Monetary Policy vs. Fiscal Policy Essay

People always struggled with an idea of prosperity and success, whether it was a personal goal or whether it was something major – like wealth of a country. Nowadays, we are studying a science, which is really significant and valuable – Economics. Economics is a tool for achieving those goals, knowledge that people can use and imply in real life, and at the present time probably undividable part of governments’ performances around the world. For us, students, there are two different matters we study – Macroeconomics, the study of the performance of national economies and Microeconomics, which focuses on the behavior of individual households, firms, and markets. During the fall quarter of 2001, I was exposed to the basic ideas and uses of the Macroeconomics. Macroeconomics policies – government actions to improve the performance of the economy – are of particular concern to macroeconomists, as the quality of macroeconomic policymaking as a major determinant of a nation’s economic health. Monetary and Fiscal policies are two policies that we were concentrated on, and were the most significant part of the course for me. There is too much involved in these policies and they interact with each other consistently. I decided to write this paper, summarizing the basic functions of two policies, tried to explain what it is that makes them work, how effective these two policies can be, and how one relates to another. In looking at the effectiveness of Monetary and Fiscal policies, it must be understood how the two relate to each other within the government structure. The Federal Open Market Committee – FOMC – is the most important monetary policy-making body of the Federal Reserve System. It is responsible for the formulation of a policy designed to promote economic growth, full employment, stable prices, and a sustainable pattern of international trade and payments. The seven Board members constitute a majority of the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee, the group that makes the key decisions affecting the cost and availability of money and credit in the economy. The other five members of the FOMC are Reserve Bank presidents, one of who is  the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Board sets reserve requirements and shares the responsibility with the Reserve Banks for discount rate policy. The FOMC is the policy arm of the Fed and the tasks of the Federal Re serve are to supervise banks, fixing maximum rates of interests. The U.S Treasury, though it aids in much of the monetary management, represents the fiscal sector, which is the U.S Congress. Fiscal policy covers, such areas as taxation and other revenue gathering and spending measures. Fiscal policies are those actions that are enacted by the Legislative Branch of the U.S government, the Congress. Their fiscal policies are enacted through the U.S Treasury. Therefore, the Treasury is the arm of fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve is the arm of monetary policy. For example, even if Congress has allocated some amount of money to take over failing banks and savings and loans, and it is not enough, than the Fed can pump capital into the system by buying bank stocks. So, this is example of how the Fed interacts and influences the ups and downs of the economy. In looking at the relationship between the Fed and The Treasury, essentially, the Fed was set up to provide the U.S Treasury with a more satisfactory fiscal agent. In acting as the fiscal agent for the U.S Treasury, or more specifically, as the primary banker for the federal government, the Fed acts as Financial advisor, depository and receiving agent, agent for issuing and retiring treasury securities, agent for other transactions involving purchases and sales of securities for Treasury account, agent for the government in purchasing and gold and foreign exchange, and lender to the Treasury. The Treasury influences monetary and credit conditions as well, through its revenue and expenditure policies, its debt management policies relative to the size and location of its money balance, and so on. As an instrument of monetary management, the Treasury keeps its money balance in cash in the vaults as Treasury deposits at the Federal Reserve, and Treasury deposits at commercial banks. Owing to the degree of Treasury operations, these policies have marked effect on monetary and credit conditions, especially over periods. Ordinarily, the Treasury does not use these powers for intentional and continuous monetary management; this is primarily the function of the Federal Reserve. However, it does try to use its powers in such a way as to avoid creating serious problems for the Federal Reserve, and on occasion, it uses them intentionally to supplement Federal Reserve policies. The following is an example of how this occurs. The Treasury can implement restrictive actions. For example, the Treasury increases it money balance $1 billion by taxing the public or selling securities to the public. When the Treasury cashes the checks, the public loses $1 billion of its deposits. If the Treasury holds these deposits at commercial banks, this is the extent of the effect; the reserve positions of the banks are unaffected. But if the Treasury uses the $1 billion to build up its cash in vault or its deposits at the Federal Reserve, member banks reserves will be reduced by $1 billion. Basically, if we find an increase in the Treasury’s money balance, this tends to be restrictive unless the Treasury acquires the extra money by borrowing from the Federal Reserve. If it acquires the money balance by taxing the public or selling securities to it, the public’s money supply is directly decreased. If it acquires money by selling securities to commercial banks, the public’s money supply is not directly decrease, but the ability of the banks to create deposits for the public is reduced because they must use some their reserves to support the Treasury deposit. However, given the size of any increase in the Treasury’s balance, the degree of restrictiveness depends on the form in which it is held. On the other hand, the Treasury can affect monetary policy, by easing restrictions as well. Sometimes the Treasury utilizes liberalizing actions in a positive way to ease credit to supplement Federal Reserve actions. More often, however, it uses them to a void creating conditions that would make the job of the Federal Reserve more difficult. Given, this information, we can see what the relationship is between the  Federal Reserve and the U.S Treasury. They often complement each other and balance each other out. However, the prime job of the Federal Reserve is to act as the federal government bank, as well as regulating monetary policy, credit regulations, and supervising function of member banks. The U.S Treasury is the element of the government, which collects money from the public, either through the sale of securities or through taxation. The U.S Treasury is that arm of the government, which provides the government with money it needs to operate, which of course is part of fiscal policy operations. The Fed is the bank that the Treasury uses for its banking needs, to be it in the most simplistic terms. *** We were all shocked by tragedy that happened on September 11, 2001. There was a tremendous impact on the entire world by that event. People were heavily affected emotionally same as financially. Many lives were taken by the coward act of those who responsible for such disaster. The US faced a number of consequences followed by many bumps on its way to the future. Unbelievable economic downturn made all sectors of the economy to suffer this impact and force them to make decisions, which they probably didn’t thought of. Because Fiscal and Monetary Policy have a straight connection to the several actions taken by the government to stimulate weakened economy, I decided to cover what is going on right now within government structure and briefly explain what people should expect from policymakers, who are doing their best to respond to these obstacles, which we are facing right now, as quick as possible. Considering that today’s U.S. economy is already in mild recession and many indicators show it might face the most severe economic downturn since 1970s of the last century, President Bush and his administration called for additional stimulus package for fiscal 2002. Policymakers in Washington are considering a number of actions that could stimulate the economy. Among them the options being considering are tax cuts that could spur consumption or investment, and additional federal spending that could directly increase economic activity. Republicans are the majorities in the House of  Representatives and Democrats, who control the Senate, have very different and opposite visions about ways to stimulate the U.S. economy. Republicans consider that economic growth is generated through investments by businesses, which encouraged by cuts in taxes and tax rates. Democrats support the proposal that stimulates consumer spending such as through tax rebates for low-income, extensions of unemployment insurance, and government spending to promote construction and other infrastructure. A several weeks ago, the House Ways and Means Committee have passed a $100 billion economic stimulus package main part of which – 85% – for permanent tax cuts, mostly for corporate tax cuts. The major components of this plan are: Elimination of the corporate alternative minimum taxes and refunds AMT credits. This is a most controversial point of the House Republicans proposal. The minimum tax was designed to make profitable companies to pay a basic amount even if they owe no corporate income tax because of some deductions. Democrats support the fairness of this tax cut but disagree with its retroactive method because although these refunds would effectively reduce the tax rate on corporate income but those compensations for the previous investment, not new investment. Permit 30% immediate expensing write-off for purchase of capital assets over the next three years. Reduce the maximum tax rate on long-term capital gain from 20% to 18%. Deductions of net losses from taxes paid up to five years earlier. Republicans argue that all these corporate tax cuts are necessary to encourage businesses to invest more into new capital because businesses would have more income or retained earnings. And as a result it would spur the economy. Democrats disagree. They tell that businesses would not  necessary to invest; some of any tax cuts will be saved or businesses can simply to pay down their debts or to spend them for dividends to their stockholders and maybe only small part would go into new investment. Permanent cut in the former 28% tax cut rate to 25% would be accelerated to 2002. Democrats argue that this tax cut would be more effective if it will be temporary rather than permanent tax cut because this acceleration significantly shorten government revenue in later years and in the long run the government can’t afford these rates cuts. Moreover, most of the tax relief would benefit only the top one-quarter of all income tax filers, who are likely to save more and spend less from tax cuts than those who have lower incomes and tend to spend whatever extra income they have. That is why Democrats support the proposal to send additional tax rebates for low-income workers, because the more rebate is spend the more effective it is as a stimulus. Democrats want to freeze marginal tax reduction in previous 39.6 bracket to 38.6% rather to decline it. It would save roughly $100 billion between 2002 and 2011. Democrats have proposed a smaller package with far fewer and temporary tax cuts and significantly more new spending – 75% of the stimulus plan. They support the ways that spur consumer spending that has kept the economy afloat such as through tax rebates for lower income workers, expansions of unemployment insurance and government spending for construction and other infrastructure. For instance, temporary changes in the unemployment insurance program or any additional benefits provided would likely be spent and go directly to output. Public capital investments involve direct government purchases of goods and services and therefore directly add demand into economy.

