Monday, August 24, 2020

Audit Procedures For Obtaining And Evidence -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Talk About The Audit Procedures For Obtaining And Evidence? Answer: Presentation Review declarations are the cases of both verifiable and unequivocal nature, made by the administration of the customer substance of the reviewer, with respect to the fittingness of various components of entitys budget summaries and their divulgences. As the administration of the organization is associated with the planning and introduction of budget summaries of the organization, it makes different affirmations according to the acknowledgment and estimation models and the introduction of the considerable number of components of fiscal reports, for example, resources, liabilities, salaries and uses and so on. The administration additionally make claims for the satisfactory divulgence of such components in the fiscal summaries as per proper money related announcing structure appropriate on the element. Key monetary report review declarations Following are the key monetary reports declarations and their goals for the review of stock of GHT Ltd.: Presence of stock in the companys stockrooms: Inventory review is conveyed to confirm whether the stock appeared in the fiscal summaries of the organization really exists in the distribution centers of the element. For this reason the information sheet of stock records GHT Ltd isn't adequate to give a sensible confirmation on the genuine presence of inventories rather physical stock taking must be gone to affirm the presence of the stock. Culmination of records with respect to the stock: Another target of stock review is to guarantee whether the all the inventories units and things that more likely than not been recorded, have been totally perceived in the companys budget reports. In addition, the stock units that are lying with the outsiders for the benefit of the current organization have been joined in stock adjusts (Quizlet, 2018). The culmination of the records must be checked utilizing the stock information gave in the exceed expectations sheet gave by the organization. Rights and commitments of organization with respect to inventories: The following review objective is to decide if the customer is claiming and controlling the stock that has been really perceived in the fiscal summaries of the organization. It should likewise be guaranteed that the stock held by the organization for the benefit of different gatherings isn't perceived as the piece of companys stock in the budget summaries (Arens, et al., 2007). The lawful administration of the stock can be decided based on supporting records for example solicitations and expense declarations. Yet, the stock information gave in the exceed expectations sheet can't be utilized to get sensible affirmation for the equivalent. Valuation of inventories: It must be guaranteed that the inventories of the organization are recorded at the fitting qualities according to the pertinent bookkeeping principles in the budget reports of the organization. Any cost part that couldn't be satisfactorily designated to the expense of creation and any unusual wastage is rejected from the inventorys cost. Likewise, the suitability of the strategy for stock valuation should likewise be analyzed. As in the current case, the administration of the organization has utilized FIFO strategy for stock valuation so it is to be checked whether the said technique is sensible to be applied to the stock of the organization based on its temperament (Accounting Simplified, 2013). Exactness of records of inventories: It is to be assessed whether the stock records are kept up with complete precision with no critical arithmetical or intelligent blunders. All the stock adjusts are presented on the suitable records with legitimate order (DeHoratius Raman, 2008). Stock Audit Procedures: To accomplish all the above examined review destinations essential review techniques should be applied. As inventories are the noteworthy piece of entitys business, it must be guaranteed by the inspector of the organization that these are recorded, esteemed and revealed in the fiscal reports properly. Thus, it is required to apply both trial of controls and other considerable systems, for example, trial of subtleties and systematic techniques to acquire confirmations dependent on which it very well may be reasoned that fiscal reports are not misquoted in the zones of inventories (Office of evaluator general of Canada, 2017). The interior controls of the organization in the zones of stock must be tried to check the accuracy and fulfillment of stock records. Since it isn't workable for the inspector to go to the physical stock taking because of time or stock locational requirements, the reviewer must consider applying extra examining methods to confirm the presence and state of the stock with the goal that the powerlessness of going to the physical stock tally doesn't cast any constraint on the extent of review (Choy, Lee Cheung, 2004). In such case, the forward computations can be made taking the measure of shutting stock from the budget reports arranged as on 31.03.2018. This figure of shutting stock can be balanced for the buys and marketing projections taken from the information sheet gave by the administration, to decide the measure of stock accessible at the date of physical stock check. This strategy is known as in reverse estimation. The figure so got can be accommodated with the genuine physical s tock on that specific date. This methodology can give a sensible degree of affirmation about the presence of stock as on 31.03.2018. The (Hoffman Zimbelman, 2009). Also, the examiner must accommodate the stock records with the applicable solicitations in such setting. The solicitations of procurement and offer of products causes the evaluating to recognize the genuine internal and outward development of inventories during the period secured under review (Louwers, Ramsay, Sinason, Strawser Thibodeau, 2008). To check the rightness of the stock records, the inside control framework with respect to stock will be checked. On the off chance that inside controls in these zones are seen as feeble the inspector should considerable review systems, for example, trial of subtleties and investigative techniques (Whittington Pany, 2010). Under the diagnostic methods the inspector will make the similar investigations of stock records to comprehend the essential pattern followed each year in the business (AS 2510) The cut off examination can be attempted utilizing the stock information gave in the exceed expectations sheet. Under this examination the cuts off can be set for the marketing projections and cost of marketing projections. In the exceed expectations sheet the channel to the segment of procurement and deals date will be applied to confirm the last buy and deals exchanges that have sway on the accessible stock and the exchanges that happened when the long stretch of walk are distinguished independently with various hues and their effect on the general budgetary outcomes has been expelled (Chung Monroe, 2001). The marketing projections for post period 31.03.2018 have been included back and buy figures have been deducted to join the inversion sway are turned around back to expel their effect on money related outcomes. The comparative procedure was applied to exchanges before the long stretch of March to guarantee that no exchange is recorded in the books. This converse computation is pe rformed as a result of the reality the organization on the off chance that works on unending stock adopting strategy. Thusly, the deals and exchanges entered in the periods before the beginning of concerned year have just been represented in the earlier period itself according to the unending methodology. Results of review systems: The estimation of the stock held by GHT Ltd toward the year's end isn't as per the significant bookkeeping measures. The inventories must be esteemed at lower of cost and net feasible estimation of such inventories. Using this technique the estimation of stock has been distinguished as $ 622532 while according to the budget reports arranged and introduced by the administration of the organization the stock is esteemed distinctly at $ 455319.55. This undervaluation of stock has offered the monetary expressions to be physically misquoted and subsequently they are not portraying the gainfulness of the organization. In addition, the stock records are additionally not containing the exact information as there is a negative figure appeared in the business amount for request number 364163 and 3788411. The business amount can't be negative regardless. It has been seen that the organization has a wide scope of items wherein it is managing which shows that the organization has powerless inside controls in these zones to arrange the inventories as indicated by the nature and reason for such inventories. Review materiality for deals exchanges has been resolved at $10000 and hence deals exchanges made for $ at least 10000 during the year have been fundamentally investigated utilizing itemized review strategies to the credibility of the stock records. The stock things for which the organization has announced gross misfortune have additionally been assessed fundamentally by recognizing the reasons of such misfortune and its effect on the general gainfulness of the organization. The gross benefit and misfortune has been resolved in the exceed expectations sheet. It was discovered that organization has caused greater expense of creation because of the strange wastage of stock things and because of stipend of over the top limits to the purchasers and it has subsequently lead to the working misfortunes. The point by point review techniques in these specific cases have been applie d, for example, systematic methods to distinguish the past pattern of working benefits and misfortunes of the organization (Gay and Simnett, 2005). End: A definitive target of leading the review of any substance is to empower the examiner to frame a conclusion on the valid and reasonable perspective on budget reports of the organization. In the current case, the stock an incentive in the fiscal summaries is exceptionally misquoted and subsequently the budget reports are portraying very low productivity of the organization. This may have been finished by the m

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Outline the key features of a sports development strategy, and discuss Essay

Layout the key highlights of a games improvement technique, and talk about the significance this needs to contemporary games the executives - Essay Example It is likewise a guide to great wellbeing. It opposes maladies and assists with improving the personal satisfaction. The economy of the greater part of the nations relies on the games (Girginov, 2008). In the previous decade there has been a colossal development in the games. The wellbeing and wellness segment has extended itself to satisfy the need of competitors and athletes. Work in this part has been expanded because of the expanded polished methodology of the National Governing Bodies and tremendous speculations by various associations. As this industry has prepped itself, the need of qualified and taught troughs has expanded. Since they could all the more likely comprehend the games advertise and provide food its needs and could apply their expert information in a sorted out manner. A great many schools and universities have been built up to cook the necessities of the games segment (Trenberth and Hassan, 2011). The administration has been transformed into modernity and it is continually developing. Because of the worldwide idea of the games it needs to manage all sort of financial obstructions. Certain issues like sexual orientation connection, social duty and brutality are to be truly tended to. These are a portion of the difficulties which the games supervisors of today are confronting (Hassan and Lusted, 2013). Sports the board are the arrangement of aptitudes relating arranging sorting out, Leading, controlling and planning for an association whose primary duty is to provide food the administrations in the games. The games business has been portioned into three principle classifications. Initial one is the Sports Performance. It incorporates the actuation and support of the individuals identified with the games business and its partners. Second fragment is Sports Production which is identified with its items and impact on the items. The third division of the games business is the Sports Promotion which is the center of Sports Event Management. Diverse promotion devices are utilized to advance the game and cause it to acquaint

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Lets level the playing field for SAT prep

Let’s level the playing field for SAT prep From founder Sal Khan: I’m excited to share some very important news: The College Board just announced that they’re redesigning the SAT for 2016, and we’re partnering with them to make free, world-class prep materials. Our goal is nothing short of leveling the playing field, and we intend, with the deep expertise of the College Board behind us, to make the very best preparation for the SAT. This will be far more than just videos; it will be sophisticated, interactive software to give students deep practice and diagnose their gaps. This means that for the first time ever, all students who want to go to college can prepare for the SAT at their own pace, at absolutely no cost. Unlike other test prep, the resources on Khan Academy will be developed through a close collaboration with the authors of the SAT themselves. With this partnership, our goal is to ensure that students have a deep grasp of underlying fundamentals so they can succeed on the SAT, in college, and beyond.       I recently chatted with David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, about why they redesigned the SAT and decided to work with Khan Academy to make prep materials open and free. Check out our conversation and other information about the partnership: www.khanacademy.org/sat. What does this mean? By spring 2015, you’ll have access to state-of-the-art learning toolsexercises, software diagnostics and videosdesigned by Khan Academy and College Board specifically for the redesigned SAT. Stay tuned. In the meantime, if you are taking the SAT in 2014/15, you can start practicing today with hundreds of unreleased Math, Reading, and Writing questions from real SATs and more than 200 videos that show step-by-step solutions to each question. Onward!-Sal

Friday, May 8, 2020

Analysis Of Rip Van Winkle And The Legend Of Sleepy...

