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Monday, September 30, 2019

Stay in Hometown or Move

After they complete their university studies, some students live in their hometowns. Others live in different towns or cities. Which do you think is better -? living in your hometown or living in a deferent town or city? Give reasons for your answer. There are various reasons why a university student chose to stay in their hometown or leave.Relocating to another city or a country may be due to better Job opportunities, safer environment for the family, and better quality of life for the family. For those who stayed behind may be u to satisfaction within the community, personal commitment to work In and Improve the community, and the family Is deeply Involved with the customs and traditions of the community for generations. A student deeply rooted In the local traditions chooses to continue to live and work In the community he or she grew up In.He may Introduce new concepts to Improve the livelihood and quality of life of the other members. Sometimes It Is the camaraderie among the me mbers that makes the person stay rather than pursue opportunities elsewhere. On the other hand. Some graduates opt to relocate in search of greener pastures. If the family were living in an unsafe environment that threatens their livelihood, they would most likely relocate. A better location can give them a better quality of life.They can have peace while pursuing their careers. Their children can also concentrate in their studies because they are assured that they are free from any harm. In summary, most university graduates would relocate to seek greener pastures that offer a better quality of life for the whole family. For those who stayed behind they would rather work and contribute to the community where they grew up in. 251 words (body)

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Stylistic Analysis of the Text “The Last Leaf

/* * */ package javafxgrouping; /** * * @author 094632220 */ public class StudentEntity { // private String id; private String name; private String className; public StudentEntity(){ } public StudentEntity(String aID, String aName, String className) { this. id = aID; this. name = aName; this. className = className; } public String getId() { return id; } public void setId(String id) { this. id = id; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this. name = name; } public String getClassName() { return className; } public void setClassName(String className) { his. className = className; } @Override public String toString() { String str = id + â€Å",† + name + â€Å",† + className ; return str; } } /* * : TaDB. java * —————————– * HashMap HashMap id( )? * , taMap? HashMap * , (public ): * TaEntity findEntry(String id): * String findName(String id): * int rows(): * Iterator getIterator(): ( ) */ package javafxgrouping; import java. io. BufferedReader; import java. io. FileNotFoundException; import java. io. FileReader; mport java. io. IOException; import java. util. ArrayList; import java. util. HashMap; import java. util. Iterator; import java. util. Map; import java. util. StringTokenizer; /** * * @author */ public class TaDB { /* */ private Map taMap; // (HashMap) /* * TaDB, (TA. txt) * , */ public TaDB(String filename) { taMap = new HashMap(); // /* */ FileReader fr = null; try { fr = new FileReader(filename); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { System. out. print(â€Å" † + filename + â€Å"! ); } /* */ BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(fr); String line; try { // while ((line = bf. readLine()) ! = null) { // , ta ArrayList ta = new ArrayList(); StringTokenizer tokenizer = new StringTokenizer(line, â€Å",†); ta. add(tokenizer. nextToken()); while (tokenizer. hasMoreTokens()) { String token = tokenizer. nextToken(); ta. add(token); } // TaEntity entry = new TaEntity(ta. get(0), ta. get(1), ta. get(2), ta. get(3), ta. get(4), ta. get(5)); // (HashMap) taMap. put(entry. getId(), entry); } } catch (IOException e) { System. ut. print(â€Å" † + filename + â€Å"! â€Å"); } } /* * id( ) , null? */ public TaEntity findEntry(String id) { return taMap. get(id); } /* * id( ) , null? */ public String findName(String id) { return taMap. get(id). getName(); } /* * */ public int rows() { return taMap. size(); } /* * (id) */ public Iterator getIterator() { return taMap. keySet(). iterator(); } } /* * */ package javafxgrouping; /** * * @author */ public class TaEntity { private String id; // private String name; // rivate String iid; // private String email; // private String phone; // private String tutor; // /* */ public TaEntity() { } /* */ public TaEntity(String aID, String aName, String aIID, String aEmail, String aPhone, String aTutor) { this. id = aID; this. name = aName; this. iid = aIID; this. email = aEmail; this. phone = aPhone; this. tutor = aTutor; } /*getter ? setter*/ public String getId() { return id; } public void setId(String ID) { this. id = ID; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this. name = name; } public String getIid() { eturn iid; } public void setIid(String IID) { this. iid = IID; } public String getEmail() { return email; } public void setEmail(String email) { this. email = email; } public String getPhone() { return phone; } public void setPhone(String phone) { this. phone = phone; } public String getTutor() { return tutor; } public void setTutor(String tutor) { this. tutor = tutor; } * */ @Override public String toString() { String str = id + â€Å",† + name + â€Å",† + iid + â€Å",† + email + â€Å",† + phone + â€Å",† + tutor; return str; } } /* * */ package javafxgrouping; import java. io. FileWriter; import java. io.IOException; import java. io. PrintWriter ; import java. util. ArrayList; import java. util. Iterator; import java. util. Random; import java. util. logging. Level; import java. util. logging. Logger; import javafx. application. Application; import javafx. collections. FXCollections; import javafx. collections. ObservableList; import javafx. event. ActionEvent; import javafx. event. EventHandler; import javafx. scene. Group; import javafx. scene. Scene; import javafx. scene. control. Button; import javafx. scene. control. ListView; import javafx. scene. input. MouseEvent; import javafx. scene. text. Font; import javafx. stage.Stage; /** * * @author */ public class JavaFXGrouping extends Application { // HTML private static String htmlFileName = â€Å"group. xhtml†; // CSS private static String cssFileName = â€Å"style. css†; private final int sceneWidth = 900; // private final int sceneHeight = 660; //// private TaDB taDb = new TaDB(â€Å"src/javafxgrouping/TA. txt†); // // , private StudentsDB studen tsDb = new StudentsDB(â€Å"src/javafxgrouping/Students. txt†); private ArrayList taIdArray = new ArrayList(); // d private ArrayList studentIdArray = new ArrayList(); // id private ArrayList studentAdd = new ArrayList(); private int studentsNo = studentsDb. rows(); private int groupNo = taDb. rows(); // , private Button btn = new Button(â€Å" â€Å"); // â€Å" â€Å" private Button btn1 = new Button(â€Å" HTML â€Å"); // â€Å" HTML â€Å" private ListView[] group = new ListView[groupNo]; // , 1? rivate ObservableList[] myObservableList = new ObservableList[groupNo]; // private Group root = new Group(); // @Override public void start(final Stage primaryStage) { // â€Å" â€Å" btn. setFont(Font. font(null, 24)); btn. setLayoutX(sceneWidth – 240); btn. setLayoutY(20); btn. setPrefSize(220, 50); // â€Å" HTML â€Å" btn1. setFont(Font. font(null, 24)); btn1. setLayoutX(sceneWidth – 240); btn1. setLayoutY(20); btn1. setPrefSize(220, 50); btn1. se tVisible(false); initArray(); // taIdArray? studentIdArray drawGroupList(); // , root. getChildren(). ddAll(btn, btn1); // Scene scene = new Scene(root, sceneWidth, sceneHeight); // primaryStage. setTitle(â€Å" â€Å"); // primaryStage. setScene(scene); // primaryStage. show(); // //† â€Å" ( ) btn. setOnAction(new EventHandler() { @Override public void handle(ActionEvent event) { btn. setVisible(false); randomGrouping(); btn1. setVisible(true); } }); //† HTML â€Å" ( ) btn1. setOnAction(new EventHandler() { @Override public void handle(ActionEvent event) { writeToFile(); btn1. setVisible(false); } }); } ** * JavaFX main() IDE FX * NetBeans main() * * @ args */ public static void main(String[] args) { launch(args); } private void drawGroupList() { int k; for (int j = 0; j < groupNo; j++) { myObservableList[j] = FXCollections. observableArrayList(); group[j] = new ListView(); group[j]. setStyle(â€Å"-fx-font-size:18;†); group[j]. setItems(myObservableList [j]); group[j]. setLayoutX(20 + j * 60); group[j]. setLayoutY(20 + j * 34); group[j]. setPrefSize(360, 320); k = j + 1; myObservableList[j]. add(â€Å"? † + k + â€Å"? [ :† + taIdArray. et(j) + â€Å",† + taDb. findName(taIdArray. get(j)) + â€Å"]†); final int i = j; group[j]. setOnMouseClicked(new EventHandler() { @Override public void handle(MouseEvent event) { group[i]. toFront(); } }); root. getChildren(). add(group[j]); } } private void initArray() { // id Iterator taIterator = taDb. getIterator(); while (taIterator. hasNext()) { taIdArray. add(taIterator. next()); } // id , Iterator studentsIterator = studentsDb. getIterator(); while (studentsIterator. hasNext()) { studentIdArray. add(studentsIterator. ext()); } } private void randomGrouping() { // , int i, j, num = 0; Random studentsRandom = new Random(); for (i = 0; i < groupNo; i++) { j = 0; if (i < studentsNo % groupNo) { while (((studentsNo – num) ! = 0) && (j < studentsNo / groupNo + 1)) { j++; int studentNo = studentsRandom. nextInt(studentsNo – num); myObservableList[i]. add(studentsDb. findclassName(studentIdArray. get(studentNo)) + â€Å",† + studentIdArray. get(studentNo) + â€Å",† + studentsDb. findName(studentIdArray. get(studentNo))); studentAdd. add(studentIdArray. et(studentNo)); studentIdArray. remove(studentNo); num++; if (num == studentsNo) { break; } } } else { while (((studentsNo – num) ! = 0) && (j < studentsNo / groupNo)) { j++; int studentNo = studentsRandom. nextInt(studentsNo – num); myObservableList[i]. add(studentsDb. findclassName(studentIdArray. get(studentNo)) + â€Å",† + studentIdArray. get(studentNo) + â€Å",† + studentsDb. findName(studentIdArray. get(studentNo))); studentAdd. add(studentIdArray. get(studentNo)); studentIdArray. remove(studentNo); num++; f (num == studentsNo) { break; } } } } } private void writeToFile() { writeToHtml(htmlFileName); createCss(cssFileName); } private void writeToHtml(String fileName) { // HTML , PrintWriter wr = null; try { wr = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter(htmlFileName)); } catch (IOException ex) { Logger. getLogger(JavaFXGrouping. class. getName()). log(Level. SEVERE, null, ex); } wr. println(â€Å"

