Blood Diamonds Essay

The result in the deaths of more than fifty thousand people, left millions homeless, and integrated violence such as mass rapes and mutilations were caused from these jewels earnings which helped to subsidize a war. It was also stated that these blood diamonds increase the battle in Africa which resulted to the loss of four million lives and millions of residents has been dislocated. Same of what happened at Sierra Leone which had discrepancy; these conflict diamonds yet in little ways can cause massive destruction in a country. In the vile civil war at Sierra Leone, the rising up evolutionary United Front apprehended control to a great extent of the nation’s diamond fields. The issue regarding blood diamonds did not occur only long-ago. There was a report recently by the United Nation that twenty-three dollars of diamonds are being smuggled into international diamond markets which are from the Ivory Coast. Diamonds have also played an important role in financing conflicts in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fortified sadism and vicious human rights abuses go on with over control of diamond mines in eastern Congo which was the bloodiest war since World War II. The Global Witness in 1998 had to start a revelation operation about the role of diamonds in financial support argument. Amnesty International a proletariat human rights organization in the world became so influential in enlightening citizens concerning the problem and urges the governments and industry to take action. International tension has augmented from a large federation of Non Government Officials through the years. United States is the seventy percent of the world’s diamond trader and this only means that it was the leading costumer of diamonds. With this reason, they should be the first and major head to cover on the problem of blood diamonds which also called conflict diamonds. On the way hard works for the United States Congress to control the trading of blood diamonds. Terrorist operation are possible funded by the international trade of diamonds and with this, the United States Congress Members obtains tactics to put a stop to it. Diamonds are expensive goods that can easily be covered and transported according to the U. S. General Accounting Office and was used in illegal means of trading. It was extracted from inaccessible areas which no hint to find from its origin. Government-run Kimberley Process which is an international agreement endorsed by the United Nation which aimed and developed a diamond certification program that would prevent the flow of blood diamond and initiated stop to its trade was presently participate United States together with other countries. The â€Å"chain of warranties† or the â€Å"system of self regulation. † was the agreement wherein the diamond companies will take charge to guard itself in dispatching diamonds from its place to the stores where it should be delivered. This became there support to the Kimberley Process. However this agreement I not fully applied to the industries because it is a must for a company dealing in diamonds to have a course of action in place to guarantee that their diamonds are conflict-free. Actual visit of the government in the diamond industries should be practiced for more assurance of freeing from conflicts and conduct cyclic area confirmation to diamond companies to make sure they have schemes in place to avoid any trade in conflict diamonds. Several of the countries rich in diamonds are those really poor and citizens do not get any benefit from their resources particularly the soil richness. Confusions and explosive natures are widespread in the diamond fields because revolutionary group’s antiterrorists can still seize benefit and right to use the diamonds. Given all the problems concerning the conflict diamonds the United States government should take a look in implementing the diamond law and require all regions to build up a reliable diamond industry. The practice for tracking arrangement in each of the diamond companies will be helpful to make sure to prevent the entrance in the market of conflict diamonds. Additional force should be given off by the Administration for the implementation of Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA) in impeding the operation to conflict diamonds as they support the Kimberley Process. Nowadays, blood diamonds are still a serious dilemma. Experientially the government action in controlling the finance conflict in diamonds are not that powerful and functional to ensure that the rebel groups, terrorist and other criminal networks will not anymore make use of it. This continual weakness of the Control System found by the Government Accountability Office of United States was because of the paltry imposing of Clean Diamond Trade Act. The needs for development in monitoring process in the diamond industries in line with the law and accumulating precise information on United States trade in rough diamonds. Being the leading consumer of diamonds, the United States should insist on strengthening the Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process. Suggested step that will be the best help addressing on the problem will be: working with other key administration to reinforce the Kimberley Process and break down on blood diamonds smuggled out of the Ivory Coast. In addition ensure that the Kimberley Process taking on procedures to develop the accurateness and investigation of the information, call for authentication of production conformity, endow with satisfactory financing to encourage effective completion of the system. They should also provide more forceful support as well as technical and financial aid, to help countries develop their accomplishment of the Kimberley Process. The on time application of the proposals of Government Accountability Office including the spot checks of diamond companies and tracking of rough diamonds inside and outside the country especially the goal setting in executing the proposal will be a great help in resolving the problems. Having hands on urgent dealings to progress the accuracy of United States rough diamond trade statistics will also be a help. References: Combating Conflict Diamonds, Retrieved August 18, 2007, http://www. globalwitness. org/pages/en/conflict_diamonds. html Conflict Diamonds, Retrieved August 18, 2007, www. amnestyusa. org/news/doc/diamonds_survey_text. pdf US Congress Tackles ‘Blood Diamonds’ Trade, Retrieved August 18, 2007, www. voanews. com/english/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-14-2-US. cfm Conflict Diamonds, Retrieved August 18, 2007, www. un. org/peace/africa/Diamond. html Stop the Trade in Blood Diamonds, Retrieved August 18, 2007, worldvision. org/worldvision/†¦ /stable/globalissues_conflictdiamonds

Management Function Essay

All organizations depend on group efforts. Teamwork and group action have become necessary in every day of life, and it will lead to the success in group efforts. The management will be very important to the groups because it can helps to achieve group goals, provides maximum resources to his or her team, minimizes the cost, establishes sound organization, and generates more welfare to his or her team. Management functions, manager’s skills, management control and strategic management process will be analyzed to define how an excellent manager should be. Four Management Functions The four management functions comprise the primary functions to the managers. These four functions which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling can be used in all fields of management, be it at a factory, a super market, a restaurant or even at home. Planning Managers need to perform the planning function to define goals, establish strategies to achieve these goals and develop sub plans to coordinate activities for his or her team members. For example, as a merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, the manager needs to define what the target customers like Western people, South East Asia people or East Asians the supermarkets want to attract. After define the goals are attract more and more Asian-Canadian families, the manager need to establish strategies like bringing Asian-Canadian families fresh foods and introducing the diversity of Asian food culture at stores that offer exceptional convenience, service, and value to those Asian customers. Then, lots of sub plans like which kind of merchandises should be imported and the merchandises’ price setting strategies will be developed by the manager and pass to different buyers to follow up. Organizing Managers need to arrange job duties to his or her team members to achieve the organization’s goal. The managers will determine what tasks should be done, who will responsible for the task and how the tasks are to be grouped. For example, as the merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, the manager needs to organize his or her team to different group and each group will in charge of different merchandises by categories like drink, snack, rice oil and noodles. After different teams have been organized, each team’s supervisor will be selected by the merchandising manager. The buyers will report to their supervisors and the supervisors will report to the merchandising manager. Leading Managers need to lead their team members to achieve the organizations’ goals. The leading function will require the managers to provide good communication skills and lead ship skills to resolve the behavior issues. As the merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, some conflicts will be appeared with different buyers. Buyers will provide some products that buyers want to promote to be the promotion products in each week’s flyer, due to the limited space of the flyer, not all the products will be selected to be the promotion products by merchandising manager. The manager will use the communication skills and lead ship skills to let the buyers know why their products cannot be selected and what they should improve next time. Controlling The last management function is controlling. Managers need to evaluate and monitor employees’ performance and make sure every step is correct to achieve the goals. As the merchandising manager, the merchandises’ sales are the key performance index to evaluate buyers’ performance. Usually, merchandising manager will use category sales to evaluate each team’s performance and total stores sales’ growth percentage to evaluate the whole department’s performance. Skills Required by Managers Technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills are three most important skills required by managers. Though these three skills, managers can know more about the specified filed they are working, have better interpersonal relationship with people and have more ideas when facing the complex situations. Technical skills Managers need have strong technical skills in the specified filed because the managers need to deal with his or her employees when the employees face some difficulties during the working. The managers will give help and lead the employees to solve technical problems to achieve the organizations’ goals. For example, as a merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, he or she must have strong purchasing skills, budgeting skills, know well with different merchandises that are sold in stores and inventory management skills. Human skills Managers must have ability to work well with different employees. Managers with perfect human skills, they can receive more and more trust from their employees and the employees can make full effort to achieve the organizations’ goals. As the supermarket chain’s merchandising manager, he or she should get well not only with different buyers, but also with store levels’ employees. If the manager can work well with store levels’ employees, the products that they imported can be displayed very well and follow merchandising department’s pricing strategies, as a result, the company’s goal can be achieved easily. Conceptual skills Managers must have ability to analyze and provide solutions when facing difficulties or complex situations. In the business world, top-level management positions usually required to have this skill. For example, as the merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, when the new store will be opened, the manager will use conceptual skills to analyze what the best location is, what the best merchandises will be on shelf and what the target sales will be generated and so on. Also, if one of categories’ sales was continuing decreasing in the past several weeks, the manager need provide insight and solutions to the category team to help them overcome the difficulties. Two Views of Management Control Omnipotent view of management: The traditional view of managers is that they are directly responsible for organizations’ success and failures. When the organizations’ performance is poor, the managers should provide reasons and solutions; when the organizations’ performance is good, the managers should get the credit even if they only do little things to achieve the goals. Symbolic view of management Managers only have limited effects on organizational outcomes and performances because of the large number of factors like customers, competitors, government policies and economy outside the control of managers. Both omnipotent view of management and symbolic view of management purpose are to achieve organizations’ goals and provide the excellent performance to the organizations. As well, either omnipotent view of management or symbolic view of management, managers needs to make decisions within organizations when something happened. Like the merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, if stores’ sales are continuing decreasing, whatever the reason is merchandises’ price are not attractive or the outside economy is in downtrend, the manager need provide insights and solutions to improve sales for the company. However, there are big differences between omnipotent view of management and symbolic view of management. The managers will in charge of everything for organizations’ success and failures under omnipotent view of management; but under the symbolic view of management, lots of external factors will affect organizations’ performance, so the managers do not have big effects on organizational outcomes and performances. As the merchandising manager in the supermarket chain business, when stores’ sales are continuing decreasing, the manager will think if customers do not like the merchandises that they imported or the merchandises’ price is too high for the customers under omnipotent view of management, then the manager will provide solutions to improve the sales; however, under the symbolic view of management, the manager will think about if stores’ sales were effected by strong competitions in the market or the downtrend of economy. Strategic Management Process Step1: identify the organization’s current mission, goals and strategies Explain: The mission, goals and strategies of an organization are very important to employees, especially for managers. Managers need to create scope work by step to achieve organizations’ goals, missions and strategies. Example: A supermarket Inc. mission is that attract more and more Asian-Canadian families, bringing Asian-Canadian families fresh foods and introducing the diversity of Asian food culture at stores that offer exceptional convenience, service, and value to those Asian customers. The merchandising manager need bring in more Asian products to the stores to attract customers. Step2: do an internal analysis Explain: An internal analysis about the organization’s resources and capabilities will be done to indentify the organization’s strength and weakness Example: The merchandising manager will do an internal analysis to indentify the company’s strength which is have different kinds of Asian foods cross grocery, produce, seafood and bakery and weakness which is lack of experience about what kind of western foods is suitable for Asian customers. Step3: do an external analysis Explain: An external analysis about the business environment, government policies, and competitions will be done to help managers know opportunities and threats for organizations. Example: The merchandising manager will do an external analysis to know the opportunities and threats for the company. Opportunities are more and more Asian families move to Toronto and lots of labor supply in the market. Threats are the strong competitions exist in Toronto’s Asian supermarkets field. Step4: formulate strategies Explain: After identify organizations’ missions and finished internal and external analysis, managers need formulate strategies to achieve organizations’ mission base on SWOT. Example: The merchandising manager formulates the strategy which is open more new stores to achieve the company’s mission. More and more Asian families move to Toronto and lots of labor supply in the market, new stores will be easy opened and can attract more Asian customers. Meanwhile, strong competitions exist in the market, the company need to increase the number of stores to low the products’ cost. Step5: implement strategies Explain: After managers formulate the strategies, lots of members will be involved to implement the strategies to achieve organizations’ goals. Example: The merchandising manager will request his or her buyers to import more Asian merchandises for new stores, work with the store operation department to decide the layout of stores and work with finance department about new stores’ budget. Step6: evaluate results Explain: After the strategies were implemented, managers need to evaluate the results to see if achieve the organizations’ goals and make any adjustments if necessary. Example: After new store was opened, the managers need to calculate if store’s sales had been achieved the target. If not, the manager will provide solutions to improve store sales immediately.

