Best Swedish Schools to study interior design

Best Swedish Schools to study interior design Studying Interior Design in Sweden Interior design is one of the modern streams within the educational specialization variety. People are interested in living in beautiful and extraordinary apartments. More and more of young people try to fulfill their potential and creativity in developing interior design. Modern materials and settings enable designers to arrange unique and superb design, saturated with varieties of colors and forms, making the house or office a comfortable and aesthetic place for living, working or entertainment. To be an interior designer is not simply to furnish the room and allocate decorative components within the living or working space. To become mature in this sphere, one should have profound skills in drawing, color perception, taste, know interior design styles and be able to embody all this stuff in the practice. Today interior designer can hardly work without knowing corresponding computer programs for creating drafts and sketches for their customers. So as you see, studying to acquire designer degree is rather labor-consuming activity, which requires great effort. Besides your efforts, it is important to select a nice school, which can become your guide into the world of design and provide necessary qualification for your future carrier. In regard to interior design a lot of people trust their training to Swedish schools and universities. Great amount of educational institutions in Sweden with brilliant reputation can become the access for your professional carrier as a designer. Umeà ¥ Institute of Design This university provides training of the specialists in the direction of industrial design and offers five academic programs for its students. To acquire a Bachelor degree at this university one needs to pass the three-year training program. The great advantage is that education in this university is free. The education is provided only in Swedish, which can be considered as a drawback. The university also offers three international programs for obtaining Master degree. Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design This institution is one of the biggest Swedish schools, which provides training in design, arts and crafts. Almost 900 students come at the university each year to receive Bachelor and Master degrees. This school has great educational and research facilities, numerous workshops, which enable students to develop their practical skills in painting, weaving, ceramics and sculpture. HDK School of Design and Crafts HDK School of Design and Crafts provides great opportunities of training. You can undertake a short or a long term course in the school, according to your needs and circumstances. The school arranges exhibitions all the time, where students can participate. And that is a great opportunity to present your works for the potential customers and to receive first experience while studying. They offer a PhD program in design and arts. All information about start time of the courses and time when you can enroll for them is available at their website. KKH Royal Institute of Art This school has a great number of Swedish students, but it also welcomes the students from other countries. Due to well-equipped workshops, they welcome also the students with disabilities. The institute offers one-year guest program in fine arts, three-year Bachelor program, two-year Master program and PhD program for their student. This school also offers such courses as Restoration Art, Architecture Art and Architecture. The institute directs their students to development of practical skills along with the research work, which is motivated by well-arranged educational facilities. Apparently, Swedish design schools represent a great training opportunity for those, who do not want just to admire beautiful things and pieces of art, but for those, who want to create them. If you want to make your mark within the interior design sphere, do your best to take care of the appropriate education, which will spread your wings of creativity and success.

The Nitty-Gritty About Reduplication

The Nitty-Gritty About Reduplication The Nitty-Gritty About Reduplication The Nitty-Gritty About Reduplication By Mark Nichol Reduplication, a type of vocabulary variation that allows writers and speakers of English to indulge in the rich potential for wordplay the language so often provides, refers to any of three types of repetitive extension of sounds. (Many other languages also feature reduplication, but this post focuses exclusively on the English tongue.) Rhyming Reduplication When we talk about doing the hokey-pokey, or refer to a razzle-dazzle spectacle or a namby-pamby attitude, we’re employing rhyming reduplication, which usually serves to emphasize with a playful near duplication of a meaningful word (fuzzy-wuzzy, itsy-bitsy), though sometimes both words have meaning and the rhyming is a fringe benefit that makes the term catchier (â€Å"chick flick†). Many reduplicatives are pairings of nonsense words (fuddy-duddy, hanky-panky), and their origin is obscure, but others with seemingly meaningless elements have at least a likely etymology: Hurly-burly may stem from the kinetic term hurl, and willy-nilly goes back several centuries to any one of several possible expressions such as â€Å"Will he, nill he† (â€Å"Whether he will or he won’t†). Exact Reduplication A similar type of construction stems from efforts by adults to help children learn by repetition hence baby talk like bye-bye and choo-choo. But some exact reduplication is used disparagingly in grown-up contexts: Two popular exact reduplicatives, blah-blah and â€Å"yada yada† (spelled and repeated variously and perhaps stemming from the earlier British English slang term yatter-yatter) mock dull or meaningless speech. Ablaut Reduplication A third form, named for the word for change of vowel sounds, is exemplified by the terms chitchat and dillydally, each of which has, unlike most rhyming reduplicatives, the substantial word in the second position rather than the first. Others, like crisscross and zigzag, more transparently demonstrate that most ablaut reduplications refer to action, especially reciprocated movements or behaviors. Note that in these examples, and in most other ablaut reduplicatives, the first vowel is always an i, produced by making a close, or high sound (meaning it is achieved by high placement of the tongue) and that the second vowel is always low. Other Reduplicative Forms New reduplicative vocabulary is slow to emerge. Exceptions include occasional slang terms (â€Å"boob tube,† hip-hop) or ad hoc coinages constructed like fancy-schmancy. (The latter type actually has a name: shm-reduplication.) Speaking of fancy-schmancy, there’s also a formal name (contrastive focus reduplication) for exact reduplication employed to clarify the relationship between a variation of an archetypal meaning and the archetypal usage itself, as in â€Å"When you say ‘Dude, that’s bad,’ do you mean good-bad, or bad-bad?† Uses of Reduplication Reduplicatives are handy little items for injecting a note of whimsy or a sharp edge into fiction or nonfiction alike. They can convey humorous or sarcastic understatement (â€Å"It’s just another case of high-finance hocus-pocus,† â€Å"The wish-washy White House flip-flops again†) or serve to mock or belittle a target (â€Å"The socialite’s hoity-toity hubris just as she tripped was literally pride coming before a fall,† â€Å"Her eency-weency voice showcased her itsy-bitsy talent†). They’re also useful, however, for positive or neutral language (â€Å"The pitter-patter of little feet on the hardwood floor presaged the appearance of my preschooler,† â€Å"My explosive sneeze caused the birds to erupt from the bushes and flee helter-skelter†). But don’t use a hodgepodge or a mishmash of reduplicatives pell-mell: Make sure you know their senses and connotations, and verify whether they’re open, hyphenated, or closed compounds. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Passed vs PastWhat's a Male Mistress?50 Musical Terms Used in Nonmusical Senses

