Safety System in Aviation

Air travel has evolved to become one of the most commonly used modes of transport in the world. Different people have had different experiences; some positive others unpleasant, even fatal. Although still regarded, albeit statistically, as the safest mode of transport, several aviation accidents some with very high levels of fatalities have been witnessed. It has been a norm to rigorously analyse any airline accident so as to understand its potential cause and to prevent future similar occurrences. As noted by Taneja, (2002), the Boeing company reports that, with a statistic of 56%, the most common cause of air travel accidents involving commercial jet fleet is flight crew related, seconded by mechanical faults of the airplane at 17%, weather 13%, undetermined 6%, maintenance 4% and faults of the airport or air traffic controls 4%. At around 9. 16 Eastern American Standard Time on the 12th, November 2001 an American Airlines flight 587 Airbus A300-600 crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbour in New York City. This occurred minutes after takeoff from the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport. The aircraft had left for Santo Domingo’s Las Americas International Airport. The accident killed all the 251 passengers, the 2 crew members and the 7 flight attendants on board and an additional five people on the ground. The plane was also badly damaged as a result of post crash fire. This aircraft crash occurred just two months after the New York City’s terror ist attacks, in which coincidentally, two American Airline planes had been involved and only 12 miles from the location of the New York terrorist attack site. The impact of the crash particularly elicited fear and suspicion from the American people who suspected potential terrorists attack. Aircraft details To better apply an analysis, it is imperative to understand the aircraft specifications. As released by the American Airline, the plane was an Airbus Industry, A300-600R manufactured in France with the registration (Tail number) N14053. The plane had a capacity of 251 seats all of which were occupied at the time of crash with a crew of 2 pilots and 9 flight attendants. The plane was powered by General Electronic Turbofan Engines (Two in number) and had had the latest maintenance check on the day preceding the crash (on the 11th, November, 2001. ) The flight also operated under the provisions of code 14 part 121 of the American Federal Government’s regulations and had an instrument flight rules fight plans, Air Safe, (2008). The Accident The National Transport Safety Board, (NTSB), the official investigators into the crash estimates that the time between the flight’s liftoff from the runaway in JFK international airport and ground impact was 103 seconds. National Transport Safety Board’s investigations indicate that, the aircraft crashed as a result of its rudder and vertical stabilizer separation from the airframe during flight. It asserts that following the departure of a Japanese Airline’s Boeing 747 just minutes ahead of the Airbus (the Flight Data Recorder indicated that the flight was about 105 seconds from the Japanese Airlines 747, NTSB, 2008), the plane experienced two instances of turbulence due to vortex encounter. The two planes had a separation of five miles at the time of the encounter. The vertical fin and one of the two engines of the aircraft had broken up landing away from the main impact site. The rudder and the vertical stabilizer were recovered at the Jamaican Bay, approximately one kilometre from the location of the main plane wreckage, while one of the plane’s engines, which also separated was recovered at a distance, several blocks from the main wreckage. Reports by NSTB indicates that following the effects of the larger aircraft’s (Japanese Airlines Boeing 747) motion, the area in which the Airbus took off was of very turbulent air. As the first officer tried to maintain the plane in an upright position by implementing aggressive rudder inputs, the turbulent air compromised the craft’s vertical stability making it to entirely snap. This made the aircraft to loose control and subsequently crash. The official cause of the accident as reported by the NTSB, therefore, was the excessive use of rudder to counter wake turbulence by the first officer, Condit, (2003). With the official cause of the accident established, the aircraft manufacturer, air control pilots and the airline had a share of shortcomings that resulted into the crash. The American authorities through the NTSB have stated that the Airbus model that crashed had an oversensitive rudder control system. The amount of ruder control witnessed from the data retrieved from the Flight Data recorder had resulted from increased pressure on the rudder pedals of the aircraft which were hazardous owing to the speed of the aircraft at that time. The plane manufacturer, Airbus however, blamed the Airline citing inadequacy in pilot training based on the fact that the pilots lacked adequate information on the characteristics of the rudder and assumed that the aircraft tail could withstand rudder deflections in either direction at high maneuvering speed, CNN, (2002). Other investigators suspected the accident as having occurred as a result of engine failure. The NSTB conclusion was based on the retrievals of the flight data recorder FDR from the ill fated plane. The FDR had recorded large ruder multidirectional movements signifying intense turbulence. According to Air Safe, (2008), there were two probable causes of the air crash; the flight crew inappropriate action on the rudder and the rudder system malfunctioning. During the investigation, the NTSB started by evaluating the accelerations preceding the crash, angular motions, cockpit displays, visual cues and flight control motions based on simulations of what could have occurred during the accident. This was followed by the evaluation of the probable flight control characteristics as certain inherent factors such as pilot perception and performance could have contributed to the crash. Tran,& Hernandez (2004) further ascertain that as part of the investigation undertaken by the National Transport Safety board (NSTB) in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Centre, onto the American Airlines Flight 587 crash, Vertical Motion Stimulators were used to in creating simulations of the original accident. The process involved evaluation of the possible acceleration experiences during the accident by; back-driving the retrieved cockpit control displays, out of the window scene, cockpit communications and both the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice recorder retrievals. System Safety From the synopsis, it is imperative to note that there were full rudder deflections on both sides which made the plane to loose its balance leading to the crash. Although most transport airplanes are equipped with rudder limiter systems to limit deflections at high airspeed and the possibilities of structural overloads, the limiters should be a safety concern as they limit the pilot’s perception especially when the structural capabilities of an aircraft are constrained. A full deflection on one side followed by a similar deflection on the other side on an aircraft with rudder limiter systems may be an indication of structural loads far exceeding the capability of the aircraft Air Safe, (2008). Noteworthy, all systems have documented problem areas which often leads to severe malfunctioning, some of which are fatal. Some of the system safety problem areas include Standardization, risk assessment codes, software in use, human factors, the life cycle of a system, communication between stakeholders and the availability of data. Lack of Standardization could have been a potential cause of the Flight 578 crash. Lacking safety standard regulations could have led to the overlook of certain critical safety issues leading to the crash. The Airbus rudder was also not standardized. Standardization in the aeroplane part manufacture is lacking as different aircraft manufactures design the rudders for specific aeroplanes. The Planes rudders were oversensitive, making the first attendant to apply unnecessary pressure on the control leading to the crash. Had the rudders been standardized, the pilots even with minimal training could have known the appropriate measures to counter the turbulence, Tran, & Hernandez, (2004). Undoubtedly, the turbulence resulting from the preceding Japanese Airlines flight contributed to the fatal crash. This implies that probably the severity of such effects had not been correctly analysed during risk assessment. If they had been, then its effects had not been properly estimated. To avoid future accidents, stakeholders in the aviation industry should develop effective time separation between flights taking off and those leaving the airport. This can be made possible via the implementation of valid and reliable Risk Assessment Codes built upon valid data with the involvement of all the major stakeholders so as to minimize errors. Reports by the American Airlines indicate that the plane had been maintained a day prior to the crash. All airplanes should be properly checked using the MIL STD Standard 882 before being operational and using MORT to investigate, the operational cycle of the system. The complexity of an aviation system may make determination of errors elusive. Proper and consistent maintenance are a key to ensuring aviation safety and minimization of aviation accidents. The plane could have as well crashed as a result of engine failure or electric fault, an indication that proper maintenance was not undertaken prior to the flight. Human factors are the largest contributor to civil aviation accidents. It is reported that human error are the cause of 70-80% of all aviation accidents, (Taneja, 2002), 56% Boeing (2000). These factors include; inadequate crew resource management, distraction of the cockpit, cockpit indiscipline, fatigue and communication errors. The American Airlines Flight 587, primarily crashed as a result of misjudgement of the first attendant. It is therefore important to understand human factors in aircraft accidents for effective accident prevention, Taneja, (2002). Noteworthy, the extent to which human error leads to aviation accidents is still not properly understood. Proper understanding of human factors would enable safety investigators and implementers to offer recommendations and intervening strategies that could prevent future accidents. Some of the important errors resulting from human failure include; poor distance estimation, non adherence to instructions and perfunctory manner of operation. Flight 587 crashed mainly due to the first assistant’s overestimation of turbulence and the subsequent improper use of the rudders, Tran, & Hernandez, (2004). As a safety precaution, airline designers and manufactures should ensure that critical aspects such as effects of turbulence, critical distances, clearances and speeds are properly indicated on the system so as not to leave such important aspects to human intuition or guess. Instructions on the use of various components of an aircraft should also be short, clear and to the point as most people rarely read labels or instructions, critical to both the system’s and their personal safety. Furthermore, most technical personnel such as Flight engineers, aeronautical engineers, the flight control personnel and even system safety engineers and managers are lacking in system safety education and training. Proper education and training should be given to these personnel to minimize the possibilities of any future accidents. Although the crash of flight 587 is primarily attributable to human error, other factors owing to improperly managed systems could have been the cause of the accident. Consistent and well formulated system identification and analysis would certainly lead to improved aeroplane safety thereby minimizing aviation accidents. Ignoring accidents and aviation strategies would lead to accidents with repeated faults as commonly experienced, Condit, (2003). Ensuring safety of any airplane should be a step by step undertaking. Safety requirements should be adhered to from the time of conception until disposal. The life cycle of an airplane like any other system can be divided into five phases; the concept design, production, operations and the disposal phase. Safety precautions are critical in every stage to ensure safety and minimize financial losses. At the concept phase; a critical phase in the life cycle of an airplane, guided by the general and the specific objectives, a detailed description of the product detailing all the necessary requirements should be documented. Preliminary Hazard List (PHL) which assists in the assessment of possible hazards, time needed to develop the plane and all the necessary requirements for the success of the project should be applied during this stage. The design phase is key to the success of any airplane in terms of security and safety. All safety requirements and the governmental regulations should be adhered to. The design should be logical leading to the development of specific plans, drawings and specifications. At this stage, the Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), Subsystem Hazard Analysis PHA, System Hazard Analysis (SHA) and Operational Hazard Analysis (OHA) should all be undertaken to ensure the implementation of proper designs. All these analysis would ensure proper identification of hazards not detected at the conception phase and additionally offer recommendations on possible control mechanisms of these hazards. All safety regulation pertaining to proper development of the end product should be adhered to minimize aviation accidents in the production phase. During this stage both the Operating System Analysis (OHA) and the Change Analysis are initiated. These serve to analyze potential threats during the operation of the system. At the operations phase; critical safety requirements such as regular mainten ance and checkups should be adhered to. This is to determine and correct any faults that would compromise the operation of an aircraft. Accident Analysis and change analysis should all be considered to minimize the possibilities of any aeroplane system malfunctioning. The disposal phase is an equally important phase. GAO, (2007), notes that most aeroplane owners, both individuals and companies, fail to know when to dispose of worn out or malfunctioned aircraft. This has led to an increment in aeroplane disasters; especially in the developing world, as worn out aeroplanes are still in use. OHA would aid in the determination of proper life cycle of the aircraft thereby assisting in the determination of when to properly dispose off the aircraft. To reduce the number of aviation accidents experienced, hazards must be identified and level of safety improved. Governments and airline industry officials must be proactive by anticipating possible accident causes rather than react to aviation accidents which are in most cases, quite devastating. Proper guidance coupled with research and instructional materials on cases of aviation accidents should be provided to the pilots and aviation professionals so as to minimize the possibilities of recurrence of such incidents. Proper and continued maintenance of the aircraft by the use of system safety products; the SSPP, PHL, PHA, HTL, SSHA, SHA, OHA and CAR through all the five stages of its life cycle could have possibly prevented the occurrence of this particular accident. Furthermore, adoption of risk assessment methodologies into the operations of the airline could have set standards that would have limited the possibility of the accident occurring. Furthermore, the data problem can be overcome via the consultations of and access to information in aviation data banks where past aviation accidents records can be accessed. Though speculative, Flight 587 accident could also be attributed to ignorance of similar prior experiences. A critical study and implementation of accident analysis reports of similar occurrences would have been handy in preventing the accident. The implementation of the recommendations of accident's Analysis reports could further offer insight into the real cause of the accident causing the prevention of any future accidents. The execution of fault tree analysis during the maintenance of the American Airline involved in the accident could have possibly reduced the chances of the accident occurring. This is because Fault tree analysis; through the application of deductive logic, analyses possible system faults starting from the major ones down to the minor ones. , Its prediction of occurrence of basic. Conditional, undeveloped, external and intermediate events are very important as it identifies fault causes, evaluates effects, evaluates further threats, assists in decision making Aviation accidents are inherently dangerous and unforgiving. Well balanced safety systems, prevention programs and intervention strategies should be implemented to prevent further aviation accidents. All airlines should adopt a System safety program by planning to initiate the program, establishing primary system safety tasks to conduct the program and initiating support tasks to maintain the program. Those who have initiated and conducted the program should seek to maintain the program to ensure that airplanes system safety is not compromised. These programs seek to protect airplanes from accidents as they ensure potential threats or hazards identification, leading to an in-depth analysis of such threats and further development of hazard control.

