Johnny Lechner and his 12-year college education at the University of Essay

Johnny Lechner and his 12-year college education at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater - Essay Example is taking this year instead of the regular 12 to 18 credits, as he has already taken all the existing courses available, and has even unknowingly repeated some of them twice. The decision of almost doubling the fees has come possibly in reaction to Lechners long stay at the institution, and Wisconsinites have dubbed it the Johnny Lechner rule. It is a valid decision, one that will encourage students to treat colleges and universities for what they are, venues for focused learning, for quenching intellectual thirst and gearing an individual towards becoming a useful member of the society. There are those that consider that this decision will be hard on those like Lechner. In Lechners defense, it must be said that he has paid his own fees for the last ten years, by working part time in order to support himself and through student loans, since his parents supported him only for the first two years of his college life. A man can strive to learn more and more for the sake of learning itself, and here is a man that tries to do his bit for society, and volunteers with numerous organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, the UW-Whitewater Prairie Restoration Project and Camp Getaway for inner-city Chicago children with AIDS. He is also a good student, who is regular in class, recently made the dean’s list with a 4.0 grade-point average for a semester and has got good grades throughout, even managing straight As in one semester. So one knows that he is not too weak a student to graduate, and is not graduating out of intention, not incapability. One may also argue that a persons life need not necessarily follow a particular mold, that includes educa tion, employment, marriage and retirement, and eventual death, and as long as he or she is not a burden on society a person may want to learn as much as possible, and study in order to do this. But this is where the contradiction comes in. Lechner has, in fact, been a burden on society these past years, because the

IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge Essay Example for Free

IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge Essay Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) In May 1995, Marianne Barner faced a tough decision. After just two years with IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, and less than a year into her job as business area manager for carpets, she was faced with the decision of cutting off one of the company’s major suppliers of Indian rugs. While such a move would disrupt supply and affect sales, she found the reasons to do so quite compelling. A German TV station had just broadcast an investigative report naming the supplier as one that used child labor in the production of rugs made for IKEA. What frustrated Barner was that, like all other IKEA suppliers, this large, well-regarded company had recently signed an addendum to its supply contract explicitly forbidding the use of child labor on pain of termination. Even more difficult than this short-term decision was the long-term action Barner knew IKEA must take on this issue. On one hand, she was being urged to sign up to an industry-wide response to growing concerns about the use of child labor in the Indian carpet industry. A recently formed partnership of manufacturers, importers, retailers, and Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was proposing to issue and monitor the use of â€Å"Rugmark,† a label to be put on carpets certifying that they were made without child labor. Simultaneously, Barner had been conversing with people at the Swedish Save the Children organization who were urging IKEA to ensure that its response to the situation was â€Å"in the best interest of the child†Ã¢â‚¬â€whatever that might imply. Finally, there were some who wondered if IKEA should not just leave this hornet’s nest. Indian rugs accounted for a tiny part of IKEA’s turnover, and to these observers, the time, cost, and reputation risk posed by continuing this product line seemed not worth the profit potential. The Birth and Maturing of a Global Company1   Certain details have been disguised. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. Working out of the family kitchen, he sold goods such as fountain pens, cigarette lighters, and binders he purchased from low-priced sources and then advertised in a newsletter to local shopkeepers. When Kamprad matched his competitors by adding furniture to his newsletter in 1948, the immediate success of the new line led him to give up the small items. In 1951, to reduce product returns, he opened a display store in  nearby Älmhult village to allow customers to inspect products before buying. It was an immediate success, with customers traveling seven hours from the capital Stockholm by train to visit. Based on the store’s success, IKEA stopped accepting mail orders. Later Kamprad reflected, â€Å"The basis of the modern IKEA concept was created [at this time] and in principle it still applies. First and foremost, we use a catalog to tempt people to visit an exhibition, which today is our store. . . . Then, catalog in hand, customers can see simple interiors for themselves, touch the furniture they want to buy and then write out an order.†2 As Kamprad developed and refined his furniture retailing business model he became increasingly frustrated with the way a tightly knit cartel of furniture manufacturers controlled the Swedish industry to keep prices high. He began to view the situation not just as a business opportunity but also as an unacceptable social problem that he wanted to correct. Foreshadowing a vision for IKEA that would later be articulated as â€Å"creating a better life for the many people,† he wrote: â€Å"A disproportionately large part of all resources is used to satisfy a small part of the population. . . . IKEA’s aim is to change this situation. We shall offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them. . . . We have great ambitions.†3 The small newsletter soon expanded into a full catalog. The 1953 issue introduced what would become another key IKEA feature: self-assembled furniture. Instead of buying complete pieces of furniture, customers bought them in flat packages and put them together themselves at home. Soon, the â€Å"knockdown† concept was fully systemized, saving transport and storage costs. In typical fashion, Kamprad turned the savings into still lower prices for his customers, gaining an even larger following among young postwar householders looking for well-designed but inexpensive furniture. Between 1953 and 1955, the company’s sales doubled from SEK 3 million to SEK 6 million.4 Managing Suppliers: Developing Sourcing Principles As its sales took off in the late 1950s, IKEA’s radically new concepts began to encounter stiff opposition from Sweden’s large furniture retailers. So  threatened were they that when IKEA began exhibiting at trade fairs, they colluded to stop the company from taking orders at the fairs and eventually even from showing its prices. The cartel also pressured manufacturers not to sell to IKEA, and the few that continued to do so often made their deliveries at night in unmarked vans. Unable to meet demand with such constrained local supply, Kamprad was forced to look abroad for new sources. In 1961, he contracted with several furniture factories in Poland, a country still in the Communist eastern bloc. To assure quality output and reliable delivery, IKEA brought its knowhow, taught its processes, and even provided machinery to the new suppliers, revitalizing Poland’s furniture industry as it did so. Poland soon became IKEA’s largest source and, to Kamprad’s delight, at much lower costs—once again allowing him to reduce his prices. Following its success in Poland, IKEA adopted a general procurement principle that it should not own its means of production but should seek to develop close ties by supporting its suppliers in a long-term relationship.a Beyond supply contracts and technology transfer, the relationship led IKEA to make loans to its suppliers at reasonable rates, repayable through future shipments. â€Å"Our objective is to develop long-term business partners,† explained a senior purchasing manager. â€Å"We commit to doing a ll we can to keep them competitive—as long as they remain equally committed to us. We are in this for the long run.† Although the relationship between IKEA and its suppliers was often described as one of mutual dependency, suppliers also knew that they had to remain competitive to keep their contract. From the outset they understood that if a more cost-effective alternative appeared, IKEA would try to help them respond, but if they could not do so, it would move production. In its constant quest to lower prices, the company developed an unusual way of  identifying new sources. As a veteran IKEA manager explained: â€Å"We do not buy products from our suppliers. We buy unused production capacity.† It was a philosophy that often led its purchasing managers to seek out seasonal manufacturers with spare off-season capacity. There were many classic examples of how IKEA matched products to supplier capabilities: they had sail makers make seat cushions, window factories produce table frames, and ski manufacturers build chairs in their off-season. The manager added, â€Å"We’ve always worr ied more about finding the right management at our suppliers than finding high-tech facilities. We will always help good management to develop their capacity.† Growing Retail: Expanding Abroad Building on the success of his first store, Kamprad self-financed a store in Stockholm in 1965. Recognizing a growing use of automobiles in Sweden, he bucked the practice of having a downtown showroom and opted for a suburban location with ample parking space. When customers drove home with their furniture in flat packed boxes, they assumed two of the costliest parts of traditional furniture retailing—home delivery and assembly. In 1963, even before the Stockholm store had opened, IKEA had expanded into Oslo, Norway. A decade later, Switzerland became its first non-Scandinavian market, and in 1974 IKEA entered Germany, which soon became its largest market. (See Exhibit 1 for IKEA’s worldwide expansion.) At each new store the same simple Scandinavian-design products were backed up with a catalog and offbeat advertising, presenting the company as â€Å"those impossible Swedes with strange ideas.