factors (knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions and personality) are related with safety behavior. To examine whether dimensions of predisposing factors (knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions and personality) mediated the relationship between the reinforcing factors (communications, societal influences and modeling) and safety behavior. To evaluate whether dimensions of predisposing factors (knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions and personality) mediated the relationship between the enabling factors (resources, policies and skills) and safety behavior. Scope of the Study The scope of the study is focusing on the human factors that will influence safety measures at SMEs in Northern area. It will focus on two main factors that influenced workers safety behavior mediated by predisposing factors. The factors are predisposing, reinforcing, enabling. Besides, the researcher also found other variables that are communication or co-ordination problems and poor social climates. These variables are not being used in this study because it is unsuitable with the working environment at SMEs in Northern area. The population for this study includes the SMEs in Northern area employees who are working in manufacturing sector. Significance of the study Generally, this study will help to improve the safety behavior at the workplace but it will also increase SMEs knowledge and perception towards safety behavior. Furthermore, it will also help to improve the safety implementation at their company. This research also can help SMEs to understand factors that contribute to the accidents and develop control strategies to prevent accidents happened at the workplace. To ensure the safety environment and culture at the workplace, employees need to be educate about the human factors that related to their behaviors in order to prevent accident and work related injuries. It is important for the employees to aware that accident can be prevented if they are really working forward to it. Finally, it can also contribute to an academic knowledge for future researcher where it is expected to highlight the relationship between human factors and safety behavior. Definition of Key Terms Safety behavior can be defined as personal actions that prevent physical injury to self (Nursing Outcome Classifications, 2009). Human factors is defined as environmental, organizational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behavior at work in a way which can affect health and safety (Health and Safety Executive, 1999) Predisposing factors are the characteristics of the individual such as belief, attitudes and values that facilitate or hinder self-protective behavior. Predisposing factors are conceptualized as providing the motivation for a specific behavior (Subramaniam, 2004). Reinforcing factors involve any reward or punishment that follows or is anticipated as a consequence of the behavior (Subramaniam, 2004). Enabling factors are defined as factors antecedent to behavior that allow motivation or aspiration that is to be realized (Subramaniam, 2004). Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) are separately defined by SMIDEC. Small sized business is a business establishment with an annual sales turnover of not more than RM10 million and which employs not more than 50 full time workers while medium sized business is a business establishment with an annual sales turnover of between RM10 million and RM25 million and which employs more than 150 full-time workers. Conclusion This chapter has placed of introduction, problem statement, companys background, research questions, research objectives, significance of the study, and limitations of the study and organizations of the study. The next chapter will tackle the previous literature related to this study such as safety behavior, predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction The literature review discussed about all the variables in this research study, which is predisposing factors, reinforcing factors and enabling factors. It is important in order to study the human factors that will influence the safety measures at the workplace. This is also to provide overview from the past research that related to this study. The researcher is using the secondary data as their resources. The literature reviews are used to develop theoretical framework and hypothesis of the study. It also exists in synthesizing the methodology as well as findings. Safety Behavior Hassan, Basha and Hanafi (2007) stated that safety behavior is reflected by good attitude. They also stressed out that many incidents/accidents that occurred in the workplace especially in the building construction sites were due to inadequate adherence of workers to work procedures. Therefore, the interactive relationship between peoples behavior, their attitudes and perceptions they hold, and the situation or environment in workplace should be taken into account (Dedobbeleer et al, 1991). Much of this literature has focused on the concept of safety culture (safety climate), defined as the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the organizations safety performance (Health and Safety Commission, 1993, p.23). Rasmussen (1990) expresses concern that despite the growing complexity, size and change in todays technical system, they continue to depend on human involvement for their safe operation. Granot (1998), stated that industrial disaster is truly about people and their behavior. Hale and Glendon (1987) cited the Confederation of British Industry phrase the root of the problem is human behavior. Human Factors Health and Safety Executive (1999) in its publication Reducing Error and influencing behavior has defined human factors as environmental, organizational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics that influence behavior at work in a way, which can affect health and safety. Attention towards human factors role in accident causation has increased recent years and it can be seen by the evolution of models accident causation (DeJoy, 1990). It is important in order to understand the impact of human factors in causing an accident at the workplace. DeJoy (1996) in