Obesity in Oklahoma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Obesity in Oklahoma - Essay Example In 2009, Oklahoma spent approximately $1,721,000 in dealing with illness related directly to obesity whereby together with overweight these cases afflict about 67.1% of the entire population. Medical studies attribute the increasing trend of obesity cases with sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits that characterize numerous Oklahomans. Therefore, this study seeks to address obesity issue currently afflicting Oklahomans and suggest appropriate approaches meant to curb it by embracing active lifestyle, healthy eating habits and public sensitization concerning the menace. If Oklahomans intends to evade high costs of both treating and managing obesity predicament, they ought to embrace active lifestyle (â€Å"INTEGRIS Health†). This is contrary to their current sedentary lifestyles resulting from overreliance on cars, trucks and buses. This is especially when commuting from one place to another irrespective of the distance, for instance, from their residential areas to work whereas students to schools. According to medical studies, inactivity is one of the major contributing factors that heightens the prevalence of obesity whereby in avoiding medical practitioners advocate regular exercises (â€Å"INTEGRIS Health†). Therefore, Oklahomans need to stop their life’s inactivity and embark on regular exercises even if it implies some to commute to their varied places through walking. This is advisable for numerous people including students whose destinations are nearby such that it is not a mandatory to use vehicles. In addition, the e lderly people including retirees ought to devise a daily routine meant for their respective exercises (â€Å"INTEGRIS Health†). This is because numerous people at this stage end up experiencing lack of exercise related illness like diabetes because most them prefer sedentary lifestyle citing it is their time to rest. Parents and teachers should also encourage their children to exercise on daily basis making them take part in

Marketing as a Business Orientation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing as a Business Orientation - Assignment Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the marketing concept says that a company must deliver and promote its product in the market before the competitor does. There is the force on the promotion of the product, which means that the customer should know each and everything about the product. The value creation of the product in the minds of the customers is very important. In order to make a good perception in the minds of the customers, the marketing managers should study the market well. They can promote their product well if the market and the customers are relevant. In this way, the resources of the company will not be wasted. The marketing managers should focus on the customer’s requirements, needs, and demands. In this way, it will be easy for the company to manufacture those products, which meet the demands of the target market. When the company fulfills the demands of the customers then they will be more satisfying form the company [products and thus they will be loyal to the company. Another one is the production concept in the list of marketing management orientations. It is the oldest concept of massive production without caring for the demands and requirements of the market. The main thinking beyond the production concept was that the consumers always prefer a low price and an easily accessible availability of the product. For this reason, the companies always focus on the massive and bulk production in order to save their productions costs. When they save their productions costs, then it means that they can sell their product at a cheaper rate as compared to the other competitor in the market. In order to implement this production concept, there is s high requirement of the production facility and its maximum efficiency. This type of production concept is usually used in the countries where the consumers are not concerned about the choices and preferences rather they just need a simple product, which can meet the basic needs. These k inds of customers are usually focusing on the availability of the product rather than the features of the product.

The Credit Crisis and the Resulting Effects on the Financial World Essay Example for Free