† And reflecting the company’s conservative values, each new entry was financed by previous successes.b During this expansion, the IKEA concept evolved and became increasingly formalized. (Exhibit 2 summarizes important events in IKEA’s corporate history.) It still built large, suburban stores with knockdown furniture in flat packages the customers brought home to assemble themselves. But as the concept was refined, the company required that each store follow a predetermined design, set up to maximize customers’ exposure to the product range. The concept mandated, for instance, that the living room interiors should follow immediately after the entrance. IKEA also serviced customers with features  such as a playroom for children, a low-priced restaurant, and a â€Å"Sweden Shop† for groceries that had made IKEA Sweden’s leading food exporter. At the same time, the range gradually aThis policy was modified after a number of East European suppliers broke their contracts with IKEA after the fall of the Berlin Wall opened new markets for them. IKEA’s subsequent supply chain problems and loss of substantial investments led management to develop an internal production company, Swedwood, to ensure delivery stability. However, it was decided that only a limited amount of IKEA’s purchases (perhaps 10%) should be sourced from Swedwood. b By 2005, company lore had it that IKEA had only taken one bank loan in its corporate history—which it had paid back as soon as the cash flow allowed. The Emerging Culture and Values5 As Kamprad’s evolving business philosophy was formalized into the IKEA vision statement, â€Å"To create a better everyday life for the many people,† it became the foundation of the company’s strategy of selling affordable, good-quality furniture to mass-market consumers around the world. The cultural norms and values that developed to support the strategy’s implementation were also, in many ways, an extension of Kamprad’s personal beliefs and style. â€Å"The true IKEA spirit,† he remarked, â€Å"is founded on our enthusiasm, our constant will to renew, on our cost-consciousness, on our willingness to assume responsibility and to help, on our humbleness before the task, and on the simplicity of our behavior.† As well as a summary of his aspiration for the  company’s behavioral norms, it was also a good statement of Kamprad’s own personal management style. Over the years a very distinct organizational culture and management style emerged in IKEA reflecting these values. For example, the company operated very informally as evidenced by the open-plan office landscape, where even the CEO did not have a separate office, and the familiar and personal way all employees addressed one another. But that informality often masked an intensity that derived from the organization’s high self-imposed standards. As one senior executive explained, â€Å"Because there is no security available behind status or closed doors, this environment actually puts pressure on people to perform.† The IKEA management process also stressed simplicity and attention to detail. â€Å"Complicated rules paralyze!† said Kamprad. The company organized â€Å"anti-bureaucrat week† every year, requiring all managers to spend time working in a store to reestablish contact with the front line and the consumer. The workpace was such that executives joked that IKEA believed in â€Å"management by running around.† Cost consciousness was another strong part of the management culture. â€Å"Waste of resources,† said Kamprad, â€Å"is a mortal sin at IKEA. Expensive solutions are often signs of mediocrity, and an idea without a price tag is never acceptable.† Although cost consciousness extended into all aspects of the operation, travel and entertainment expenses were particularly sensitive. â€Å"We do not set any price on time,† remarked an executive, recalling that he had once phoned Kamprad to get approval to fly first class. He explained that economy class was full and that he had an urgent appointment to keep. â€Å"There is no first class in IKEA,† Kamprad had replied. â€Å"Perhaps you should go by car.† The executive completed the 350-mile trip by taxi. The search for creative solutions was also highly prized with IKEA. Kamprad had written, â€Å"Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes. The fear of making mistakes is the root of bureaucracy and the enemy of all evolution.† Though planning for the future was encouraged, overanalysis was not. â€Å"Exaggerated planning can be fatal,† Kamprad advised his executives. â€Å"Let simplicity and common sense characterize your planning.† In 1976, Kamprad felt the need to commit to paper the values that had developed in IKEA during the previous decades. His thesis, Testament of a Furniture Dealer, became an important means for spreading the IKEA philosophy, particularly during its period of rapid international expansion. (Extracts of the Testament are given in Exhibit 3.) Specially trained â€Å"IKEA ambassadors† were assigned to key positions in all units to spread the company’s philosophy and values by educating their subordinates and by acting as role models. In 1986, when Kamprad stepped down, Anders Moberg, a company veteran who had once been Kamprad’s personal assistant, took over as president and CEO. But Kamprad remained intimately involved as chairman, and his influence extended well beyond the ongoing daily operations: he was the self-appointed guardian of IKEA’s deeply embedded culture and values. Waking up to Environmental and Social Issues By the mid-1990s, IKEA was the worlds largest specialized furniture retailer. Sales for the IKEA Group for the financial year ending August 1994 totaled SEK 35 billion (about $4.5 billion). In the previous year, more than 116 million people had visited one of the 98 IKEA stores in 17 countries, most of them drawn there by the company’s product catalog, which was printed yearly in 72 million copies in 34 languages. The privately held company did not report profit levels, but one estimate put its net margin at 8.4% in 1994, yielding a net profit of SEK 2.9 billion (about $375 million). 6 After decades of seeking new sources, in the mid-1990s IKEA worked with almost 2,300 suppliers in 70 countries, sourcing a range of around 11,200 products. Its relationship with its suppliers was dominated by commercial issues, and its 24 trading service offices in 19 countries primarily monitored  production, tested new product ideas, negotiated prices, and checked quality. (See Exhibit 4 for selected IKEA figures in 1994.) That relationship began to change during the 1980s, however, when environmental problems emerged with some of its products. And it was even more severely challenged in the mid-1990s when accusations of IKEA suppliers using child labor surfaced. The Environmental Wake-Up: Formaldehyde In the early 1980s, Danish authorities passed regulations to define limits for formaldehyde emissions permissible in building products. The chemical compound was used as binding glue in materials such as plywood and particleboard and often seeped out as gas. At concentrations above 0.1 mg/kg in air, it could cause watery eyes, headaches, a burning sensation in the throat, and difficulty breathing. With IKEA’s profile as a leading local furniture retailer using particleboard in many of its products, it became a prime target for regulators wanting to publicize the new standards. So when tests showed that some IKEA products emitted more formaldehyde than was allowed by legislation, the case was widely publicized and the company was fined. More significantly—and the real lesson for IKEA—was that due to the publicity, its sales dropped 20% in Denmark. In response to this situation, the company quickly established stringent requirements regarding formaldehyde emissions but soon found that suppliers were failing to meet its standards. The problem was that most of its suppliers bought from subsuppliers, who in turn bought the binding materials from glue manufacturers. Eventually, IKEA decided it would have to work directly with the glue-producing chemical companies and, with the collaboration of companies such as ICI and BASF, soon found ways to reduce the formaldehyde off-gassing in its products.7 A decade later, however, the formaldehyde problem returned. In 1992, an investigative team from a large German newspaper and TV company found that IKEA’s best-selling bookcase series, Billy, had emissions higher than German legislation allowed. This time, however, the source of the problem was not the glue but the lacquer on the bookshelves. In the wake of headlines describing â€Å"deadly poisoned bookshelves,† IKEA immediately stopped both the production and sales of Billy bookcases worldwide and corrected the problem before resuming  distribution. Not counting the cost of lost sales and production or the damage to goodwill, the Billy incident was estimated to have cost IKEA $6 million to $7 million.8 These events prompted IKEA to address broader environmental concerns more directly. Since wood was the principal material in about half of all IKEA products, forestry became a natural starting point. Following discussions with both Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, formerly World Wildlife Fund) and using standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council, IKEA established a forestry policy stating that IKEA would not accept any timber, veneer, plywood, or layer-glued wood from intact natural forests or from forests with a high conservation value. This meant that IKEA had to be willing to take on the task of tracing all wood used in IKEA products back to its source. 9 To monitor compliance, the company appointed forest managers to carry out random checks of wood suppliers and run projects on responsible forestry around the world. In addition to forestry, IKEA identified four other areas where environmental criteria were to be applied to its business operations: adapting the product range; working with suppliers; transport and distribution; and ensuring environmentally conscious stores. For instance, in 1992, the company began using chlorine-free recycled paper in its catalogs; it redesigned the best-selling OGLA chair— originally manufactured from beech—so it could be made using waste material from yogurt cup production; and it redefined its packaging principles to eliminate any use of PVC. The company also maintained its partnership with WWF, resulting in numerous projects on global conservation, and funded a global forest watch program to map intact natural forests worldwide. In addition, it engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Gr eenpeace on forestry.10 The Social Wake-Up: Child Labor In 1994, as IKEA was still working to resolve the formaldehyde problems, a Swedish television documentary showed children in Pakistan working at weaving looms. Among the several Swedish companies mentioned in the film as importers of carpets from Pakistan, IKEA was the only highprofile name on the list. Just two months into her job as business area manager for carpets, Marianne Barner recalled the shockwaves that the TV program sent through the company: The use of child labor was not a high-profile public issue at the time. In fact, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child had only been published in December 1989. So, media attention like this TV program had an important role to play in raising awareness on a topic not well known and understood—including at IKEA. . . . We were caught completely unaware. It was not something we had been paying attention to. For example, I had spent a couple of months in India learning about trading but got no exposure to child labor. Our buyers met suppliers in their city offices and rarely got out to where production took place. . . . Our immediate response to the program was to apologize for our ignorance and acknowledge that we were not in full control of this problem. But we also committed to do something about it. As part of its response, IKEA sent a legal team to Geneva to seek input and advice from the International Labor Organization (ILO) on how to deal with the problem. They learned that Convention 138, adopted by the ILO in 1973 and ratified by 120 countries, committed ratifying countries to working for the abolition of labor by children under 15 or the age of compulsory schooling in that country. India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention.11 Following these discussions with the ILO, IKEA added a clause to all supply contracts—a â€Å"black-andwhite† clause, as Barner put it—stating simply that if the supplier employed children under legal working age, the contract would be cancelled.