Aristotle Virtue Ethics Essay

One basic notion in Aristotelian ethics that occupies a central significance is Aristotle’s belief in the role of man’s activities in order for one to acquire ethical knowledge. That is, for one to become virtuous or to obtain virtues one should not merely confine himself to mere studying of these virtues but rather one should, more importantly, actualize this knowledge of the virtues. Thus, for one to become good, one should do good. Aristotle further stretches his ideas by proposing the doctrine of the mean. The essence of this doctrine dwells on the basic precept that one ought to avoid the extremes and, instead, settle for the â€Å"mean†. The actions of men, more specifically, ought to be framed upon the â€Å"mean† which is the virtue. For example, the virtue of courage rests on the mean between two extremes: cowardice or the â€Å"lack† of courage, and rashness or the â€Å"excess† in courage. It can easily be observed that Aristotle suggests that one should live a life that does not border on the things that are on the â€Å"most† and the â€Å"least† levels. For example, if I were to follow Aristotle’s ethics I should always see to it that I should consistently draw myself towards the middle value and avoid slanting towards cowardice and excess. All this could have been very well except for one small thing that I cannot seem to fully comprehend. How is it possible for one to ascertain that one is actually taking the middle path? Or how is it possible for one to know that this or that is the middle value or is the virtuous action? Perhaps the key in having an understanding to the notion of the â€Å"mean† is that one should act. That is, as I continually have these ideas as to what I must do when faced with an ethical situation or, at the least, an ordinary situation, I should nonetheless take the course of action so that I will be able to obtain a qualitative understanding that what I am doing is the â€Å"excess†. On the other hand, I will be having quite a rough time in acquiring the understanding as to whether the action that I am doing is virtuous if all that I do is to theorize and never let my theory be put into practice. Aristotle’s virtue ethics reminds me of Plato’s conception of ethics. For the most part of the Republic, Plato attempts to arrive at a conception of a just life by centering on the notion that the just life or that which is good is better than living a life molded on an evil framework and one which prompts individuals to act in an evil manner. At the onset of the Republic’s Book II, a conception of the idea of â€Å"justice† is advanced as the working of an individual in accordance to the role in which one is best suited as well as the belief for non-interference in the activities of others. In essence, this principle is closely related to Plato’s perspective on acting in accordance to one’s nature or intrinsic being which results to the state or condition of being â€Å"just† or acting justly once the individual acts in line to his very nature. Otherwise, if one begins to act beyond what his nature prescribes, then the individual begins to act in an unjust manner thereby resulting to â€Å"evil† actions (Plato and Kamtekar). While Aristotle insists that one should put into action the thought that one may have so as to have an understanding of the middle value that should be taken, Plato, on the other hand, suggests that one should simply go by with one’s nature so as not to be â€Å"evil†. If I were to choose which ethical precept would be better or would fit me best, I would rather be inclined to adopt Aristotle’s virtue ethics over the other because it offers me a chance to actualize myself through my actions and be guided accordingly. Whereas for Plato, what I am seeing is that I should get to know my self first before I act so that I can be good. But this cannot be met easily essentially because I find it quite difficult to know myself if I would not act first. In the light, if all the students in a certain class would build up a virtue like that of Aristotle’s point of view, the achievement of an environment which is formidably that built on the concept of philosophical and tremendously beneficial notions in life, the attainment of the virtue of goodness is towering in the highest hopes—although it eventually does not also undermine the concept of realism. Apparently, many may not stick on this kind of perception and ought to think that it is certainly not possible to achieve a life which is way beyond the bounds of a â€Å"not-so-good† life for that instance, but with the maximum height of human rationality, such may be given enough credit for the philosophers who believed in a life where â€Å"goodness comes in deeds† (Lannstrom). Work Cited Lannstrom, Anna. Loving the Fine: Virtue and Happiness in Aristotle’s Ethics. Indiana USA: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006. Plato, and R. Kamtekar. â€Å"The Conventional View of Justice Developed. † Trans. D. Lee. The Republic. 2 ed: Penguin Classics, 2003. 8-14.

Technology Appraisal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Technology Appraisal - Essay Example These steps are of prime importance to the design of foundations. Objectives of soil exploration and testing are to assess sequence and thickness of strata. To determine the position of the Ground water Table and characteristics and their types of subsoil. Then bring these samples to the lab and test them for minor details. Which include the determination of their shear strength, compressibility and chemical characteristics. At the end if there are some problems with the soil and its does not fulfill the requirements for the sustenance of the structure, consequently the geotechnical engineer proposes solutions to the problem depending on the results of the soil testing he has done. There are majorly two types of soil testing in civil engineering; first one is In-situ testing and the other Lab testing. As the name clearly depicts the location of the tests, Insitu is done on site and then the samples acquired from there come to the lab for further analysis. Although there are many soil tests that are performed at both the locations but the most prominent and used among them are the following. The above mentioned tests are the most widely used in the soil testing and geotechnical investigations for the civil engineering projects. In my report I will not be able to discuss all of them and have to select one because each test has a vast area of application, inaddition to this the diverse arrangements for the performance of these tests make it further more difficult. For that purpose I have selected one of the above tests which is the Insitu Test, Standard Penetration Test (SPT). There are majorly three reasons for this selection, the first is that SPT test is among the most widely used tests for soil exploration and sampling of the soil for further tests which are to be performed in the lab, so consequently in every

The differences Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The differences - Assignment Example There is an increase of feminist movements who are ready to speak on behalf of the oppressed through civic education and constituency awareness (Serano 20). This is being manifested as a women revolution in the realization of one’s identity. How are you going to ensure the movements succeed in their aspirations? According to Sheryl Sandberg in Why we have too few women leaders, there is an imperative need for women to balance their professions and family life without allowing any compromise (Serano 34). Therefore, in your capacity as president, what will you do to help women find an effective balance to help them in advancement? In the Combahee River Collective, Black feminists make recollections of their persistent struggle since 1974 in the definition and clarification of the country’s politics (Serano 39). They also recollect their creation of coalitions and promotion progressive movements and organizations. What is your presidency planning to do advance such earlier efforts? Since the 1880s till the present, different women have attempted their chances at the presidency both in America and other nations to change their nations (Serano 45). They include Blanca Rojas Echaverry of Nicaragua, Dr. Heide Schmidt, Austria and Hillary Clinton among others. How will you ensure women have better chances of clinching top leadership positions to bring change? Various studies reveal that men have better negotiation skills than women. In the view of Sheryl Sandberg in Why we have too few women leaders, this is has been caused by a culture that demeans women and makes them look inferior in fighting for equal opportunities in the workforce (Serano 13). What is your presidency planning to do to mitigate on this worrying trend? There is also the problem with a majority of women of color in Women and Family that lack skills, experience and education that prevents them from attaining excellence in several