[Statistic]Just like a sponge children absorb every piece of information they see. For example the child s family may be Christian or Atheist, Republican or Democratic. It molds them into the people they become. Children soak in information from school, the public, their family, and religious experiences.[Reflection]Dependent upon what this child learns and how they use it, they may fall under two rather wide spanning categories, Rationalist or Romantic. Romantics believed in the purity and beauty of nature.[Thesis] Romanticism is a time period that many authors began to emerge in. These authors wrote about their strong feelings, and that nature is more important than city life. [Preview] In the pieces â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† by Washington Irving, â€Å"Thanatopsis† by William Cullen Bryant, and â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow† by Washington Irving all show strong relations to the traits of Romantic writing. These characteristics include strong imagination, str ong feelings, inspiration from folklore and myths, and the divine beauty of nature. [Topic Discussion #1 state position] One characteristic of Romanticism is the feeling of pure awe in nature. This emotion was greatly expressed by each author in their pieces of writing.[Evidence #1 Imagery] In the short story â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† by Washington Irving, the protagonist ventures into the woods and into the mountains. The scenery is described as â€Å"rich, green. woodland†.[Discussion #2Show MoreRelatedThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Summary and Analysis11462 Words   |  46 PagesThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow Summary and Analysis Major Themes Veracity in Storytelling Veracity in storytelling is a defining theme of â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.† The story is distantly removed from the reader—Crayon has found the story in Diedrich Knickerbocker’s papers, who is dead, and who at the end of the story writes that he heard it from an old gentleman, who claimed to not have even believed half of it himself, ultimately getting much of the story from primary or even other secondaryRead MoreSupernatural in American Fiction Essay2928 Words   |  12 PagesMankind would never submit to this. He will immediately turn to the darkness. Drawn by his own cords of fear and longing, man will imagine that he is tired of the light and his small, familiar world.3 No amount of rationalization... or Freudian analysis can overcome the thrill of the chimney-corner whisper or the lonely wood.4 Why? Children will always be afraid of the dark and men will always shudder at what they do not understand, yet everyone will continue to seek it. Perhaps it is because

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Credibility and Logic in Gregory Curfman’s “Diet Pills Redux” Free Essays

1. Gregory D. Curfman’s piece â€Å"Diet Pills Redux† is an editorial; therefore, a reader must keep in mind that the content will focus on the author’s opinion(s) and perspective(s) about a particular situation. We will write a custom essay sample on Credibility and Logic in Gregory Curfman’s â€Å"Diet Pills Redux† or any similar topic only for you Order Now Having read Curfman’s piece, it does seem credible. The author is a physician, so his analysis of the situation can be reasonably assumed within his field of expertise, especially when one considers it is an editorial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr.Curfman presents evidence for and against the use of fenfluramine and phentermine and seems concerned only with further exploration of a possible connection between the use of these drugs (separately or together) and heart disease (Curfman, 1997, passim). 2. Curfman begins his piece with a summary of an outbreak of pulmonary hypertension that took place in Western Europe that was linked to the use of an appetite-suppressant drug. He goes on to reveal a European outbreak thirty years later which connected the use of an anorectic drug with more cases of pulmonary hypertension. Later, he discusses weighing the risks of using anorectic drugs against the individual’s need, and concludes that only those with no other recourse should be allowed to take the chance. Each of these is an example of logic without fallacy (Curfman, 1997, passim). There were fallacies in Curfman’s piece. To begin with, the events and studies he cited were missing control groups and assurances that exigent factors such as patient history had been taken into account. Technically, these might be construed as misleading statistics. Because the numbers of persons negatively effected by these drugs was so low, the potential that much of his point is perhaps a non sequitur—specifically an argument built on a slippery slope does exist. His closing remark that â€Å"succumbing to the allure of diet pills as a quick fix for excess weight may be courting disaster† presents a significant logical problem: the implication that those who suffered a cardiac crisis in connection with the use of one or more of the involved drugs fall into the â€Å"quick fix† category—this is a hasty generalization (Curfman, 1997, passim). The overall message in the piece was not that blame must be laid, nor was it a call to halt all availability of either drug, so coupled with this piece being an editorial, even fallacy did not necessarily weaken the strength of the article in my opinion as the point seemed merely to be to convince readers that there was more to be investigated. Based on what I read, I have to agree that further investigation is warranted and that consumers must be aware of the potential dangers listed by Curfman. How to cite Credibility and Logic in Gregory Curfman’s â€Å"Diet Pills Redux†, Papers

Monday, April 27, 2020

The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations Essay Example

The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations Essay The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations. These organisations are largely charity funded. This is, therefore, events such as sponsored events, fun days, workshops or box collections. Voluntary organisations are set up and run in the community, by the community because they felt it necessary. Organisations such as The NSPCC, (The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) were founded in 1889 by the Reverend Benjamin Waugh. He was determined to draw public attention to the problem of child cruelty and neglect. Reverend Benjamin Waugh did this as he saw a need in London that children were not getting the protection he felt was required. He employed 29 Inspectors, who patrolled the streets of London on their bicycles looking for vulnerable children. By doing this he felt that the vulnerable children were receiving the protection they deserved, at a time when animals were more protected by legislation than children were. We will write a custom essay sample on The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Voluntary sector is a collection of non profitable organisations specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Voluntary Organisations have a board of trustees or management committee. Every charity has to have one of these in order to arrange and stabilise the organisations effectively. Management committees are good safeguards. We are all accountable to someone, and within a management committee, it is a chance to air your views and off-loaded any opinions you may have. For instance; if you were working for the charity MIND, which is a befriending scheme for individuals who have suffered a mental health problem or encountering emotional difficulties; the board of committees are there in order to relieve any concerns you may have about your client, to suggest new ideas for the organisation in fundraising, or raising awareness. A statutory agency is an organisation in which the law has implemented it has to be there. So therefore is an agency largely run by the government. Agencys such as the hospitals or prisons for example. In order for any organisations to be run successfully, it needs funding. A local Youth group will ask a small supplement for entrance. This is in order to pay for perhaps soft beverages, snacks or the rent of the property. As an example, the Guiding and Scout Movement have their weekly fees in order to supply the youths with a hall to meet in each week, badges for their achievements, accessories for their weekly activities and also the insurance for each child attending. The standard rate may not cover the cost, so the organisation will fundraise with events such as jumble sales or sponsored events. Without the funding, the organisation will simply not be able to carry on. However larger organisations are becoming increasingly funded by contracts. A contract is where a statutory agency will fund a voluntary organisation for perhaps six months or more. The NHS (National Health Service) is a statutory agency. They help fund organisations such as Cancer research. As a result of the NHS and the Community Care Act which came into effect in 1990, voluntary organisations are becoming increasingly involved in contracts to help the development of their services. Due to these contracts, many have seen existing statutory funding being formalised, and the rules and specifications becoming tighter with increased accountability. Charities and voluntary organisations have traditionally been at the forefront of social change in Britain. They have done so by conducting carefully orchestrated campaigns to change the views of politicians and other important decision makers. In the past there have been two models of campaigning. Firstly the inside track, whereby charities have tried to use their influence, reputation and contacts to convince the civil servants and politicians of their cause. The second approach has been more adversarial or confrontational: using the media to expose the issues in public, thereby pressurising politicians by using the weight of the public opinion. If a charities voice is going to be heard it needs to develop far reaching alliances and secure the endorsement of other public interest groups. Campaigners have always needed to illustrate public support for their cause. Today they need to go further. They must show that there is deep rooted and widespread concern for their issues. Grassroots support and local support networks are therefore crucial. (Adam Woolf.2001, The Guardian.)