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Strategy for Introducing a New Product Research Paper

Strategy for Introducing a New Product - Research Paper Example The company has loyal customers in the market because of its persistence. Today, it is still a dominant player in the tea industry in most of its countries. Tetley is just about to introduce a new product into the market. However, before the launch, the company needs to establish whether the market will accept the new product. In addition, the company needs to identify the specific target in the market. This paper will examine the market trends in order to provide the answers to these issues. Tetley has had immense impact in the market. It is through their marketing strategies that they have managed to win a large market share. Through this therefore, the company owns the credit for innovating tea bags in the early 1900s although the venture came after accidental realization that tea bags were a possibility in packaging. The company has its roots in the United Kingdom where its founders started out venture. The company has posted growth in several other countries. Despite the competi tion that has grown over time as new entries in the tea industry, Tetley tea still dominates the United Kingdom market. Tetley group has several sister companies operating separately. The entire sister companies offer unique brands to the region in which they operate. In 2011, Tetley dominated the market achieving 24% retail value in Canada. Tea products had a retail growth value of 4%. The volume growth in the same year was 1 %. The Canadian market posted C$ 547 million. The Canadians prove to be a good market for tea. They easily try out new tea products with the right persuasion (Masterson and Pickton, 2010:85). Tetley’s products did well in the Canadian market with black tea special brand scooping a 44% share followed by green tea with 31% while standard black tea got 18 %, which was a one percent rise from 2010. In addition, the herbal tea and fruit ranges of products as well as the color therapy proved a real success in the Canadian market. Future prospects indicated a growth in tea sales by 2016. In the United Kingdom, tea prices recorded an increase in 2010. Black tea made more sales in the market though it portrayed minimal growth. Herbal and green tea exhibited more growth in the market because of the health benefits. 12% of total sales of tea were the herbal and green tea. Most of the sales of tea were to people above 65 years accounting for 88% of consumption. Tea consumption was relatively lower for the younger generation. Tea is receiving competition from other products among the younger generation and the 90% breakfast tea sales were going down. The trends in 2011 changed because of the campaigns on the benefits of tea. This year saw Unilever take a lead in the percentage of sales. In the United States of America, tea exhibited an increase in popularity in 2011 because of the increased awareness of tea benefits on health. Tea posted a growth of 2% reaching 72278 tonnes. In this market, Unilever was leading in the percentage of sales. The tea industry in America is likely to show a 10% growth by 2016. The healthier products such as herbal tea, iced tea, and fruit-varieties stand a chance to indicate growth because of the health benefits (Masterson and Pickton, 2010: 86). The Indian market trends portrays that black tea, the standard variety still dominates because of the Indian cultural and traditional set up (Pride et al, 2011:131).

Friday, September 27, 2019

Cryptosporidium parvum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cryptosporidium parvum - Essay Example The parasite is adapted to harsh way of survival. This is due to its outer layer that allows it to withstand harsh environment (CDC, 2013). This conveys it some resistance once it is exposed to chlorine disinfection. The organism exists in nature and causes disease. The organism is transmitted in different ways. However, water acts as the most common way of transmission (CDC, 2013). Such water may be for drinking or recreational facilities. The mode of transmission is through fecal-oral route (Health Canada, 2001). This may be from person to person, animal to person, or food and waterborne transmission (Health Canada, 2001). The organism prevalence has been on the rise in United States. For example, from 2009 to 2010 the number of cases of cryptosporidiosis has been on the rise (Yoder, T et al. (2012). Cases were most prevalent on children aged 1-9 years and adults in a category of 25-29 years (Yoder, T et al. (2012). Moreover, the number of waterborne diseases has been on the rise in the country. A number of factors contribute to the spread of the organism. However, there are factors that majorly contribute to the spread of the organism. They include accidental swallowing something that encounters the stool of an infected person (CDC, 2013). It may also be through drinking recreational water contaminated with Crypto (CDC, 2013). One may also be infected through eating of poorly cooked food contaminated with the organism. Likewise, one may get infected by touching of mouth with contaminated hand (CDC, 2013). It may also be spread in a laboratory by naturally and experimentally infected animals (Health Canada,

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Globalization in the Context of Ghana Development Prospects Essay

Globalization in the Context of Ghana Development Prospects - Essay Example Ghana’s story, like many African and South American countries, is a story characterized by a mixed fortune of charismatic leadership with a determination to bring economic prosperity within their soil. With a dream of development prospects to the western standards, the original desire of Ghana’s leadership after independence was a state of parity in a record time of ten years under ideological stewardship of Kwame Nkrumah. Even though development was never fully achieved within the period, international political influences remained fully ingrained in the country’s undertakings. From independence upfront, Ghana adopted foreign policy principles and ideals of nonalignment and Pan-Africanism enunciated by Kwame Nkrumah’s tenure. Accordingly, the adoption of nonalignment stand was a counter-strategy measure against the infiltration of antagonistic policies perpetuated by alliances of both the East and West power blocs. On the other end, Pan-Africanism was a c ooperative visionary policy aimed at liberating the continent from Western colonialism and uniting it for a more consolidated economic and political independence (Ofusu par 33). The country’s active participation in the various organizations such as the United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS is a clear indication of its commitment to the maintenance of friendly relations and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and noninterference from other countries irrespective of ideological differences.Taking colonialism off their shoulders, the post-independence national reconstruction placed Ghana as a middle-income country by the 1960s, with its citizenry enjoying relatively stable socio-economic standards of living. As fate would have it, political instability coupled with economic mismanagement by the military juntas in the 1970s eroded the positive economic gains at independence, eventually plunging the country into severe socio-economic crisis. As the wee hours of the 197 0s approached, the country’s gross domestic product’s declining rate was alarming, pushing every sector

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Your Are An Enterpreneur Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Your Are An Enterpreneur - Assignment Example The companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other leading companies would be reached. In the agreements, retailer margin, transport of products, loss in transit, bulk purchase discounts and other important factors shall be discussed. However, before going to finalize agreements, the entrepreneur intends to research the existing policies and interaction between these companies with the retailers. For this purpose, both online and offline resources would be used to gather the relevant information. The entrepreneur intends to hire three full time assistants serving to customers. These assistants would be required to guide customers, provide information and assist them with any other requirements needed by the customers. The reason behind hiring three assistants is to facilitate customers. This facilitation enhances possibility of customer loyalty. Subsequently, this would generate an interrupted flow of customers and revenue would be keep

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Tourism Management Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tourism Management - Research Proposal Example The charm of Cancun lies in the fact that this secluded island offers all kinds of facilities within the island so that tourists do not need to leave the island in order to get any kind of necessities. It has hotels for all classes of tourists and caters to a variety of tastes and preferences as well. In fact, Cancun has 140 hotels, which translates to 24,000 rooms. There is something here that everyone can afford. In addition there 190 flights plying to and from Cancun daily - so getting there is not a problem. This is a definite draw for a large chunk of tourists. Further, it has over 600 restaurants which ensure that people with varied tastes can find their ideal kind of cuisine in this island. In this regard, sustainable tourism is an important feature that can be built into the tourism of the area as this area garners a major proportion of income from the tourism industry in Mexico. Sustainable tourism in this region can flourish mainly as this island has a rich heritage of dive rse vegetation and scenic beauty apart from sea world vegetation and rare species of fish and other such species. Sustainable tourism in a beautiful island like Cancun is like a dream come true for environmentalists as well as policy makers who believe in green politics and green economy. Premises Premises of Analysis: Hypothesis: The study of sustainable tourism in the island of Cancun will be based on the following aspect. The case of Benidorm in the South of Spain as a model upon which the sustainable tourism model for Cancun can be fashioned. Owing to the fact that the basic issue in the case of studying the South of Spain region in terms of scope for sustainable development with an eye on positive and negative impact of such a strategy on the physical environment as well as the socio economic structure of the region in context of legislations of the regional, national and supra national organisations, there has been a use of ontology. The questionnaire method will be the following: the tourist will have to evaluate the island from the following points of view: price, range of accommodation and exposure of tourists. Literature: For the reasons mentioned above, many literary sources attached a particular to this island. In context of the impact of sustainable tourism on the physical environment and socio economic structure in the region, an important book that has helped in setting the criteria for analysis is Mediterranean Tourism: Facets of Socio Economic Development and Cultural Changes. This book has covered 13 countries and has relevant factual information upon which the analysis was based in the dissertation. The chapter titled Towards a Sustained Competitiveness in Spanish Tourism is of special relevance to this dissertation as it creates a nexus between sustainable tourism management and competitive advantage in the tourism industry. The book titled The Tourism Area Life Cycle is another relevant work that helped gain an insight into specific areas and the tourism life cycles enjoyed by the same. (Butler, 2006). In context of tourism life cycles, this book has important and relevant infor mation on the various legislations by the various supra national, national and regional organisations in case of the tourism indus