his study has developed a human factors model that consists three categories of causal factors that consists predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors and he also provide a control strategies that include in his model: engineering, self protection, and organizational management. Subramaniam (2004) then, adopt this model to study the relationship between human factors and fire safety behavior and lifestyle at re sidential colleges in a local Malaysian university. Eventhough he is adopted DeJoys human factors model, he does not include the control strategies and only study a direct relationship between human factors and fire safety behavior and lifestyle. Hence this study will modified the model in order to provide a more comprehensive model in understanding the human behavior at the workplace. Predisposing Factors According to Subramaniam (2004), person characteristics such as belief, attitudes and values are predisposing factors that facilitate or hinder self-protective behavior. He also stated that predisposing factors can be conceptualized by providing a motivation for a specific behavior. Predisposing factors consists items such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions (Subramaniam, 2004). Knowledge Knowledge agreed well defined as an organized combination of ideas, rules, procedures and information (Subramaniam, 2004). Safety and health knowledge takes on particular importance to workers, especially for the manual workers. Inadequate safety knowledge, pointing to deficiencies with education and training engaging in unsafe acts and the actions, behavior, capabilities and communication of the work team are affected by or shaped by their attitudes, motivations, knowledge, skills, supervision, health and fatigue (Haslam, Hide, Gibb, Gyi, Pavitt, Atkinson and Duff, 2004). Attitudes Most of the researchers agreed that attitudes are also one of the main roots that cause the way how the individual behave. Glendon and Mc Kenna (1995) suggests that attitudes are related to safe and unsafe behaviors. It is agreed that the attitudes will facilitate on how the individual will react or behave. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) also agreed that attitudes are learned, involved a tendency to act and are consistent and specific to particular stimuli. The current study found that worker safety attitudes (workers concern for safety conflict between productions and safety) was significantly predictive for unsafe behaviors, but only the latter was predictive of workplace accident (Clarke, 2004). Gellor (2001) has investigated the safety triad theory in which he thought that maintaining a continuous process to three domains, which are environment, person, and behavior. Person will reflect the competency of a worker where as the behavior illustrates the attitudes of workers in carrying o ut job safely (Gellor, 2001). Beliefs Beliefs can be concluded as individual strong feeling that something true and real. Mullen (2004) emphasize that individual tend to believe that it is acceptable to continue to engage in unsafe behavior due to the overly optimistic belief that they are immune to or greatly underestimate (Chapin, 2001) the risks associated with the behavior. It can be indicate that an individual feels secure on the routine they had gone through. The individual beliefs that it wont happen to me has been found to be a reason of the unsafe behavior (Mullen, 2004). Perceptions Granot (1998) emphasize that resignation to fate in certain traditional cultures makes it harder to mitigate dangers in some societies than in others. Individual perceived accidents as fate or it is written in their journey of life in some religion supported by Granot (1998) that event occurred is the role of destiny in some Mediterranean cultures, the will of Allah among Muslims or Karma in Hindu Tradition. Reinforcing Factors Reinforcing factors involve any reward or punishment that follows or is anticipated as consequences of the behavior (Subramaniam, 2004). According to Subramaniam (2004), reinforcing factors involved items such as feedback, societal influences, societal opportunities, modeling, and repercussion. In this study, researcher has considered to analyze only three items that is feedback, societal influences, and modeling. It is because previous study by Mullen (2004) has revealed these factors (feedback, societal influences, and modeling) has become the most influenced factors towards safety behavior (Mullen, 2004) Feedback/Communications Zohar (2002) argues that supervisors who demonstrate greater individualized consideration in their supervisory practices encourage open, informal safety communication, which in turns affects injury rate. Researchers agreed that an open conversation between co-workers, supervisor and management about safety issue will lead to the safety behavior. Ineffective communication regarding safety issues occurs between workers within an organization as well as between workers and subcontractors often found to be a factor in the cause of workplace accidents (Ayers and Kleiner, 2000). Hassan et.al (2007) in his analysis of study stated that line management involvement such as relationship with worker, talk on safety and advice on safety matter is related to the workers safety behavior and motivation. According to Cudworth (2010) in her articles on positive impact of communication on safety at Shell stated that communications within the organization plays the vital role to ensure the safety perfo rmance is at the zero level. Societal influences Many of the relevant definitions of safety culture emphasis share attitudes, values and beliefs and stress the interactions with the organizations safety structures and control systems and appropriate behavioral norms (Reason, 1998; Uttal, 1983). Furnham (1997) explains that in terms of the societal, environmental, and historical influence on the organization or group; for example, the evolution of an organization might have some effect on its culture. It means that the environment of work also give effects towards safety behavior. For example, co-workers, supervisor views on the safety itself whether they are concern or not. Modeling It was