Thursday, March 19, 2020

500 Million Years of Fish Evolution

500 Million Years of Fish Evolution Compared to dinosaurs, mammoths and saber-toothed cats, fish evolution may not seem all that interesting - until you realize that if it werent for prehistoric fish, dinosaurs, mammoths, and saber-toothed cats would never have existed. The first vertebrates on the planet, fish provided the basic body plan subsequently elaborated on by hundreds of millions of years of evolution: in other words, your great-great-great (multiply by a billion) grandmother was a small, meek fish of the Devonian period. (See a gallery of prehistoric fish pictures and profiles, a list of 10 recently extinct fish, and a slideshow of 10 Prehistoric Fish Everyone Should Know.) The Earliest Vertebrates: Pikaia and Pals Although most paleontologists wouldnt recognize them as true fish, the first fish-like creatures to leave an impression on the fossil record appeared during the middle Cambrian period, about 530 million years ago. The most famous of these, Pikaia, looked more like a worm than a fish, but it had four features crucial to later fish (and vertebrate) evolution: a head distinct from its tail, bilateral symmetry (the left side of its body looked like the right side), V-shaped muscles, and most importantly, a nerve cord running down the length of its body. Because this cord wasnt protected by a tube of bone or cartilage, Pikaia was technically a chordate rather than a vertebrate, but it still lay at the root of the vertebrate family tree. Two other Cambrian proto-fish were a bit more robust than Pikaia. Haikouichthys is considered by some expertsat least those not overly concerned by its lack of a calcified backbone - to be the earliest jawless fish, and this inch-long creature had rudimentary fins running along the top and bottom of its body. The similar Myllokunmingia was slightly less elongated than either Pikaia or Haikouichthys, and it also had pouched gills and (possibly) a skull made of cartilage. (Other fish-like creatures may have predated these three genera by tens of millions of years; unfortunately, they havent left any fossil remains.) The Evolution of Jawless Fish During the Ordovician and Silurian periods - from 490 to 410 million years ago - the worlds oceans, lakes, and rivers were dominated by jawless fish, so named because they lacked lower jaws (and thus the ability to consume large prey). You can recognize most of these prehistoric fish by the -aspis (the Greek word for shield) in the second parts of their names, which hints at the second main characteristic of these early vertebrates: their heads were covered by tough plates of bony armor. The most notable jawless fish of the Ordovician period were Astraspis and Arandaspis, six-inch-long, big-headed, finless fish that resembled giant tadpoles. Both of these species made their living by bottom-feeding in shallow waters, wriggling slowly above the surface and sucking up tiny animals and the waste of other marine creatures. Their Silurian descendants shared the same body plan, with the important addition of forked tail fins, which gave them more maneuverability. If the -aspis fish were the most advanced vertebrates of their time, why were their heads covered in bulky, un-hydrodynamic armor? The answer is that, hundreds of millions of years ago, vertebrates were far from the dominant life forms in the earths oceans, and these early fish needed a means of defense against giant sea scorpions and other large arthropods. The Big Split: Lobe-Finned Fish, Ray-Finned Fish, and Placoderms By the start of the Devonian periodabout 420 million years agothe evolution of prehistoric fish veered off in two (or three, depending on how you count them) directions. One development, which wound up going nowhere, was the appearance of the jawed fishes known as placoderms (plated skin), the earliest identified example of which is Entelognathus. These were essentially larger, more varied -aspis fish with true jaws, and the most famous genus by far was the 30-foot-long Dunkleosteus, one of the biggest fish that ever lived. Perhaps because they were so slow and awkward, placoderms vanished by the end of the Devonian period, outclassed by two other newly evolved families of jawed fish: the chondrichthians (fish with cartilaginous skeletons) and osteichthyans (fish with bony skeletons). The chondrichthians included prehistoric sharks, which went on to tear their own bloody path through evolutionary history. The osteichthyans, meanwhile, split into two further groups: the actinopterygians (ray-finned fish) and sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fish). Ray-finned fish, lobe-finned fish, who cares? Well, you do: the lobe-finned fishes of the Devonian period, such as Panderichthys and Eusthenopteron, had a characteristic fin structure that enabled them to evolve into the first tetrapods - the proverbial fish out of water ancestral to all land-living vertebrates, including humans. The ray-finned fish stayed in the water, but went on to become the most successful vertebrates of all: today, there are tens of thousand of species of ray-finned fish, making them the most diverse and numerous vertebrates on the planet (among the earliest ray-finned fish were Saurichthys and Cheirolepis). The Giant Fish of the Mesozoic Era No history of fish would be complete without mentioning the giant dino-fish of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (though these fish werent as numerous as their oversized dinosaur cousins). The most famous of these giants were the Jurassic Leedsichthys, which some reconstructions put at a whopping 70 feet long, and the Cretaceous Xiphactinus, which was only about 20 feet long but at least had a more robust diet (other fish, compared to Leedsichthys diet of plankton and krill). A new addition is Bonnerichthys, yet another large, Cretaceous fish with a tiny, protozoan diet. Bear in mind, though, that for every dino-fish like Leedsichthys there are a dozen smaller prehistoric fish of equal interest to paleontologists. The list is nearly endless, but examples include Dipterus (an ancient lungfish), Enchodus (also known as the saber-toothed herring), the prehistoric rabbitfish Ischyodus, and the small but prolific Knightia, which has yielded so many fossils that you can buy your own for less than a hundred bucks.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

What is the ACT A Complete Explanation of the Test

What is the ACT A Complete Explanation of the Test SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’ve found this article, you’ve probably vaguely heard of the ACT (and if you hadn’t before, well, you have now!). Maybe you have some idea that it has something to do with college, but you’re still pretty confused about what exactly it is. I’m here to help! The ACT, like the SAT, is a standardized test used for college admissions. If you’re planning to apply to college in the US you’ll almost certainly have to take one of these tests (and you may need to even if you’re planning on going to school elsewhere). This post will take you through everything need to know about the ACT- from why students take it to what it covers to when you should plan to take it yourself. Why Do People Take the ACT? The ACT is a standardized test designed to show colleges how prepared you are for higher education by measuring your reading comprehension, knowledge of writing conventions, and computational skills and then comparing youwith the rest of the high schoolers who take it. It essentially serves as a nation-wide college admission test (though it's far from the only factor schools consider). Most four-year schools require applicants to submit either ACT or SAT scores (they don't distinguish between the two), which can then make up as much as 50% of the admission decision. A strong standardized test score is a key part of your application. There are also a lot of students who are required to take the ACT by their high school. A number ofstates use the ACT as a state-wide assessment test, so every junior at a public school takes the ACT. Which Schools Accept the ACT? There's a common misconception that some colleges only accept SAT scores and won't take ACT scores. This is not the case: all four-year colleges and universities in the US accept ACT scores, and the schoolsdon't distinguish between the two tests. You can takewhichever you prefer. However, there are a few schools, including George Washington University, Hampshire College, and California State University, that either don't require ACT or SAT scores or have flexible policies on standardized tests. If you're an international student looking to attend a U.S. school, you will need to take either the ACT or the SAT. If you're an American student planning to apply to international schools, you will probably still need to take one of these standardized tests, but it will depend on the school you're applying to and which country it's in. Two-year colleges and trade schools generally don't require applicants to take the ACT but will sometimes accept it in lieu of a placement test. MIT, one of the many colleges that requires an ACT score. What Does the ACT Cover? The ACT consists of four sections- English, Math, Reading, and Science- plus an optional writing test.With the exception of the writing section, the test is entirely multiple choice: the math questionshavefive answer choices and the others all have four. The chart quantifiesthe basic structure of the test (the sections are in the same order they appear on the test).For more details on what's actually on the ACT, you can follow the links to full breakdowns of each section. Section Questions Time English 75 questions 45 min Math 60 questions 60 min Reading 40 questions 35 min Science 40 questions 35 min Writing 1 prompt 40 min How Is the ACT Scored? ACT scores can feel arbitrary, so let's break down where that mysterious number between 1 and 36 actually comes from. For each section of the ACT, you'll get a raw score, which is the number of questions you get right. That is then converted into a scaled score between 1 and 36. The composite score is simply the average of your four section scores (the writing is left out because it's optional). In the US, the average score hovers around a 21, although there's some variance from year to year. Though it's easy to fixate on trying to get as high a score as possible, most student don't need a 36. Instead, you should determine what a good score is for the schools (and scholarships) you're planning to apply to. When Should You Take the ACT? When you take the ACT will depend on what kind of score you're looking for, when your application deadlines are, and whether you live in one of the states that require it. Generally speaking, however, the ideal time to take the ACT for the first time is thewinter of your junior year- when you’ve covered most of the material in school but still have time to take it again ifyou want to. We're just getting started! Time to make a plan. Everything You Need to Plan for the ACT Having read this post, you hopefully feel a bit more clear about what the ACT is. But the tricky part is still to come: preparing for the test. I've compiled a list of the key questions you should ask yourself as you begin to plan for college applications. Should I take the ACT or SAT? This question concerns a lot of students, but it's not as important as it seems, since most students don't see that much of a difference between their scores on the two tests. The New SATis especially similar to the ACT. If you'renot sure which test to take, you can use our fool-proof method to determine which test is better for you or try our quiz fordeciding between the new SAT vs. the ACT. Also keep in mind that if you'll be taking the ACT in school anyways, it will be simplerto stick with that test, since you may have some prep lessons in class and it will save you money on registration. What ACT score do I need to get into college? Your score goal will depend on which schools you want to apply to. Use this form to calculate your ideal ACT score. What's the best way for me to prepare for the ACT? As you prepare for the ACT, you'll need to decide whether you want to hire a tutor or study on your own. You may also want to consider an online program like PrepScholar! If you decide to study on your own, make sure you get the best book for your needs. Whatdo I need to know to prepare for the ACT? There are three key pieces to preparing for the ACT: understanding how the test works, reviewing the material, and practicing. To get a sense of how to think effectively about the ACT, download our guide to the 5 strategies that you must use. For specifics on content and question types, try our complete guides to each section of the test: English, math, reading, and science. You can find the best ACT practice tests here and an in depth guide on how to use them here. Disappointed with your ACT scores? Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

MKT Week 3 DB SA Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MKT Week 3 DB SA - Case Study Example This is because they will handle nearly everything in regards to the development of the software thereby making the inventor appear as a purchaser of his own software. There is no perfect way to position the product because it is not even clear how it will operate and its functionalities. Additionally, legal implications have not been considered thoroughly as it appears it will be breaching patient’s privacy. The idea of Popchips as a product and even the marketing strategy of this product are well developed. Moreover, the product has been presented in a very innovative manner by even highlighting on the uniqueness of the product as well as its competitive advantages. One of the unique factors that will position the product competitively in the market is the fact that it contains less calories and this will be able to attract many customers because most of the them are nowadays health conscious and they avoid consuming products with high fat content. Popchips can be well positioned in the market if the marketing campaigns emphasize on the fact that it contains low fat content and perhaps the product should solely be focused on the market of health conscious consumers who prefer food items that contain low fat. The legal implications concerning the marketing of this product have been clearly stated and even alternative strategies have been selected to ensure the marketing campaign does not violate any ethical and/ or legal

Sunday, February 2, 2020

The Implications of the Use of the Triple Bottom Line Approach Essay - 1

The Implications of the Use of the Triple Bottom Line Approach - Essay Example However, these events reflect the cultural and social values of the country. Therefore, it is the moral responsibility of the business to participate in the upliftment of the society as well as the environment. In the given project, the concept of Triple Bottom Line approach will be discussed mainly in the respect of event industry. Later on, the case of Edinburgh will be discussed to explain how the application of Triple Bottom Line approach can improve the performance of festival and event industry; that is how the event industry can gain sustainable growth in long-term perspective. With growing concern on sustainability, the concept of Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach is gaining popularity among companies throughout the world. As coined by Elkington (1997), a financial performance that is â€Å"the bottom line† is insufficient to indicate the long-term corporate success of an organisation. Therefore, it is quite essential to pay equal importance towards ecological and social â€Å"bottom lines† (Ehnert, 2009, p.37). The key concept of Triple Bottom Line can be summarised as- wealth generation, social benefit and environment protection. This concept is commonly popular as â€Å"People, Profit & Planet† (Cayreyre, et al., 2009, p.46). The main motto (goal) of a company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders. Thus, it is quite essential for a company to generate profit for its investors (shareholders). Therefore, to attain long-term growth in the industry, a company should improve its profitability. Profit-generating capability can be measured with help of certain financial indicators, such as gross as well as net profit margin, return on investment, return on capital employed and so on. The company is a part of the society. It acquires all the resources (land, labour, capital and material) from the society. Therefore, it is the moral responsibility of a company to participate in the upliftment of the society where it operates. Similar to the social aspect, a business should also consider environmental factor while making essential decisions.  