Internet banking Essay

Internet is rapidly turning out to be a tool of world wide communication. The increasing use of Internet earlier promoted producers and entrepreneurs to sell their products online. It has also become an important source of information and knowledge. Due to this, many banking and finance organizations have come up with the idea of Internet banking or online banking. What is Internet Banking Internet banking can be defined as a facility provided by banking and financial institutions, that enable the user to execute bank related transactions through Internet. The biggest advantage of Internet banking is that people can expend the services sitting at home, to transact business. Due to which, the account holder does not have to personally visit the bank. With the help of Internet banking many transactions can be executed by the account holder. When small transactions like balance inquiry, record of recent transaction, etc. are to be processed, the Internet banking facility proves to be very handy. The concept of Internet banking has thus become a revolution in the field of banking and finance. Brief History of Internet Banking The concept of Internet banking has been simultaneously evolving with the development of the world wide web. Programmers working on banking data bases came up with ideas for online banking transactions, some time during the 1980s. The creative process of development of these services were probably sparked off after many companies started the concept of online shopping. The online shopping promoted the use of credit cards through Internet. Many banking organizations had already started creating data ware housing facilities to ease their working staffs. The development of these databases were widely used during the development of ATM’s. Sometime in 1980s, banking and finance organizations in Europe and United States started suggestive researches and programming experiments on the concept of ‘home banking’. Initially in the 80’s when computers and Internet were not so well-developed, ‘home banking’ basically made use of fax machines and telephones to facilitate their customers. The widespread of Internet and programming facilities created further opportunities for development of home banking. In 1983, the Nottingham Building Society, commonly abbreviated and referred to as the NBS, launched the first Internet banking service in United Kingdom. This service formed the basis for most of the Internet banking facilities that followed. This facility was not very well-developed and restricted the number of transactions and functions that account holders could execute. The facility introduced by Nottingham Building Society is said to have been derived from a system known as Prestel, that is deployed by the postal service department of United Kingdom. The first online banking service in United States was introduced, in October 1994. The service was developed by Stanford Federal Credit Union, which is a financial institution. The online banking services are becoming more and more prevalent due to the well-developed systems. Though there are pros and cons of electronic cash, it has become a revolution that is enhancing the banking sector. Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-internet-banking.html