Importance of Chemical Bonding | Essay

Importance of Chemical Bonding | Essay George Brown Chemical bonds are either ionic or covalent. When a metal is present the bond is ionic as an electron is given from the metal to the non-metal, so the two ions are attracted to each other. When a bond is between two non-metal’s then it is covalent meaning that in the outer electron shells of the two atoms bonded electrons share electron to complete their outer electron shell. When two atoms bonded together are not the same, the electrons will not be shared equally as each atom will be positively or negatively charged in relation to each other. This value is measured as the difference of the electronegativity of each atom present. The electronegativity of an atom is the potential for the atom to attract shared electrons towards itself. The difference in electronegativity between ionic bonds is greater than that of polar covalent bonds and greater still of non-polar covalent bond. An example of a non-polar covalent bond is H-I as the difference in electronegativity isn’t very high. An example of a polar covalent bond is H-Cl as the difference in electronegativity is higher than 0.5 and lower than 1.7 and an example of an ionic bond would be Na-Cl as the difference in electronegativity is above 1.7. In figure 1 it can be observed how the electrons are shared in ionic and covalent bonds. This explains the high difference in the resultant electronegativity between ionic and covalent bonds. Metal, as an ion, donates an electron making it positively charged and a non-metal, as an ion, gains an electron making it more negatively charged meaning the attraction between ionic bonds is greater than that of covalent bonds. Ionic bonded substances are more polar than covalent bonded substances thus a better solvent. NaCl has a much high boiling point (around 1413 °c) than for example HCl (around -85c) Sodium Chloride, better known as table salt, is an example of an Ionic bonded substance due to the high difference in electronegativity. Sodium and chlorine as elements are very reactive and thus poisonous to the human body in large quantities if uncontrolled. So the fact that sodium and chloride are ionically bonded helps to control the concentration of sodium and chlorine in the body as it can only be broken down when it needs to be in the liver. Sodium and chlorine is needed In low concentrations for key cell functions in nerve cells for maintaining the â€Å"resting potential of nerve axon cells which is -70 mV† (Hall et al., 2009) maintained by the â€Å"sodium potassium pump†. It is required for the nerve cells in the human body to function. It’s the reason for why you can feel or can react to stimuli. A molecule is always non polar, where the bonds between atoms in the molecule are non-polar an example of this would be H-I. Water is an example of a polar covalent bond as it consists of polar covalent bonds H-O and the molecule is asymmetrical. This means that water is a good solvent allowing it to transport sugars and salts around the body, in blood, as they can be easily dissolved in an aqueous solvent such as water. In figure 2 you can see the relative charge of the molecule in water. CCl4 is example of a molecule of which its atoms are polar bonded together but due to the symmetry of the molecule observed in figure 2 the polarity of the molecules cancels itself out, and it acts as if it’s non-polar in intermolecular interactions The strength between intermolecular bonds is a lot weaker than the strength of intramolecular bonds and the weakest form of intermolecular bond is a bond that uses Van der Waals forces or an instantaneous induced-dipole bond. These are observed when a nearby non-polar molecules experiencing an instantaneous dipole, due to the random nature of electron clouds oscillating on molecules, which induces a dipole of another molecule, it may cause a ripple effect inducing dipoles on nearby non-polar molecules. Larger molecules have a larger electron cloud which means the induced and potential electronegativity of instantaneous dipoles would be stronger. Van der Waals forces is the attraction that occurs between all molecules polar or non-polar, but is the only source of intermolecular attraction between non-polar molecules. Lower boiling points will be observed of substances of similar elements that are polar, dipole-dipole bonds or even stronger hydrogen(dipole-dipole) bonds, than that of n on-polar Van der Waals force bonds, as they are much stronger so it requires more energy(heat) to break them. Figure 3 is an example of an induced dipole bond from an instantaneous dipole. Hydrogen bonding (an example of a strong dipole-dipole bond) is another example of an intermolecular. Standard hydrogen bonding is an intermolecular bond where a hydrogen from one molecule is attached to one of the most electronegative elements; oxygen, nitrogen or fluorine of another molecule. Figure 4 shows a diagram of a hydrogen bond between two water molecules. These bonds help to keep the water molecules together so it requires more energy for the substance to change state from liquid into a gas. It also means when water is a solid (ice) it is less dense than when it is a liquid, which is unusual as usually substances tend to expand when they heat up. Heat is a measure of kinetic energy of a substance, so when substances, molecules or atoms, has more kinetic energy it is more fluid, less packed together (less dense). You can see in figure 4 that each oxygen atom is bonded from a combination of hydrogen (intermolecular) and covalent (intramolecular) bonds to 4 oxygen atoms. Ther e is a lot of free space around these atoms when they are structurally bonded this way, so this is why ice is less dense than water. The structural function of ice is important for all seasonal marine life and some land organisms as it allows ice to float. An example of a more complex intermolecular bond is ionic hydrogen bonding. Potential uses is discussed in the article BIOPHYISCAL (Kaledhonkar et al., 2013). The article states â€Å"Standard hydrogen bonds are of great importance for protein structure and function† but â€Å"Ionic hydrogen bonds often are significantly stronger than standard hydrogen bonds and exhibit unique properties† which allows them to be used in protein folding (polypeptides), modification in the golgi apparatus, enzyme active transport centres and the formation of membranes, processes that are all critical for life. Ionic hydrogen bonding is explained further in an article in chem. rev. (Meot-Ner (Mautner), 2005). The article states that â€Å"ionic hydrogen bonds (IHBs) that form between ions and molecules with bonds strengths of 5-35 kcal/mol, up to a third of the strength of covalent bonds†. Ionic hydrogen bonds are believed to be the strongest intermolecular bond but still only up to a third the strength of a covalent bond. So even the strongest intermolecular bonds are weaker than intramolecular bonds. [Word Count: 1058] References bbc.co.uk, (2014).BBC Higher Bitesize Chemistry Bonding, structures and properties : Revision, Page2. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/chemistry/energy/bsp/revision/2/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014]. Chemprofessor.com, (2014).Intermolecular Attractions or van der Waals Forces. [online] Available at: http://www.chemprofessor.com/imf.htm [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014]. Hall, A., Hickman, G., Howarth, S., Middlewick, S., Owens, N., Reiss, M., Scott, A. and Wilberforce, N. (2009).Salter-Nuffield Advanced Biology A2 Student Book. London: Edexcel Pearson, p.201. Kaledhonkar, S., Hara, M., Stalcup, T., Xie, A. and Hoff, W. (2013). Strong Ionic Hydrogen Bonding Causes a Spectral Isotope Effect in Photoactive Yellow Protein.Biophysical Journal, 105(11), pp.2577-2585. Meot-Ner (Mautner), M. (2005). The Ionic Hydrogen Bond.Chem. Rev., 105(1), pp.213-284. Physicsofmatter.com, (1998).Hydrogen Bond Disorder in Ice Structures. [online] Available at: http://www.physicsofmatter.com/NotTheBook/Talks/Ice/Ice.html [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014]. Page 1 of 7 Soil Water Contamination: Wheal Jane Incident Soil Water Contamination: Wheal Jane Incident The Wheal Jane incident was a significant mine water discharge event. The incident occurred in 1992, shortly after the mine closure. This report provides a brief description of the mine, the incident itself and the resulting aftermath. Wheal Jane Mine is located near the village of Chacewater, in Cornwall. The mine itself was formed in 1861, after the merging of five smaller mines. The oldest mine workings from the area were thought to date back as far as the 1740s (Cornwall Calling, 2017). The mine had worked many mineral lodes over its lifetime, producing tin, copper, and silver-lead (Cornwall in Focus, 2017). In the years leading up to its closure, the mine was primarily extracting cassiterite, the main source ore of tin, but older workings also produced pyrite and arsenopyrite, with the modern development drives taking the mine to 450 meters below surface level (University of Exeter, 2002). The mines of the Gwennap parish were all interconnected, with Wheal Jane connected to the neighbouring, working mine Mount Wellington, and to the abandoned workings of United Mines. Wheal Jane was an extremely wet mine, requiring dewatering measures in the region of 60,000 m ³ day-1 in the winter months. The pumped water was highly acidic, owing to the dissolved metals from the sulphide mineral deposits. Approximately half of pumped water was treated before being discharged into the Carnon river (Bowen, Dussek, Hamilton, 1998). Wheal Jane Mine had been working, on and off, from this time until its eventual closure in 1991 due to financial difficulties, primarily relating to the low price of tin, following the International Tin Agreement in 1985. Much of the mines infrastructure and equipment was sold off at the time of its closure, with the mines operational dewatering systems being turned off after a government grant subsidising the pumping costs was withdrawn (University of Exeter, 2002). After the mine closure, and the cessation of the government grant, the operational dewatering pumps were switched off, leaving only the tailings dam pumps remaining. With the dewatering measures stopped, the water level rose and filled the expansive voids underground, with the sulphide mineral bearing rock now being leached by the rising ground water. The NRA (National Rivers Authority, now part of the Environment Agency) was concerned of the potential of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) into the Carnon river and commissioned a survey to determine the potential impact of a mine water discharge, and its likely discharge points and timing. The investigation proved difficult to predict due to the unknown volume of connected, un-surveyed mine workings which would also need to fill before release (Bowen, Dussek, Hamilton, 1998). The NRA continued to monitor the water levels and water quality throughout the year. On November 17th 1991 the mine water levels reached 14.5 m AOD, and a mine water discharge event occurred through Janes adit. The water treatment lagoon onsite was quickly overwhelmed by a flow of approximately 5,000 m ³ per day of AMD at a pH of 2.8 (Bowen, Dussek, Hamilton, 1998). The NRA had contingency plans in place and immediately reacted by adding lime at the head of the adit to raise the pH and precipitate the metals from the mine water. A plug was constructed near the portal of Janes adit and the water pumped out into the tailings dam (University of Exeter, 2002). On January 4th 1992 a technical issue meant that the pumps to the tailings dam were stopped. The mine water levels quickly rose by an estimated 4 meters. The mine water built up and, on January 13th 1992, discharged through the Nangiles adit, which was the second lowest known discharge location after Janes adit. This released an estimated 50,000 m ³ of AMD (pH of 3.1) into the Carnon river over a period of 24 hours, flowing through the Restonguet Creek, Carrick Roads and into the Fal estuary (Bowen, Dussek, Hamilton, 1998). The contaminated water created a highly visual pollution event, as oxidation caused the iron rich water to turn a yellow-brown ochre colour, drawing worldwide media attention and causing much alarm to the community ( CL:AIRE, 2004). The mine water also contained considerable concentrations of heavy metals, most significantly being the presence of over 600 parts per billion Cadmium (University of Exeter, 2002). Following the discharge, new pumps were installed by the owners to pump water from the adit directly into the tailings dam as a short-term solution. Monitoring after the incident proved that the effects of the mine water discharge proved to be short-term only, with the NRA stating that There appears to have been no major adverse effects from the incident on the biota of the estuary. (National Rivers Authority, 1995). However, it was clear after the event that the mine water could not be left unchecked, and thus a water treatment solution was proposed. The NRA proposed both an active and passive treatment system. In 1994 a pilot passive treatment plant (PPTP) was constructed, as a research method for potential long-term treatment options. An active treatment plant was constructed in 2000. The PPTP contains three different treatment streams, all containing aerobic reed beds for removal of Iron and Arsenic, an anaerobic cell for removal of zinc, copper, cadmium and iron by bacterial reduction, and an aerobic rock filter which removes manganese through growth of algae (University of Exeter, 2002). The three streams differ however in the pre-treatment. One stream is first treated with lime to raise the pH, the second is first passed through an anoxic limestone drain, and the third stream involves no pre-treatment at all ( CL:AIRE, 2004). A report into the performance of the PPTP found that it offered inconsistent performance, and water discharge commonly exceeded the permitted water quality guidelines. The PPTP was also only processing 0.6 l/s of contaminated water, The active treatment plant took over from the PPTP in 2000. The process involves the addition of lime to increase the pH, and flocculant to precipitate out the metals in solution. The metal precipitates form a sludge, which is sent to a hold tank, and onto the tailings dam. The treated mine water is discharged out into the Carnon river. This system treats an average of 200 l/s, at a metal removal efficiency of 99.2% ( CL:AIRE, 2004). Whilst there have not been any significant long-term environmental impacts from the incident, it serves as a stark reminder of the potential environmental disaster that can come from mining activities, particularly from historical mines which were not subject to the same environmental regulations that are in place today. References CL:AIRE. (2004). Mine Water Treatment at Wheal Jane Tin Mine, Cornwall. CL:AIRE (Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments), 1-4. BBC. (2014, June 3). Pumping the polluted water from mines. Retrieved from BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26573994 Bowen, G. G., Dussek, C., Hamilton, R. (1998). Pollution resulting from the abandonment and subsequent flooding of Wheal Jane Mine in Cornwall, UK. London: Geological Society. Cornwall Calling. (2017). Retrieved from Cornwall Calling: http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines/carnon-valley/wheal-jane.htm Cornwall in Focus. (2017). Cornwall in Focus. Retrieved from http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/mining/whealjane.php National Rivers Authority. (1995). Wheal Jane Mine Water Study. Ashford: Knight Pià ©sold. Retrieved from Environment Data: http://www.environmentdata.org/fedora/repository/ealit:2627/OBJ/20000033.pdf University of Exeter. (2002). The Wheal Jane Incident and water quality. Retrieved from Projects University of Exeter: https://projects.exeter.ac.uk/geomincentre/estuary/Main/jane.htm

