A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever Essay Example

A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever Paper A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever A DECADE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT UNILEVER 7 November 2012 Originally founded in 1872, and incorporated in 1929, Unilever was facing a difficult time when upon their discovery that the organizational architechture and strategy they were employing was not benefiting the company. The company was under a decentralized structure for generations. o Managers looking for a change o The decision was to go global It was mid-1990 and initial changes were made with minmal results. Managers tried again and rebuilt the company from the inside out Between 1990-1996 Unilever introduced the concept based on regional business groups o The groups and divisions coordinated activities in the regions It is now the year 2000 a slight change was apparent; however, the company was still behind their competitors. Again, management decides change is warranted o Unilever decides change the number of brands form 1600 to 400 o Reduce the number of manufacturin g plants from 380 to 280 o Management wants all of this completed by the year 2004 It is extremely difficult to change. The process is compounded when you are a ultinational business trying to reshape your thumbprint. That in itself can take years Unilever managed to change and they no doubt are yet continuing to perfect Change while yet simple to say is one of the most difficult processes to perform. It takes proper timing if known, and having the best tools to make it happen. When you are a large multinational firm, the task will have challenges. While it took some effort to complete, Unilever, historically one of manufacturings oldest multinational firms was facing a reoganizational change that reshaped them for the challenges of the 1st century. We will write a custom essay sample on A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on A Decade of Organizational Change at Unilever specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Orginally incorporated in 1929, Unilevers beginnings were in 1872 when two Dutch firms began commercially producing margarine. Unilever has operated for decades with an organizational structure that had apparently been working for them. A decentralized structure had been in place for generations. There were suttle indicators that this may be a good time to consider a new strategy for the company. Unilever realized that by the mid-1990s that the decentralized structure had cost the company profits and that they were behind their competition. Management decided on an organizational change in an effort to move the company in a positive direction. Unilever decided it wanted to try to go global. It was evident that the decentralized structure was failing Unilever; however, the process had been with the company for so many generations it appeared they didnt quite know how to move forward. There was a false start where they tried to pull out of the market slump; and, they were still behind the competition. By this time about five years had lapsed. What they failed to understand was that a complete rebuilding f the organzational architechture, as they were trying to do include everything from the inside out and it will take some time. This included the formal organizational structure, control systems and incentives, processes, organizational culture, and people. The move toward globalization was presenting a challenge to Unilever managers; however, the competition was ahead and Unilever was trying to improve their position in the market. They had to get better leverage for themselves. Realm begins to take place. Between Unilever introduced a new structure based on regional business groups that included a number of divisions hat focused on specific products. The groups and divisions coordinated activities in the regions and helped to drive down costs. Even though Unilever implimented changes it was the now the year 2000 and the company was still behind its competition. There is still room for more changes. This time, the decision was to trim down a sizable number of brands from 1600 to 400 and reduce the number of manufacturing plants from 380 to 280 all of this to be done by attrition by the year 2004. When they created the divisions, they created two global divisions, a product division, food division, and a home personal care division. Within each division are a number of regional business groups that does the developing, marketing etc. Unilever has divisions in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia. To conclude, while over a decade, Unilever took patience and due diligence to pefect a business system that was best suited to change their Organizational Architechture, and one would like to think that they are ever evovling in their processes. This will keep them positioned as they forge the challenges of the 21st century

buy custom Approach to Care of Cancer essay

buy custom Approach to Care of Cancer essay Introduction Cancer refers to an uncontrollable or unregulated growth of abnormal body cells, also known as malignant cells, in the body. The term cancer often used to refer to a group of different diseases that result from such cell growth, and their classification is usually based on the initially affected cell. Common types of cancer include carcinomas, sarcomas, lymphomas, leukemia and adenomas (McCance, Huether Brashers, 2009). Causes of Cancer The major causes of cancer include carcinogens from radiations and tobacco, hereditary genes from family members, damages or mutations of DNA cells and other socio-physiological factors such as old age, health status, for instances, contraction of hepatitis B or C and HIV viruses. Physiological Effects of Cancer Usually, cancer becomes harmful to the body as the damaged cells continue to divide and regroup to form masses of tissues known as tumors, for instance, leukemia cancer that blocks the blood hence interfering with circulatory functions. Similarly, growth of tumors may affect the digestive and nervous systems. Sometimes cancer releases hormones that alter the normal functioning of the body. Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer For effective diagnosis and treatment of cancer, it should be detected at it early stages. This would help reduce chances of further growth, more complications and difficult encounters in treatment. During diagnosis, physicians often use information on signs and symptoms and other medical procedures to diagnose cancer. Ultrasound scans, X-rays, CT and MRI scans are common imaging techniques used in detecting, identifying and allocating the position of cancer in the body and the respective affected organ (Moscow Cowan, 2007). Sometimes, doctors perform endoscopy to search for abnormalities within the body. Diagnosis also involves extraction of cancer cells for microscopic examinaton, a process called biopsy. In addition, examination and analysis of blood sugar levels, body fats, proteins and DNA are carried out. Certain types of cancers, such as prostate cancer, can be easily detected through blood test due to its secretion of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) into the bloodstream. Acc ording to Copstead and Banasik, molecular diagnosis, biopsies and imaging techniques are all required for effective diagnosis of cancer (Copstead Banasik, 2010). After diagnosis, the physician determines the extent to which the cancer has spread and establishes its development stage. This stage will dictate the type of treatment to be offered (Porth, 2010). The most common method of staging cancer is the use of TNM system. In this system, the extent and size of a primary tumor is indicated by T with numerical values between 1and 4. The degree to which cancer has spread is indicated by N with figures ranging from 0 to 3 whereas the extent of infection of body organs by cancer is represented by M which is assigned either 0 or 1. For example, a chronic lung cancer can be staged as (T4, N3, M1) (Fitzgibbon Loeser, 2010). Usually, cancers at initially stage will be assigned lower value indicate that they have less spread while chronic cancers will be assigned higher values during staging to indicate their severity. Treatment of Cancer Cancer treatment will depend on four main factors; type and stage, personal characteristics such as age and health status. Usually, cancer treatment combines any of the following forms; surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hormonal therapy and gene therapy (Yarbro, Wujcik Gobel, 2010). Side Effects of Cancer Treatments Different patients encounter different side effects after receiving cancer medications. The most common effects, however, include destruction of normal, healthy body tissues and cells by radiation beams and surgery. Patients sometimes suffer from skin irritation after radiation, excessive bleeding duuring operation, extreme pain, loss of appetite, tiredness and body weakness (Walter, 2004). Chemotherapy damages body proteins/DNA hence loss of hair, sore mouths, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. Some women have reported loss of fertility and alteration of the menstrual cycle pattern after chemotherapies. Replaced of cancer cells through gene therapy may not be successful and hence lead to permanent damage to body cells. Moreover, hormone therapy can lead to impotence in men, rapid weight gain, vomiting, and loss of fertility and interrupted monthly periods in female (Walter, 2004). Cancer treatments can also lead to emotional disturbances and psychological problems such as increased stress, grief of pain and loneliness. Complications of Cancer Complications of cancer vary depending on the stage of the tumor and health status of the individual. Some of the most common complications include psychological and emotional complications such as change in moods (mood disorders), for example, extreme depression and melancholy, grief and sorrow. Physical complications of cancer majorly concern pain which can be caused either by the damaged tissues and injury to other body organs. Physiological complication may include spread of the cancerous cells to other body parts and organs, a process called metastasis (Porth, 2010). Other complications of cancer are erectile dysfunction in men, vaginal dryness in women, swelling of lymph nodes and increased levels of calcium in the blood among others. Methods of Lessening Physical and Psychological Effects of Cancer Psychological effects can be reduced by psychotherapy, family support and closure, and administration of anti-depressant drugs. Physical effects, especially pain, can be dealt with through the use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as morphine (Walter, 2004). Patients should also undergo adjuvant therapies and post-treatment remedies for cancer to reduce its physical and psychological complications. Buy custom Approach to Care of Cancer essay

