CASE STUDY on Hurricane KAtrina and its psychological, physical and

On Hurricane KAtrina and its psychological, physical and socialogical effects - Case Study Example Accordingly, within these three main categories that it previously been discussed, the sociological impacts will be mainly concentric upon the issues of displacement and health concerns that were evidenced during and after the hurricane itself. With regards to the physical impacts that the hurricane had, this level of analysis will be concentric mainly upon the destruction to the natural environment, the impacts of agriculture business that were affected, and the impact of pollution. Finally, with respect to psychological impacts that Hurricane Katrina had, this will be mainly concentric upon the interpretations of worth and race that came to be denoted as a result of the failed FEMA response and overall lackadaisical government engagement with the issue (Letten, 2013). Firstly, with regards to the issue of displacement, it must be noted that up Hurricane Katrina was somewhat unique with regards to the way in which displacement took place. For instance, almost each and every year, te ns of thousands of individuals flee mainland Florida as approaching hurricanes threaten the property and lives of stakeholders within a given region. However, this mass exodus from Florida is somewhat different than what took place within Louisiana and the surrounding regions. Ultimately, Florida is a region that has been populated primarily by wealthy individuals who are either retiring or occupying a secondary property within this region; denoting the fact that extent economic resources exist for these individuals. However, due to the unique nature of the way in which Louisiana and the surrounding regions exhibit economic hardship and disparity as compared to other regions throughout the United States, the availability of transit and the wherewithal to escape from the oncoming hurricane was drastically reduced; as compared to a more wealthy region of the United States. However, this fact notwithstanding, the government commandeered bus service and began running mass transit lines out of Louisiana and almost each and every direction; away from the path of danger. Although at face value, this particular approach seemed to have a relevance and in point in mind, the fact of the matter is that this effectively created a situation through which mass displacement came to be effected to the residents and the society within and around New Orleans. Ultimately, even though many thousands of these individuals were taken from the path of harm and placed elsewhere throughout the region, the ability of these individuals to return and the resources that they had to exist once they had been removed from their homes was not an issue that the government had thoroughly engaged or considered; blending to a sociological disaster that saw many individuals who were previously not homeless displaced throughout the United States and given few if any opportunities to set their lives back on track. Secondary sociological impact that was affected during and after Hurricane Katrina is wi th regards to t

Developments In Cold Environments Sustainable Essay Example for Free

Developments In Cold Environments Sustainable Essay To what extent are more recent developments in cold environments sustainable ? Fishing can disrupt food chains. For example krill fishing in the southern ocean is depleting food supplies for whales and penguins. Overfishing of a species can severely deplete its population, sometimes beyond recovery. Overfishing of the patagonian toothfish in the Antarctic is currently a concern. Bottom trawling catches fish by dragging nets along the sea-bed. This disrupts the eco system by reducing light levels thought increasing turbidity and catches other species as well as the target one. Its carried out in the gull of Alaska, the greenland sea and the barents sea. Fishing quotes have been introduced to limit the number of fish caught and prevent overexploitation of the resource. Large cruise ships increase pollution in the areas from the ships and from the tourist. Tourists and tourism developments disrupt wildlife and damage habitats leading to reduced biodiversity. National parks have been set up to allow tourism whilst protecting the environment e.g. denali national park in Alaska was set up in 1917 and then expanded in 1980 to induce a greater area of land. Cars and private vehicles are banned from the park so visitor’s have to travel in park buses on approved routes. The most vulnerable parts of the park don’t have any roads at all. So the ground is protected from the damaging effects of vehicles. Oil spills can occur during transport of oil from the area. For example in 1989 there was a huge oil spill off the coast of Alaska when the exxon valdez oil tanker crashed. Over 40 million litres of oil spilled into the ocean and over 250 000 birds and fish were killed. Oil spills can occur if the pipelines leak between 1977 and 1994 there were on average 30 to 40 spills a year from the trans-alaska pipeline. Some of these were caused by intentional attacks and forest fires. Oil pipes have automatic shut off valves in order to minimis e oil spills if the pipelines are damaged.