Monday, September 23, 2019

Principles and Practice of Leadership and Management in a Learning Essay

Principles and Practice of Leadership and Management in a Learning Disability Context - Essay Example It is common for these individuals to have some extra needs in care and communication, and helping them reduce stress and feel comfortable is one of the major responsibilities of their caregivers (Clements 1987). It is normally necessary to have the disabled people live in areas where they have easy access to both medical and psychological care. This is mostly done in institutions or in the context of the community (Turnbull 2004). Consequently, it is the responsibility of those charged with managing institutions that care for these individuals to put in place measures that ensure that these people are awarded the most conducive atmosphere with as little discomfort as possible (Dalby & Knifton, 2012). During my training as a learning disability nurse, I have been to various institutions and have met varying management styles. In analyzing the qualities a manager should possess, I will first review two different institutions and their managers to try and draw out the reason why manage ment is an important factor in the success or failure of these programs. A success story One of my initial placements took me to an institution caring for people who needed psychiatric care. On getting to the facility, I was introduced to my supervisor who took his time to introduce me to all members of staff, a situation that helped me feel welcome. I was then handed a set of papers that outlined what was considered best practices in the institution, and was informed that the first item on my itinerary would be to attend a two hour seminar where I would be brought up to speed with the requirements the managers set for all the staff at the institution. I was impressed with the level to which the management went to ensure compliance with the best practice guide, and immediately understood why the institution was ranked among the best in psychiatry care in the country. The manger had set guidelines which he insisted strict adherence to. The seminar was supposed to; Plant a deep workin g knowledge of all issues regarding psychiatry. In this aspect, one was always encouraged to consult with their peers or those senior to them in case they encountered a situation or issue they were not familiar with. Explore how difficulties in communication were manifested in the mentally disabled, and how to make the best out of whatever channels were available to communicate with the patients in an individual level. To educate the staff on consent and capacity issues with respect to people with psychiatric needs and on how best to navigate around the issues Inform the managers and support staff on the resources available to them in the hospital, and on other organizations that offer psychiatric services. The manager was a stickler to detail and insisted on the highest levels of discipline. He led by example in implementing the guidelines on treating people with learning disabilities as equals. In my early days, one case stood out that engraved the importance of having staff and d epartments organized in a conveyance belt model for service provision as spelt by Gates (2009). In the witnessed case, an emergency rescue team had called in on a patient who had recently been discharged, but who had had a recurrence, was physically aggressive and had inflicted some injuries on her body which needed a minor surgery. Since the institution

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Challenges In managing diversity and benefits of diversity Term Paper

Challenges In managing diversity and benefits of diversity - Term Paper Example This concise report is primarily based on discussing the nature and meaning of diversity, intricate challenges faced by all the major organizations in managing diversity, and myriad benefits offered by this trend that is spreading fast around the globe. Diversity is basically a determined tendency to recognize and appreciate the variety of characteristics that make all the persons working for an organization significant and important, while creating such a working environment that encourages all the employees to participate in the betterment of an organization. Age, sex, racial, ethnic, religious, geographical or cultural background, language, and political affiliation are those major characteristics on which the structure of diversity is based. This is an unequivocal fact that a diverse workforce is a real asset for any organization and that is the reason why almost all the major successful companies and giant conglomerates in the world place diversity among the topmost preferences for maintaining success. Wal-Mart is one such worth mentioning example, which has running outlets around the globe. The workplace diversity initiatives introduced by Wal-Mart have majorly helped this conglomerate in achieving success and living up to the changing requirements of the customers. Nondiscriminatory treatment of the workforce is the hallmark of Wal-Mart company.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Microbiology Essay Example for Free

Microbiology Essay 1.List five environments where you are likely to find microbial growth: Lakes, soil, oceans, tundras, deserts 2.How do microbes contribute to soil fertility? The decomposition that microbes take part in help release mineral nutrients, such as potassium and nitrogen, from dead organic matter and allowing primary producers the nutritional access. They also produce CO2 and CH4 to release into the soil and atmosphere. 3.Describe the growth you observed in each of your samples: Soil: I chose an area of soil outside of my apartment to do my soil sample. I noticed that there were a few prominent growth in this dish. The majority of them seemed to grow in a snowflake shape and were mainly white. Whether they were different types of microbes or just one, I am not sure. There was one growth that had a black center and a white border that was shaped like a snowflake. Air: I left the dish uncovered in my kitchen and the growth was interesting. I noticed that there were three distinct microbial growths that were prominent along with a small smattering of white along the petri dish. There was one growth that was a dark grey colour with a mottled appearance, another that was a white colour with a mottled appearance, and finally one that was a tan colour with a bubbly appearance. Water: There is a small and very stale pond near my house that I took the water sample from. This was by far the most disgusting of the three observations. The growth I observed looked like a very dark Picasso painting. There was a black coloured colony that had a fuzzy appearance, there was a dark green coloured colony that looked wrinkled and somewhat mottled, there was a colony with a black center and white surrounding it with a wispy appearance, and there was a white colony with a very feathery appearance. 4.What were the differences between the growths in each plate? The similarities? The differences in the growth plates is that each of the three environments had their own bacteria that were specific to it. It seems as if the water sample had the most growth due to the fact that it was continually exposed to the elements and people. The soil one seemed as if it may have some fungal microbes due to the snowflake like appearance. There were similarities between the soil plate and the water plate. It could be that the droplets from the water reached the soil area and that their microbes could be colonizing there. I saw no similarities between the air plate and any of the other two. 5.What is the difference between and autotroph and a heterotroph? The difference between an autotroph and a heterotroph is that an autotroph is capable of deriving its energy from light using photosynthesis or he oxidation of reduced organic or inorganic molecules. Heterotrophs are not able to produce heir own food and are required to feed on other organisms in order to obtain their energy. 6.Define the following terms: Photoautotroph – Capable of using ligh as an energy source and CO2 as a carbon source Photoheterotroph- Uses light as an energy source and reduced organic compounds as a carbon source Chemoautotroph- Uses inorganic chemicals as an energy source and CO2 as a principal carbon source Chemoheterotroph- Uses organic compounds as an energy source as well as a principal carbon source 7.What is nitrogen fixation? What role do microbes serve? Nitrogen fixation is a process where atmospheric nitrogen is converted into a useable form of nitrogen (ammonia). Microbes serve a role in nitrogn fixation because they are the only organisms capable of performing this process. 8.Define the following terms: Hyphae- Tube like structures with a rigid cell wall that protects the cell membrane Mycelium- A structure that is composed of intertwined thread-like hyphae. This is the primary structural component of the fungi buried in thhe soil/organic matter that the fungus is living on Septate- Also known as cross-walls, they divide the hyphae into sections giving them the possibility of containing more than one nucleus in addition to the usual organelles found in these cells. 9.What type of morphological features were you able to see in your fungal wet mounts? In your stained preparations? In the wet mount, it was very obvious that the organisms growing on the food were of fungal origins. There was a network of hyphae that was branching out and tangled up around the slide. In the stained preparations, I could see the individual sections that are divided by the septae. Within these sections, if you went up to a higher powered lens, you could see dark little spots which I am assuming are the nuclei. I also saw that there were tiny little buds that were present throughout the hyphae tangle. 10.List the four main classifications of fungi and describe each group Chytridiomycota- The smallest and simplest fungi. They are considered the ancestors of modern fungi and are primarily aquatic organisms. The majority are decomposeres but come can be plant pathogens. Zygomycota- Mostly terrestrial fungi that live in soil or decaying plant and animal matter. They are mainly parasites of plants, insects, and animals. Ascomycota- The largest and most diverse group of fungi that includes the fungal element of lichen and many edible fungi (morels and truffles). Basidiomycota- Producers of spores on a stick or club-like structures and are known as club fungi. Some club fungi are edible but the majority are poisonous. 11.What fungi would you find in the group Deuteromycota? Deuteromycota has fungi that have lost the ability to reproduce sexually. 12.What is a lichen? Lichens are the symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an algae where the fungus is usually an ascomycete and the algae is usually a cyanobacteria. The fungal partner cant grow without the algae. 13.Define the following terms: Parasite- An organism that lives off of another living organism without killing or helping the host organism in any way. Saprobe- An organism that uses dead organic matter as a food source. Mutualistic Organism- Organisms that live in close association with another type of organism in a mutually beneficial relationship such as lichens. 14.What are the five common features of fungi? Fungi are heterotrophs and depend on other organisms as a carbon source. The structure of fungi is generally found as a unicellular fungi or as a mycelium. Most fungi have cell walls that are primarily composed of chitin. Fungi acquire their food through absorption which and transport their nutrients from substrate directly through their cell walls. Most fungi reproduce through sexual and asexual routes. Which route is used is determined by the environmental conditions. Describe the growth on each of your substrates, what were the similarities? The differences? I chose bread, a strawberry, a slice of tomato, and a square of cheese as my growing substrates. The similarities amongst them was in the general appearance of the mold. Each specimen had mold that was fuzz in appearance and seemed to branch away from a central location and spread throughout the food. A white colour was seen in each of the specimens as well. However, the bread mold had black in it as well as the white which makes me believe that it has different fungi that prefer bread to the other foods. The cheese, strawberry, and tomato all had white fuzzy mold on it. The cheeses mold was more dispersed throughout the food in a random pattern. The strawberry and the tomato mold looked very similar to one another and grew rather aggressively and covered the whole specimen.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Analysis of validity and reliability of intelligence assessments