The Credit Crisis and the Resulting Effects on the Financial World Essay All of these events are what has led to what analysts have said to be a recession. This paper will attempt to explain the causes that credit issues had on the financial crisis as well as show how liquidity played a major role in throwing debt markets into panic and in some cases failure. I will also give some insight into how the debt markets became inactive because of these issues. We will also take a look at how interest rates affected this crisis as well as how the stock market and initial public offerings (IPOs) were affected. The Beginnings of the Bubble Burst After the internet bubble burst of 2000 the Federal Reserve Bank was worried about a serious deflationary period. Because of this fear they did not want to counteract the housing bubble. The Federal Reserve Bank actually lowered the federal funds rate from 6. 5% to 1% in the period from 2000 to 2003. This was done in order to soften the blow from the internet bubble and was encouraging people to borrow at faster rates. During this time period, banks also went through a serious transformation period where instead of holding onto debt, they used new financial innovations to bundle them and sell the risk off onto other investors. This process was named originate and distribute. In this banking model loans were put together, tranched and sold via securitization. To tranche means to slice up the pool of debt into say slices of a pie. Each pie slice has a different risk involved, credit rating and thus different amounts of interest paid. Securitization is where these slices are then sold to different investors as bonds or Collaterized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs). The principal and interest on the debt, underlying the security, is paid back to the various investors regularly. These types of new innovations led to new investors and thus access to more liquidity for banks. Banks began to thrive with all the new opportunities for them to create more liquidity. As you can see from this chart, Securitization was being exploited at alarming rates. [pic] This in turn, allowed them to be able to lend more money. The problem was not the increased amounts of loans that banks gave out, the problem lied with whom these banks were lending money. Of course the added pressures growing in the market from the government and financial institutions werent helping matters. As I mentioned earlier, The Federal Reserve Bank was lowering the federal funds rate in the years of 2000 through 2003 which encouraged people to invest in real estate. At the time the real estate market was on a tremendous upswing. However in the years of 2004 through 2006 they started increasing the federal funds rate (FFR) which made 1-5 year adjustable rate mortgages more expensive to reset for homeowners. There was another side effect of the rising FFR, generally when interest rates rise, assets fall in value. This would mean that speculation in real estate would be much riskier for investors, and this may have led to the eventual housing bubble burst. However this did not stop banks from targeting a new market. A new customer target entered the market for banking systems, Sub-prime borrowers. Originally, banks were, for the most part only lending to prime borrowers, a group of borrowers who are considered the most credit-worthy, indicated by a FICO score greater than 720. These prime borrowers were able to borrow money at the markets best interest rate and were also considered safe investments. Sub-prime borrowers on the other hand, were less than desirable potential customers to lend to. Their credit ratings were much lower than prime borrowers, meaning they were more likely to be late with payments on loans or even default all together. Now, initially banks may have strayed away from giving as many loans out to sub-prime borrowers as they did, however added pressures by the government and financial institutions were mounting. When the Securities and Exchange Commission relaxed the net capital rule in 2004, this allowed the five biggest investment banks to dramatically increase the leverage they could use and also allowed them to aggressively expand on their issuance of mortgage backed securities (an asset-backed security or debt obligation that represents a claim on the cash flows from mortgage loans through securitization). This then pressured government entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand their riskier lending to sub-prime borrowers, and this led as an example for other banks that followed suit. Financial Market Begins to Feel the Pain and the Onslaught of Liquidity Issues Arise The rise of securitized products ultimately led to a flood of cheap credit, and lending standards fell. Now that banks had a way to get rid of the majority of risk involved in lending money, via securitized products being sold to financial institutions, they took an easy going approach to approving and monitoring loans. Banks came up with new ways to give out mortgage loans with no down-payments, jobs and even income! These were called piggyback mortgages (the combination of two loans to take the need of a down payment away) and NINJA (no income, no job or assets). These loans were given on the assumption that people if people needed money they could always refinance and actually horribly wrong and in fact the opposite happened. Loans started to default a domino effect began causing liquidity crisis as well as other issues. The trigger for the liquidity crisis began in early 2007, when sub-prime mortgage defaults started increasing at damageable speeds. Mortgage-backed Securities, CDOs and asset-backed securities (a security whose value and income payments are derived from and collateralized (or backed) by a specified pool of underlying assets) all took a huge hit. This dominoed into the shadow banking system (financial institutions that do not have the same regulations as banks because they do not take deposits like banks do) causing many institutions great problems. The major issue was that a lot of these shadow banks had borrowed from investors in short-term, liquid markets (such as money markets and commercial paper markets) and then took this money and lent it out to corporations or invested in long term investments, less liquid assets. In most cases these long term assets that were purchased were mortgage-backed securities. So as you can see the default on sub-prime mortgages was deeply intertwined with all that shadow banking systems were involved in. Once the mortgages defaulted and investors became weary of investing in mortgage backed securities, these financial institutions that had so heavily depended on short term monetary loans from the investors were finding themselves quickly bankrupt. Because the shadow banks are not regulated such as depository banks they are also not able to use the lender of last resort, the U. S. Central Bank. In short financial institutions were in a serious bind. They needed to sell their long term loans for cents on the dollar to be able to pay off the short term loan payments and in the end many institutions were out of business. Some notable companies in 2008 that closed down shop were Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. And the long and short of it is that these financial institutions were also highly leveraged. That coupled with the long term illiquid investments they held were the shadow bankers downfall. The effects of defaulted mortgages did not stop there. The effects of defaulted mortgages continued to snowball into a huge problem for such companies as AIG. AIG is an international insurance company that had heavily invested in credit default swaps. The major problem that started the downfall of AIG was the downgrade of its credit rating. When you have a credit rating of AAA you do not, by industry standards, have to give collateral when entering into credit swaps. When AIG had to start providing collateral with their trading counter parties the problem of liquidity started. This was not just a small problem either; they had backed 100 cents on the dollar to CDSs. They had engaged in over 440 billion dollars worth of CDSs of which almost 60 billion were structured by sub-prime loans. In their first half of 2008 they reported 13. 2 billion in losses. They were on the verge of what could have sent our whole financial system into chaos. Had AIG failed it would have sent a wave of bankruptcy through the financial world that would have collapsed the entire market. Because after all, they were insuring financial institutions, who were holding risk for banks who had defaulted mortgage loans. The bailout by the U. S. Government saved AIG by giving them the biggest bailout in history, 85 billion dollars (of which the US Government got an 80 percent equity stake). That was not even the end of it; AIG was given another 77 billion after that. The buck basically stopped with AIG, as they were too big to fail. They had offered a product that while markets were doing well AIG was successful, but as the market declined they entered into what analysts say was inevitable. They offered to cover all risk when offering 100 cents on the dollar, and once the defaults on prime mortgages made it through the entire financial world they had to back the product they offered in CDSs and obviously they could not. The Financial Market Freezes The collapse of the shadow banking system was an igniter of the market freezing. They had accounted for one third of all U. S. lending mechanisms leading into this crisis. The reasoning was because investors that had been supporting the financial institutions with short term money loans quickly bailed out once things started to go wrong. With this absence of monetary injection into the shadow banking systems they were no longer able to fund mortgage funds, corporations and others in need of their services. This caused banks to have a serious absence of liquidity as well, leading them to start hoarding money. This meant that instead of banks loaning to counter-parties in need they held onto the funds in fear of needing liquidity in the future. This was a serious problem and one that will not be fixed in years to come. A lot of the forms of securitization that were once available are likely gone forever. The reasoning behind them disappearing is that they were designed in a time of very loose credit conditions and that time has gone, at least for now. While banks have raised their lending standards it was the rise and fall of shadow banks that inevitably led to the inactivity of debt markets. The Stock Market Follows As I mentioned earlier, the defaults on sub-prime mortgages spiraled into many liquidity problems in the financial markets. They caused investors to start fearing that markets would continue to drop. Banking institutions bankrupted, and with AIG on the brink of disaster, matters only got worse. Investors caused bank runs (Groups of people all withdrawing money from banking institutions at the same time), Illiquidity, and massive panic in stock markets. As we can see from this table, The S;P 500 index was significantly hit by these defaults. As you can see, during the crisis period volatility was 43. 6% (325% of pre-crisis period). [pic] This table reflects how the average investor was feeling about the market. As you can see in the post-crisis analysis the market volatility is still at 20. 9% and the average is actually lower than the crisis period. This next chart reflects the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOW). As you can see here, the chart mirrors the information given in the last table. March 2009 was the low point of the market (where the crisis ended), and the market has rebounded. It has not yet returned to its previous high of 14,000 but it has steadily been on the incline since March 2009. This gives us hope in looking to the future, that even in the trenches our economy can rebound. Effects on Initial Public Offerings Initial public offerings are the first sale of stock by a company to the public. This allows companies big and small to raise capital for their firms. With the severe economic downturn in 2008, it sent a wave of negative effects worldwide, which hit the IPO markets hard. IPO markets plummeted by over 60% in both deal numbers and funds raised. Up until 2008, there had been record-setting years with IPOs. The problem lied with the illiquid markets. There was a significantly less money that investors were willing to supply for IPOs. Although IPOs were taking a significant hit, U. S. and China still led the way as far as funds raised from IPOs Companies with strong business plans and innovative products for the economy were still able to realize positive gains in the public markets. Looking towards the future, IPOs will rebound. Analysts say that signs point to new horizons for IPOs, favoring companies that offer innovative and public solutions for the changing environment. Looking Towards the Future In short, our financial world hit a wall when sub-prime mortgages were abused. Securitization multiplied the effects from default mortgages causing financial ripples that destroyed many firms. Other problems such as the relaxing of regulations and the pressures from the U. S government to give out sub-prime mortgages only made things worse. Greed ran wild and should have taught us a lesson on what deregulation and the abuse of sub-prime borrowers can do to markets. We also need to keep banks more regulated and have the government always keeping a watchful eye on the shadow banking system. Congress and the Obama Administration have taken the first step forward to preventing a repeat by putting into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As regulators begin the rule-making process it is estimated that the act mandates nearly 250 regulations and 70 studies. Just as quickly as it was passed, however, the industry was hard at work lobbying to diminish the protections under the act by intervening as much as possible in the rule-making process that follows any such legislation. Additionally, the industry lobbyist are hard at work in an effort to get the newly elected Republican-controlled House of Representatives to weaken the legislation’s impact through low funding of the various regulatory enforcement provisions. I would hope that in the future we can learn from this crisis and realize that lending to borrowers with good credit, and income that can afford the payments of a loan, are very important aspects in lending. Equally, financial institutions must get back to seriously following their own loan policies, since most policiesthat were ignored allowed for loans to be approved that should not have been. . Works Cited 1. United States. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The Financial Crisis Timeline. Web 09 Dec. 2010.

