Information and Communication Technologies Research Paper

Information and Communication Technologies - Research Paper Example Over time customers have become more and more demanding when it comes to quality of food and of fine dining (Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996). Hoteliers have admitted that there is an increase in competition when it comes to restaurants and the quality of food being provided to the customer. One of the reasons of the increase in competition is the creation of new concepts. Moreover exposure given to chefs and cooking experts by media has significantly raised the expectations of customers (Boone, 2008). Furthermore food served at restaurants in a hotel tends to act as a factor in determining a hotel’s position in the market (Boone, 2008). A guest at a hotel tends to judge the hotel based on the dining experience that he or she has (Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996). Business objectives and strategies: The business objectives of the restaurant can be divided into two main categories increase revenue generated and cut down unnecessary expenditures of the restaurant. ... The second approach is based on arranging a celebrity night at the restaurant that would help attract a number of customers to the restaurants (Fine, 2010). Contacting celebrities would depend upon the restaurant owner’s PR and his or her network (Fine, 2010). The third approach would be marketing about the restaurant via the internet (Bailey, 2011). Online advertising would be the main tool used for promoting the restaurant over the internet (Janoschka, 2003). Through online marketing the management of the restaurant would be able to get its message across to a large number of potential customers (Janoschka, 2003). Online advertising makes use of social media websites, mobile advertising and display advertising (Janoschka, 2003). To help increase the profit margin a price vibration model would be implemented at the restaurant. The model is based on two basic activities. The first activity is to increase the prices on the menu when the traffic within the restaurant is at its h ighest peak, which is during lunch and dinner time (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). The second activity is regarding the improvement of the menu. The menu can be improved by removing all those items that are least favorites of the customers. By removing such items from the menu the restaurant would be able to reduce the cost of production and hence helping it increase its overall profit margin. Removing an item from the menu must only be done after a careful analysis (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). To achieve the third objective of the restaurant, that is to gain customer loyalty, various promotions and rewards would be offered to customers

A Review On Nelson Mandela History Essay

A Review On Nelson Mandela History Essay Nelson Mandela, the first democratic South Africa president was not just a great leader due to her leadership skills and traits, but also because he was a leader with a vision, persistence and courage. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of 21st century and a hero to many for his actions and personality. Nelson is a great leader, a leader other modern leaders need to emulate, if they need to fight corruption and provide the best leadership to those below them. Nelson Mandela aka Madiba was a leader by birth and a leader to the end as until today many people see him as a leader although retired. In his first year in Fort Hare University, he started involving himself in the council representing students, called SRC, which was opposing harsh and unfair policies in the University. After retiring in 1999, he went ahead and formed organizations to help other people mostly those with HIV in South Africa. Mandela was a leader with a vision that he ensured it was fulfilled no matter the hindrances. During his trial, he said that he had fought the dominion of white and that of black people and he was ready to die to ensure that all people had the same rights, irrespective of their race. During his 27 years in jail, he continued to influence and fight apartheid through his wife Winnie Mandela. He even studied a bachelor in law from London External Program University while still in the prison with no hope of when he was to be released. In all times, Mandela was a leader who sacrificed himself for the benefit of other. He sacrificed his youth and life to fight against racialism. At age of 20, he was still involved in fighting apartheid. He even went to jail for 27 years just because of his stand of equal rights to white, black and colored people. After being in jail for 27 years for his country, he became the president for only four years and then retired in order to give chance for another leader to lead South Africa (Klerk, 2). Moreover, he even sacrificed his good peaceful retirement just to cater for those people with HIV and AIDs and those poor. These are great sacrifices that not all leaders mostly todayà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s leaders can be able to do just for the sake of those under them. An influential characteristic was one of his traits. To support this, when he was in first year, he was ordered to leave the University due to his involvement in boycotts and his great influence which the university saw as a threat. They even black mailed him by asking him to be elected in SRC if he wanted to remain a student in the university. Another indication that he is an influential person is that still when in prison, he was able to gain supporters both inside and outside the prison with the help of his wife Winnie. When he came out of prison, all people with one voice wanted him to become the president even the former president, as he was able to convince all that he was indeed the leader they were looking for. Mandela leadership skills were unique, as for him, he led from behind. This is a skill he learned from a tribal king called Jongintaba who raised him. The king, when in a tribal meeting, he would let all the other leaders speak and then he would speak putting in place what the other leaders had said. In modern leadership, people want a leader that will listen to their needs and pleads and hence act accordingly to what all or most of those under them want. When as a president, many activist tried to opposed his leadership mostly concerning the matter of how he approached the HIV pandemic in South Africa, Mandela never tried to prove them wrong by then, he waited till he retired and that when he started organizations to help people living with HIV/AIDS. He let people criticize his actions but he had plans on the best way to curb those problems (Stengel, 9). Mandela was a leader that never broke his promises and fought for what was just ethically but not by law. In support of this, from his youth, he fought for equality to all and opposed dominion by any race even his own. He stood by this mission and even when he became the president, he greatly influenced black people not to hate white people for all they had done to them. To emphasize on this, during Rugby World Cup in 1994, he led black people to support South African team that they greatly hated because it was dominated by whites. He even handed over the trophy, after springboks won the finals, to the captain of the team who was called Pioneer while wearing his jersey although the player was white. This was a great move in reconciliation of black and white South Africans. Simplicity is a trait that is essential to all good leaders and this is a trait that Nelson Mandela had. During his life in prison, Mandela was able to form daily habits like athletes and good eating regimes, habits that he have maintained over the years. The results of this have led to him being alive up to date with over 93 years of age. Still in support of this, Mandela is one of the few leaders that maintained their stature, visions and integrity even after becoming president while other many freedom fighters, ended up being dictators and manipulating power for their own sake. This have made him to be hailed as one of the greatest moral leader even leading to him being honored with over 200 awards in just four decades, including the most treasured Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He has also being honored with over 50 international degrees from different countries. All this credit has being because he maintained his humbleness and visions to the end (Jong, 4). Nelson Mandela, even when others saw no hope ahead, he never gave up. This is a trait that a good leader should have as all other followers see them as role models. Even when in a political prison, with harsh conditions like hard labor, very few visits, inadequate food and segregation in accordance with races, Nelson never gave up, even after all those years in prison. His spirit was still alive during his life in prison, this led to him studying law in prison and influencing those young activist that were black and imprisoned in Robben Island on how to curb the apartheid. His dream to become the person to bring equality to all no matter the challenges was finally achieved when he was elected as the first democratic president of South Africa even when being at age of 75 (Mandela, 129). He was a passionate leader and a risk taker. After coming back to prison and being separated from the others who had being his friend for the last 20 years, Mandela opposed their move to riot due to his separation. He told them there may be some good that was to come out of that. This separation helped him to have negotiation in 1985 with the government in power operating apartheid. To many other activists that saw him as a leader, they started opposing his move. They even termed his actions as a move to sell them out. To help gain other imprisoned activist support, he launched a campaign persuading other ANC activist that what he was doing was the right thing to do. Deliberately and slowly, he brought all this people along with his idea. This led to all things changing and for apartheid to be abolished ( Brick, 4) Moreover, he organized and raised money to support his campaigns from outside countries, a move that led to his imprisonment. That was an act requiring courage and that was risky, knowing that it could lead to him being imprisoned for lifetime, but he went along and did it. While other activist looked on the best way to end apartheid in short run, Mandela was always focusing on the best way to end apartheid with minimal bloodshed even if it was to be achieved in long run. To him leadership and victory was not a matter of principle but a matter of tactics. With the knowledge of when precisely and how to change between the many roles he had in hand as a diplomat, politician, Marty and a warrior, he created a non-racial south African country after overthrowing apartheid. While many reached a time and saw bloodshed as done by other independent countries in Africa as the only option to end apartheid and colonialism, to him he saw it as the time to engage in peaceful negotiation with the government to ensure justice to all and loss to none. To another trait to support the argument, Nelson was a transformation leader. While many leader go into negotiation with a move to trade one thing with another even with their followers, Nelson was a visionary leader who seek appealing to his followers to change their intentions and plans and move with him to a better universal purpose and need. In short he was an agent of change. Another trait that makes Nelson Mandela a great leader is that he was a learner not a teacher. By this I mean that, he accepted that he did not know all and allowed to learn from others that had skills. When young he learned from the tribal leader on the best way to rule. When in prison he studied law to increase his knowledge on law and ways to govern. Moreover, he listened to other activist views in order to learn on what all wanted to achieve in the end. The teaching he gave to the activist was to help them see his vision in a different perspective where they could achieve what they wanted without even shedding blood and causing mayhem and havoc. Even when he went to negotiations with the government, he was able to convince the others and let them see things as he was seeing them. Nelson Mandela also had a charismatic personality in that when others were afraid of the future or looked on the negative side of things, he encouraged them to look on the positive side of things. When he was to be separated from his long friends and activists in prison, as his friends planned to riot, he opposed their move and encouraged them that there was some good that could arise from that and they trusted him. Moreover, when he was taken to jail for sabotage, people started losing hope to the end of apartheid but his assurance and advice kept their spirit on. All his life, Mandela has show courage ever since he was a young boy. During his circumcision, he expressed his courage and was even offered a name Dalibunga meaning Bungha founder, a body that ruled Transkei traditionally. Even when found guilty of sabotage, he never feared to go in prison and he said that he was even ready to die for justice and equality of all. Moreover he never feared engaging in talks with the government, a move that could lead to him being killed or rejected by his own people if it failed. To him, he never feared to fail. It was better to try and fail than not to try at all. Even before going to prison, when ANC was banned after the government saw the success it had, Mandela and other activist came up with a risky decision by continuing with ANC underground as nonviolence movements could not work anymore. This risky act made Mandela go to prison but in a great way, it inspired many others to help in preparing the country for a change. A unique character that Mandela had was that, he was and still is generous. This is a trait that makes leaders better as they end up putting those under them in limelight as they go on with their duties. For Mandela, after retiring in 1999 from politics, he became involved in various human and social rights organizations. Since then he has facilitated building of many schools and even helped those living with HIV. Another indication of his generosity is when he retired from president office only after four years even after being in jail for over two decades. After completing his mission to unite all South African people to become one no matter their races and abolishing apartheid, his mission was over and hence he retired for another leader to take over which was Thambo Mbeki. For his entire life, generosity was the reason why people loved him so much and adored him. In a great way his success to lead others can be contributed to his tactfully use of consensus. With consensus, better and more supported decisions are made hence building motivation and commitment in the members of that group toward achieving the set objectives. Over his life as a leader, he has involved other subordinates to come up with the best policies and actions for all. In conclusion, although each and every person has his weakness and failures in life, Nelson Mandela is a human too and hence eligible to the same weaknesses. With him failing to help some people when they needed him and making remarks not pleasing to all, he still stands as one of the greatest leaders of our time with the reason being that, over his life he have sacrificed a lot and done a lot than very many leaders have done. He has ended up fulfilling his missions and plans and even correcting the little mistakes he may have made. Even after very many years, Nelson Mandela will be seen as to be a great leader. Work cited Brick A. Nelson Mandela. 7 June 1998. 17 March 2011 . Jong. Nelson Mandela Introduction and Contribution. A Great leader (2009): 4. Klerk, De. biography of Nelson Mandela. 13 August 1993. 17 March 2011 . Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom. Johnersberg: Little brown and company, 1995. 129. Stengel, Richard. Mandelas 8 Lessons of leadership. Mandela (2008): 9.