Analysis of validity and reliability of intelligence assessments Measuring intelligence has always been a pragmatic thing to do (Wilhelm Engle, 2005). Most people find it hard to be rational in measuring their intelligence. As a common usage, intelligence is attested quantifiably by understanding the admissibility of a degree (Bartholomew, 2004) In other words, there can be no way that intelligence would be perfectly quantified. Only the nearness or the relative distance can be the mode of measuring ones intelligence. David Wechsler (Bartholomew, 2004) defines intelligence as the aggregate ability of an individual to have a rational thinking, a purposive act, and an effective dealing with his environment. Some writers however define intelligence negatively. That is, the doing away of tests. It is important to differentiate between intelligence quotient (IQ) and intelligence itself. IQ does not simply refer to the quantity of intelligence a person has, rather it refers to the relative standing of an individual with regard to his performance in an intelligence test as compared to others who took the same test (Zastrow Kirst-Ashman, 2007). When intelligence is measured in terms of a numerical result (i.e. I.Q. is 140), we cannot be sure that we are really talking about intelligence since there is a substitution of precision for vagueness (Govier, 2009). The original purpose of intelligence test was primarily to identify the least capable students that are finding it hard to learn from ordinary schooling (Kalat, 2010). However, it was later used to determine who among the students excel and during entrance examinations in universities. It is seemingly difficult if not impossible to devise a test that would truly measure the innate intelligence without being bias culturally. Innate ability cannot be measured if cultural bias exists (Young, 2006). Bias refers to the existence of nuisance factors that makes it difficult to compare the intelligence tests results across different cultural groups (Prifitera et al. 2008). There are three kinds of cultural biases in intelligence tests vis-a-viz construct bias, method bias, and differential item functioning (Lovler, Miller, McIntire, 2010). Construct bias occurs when there are different systems of meaning from culture to culture. For instance, a good daughter in a country might have a different characteristic in another country. Method bias occurs when the procedure of the test vary from different cultures such as when in a certain country, participants are used to input data electronically while in another country, participants are used to answering manually through paper s. Differential item functioning or item bias occurs when there is a great gap in the test scores of the participants in different cultures who have relatively the same abilities. For example, different regional groups might have different scores in a history test regarding their home country even if all of them are familiar with its history. In order to eliminate cultural biases in intelligence tests, culture-free tests became a demand. As the name imply this test attempt to eliminate cultural and educational differences (Haselbauer, 2006). The most common mediums used in this test are pictures or images which assess spatial capabilities of the participants such as visualization and perception. The validity of the tests is equally important as the reliability of the test. Validity is challenged when a participant in the test cannot communicate in the language used in the test (Rhodes, 2005). Critics of IQ tests argue that the differences in IQ scores are attributable to the orientation of the test makers such as their experiences, vocabulary and language, and lifestyles (Weiten, 2008). Construct-related validity refers to the extent which the test instrument can capture the details it is designed to measure (Sternberg, 2010). Methods To be able to determine the validity of intelligence tests particularly on the way it is constructed, this paper will investigate whether validity of tests vary between English speakers and non-English speakers. The kind of test that will be used is PSYGAT which focuses mainly on the verbal capability of the participant. This will be conducted after the participants have taken the Queendom test and Culture Fair IQ test. Participants will be composed of a total number of 337 from which 269 (79.8%) are females and 68 (20.2%) are males. The sex standard deviation for the participants with English-speaking backgrounds (ESB) will be 0.407 while those with non-English speaking background (NESB) will be 0.389. After getting the result of the test, it will be analyzed based on age. The age standard deviation for ESBs will be 7.514 while for NESBs it is 7.627. Ages range from 19-55 for ESBs and 19-62 for NESBs. Aim This study aims to determine if PSYGAT is internally reliable when a group of participants with English-speaking backgrounds and non-English speaking backgrounds are compared. An initial hypothesis for this study is that PSYGAT will be a reliable means of intelligence computation vis-a-viz significant convergent validity in the same way as the Queendom and Culture Fair IQ tests. However, between ESB and NESB, it is hypothesized that they will differ in terms of reliability and validity. Results Item Analysis Upon checking for internal consistency of data using Cronbachs alpha, it can be assessed that results were reliable, especially as most of the generated alpha were higher than 80 percent. The following are reliability statistics with their corresponding Cronbachs alpha  [1]  : Reliability of data for overall sample for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .898 Reliability of data for overall sample for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .848 Reliability of the data for ESB group for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .851 Reliability of the ESB for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .901 Reliability of the data for NESB group for the 25 best discriminating questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .841 Reliability of the NESB group for all 55 questions Reliability Statistics Cronbachs Alpha .889 Validity of PSYGAT In order to test the validity of PSYGAT, the correlation scores of the PSYGAT (total scores) on each of the Queendom tests were obtained using SPSS. Correlations (for all sample) Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .466** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 337 337 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .466** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 337 337 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .098 -.283** Sig. (2-tailed) .073 .000 N 337 337 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Correlations for ESB Group Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .433** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 244 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .433** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 244 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .067 -.341** Sig. (2-tailed) .295 .000 N 244 244 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Correlations for NESB group Total Queendom Verbal Adjusted Total Pearson Correlation 1 .567** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 93 93 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .567** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 93 93 Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation .238* .011 Sig. (2-tailed) .022 .918 N 93 93 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Assessment of Differences between ESB and NESB groups in terms of reliability and validity By splitting the data according to its background (i.e., ESB and NESB group), the following correlations were obtained: Correlations English Queendom Culture Fair IQ english speakiing background Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N 244 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation -.341** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 244 non english speaking background Queendom Culture Fair IQ Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N 93 Queendom Verbal Adjusted Pearson Correlation .011 Sig. (2-tailed) .918 N 93 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). The observed z value will be obtained using the following formula: where: rESB= -0.341 NESB = 244 rNESB= 0.011 NNESB = 93 Transforming the correlation coefficient to their corresponding z values, zESB = -0.355 zNESB = 0.011 Using the values above, the following observed z value was obtained: Z = -2.96 To evaluate the observed z value, the obtained value must not be between -1.96 and +1.96 to conclude a statistical difference between the two correlation coefficients. From this, it can be assessed that there is a statistical difference between the 2 correlation coefficients, due to the fact that the observed z value does not fall between -1.96 and +1.96. Discussion and Conclusions Many researchers have argued that the measurement of intelligence through IQ tests is no doubt based on the culture to which the individual belongs to. In an attempt to assess the reliability and the construct validity of the PSYGAT a verbal assessment developed by Psychology students in 1998 344 Psychology students were tasked to complete three tests which comprises of two Queendom tests (verbal adjusted and culture fair test) and the PSYGAT. The results of the PSYGAT were then analysed for internal validity. Construst validity of PSYGAT was also examined by analyzing the test scores alongside the Queendom tests. The hypothesis that the PSYGAT test would show significant internal reliability and construct validity as it was analysed alongside the other two tests was supported. Significant correlations were also found in the results for Queendom Verbal Adjusted and the PSYGAT for English speaking background group. Upon computation of observed z values, it was also concluded that th ere were statistical differences between the ESB and NESB correlation coefficients. Thus, it can be further assessed that PSYGAT can be used validly for verbal intelligence assessments, although, further research is recommended for its use in culture fair factors. One limitation though of this study is the fact that participants were all university students, specifically Psychology students. Perhaps, there is a need for further research that will involve a much diverse population, considering that participants in this study can be considered as well-educated. Despite their non-English speaking background, it can also be assumed that perhaps are also well-versed in the English language. Another limitation is also the fact that the tests used the English language as the first language in the assessments. Such factor may pose limitations for specific ethnic groups whose first language is not English. It can be considered that future researches be conducted that will be more culture sensitive and be conducted using the first language of the specific ethnic group. References Bartholomew, D. J. (2004). Measuring intelligence: facts and fallacies: Cambridge University Press Govier, T. (2009). A practical study of argument (7th ed.): Cengage Learning. Haselbauer, N. (2006). The everything test your IQ book: discover your true intelligence: Everything Books. Kalat, J. W. (2010). Introduction to psychology (9th ed.): Cengage Learning. Lovler, R. L., Miller, L. A., McIntire, S. A. (2010). Foundations of psychological testing: a practical approach (3rd ed.): SAGE. Prifitera, A., Saklofske, D. H., Weiss, L. G. (2008). WISC-IV clinical assessment and intervention: practical resources for the mental health professional (2nd ed.): Elsevier. Rhodes, R. L., Ochoa, S. H. Ortiz, S. O. (2005). Assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students: a practical guide: Guilford Press. Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th ed.): Cengage Learning. Wilhelm, O. Engle, R. W. (2005). Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence: SAGE. Young, E. M. (2010). Dealing with the cultural bias in intelligence testing: culture free and culture fair iq tests. Retrieved 29 April 2011 from: . Zastrow, C Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2007). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (7th ed.): Cengage Learning.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Gardens Essay -- Environment, Nature and Culture, Landscape