Trainee Accountant Recruitment :: Essays Papers

RECRUITMENT OF TRAINEE ACCOUNTANTS Finding ways to support improvements on traditional approaches is a constant challenge to any field and control professionals, who must be open and receptive to change. Not being afraid of change isn't enough, however; accountants must be excited and motivated about new ways of doing things. With the introduction of Human Resources, people in an organization have taken a new role. Long gone were the days when an accountant is a clerk. In today’s day and age, an employee is an asset for that company. They are a major investment and companies thrive in protecting their interests and development. Human Resources (HR) have developed and now is a full fledged field. Most companies have some sort of Human Resource management. Basically where there is hiring and firing, there is Human Resources activities involved. Whether it is a small firm or a large corporation, Recruitment and Selection is needed in every kind of organization. HR defines the organization objective to its employees. It makes the people involved to be part of the organization and work towards a goal. It also enhances ones responsibilities more clearly. The job activities and profile will be to work towards organizational goal yet at the same achieving personal objectives. Hence, in HR employee’s development is very important whether by relationship building or through training. All kinds of skills are taken into accounts and measure before an employee is hired. Career plans and objectivity in life is top priority as this will determines whether the prospective employee is a good investment or not. A major role of HR is Recruitment and Selection, which will be the topic of this article. The Recruitment and Selection procedure in any organization is most important, as they are the foundation for which the company makes the decision of hiring and invests in an individual. Selection means to choose the best candidate for a particular job, keeping in mind how his goals are in tune with the organization’s goals. HR has made this process of selection sophisticated and more challenging. Educational background and years of experience are no longer the only major pre-requisite. What people know is less important than who they are. Hiring, is not about finding people with the right experience. It's about finding people with the right mindset. These companies hire for attitude and train for skill. A mix of ten different intelligence’s: deductive, inductive, mechanical, memory, numerical, perceptual, reasoning, spatial, verbal, and vocabulary.