The Sage :: essays research papers

Throughout history, there have always been stories. From the myths of ancient civilizations long since past to today’s epic blockbuster movies, civilizations have used stories not only as entertainment, but as a way to convey ideas, or to pass down oral history through the generations. However, over time, as we look through these myths, books, movies, and other mediums, we find a common similarity in many of them. We find repeated patterns of situations, characters, and other parts. The patterns have been classified as â€Å"archetypes.† For instance, one of the archetypes we often see in myths, books, and movies is the â€Å"outcast.† The outcast is one who has been exiled from his home to wander the world without rest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Greek mythology, one of the well-known outcasts is Perseus, the son of Zeus and the daughter of the king Argos however, a god once prophesized to Argos that the son of his daughter would kill him, so he sent the child in a box across the sea to wander the world forever. Over this time, Perseus completed many fantastical quests, such as slaying the infamous Medusa. However, when he returned to his home and participated in a fighting competition, he was pitted against Argos, and accidentally hit him, thus fulfilling the prophecy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the Greek play of Philoctetes, Philoctetes is an outcast who has been left behind by his fellow soldiers after being bitten by a snake. His wound had become so foul smelling and his cries were so irritating, that the soldiers abandoned him on an island in the Aegean Sea. Greek heroes Odysseus and Neoptolemus arrive at the island in search of Philoctetes’s bow and arrow, which a seer prophesized would end the Trojan War. The two, knowing Philoctetes would attack any of the Greeks that abandoned him, decide to pose Neoptolemus as a mistreated soldier in order to get him close to Philoctetes. But, Neoptolemus is moved by the outcast’s misery and confesses the plot and begs him to join. Philoctetes agrees to join them, but only because Heracles declares a mandate that his wound shall heal when he arrives at Troy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the Holy Bible of Christianity, in Genesis, Adam and Eve are forever banished from the Garden of Eden, when they eat the forbidden fruit of God. This makes humanity itself an outcast. Also, the first children of Adam and Even, Cain and Abel, bring about another tale of an outcast.

Factors Which Influence Learning Relationships And Communication Education Essay

In this essay I will explicate and discourse how motive is one of the most of import factors that influence acquisition, relationships and communicating in the schoolroom. The duty for making a positive acquisition ambiance lies about wholly with the instructor and motivated pupils make this procedure a batch easier. Motivation besides plays a critical function in developing relationships in the schoolroom, both instructor and pupil motive. I will besides discourse in greater item later of the importance of affecting the parent or carer in constructing these relationships and how this enhances these relationships. The ability of the instructor to pass on both verbally and nonverbally with their pupils is enormously of import and is the basis on which effectual acquisition is built. Motivation once more is a enormously important factor in this communicating procedure, as a motivated instructor communicates good with their pupils and a motivated instructor leads to the development of m otivated pupils. A positive acquisition environment is one of the most basic demands in order for meaningful acquisition to happen in a schoolroom ( Kyriacou, 2009 ) . A positive acquisition atmosphere is one where the pupils are comfy, hold assurance in their instructor, and experience a sense of trust and regard for one another. In order to heighten learning lessons must be organised and the instructor must be after for the usage learning methods that encourage pupils to go actively involved in larning. This can be done by besides changing the course of study and happening out what our pupils involvements are, giving them motive to larn. Teachers need to dispute themselves to utilize different learning methods to excite pleasance in acquisition and accordingly tackle ennui. The debut of new educational attacks such as undertakings and fact-finding work will let clip for students to describe back on what they learnt and back up this procedure. A survey by Kaplan et Al. ( 2002 ) found that the degree of riotous behavior by students tended to be higher in those schoolrooms where the students felt that the presentation of ability and making better than others was the dominant value compared with schoolrooms where the students felt that the dominant values were larning, understanding and bettering one ‘s ain public presentation. Kyriacou ( 2007 ) suggests the instructor needs to be relaxed, warm, lovingness, enthusiastic, patient, and supportive and possess a sense of wit. To make this ambiance, the instructor must prosecute the pupils every bit shortly as the category commences. The schoolroom clime established by the instructor can hold a major impact on students ‘ motive degrees and attitudes towards larning. Remind pupils at the start of every lesson that the type of attitude they bring into the schoolroom will hold a immense influence on the acquisition that takes topographic point during that category ( Cullinford, 2003 ) . Motivation plays a immense function in making this positive acquisition atmosphere. Harmonizing to Erickson ( 1978 ) the bulk of pupils respond positively to a well-organized class taught by a motivated and actuating instructor that has a caring echt involvement in what they learn. Erickson ( 1978 ) further suggests whatever degree of motive your pupils bring to the schoolroom will act upon the degree of larning. As instructors we need to inquire ourselves the inquiry are our pupils motivated to larn, or are they merely encaged in acquisition and what have we done as instructors to lend to this? Cluck and Hess ( 2003 ) explains that in order to assist and actuate scholars we need to assist them develop their ain acquisition schemes. We can make this by learning them to how to utilize their ain acquisition manners, implementing concerted acquisition, promote student to take how they learn, and usage techniques informed by multiple intelligences. When this is done students showed incre ased motive in category work, improved assignment completion, category engagement, and battle in larning. Therefore, Cluck and Hess ( 2003 ) experience these instruction schemes are positive in bettering the pupil ‘s attitudes towards larning. They besides suggest that the usage of extrinsic wagess such as ends, classs, appraisal and touchable wagess would be less productive in developing motive. Constructing relationships has womb-to-tomb permanent effects for the pupils and will actuate them to go involved in their acquisition. If we can construct good relationships with our pupils it will besides assist them to construct good relationships outside of school and when they leave school. There are a figure of things that are really of import when we are seeking to construct relationships with our students, such as naming the students by their first name, attempt and happen out what common involvement you hold and make it your concern before each category to hold a friendly conversation on the subject. Harmonizing to Regan Morrissey ( 2012 ) how the pedagogue creates a positive acquisition atmosphere is of critical importance in constructing relationships and encouraging pupils. Something that contributes to this is the instructors ‘ mode, their verbal and gestural communicating and how they move around the schoolroom. Making a positive schoolroom clime shows how much at tempt you as a instructor feel is worthwhile seting into the lesson. A instructor needs to experience relaxed and confident in their ain ability to bring forth a echt involvement in the lesson. Parents are important to constructing relationships with pupils and one time these relationships are formed we need to be able to keep them and utilize them to our advantage. We should utilize parent/teacher meetings to derive cognition of our pupils ‘ parent and as PE instructors, the parents involvements particularly in the clean universe. This can supply a foundation we can utilize to lure these parents to go involved in extracurricular activities. Kyricau ( 2007 ) explains the importance of the function of parents and carers and the demand for instructors to be able to pass on efficaciously with parents and carers and to recognize and esteem the function that parents and carers can do to the development of students ‘ wellbeing and to raising students ‘ degrees of attainm ent. Keeping relationships with the parents besides has a monolithic knock on consequence to their siblings as it establishes a relationship for those who may be come ining the school in future ( Duck and Pittman, 1994 ) . Communication harmonizing to Tubbs et Al ( 2011 ) ) is loosely defined as the â€Å" sharing of experience ‘ with every bit much as 75 % of our full witting twenty-four hours being spent engaged in communicating. The communicating theoretical account developed by ibid ( 2011 ) suggests communicating is a sensitive country and messages between two people can easy be misunderstood as channels and elements of intervention can direct assorted messages. As communicating is such an of import portion of larning an indispensable ingredient to going a successful and competent instructor is to be an effectual communicator. Communication is closely associated with self-identity and Hattie & A ; Timperley ( 2007 ) believe it is one of the most powerful influences on acquisition and accomplishment. Teachers must be cognizant of their verbal and non-verbal methods of communicating with pupils in order to make an unfastened, productive and honest larning environment. Marzano ( 2007 ) believe s that communicating is the individual most critically of import issue a instructor has to see. A PE instructor demands to be cognizant of how to pass on both verbally and nonverbally in a high quality mode to maximise the acquisition of the pupils. Teachers need to larn how to utilize such things as oculus contact, facial looks, manus gestures and organic structure linguistic communication as tools for communicating in the schoolroom. The usage of oculus contact and facial looks reduces the sum of verbal communicating the instructor has to utilize in a category and is really utile in such a loud environment as the PE category. The usage manus signals can be adopted to relay positive encouragement to pupils who are making something good. An illustration of this is thumbs up or a bang to admit something that a pupil has done good. To pass on with pupils we need to be sensitive to their demand and listen critically to what they have to state, non believing of replies until the pupil has finished the inquiry. A instructor must be able to pass on to their pupils in order to assist them to go independent scholars develop their ability to turn and develop responsibly. I ‘m a house truster that pass oning encouragement, verbally and nonverbally to the pupils is the best signifier of motive. I am witting on my Monday arrangements of making a positive schoolroom clime by pass oning in this mode. I invariably scan the gym, everlastingly interacting, actuating the pupils, invariably praising and promoting but with entire honest and regard. Respect towards the pupils is everything and it is about guaranteed that any pupil instructor who respects their pupils will see the pupils develop a healthy degree of regard towards the instructor. Wragg and Wood ( 1984 ) suggest that surveies have proved how of import positive communicating is in the first few lessons with a new category. It is important to set uping a positive acquisition environment which has already been discussed as a cardinal factor in developing pupil motive. Listening harmonizing to Tubbs et Al ( 2011 ) is a complex procedure affecting hearing, attending, understanding, and retrieving. Gamble and Gamble ( 1994 ) further suggest that going a competent instructor means we must learn our pupils to listen saying that ‘Listening is more than a doctrine, it ‘s critical for our hereafter ‘ . To go an effectual instructor we must develop and expose strong listening accomplishments to portray to our students the importance we place on the procedure. Listening can be something we take for granted, nevertheless listening is an intricate accomplishment and requires developing. We in the instruction profession must promote and supply chances for pupils to pattern listening activities and pass more clip on this of all time of import communicating accomplishment. A motivated instructor enhances the listening accomplishments of their pupils and allows pupils the clip and chance to develop these listening accomplishments. The inquiry ne eds to be addressed why we frequently hear of hapless hearing as a job. The primary grounds are a deficiency of motive and the appropriate hearing accomplishments ( Tubbs et al 2011 ) , who province that of the four communicating accomplishments reading authorship, speech production, and hearing, hearing has received the least attending from pedagogues. To go a constituent, caring instructor I must get first-class listening accomplishments. From the readings and from my life experiences I am able to associate to my ain personal hearing accomplishments particularly on the Monday arrangements. I must pay attending to what the pupils are stating and non to concentrate on holding an reply before listening to the remainder of the inquiry. I must halt replying the inquiries if the pupils do n't cognize the reply, and take clip to listen expose some aerophilic hearing and think of CARE, ( Concentrate Acknowledge, Respect and Empathize ) . We as instructors must maintain inquiring inquiries to our pupils, and when they speak out, give them the regard to supply your 100 % attending. In order to heighten our listening accomplishments we as pupil instructors are in favourable place on our Monday arrangement to pattern concentrating on the message transmitter and forbearing from giving an sentiment excessively rapidly. I must esteem that listen ing is a complex procedure and has to be trained and practiced similar to any accomplishment. I need be patient with the larning procedure to enable me to go through on the accomplishment of the ability to listen to my pupils. Aristotle one time said that ‘we have two ears and but one lingua so that we may listen more than we speak ‘ . This is something that I will ever seek to retrieve in my function as a instructor.