SERVQUAL MODEL as a Service Quality Measure

SERVQUAL MODEL as a Service Quality Measure 1.0 Introduction A great deal of service-quality research in recent decades has been devoted to the development of measures of service quality. In particular, the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman et al., 1988) has been widely applied and valued by academics and practicing managers (Buttle, 1996). However, several studies have identified potential difficulties with the use of SERVQUAL (Carman, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Buttle, 1996; Van Dyke et al., 1997; Llosa et al., 1998). These difficulties have related to the use of so-called difference scores, the ambiguity of the definition of consumer expectations, the stability of the SERVQUAL scale over time, and the dimensionality of the instrument. As a result of these criticisms, questions have been raised regarding the use of SERVQUAL as a measure of service quality. 1.1 The SERVQUAL scale When the SERVQUAL scale was developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988), their  aim was to provide a generic instrument for measuring service quality across a broad range of service categories. Relying on information from 12 focus groups of consumers, Parasuraman et al. (1985) reported that consumers evaluated service quality by comparing expectations (of service to be received) with perceptions (of service actually received) on ten dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, credibility, security, competence, understanding/knowing customers, courtesy, and access. In a later (Parasuraman et al. (1988) work, the authors reduced the original ten dimensions to five: (1) tangibles (the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, and personnel); (2) reliability (the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately); (3) responsiveness (the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service); (4) empathy (the provision of individual care and attention to customers); and (5) assurance (the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence). Each dimension is measured by four to five items (making a total of 22 items across the five dimensions). Each of these 22 items is measured in two ways: (1) the expectations of customers concerning a service; and (2) the perceived levels of service actually provided. In making these measurements, respondents are asked to indicate their degree of agreement with certain statements on a seven-point Likert-type scale (1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree). For each item, a so-called gap score (G) is then calculated as the difference between the raw perception-of-performance score (P) and the raw expectations score (E). The greater the gap score (calculated as G  ¼ P minus E), the higher the score for perceived service quality. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.0 Introduction Despite the widespread use of the SERVQUAL model to measure service quality, several theoretical and empirical criticisms of the scale have been raised. Buttle (1996) summarised the major criticisms of SERVQUAL in two broad categories theoretical and operational. Theoretical issues comprise: Paradigmatic objections: SERVQUAL is based on a disconfirmation paradigm rather than an attitudinal paradigm; and SERVQUAL fails to draw on established economic, statistical and psychological theory. Gaps model: there is little evidence that customers assess service quality in terms of P E gaps. Process orientation: SERVQUAL focuses on the process of service delivery, not the outcomes of the service encounter. Dimensionality: SERVQUALs five dimensions are not universals; the number of dimensions comprising SQ is contextualized; items do not always load on to the factors which one would a priori expect; and there is a high degree of intercorrelation between the five RATER dimensions. Operational criticisms include: Expectations: the term expectation is polysemic; consumers use standards other than expectations to evaluate SQ; and SERVQUAL fails to measure absolute SQ expectations. Item composition: four or five items can not capture the variability within each SQ dimension. Moments of truth (MOT): customers assessments of SQ may vary from MOT to MOT. Polarity: the reversed polarity of items in the scale causes respondent error. Scale points: the seven-point Likert scale is flawed. Two administrations: two administrations of the instrument cause boredom and confusion. Variance extracted: the over SERVQUAL score accounts for a disappointing proportion of item variances. The above criticism will be discussed below. 2.1: Paradigmatic objections (Theoretical Criticisms) Two major criticisms have been raised. First, SERVQUAL has been inappropriately based on an expectations disconfirmation model rather than an attitudinal model of SQ. Second, it does not build on extant knowledge in economics, statistics and psychology. SERVQUAL is based on the disconfirmation model widely adopted in the customer satisfaction literature. In this literature, customer satisfaction (CSat) is operationalised in terms of the relationship between expectations (E) and outcomes (O). If O matches E, customer satisfaction is predicted. If O exceeds E, then customer delight may be produced. If E exceeds O, then customer dissatisfaction is indicated. According to Cronin and Taylor (1992; 1994) SERVQUAL is paradigmatically flawed because of its ill-judged adoption of this disconfirmation model. Perceived quality, they claim, is best conceptualised as an attitude. They criticise Parasuraman et al. for their hesitancy to define perceived SQ in attitudinal terms, even though Parasur aman et al. (1988) had earlier claimed that SQ was similar in many ways to an attitude. Cronin and Taylor observe: Researchers have attempted to differentiate service quality from consumer satisfaction, even while using the disconfirmation format to measure perceptions of service qualityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this approach is not consistent with the differentiation expressed between these constructs in the satisfaction and attitude literatures. Iacobucci et al.s (1994) review of the debate surrounding the conceptual and operational differences between SQ and CSat concludes that the constructs have not been consistently defined and differentiated from each other in the literature. She suggests that the two constructs may be connected in a number of ways. First, they may be both different operationalisations of the same construct, evaluation. Second, they may be orthogonally related, i.e. they may be entirely different constructs. Third, they may be conceptual cousins. Their family connections may be dependent on a number of other considerations, including for example, the duration of the evaluation. Parasuraman et al. (1985) have described satisfaction as more situation- or encounter-specific, and quality as more holistic, developed over a longer period of time, although they offer no empirical evidence to support this contention. SQ and CSat may also be related by time order. The predominant belief is that SQ is the logical predecessor to CSat, but this remains unproven. Cronin and Taylors critique draws support from Olivers (1980) research which suggests that SQ and CSat are distinct constructs but are related in that satisfaction mediates the effect of prior-period perceptions of SQ and causes revised SQ perceptions to be formed. SQ and CSat may also be differentiated by virtue of their content. Whereas SQ may be thought of as high in cognitive content, CSat may be more heavily loaded with affect (Oliver, 1993). Cronin and Taylor suggest that the adequacy-importance model of attitude measurement should be adopted for SQ research. Iacobucci et al. (1994) add the observation that in some general psychological sense, it is not clear what short-term evaluations of quality and satisfaction are if not attitudes. In turn, Parasuraman et al. (1994) have vigorously defended their position, claiming that critics seem to discount prior conceptual work in the SQ literature, and suggest that Cronin and Taylors w ork does not justify their claim that the disconfirmation paradigm is flawed. In other work, Cronin and Taylor (1994) comment that: Recent conceptual advances suggest that the disconfirmation-based SERVQUAL scale is measuring neither service quality nor consumer satisfaction. Rather, the SERVQUAL scale appears at best an operationalisation of only one of the many forms of expectancy disconfirmation. A different concern has been raised by Andersson (1992). He objects to SERVQUALs failure to draw on previous social science research, particularly economic theory, statistics, and psychological theory. Parasuraman et al.s work is highly inductive in that it moves from historically situated observation to general theory. Andersson (1992) claims that Parasuraman et al. abandon the principle of scientific continuity and deduction. Among specific criticisms are the following: First, Parasuraman et al.s management technology takes no account of the costs of improving service quality. It is naÃÆ' ¯ve in assuming that the marginal revenue of SQ improvement always exceeds the marginal cost. (Aubrey and Zimbler, 1983., Crosby., 1979, Juran., 1951 and Masser., 1957) have addressed the issue of the costs/benefits of quality improvement in service settings.) Second, Parasuraman et al. collect SQ data using ordinal scale methods (Likert scales) yet perform analyses with methods suited to interval-level data (factor analysis). Third, Parasuraman et al. are at the absolute end of the street regarding possibilities to use statistical methods. Ordinal scales do not allow for investigations of common product-moment correlations. Interdependencies among the dimensions of quality are difficult to describe. SERVQUAL studies cannot answer questions such as: Are there elasticities among the quality dimensions? Is the customer value of improvements a linear or non-linear function? Fourth, Parasuraman et al. fail to draw on the large literature on the psychology of perception. 