Bonds mod 2 case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bonds mod 2 case - Essay Example 5.35% 1.125381 Bond 3 has the highest percentage change and bond 1 has the lowest percentage change. Table 3: Price for the four bonds (after increase of 0.5% in yield to maturity) and the percentage change from base case Bond number Maturity (years) Coupon ($) Price ($) Yield to maturity (%) Change from original (%) 1 2 50 974.1183 6.42% -1.8026 2 3 45 958.3473 6.06% -1.34675 3 4 60 994.5793 6.16% -1.72141 4 6 55 958.6585 6.35% -3.77975 Bond 4 has the highest percentage change and bond 2 has the lowest percentage change. From the results, it can be inferred that under normal circumstances and for normal bonds, the yield increases as the maturity period increases, so, if an investor is holding the bond for longer time, then, he/she will have greater yield as compared to an investor who holds the bond for shorter period. There are various corporate bonds, wherein, the companies raise funds by issuing bonds and make the interest payments to the bond holders. However, in case of corporate bonds, there is a probability of default, if the company defaults, the bond-holder will not be able to generate returns on the bonds. Any investor who wishes to invest in bonds should consider the probability of default. All the above calculations are done on the basis of the assumption that there is no risk of default. Dividend Growth Model The three factors which affect the stock prices in case of dividend growth model are as follows. The current dividend Growth of the dividend Required rate of return The formula which relates the above mentioned parameters with the value of the stock is as follows. (Dividend Growth Model) Value = (Current Dividend * (1 + Dividend Growth)) / (Required Return - Dividend Growth) Some of the inferences from this formula are as follows. The value of... There are various corporate bonds, wherein, the companies raise funds by issuing bonds and make the interest payments to the bond holders. However, in case of corporate bonds, there is a probability of default, if the company defaults, the bond-holder will not be able to generate returns on the bonds. Any investor who wishes to invest in bonds should consider the probability of default. All the above calculations are done on the basis of the assumption that there is no risk of default. The value of stock increases with dividend growth if the dividend growth is less than 50% and it decreases of dividend growth is more than 50%. (Calculated by differentiating the equation with respect to dividend growth)

Strategic management final exam bachelor degree Term Paper

Strategic management final exam bachelor degree - Term Paper Example This relationship identifies validity of the statement from the perspective that organizations can focus on their microenvironment and manage the factors to overcome any possible effects of the macro environment. This is because microenvironment such as organizational behavior and employee efficiencies are easily manageable as they are under organizations’ powers. A consideration of a business’ long-term scope and effects of the macro environment however invalidates the statement because micro environmental factors influence many organizational activities. The economic environment that includes economic conditions and economic policies is the first significant factor to organizations. Factors such as inflation rates, unemployment rates, trade regulations, and interest rates have significant effects on productivity of and profitability of an organization and therefore affect sustainability. Political environment is another significant macro environment factor and plays a significant role in influencing success of business organization. Political stability establishes investors’ confidence and therefore facilitates commercial activities, especially at global level and political ideologies and relations with other countries facilitate ties for favorable business environments. Socio cultural environment that include people’s preferences, â€Å"family systems, caste systems, education, marriage,† among other social and cultural factors determines markets and revenue levels to businesses (Mukesh and Trehan n.d, p. 12). Technological environment with its characteristic advantage of facilitating operational efficiency and demographic factors that determine volume and trend of demand for products is also very important to business’ organizations’ lives. The significance of macro environment that dictates sustainability and efficiency of organizations’ internal factors therefore identifies relevance of the environment to businesses. This means

What went wrong with LIBOR, EURIBOR, etc Assignment

What went wrong with LIBOR, EURIBOR, etc - Assignment Example A lot of cases involving misconduct among employees were reported. It is reported that Barclay derivative dealers made several requests to fix the currency rates. The Barclays traders would regularly call the Libor and Euribor traders asking for a specific rate. The liquidity concerns became high in the public domain. Part of this was contributed by the instant collapse of Northern Rock. Investigations were yet underway, but it was almost obvious that Barclays had played a role. At one point, senior treasury managers had to intervene to reduce publicity against Libor. It was later discovered that Libor submissions was being set unrealistically low. It was revealed by Barclay’s agent that they were underreporting as a means of trying to reduce the level of stigma against Libor. From these realizations, the litigation process began in the bid to unveil what was behind this. The matter was undertaken by officials from New York Federal Reserve Bank. The case proceeded up to 2012 when Barclays submitted to misconduct and the bank was fined about $60