Homosexuality is not a sexual preference Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Homosexuality is not a sexual preference - Essay Example It is however, important to understand that homosexuals often face difficulties which are difficult to overcome and put them in socially disadvantageous position. Not only they face strong psychological issues but they are also being discriminated based upon their sexual orientation and are often considered as odd man out in the society. The overall societal response to homosexuals therefore varies according to cultures and historical periods and is still considered as unfavorable in many societies. Though some States have allowed the Gay Marriages however, still there are some States where it is not legal. Such situation may suggest a split opinion about the homosexuals within the country. Similarly, Military has relaxed its rules to allow same sex marriages however; it has still not been accepted by the Military personnel and has hard time dealing with it. Gay parents are still not accepted by many people and their children suffer significant childhood trauma to actually deal with this situation. Not only they are being bullied growing up but they are being put in a situation which may be entirely out of their control and still they may face the consequences of the same. This paper will argue and discuss and prove that homosexuality is not a sexual preference. Though the term homosexuality has been coined in late 19th century however, its history dates back to Greek era and often reference is made to the Plato’s Symposium to the recent Queer theory. It is suggested that the largest amount of data which is available regarding the history of homosexuality comes from Greece. Right from the work of Plato and other Greek authors to the artwork, homosexuality has been comprehensively discussed and depicted in different sources in Greek literature. (Ekwo,15) It is also believed that homosexuality has been present in Greek culture more than any ancient culture and therefore most of the references regarding the historical origins of the homosexuality. It is also important to understand that despite such tendencies, there were some regional variations even across the whole Greece therefore it is important to keep this factor distinguished. Some notable persons such as Alexander the Great has also been considered to have interest in boys and other men. However, the overall number of such persons is relatively low. (Crompton) In ancient Greece, having particular interest in any same sex individuals was not considered as a moral issue but it was seen from the perspective of the individual preferences and choices. To ancient Greeks, Gender was irrelevant and more preferences were given to beauty and character found in either sex. Exercise of moderation as well as the social and economic status of the persons were taken into consideration too w hile anyone was actually attracted to any particular sex. There were also distinctions based upon having relationships with the slaves as well as freemen. Sex with freemen were considered as problematic in nature however, with slaves it was relatively easy. Besides, there were clear distinctions based upon the role being played by the partners during the overall relationship. The active and passive role, inserative and penetrative role played by partners’

Citizenship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Citizenship - Essay Example American citizens need to be active and engage in daily operation of the government activities in order to establish a just and liberal society. Therefore, it is the significant for civic, local, small, and religious groups get detailed knowledge and education significant to administer the right combination of compassion, loving and active discipline necessary for each citizen. This in turn will foster citizenship, encouraging civic pride and nurturing American families. Citizens must be ready and willing to agree and adhere to the regulations, tenets, obligations, and rules by which they are governed. Democratic governments give many freedoms to their citizens incorporating the freedom to criticize and dissent the government. Citizenship in a democratic country needs civility, patience, and participation. Democratic citizens realize that they have rights and responsibilities (Jeffrey et al, 2010). Due to this, they are challenged to understand that democracy needs hard work and an i nvestment of time. Therefore, a government of the people requires consistent support and vigilance by the governed. Responsibilities of citizens in a democracy demand the need for collective self-government and a personal sense of social concern as member of a polity. This shows a multifaceted nature of citizenship as a practice and philosophy that values the objectives and goals of equality, fraternity, and liberty. In democratic states such as the United States of America, the civic participation or engagement implies that citizens are required to act as juries or offer mandatory civilian or military national service for a certain period (Jeffrey et al, 2010). In addition, other obligations apply to the democratic ideals and are the main roles or responsibilities of the citizen. For instance, a sole responsibility among these is the respect for the rule of law. It is significant for citizens to pay their taxes, respect the rights of other people who have different ideas or opinion s from theirs’, and accepting the power of the elected government are some of the responsibilities of a citizen in a democracy. A citizen in a democratic government has the role of pursuing the common good of the community. Therefore, it is important to lay emphasis on the principles of voluntarism or freedom in that the government or the authority does not have the right to compel and force its citizens to be good but it can offer incentives as well as sanctions for bad or unacceptable behaviors. A democratic government needs to have educated, aggressive and responsible citizens who act in accordance with the various civic virtues such as self-determination, freedom from oppressive government and interdependence. This is because in absence of active citizen participation and without practice of civic virtue in the life of a community, democratic institutions such as the State and market and the entire civil society cannot operate in a sustainable manner (Jeffrey et al, 2010) . Democratic citizens understand that they bear the burden of roles for their community if indeed they have to benefit from the government’s guard of their rights. In order for democracy to succeed, its citizens must be aggressive since they are aware that the failure or success of the government is their obligation and responsibility. In turn, the government understands that it must treat its citizens

Law Case Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Law Case Analysis - Essay Example The House of Commons can implement the judgement at its level. Considering the case of Spiliada Maritime V. Cansulex, the house of commons did not fully give a satisfaction to the defendant thus the defendant went ahead and made an appeal given by Lord Goff where He made a ruling that, there was enough natural form including applicable law relating to the matter, availability of witnesses, presence of the residence of the two parties and that the plaintiff had a possibility of obtaining foreign jurisdiction. Thus, there was making of a judgement by the Supreme Court. In this case, there is a judgement considering that there is no other jurisdiction that suits the requirements of the parties. The procedure the court follows includes; granting the basic principle when there is enough satisfaction by the court that there is another forum that can settle the dispute forum of the parties thus applying more suitably to the satisfaction of the parties. The court then determines the legal bu rden of proof which shows enough evidence. The Supreme Court then determines who lies with the burden depending on the existence of a natural or a forum which is appropriate. After this, the court finds the factors that show there is the existence of another forum which entails the presence of enough witnesses as well as the law that will be under administration in settling the dispute. At this moment, the court will get to a conclusion as to whether another forum is available. If there is another forum, the court then grants a stay considering the circumstances surrounding the dispute as seen in the ruling of Lord Goff1. Factors that the court takes into consideration and illustrative cases In relation to the forum non conveniens, its appropriateness is brought to question and also the applicability of the principle of forum non conveniens. This relates to cost, the outcome as well as the delays in the implementation of the principle. The principle finds its application in internat ional law especially in the private section. Its long process of implementation makes the principle to be in use in the domestic system, which involves cases where the judicial structure does not have a structure that has unification and where the judicial system is federal. The uncertainty of the outcome is due to the expansions in the level of jurisdiction in the legislation where plaintiffs can file a suit at their residential places. According to the code of civil procedure, there should be the filling of suits in the residential place of the defendant rather than that of the plaintiff. There are many details in this system due to the fact that the defendant will not accept the filling of the suit to take place at the residence of the plaintiff; this is because it may be taken as a weapon of harassment forcing the defendant to go to the residence of the plaintiff which may be far. Further, many past judgements have taken effect thus the court may have a challenge in deciding whi ch is the best channel to solve the dispute amicably thus leading to delays. There are enormous costs from the implementation of this principle where, the defendant and the plaintiff may face off due to the fact that they have the right for the cases to be heard at the place due to the cost as well as moving there witnesses to the residence

The Effects of Media on Juveniles in Today's Society Research Paper

The Effects of Media on Juveniles in Today's Society - Research Paper Example In this regard, the current essay aims to explore the effects of media on juveniles in contemporary society. The term media is explicitly defined as â€Å"communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet† (Business Dictionary, 2012). Due to the expansive channels within which various kinds of information, promotions, public announcements, campaigns and propaganda available, it is inevitable that people from all age groups could be influenced by them. However, due to the nature of juveniles’ development stage where curiosity and the need to explore is predominantly manifested, media provides significant effects both on the positive and negative side on juveniles in today’s society. According to Clay (2003), â€Å"no electronic mediums effects are all good or all bad; its the content that makes all the difference† (p. 40). Television, for example, has been widely researched in terms of its negative impact on children’s development. The Media Awareness Network (2010) has noted that â€Å"how much impact TV has on children depends on many factors: how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV† (par. 2). The impact of television ranges from exposure to violence that increases preponderance to aggressive behavior; decreased learning performance due to excessive watching; contributory factor to obesity due to lack of time spent for physical activities; and exposure to sexual content (Media Awareness Network, 2010). On the other hand, the most prolific medium used by juveniles today, the internet through social networking sites provide the following effects: increased tendencies for Internet

Process laboratories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Process laboratories - Essay Example This implies that more and more liquids rich in highly volatile components are being re-used back in the column. Separation then becomes easier and thus fewer trays are required to achieve the same operation degree. Minimum tray is needed under total reflux conditions that are distillate and are not withdrawn. On the contrary, as the reflux is reduced, the line of operation of the rectification section goes towards the equilibrium line (Owens, 2009, pp24-33). The ‘pinch’ between the operating and the equilibrium lines are highly pronounced and many trays are required. Distillation is the most widely used method of separation in the chemical process industries. Distillation uses about 24% of the total energy. Refineries rely heavily on distillation for separation of complex mixture of compounds found in crude oil into the products for sale. Distillation uses about 40% of all the energy consumed in refineries (Owens, 2009, pp24-33). First, distillation method is viewed from a steady state to make sure the process remains within safe working

The United Kingdom constitution is underpinned by strong, clear Essay

The United Kingdom constitution is underpinned by strong, clear principles which serve to uphold democracy - Essay Example The characteristics of the associations among the government and the residents, the trustworthiness of country’s establishments and the rights and the duties of people define the strengths of democracy. The constitution of the UK has developed progressively to renovate the association between the government and the residents, and to react with the challenges of globalisation as well as the other social aspects. In order to uphold the democracy, there is need for shaping new relationships and instigating drive towards new constitutional reimbursements, which commend parliament and people with more authority and right1. British Constitution Constitution can systematise, allocate and control the authority of state. It sets forth the state structure, state foundations, and ethics governing the state relations. Unlike other countries, the constitution of the UK has no single legal documents which sets out the central regulations and delineate the functions of the state. The British constitution has evolved from extensive time period and from several sources2. Maintaining democracy requires several modifications in constitution. Over the past few eras, the government has followed policies on decentralisation of the UK. The modifications have transformed the constitutional setting of the country. There are arguments which call for more fundamental changes and support additional legitimate changes which can weaken the administrative power and strengthen democracy through direct resident participation in decision making. But it is unclear that constitutional changes would inevitably generate a democratic recovery3. The strengths of constitution in the UK disembark from the Crown and reside with the government and parliament. People of the UK hardly have the likelihood or the opportunity to be involved in the official political process. The major aspect of the UK constitution is composition of arbitrary, infinite and inexplicable authority, and majority of these p owers originate from the Crown and are implemented by the government and the Queen. The Queen herself possesses four constitutional authorities such as the right to assign Prime Minister, the right to disband parliament, the authority to discharge the administration, and the power to deny imperial ascension to regulation approved by the parliament. But in recent years, application of many of those authorities has proved to be highly provocative. For instance, in the year 2003, Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister of the UK, had used his authority to announce war to battle with Iraq on fabricated information and without prior authorisation of parliament4. Transformation of Democracy in the UK It had been observed that several western European nations perceived increasing attention for intensifying citizens’ involvement and encouragement in strategy decisions. The UK has certain democratic form which essentially authorise the majoritarian character of British democracy. The regi onal Assemblies Act passed in 2003 had made the UK less centralised and more decentralised. The UK has developed its own democratic tradition and carefully added components from other democratic models5. Parliamentary Sovereignty Parliamentary sovereignty is the code of the constitution of the UK. It provides the parliament with the decisive legal control