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie as a Tragedy Essay -- Papers T

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie as a Tragedy The Glass Menagerie has, of course, been labelled as many different types of play, for one, a tragedy. At first glance it is clear that audiences today may, indeed, class it as such. However, if, looking at the traditional definition of the classification 'tragedy', one can more easily assess whether or not the Glass Menagerie fits under this title. To do this I will be using the views of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, who first defined the word 'tragedy' and in his views, a tragedy contained certain, distinctive characteristics. His work was written in between 384 and 222 BC, and his views were taken on by some of the more traditional playwrights, such as William Shakespeare. As I develop through this essay, it will be clear to see how Shakespeare's tragedies indeed fit into Aristotle's definitions. To begin with, in order for a play to be a tragedy, it must involve 'an action that is serious' Aristotle argues. I believe that, in relation to the Glass Menagerie, it is certainly one that William's has used, as the whole situation that the Wingfields find themselves in does appear to be very serious indeed. The world is looming upon World War II, and America has hit the Great Depression. The whole of the United States is stricken by poverty. Therefore, it is not only the Wingfield family, but indeed all families, who are in this serious situation. To add a little more detailed analysis into the actual characters, I would suggest that they each have their own very serious, almost disturbing problems. To begin, Tom has an unnatural desire to escape, and leave his famil... ...e play. The whole of Amanda's existence is to find a gentleman caller, through Tom, for her daughter. This is the main point of the play, involving every character, and which, when not accomplished, tears the family apart. Therefore, I would argue that time, place and action of the play are actually fairly united, even though it does not appear this way at first. After examining Aristotle's views I would define the play as tragedy. Although the Glass Menagerie does not consist entirely of his views, the main points are clearly there, as I have discussed, and consequentially agree with the critic's argument. Works Cited: Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568. Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie as a Tragedy Essay -- Papers T Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie as a Tragedy The Glass Menagerie has, of course, been labelled as many different types of play, for one, a tragedy. At first glance it is clear that audiences today may, indeed, class it as such. However, if, looking at the traditional definition of the classification 'tragedy', one can more easily assess whether or not the Glass Menagerie fits under this title. To do this I will be using the views of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, who first defined the word 'tragedy' and in his views, a tragedy contained certain, distinctive characteristics. His work was written in between 384 and 222 BC, and his views were taken on by some of the more traditional playwrights, such as William Shakespeare. As I develop through this essay, it will be clear to see how Shakespeare's tragedies indeed fit into Aristotle's definitions. To begin with, in order for a play to be a tragedy, it must involve 'an action that is serious' Aristotle argues. I believe that, in relation to the Glass Menagerie, it is certainly one that William's has used, as the whole situation that the Wingfields find themselves in does appear to be very serious indeed. The world is looming upon World War II, and America has hit the Great Depression. The whole of the United States is stricken by poverty. Therefore, it is not only the Wingfield family, but indeed all families, who are in this serious situation. To add a little more detailed analysis into the actual characters, I would suggest that they each have their own very serious, almost disturbing problems. To begin, Tom has an unnatural desire to escape, and leave his famil... ...e play. The whole of Amanda's existence is to find a gentleman caller, through Tom, for her daughter. This is the main point of the play, involving every character, and which, when not accomplished, tears the family apart. Therefore, I would argue that time, place and action of the play are actually fairly united, even though it does not appear this way at first. After examining Aristotle's views I would define the play as tragedy. Although the Glass Menagerie does not consist entirely of his views, the main points are clearly there, as I have discussed, and consequentially agree with the critic's argument. Works Cited: Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.

Pursuit of Happiness Movie Review

The Pursuit Of Happyness In today’s society, people spend their whole life searching for happiness. Millions of people today in America still have belief in the â€Å"American Dream† myth. The â€Å"American Dream† gives a person the right of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Happiness can only be found once a person achieves the American Dream through hard work, determination, and persistence. The movie ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ asserts the American Dream myth through the life of Chris Gardener that every man can achieve what one wants in life if he or she is ready to struggle for it.Chris Gardener is a salesman who is unable to meet his ends, but still dreams of being financially free and happy one day. The first scene in the movie creates the characteristics that are required for a man to be able to conquer the American Dream. One of the characteristics being: Hard work. The first sequence in the movie takes place in San Francisco where lar ge numbers of people are walking to their jobs with happy faces with happy background music. Chris is shown as a person who looks up to them and relinquishes the happiness in their faces.Chris sells Bone Density scanners to make a living, a medical instrument that does not sell easily. He is portrayed as a hardworking, unfortunate, browbeaten human who dreams of being able achieve the American Dream. He also has problems with the police and IRS for parking tickets and tax respectively. To be able to meet ends, he works hard and goes to multiple hospitals to sell the scanners and earn money. As we all know, everyone needs these qualities to be able to achieve something in life.Thus this portrays the idea that if you are like Chris you also will be able to achieve the American Dream. This is an example of logos since it uses the idea that no result will come without hard work to depict an image that ones who do not struggle with not get anywhere in life and ones who will. The only way people are able to achieve anything in today’s world is by hard word, this is mainly due to enormous competition. May it be a student or an executive, everyone these days are expected to work to their fullest to be able attain their dreams in life.Another characteristic that is portrayed in the movie is that of attitude, various attitudes towards dealing with things in life will always give you a different result at the end. An example of this is witnessed in the next scene of the movie that consists of a conversation between Chris and his wife Linda about how they are going to manage their financial problems. This scene portrays the attitude by which one must approach a goal with. Chris tells her that he is planning of joining an internship program as a stockbroker at Dean Witter, such that he would be able to take care of the family.Linda on the other hand scorns him and makes a sarcastic comment such as, â€Å"Stockbroker why not an astronaut†. Chris has a positive attitude to how he is going to manage their ends, whereas Linda on the other hand has a very negative approach to matters in life and has given up all hopes they will be able to fix their problems. The background has no music to provide an element of anticipation for the viewers. The use of pathos is noticed since it displays contrasting attitudes of a Dreamer and a Failure in life.The result for being positive is witnessed at the end when Chris is able to get the job and lead a happy life whereas, Linda on the other hand leaves to New York and never seen again. Since Chris is portrayed as the Dreamer it shows the audience that one must always look at things with a positive attitude to achieve the American Dream. People always agree that once you lose your willingness to reach something in life you will never be able to get it. Being able to face problems with a positive attitude is required to able to think clearly and correctly.Thinking clearly provides the Dreamer with clear tho ughts and motivation that he is needed to be able to achieve his or her goal. Persistence has become a key element in people’s lives these days due to the large competition for each job opening. Even if one fails the first time, they must try again and again till one is successful in life. This can be seen later in the movie; Chris turns in his application personally to the head of recourses Mr. Jay Twistle. Once he had submitted his application he was persistent in trying to impress Mr. Jay such that he would be guaranteed a spot for the internship.To make sure he impresses Mr. Jay he shares a ride with him and tries to solve the Rubik’s cube which is thought to be impossible to solve. Due to his success in solving the cube Mr. Jay is impressed with his talents and is called in for an interview. Throughout this sequence Chris is once again displayed a person who will never give up. Just the night before his interview he was arrested but still does not give up. He does everything he can such that he can make the interview on time. This scene shows that every positive action towards a goal is stepping stone towards the achieving the American Dream.Since this is the start of his change in life the background music creates a joyful but surprise theme hinting that this man is going to succeed in life if he keeps up with these qualities. This provides an element of ethos since it explains the qualities needed for successfully achieving the American Dream through the life of Chris. In today’s world if one gives up pursuing what they want in their life it will never come, dreams are things that never come and fall in your hands; it constantly needs thoughtful advances made by the Dreamer.As seen in the movie Chris never gives up till he gets the job therefore portraying the amount of pursuing one must do to achieve something in life. It provides evidence that if one person is able to achieve the American Dream through persistence, then everyone w ho tries to achieve the American Dream will also be able to fulfill their dreams. Determination is one of the key elements behind any successful American Dream dreamer. Even though by this time he has lost wife and house he does not give up. To be able to survive during his internship he would work twice as hard as he used to.He would try to finish an 8 hour job in 6 hours, and sell the remaining scanners he had during that time for money. When he thought that he could start living peacefully since he was able to sell enough scanners to make a living, the IRS takes all his money for not paying taxes. He lives in community homes with his son but never gives up hope in his dream. At the end of the internship, he is called in by Mr. Frakesh to congratulate on his new job. This shows the amount of determination one must be willing to put forward. To be able to achieve such a huge dream one cannot relax until their dream is fulfilled.As seen from the movie every second is precious when o ne is dreaming, a perfect example is shown when Chris does a 8 hour job in 6 hours, this shows that one can never waste time when they are determined to accomplish something in life. With today’s growing competition for every job opening, people have to work harder and harder. Even a small hint of withdrawal from a hundred percent effort will lead one’s dream to vanish in no time. As seen in Chris’s life even though he had lost everything in his life he did not give up his efforts he put into his internship. This in turn allowed him to be successfully hired as a full time stockbroker.As the saying goes â€Å"There is always hard work and sweat in every success†. In conclusion, hard-work, persistence, and determination are the key elements that will help and guide a man who would like to live the American Dream. Even in today’s world people still believe in that efforts would pay off someday or another as they wish. These people are the great dreams whom still feel that the American Dream still exists and has not vanished just like Chris dreamt. So if anyone one of you have a dream then you should never give up, all you need to do is keep trying.