N. J. Ask

N. J. Ask is a state assessment of students in various fields. It is a foundation for excellence and proficiency.   Following its establishment to meet the requirements of the no child left behind act.   It is a state assessment of student’s achievement in language arts, math and science.   It replaces the elementary school proficiency assessment. The Grade 5 test format is specifically designed to serve as â€Å"off-grade† assessments in New Jersey.   NJ PASS is modeled on the existing New Jersey Assessment of skills and knowledge (NJASK). Therefore, the format of the interim assessments is very similar to those. Combining multiple choice items and constructed response items, all designed to the CCCS.   There is one open ended writing task for grade 5 and every other grade. Those interim assessments consist of items from Riverside publishing’s secure pool of items field tested in New Jersey but previously used on any commercial form of NJ PASS. NJ Ask Grade 5, test format employs an assessment center which is an integrated system of exercises designed to generate behaviors similar to those required for success in a target job.   These behaviors are usually measured in simulations that are similar to those activities performed in a given job.   Each activity measures and mirrors a different aspect of the job performance in those activities and observed by evaluators who are trained to be fair and objective. They compare each participant’s performance to predetermined performance guidelines to determine who will perform effectively in a particular job.   Furthermore, a distinct examination is developed for the title, Deputy Fire Chief.   The test consists of four scenario – based oral exercises.   Each scenario is developed to stimulate tasks and assess knowledge, skills and abilities that incumbents or supervisors of incumbents deemed important to job performance. Usually, the scenario oral exercises cover four topics areas which include; incident command; non-fire, Administration, supervision, and incident command; fire. As a reader, the fifth grade students are able to synthesize details in order to make connections and generate new ideas.   The student utilizes literary elements and authors purpose to analyze text.   And as an advanced writer, the student establishes and maintains a strong focus and elaborates supporting details to convey ideas effectively.   The student includes narrative techniques using fluid transitions, strong appropriate word choice and sentence variety to purposefully engage the reader.   This is what the grade 5 students are taught to do, sufficient and effective for their level.   They do it sufficiently and effectively. PART 2 The New Jersey core curriculum content reflect the belief that all students can and must learn enough to assume their role as concerned citizens, equipped with necessary information and decision making skills.   This is achieved through a constructive and sequential objections and test alignment. The test dates for the examination is usually sent via mail approximately two weeks before test date.   Candidates usually receive a notice which shows the date, time, location and room which they should report for examination.   For purpose of clarity and transparency candidates are to bring the notification card, two forms of identification and two pencils to examination center.   And the examination format is usually in accordance with the core curriculum content standards of NJ for grade 5.   In fact, the examination is held at a central location. PART 3 Assessment techniques are techniques used for students to simply ease and facilitate their learning process.   Among the numerous assessment techniques include; A case for reading: the format is to introduce the students censorship and how challenges to books occur then invites them to read a challenged or banned book and decide for themselves what should be done with this book at school by writing a persuasive essay explaining their perspectives. This assessment exposes the kids to issues of censorship and challenged or banned books they critically evaluate books based on relevancy, biases and errors also to develop and support a position on a particular book by writing a persuasive essay about their chosen title. Persuasive writing is an important skill that cannot be taught too early but writing an argument can seem intimidating to elementary students.   This task encourages students to use skills and knowledge they may not realize they already have.   Students are then asked to choose their own persuasive piece to analyze and learn some of the definitions associated with persuasive writing.   I believe this technique helps the students to work cooperative groups to brainstorm ideas and organize them into a cohesive argument to be presented to the class and to analyze the works of others to see if it contains effective persuasive techniques. Searching for Gold is an assessment technique which the real Gold is the enquiry skills and content area skill knowledge that students develop.   In small groups, students create a project to aid in their oral representation of their researched topic. Once research is complete, each group teaches the rest of the class what they have learned through an activity of their choice.   Ideally this assessment technique will by all means help the students to work in cooperative groups, develop presentation materials using visual aids, deliver oral presentations to teach others about their topics, select research topics based on interest and so on. Developing, writing, and evaluating persuasive speeches, is one of the objectives of an assessment technique tagged â€Å"Vote for me† By using the relevant examples of political campaigning.   This technique teaches students the characteristics of effective persuasive speech writing and oral argument.   By studying an online tutorial and looking at examples, students learn what makes a strong speech.   A second online tool helps them learn how to formulate a persuasive argument.   Students then apply this information in two ways; by writing their own speeches and by evaluating others. Although students are writing speeches to be delivered orally, they practice skills needed for all effective writing.   In the context of voting, an assessment is made by asking â€Å"what is voting†.   With an eye on creating a graffiti-wall manual at the end of the unit students listen to information read around from a variety of sources as well as read from fiction and non-fiction books.   Students participate in an ongoing exploration of information from current sources including child-oriented web-sites, newspapers and orally in writing. This less on touches on the history of voting as a civil right, and current elections while asking students to explore the difference between fact and opinion.   This exercise will enable the students write an opinion essay about their favorite candidate, share prior knowledge about elections, discuss information about the voting process, as presented by a variety of text sources read with partners, participate in creating a graffiti-wall mural on the topic of voting. On the whole, the assessment techniques of course will enhance better learning capacity and development mentally. PART 4 In accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students who are receiving special education services must participate in each subject area of a statewide assessment with the following exception: â€Å"if the nature f the students disability is so severe that the student is not receiving instruction in any of the knowledge and skills measured by the statewide assessment and the student cannot complete any of the questions on the assessment in a subject area with or without accommodations the student shall participate in a locally determined assessment of student progress (New Jersey administrative code chapter 6a:14-4.11(a)2). Also decisions about participation and accommodations/modifications are made by the individualized education program or 504 team.   Information about test content and item types from specifications booklets can be used to make this determination. Furthermore, any accommodation or modifications of test administration procedures for students eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) or eligible under section 504 of the rehabilitation Act of 1973 must be specified in the students IEP or 514 accommodation plans. In all students for modifications under section 504 may not be classified but do have a permanent or temporary impairment in a major life function-Performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing and speaking.