Final Descriptive Writing

Anton Meriwether When you are trying to write a descriptive piece then it is best to describe everything in a very visual way to that would make the reader use it's five senses. Using the five senses in a descriptive writing really elevates your piece and makes it stand out. I'm from a small city in northern Indiana where not many people visit even actually hardly at all. The city is off the coast of Lake Michigan which creates a slight cold breeze in middle of December and all of January. The city is called Michigan City, Indiana.Have you ever heard of The Blue Chip Casino? Of course you have I mean who haven't. The Blue Chip Casino is like a boat casino and it is also the tallest building in the whole city. The Casino sits at one end Of Michigan Blvd which is one of the main roads in the city and also one of the longest. Another thing about the city is a place called The Dunes. The Dunes is a big sand hill that depending on the weather will burn your feet. The Dunes is a great plac e to go if you're looking to have some fun walking n sand and also going to the beach.Hearing the beach at night just calms you down no matter what is going on because, hearing the breeze flow over the lake creates a sound that can't be mimicked by technology which is very rare nowadays. Michigan City is a good place to visit but of course every city has its down falls I mean Atlanta is too big like huge for no reason at all, no seriously, really dumb big and parking is expensive and can't even drive yet and I'm saying, it's just ridiculous, but back to the task at hand. One problem aboutMichigan City is the weather, if you are not used to cold weather or don't like it then it's not your place because it gets freezing, iceman, Antarctica, I'm staying inside the house cold. That is a descriptive writing that includes all five senses. When you use all the senses then you are truly writing a descriptive writing, because how can you describe something without using the senses, I mean, y ou not even describing anything all you are doing is just talking about it and that won't get my attention. I hope this helps you become a better descriptive writer.