2.2: Gaps Model A related set of criticisms refer to the value and meaning of gaps identified in the disconfirmation model. Babakus and Boller (1992) found the use of a gap approach to SQ measurement intuitively appealing but suspected that the difference scores do not provide any additional information beyond that already contained in the perceptions component of the SERVQUAL scale. They found that the dominant contributor to the gap score was the perceptions score because of a generalised response tendency to rate expectations high. Churchill and Surprenant (1982), in their work on CSat, also ponder whether gap measurements contribute anything new or of value given that the gap is a direct function of E and P. It has also been noted that: while conceptually, difference scores might be sensible, they are problematic in that they are notoriously unreliable, even when the measures from which the difference scores are derived are themselves highly reliable (Iacobucci et al., 1994). Also, in the context of CSat, Oliver (1980) has pondered whether it might be preferable to consider the P E scores as raw differences or as ratios. No work has been reported using a ratio approach to measure SQ. Iacobucci et al. (1994) take a different tack on the incorporation of E-measures. They suggest that expectations might not exist or be formed clearly enough to serve as a standard for evaluation of a service experience. Expectations may be formed simultaneously with service consumption. Kahneman and Miller (1986) have also proposed that consumers may form experience-based norms after service experiences, rather than expectations before. A further issue raised by Babakus and Inhofe (1991) is that expectations may attract a social desirability response bias. Respondents may feel motivated to adhere to an I-have-high-expectations social norm. Indeed, Parasuraman et al. report that in their testing of the 1988 version the majority of expectations scores were above six on the seven-point scale. The overall mean expectation was 6.22 (Parasuraman et al., 1991b). Teas (1993a; 1993b; 1994) has pondered the meaning of identified gaps. For example, there are six ways of producing P E gaps of -1 (P = 1, E = 2; P = 2, E = 3; P = 3, E = 4; P = 4, E = 5; P = 5, E = 6; P = 6, E = 7). Do these tied gaps mean equal perceived SQ? He also notes that SERVQUAL research thus far has not established that all service providers within a consideration or choice set, e.g. all car-hire firms do, in fact, share the same expectations ratings across all items and dimensions. A further criticism is that SERVQUAL fails to capture the dynamics of changing expectations. Consumers learn from experiences. The inference in much of Parasuraman et al.s work is that expectations rise over time. An E-score of seven in 1986 may not necessarily mean the same as an E-score in 1996. Expectations may also fall over time (e.g. in the health service setting). Grà ¶nroos (1993) recognises this weakness in our understanding of SQ, and has called for a new phase of service quality research to focus on the dynamics of service quality evaluation. Wotruba and Tyagi (1991) agree that more work is needed on how expectations are formed and changed over time. Implicit in SERVQUAL is the assumption that positive and negative disconfirmations are symmetrically valent. However, from the customers perspective, failure to meet expectations often seems a more significant outcome than success in meeting or exceeding expectations (Hardie et al., 1992). Customers will often criticise poor service performance and not praise exceptional performance. Recently, Cronin and Taylor (1992) have tested a performance-based measure of SQ, dubbed SERVPERF, in four industries (banking, pest control, dry cleaning and fast food). They found that this measure explained more of the variance in an overall measure of SQ than did SERVQUAL. SERVPERF is composed of the 22 perception items in the SERVQUAL scale, and therefore excludes any consideration of expectations. In a later defence of their argument for a perceptions-only measure of SQ, Cronin and Taylor (1994) acknowledge that it is possible for researchers to infer consumers disconfirmation through arithmetic means (the P E gap) but that consumer perceptions, not calculations, govern behavior. Finally, a team of researchers, including Zeithaml herself (Boulding et al., 1993), has recently rejected the value of an expectations-based or gap-based model in finding that service quality was only influenced by perceptions. 2.3: Process orientation SERVQUAL has been criticized for focusing on the process of service delivery rather than outcomes of the service encounter. Grà ¶nroos (1982) identified three components of SQ: technical, functional and reputational quality. Technical quality is concerned with the outcome of the service encounter, e.g. have the dry cleaners got rid of the stain? Functional quality is concerned with the process of service delivery, e.g. were the dry cleaners counter staff courteous? Reputational quality is a reflection of the corporate image of the service organization. While technical quality focuses on what, functional quality focuses on how and involves consideration of issues such as the behaviour of customer contact staff, and the speed of service. Critics have argued that outcome quality is missing from Parasuraman et al.s formulation of SQ (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Mangold and Babakus, 1991; Richard and Allaway, 1993). Richard and Allaway (1993) tested an augmented SERVQUAL model which they cl aim incorporates both process and outcome components, and comment that the challenge is to determine which process and outcome quality attributes of SQ have the greatest impact on choice[1]. Their research into Domino Pizzas process and outcome quality employed the 22 Parasuraman et al. (1988) items, modified to suit context, and the following six outcome items: (1) Dominos has delicious home-delivery pizza. (2) Dominos has nutritious home-delivery pizza. (3) Dominos home-delivery pizza has flavourful sauce. (4) Dominos provides a generous amount of toppings for its home-delivery pizza. (5) Dominos home-delivery pizza is made with superior ingredients. (6) Dominos prepared its home-delivery pizza crust exactly the way I like it. These researchers found that the process-only items borrowed and adapted from SERVQUAL accounted for only 45 per cent of the variance in customer choice; the full inventory, inclusive of the six outcome items, accounted for 71.5 per cent of variance in choice. The difference between the two is significant at the 0.001 level. They conclude that process-and-outcome is a better predictor of consumer choice than process, or outcome, alone. In defense of SERVQUAL, Higgins et al., (1991) have argued that outcome quality is already contained within these dimensions: reliability, competence and security. 2.4: Dimensionality Critics have raised a number of significant and related questions about the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL scale. The most serious are concerned with the number of dimensions and their stability from context to context. There seems to be general agreement that SQ is a second-order construct, that is, it is factorially complex, being composed of several first-order variables [2]. SERVQUAL is composed of the five RATER [3] factors. There are however, several alternative conceptualizations of SQ. As already noted, Grà ¶nroos (1984) identified three components technical, functional and reputational quality; Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) also identify three components interactive, physical and corporate quality; Hedvall and Paltschik (1989) identify two dimensions willingness and ability to serve, and physical and psychological access; Leblanc and Nguyen (1988) list five components corporate image, internal organisation, physical support of the service producing system, staff/customer interaction, and the level of customer satisfaction. Parasuraman et al. (1988) have claimed that SERVQUAL: provides a basic skeleton through its expectations/perceptions format encompassing statements for each of the five service quality dimensions. The skeleton, when necessary, can be adapted or supplemented to fit the characteristics or specific research needs of a particular organization. In their 1988 paper, Parasuraman et al. also claimed that the final 22-item scale and its five dimensions have sound and stable psychometric properties. In the 1991b revision, Parasuraman et al. found evidence of consistent factor structure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ across five independent samples. In other words, they make claims that the five dimensions are generic across service contexts. Indeed, in 1991, Parasuraman et al. claimed that SERVQUALs dimensions and items represent core evaluation criteria that transcend specific companies and industries (1991b) [4]. 2.5: Number of dimensions When the SERVQUAL instrument has been employed in modified form, up to nine distinct dimensions of SQ have been revealed, the number varying according to the service sector under investigation. One study has even produced a single-factor solution. Nine factors accounted for 71 per cent of SQ variance in Carmans (1990) hospital research: admission service, tangible accommodations, tangible food, tangible privacy, nursing care, explanation of treatment, access and courtesy afforded visitors, discharge planning, and patient accounting (billing)[5]. Five factors were distinguished in Saleh and Ryans (1992) work in the hotel industry conviviality, tangibles, reassurance, avoid sarcasm, and empathy. The first of these, conviviality, accounted for 62.8 per cent of the overall variance; the second factor, tangibles, accounted for a further 6.9 per cent; the five factors together accounted for 78.6 per cent. This is strongly suggestive of a two-factor solution in the hospitality industry. The researchers had initially assumed that the factor analysis would confirm the [SERVQUAL] dimensions but this failed to be the case. Four factors were extracted in Gagliano and Hathcotes (1994) investigation of SQ in the retail clothing sector personal attention, reliability, tangibles and convenience. Two of these have no correspondence in SERVQUAL. They conclude the [original SERVQUAL scale] does not perform as well as expected in apparel speciality retailing. Three factors were identified in Bouman and van der Wieles (1992) research into car servicing customer kindness, tangibles and faith [6]. The authors were not able to find the same dimensions for judging service quality as did Berry et al. One factor was recognized in Babakus et al.s (1993b) survey of 635 utility company customers. Analysis essentially produced a single-factor model of SQ which accounted for 66.3 per cent of the variance. The authors advance several possible explanations for this unidimensional result including the nature of the service, (which they describe as a low-involvement service with an ongoing consumption experience), non-response bias and the use of a single expectations/perceptions gap scale. These researchers concluded: With the exception of findings reported by Parasuraman and his colleagues, empirical evidence does not support a five-dimensional concept of service quality. In summary, Babakus and Boller (1992) commented that the domain of service quality may be factorially complex in some industries and very simple and unidimensional in others. In effect, they claim that the number of SQ dimensions is dependent on the particular service being offered. In their revised version, Parasuraman et al. (1991b) suggest two reasons for these anomalies. First, they may be the product of differences in data collection and analysis procedures. A more plausible explanation is that differences among empirically derived factors across replications may be primarily due to across-dimension similarities and/or within dimension differences in customers evaluations of a specific company involved in each setting. Spreng and Singh (1993) have commented on the lack of discrimination between several of the dimensions. In their research, the correlation between Assurance and Responsiveness constructs was 0.97, indicating that they were not separable constructs. They also found a high correlation between the combined Assurance-Responsiveness construct and the Empathy construct (0.87). Parasuraman et al. (1991b) had earlier found that Assurance and Responsiveness items loaded on a single factor and in their 1988 work had found average intercorrelations among the five dimensions of 0.23 to 0.35. In testing their revised version (Parasuraman et al., 1991b), Parasuraman and colleagues found that the four items under Tangibles broke into two distinct dimensions, one pertaining to equipment and physical facilities, the other to employees and communication materials. They also found that Responsiveness and Assurance dimensions showed considerable overlap, and loaded on the same factor. They suggested that this was a product of imposing a five-factor constraint on the analyses. Indeed, the additional degrees of freedom allowed by a subsequent six-factor solution generated distinct Assurance and Responsiveness factors. Parasuraman et al., (1991a) have now accepted that the five SERVQUAL dimensions are interrelated as evidenced by the need for oblique rotations of factor solutionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦to obtain the most interpretable factor patterns. One fruitful area for future research, they conclude, is to explore the nature and causes of these interrelationships. It therefore does appear that both contextual circumstances and analytical processes have some bearing on the number of dimensions of SQ. 2.6: Contextual stability Carman (1990) tested the generic qualities of the SERVQUAL instrument in three service settings a tyre retailer, a business school placement centre and a dental school patient clinic. Following Parasuraman et al.,s suggestion, he modified and augmented the items in the original ten-factor SERVQUAL scale to suit the three contexts. His factor analysis identified between five and seven underlying dimensions. According to Carman, customers are at least partly context-specific in the dimensions they employ to evaluate SQ. In all three cases, Tangibles, Reliability and Security were present [7]. Responsiveness, a major component in the RATER scale, was relatively weak in the dental clinic context. Carman also commented: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry combined their original Understanding and Access dimensions into Empathyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ our results did not find this to be an appropriate combination. In particular he found that if a dimension is very important to customers they are likely to be decomposed into a number of sub-dimensions. This happened for the placement centre where Responsiveness, Personal attention, Access and Convenience were all identified as separate factors. According to Carman, this indicates that researchers should work with the original ten dimensions, rather than adopt the revised five-factor Parasuraman et al., (1988) model. 2.7: Item loadings In some studies (e.g. Carman, 1990), items have not loaded on the factors to which they were expected to belong. Two items from the Empathy battery of the Parasuraman et al., (1988) instrument loaded heavily on the Tangibles factor in a study of dental clinic SQ. In the tyre retail study, a Tangibles item loaded on to Security; in the placement centre a Reliability item loaded on to Tangibles. An item concerning the ease of making appointments loaded on to Reliability in the dental clinic context, but Security in the tyre store context. He also found that only two-thirds of the items loaded in the same way on the expectations battery as they did in the perceptions battery. Carman supplies other examples of the same phenomena, and suggests that the unexpected results indicate both face validity and a construct validity problem. In other words, he warns against importing SERVQUAL into service setting contexts without modification and validity checks. Among his specific recommendations is the following: We recommend that items on Courtesy and Access be retained and that items on some dimensions such as Responsiveness and Access be expanded where it is believed that these dimensions are of particular importance. He also reports specific Courtesy and Access items which performed well in terms of nomological and construct validity. Carman (1990) further suggested that the factors, Personal attention, Access or Convenience should be retained and further contextualised research work be done to identify their significance and meaning. 2.8: Item correlations Convergent validity and discriminant validity are important considerations in the measurement of second-order constructs such as SERVQUAL. One would associate a high level of convergent validity with a high level of intercorrelations between the items selected to measure a single RATER factor. Discriminant validity is indicated if the factors and their component items are independent of each other (i.e. the items load heavily on one factor only). Following their modified replication of Parasuraman et al.,s work, Babakus and Boller (1992) conclude that rules for convergence and discrimination do not indicate the existence of the five RATER dimensions. The best scales have a high level of intercorrelation between items comprising a dimension (convergent validity). In their development work in four sectors (banking, credit-card company, repair and maintenance company, and long-distance telecommunications company) Parasuraman et al., (1988) found inter-item reliability coefficients (alphas) varying from 0.52 to 0.84. Babakus and Boller (1992) report alphas which are broadly consistent with those of Parasuraman, varying from 0.67 to 0.83 (see Table III). In their 1991b version, Parasuraman et al. report alphas from 0.60 to 0.93, and observe that every alpha value obtained for each dimension in the final study is higher than the corresponding values in theà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦original study. They attribute this improvement to their rewording of the 22 scale items. Spreng and Singh (1993), and Brown et al., (1993) are highly critical of the questionable application of alphas to difference scores. They evaluate the reliability of SERVQUAL using a measure specifically designed for difference scores (Lord, 1963). Spreng and Singh conclude that there is not a great deal of difference between the reliabilities correctly calculated and the more common [alpha] calculation, an observation with which Parasuraman et al., (1993) concurred when they wrote: The collective conceptual and empirical evidence neither demonstrates clear superiority for the non-difference score format nor warrants abandoning the difference score format. 2.9 Expectations (Operational Criticisms) Notwithstanding the more fundamental criticism that expectations play no significant role in the conceptualization of service quality, some critics have raised a number of other concerns about the operationalization of E in SERVQUAL. In their 1988 work, Parasuraman et al. defined expectations as desires or wants of consumers, i.e. what they feel a service provider should offer rather than would offer (emphasis added). The expectations component was designed to measure customers normative expectations (Parasuraman et al., 1990), and is similar to the ideal standard in the customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction literature (Zeithaml et al., 1991). Teas (1993a) found these explanations somewhat vague and has questioned respondents interpretation of the expectations battery in the SERVQUAL instrument. He believes that respondents may be using any one of six interpretations (Teas, 1993b): (1) Service attribute importance. Customers may respond by rating the expectations statements according to the importance of each. (2) Forecasted performance. Customers may respond by using the scale to predict the performance they would expect. (3) Ideal performance. The optimal performance; what performance can be. (4) Deserved performance. The performance level customers, in the light of their investments, feel performance should be. (5) Equitable performance. The level of performance customers feel they ought to receive given a perceived set of costs. (6) Minimum tolerable performance. What performance must be? Each of these interpretations is somewhat different, and Teas contends that a considerable percentage of the variance of the SERVQUAL expectations measure can be explained by the difference in respondents interpretations. Accordingly, the expectations component of the model lacks discriminant validity. Parasuraman et al. (1991b; 1994) have responded to these criticisms by redefining expectations as the service customers would expect from excellent service organizations, rather than normative expectations of service providers, and by vigorously defending their inclusion in SQ research. Iacobucci et al. (1994) want to drop the term expectations from the SQ vocabulary. They prefer the generic label standard, and believe that several standards may operate simultaneously; among them ideals, my most desired combination of attributes, the industry standard of a nominal average competitor, deserved SQ, and brand standards based on past experiences with the brand. Some critics have questioned SERVQUALs failure to access customer evaluations based on absolute standards of SQ. The instrument asks respondents to report their expectations of excellent service providers within a class (i.e. the measures are relative rather than absolute). It has be