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Modelling of β-turns using Hidden Markov Model

Modelling of ÃŽ ²-turns using Hidden Markov Model Modelling of ÃŽ ²-turns using Hidden Markov Model Nivedita Rao Ms. Sunila Godara Abstract— One of the major tasks in predicting the secondary structure of a protein is to find the ÃŽ ²-turns. Functional and structural traits of a globular protein can be better understood by the turns as they play an important role in it. ÃŽ ²-turns play an important part in protein folding. ÃŽ ²-turns constitute on an average of 25% of the residues in all protein chains and are the most usual form of non-repetitive structures. It is already known that helices and ÃŽ ²-sheets are among the most important keys in stabilizing the structures in proteins. In this paper we have used hidden Markov model (HMM) in order to predict the ÃŽ ²-turns in proteins based on amino acid composition and compared it with other existing methods. Keywords- ÃŽ ²-turns, amino acid composition, hidden Markov model, residue. I. Introduction Bioinformatics has become a vital part of many areas of biology. In molecular biology, bioinformatics techniques such as signal processing or image processing allow mining of useful results from large volumes of raw data. In the field ofgeneticsandgenomics, it helps in sequencing and explaining genomes and their perceivedmutations. It plays an important part in the analysis of protein expression, gene expression and their regulation. It also helps in literal mining of biological prose and the growth of biological and gene ontologies for organizing and querying biological data. Bioinformatics tools aid in the contrast of genetic and genomic data and more commonly in the understanding of evolutionary facets of molecule based biology. At a more confederated level, bioinformatics helps in analyzing and categorizing the biological trails and networks that are an significant part of systems biology. In structural biology, bioinformatics helps in the understanding, simulation and modelling of RNA, DNA and protein structures as well as molecular bindings. The advancements in genome has increased radically over the recent years, thus resulting in the explosive growth of biological data widening the gap between the number of protein sequences stored in the databases and the experimental annotation of their functions. There are many types of tight turns. These turns may subject to the number of atoms form the turn [1]. Among them is ÃŽ ²-turn, which is one of the important components of protein structure as it plays an important part in molecular structure and protein folding. A ÃŽ ²-turn invokes four consecutive residues where the polypeptide chain bends back on itself for about 180 degrees [2]. Basically these chain reversals are the ones which provide a protein its globularity rather than linearity. Even ÃŽ ²-turns can be further classified into different types. According to Venkatachalam [3], ÃŽ ²-turns can be of 10 types based on phi, psi angles and also some other. Richardson[4] suggested only 6 distinct types(I,I,II,II,VIa and VIb) on the basis of phi, psi ranges, along with a new category IV. Presently, classification by Richardson is most widely used. Turns can be considered as an important part in globular proteins in respect to its structural and functional view. Without the component of turns, a polypeptide chain cannot fold itself into a compressed structure. Also, turns normally occur on the visible surface of proteins and therefore it possibly represents antigenic locations or involves molecular recognition. Thus, due to the above reasons, the prediction of ß-turns in proteins becomes an important element of secondary structure prediction. II. RELATED WORK A lot of work has been done for the prediction of ÃŽ ²-turns. To determine chain reversal regions of a globular protein, Chou at al. [5] used conformational parameters. Chou at al. [6] has given a residue-coupled model in order to predict the ÃŽ ²-turns in proteins. Chou at al. [7] used sequence of tetra peptide. Chou [8] again predicted tight turns and their types in protein using amino acid residues. Guruprasad K at al. [9] predicted ÃŽ ²-turn and ÃŽ ³-turn in proteins using a new set of amino acid and hydrogen bond. Hutchinson at al. [10] created a program called PROMOTIF to identify and analyse structural motifs in proteins. Shepherd at al. [11] used neural networks to predict the location and type of ÃŽ ²-turns. Wilmot at al. [12] analysed and predicted different types of ÃŽ ²-turn in proteins using phi, psi angles and central residues. Wilmot at al. [13] proposed a new nomenclature GORBTURN 1.0 for predicting ÃŽ ²-turns and their distortions. This study has used hidden Markov model to predict the ÃŽ ²-turns in the protein. HMM has been widely used as biological tools. (a) (b) Figure 1.1 (a) defines Type-I ß-turns and (b) defines Type-II ß-turns. The hydrogen bond is denoted by dashed lines. [14] III. Materials and methods A. Dataset The dataset used in the experiment is a non-redundant dataset which was previously described by Guruprasad and Rajkumar [9]. This dataset contains around 426 non-homologous protein chains. All protein chains do not have more than 25% sequence similarity. It is basically to ensure that there is very little correlation in the training set. In this dataset, each protein chain contains at least one beta turn and has X-ray crystallography with resolution 2 or more. The dataset shows there are mainly ten classes and other classes are made using the combination of these ten classes. Table 1 Datasets Description [14] B. Hidden markov model In our work, we have used the probabilistic feature of HMM for ÃŽ ²-turns prediction. A model is presumed that ruminate the protein sequence being generated with a stochastic process that alternates amid two hidden states: â€Å"turns† and â€Å"non-turns†. The HMM is trained using 20 protein sequences. The probability transition matrix is 2Ãâ€"2 for two states: turns and non-turns. The probability emission matrix is considered as 2Ãâ€"20 as there are 2 states and 20 amino acids. We prepared our probability transition matrix and probability emission matrix according to the knowledge that we have for dataset that is the probability of ÃŽ ²-non-turns is more than ÃŽ ²-turns in a protein sequence and by considering probabilities of each residue as the parameter taken from Chou [7] for calculating the emission and transition matrix. There are more than ten classes and this HMM model parameter is estimated in2 super states and the training was performed. Let P be a protein sequence of length n, which can also be expressed as Where ri is the amino acid residue at sequence position i. The sequence is considered to be generated from r1 to rn in hidden Markov model. The model is trained using Baum-Welch algorithm [15]. Baum-Welch algorithm is a standard method for finding the maximum likelihood estimation of HMMs, in which posterior probabilities were performed by using both forward and backward algorithms. These algorithms were used to compile the state transition probability and emission probability matrices. The initial probabilities are calculated, taking into account a correlation between residues in different position. The most probable path is calculated using Viterbi algorithm [16] as it automatically segments the protein into its component regions. The probability of residue in the protein sequence used to generate the emission matrix given by Where, m is the total number that of residue in the protein sequence and n is the total number of residues in the protein sequence. C. Accuracy measures Once the prediction of ÃŽ ²-turns is performed using the hidden Markov model, the problem arises of finding an appropriate measure for the quality of the prediction. Four different scalar measures are used to assess the models performance [17]. These measures can be derived four different quantities: TP (true positive), p, is the number of correctly classified ÃŽ ²-turn residues. TN (true negative), n, is the number of correctly classified non-ÃŽ ²-turn residues. FP (false positive), m, is the number of non-ÃŽ ²-turn residues incorrectly classified as ÃŽ ²-turn residues. FN( false negative), o, is the number of ÃŽ ²-turn residues incorrectly classified as non-ÃŽ ²-turn residues. The predictive performance of the HMM model can be expressed by the following parameters: Qtotal gives the percentage of correctly classified residues. MCC (Matthews Correlation Coefficient) [18] is a measure that counts for both over and under- predictions. Qpredicted , is the percentage of ÃŽ ²-turn predictions that are correct. Qobserved is the percentage of observed ÃŽ ²-turns that are correctly predicted. IV. results and discussions A. Results This model is used to predict the ÃŽ ²-turns and is based on hidden Markov model. There are basically two classes: turns and non-turns. It is used to predict one protein sequence at a time. It has been observed that it performs better than some existing prediction methods. B. Comparison with other methods In order to examine of this method, it has been compared with other existing methods as shown in table 2. For now, the comparison is done on a single protein sequence. The comparison is for protein sequence with PDB code 1ah7. Figure 2 shows comparison of Qtotal using different algorithms. Figure 3 shows comparison of Qpredicted using different algorithms. Figure 4 shows comparison of Qobserved using different algorithms. Figure 5 shows comparison of MCC using different algorithms. The HMM based method shows better results than some of the already existing algorithms of the prediction. Figure 2. comparison of Qtotal with different algorithms Figure 4. comparison of Qobserved with different algorithms Figure 3. comparison of QPredicted with different algorithms Figure 5. comparison of MCC with different algorithms Table 2 Comparison with other methods V. conclusion In this paper, we presented a way in which HMM can be used to predict ÃŽ ²-turns in a protein chain. Our method is used to predict turns and non-turns of single protein sequence at a time. The results thus obtained are better than some of the other existing methods. The performance of the ÃŽ ²-turns can further be improved by considering other techniques such as using predicted secondary structures and dihedral angles from multiple predictors or by using feature selection technique [19] or by considering combination of many features together. We can also combine different machine learning techniques together to improve the performance of the prediction. References Chou, Kuo-Chen. Prediction of tight turns and their types in proteins.Analytical biochemistry286.1 (2000): 1-16. Chou, P.Y. and Fasman, G.D. (1974) Conformational parameters for amino acids in helical, beta-sheet and random coil regions calculated from proteins.Biochemistry, 13, 211-222. Venkatachalam, C. M. Stereochemical criteria for polypeptides and proteins. V. Conformation of a system of three linked peptide units.Biopolymers6.10 (1968): 1425-1436. Richardson, Jane S. The anatomy and taxonomy of protein structure. Advances in protein chemistry34 (1981): 167-339. Chou, P. Y., and G. D. Fasman. Prediction of beta-turns.Biophysical journal 26.3 (1979): 367-383. Chou, K.C. â€Å"Prediction of beta-turns† Journal of Peptide Research(1997): 120-144. Chou, Kou-Chen, and James R. Blinn. Classification and prediction of ÃŽ ²-turn types.Journal of protein chemistry16.6 (1997): 575-595. Chou, Kuo-Chen. Prediction of tight turns and their types in proteins.Analytical biochemistry286.1 (2000): 1-16. Guruprasad, Kunchur, and Sasidharan Rajkumar. Beta-and gamma-turns in proteins revisited: a new set of amino acid turn-type dependent positional preferences and potentials.Journal of biosciences25.2 (2000): 143. Hutchinson, E. Gail, and Janet M. Thornton. PROMOTIF—a program to identify and analyze structural motifs in proteins.Protein Science5.2 (1996): 212-220. Shepherd, Adrian J., Denise Gorse, and Janet M. Thornton. Prediction of the location and type of ÃŽ ²-turns in proteins using neural networks.Protein Science8.5 (1999): 1045-1055. Wilmot, C. M., and J. M. Thornton. Analysis and prediction of the different types of ÃŽ ²-turn in proteins.Journal of molecular biology203.1 (1988): 221-232. Wilmot, C. M., and J. M. Thornton. ÃŽ ²-Turns and their distortions: a proposed new nomenclature.Protein engineering3.6 (1990): 479-493. Available from :http://imtech.res.in/raghava/betatpred/intro.html Welch, Lloyd R. Hidden Markov models and the Baum-Welch algorithm.IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter53.4 (2003): 10-13. Lou, Hui-Ling. Implementing the Viterbi algorithm.Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE12.5 (1995): 42-52. Fuchs, Patrick FJ, and Alain JP Alix. High accuracy prediction of ÃŽ ²Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ turns and their types using propensities and multiple alignments.Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics59.4 (2005): 828-839. Matthews, Brian W. Comparison of the predicted and observed secondary structure of T4 phage lysozyme.Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Protein Structure405.2 (1975): 442-451. Saeys, Yvan, Ià ±aki Inza, and Pedro Larraà ±aga. A review of feature selection techniques in bioinformatics.bioinformatics23.19 (2007): 2507-2517.