Reading And Reading Processes

Reading And Reading Processes 1.2 Definition of Reading and Reading Processes It is hardly possible to carry out, or even read, a research on reading without an understanding of the word reading and the processes involved in it, and the present study is no exception. Reading plays such an essential role in educational settings that it has been defined as the most important academic language skill (Grabe Stoller, 2002). It is a psycholinguistic receptive process of written communication in that it starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning that the reader constructs (Goodman, 1995). It is a process that involves the reader and the text in a dynamic and complex interaction in which a mental representation is constructed based on the meaning signaled by the writer and the readers goals and interests (Rumelhart, 1985; Stanovich, 1980). What is meant by the process is reading proper, i.e. the interaction between a text and a reader (Alderson, 2000, p. 3). In this process, what the readers do is look at print, decode the written words on the page, and determine their meanings and their relationships. The readers also think about what they are reading, what it means to them, how it relates to other things they have read before and to things they already know. Different readers will develop different understandings of what a text means. This is partly because a text does not contain meaning which has to be detected by a proficient reader as the product of reading. The product of the reading process is comprehension (Barry Lazarte, 1995). There may be as many different reading products as there are different readers. This is because readers may differ in their experiences and knowledge. In order for the reading product to be attained, readers employ two different approaches while engaged in the reading process (Nuttall, 2005), namely the bottom-up and the top-down approaches. Bottom-up, or data-driven, approaches are serial models (Alderson, 2000, p.16), where the reader begins with printed words, recognizes graphic stimuli, decodes them to sound, recognizes words and decodes meanings. According to Grabe and Stoller (2002), the bottom-up model suggests that reading follows a mechanical pattern in which the reader creates a piece-by-piece mental translation of the information in the text, with little reference from the readers own background knowledge. Top-down, or conceptually driven, processing is a complementary method of processing written text in which readers draw on their intelligence and experience to understand a text (Nuttall, 2005). According to the top-down model of the reading process, what the reader already knows is thought to determine in large part what s/he will be able to comprehend (Alvermann Phelps, 1998). The top-down model assumes that comprehending begins when a reader has access to appropriate background experiences and knowledge to make sense of the print. In other words, unlike the bottom-up model, the top-down model proposes that the reader makes educated guesses to predict the meaning of the print. As a matter of fact, what is emphasized in top-down processing, according to Alderson (2000), is the knowledge that a reader brings to text. This model is based on schema theory, which accounts for the acquisition of knowledge and the interpretation of text through the activation of schemata: networks of information stored in the brain which act as filters for incoming information (Ausubel, 1968; Bartlett, 1932; Carrell, 1983a; Carrell, Devine Eskey, 1988; Hudson, 1982). In this view, readers activate what they consider to be relevant existing schemata and map incoming information onto them. To the extent that these schemata are relevant, reading is successful. Nevertheless, neither the bottom-up nor the top-down approach, per se, is an adequate characterization of the reading process (Alderson, 2000). What readers need to employ while attending to texts is a combination of the two approaches, which, in Nuttalls words (2005), are used to complement each other. This inadequacy led to the introduction of a third approach, the interactive model. The interactive model of the reading process incorporates features of both the bottom-up and top-down models. In practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top-down approach to predict the probable meaning, then moving to the bottom-up approach to check whether that is really what the writer says (Nuttall, 2005, p. 17). In this context, Alvermann and Phelps (1998) believe that the interactive model of reading process is a good descriptor of how students typically read their content area texts. They connect what they know about language, decoding, and vocabulary, or bottom-up skills, to their background experiences, prior knowledge, and familiarity with the topic being read, or top-down skills. Interestingly, these skills are compensatory to Stanovich (1980). He argues that when readers lack enough bottom-up skills, they may use top-down knowledge to compensate. Likewise, when they do not have enough background knowledge on the topic they are reading, they resort to their language skills to comprehend the text. Most of the current models of L2 reading comprehension, according to Nassaji (2007) are interactive in that L2 comprehension is considered to be a process consisting of both bottom-up and top-down processes. However, familiarity with reading models, alone, is not sufficient for the understanding of the factors involved in the reading process. Alongside the significance of the knowledge of the reading process, the importance of reading for ESL learners necessitates the understanding of the variables affecting a learners comprehension of texts. Research on reading variables has divided them into two major sections: factors within the reader, and aspects of the text to be read (Alderson, 2000). What is of focus in the present study is the former section, the reader variables. 1.4 Reader Variables Research has looked at the way readers themselves affect the reading process and product, and has investigated a number of different variables. Among them, two very important reader variables are topic familiarity (i.e. prior knowledge on topic), or background knowledge, (Bransford Johnson, 1972; Carrell, 1983a; Carrell Wise, 1998; Kintsch, 1992; Leeser, 2007; Moravcsik Kintsch, 1993; Nassaji, 2007; Young, 1991), and vocabulary knowledge (Alderson Urquhart, 1985; Anderson Freebody, 1983; Carrell, 1984; Koda, 1988, 2005; Qian, 1999). A definition of these variables seems indispensible to this research introduction. 1.4.1 Topic Familiarity Prior topic knowledge, and its influence on readers text comprehension is one of the variables being investigated in this study with regards to teachers intervention in the classroom. Therefore, an understanding of the concept seems essential for the reader. There is a substantial body of research in cognitive psychology supporting the idea that topic familiarity has a facilitative role in reading comprehension (e.g. Bransford Johnson, 1972; Kintsch, 1992; Moravacsik Kintsch, 1993). This role has been motivated through schema-based models of comprehension (e.g. Rumelhart. 1977, 1980) which posit that pre-existing schemata control comprehension. In other words, readers background knowledge contributes to their understanding of texts. When the term background knowledge is used, what is usually meant is a readers prior knowledge of the subject matter of the text. In this regard, Alvermann Phelps (1998) claim that What a person already knows about a topic is probably the single most i nfluential factor in what he or she will learn ( p. 168). The nature of the knowledge that readers have will influence not only what they remember of text, but also the product, i.e. their understanding of the text, and the way they process it (Bartlett, 1932; Carrell, 1984; Rumelhart, 1980; Alderson, 2000). The development of schema theory has attempted to account for the consistent finding that what readers know affects what they understand. Schemata are seen as interlocking mental structures representing readers knowledge (Alderson, 2000, p. 33). When readers process text, they integrate the new information from the text into their pre-existing knowledge or schemata. In addition, their schemata influence how they recognize information as well as how they store it (Carrell, 1983a). Researchers have distinguished different types of schemata, which will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2. Problems arise when a reader has no relevant schemata or an insufficient schema, if relevant schemata are not recalled, or if an existing schema is inconsistent with information in the text. Readers will often ignore ideas in a text that conflict with conventional real world knowledge (Alvermann, Smith, Readence, 1985). Students with reading difficulties appear to have particular trouble using their prior knowledge to modify misconceptions or to learn new information from reading (Holmes, 1983). Often, a reader who is struggling to understand a difficult text will follow isolated details in the text and as a result employ an inappropriate schema to fill in the gaps. A factor that has strong potential to affect readers comprehension, and can cause their misinterpretations is culture (Steffensen, Joag-Dev, and Anderson, 1979). Effects of cultural differences on reading recall, test scores and reading miscues have been consistently found in different studies (e.g., Carrell, 1984b; Dima ssi, 2006; Rice, 1980). This will be elaborated on in the next chapter. 