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement In 1961, men and women from throughout the nation arrived in Washington, D.C. to end Jim Crow  on interstate travel by embarking on what were called â€Å"Freedom Rides.†Ã‚  On such rides, racially mixed activists traveled together throughout the Deep South- ignoring signs marked â€Å"for whites† and â€Å"for colored† in buses and bus terminals. The riders endured beatings and arson attempts from white supremacist mobs, but their struggles paid off when segregationist policies on interstate bus and rail lines were struck down. Despite these achievements, the Freedom Riders aren’t the household names like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but they’re civil rights heroes nonetheless. Both Parks and King would be heralded as heroes for their roles in ending segregated bus seating  in Montgomery, Ala.   How the Freedom Rides Got Started In the 1960 case Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. But the high court’s ruling didn’t stop segregation on interstate bus and rail lines in the South from persisting. Enter the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights group. CORE sent seven blacks and six whites on two public buses headed for the South on May 4, 1961. The goal? To test the Supreme Court ruling on segregated interstate travel in the Confederate states. For two weeks, the activists planned to flout Jim Crow laws by sitting on the front of buses and in â€Å"whites only† waiting rooms in bus terminals. â€Å"Boarding that Greyhound bus to travel to the Deep South, I felt good. I felt happy,† Rep. John Lewis recalled during a May 2011  appearance on â€Å"The Oprah Winfrey Show.† Then a seminary student, Lewis would go on to become a U.S. congressman. During the first few days of their trip, the mixed-race group of activists traveled largely without incident. They didn’t have security and didn’t need it- yet. After arriving in Atlanta on May 13, 1961, they even attended a reception hosted by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but the celebration took on a decidedly ominous tone when King alerted them that the Ku Klux Klan was organizing against them in Alabama. Despite King’s warning, the Freedom Rides did not change their course. As expected, when they reached Alabama, their journey took a turn for the worse. A Perilous Journey On the outskirts of Anniston, Alabama, members of a white supremacist mob showed just what they thought about the Freedom Riders by bashing in their bus and slashing its tires. To boot, the Alabama Klansmen set the bus on fire and blocked the exits to trap the Freedom Riders inside. It wasn’t until the bus’ fuel tank exploded that the mob dispersed and the Freedom Riders were able to escape. After a similar mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Birmingham, the U.S. Justice Department stepped in and evacuated the activists to New Orleans. The federal government did not want more harm to come to the riders. The Second Wave Due to the amount of violence inflicted on Freedom Riders, the leaders of CORE had to abandon the Freedom Rides or continue sending activists into harm’s way. Ultimately, CORE officials decided to send more volunteers on the rides.  Diane Nash, an activist who helped to organize Freedom Rides, explained  to Oprah Winfrey: â€Å"It was clear to me that if we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop at that point, just after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that all you have to do to stop a nonviolent campaign is inflict massive violence.† On the second wave of rides, activists journeyed from Birmingham to Montgomery, Alabama in relative peace. Once the activists touched down in Montgomery, though, a mob of more than 1,000 attacked the riders. Later, in Mississippi, Freedom Riders were arrested for entering a whites-only waiting room in a Jackson bus terminal. For this act of defiance, authorities arrested the Freedom Riders, housing them in one of Mississippi’s most notorious correctional facilities- Parchman State Prison Farm. â€Å"The reputation of Parchman is that it’s a place that a lot of people get sent . . . and don’t come back,† former Freedom Rider Carol Ruth told Winfrey. During the summer of 1961, 300 Freedom Riders were imprisoned there. An Inspiration Then and Now The struggles of the Freedom Riders garnered nationwide publicity. Rather than intimidate other activists, however, the brutality the riders encountered inspired others to take up the cause. Before long, dozens of Americans were volunteering to travel on Freedom Rides. In the end, an estimated 436 people took such rides. The efforts of the Freedom Riders were finally rewarded when the Interstate Commerce Commission decided on Sept. 22, 1961, to ban segregation in interstate travel. Today, the contributions the Freedom Riders made to civil rights are the subject of a PBS documentary called Freedom Riders. In addition, in 2011, 40 students commemorated the Freedom Rides of 50 years before by boarding buses that retraced the journey of the first set of Freedom Riders.

Jefferson Davis essays

Jefferson Davis essays Jefferson Davis was born on June, 3rd, 1808, in Christian County, Kentucky. He was educated at Transylvania University and at the U.S. Military Academy. After his graduation in 1828, he served in the army until bad health forced him to reside in 1835. He was a farmer in Mississippi from 1835 to 1845. Then he was elected to the U.S. congress. In 1846, he resigned his seat in order to serve in the Mexican War and fought at Monterrey and Buena Vista, where he was wounded. He was a U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1847 to 1857, and a U.S. Senator again from 1857 to 1861. As a Senator, he was in support of slavery and states' rights. "He also influenced Pice to sign in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which favored the South and increased the bitterness of the struggle over slavery. " In his second term as a Senator he became the spokesman for the Southern point of view. He opposed the idea of secession from the Union as a way of maintaining the principles in the South. Even after the first steps toward secession had been taken, he tried to keep the Southern states in the Union. When the state of Mississippi seceeded, he withdrew from the Senate. On February 18, 1861, the congress of the Confederate States made him president. He was elected to the office by popular vote for a 6-year term and was inaugurated un Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. He failed to raise enough money to fight the Civil War and could not obtain help for the Confederacy from foreign governments. One of the accomplishments of Jefferson Davis, was the raising of the Confederate army. Davis had a difficult task to preform. He was the head of the new nation in the beginnings of a major war. The South had inferior railroads compared to the Union, no navy, no gunpowder mills, and a reat lack of arms and ammunition. "The South's ...

5 Questions to Always Ask at an Internship Interview

5 Questions to Always Ask at an Internship Interview You’re all prepped and ready, and you’ve sailed through your internship interview. You’re all dressed up and feeling like a power adult and then: WOMP. The interviewer asks you a question you will probably come to dread in your job-searching life, but aren’t quite prepared for now: â€Å"What questions do you have for us?† Even seasoned pros can get tripped up at this point in an interview. But you can dazzle your interviewer by not skipping a beat and asking the following five questions in your internship interview. Plus, you’ll get necessary information you probably didn’t realize you needed.1. How would you describe the work culture here?Getting a feel for the atmosphere, the pace, the camaraderie or lack thereof, is really important in determining whether you’d be a good fit. Ask the recruiter to sketch out what happens in a typical day. Whether there is an established routine, and how exact it is.2. What is your favorite as pect of working for this company?They probably won’t be expecting this one, so it’s your chance to turn the tables a bit. Push for a real answer. (Though you probably won’t have to; remember the interview process is also about the hiring manager selling you on the job. Give them the chance to sweeten it up for you!)3. What have interns done before me that really made them stand out?This does double duty. It shows you’re hungry to impress them and excel, and it also gives you a great leg up, if you were to land the position, on how to hit the ground running. Listen very carefully, and take good notes.4. Is there anything I can clarify for you?And the follow-up: â€Å"Or any hesitations about my qualifications?† It’s bold and assertive without being too pushy and shows that you’re eager to prove your worth to them while being sensitive to their precise needs for the position.5. What will the next step in this process be?You know youâ₠¬â„¢re going to go home and sweat this out. But you probably don’t realize you’re allowed to ask for a ballpark timeline of what to expect and when. It’s also a great way to bring an interview to a close. If they say they’re still interviewing for another 4-6 weeks, then you’ll know not to sit at home by your phone for the next month.Note any important dates in your calendar, and make sure to leave a friendly and positive impression as you leave the office. Eventually, this process will get easier!

Dessartation Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dessartation Proposal - Essay Example Further, the Project would be managed by a consortium of developers – International with partnership of local ones. In a third-world city, there are numerous pressures from the local political and economic setup for additions and deletions of the proposed route. This can take the form of tedious litigation that should be factored in the planning process. A failure to do so would result in time and cost overruns. Before embarking on a project the size of a metro, the scope in terms of the kilometre or mile length and the routes that it would cover needs to be decided. This is of course subject to iterations as the various approvals and considerations of the authorities and the citizenry themselves needs to be taken into account. Also, the land to be acquired for laying the metro needs to be identified upfront and all obstacles to the acquisition must be dealt with. This is the single biggest reason for delays in the metro projects worldwide. As far as possible the scope of the project should be frozen before the commencement of actual work. However, in reality, it would not be feasible to completely have the blue-print ready before we literally â€Å"hit the ground†. Any changes to scope must be approved by a board of the project consisting of the representatives of the consortium, the local authorities and the public if invited. An â€Å"in principle† approval has to be ensured before the scope of the project is submitted for funding and technical feasibilities. Time is of the essence in any project and particularly so in the case of a metro for a city that is groaning under the weight of the inadequate infrastructure. There should be sweeteners for completion on time and penalties for delays. Of course, delays on account of litigation, no approvals and other exigencies should be factored into the budget. As outlined above, delays in the timelines are mainly due to legal