Bilingual Education

Bilingual education is unquestionably a controversial issue. There are several people and organizations in this country, who, for various reasons are opposed to bilingual education. In today’s society regarding education there has been a big issue about whether bilingual education should be taught in classrooms for immigrant students who do not speak English. Bilingual education began about 1967 as an effort to help immigrants, (mostly Spanish speakers) to learn English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates).Bilingual Education involves teaching two languages to the students. Many persons believe that bilingual education means Spanish and English only, but bilingual could be any two languages. There is a common problem where many parents are against bilingual education because many students are forced into Spanish bilingual classes because they have Spanish surnames, even though they understand and speak English well and they do not speak or read Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Ed ucation Advocates).I have found throughout my studies in bilingual education that a lot of students are placed in bilingual classes because the parents fill out a home language survey stating that the home language is Spanish. Little do the parents know that this is what determines what type of class their child will be in. This is causing many problems for children that are being forced into bilingual classes even when they are not immigrants. The promoter of bilingual education was the German language, because in 1837 students were required to take German in school at least one year (Eva Giles).But one of the most common bilingual programs here in South Texas is Spanish and English. A research states that â€Å"Nearly one in every six school age children in the United States come from a home where a language other than English is regularly spoken† (Eva Giles). â€Å"By some estimates, English is spoken today by one million people and two thirds learned it as a second langu age† (James Crawford). Secretary of Education T. H. Bell remarked that the support of the government for bilingual education grew from $7. 5 million in 1969 to $134 million in 1982 and it provides help for between 1. million to 3. 5 million children (Hoover, The case for and against Bilingual Education). There are many reasons why bilingual education is not effective for many people. First of all, the schools that have bilingual education do not have certified teachers. The problem that I have seen most too often is that many people are going through an alternative program to become a teacher, where they have no schooling in bilingual education and they don’t understand the concept of how it works, nor do they understand the laws.A person that has a degree in criminal justice, per se, goes through a 5 month program, takes a test, and is then considered to be a bilingual teacher. It is very common, here in south Texas where I live, that people that have gone through the ACP certification are being chosen over traditional college path teachers. Bilingual education is controversial for the simplest reason that it disrupts established patterns in school. For many schools, it can cause many headaches because they need to recruit more qualified teachers, redesign curricula, and reorganize class schedules, so many administrators want to avoid that.The monolingual teachers fear the reassignment, loss of status, or other career setbacks (Crawford). Because many schools do not have qualified teachers, the students get behind in their studies because they do not learn either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, many parents complain that their children on a regular school day are exposed mostly to Spanish and only few minutes to English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). This is because the immigrants are mixed with the non-immigrants and the teachers focus more on the immigrant students so they can learn English.Furthe rmore, the students get confused in their writing in Spanish and English. For example, a child was enrolled in bilingual education only because he/she has a Spanish surname even though he spoke only Spanish, and by the seventh grade the child could not read or write either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). On the other hand, many states reported on an average annual increase of 9. 2 percent in the enrollment of limited English proficient students (Crawford).If we do not have more certified teachers in our schools most of the students would have a high rate of falling behind, failing and dropping out of school. Language minority youths are 1. 5 times more likely than the English language counterparts to have discontinued school before completing twelve years, according to the Intercultural Development Research Association. In 1988 the Hispanic youths were more than twice likely to have dropped out. Therefore if we do not have certified teachers to teach the children we are going to have more uneducated children (Crawford).The solution to this problem about not having many certified teachers in our schools is that we need to train the teachers that we already have with some programs that they need to be a certified teacher. â€Å"Bilingual programs, in order to be effective, must be able to attract and retain a teaching staff sufficient in numbers and qualify to meet the needs of the children enrolled in the program. † (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia). A teacher in the bilingual program must master a subject, possess the skills to teach the subject well, and also have mastered two languages as well to be familiar with the children’s culture.Moreover, a bilingual teacher must meet five criteria, and all are very important for them to be an efficient teacher. The five criteria are: †¢The teacher must be fluent in English †¢The teacher must be fluent in Spanish †¢Mastery of the content area to be taught; e. g. scien ce, history etc. †¢Mastery of the teaching skills necessary to teach content area †¢Well information and complete understanding of the child’s culture, custom, and history (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia).Many schools might have to go to another country to recruit bilingual teachers; they go to Puerto Rico or even to Latin American because the United States has a diversity of cultures and it is much easier for a teacher from other countries to come to the United States and teach because they already know the culture of the student, and the students feel more comfortable and learn more. Furthermore, the second reason why bilingual education is not efficient for many people is because they do not have enough research on it.Many people do not know about all of the help that there is in schools for all immigrant students that came from other parts of the world. Parents do not get involved in their child’s studies or know what classes they are taking especially when th ey are in middle school or high school. â€Å"Many advocates of bilingual education fear that any government recognition of minority languages ‘sends a wrong message’ to immigrants encouraging them to believe they can live in the United States without learning English or conforming toAmericans’ ways† (Bilingual Education). Many parents believe that enrolling their children in only English classes will help them to improve in their language. For example, there is a case in California where the government is going to enforce a new program called Ballot Initiative, which would mandate English only instruction for children until they become fully proficient in English (Bilingual Education). But parents do not see all those programs that they have in schools to help their children improve in English without getting frustrated because they do.Parents should think about all the frustration that their children are dealing with because they are enrolling them in En glish classes even if they do not know the language. This is why they need to be made aware of all the programs that the schools have to offer to assist the students that do not speak English. The solution to this kind of problem in the schools is a program called late and early transition that helps the students who receive instructions in their native language during the early years of schooling eventually â€Å"transition† into mainstreaming English. William M. Saunders, Claude Goldenberg. ) Transition programs can occur anywhere from the early elementary grades to middle school or later in high school; it all depends on the school program when the student starts. Transition programs are three year program constants that approach the Spanish to English development in grades 3-5 and transition programs compromise 12 specific components falling in to three categories: 1. Literature studies (literature units, instructional conversations, writing projects) 2.Skill building (re ading comprehension, reading, dictation, and oral English) 3. Supporting Components (reading, reading aloud, and writing journals) A transition program is divided into three parts; Pre-Transition, Transition I, and Transition II. A Pre-Transition program is considered for the students in the third grade. Its purpose is to emphasize the fundamental role of Spanish reading and writing and oral English development that precedes transition and the goal is that by the end of the year the student should read and write Spanish, and a certain level of oral English.The second part of the transition program is called Transition I and it is used in the fourth grade. It is designed to make clear the need of an actual program for a certain time. By the end of fourth grade or Transition I, students should show at least initial reading and writing fluency in English. Moreover, the student should be able to participate in discussions in English and the student should also continue to demonstrate a good level in writing and reading in Spanish used in language arts throughout the entire year. The last part of the program called Transition II is used in the fifth grade.This last part of the program is where the students should be decoding and comprehends grade level materials in English, which mean in literature and content areas (Saunders). According to many teachers in California, bilingual transition programs work very well in schools where they have positive teachers that want to help the student and where the first language is used in the first year (Stephanie Krasren). One of my solutions for bilingual education is to implement more programs for older students as high school students.Right now we do not have enough programs that help those students and that is why we have a lot of college students that do not know how to write or read English or Spanish. In our high schools there is not enough emphasis in programs for high school students because many teachers believe that the students already know English because they attended elementary and middle school. Sometimes it doesn’t cross teachers minds that many students came to the United States when they were 16 and older and they had finished elementary or middle school in Mexico or other places.When they come to high schools here in the United States they do not know English. The program that I would implement for high school immigrant students that do not know any English would be called Older Transition. It would be separated in two parts, the first one being Older Transition I. It would be for ninth grade. The student would have a special teacher in separate classrooms, a teacher that helps them learn the basic English language and as the year goes by to improve their English in all subjects, so the student can be familiarized with the language.The second part would be called Older Transition II and would be for tenth grade immigrant students. The students would be placed in regular classes so they can be familiarized with how the classes work and begin taking the TAKS test that they need in order to graduate. Also the student would be required to participate in school activities so they can be involved with the language and improve their skills. If we would have more programs like this, many students would be beneficiated and wouldn’t feel left out and they would have a better future with more opportunities.These days, many jobs require applicants to be bilingual. â€Å"Businesses, especially telephone companies here in Texas and California are seeking for bilingual employees† (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, Texas and California have a high percentage of immigrants and Hispanics, which is why many companies ask the employee if they can speak Spanish and English. According to Hoover, English is the widely used language in history also; English in the language of Science technology, and business (Bilingual Education Advocates).Furthermo re, right now in this society we have a high call for merchants, bankers, and diplomats able to speak two languages. Therefore, if programs like this would be enforced in many high schools many students would have a better future and they would not have problems in college. The opposite view about my solution of implementing more transition programs for high school students is that many high schools do not have enough funds to be spending in transition programs.Moreover, many principals say that high schools do not receive money to have special teacher or train the teachers that the schools already have to teach the immigrant students that do not speak English. I believe that schools have enough money to spend to train teachers and programs because they have enough money to spend in athletics and other elective courses. Many high schools put more interest in athletics or any other activities than in the improvement of the student’s studies.To reiterate, whether bilingual educ ation is effective or not for immigrant students who do not speak English is up to the schools and how they approach the effectiveness of the bilingual programs. After reading much information about bilingual education, I have come to a conclusion; if we have more certified teachers who care and help the students with the English skills and if the schools implement more programs to help immigrant students, we are going to have a nation with many bilingual people who would help others. Moreover, we are going to have a better future for the kids of tomorrow.I encourage many teachers to support more bilingual programs and talk with their principals about them and put them into practice in the classrooms. A lot of this implementation starts with the district, of course, but sometimes certain districts don’t want to implement the bilingual programs and are just receiving the money for it. This is where the schools need to step up and implement the programs and possibly make a call to the TEA and make sure that the district starts following the rules. It all begins with one person making the difference and then it goes from there. Bilingual Education Bilingual education is unquestionably a controversial issue. There are several people and organizations in this country, who, for various reasons are opposed to bilingual education. In today’s society regarding education there has been a big issue about whether bilingual education should be taught in classrooms for immigrant students who do not speak English. Bilingual education began about 1967 as an effort to help immigrants, (mostly Spanish speakers) to learn English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates).Bilingual Education involves teaching two languages to the students. Many persons believe that bilingual education means Spanish and English only, but bilingual could be any two languages. There is a common problem where many parents are against bilingual education because many students are forced into Spanish bilingual classes because they have Spanish surnames, even though they understand and speak English well and they do not speak or read Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Ed ucation Advocates).I have found throughout my studies in bilingual education that a lot of students are placed in bilingual classes because the parents fill out a home language survey stating that the home language is Spanish. Little do the parents know that this is what determines what type of class their child will be in. This is causing many problems for children that are being forced into bilingual classes even when they are not immigrants. The promoter of bilingual education was the German language, because in 1837 students were required to take German in school at least one year (Eva Giles).But one of the most common bilingual programs here in South Texas is Spanish and English. A research states that â€Å"Nearly one in every six school age children in the United States come from a home where a language other than English is regularly spoken† (Eva Giles). â€Å"By some estimates, English is spoken today by one million people and two thirds learned it as a second langu age† (James Crawford). Secretary of Education T. H. Bell remarked that the support of the government for bilingual education grew from $7. 5 million in 1969 to $134 million in 1982 and it provides help for between 1. million to 3. 5 million children (Hoover, The case for and against Bilingual Education). There are many reasons why bilingual education is not effective for many people. First of all, the schools that have bilingual education do not have certified teachers. The problem that I have seen most too often is that many people are going through an alternative program to become a teacher, where they have no schooling in bilingual education and they don’t understand the concept of how it works, nor do they understand the laws.A person that has a degree in criminal justice, per se, goes through a 5 month program, takes a test, and is then considered to be a bilingual teacher. It is very common, here in south Texas where I live, that people that have gone through the ACP certification are being chosen over traditional college path teachers. Bilingual education is controversial for the simplest reason that it disrupts established patterns in school. For many schools, it can cause many headaches because they need to recruit more qualified teachers, redesign curricula, and reorganize class schedules, so many administrators want to avoid that.The monolingual teachers fear the reassignment, loss of status, or other career setbacks (Crawford). Because many schools do not have qualified teachers, the students get behind in their studies because they do not learn either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, many parents complain that their children on a regular school day are exposed mostly to Spanish and only few minutes to English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). This is because the immigrants are mixed with the non-immigrants and the teachers focus more on the immigrant students so they can learn English.Furthe rmore, the students get confused in their writing in Spanish and English. For example, a child was enrolled in bilingual education only because he/she has a Spanish surname even though he spoke only Spanish, and by the seventh grade the child could not read or write either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). On the other hand, many states reported on an average annual increase of 9. 2 percent in the enrollment of limited English proficient students (Crawford).If we do not have more certified teachers in our schools most of the students would have a high rate of falling behind, failing and dropping out of school. Language minority youths are 1. 