1.4.2 Vocabulary Knowledge The second parameter that is probed in the study, the understanding of which is inevitable to the reader, is vocabulary knowledge. Successful comprehension is heavily dependent on knowledge of individual word meanings (Koda, 2005, p. 48). Research confirms a strong connection between readers vocabulary knowledge and their ability to understand what they read (Anderson Freebody, 1983; Davis, 1968; Koda, 2005; Qian, 1999). For example, Koda (2005) argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between word knowledge and comprehension. On the one hand vocabulary knowledge plays a crucial role in text understanding among both L1 and L2 readers, and on the other, vocabulary learning and processing are equally dependent on comprehension. She adds that the precise meaning of a particular word is determined in large part by the context in which it appears, and that this meaning is closely linked with readers real-life experience. However, in spite of overwhelming data available on their str ong connection there is little consensus as to the exact mutuality between the two (ibid.). While, traditionally, vocabulary has been viewed as the dominant factor in reading comprehension (Davis, 1968; Whipple, 1925, cited in Hiebert Kamil, 2005), a more recent view suggests a two-way link where the two are interdependent during their development process (Anderson Freebody, 1983). Anderson and Freebody evaluated two contrasting hypotheses: instrumental and knowledge. The instrumental hypothesis postulates a direct mutual tie between vocabulary and comprehension, maintaining that word knowledge facilitates comprehension. On the contrary, the knowledge hypothesis assumes an indirect link between the two, positing that their relationship is linked through a third phenomenon, background knowledge. In this view, vocabulary size reflects conceptual knowledge. Once readers have real-world experience, their text understanding is considerably improved. There will be more elaboration on this in Chapter 2. As was said earlier in this chapter, vocabulary knowledge and background knowledge, or topic familiarity, are two most important variables affecting students comprehension. Research has also shown that the most important problems teachers face in a reading class is unknown vocabulary and unfamiliar topic (Cabaroglu Yurdaisik, 2008). In order to have a better understanding of teachers contribution to the reading class with regard to these two parameters, an awareness of the teachers role in the reading class, which is another variable in the present research, seems inevitable. 1.5 Teachers Role It is believed that the role the teacher plays in reading instruction is significant in the degree of the effectiveness of a reading program (Blair, Rupley Nichols, 2007). In this regard, Duffy-Hester (1999) is convinced that the teacher is more important and has a greater impact than any single, fixed reading program, method, or approach (p. 492). However, it should be noted that it is not enough for a teacher to be a good person who loves working with students. They must be aware of the reading process and the teaching and learning of reading if they want their instruction to yield good results (Blair, Rupley Nichols, 2007). Good teachers understand that students need to be prepared to read before they are asked to (Alvermann Phelps, 1998). One way to prepare students for reading new topics is presenting basic background knowledge through brainstorming, question and answer, discussion on the topic, or pictures. Another way is providing students with topic related vocabulary and instructing them prior to reading (ibid.). These preparatory activities are usually practiced in the pre-reading phase, which, according to Chastain (1988), is meant to motivate students to want to read the assignment and to prepare them to be able to read it. Pre-reading activities provide a reader with necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material (Ringler and Weber, 1984). These experiences involve understanding the purpose(s) for reading and building a knowledge base necessary for dealing with the content, vocabulary, and the structure of the material (ibid.) Ringler and Weber argue that pre-reading activities elicit prior knowledge, build background and focus attention. In fact, it is in the pre-reading stage that teachers attempt to facilitate and enhance students comprehension of reading texts by topic familiarization and vocabulary introduction. Chapter 2 will discuss the pre-reading stage in detail. 1.6 Background to the Problem There is a considerable bulk of research on the comparison of the effectiveness and enhancing roles of topic familiarity and vocabulary knowledge in ESL reading (e.g. Afflerbach, 1986; Brantmeier, 2003; Carrell, 1987; Hammadou, 1991; Hudson, 1982; Johnson, 1982; Park, 2004a, 2004b; Swaffer, 1988). Studies on these two reader variables reveal that there is little consensus among the researchers as for their functions in ESL contexts. Some findings have shown a significant, positive effect for topic familiarity as either a main effect or as part of a complex interaction. For example, Johnson (1982) gave ESL readers a passage on Halloween and demonstrated that topic familiarity had a greater impact on comprehension than the pre-teaching of vocabulary. Also, Swaffer (1988) concludes, in her paper, that background knowledge can be more influential in reading comprehension than word knowledge. She further claims that topic familiarity facilitates language recognition, and recall of concepts. However, some other research in the literature indicates that vocabulary knowledge may be a more significant variable than prior knowledge on topic in ESL readers success. For example, Phillips (1990), reported by Hammadou (1991), finds that prior knowledge is insignificant when readers lack vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency. To Phillips, it is only when readers are proficient that high or low background knowledge comes into play and differentiates between readers levels of comprehension. But, perhaps the most comprehensive study on the effects of vocabulary pre-teaching and providing background knowledge on L2 reading comprehension was done by Park (2004b). He divided his 180 participants into three groups à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ the vocabulary group, the background knowledge group, and the control group, with different treatments. The results he attained were a) the scores of the vocabulary and background knowledge groups were significantly higher than those of the control group, b) the vocabulary group scored higher than the background knowledge group, although the difference between the mean scores of the two groups was not significant, and c) the effects of pre-reading activities on L2 reading comprehension differed by achievement level and text type. Nevertheless, to Tuero (1996), unknown vocabulary and prior knowledge play equally decisive roles in reading comprehension. She concludes, in her study, that background knowledge and vocabulary difficulty function independently and affect reading in different ways. Even though prior knowledge facilitates comprehension, vocabulary development is equally crucial to foreign language reading. As said earlier, unknown vocabulary and unfamiliar topic have been found to be the most important problems that teachers encounter in a reading class (Cabaroglu Yurdaisik, 2008). Therefore, to ensure students comprehension, teachers should concentrate on these two variables, because without comprehension reading would be meaningless. Different learners seem to approach reading tasks in different ways, and some of these ways appear to lead to better comprehension (Tercanlioglu, 2004). Research has shown that learners can be instructed to use appropriate reading strategies to help them improve comprehension and recall (Carrell, Pharis, Liberto, 1989), and that this instruction should include more pre-reading strategies than post-reading strategies (Cabaroglu Yurdaisik, 2008). However, what is of concern to the researcher is the degree of effectiveness of teachers instruction of these reading strategies. It is true that unknown vocabulary and unfamiliar topic are the most significant problems in a reading class. But, who should, or can, attend to these problems? Is it the teacher, the student, the author, or other variables that have this responsibility? Although there has been quite a lot of research on topic familiarity and vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension, unfortunately, to date, there is no data available reflecting on the degree of effectiveness of the teachers presence at, or absence from an ESL reading class. In fact, the role of the teacher in enhancing