The Importance of Maintaining Health and Healthy Lifestyle Practices Short Answer Essay Example for Free

The Importance of Maintaining Health and Healthy Lifestyle Practices Short Answer Essay Q1. Describe the mechanics of inspiration and expiration in a resting person Breathing also referred to as ventilation is involved with the air movement into and out of the lungs to the atmosphere. The breathing process comprises of two phases, which is inspiration and expiration. West (2014) indicated that the main muscles that are involved in the breathing movements are the diaphragm which forms the chest cavity floor, the intercostals muscles that are attached to the ribs. During the process of inspiration, the external intercostals muscles and diaphragm contract allowing the air to flow in. Petechuk (2010) indicated that the diaphragm moves down during inspiration and this increases the volume of the chest (thoracic) cavity. On the other hand, the external intercostals muscles pull the ribs outward and upwards. This expands the rib cage and further increase the chest volume. According to Ionescu (2013), the increase on the chest volume lowered in the lungs the air pressure as compared to the atmospheric air. However, because the air always flows from a high pressure region to an area of low pressure, the air will travel through the conducting airways of the body into the alveoli in the lungs. The conducting airways of the body include the nostrils, the throat, larynx and the trachea. Expiration in resting person has contrasting muscular activities to inspiration of a resting man. During expiration of a resting man, the external intercostals muscles and the diaphragm relax. This restores the thoracic activity to its smaller (original) volume, and this forces the air out of the lungs into the atmosphere. For an adult who is healthy and is at rest, the breathing mechanism sets up a rate typically between 16 and 20 breaths in a minute. Q2. Discuss how lung volumes change in response to vigorous breathing (forced inspiration and expiration) and what additional muscles will be used to ensure these volumes are met During forced inspiration or expiration also known as vigorous breathing, the lung volumes changes because of some additional usage of muscles. Forced breathing normally occurs when a person is engaging in a rigorous activity of is exercising (Martin, 2012). It may also be described as a deeper breathing and applies more musculature for expiration and inspiration. According to Nieman Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (U.S.) (2013), when an individual is exercising, there is an increased demand for oxygen in the body and also an increased ventilation of the lungs. Furthermore, the frequency for deflation and inflation increases and the quantity of air that is breathed in and out increases too. West (2014) indicated that during the inspiration process, the additional muscles that are attached to the sternum and the ribs helps in raising the ribcage. On the other hand, during forced expiration West (2014) asserted that the internal intercostals muscles contract and therefore pulls down the rib cage more quickly. Moreover, the abdominal muscles also contract, and therefore push up on the diaphragm. This forces more air to move out of the lungs. This movement of the diaphragm, internal intercostals muscles and the abdominal muscles helps individuals to breathe more deeply and quickly. Both expiration and inspiration are active processes now that require the contraction of the muscles. As an individual inhale, the diaphragm contracts and moves downwards before flattening out. This allows the ribs and the lungs to expand in all planes, and thereby increasing the thoracic cavity volume. Similarly, Petechuk (2010) explained that the abdominal wall comprises of four layers, with the transverses abdominis muscle being the deepest layer and supports the trunk. During a forced exhalation, Petechuk (2010) pointed out that the traverses abdominis muscle starts to contract, and this increases the abdominal pressure Q3. Describe any four normal age related changes to the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system in healthy elderly adults (over 65 years) Decreased strength of the respiratory muscles. The diaphragm, intercostals muscles and the abdominal muscles that help in the process of breathing will decrease and the effect is that inadequate amount of oxygen will be inhaled. Furthermore, the amount of carbon iv oxide will be higher because of the weaker respiratory muscles to help in exhalation. The implication of the decreased strength of the respiratory muscle is that there will be reduced functional reserve of the pulmonary with no change at rest, while with exertion; it will result to decreased exercise tolerance and dyspnea (Lalley, 2013). The chest wall will become stiffer with reduced compliance. This will lead to decreased chest and lung expansion and respiratory excursion with less effective exhalation. Furthermore, the respiratory rate will fall to about 12 to 24 breaths in a minute. Stiffness of the chest wall may be because of the stiffness or weakness of the respiratory muscles, the diminished strength in the chest wall or pain associated with the age on the skeletal system. The ribs may be affected also be affected with osteoporosis and therefore make the chest wall stiff (Farley, McLafferty Hendry, 2011). Decreased response to hypercapnia and hypoxia. The implication is the decreased cough, and also foreign matter/mucus clearance. Hypoxia which is the condition associated with minimal or no oxygen will result because diminished energy to enable inhalation of the aged individual. Therefore, less amount of oxygen will be supplied in the whole body (Lalley, 2013). Diminished macrophages and cilliary activity, hence resulting to decreased cough reflexes and drier mucus membranes. This will lead to increased risk of brorichospasm and infection with airway obstruction (Farley, McLafferty Hendry, 2011). Q4. Describe three effects long term exercise has in maintaining a healthy respiratory system Because of the long term exercise, the pulmonary ventilation will increase because of the stimulation of the respiratory centers found in the brain stem. This will help in increasing of air sacs in the lungs. Furthermore, it will help in clearing out of any mucus in the respiratory system that may be in (Ionescu, 2013). Furthermore, long term exercises helps in increasing the capacity of the lungs. Long term exercises will enable the respiratory system to be healthy especially the lungs. Thos will lead to production of a greater number of the alveoli, and those will increase the tidal volume as well as the vital capacity of the lungs The strength of the diaphragm muscle will also be increased with long term exercises. Increased strength of the diaphragm will helpful especially in forced expiration and when individual engages in exercises. Long term exercises will make the lungs to supply enough air to the body cells faster. This will make the cells to use the air in the more production of ATP. Similarly, it will help the cell in removal of the carbon iv oxide and therefore prevent impairing of the blood (Nieman Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (U.S.), 2013). References Lalley, P.M. (2013) The ageing respiratory system Pulmonary structure, function and neural control. Respiratory Physiology Neurobiotogy 187 199-210 West, J. B. (2014). Mechanics of breathing. San Diego, Calif: West ; [New York : for loan or sale by Audio Visual Medical Marketing. Petechuk, D. (2010). The respiratory system. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Ionescu, C. M. (2013). The human respiratory system: An analysis of the interplay between anatomy, structure, breathing and fractal dynamics. London: Springer. Martin, D. E. (2012). Respiratory anatomy and physiology. St. Louis, Mo: Mosby. Farley, A., McLafferty, E., Hendry, C. (2011). The Physiological Effects of Ageing. Hoboken: John Wiley Sons. Nieman, D. C., Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (U.S.). (2013). Does exercise alter immune function and respiratory infections?. Washington, D.C: Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Source document