Social and Emotional Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social and Emotional Learning - Essay Example †¢ Social emotional learning in schools is best achieved when they are programmed. That is to say that the social emotional learning should be institutionalized to have a core and recognized place in the curriculum of the school. The process of coding the social emotional learning needs of students into the school’s curriculum is referred to as social emotional learning programming; and the specific activities that fall under the social emotional learning programming are known as social emotional learning programs. †¢ Roberts (2009) identifies some social emotional learning programs that could commonly be used in out schools and that are equally replicable in this particular school. But even before spelling out the specific social and emotional learning programs that can be implemented in schools, she cautions each of the programs should be able to â€Å"†provide some compensation, often working with parents and the local community† and that this should indeed be the sole basis for judging the viability of any named social and emotional learning program (p. 17). †¢ Based on the criteria given above, the following forms of social and emotional learning programs are identified and briefly outlined on how they function in the school system. The programs include citizenship education, Early Training Project, Penn Resiliency Programme (PRP), personal social and health education (PSHE), Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL), the Carolina Abecedarian Project, and the Milwaukee Projects (p. 17-25). These social and emotional learning programs are used in different parts of the world; particularly in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom. Depending on where these programs are found, they are implemented in different forms. In the cases of the Early Training Project, the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Milwaukee Projects, a lot of the attention and focus is on children from poor socio-economic families. Indeed, these forms of social and emotional learning programs cannot be underestimated in anyway because given an y realistic international schools system; there is the likelihood that not all the children would be of equal socio-economic standing. Indeed, it is true to admit that in most cases, students from low-class socio-economic homes form the majority in most schools and thus adapting these programs for any model schools would be a step in the right direction. Research conducted on the viability and validity of the three programs namely the Early Training Project, the Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Milwaukee Projects found that even though the programs did not play significant roles in improving the intelligent quotients of the students involved, the students benefited greatly in terms of school and college attainment, social skills and behaviour. (p. 17). This is indeed an achievement that cannot be underestimated in any way. This is because the research further stated that coupled with motivation, the social and emotional learning programs did so well in ‘reducing the impact on crime and improve health and employment prospects† (p. 17). Other forms of social and emotional learning programs are equally viable. These are the personal social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship education. These two programs are common in England. These two progra

The United Kingdoms constitution does not provide sufficient Essay

The United Kingdoms constitution does not provide sufficient protection for the right to protest in the streets. Discuss - Essay Example Over time, Parliament has passed several laws limiting the application of the sovereignty of the parliament. These laws are a reflection of the political developments within UK as well as outside of it. These laws include the transference of power to different bodies like the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, the Human Rights Act 1998 as well as UK’s entry to the European Union in 1972 and the decision establishing the Supreme Court in 2009 which ended the House of Lords role as UKs final court of appeal are all such developments in law that limit parliamentary sovereignty (www.parliament.uk, n.d.). All these measures and laws do not necessarily destabilize the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. This statement is based on the fact that the parliament can still at least in theory repeal any of the laws that implement these changes (www.parliament.uk, n.d.). However, since UK became a signatory to the convention, it was held in to R v. Secretary of State for the Home Department ex p. Brind 1991 that Parliament must enact laws that are in conformity with the Convention and an Act of Parliament must be interpreted or construed in line with the Convention. The Human Rights Act 1998 is also known as HRA and it came into effect in the United Kingdom in the October of 2000. It comprises of a series of various sections that have codify the protections stated in the European Convention on Human Rights into the United Kingdom law. Under the Human Right Act, all public bodies like the police, courts, hospitals, publicly funded schools, local governments and many others and any other bodies that carry out public functions must comply with the Convention rights. The Human Right Act has enabled individuals to file human rights cases in the domestic courts and human right cases do not have to be filed Strasbourg to be argued in the European Court of Human Rights (Equality and Human Rights Commission, n.d.). Section

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

English - Essay Example Even when I was small, I wanted to know how things worked, and I wanted to be the one to fix them. My mother told me that as a small child, other than my fits when I couldn’t get things back together the way they had come to me, that I was helpful and sweet. My greatest joy was sitting on the counter when she would wash the dishes, taking each dish carefully in my little hands and wiping it dry for her. When I was three, she began to give me chores, not because she felt that a three year old needed them, but because my older brother had chores and I felt left out when I wasn’t given a task. It was my job, supervised always, to feed the dogs, to sweep the small porch step out behind the house, and to wipe the keys of the piano that sat in our living room. Every week when I had done my chores, she would give me two coins to put in my little treasure box. I was able to buy my first bike with the coins from that box, or at least, my mother made me believe that I had paid for it. Because of these early years of work and accomplishment, I wanted to work in the world as soon as was possible. When I was seven, I went to my Dad’s friends local electronics store in the town and was fascinated with the variety of wonderful things that I would find there. I begged the manager to give me a job, and he would smile and tell me that I was too young to work for him. This did not dissuade me. I went back to the store frequently, and one day decided that I would help out enough that they would have to give me a job. I would sweep the floor, straighten the shelves, and direct the customers until the manager would finally tell me that I would have to leave. One day, though, he finally relented and allowed me to work for him. I straightened the papers on his desk and he gave me some money for my job. I began going every day after school and the manager would give me a little money at the end of the week. I am pretty sure that it was done

E-Commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

E-Commerce - Essay Example The world today has become a highly connected and online place as compared to that of the last decade. The masses all over the world increasingly stay in a wired as well as wireless globalized zone where live communication and direct collaboration happens every hour, every minute, every second and every moment on a regular and daily basis (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 8). In the middle of the 1990s, the Internet, or the World Wide Web as it is commonly referred to, emerged as the most disruptive form of electronic and communication innovation, bringing in a sea change for the kinds of methods and processes used by various business organizations to communicate between their clients, customers, employees and even the suppliers (Petrassi, 2008, p. 1). Web 2.0 can be officially defined as the process of increasing intelligence and values for every one through information sharing and content creation and sharing (Hoegg et al., 2006, p. 13). The web 2.0 is an evolution that has happened ov er the years since the emergence of the dotcom bubble in the US around the year 2001 (O’reilly, 2005). The word Web 2.0 originates around in 2004. The Web 2.0 essentially represents the group of processes concerning social, design and architectural independence that promotes free and seamless migration of data as well as business processes from one platform to another using the common medium of the Internet. The processes and related patterns increasingly focus on various interaction models that facilitate and promote various levels of communication between individuals and software processes and interfaces (Governor, Hinchcliffe and Nickull, 2009, p. ix). On a simpler note, it can be said that Web 2.0 represents the practice of accessing and sharing online digital content for interpersonal purposes as well as for the purpose of service delivery (ExplainingComputers.com, 2011). Today, the latest version of the web is immensely viewed as a platform that is catering to interacti on, innovation and even online delivery of services (Petrassi, 2008, p. 1) There have been a large number of benefits arising out of the huge and major adoption of 2.0 version of the web by individuals and businesses. Increasing in Buyer’s Power The emergence of businesses via the Internet due to the evolution of the Internet has significantly created an imbalance of power in the marketplace. Going by Porter’s five forces model, it can be simply said that the web 2.0 and the emergence of various business on the basis of it has significantly provided a lot of power to the buyers and consumers. Using the Internet, consumers can access feedback for the products that they are willing and interested to buy simply by visiting some websites or product related blogs (Barefoot and Szabo, 2009, p. 6). This has, in return, promoted high levels of diminishing customer loyalty for any particular brand (Governor, Hinchcliffe and Nickull, 2009, p. xi). High levels of Exposure The eme rgence of web 2.0 provides a great window of opportunity for companies around the globe. The companies can display their products to a global audience while also promoting their products using various extensive Internet applications, thereby increasing their degree of involvement (Roughley, 2007, p. 4) Increasing the Consumer Involvement As of today, companies are making their presence felt on the social networking sites and are increasingly rolling out online marketing campaigns in an attempt to increase the degree of involvement for the consumers, which helps in increasing their marketing potential (Lincoln, 2009, p. 140). The web 2.0 provides the online marketers with the opportunity to create advertisements that are engaging, entertaining, informative and creative at the same time (Tuten, 2008, p. 17). This helps in creating a

Prison and National Probation Service cooperation Essay

Prison and National Probation Service cooperation - Essay Example While some perceived of it as a constructive step toward the reduction of reoffending rates and a positive contribution towards the greater national aim of crime reduction, others critiqued it as a misinformed strategy which would confuse the boundaries between prison' and community.' Such confusion, as critics maintain, will have dire societal consequences insofar as it is predicated on the assumption that inmate and out-mate offender management subscribe to the same concern, principles, aims and, thus, paradigms (Valios, 2004; Palmer, 2003; Peters, LeVasseur and Chandler, 2004). Proceeding from the background and controversy outlined in the above, the dissertation shall focus on the aims of the proposed justice system reform, critically analysing Noms from the perspective of best practices managerial theories. The rationale for selection did not simply emanate from the contemporaneous nature of the issue, or solely from its societal value but because the researcher has been professionally involved in both prison and probation services for a number of years and is, consequently, in a position to analyse Noms and argue the exigencies of its implementation on the basis of experiential evidence. Apart from the experiential knowledge and both subjective and professional interest in the issue, the topic was further selected consequent to the fact that the researcher's professional background places him in a position whereby he can collect primary data, conduct the requisite surveys and administer the necessary questionnaires with comparative ease. In other words, the researcher's professional background and awareness of the fact that community safety and societal interests are best served through the articulation and implementation of an effective and...As earlier stated, the primary areas of co ncern are the National Offender Management Service and organisational and people management theory. As pertains to either of these two issues, the existent wealth of academic literature testifies to their respective values and the extent to which the latter may be constructively informed by the former. Over the past two decades, offender management literature has articulated the imperatives of utilising existent people and organisational management tools and strategies in order to attain the managerial efficiency and effectiveness level upon which the goals of the justice system are predicated. The justice system, operating according to the principles of offender exclusion and rehabilitation within a prison system, followed by the release of offenders into society and under the supervisory guidance of the probation service, has been largely incapable of satisfying the justice system’s expressed goal of reducing overall offence rates and eliminating reoffending. The persistent inability to satisfy the articulated goals exposes what some have identified as a fundamentally flawed people and organisational management paradigm. According to the aforementioned perspective, the failure of the justice system to either reduce crime rates or rehabilitate offenders, thereby offsetting reoffense potentialities, is indicative of the greater failure to embrace effective and efficient people and organisational management paradigms.