students familiarity with texts topics and contents, and his/her role in vocabulary introduction have not been investigated yet. It is not clear to what extent teachers intervention facilitates students performance on reading comprehension and vocabulary tests. What if the teacher is not available for a pre-reading instruction? Does this mean that students have to postpone their reading activities, waiting for the unfamiliar topic and unknown vocabulary to be introduced by the teacher? In other words, should topic familiarization and vocabulary introduction be necessarily carried out by the teacher? The researcher believes this is a gap in the literature, which the present study seeks to fill. 1.7 Purpose and Design of the Study This study is an attempt to investigate in depth, in an explanatory mixed methods design, the degree of the effectiveness of teachers construction of background knowledge and his/her instruction of vocabulary at pre-reading stage in adult ESL reading comprehension. The influence of the teacher on the reading class, his/her contribution to students comprehension, and the facilitative role that s/he might play are the important aspects that this study aims to shed light on. The reason for conducting a mixed methods study is that the researcher attempts to combine both quantitative and qualitative data for more precise results. The explanatory mixed methods design, which is also called the two-phase model (Creswell, 2008), puts emphasis on quantitative data collection and analysis. In this method, the major aspect of data collection is quantitative, and a small qualitative component follows in the second phase of the research (ibid.). The quantitative phase of the study aims to test the following hypotheses: Teacher-directed topic familiarization enhances students performance on ESL reading comprehension tasks more than written introductions do. Dictionary use and teachers instruction of vocabulary yield the same results in students performance on vocabulary tests. To test the research hypotheses, this study seeks to answer three questions, and for the qualitative part of the research, RQ4 is supposed to serve the purpose. The research questions are as follows: RQ 1 To what extent does teacher-directed topic familiarization enhance students performance on multiple-choice reading comprehension tests? RQ 2 To what extent does teachers intervention help students recall of a reading passage? RQ 3 What are the differences between teachers instruction of vocabulary and dictionary use in students performance on vocabulary tests? RQ 4 What are students perceptions as to the teachers role in an ESL reading classroom? To answer RQs 1, 2, and 3, quantitative data suffices and serves the purpose, and that is why the researcher applies multiple choice questions and written recall tests. But, for RQ 4, it is deemed necessary to mix quantitative and qualitative data to obtain more detailed , specific information than could be gained from the results of statistical tests. Therefore, a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire is combined with semi-structured interviews to answer RQ 4. Details will be found in Chapter 3. 1.8 Significance of the Study Through his experience as an EFL teacher, the researcher has noticed that many EFL students face challenges whenever the reading comprehension process is altered by any unfamiliar reading task or assignment. He has also noticed that pre-reading instruction activities, including prior knowledge construction of unfamiliar topics, and teaching new vocabulary, play an important role in preparing students for the task and can help them become more aware of the characteristics of reading that are important to the task. This study will help teachers and educators find out the effectiveness and significance of teachers presence at, or absence from, the reading class. It is an attempt to explore teachers contribution to students reading comprehension, and tries to answer the question of whether or not, or to what extent, adult ESL students could be independent readers. This research will investigate, for the first time, the effectiveness of dictionary use as compared with the teachers vocabul ary instruction in enhancing students vocabulary knowledge in the reading class. Another significant viewpoint of the study is that, again for the first time, the teachers skill in familiarizing students with unfamiliar topics at pre-reading stage will be compared with the efficacy of written introductory data doing the same job of providing students with background knowledge on unfamiliar topics, hence the applicability of written pre-reading information in helping students text comprehension. All this will have implications for educators, teachers, practitioners, and researchers in the field of L2 reading comprehension, and will also help them design reading skill courses accordingly. It is hoped that the present research will make a positive contribution to the field of teaching second language reading. 1.9 Methodology The study was conducted with newly registered postgraduate students at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. The Institute of Graduate Studies (IGS) at UM administers regular English Placement Tests for those new students who do not possess any scores on either the TOEFL or the IELTS as the prerequisite for the registration for the university programs. Based on the students scores on the university Placement Test, the participants were assigned to two treatment groups, Group A and Group B, comprising 35 students each. To find the answers to RQs 1, 2, and 3, the participants were provided with three reading passages of unfamiliar topics and contents, which they read and were tested on, with a weeks interval between the tests. The difficulty levels of these passages were measured through the Flesch Readability Test (Flesch, 1948). A typical session ran as this: The participants in Group A received no teachers intervention. They were provided with some brainstorming questions, to which they received no answers, a list of the text concepts, and a written introduction, which were meant to help them construct background knowledge on the text they were going to read. The text this group read had a title, which is believed to have a role in helping students to construct prior knowledge (Hammadou, 1991). They were also given a list of the key vocabulary, and were encouraged to use their dictionaries to check words meanings. In short, Group A received any information which was thought to be necessary in rea ding the text, but in the form of written input. Group B, however, underwent teachers intervention. That is, it was the teacher who, in some pre-reading activities, familiarized them with the topic and content, and taught them the key vocabulary. Moreover, their text did not include a title, and no dictionary use was permitted in this group. This procedure was repeated for all the three passages. The participants were then assessed on comprehension and vocabulary after finishing each text. Each reading passage was followed by a free written recall test and a set of 20 multiple choice questions, 10 on comprehension and 10 on vocabulary. In fact, in the three treatment weeks, the students took three written recall tests, 30 comprehension and 30 vocabulary MCQs. Also, to find the answer to RQ4, on the students perceptions of the teachers role in a reading class, a 5- point Likert scale questionnaire was administered, and then through purposeful sampling, 20 of the participants, 10 from each group, were selected for an interview. Applied as one of the data collection tools, the free recall test is a measure in which readers write down as much as they can remember from what they have just read, without looking at the passage. According to Johnston (1983) and Bernhardt (1983), the recall measurement is a valid means of evaluating foreign language reading comprehension. This technique has been widely used in second language reading research (e.g., Carrell, 1987; Dimassi, 2006; Leeser, 2007; Young, 1999) Multiple choice tests, as another research tool, are common instruments for assessing reading comprehension (Alderson, 2000). To Koda (2005), they are the most popular format used in standardized reading comprehension tests. MCQs have been employed extensively in L2 reading assessment (e.g., Bugel Buunk, 1996; Carrell, 1987; Carrell Wise, 1998; Oded Walters, 2001; Park, 2004; Yazdanpanah, 2007), and, therefore, have been coupled with the free recall test to measure the participants reading ability. In addition, Likert scale questionnaires and interviews are two common techniques in measuring perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs in second language teaching and learning (DeVellis, 1991; Turner, 1993), and have been used widely in the literature (See Brown, 2006 2009; Richardson, 1996; Williams Burden, 1997; Yamashita, 2004, for Likert scale questionnaires, and Barkhuizen, 1998; Cabaroglu Yurdaisik, 2008; Conteh Toyoshima, 2005; Li Wilhelm, 2008, for interviews). Thus, the study has applied these tools to find the answer to RQ4. Details on the research instruments will be revealed in Chapter 3.