Throughout the history of mankind, the gardens have been created to feed the spirit. The landscape is a relationship between nature and culture; it expresses who we are and where we from. Furthermore, landscape architecture advances along with society and it adjust to the change of their tastes and way of life. It is at first hand the search for a balance of adapting the environment and the advance society. We can observe the different styles and designs process each culture has, simply by looking at what kind of elements, plants, and regulations it uses. For example in the United States a designer takes into consideration the ADA regulations while in Mexico they don’t, which will result in a different design approach. This means that we might witness a similar design containing a bridge crossing through a pond but one design might incorporate railings and the other one will not. This tells us how one society values the importance of incorporating safety and handicap accessi bility just by using different elements. The following essay intends to discuss how culture can contribute to the design of an exterior space and how it’s reflected in the work of a landscape architect. To accomplish this task I am going to look at two landscape architects from different regions and witness how diverse but also how unified they are to each other by looking at the way they incorporate elements from their culture and other societies. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN BRAZIL The first landscape architect that I choose to accomplish my task is Burle Marx. Troguhout his life he designed hundreds of private and public space which helped him get recognized and obtain comitions throughout Latin- America, United States, and across the continent. Burle ... ...Because of the importance of the location of the site the designer took into consideration the culture aspect of the area. The Olympic forest Park combines the traditional Chinese landscape and the feng-shui philosophy with the contemporary design concepts and techniques. Two crucial traditional elements used were the mountain and water feature, these were incorporated in the planning and design of the Olympic Forest Park. An artificial mountain was created and dragon-shape lake flowing along the axis was designed. The mountain designed is called Yandshan Mountain, to accomplish the design of this mountain the designer analyze other important mountains around Beijing. On the south entrance, large stones are located throughout the plaza. the overall design includes rich landforms, mountain chain, islands, and downhill streams that offer diverse eco-habitats (Jie).

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

FRANKENSTEIN Essay -- Essays Papers

FRANKENSTEIN In the story â€Å"Frankenstein,† written by the author Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein decided that wanted to create a being out of people that were already dead. He believed that he could bring people back from the grave. Playing with nature in such a way would make him play the role of God. With Victor Frankenstein feeling that he had no true friends, the only relief he had of expressing his feeling was through letters to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was not Victors’ true sister but he loved her very dearly, making sure to always write her when ever he had the chance. Yet, when Victor left something strange came over him. Already being interested in subjects such as natural philosophy and chemistry, he fall upon the question of how to bring someone back to life. He became very involved in this project and worked on it for days on end. The project had to do with defying the laws of nature. Victor believe wholeheartedly that he could bring the dead back to life. He felt that the dead were not ready to die and they were just resting. Victor became so self absorbed into his project that he seem to forget all that was important to him. He even disengaged himself from all the people he loved in his life. People like his father, Elizabeth, and other loved ones. Victor began to write less and less. Yet, it was not until Elizabeth got a discouraged letter from Victor, did his love ones start to wary about him. Though, the letter was full of words, it gave no relief ...

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Mark Twains Writings and Race Essay -- Mark Twain Race Racism Realism

Mark Twain's Writings and Race Samuel Langhorne Clemens, whom readers know as Mark Twain, has written many novels including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876; The Prince and the Pauper in 1882; Puddin’ Head Wilson in 1883; and Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was completed in 1883 (Simpson 103). Throughout Mark Twain’s writings, Twain had written about the lifestyle in the South the way it was in truth and detail. Mark Twain was not predjudice in his writings, instead he stripped away the veneers of class, position, religion, institutions, and the norms of society through his use of setting, language, and characters.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 and died on April 21, 1910. He was raised in the South on a Missouri Frontier and when he was only four year of age he moved to Hannibal, a large Southern town on the banks of the Mississippi River (Simpson 104). The Mississippi River is a key element in his two novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Both the characters Tom and Huck are similar to Twain in their spirit of adventure (Unger 193). Throughout his writings Twain wrote about the opression of the rich and poor, the strong and weak, and the proud and humble (Baxter 1). In his autobiography he wrote â€Å"All negroes were friends of ours and those of our own age were inface comrades (Neider 5).† Mark Twain could not find the realistic acceptance of friendships, loyalty, and courage in the adulthood of societies, and because of this he would always use a boyhood view of the world to contrast the adult hypocrac ies. Mark Twain was honest and knew that he could only write from a realistic perspective and could not accept these hypocracies of society (Simpson 25).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mark Twain had paid much attention to detail in his descriptions of the South. In 1876 he had been placed at the head of the best seller lists for his realease of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Unger 199). The time period of the book exists just prior to the civil war, although it was written just after the war (Simpson 3). In this novel the reader is asked to see and judge the ante-bellum world through Huck’s perception of it (Simpson 3). It is written in a first person narrative form told by a boy growing up in the South and therefore we are able to see the life of a young boy directly (S... ...use of setting, language, and characters. Works Cited Baxter, Sylvester. â€Å"Baxter Reviews YankeeYankee.† Boston Sunday Herald. 16 February 2000 . Boyesen, H.H.. â€Å"Cosmopolitan Reviews Puddin’head.† Cosmopolitan. 16 February 2000   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  . Neider, Charles. ed. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. New York: Harper Collins, 1959. Fulton, Joe B. Mark Twain’s Ethical Realism – The Aesthetics of Race, Class, and Gender. Columbia: University of Missouri P, 1997. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. United Stated of America: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1988. Unger, Leonard. ed. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. Vol. IV. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 1974. â€Å"Courant Reviews Huck.† The Hartford Courant. 16 February 2000   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  . â€Å"Idler Reviews Pudd’nhead† Idler. 16 February 2000 .

Monday, September 16, 2019

Effective Advisory Committee

Establishing an advisory committee: In the early stages of development, the organization tends to engage more or less organically with stakeholder groups. It's not uncommon for representatives from such groups to occupy voting seats on the governing board of early-stage businesses. At the growth stage, investors often call for changes to the composition of boards, and In some cases, this may mean stakeholders lose their board positions to be replaced with â€Å"independent† directors approved by the investors. This process can contribute to a loss of what was once a natural connection between the organization and its stakeholders, and it can contribute to an erosion of mission focus at the board level of an organization (Ramani, 2015). Social entrepreneurships can counteract the harmful effects of this change by establishing an advisory committee or advisory board that includes stakeholders. Non-profit organizations frequently use this approach to involve beneficiary groups, clients and other stakeholders in strategy formation without giving them voting positions on the governing board (Achleitner et al., 2012). An advisory committee can help the organization gather information, keep in touch with impacts, and test stakeholder views while avoiding the trap of creating a board that's too big or one whose members lack strategic skills.Advisory boards can also offer a way to tap into specialist expertise that may be missing from the main board group. Advisory bodies convened temporarily around a specific project or issue can feed findings back to the larger board and help shape strategic decisions (Ferrari, 2014). Angel investors who don't insist on a voting seat on the board may contribute insight and strategic expertise through participation an advisory committee (Achleitner et al. 2012). To work effectively, advisory bodies need to form part of the overall governance strategy established at the highest board level. This means that they must be formally set, provided with a chair and a written brief, as well as criteria and processes for recruiting appropriate stakeholders. Safeguards need to be put in place to ensure the independence and accountability of the advisory board with clear systems for accountably feeding advisory board views back into the strategic deliberations of the main board group.