The United States Supreme Court and Public Opinion

The United States Supreme Court is a unique American institution. It is unique because, unlike the individuals serving in the executive and the legislative branches of government, the nine justices serving at the highest level of the United States Supreme Court are insulated in significant ways from the public they are sworn to serve. Most significantly, the justices are provided lifetime terms following nomination and confirmation. Unlike presidents or members of Congress, for example, the justices do not have to endure initial public elections or prepare for reelection campaigns.In effect, in many ways, the members of the United States Supreme Court are insulated from the public that they serve in extraordinary and unique ways. This very insulation, in turn, has generated fierce debates among legal scholars, political scholars, and historians regarding the proper characterization of the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion and the consequences of different characterizations.This essay will argue that the justices of the United States Supreme Court are not nearly as isolated as conventional wisdom and scholarship too frequently assume, that public opinion affects the justices in a myriad of deeply significant ways, and that adopting a majoritarian model better explains the United States Supreme Court as well as better serving important public policy objectives.In order to support the argument that majoritarian framework is the preferable model, this essay will explain why analytical frameworks are especially important in this context, the consequences of the different approaches, and why a majoritarian approach is the better framework for analyzing and discussing the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion. B. Why Analytical Frameworks MatterThis debate is particularly important because these justices, serving for life terms, are elevated to the United States Supreme Court as a result of politi cal decisions rather than intellectual merit or the possession of a neutrally objective judicial philosophy. Indeed, it is commonly agreed by scholars that Judges and scholars perpetuate the myth of merit. The reality, however, is that every appointment is political.Merit competes with other political considerations, like personal and ideological compatibility, with the forces of support or opposition in Congress and the White House, and with demands for representative appointments on the bases of geography, religion, race, gender, and ethnicity. (O'Brien 33) It is this political connection that makes the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and the American citizenry such an important issue.This is because certain assumptions may encourage special interests to pursue political appointments to the Supreme Court in an effort to circumvent public opinion. For those whom subscribe to the countermajoritarian school of thought, which holds that the Supreme Court is largel y immune to public opinion and hardly influenced by public opinion, the belief is that once a nominated justice is confirmed that he or she will be able to issue rulings unhindered by the pressures of public opinion (Davis 4).As a result, this approach encourages deeply political appointments because there is a belief that minority interests can be advanced or otherwise protected by a public institution shielded from public opinion; this, in turn, encourages potential justices to refrain from expressing their intellect or their opinions honestly in order to minimize political problems.One scholar has described this dumbing down of a candidate’s merits thusly: â€Å"A fictive discourse of appointments has thus emerged: a nominee's advocates make his case in the ideologically neutral language of merit, as if the candidate's views had no bearing on his selection,† (Greenberg, n. p. ) That prospective justices of the United States Supreme Court are compelled to engage in a â€Å"fictive discourse† is both disturbing and contrary to the American ideal of open and free discourse.The confirmation battle involving Robert Bork was illustrative of this type of political battle; indeed, rather than focusing on Bork’s intellectual abilities or merits the confirmation hearings devolved into perhaps the most contentious confirmation battle in modern history. Indeed, as one leading scholar of the Bork proceedings has noted, highlighting the aforementioned dangers associated with the countermajoritarian framework,Because few knowledgeable observers questioned Judge Bork's professional qualifications, opposition to Bork quickly focused on his judicial philosophy. The focus on ideology raised a crucial issue as to whether it was proper for the Senate to reject for ideological reasons an otherwise qualified nominee. (Vieira, and Gross vii)On the other hand, for those whom subscribe to the majoritarian school of thought, an increasingly influential app roach to the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion, the belief is that the justices are not only not insulated from public opinion but that public opinion affects the justices intimately in terms of the types of cases they choose to decide each year (O'Brien 165), what legal justifications that justices choose to rely on when deciding particularly contentious cases (Waltenburg, and Swinford 242), and whether to uphold or overturn longstanding legal precedents (Norrander, and Wilcox 707).Such assumptions, that public opinion does matter and that it matters significantly, have several significant implications if they are true. First, selecting politics over merit when deciding whom to nominate to the United States Supreme Court may be overrated; more specifically, justices will ultimately be more sensitive to public opinion than the political alliances that earned them the nomination in the first place.They will, after all, be freed of the need to sus tain the political alliances after confirmation as a result of their lifetime tenure whereas they will always be judged by public opinion. A case in point was the Republican nomination of Warren Burger. He was known to have been a conservative with a strict construction approach to the interpretation of the United States Constitution. In short, from a countermajoritarian point of view, Burger had seemed an extraordinarily safe political choice for the United States Supreme Court.The reality, however, was that as the 15th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Burger began to rule in ways that shocked his initial supporters. Rather than shunning public opinion, as his supporters wanted on issues such as race, he has since become known as one of the more activist Chief Judges in the history of the United States Supreme Court. The countermajoritarian school of thought cannot account for such a shift in judicial behavior, and this is a major flaw in this particular analytical framework.Burger is much better understood, as is the United States Supreme Court more generally, by employing a majoritarian framework that accounts for public opinion in addition to underlying political alliances or political philosophies. Second, if these assumptions are true, then public opinion matters. That means that studying the United States Supreme Court in isolation, rather than in conjunction with other related social factors such as public opinion, is a flawed approach.The better analytical framework is the majoritarian approach which, though a minority approach, accomplishes two important objectives. Initially, by accounting for and analyzing more carefully the relationship between public opinion and the United States Supreme Court, courts like Burger’s can be better understood and better explained; in addition, the majoritarian approach legitimizes public opinion as a part of the national debate with respect to legal issues of public interest rather than confi ning these issues to nine distant justices in a mysterious ivory tower.If one of the main functions of the justices is to safeguard the legitimacy of the American constitution, a document conceived of and designed to protect the public generally, then sound policy demands public participation and influence. There are two main questions to be resolved. First, does the countermajoritarian or the majoritarian framework better explain how the United States Supreme Court functions? Second, and related to the first issue, which model better contributes to the legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court and its legal decisions.C. Main Questions 1. Countermajoritarian or Majoritarian: A Threshold Issue Although the United States Supreme Court is one of the most heavily studied American institutions, there remain significant differences of opinion regarding the nature of the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion. One of the more fundamental debates among legal scholars, political scientists, and historians centers on whether the United States Supreme Court is in essence a countermajoritarian institution or a majoritarian institution.This debate has important implications. Those that believe that the countermajoritarian model best characterizes the actual function and operation of the United States Supreme Court also tend to view the Supreme Court as being largely insulated from public opinion; on the other hand those that believe that the majoritarian framework best characterizes the Supreme Court tend to believe that public opinion, to some extant, affects the function, operations, and the ultimate legal decisions of the Supreme Court.How one resolves this debate, therefore, pervasively affects American jurisprudence; indeed, â€Å"Much constitutional discourse is predicated on the assumption that the United States Supreme Court is a counter-majoritarian institution, and normative theories supporting the exercise of judicial review are seen, by some, as having to accommodate that fact.† (Solimine, and Walker n. p). Should this fundamental assumption be proven to be incorrect, and there is a growing body of research that suggests that it may be incorrect, then the constitutional discourse and the normative theories that have flowed from the traditional countermajoritarian characterization of the Supreme Court may be similarly flawed and incorrect.In short, a threshold determination needs to be made. This threshold question, as is relevant to the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion, is whether the Supreme Court is in fact a countermajoritarian institution as scholars have traditionally assumed or a majoritarian institution as some modern scholars argue. 2. Supreme Court as Arbiter of LegitimacyIn addition and intimately related to the aforementioned characterization debate, scholars have also examined the relationship of the United States Supreme Court and public opinion in terms of legitimacy; more specifically, scholars have debated whether and to what extant Supreme Court decisions resolve contentious legal issues legitimately so far as public opinion is concerned and whether and to what extant legitimacy instead results from public opinion affecting the Supreme Court either directly or indirectly.In short, is the ultimate source of legitimacy regarding contentious legal issues the Supreme Court, public opinion, or the interplay between the two? This source of legitimacy debate is made more difficult by the fact that public opinion tends to be more responsive to a narrow range of legal issues or what has otherwise been referred to in the literature as landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, Roe V. Wade, and, more recently, Bush v.Gore. If this assumption is correct, that public opinion is only concerned with landmark cases, then the scope of academic inquiry must be significantly narrowed; to this end, one scholar has noted that â€Å"if we assu me that only the huge national landmark cases affect public opinion, in essence, we are saying that the remainder of the Court's work is inconsequential, at least in terms of public opinion. † (Hoekstra 3).An additional set of threshold questions, therefore, needs to address the more precise relationship between different types of Supreme Court cases and public opinion. Is the relationship relevant only with respect to national landmark cases? Does the relationship differ between landmark and non-landmark cases? This, in turn, demands an analysis which examines both the national and local effects of Supreme Court decisions. Indeed, acknowledging that â€Å"Using national data, it may be possible to connect cases such as Bush v.Gore to changes in public opinion and support for the Court† (Hoekstra 3) one scholar has argued for engaging in a more nuanced analysis that examines localized effects as well by suggesting that beneath the noise may actually be systematic effect s–ones not easily detectable or the same for all citizens–but systematic nonetheless. If citizens learn about different Court decisions based on information available and salient to them, then looking for uniform national level effects is misguided. This does not mean that Court decisions are without national effect.If the Court's effect is more localized–either in terms of geography or some other process–we might still see the effect of Court decisions on public opinion and that Court decisions might affect support for the Court on a national level. The process is just more subtle and possibly more gradual. Another reason to look at local public opinion is that Court decisions frequently require active implementation, oftentimes by local officials. If the Court can change public opinion on the issues, or at least cast legitimacy on the policy under review, the probability of successful implementation is greatly enhanced (Hoekstra 3)Thus, in short, a seco nd threshold set of questions addresses the extant to which scholars assume that relationships between the Supreme Court and public opinion are limited to national landmark cases or whether the relationship can be extended according to local effects and conditions. C. Benefits of a Majoritarian Approach The first benefit of a majoritarian approach is rather intuitive; more specifically, because legal issues affect the public then the public’s opinion ought to be considered.Although this essay also argues that public opinion is relevant in disputes that may not be considered landmark cases, the evidence strongly supports the proposition that public opinion particularly affects national landmark cases and that landmark cases decided by the United States Supreme Court tend to affect public opinion. What complicates a proper characterization of the court derives from different historical relationships between the court and the United States Supreme Court. Traditionally, the Ameri can public did view the justices as enlightened individuals whom didn’t require public input.This sort of public trust justified, in the past, the countermajoritarian approach; indeed, with respect to general public opinion, the justices were significantly insulated. One leading scholar, writing in 1957, stated that Until recently, the attitude of Americans toward the Supreme Court recalled with singular fidelity that with which, according to Burke, Englishmen of a century and a half ago should have looked upon the institutions of their country: â€Å"We ought to understand it according to our measure; and to venerate where we are not able to understand.† (Schwartz iii). This veneration, this assumption that the public can no longer understand the legal issues presented to the United States Supreme Court, is no longer an accurate description of the American public; quite the contrary, the public regularly criticizes Supreme Court decisions, it more carefully follows po tential and actual nominations to the highest court in the land, and through a variety of groups and organization it attempts to influence the court by presenting friend of the court legal briefs on virtually every type of imaginable case.What has emerged more recently is a United States Supreme Court that is besieged by rather than isolated from public opinion; one scholar has noted that even presidents attempt to influence the justices, stating that â€Å"presidents can influence the Supreme Court beyond the appointments process. † (Martinek, n. p. ). From the unemployed mother interested in an abortion issue to competing presidential candidates seeking a favorable ruling the United States Supreme Court has become, for better or worse, America’s arbiter of last resort.This change in the way the public perceives and interacts with the United States Supreme Court is the first reason why the countermajoritarian framework is no longer the best approach for analyzing the justices or the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion. The detached veneration of the public is a relic of the past and has been replaced by a greater public awareness. This greater public awareness, however, cannot be overstated; to be sure, though â€Å"Shifting majorities of the public do disagree with many decisions, to the extent they perceive them, or are simply ignorant of the great mass of the Court's jurisprudence.† (Solimine, and Walker, n. p. ) There are, therefore, gaps in the public’s knowledge about the nature of the Supreme Court’s power and the underlying issues. This imperfect knowledge, however, does not render public opinion marginal or irrelevant. It simply suggests that public opinion may at times be somewhat irrational; both a rational and an irrational public opinion can affect the Supreme Court and the majoritarian approach can be adapted to account for an idealized public which possesses an advanced understanding of c omplex legal issues and an imperfect public which sometimes reacts in less than informed ways.In short, the majoritarian approach is better able to incorporate the complex interactions between the United States Supreme Court than the rigidly outdated countermajoritarian model. In addition to the fact that public perceptions and demands have changed over time, it is also evident that legal precedents have been modified or overturned in response to public opinion. Some of the more well-known cases illustrating this fact have involved controversial issues dealing with racial segregation, abortion, and civil rights more generally.A countermajoritarian framework would assume that the justices would be significantly isolated from the public in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. Had these justices been insulated, it is entirely plausible that these cases would never have reached the United States Supreme Court, and if they had, that they would have been decided diff erently. The majoritarian model, on the other, admits that these issues were, to some extant, forced upon the United States Supreme Court and that the justices accommodated public opinion by resolving important national issues.This framework further contributes to an ultimate type of legitimacy with respect to the judicial decisions, even if the legitimacy remains challenged by some members of the public, because it treats the decision as a sort of cooperative effort between the United States Supreme Court and the American public. These decisions, in turn affected public opinion. More people accepted racial integration, more people accepted abortion, and more people came to believe that George W. Bush was entitled to the highest office in the land. In Brown v. Board of Education, for instance, the public was badly divided regarding issues of racial segregation.While it is true that the modern trend was toward integration the sad fact was that many members of the public, including st ates, resisted attempts to integrate the races more completely; as a result, pressure was brought to bear on the United States Supreme Court. On the one hand, there was a notion that the federal government shouldn’t interfere too much in state affairs; on the other hand, there was also a growing public recognition that only a decision by the United States Supreme Court, and not any actions by the executive or legislative branches alone, would settle the issues legitimately across the country (Klarman 348).A countermajoritarian framework would instead assume, and incorrectly so, that the justices themselves suddenly decided that racial segregation was unconstitutional rather than attributing a great deal of credit to the American public. The majoritarian model can both predict and explain cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. D. Conclusion In the final analysis, the United States Supreme Court is best analyzed when accounting for the influence of public opinion on its ope rational and decision-making process.This necessitates shifting toward a more majoritarian approach that also analyzes why and how legitimacy is often a function of the interaction of the Supreme Court and public opinion rather than the outdated view of the justices as isolated wise-men immune to public scrutiny or understanding. Works Cited Davis, Richard. Electing Justice: Fixing the Supreme Court Nomination Process. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Greenberg, David. â€Å"The New Politics of Supreme Court Appointments. † Daedalus 134.3 (2005): 5+. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Hoekstra, Valerie J. Public Reaction to Supreme Court Decisions. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Klarman, Michael J. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Lasser, William. The Limits of Judicial Power: The Supreme Cou rt in American Politics.Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Martinek, Wendy L. â€Å"Popular Justice: Presidential Prestige and Executive Success in the Supreme Court. † Presidential Studies Quarterly 33. 3 (2003): 692+. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Norrander, Barbara, and Clyde Wilcox. â€Å"Public Opinion and Policymaking in the States: The Case of Post-Roe Abortion Policy. † Policy Studies Journal 27. 4 (1999): 707. Questia. 16 July 2009 . O'Brien, David M. The Supreme Court in American Politics The Supreme Court in American Politics. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Perry, Barbara A. â€Å"†The Cult of the Robe†: The U. S. Supreme Court in the American Mind. † Social Education 66. 1 (2002): 30+. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Schwartz, Bernard. The Supreme Court, Constitutional Revolution in Retrospect. New York: Ronald Press, 1957. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Solimine, Michael E. , and James L. Walker. â€Å"The Supreme Court, Judicial Review, and the Public: Leadership versus Dialogue. † Constitutional Commentary 11. 1 (1994): 1-6. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Spurlock, Clark. Education and the Supreme Court. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1955. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Stephenson, Donald Grier. Campaigns and the Court: The U. S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.Questia. 16 July 2009 . Vieira, Norman, and Leonard Gross. Supreme Court Appointments: Judge Bork and the Politicization of Senate Confirmations. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998. Questia. 16 July 2009 . Waltenburg, Eric N. , and Bill Swinford. â€Å"The Supreme Court as a Policy Arena: The Strategies and Tactics of State Attorneys General. † Policy Studies Journal 27. 2 (1999): 242. Questia. 16 July 2009 .