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

English - Essay Example Even when I was small, I wanted to know how things worked, and I wanted to be the one to fix them. My mother told me that as a small child, other than my fits when I couldn’t get things back together the way they had come to me, that I was helpful and sweet. My greatest joy was sitting on the counter when she would wash the dishes, taking each dish carefully in my little hands and wiping it dry for her. When I was three, she began to give me chores, not because she felt that a three year old needed them, but because my older brother had chores and I felt left out when I wasn’t given a task. It was my job, supervised always, to feed the dogs, to sweep the small porch step out behind the house, and to wipe the keys of the piano that sat in our living room. Every week when I had done my chores, she would give me two coins to put in my little treasure box. I was able to buy my first bike with the coins from that box, or at least, my mother made me believe that I had paid for it. Because of these early years of work and accomplishment, I wanted to work in the world as soon as was possible. When I was seven, I went to my Dad’s friends local electronics store in the town and was fascinated with the variety of wonderful things that I would find there. I begged the manager to give me a job, and he would smile and tell me that I was too young to work for him. This did not dissuade me. I went back to the store frequently, and one day decided that I would help out enough that they would have to give me a job. I would sweep the floor, straighten the shelves, and direct the customers until the manager would finally tell me that I would have to leave. One day, though, he finally relented and allowed me to work for him. I straightened the papers on his desk and he gave me some money for my job. I began going every day after school and the manager would give me a little money at the end of the week. I am pretty sure that it was done

Prison and National Probation Service cooperation Essay

Prison and National Probation Service cooperation - Essay Example While some perceived of it as a constructive step toward the reduction of reoffending rates and a positive contribution towards the greater national aim of crime reduction, others critiqued it as a misinformed strategy which would confuse the boundaries between prison' and community.' Such confusion, as critics maintain, will have dire societal consequences insofar as it is predicated on the assumption that inmate and out-mate offender management subscribe to the same concern, principles, aims and, thus, paradigms (Valios, 2004; Palmer, 2003; Peters, LeVasseur and Chandler, 2004). Proceeding from the background and controversy outlined in the above, the dissertation shall focus on the aims of the proposed justice system reform, critically analysing Noms from the perspective of best practices managerial theories. The rationale for selection did not simply emanate from the contemporaneous nature of the issue, or solely from its societal value but because the researcher has been professionally involved in both prison and probation services for a number of years and is, consequently, in a position to analyse Noms and argue the exigencies of its implementation on the basis of experiential evidence. Apart from the experiential knowledge and both subjective and professional interest in the issue, the topic was further selected consequent to the fact that the researcher's professional background places him in a position whereby he can collect primary data, conduct the requisite surveys and administer the necessary questionnaires with comparative ease. In other words, the researcher's professional background and awareness of the fact that community safety and societal interests are best served through the articulation and implementation of an effective and...As earlier stated, the primary areas of co ncern are the National Offender Management Service and organisational and people management theory. As pertains to either of these two issues, the existent wealth of academic literature testifies to their respective values and the extent to which the latter may be constructively informed by the former. Over the past two decades, offender management literature has articulated the imperatives of utilising existent people and organisational management tools and strategies in order to attain the managerial efficiency and effectiveness level upon which the goals of the justice system are predicated. The justice system, operating according to the principles of offender exclusion and rehabilitation within a prison system, followed by the release of offenders into society and under the supervisory guidance of the probation service, has been largely incapable of satisfying the justice system’s expressed goal of reducing overall offence rates and eliminating reoffending. The persistent inability to satisfy the articulated goals exposes what some have identified as a fundamentally flawed people and organisational management paradigm. According to the aforementioned perspective, the failure of the justice system to either reduce crime rates or rehabilitate offenders, thereby offsetting reoffense potentialities, is indicative of the greater failure to embrace effective and efficient people and organisational management paradigms.