Report Writing on a Paintball Game

Yesterday at 3:30 pm was Jonny’s last strike as he had shot his mother. This action had only seemed as an accident, but as we confronted him it would only seem as an unlikely act that had taken place because of the objective of the game, or is it? Tune into the rest of this article to find out the real objective behind this setup. The legendary twenty-first century game of paintball co-exists as a way of enlightening the players of the dangers of being at war. The fun loving sport is a thrilling experience one should have if he is able to.The sport requires excellence in agility and the ability to make decisions on a quick note, as well as teamwork risking the life of others. Paintball technology is also used by military forces, law enforcement, Para-military and security organizations to supplement military training, riot response, and non-lethal suppression of dangerous suspects. Jonny Kapalo, the amateur paintball player, from West Kentucky had his eyes set on the joy of sh ooting in the mexcian home grounds of paintball, as one of the best ten places for paintballing.The game started at the crack of dawn when the teams split up. There were the Rottweilers and the meerkats. The players were to play in the paint-stained quagmire. The first game was ‘capture the flag’ and the meerkats (also known as Jonny’s team) had a good run since the game was theirs for the taking. The win was won by for his heroic dash for the flag which was quite a cheeky move, as his teammates distracted the adversary by covering for him. The second game was search and destroy, which consisted of four targets.The seekers of the game had a terminator of a man code name the ‘Predator’. The imprudent Jonny took the game as a joke and a couple of his teammates took into account of his plan of shooting the Predator. The error of this childish prank is that the Predator takes no hostiles even if it is caused by mutiny among his own teammates. At the coun t of three, with the predator in front of the scouting group, Jonny and his friends made their move, consequently, the more experienced player got the best of them and Jonny’s team was disqualified on the account of the uprising to the Predator.The third and final game was the team death match. This game has obvious objectives which are that you get terminated if you run out of paintballs or if you get shot. Each player was low on ammo and the last thing they wanted was to end the game. So each player had to examine their surroundings to look for places that could not be seen by the enemy. Jonny had thought of hiding behind a bush, to stalk his next victim. The unsuspecting detail of his hideout was unseen by the enemy.The next victim was to be his very own mother which was to be the most unlikely person to walk by. The poor woman was shot head to toe with suppressing shots. When she declared herself to be out of the game, Jonny crept back into hiding to wait for his next vic tim. But shortly afterwards the game was over and the Rottweilers won 2-1. We asked a few comments from Jonny and here is what he said, â€Å"The game was a game and I did not know that my mother would come out of cover and I would shoot her which was actually pretty awkward considering how well she could use a gun. Jonny’s mother had also shared her comments with us on how the game appealed to her. â€Å"The game was quite exciting, as an ex-marine I was born to be on the front line. The experience was a good one and it was great to see Jonny walking up my footsteps. † To me as a viewer the game was exhilarating and thrilling to watch, and informs me on the aspects of war and arts. This can stimulate a great experience which cannot be missed if one is able to afford. In my opinion Jonny’s mother forfeited the win to her son by exposing her cover.

50 Common Chinese Proverbs

50 Common Chinese Proverbs Chinese proverbs (è « ºÃ¨ ªÅ¾, ynyÃ… ­) are popular sayings taken from literature, history, and famous people such as philosophers. The expressions are often used colloquially as statements of wisdom or advice. There are hundreds of Chinese proverbs addressing all aspects of life, from education and work to personal goals and relationships. Key Takeaways: Chinese Proverbs Chinese proverbs are common sayings that express popular wisdom or advice.Some Chinese proverbs are taken from works of literature or philosophy. Books and Reading After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless. - Reading helps people to stay in touch with interesting ideas. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. - Reading helps people to grow intellectually. A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood. - You cannot learn if you have a closed mind. Its better to be without a book than to believe a book entirely. - It is important to think critically rather than believe everything you read. A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books. - Wisdom is sometimes more important than knowledge. Education and Wisdom If a son is uneducated, his dad is to blame. - Fathers are responsible for their childrens education. A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good for nothing until he is educated. - Education is what turns people into productive human beings. Learning  is a weightless treasure you can always carry easily. - Unlike material goods, your education is something you always take with you. Teachers  open the door. You enter by yourself. - Education is not a passive process; to learn, you must desire to learn. True knowledge is when one knows the limitations of one’s knowledge. - It is important to recognize the limits of your education. Children and Family Vicious as a  tigress  can be, she never eats her own cubs. - A mother never hurts her children, even if she is strict. Govern a  family  as you would cook a small fish- very gently. - Do not be harsh in how you treat your family. To understand your parents love you must raise children yourself. - Only parents know what it is like to raise children. A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark. - Children are very impressionable. Giving your son a skill is better than giving him 1,000 pieces of gold. - It is better to support your child with education than money. Fear One cannot refuse to eat just because there is a chance of being choked. - You cannot let fear stop you from living your life. Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking. - If you live according to your conscience, you wont be troubled by guilt. Once bitten by a snake, he/she is scared all his/her life at the mere sight of a rope. - Trauma causes people to fear things that they have no reason to fear. Friendship With true friends, even water drunk together is sweet enough. - True friends only need each others company to enjoy themselves. Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friends forehead. - Be gentle when criticizing your friends. Happiness If you want happiness for a lifetime; help someone else. - Happiness comes through helping others. A smile will gain you 10 more years of life. - Staying positive will improve your health. One joy scatters a hundred griefs. - It only takes a small amount of happiness to bring great relief. Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps. - It is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable. We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought. - We often take our blessings for granted. Patience You wont help shoots grow by pulling them up higher. - Some things happen slowly and there is nothing you can do to speed them up. A dish of carrot hastily cooked may still have soil uncleaned off the vegetable. - Take your time and do things properly rather than rushing and making mistakes. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Big goals are achieved through many small actions. Patience  is a bitter plant, but its fruit is sweet. - It is not easy to be patient, but patience will reward you. If you are patient in one moment of  anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. - Keeping a cool head will help you avoid trouble. Personal Development A fall into a ditch makes you wiser. - Mistakes are opportunities to learn. Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. - Slow growth is better than stagnation. Before preparing to improve the world, first look around your own  home  three times. - Work on improving yourself before trying to improve others. A man grows most tired while standing still. - It is better to remain active than do nothing. When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills. - Personal challenges can be opportunities for growth. The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle. - Preparing for challenges in advance will make it easier for you to meet them. All things are difficult before they are easy. - Nothing is easy the first time you do it. Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one. - It is better to be ambitious and sometimes fail than to never try to do anything at all. Precautions Bad things never walk alone. - Troubles always come with other troubles. There are always ears on the other side of the wall. - Be careful about what you say; other people are always listening. When you are poor, neighbors close by will not come; once you become rich, youll be surprised by visits from (alleged) relatives afar. - When you have something people want, everyone will try to be your friend. Teamwork   Behind an able man, there are always other able men. - No one accomplishes anything alone. Three humble shoemakers brainstorming will make a great statesman. - Teamwork allows people to do much more than any one person could do on their own. Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire. - It takes a group of people to build something that will last. Time An inch of time is an inch of gold but you cant buy that inch of time with an inch of gold. - Time equals money but money does not equal time. Age and time do not wait for people. - If you wait to get started, life will go on without you. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. - It is best to start a project as soon as you can. Do everything at the right time, and one day will seem like three. - Keeping an organized schedule will make you more productive. Persistence An ant may well destroy a whole dam. - What seems like a small amount of work adds up over time. A man who cannot  tolerate  small misfortunes can never accomplish great things. - You must learn to deal with setbacks if you want to achieve big goals.