Llustrate this collaboration Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Llustrate this collaboration - Assignment Example Besides, these images served the purpose of arousing respect and reverence for their gods among the people. Egyptians were more concerned about the afterlife than their real existence on earth, which is evident from the above image featuring gods of the underworld realm (Acharya 233). In this image, the artist features Egyptians’ underworld gods (according to their ranks form left) whose core role encompassed determining the destinies of their dead people. The deities’ images varied based on their roles whereby the central image depicts Anubi god responsible for mummification process after death whereas the last or left image was Horus god (Acharya 237). The latter was a symbol of kingship in Egypt after the murder of the first god (Osiris) (Acharya 236). Instilling reverence and respect for their gods, artists by then depicted the gods sometimes having animal heads (Acharya 236). This also expressed their relationships with nature, which the living people depended mainly for survival. Hence, the gods possessed immense controlling power over both the people and the nature or land, which they inhabited (Acharya 237). Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa’s image depicts one of the remarkable biblical stories concerning sons of Jacob’s rivalry, which prompted to the selling of Joseph (Garb 39). The image depicts the focal point of the entire account, which the artist chooses to feature. Hence, this arouses viewers’ thoughts concerning the Israelites’ origin and diverse chronological events that followed the depicted scene. In this image, art acts as an auxiliary medium meant to help the viewers understand, remember and relay the depicted information to the then numerous people (Shusterman 1). Therefore, Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa via this image takes advantage of visual method, which is extremely effective compared to both reading and narration

Critical Evaluation of Project Management Techniques in Information Essay

Critical Evaluation of Project Management Techniques in Information Sector in Nigeria - Essay Example Commerce to E-commerce to M-commerce seems to be logical way for any government or individual to scale up. Since the paper is based on secondary research, various data and reports already available with the respective agencies, newspapers and other publications will be compiled, analyzed and used to draw conclusions. Gabriel Ajayi (NITDA and ICT in Nigeria,2003) has asserted that after NITDA (National Information Technology Development Agency) was set up in 2001, projects like Public Service Network (PSNet), Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) and Human Capacity Development were undertaken by the same. NITDA started the process of integrating IT into the public service through a massive campaign that targeted at the top echelon of the service. Although he was optimistic about the crucial role ICT played in gearing up the economy, he did not seem very hopeful about funding and political will. After the military rule ended in 1999, there were unfounded fears about the use of ICT in any industry and government will to encourage ICT lacked enthusiasm. From 2001, ICT enjoyed the complete backing of the government and has been looked at as a tool to bring about sustainable development and global competitiveness in Nigeria. GSM service was launched in 2001 and teledensity immediately rose from 0.5 to 2 per 100 subscribers. In the paper â€Å"Nigeria’s Need for ICT S.P.259 Technology and Policy in Nigeria†, Tom Goshit expressed his disappointment with the state of utilization of ICT in Nigeria. He felt that poverty and lack of skilled IT personnel were drawbacks in faster implementation and utilization of policies favoring ICT. However, when it came to use of mobile telephony and ICT, he says ‘As of December 2005, there were over 19,000,000 serviced cell phones in Nigeria. The mobile cellular market has grown because landline

Public money and bailout Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Public money and bailout - Essay Example The government's argument is based on the fact that if the private companies were not assisted properly, most of the companies will be forced to cancel the service contracts of thousands of workers which will again increase the unemployment problem. In a country like United States, most of the employment contracts are based on the at-will employment types. Such employment contracts grant permission for the employers to dismiss their workers even without citing a proper reason. So unemployment problem will go beyond the grasp of the governments if the private companies were not assisted properly at this juncture of financial crisis. It is under this perception that the governments justifying their action to bailout private companies. "In their valiant efforts to avoid pain now, our governments are not asking themselves how much employment could be generated if the billions they are earmarking could be invested more wisely. The truth, however, is that carmakers were already receiving lavish support from the public purse long before the foundations of the world's economy started to wobble. Between 2003 and 2007, the European Investment Bank gave '6.5bn in loans to carmakers, including companies like Jaguar and Land Rover that prize customers with more money than brains. (Cronin, 2009) "Currently, private businesses and companies around the world, especially in Western economies, have already started laying off thousands of their employees, attempting of course to save themselves from a credit crunch and a looming global recession. The US unemployment figures rose to 7.2 per cent from 4.9 per cent in Dec 2008" (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2009).Reports from western countries showed that many people have lost their jobs and many are afraid of losing it in near future. The current crisis seems to be deepened from day by day. All the remedial measures taken by the governments were proved to be insufficient to tackle the issue. Nobody expect a magical recovery in the near future. This time recession came unexpectedly to most of the people. The economic pundits were failed to forecast the crisis early enough to warn the people or the governments. The new American administration led by Barak Obama is facing the huge challenge of how to tackle the current crisis and at the same time how to preserve the jobs of the working class. Most of the common people are working in Public money and bailout 3 private companies and hence the governments cannot stay away from their moral responsibility of assisting the common people in preserving their jobs. "According to a recent report by the IMF, growth in emerging and developing economies is expected to slow sharply, from 6.25 percent in 2008 to 3.25 percent in 2009." (Cardozo, 2009) One of the prominent growing economies in the world, India has reported that they are expecting a growth rate of 7.1% though they anticipated more than 9% before the crisis begun. Most of the other emerging and developing economies found it extremely difficult to sustain their growth rate even though the crude oil prices has come down a lot. In order to analyze the depth of the crisis, the current crude oil price