Henry Moore Sculptures

Digging deeper into the meaning of Henry Moor's sculptures Moor's sculptures are exhibited all around the world. In Moor's homeland, the sculptures are exhibited in Eke Botanical Gardens, the natural surroundings of the gardens compliment the sculptures. It feels as if the sculptures are different during the different times of the day. In the morning, when the sculptures are wrapped in mist, or during midday when the blue sky and sunshine makes them shine, or in the evening, when the sculptures absorb the red evening sun.All these different interpretations and perspectives would not be possible to see if the sculptures were in a museum, where no natural light would compliment the sculptures. Moore always manages to draw a connection between the sculptures and the landscape. For example, in the following picture, there is a hole in the sculpture, and when you look through there is an abundance of green, if there was a white wall behind it, the sculpture would not be as impressive. Per sonally, I love the fact that the sculpture is almost one with nature, it really blends into the surroundings.The three main themes around Moor's work were the reclining figure, the mother- child relationship and the embryo-like ‘internal-external' forms idea. Moore was influenced by constructivism and surrealism, this is pulled through by the biomorphic forms that Moore produced and also suggested how the human figure could be fragmented into simple, essential forms. Many of Moor's sculptures have holes in them, either in the middle or symmetrically. To me it seems like the shapes come from the hollow space in the