Jones v. Clear Creek ISD (1992)

Jones v. Clear Creek ISD (1992) If government officials do not have the authority to write prayers for public school students or even to encourage and endorse prayers, can they allow the students themselves vote on whether or not to have one of their own recite prayers during school? Some Christians tried this method of getting official prayers into public schools, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that its constitutional for students to vote on having prayers during graduation ceremonies. Background Information The Clear Creek Independent School District passed a resolution allowing high school seniors to vote for student volunteers to deliver nonsectarian, non-proselytizing religious invocations at their graduation ceremonies. The policy allowed but did not require, such a prayer, ultimately leaving it to the senior class to decide by majority vote. The resolution also called for the school officials to review the statement before presentation to ensure that it was indeed nonsectarian and non-proselytizing. Court Decision The Fifth Circuit Court applied the three prongs of the Lemon test and found that: The Resolution has a secular purpose of solemnization, that the Resolutions primary effect is to impress upon graduation attendees the profound social significance of the occasion rather than advance or endorse religion, and that Clear Creek does not excessively entangle itself with religion by proscribing sectarianism and proselytization without prescribing any form of invocation. What is odd is that, in the decision, the Court admits that the practical result will be exactly what the Lee v. Weisman decision did not permit: ...the practical result of this decision, viewed in light of Lee , is that a majority of students can do what the State acting on its own cannot do to incorporate prayer in public high school graduation ceremonies. Usually, lower courts avoid contradicting higher court rulings because they are obligated to adhere to precedent except when radically different facts or circumstances force them to reconsider previous rulings. Here, though, the court didnt provide any justification for effectively reversing principle established by the Supreme Court. Significance This decision seems to contradict to the decision in Lee v. Weisman, and indeed the Supreme Court ordered the Fifth Circuit Court to review its decision in light of Lee. But the Court ended up standing by its original judgment. Some things are not explained in this decision, however. For example, why is prayer in particular singled out as a form of solemnizing, and it is just a coincidence that a Christian form of solemnization is picked? It would be easier to defend the law as secular if it only called for solemnization generally while singling out prayer alone at the very least serves to reinforce the privileged status of Christian practices. Why is such a thing put up to a student vote when exactly that is least likely to take into account the needs of minority students? The law presumes that its legitimate for a majority of students to vote to do something at an official school function which the state itself is forbidden from doing. And why is the government permitted to decide for others what does and does not qualify as permitted prayer? By stepping in and asserting authority over what sorts of prayer are permitted, the state is in effect endorsing any prayers which are delivered, and thats precisely what the Supreme Court has found to be unconstitutional. It was because of that last point that the Ninth Circuit Court came to a different conclusion in Cole v. Oroville.

Todo lo que se debe conocer sobre ciudadanía americana

Todo lo que se debe conocer sobre ciudadanà ­a americana La ciudadanà ­a americana da derechos, libertades, privilegios, protecciones, y tambià ©n obligaciones, que son exclusivos de los ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos de Amà ©rica. En este artà ­culo se brinda informacià ³n sobre los 5 caminos que es posible seguir para obtener la ciudadanà ­a americana, los derechos que da ser estadounidense, cà ³mo se pierde la ciudadanà ­a y quà © problemas  puede ocasionar la doble nacionalidad. Quià ©n es ciudadano americano y cà ³mo se obtiene la ciudadanà ­a de EE.UU.   Se obtiene la ciudadanà ­a americana  de diversos modos. Y es que en  comparacià ³n con otros paà ­ses, Estados Unidos tiene una polà ­tica muy generosa en este punto.   Reconoce la ciudadanà ­a por ius solis, es decir, por nacimiento en territorio estadounidense. De hecho, esta es la forma ms comà ºn de adquisicià ³n de la condicià ³n de estadounidense y, a dà ­a de hoy, sà ³lo existe una excepcià ³n a este principio general. Asimismo,  tambià ©n la reconoce por ius sanguinis tambià ©n conocido por derecho de sangre. Es decir,  por ser hijo o hija de un estadounidense nacido fuera de los Estados Unidos, si bien en estos casos se tienen que cumplir una serie de requisitos para que se reconozca este derecho. Y, por supuesto, tambià ©n se  admite la naturalizacià ³n.  Ã‚  En la inmensa mayorà ­a de los casos las personas naturalizadas son  extranjeros que tienen la condicià ³n de  residentes permanentes legales, cumplen con todos los requisitos legales y que aprueban un examen sobre conocimientos cà ­vicos y de inglà ©s. Destacar que el tiempo  de espera de los residentes para aplicar por la ciudadanà ­a  es diferente y depende de cà ³mo se obtuvo precisamente la condicià ³n de residente. Aunque las 3 formas mencionadas -nacimiento en USA, por derecho de sangre y por naturalizacià ³n, son las formas ms comunes de obtener la ciudadanà ­a, no son las à ºnicas.   Cà ³mo se acredita  la ciudadanà ­a americana Varios documentos sirven para probar que una persona es ciudadana de los Estados Unidos. Por ejemplo,  los nacidos en cualquiera de los 50 estados que conforman la Unià ³n Americana o en cualquiera de sus territorios se puede utilizar el certificado de nacimiento. Por otro lado, los que son americanos por tener un progenitor estadounidense pero que han nacido en el extranjero pueden presentar como prueba el Certificado Consular en el que se ha registrado su nacimiento. Adems, los naturalizados pueden presentar el certificado de naturalizacià ³n que se les entrega tras finalizar la ceremonia del juramento de lealtad a los Estados Unidos. Este es un documento muy delicado que no puede fotocopiarse ni enmarcarse. Y se intentar no doblarlo para evitar que se daà ±e y ciertas partes del mismo no puedan ser leà ­das. Asimismo, en todos los casos y sin importar cà ³mo han obtenido la ciudadanà ­a, se puede mostrar como prueba un pasaporte americano vlido. Por à ºltimo, un listado ms completo de todos los documentos que podrà ­an admitirse para probar la ciudadanà ­a cuando no sea posible mostrar uno de los anteriores. Derechos de los ciudadanos americanos Para los Estados Unidos hay una divisià ³n muy clara a la hora de reconocer derechos y otorgar proteccià ³n: por un lado estn sus ciudadanos y por otro el resto de las personas. Ni siquiera los residentes permanentes legales cuentan con los mismos derechos que los ciudadanos. Quiz el privilegio ms importante es el derecho al voto. Sà ³lo los ciudadanos votan en elecciones federales tras registrarse para votar. Otros privilegios y beneficios pueden compartirse con los residentes permanentes, pero las reglas de aplicacià ³n son frecuentemente diferentes para uno y para otro. Por ejemplo, los cupones de alimentos son ms fciles de obtener para los nacionales que para los titulares de la green card, si bien hay excepciones y tambià ©n variacià ³n segà ºn el estado en el que se reside habitualmente. Asimismo, a la hora de pedir papeles de inmigracià ³n para un familiar el proceso es ms fcil, amplio y rpido si la peticià ³n la realiza un ciudadano. Y tambià ©n desde el punto de vista migratorio es importante destacar que los ciudadanos nunca pueden ser deportados, ni siquiera en  aquellos  casos en que adquirieron esa condicià ³n de adultos por naturalizacià ³n y ostentan doble nacionalidad con otro paà ­s. En materia de empleo, trabajos donde se necesita una autorizacià ³n para manejar informacià ³n de algà ºn modo relacionada con la seguridad puede estar reservada exclusivamente a los estadounidenses. Por ejemplo, en ciertas posiciones en el Foreign Service o en el Civil Service o para ser oficial en cualquiera de los cuatro Ejà ©rcitos. Incluso privilegios que llegan al corazà ³n pero que tienen poco que ofrecer desde el punto de vista prctico estn reservados para los americanos, como solicitar a la Casa Blanca el envà ­o de una felicitacià ³n por aniversarios o nacimientos. Pà ©rdida de la nacionalidad americana Es extraordinariamente infrecuente perder la ciudadanà ­a americana, pero es posible. Bsicamente por realizacià ³n de forma voluntaria de ciertos actos penados por la ley con la pà ©rdida de la condicià ³n de estadounidense o por decisià ³n personal. Si se renuncia motu propio debe hacerse en el extranjero, en una oficina consular y la decisià ³n es irreversible. Evitar los pagos al IRS suele ser una de las razones para tomar esta decisià ³n. Y es que Estados Unidos es à ºnico en el mundo al exigir cumplir con las obligaciones tributarias a sus ciudadanos sin importar donde estos residan. Y es que hay casos en los que a falta de tratados bilaterales de doble tributacià ³n, los americanos expatriados estn obligados a pagar importantes cantidades en concepto de impuestos simultneamente en los Estados Unidos y en el paà ­s en el que residen habitualmente. Y esto parece ser que est causando un nà ºmero pequeà ±o pero notable de renuncias a la nacionalidad. Este es un listado de 10 famosos que renunciaron voluntariamente a su condicià ³n de estadounidenses por razones muy variadas. Doble nacionalidad: Estados Unidos y otro paà ­s La doble nacionalidad significa que una misma persona posee simultneamente la ciudadanà ­a de dos paà ­ses. Es una situacià ³n tolerada por Estados Unidos pero no fomentada por los problemas y conflictos que esta doble lealtad puede acarrear. Las personas con doble nacionalidad deben tener claro que esta condicià ³n puede afectar negativamente en ciertos trabajos, como por ejemplo en aquellos que requieren un security clearance. Por à ºltimo, aunque se pueden tener dos pasaportes, se entra y se sale de Estados Unidos exclusivamente con el pasaporte americano, no el de otro paà ­s. A tener en cuenta Son ciudadanos americanos desde el momento de su nacimiento todas las personas nacidas en un territorio o Commonwealth de Estados Unidos, como es, por ejemplo el caso de Puerto Rico. Y desde el punto de vista de leyes migratorias Puerto Rico tiene exactamente las mismas leyes que los 50 estados de USA. Quienes desean viajar a la Isla deben contar con los documentos apropiados. Curiosidades Las personas que tengan curiosidad por saber quà © preguntan en el examen de naturalizacià ³n para obtener la ciudadanà ­a americana pueden tomar este test de respuestas mà ºltiples que contiene preguntas reales.   Para aprobar el test hay que contestar correctamente un mà ­nimo de 6 de un total de 10. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Information Systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Information Systems - Research Paper Example Despite the efficiency and effectiveness of the communication system at the company, Hierarchical Network Design incorporation offers more benefits (White & Donohue, 2014). To meet the fundamental network design goals, a network should be developed on an architecture that permits both flexibilities as well as growth. The hierarchical design is effectively used to group devices into various networks. Such a network design involves subdividing the network into various discrete layers. Every layer provides precise functions that outline its role within the network in totality (Oppenheimer, 2005). Through separating the functions that are on a network, the network design becomes very proper for use for this business for it becomes modular, facilitating scalability as well as performance. Such are the urgent concern for a modern day bicycle manufacturing business. The usual hierarchical design is broken up into distinctly three layers, core, access and access, distribution. The core layer, for instance, will connect distribution layer devices. Access layer, on the other hand, has the main purpose providing a direct connection to network devices and controlli ng the devices allowed to communicate with it. Finally, distribution layer has the role of interconnecting the smaller local networks. As a conclusion, by examining the communication network within Mosaic Cycle; the overall efficiency and effectiveness of this system are evident. Nonetheless, as evident in the paper hierarchical network possess advantages over this network designs thus recommended.