SHALL WE DANCE ? LIFE AS A DANCE FLOOR? :: essays research papers

You expect a ‘comedy’ to tickle your funny bone so you can walk out chuckling. Yes, Shall We Dance does raise laughs. But - it also raises some interesting questions. The DVD says it’s ‘A New Comedy About Following Your Own Lead’ and a pun like that is bound to appeal to the individualistic age we are supposed to be living in. It does indeed – and yet, what is happiness and contentment? Is it a lovely, loving and loved spouse and all the trappings of a comfortable settled life? Can there be a sense of incompleteness in spite of having ‘everything’? Is that then ingratitude? Should one be allowed to pursue individual goals? At what cost? John (Richard Gere) and Beverly (Susan Sarandon) Clark are comfortably married. They have two children, and he a good job as a lawyer. Yet, he is not ‘happy’. He fills the void in his life by impulsively shooting out of his commuter train seat up the stairs of Miss Mitzi’s Dance School after being captivated by Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) gazing out of the school window. A clumsy, shy, reluctant dancer at first, he taps a hidden side to his personality and blossoms into an accomplished ballroom dancer. All very well, except none of his family is aware of this chrysalis bursting open in this way. In roughly one hour and forty-five minutes, the film turns all expectations and predictability on their respective heads. With all the action building up towards the climactic Chicago Tattinger Trophy who could blame you for expecting a neatly wrapped package at that point: Clark rewarded for his accomplishment, all revealed and settled? But - it is its aftermath that has much to say. Yes, there is dance as the mating ritual. Bobbie (Lisa Ann Walter), earthy, vivacious, loud, generous-hearted, is disappointed at Clark’s treatment of Rumba, â€Å"the dance of love†. Paulina with her smouldering, controlled, Latino (stereotypical?) passion sets him straight. Yes, there is the hinted sexual attraction, even tension. But - there are also the bonds forged of friendship, camaraderie and candour. Life and people are given a direction by and through dance. John Clark is able to put his life in perspective, while Paulina unearths a lost spirit to chase her dreams. Beverly, a â⠂¬Å"romantic† with her sense of romance probably buried under the laundry, jackets at the apparel division where she works and the whims of two teenage children, is very understandably miffed but finds her feet again – and how!