Use of International Law to Protect Human Rights Essay -- Enforcing In

1. Introduction Treaties are the highest source of international law besides jus cogens norms that have binding effect on the parties that ratify them.2 International human rights treaties rely on the â€Å"name and shame† mechanisms to pressure states to improve practices.3 However with â€Å"toothless† international human rights norms, moral coercion is not always effective. An empirical study conducted by Professor Oona Hathaway assessing the effect of human rights treaty ratification on human rights compliance, maintains in its findings that ratification of human rights treaties has little effect on state practices.4 States do not feel pressured to comply and change their practices, rather, signing treaties is â€Å"more likely to offset the pressure rather than augment it.†5 So, is it time to abandon human rights treaties and remit protection of human right to domestic institutions. Hathaway posits elsewhere that despite this treaties â€Å"remain an indispen sable tool for the promotion of human rights.†6 Instead of getting rid of the treaty system, it is necessary to enhance the monitoring and enforcements mechanism to strengthen the human rights regime to ensure compliance.7 This article evaluates the extent to which international law serves as a useful tool for protection of human rights. 2. Development of Human Rights Protection States ratify human right treaties to enter into agreements and commit each other to respect, protect and fulfill human rights obligations. However, the adherence to human rights treaties is not ensured by the same principle of reciprocity instead to ensure compliance, collective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms were introduced.8 International organizations and treaty ... ... Berkeley Journal of International Law 256 44 Ann Janette Rosga and Margaret L. Satterthwaite, ‘The Trust in Indicators: Measuring Human Rights’ (2009) 27 Berkeley Journal of International Law 253, 257 45 Oona Hathaway, ‘Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?’ (2003) 112 Yale Law Journal 1935, 2025 46 Allan Rosas, ‘States Sovereignty and Human Rights: towards a Global Constitutional Project’ in David Beetham, Politics and Human Rights (OUP 19995), 62 47 Justin Conlon, ‘Sovereignty vs. human rights or sovereignty and human rights?’ (2004) 46 Race and Class 75, 48 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948 UNGA Res 217 A(III) (UDHR), Art 1 49 Robert McCorquodale, ‘A Future for Human Rights Law’ in Mashood A Baderin and Manisuli Ssenyonjo, International Human Rights Law: Six Decades after the UDHR and Beyond (Ashgate 2010), 544