United Kingdom Political System

The United Kingdom is a unitary democracy governed within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majesty's Government, on behalf of and by the consent of the Monarch, as well as by the devolved Governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Northern Ireland Executive.Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest national court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The UK political system is a multi-party system. Since the 1920s, the two largest political parties have been the Conservative Party and the Labor Party.Before the Labor Party rose in British politics the Liberal Party was the other major political party along with the Conservatives. Though coalition and minority governments have been an occasional feature of parliamentary politics, the first-past-the-post electoral system used for general elections tends to maintain the dominance of these two parties, though each has in the past century relied upon a third party to deliver a working majority in Parliament. The current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is the first coalition since 1974.With the partition of Ireland, Northern Ireland received home rule in 1920, though civil unrest meant direct rule was restored in 1972. Support for nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales led to proposals for devolution in the 1970s though only in the 1990s did devolution actually happen. Today, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each possess a legislature and executive, with devolution in Northern Ireland being conditional on participation in certain all-Ireland institutions.The United Kingdom remains responsible for non-devolved matters and, in the case of Northern Ireland, co-operates with the Republic of Ireland. It is a matter of dispute as to whether increased autonomy and devolution of executive and legislative powers has contributed to a reduction in support for independence. The principal pro-independence party, the Scottish National Party, won an overall majority of MSPs at the 2011 Scottish parliament elections and now forms the Scottish Government administration, with plans to hold a referendum on negotiating for independence. In Northern Ireland,the largest Pro-Belfast Agreement party, Sinn Fà ©in, not only advocates Northern Ireland's unification with the Republic of Ireland, but also abstains from taking their elected seats in the Westminster government, as this would entail taking a pledge of allegiance to the British monarch. The constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified, being made up of constitutional conventions, statutes and other elements such as EU law. This system of government, known as the Westminster system, has been adopted by other countries, especially those that were formerly parts of the British Empire.The United Kingdom is also responsible for several dependencies, which fall into two categories: the Crown dependencies, in the immediate vicinity of the UK, and British Overseas Territories, which originated as colonies of the British Empire. The British Monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the Chief of State of the United Kingdom. Though she takes little direct part in government, the Crown remains the fount in which ultimate executive power over Government lies.These powers are known as Royal Prerogative and can be used for a vast amount of things, such as the issue or withdrawal of passports, to the dismissal of the Prime Minister or even the Declaration of War. The powers are delegated from the Monarch personally, in the name of the Crown, and can be handed to various ministers, or other Officers of the Crown, and can purposely bypass the consent of Parliament. The head of Her Majesty's Government; the Prime Minister, also has weekly meetings with the sovereign, where she may express her feelings, warn, or advise the Prime Minister in the Government's work.According to the uncodified constitution of the United Kingdom, the monarch has the following powers: Domestic Powers The monarch appoints a Prime Minister as the head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, guided by the strict convention that the Prime Minister should be the member of the House of Commons most likely to be able to form a Government with the support of that House. In practice, this means that the leader of the political party with an absolute majority of seats in the House of Commons is chosen to be the Prime Minister.If no party has an absolute majority, the leader of the largest party is given the first opportunity to form a coalition. The Prime Minister then selects the other Ministers which make up the Government and act as political heads of the various Government Departments. About twenty of the most senior government ministers make up the Cabinet and approximately 100 ministers in total comprise the government. In accordance with constitutional convention, all ministers within the government are either Members of Parliament or peers in the House of Lords.As in some other parliamentary systems of government (especially those based upon the Westminster System), the executive (called â€Å"the government†) is drawn from and is answerable to Parliament – a successful vote of no confidence will force the government either to resign or to seek a parliamentary dissolution and a general election. In practice, members of parliament of all major parties are strictly controlled by whips who try to ensure they vote according to party policy. If the government has a large majority, then they are very unlikely to lose enough votes to be unable to pass legislation.The Prime Mini ster and the Cabinet David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2010) The Prime Minister is the most senior minister in the Cabinet. She/he is responsible for chairing Cabinet meetings, selecting Cabinet ministers (and all other positions in Her Majesty's government), and formulating government policy. The Prime Minister is the de facto leader of the UK government, since s/he exercises executive functions that are nominally vested in the sovereign (by way of the Royal Prerogatives). Historically, the British monarch was the sole source of executive powers in the government.However, following the rule of the Hanoverian monarchs, an arrangement of a â€Å"Prime Minister† chairing and leading the Cabinet began to emerge. Over time, this arrangement became the effective executive branch of government, as it assumed the day-to-day functioning of the British government away from the sovereign. Theoretically, the Prime Minister is primus inter pares (Latin for â€Å"first among equals†) among his/her Cabinet colleagues. While the Prime Minister is the senior Cabinet Minister, s/he is theoretically bound to make executive decisions in a collective fashion with the other Cabinet ministers.The Cabinet, along with the PM, consists of Secretaries of State from the various government departments, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, the President of the Board of Trade, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Ministers without portfolio. Cabinet meetings are typically held weekly, while Parliament is in session Government departments and the Civil Service The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of ministries known mainly, though not exclusively as departments, Ministry of Defense.These are politically led by a Government Minister who is often a Secretary of State and member of the Cabinet. He or she may also be supported by a number of junior Ministers. In practice, several government departments and Ministers have respo nsibilities that cover England alone, with devolved bodies having responsibility for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, (for example – the Department of Health), or responsibilities that mainly focus on England (such as the Department for Education). Implementation of the Minister's decisions is carried out by a permanent politically neutral organization known as the civil service.Its constitutional role is to support the Government of the day regardless of which political party is in power. Unlike some other democracies, senior civil servants remain in post upon a change of Government. Administrative management of the Department is led by a head civil servant known in most Departments as a Permanent Secretary. The majority of the civil service staff in fact work in executive agencies, which are separate operational organizations reporting to Departments of State. â€Å"Whitehall† is often used as a metonym for the central core of the Civil Service.This is because m ost Government Departments have headquarters in and around the former Royal Palace Whitehall. Legislatures The UK Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom (i. e. , there is parliamentary sovereignty), and Government is drawn from and answerable to it. Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. There is also a devolved Scottish Parliament and devolved Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, with varying degrees of legislative authority. UK ParliamentHouse of Commons It is a Sand-colored building of Gothic design with large clock-tower. Parliament meets at the Palace of Westminster British House of Commons The Countries of the United Kingdom are divided into parliamentary constituencies of broadly equal population by the four Boundary Commissions. Each constituency elects a Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons at General Elections and, if required, at by-elections. As of 2010 there are 650 constituencies ( there were 646 before that year's general election.Of the 650 MPs, all but one – Lady Sylvia Hermon – belong to a political party. In modern times, all Prime Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition have been drawn from the Commons, not the Lords. Alec Douglas-Home resigned from his peerages days after becoming Prime Minister in 1963, and the last Prime Minister before him from the Lords left in 1902 (the Marquis of Salisbury). One party usually has a majority in Parliament, because of the use of the First Past the Post electoral system, which has been conducive in creating the current two party system.The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government simply whether it can survive in the House of Commons, something which majority governments are expected to be able to do. In exceptional circumstances the monarch asks someone to ‘form a government' with a parliamentary minority which in the event of no party having a majority requires the formati on of a coalition government. This option is only ever taken at a time of national emergency, such as war-time. It was given in 1916 to Andrew Bonar Law, and when he declined, to David Lloyd George and in 1940 to Winston Churchill.A government is not formed by a vote of the House of Commons; it is a commission from the monarch. The House of Commons gets its first chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the Speech from the Throne (the legislative program proposed by the new government). House of Lords The House of Lords was previously a largely hereditary aristocratic chamber, although including life peers, and Lords Spiritual. It is currently mid-way through extensive reforms, the most recent of these being enacted in the House of Lords Act 1999.The house consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual. Lords Temporal include appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house) and ninety-two remaining hereditary peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titles which previously gave a seat in the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual represent the established Church of England and number twenty-six: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.The House of Lords currently acts to review legislation initiated by the House of Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and can exercise a suspensive veto. This allows it to delay legislation if it does not approve it for twelve months. However, the use of vetoes is limited by convention and by the operation of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949: the Lords may not veto the â€Å"money bills† or major manifesto promises (see Salisbury convention). Persistent use of the veto can also be overturned by the Commons, under a provision of the Parliament Act 1911.Often governments will accept changes in legislation in order to avoid b oth the time delay, and the negative publicity of being seen to clash with the Lords. However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5 year term limit introduced by the Parliament Act 1911. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 outlined plans for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to replace the role of the Law Lords. The House of Lords was replaced as the final court of appeal on civil cases within the United Kingdom on 1 October 2009, by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.Devolved national legislatures Though the UK parliament remains the sovereign parliament, Scotland has a parliament and Wales and Northern Ireland have assemblies. De jure, each could have its powers broadened, narrowed or changed by an Act of the UK Parliament. However, Scotland has a tradition of popular sovereignty as opposed to parliamentary sovereignty and the fact that the Scottish parliament was established following a referendum would make it p olitically difficult to significantly alter its powers without popular consent.The UK is therefore a unitary state with a devolved system of government. This contrasts with a federal system, in which sub-parliaments or state parliaments and assemblies have a clearly defined constitutional right to exist and a right to exercise certain constitutionally guaranteed and defined functions and cannot be unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central parliament. All three devolved institutions are elected by proportional representation: the Additional Member System is used in Scotland and Wales, and Single Transferable Vote is used in Northern Ireland.England, therefore, is the only country in the UK not to have a devolved English parliament. However, senior politicians of all main parties have voiced concerns in regard to the West Lothian Question, which is raised where certain policies for England are set by MPs from all four constituent nations whereas similar policies for Scotland or Wa les might be decided in the devolved assemblies by legislators from those countries alone.Alternative proposals for English regional government have stalled, following a poorly received referendum on devolved government for the North East of England, which had hitherto been considered the region most in favor of the idea, with the exception of Cornwall, where there is widespread support for a Cornish Assembly, including all five Cornish MPs. England is therefore governed according to the balance of parties across the whole of the United Kingdom. The government has no plans to establish an English parliament or assembly although several pressure groups are calling for one.One of their main arguments is that MPs (and thus voters) from different parts of the UK