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 17

Once he got outside, Stefan remembered that Elena had taken his car. Turning into the woods, he began to run, using his Power to speed his pace. The pounding of his feet seemed to thud, Guard her, Guard her. He knew where Tyler Smal wood had lived. After Tyler had attacked Elena at a dance, it had made sense to keep an eye on him. Stefan burst from the woods at the edge of the Smal woods' property. They owned an ugly house, in Stefan's opinion. An inaccurate portrayal of an old Southern manor estate, it was too big for the lawn it sat on and bulged with unnecessary columns and twisting rococo decorations. Just looking at it, Stefan had been able to tel that the Smal woods had more money than taste, and that the architects who'd designed it weren't educated in true classical forms. He rang the bel at the front door, then froze. What if Mr. or Mrs. Smal wood answered the bel ? He would have to Influence them to give him as much information as they could about Caleb, and then to forget Stefan had been there. He hoped he had the Power to do it: He hadn't been eating enough, not even of animal blood. But no one came. After a few seconds, Stefan sent questing tendrils of Power through the house. It was empty. He couldn't go in, couldn't search Caleb's room like he wanted to. Without an invitation, he was stuck out here. He wandered around the house, peering through the windows, but finding nothing out of the ordinary other than entirely too many gilded frames and mirrors. Behind the house he found a smal white shed. Sending Power toward it, he felt something slightly†¦ off. Just the slightest tinge of darkness, a feeling of frustration and il intent. The shed was padlocked, but the lock was easy enough to snap. And as no one lived here, he didn't need an invitation to enter. The first thing he saw was Elena's face. Newspaper clippings and photos were tacked al over the wal s: Elena, Bonnie, Meredith, himself. On the floor was a pentagram with more pictures and roses. Stefan's certainty that something was wrong solidified. Elena was in danger. Sending Power before him, searching desperately for any trace of her, he took off running again. As she drove away from the florist's, Elena turned the conversation with Stefan over and over in her mind. What was going on with him since they'd come back to Fel ‘s Church? It felt like there was part of him that he was holding back, hiding from her. She remembered the loneliness, the sinking, dizzy feeling of isolation that she had sensed when she kissed him. Was it Damon's loss that was changing Stefan? Damon. Just the thought of him was enough to cause an almost physical pain in her. Mercurial, difficult, beautiful Damon. Dangerous. Loving, in his own way. The thought of his name, written in water plants across Meredith's legs, floated through her mind. She didn't know what it meant. But there was no hope. She needed to stop lying to herself about that. She had seen Damon die. Yet it seemed impossible that someone as complex and strong and seemingly undefeatable as Damon could be gone so quickly and so simply. But that was the way it happened, wasn't it? She should know that death didn't often come with a grand show, that it usual y came when you were least expecting it. She had known that before al this†¦ al this stuff with vampires and werewolves and evil mysterious opponents. She had known al about the suddenness and simplicity of death for years, back when she was just normal Elena Gilbert, who didn't believe in anything supernatural, not even horoscopes or fortune-tel ing, much less monsters. She glanced at the passenger seat next to her, where there lay the bouquet of pink roses she had picked up to give to Margaret. And, next to them, a simple bunch of forget-me-nots. Like I'd ever forget, she thought. Elena remembered riding in the car toward home with her parents and baby Margaret on an ordinary Sunday afternoon. It had been a beautiful sunny fal day, the leaves of the trees by the roadside just beginning to be painted with red and gold. They'd gone to lunch at a little inn out in the country. Margaret, who was teething, had been cranky at the restaurant, and they'd taken turns walking her up and down on the porch of the inn for a few minutes at a time while the others ate. But in the car she was quiet, half drowsing, her light golden lashes fluttering down to rest for longer and longer periods against her cheeks. Elena's father had been driving, she remembered, and the radio had been tuned to the local station so he could catch the news. Her mother had twisted to look at Elena in the backseat, her sapphire blue eyes so like Elena's own. Her golden hair, touched with a little gray, was pul ed back in a French braid, elegant and practical. Smiling, she had said, â€Å"Do you know what I think would be nice?† â€Å"What?† asked Elena, smiling back at her. Then she saw a strange glitter, high in the sky, and leaned forward without waiting for a reply. â€Å"Daddy, what's that?† She'd pointed upward. Elena never found out what her mother had thought would be nice. Her father never answered what that was. The last things Elena remembered were sounds: her father's gasp and the screech of the car's tires. Everything after that was blank, until Elena had woken up in the hospital, Aunt Judith by her bedside, and learned that her parents were dead. They had died before the paramedics had even pried them out of the car. Before they restored Fel ‘s Church, the Guardians had told Elena that she should have died in that accident, and that her parents should have lived. The glitter had been their air car, and Elena had distracted her father at the worst possible moment, causing al the wrong people to die. She could feel the weight of it now, the guilt at surviving, her anger at the Guardians. She glanced at the dashboard clock. There was stil plenty of time before she had to be at Margaret's recital. Turning off the highway, she pul ed into the cemetery's parking lot. Elena parked the car and walked briskly through the newer part of the cemetery, carrying the forget-me-nots. Birds were chirping gaily overhead. So much had happened in this cemetery in the last year. Bonnie had seen one of her first visions among these tombstones. Stefan had fol owed her here, watching her secretly when she thought he was just the gorgeous new guy at school. Damon had nearly drained an old tramp under the bridge. Katherine had chased Elena out of the cemetery with fog and ice and a far-reaching, far-seeing evil. And, of course, Elena had driven off a bridge to her death here by the cemetery, at the end of that first life, the one that seemed so long ago now. Elena picked her way past an ornate marble memorial to Fel ‘s Church's Civil War veterans and down to the shady glen where her parents were buried. The tiny wildflower bouquet she and Stefan had left two days before had withered, and Elena threw it away and put the forget-menots in its place. She picked a bit of moss off her father's name. The lightest crunch of gravel sounded from the path behind her, and Elena whirled around. There was no one there. â€Å"I'm just jumpy,† she muttered to herself. Her voice sounded oddly loud in the quiet of the cemetery. â€Å"Nothing to worry about,† she said more firmly. She settled in the grass by her parents' graves and traced the letters on her mother's headstone with one hand. â€Å"Hi,† she said. â€Å"It's been a while since I've actual y sat here and talked to you, I know. I'm sorry. An awful lot has happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She swal owed. â€Å"I'm sorry, too, because I found out that you weren't supposed to die when you did. I asked the Guardians to†¦ to bring you back, but they said you had moved on to a better place and they couldn't reverse that. I wish†¦ I'm glad you're happy wherever you are, but I stil miss you.† Elena sighed, lowered her hand from the gravestone, and trailed it through the grass by her knees. â€Å"Something's after me again,† she continued unhappily. â€Å"After al of us, I guess, but Bonnie said I brought it here when she was in a trance. And later she said he wants me. I don't know if it's two different people – or whatever – after us, or just one. But it's always me the bad things focus on.† She twisted a blade of grass between her fingers. â€Å"I wish things could be simpler for me, the way they are for other girls. â€Å"Sometimes†¦ I'm so glad to have Stefan, and glad I could help protect Fel ‘s Church, but†¦ it's hard. It's real y hard.† A sob was building in her throat and she swal owed it back. â€Å"And†¦ Stefan's always been there for me, but I feel like I don't know al of him anymore, especial y because I can't read his thoughts. He's so tense, and it's like he needs to be in control al the time†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Something shifted behind her, just the slightest hint of movement. She felt a warm, damp breeze like a breath on the back of her neck. Elena whipped her head around. Caleb was crouching behind her, so close they were almost nose-to-nose. She screamed, but Caleb slapped his hand over her mouth, muffling her cry.