Friday, January 17, 2020

JC Penney Advertising Essay

As time progresses, the world, in terms of business is rather contracting. There is growing communication, interaction and exchange between different parts of the world. Technologies that were once thought of as a far sighted notion are now being used like household commodities and communication mediums that were once considered luxuries available to few are now necessities needed to prosper. And as the world is becoming more integrated and countries are becoming more and more dependent on one another in terms of trade and business the concept of branding, advertising and promotion is becoming more prevalent and widespread. This paper will focus on the marketing of JC penny. It would elaborate on the print as well as online marketing. Moreover it would compare and contrast advertising of online and bricks and mortar companies. Discussion The demand for accountability of marketing is rising and also the pressure of having less absolute dollars to work with so there is utmost need to be sharper, more purposeful and more targeted with marketing. JC Penney is a general retail brand that specializes in clothing, accessories and home furnishing. It has been around for decades and has been catering the needs of consumers of all ages and backgrounds. JC Penney’s main target audience at the present times is women as well as youngsters. JC Penney faced criticism for being a brand that accommodated only the high-end and older generation. However, they have been changing their brand image and have been successful in implementing an image that is portraying a more young and trendy vibe. It now focuses on providing products that have the characteristics of being conservative, traditional, modern or trendy. Fundamentally JC Penney has been escalated in the last years is through the fact that it has moved from mass marketing to a more targeted approach. The few reasons for this change is that JC Penney believes that when business is difficult there is a lot greater chance of success with getting the arms around the best customers and increasing frequency share of wallet and trips with the best customers then trying to recruit new customers in tough times that may not shopping the brand. JC Penney has managed to find ways to develop formats that allowed it to get more productivity out the money that is spend. It has also become more targeted in terms of customer selection through becoming much sharper about making sure the right customers get the right format in the right piece. (Fetterman, 2006) JC Penney is one of the brands that hold the significance of being a brick and mortar store as well as an online retailer. Hence, it follows branding through all of the sources of mass media. It publishes magazines and postcards for the promotion of its products. It also advertises it products and offers through newspapers, television ads and online ads. When comparing the online and print media usage it quoted by Mike Boylson the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of JC Penney that In the postcard you can deliver more of a sales message, or more of a discount message these postcards may drive the customers online to see the full assortment online where as the larger brand books of JC Penny show a much richer sense of the style that they have and they portray fundamentally completely different messages. The postcard includes the offer and a link to the website to go see the expanded content where as the book itself that goes out shows the product, the customer can then either come in the store or they can go online or place their order on the phone. Direct mail is very important because through versioning and through customer segmentation the company is able to send out more targeted messages that are highly accountable and are also able to track the results in direct mail to a degree that cannot be possible in a lot of the other traditional mass media used by JC Penney. JC Penney has been focusing a great deal over its brand image and has been trying to diversify and broaden its target audience. It has recently changed to a new brand motif; ‘Every day matters’ along with the new tag line, the company has been working on enhancing its customer’s services and the opening of several temporary promotional stores. JC Penney is focusing on increasing the popularity of its brick and mortar stores as well as its online retailing through providing customers with latest offers, discounts and showcasing their product line online for ease of access. Sloan, 2007) As the world is advancing so are the technologies and the ease with which communication is possible among all parts of the world. With the advent of the internet and the upscale increase in its popularity, there has been almost nothing that is not available on the World Wide Web. The phenomenon of e-shopping emerged with the internet. The fact that customers could get what they want in the ease of their homes, increased the recognition of the internet and also of online shopping. There are numerous differences and similarities between online shopping and traditional shopping. But what holds more importance is the way the companies market their product online and how different it is from the marketing and promotion of brick and mortar companies. (Lowrey, 2008) Marketing over the internet is considered less costly, as it is holds a lower cost of distributing information on a global platform. More and more business are moving towards online retailing due to its outnumbered advantages in terms of cost, convenience and mobility of information over a great distance. One of the major focuses that companies including JC Penney is on the website. The success of online marketing is highly dependent over the outlook, design and the information provided by the website. Both the online companies as well as brick and mortar companies need to identify their target audience before they implement any marketing strategies. This lets them focus on the type of marketing tool they would benefit them. Brick and mortar companies offer a more traditional aspect of shopping and they also follow a traditional approach of marketing. This is mostly through mass media such as newspapers, television broadcast and magazines. With the passage of time, there are less and less companies that focus solely over brick and mortar business. Most companies are now available online as there is less overheads and larger audience prone to response through the internet. Conclusion In the end it is imperative to recognize the increasing importance of internet in business. Both, online retailing and brick and mortar companies hold their own set of characteristics that make them distinct. As the progress of online shopping is increasing there is still need for brick and mortar stores for traditional shoppers. Most companies, however, imply both the alternatives and hence, carry out their marketing accordingly.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Do You Burn More Calories When You Think Hard

According to Popular Science, your brain requires a tenth of a calorie per minute, just to stay alive. Compare this to the energy used by your muscles. Walking burns about four calories a minute. Kickboxing can burn a whopping ten calories a minute. Reading and pondering this article? That melts a respectable 1.5 calories a minute. Feel the burn (but try the kickboxing if youre trying to lose weight). While 1.5 calories per minute might not seem like very much, its a rather impressive number when you take into account your brain only accounts for about 2% of your mass and that, when you add up these calories over the course of a day, this one organ uses 20% or 300 of the 1300 calories the average person needs per day.​ Where the Calories Go Its not all to your gray matter. Heres how it works: The brain is comprised of neurons, cells that communicate with other neurons and transmit messages to and from body tissues. Neurons produce chemicals called neurotransmitters to relay their signals. To produce neurotransmitters, neurons extract 75% of the sugar glucose (available calories) and 20% of the oxygen from the blood. PET scans have revealed your brain doesnt burn energy uniformly.  The frontal lobe of your brain is where your thinking takes place, so if you are pondering lifes big questions, like what to have for lunch to replace the calories you are burning, that part of your brain will need more glucose. Calories Burned While Thinking Unfortunately, being a mathlete wont get you fit. In part, thats because you still have to work muscles to earn that six-pack, and also because pondering the mysteries of the universe only burns twenty to fifty more calories per day compared with lounging by the pool. Most of the energy used by the brain goes toward keeping you alive. Whether youre thinking or not, your brain still controls breathing, digestion, and other essential activities. Calories and Mental Fatigue Like most biochemical systems, the brains energy expenditure is a complex situation. Students routinely report mental exhaustion following key exams, like the SAT or MCAT. The physical toll of such tests is real, although its likely due to a combination of stress and concentration. Researchers have found the brains of people who think for a living (or for recreation) become more efficient as using energy. We give our brains a workout when we focus on difficult or unfamiliar tasks. Sugar and Mental Performance Scientists have studied the effect of sugar and other carbohydrates on the body and brain. In one study, simply rinsing the mouth with a carbohydrate solution activated parts of the brain that enhance exercise performance. But, does the effect translate into improved mental performance? A review of the effects of carbohydrates and mental performance yields conflicting results. There are evidence carbohydrates (not necessarily sugar) can improve mental function. Several variables affect the outcome, including how well your body regulates blood sugar, age, time of day, the nature of the task, and the type of carbohydrate. If youre facing a tough mental challenge and dont feel up to the task, theres a good chance a quick snack is just what you need.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Security Flaws And Weaknesses And Vulnerabilities

The entire security testing process is performed so that security flaws and software vulnerabilities can be reviled. There have been many system security breaches lately like Home Depot, Apple Pay competitor Current C and Home Depot that has prompted companies to look more seriously at tools and techniques that they can utilize to better identify and analyze potential threats and vulnerabilities. The main objective of security testing is determining how vulnerable the systems are and if the data and resources contained on those systems are protected against potential intruders. The chart below outlines several common tools that can be used to identify and analyze potential threats and vulnerabilities. Tools Technique or way the tool†¦show more content†¦Nessus This tool is an excellent vulnerability scanner which features asset profiling, high speed discovery of sensitive data, configuration auditing, and vulnerability analysis. This tools scanners can be spread throughout an entire enterprise, used inside DMZs, and also utilized across multiple physically separate networks. Nmap This tool is what’s known as a Network Mapper. This tool is mainly used as a network discovery scanner and as a security auditing tool. This tool can determine the availability of hosts on a particular network through the use of raw IP packets. The tool can also determine what services ( including application name and version) the hosts is offering, as well as what OS and versions they are running. This tool can also determine the type of firewalls and/or packet filters that are in use, and other important characteristics of the network environment. Zed Attack Proxy This tool is a very useful penetration testing tool that can be used to find vulnerabilities in web applications. This tool is simple to use and almost anyone with or without security experience can become functional testers even if they are new to penetration testing. Paros This tool is a HTTP/HTTPS proxy that is Java based and it is mainly used for assessing the vulnerability of web applications. This scanner is capable of intercepting all of the data in HTTP and

Monday, December 23, 2019

Representations of Native Americans in Disney Productions...