Good Country People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Good Country People - Essay Example The story â€Å"Good country people† portrays a number of aspects that are crucial to the development of the plot in the story, as well as bringing out the meaning. The aspects include perspective, conflict and the tone used in the story, which this paper seeks to bring out in an analysis of the story The story brings out a feminist perspective owing to the characters used in the book (O’Connor 1). This is following the Hopewell family composition and the family of Mrs. Freeman, where in the two families, there do not exist male elements, as either sons or parents.. As a result, the story follows the lives of the women found in these families, with the main character being Joy, the daughter of Mrs. Hopewell. Feminist is also portrayed by the presence of the strong educational background that Joy, also known as Hulga, has. This is by having a college education all through to Doctoral degree, which shows the power that a woman holds provides she has an education. This is due to her tendency to dissociate with other members of the society due to her pride. In addition, the story also brings out the conflict between science and religion. This is in relation to Joy’s atheist and nihilistic point of view towards the world and people, where she practices her atheist beliefs on a young Bible salesperson (Bosco 284). This is as portrayed by her intentions on the second that the couple goes on after Manley asks Joy out. There is also the case where Manley steals Joy’s prosthetic limb due to his fetish for artificial body pars belonging to women. This is unbecoming behavior of a person expected to be of upright moral standing. As a result, this serves a means to broaden the conflict between religion and science, as well as social issues. She denies the existence of God, but she still works towards finding some form of spiritual enlightenment by going out with Manley. In addition, the conflict of morality and ethics is also brought up in the sto ry. This is following the deception of Manley in order to get to Joy, by pretending to be a bible salesperson and deceiving Mrs. Hopewell that he is poor and getting her to take pity on him. This shows how far moral degradation has gone to the point where religion can be used for personal gain. The above is portrayed by Manley when he opens his case to reveal two fake bibles, a flask of whiskey and a park of cards among other things. Moreover, the whole story is written from a third person’s point of view, who in this case is a narrator. For this reason, the story is based on observation and not on the experience of the narrator meaning that, the story may bear a bias due to the nature of the narrator. The narrator tells of the events that take place in the lives of the women in the two families, moreover, their lives are portrayed as monotonous. As a result, it focuses on the nature of life for women in a society where tradition is embraced as a social norm, and those that a re go against it are labeled as ingrates who are ungrateful for the same values that helped raise them. This is as the case of Joy or Hulga who views her mother as a backward person, as she lives as per traditional conventions as shown by her dressing. The tone used is that of disgust or anger directed towards the nature of the earth at the time of writing the story. This is owing to the prevalence of lack of honesty among country people, which is brought out by the fact that Manley is a swindler in Mrs. Hopewell’s house (O’Connor 15). Disgust is also shown following the open disadvantage at which Joy is following the relations that she has with Manley. At the point that Manley takes Joy’s foot, the tone is brought out clearly following the state that Joy is left, vulnerable. This shows anger at the world for its unfair practices especially where they are least expected, from a religious person, Manley. In addition, it shows anger at the discriminative practices directed at people with disability due to Joy’

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Essay Example Capitalism in the society leads to class structure between halves and halve nodes. The halves are the capitalist who owns all the resources, and have nodes are the labourers whose only means of subsistence is their labour power. The capitalist buy labour in the market likes any other commodity (EyalSzeleÃŒ nyi &Townsley 1998). The surplus of labour in the economy goes into the capitalist in the form of supernormal profit. The surplus arises due to the worker working overtime with no payment. If a worker is assign to work for a certain job within 10 hours, and the worker finishes the task in 7hours, the 3hours extra will go into capitalist profit. Capitalist is society trace origin from 13th to 16th century. The reasons for emergence of capitalism in society were due to the society need to use wealth to create more wealth. In pre-capitalist society, the profit from enterprise was shared among the society members. The land, labour and capital were not factors of production but communal resource. With the emergence of capitalism, labour was viewed as a factor of production. The profit for the entire company goes into the pocket of one person. Capitalism develops fully in 16th century with the industrial revolution and development of companies. Industrial revolution is a period of advancement of industries due technology and innovation. Advances of industries leads to few individuals accumulating a lot of wealth leaving others poor. The companies that were developed were in a group of people but everyone depend on herself. Industrialization lead to emergence of capitalist nations in 17th century that became economically powerful. In a capitalist economy, the level of completion is high to economic scarce resources. The owners of production face completion in prices of goods and services from other individuals in the society. The competition in the society will leads to alienation of the owner and workers. The

International Analysis of Organization Design Essay - 1

International Analysis of Organization Design - Essay Example Such is a significant feature that influences the management of organizations in different regions. Multinational organizations that exist in more than one country must always adopt unique organizational structures and systems of management in the various countries in order to suite with the culture of people in the different markets as the discussion below portrays. China is the largest economy in the East and is among the largest markets in the world. The country has conducive environment for doing business owing to the large population and the low production costs. As such, numerous multinational companies target the market. However, Chinese people have a unique culture. The history of the country presents a country that remained secluded from the rest of the world thus succeeded in forming a unique system of governance coupled with an equally unique culture. The culture of China therefore influences the management of the multinational organizations that set up shops in the country. Despite the lucrative nature of the market, the companies must always adopt new structures and systems of management in order to operate in the region (Juvidan, Dorfman & House, 2006). -Develop its brand and the visibility and spread of the stores so as to make it the first choice when it comes to coffee, easy to find and familiar with the environment and hard to switch to substitutes Key among the multinational companies that operate in China is Starbucks. Starbucks Corporations, also known as Starbucks Coffee is an American company and the largest coffee company in the world. The company operates in more than two thousand locations throughout the world. While the United States is its largest market, the company operates in many other countries with China forming headquarter in its eastern frontier. The company is a large and accepted brand in China. The company’s success in China is because of specific changes in the management of the

Biotransport Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Biotransport - Research Paper Example The model foresaw deadly values of pH (less than 6.5) in EHTs consisted of 106 cells per square centimeter. Predictions of pH slightly relied on oxygen concentration and strongly on carbon dioxide concentration and the length of diffusion path. In study conclusion, acidosis induced by hypoxia are an important factor in the mass transport problem. The limitations of Transport of critical nutrients obstruct cardiac tissue engineering. The available EHT models comprise of high-density neonatal cardiomyocytes in biopolymer hydrogel or scaffold of synthetic porous polymer. After cultivation by a bioreactor, the cardiac tissue constructs make tiny synchronous contractions like that of differentiated cardiac myofibrils. The problem that prevailed was of scaling the tissue constructs to clinical size and dead cells inside the construct. Reports emphasize on the importance of oxygen as a metabolite in cardiac tissue engineering and engineered cartilage. Reports has it that oxygen concentrations of less than 14 micro molar exist in 1mm EHT model solution and the rate of consumption of oxygen by cardiomyocyte finishes it to above zero. Laboratory data suggest that reduced oxygen does not cause cell death due to hypoxia. Acidosis initiate apoptosis. Lactate-induced acidosis of culture medium at pH 6 stimulates apoptosis in cultured cardiomyocytes. There is expectation that pH and oxygen have functions to play in tissue engineering mass transport problem. Generally, the work done was to analyze the pH gradients resulting from mass transport limitations in engineered heart tissue (EHT). Brown obtained neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) for experiment. He noticed variations in the hypoxia response in acidification of culture medium in relation to the source and procurement method. Development of EHTs constructs succeeded Eschenhagen lab method plus some modifications. He neutralized 3.2mg/mL

Herbal remedy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Herbal remedy - Essay Example The NCCAM is a government initiative that is sponsored by National Institute of Health and Department of Health and Human Service, USA. Garlic is one of the most important herbs which are extensively used as complementary and alterative medicine. The information about garlic can be easily accessed through the following web-link. Website address: http://nccam.nih.gov/ Process to access information about garlic One can either use Google as search engine for finding the website of NCCAM or just type the above mentioned web address on the address bar at the top of the Google homepage. Once the homepage of NCCAM is accessed, select the link to Herbs At a Glance, which is on the vertical bar at the left side of the homepage, under the title of Health. The new link has huge options of herbs with medicinal value. Choose garlic as your final link and access all types of information regarding it. Why garlic is important herb? I was interested in garlic because since the olden times, it has bee n part of our food culture. It has also been known for its highly effective medicinal value. The webpage provides detailed information about it. Salient information gleaned from the garlic webpage Garlic is a plant in the form of bulb that belongs to lily family. The bulb consists of cloves which are used in various ways. The paste of garlic cloves gives exotic taste to the food.

Capital Budgeting Essay Example for Free

Capital Budgeting Essay Introduction The purpose of this paper is to analyze and interpret the answers of the Capital Budgeting Case. I will discuss my recommendation about which Corporation and investor should acquire based on the quantitative reasoning. I also will describe the relationship between the net present value and the internal rate of return for the two corporations that are analyzed. Capital Budgeting Case A company is planning in acquiring a new corporation and there are two options with the same cost of $250,000 but both with different 5-year projections of cash flows. The evaluation done to the two corporations (A and B) is based on the Net Present Value (NPV) and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The net present value represents the value the project or investment adds to the investor wealth. The NPV method of capital budgeting suggests that all projects that have positive NPV should be accepted because they would add value to the investment. On the other hand, the internal rate of return is defined as the discount rate that equates the present value of a projects cash inflows to its outflows. According to the internal rate of return method of capital budgeting, the investment should be accepted if their IRR is greater than the cost of capital. The results for Corporation â€Å"A† shows a NPV of $20,979.20 based on discount rate of 10%. And, we got an IRR of 13.05% which means that is the discount rate that makes the NPV equal or close to $0.00. On the other hand, the Corporation â€Å"B† with a discount rate of 11% got a NPV of $40,251.47 and an IRR of 16.94%. A positive NPV is considered a good project, and we want to choose the one with the highest NPV. Therefore, I would recommend acquiring the Company â€Å"B† because it has a higher NPV than the other company. Corporation B will be giving us a current value cash return of $40,251.47 above our 11% required rate of return during the next 5 years. And, if we recalculate the NPV using the IRR of 16.94% it will result on an NPV close to $0.00. The relationship between NPV and IRR is based on the discount rate used to bring up the cash flows to the present. For the case of Company â€Å"B†, with the discount rate of 11%, if we have a NPV of $0.00, our IRR will also be 11%. But, if our NPV is higher than $0.00, our IRR will be also higher than 11%. And, if we have a negative NPV, then our IRR will be less than 11%. In other words, the NPV and the IRR most of the time yield the same result of acceptance or rejection. Conclusion In conclusion, the best recommendation is to acquire Company B because it will give us higher current values during the first 5 years and higher returns of the investment.