Choosing an ISP essays

Choosing an ISP essays There are many things to consider when selecting an Internet Service Provider (Also known as ISP). Because there are so many people that have computers, at home, work, or school, there has been a great demand for internet access. The out come is that we know have a great selection of ISPs. Of course many people have very different needs and different reasons for choosing different Internet Service Providers. I will list a few of the ISPs that I have researched and let you know what to look for when selecting yours. First we I will give you a little information about a couple of providers. One of the most renowned providers is America Online (AOL). There is also Earthlink, ATs I will begin with America Online. AOL is very well known because it is one of the most frequently advertised of all service providers. It offers the keyword feature that allows you to type a word or two instead of the full web address which saves time and effort. One the most famous features are its E-Mail and Instant Messaging. Instant Messaging allows you to have a real time conversation with any other AOL user who is logged on at the same time that you are. This is a very nice feature, but the down side to it is that the other person must be an AOL subscriber that is currently online. Their E-Mail service is similar to any other E-Mail service. The transmission speed is 56 kbps for dial up connections. AOL does offer high speed internet access through DSL and cable. Dial up access costs about $23 a month for unlimited ...

The eNotes Blog 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Educating Yourself on the Candidates andProcess

2016 U.S. Presidential Election Educating Yourself on the Candidates andProcess The 2016 presidential election will be here before we know it, and were here to help you prepare for all you need to know about candidates and voting.  Here are some helpful Homework Help questions to help you educate yourself on important aspects of the 2016 presidential election. How does the United States presidential election system work? We have a process in the United States for electing our president. Each party must choose its candidate that will represent the party in the general election. Prior to the nominating convention, candidates for each party willcontinue reading→ Who are the 2016 presidential candidates and what are their strengths and weaknesses? This question is actually a bit easier to answer today than it was a few weeks ago, because several of the candidates havecontinue reading→ Who is Hillary Clinton and where does she stand on important political issues? Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton   was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago and raised in Illinois. She was raised in a Republican family, and was politically active even as a high school student, but during her years as a student at  Wellesley College, began to shift towards the Democratic partycontinue reading→ Who is Bernie Sanders and where does he stand on important political issues? He is officially not a Democrat. Instead, he is an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. He considers himself to be a democratic socialist. For an in-depth look at Sanders’ stands on important issues, please follow the link below. In general, though, Sanders takes very liberal stands on all important issues. Some examples are as followscontinue reading→ Would you consider the 2016 election the biggest political election of our lifetime? Why or why not? â€Å"Our lifetime† encompasses quite a few elections. The student who posed the question- is the 2016 election the â€Å"biggest† of our lifetime- is probably continue reading→ Who is Ted Cruz and where does he stand on important political issues? Ted Cruz is a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Currently he serves in the United States Senate as a Senator from Texas. As the Republican primary season has progressed, he finds himself one of only three of the original seventeen candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Cruz runs on a conservative platform and often speaks against the Washington cartel, by which he means entrenched politicians and lobbyists in the federal government who pursue an agenda that benefits themselves rather than the voters, everyday working men and women, around the countrycontinue reading→ In what ways is Donald Trump qualified for the United States presidency? This is no doubt a politically charged question. The most simple answer is that the laws and constitution of the the United States say that it is the publics responsibility to deem a candidate qualified or unqualified. This has not been decided yet, but if the public were to elect Donald Trump, this in itself would deem him qualified from a certain perspective. That said, conventional wisdom states that a candidate should have experience in a related public office before seeking the presidency. Most candidates have been a senator, governor, or other official before seeking the highest officecontinue reading→ What issues do voters consider important in the 2016 election? According to a recent survey by Gallup, a respected polling organization, the four top issues of concern to both self-identifying Democrats and Republicans in the 2016 Presidential election arecontinue reading→ What is a superdelegate and what is their significance to the presidential election? A superdelegate is a person who is automatically seated at the Democratic National Convention and who is not pledged to either candidate in advance. In other words, the superdelegatescontinue reading→ How are superdelegates chosen? Although the selection process of super-delegates is slightly different in the Democratic and Republican parties, in both cases, governors, senators and   Representatives from Congress comprise a large percentage of the super-delegatescontinue reading→ Why is voter turnout in the United States so low? Political scientists say that voters choose whether to vote based on the costs and benefits of voting.   The higher the costs relative to the benefits, the less people willcontinue reading→ What are important dates to remember leading up to the 2016 election? The primary schedule in the United States is really important to remember, especially this election cycle where any given candidates chance to get nominated maycontinue reading→ Homework Help is a great way to get homework help (it’s in the name!) or to simply learn something new. Read  more of our law and politics questions  and, as always,  remember to ask your own questions  of our team on any subject matter. Happy learning and happy voting! Illustrations by our (super awesome) intern, Kate G.