5 times more likely than the English language counterparts to have discontinued school before completing twelve years, according to the Intercultural Development Research Association. In 1988 the Hispanic youths were more than twice likely to have dropped out. Therefore if we do not have certified teachers to teach the children we are going to have more uneducated children (Crawford).The solution to this problem about not having many certified teachers in our schools is that we need to train the teachers that we already have with some programs that they need to be a certified teacher. â€Å"Bilingual programs, in order to be effective, must be able to attract and retain a teaching staff sufficient in numbers and qualify to meet the needs of the children enrolled in the program. † (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia). A teacher in the bilingual program must master a subject, possess the skills to teach the subject well, and also have mastered two languages as well to be familiar with the children’s culture.Moreover, a bilingual teacher must meet five criteria, and all are very important for them to be an efficient teacher. The five criteria are: †¢The teacher must be fluent in English †¢The teacher must be fluent in Spanish †¢Mastery of the content area to be taught; e. g. scien ce, history etc. †¢Mastery of the teaching skills necessary to teach content area †¢Well information and complete understanding of the child’s culture, custom, and history (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia).Many schools might have to go to another country to recruit bilingual teachers; they go to Puerto Rico or even to Latin American because the United States has a diversity of cultures and it is much easier for a teacher from other countries to come to the United States and teach because they already know the culture of the student, and the students feel more comfortable and learn more. Furthermore, the second reason why bilingual education is not efficient for many people is because they do not have enough research on it.Many people do not know about all of the help that there is in schools for all immigrant students that came from other parts of the world. Parents do not get involved in their child’s studies or know what classes they are taking especially when th ey are in middle school or high school. â€Å"Many advocates of bilingual education fear that any government recognition of minority languages ‘sends a wrong message’ to immigrants encouraging them to believe they can live in the United States without learning English or conforming toAmericans’ ways† (Bilingual Education). Many parents believe that enrolling their children in only English classes will help them to improve in their language. For example, there is a case in California where the government is going to enforce a new program called Ballot Initiative, which would mandate English only instruction for children until they become fully proficient in English (Bilingual Education). But parents do not see all those programs that they have in schools to help their children improve in English without getting frustrated because they do.Parents should think about all the frustration that their children are dealing with because they are enrolling them in En glish classes even if they do not know the language. This is why they need to be made aware of all the programs that the schools have to offer to assist the students that do not speak English. The solution to this kind of problem in the schools is a program called late and early transition that helps the students who receive instructions in their native language during the early years of schooling eventually â€Å"transition† into mainstreaming English. William M. Saunders, Claude Goldenberg. ) Transition programs can occur anywhere from the early elementary grades to middle school or later in high school; it all depends on the school program when the student starts. Transition programs are three year program constants that approach the Spanish to English development in grades 3-5 and transition programs compromise 12 specific components falling in to three categories: 1. Literature studies (literature units, instructional conversations, writing projects) 2.Skill building (re ading comprehension, reading, dictation, and oral English) 3. Supporting Components (reading, reading aloud, and writing journals) A transition program is divided into three parts; Pre-Transition, Transition I, and Transition II. A Pre-Transition program is considered for the students in the third grade. Its purpose is to emphasize the fundamental role of Spanish reading and writing and oral English development that precedes transition and the goal is that by the end of the year the student should read and write Spanish, and a certain level of oral English.The second part of the transition program is called Transition I and it is used in the fourth grade. It is designed to make clear the need of an actual program for a certain time. By the end of fourth grade or Transition I, students should show at least initial reading and writing fluency in English. Moreover, the student should be able to participate in discussions in English and the student should also continue to demonstrate a good level in writing and reading in Spanish used in language arts throughout the entire year. The last part of the program called Transition II is used in the fifth grade.This last part of the program is where the students should be decoding and comprehends grade level materials in English, which mean in literature and content areas (Saunders). According to many teachers in California, bilingual transition programs work very well in schools where they have positive teachers that want to help the student and where the first language is used in the first year (Stephanie Krasren). One of my solutions for bilingual education is to implement more programs for older students as high school students.Right now we do not have enough programs that help those students and that is why we have a lot of college students that do not know how to write or read English or Spanish. In our high schools there is not enough emphasis in programs for high school students because many teachers believe that the students already know English because they attended elementary and middle school. Sometimes it doesn’t cross teachers minds that many students came to the United States when they were 16 and older and they had finished elementary or middle school in Mexico or other places.When they come to high schools here in the United States they do not know English. The program that I would implement for high school immigrant students that do not know any English would be called Older Transition. It would be separated in two parts, the first one being Older Transition I. It would be for ninth grade. The student would have a special teacher in separate classrooms, a teacher that helps them learn the basic English language and as the year goes by to improve their English in all subjects, so the student can be familiarized with the language.The second part would be called Older Transition II and would be for tenth grade immigrant students. The students would be placed in regular classes so they can be familiarized with how the classes work and begin taking the TAKS test that they need in order to graduate. Also the student would be required to participate in school activities so they can be involved with the language and improve their skills. If we would have more programs like this, many students would be beneficiated and wouldn’t feel left out and they would have a better future with more opportunities.These days, many jobs require applicants to be bilingual. â€Å"Businesses, especially telephone companies here in Texas and California are seeking for bilingual employees† (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, Texas and California have a high percentage of immigrants and Hispanics, which is why many companies ask the employee if they can speak Spanish and English. According to Hoover, English is the widely used language in history also; English in the language of Science technology, and business (Bilingual Education Advocates).Furthermo re, right now in this society we have a high call for merchants, bankers, and diplomats able to speak two languages. Therefore, if programs like this would be enforced in many high schools many students would have a better future and they would not have problems in college. The opposite view about my solution of implementing more transition programs for high school students is that many high schools do not have enough funds to be spending in transition programs.Moreover, many principals say that high schools do not receive money to have special teacher or train the teachers that the schools already have to teach the immigrant students that do not speak English. I believe that schools have enough money to spend to train teachers and programs because they have enough money to spend in athletics and other elective courses. Many high schools put more interest in athletics or any other activities than in the improvement of the student’s studies.To reiterate, whether bilingual educ ation is effective or not for immigrant students who do not speak English is up to the schools and how they approach the effectiveness of the bilingual programs. After reading much information about bilingual education, I have come to a conclusion; if we have more certified teachers who care and help the students with the English skills and if the schools implement more programs to help immigrant students, we are going to have a nation with many bilingual people who would help others. Moreover, we are going to have a better future for the kids of tomorrow.I encourage many teachers to support more bilingual programs and talk with their principals about them and put them into practice in the classrooms. A lot of this implementation starts with the district, of course, but sometimes certain districts don’t want to implement the bilingual programs and are just receiving the money for it. This is where the schools need to step up and implement the programs and possibly make a call to the TEA and make sure that the district starts following the rules. It all begins with one person making the difference and then it goes from there. Bilingual Education Bilingual education is unquestionably a controversial issue. There are several people and organizations in this country, who, for various reasons are opposed to bilingual education. In today’s society regarding education there has been a big issue about whether bilingual education should be taught in classrooms for immigrant students who do not speak English. Bilingual education began about 1967 as an effort to help immigrants, (mostly Spanish speakers) to learn English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates).Bilingual Education involves teaching two languages to the students. Many persons believe that bilingual education means Spanish and English only, but bilingual could be any two languages. There is a common problem where many parents are against bilingual education because many students are forced into Spanish bilingual classes because they have Spanish surnames, even though they understand and speak English well and they do not speak or read Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Ed ucation Advocates).I have found throughout my studies in bilingual education that a lot of students are placed in bilingual classes because the parents fill out a home language survey stating that the home language is Spanish. Little do the parents know that this is what determines what type of class their child will be in. This is causing many problems for children that are being forced into bilingual classes even when they are not immigrants. The promoter of bilingual education was the German language, because in 1837 students were required to take German in school at least one year (Eva Giles).But one of the most common bilingual programs here in South Texas is Spanish and English. A research states that â€Å"Nearly one in every six school age children in the United States come from a home where a language other than English is regularly spoken† (Eva Giles). â€Å"By some estimates, English is spoken today by one million people and two thirds learned it as a second langu age† (James Crawford). Secretary of Education T. H. Bell remarked that the support of the government for bilingual education grew from $7. 5 million in 1969 to $134 million in 1982 and it provides help for between 1. million to 3. 5 million children (Hoover, The case for and against Bilingual Education). There are many reasons why bilingual education is not effective for many people. First of all, the schools that have bilingual education do not have certified teachers. The problem that I have seen most too often is that many people are going through an alternative program to become a teacher, where they have no schooling in bilingual education and they don’t understand the concept of how it works, nor do they understand the laws.A person that has a degree in criminal justice, per se, goes through a 5 month program, takes a test, and is then considered to be a bilingual teacher. It is very common, here in south Texas where I live, that people that have gone through the ACP certification are being chosen over traditional college path teachers. Bilingual education is controversial for the simplest reason that it disrupts established patterns in school. For many schools, it can cause many headaches because they need to recruit more qualified teachers, redesign curricula, and reorganize class schedules, so many administrators want to avoid that.The monolingual teachers fear the reassignment, loss of status, or other career setbacks (Crawford). Because many schools do not have qualified teachers, the students get behind in their studies because they do not learn either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, many parents complain that their children on a regular school day are exposed mostly to Spanish and only few minutes to English (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). This is because the immigrants are mixed with the non-immigrants and the teachers focus more on the immigrant students so they can learn English.Furthe rmore, the students get confused in their writing in Spanish and English. For example, a child was enrolled in bilingual education only because he/she has a Spanish surname even though he spoke only Spanish, and by the seventh grade the child could not read or write either English or Spanish (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). On the other hand, many states reported on an average annual increase of 9. 2 percent in the enrollment of limited English proficient students (Crawford).If we do not have more certified teachers in our schools most of the students would have a high rate of falling behind, failing and dropping out of school. Language minority youths are 1. 5 times more likely than the English language counterparts to have discontinued school before completing twelve years, according to the Intercultural Development Research Association. In 1988 the Hispanic youths were more than twice likely to have dropped out. Therefore if we do not have certified teachers to teach the children we are going to have more uneducated children (Crawford).The solution to this problem about not having many certified teachers in our schools is that we need to train the teachers that we already have with some programs that they need to be a certified teacher. â€Å"Bilingual programs, in order to be effective, must be able to attract and retain a teaching staff sufficient in numbers and qualify to meet the needs of the children enrolled in the program. † (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia). A teacher in the bilingual program must master a subject, possess the skills to teach the subject well, and also have mastered two languages as well to be familiar with the children’s culture.Moreover, a bilingual teacher must meet five criteria, and all are very important for them to be an efficient teacher. The five criteria are: †¢The teacher must be fluent in English †¢The teacher must be fluent in Spanish †¢Mastery of the content area to be taught; e. g. scien ce, history etc. †¢Mastery of the teaching skills necessary to teach content area †¢Well information and complete understanding of the child’s culture, custom, and history (Del Valle, Franco, Garcia).Many schools might have to go to another country to recruit bilingual teachers; they go to Puerto Rico or even to Latin American because the United States has a diversity of cultures and it is much easier for a teacher from other countries to come to the United States and teach because they already know the culture of the student, and the students feel more comfortable and learn more. Furthermore, the second reason why bilingual education is not efficient for many people is because they do not have enough research on it.Many people do not know about all of the help that there is in schools for all immigrant students that came from other parts of the world. Parents do not get involved in their child’s studies or know what classes they are taking especially when th ey are in middle school or high school. â€Å"Many advocates of bilingual education fear that any government recognition of minority languages ‘sends a wrong message’ to immigrants encouraging them to believe they can live in the United States without learning English or conforming toAmericans’ ways† (Bilingual Education). Many parents believe that enrolling their children in only English classes will help them to improve in their language. For example, there is a case in California where the government is going to enforce a new program called Ballot Initiative, which would mandate English only instruction for children until they become fully proficient in English (Bilingual Education). But parents do not see all those programs that they have in schools to help their children improve in English without getting frustrated because they do.Parents should think about all the frustration that their children are dealing with because they are enrolling them in En glish classes even if they do not know the language. This is why they need to be made aware of all the programs that the schools have to offer to assist the students that do not speak English. The solution to this kind of problem in the schools is a program called late and early transition that helps the students who receive instructions in their native language during the early years of schooling eventually â€Å"transition† into mainstreaming English. William M. Saunders, Claude Goldenberg. ) Transition programs can occur anywhere from the early elementary grades to middle school or later in high school; it all depends on the school program when the student starts. Transition programs are three year program constants that approach the Spanish to English development in grades 3-5 and transition programs compromise 12 specific components falling in to three categories: 1. Literature studies (literature units, instructional conversations, writing projects) 2.Skill building (re ading comprehension, reading, dictation, and oral English) 3. Supporting Components (reading, reading aloud, and writing journals) A transition program is divided into three parts; Pre-Transition, Transition I, and Transition II. A Pre-Transition program is considered for the students in the third grade. Its purpose is to emphasize the fundamental role of Spanish reading and writing and oral English development that precedes transition and the goal is that by the end of the year the student should read and write Spanish, and a certain level of oral English.The second part of the transition program is called Transition I and it is used in the fourth grade. It is designed to make clear the need of an actual program for a certain time. By the end of fourth grade or Transition I, students should show at least initial reading and writing fluency in English. Moreover, the student should be able to participate in discussions in English and the student should also continue to demonstrate a good level in writing and reading in Spanish used in language arts throughout the entire year. The last part of the program called Transition II is used in the fifth grade.This last part of the program is where the students should be decoding and comprehends grade level materials in English, which mean in literature and content areas (Saunders). According to many teachers in California, bilingual transition programs work very well in schools where they have positive teachers that want to help the student and where the first language is used in the first year (Stephanie Krasren). One of my solutions for bilingual education is to implement more programs for older students as high school students.Right now we do not have enough programs that help those students and that is why we have a lot of college students that do not know how to write or read English or Spanish. In our high schools there is not enough emphasis in programs for high school students because many teachers believe that the students already know English because they attended elementary and middle school. Sometimes it doesn’t cross teachers minds that many students came to the United States when they were 16 and older and they had finished elementary or middle school in Mexico or other places.When they come to high schools here in the United States they do not know English. The program that I would implement for high school immigrant students that do not know any English would be called Older Transition. It would be separated in two parts, the first one being Older Transition I. It would be for ninth grade. The student would have a special teacher in separate classrooms, a teacher that helps them learn the basic English language and as the year goes by to improve their English in all subjects, so the student can be familiarized with the language.The second part would be called Older Transition II and would be for tenth grade immigrant students. The students would be placed in regular classes so they can be familiarized with how the classes work and begin taking the TAKS test that they need in order to graduate. Also the student would be required to participate in school activities so they can be involved with the language and improve their skills. If we would have more programs like this, many students would be beneficiated and wouldn’t feel left out and they would have a better future with more opportunities.These days, many jobs require applicants to be bilingual. â€Å"Businesses, especially telephone companies here in Texas and California are seeking for bilingual employees† (Hoover, Bilingual Education Advocates). Moreover, Texas and California have a high percentage of immigrants and Hispanics, which is why many companies ask the employee if they can speak Spanish and English. According to Hoover, English is the widely used language in history also; English in the language of Science technology, and business (Bilingual Education Advocates).Furthermo re, right now in this society we have a high call for merchants, bankers, and diplomats able to speak two languages. Therefore, if programs like this would be enforced in many high schools many students would have a better future and they would not have problems in college. The opposite view about my solution of implementing more transition programs for high school students is that many high schools do not have enough funds to be spending in transition programs.Moreover, many principals say that high schools do not receive money to have special teacher or train the teachers that the schools already have to teach the immigrant students that do not speak English. I believe that schools have enough money to spend to train teachers and programs because they have enough money to spend in athletics and other elective courses. Many high schools put more interest in athletics or any other activities than in the improvement of the student’s studies.To reiterate, whether bilingual educ ation is effective or not for immigrant students who do not speak English is up to the schools and how they approach the effectiveness of the bilingual programs. After reading much information about bilingual education, I have come to a conclusion; if we have more certified teachers who care and help the students with the English skills and if the schools implement more programs to help immigrant students, we are going to have a nation with many bilingual people who would help others. Moreover, we are going to have a better future for the kids of tomorrow.I encourage many teachers to support more bilingual programs and talk with their principals about them and put them into practice in the classrooms. A lot of this implementation starts with the district, of course, but sometimes certain districts don’t want to implement the bilingual programs and are just receiving the money for it. This is where the schools need to step up and implement the programs and possibly make a call to the TEA and make sure that the district starts following the rules. It all begins with one person making the difference and then it goes from there.