HR Problem In Cognizant Technology Solutions

HR Problem In Cognizant Technology Solutions Introduction This essay describes the recent HR problem faced by Cognizant Technology Solutions, Hyderabad, India one of the fastest growing IT Service Providing Companies a subsidiary of Cognizant Head Quarters, New Jersey as heard from one of the associates within the company. The Organization faced the problem of retaining their experienced associates during the economic down-turn period or so called Recession period when the other competing companies fired many of their employees who have worked for more than half-a decade because of posing financial problems on the company in regard to wages and maintenance during that period. Started with around 264 associates to 10,000+ members (till date), they have contributed a lot to the Organizations notable growth over a short period of 8 years at Hyderabad Off-shore Development Centre. [By Geeta Ramachandran, Sr. Executive HR, Global Workforce Management (GWFM), CTS(H), Feb, 2006-(till date).] Key Words: Associates, Off-shore Development Centre, Business Continuity Plan, Work Force Management, Incentive Approach, Two-in-a-Box Module. Background Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the leading Multi-National Companies started its Off-shore Development Centre (ODC) at Hyderabad, India in 2002 as a part of Global Expansion. It serves more than 500 clients belonging to various fields such as Banking Financial Services, Health Care Insurance, Communications, Consumer Goods, Energy Utilities, Information, Media Entertainment, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Retail, Technology, Transportation Logistics, and Travel Hospitality. The Company has recorded its highest growth in the 4th quarter of 2010. And announced 200% hike for their top performers during this quarter recovering from the recession blows. They have crossed the 10M strength in the same quarter globally. [http://www.cognizant.com/aboutus/in news] Interventions Recession is more often can be termed as one of the phases for readjustment in disequilibrium of capital management. Whenever a resource from an organization is released from the declining activities, they will be immediately shifting to the expanding industries. Recession or recovery is the first phase of readjustment process in this world of non-homogenous capital and rigidities in adjustment processes begins with the realization of errors committed under the illusions projected by easy credit. Downturn period in the global markets is considered as bad by concerning the nominative judgments about the different phases of the cycle. [Capital in Disequilibrium: An Austrian Approach to Recession and Recovery by Noah Yetter ([emailprotected]) and John P. Cochran ([emailprotected]).] Multi-national companies are focused on getting the experienced staff which would allow them to have the feasibility of not spending additional investments on any other different training programs. Small scale organizations are more focused on fresher as they cannot bear huge pay to the experienced hires. By providing the well established environment to the employees so that the employees can work freely and can apply all thought process into reality. Because of this, there is a diversion among the managers whom to consider with high priority when financial matters are involved with the resource management techniques. [Resourcing in Business Logistics: The Art of Systematic Combining, by M. Jahre, L.E. Gadde H. Hà ¥kansson, D. Harrison, G. Persson, and G. Liber, Torkel Strà ¶msten, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden, Book Review, Page No. 411-414.] As there are financial prospects involved, it is always better to recruit fresh graduates and train them based on the requirements of business with the usage of proper forecasting techniques. If the resources belonging to an organization are homogenous in all aspects and all prices, wages, and interest rates are perfectly flexible in according to the organizational policies, then the recession or recovery process would be a single process which would be quick and practically painless. An experienced employee wages equal the 3-4 fresh graduates wages whose cost to company would be low when compared to former. It is always preferable to have those young minds which are innovative and creative at times and works smart in reaching the timely goals rather than being laborious for completion of tasks. And if the Organization thinks that an experienced employee needs to be retained with the organization, firm should assign them the multiple tasks up to the possible extent but not overloadin g them. By making the experienced resources responsible in some managerial positions and offering them the provision of consistent support and means for supervision from the top-level management to guide the new candidates in achieving service and delivery goals much to the satisfaction and delight of the customers. [Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, Prentice Hall, 2002, Chapter-III, Winning Markets through Strategic Management Planning, 47-64.] In order to retain the experienced employees from the organization, one needs to build the strong belief about the future prospects of the employee ensuring about their role in the organization and more importantly job-safety. Cognizant has employed the same strategy during that turmoil and with the same strategy they achieved the tag of fastest growing IT Services Provider around the globe. Cognizant trained the people irrespective of experienced or a fresh candidate in the sector during the period to grab the opportunities in future. By making sure that the employees would fit into the requirements accordingly, and providing them the different options like self-learning, e-learning courses to learn and understand the new technologies rather than sticking to the existing technology which they have already learnt during their graduation and the same has applied over the years for the routine deliverables thus not allowing themselves to reach the further levels in contributing to the success of the organization. [Leadership in the era of Economic Un-Certainty by Charan. R, McGrawhill, 2009.] Training and allowing them to understand, implement the new technologies might take some time initially but it makes the employee well-versed with the same. With the same strategy we can build the confidence in the people by spending whole-sum amount for training purpose as it helps in retaining the confidence of the employee on the management. After facing the initial phase of economic un-certainty, every Organization concentrated on cost-cuttings thus enabling the clients to trust the management with respect to the ROI and value of investments. This would reduce the revenue and profits to the company during that period and on a long-term basis, this result in maintaining the healthy relationship with the clients. [Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explain Marketing Managers Perspectives on Sustainable Marketing by Ahmed Shahriar Ferdous.] Reallocation of the resources is another crucial factor which would create some distance between the employees and their families. Reallocation need to be carried out depending on the requirement and feasibility of the company. Depending on the designation, work-experience of a particular employee, he/she would be given the priority to serve the organization according not affecting the business continuity plan and meeting the deliverables in time. Regular Audits will be held at those which were shown to the clients at the start-up. Meeting the expectations of the customer in time is a technique which is possible only through dedicated resources for the organization. With the same approach, organizations build the reputation among the clients. [The influence of distance factors on New Zealand expatriates cross-cultural adjustment by Emma M. Jenkins; Audra I. Mockaitis, School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand] Resource Management within the organization should be considered as a high-priority issue which requires proper attention. Resource Planning and Resource Management according to the business needs to be scheduled. As Cognizant applies Two-In-A-Box Module, On-site/Offshore Delivery module, they tend to have more resource strength at off-shore than on-site as the CTC would be increasing if the on-boarded people are in large number. They do follow a policy of 1:3 ratios Onsite Offshore resource strength because of which Cognizant resources would like to stay with the organization rather than opting for other organizations. And another way to look at it, the company offers huge incentives and various other activities alongside the regular work. Cognizant recruited graduates during recession period from universities who will be completing their graduation in another 6-8 months of time and gear up to face the global environment instead of firing the experienced hires. Meanwhile the organi zation can avail the time to plan accordingly and train them the different technologies to meet the expectations from the customers and serve them with high efficiency. [By Rohit Eustachius, Executive HR, Campus Talent Manager, CTS(H), Aug, 2006-(tilldate).] Based on the above interventions for the problem, we can state that a mixture of fresh and experienced people is required in every industry and the same applies universally. With the help of experienced bunch, fresh employees into the company will learn key points and apply the same when it demands. Reduce the no. of experienced employees gradually and at the same time hire the fresh graduates to compensate work load and financial issues can be settled with less pay details. [HR and IT Capabilities and Complementarities in Knowledge-Intensive Services by Naresh Khatri*, Alok Baveja, Narendra M. Agrawal and Gordon D. Brown] Conclusion Thus we can derive that problems relating to human resource management involves so many factors and all those factors should be considered when a problem needs a necessary action to be implemented to resolve the problem. Human Resource Management involves with financial issues which plays key role in organizational structure and helps in progress of the organization. This also reveal us how to invest in those crucial times of the market forecasting the future prospects and demands in mind. Resource planning, resource management are two important areas which would contribute to organizations success in the long-run prospects. In the resource planning or resource management, monetary expansion puts inflationary pressure on prices, as more demand tries to be financed by the same pool of real resources, but this pressure isnt always felt by all prices. Fantastic returns on equity investments is possible, particularly compared to the low returns generally available under depressed interes t rates, which may draw excess monetary demand into the stock market, pushing prices go up further. If the inflationary pressure of the original monetary expansion resulted in a general rise in prices, the stock slump should be relatively mild, simply reflecting the markets realization that firms were over-valued. But if the economy also experienced asset price inflation with little or no commodity price inflation, the stock correction ought to be quite severe, as the prices of stocks fall to reflect not only more realistic valuations of firms but also drastically lower demand for stocks. Supra-normal demand for equity investments was propped up by easy credit and spurred on by its effects, now demand has declined by that excess amount plus a panic discount, as investors who would otherwise have kept their money in stocks pull it out due to an increased in perceived risk. Once the period of heightened risk accompanying mass liquidation passes, investors will begin to see that stocks are now undervalued, and buy in again. This post-panic resurgence of equity investment will be a signal that the readjustment process is essentially complete, and normal economic growth is resuming. Tax cuts are helpful to the extent that they stimulate savings investment and reduce the role of government in the economy, but implementing them as a means to stimulate consumption is a wrongheaded approach. Thus with the different approaches human resource management is a tough task as it involves multiple issues related enterprise resource planning, resource management, supply chain management etc. The research about the problem resulted in the following approaches to deal with the employees. Allowing the experienced employees to learn the new technologies by means of e-learning rather than attending the in-house training sessions separately thus reducing the cost to the company when the training programs are taken into consideration. Recruiting the fresher from the universities and train them in different technologies accordingly in place of the experienced resources when the cost to company matters as the fresher would be paid less wages compared to the experienced by forecasting the future demand much in advance. Reducing the cost to company by maintaining or retaining the productive resources who have contributed lot to the organizations growth ensuring the customer satisfaction to the most possible extent. Allocating senior resources to managerial positions to serve the newly hired resources to know in and out about the organization in detail and to gain expertise on the technologies they would apply.