Video Rental Store Database Information Technology Essay

Video Rental Store Database Information Technology Essay Development of a Video Rental Store database application for JJ Video Library to facilitate efficient data storage and retrieval. Background to the Project JJ Video Library is a store which rents out videos to its members. It was established in 2006. It is located in Kimara, Kinondoni district of Dar es Salaam. The stores success is due to the good service it provides to its members and the wide and varied stock of videos available for rent. The store is having difficulties in managing the increasing amount of data used and generated. It cant cope with its own success. It now offers a larger selection of videos to a growing number of members, which means that the level of service it provides is falling. A system that will speed up the way they work, i.e. something to automate a lot of the day-to-day tasks that seem to take forever to complete is needed. The aim of this project is to develop a database application that will help solve the increasing problems of data management. Objectives The main objectives for the system are as follows: 3.1) Technical To produce an overall requirements specification for the system. To design and develop the system by adapting the waterfall model. 3.2) Personal To gain programming experience in PHP and MySQL. To produce a system that will meet the need of the store. To improve my understanding in organizing and carrying out a software development project. 3.3) Academic To meet the academic requirements of the B.Sc. ICTM final year Project. Justification 4.1) Reasons for choosing this project The primary reason for choosing this particular project is to solve the business need of JJ Video Library, which is detailed in section 5.1. Without a real-time database application, it is extremely difficult to manage the growing size of the data being stored. In the new system the following manual functions will be automated: Check in and out Find customer show details. Show customers current rentals. Return a video on time. Return a video late pay fine. Return late video without paying. Paying outstanding fines. Locate video details to check out. Check a video out. Search Search for a movie. List genres. Add title Add the new title to the database. Find the ID of the film we just added. Create copies of the film. Find existing artist. Connect the artist with the film. Get genres. Sign up Add new customer details. Get ID of new customer. List all debtors Show list of customers with unpaid fines. A secondary reason for choosing this project is to broaden my knowledge in both the areas of PHP scripting and database application development. I am greatly interested in both areas and see this project as a way for me to investigate how both these areas can be combined to create robust database applications. 4.2) How this project draws from other course subjects During this project I will use many skills I have acquired during my coursework, the table below summaries this: Code Course Subject Techniques/Knowledge to be used ICT 106 Introduction to Information Technology. Document and presentation preparation techniques. ICT 110 Fundamentals of Computer Networks. Appliation deployment techniques and protocols. ICT 209 Global Networks. ICT 116 Management Information Systems. Salient components of Information Systems and how they couple with functional areas of a business. ICT 211 Information Technology and Business Computing. ICT 208 Database Concepts and Design. Relational database design techniques. ICT 214 Computer Programming. Programming constructs. COM 200 Business Communication Skills. Report writing techniques. PUB 220 Research Methods. Research techniques. ICT 313 Database Management and Administration. This subject has not been covered yet, so this project will serve as an early investigation of subject. ICT 314 Information Technology and Society. This subject has not been covered yet, so this project will serve as an early investigation of the subject. ICT 315 Software Engineering. This subject has not been covered yet, so this project will serve as an early investigation of the subject. ICT 316 Systems Analysis and Design. This subject has not been covered yet, so this project will serve as an early investigation of the subject. ICT 317 IT Project Management. This subject has not been covered yet, so this project will serve as an early investigation of the subject. 4.3) What are the expect gains from doing this project The development work will give me the opportunity to gain handy practice in a programming language. The project will give me a chance to put to use many of the techniques and concepts which I have learnt in my coursework. Database development methods and the application of formal systems development model to mention a few. Furthermore, upon the completion of the project, JJ Video Library store will have a powerful tool which they can use to store and retrieve information more efficiently. The development work will serve as the means for meeting the requirements of the B.Sc. ICTM project component. The project will enable me to improve my software development ability by developing a considerably sized software application, thus allowing me to gain valuable experience in: planning and organizing project work problem-solving systems analysis systems design programming and testing 4.4) Video rental industry background study The movie rental industry has changed drastically over the years. Previously, movie fans could only rent movies at their local movie renting store, but the birth of new technologies and movie distribution methods has changed the way the movie rental industry operates. Today, there are three major ways for movie buffs to obtain their movies: the traditional movie rental store, online movie rental services, or no-return movie rental services. While the movie rental industry is rapidly changing, movie rental stores are still very financially successful. Movie rental stores make their money through a number of different methods including membership fees, rental fees, late fees, and movie purchases. Because online movie rental services are both cheap and convenient, they are quickly becoming a strong competitor within the movie rental industry. Both options are ideal for movie rental enthusiasts who enjoy renting movies regularly but dont want to be bothered with returning the movies. One of the leaders in no-return movie rentals, Flexplay, offers superior quality and convenience over other no-return movie rental companies. Scope System Requirements 5.1) Scope The scope of the system will be limited to the core business functions (Connolly Begg, 2004: 132) of JJ Video Library, namely: To maintain (enter, update, and delete) data on videos To maintain (enter, update, and delete) data on members To maintain (enter, update, and delete) data on video rentals To maintain (enter, update, and delete) data on staff To perform searches on videos. To perform searches on video rentals. To perform searches on members. To report on videos. To report on members. To report on video rentals. 5.2) System Requirements Usage of the database application will be restricted to two groups of users, namely the supervisor who will have unrestricted access to the system and the other staff members who will have limited access to the system. To effectively meet the needs of JJ Video Library the functionalities listed below need to be delivered. Due to the time constraints the project will only deliver the contents of this specification. The system will provide the following functionality: Log in Connect to MySQL database: username password. Locate user in employees table. Log out Terminate MySQL database connection. Check in and out Find customer show details. Show customers current rentals. Return a video on time. Return a video late pay fine. Return late video without paying. Paying outstanding fines. Locate video details to check out. Check a video out. Search Search for a movie. List genres. Add title Add the new title to the database. Find the ID of the film we just added. Create copies of the film. Find existing artist. Connect the artist with the film. Get genres. Sign up Add new customer details. Get ID of new customer. Create a user account Add a new user. Grant privileges to user. Remove a user account Get the username of the user. Remove the user from database. Revoke users privileges. Get user ID. List all debtors Show list of customers with unpaid fines. Deliverables 6.1) Development Approach For this project I plan on using the Waterfall systems development life cycle model and an object oriented development approach using UML diagramming tools to model the systems architecture. The waterfall model (Pressman, 2005: 79) will allow for a systematic, sequential approach to software development that will begin with customer-specification of requirements and will progress through planning, modeling, construction, and deployment, culminating in on-going support of the completed software. The figure below shows the proposed model. Waterfall Systems Development Model (Pressman, 2005: 79) Another reason for choosing the waterfall model (Pressman, 2005: 79) was because the requirements for the project are fixed and work is to proceed to completion in a linear manner. And if there is any change in the requirements the model will provide for feedback loops (iteration). 6.2) Artefacts The following parts of the project life cycle are part of this document. These include project initiation, project feasibility and requirements analysis. A high-level design document will be the next deliverable. After that for each stage the following deliverables will be produced at the listed phases: Detailed Design Requirements Specification User Interface Design Database Design Entity Relationship Diagram Data Dictionary Functional Design Use Case Diagram Class Diagram Sequence Diagram Deployment Diagram Build Working Application Test Test Plan Test Cases for: Acceptance Testing To get a small sample of user opinions. Performance Testing To test the speed of the system under load, in a live environment. Implementation User Guide Additional deliverables required for the B.Sc. ICTM project component that will be produced include: Final Project Report. Formal Oral Presentation Timing 7.1) Major Milestones Appendix A gives a detailed breakdown of the hours I have at my disposal to work on the project. I am convinced that I will be able to deliver within the target dates. ID Milestone Hours Start Date Target Date PID Project Plan/Requirements Analysis 75 18 January 2011 31 January 2011 HLD High-level Design Document 75 01 February 2011 14 February 2011 Development Phases DP1 Core System/Database structure 35 15 February 2011 21 February 2011 DP2 Login_logout 17 22 February 2011 24 February 2011 DP3 Check_in_out 18 25 February 2011 28 February 2011 DP4 Search 35 01 March 2011 07 March 2011 DP5 Add_title 35 08 March 2011 14 March 2011 DP6 Sign_up 35 15 March 2011 21 March 2011 DP7 Create_user_account 35 22 March 2011 28 March 2011 DP8 Remove_user_account 35 29 March 2011 04 April 2011 DP9 List_debtors 35 05 April 2011 11 April 2011 FPR Final Project Report 105 12 April 2011 02 May 2011 Total 535 18 January 2011 June 2011 Additional Information 8.1) Project Organisation The project will be conducted entirely by myself. The project supervisor will be Mr. Almasi Maguya. 8.2) Resources: The following tools will be put to use during this project: Tool Description Apache 2.2.17 Web Server. PHP 5.3.3 Scripting Language. Star UML 5.0 UML Diagramming Tool. Komodo Edit 6.0.3 Text Editor. Microsoft Project 2003 Project Management Software. MySQL Workbench 5.2.31 Database Design Tool. MySQL 5.5.8 Relational Database Management System. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Graphics Editing Tool. OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 Office Suite.