Retention of College Students in Private Schools Coursework

Retention of College Students in Private Schools - Coursework Example This is a very thorough introduction to the steps and processes required in writing an extensive study on an education-related topic. There are comprehensive notes and references attached to each chapter, and the book could also be used as a textbook in class since there are exercises too. One useful feature is the â€Å"Key Concepts† section which recaps the most important themes and provides definitions that can be used in any dissertation. Chapters 4 and 5 on â€Å"Research Design in Quantitative Research† and â€Å"Experimental Research† give a lot of good information on how to set up data gathering procedures and how to evaluate the results. Methods such as surveys, interviewing and videotaping are also discussed with some very practical guidelines on how to avoid common mistakes. It is written in a complex and academic tone, but the effort of reading it is rewarded by many insights. Henderson, D. and Henderson, J. (2002) The Retention of Entering and Returning Freshmen enrolled at Florida A&M University’s School of General Studies during the Fall Semesters 1997-2001. Education 123 (1), 210-212. This short paper looks at the importance of the first year in the retention of students at a college with mainly African-American students. It collated figures on students who attended for the first time, and students who had switched their major and made a recommendation for strategies to enhance student retention based on these figures. Some issues were clearly concluded, such as the importance of developmental courses, interdisciplinary classes, advisement on demand and an attitudinal shift by the faculty and staff, but the article did not find ways to deal with variables.

Auditing HIH disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Auditing HIH disaster - Essay Example In spite of major events which took place in succession in the HIH, some thing was lurking behind. By January 1999, the HIH acquired FAI insurance for A$ 300 million which later turned out be worth onlyA$100 million though the external audit of Arthur Andersen for the year 2000 did not make any issue of it. On the other hand the company was lauded to be worth A$ 939 million. Soon after in September, it sold half of its profitable retail general insurance business for cash liquidity and as a result its share prices fell down from A$ 1.05 to A$ 0.45 when the company announced losses. Yet the regulatory authority did not think fit to inspect the accounts as it relied on the external audit report had painted a healthy picture. This was followed by the resignation of the CEO founder of the company for 30+ years, with a compensation of A$ 5 million in December 2000. As the company had not filled its December statements, when they became overdue by February 2001, the regulator APRA was conc erned for the first time. Meanwhile on 27 February Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) took the initiative by suspending HIH's share trading soon followed by the APRA's fire fighting act of transferring the company's risk portfolio to other insurance companies to the extent possible. On 15 March 2001 HIH declared provisional liquidation with Government agencies covering some of its obligations which might cost the tax payer about A$ 1 billion to bail out policy holders. On 16 March, finally APRA started inspection of the HIH affairs. Government of Australia lost no time to set up an independent Royal Commission by August 2001 as already announced in May 2001 to investigate into the failure of the company. It took 6 months for the liquidator to arrive at the losses as between A$ 3.6 billion and A$ 5.3 billion. It has been stated that not only the settlement of policies and the company's creditors could not be made in full but also it would take ten years for disburs ement which might be in the ratio of 1: 0.5. This was how the second largest Australian insurer's corporate bubble burst representing the biggest collapse in the corporate history of Australia to date. The whole imbroglio was attributed to poor management by under pricing of policies and overestimation of its assets mostly non tangible rather than frauds. Soon after the company's fall, the premium market shot up steeply. While the APRA conceded that it was because of not provisioning the company with sufficient capital to cover its risks for quite a number of years that this had happened, the Australian Prime Minister had to rebut the public accusations that political donations siphoned off the company's resources. (Sungard Banc ware Erisk). Actually the company had indulged in acquisition spree of more than 200 subsidiaries which only made the company's size unwieldy in an already overcrowded and competitive insurance market though the acquisitions accounted for 26% premium growth per annum for a decade. Most controversial of all was the acquisition of FAI insurance for A$ 300 million which was worth hardly A$ 100 million and that too the company had borrowed money for the settlement. Rodney Adler the major stock holder of FAI who also became a member of HIH Board however clarified "that the purchase price of his company was too high by stating that the price was set, by definition,