Bp Marketing Problem After Oil Spill

British Petroleum’s Marketing Problem Florida International University Summer 2011 Alex Del Veccio Yudith Torres BP Marketing Problem In April 20th, 2010 one of the worst environmental natural disasters that were brought on by a men happened. We are talking about the British petroleum Oil spill on the Golf Coast. The disaster not only affected the plants, animals and people living in the area but also the image of the company. British Petroleum has been successful on creating a powerful brand image, being authentic to the core values of its business and building the goodwill of their customers, now BP is trying to save what is left after the disaster. The disaster leads to many angry people, including environmentalists, shareholders and the general public to create campaigns to bring down the company reputation. BP has been accused of 11 workers dead and 17, injured. The extent of the spill is about the size of Rhode Island, running across the northern Gulf of Mexico between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida. The spill runs wide, threatening the coastlines, and deep, traveling beneath about 5,000 feet of water and 13,000 feet under the seabed. The Deepwater Horizon well is leaking 5,000 barrels per day, shutting down fishing across the affected areas, damaging fragile habitats and putting animals in peril. BP was also accused of trying to silence the scientists that were studying the effects of the oil spill, not allowing publishing researches done for the company; this clause was expressed in their contacts. The entire situation has position BP with a bad corporate image in the entire world leading to customer to refuse buying its products. This crisis has result in a negative publicity, threatening the image of the company and having effects on people perception of the company and its products. BP has responded to the event, trying to diminish the severity of the contamination, in a desperate effort not to lose its social legitimacy and seen to being irresponsible and dishonest with the public. These are a few of many pictures that were put out there by the media, making the problem even worse for British Petroleum, those images were directly associated with the corporation, death, contamination, social irresponsibility, unhappy people. BP has a huge problem, they need to make people to stop associating those images with its corporation and products, and recover its good name again. Consumer Behavior Issues as a result of BP the oil spill Consumer attitudes toward BP products were badly affected by the oil spill; there was not favorable opinion about the corporation resulting on the decline of consumer intentions to buy BP products. BP oil spill has impacted purchasing behavior, the spill rattled the company, causing the stock to lose about half its value and prompting Tony Hayward CEO to resign and be replaced by Bob Dudley, But the company was able to get the oil gusher stopped and has been paying to repair the damage to the local economy. The company is paying to cleanup an estimated of $20 billion, as a result the company temporarily suspending its dividend, in another blow to investors. The dividends were reinstated in February 2011. Despite the fact that many surveys has showed that people has no intention to boycott or switch from BP brand ( (Harrison) the consumer perception of the company was reflected on consumer willingness to invest on BP stocks, maybe because many of them were normative influenced altering their behavior to meet public opinion expectations. Consumer awareness has shifted dramatically when there is a catastrophe related to a big corporation such as British Petroleum, consumers has jointed forces and organized protests to show their disgruntlement with the corporation and pressing them to take full responsibility for the disaster. The oil spill has had effected no only on consumer attitudes towards BP products, but to other industries too. Approximately 71% of consumers were still concerned about the safety of consuming seafood, and 23% reported they have reduced their seafood consumption as a result of the oil spill ( (Bianco) Consumer analysis Of British Petroleum after oil spill According to a Brand Index Survey, (Index, 2010) British Petroleum public image went below Goldman Sachs (and investment bank many feel contributed to the financial crisis' in 2008). This Survey that came out in June 2010 show these findings. Only Toyota who went through a massive recall shows worse. Many more surveys show that consumers were not please with British petroleum (eye, 2010) Following are s few notes from the article on the corporate eye's website (eye, 2010): * From an Economist and YouGov survey: When it comes to trusting BP to â€Å"do the right thing in stopping the oil spill and cleaning it up,† 9% of respondents said they trust BP â€Å"a great deal† and 13% trust BP â€Å"quite a bit† while 20% have â€Å"only some† trust that BP will do the right thing, and another 20% said they have â€Å"very little† trust that BP will do the right thing. The majority of respondents, 28%, trust BP â€Å"not at all. †Ã‚   The remaining respondents stated that they were not sure how they felt. * From the same Economist and YouGov survey: 65% of respondents believe that BP and other companies involved in the oil spill are â€Å"pointing the blame on others and avoiding responsibility† while just 35% believe BP and other companies involved are â€Å"doing whatever it takes to stop the spill and clean up the oil. † * From a USA Today/Gallup poll: 34% of the respondents rated BP’s response to the spill as â€Å"poor† and 39% rated it as â€Å"very poor†. Only 6% rated BP’s response as â€Å"very good† and 18% rated it â€Å"good. † * From a Pew Research Center and National Journal Congressional Connection poll: 44% rated BP’s response to the oil spill as â€Å"poor† and 26% rated it â€Å"only fair† while 16% rated BP’s response â€Å"good† and 3% rated it â€Å"excellent. † * From a CNN and Opinion Research Corp. poll: 76% of respondents disapprove of BP’s response to the oil spill and 24% percent approve. These surveys and many like them combined with massive protests and boycotts reshaped the Value of British petroleum as reaction to their stocks showed. In late June in 2010 British petroleum's stock fell to under 28 dollars per share. This was a major drop from there yearly high of over 61 dollars per share in February in 2010. While the consumer trend for the oil industry is still in high demand, British petroleum still loss revenue loss due to poor public perception and also lost revenue from the oil spill and cleanup efforts. According to this story BP has it work cut out for them financially (JACOBSON, 2011)– Almost $50 billion in lost market value. Its rivals' stock is up almost 15 percent, while BP's has been down roughly 25 percent. Shares that were worth $60 a piece on April 20, 2010, are worth $46 today (JACOBSON, 2011). * Sales of $24 billion of the company's assets to be set aside to help pay for claims and other costs. Gheit said roughly 10 percent of BP's production and reserves were sold last year. Another $6 billion worth are expected to be sold this year (JACOBSON, 2011). * $3. 8 billion paid out in claims so far. That's part of a $20 billion fund set aside under pressure from the government last year (JACOBSON, 2011). * Liabilities could swell by tens of billions more. If BP is found to be criminally negligent (several investigations and reports have yet to be completed), the price tag could exceed $50 billion. (Contending their equipment and work played a major role in the cause of the accident, BP is suing Halliburton and TransOcean for billions of dollars as well. (JACOBSON, 2011)) However not all is lost for BP. As you look at the Global 500 (500, 2011) ranking of the top one hundred companies in the world. You will notice that six of the tops 10 are oil companies, including BP at number four. This not only shows that oil is a very profitable industry and in high demand despite calls for alternative energy sources over the past decades. Unless such an alternative energy source can come about and service the billions of people who demand energy: the outlook in the oil industry will continue to be high. Which also means the oil industry will continue to be profitable. When we also add into the factor that developing countries have increased demand for oil and global demand for this resource is predicted to go from 41. million gallons per day to 86. 6 million gallons by the year 2025 (prices, 2010). I do not see consumer trends in oil consumption a problem for BP. This consumption pattern will be an advantage for BP. The bottom line is that BP's industry and products looks like they will be in high demand for the foreseeable future. However even though Bp's product is widely used they are not immune from poor public perception. Since the oil spill Bp has been forced to sell o ff some assets (White, 2011) to pay for loss revenue, and pending lawsuits from the oil spill. BP's problems continue outside of its finances. In early 2000 British petroleum launched a new campaign called â€Å"Beyond Petroleum†. This campaign was targeted top the environmental conscious consumer. Bp wanted to become established as an environmentally friends energy company. While it's hard to see if that campaign was successful regardless, any positive perception or equity acquired from that campaign was lost do the oil spill. Reinventing themselves as an eco friendly company looks to be a difficult task at this time. Moving forward With the environment a major issue in today's world it may be a good idea for BP to invest in research for safer more eco friendly offshore drilling technology. Another way for BP to win over the public interest is to come up with a cleaner alternative source of energy. Would it be ironic that a oil company invents an alternative energy that is safer and cleaner for the environment. The emotional element of BP’s brand invokes bad feelings. With concerns about Global Warming and endangered species many feel BP broke its Brand Promise started by their campaign â€Å"Beyond Petroleum†. For now British Petroleum's strategy should be to allocate resources for research for the above mentioned. And also allocate resources to improving public perception. One example is their commercials with local business owners that were affected by the Gulf oil spill. They are telling the consumers that they are standing by their mistakes. I would also advise BP to communicate to the public what changes they are making from organizational structure to safety precautions. BP may also look into working with eco friendly organizations and organizations like the World Wild Life foundation. Such organizations have voiced strong criticism BP after the oil spill. Working with these organizations would go far in telling the public they have turned over a new leaf. Marketing Recommendations for British Petroleum (prices, 2010) British Petroleum needs to have specific plan for each one of the possible scenarios they might encounter, the company took three months to stop the oil leak, and they are still working on the cleaning process. This shows that BP was not prepared to face such a huge natural disaster; they did not have a contingency plan appropriated. Its is very important than the fist reaction that company takes to resolve the problem is the most suitable one, because that is when the media and public attention are more focus on the problem, and a prompt resolution will lead a faster recovery of the company image. BP should focus on mortification, taking full responsibility for the situation and its consequences. This strategy address public critique in advance and give the company a more significant public relations ground. After admitting and apologizing for the catastrophe, BP must take an action to avoid that is going to happen again. Creating more and secure ways to drill oil, the company needs to improve procedures, safety and competence to regain the lost trust from the public. BP need to regain their good mane, at the moment the company is located in the awareness set in the customer mind that it does mean that its products will be consider if people has a negative image in it. British Petroleum need to build positive feeling towards its corporation, one option is to develop green advertising, the company have invested million on it, but today they should put more emphasis on it. Create better image (social factor) by better approach to compensate those who have been affected. There were many people affected by the catastrophe, people from different communities, they need to focus on the different groups of people they are trying to reach in order transmit the message more efficiently; failing to do will worse the problem. In order for people to place BP into their consideration set they need to believe that the company is reliable and responsible, in addition people must have good feeling towards the brand. They must invest a lot of money in advertising, informing people what is plan to recover and it is being developed. Those ad must run as many time as its needed, to inform people that â€Å"we are taking responsibility† to backfire those ad claiming the contrary â€Å"Show you care†, that is the primary position British Petroleum must assume. The reality is that the Oil Spill in deep horizon water in Mexican Gulf, in April 2010 has made a huge human, ecological and financial lost, and it has ruined the company’s reputation. There is not way the company can go back in time and avoid what happened, but they can look forward and make the best out the situation. If BP can convince the public that they truly believe that its image will be reinstated, people will start bearing positive feeling towards BP. Bibliography 500, G. (2011). And the world's biggest companies are†¦ Retrieved 2011, from Cnn Money 2011: http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/global500/2011/ Bianco, V. D. (n. d. ). Louisiana News . Retrieved from Louisianafoodnews. com. eye, c. (2010, june 4). The BP Brand Fallout – Consumers Weigh In. Retrieved from corporate eye: http://www. corporate-eye. com/blog/2010/06/the-bp-brand-fallout-consumers-weigh-in/ Harrison, M. (n. d. ). Wave Matrix. Retrieved from wavematrix. com. Index, J. C. (2010, hune 24). Survey BPS consumer perception sinks below Goldman Sachs. Retrieved from http://www. mediabistro. om: http://www. mediabistro. com/prnewser/survey-bps-consumer-perception-sinks-below-goldman-sachs_b3951 JACOBSON, M. (2011, april 26). One Year Later, Where Does BP Stand? Retrieved from pbs. org: http://www. pbs. org/newshour/rundown/2011/04/bp—-one-year-later. html prices, O. (2010, July ). Retrieved from oilprices. org: http://www. oilprices. org/ White, G. (2011, feb 22). BP to sell off North Sea asset. Retrieved from the t elegraph: http://www. telegraph. co. uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8341366/BP-to-sell-off-North-Sea-assets. html