Africa facing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Africa facing - Essay Example t under developed countries, 37 of them are countries in Africa (Krabacher, Kalipeni & Layachi 3)Indeed Africa is underdeveloped and a majority of its member countries are considered by the outside world as third world counties. This can be attributed to a number of factors. One significant factor that has affected Africa is the presence of poor governance and corruption among government officials in most of its member countries. These leaders steal the country’s wealth running the continent dry. Another factor that has attributed to Africa’s poor economy is pandemics especially HIV/AIDs. HIV/AIDs as killed a lot of people in Africa hence limiting its workforce (Krabacher, Kalipeni & Layachi 3). Governments have used billions of dollars in trying to eradicate the disease. This money could have been used for development. Another factor that has led to the underdevelopment of Africa is wars and conflicts. Countries have fort both internally and with each other with the aim of controlling mineral resources. This has in turn scared investors away hence limiting the growth of Africa’s economy. Poor climate and inappropriate agriculture methods are another key factor that has limited Africa’s growth. This is because most of the African lands are covered with arid and semi-arid areas. Where there is good climate in Africa, people use poor farming methods which encourage soil erosion which renders land unsuitable for cultivation. Small scale farming is also a problem in Africa since most people do not produce food for economic purposes. However, Africa is rising up, and its economy is rising steadily. African countries are taking measures to rid themselves of corruption and poor leadership. They are setting up commissions to investigate corrupt leaders and promote civic education on the choosing of appropriate leaders, governments are also investing a lot on infrastructure which is in turn attracting investors hence increasing its economy. Governments are also

Learning Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Learning Language - Essay Example When a child is born, either in a congested urban slum or in privileged ghettos, either in mountainous hilly villages or to a wealthy noble family. At that time a child is not concerned with any of the social interaction with each other through language, or that the concern about the production of grammatically well-formed sentences, but a means for acting in the world in order to establish relationships with others so that it might be easier for him to communicate information and to engage with them in joint activities. We can say that a child is thus born into a community of language users whose social interaction in the form of symbols, gestures and facial expressions makes him learn and his learning of language forms part of his socialization as a member of that community. To acquire complete control of the complex patterns of his native or mother language is, therefore, placed on the second account, which is mentioned above in the following words of ‘language as a resource ’. A child when interacts in whatever environment and in whatever circumstances, experience through interacting with his environment and acquires the resources of the language of his community and learns how to make use of those resources in order to achieve a variety of purposes in relation to different people in different situations. The language which children under 4 years use is easily recognizable as their mother tongue it is also readily apparent that it is very different from the language of most adults. But exactly in what ways and in what respect it differs from adult language depends on consideration of the various component skills and the different kinds of social and conceptual knowledge which underlie language. For example, two young children clearly after learning the meaning of a large number of words are able to string words together into

Boeing and airbus Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Boeing and airbus - Research Paper Example The Boeing 787 series was grounded after this episode in the United States. All these incidences concerned the battery and the airplane’s electrical components. It is also reported that the airplane has two major issues within the first 52,000 of flight while it was supposed to last for up to 10 million flight hours without any problems. The solution to this problem would be to change the battery so that it would be able to contain fires better and thus become more efficient and work for longer periods. However, the causes of the battery failures are still not known and therefore the solutions given may not cover the entire problem. Therefore, as the CEO of the company, there is a need to find out the cause of the failure of the batteries in order to find suitable solutions to the existing problem (Harress). The competitors of the Boeing include the airbus and Lockheed martin. The airbus is one of the biggest passenger airplanes known worldwide. However, it has some issues that need to be dealt with. For instance, one major problem of the airbus is its sensitive warning system. The software is not able to handle manageable tolerances and, therefore, the system can be set off even with very minor problems in the aircraft. The warnings and alarms can set off an alert and even shut down a well-functioning plane (Flight Global). There is a need for the algorithm to be set straight so that it is less sensitive and to prevent further breakdown of the airbus. The issue of false alarms has made the plane unreliable and therefore many passengers avoiding it. The rest of the citizens may not be in a position to understand the defects and react accordingly and thus the loss of confidence among many customers. There is a need to come up with a better software to deal with the false alarms and to make the airplane more

Where's the Pig Business Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Where's the Pig Business - Case Study Example The context of the promotional tool used has been discussed based on the main theory of cross cultural marketing. McDonald’s is a brand with a wide global presentation and it has to adjust accordingly when it comes to diverse cultures. Cross cultural marketing is an important aspect that global brands have to pay heed to. The case states how the difference between the promotional activity in Singapore and Hong Kong created a problem for McDonald’s and how the firm eventually resolved the problem by taking appropriate measures. In 2010, McDonald’s incorporated a new promotional theme in its promotional activities. It decided to incorporate the Chinese astrology into its promotion. It found out that the Chinese calendar holds great importance for the Chinese people. The Chinese astrology comprises of 12 animal signs which include rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. McDonald’s started offering 12 little Doraemon toys each of which represented a Chinese zodiac sign. The promotion came to be known as Doraemon Lucky Charms Promotion. The toy was to be purchased by the customers along with the purchase of the McDonald’s Happy Meal. This promotion was successful when it was implemented in Hong Kong. The corporations faced no problem as 95 percent of the population of Hong Kong had a Chinese ethnicity. Case Issues The main problem was raised when the same promotional strategy was modified when implemented in Singapore. ... This modification created a chaos for the McDonald’s Corporation and there was an upheaval in online blogs. The main point used to hit the corporation was that it does not respect the Chinese culture. McDonald’s was blamed for not conducting market research. Many critics raised a point that McDonald’s Corporation did not take sufficient time to think through the promotion. This whole modification stirred up a controversy as it offended the majority race in Singapore and was needed to be addressed before the brand image of McDonald’s got tarnished in Singapore. Another problem was faced when some customers said that there was no reason of buying an incomplete Doraemon collection set without a pig toy. It seemed like all minorities of Singapore except Muslims were not happy with this modification and on top of all it was the majority that got most offended. It was believed that on cross-cultural sensitivity McDonald’s over reacted. Malay culture prohi bits the consumption of pork, but McDonald’s on its own perceived that Malays will be offended by a pig toy. In addition many customers, in order to gather the 12 pieces animal collection, had to order it through their friends who lived in Hong Kong. The promotion was offered in Hong Kong. McDonald’s finally realized its’ mistake and apologized to the public of Singapore through the advertisement and its website and announced that the pig toy will be available. But this was long after the lunar year. The corporation invited its customers who were interested in buying the pig toy to visit the website and click on the Doraemon Lucky Charms Poll to indicate their interest. The apology and availability of the pig toy did not please the masses instead pacified only some publics. It

Selling in Uk Principles and Aspects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Selling in Uk Principles and Aspects - Essay Example Whatever might be the channel to market, in UK commerce, purchasers have the right to return defective goods for full refund. Besides, if sale is done via direct selling channel, the consumer has cancellation right, irrespective of the goods being defective or not; these rights occur by the virtue of laws relating to relative channel. The UK consumer in direct selling industry has improved rights, if the seller is a part of Direct Selling Association. UK law concerned with direct selling also provides the direct retailer consumer protection rights to terminate the agreement at the start, or to stop it at any time on notice.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Consumers should get clear information about of the aspects involves in purchase before they decided to purchase anything. These include the seller’s name, the price of the product extra delivery charges and VAT.†¢ To cancel the order within seven days following the receipt of goods and to get back the money even if the consumer has to compe nsate for the return of goods. If the sellers realize later on that they can’t deliver within the time, they must inform the customers earlier to cancel the order or to get refund.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ To ensure safety from fraudulent activities when customers pay by credit or debit card which leads to breach payment for no fault of the customer, the card provider should refund all the money to the customers’ account. Unlike in High Street purchase the customer can complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. if anything is seen fraud in the site. The Distance Selling Regulations guard the customers from the deceitful use of customer’s payment card in purchase over internet. The customer’s account should be re-credited with full amount, if any debit is made by the fraudster. Q. 2) The role of Trading Standards in enforcing legislation in the UK The Trading Standards Institute in UK is a professional body, intended for trading with standard professionals working in public and private sectors. Trading Standards Services implement legislations in safeguarding

Where's the Pig Business Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Where's the Pig Business - Case Study Example The context of the promotional tool used has been discussed based on the main theory of cross cultural marketing. McDonald’s is a brand with a wide global presentation and it has to adjust accordingly when it comes to diverse cultures. Cross cultural marketing is an important aspect that global brands have to pay heed to. The case states how the difference between the promotional activity in Singapore and Hong Kong created a problem for McDonald’s and how the firm eventually resolved the problem by taking appropriate measures. In 2010, McDonald’s incorporated a new promotional theme in its promotional activities. It decided to incorporate the Chinese astrology into its promotion. It found out that the Chinese calendar holds great importance for the Chinese people. The Chinese astrology comprises of 12 animal signs which include rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. McDonald’s started offering 12 little Doraemon toys each of which represented a Chinese zodiac sign. The promotion came to be known as Doraemon Lucky Charms Promotion. The toy was to be purchased by the customers along with the purchase of the McDonald’s Happy Meal. This promotion was successful when it was implemented in Hong Kong. The corporations faced no problem as 95 percent of the population of Hong Kong had a Chinese ethnicity. Case Issues The main problem was raised when the same promotional strategy was modified when implemented in Singapore. ... This modification created a chaos for the McDonald’s Corporation and there was an upheaval in online blogs. The main point used to hit the corporation was that it does not respect the Chinese culture. McDonald’s was blamed for not conducting market research. Many critics raised a point that McDonald’s Corporation did not take sufficient time to think through the promotion. This whole modification stirred up a controversy as it offended the majority race in Singapore and was needed to be addressed before the brand image of McDonald’s got tarnished in Singapore. Another problem was faced when some customers said that there was no reason of buying an incomplete Doraemon collection set without a pig toy. It seemed like all minorities of Singapore except Muslims were not happy with this modification and on top of all it was the majority that got most offended. It was believed that on cross-cultural sensitivity McDonald’s over reacted. Malay culture prohi bits the consumption of pork, but McDonald’s on its own perceived that Malays will be offended by a pig toy. In addition many customers, in order to gather the 12 pieces animal collection, had to order it through their friends who lived in Hong Kong. The promotion was offered in Hong Kong. McDonald’s finally realized its’ mistake and apologized to the public of Singapore through the advertisement and its website and announced that the pig toy will be available. But this was long after the lunar year. The corporation invited its customers who were interested in buying the pig toy to visit the website and click on the Doraemon Lucky Charms Poll to indicate their interest. The apology and availability of the pig toy did not please the masses instead pacified only some publics. It