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans. In 1830 Native Americans were forced to relocate from the south†¦show more content†¦Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on â€Å"historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the [†¦] savage† (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the â€Å"depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]† (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today. The Western genre tended to portray Native Americans stereotypically; males were often shown as barbaric and the antagonist to the masculine Western cowboy. This links back to the savage stereotype, and how Westerners are often shown in a positive and heroic light whereas other ethnicities are demoralized and shown as negative characters. There are a select few stereotypical representations of Native Americans which are highly common in film, for example Native Americans typically speak â€Å"with a broken dialect of ‘baby’ English. They are not able to fully understand or express thoughts in the English language† (â€Å"The role of Native Americans in film, n.d.). This representation has changed in recent years with theShow MoreRelatedThe Little Foreign Princess, Pocahontas, And Sweetest Of Savages2049 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"warrior princess† Pocahontas in the 1907 Harper’s Weekly. It was this idea of the perfect Indian woman that set the stan dard for all other Native American women. at the time. While Pocahontas has continued to be a popular American culture icon, it is not just the Native American women’s image that is exploited in the public media . Throughout history, Native Americans have often been portrayed as one of two extremes, warrior princesses or unruly savages and a burden onburdening American civilization.Read More Insensitive Portrayal of Society and Cultuer in Disney Films1538 Words   |  7 PagesSo Wonderful World of Disney The â€Å"Wonderful World of Disney† has been a part of America for as long as I can remember. With its movies, television shows, songs, theme parks, toys, and fictional characters, Disney is the epitome of children’s entertainment. Disney serves as one of the largest sources of entertainment to Americans, which is why it reigns as a commercial success and influence in our country. According to Henry Giroux, a popular critic of the Walt Disney Company, Disney’s immenseRead MoreDiversity at Disney5774 Words   |  24 Pages1 Disney Disney 2 For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today s global corporation, Disney continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world. The company is diversified, focusing on its mass media headquartered in

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Article Critiques on Counseling Theory Free Essays

The conduct and process of psychoanalysis are sometimes defined by selfobject transferences that ‘mirror’ the true mind and feeling of the person concerned. In the first example, it is revealed that patients sometimes express ‘cross-sectional snapshot’ when they crave for recognition or admiration, as an effect of not feeling proud with their accomplishments. This ‘opening move’ would progress towards a convergence and then would progress resolutely, while the psychoanalyst deals with the pathognomonic selfobject transference that is reflected in the analytic atmosphere, to come up with the development of ‘trust’ and a ‘feeling of safety’. We will write a custom essay sample on Article Critiques on Counseling Theory or any similar topic only for you Order Now Analytic relationship needs contribution from each of the individuals, which is why, in the process, accepting, understanding and explaining past experiences are detrimental for a successful psychoanalysis. Understanding the fantasies, needs and demands leads to empathy. In the second example, it was described how patients’ responsiveness stems from accepting ‘their’ reality (Ornstein, 1998, par. 22) as well as accepting ‘their’ meanings and functions of reality (Ornstein, 1998, par. 24). PREMISE: The process of empathy is the best way to conduct clinical psychoanalysis. PROCEDURE: Centrality of the concept of the selfobject transferences was emphasized by means of defining the nature of the process, by focusing on the experiences of the patients, and by coming up with some general statements made out of the details. FINDINGS: Empathy and selfobject transferences are the basis of self psychology. REACTION: This is reasonably true, since psychological treatment can only be successful with both ends (or individuals) meeting at a common point. ARTICLE: Ornstein, P. H. (1998). My current view of the psychoanalytic process. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from the Psychology of the Self database: http://www. selfpsychology. com/1998conf/abstracts/pre_Conference_Ornstein. htm. Article Critique #2: Existential theory SUMMARY: The essence of the soul rests on ‘self-motion’, while its reversal rests on passivity (Riker, 2003, par. 13). As disintegrating forces would lead to passivity, then ethical breaks the repression made by passivity, so that there is self-motion and life in the soul. As reason and virtues control desires and emotions, then it leads to growth, development and actualization. However, in the modern concept of the soul’s life, â€Å"[l]ife is that which must disrupt itself in order to live† (Raiker, 2003, par. 18). It must be a free spirit that lives with the will-to-power soul of a child, which exceedingly values life itself†¦ the willingness to live, as life is the motion of the soul. This defines chaos as the proper breeding of a soul’s life, meaning that the most alive soul in the modern era is the ‘alienated individual’ that experiences struggle and isolation. HYPOTHESIS: There are different versions on how a soul may be able to achieve its life to the fullest, some of which are under self-motion, passivity and chaos. PROCEDURE: Findings come from the classical and modern conceptions of the soul’s life, as well as some ecological resolutions. FINDINGS: Classical theories are very much opposite to the modern theories of today. What deeply nourishes the life of the soul now appears to be under the event of chaos and disruption. But as this means developing a self or ‘I’ that is capable of living in reality without repression or submission, the soul should choose its own way of living, which may be a multitude of various ways and paths. REACTION: I agree that diversity should be valued by all means. This implies that there is no single way in which a soul may live to the fullest. It depends on state of reality. ARTICLE: Riker, J. H. (2003). The life of the soul: an essay in ecological thinking. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from the Psychology of the Self Online database: http://www. psychologyoftheself. com/papers/riker. htm. Article References: Ornstein, P. H. (1998). My current view of the psychoanalytic process. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from the Psychology of the Self database: http://www. selfpsychology. com/1998conf/abstracts/pre_Conference_Ornstein. htm. Riker, J. H. (2003). The life of the soul: an essay in ecological thinking. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from the Psychology of the Self Online database: http://www. psychologyoftheself. com/papers/riker. htm. How to cite Article Critiques on Counseling Theory, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

DEES NUTS Essay Example For Students

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Saturday, November 30, 2019

Return Of Native Essays - Thomas Hardy, The Return Of The Native

Return Of Native The entire opening chapter of The Return of the Native is devoted to a lengthy description of Egdon Heath, the setting of the novel. The heath must be significant in terms of the themes and the continue progress of the novel. The author of the novel, Thomas Hardy, made the heath so significant to the point that it can be look upon as a character like any other in the novel. The heath's constant correlation with the plot and its "personality" even transformed it into the major antagonist of the story. In the opening chapter the heath is introduced just as how a major character of most novels would be introduced with detail. In fact, the way Hardy devoted the entire first chapter just to describe it gives it the level of importance that is over any other characters in the book. This seems to suggest that the heath is like the"ruler" of the story, it is the King, and it is more powerful than any person is. The heath demonstrates the idea that fate is more powerful than the desires of individuals. This theme can be seems throughout the novel. The biggest effect of this theme is on Eustacia. The fact that Clym delayed sending his letter to Eustacia, coupled with the fact that Captain Vye unwittingly kept the letter from Eustacia until it was too late, suggests that perhaps destiny is against her. It is under the downpour of the rain, on the rugged heath where Eustacia laments her fate. Eustacia's own remark, "how destiny is against me!" (354) and "I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control!" (354) affirm the existence of such a force, the power of fate. On Egdon Heath, night and darkness comes before its "astronomical hour" (11). This presents the idea of Egdon Heath's unchangeable place in time. This early arrival of darkness gives Egdon Heath a sense of gloom. Dominance of darkness is clearly ominous and Hardy also says of the heath that it could "retard the dawn, sadden noon...and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread" (11-12). It is also inferred that the Heath itself creates the darkness "the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it" (12). This description of the Heath gives it not only a human like, but in fact, a monster-like quality. We see an image of a giant creature of darkness breathing out darkness. The atmosphere or tone created here is verging on evilness. The Heath is as hostile as it is gloomy. The place is "full of a watchful intentness...for when other things sank brooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen" (12). The Heath is personified as some sort of nocturnal predator and in the later progress of the novel, we see that the Heath is indeed hostile, perhaps"indifferent" would be the appropriate adjective, to the characters. Mrs.Yeobright's journey across the Heath after being turned away by Eustacia comes to mind. The conditions of the Heath under which Mrs.Yeobright makes her journey is described as "a torrid attack" (260) and "the sun had branded the whole heath with its mark" (260). "Brand" suggests pain and possibly torture and we find this is not far from the truth when Mrs.Yeobright makes her ill-fated return journey. However, the Heath is at its most hostile and cruel in darkness. It is in the middle of the night that the climax of the tragedy is reached, as Eustacia commits suicide amid the ferocity of the storm. In the opening chapter there is a forewarning of this, as we learn of the Heath that"the storm was its lover and the wind its friend" (13). As mentioned before, it is appropriate to describe the Heath as 'indifferent'. There is a feeling of helplessness that runs through the novel, as the characters fall prey to chance or fate. The tone is ironic, because we are watching the actions of the characters with superior knowledge. For instance, Clym's blaming himself for his mother's death is ironical: he does not know the conditions responsible for it and he is unaware that his mother did indeed call on him. It is possible to read this helplessness and irony as a result of the Heath's indifference to the characters. It is also an intended theme: man lives his life in a universe that is at least indifferent to him and may be hostile. The opening chapter is without doubt the