Supporting Children Essay Example for Free

Supporting Children Essay The Children Act 1989 has influenced setting by bringing together several sets of guidance and provided the foundation for many of the standards practitioners adhere to and maintain when working with children. The Act requires that settings work together in the best interests of the child and that they form partnerships with parents and carers. It requires settings to have an appropriate adult: child ratios and policies and procedures on child protection. This Act has an influence in all areas of practice within setting. For example; planning. United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child 1989 – UNCRC is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state’s own domestic legislation. Children Act 2004 This Act was introduced as a result of the death of Victoria Climbie and was the introduction of Every Child Matters which ensures the wellbeing of children through its five outcomes. The Every Child Matters framework has influenced settings by giving them and other childcare settings a duty to find new ways of working together by sharing information and working co-operatively to protect children from harm. Human Rights Act 1998 This Act has had a huge impact in current legislation in the UK. Under the Act it was agreed that children would have the same rights as adults which means children have the right to dignity, respect and fairness in the way that they are treated, meaning that settings looking after children should be treating children with respect, dignity and fairness, meaning all children should be treated the same. The Act makes available in UK courts a remedy for breach of a Convention right, without the need to go to the European Court of Human Rights. Childcare Act 2006 The Act defines new duties for Local Authorities with respect to improving the Every Child Matters outcomes for pre-school  children, childcare for working parents and parental information services. E3 All the legislations and guidance in recent decades, including the Children Act 2004, make it clear that the child’s interests must come first. All professionals must work together to promote the child’s welfare before all else. All early years settings and schools must nominate a member of staff to oversee safeguarding and child protection. This person should be specifically trained to undertake this role. The whole team, including volunteers and students must work together to promote children’s welfare and keep them safe. â€Å"For some children, universal services such as early year’s education and health visiting are not enough to ensure their healthy, safe and happy development. They may experience emotional difficulties, fall behind in their development or learning, or suffer the adverse effects of poverty, poor housing or ill health. There are also children in need, who are judged to be unlikely to reach or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development unless they are offered additional services.† (Bruce, 2010:448) This group includes children with disabilities. Infection control and stopping cross-contamination is essential when safeguarding children, as cross-contaminating food could be vital if children have allergies or intolerances. All members of staff in the setting should be aware of the allergies and intolerances of the children incase they have to prepare a meal. The members of staff should be aware and be in knowledge of the children who need to have an epi-Pen incase of an anaphylaxis shock. It is essential that practitioners are able to recognise possible signs and indicators of abuse. Sometimes you might notice physical signs that a child or young person is being abused. Babies and toddlers may for example, not have the language skills required, while older children may not always rec ognise that what the adult has been doing is wrong. Children and young people can also be living in fear as their abuser is likely to have a great deal of control over them. Most children have falls and minor accidents that result in bruising, cuts and bumps. The difference between genuine accidents and deliberate injuries to the child is often the location of the injuries and the frequency with which they occur. Children who have been physically abused may show through their behaviour and play that they are being abused. It is good practice to ask a child about an injury as most children who have  had genuine accidents are happy to talk about what has happened to them. Children who have been physically abused might have been told by the abuser not to talk about what has happened and to say that they fell or bumped into something if they are asked about bruising or cuts. If a child seems upset or nervous when talking about an injury, you should always pass on this information to your supervisor. You may be asked to keep a note of the date and type of injury that you have seen, as well as a record of what the child said. Sexual abuse can be hard to detect as the child may not outwardly seem injured. Some physical signs may be apparent but behavioural indicators can be a more obvious clue. There are a few physical indicators of emotional abuse, although some older children may show self-destructive behaviour such as cutting themselves or drastic dieting. The main indicator of emotional abuse is the child’s need for attention and low self-esteem. Parents who neglect their children may have significant personal and other problems of their own. The children might be loved but parents find it hard to provide the basic care that the children need. Children who are being neglected are at risk of having accidents through being left unsupervised, either at home or while out playing. They are also vulnerable to attack from strangers. Children who are being abused may show behaviour that is not part of their normal pattern or is out of character. If the change of behaviour is long term then the practitioner should consider the possibility of abuse, meaning the child will be observed more closely for other signs. E4 The term inclusive is often used to describe the concept of making sure that everyone feels welcome and part of a setting. This applies to parents as well as children. In order to achieve this, settings should constantly be looking at what they are doing and how they are doing it, and think about whether they are really meeting children’s and their families’ needs. Settings that are fair, just and inclusive recognise that anti-discriminatory practice means that individual needs. Settings that are fair, just and inclusive recognise that anti-discriminatory practice means that individual needs are taken into account and that children and their families are not expected to all be the same. Settings that are proactive use many sources of information to reflect on their policies and activities. They may ask parents and children to provide feedback, suggestions and  comments about a whole range of issues, for example, what activities the children have enjoyed, session op ening hours and requests for information. Settings also seek information from organisations locally and nationally who support children and families with particular needs. Practitioners should work in a fair, just and inclusive way, taking into account both the statutory legal framework in the United Kingdom and the policies and procedures in the setting. You need to value, and show respect to all those you encounter in your setting as individuals. Definitions of inclusion have developed from being primarily focused on integrating children with special educational needs into a much broader concept concerning social justice and equality for all. Inclusion is the process by which early years settings develop their ethos, policies and practices to include all learners with the aim of meeting their individual needs. E5 and D2 Daily routine is a strategy which most settings have in use to empower children. The daily routine â€Å"provides a consistent, predictable sequence of events that gives children a sense of control over what happens in their day†. Different settings develop different routine depend how long children stay in the premises and their age, but most of the daily routine contain basic components such as: outside routine, large group time, small group time, register time, art/craft time, tidy up time and snack/meal time. During the daily routine the child learns to make choices and discovers their consequences. This creates sort of secure environment, because children know what to expect and this allows them to be more involve in the tasks and more co-operative with the practitioner. The second strategy is planning and providing different activities and experiences for children. This strategy is suggested by the EYFS because allows for adventure, exploration and gaining new experiences. Different activities, which the setting provide develop range of skills and abilities. Taking part in activities, free-flow or structured, allows children learn social interactions and behaviours such as sharing equipment, taking turns. Providing activities allows children to use their language to communicate wiliness to participation in it, raising their confidence to communicate and self reliance to complete it. Providing different activities stimulate children`s imagination, cognitive, language, personal, social and emotional  as well as physical development and allow to fulfil children`s potential. Encouraging children’s self-reliance is an important part of helping them to develop the independence and resilience which will enable them to face life’s demands and challenges in preparation for their adult lives. Encouraging self-reliance involves helping children to develop: independence, dependence, competence in looking after themselves, trust in their own judgement and actions and confidence in their own abilities. â€Å"Be patient and provide time for children to do things for themselves. For example, let younger children dress themselves; although it takes longer, it is an essential self-help skill. Children with physical disabilities may need sensitive support in this area.† (Meggitt, C 2012:296) Settings may use the skill of developing a positive self-image to empower children. A way of doing this is to allow the children to realise who they are; by realising they have their own identity. Children deal with things differently to adults and feel things more deeply than adults do, meaning they need a great deal of support to understand, express and deal with all their emotions that are going on. Children need to learn to be recognised by their name, developing their self-esteem which can be boosted by their key worker within a setting. By developing their self-esteem it begins to help them understand how to seek support from key workers or parents/carers to keep them safe and well, hel ping them to developing holistically. By allowing a child to develop his or her feelings it brings them the confidence that it is okay to show their emotions. By their key person being supportive of this it makes the child likely to tell them how he or she is feeling. Independence is another strategy. By a child learning to wash and dry their hands after going to the toilet, messy activities, playing outside, before and after bed, after blowing their nose, etc, it helps them understand the concept of their own and others hygiene. It is also very important for children of any age to understand how to care for their own teeth and understand how important it is to have good dental hygiene. Also becoming independent when going to the potty or toilet is vital when it comes to their lifestyle later on in life. E6 and D1 One example of how a setting may prepare young children is by using a teddy or a role-play to act out the situations that may occur during a  transition. Using a teddy may indirectly allow the child to express their concerns and fears about what their new setting may be like. Role-play is an effective tool for young children to engage in, so that they can act out what may happen in their new setting and how best to confront any problems they may encounter. Tassoni noted that â€Å"with older children and young people it is good to talk to them about the transition.† (2007:147) Talking regularly to older children is imperative so as to perceive an idea of the child’s fear or expectations for the transitions. As they will likely not remember everything that they may want to ask at once, therefore continued discussions are helpful for them so that they can settle any uneasiness. Having communication between the two settings is also imperative, as well as making sure that parents are involved, to help make the children more comfortable. The practitioners should meet in order for them to discuss the needs and preferences of the children in order to maintain some kind of continuity for them. Taking the children to visit their new settings in order to familiarise themselves with it is beneficial for them. On the other hand key workers or the new teacher for the younger children could visit the children so that they can start to bond with them. Some children deal with transitions with more difficulty than others do. Some children can find it difficult when moving from a nursery to a primary school. As children become older, they start to cope better with being separated from their parents, but it all depends on how well they coped with settling into new settings during transitions. Having stable relationships around the children can help them feel safe and secure during certain transitions in their life. Children need practitioners and caring adults who are able to recognise the importance of attachment and emotional wellbeing during periods of transitions. A way in which practitioners can help children settle during transitions is by bringing all the children (new and old) together at circle time. Activities like circle time allow children to learn new things, about themselves and each other, whether that is singing their favourite song, or telling the group what they did at the weekend – this links into discussion and display. Discussing children’s work and displaying it on boards or posters helps them recognise that they are part of the team and that they feel welcome. E7 and B1 Discrimination can occur even when individual workers have positive attitudes. If the organisations or institution does not consider and meet the needs of everyone involved in it, and makes assumptions based on one set of values/stereotyped views, institutional discrimination can occur. This can happen when, for example, children with disabilities are not given access to the full curriculum, the meals service does not meet the dietary requirements of certain religious groups, a uniform code does not consider the cultural traditions of certain groups concerning dress. Childcare workers are often not aware of how powerful the culture and institutionalised practices of their organisations are in discriminating against certain groups of children or their families. Institutional discrimination is not necessarily a conscious policy on the part of organisation; more often it occurs because of a failure to consider the diversity of the community. Whether conscious or unconscious, i nstitutional discrimination is a powerful and damaging force. Children may suffer the effects of stereotyping and discrimination in a number of ways, for example, Research by Milner (1983) shows that children as young as three attach value to skin colour, with both black and white children perceiving white skin as ‘better’ than black. This indicates that children absorb messages about racial stereotyping from a very early age. These messages are very demanding to self-esteem of black children and may result in a failure to achieve their potential. Harm is done to white children too, and to society in general, unless this perception of racial superiority is confronted and challenged effectively. These findings underline the need for all settings, including those in all-white areas, to provide a positive approach that challenges stereotyping. Even very young children can hold fixed ideas about what boys can do and what girls can do. Observation of children’s play shows that some activities are avoided because of perceptions of what is appropriate for girls and boys. This can result in boys and girls having a very limited view of the choices available to males and females in our society. This is particularly significant when, despite advances in recent years, many women still underachieve. Children with disabilities and their families are subject to many forms of discrimination. Even a caring environment may neglect the ordinary needs of the disabled child out of concern to meet their special needs. This may mean that the disability is  seen first, rather than the child, and that the child’s development is affected because of limited opportunities and limited expectations. Children may find it difficult to form relationships with others, meaning that practitioners need to provide activities that show inclusive practice. The adult’s role is to promote interactions between children, giving them group activities to do, making sure they are bonding with each other. By the adult’s giving the children activities it makes them interact with children they wouldn’t necessarily interact with outside of the setting. Direct discrimination is when discrimination occurs when a child is treated less favourably than another child in similar circumstances. Indirect discrimination is when discrimination occurs when a condition is applied that will affect a group of children unfairly when compared to others – this includes religions like Sikhs. Discrimination of any kind prevents children and young people from developing a feeling of self-esteem. The effects of being discriminated against can last the whole of a child’s life. C1 Jerome Bruner’s theory on scaffolding is about encouraging children to learn something new by supporting and helping them when they need help, and then letting the child do it on their own when the adult feels they are confident enough. Bruner believes that humans have the ability to learn and grow with no limit; therefore, practitioners should have confidence in the children to learn something new. Although Bruner’s theory is adult-initiated, it still empowers children. When the scaffolding takes place, practitioners must be enthusiastic and encourage children to learn; practitioners must make it enjoyable and exciting to make sure children do not get bored and distracted. This empowers children as when the practitioner slowly moves away, and allows the child to do it on their own, the child’s confidence and self-reliance increases: they believe that they are able to do things on their own. This obviously increases their independence; they will be happy with themselves and will want to do things on their own more often. If a child has a lot of difficulty, and can’t manage to do what they have learnt on their own, the practitioner can still support them until they can manage to do it on their own. As long as the practitioner does not do the work for them, and the child is still learning, the practitioner can give the child as much support as they need, until they  can do it on their own. Another thing which is also good about Bruner’s theory is that once children will be able to do certain things on their own, for example, writing certain letters without help or without reminders on how to write them, those children will be able to help other children who have difficulty with writing letters. This will develop social interaction, and both children will be happy with themselves. A1 The Children Act 1989 allocated duties to the local authorities, courts, parents and other child-based agencies in the UK, ensuring that the children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted. Centered on the idea that children are best cared for within their own families; however, it also makes provisions for instances when parents and families do not co-operate with child-based agencies and statutory bodies, like OFSTED. The act states that children’s welfare should be the paramount concern to the courts. Specifying that any delays in the system processes will have a detrimental impact on a child’s welfare. The court needs to take into account the child’s wishes; physical, emotional and educational needs, age, sex, background circumstances, the likely effect of change on the child, the harm the child has suffered or is likely to suffer, parents ability to meet the child’s needs and the powers available to the court. This influences working practice as the practitioners need to make sure what is going on at home, and follow the correct procedures to make sure that the child’s welfare is main priority. Children Act 2004 is the amended version of the Children Act 1989. This act was amended in 2004 largely in consequence of the Victoria Climbie inquiry. The Act’s ultimate purpose is to make the UK better and safer for children of all ages. The idea behind the act is to promote co-ordination between multiple official entities to improve the overall well-being of children. The 2004 act also specifically provided for including and affecting disabled children. The sections 39-48 in the Childcare Act 2006 introduce the EYFS which supports the delivery of high quality education and care for children from birth to age 5. The UNCRC involves a Children’s Commissioner. England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, each have their own Children’s Commissioners. The Childrens Commissioner for England promotes and protects childrens  rights in England. She does this by listening to what children and young people say about what matters to them and making sure adults in charge take their views and interests into account. In article 6 of the UNCRC it states that â€Å"all children have the right to life. Governments should ensure that children survive and develop healthily†. The UNCRC supports children in their rights, including from abuse or help to safeguard. Section 3 of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is all about safeguarding and welfare requirements within early years settings that practitioners must abide by. Section 3.42 is all about medicines, meaning that practitioners must keep a record of all medicines in the setting and the dosage allowances to the children. Illness and injuries is 3.48 in the EYFS meaning that all accidents, injuries and illnesses should be reported in an accident book. 3.45 – food – all allergies and intolerances should be kept on file for all those members of staff whom are preparing or serving food. Section 3 is all about safeguarding the children making sure that the children within settings should be protected as ‘Every Child Matters’. â€Å"Governments must do everything to protect children and young people from all form of violence, abuse, neglect and mistreatment.† (Meggitt, 2012:243) Bibliography Beaver, M, Brewster, J, Green, S, Neaum, S, Sheppard, H, Tallack, J, Walker, M (2008) CACHE Level 3 Childcare and Education, Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes Bruce, T, Meggitt, C, Grenier, J (2010) Childcare and Education, 5th Edition, London, Hodder Education Daly, M, Byers, E, Taylor, W (2006) Understanding Early Years Theory in Practice, Oxford, Heinemann Department for Education (2012) Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, London, Early Education Meggitt, C, Bruce, T, Grenier, J (2012) CACHE Level 3 Childcare and Education, 2nd Edition, London, Hodder Education Tassoni, P, Beith, K, Bulman, K, Griffin, S (2010) Level 3 Diploma Children and Young Peoples Workforce, London, Heinemann http://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/law.htm 27/05/2014