Weakness In Corporate Governance And Lack Of Transparency Accounting Essay

Weakness In Corporate Governance And Lack Of Transparency Accounting Essay Weakness in corporate governance and lack of transparency are considered causes of the Asian financial crisis. (Wan et al 2010 ). The corporate scandals happened in the early 2000s urged regulators around the world to suit the medicine to illness of the global financial stability by institute CG reforms. For instance, the Combined Code and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act were then introduced and enacted in UK and US respectively. As an international financial and business hub, Hong Kong is bound to take its share of the sweeping impact of the Asian financial crisis and the scandals. Hong Kong Stock Exchange determined to introduce the code of CG effective from 2005, with similar provisions on financial disclosures in the world. Most of the studies using US and UK data indicated that the quality of corporate governance practices has improved when firms comply with the provisions of the code. A survey conducted by a research team headed by Professor Stephen Cheung in Hong Kong generated a consi stent result with those studies; it indicated that the CG standard of Hong Kong listed firms had been improved obviously in 2005. 2.1.3. Earning Management While regulators aware the issues about CG after the scandals, the confidence of investors around the world who rely on the reported earnings on the financial statement to make their investment decisions have been significantly shaken. Earnings is always the most crucial indicator to evaluate how a firm performs. EM refers to manipulation of a firms earnings through direct or indirect accounting methods to achieve a desired level and that does not reflect the economic reality to mislead FS users about the corporate performance or gaining self-interest. In short, the practices of EM deter the credibility of financial reporting. There is tons of empirical researches evidence that good CG improve the transparency of the quality financial reporting which provides more decision-useful information to investors regardless of the geographical location of the listed company. Some of GCG mechanisms include the existence of independent board of directors, audit committee, no CEO duality, no Top Share (controlling shareholder), and shareholders coalition in order to face controlling shareholder. ( Werner R. Murhadi 2009). 2.1.4. The unique features of Hong Kong Firms. A global code of CG should not be applied as a standard among the world attributed to the unique settings of each jurisdiction. It is important for regulators and analysts to understand the unique features and regional conditions affect the incentive of managing earnings and the reporting quality. Therefore, Most of the researches have done to investigate the relationship between the CG practices and EM with US data, only a few o f them analyses about the issues in other regions. An assumption that a same result will be concluded when analyzing HK data is doubtful. The widely acknowledged family ownership concentration characteristic of HK listed firms is still considered as the major contributor of the failure of CG even after the introduction of the code. See the vote manipulation done by PCCW and the affair of Citic Pacific in 2009. 2.2 Literature review The research paper which examine whether the disclosure of Corporate Governance Structures affect the market valuation of earnings surprises and firms earnings management, Jui-Chin Chang and Huey-Lian Sun (2010), suggested that the effectiveness of corporate governance in monitoring earnings management is improved after the mandated disclosure. This finding is consistent with the result of the research on CG and earnings forecasts accuracy which supported that it is effective to enhance the quality of financial disclosure by revising the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance to encourage public companies to implement good governance practices. (Ahmad-Zaluki et al 2010). However, Davies and Schlitzer (2008) in their paper raised the question about the practicality of an international one size fits all corporate governance code of best practice and the result of the paper implied that the acceptance of a global corporate governance code is limited due to the adaptations in the business environment. Ching, M.L.K. et al. (2002) in their research contended that CG mechanisms and monitoring and oversight activities will affect the use of EM, and the importance of these factors varies across firms and national jurisdictions. Because CG, the legal environment, and monitoring activities are far different in Hong Kong than in the U.S., research studies using American data have limited relevance for HK. A large proportion of HK listed firms are controlled by families. When most of the results of empirical researches supported the positive association between the CG mechanism and firms earnings quality, the unique features of Hong Kong is not being considered in those researches. A rare research done by Jaggi, B., et al. (2009) used samples before the adoption of code of corporate governance and find that a higher proportion of independent corporate boards of HK firms is associated with more effective monitoring to constrain EM by deterring managers from manipulating the reported earnings; thus the earnings quality is expected to be high despite differences in institutional environments. However, it is not the case of which the firms are family-controlled, either through ownership concentration or the presence of family members on corporate boards. 2.3 Objective While countless studies have already done with data of regions other than HK about the association between CG and EM, some of them have also emphasized on the identity of family ownership concentration in Asian regions. This study is done for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the Code of Corporate Governance Practices effective from 2005 on reducing EM practices and improving earnings quality of HK Firms. Focus on the uniqueness of the Hong Kong Firms ownership structure to investigate whether mandatory disclosure of corporate governance structures improves the quality of financial information of Hong Kong family-controlled firms. 2.4 Statement of hypothesis 2.4.1 Indentifying Corporate governance The research generated by Dey, (2008) examined that different countries have different corporate governance structure. She considered twelve variables of corporate governance to measure different corporate governance structure, such as the effectiveness of the audit committee and duality of CEOs and so on. To determine corporate governance, we would use five variables including a majority-independent audit committee, a majority-independent board, financial professional having sufficient accounting experience on the committee, big 4 auditors and the separation CEO and chair position. 2.4.2 Audit committee and earning quality According to Hong Kong Exchange and clearing limited (HKEX), after the adoption of code of corporate governance effective that is in 2005, it is a must for Hong Kong listed companies to establish an audit committee, comprising non-executive director (NED) and having at least three members. Based on the research of Bedard, and Courteau (2001), the higher the percentage of independent non-executive director that are not managers in other firms, the higher the earning quality is. Thus, the hypothesis we develop should be: H1: There is positive relationship between the existence of a majority-independent audit committee and earning quality after the code 2.4.3. Independent board of director and earning management According to Liu and Lu (2007), they found that when preparing financial statement, the board of director can help to monitor and prevent controlling shareholder as this act may make damage to the other shareholder. Besides, the Hong Kong boards of director were by code at least three NED members as well. H2: There is positive relationship between the proportion of Independent non-executive directors on the board and earning quality after the code. 2.4.4. CEO duality and earning management According to R. Murhadi, Werner. Dr (2009), he found that if there is any job duality, it was less effective and strongly influence higher level of discretionary accrual. Anderson et al. (2003) found that earnings informativeness is positively associated with firms having separated CEO and chair positions H3: The existence of CEO duality positively influences the level of earnings management after the code. 2.4.4 Big 4 auditors and earning management The previous research done by Klein (2003) found that Big 4 auditors may shift some of their responsibility of monitoring financial reporting to firms audit committees after SOX. Therefore, there may be difference between discretionary accruals and Big 4 auditor in the before period of SOX. H4: There is a negative relation between earning management and proportion of Big 4 auditors after the code. 2.4.5 Experts in audit committee and earning management The Code in Hong Kong required that among the three members, it should include at least an independent NED with sufficient and appropriate financial experience. Xie, Davison, and DaDalt (2003) use pre-SOX samples to investigate that audit committee members having financial experience/background negatively influence discretionary accruals. H5: There is a negative relation between discretionary accruals and the existent of financial experts on audit committees after the code. 2.4.6. family control and earning management Due to the different expectations regarding the effect of family control on earnings management, Jaggi-Leung use pre-code sample to show that an increase in the proportion of outside directors to strengthen board monitoring is unlikely to be effective in family-controlled firms. The percentage of NED on the board to a total number of directors is counted 20% as cut-off point. H6: There is a negative relation between the existent of family ownership control and earnings quality after the code. 3.Methodology 3.1 Sample collection It is to search the WiseNews Database and HKEX website to collect the data for all Hong Kong Listed Firms in all industry for years before and after adoption of code which is accounting period of 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 respectively. 3.2 Research Design By using the financial data examined from the above database, it is decided to research all firms excluding banks, insurance and trusts companies as they manage earning obtaining different incentives and opportunities. (Peasnell et al, 2000) For testing earnings management, Dechow et al., 1995 suggested to use modified jones model to measure discretionary accruals. However, based on Kothari, Leone and Wasley (2005), in addition to the modified model, they use return on assets as one of variable so as to estimate accruals more accurately. It is cross-sectional regression by using two-digit SIC code, then find out the estimated coefficient by the following formula: (Total discretionary accrual) TACCjt = Â µ0+ Â µ1(1/ ATit-1)+ Â µ2 (DSale/ATit-1)+ Â µ3 (PPE/ ATit-1)+ Â µ4 ROAit-1- (1) Then, NON-ACCjt = ß1(1/ATjt-1) + ß2 (DSalesjt DRECjt)/ATjt-1 +ß3 (PPE/ATjt-1) +ß4 ROAjt (2) Then, calculating the discretionary accrual by using the following formula, DACCjt = TACCjt NON-ACCjt (3) Using the regression model to calculating the data before and after the code of corporate governance, DACCit = p 0 + 1 Auditindep + 2 BdIndep + 3 AccExp + 4 CEODua + 5 Big 4 + FAMOWN (4) Where: ROA = the ratio of net income to total assets FAMOWN = 1 if proportion of family members divided by total number director is greater than 20%, 0 for other than this case. BdIndep: The number of independent board directors calculated by the no. of board members AuditIndep: The number of independent audit committee members calculated by the no. of audit committee members AccExp: 1 for having financial professional experience and 0 for none and divided by the no. of audit committee members Big 4: It is an indicator of the Big 4 auditors. It is one if the firm was Big 4 accounting firms client and it is zero if not. CEODua: it may be 1 when CEO is the firms director of the board, 0 when it is not the case. 4. Time schedule Time Action January Finish the background of the problem and objectives Research data for methodology 1st 11th February Finish Methodology Collect data by using software i.e. Excel 12th 28th February Solve the problems that will encounter during the process of collecting data, such as, uncertainty about any data Analyze data and make result of the analysis March Write discussions Interpret the data what we find Finish recommendations, conclusions, summary of the project 1 4th April Finish the draft to supervisor 5 28th April Finish the reference lists Review and proofread the grammar, organization, format of project Amend some parts based on comments of supervisors

Cloning :: essays research papers

The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning, and what is a clone. A clone is an organism derived asexually from a single individual by cuttings, bulbs, tubers, fission, or parthenogenesis reproduction ("Cloning", 1997). Pathogenesis reproduction is the development of an organism from an unfertilized ovum, seed or spore ("Pathogenesis", 1997). So cloning, biologically speaking, is any process in which production of a clone is successful. Therefore, the biological term cloning is the production of a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. However, people can use the word cloning to intend other meanings. For instance, we generalize many older and new techniques as cloning. This is not a good practice because these techniques are different and impose unique concerns and issues. In the world of scientific technology, cloning is the artificial production of organisms with the same genetic material. Scientists actually call the transferring of a nucleus from the cell of one organism to an enucleated egg cell, nuclear transfer (Wilmut 811). This will produce an organism that has the exact genetic material as that of the donor cell. Scientists are using current techniques exceedingly more, and with a variety of species. Astonishingly, more clones are present in the world than one would think. In nature, and even in the lives of humans, clones are present. As stated earlier, a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism. From this we can say that cloning occurs with all plants, some insects, algae, unicellular organisms that conduct mitosis or binary fission, and occasionally by all multi-cellular organisms, including humans. Monozygotic twins, or identical twins, are clones of each other. They have the same exact genetic information due to the division of an embryo early in development, which produces two identical embryos. About eight million identical twins are alive in the world; thus, already eight million human clones inhabit the world. Today, the only cloning research is occurring in scientific model organisms. These are organisms that research scientists from around the globe have collected abundant amounts of data. All this data is necessary so that advancements in research can continue more efficiently. The most common scientific models are E. coli, mice, fruit flies, and frogs. The first organisms that were cloned using nuclear transfer were frogs. This is because they have large egg cells and scientists can obtain up to two thousand of them from one ovulation. Cloning :: essays research papers The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning, and what is a clone. A clone is an organism derived asexually from a single individual by cuttings, bulbs, tubers, fission, or parthenogenesis reproduction ("Cloning", 1997). Pathogenesis reproduction is the development of an organism from an unfertilized ovum, seed or spore ("Pathogenesis", 1997). So cloning, biologically speaking, is any process in which production of a clone is successful. Therefore, the biological term cloning is the production of a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. However, people can use the word cloning to intend other meanings. For instance, we generalize many older and new techniques as cloning. This is not a good practice because these techniques are different and impose unique concerns and issues. In the world of scientific technology, cloning is the artificial production of organisms with the same genetic material. Scientists actually call the transferring of a nucleus from the cell of one organism to an enucleated egg cell, nuclear transfer (Wilmut 811). This will produce an organism that has the exact genetic material as that of the donor cell. Scientists are using current techniques exceedingly more, and with a variety of species. Astonishingly, more clones are present in the world than one would think. In nature, and even in the lives of humans, clones are present. As stated earlier, a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism. From this we can say that cloning occurs with all plants, some insects, algae, unicellular organisms that conduct mitosis or binary fission, and occasionally by all multi-cellular organisms, including humans. Monozygotic twins, or identical twins, are clones of each other. They have the same exact genetic information due to the division of an embryo early in development, which produces two identical embryos. About eight million identical twins are alive in the world; thus, already eight million human clones inhabit the world. Today, the only cloning research is occurring in scientific model organisms. These are organisms that research scientists from around the globe have collected abundant amounts of data. All this data is necessary so that advancements in research can continue more efficiently. The most common scientific models are E. coli, mice, fruit flies, and frogs. The first organisms that were cloned using nuclear transfer were frogs. This is because they have large egg cells and scientists can obtain up to two thousand of them from one ovulation.