Monday, November 25, 2019

Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious Belief

Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious Belief Free Online Research Papers Like worst enemies and best friends, there are between science and religion as many binds as ruptures/breaks whether approaching or separating them with shared similarities and contrasts. In a general way, science addresses to the observable and physical world understanding through rational thought, generating hypotheses and testing them by means of experimentation and scientific method. Conversely, religion concerns more with the invisible order that gives meaning to the visible world, demanding the acceptance of truth according only to faith and belief, whether proven or disproved. Although apparently contradictory they both share a similar end, understanding the surrounding world, through different abstract means, rationality or belief. But then to what extent do these means differ from each other? Doesn’t science entails a kind of â€Å"religious† belief in rationality and the validity of scientific rules and methods? And isn’t religion just a kind of metaphysical rationality that also systematizes and intellectualizes the world through meaningful â€Å"hypothesis†? The answer to these questions requires as much rationality as belief for each question entails multiple answers and each answer bears a new question, according to the psychological, historical, social and cultural lens through which one looks at the phenomena. Comparisons between science and religion are as divergent and varied as that amount of scholars concerned with it. For this reason, I’ll try to interpret some of these thoughts, drawing the affinities and collisions that link or exclude religion from science and vice-versa, and ideally reach or, at least, search for a personal meaning yet rooted in a kernel of doubt: Both gods and doubt are widespread, transversal (if not universal) aspects of culture, the result not of inbuilt processes but of the interaction between language-using human beings and their social and natural environment (†¦) this fact is part of the social universe that humanity creates for itself by the very use of language, a universe which re-presents experience in a totally transforming way and always contains a kernel of doubt. (Goody (1996):679) Faithfully rational or rationally faithful? The truth is that science is organized like any other discourse, on the basis of a conventional logic, but it demands for its justification, like any other ideological discourse, a real â€Å"objective† reference, in a process of substance. (†¦) Science accounts for things previously encircled and formalized so as to be sure to obey it. â€Å"Objectivity† is nothing else than that, and the ethic which comes to sanction this objective knowledge is nothing less than a system of defence and imposed ignorance, whose goal is to preserve this vicious circle intact. â€Å"Down with all hypotheses that have allowed the belief in a true world†, said Nietzsche. (Baudrillard, 1983: 114-115) In the beginning of the eighteen century the world assists to turbulent and agitated times where change and progress were the ruling words. A era of great revolutions with the collapse of monarchies and empires; a time of great social experience and intense intellectual curiosity; the sprouting of nation states, democracy and market economy, in short, an unstable and changing century woven by dramatic transformations, which altogether enlightened humankind by showing it paths hitherto obscured and unseen. It was in the Enlightenment that reason and rationality shone upon men and its history, giving birth to a new era of rationalisation, secularisation, mechanisation and market rationality. Several thinkers were debating the definition of this new era, and all of them shared the optimistic vision and utopian hope that things were infinitely progressing towards an ideal of unlimited improvement, driven by science and its rationality. According to Kant’s metanarrative, men would finally attain freedom through the exercise of scientific reason, which understood the phenomena of the natural world through the categories of understanding (Morris (1987): 56). He believed that in the earlier stage people find it easier to be told what to do instead of reason by themselves, and therefore they were ruled by kings, emperors or church leaders. At some point of the future, people would learn to exercise reason and religion would no longer determine people’s choices, because they would be able to make take responsibility by themselves and finally reach freedom. Later on Hegel envisions the demise of religion considering it as just an absolute idea, our imperfect way of knowing that we can be better, that is to say, a kind of vehicle through which humanity could contemplate the ideal aspired. And finally Nietzsche announces that â€Å"God is dead† and the world once enlightened begins to be â€Å"disench anted†, as Webber puts it, by the increasing systematization of religious ideas and concepts, the growth of ethical rationalism, and the progressive decline of ritual and â€Å"magical† elements in religion (Morris, B. (1987): 69). Without defining such a complex phenomena as religion, Webber notes that supernatural belief is primordial and universal since it is present in all early forms of society. He considered rationalisation as typical of western society and the core of modernity, inciting abstracts, calculative, logical and empirical ways of looking at reality. This rationality entails a â€Å"legal-rational authority† in industrial society whereby explicit, intellectually calculable rules and procedures are systematized and specified, and increasingly substituted for sentiment and tradition. (ibid: 68). The protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism of Webber is a wonderful example of how rationality and faith might be more connected and complementary that contrary to each other. Here, he draws the elective affinity between certain forms of religious thought and certain kinds of economics structures and activities, namely the ascetic ethic of Protestantism and the intellectual rationality of capitalism: One of the fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and not only of that but of all modern culture: rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling, was born (†¦) from the spirit of Christian asceticism.(†¦)For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order.(†¦) Today the spirit of religious asceticism (†¦) has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer. (Lambek (2002): 58-59) Differently from this individualism incited by a religious ethic, Durkheim emphasizes the social function of religion in binding people together in moral terms. Following the evolutionary assumption that to understand the whole organism you must first study each cell, Durkheim argued that a complex religion such as Christianity should first be studied from its most primitive and simple form – totemism. He found in totemism a notion of an impersonal power or force – the totemic principle – that was represented by a totem and its symbol as a way of categorising how the group fits in the â€Å"greater† world of nature. This symbolic object, the totem, recognised by everyone and evoked through ritual, unleashed a strong and powerful religious sentiment that linked people together as a group. Therefore, the totem is the emblem of the group who, through religious ritual, is exhilarated by a collective force giving them a belonging and secure feeling among them. The strength of this collective solidarity, created by religion, is perceived as an impersonal and external force that leads people to perceive it as God’s creation, when actually God is nothing but the clan/group itself, personified and represented into their imaginations in the visible and tangible form of the Totem: God is only a figurative expression of the society and, therefore, all social phenomena are religious in nature because they unify people around a symbol in moral terms. In this way, Durkheim thought religion was best understood as â€Å"metaphorical and symbolic† and that the concrete and living reality that it expressed was the social group. (Morris (1987): 119-120), which in turn leads us to its definition of religion as a unified system of beliefs and pratices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them (†¦) religion must be an eminently collective thing(Lambek (2002): 46) Durkeim’s approach to religion, as a social phenomena with countable causes and implications, opposes to the intellectualists’ categorization of knowledge in evolutionary terms, for example, the evolutionary scheme drawn by Frazer that begins in magic, as a primitive science, followed by religion, considered a bad science and finally ending in science. This kind of categorization leads to discrimination of so called â€Å"primitive† tribes as irrational and in The Savage Mind, Levi-Strauss, following Durkheim’s thought, plainly argues against this ethnocentric view: Magical thought is not to be regarded as a beginning, a rudiment, a sketch, a part of a whole which was not yet materialised. It forms a well-articulated system, and is in this respect independent of that other system which constitutes science, except for the purely formal analogy which brings them together and makes the former a sort of metaphorical expression of the latter. It is therefore better, instead of contrasting magic and science, to compare them as two parallel modes of acquiring knowledge. (Levi-Strauss(1972): 13). Levi-Strauss concerns in demonstrate the systematical observational knowledge of the natural world within preliterate societies, which largely supersedes their organic or economic needs. Thus, religious thought is, like science, preoccupied with an intellectual understanding of the world but through different logics and applied to different types of phenomena: one is supremely abstract and relates to modern science and rationality, the other is analogical and supremely concrete and relates to magico-religious thought: (†¦) there are two distinct modes of scientific thought (†¦): one roughly adapted to that of perception and the imagination: the other at a remove from it. It is as if the necessary connections which are the object of all science, Neolithic or modern, could be arrived at by two different routes, one very close to, and the other more remote from, sensible intuition. (Levi-Strauss (1972): 15) He defines mythical thought as a kind of bricolage where the savage, in search for a meaning, builds up structures by connecting together the remains of the events which he restlessly orders and re-orders imprisoned in the events and experiences. Differently, science operates by creating means and results in the form of events through hypothesis and theories which are its structures: (†¦) the scientist creating events (changing the world) by means of structures and the â€Å"bricoleur† creating structures by means of events (Levi-Strauss (1972): 22) Although being imprisoned in the events mythical thought also acts as a liberator that refutes the idea, assumed by science, that anything can be meaningless. Agreeing with Levi-Strauss that symbolic mechanism is the â€Å"bricouleur† of the mind, Sperber, in Rethinking symbolism, proposes an alternative to semiological views of symbolism. He assumes that human mind has various forms of thought and distinguishes encyclopaedia knowledge, related to the concrete world, from the symbolical thought. Symbolical though is a universal feature of human mind, that deals with things outside the domain of our knowledge and experience; thus we resort to it when ordinary reasoning is insufficient like, for instance, towards the existence of God: it isn’t verifiable but we build a mental picture and construct hypothesis of what he is like. Thus, symbolical domain is like a reservation where we put things that are not certain for us, until such a time we may be able to decide whether it is true or not: (†¦) the symbolic mechanism does not try to decode the information it processes. It is precisely because this information has partly escaped the conceptual code (†¦)that it is, in the final analysis, submitted to it.(†¦) A representation is symbolic precisely to the extent that it is not entirely explicable, that is to say, expressible by semantic means. (pg113). In a way, symbolical thinking, on which all religion is based, is the second representation of a conceptual representation, i.e., the new object created by the symbolic mechanism when the conceptual one fails in integrating information into acquired knowledge. To this assumed objectiveness of conceptual and scientific knowledge opposed to the subjectiveness of symbolical thought, Bourdieu suggests that science is not as objective as it assumes to be. He legitimely asserts that, within the field of science, there are all kinds of social hierarchies and structures which decide what can be studied, what can be said, who is a legitimate scientist and who isn’t†¦thus, the objectiveness presumed by science is as conditioned to power relations as religion itself: Scientific thought has no foundation other than the collective belief in its foundations that the very functioning of the scientific field produces and presupposes. (†¦) finds its basis in the totality of the institutional mechanism ensuring the social and academic selection of legitimate scholars (†¦), the training of the agents selected, and control over acess to the instrument of research and publication, etc. (Bourdieu (1991): 8-9) While Bourdieu talks about the social side of scientific establishment and religion, Gell is more concerned about the human mind and how both magic and technology are rooted in a similar way of thinking. Defining technology as those forms of social relationships which make it socially necessary to produce, distribute and consume goods and services using technical processes (Gell (1988) : 6), Gell distinguishes different types of techonologies – productive, reproductive and of enchantment. This latter is like magic and exploits psychological biases so as to enchant the other person and cause him/her to perceive social reality in a way favourable to the social interests of the enchanter (ibid: 7). Like magic, technology is also enchanted since it derives from the idea of achieving something without any effort or labour, aiming to make everything magically easy; therefore, they are both rooted in the creative and playful side of human mind that imagines something that has never e xisted before and puts it into practice: It is technology which sustains magic, even as magic inspires fresh technical efforts. The magical apotheosis of ideal, costless, production is to be attained technically, because magical production is only a very flattering image of the production which is actually achievable by technical means. (Gell (1988): 9) So it is evident that also in our society, although purged from supernatural forces, new forms of magic exist, for example, advertising that mythologizes commodities with unlimited possibilities and inventions: And if we no longer recognize magic explicitly, it is because technology and magic, for us, are one and the same (Gell (1988): 9) Charles Taylor’s Rationality and Relativism also provides a very cultural relativist approach towards the rationality of science. He shows how science is a very peculiar and unique phenomenon rooted in particular traditions of thought and historical conditions. He makes us see how science, rather than religion, constitutes a bizarre outlook of reality, developed from the strange attempt to theorise the world and progressively separating ourselves from it. Thus, he concerns with knowing if there are valid, universal standards of rationality and to what extent can we make transcultural judgments of rationality. He defines rationality by a logical consistency and articulation of ideas which demand for an activity of theoretical understanding, inherent to Western’s legacy from ancient Greece: (†¦) we have a rational grasp of something when we can articulate it, that means, distinguish and lay out the different features of the matter in perspicuous order. (Taylor (1982): 90) By this preoccupation of describing the world through reasoning and creating a theoretical framework of comprehension we intend to achieve a â€Å"disengaged perspective†: We are not trying to understand things merely as they impinge on us, or are relevant to the purposes we are pursuing, but rather grasp them as they are, outside the immediate perspective of our goals and desires and activities. (†¦) we come to distinguish this disengaged perspective from our ordinary stances of engagement, and that one values it as offering a higher – or in some sense superior – view of reality. (Taylor (1982): 89) Therefore, by our own standards of a theoretical culture, we tempt to judge other cultures that show a complete disinterest of a theoretical knowledge from the world. But, as Taylor asks, ‘why must the universe exhibit some meaningful order (†¦)?