Evaluating NAPLAN as a Performance Measurement System Assignment

Evaluating NAPLAN as a Performance Measurement System - Assignment Example According to the ACARA website, the NAPLAN testing widely reflects the aspects related to numeracy and literacy, which are common to the curricula of all the states and territories (â€Å"My School Fact Sheet†). The test formats as well as questions are chosen in such manner that they remain familiar to the students and teachers all across Australia. It is designed in such manner that it can be taken on the same date in any particular year all across the country (â€Å"National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy 2010†). Problems associated with design or use of NAPLAN Management accounting enhances the decision making by suggesting methods and methodologies. In this part of the project, the problems in the design and framework of NAPLAN would be reflected by taking into consideration the management accounting theory. Three problems associated with NAPLAN are given below: The content coverage of the NAPLAN test: With 40 questions in every test, NAPLAN always assess es fragments of the student achievement. This is not appropriate because testing a portion of the curriculum does not give indication about any student’s learning in all the curriculum areas. The result of the students in this test reflects the percentage of questions that could be answered by them out of all the questions present in the questionnaire. However, the test fails to reflect achievement of the entire numeracy and literacy domain. The bureaucrats have explained it as a test score gap, where they stated that there is an achievement gap between the students and the schools. As the NAPLAN test only assesses limited aspect of the learning of Australian students, the result is not useful for inferring the overall achievement. Moreover, achievement related to any student must not be so narrowly confined to only the grounds of literacy and numeracy. There should be assessment made on other grounds as well, such as critical thinking, creativity, capability of following any inquiry, motivation, compassion etc. But test on these grounds are not assessed by the NAPLAN. In contrast to this, the Australian teachers know about the ability of the students in much broader way apart from numeracy or literacy. Accuracy in the identification of overall level of the students in grounds of numeracy and literacy: The test instrument comprising of a set of only 40 questions cannot judge and separate the students accurately on grounds of literacy and numeracy. The NAPLAN does not provide any additional information, which a teacher does not have with him/her. For identifying the student level much more accurately, there should be long tests conducted. Matching the assessment procedure with the curriculum: In order to assess the achievement of the students on grounds of literacy and numeracy, it is very important that the assessment matches with the curriculum, which is being taught by the teachers. ACARA states that the test item is informed to the teachers by Ã¢â‚¬Ë œNational Standards of learning for English’. But the document based on which the test would be taken remain unknown to the teachers in most of the schools. It is not an appropriate process of planning the NAPLAN test on the basis of new Australian Curriculum because there are still some states, which did not adopt the curriculum yet. Moreover, even after adopting the curriculum, it would require time for these schools to implement them. As the learning of the

Tribal friendly rights and government apathy

Tribal friendly rights and government apathy Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA), Forest Rights Act and the tribal situation in India â€Å"The interplay of tribal friendly rights and government apathy† Introduction The enactment of the PESA (The panchayat extension to schedule areas act, 1996) aimed for devolution of power to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the scheduled areas at the grass-root level. While, the FRA (Forest Rights Act, 2006) emphasizes on recognition of claim over the forestland of which the tribals have been inhabitants for generations. However, the legislation has been unsuccessful in mainstreaming the tribals; as well as there have been serious cases of violation creating uproar among the indigenous communities. Since, both the legislation have interdependence in terms of their functioning it becomes very important for one to have a clear understanding of both the acts and their implication in present settings. The paper is an attempt to discuss the so-called tribal friendly acts the PESA and the FRA. The paper starts with the historical background that lead to the formation of the acts followed by some basic features of the act laid down for identifying the basic righ t of the tribal population and their claim over rights. The discussion follows with a case study on violation of these rights. Forests Rights Act 2006 Historical Background The first enactment of the forest rights act was during the colonial periods in British India in the year 1865. The British government drafted the act to oversee the claims by different communities who used the forest traditionally for centuries to procure minor forest produce. On the other hand, the act empowered the British government to demarcate any forest as government forest and accordingly make rules for its management. In fact, the 1865 act termed the forest as worthless and the communities could use it unhindered. However, soon when the demand for use of timber in the railways rise the colonial government embarked upon the idea of bringing a new act that could curtail free use of forest produce. The previous act defined unhindered use of forest produce but the new act specified issue of unwarranted arrest of anyone found offending the new law. Thus, the new law exercised the full control of the state over the forests. Under previous act, any land that has green cover can be declared as a forestland. However; the provisions itself restricted the state to plant trees on a barren land and declare it a forestland. The earlier act also had no mentioning of principles on which a state or certain communities could manage a forest. Similarly, rights on hunting and grazing unmentioned under the previous act, which individuals were accustomed-to. Thus, the colonial government allowed the use of forest by the communities as a privilege but with no legal sanction. In this way, the colonial Government set out to draft a new law where it could exercise full control over a forest. Thus, under the new draft the categorization of forest made (reserved, protected or village) basing upon its valuable use for future and provisions made to safeguard the same. A restriction on grazing was mandated and protection of certain species of plants maintained by the new law to disallow the communities to withdraw minor forest produce including timber. Thus, the Indian Forest Act of 1867 came into being inclu ding all the provision where the state had full control over the Indian forest. The new act also took under consideration of the communities that practiced shifting cultivation by settlements made by the appointed settlement officer on claims made. Thus, new set of provisions clearly demarcated the category of forest to be a reserve, protected or a village forest. However, certain amendments were made to the existing forest acts of 1867, as amended acts of 1927 that included the provisions of imprisonment to violators of the previous acts. Provisions like levying of duties on extracting the timber produce out of the forest. Nevertheless, some consolation were also made on grazing of animals because of increasing conflict between the forest dwellers and the officials. THE SCHEDULED TRIBES AND OTHER TRADITIONAL FOREST DWELLERS (RECOGNITION OF FORESTS RIGHTS) ACT, 2006 The ministry of tribal affairs implements the provisions made under the act. The act came into effect from 31.12.2007. The present act aims at recognizing the forest rights and occupations of the traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in the forestland for generations. The act also has provisions to legitimate the claims of present forest dwellers of their ancient lands whose rights could not be recorded during the colonial period and ensures the same through a framework. However, the right does not allow the unhindered use of the forestland. A traditional dweller can use the forestland for livelihoods only if sustainable for the forest and guarantees to maintain ecological balance as well as the diversity. Some amendments were also made in 2012 regarding the disposal and sale of minor forest produce with exemption from any fees or royalties. Some basic provisions of the act are as follows: An individual if belonging to a member of a traditional forest dwelling community has the right to reside in a forestland for the purpose of habitation or any socio-economic activities like cultivation One can collect minor forest produce within or beyond the village boundary if a traditional forest dweller Community rights to fishing and grazing of cattle if belonging to nomadic or pastoral communities Provisions of community tenure for primitive tribes over a forest land For claims over a piece of land by conversion of pattas to titles by the local authority The act provisions conversion of old unsurveyed forest villages into revenue villages whether or not it had any previous evidence of any form of ratification Customary rights to traditional forest dweller over village forest Non-diversion of forest land that involves felling of not more than 75 trees per hectare for government structure like schools, hospitals, anganwadis or electric/telephone lines or any other government projects Prior permission of gram sabha if at all such structures are built for benefit of the people A community has to be resettled and equally compensated if displaced from a conserved or protected forest that to with prior permission of the gram sabha Panchayat (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act 1996 Historical background of the act The act was enacted as an extension to the 73rd amendment act, for self-governance at grass-root level in schedule v and schedule VI areas. The formation of the schedule areas can be traced back to history during the colonial period with the delineating of extremely backward tribal regions into schedule areas. The areas were scheduled under the Scheduled District Act of 1874, further classification into two broad categories were made under the Government of India Act of 1935. The northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram declared as schedule VI areas whereas the rest of the tribal areas in different states delineated as schedule V areas. The government of India during the implementation of the Panchayati Raj Act found it difficult to exclude the schedule areas under its ambit. Since, the schedule areas act does not provide legal sanctions to the 73rd amendment. There was also huge uproar since the Tribal Advisory Council and the Autonomous District Council in the schedule V and schedule VI areas respectively holds exclusive rights to administer tribal areas. Moreover, the respective council holds exclusive power to repeal or amend any legislation regarding the administration of the schedule areas under its jurisdiction. Thus, the government of India in 1994 set up a committee chaired by Dileep Singh Bhuria to submit recommendations on providing a framework for administration of the scheduled areas. All the provisions in the 73rd amendment are applicable in schedule areas but only with certain exceptions and modifications. The PESA provisions for democratic participation in decision-making processes at grass-root level, the basic features of the act are as follows: provisions for panchayat to safeguard the customary laws and traditional social and religious practices Rights for villages or habitation to manage its affairs according to traditional and customary laws Gram sabha to safeguard the traditions and customs of the people and resolve dispute according to the customary laws Gram sabha to approve all government developmental projects at village level Gram sabha to decide on the identification of beneficiaries for government schemes Proportionate reservation of seats in panchayat elections Gram sabha or panchayats to decide on land acquisition for development projects with proper rehabilitation of the affected person Panchayat or gram sabha to grant mining lease and prospecting license for minor minerals Concerned state government through panchayats and gram sabha to prevent alienation of land alienated illegally and restoration of such land to ensure management of minor water bodies Case studies The case of Niyamgiri tribes A serious violation of Forest Rights Act and PESA can be seen in Niyamgiri where the Orissa government signed a joint agreement with the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation and the Vedanta Alumina to set up an alumina refinery. The region is the place of indigenous Dongaria tribes who have lived there for almost two centuries. The company plans to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills; for its proposed alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in the Koraput district of Orissa. The hills are also their place of worship for generations, to a male deity â€Å"Niyam Raja Penu.† The Dongaria tribes consider themselves the descendants of the Niyam raja. Thus, the Niyamgiri hills are not just a place of cultural heritage to the tribal community but also of economic importance to the state government for its rich bauxite mines. The government in its series of violation granted mining lease without the consultation of the local tribes. The government also hurried in giving environmental clearance to let the company to set up its unit without studying the environmental impacts of the project. The company in its part violated the basic norms of not conducting the gram sabhas or consulting the panchayats to carry on the project. Moreover, there is no concrete plan of rehabilitation and resettlement of the tribes facing displacement due to the project. The local tribes on the other hand have no plans to negotiate with the company, since they consider it as an invasion into their homeland. The government in its obsession to pursue economic desires violated the fundamental rights of its own citizens against all legalities. The central empowered committee of the Supreme Court also found lot of illegalities against the central government in granting mining lease to the company. Moreover, the region belongs to the sc heduled areas thus it becomes a serious issue since the constitution mandates non-transfer of tribal land to non-tribal. Apart from being rich in minerals, the region is also a place of numerous wildlife animals declared vulnerable. The Dongaria known for their primitive way of life are alien to the outside world. They have been practicing sustainable agriculture depending upon the forest for their livelihood. The name Dongaria itself derives its name from dongar that means ones whose agriculture land are at the hills. However, the Supreme Court ruling on November 27, 2007 provided some respite to the agitating tribal by putting temporary ban on bauxite mining. On the other hand, it also provided the company with an escape clause to request for fresh proposal if it abides by all the guidelines pertaining to the law. Despite regular opposition, the government is adamant to its decision to give the company a free run. Repeated protest from the civil society and Ngo’s has also undeterred the government in its stance. Nevertheless, the government looks keen to facilitate the company in whatsoever situation or allegation of violation of any constitutional rights. Conclusion Although, certain legislations have been implemented starting from the colonial to the post-independence era in the name of tribals they lacked basic understanding of the tribal rights. The acts and laws on one hand guarantees to safeguard the fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution. On the other hand, the state itself comes up as the biggest violator of the rights of its citizen. The tribal communities have been subjugated to exploitation from time to time and their voices suppressed by use of force by the state. The acts as always termed to be tribal friendly and talks of promoting their rich cultural and social values along with an aim to mainstream them with various developmental projects. However, the state has always failed in its every attempt to listen the voices of the marginalized and still alienates them from not only their land but from worldly affairs. References Guha, R. (1983). Forestry in British and post-British India: A historical analysis.Economic and Political Weekly, 1882-1896. Ray, S., Saini, S. (2011). Development and Displacement: The Case of an Opencast Coal Mining Project in Orissa.Sociological Bulletin, 45-64. Sahu, G. (2008). Mining in the Niyamgiri Hills and tribal rights.Economic and Political Weekly, 19-21. Sharan, R. (2005). Alienation and restoration of tribal land in Jharkhand: Current issues and possible strategies.Economic and Political Weekly, 4443-4446. Upadhyay, S. (2003). JFM in India: Some legal concerns.Economic and Political Weekly, 3629-3631.