Save Marine Wildlife :: essays research papers

Animals have been on the face of the Earth since the beginning. Different cultures praise them as Gods or consider them sacred. But as the years drag on, people disregard animals and put them to the curb. In America, research labs on college campuses and across the country are performing vivisection. Vivisection is when millions of "animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned, and blinded" (IDA). In Africa, poachers kill elephants only for the ivory from their tusks. Not only does cruelty happen to pets and land animals, but also to marine creatures. Around the world, people are inhumanely taking advantage of the rights of those swimming souls. Right now, this exact moment in time, over in Taiji, Japan thousands of dolphins and small whales are being brutally murdered. Twenty - six out of the five hundred fishermen on the island take part in this massacre. Through September 1st to March 30th, the annual killing takes place in a secluded cove. Even "the Japanese people don't know about this" (McNeill). Environmentalist, Ric O' Barry, calls this "secret genocide" the worst. The town hosts whale - watches in dolphin shaped boats "while the non - performing animals bump up against each other in a tiny concrete pool" (McNeill). The '07 - '08 season Taiji announced that they are "going to add Pacific white sided dolphins to the catch quota" (Fujiwara). Which means yet another species of souls are in danger in their own home. There are three steps to this savage killing: ?the chase, the capture, the kill" (Lonsdale). Step one - the chase. The fishermen go to where they know the dolphins migrate, they lower long, metal poles into the water "and bang them to frighten the animals and disrupt their sonar" (McNeill). The boats drop nets down into the water to confine them, and once the dolphins begin to panic that's when the fishermen pull out the weapons. Step two - the capture. They start to slash mercilessly at the peaceful creatures. Blood pours out of their blowholes and turns the bay, literally, red. The fishermen tie rope to their tails and pull them to the shore to purposely beach them so the dolphin trainers can have their pick. Now with any swimming cetaceans (whales, dolphins, etc) is that the water pressure supports their body weight. When the sea animals are beached, naturally they don't have the normal water in their body, their whole weight "rests on the narrow strip of skin which is touching the ground [and] any flesh or organs near the ground are bruised and crushed.

How does Alan Ayckbourn make use of comic resources in the play? Essay

From â€Å"A Small Family Business† a play in which people work together as a team, united to reach to the same goal and sharing values, the author Alan Ayckbourn exposes atmospheres of humorous situations to cut with tension and make the scene weird and funny at the same time. Various comic resources are used in this first scene where Jack is coming back from work and his wife, Poppy, waits for him with a great welcome surprise where family and friends are gathering together too. He makes use of ironic situations, sarcasm, visual and black humor, dramatic and embarrassing situations also, to make up this scene a humorous scene. The first situation of humor in this scene is between the dialogue of Yvonne and Ken: Yvonne: â€Å"Jack is here, Mr Ayres. He has just arrives† Ken: â€Å"Jack who? † Ayckbourn is using black humor in this situation as a comic resource. We can interpret this because it’s obvious of which â€Å"Jack† Yvonne is talking about, and Ken is trying to call the attention asking what Jack, Yvonne is talking about. Ken knows the answer, but he makes the situation funny by asking that question, and as an objective he wants to cut with the tension they were all passing through while they were hidden in the dark silence. As another comic resource, we can stand out the visual humor, because of the ridiculous situation of when Poppy moves into the kitchen, and pretends to be busy herself at the sink so that Jack doesn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary when he sees her, while on the next room, the whole family is hidden in the dark and giggling for silence. Everyone knows from where Jack is going to arrive, and in which moment, but Jack doesn’t have a clue of what’s going on. Here, the author makes use of visual humor because of the actions that the characters are making; they make quite a comic scene. Sarcasm is also state in this scene when Jack refers to the Fond farewells: â€Å"Cheering me through the gates, they were. Goodbye, you old bugger, goodbye† The author is making this phrase sarcastic because in a way, Jack is exaggerating the situation and he knows it was not really like that. He is in a way, telling Poppy that they wanted to get rid of him and he is making them seem like bad persons, when they didn’t really said or done something wrong to him. We can also see an atmosphere of humor, when Jack says to Poppy â€Å"thanks god for that. I don’t want to see anyone else. Not today†. Here, a dramatic irony is used as a comic resource because the reader understands the whole funny situation of the family hearing this dialogue hidden in the same house, but the character who in this case is Jack, does not. Also irony, because again, Jack uses exaggeration, disparity of expression and says something he doesn’t really mean. In this first scene, Ayckbourn has also made moments of embarrassing situations. Poppy: â€Å"Oh God, I want to die. I really want to die† Here Poppy is very embarrassed because she knew the whole family was listening to her dialogue with Jack, who was quite intimate and she doesn’t know how to fix it. This also makes the situation humorous because the character actions are seen as embarrassing by the audience because they know the consequences. As a conclusion, Alan Ayckbourn does use of many comic resources to break with the tension, the nervousness, and to give a funny atmosphere to the scene which is a bit anxious, at first, and uncomfortable at the end not only for Poppy but with the family also.