perceived by the individual that they had to experience some type of shock or close call that would raise their awareness of safety and make them realize the potential consequences of unsafe behavior (Mullen, 2004). It means that from the events that already occurred, it will develop self-protective behavior to inhibits accidents from happen to themselves. Mullen (2004) again stated that management and co-workers play major roles to the workers whether an individual will engaged in unsafe behavior. It shows that individual action also depends on what they saw on other behave and finally it became their norms of working procedures whether it is safe or unsafe. Enabling Factors Subramaniam (2004)has defined enabling factors as factors antecedent to behavior that allow motivation or aspiration that is to be realized. He has classified enabling factors into four items, which are resources, access, policies, and skills. Therefore, the researcher has adopt three items (resources, policies and skills) from the models for further investigation. Resources The desired goal of a safety program cannot be achieved when resources are lacking. An effective safety program is the result of a commitment by top management to give an appropriate level of resources. Management must consider and allocate sufficient resources to carry out day-to-day activities in order to accomplish short and long-term goals (Aksorn et al., 2007). Resources can be considered as the tools and equipment such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and machinery provided by the management to help them carry their works properly. All equipment tends to wear out with use and requires careful monitoring. Many industrial disaster result from equipment failure (Granot, 1998). Policies Safety does not have to come at a price. When there are cost implications, regulatory bodies and trade associations need to work to make sure there is a level playing field with respect to tendering (Haslam et al., 2005). Developing a safety policy is one of the crucial tasks faced by the company because all the rules and procedures are dealt with their employees. It is important to make sure that the policy are really works and became one of the agents to prevent accident at the workplace. Clarke (2006) suggests that safety interventions need to focus on how individuals perceive their immediate work environment as well as improving safety policy and procedures. Skills Skills are the most crucial items to be deeply looking to ensure that the risk of workers to get involved in the occupational accident can be reduce and behave towards safety. Goldenhar, Williams, and Swanson (2003) found a significant direct effect between job certainty and self-reported occupational injuries and/or near misses for a sample of construction workers. A lack of job clarity may have a direct effect on injuries as this leads to the individual operating in unfamiliar situations, increasing the likelihood of accidents (Hemingway and Smith, 1999). Relationship between Predisposing Factors and Safety Behavior Predisposing factors as mentioned earlier includes knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and personality. According to Subramaniam (2004) in his research findings, predisposing factors significantly are positively correlated with the fire safety behavior. Eventhough the study are focusing on the fire safety behavior, the relationship are still relevant to be measured in the safety behavior. Inadequate education and training contributed to approximately 70 percent of a sample of construction accidents studied as a research report published by the HSE (2003b). Attitudes also play a major role in predispose the safety behavio

Infanticide Essay example -- essays research papers fc

Despite the clear prohibitions against child-murder by all major religions, female infanticide has been for centuries a prominent and socially acceptable event, notably in one of the most populous countries in this world, India. Even today, the extent of the problem is measured in alarming proportions all around the globe: â€Å"at least 60 million females in Asia are missing and feared dead, victims of nothing more than their sex. Worldwide, research suggests, the number of missing females may top 100 million.† The data is more astounding in India. According to the Census Report of 2001, for every 1000 males the number of females has decreased to 927 in 2001 from 945 in 1991 and continues to decrease. It is clear that the burdensome costs involved with the raising of a girl, eventually providing her an appropriate marriage dowry, was the single most important factor in allowing social acceptance of the murder at birth in India. Nonetheless, in addition to the dowry system, t he reasons for this increasing trend have also been attributed to the patriarchal society, poverty and the availability of sex-selective abortion. India's population growth has been rapid, resulting from longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality in recent decades. Before independence, the high birth rates were balanced out by high death rates. In the half century since India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, the average life expectancy has risen from just 39 years to 63 years, as high as that in Russia today. Conversely, after independence, the numbers changed but mortality rates dropped without a matching drop in birth rates. The perception of children became very different. The urban poor contributed most to the population and the reason for this is that they started viewing children as â€Å"sources of income rather an investment†. They were seen as an old age security and the more the better. Furthermore, even though the mortality rate dropped, it was still relatively high compared to the survival rate. For this reason, fear of child death and contagious diseases caused the urban poor to contrib ute even more to the ever-increasing population. Part of the reason India is gaining on China as the most populous country in the world is that China has had very severe family planning laws, enforcing a one-child-per-family policy on most of the population. This policy was adop... ... to be effective. As mentioned before the urge has to come from within the society itself and only then it will augur well for future generations of Indian girls, yet to be born. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"The Quest for a Male Child†, article by Dr. Madhumita Das. http://www.siyanda.org/forumdocs/si20031107025140.doc 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Female Infanticide and Foeticide†, article by Marina Porras. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Again a girl! Are you not ashamed of yourself?†, article by Shoba Warrier 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Census Report, 2001 : A Government of India Publication 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Case Study : Female Infanticide – www.gendercide.org 6. â€Å"History of Infanticide†, article by Dr. Larry S.Milner. http://www.infanticide.org/history.htm 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Female Infanticide† - http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/femaleinfanticide.html 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Darwin and the Descent of Morality†, opinion by Benjamin Wiker - http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0111/opinion/wiker.html 9. â€Å"India's Population Passes 1 Billion† http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/es_map/articles/article_48.mhtml

A Postmodern Cultural Perspective in Lolita and A Streetcar Named Desir

A Postmodern Cultural Perspective in Lolita and A Streetcar Named Desire Postmodernism has emerged as a reaction to modernism thoughts and "well-established modernist systems". (Wikipedia, 2005) Specific to Nabokov's Lolita and Williams' Streetcar Named Desire is the idea that both of the novels are written under the view of postmodernism as a cultural movement and that they are broadly defined as the condition of Western society especially after World War II (period in which the novel were written; 1947 for Streetcar and 1955 for Lolita). While modernists viewed people as autonomous (capable of independent rational thought), postmodernists see human identity and thinking as the product of culture. (Xenos Christian Fellowship, 2005). The postmodern main assumption here is that culture and society create individuals as well as all their thoughts and attitudes. Lolita and A Streetcar Named Desire both treat of Cultural Relativism, which is the view that each culture has it's own truths that are relevant to them, but not relevant to other cultures. (Wikipedia, 2005) Economic changes, immigration, capitalism expansion, development of mass and popular culture, which result of the post-war period will also play a great role in defining cultural perspectives in Nabokov and Williams' stories and characters but also in defining the American culture itself. The main characters serve as archetypes of different cultures and symbolizes the integration of Europe in the the Un... ...umbert's European ear also revises American idiom when he talk about his "west-door neighbor." (Lolita, p. 179) To conclude, both stories have a strong cultural orientation, which result from the post World War II environment, in which a crassly materialistic and insensitive industrial society followed. The postmodern assumption that human identity and thinking are the product of culture and that culture and society create individuals as well as all their thoughts and attitudes (Xenos Christian Fellowship, 2005), is clearly demonstrated by Lolita's consumerist ideals and Blanche's collapse in the new southern culture.

Quentins Passion and Desire in The Sound and the Fury Essay example --

Quentin's Passion and Desire in The Sound and the Fury    As Quentin Compson travels through the countryside with his college friends, the reality of the situation becomes terribly confused by memories and past feelings. After a little girl follows him for miles around town, his own sexuality reaches the forefront of his consciousness and transforms itself into disjointed memories of his sister Caddy. Quentin's constant obsession in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, surrounds a defining sexual act with his sister. Though the physical act never appears in plain language, Quentin's apparent lapse into an inner monologue demonstrates his overwhelming fixation with Caddy as well as a textured representation of their relationship. Sexual language pervades his inner consciousness - scents, sounds and colors represent his passion and desire. Elements of nature, when associated with his sister, become erotic; the tiers of description, no matter how seemingly mundane, tend to be steeped in sexuality. Quentin's lapse into past events with Caddy begins in the midst of typical conversation with his friends as they drive through town. His attention to reality is shattered by an unconscious slip into thoughts of his sister. As the eyes of the little girl snap Quentin into a reverie of sexual exploration, his words wander haphazardly, even before the image of his sister, prone on the banks of the river, comes to mind. "If I tried to hard to stop it I'd be crying and I thought about how I'd thought about I could not be a virgin, with so many of them walking along in the shadows and whispering with their soft girlvoices lingering in the shadowy places and the words coming out and perfume and eyes you could f... ... environment to evoke such passion. Although Faulkner rarely refers to sexual acts directly, the use of language through Quentin's consciousness and internal monologue is so rampant with erotic metaphor and passionate depth, that a simple object, such as a pocket knife, transforms into the most vital of symbols. Works Cited and Consulted Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Harold, Brent. "The Volume and Limitations of Faulkner's Fictional Method." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 11, 1975. Hoffman, F. J. and Vickery, O. W.   William Faulkner:   Three Decades of Criticism.   New York, Harbinger, 1960. Irwin, John T. "A Speculative Reading of Faulkner" Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 14, 1975. Polk, N.   New Essays On:   The Sound and the Fury.   Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993.