Coping With School Failure and School Achievement

Coping With School Failure and School Achievement DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS OF SCHOOL FAILURE Tony JREIGE Abstract (100 to 150 words) he present study examined the relationship between goal orientation, coping with school failure and school achievement. Two questionnaires, Goal Orientation (Niemivirta, 1996a) and The School Failure Coping Scale (Rijavec Brdar, 1997), were administered to 1057 high school students (aged from 15 to 17 years). The first goal of this study was to explore whether students can be classified in groups according to their goal orientation. The results identified four clusters of students with different achievement profiles: learning oriented, work-avoidance oriented, both performance and learning oriented and both performance and work-avoidance oriented group. Learning oriented group used emotion-focused coping the least frequently while students with combined performance and work avoidanc orientation used this kind of coping the most frequently. The second goal was to test the relationship between goal orientation patterns and the adoption of emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies, and academic achievement. It was hypothesized that goal orientation could predict school achievement directly and indirectly through coping strategies. Coping strategies were considered as mediators between goal orientation and school achievement. Path analysis demonstrated that direct effects of goal orientation on school achievement were not significant. The relationship between goal orientation and school achievement was mediated by coping strategies. Key Words: School failure, Depression, Anxiety, Coping. The problem of school failure is of great importance, as it affects students’ lives and future. In some cases, it leads to marginalization, rejection, alienation and exclusion; hence, the risk of a variety of other problems such as psychological and behavioral may emerge. Patterson and his colleagues (1989) point to an anti-social behavior as a consequence of such marginalization. We say that students who are marginalized and cannot easily adjust tend to drop out school. Although the importance of this topic, unfortunately, literature on the phenomenon of school failure of normally intelligent children and adolescents is still poor. There is a shortage of research that might offer an understanding of school failure in terms of psychological disorders. As a response to this fact, the main objective of this study is to look deep for emotional and psychological disorders accused to be guilty of this failure and, consequently, remove the stigma of being failure and irresponsible from students who lie behind their classmates. The main question we ask is: Do children and adolescents, who fail at school, really suffer from any psychological disorder, particularly depressive and anxiety disorders? And yet, another question emerges: Are females more susceptible to these disorders than males? As potential answers the above formulated questions, the following hypotheses were set up for the study: Children and adolescents who fail at school suffer from depressive disorders Children and adolescents who fail at school show evidence of anxiety disorders There is a gender significant difference in depressive disorders There is a gender significant difference in anxiety disorders LITERATURE REVIEW School failure The term â€Å"school failure† is difficult to define clearly; for some, it would include any kind of failure, repetition or delay in finishing school which usually leads the student to disqualification, and even to being stigmatized, especially because of the segregation between high and low achievers (Bourdieu,1994). On the other hand, researchers advanced several approaches to elucidate school failure, among these approaches we mention: Intelligence based on IQ scores. Supporters of this theory blame low IQs for school failure. Socio-economic status with children’s academic achievement: Supporters of this theory blame the poverty for school failure (Herbert, 1996; Turkheimer et al., 2003; Thomson Harris, 2004; Berliner, 2006, 2009). Interaction theory: Keddie (1973) and many others reproach the teacher for school failure. For them, teachers have a pre-defined opinion of how a student should talk and react and accordingly students are evaluated. Although all the above mentioned approaches, school failure may occur among students of high socio-economic status, beloved by their teachers, and have the ability and intelligence to succeed. Thus, these children get is a stigma of being a failure, a worthless, stupid and irresponsible person, while hidden emotional psychologicaldisorders are often the roots of their inability to meet the school’s standards. For us, several factors may lead to school failure, among these factors we mention depression and anxiety and the incapacity of using appropriate coping strategies. Depression Depression in children and adolescents is often a recurrent and very serious public health problem, it can occur with comorbid behavioral problems, suicidal risk, and psychiatric disorders, touching their whole life by impairing their social, emotional and physical health as well as their learning. Depression in children and adolescents may be expressed differently from that in adults, with manifest behavioral disorders (e.g. irritability, verbal aggression and misconduct), substance abuse and/or comorbid psychiatric disorders. In children aged between 6 and 12 years, the most common signs are classified into are school difficulties, somatic disorders (e.g. Recurrent abdominal pain, headaches), fatigue, apathy, eating disorders, lack of motivation, loss of concentration, irritability, restlessness which often lead professionals to misdiagnose the child with ADHD instead of depression (Melnyk et al.,2003). As for adolescents, the most common signs and symptoms are mood swings, social isolation, hypersomnia, feeling of hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and drug or alcohol abuse (Richardson et al., 1996). Risk factors for suicide in young people are: previous suicide attempts; a close family member who has committed suicide; past psychiatric hospitalization; recent loss of a significant figure (through death, divorce or separation); social isolation; drug or alcohol abuse; exposure to violence in the home or the social environment; and handguns in the home. Early warnings for suicide are talking about it, preoccupation with death and dying, giving away special possessions, and making arrangements to take care of unfinished business. Williams (2009), offers a description to identifying depressed adolescents, such as: Somatic symptoms with features of anxiety. Sometimes poor functioning at school, socially, or at home. Bad behavior, particularly in boys. Rapid mood swings often occur. The fact that children are able to enjoy some aspects of their life shouldnt preclude the diagnosis of depression. Anxiety Anxiety is a normal part of living, it’s a biological reaction. Anxiety keeps us away from harm and prepares us to act quickly when facing a danger; it is a normal reaction to a stressful situation, thus it can help us cope with it. Yet we may find it sometimes in the core of the development of psychological disorders especially when anxiety becomes an excessive irrational worry of everyday situations, and a disabling condition severe enough to interfere with a persons ability to focus and concentrate where it becomes a disorder. Helfinstein (2009) believes that â€Å"anxiety refers to the brain response to danger, stimuli that an organism will actively attempt to avoid. This brain response is a basic emotion already present in infancy and childhood, with expressions falling on a continuum from mild to severe. Anxiety is not typically pathological as it is adaptive in many scenarios when it facilitates avoidance of danger. Strong cross-species parallels—both in organisms’ responses to danger and in the underlying brain circuitry engaged by threats—likely reflect these adaptive aspects of anxiety†. Half a century ago, Grinker (1959, p.56) believed that normal anxiety could be objective and real when we face natural situations that generate anxiety, e.g. child before his exams, parents in front of their child’s illness. Almost a century ago, in his â€Å"A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis† (1920), Freud believed that anxiety was used â€Å"in connection with a condition regardless of any objective†, it’s â€Å"a subjective condition, caused by the perception that an â€Å"evolution of fear† has been consummated†. †¦ Nowadays, for the American Psychologists Association (2013) describe Social Anxiety Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder among the anxiety disorders include where METHOD Sample The sample of this study comprised of 187 children and young adolescents (Males = 122 and Females = 65) aged between 10 and 15 years suffering of school failure and enrolled in the fourth to the eighth grades, randomly drawn from 10 schools located in Mount Lebanon Caza (5 governmental and 5 private). Tools Anxiety The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) developed by Speilberger in 1970 was used. It consists of two 20-item scales that measure state and trait anxiety in children between the ages of 8 and 14. The A-State scale examines the shorter-term state anxiety that is commonly specific to situations. It prompts respondents to indicate how they feel ‘right now’ (e.g. calm, upset) on a 3-point scale ranging from 1 to 3. Summing responses creates a total score that can range from 20 to 60. The A-Trait scale measures longer-term trait anxiety, which addresses how the child generally feels. It asks respondents to choose the best word that describes them in general (e.g. rarely, sometimes, and often) on a 3-point scale ranging from 1 to 3. Summing responses creates a total score that can range from 20 to 60. A separate score is produced for the State scale and the Trait scale to determine which type of anxiety is dominant and which type of treatment is the most appropriate. In 2001, we standardized this scale for the Lebanese children aged between 8 and 17; the cut points for normal children were: A-State scale: 33.36 The A-Trait scale: 37.26 The PROMIS Anxiety scale (AS) is the 13-item Short Form that assesses the pure domain of anxiety in children and adolescents. The PROMIS Anxiety scale was developed for and can be used with children ages 8–17. Each item asks the child receiving care to rate the severity of his or her anxiety during the past 7 days, and is rated on a 5-point scale (1=never; 2=almost never; 3=sometimes; 4=often; and 5=almost always) with a range in score from 13 to 65 with higher scores indicating greater severity of anxiety. The raw scores on the 13 items should be summed to obtain a total raw score. Next, the T-score table should be used to identify the T-score associated with the child’s total raw score and the information entered in the T-score row on the measure. The T-scores are interpreted as follows: Less than 55 = None to slight; 55.0—59.9 = Mild; 60.0—69.9 = Moderate; 70 and over = Severe Depression The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), first published by Maria Kovacs in 1992, assesses the severity of symptoms related to depressionand/ordysthymicdisorder. The CDI is a 27-item self-rated and symptom-oriented scale suitable for childrenandadolescents aged between 7 and 17. It asks respondents to choose the best sentences that describe their state during the last two weeks,on a 3-point scale ranging from zero to 2. Summing responses creates a total score that can range from zero to 54. The cut-point of 19 is able to differentiate between normal and depressive children (Doerfler, 1998; Ø ¬ÃƒËœÃ‚ ±Ãƒâ„¢Ã…  ÃƒËœÃ‚ ¬, 2001) The PROMIS Depression scale (DS) is the 14-item Short Form that assesses the pure domain of depression in children and adolescents. The PROMIS Depression scale was developed for and can be used with children ages 8–17; however, it was tested only in children ages 11–17 in the DSM-5 Field Trials. Each item asks the child receiving care to rate the severity of his or her depression during the past 7 days, and is rated on a 5-point scale (1=never; 2=almost never; 3=sometimes; 4=often; and 5=almost always) with a range in score from 11 to 55 with higher scores indicating greater severity of depression. The raw scores on the 11 items should be summed to obtain a total raw score. Next, the T-score table should be used to identify the T-score associated with the total raw score and the information entered in the T-score row on the measure. The T-scores are interpreted as follows: Less than 55 = None to slight; 55.0—59.9 = Mild; 60.0—69.9 = Moderate; 70 and over = Severe RESULTS SPSS for Windows (Version 17) was used for all analyses. The One-Sample T-Test was used to compare our sample’s levels of anxiety and depression with the means of normal children and adolescents of their ages. The Independent-Samples T-Test was used to understand whether anxiety and depression differed based on gender. Overall, Table 1 illustrates a general view Means and standard deviations of our of the study’s participants for STAIC, Anxiety Scale, CDI and Depression Scale where we can notice high means in comparison with their cut-points. These findings are proved by the T-test (Table 2) where the One-Sample T-Test was run to determine whether our psychological variables scores in our participants were different to normal. Defined as a Astate cut-point of 33.36, mean score (38.11 ± 3.06) (see Table 1) was higher than the normal cut-point; a statistically significant difference of 4.75 (99% CI, 4.16 to 5.33),t(186) = 21.21, p= .000. As for the Atrait, mean score (42.08 ± 3.82) was higher than the normal cut-point (37.26); a statistically significant difference of 4.82 (99% CI, 4.09 to 5.55),t(186) = 17.24, p= .000. The Anxiety Scale where the cut-point is 55, mean score (60.23 ± 2.46) was higher; a statistically significant difference of 5.23 (99% CI, 4.76 to 5.70),t(186) = 28.99, p= .000. These result are also noticed in depression scales as the CDI cut-point is 33.36, while mean score (20.02 ± 2.23) was higher; a statistically significant difference of 1.02 (99% CI,0.59 to 1.44),t(186) = 6.24, p= .000. Nevertheless, results on the Depression Scale revealed a mean score (58.79 ± 2.27) higher than the normal cut-point (55); a statistically significant difference of 3.79 (99% CI, 3.36 to 4.22),t(186) = 22.82, p= .000. Table 1. Means and standard deviations for the participants on psychological variables Table 2. T-test for the participants on psychological variables On the other hand, this study found no statistically significant difference on the Astate Checklist between males (37.95  ± 2.98) and females (38.40  ± 3.22) (Table 3),t(185) = -0.956,p= 0.341 > 0.05 (Table 4). Nevertheless, male participants had statistically significantly lower mean (41.61  ± 4.10) than females’ (42.95  ± 3.07),t(185) = -2.308,p= 0.022 On the Anxiety Scale, both males (59.78  ± 2.73) and females (61.06  ± 1.58) differ significantly in their perception of anxiety, t(185) = -3.481,p= 0.001 The main effect was also significant for the CDI, male participants had statistically significantly lower mean (19.71  ± 2.25) than females’ (20.58  ± 2.09),t(185) = -2.586,p= 0.01. This result was also observed for the Depression Scale where males mean score was (58.43  ± 2.42) and females’ was (59.46  ± 1.79) , t(185) = -3.027,p= 0.003 Table 3. Gender differences on psychological variables Table 4. Independant Sample T Test by gender on psychological variables DISCUSSION CONCLUSION The study calls for a fundamental change of attitudes in educational development and policy making and a redefinition of school failure as a consequence not so much of the child’s unwillingness to study, but of his inability to perform well. As a school dropout explained his decision to drop out:

East-West Values and the Mother-daughter Relationship in Amy Tans The

East-West Values and the Mother-daughter Relationship in The Joy Luck Club      Ã‚  Ã‚   The dominant theme of The Joy Luck Club is the clash between Chinese, American cultures, and how it affects the relationship between mothers and daughters. All of the mothers in the book were born and raised in China. All of their daughters were born and raised in the United States. Because of the differences in family traditions and values between the way the mothers had been raised in China and the way their daughters were growing up in America, there was bound to be a clash between the two generations. Perhaps the most dramatic example of how East-West conflicting traditions and values affected a mother-daughter relationship was that of Suyuan Woo and her daughter, Jing-mei.       When the book opens, Suyuan has been dead for two months. Her daughter, who prefers to call herself by the American name of "June" rather than her Chinese name, has been asked by her father to take her dead mother's place. She was to take Suyuan's place in a club Suyuan started when she moved to America. June was to be the fourth member of this club, which was hosted at one of the member's homes each session and the group played mahjong and provided strength for each other in their transition to becoming Americanized. Over the course of the next few months, through the conversations and stories told by her mother's old friends at the mahjong table, June learns a great deal about her mother, and, ultimately, about herself as well.    One of the conflicts between East and West is clash between the hard work ethic of Asian parents and the easier-going standards that Western parents have for their children. Watching a little Chinese girl playing the p... ...5.    Heung, Marina. "Daughter-Text/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club." Feminist Studies (Fall 1993): 597-616.    Hagedorn, Jessica. "Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck." Signs of Life in the USA. 2nd. ed. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. New York: Bedford, 1997. 306-14.    Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood P, 1998.    Ling, Amy. Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry. New York: Pergamon, 1990.    Shear, Walter. "Generational differences and the diaspora in The Joy Luck Club." Women Writers. 34.3 (Spring 1993): 193    Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Vintage Contemporaries. New York: A Division of Random House, Inc., 1991..    Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993

The Beasts and Monsters in Dantes Inferno Essay example -- Divine Com

The Inferno is the first section of Dante's three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. Throughout Dante's epic journey into the depths of Inferno he encounters thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures.   The most significant of these monsters are of central importance to his journey and to the narrative, as they not only challenge Dante's presence in Inferno, but are custodians of Hell, keeping in order or guarding the "perduta gente".   In this essay I am concentrating on these prominent beasts, namely Minos, Cerberus, Plutus and Geryon, establishing why they feature in Dante's eschatological vision and discussing the sources which influenced his inclusion of these particular creatures. These four monsters all fulfil important functions as well as representing important themes in Inferno, establishing them as symbols which reinforce Dante's allegory. Minos, as the infernal judge and agent of God's justice, represents our own conscience and morality.   When the sinners come before him "tutta si confessa", which causes the reader to reflect on their own sins.His terrifying treatment of the souls is significant as after Charon, he is one of the first figures who they encounter on their passage into Hell, and his unique method of demonstrating which area of Hell that the souls should be sent to increases the horror and adds to the alarming atmosphere. His warning to Dante, is similar to several of the infernal custodians, who continually remind him that he should not be in the Otherworld, tu che vieni al doloroso ospizio, guarda com'entri e di cui tu ti fide non t'inganni l'ampiezza de l'intrare (1) However, Cerberus's reaction to Dante is one of obvious malice and vice, and rather than comment on his presence he... ...s Minos's warning to Dante and his unusual illustration of how the sinners are judged.   The monsters also form strategic narrative devices, as their confrontations with Dante and Virgil continue the pattern of incident and movement in the text, adding variety and tension. The beasts form an inherent and essential part of the narrative because of the excitement and terror that they add to Dante and Virgil's journey, as well as reinforcing Dante's classification of sin.   They also illustrate the traditional motifs of Otherworld visions, whilst simultaneously expanding and developing previous representations of the afterlife in order to form original and exciting creations.   This shows the importance Dante placed on the inclusion of these beasts as they not only express the influence of other works on Inferno, but also his own spectacular creativity and fantasy.

The Evil of the Age :: Short Stories Papers

The Evil of the Age August 26th, 1871, was a humid, busy Saturday at the Hudson River Depot in New York City. Sweat and fatigue had crept in by mid-afternoon, when a porter suddenly smelled the stench of decaying flesh. Along the wooden platform lay hundreds of trunks and bags, piled haphazardly, ready for loading onto a Chicago-bound train. During rough handling in the baggage room, the lid of an ordinary, 2'8" by 18" packing trunk had cracked open, releasing the foul stench. The porter immediately called Robert Vandeward, the baggage-master. Vandeward deliberated for a moment, then moved the trunk, bringing it out of the public eye and into a nearby, open railway building. He wrenched loose the thin rope and flimsy lock that secured the lid, popping it open. First he saw an ordinary quilt. He tossed it aside, and stared at a soiled, bloodstained army blanket. The growing crowd of railway attendants leaned in. As he pulled away the blanket, the attendants gasped and covered their mouths. Doubled up in fetus position was the naked corpse of a young woman, her thin shoulders draped with thick, golden curls. Her body had been crushed into the trunk, her head forced over her breasts and her limbs drawn in tightly. Her mouth hung open in awkward distortion and her bright blue eyes stared blankly from their pale, discolored sockets. The pelvic area was bloody and decomposed. In minutes, railroad officials rushed up and down the tracks in search of the trunk's owner. Police questioned onlookers. Voices rose across the station, as a frenzied chaos spread. Young Alexander Potts, known as "Paddy," spoke up. The twelve-year-old boy helped passengers with their bags, making a living scrambling for spare change. He had helped check the trunk just a half-hour before. According to his testimony, an 18- or 19-year-old woman arrived at the station at 2:30 p.m. in a one-horse coupà ©. She wore a common calico dress and a thin shawl. She beckoned Paddy, saying "Sonny, can you tell me where the ticket office is?" When a truck arrived with the trunk, she paid him to help lift it. She urged him to be careful - it contained glass. She would never be found. Earlier that day, she'd hired the truckman to transport the trunk. Paddy had young, keen eyes. He remembered the small inscription on the truck's cab - "Tripp" - which became, for a brief time, a holy grail of sorts.