Fresh Food is always better than Frozen Food Essay

Fresh Food is always better than Frozen Food - Essay Example Over the years the market for frozen food has grown tremendously. Market research has revealed that many of the consumers use frozen food because they find the â€Å"Ready-to-Eat† deli lines a very convenient option because with the passage of time life is becoming very fast paced and going through the hassle of cooking food appears to be a waste of time when convenient food solutions are present for the consumers. But the important question here is how far consumers are willing to go for convenience? Would they disregard the fact that frozen food carries with it the potential of harmful bacteria and diseases which can result in serious illnesses? There has been a lot of debate over the health implications of frozen foods, many believe it to be a myth but some researchers have proven that if frozen food is not cooked at the optimum temperature then it can adversely affect the health of the consumers. According to experts frozen food is safe if it is made sure that it is stored below zero degrees centigrade at all times. Freezing food slows down the activity of the microorganisms present in the food but does not inhibit it altogether. Therefore, when the food is left to thaw the rate of activity of the microorganisms is much more than that of fresh food. Consequently, if frozen food is not cooked immediately it can be very harmful for the human body. Moreover, the enzymatic activity causes chemical reactions in food which are not halted by freezing. This enzymatic activity can cause health problems when frozen vegetables are eaten and are not particularly dangerous in terms of meat and fish. To ensure that frozen vegetables are safe to eat they first need to either be blanched or partially cooked for some time before frozen (United states Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service , 2-3). Our argument here is why go through so much hassle and stress regarding health when one can avoid it by using fresh food? When using fresh food one can be sure of the fact that all the ingredients used have been hand-picked by the consumer and that he has himself cooked them therefore the element of a lack of hygiene does not hold true while using fresh food. Listeria is the name of a pathogen which is not very commonly known to the masses. This pathogen causes severe food-poisoning and surprisingly patients infected by the Listeria pathogen are hospitalized the most compared to other food-poisoning pathogens such as the E.Coli bacteria, which the masses are more aware of but is milder when compared to Listeria. The major difference between Listeria other food-borne pathogens is that Listeria can throve in an atmosphere of low oxygen and low temperatures. Consequently, in frozen ready-to-eat meals the Listeria content is very high. The listeria content is particularly high in frozen food containing meat or poultry, therefore when people consume such a diet they are vulnerable to being exposed to a harmful pathogen such as Listeria which can affect the well-being of the individual by initially starting off as a mere flu and moving on to even a nervous system infection. People with low immunity need to be particularly careful when consuming products that are otherwise considered not very safe to eat such as frozen ready-to-eat meals. Moreover, people suffering from diseases such as AIDS,

Tourism Management Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Tourism Management Assignment - Essay Example This paper looks at current performance of the Eiffel Tower as a tourist destination. The first part will give basic information and a brief review of visits. As this paper aims to look at how Eiffel Tower fares as a tourist destination, it will utilize analytical methods to justify and strengthen the assessment. After the analysis on the operation of Eiffel Tower, the paper will give recommendations and possible measures that can be undertaken to increase tourist arrivals and receipts. Also, it will offer suggestions on how to further maximize the utility gained by travelers when visiting Eiffel Tower. These recommendations will of course, lay on the future prospects which will also be identified in this paper. The Eiffel Tower is a famous tourist attraction not only in France but in the entire world. This structure is a symbol of the innovative technology which is already existent at the end of the 19th century. Postcards sent from France usually carry an image of the tower, indicating the popularity of this massive structure. Eiffel Tower, being the top attraction in Paris records approximately 6 million visitors annually (The Structure of Eiffel Tower and Its Evolution 2006). The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 to celebrate and commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. The design of the Eiffel Tower came from Gustave Eiffel, who won among the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition. After its construction, the tower was officially opened by the Prince of Wales King Edward VII of England. The establishment of the tower in 1889 marked the completion of the world's tallest (300 meters) building until 1930. At first, the building of the tower was met with resistance as people consider it as an eyesore. Now, this proves to be wrong as it draws a lot of tourists and income to France. There are a lot of amazing facts which attracts tourists to this particular establishment. For one, the tower's height varies according to the temperature. This is due to the fact that the metal used in building the Eiffel Tower expands as temperature rises. Thus, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 8cm (3.25 inches). The Eiffel tower is being repainted every seven years to protect the structure from rust. Tourists are given a chance to take part in choosing what color the tower will be by a poll. Tourists can explore the three levels of the structure to totally appreciate the beauty of the Eiffel Tower. The ground floor is consists of the massive hydraulic elevator machinery which has been used since 1899, change office and the Paris Tourist Office. Meanwhile, tourists can stroll and relax at the first floor where anyone can have a glimpse of the tower's recent and past history. The first floor also houses a section of the spiral staircase, the original hydraulic pump, a FerOscope, Observatory of Tower Top Movement, the panoramic indicators, historical panels, Cineffeil, exhibitions of the tower, souvenir shop, snack bar, "PARIS-TOUR EFFIEL" Post Office and internet stations and phone booths. Altitude 95, one of the only two restaurants in the tower can also be visited in the first floor. The second floor offers a 360 view of the whole city of Paris. This is the perfect spot to make a photographic study of the city. Like the first floor, this level

Effect of mindfullness technique Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Effect of mindfullness technique - Dissertation Example The objectives of this study include identification of the significance and drawbacks of the mindfulness technique. Also, it will examine the degree to which mindfulness is used and compare stress and fatigue management progress with and without it. The research method uses both qualitative and quantitative analysis, specifically narrative and thematic based upon secondary research sources. The results will provide greater insight of the mindfulness technique, including its effectiveness and range of use. After an interpretation of the research results, a conclusion based upon the objectives is provided. Table of Contents PAGE ABSTRACT 1 LIST OF TABLES 3 LIST OF FIGURES 4 CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 – Introduction 5 1.2 Background/Justification of the Study 1.2.1 Cancer Symptoms 1.2.2 Need to Reduce Stress and Fatigue in Cancer Patients 1.2.3 Mindfulness of Cancer 1.2.4 Mindfulness Background and Justification of the Study 1.3 Aim of the Study 1.4 Formulation of the Question CHAPTER 2 – Research Methodology 16 2.1 Research Protocol 2.2 Eligibility Criteria 2.3 Search 2.4 Study Selection 2.5 Information Sources, Data Collection, and Data Items 2.6 Risk of Bias 2.7 Summary of Measures and Synthesis Results CHAPTER 3 – Findings and Results 26 3.1 Study Selection (Flow Diagram) CHAPTER 4 – Discussion 39 4.1 Limitation 4.2 Conclusion 4.3 Recommendation Bibliography 46 List of Tables Table x-1 Results and Synthesis Table x-2 Theme Results List of Figures Figure x-1 Forest Plot, RCTs Figure x-2 Presentation of Study Numbers Effect of Mindfulness Technique on Stress and Fatigue Reduction in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION While considering the study on the effect of mindfulness techniques on stress and fatigue reduction in cancer patients, it is necessary to have a brief overview on the use of mindfulness techniques in cancer patients. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a process that involves techniques of m editation (Folkman, 2010). Medical uses of the technique date back to 1979 with the ‘integration of Buddhist mindfulness meditation with contemporary clinical and psychological practice’ (Chiesa and Serretti, 2009). The technique primarily involves a specific form of awareness being developed (Strosahl, 2011), illustrated by accommodating responsiveness, frankness, inquisitiveness, and recognition of internal and external experiences of the present times that permits â€Å"practitioners to act more reflectively rather than impulsively† (Chiesa and Serretti, 2009). Extensive research has been conducted in order to study the effects of mindfulness on stress reduction. The process is a combination of meditation and yoga (Bose, 2011). When mindfulness meditation is concerned, it involves providing close consideration to experiences of the mind and body (Lambert, 2013). Studies have found several benefits of the technique that includes reduction in disturbances of the mood of an individual, stress reduction, improvement in quality of sleep, fatigue reduction, as well as controlled blood pressure (Lyman, 2009). Thus the use of this technique for stress and fatigue reduction in cancer patients have also become highly popular and considered as a common practice among other treatments and practices. Mindfulness allows individuals to experience things just as they are (Brantley, 2007). It allows the individuals,

Importance of Professionalising HRM in Hotel Industry Essay - 20

Importance of Professionalising HRM in Hotel Industry - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that each department requires personnel to operate and mange the different types of customers. Thus, there is a need for HRM in a hotel because every aspect in a hotel is concerned with handling people. A HRM professional can understand the needs and preferences of employees and can handle the employee related problems quite efficiently than others. From the provided case, it can be observed that it is a challenge for Happy Hotels to recruit, develop and maintain workforce which is significant for the hotel because a good motivated workforce is the key for providing high quality services to the sensitive customers. The approaches undertaken by Happy Hotels are quite different than the other high cost hotel services. It provides customers with excellent services, comfortable rooms, and good meals with minimal budget than other high cost hotel such as Premium Inn or Holiday Inn. Thus, the job description in Happy Hotels needs range of skills and qualities. The employees must have knowledge to interact with various customers who can impact the HRM strategies such as recruitment and training of employees. HRM can broadly manage the employees in Happy Hotels and can aid the hotels to pursue their path towards achieving success. There are many reasons for professionalising HRM in the expansion of hotel group. Every hotel seeks to dev elop their services which can differentiate them from other competitors. Thus, a hotel will always endeavour to focus on providing customers any product or service which is new and innovative. The employees of the hotels will play one of the major roles in fulfilling this endeavour of the hotels. Thus, the employees need to learn behaviour such as readiness to tolerate uncertainty and changeability. They need to take risks. A highly skilled HR individual can help to achieve high level of autonomy in a hotel.