Comparing Social Norms in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning and Ulysse

When one travels, it is easy to observe differences in social norms from country to country. One may also observe differences within a country, for example, the social norms of a small town or village versus those of a large metropolis. Differences in social norms can also be observed in literature. This essay will focus on two dramatic monologues, which were written by poets who lived in England during the same period. Robert Browning published My last Duchess in 1842, the same year that Alfred Tennyson published Ulysses. Both poets lived in England during the Victorian era. However, by examining characters from their poetry, namely Alfonso in My Last Duchess and Odysseus in Ulysses, we can see that they express opposite norms concerning controlling power, change, form and death. â€Å"E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together† (Line 42-46) (Browning 714). This implies that Alfonso can't sand his wife's behavior, which leads him to kill her. He doesn't want to stoop for her, which means he doesn't want to give in to her to gain her attention in that way. Instead of being nice to her, he chooses to affect his power over her, a power he is afraid to lose. Yet even after he kills her, he keeps her picture, and covers it with the curtain. This is his way of putting her in her place, a prison of sorts, in which he chooses when and to whom she will ever smile again. Then he says to the servant of the Count of Tyrol â€Å"the curtain I have drawn for you† and he shows the picture to him. From Alfonso’s words, we can tell that he is satisfied with this action becau... ... In My Last Duchess, Browning shows that thing has a form, which he literally has and everyone can see it, had a value and it will not change forever. Even Browning expresses that death still can bring back something he wants. In contrast, Tennyson mentions powers itself doesn’t attract or move him. A death won’t give anything to him. Therefore, to achieve what he wants means more to him. Browning doesn’t find any interest in the thing, which has a form and will not change forever. Change itself actually has value. From this, even though Browning and Tennyson lived in the same era, their norms are world apart. Works Cited Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." Literature Across Cultures. Ed. SheilaGillespie, et al 4th Ed. New York: Longman, 2005. Tennyson, Alfred. "Ulysses". Victorian Literature, 1830-1900.Boston: McPeek, 2002. pp. 399-400. Print.

Religion and Spirituality Essay -- Religious Christianity Essays

Religion and Spirituality Since the dawn of human life, people have eternally been searching for the purpose of existence. Humans are innately curious beings, and are blessed to have the capabilities of higher thought processes. Humans use these thought processes to ponder the question of existence. Unfortunately, the evolution of man has not brought the human race any closer to actualizing its purpose on earth. In fact, this issue is such that the more one feels he or she understands it, the more questions concerning it arise. This problem perpetuates itself by the confusion of religion and spirituality, and the roles they hold in society. As the human race evolves, it feels the need to designate structure to its world. As a means to provide structure, man creates both systems of social order, as well as systems of belief. The purpose of the two systems is to explain unknown phenomenon while creating an environment where societies can grow. Humans do this because they have an innate drive to bo th explain the unknown in addition to perpetuating a society that holds common beliefs and values. One can define these two systems as religion and spirituality. The problem lies in the fact that these two systems are so closely intertwined that oftentimes they are confused as being synonymous. However, this is most definitely not the case. On the contrary, religion’s purpose is to create social structure and congruency. Religion is driven by social purpose, and can be exploited. In fact, a small part of every religion serves a selfish purpose rather than an honorable one. Religion’s purpose is completely different from the purpose of spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, deals with personal beliefs about ... .... Vol. 7. 230-282. 1971. â€Å"Crusade.† Encyclopedia Britannica. Howerth, Ira. â€Å"What is Religion?† International Journal of Ethics. 1983. â€Å"Jihad.† Encyclopedia Britannica. Mathur, D.C. â€Å"The Concept of Action in the Bhagvad-Gita.† Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 1974. McClenon, James. â€Å"Human Evolution and the Origin of Religion.† Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 345-357. Sept. 1997 Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. â€Å"Religion and Society.† Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1972. Rosengren, Karl. â€Å"The Riddle of the Empty Cell.† Current Anthropology. Vol. 17. 1996. Stewart, Gutherie. â€Å"Religion: What is it?† Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 412-419. Dec. 1998.

Legt1710

LEGT1710: Business and the Law Assignment 1 Semester 1, 2013 Word Limit: 1000 words Due Week 4 – to be handed in to your tutor in your Week 4 tutorial class (ie: the week commencing Monday 25 March 2013) Part One (10 marks) Reflecting on the lectures about the doctrine of precedent and how judges can make laws in the Australian legal system, and using Latimer’s Australian Business Law (CCH, 2013), explain how judicial decisions can change the law and what is meant by â€Å"the common law†.Use case examples to illustrate your answer. (Suggest 700-800 words) Part Two (5 marks) Australia was originally governed from England. Imagine that the British Government passed an Act which stated that: â€Å"All land in New South Wales shall be held on leasehold title from the Crown. † Would this be a valid Act if passed in: (1) 1795? (2) 1895? (3) 1995? (Suggest 200-300 words) Guidelines for Assignment 1: Your starting point will be to read the: †¢ †¢ week 1 and 2 lecture notes and tutorial materials. elevant chapters of Paul Latimer's Australian Business Law32nd edn, 2013. Students may also want to consider referring to: †¢ other business law textbooks available through the UNSW Law Library; †¢ online materials available on the UNSW Library database (such as journal articles, cases, commentaries etc). Students are asked NOT TO BOTHER THE LAW LIBRARIANS unnecessarily. Students should reference their answers appropriately – see Course Outline at Appendix A, pp 6-9. (NOTE: a bibliography is NOT required for this Assignment. )

Project Proposal for Cms

Project Proposal for Contact Management System Login Screen for the application Looks like this [pic] On a network,  access to databases is dependent upon the number of Users with User ID's and protected passwords. With the MULTI-USER DATABASE, design data is no longer scattered across the hard disks and laptops of every engineer. It cannot be misplaced, lost or corrupted. In short, design data can be secured and managed like a valuable corporate asset. Contacts biographical information can be stored using this screens like this by quick pick popup selections for example : [pic] [pic] Multiple Data entry option: While you are modifying a contact record, other users on the network will not be able to make changes while you are in the process of changing the record. This means that you have the record locked. Once you save your changes then the record is unlocked and others can make changes again. Mail-merge features: [pic] If you elect to do so, you may choose from one of the Email templates available by choosing the Template key. or you should type the email message to be sent. The mailing addresses are used when creating letters, envelopes, and mailing labels. The address formats area can be customized to appear the way you wish. You must have Supervisor status to set up these options. These options are extremely important, as they affect all databases and all users and anything that uses the mailing address mail merge code {{MailAddr}}. Setting a default address format will enable you to have consistent mailing addresses among contacts. Label printing :[pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] Data import and export options: Importing is the process of bringing contact records into a database from an existing electronic file. This file can be from a specialized purchased mailing list, a CD ROM collection, a company database,   and many other sources. The file to import must be in ASCII (comma delimited or one field per line), dBase, or Paradox format. [pic] Exporting is the process of copying contact data into a file that can be used in another application. Information is exported to one of the following file formats: ASCII comma delimited, ASCII tab delimited,   Dbase, and   WordPerfect Secondary mail merge format. When export files are created they contain only biographical fields and user fields, such as numeric, money, date fields, the categories, and the fields on the summary tab such as who last changed a record. An export file does not contain contact notes, history, or events. To export this type of information to be able to use on another computer with Contact [pic] [pic] Various reports with selection criteria and sort sequence: [pic] The Design Button in the following screen will lets you go to the report editor and allow you to arrange the fields according to the preferences. generated reports [pic] Generated reports are like : [pic] [pic] Database Design was done Using PARADOX tables in Delphi. The Screen shots are done using Delphi6. [pic] [pic]