womens triumphs and tragedies essays

womens triumphs and tragedies essays Before the women's movements in the United States, women who were treated unfairly and not given any equal rights as men had suffered great tragedy. There tragedy was the way the society had treated them cruelly such as 1women once only had the option of teaching, and nursing, as career opportunities. Women would usually have the role of staying home and taking care of children and the home. Now after the first and second waves of the women's movements, women now are treated with great respect and given independent freedom. And carry a great deal of 5Women's Movements are group efforts, chiefly by women, that seek to improve women's lives or the lives of others. Probably the best known women's movements are those that have engaged in political efforts to change the roles and the status of women in society. A women's traditional role throughout history was wife or mother dominated, and most women's lives have been centered around their household. 2Women's Movements usually concentrate primarily on equal rights, freedom, and greater social, economic and political involvement for women. In history, there have been two major women's movements, the first wave was concentrated on gaining voting rights for women. 9On August 26,1920, the nineteenth amendment was added on to the amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America. This amendment stated that women now have the right to vote. During the second wave of the women's movement, there had been many organizations setup to help women unite, such as the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL), the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Women's Party, the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), and many more.2The second wave, which emerged in the 1960's, was concentrated mainly on political and social changes in many areas of t...

Pi Day Activities for the Classroom

Pi Day Activities for the Classroom Everyone loves pie, but we also love Pi. Used to calculate the width of a circle, Pi is an infinitely-long number derived from complex mathematical computations. Most of us remember that Pi is close to 3.14, but many others pride themselves on remembering the first 39 digits, which is how many you need to properly calculate the spherical volume of the universe. The numbers rise to stardom seems to have come from its challenge to memorize those 39 digits, as well as the fact that is has what many of us can agree might be the best homonym, pie. Pi enthusiasts have come to embrace March 14 as Pi Day, 3.14, a unique holiday which has launched numerous educational (not to mention delicious) ways to celebrate. Some of math teachers at Milken Community Schools in Los Angeles helped me assemble a list of some of the most popular (and yummy) ways to celebrate Pi Day. Check out our list of ideas for Pi Day Activities for you to do at home or in the classroom. Pi Plates Memorizing 39 digits of Pi can be quite the challenge, and a great way to get students thinking about those numbers can be to use Pi Plates. Using paper plates, write one digit on each plate and pass them out to students. As a group, they can work together and try to get all the numbers into the right order. For younger students, teachers may wish to only use 10 digits of Pi to make the activity a little easier. Make sure you have some painter’s tape for adhering them to wall without damaging the paint, or you can line them up in the hallway. You can even turn this into a competition between classes or grades, by asking each teacher to time her students to see how long it takes for them to get all 39 digits in the right order. What does the winner get? A pie, of course. Pi-Loop Chains Pull out the arts and crafts supplies, because this activity requires scissors, tape or glue, and construction paper. Using a different color for each digit of Pi, students can create a paper chain to use to decorate the classroom. See how many digits your class can calculate! Pi Pie This may be one of the most beloved ways to celebrate Pi Day. Baking a pie and using the dough to spell out the 39 digits of Pi as part of the crust has quickly become a tradition at many schools. At Milken School, some of the Upper School math teachers definitely enjoy having students bring in pies to celebrate, also hosting a small party which might include some special logic puzzles to kick off the class. Pizza Pi Not everyone has a sweet tooth, so another yummy way to celebrate Pi Day is with a different type of pie, a pizza pie! If your classroom has a kitchen (or access to one) students can calculate Pi for all the circular ingredients, including the pizza dough, pepperonis, olives, and even the pizza pan itself. To top it off, students can write out the symbol for pie using their circular pizza toppings.   Pi Trivia or Scavenger Hunt Set up a trivia game that asks students to compete against each other to correctly answer questions about Pi mathematicians, the history of Pi, and the uses of the famous number in the world around them: nature, art, and even architecture. Younger students might engage in a similar activity that focuses on the history of Pi by taking part in a scavenger hunt around school to find clues to these same trivia questions. Pi Philanthropy Math classes might want to celebrate Pi Day with a more philanthropic approach. According to one teacher at Milken, there are several ideas that a classroom might consider. Baking Pi Pies and selling them at a bake sale to benefit a local charity, or donating Pi Pies to a local food bank or homeless shelter can be a sweet treat for those in need. Students can also hold a food drive challenge, aiming to gather 314 cans of food for each grade level. Bonus points if you can convince your teacher or principal to reward students for reaching that goal by agreeing to receive a whipped cream pie to the face! Simon Says Pi This is a great little game for learning and memorizing the various digits of Pi. You can do this one student at a time in front of the whole class or in groups as a way to challenge each other to remember the digits of Pi and see who gets the farthest. Whether you’re doing one student at a time or breaking off into pairs, the person acting as â€Å"Simon† in this activity will have the number printed out on a card in hand, to ensure that the correct digits are being repeated, and will read out the digits, starting with 3.14. The second player will repeat those digits. Each time â€Å"Simon† adds a number, the second player must remember and repeat all the digits that were read aloud to them. The back and forth play continues until the second player makes a mistake. See who can remember the most! As an added bonus, make this an annual activity and you can create a  special  Pi Hall of Fame to honor the student who remembers the most digits each year. One school in Elmira, New York, Notre Dame High School, reportedly had one student remember 401 digits! Incredible! Some schools even suggest having different levels to honor how far students can go when it comes to memorization, with named groups to honor students who can remember 10-25 numbers, 26-50 numbers, and over 50 numbers. But if your students are recalling over 400 digits, you may need more levels than just three! Pi Attire Don’t forget to get all decked out in your very best Pi attire. Pi-tire, if you will. Teachers have long amused their students with math-themed shirts, Pi ties, and more. Bonus points if the entire math department participates! Students can get into the mathematical magic and don their own Pi digits as part of their outfits. Math Names One teacher at Milken shared this Pi-tastic tid-bit with me: â€Å"My second child was born on Pi Day, and I made his middle name be Matthew (aka, MATHew).†

Alternative Energy Sources And Sustainable Development Essay

Alternative Energy Sources And Sustainable Development - Essay Example This can be made possible if we put much effort and genius, just the same way the world discovered the first atomic bomb. The best source would be hydrogen fusion, but this miracle may be far than imagined. It became discovered that wind, solar, biomass, among many others, may also serve as a success, but require further effort to enhance them. Essential and crucial to whatsoever success is the ability to be able to achieve anything. Furthermore, renewable energy, can and certainly make a replacement of both fossil fuel and nuclear power as fast as possible if the globe is to avoid the hazardous effects of runaway climate change. Although wind, solar, biofuels and nuclear try to compete with oil as alternatives of basic energy, their contribution to the global energy in total can be limited or restricted since they are expensive compared to oil. In the case of nuclear, it can be restricted by waste and their disposal problems. As we acknowledge the hazards of climate change, we nonet heless, make a conclusion that the globe will continue to demand oil and gas for most of the basic supply of energy for several decades to come (Hurt, 2008). Wind energy is another key aspect. In the year of 2007, approximately twenty thousand megawatts became installed worldwide, enough to power 6 million homesteads. Nevertheless, most wind energy manufacturers can not be restricted to the USA, thanks to decades of funding cuts by the conservatives. Moreover, new wind can be poised to be a large contribution to America and worldwide generation of electricity, compared to nuclear power in the future decades. Furthermore, solar energy could be an even larger energy source, and it can share and distribute power lines with the wind. This... This paper tresses that new wind can be poised to be a large contribution to America and worldwide generation of electricity, compared to nuclear power in the future decades. Furthermore, solar energy could be an even larger energy source, and it can share and distribute power lines with the wind. This implies we can visualize an electric grid that would be built around renewable electricity having no greenhouse gas emissions, zero fuel cost, no future volatility of the energy prices, and zero radioactive waste. The wind does not necessarily always blow, and sunshine is not always present for each solar panel. This report makes a conclusion that there happens to be a stoppage at the first half of the oil age, because of the current economic and financial crisis, which is torturing the globe. Natural gas and oil can be set to fall during the second half of the oil age, to levels of exhaustion by the end of the century because of continuous depletion. Today, renewable energy, inclusive of hydro, accounts for not more than twelve percent of the globe’s total energy consumption. It can hence be known that their demand for them would grow rapidly in the forthcoming years, but it can be doubted if they can be used to replace fuels of fossil origin. Upgraded efficiency and changed lifestyles can be called to encounter the setbacks imposed. Hence, the tensions and setbacks of such a transition threaten to be disastrous

Biological Theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biological Theory - Research Paper Example Biological theory is a statement that is dedicated to covering evolution and all aspects of humanity. These fields includes, understanding human psychology, biological evolution, philosophy of science and development of biology. This theory explores all the aspects of these fields and helps in understanding how to deduce problems in the fields. The theory was first published in 2005. Biological Theory  is devoted to hypothetical developments in the arenas of development and understanding psychology. It does so with prominence on the theoretical combination afforded by evolutionary and growing tactics. The journal petitions to wide listeners of experts, communal boffins, and professors from the specific fields (Springer, 2014). In addition, this knowledge applies to theorists and students of biology. The field of biological theory clarifies how things happened to be working at the time associated with creating. The idea is split into areas, which tend to be Behavioural Hypotheses, Psychodynamic Hypotheses, Humanist Hypotheses, and Characteristic Theories (Cherry, 2014). A behaviour view within psychology offers held which exploratory evaluation of knowledge must start with a study of human conduct. Behavioural concept has benefited from the work associated with early researchers, for example Pavlov, Thorndike, and afterwards the function of W. F. Skinner. Work associated with the improvement of behaviour theories within the educational mind-set has permitted theorists in order to explore ways human action might be controlled via manipulation associated with stimuli as well as patterns associated with reinforcement. Informational processing is dependent on a concept of understanding that explains the digesting of, storage space, and access of knowledge within the mind. Factors for example, sensory sign-up, attention, operating memory, and long-term memory play a substantial part with this theory