Introduction to Operation Management Essay Example for Free

Introduction to Operation Management Essay If you would like to choose an organization that is NOT from the above list, please consult your professor. For SLP 1, identify the following by writing a paper (with paragraphs, including an introductory, body, and concluding section): 1) The organizations name and main line of business, 2) A specific type of operations process that takes place there (either service or product), 3) Describe the nature of the operations given your newfound understanding of operations management and productivity. 4) You may identify the strategy or global strategy of that organization. Feel free to consult background readings, browse our library to find more articles, and check the relevant websites to support your argument. Introduction An organization efficiency and effectiveness are necessary to surface in this new era of business where maintaining a competitive edge is the difference between succeeding and faltering. In this paper I will describe and analyze the operation management by describing and analyzing the different operations management perspectives and its productivity. Body The organization I have chosen to study and analyze is Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., their line of business is retail. Since Wal-Mart is one of the top supermarket chains in the country exporting to 27 countries and sells a large number of products, the company runs on multiple levels and since some products have different regulations than other obviously the operation management has tuned to the specific needs of the product. Not only has the operation management pertained not only for goods but also for services. Since 2009, The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) and Wal-Mart have worked together to create a system that measure and report the sustainability of products by developing tools to enhance the capacity to comprehend and state the environmental, social, and economic effects of products. This process of researching product sustainability is used to expand knowledge of top grossing products and find out how to improve the quality of the products. By improving the quality they can manufacture better products at a lower cost and sell it the same of higher price increasing profits. On the other hand, by testing product sustainability new eco-friendly products can be produce and lower the environmental impact while still satisfying consumer demand. The second step is researching the consumer, what they think about the product and how the product is used. This enables manufacturing companies to meet the consumer needs. After all the researcher is done, new found data is combined with new tools to produce better product quality and transparency creating a stronger trust between Wal-Mart and its customer. The nature of this operation is based on the idea of lowering costs while maintaining profits. By researching the products they learn the ins and outs of how it is made, the costs of production, and the sustainability of the product. This allows them to look into cheaper methods and materials while still maintain same safety, health and environmental standards. Furthermore when they research the consumer, they find out what the consumer really needs and provide more to fill that need. Whatever profits are saved they can invest into better tools, production equipment, or anything used to further advance the company. The global strategy (as well as general strategy) is to invest in lower prices. By expanding the types of products sold and bringing back assortments the customer base is expanded, since now the convenience of finding everything you need in one place is available. When this convenience is combined with lower prices, it makes Wal-Mart a retail juggernaut that will be nearly impossible to top. Conclusion In conclusion, operations management is a key tool in controlling all aspects of a business. By managing operations you can cut costs, accidents, or even increase profits. An example would be Wal-Mart’s product sustainability management. By investing in this process they have advanced their company in many aspects, giving them an advantage in their business. References Plenert, Gerhard J. (2002). International Operations Management. Retrieved January 17, 2013 at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/tourou/search.action?p00=International +Operations+ManagementfromSearch=fromSearchsearch=Search Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (2012) 2012 Annual Report. Retrieved on January 17, 2013 at: http://www.walmartstores.com/sites/annual-report/2012/CEOletter.aspx Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (2012) Global Responsibility. Sustainability Index. Retrieved on January 17, 2013 at: http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/environment-sustainability/sustainability-index