Pharmacophore development for identification of anti-lung cancer drugs Essay

Lung cancer is one particular type of cancer that is more deadly and common than any other. Lung cancer is treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery depending on the type of lung cancer and the stage of the disease. Focusing on the drugs used for chemotherapy and their associated side effects, there is a need to design and develop new anti-lung cancer drugs with lesser side effects and improved efficacy. Pharmacophore model proves to be a very helpful tool serving in the designing and development of new lead compounds. In this paper, pharmacophore of 10 novel anti-lung cancer compounds has been identified and validated for the first time. Using LigandScout the pharmacophore features were predicted and 3D pharmacophore have been extracted via VMD software. A training set data was collected from literature and the proposed model was applied to the training set whereby validating and verifying their similar activity as that of the most active compounds. Therefore they could be recommended for further studies. Key words: Pharmacophore, anti-lung cancer drugs, Computer aided drug designing, LigandScout, VMD INTRODUCTION Lung cancer is known to have a high fatality rate among males and females and takes more lives each year as compared to colon, prostate, ovarian and breast cancers (1).Lung cancer is classified into two main types namely Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) of which NSCLC accounts for about 80% cases and SCLC accounts for 10-15% among all other types of lung cancers (2). Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a worldwide leading cause of death (3). The surgical resections are not applicable when first diagnosed as NSCLC is usually in an advanced stage. The patient may have a possibility of prolonging survival with chemotherapy (4). Chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC is often considered excessively toxic. However, meta-analyses have demonstrated that as compared with supportive care, chemotherapy results in a small improvement in survival in patients with advanced NSCLC (5). *Corresponding author. Email:drhamid@jinnah.edu.pk Abbreviations: HBA, hydrogen-bond acceptor, HBD, hydrogen-bond donor, NSCLC, Non-small cell lung cancer, SCLC, Small Cell Lung Cancer, EGFR Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. Drugs developed for cancer are single agents although for the maximum advantage they need to be used in recipe with other drugs or therapeutic agents. Initial candidate chemicals or â€Å"leads†, are often recognized and tested for single agents that change cancer-cell proliferation or prolong survival. This led to the identification of most of the clinically active cancer drugs used today. Specific leads then must be further optimized and assessed to characterize their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties and evident toxic effects. Clinical evaluation is performed by trails in humans to identify a maximum tolerated dose, define severe toxic effects, and estimate bioactivity. These trails are time consuming and expensive (6). Pharmacophore is the initial step towards understanding the interaction between a receptor and a ligand. Pharmacophore was often postulated as the â€Å"essence† of the structure-activity knowledge they had gained(7).Today’s researcher task is to interpret the binding of anatomically varied molecules at a common receptor site. To generate common feature pharmacophore from the set of compounds active for certain receptor, the characteristics necessary for binding receptor in a generalized way(8). The understanding of the common properties of binding group is vital for the determination of the type of inhibitor binding the target. Pharmacophore model is very convenient for attaining this goal. Surface of the cell are the regions where the ligand-receptor and receptor-receptor interaction occur. The process undergo Sequential levels of activity starts initially  from the cell surface and then moves towards the intracellular signaling pathways, then gene transcription which corresponds to cellular responses. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was initially identified as an abnormally activated or mutated form which leads to a number of other abnormalities in the signaling pathway and hence leads to the formation of tumor (9). In our research, a 3D pharmacophore model was developed in order to promote the discovery of precise and effective EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The compounds used in this study have been characterized as reported in reference papers. In order to correlate experimental and computational studies we used their bioactivity data. MATERIALS AND METHODS The work was initiated using LigandScout software. LigandScout is a tool for deriving the 3D from structural data of ligand complexes more speedily and evidently in a completely automated and expedient way. It offers flawless workflow both from ligand and structure based pharmacophore modeling (10). LigandScout is thought to be an essential software tool for structure based drug designing, it is not only beneficial for carrying out analysis of binding sites but also for alignment based on pharmacophore and the designing of shared feature pharmacophores. LigandScout runs freely on all common operating systems. Till  date  a  number  of  successful  application  examples  have  been  carried out and standpublished (11). The very important and the very first step in pharmacophore model generation is the selection of data set compounds.  A  number  of  drugs have been reported that are in some way related to, or used in the treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer which include Platinol(generic name: cisplatin)( 12),carboplatin, Taxotere(generic name: docetaxel), Gemzar(generic name: gemcitabine) ,Taxol(generic name: paclitaxel) , Almita(generic name: pemetrexed), Avastin(generic name: Bevacizumab), Xalkori(generic name: Crizotinib), Navelbine(generic name: vinorelbine , Iressa(generic name: Gefitinib) and Terceva(generic name: Erlotinib) (13)( 14)( 15). The two dimensional (2D) chemical structures of the compounds were drawn using ChemDraw Ultra (8.0) and the structures were saved as .Pdb files. Subsequently the 2D structures as shown below ( Figure 1) in the form of Pdb files were imported into LigandScout and converted into corresponding 3D pharmacophore structures. Cisplatin Pemetrexed Docetaxel Bevacizumab Viblastine Carboplatin Gemcitabine Crizotinib Gefitinib Paclitaxel Vinorelbine Erlotinib Hydrochloride Figure 1. 2D structures of selected data set of anti non small lung cancer The pharmacophoric features include H-bond donor, H-bond acceptor, Hydrophobic, aromatic, positively and negatively ionizable groups (16).The pharmacophore for each compound was generated and the distances among the pharmacophoric features were calculated using VMD software. VMD is designed not only for modeling, visualization, and analysis of biological systems such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipid bilayer assemblies but it may also be used to view more general molecules, as VMD can read standard Protein Data Bank (PDB) files and display the contained structure with their features. A number of application examples have been published to date (17). Once the pharmacophore of all the compounds were identified, the ligand was then super imposed so the pharmacophore elements overlap and a common template i-e the pharmacophore model is identified. The training set consisting of four compounds was collected from literature and it was found that the groups show enhanced and similar activity as that of the most active compounds based on the 3D pharmacophore being generated for non small lung cancer. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Pharmacophore analysis is considered as an fundamental part of drug design. The pharmacophore generated by LigandScout for the selected data set of anti  non small cell lung cancer showed three main features i-e H-bond acceptor(blue vectors), H-bond donor(blue vectors) and aromatic rings(yellow spheres).The representative pharacophores of each compound are shown in Figures 2,3,4 and 5 Figure 2. A pharmacophore of Pemetrexed (Alimta ®) The pharmacophoric features for each compound on the whole are shown in Table 1.The pharmacophores of all the compounds were then matched and a unique pharmacophore was identified after a detailed analysis. Figure 3 . A pharmacophore of Bevacizumab Figure 4 . A pharmacophore of Gemcitabine (Gemzar ®) On the whole, the representative pharmacophoric features for each compound are shown in Table 2.Resembling features were identified after analyzing the pharmacophore of all compounds generated by LigandScout. Then the similar features of all the compounds were superimposed and merged into single pharmacophore. The uniquely identified pharmacophoric features are shown in Table 3. Figure 5. A pharmacophore of Gefitinib Our common featured pharmacophore predicted for three compound of anti non small lung cancer is based on three HBAs, six HBDs and four aromatic centers. The distance triangle measured between the common pharmacophore features of each compound using VMD is shown in Table 4.The distance ranges from minimum to maximum and have measured between the HBA and HBD,HBA and aromatic ring and HBD and aromatic ring. Table 1. Pharmacophoric features of each compound Compounds H-Bond Donor H-Bond Acceptor Aromatic Centre Paclitaxel + + + Pemetrexed + + + Bevacizumab + + + Carboplatin + + + Crizotinib + + + Erlotinib Hydrocholride + + + Gefitinib + + + Gemcitabine + + + Methotrexate + + + The distances among the common pharmacophoric features between the predicted pharmacophore are shown in Figure 6. The distances between aromatic ring and HBD range from 4.15-4.80, between aromatic rings to HBA range from 7.03-8.66 and between HBA to HBD range from 5.85-6.97. Table 2. Pharmacophoric features of each compound Compound H-Bond Donor H-Bond Acceptor Aromatic Centre Paclitaxel 4 6 2 Pemetrexed 3 6 3 Bevacizumab 2 3 1 Carboplatin 0 3 0 Crizotinib 2 4 3 Erlotinib Hydrocholride 2 6 3 Gefitinib 2 6 4 Gemcitabine 3 7 2 Methotrexate 3 9 3 Table 3. Uniquely identified pharmacophoric features of compounds Compound Bevacizumab Pemetrexed Gefitinib H-Bond Donor 2 3 H-Bond Acceptor 3 6 2 6 Aromatic Centre 1 3 4 A training set of three compounds was collected from literature i-e MethyNonanoate, MMDA, Flavopirido(18).The generated 3D pharmacophore model was applied to the training set whereby validating and verifying their enhanced and similar activity as that of the standard compounds shown in Table 5. This further confirmed our observation and proposals for a pharmacophore model as it corresponds to the predicted pharmacophore. Table 4.Pharmacophoric triangle distances of each uniquely identified compounds Compounds Acceptor ïÆ'  Aromatic Ring Aromatic Ring ïÆ'  Donor Donor ïÆ'  Acceptor Gefitinib 7.10 4.76 6.97 Pemetrexed 7.03 4.15 5.85 Bevacizumab 8.14 4.29 6.36 Figure 6. Distance ranges among pharmacophoric features in predicted pharmacophore To support the suggested pharmacophore model , distance was estimated. The predicted distance of the training set and the standard drugs respectively are shown in Table 6. This table shows the close resemblance of Flavopiridol with that of standard drugs whereby validating that the compound shows high correlation with the predicted pharmacophoric triangle hence having similar activity. Table 5. The distance triangle for compounds of the training set Model Acceptor ïÆ'  Aromatic Ring Aromatic Ring ïÆ'  Donor Donor ïÆ'  Acceptor MMDA 5.99 5.52 5.95 Flavopiridol 7.01 4.04, 4 6.18 MethyNonanoate 4.01 7.60 2.24 Table 6. The 3D pharmacophoric distance triangle of the training set and the standard drugs respectively Model Standard Drugs Training Set Acceptor ïÆ'  Aromatic Ring 7.37-8.84 7.01-8.96 Aromatic Ring ïÆ'  Donor 4.39-4.89 4.04-4.62 Donor ïÆ'  Acceptor 6.18-6.97 6.18-6.64 CONCLUSION The pharmacophore model is a very handy tool for new lead compounds discovery and development. In this study pharmacophore models were built for novel drugs of non small lung cancer, pharmacophoric features were predicted and 3D pharmacophore has been generated for non small lung cancer. A triangle of three different classes has been selected for pharmacophore and Hydrogen bond Acceptor, Hydrogen bond Donor and Hydrophobic character of standard drugs have been filtered out as key pharmacophoric feature. The generated model was applied to the training set and it has been validated and proposed that Flavopiridol shows similar enhanced activity as that of standard drugs, hence could be used for further studies. 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