have inconsistent powers. Currently an MP from Scotland can vote on legislation which affects only England but MPs from England (or indeed Scotland) cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish parliament. Indeed, the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is an MP for a Scottish constituency, introduced some laws that only affect England and not his own constituency. This anomaly is known as the West Lothian question.The policy of the UK Government in England was to establish elected regional assemblies with no legislative powers. The London Assembly was the first of these, established in 2000, following a referendum in 1998, but further plans were abandoned following rejection of a proposal for an elected assembly in North East England in a referendum in 2004. Unelected regional assemblies remain in place in eight regions of England. There are two main parties in the United Kingdom: the Conservative Party, and the Labor Party.There is also a significant third party, the Liberal Democrats. The modern Conservative Party was founded in 1834 and is an outgrowth of the Tory movement or party, which began in 1678. Today it is still colloquially referred to as the Tory Party and its members as Tories. The L iberal Democrats were formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a Labor breakaway formed in 1981. The Liberals and SDP had contested elections together as the SDP–Liberal Alliance for seven years before.The modern Liberal Party had been founded in 1859 as an outgrowth of the Whig movement or party (which began at the same time as the Tory party and was its historical rival) as well as the Radical and Peelite tendencies. The Liberal Party was one of the two dominant parties (along with the Conservatives) from its founding until the 1920s, when it rapidly declined and was supplanted on the left by the Labor Party, which was founded in 1900 and formed its first government in 1924.Since that time, the Labor and Conservatives parties have been dominant, with the Liberal Democrats also holding a significant number of seats and increasing their share of the vote in parliamentary general elections in the four elections 1992. Conservatives; The Conservative Party won the largest number of seats at the 2010 general election, returning 307 MPs, though not enough to make an overall majority. As a result of negotiations following the election, they entered a formal coalition with the Liberal Democrats to form a majority government.The Conservative party can trace its origin back to 1662, with the Court Party and the Country Party being formed in the aftermath of the English Civil War. The Court Party soon became known as the Tories, a name that has stuck despite the official name being ‘Conservative'. The term â€Å"Tory † originates from the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678-1681 – the Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of the Roman Catholic Duke of York from the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland, and the Tories were those who opposed it.Both names were originally insults: a â€Å"whiggamore† was a horse drover (See Whiggamore Raid), and a â€Å"tory† (Tà ³raidhe) was an Ir ish term for an outlaw, later applied to Irish Confederates and Irish Royalists, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or â€Å"land magnates†), expansion and tolerance of Catholicism.The Rochdale Radicals were a group of more extreme reformists who were also heavily involved in the cooperative movement. They sought to bring about a more equal society, and are considered by modern standards to be left-wing. After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1834 â€Å"Tamworth Manifesto† outlined a new â€Å"Conservative† philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good.Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from t heir colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs and the Radicals to form what would become the Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party. The crushing defeat of the 1997 election saw the Conservative Party lose over half their seats from 1992 and saw the party re-align with public perceptions of them.In 2008, the Conservative Party formed a pact with the Ulster Unionist Party to select joint candidates for European and House of Commons elections; this angered the DUP as by splitting the Unionist vote, republican parties will be elected in some areas. After thirteen years as the official opposition, the Party returned to power as part of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010. Historically, the party has been the mainland party most pre-occupied by British Unionism, as attested to by the party's full name, the Conservative & Unionist Party.This resulted in the merger between the Conservatives and Joseph Chamberlain's Liberal Unionist Party, composed of former Liberals who opposed Irish home rule. The unionist tendency is still in evidence today, manifesting sometimes as a skepticism or opposition to devolution, firm support for the continued existence of the United Kingdom in the face of separatist nationalism, and a historic link with the cultural unionism of Northern Ireland. Labor; The Labor Party won the second largest number of seats in the House of Commons at the 2010 general election, with 258 MPs.The history of the Labor party goes back to 1900 when a Labor Representation Committee was established which changed its name to â€Å" ­Ã‚ ­The Labor Party† in 1906. After the First World War, this led to the demise of the Liberal Party as the main reformist force in British politics. The existence of the Labor Party on the left of British politics led to a slow waning of energ y from the Liberal Party, which has consequently assumed third place in national politics.After performing poorly in the elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal Party was superseded by the Labor Party as the party of the left. Following two brief spells in minority governments in 1924 and 1929–1931, the Labor Party had its first true victory after World War II in the 1945 â€Å"khaki election†. Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, Labor governments alternated with Conservative governments. The Labor Party suffered the â€Å"wilderness years† of 1951-1964 (three straight General Election defeats) and 1979-1997 (four straight General Election defeats).During this second period, Margaret Thatcher, who became leader of the Conservative party in 1975, made a fundamental change to Conservative policies, turning the Conservative Party into an economic neoliberal party. In the General Election of 1979 she defeated James Callaghan's troubled Labor governme nt after the winter of discontent. For most of the 1980s and the 1990s, Conservative governments under Thatcher and her successor John Major pursued policies of privatization, anti-trade-unionism, and, for a time, monetarism, now known collectively as Thatcherism.The Labor Party elected left-winger Michael Foot as their leader after their 1979 election defeat, and he responded to dissatisfaction with the Labor Party by pursuing a number of radical policies developed by its grass-roots members. In 1981 several right-wing Labor MPs formed a breakaway group called the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a move which split Labor and is widely believed to have made Labor unelectable for a decade. The SDP formed an alliance with the Liberal Party which contested the 1983and 1987 general elections as a centrist alternative to Labor and the Conservatives. After some initial success, the SDP did not prosper (partly due to its unfavorable distribution of votes in the FPTP electoral system), and wa s accused by some of splitting the anti-Conservative vote. The SDP eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988. Support for the new party has increased since then, and the Liberal Democrats (often referred to as LibDems) in 1997 and 2001 gained an increased number of seats in the House of Commons.The Labor Party was badly defeated in the Conservative landslide of the 1983 general election, and Michael Foot was replaced shortly thereafter by Neil Kinnock as leader. Kinnock expelled the far left Militant tendency group (now called the Socialist Party of England and Wales) and moderated many of the party's policies. Yet he was in turn replaced by John Smith after Labor defeats in the 1987 and 1992 general elections. Tony Blair became leader of the Labor party after John Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994.He continued to move the Labor Party towards the ‘center' by loosening links with the unions and embracing many of Margaret Thatc her's liberal economic policies. This, coupled with the professionalizing of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labor win a historic landslide in the 1997 General Election, after 18 years of Conservative government. Some observers say the Labor Party had by then morphed from a democratic socialist party to a social democratic party, a process which delivered three general election victories but alienated some of its core base – leading to the formation of the Socialist Labor Party (UK).Liberal Democrats; The Liberal Democrats won the third largest number of seats at the 2010 general election, returning 57 MPs. The Conservative Party failed to win an overall majority, and the Liberal Democrats entered government for the first time as part of a coalition. The Liberal Democrats were formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party with the Social Democratic Party, but can trace their origin back to the Whigs and the Rochdale Radicals who evolved into the Liberal Pa rty. The term ‘Liberal Party' was first used officially in 1868, though it had been in use colloquially for decades beforehand.The Liberal Party formed a government in 1868 and then alternated with the Conservative Party as the party of government throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century. The Liberal Democrats are heavily a party on Constitutional and Political Reforms, including changing the voting system for General Elections (UK Alternative Vote referendum, 2011), abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with a 300 member elected Senate, introducing Fixed Five Year Parliaments, and introducing a National Register of Lobbyists.They also claim to champion of fairness and social mobility, notably in government where they have introduced legislation introducing a pupil premium – funding for schools directed at the poorest students to give them an equal chance in life – equal marriage for homosexual couples and increasing the income tax thresho ld so that no one will pay anything on the first  £10,000 they earn. Other parliamentary parties The Green Party of England and Wales gained its second MP, Caroline Lucas, in the 2010 General Election (the first MP was Cynog Dafis, Ceredigion 1992 who was elected on a joint Plaid Cyru/Green Party ticket).It also has seats in the European Parliament, two seats on the London Assembly and around 120 local councilors. The Respect party, a left-wing group that came out of the anti-war movement has one MP, George Galloway. It also has a small number of seats on local councils across the country. There are usually a small number of Independent politicians in parliament with no party allegiance. In modern times, this has usually occurred when a sitting member leaves their party, and some such MPs have been re-elected as independents.The only current Independent MP is Lady Hermon, previously of the Ulster Unionist Party. However, since 1950 only two new members have been elected as indepen dents without having ever stood for a major party: Martin Bell represented the Tatton constituency in Cheshire between 1997 and 2001. He was elected following a â€Å"sleaze† scandal involving the sitting Conservative MP, Neil Hamilton—Bell, a BBC journalist, stood as an anticorruption independent candidate, and the Labor and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates from the election.Dr. Richard Taylor MP was elected for the Wyre Forest constituency in the 2001 on a platform opposing the closure of Kidderminster hospital. He later established Health Concern, the party under which he ran in 2005. Current political landscape Since winning the largest number of seats and votes in the 2010 general election, the Conservatives under David Cameron are now behind the Labor Party now led by Ed Miliband. Their coalition partners have also experienced a decline in support in opinion polls.At the same time, support for the UK Independence Party has shown a considerable a dvance, with some polls now placing them in third place ahead of the Lib Dems. UKIP's growing strength was illustrated by the result of the Eastleigh by-election in which the party advanced by 24% to take second place from the Conservatives, less than 5% behind the Lib Dems who retained the seat. Local government The UK is divided into a variety of different types of Local Authorities, with different functions and responsibilities.England has a mix of two-tier and single-tier councils in different parts of the country. In Greater London, a unique two-tier system exists, with power shared between the London borough councils, and the Greater London Authority which is headed by an elected mayor. Unitary Authorities are used throughout Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. European Union Further information: European Movement UK, Euroskepticism in the United Kingdom, and Members of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom.The United Kingdom first joined the European Economic Comm unity in January 1973, and has remained a member of the European Union (EU) that it evolved into; UK citizens, and other EU citizens resident in the UK, elect 78 members to represent them in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. The UK's membership in the Union has been objected to over questions of sovereignty,[27] and in recent years there have been divisions in both major parties over whether the UK should form greater ties within the EU, or reduce the EU's supranational powers.Opponents of greater European integration are known as â€Å"Euroskeptics†, while supporters are known as â€Å"Europhiles†. Division over Europe is prevalent in both major parties, although the Conservative Party is seen as most divided over the issue, both whilst in Government up to 1997 and after 2010, and between those dates as the opposition. However, the Labor Party is also divided, with conflicting views over UK adoption of the euro whilst in Government (1997–2010) , although the party is largely in favor of further integration where in the country's interest.UK nationalists have long campaigned against European integration. The strong showing of the euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2004 European Parliament elections has shifted the debate over UK relations with the EU. In March 2008, Parliament decided to not hold a referendum on the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in December 2007. [28] This was despite the Labor government promising in 2004 to hold a referendum on the previously proposed Constitution for Europe.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