Ancient Definitions of Rhetoric

Ancient Definitions of Rhetoric Broadly defined in our own time as the art of effective communication, the rhetoric studied in ancient Greece and Rome (from roughly the fifth century B.C. to the early Middle Ages) was primarily intended to help citizens plead their claims in court. Though the early teachers of rhetoric, known as Sophists, were criticized by Plato and other philosophers, the study of rhetoric soon became the cornerstone of classical education. Modern theories of oral and written communication remain heavily influenced by the basic rhetorical principles introduced in ancient Greece by Isocrates and Aristotle, and in Rome by Cicero and Quintilian. Here, well briefly introduce these key figures and identify some of their central ideas. Rhetoric in Ancient Greece The English word rhetoric is derived from Greek rhetorike, which apparently came into use in the circle of Socrates in the fifth century and first appears in Platos dialogue Gorgias, probably written about 385 B.C. . . .. Rhetorike in Greek specifically denotes the civic art of public speaking as it developed in deliberative assemblies, law courts, and other formal occasions under constitutional government in the Greek cities, especially the Athenian democracy. As such, it is a cultural subset of a more general concept of the power of words and their potential to affect a situation in which they are used or received.(George A. Kennedy, A New History of Classical Rhetoric, 1994) Plato (c.428-c.348 B.C.): Flattery and Cookery A pupil (or at least an associate) of the great Athenian philosopher Socrates, Plato expressed his disdain for false rhetoric in Gorgias, an early work. In a much later work, Phaedrus, he developed a philosophical rhetoric, one that called for studying the souls of human beings to discover truth. [Rhetoric] seems to me then . . . to be a pursuit that is not a matter of art, but showing a shrewd, gallant spirit which has a natural bent for clever dealing with mankind, and I sum up its substance in the name flattery. . . . Well now, you have heard what I state rhetoric to bethe counterpart of cookery in the soul, acting here as that does on the body. (Plato, Gorgias, c. 385 B.C., translated by W.R.M. Lamb) Since the function of oratory is in fact to influence men’s souls, the intending orator must know what types of soul there are. Now these are of a determinate number, and their variety results in a variety of individuals. To the types of soul thus discriminated there corresponds a determinate number of types of discourse. Hence a certain type of hearer will be easy to persuade by a certain type of speech to take such and such action for such and such reason, while another type will be hard to persuade. All this the orator must fully understand, and next he must watch it actually occurring, exemplified in men’s conduct, and must cultivate a keen perception in following it, if he is going to get any advantage out of the previous instruction that he was given in the school. (Plato, Phaedrus, c. 370 B.C., translated by R. Hackforth) Isocrates (436-338 B.C.): With Love of Wisdom and Honor A contemporary of Plato and founder of the first school of rhetoric in Athens, Isocrates viewed rhetoric as a powerful tool for investigating practical problems. When anyone elects to speak or write discourses which are worthy of praise and honor, it is not conceivable that such a person will support causes which are unjust or petty or devoted to private quarrels, and not rather those which are great and honorable, devoted to the welfare of humanity and the common good. It follows, then, that the power to speak well and think right will reward the person who approaches the art of discourse with love of wisdom and love of honor. (Isocrates, Antidosis, 353 B.C., translated by George Norlin) Aristotle (384-322 B.C.): The Available Means of Persuasion Platos most famous student, Aristotle, was the first to develop a complete theory of rhetoric. In his lecture notes (known to us as the Rhetoric), Aristotle developed principles of argumentation that remain extremely influential today. As W.D. Ross observed in his introduction to The Works of Aristotle (1939), The Rhetoric may seem at first sight to be a curious jumble of literary criticism with second-rate logic, ethics, politics, and jurisprudence, mixed by the cunning of one who well knows how the weaknesses of the human heart are to be played upon. In understanding the book it is essential to bear in mind its purely practical purpose. It is not a theoretical work on any of these subjects; it is a manual for the speaker . . .. Much of what [Aristotle] says applies only to the conditions of Greek society, but very much is permanently true. Let rhetoric [be defined as] an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion. This is the function of no other art; for each of the others is instructive and persuasive about its own subject. (Aristotle, On Rhetoric, late 4th century B.C.; translated by George A. Kennedy, 1991) Cicero (106-43 B.C.): To Prove, to Please, and to Persuade A member of the Roman Senate, Cicero was the most influential practitioner and theorist of ancient rhetoric who ever lived. In  De Oratore  (Orator), Cicero examined the qualities of what he perceived to be the ideal  orator. There is a scientific system of politics which includes many important departments. One of these departmentsa large and important oneis eloquence based on the rules of art, which they call rhetoric. For I do not agree with those who think that political science has no need for eloquence, and I violently disagree with those who think that it is wholly comprehended in the power and skill of the rhetorician. Therefore we will classify oratorical ability as a part of political science. The function of eloquence seems to be to speak in a manner suited to persuade an audience, the end is to persuade by speech. (Marcus Tullius Cicero,  De Inventione, 55 B.C., translated by H. M. Hubbell) The man of eloquence whom we seek, following the suggestion of Antonius, will be one who is able to speak in court or in deliberative bodies so as to prove, to please, and to sway or persuade. To prove is the first necessity, to please is  charm, to sway is victory; for it is the one thing of all that avails most in winning verdicts. For these three functions of the  orator  there are three styles: the plain style for proof, the middle style for pleasure, the vigorous style for persuasion; and in this last is summed up the entire virtue of the orator. Now the man who controls and combines these three varied styles needs rare judgment and great endowment; for he will decide what is needed at any point, and will be able to speak in any way which the case requires. For, after all, the foundation of eloquence, as of everything else, is wisdom. In an oration, as in life, nothing is harder than to determine what is appropriate. (Marcus Tullius Cicero,  De Oratore, 46 B.C., translat ed by H.M. Hubbell) Quintilian (c.35-c.100): The Good Man Speaking Well A great Roman rhetorician, Quintilians reputation rests on  Institutio Oratoria  (Institutes of Oratory), a compendium of the best of ancient rhetorical theory. For my part, I have undertaken the task of molding the ideal orator, and as my first desire is that he should be a good man, I will return to those who have sounder opinions on the subject. . . . The definition which best suits its real character is that which makes rhetoric the  science of speaking well. For this definition includes all the virtues of oratory and the character of the orator as well, since no man can speak well who is not good himself. (Quintilian,  Institutio Oratoria, 95, translated by H. E. Butler) Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430): The Aim of Eloquence As described in his autobiography (The Confessions), Augustine was a student of law and for ten years a teacher of rhetoric in North Africa before taking up study with Ambrose, the bishop of Milan and an eloquent orator. In Book IV of  On Christian Doctrine, Augustine justifies the use of rhetoric to spread the doctrine of Christianity. After all, the universal task of eloquence, in whichever of these three styles, is to speak in a way that is geared to persuasion. The aim, what you intend, is to persuade by speaking. In any of these three styles, indeed, the eloquent man speaks in a way that is geared to persuasion, but if he doesn’t actually persuade, he doesn’t achieve the aim of eloquence.(St. Augustine,  De Doctrina Christiana, 427, translated by Edmund Hill) Postscript on Classical Rhetoric: I Say The word  rhetoric  can be traced back ultimately to the simple assertion I say (eiro  in Greek). Almost anything related to the act of saying something to someonein speech or in writingcan conceivably fall within the domain of rhetoric as a field of study. (Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike,  Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, 1970)

Hittites and the Hittite Empire

Hittites and the Hittite Empire Two different types of Hittites are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament): the Canaanites, who were enslaved by Solomon; and the Neo-Hittites, Hittite kings of northern Syria who traded with Solomon. The events related in the Old Testament occurred in the 6th century BC, well after the glory days of the Hittite Empire.The discovery of the Hittite capital city of Hattusha was an important event in archaeology of the near east, because it increased our understanding of the Hittite Empire as a powerful, sophisticated civilization of the 13th through 17th centuries BC. The Hittite Civilization cuneiform    Timeline Old Hittite Kingdom [ca. 1600-1400 BC]Middle Kingdom [ca. 1400-1343 BC]Hittite Empire [1343-1200 BC] Babylon Sources Cities: Important Hittite cities include Hattusha (now called Boghazkhoy), Carchemish (now Jerablus), Kussara or Kushshar (which has not been relocated), and Kanis. (now Kultepe)