Drug Discovery Processes

Drug Discovery Processes Introduction Chemistry is not merely a science of making observations in order to better understand nature. Chemistry, as the science of matter and its transformation, plays a central role in bridging between physics, material sciences and life sciences. Our science is creative and productive, generating substances and materials of very high value from almost nothing. In view of its significance, chemical synthesis demands the highest level of scientific/technological creativity and insight to explore its limitless possibilities. Chemical synthesis must pursue the goal of practical elegance; it must be logically elegant and at the same time technologically practical. We must manufacture useful compounds in an economical, energy-efficient, resource-preserving, and environmentally benign way(add ref impo-01). To maintain our current standard of living and to improve quality of life, society has come to depend on the products of chemical industry. The last century has been highly productive in this aspect as it emerges in development in pharmaceutical development, water treatment, material science, polymers, agriculture pesticides and fungicides, detergents, petroleum additives and so forth. Pharmaceutical development plays a vital role as various drugs that are developed have helped in the eradication of many infectious diseases. Although there are certain diseases that have still not found any resistance towards drugs but even though a lot of work is still being carried out on it. Research in the field of pharmaceutical has its most important task in the development of new and better drugs and their successful introduction into clinical practice. â€Å"Medicinal chemistry remains a challenging science which provides profound satisfaction to its practitioners. It intrigues those of us who like to solve problems posed by nature. It verges increasingly on biochemistry and on all the physical, genetic and chemical riddles in animal physiology which bear on medicine. Medicinal chemists have a chance to participate in the fundamentals of prevention, therapy and understanding of diseases and thereby to contribute to a healthier and happier life.† ALFRED BURGER 3   Importance of a Drug: A drug is any chemical or biological substance, synthetic or non-synthetic, that when taken into the organism’s body, will in some way after the functions of that organism’s. This broad definition can be made by including such substances as food. However more strict applications of the word prevail in everyday life. In these cases the word â€Å"drug† is usually used to refer specifically to medicine, vitamins, entheogenic sacraments, consciousness expanding or recreational drugs. Many natural substances such as beers, wine, and some mushrooms, blur the line between food and drugs, when ingested they affect the functioning of both mind and body. The word â€Å"drug† is etymologically derived from the Dutch/Low German word â€Å"droog† which means â€Å"dry†, since in the past; most drugs were dried plant parts. Drugs are usually distinguished from endogenous biochemical by being introduced from outside the organism. For example, insulin is a hormone that is synthesized in the body; it is called a hormone when it is synthesized by the pancreas inside the body, but if it is introduced into the body from outside, it is called a drug. The role played by organic chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry continues to be one of the main drivers in the drug discovery process. However, the precise nature of that role is undergoing a visible change, not only because of the new synthetic methods and technologies now available to the synthetic and medicinal chemist, but also in several key areas, particularly in drug metabolism and chemical toxicology, as chemists deal with the ever more rapid turnaround of testing data that influences their day-to-day decisions. Numerous changes are now occurring in the pharmaceutical industry, not just in the way that the industry is perceived, but also in the rapid expansion of biomedical and scientific knowledge, which affects the way science is practiced in the industry. The recent changes that have occurred in scientific advances are due to the new synthetic techniques and new technologies for rational drug design, combinatorial chemistry, automated synthesis, and compound purification and identification. In addition, with the advent of high-throughput screening (HTS), we are now faced with many targets being screened and many hits being evaluated. However, success in this arena still requires skilled medicinal chemists making the correct choices, often with insight gleaned from interactions with computational chemists and structural biologists, about which â€Å"hits† are likely to play out as true â€Å"lead† structures that will meet the plethora of hurdles that any drug candidate must surmount. It is the mission of pharmaceutical research companies to take the path from understanding a disease to bringing a safe and effective new treatment to patients. Scientists work to piece together the basic causes of disease at the level of genes, proteins and cells. Out of this understanding emerge â€Å"targets,† which potential new drugs might be able to affect. Researchers work to validate these targets, discover the right molecule (potential drug) to interact with the target chosen, test the new compound in the lab and clinic for safety and efficacy and gain approval and get the new drug into the hands of doctors and patients. The drug discovery process goes through following sequences for the development of particular drug4. Pre-discovery (Understand the disease) Before any potential new medicine can be discovered, scientists work to understand the disease to be treated as well as possible, and to unravel the underlying cause of the condition. They try to understand how the genes are altered, how that affects the proteins they encode and how those proteins interact with each other in living cells, how those affected cells change the specific tissue they are in and finally how the disease affects the entire patient. This knowledge is the basis for treating the problem. Researchers from government, academia and industry all contribute to this knowledge base. However, even with new tools and insights, this research takes many years of work and, too often, leads to frustrating dead ends. And even if the research is successful, it will take many more years of work to turn this basic understanding of what causes a disease into a new treatment. Target Identification (Choose a molecule to target with a drug) Once they have enough understanding of the underlying cause of a disease pharmaceutical researchers select a â€Å"target† for a potential new medicine. A target is generally a single molecule, such as a gene or protein, which is involved in a particular disease. Even at this early stage in drug discovery it is critical that researchers pick a target that is â€Å"drugable,† i.e., one that can potentially interact with and be affected by a drug molecule. Target Validation (Test the target and confirm its role in the disease) After choosing a potential target, scientists must show that it actually is involved in the disease and can be acted upon by a drug. Target validation is crucial to help scientists avoid research paths that look promising, but ultimately lead to dead ends. Researchers demonstrate that a particular target is relevant to the disease being studied through complicated experiments in both living cells and in animal models of disease. Drug Discovery (Find a promising molecule that could become a drug) Armed with their understanding of the disease, scientists are ready to begin looking for a drug. They search for a molecule, or â€Å"lead compound,† that may act on their target to alter the disease course. If successful over long odds and years of testing, the lead compound can ultimately become a new medicine. There are a few ways to find a lead compound: Nature: Scientists usually have turned to nature for find interesting compounds for fighting against diseases. Bacteria found in soil and mouldy plants both led to important new treatments. Nature still offers many useful substances, but now there are other ways to approach drug discovery. De novo: Thanks to advances in chemistry, scientists can also create molecules from scratch. They can use sophisticated computer modelling to predict what type of molecule may work. High-throughput Screening: This process is the most common way that leads are usually found. Advances in robotics and computational power allow researchers to test hundreds of thousands of compounds against the target to identify any that might be promising. Based on the results, several lead compounds are usually selected for further study. Biotechnology: Scientists can also genetically engineer living systems to produce disease-fighting biological molecules. Early Safety Tests(Perform initial tests on promising compounds) Lead compounds go through a series of tests to provide an early assessment of the safety of the lead compound. Scientists test Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicological (ADME/Tox) properties, or â€Å"pharmacokinetics,† of each lead. These studies help researchers prioritize lead compounds early in the discovery process. ADME/Tox studies are performed in living cells, in animals via computational models. Lead Optimization(Alter the structure of lead candidates to improve properties) Lead compounds that survive the initial screening are then optimized, or altered to make them more effective and safer. By changing the structure of a compound, scientists can give it different properties. For example, they can make it less likely to interact with other chemical pathways in the body, thus reducing the potential for side effects. Hundreds of different variations or â€Å"analogues† of the initial leads are made and tested. Teams of biologists and chemists work together closely: The biologists test the effects of analogues on biological systems while the chemists take this information to make additional alterations that are then retested by the biologists. The resulting compound is the candidate drug. Even at this early stage, researchers begin to think about how the drug will be made, considering formulation (the recipe for making a drug, including inactive ingredients used to hold it together and allow it to dissolve at the right time), delivery mechanism (the way the drug is taken – by mouth, injection, inhaler) and large-scale manufacturing (how you make the drug in large quantities). Preclinical Testing(Lab and animal testing to determine if the drug is safe enough for human testing) With one or more optimized compounds in hand, researchers turn their attention to testing them extensively to determine if they should move on to testing in humans. Scientists carry out in vitro and in vivo tests. In vitro tests are experiments conducted in the lab, usually carried out in test tubes and beakers (â€Å"vitro† is â€Å"glass† in Latin) and in vivo studies are those in living cell cultures and animal models (â€Å"vivo† is â€Å"life† in Latin). Scientists try to understand how the drug works and what its safety profile looks like. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require extremely thorough testing before the candidate drug can be studied in humans. During this stage researchers also must work out how to make large enough quantities of the drug for clinical trials. Techniques for making a drug in the lab on a small scale do not translate easily to larger production. This is the first scale up. The drug will need to be scaled up eve n more if it is approved for use in the general patient population. At the end of several years of intensive work, the discovery phase concludes. After starting with approximately 5,000 to 10,000 compounds, scientists now have winnowed the group down to between one and five molecules, â€Å"candidate drugs,† which will be studied in clinical trials. The drugs that are being currently used for curing human ailments mainly comprise of several natural products having complex structures. These are derived from terrestrial micro-organisms, plants and animals. The synthetic analogues of the above or other synthetic compounds that are totally non-natural also serve as drugs. A survey of literature reveals that â€Å"HETEROCYCLES† have been increasingly important not only in the field of medicinal world but also in the agriculture. The chemistry of the heterocyclic compounds is as logical as that of aliphatic or aromatic compounds. This study is of great interest both from the theoretical as well as practical stand point. Heterocyclic compounds are the organic substrates that contain a cyclic structure bearing atoms like nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur in addition to carbon atom as the part of their ring. The cyclic part (from Greek kyklos, meaning circle) of heterocycle indicates that at least one ring structure is present in such a compound and the prefix hetero (from Greek heteros, meaning other or different) refers to non-carbon atom in the ring. The cyclic part of the heterocycle indicates that at least one ring structure is cyclic organic compound that incorporate at least one hetero atom in the rings like cyclopropane or benzene. The presence of the heteroatom gives heterocyclic compounds many significant physical and chemical properties that are usually distinct from those of all carbon-ring analogues. These structures may comprise of either simple aromatic rings or non-aromatic ring. The chemistry of heterocyclic compounds is one of the most interesting and intriguing branch of the organic chemistry which is of equal interests for its theoretical implications, for the diversity of its synthetic procedures and for the physiological and industrial significances.1-2 The variety of heterocyclic compounds is enormous, their chemistry is complex and synthesizing them requires great skill. Among large number of heterocycles found in nature nitrogen heterocycles are most abundant than those containing oxygen or sulphur owing to their wide distribution in nucleic acid instance and involvement in almost every physiological process of plants and animals. It is well known that a number of heterocyclic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur exhibit a wide variety of biological activities. The majority of pharmaceutical products that mimic natural products with biological activity are heterocyclic in nature3 and are of great importance to life because their structural subunits exist in many natural products such as vitamins, hormones, antibiotics and pigments.4,5 Besides the vast distribution of heterocycles in natural products, these substrates are also the major components of biological molecules such as DNA and RNA, in the form of pyrimidine and purine bases. The enzymes possess purely protein structures and the coenzymes incorporate non-amino acid moieties, most of them are aromatic nitrogen heterocycles. Porphyrins8-10 are the backbone of many major compounds and some of their derivatives are fundamental to life, such as heme11 derivatives in blood and chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis. The heme group of the oxygen-carrying protein-hemoglobin and related compounds such as myoglobin; the chlorophyll, which are the light-gathering pigments of green plants and other photosynthetic organisms, and vitamin B12 are all formed from four pyrrole units joined in a larger ring system known as a porphyrin, such as that of chlorophyll a 1.9 and chlorophyll b 1.10. Many vitamins13 like folic acid 1.12, vitamin B5, nicotinic acid 1.13, nicotinamide 1.14, vitamin B6 pyridoxine 1.15, pyridoxal 1.16, and pyridoxamine 1.17 are well known heterocyclic compounds. Psoralen consists of coumarin fused with furan rings, is used in treatment for skin problems and it shows considerable clinical efficacy.14 Cinchona bark15 has been used for several hundred years for the treatment of malaria where quinine 1.21 is the active heterocyclic component. Caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) 1.22 obtained commercially from methylation of xanthine with methyl chloride or dimethylsulphate and alkali, is the major stimulant in tea and coffee. Natural products containing heterocyclic compounds such as alkaloids and glycosides have been used since old age, as remedial agents. Febrifagl alkaloid from ancient Chinese drug, Chang Shan, reserpine from Indian rouwopifia, Curen alkaloid from arrow poison, codenine, j-tropine and strychnine are all examples of heterocyclic compounds. Many alkaloids37 contain a pyridine or piperidine ring structure, among them nicotine 1.55, the main alkaloid constituent of tobacco, is based on the five membered pyrrolidine and six membered pyridine structures and piperine 1.56 which is one of the sharp-tasting constituents of white and black pepper and it is obtained from the plant species piper nigrum. The benzimidazole derivatives 1.64-1.68 having antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesics properties have been successfully prepared.41 Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines have attracted much attention since the beginning of the last century. Due to their important biological activity, they have, in recent years, been broadly investigated and utilized in the pharmaceutical industry. They are also used in bioimaging probes and molecular recognition because of their structural characters.1 In addition, the imidazo[1,2 -a]pyridine scaffolds have been found to be the core structure of many natural products and drugs such as zolpidem, alpidem, saripidem, tenatoprazole, olprinone, and DS-1.2,3 (3)Zhuan Fei, Yan-ping Zhu ⇑, Mei-cai Liu, Feng-cheng Jia, An-xin Wu Tetrahedron Letters 54 (2013) 1222–1226 (imidazo-5 in reference folder) Heterocyclic compounds are obtainable by the following methods. a. Isolation from natural sources, i.e. alkaloids, amino acids, indigo dyes etc. b. Degradation of natural products i.e. acridine, furfural, indol, pyridine, quinoline, thiophene etc. c. Synthesis: Synthesis methods for obtaining heterocyclic compounds may be divided into ring closer reactions, addition reaction and replacement reaction. Cyclisation is usually accomplished by elimination of some small molecules such as water or ammonia from chain of suitable length. Heterocyclic compounds have a great applicability as drugs because, a. They have a specific chemical reactivity. b. They resemble essential metabolism and can provide false synthons in biosynthetic process. Aims and objectives: Taking in view the applicability of heterocyclic compounds, we have undertaken the preparation of heterocycles bearing triazole and pyrimidines nucleus. The placements of a wide variety of substituents of these nuclei have been designed in order to evaluate the synthesized products for their pharmacological profile against several strains of bacteria and fungi and tuberculosis. During the course of our research work, looking to the application of heterocyclic compounds, several entities have been designed, generated and characterized using spectral studies. The details are as under. To synthesize several bioactive derivatives of benzo[d]imidazo and its Schiff’s base and dihydro pyrazolothiazoles. To generate triazolo [1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives. To synthesize imidazo [1,2-a]pyridine by Green Synthesis and develop their Mannich base. To check purity of all synthesized compounds using thin layer chromatography. To characterize these synthesized products for structure elucidation using various spectroscopic techniques like IR, 1H and 13C NMR and mass spectral studies. To grow single crystal of the synthesized compounds and study there X-ray crystallography for establishment of the structure. To evaluate these new synthesized products for better drug potential against different strains of bacteria and fungi.