Mentoring Student Nurses in Theatre Essay

The Operating theatre is an alien environment for students and may be deemed hostile and uninviting. The role of mentors in such a specialised environment is to encourage interaction rather than passivity and utilise every learning opportunity that exists. Students should be encouraged to reflect on those experiences in a structured manner, to assist in their development of meaningful reflection, which is a valuable tool for throughout their career (Quinn 2000). The aim of this assignment is to critically analyse and reflect upon an innovation, that relates to learning and assessing in the practice environment of theatres. The learning outcomes 1, 2 and 4 will be the focus for this assignment because I feel they are the most relevant for reflecting on my innovation as they cover the Importance of the student and mentor relationship in relation to their learning experience, the opportunities and limitations to learning in practice and the evaluation of learning theories and teaching strategies to facilitate the integration of theory and practice. The innovation was a learning package titled ‘Airway equipment & techniques in the theatre setting†. The pack was designed to be a basic insite into the different pieces of equipment and the techniques used and was presented to a second year student nurse, as part of a teaching session. Bruner (1961) explains that when presenting new information to students, the way the material is structured is important to overall learning. He believed that if students understand the basic structure of a subject they will find out much of the finer detail themselves. Spouse(2001) recognised that observation can aid in increased understanding, whilst practice can increase competence, provided the necessary knowledge is in place, in order to facilitate comprehension. I believe that understanding the basics of airway management is a valuable and transferable skill that the student can utilise in any clinical setting. Quinn (2000) who formulated a student-centrered approach to learning, visualising the mentor as a helper and facilitator for and providing of, resources for learning, being someone who shares feelings as well as knowledge with their students. Before introducing some of the techniques and equipment used in airway management, i knew it was important to discuss with the student their level of knowledge and experience. Airway management may be an area that they believe is unique to the theatre environment. In discussion with the student prior to the teaching session, i explained that in every clinical area there is an emergency resusitation trolley, consisting of a defibrillator, emergency drugs and one of the essential components on each one is an airway tray, each containing the equipment that is described in my innovation. During our conversation it was established that during their previous placements, no aspects of airway management had been covered. On previous placements they had been shown where the emergency trolley was kept, but there had not been any formal teaching to familiarise them with the components. Airway management and equipment was therefore not something they felt they understood very well, despite this they showed a keen interest in learning more about the them, acknowledging that although specialised, airway management skills are highly transferable to any setting. Welsh and Swann (2002) believe it is essential to assess a students prior knowledge as this establishes a baseline for development and is a prerequisite for planning future learning. By making the time to discuss the students previous learning experiences at the beginning of their placement, it gives an opportunity for the mentor and student to develop the learning outcomes that need to be achieved and discuss how they wish to achieve them. Learning, according to Rogers (1983) is based on three key factors that exist in the relationship between mentors and students. The first factor being genuineness, were the mentor should come across as a ‘real person’, therefore able to develop a normal relationship with their student. I feel that by welcoming my student to theatres I achieved this. Trust and acceptance, being that the mentor should see and accept their student as an individual, that is worthy of their care and respect. Finally, the empathatic understanding by the mentor, by being able to see things from the students perspective and act appropriately in response to this. Smith (1992) supports that student nurses feel better able to care for patients when they feel cared for by their mentor and clinical staff. After the teaching session the student kept the learning pack to use as a source of reference, for throughout their placement, when observing the equipment being used in everyday practice. To assess the effectiveness of the innovation the student was asked to complete a questionnaire, to evaluate what they had learned from being provided with the pack, as well as an evaluation form to help me understand how the student felt about the teaching session. I felt comfortable throughout the teaching session and the student asked questions openly, which I encouraged them to do. Allen (2005) stated that a good mentor should be open and honest as well as be able to take advice and criticism. According to Neary (1997) and Gray and Smith (2000), most students believe that a successful assessment outcome depends on having a good working relationship with the mentor. A mentor should support the current version of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards (2008b) and note that there are several reasons for supporting learning in practice: ‘to provide support and guidance to the student when learning new skills, applying new knowledge and transferring existing knowledge and competence to a new context of practice’ (pg 36); to act as a resource; to manage the learning; and to observe the practice to ensure outcomes and competencies are met (as defined by the NMC). Whilst these standards are mainly aimed at student nurses the term ‘student’ could be applied to those learning, even when they are registered nurses as they are participating in lifelong learning. Students feeling welcome and valued when they arrive will assist with their learning throughout the placement. According to Quinn (2000) identifying the learning needs of the student is best approached at the beginning of the placement. How students interact with the learning environment is important, particularly in the context of life long learning and continuing professional development. As in all specialised areas there are procedures that need to be understood and learned as the student progresses along the professional curve. ( Radford and Hunt 1999). As a mentor in the theatre setting, I have learned to identify areas that could be improved for student learning, such as Techniques that are ‘every day’ to the staff as professionals and the jargon that they use, can be seen as bizarre and seemingly difficult to learn for the student. The idea was to produce an eye catching innovation . A visually attractive and an uncomplicated style of teaching was applied, using indicators for further study for future, current or past theatre placement students. This was to encourage self-directed learning (Ghazi & Henshaw 1998) and avoid over-whelming the student with too much information which may create anxiety and fear. An important aspect of reducing anxiety for students is their introduction to the placement area. This is something that every registered nurse can relate to because we can all remember being student nurses ourselves and can all recall our ‘good’ and ‘bad’ placements easily, the ‘bad’ often being when everything still felt unfamiliar sometimes weeks into a placement area. Swann (2005) identified that an essential component of the mentor/mentored relationship is communication. Hutchinson (2003) supports this by stating that an environment is not just the physical area but also the attitudes of staff. The student nurse on placement in theatres was introduced to firstly their mentor, who after a friendly introduction took the student to the locker room to show them where they could leave their belongings and get changed. Once changed into theatre scrubs they were taken through the department and in each area they were introduced to the staff and the allocated mentors for that area. The health and safety aspects of the department and the fire procedure was also explained. In theatres students have frequently commented on their initial anxieties when coming for a placement. Sampson (2006) carried out a study to identify why there was a shortage of student’s choosing theatres for a clinical placement. Findings suggest that there has been a dramatic fall in the number of students coming to work in theatres and students are not choosing this area due to fear and anxiety about this specialised, unknown environment. When anxiety is high, an individual is immobilised, perceptions are narrowed and learning is impeded (Meisenhelder, 1987) Positive ways to motivate and encourage learning is described by Sampson (2006) as making learning interesting, ensuring relevance to learners’ needs, reinforcing positive not negative aspects and giving students responsibility for learning. By providing the student with the learning pack, it allowed them to take some responsibility for their learning. Silen-Lipponen et al (2004) identified that students have difficulties combining theoretical and clinical knowledge in the learning process, but the perioperative environment can enhance student education by integrating theory, and practice and developing skills in reflection. These knowledge and skills are required by the NMC (2008) standards of proficiency for pre-registration nurses which state that; safe and effective practice requires a sound underpinning of the theoretical knowledge, which informs practice, and must therefore reflect breadth of practice and learning. Much evidence exists which suggests that the perioperative clinical area is an invaluable learning environment and it is essential that student nurses are aware of the learning opportunities available within this diverse clinical area (. Silen-Lipponen et al 2004) Factors that may inhibit learning for students can be described as internal or external in nature. The most common barriers have been identified by many authors (AshCroft, Foreman-peck 1994, Reece and Walker(2000) and Quinn(2000), they include pressure of time and workload, lack of support from the organisation and family. The learning pack was innovated and planned to assist myself in teaching and to provide the student with the most appropriate teaching for their level of learning. Before beginning the teaching session, i encouraged the student to openly ask questions, as the teaching session was based on explaining the contents of the teaching pack, which they would be using throughout their allocation. Scouse (2001) recognised that observation can aid increased understanding, whilst practice can increase competence, provided the necessary knowledge is in place to facilitate comprehension. Reece and Walker (2002) identified that our perception of learning will affect how we teach. Therefore before we explore how to teach, we must understand how people learn. Learning is a relatively permanent change, usually brought about intentionally. Jarvis (1983) highlighted three domains of learning that are important for any healthcare professional. Cognitive, affective and psychomotor show that learning can occur from teaching, study or the assimilation of information and skills as a result of experience. The clinical environment offers a challenge in relation to the choices of strategy available to facilitate learning. Oliver and Endersby (1994) suggest that most teaching in practice areas deal with skills, including interpersonal and management skills. The elements of the educational taxonomy considers that any learning topic has robe considered from three perspectives in relation to what a student has to learn. To apply these using a component of the innovation and given to a student nurse, with something such as teaching a student how to apply an oxygen mask to a patient, the psychomotor skill would be for the student to be able to select and open the face mask, correctly assemble and then connect it to the oxygen source, then document appropriately. It is not enough just to be able to assemble the mask and administer oxygen, for cognitive skills, the student should should also be able to understand why they are giving the patient oxygen, it’s effects and the correct observations. It should not be forgotten that receiving the oxygen is a patient. To be competent with affective skills the student must display the appropriate communication and interpersonal skills. Quinn (2000) stated that mentors can often tend to use strategies they find useful but must be conscious of the preferred learning style of the student. There are three main theories of learning, behaviourism, cognitivism and humanism. Each looks at learning from a different perspective. Along with learning theories it is vital to consider the mentor/student relationship and the learning environment, as these can help or hinder learning (Gray and Smith 2000). Behaviourism is the response gained from behaviour. Cognitive theory focuses on psychological processes that are involved in the acquisition, organisation and use of knowledge (knowles 1990). Austell (1987) advocated the concept of an ‘advanced organiser’. This is a strategy introduced in advance of new material for example, teaching theory before practising a skill. The student was taught the importance of knowing the correct airway management of the unconscious patient in the recovery room, this aided their understanding of which airway equipment or technique was used and why. The learning package and teaching session combined with a perfect learning environment within the theatre and recovery settings, allowed the student the opportunity to apply theory to practice. Fretwell (1985) stated that an ideal learning environment is seen as one in which the educational needs of the student are met. Along with knowledge of the learning domains, it also useful to consider the learning styles of the students. One of the most often cited model is that of Honey and Mumford cited in Howard, 1999, p 110) of the activist, pragmatist, theorist and reflector. Acknowledging these aspects, along with the use of different teaching strategies, Howard (1999) suggested enabling the learning to be adult-centred rather than following a teacher driven agenda. Noone (2009), on discussing a nursing curriculum, suggests that it should integrate three aspects: the cognitive/intellectual; the skills-base; and the ethical comportment/behavioural one. Whilst the one-off session about airway management can’t be compared to a full programme of education, it does, never-the-less, incorporate each of these aspects. There is knowledge of the anatomy and physiology, the use of airway adjuncts and the respect for dignity, by utilising good communication skills are all apparent. By accounting for learning theories, the learning environment, strategies for teaching and learning styles, I have been able to reflect on this experience and discovered areas I can make improvements or change. Theories of learning helped me to acknowledge the relevance of behaviours, knowledge, comprehension and feelings while teaching students, I will use this knowledge to further develop my skills in teaching. The fact that reflection takes place is important as it contributes to the continuing development of a practitioner and facilitates the development of effective practice (johns 2000). To reflect on my innovation i will follow the framework of Gibbs’ (1998) reflective cycle, which I believe is thorough and logical. I developed a learning package for student nurses to learn, understand and develop knowledge in the skills required for the different ways to manage a patients airway, within the theatre setting. The pack consisted of airway management equipment and techniques ranging from the most basic to advanced. I presented it to a second year student that was on placement in theatres. My aim was that the student would learn the basics of airway management, some of which they would be able to put into practice in the recovery room under supervision, such as removal of a patients laryngeal mask. Whilst i was developing the teaching plan and the innovation, I refreshed my own knowledge, making me feel more confident to present the session. The evaluation form that was completed by the student was very positive, I will therefore feel less apprehensive the next time I do a teaching session. The learning pack helped the student to become familiar with the airway equipment and techniques easily. Feedback from the student showed that the pictures and brief descriptions, provided enough information to enable them to recall that information, whilst observing the equipment and techniques being used in practice. This type of learning style could be associated with Dunn (1984) who describes the Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic (VAK) model. When a student nurse has a placement in theatre, the unfamiliar environment and uniforms can be quite daunting. Many things can can be done to promote a good learning environment that meets the needs of the learners. There is a need to help the students understand the learning opportunities available to them and give them support. The student was introduced to the theatre team, on the first day of their placement and I explained about the different routines compare with their knowledge of the ward placements they had been to. The student was initially very nervous, but by providing reassurances and familiarising them with the layout and routine for theatre, they soon settled into their placement and became part of our team. I asked the student following the teaching session to complete an evaluation form. I believe my teaching approach worked well and the student achieved all of their learning objectives. I am certain that during the students placement I maintained a professional but approachable attitude and encouraged them to ask questions when they felt they needed to. Overall I feel that I have learned that the foundation for being a good mentor is in building a good working relationship with the student. Achieving this will underpin every other aspect of being their mentor. Time spent working with the student should be utilised well with plenty of opportunity for discussions. Once a rapport has developed, as a mentor I should display insight into the students needs which will show a degree of empathatic understanding, which will make them more at ease. I now understand the significance of a conducive learning environment so that the student Feels comfortable in the unfamiliar setting and feels supported. The theoretical knowledge of learning theories and teaching strategies that I have gained will enable me to meet the requirements of each individual student needs.