HCV homologs in nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

HCV homologs in nature - Essay Example Viruses are one of the microbes that have caused severe harm to human life and health. Out of the whole pool of viruses, is hepatitis C virus that has infected around 3% of the global population. The question of finding a HCV homolog in other animals is essential to probe deeper into its phylogenetic linkage in nature. This review highlights the homolog Hepatitis C Virus in infected dogs termed as Canine Hepatitis C virus, and in healthy horses as well as bats. A whole array of techniques has been discussed in detail employed by the scientists in these discoveries such as nested PCR, RT- PCR as well as microarray techniques. Recently, rodent models have also been reported using these techniques owing to the ease of handling and ethically appropriate. A comparison of the novel viruses reported by different scientists was also compared in order to assess the similarities and differences between these viruses. With such findings at our disposal, scientists can better understand disease mechanisms and thus conduct quality research in disease prevention in terms of vaccine development as well as cure. Viruses have been the ‘danger microbes’ since centuries. The world has suffered great losses in many pandemics such as 1918 flu pandemic targeting roughly around 50 -100 million people which makes 5% of the world population at that time. (Patterson, 1991) (Johnson, 2002). History has witnessed many such disease disasters such as AIDS pandemic in 1981 killing around 25 million people. (Mawar, 2005). With human life so vulnerable to viruses, it is of utmost importance to study the impact of novel viruses on human health. It is now believed that many animal viruses cause two-thirds of infectious diseases in humans. For example, the Nipah, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola viruses have been found abundantly in bats in a study conducted by researchers in Columbia University and Eco-health Alliance. During a four-year study from 2006 – 20 10, hundreds of urine and fecal samples of bats were tested for viral sequences. Results showed the prevalence of nine virus families in the samples and discovery of 50 novel viruses (ten of which had similarity with Nipah virus, and was responsible for many outbreaks in South Asia). (Kupperschmidt, 2013) Hsieh et al discovered a novel strain of swine Hepatitis E virus (HEV) in pigs which was thought to be the causal agent in more than 10% non-A, non-B and non-C hepatitis patients in Taiwan. (Hseih, 1999) Thus, it becomes important to study the origin of novel viruses and the extent of danger they pose to human beings. The scope of this paper describes the connection between these viruses and human disease and the techniques used in identification of such viruses. Key Technologies Used Quan et al applied Unbiased High Throughput Sequencing technique for assessment of the serum specimens collected from 415 healthy bats that represented seven families, 26 genera and 33 species in taxo nomic classification; these inhabited five countries - Guatemala, Democratic Republic of China, Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya. (Quan, 2013) Unbiased High Throughput Screening (UHTS) is one of the best techniques known until now that enable the discovery of novel pathogens. Many novel pathogens have been identified using this technique. Palacios et al reported the discovery of novel arena virus that usually causes mild illness but numerous fatal infections have been identified in patients with solid-organ transplantation. (Palacios, 2008) UHTS provides the advantage that it is unbiased by nature and provides full opportunity to probe the entire tree of life. The protocol of novel pathogen discovery involves amplification and sequencing, raw sequences are assorted into non-redundant sequence sets. Sequences that are unique are assembled into contiguous sequences which are then compared against sequence databases using computational softwares. These softwares match these sequences at nuc leotide and amino

Escherichia coli ESBL positive and its interaction with the human Dissertation

Escherichia coli ESBL positive and its interaction with the human urothelial cells - Dissertation Example The gene encoding the antibiotic resistance is found on plasmids, transposons, and inserted in genes in bacteria all over the world and in multiple species. Although much research has been conducted to characterize the microbial enzyme biochemically, PCR analysis remains the â€Å"gold standard (4, 5, 6).† E. coli isolates from the environment are generally succeptible to beta-lactam antibiotics because of the absence of a strong promoter sequence for the expression of the gene for Beta-Lactamase. However, extensive use of antibiotics and the spread of genetic elements among the bacteria have resulted in development of Beta-lactam resistant strains. Consequently, Beta-lactam resistant strains of E. coli have been isolated from hospitals and clinics around the world (7, 8, 9). Klebsiella is a member of the Enterobacteria that is a small, non-motile rod, and the bacterium is often associated with urinary tract infections. Klebsiella is capable of nonaerobic metabolism and is fou nd in water and soil, in addition to the mammalian intestinal and urinary tracts. Klebsiella possesses the enzyme nitrogenase, and is capable of nitrogen fixation under nonaerobic conditions, but the bacterium loses this capability under the aerobic environment in mammalian intestinal and urinary tracts (1, 10, 11, 12). Aims and Objectives The binding of E.coli to urothelial cells is mediated by pili via the FIMH protein. The receptor for the binding has been elucidated to be uroplakin 1a in mouse cells (13). Mutation of key residues in FIMH attenuates binging of E.coli to the FIMH urinary receptor and consequently reduces colonization of the bacteria in the bladder. The binding is mediated by mannose residues and relies on a key pocket in the FIMH protein (14, 15). Isolates of E. coli from a septic lamb were utilized to characterize the cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 2, and it was discovered that this protein enters effected epithelial cells and targets Rho protein, which subseq uently reorganizes actin filaments into stress fibers in the effected host cells (16, 17, 18). Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been utilized to treat many epidermal conditions in humans. These include skin cancer, acne, skin rejuvination, hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, disseminated actinic porokeratosis, localized scleroderma, and vulval lichen sclerosis. Other applications include anal and vulvar carcinoma, palliation of metastatic breast cancer to skin, Barrett’s esophagus, and retinal macular degeneration (19, 20, 21). PDT is characterized by the application of moderate light (50mW/s) for a moderate amount of time (15 minutes) to the infected area which creates a photosensitization period followed by a destruction period. PDT application results in a 5 to 6 log decrease in infectious, antiobiotic resistant bacteria by destruction of amino acids and polylysine tracts present in bacterial proteins, as well as the creation of destructive reacti ve oxygen species (22, 23, 24). It is proposed in this work that PDT be utilized to irradiate E. coli and Klebsiella beta-lactamase positive bacteria from cultures of human urothelial cells. Materials and Methods Human urothelial ce