A Grain of Wheat Essay

A Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The novel weaves several stories together during the state of emergency in Kenya’s struggle for independence (1952–1959), focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home village’s preparations for Kenya’s independence day celebration (Uhuru day). Former resistance fighters General R and Koinandu plan on publicly executing the traitor who betrayed Kihika (a heroic resistance fighter hailing from the village) on that day. First of all, Ngugi use many characters to express the aim of the story as an African man the protagonist of this story is the loner Mugo, a hero of the British concentration camps where he led a hunger strike and he also tried to stop a village guard from beating a pregnant woman to death. Although he is thought to be a hero through the whole book, he is the traitor of Kihika betraying him to the British in a selfish act to save himself. Also Gikonyo, an ambitious carpenter and business man who’s married to Mumbi. He confessed to taking the oath of the resistance while in a concentration camp, securing an early release only to find that his wife had borne a child with his hated rival Karanja while he was away. another character is Mumbi, the wife of Gikonyo and sister of Kihika. While Gikonyo was imprisoned she slept with Karanja who had been appointed village chief by the colonial power. Also, Karanja, a collaborator with the British and widely suspected to be the traitor who betrayed Kihika. In addition toKihika, a resistance fighter who conquered a police station and killed the hated District Officer Robson before being caught and hanged after being betrayed by Mugo. and John Thompson, an early British settler and administrator of Thabai, who believes in the ideals of colonial imperialism and persecutes black Africans. A Grain of Wheat is about the events that lead up to the Kenyan independence, or Uruhu. The setting is a Kenyan village. When the characters Gikonyo and Mumbi get married, are in love and just started their lives, Gikonyo is sent to detention. When he comes back after six years, Mumbi had his rival’s child. They cannot find the words to talk about the past, and a wall is created between them. Mumbi’s brother gets captured and hanged and after loads of events, the town realize that the one they thought to be the hero, was actually the betrayer.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Introduction to Roles of Army Engineers

CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE NIGERIAN ARMY ENGINEERS TO NATION BUILDING: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS INTRODUCTION 1. Nations of the world set objectives which they continually strive to achieve. These objectives which are regarded to be of benefit to the citizens of the country are collectively known as national interest. The extent to which a nation can achieve its national interest and indeed the influence it wields in the international community depends largely on its level of development. Nation building literally connotes national development.In a contemporary society, the concept of national development is directly linked to the general well-being of a state and its people. National development or nation building is predicated on indices such as economic stability, peace and security of the state. The essence of any government therefore is to provide security and welfare for the citizenry to achieve stability and peace. Nation building is a continuous process. It represents the process wh ereby changes are effected within any society to generate wealth, create economic opportunities and bring about peace, stability and security. . Over the last half century, some advanced countries like the USA, China and Israel among others have implemented various plans towards development. One of such plans is the use of their military in national development. Historically, military involvement in nation building can be traced to socialist countries like Russia, China, Cuba and Vietnam where the military was engaged in developmental activities such as agriculture and manufacturing.Later in the face of economic challenges, countries like Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Iraq also used their military in nation building through their military engineers for road construction and industrial development. This contributed to the development of their national economy. 3. A nation is defined as ‘a large body of people united by common descent, culture or language, inhabiting a particul ar state or territory’. On the other hand, building is ‘the business or task of constructing houses, factories, bridges and other large structures’.Hence, nation building could be described as a structural transformation of all facets of national lives such as economic, political, social and technological endeavours in order to make a nation more viable for development. 4. Similarly,in developing countries like Nigeria, it has become imperative that the military be actively involved in nation building to compliment the efforts of all other sectors involved in such activities. The NA through the Nigerian Army Engineers (NAE) has been in the forefront of this drive, in addition to its role of the defence of the territorial integrity of Nigeria.The NA also has the responsibility of aiding civil authority in disaster management or civil construction works which are normally carried out by NAE. However, the NAEhas the primary role of helping the NA to live, move and f ight. These include construction of roads and bridges, reconstruction and rehabilitation of facilities and water supply. For example, the NAE constructed the first road to Mambilla Plateau, of the then Northern Region now Adamawa State, in the 1960s. The Corps was also involved in the construction of a bridge across River Rima and the reconstruction of Ayakoromo town in 2010.When the NAE plays these roles, it is inadvertently contributing to nation building. 5. It is pertinent to state that NAE evolved from the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) which dates back to the early Twentieth Century. The NAE were part of the Royal British Engineers which surveyed and fixed the boundaries of what is now known as Nigeria with the neighbouring French and German colonies. In spite of the contributions of the NAE in nation building, the corps encountered some challenges while performing their functions.These challenges include dearth of equipment, absence of legal backing and shortage of manpower among others. It is against this background that this paper seeks to examine these challenges in order to proffer viable solutions for the NA in supporting the NAE towards efficiently contributing to nation building. It is written for the Director Department of Land Warfare in partial fulfillment for the award of Pass Staff Course. 6. The purpose of this paper therefore is to examine the challenges and prospects of the contribution of NAE to nation building.The paper will discuss an overview of NAE and the contributions of NAE to nation building. It will further appraise the contributions of some other countries to nation building in order to draw lessons for NAE. Finally, it will examine the challenges and prospects of the NAE’s contribution to nation building. This paper will however be limited to NAE‘s contribution to nation building in terms of structural constructions and projects. The aspects of peace and security as part of nation building will not be d iscussed. It is assumed that the reader is conversant with the concept of nation building.This would therefore not be discussed in detail. AIM 7. The aim of this paper is to discuss the challenges and prospects of the contributions of NAE to nation building with a view to making recommendations. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. 1. Encarta Dictionary, 2012. [ 2 ]. 2. Robert B Schulz, The Dynamics of Development in the Engineering Nation, (Canberra, Canberra University Press, 2004). [ 3 ]. 3. Olaniyi AA, Maj Gen, Capability of the Nigerian Army Engineers in National Development, (Unpublished, May 2012). [ 4 ]. 4. Ibid. [ 5 ]. 5.Catherine S, Angus S, The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Indian Edition, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press Ltd, 2007), P. 952. [ 6 ]. 6. Op. cit. Encarta Dictionary. [ 7 ]. 7. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999. [ 8 ]. 8. NA, Electrical and Mec hanical Engineering Precis (Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering, 1996), P. 11. [ 9 ]. 9. Abubakar, S, â€Å"How Military Bridge Brought Succour to Sokoto†, Daily Trust (Sokoto), 25 Oct 10, P. 3. [ 10 ]. 10. Olawuni, T, â€Å"Hope Rises for Ayakoromo Community as Jonathan Orders Reconstruction†, Business Day (Lagos), 16 Dec 10, P. 5.

Friday, September 13, 2019

The Role that Alternative Dispute Resolution Plays in the English Essay

The Role that Alternative Dispute Resolution Plays in the English Civil Justice System - Essay Example Cumulatively, the main question is whether or not the aims of civil justice report facilitate greater access to justice for disputants via alternative dispute resolution. This study is therefore divided into two parts. The first part of this study analyses alternative dispute resolution and the second part of the paper analyses the extent to which alternative dispute resolution is facilitated by the English civil justice system. Alternative Dispute Resolution Alternative dispute resolution broadly defined implies the use of non-traditional court adjudication of disputes. Invariably this means the use of mediation, conciliation or arbitration as opposed to formal litigation.6 However, the term alternative dispute resolution received academic attention beginning in the 1980s and was used as a frame of reference to an option for resolving civil disputes in the absence of lawyers or legal input. By the end of the decade of the 1980s alternative dispute resolution institutions began to fo rm and gain currency in the UK. By the 1990s, alternative dispute resolution was perceived as an important solution to the evolving litigious culture which created delays, inordinate costs and created a significant problem for ordinary citizens to gain access to civil litigation.7 According to Stipanowich over the last two or more decades, there has been a consistent effort on the part of lawyers, the judiciary, business entities and governments to cooperate on the formation of strategies and policies calculated to provide for the more efficient and less costly management and resolution of conflicts which invariably includes ADR processes.8 Arbitration is often described as an informal and rather simple version of adjudication via the courts in which the formal requirements relative to procedural laws such as discovery are typically waived and instead adopt a more informal process.9 Arbitration derives its strength from the disputant’s agreement to submit to arbitration and t o abide by any award administered by the arbitrator who is usually a tribunal of three independent decision-makers or a single arbitrator.10 It would therefore appear that arbitration, is poised to forego or at the very least reduce the cost and time involved in litigation by removing the procedural complexities and guidelines established for civil litigation and thereby dispensing with the need for the involvement of lawyers. In this regard, arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution, with its emphasis on party autonomy arguably plays a significant role in the reduction of time and cost involved in resolving civil disputes and therefore contributes to facilitating the drive for broadening access to civil