†. There are simply different ways of engaging to the world: a theoretical way, through the scientific study of reality, and an atheoretical way, â€Å"in which we try to come to terms with the world (Taylor (1982): 97) and assume a meaningful order. The first, at the core of modern science, purges any expressive dimensions or meaningful order by the understanding laws of physical nature and its technological control; the second, underlying primitive magic, links together knowledge and wisdom, that is to say, understanding the world and attuning with it: Science could only be carried on by a kind of ascesis, where we discipline ourselves to register the way things are without regards to the meanings they might have for us. (Taylor (1982): 97) Before these differences one can make ethnocentric judgments of superiority arguing that western science and technology are more successful in mastering the world and attaining its aims, but it is also a fact that we have been made progressively more estranged from ourselves and our world in technological civilization (Taylor (1982): 103). Thus, whatever judgments of superiority are made, scientific rationality and magico-religious belief are, not only different standards of reality, but also incommensurable perspectives and activities. In a similar way, Tambiah questions the notion and limits of rationality itself and criticizes science for being a carrier of Western ideology that serves the interest of elite. In Magic, science, religion and the scope of rationality he concerns with the demarcation, differentiation and overlap of this different ways of understanding the world, offering a brief historical account from early Christianity to the nineteenth century. He starts by asking himself: How do we understand and represent the modes of thought and action of other societies, other cultures? Since we have to undertake this task from a Western baseline so to say, how are we to achieve â€Å"the translation of cultures†, i.e., understand other cultures (Tambiah (1990): 3) With this in mind, he criticizes the division between religion and magic, made by early anthropologists, arguing that it derived from the Judaeo-Christian and Greek thought biases, inherited by Western thought; so, since other religions lack this distinction, it is not fair to assume that religion and magic are separate. He notes that even the Greeks did not completely separate magic from science and religion because, although science arose from magical practices when people began to perceive nature and natural laws, instead of God, as the ground of all causality, they still believed that the divine principle pervaded all phenomena. Therefore, the evolutionary distinction of â€Å"religion† from â€Å"magic† is clearly political, for it supports racism and the discrimination of primitive cultures by western colonizers. In this way he notes the â€Å"faith† inherent to scientific rationality: A commitment to the notion of nature as the ground of causality, of nature as a uniform domain subject to regular laws, can function as a belief system without its guaranteeing a verified â€Å"objective truth† as modern science may define it. In other words, the appeal to â€Å"nature† or â€Å"science† can serve as a legitimation of a belief and action system like any other ideological and normative system. (Tambiah (1990): 10) Similarly to Taylor, Tambiah also regards to magico-religious practices and science as different attempts of people to act upon the world and change it, suggesting that they should be seen as different things with different goals and means to achieve them. Magic hasn’t the purpose to admit hypothesis and verify them, instead, it only makes symbolic statements that express the desired results; besides that, magical ritual cannot be disproved as scientific experiments. Thus, magic and religion rely on symbolic thought and action and have a particular and universal way of thinking analogical thought. Analogical thought is a kind of wishful thought, because it consists in observing a similarity between two things, make hypothesis according to that similarity and simply assume it instead of, like science, test it to find whether it is valid or not. Like Bourdieu, Tambiah also argues that magic and religion are not academic subjects but things that people do, therefore, they can only be understood within the context of people’s lives. In academia there are intellectual biases that tempt scholars to subtract things from practice and experience in order to exam them, but magical or religious beliefs are not meant literally, because they are non-literal symbolical and performative actions, related to cosmology and metaphysical concerns: The distinctive feature of religion as a generic concept lies not in the domain of belief and its â€Å"rational accounting† of the workings of the universe, but in a special awareness of the transcendent, and the acts of symbolic communication that attempt to realize that awareness and live by its promptings (Tambiah (1990): 16) Bourdieu also adverts to the social implications of a scholastic point of view, that determines and subdues our way of looking at a particular phenomenon, and entails a certain theoretical adjustment to the reality itself: Thus what (†¦)all those whose professions is to think and/or speak about the world have the most chance of overlooking are the social presuppositions that are inscribed in the scholastic point of view (†¦)the unconscious dispositions, productive of unconscious theses, which are acquired through an academic or scholastic experience(†¦) (Bourdieu (1991) : 381) Finally, he also suggests that science is not as objective as it assumes to be, asserting legitimely that, within the field of science, there are all kinds of social hierarchies and structures which decide what can be studied, what can be said, who is a legitimate scientist and who isn’t†¦thus, the objectiveness presumed by science is as conditioned to intrinsic power relations as religion itself: Scientific thought has no foundation other than the collective belief in its foundations that the very functioning of the scientific field produces and presupposes. (†¦)the totality of the institutional mechanism ensuring the social and academic selection of legitimate scholars (†¦), the training of the agents selected, and control over acess to the instrument of research and publication, etc. (Bourdieu (1991): 8-9) Overall, in spite of the lack of agreement between all these different perspectives and ideas, there is one thing that they all account for: how these cultural variations prove that religion still remains an essential facet of the human mind and how, far from being disenchanted, our modern world creates its own enchantments where religion, â€Å"re-semantized† in new contexts, remains an integral part of these multiple modernities. Conclusion: From this evidence, I tend to think that both science and religion are a way of giving sense to the world we perceive, that both result from the human demand for ordering and giving meaning to the apparent chaos of the world and both entail a kind of intellectual exclusion from the world in order to be included in it, through a distance that allows us to analyse and understanding it better, like we distance ourselves from a painting in order to contemplate it better. Nevertheless, scientific rationality tries to achieve this by changing the world and its surrounding nature, by mastering it according to the insatisfactions, desires and needs that disquiet human beings through a rational and systematical understanding applied in technology. Differently, religious belief achieves this, not by changing the external world, but instead by changing the world within ourselves, changing that same disturbing insatisfactions, needs and desires through a metaphysical and meaningful knowledge applied in a moral discipline. So, while the former tries to â€Å"tidy up† the exterior world by changing its disposition through knowledge of the external and physical order; the latter concerns in tiding up the interior world we perceive with knowledge of the interior and spiritual order. In short, while science and rationality leads us to master the world and modifying it to the shape of our needs, religion and belief teach us how to master ourselves and modify ourselves to the shape of the world we live in; the former revolutionizes, the latter conforms. Also, science tends to be more auto-destructive, in the sense that the emergence of a paradigm entails its surpassing by a new one, whereas religion, although suffering changes from a re-contextualization and â€Å"re-semanthization†, tends to an idealistic stabilization and immutability that, because it is disproved, excludes a constant testing and verification. Nevertheless, for all this reason it seems to me that religion and science are not as contradictory as they are complementary to one another, since a merely inner speculation can leads us to stagnation, while a merely outer one might increase infinitely our insatisfaction. By this I mean that it seems to be a preoccupant unlevelling between our scientific-technological development and our ethical-moral progression, since the former evolves at an incredibly fast pace that the latter not always follows. And I think dramatic events such as the ones assisted recently by terrorism are a clear prove of that. But even most illustrative for me is what happened in Hiroshima sixty years ago, which alarmingly shows how we, as human beings, might not yet be prepared to hold the incommensurable power that science and technology put uncontrollably at our disposal. Thus, I think it is crucial to think as Webber did of â€Å"science as a vocation† and questioning it as our rationality once di d with religion: Natural science gives us an answer to the question of what we must do if we wish to master life technically. It leaves quite aside, or assumes for its purposes, whether we should and do wish to master life technically and whether it ultimately makes sense to do so. (pg8) As Weber observes, science preoccupies itself with the field of techniques and technologies aiming to control life, rather then looking for its meaning. Science explains but lacks of significance, providing only a meaningless and disenchanted interpretation of the world on behalf of its rational understanding. Instead, religion entails the intellectual sacrifice of knowing without explaining, of believing on unconditional devotion on behalf of a meaningful knowledge. To this I add the notion that as religion entails this intellectual sacrifice so science entails a spiritual sacrifice of attuning with the world. Returning to the painting comparison, science can explains us every concrete detail of the painting materials, the exact way in which the painter moved his brush and the perfect examination of the canvas’s state but in this rational, analytical and systematical observation it failed the most important thing – to contemplate and passionately penetrate in its beaut y, perfectly understanding it instead of imperfectly explain it. What then is it more valuable and worthier: to know without believing or to believe with knowing? A meaningless explanation or a unexplained meaning? I think the answer is in between, where scientific rationality and religious belief blend with each other in a â€Å"faithfull† rationality that believes and a â€Å"rational† faith that explains – a â€Å"love poem† yet to be written in the history of humankind and re-enchant the world†¦ BIBLIOGRAPHY Christian Blog Site. 2007. Daily Shepherd – Christian Blog Site. dailyshepherd.com Baudrillard (1983) Simulations. New York : Semiotext[e] Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) The peculiar history of scientific reason Sociological Forum 6 (1) Bourdieu, Pierre (1990) The Scholastic Point of view in Cultural Anthropology 5 (4) (Nov.1990), pp. 380-391 Dan, Sperber (1974) Rethinking Symbolism Gell, Alfred (1988) â€Å"Techonology and Magic† in Anthropology Today 4 (2) : 6-9 Goody, Jack (1996) A kernel of doubt in The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute, vol.2, No.4 Levi-Strauss, Claude (1972) The Savage Mind, London: Weidenfeld Nicolson Lambek, M. (ed.) (2002) A reader in the Anthropology of Religion Oxford : Blackwell Morris, Brian (1987) Anthropological studies of religion: an introductory text New York : Cambridge University Press Tambiah, Stanley J. (1990) Magic, science, Religion and the Scope of Rationality Taylor, C. (1982) Rationality. In Rationality and relativism Hollis M. S. Lukes eds Weber, Max (2001) A à ©tica protestante e o espirito do capitalismo Lisboa : Editorial Presenà §a Research Papers on Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious BeliefCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeThree Concepts of PsychodynamicEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenMind TravelResearch Process Part OneCapital Punishment