Greenpeace History essays

Greenpeace History essays Greenpeace History The year 1996 is a year of celebration for greenpeace. They are celebrating their 25th year anniversary. Everything startde in 1969; Members were part of the Dont make a wave committee in vancouver. This committee was founded by Jim Bohlen. He was a forty-three year old American and was a composite-materials researcher. Another founder of the committee was Irving Stowe; he was a Philadelphia lawyer. A jew who had joined the Quaker religion. Paul Cote, a canadian lawyer in his mid twenties who had just gotten out of shool when he joined the committee. During this year, the United States had chosen to test its nuclear arsenal in Amchtka, which is a small island off the west cost of alaska. This was a home for many animals including eagles, falcons, endangered sea otters,etc... These three men decided to produce means to end nuclear testing in Amchitka.Next they decided to sail a boat theyd name it Greenpeace because they wanted the earth to be green and yhey wanted peace. It was Bill Darnell who came upwith that name. Suddenly, more peaple joined the commitee to stop nuclear testing in Amchitka, including Terry Simmons, a cultural geographer. Bohlen and Stowe were attracting journalist, columnist, writer, anyone who had somthing to do in the media. It took them two years to get them ready for their journey towards justice for a land. Bohlen and cote were in charge of fiding a boat. Meanwhile, Stowe took care of fiding the money. He used contacts from the United States; he was a very serious man and did everything possible to get the money they needed, he even organized a benefit concert which made seventeen thousand dollars. The first boat they found Phylis Cormack was first seen as old and used that wasnt going to be capable of sailing to Amchitka, so they werent sure of using this boat; it would carry twelve crew members and ...

Tiziano Vecelli Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tiziano Vecelli - Essay Example According to the essay "According to the research findings" findings, at the young age of 12, he was sent to apprentice as an artist under Gentille Bellini and later Giovanni Bellini who were the masters of art at that time. After Giovanni’s death, he ascended to be the king of painting in Italy, accumulating crowns amounting to 20 and being exempted from paying taxes for his unique talent. He was the undisputed master of painting in the Venetian painting school for 60 years. His final 26 years were spent for service to Phillip II where he was a portrait artist, and where his unique attribute of keeping paintings for long periods and retouching them from time to time was discovered. He died of fever in 1576 during the Venice plague. Some of the most famous paintings he did include The Assumption of the Virgin and The Venus of Urbino wherein this discussion will evaluate both. The Venus of Urbino painting is oil on canvas measuring 119.2 by 165.5 centimeters on a landscape plan . It is estimated to have been done around 1538 as a gift from the Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo to his wife. According to â€Å"Venus of Urbino by Titan† (2013), it represented eroticism, motherhood, and fidelity. The painting is that of a young maiden in her nude lying on her back facing the foreground. She lies on a maroon bed with dark patterns covered in a white sheet. On her right palm, she clutches a bouquet and her face is calm with bright eyes. Her golden hair, plaited at the ends straddles over her right should and her breasts point upwards and outwards from each other.

History of Modern Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

History of Modern Architecture - Essay Example Farnsworth is painted white in color while Philip Johnson’s house was painted black. Farnsworth house has a glass wall with minimal framing enclosed in two-thirds of the space between the planes leaving an open porch at one end. A third plane smaller but of the same proportions as the other two is placed alongside at low level to serve as an entrance terrace. Two shorts but wide flight of steps ink ground to terrace and lawn to porch inside the house. Farnsworth house is a freestanding building within a building within a building accommodates the servant space kitchen two bathrooms and a utility room. There are no other fixed walls. Other things are refinement for example the apparent asymmetric of the composition that is the relationship between the floor slab and the enclosing glass wall or between the house and the terrace. The house also has millions of thinnest possible steel bar, dividing the glass the big glass panes into perfect squares. Every floor both inside and outside is paved in the same white travertine. The hardwood flank walls of the service core to stop short of the ceiling to preserve the unity of the living space. Source:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vitruvius.com.br/media/images/magazines/grid_9/e5b03b34418f_image002_furnari_02_cortesecob.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitextos/11.130 Johnson House is made of the herringbone brick that is the ground sheet is under floor heated, and glass walls protected against the wind and snow. It is very important to note that in Farnsworth House, the structures are paramount, and that is the H-steel supports the standing in for the classical columns. In John’s house, the steel columns are just part of the frame holding the glass. This gives a neat detail however not expensive. The four single doors, one in the middle of each wall only act as air vents to keep the non-air-conditioned house cool during

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Summary - Assignment Example 1-3). Since there was an air of authority on how it was discussed, the article was found believable by many students. History Department Chair Paul Freedman said that Wikipedia can be used â€Å"for general orientation, as an introduction to a topic† but not as an authority on a particular subject (Torbati, 2007, par. 9). Dean Stephen Lassonde find Wikipedia prone to many errors compared to hard copies, which undergo rigorous editing standards (Torbati, 2007, par. 13). The inaccuracy of the website pushed the History Department at Middlebury to ban it as a citation source (Torbati, 2007, par. 15-16). Students may use Wikipedia for finding a simple background of the subject they are working on but it should not be their only source. The legitimacy and authority of hard copies have more definite and factual information rather than a web-based encyclopedia, especially one that is open for everyone to upload information to. Not because it is written â€Å"like it’s somethi ng possible†¦because of (its) authoritative pronouncement† does not mean that it’s real and true (Torbati, 2007, par. 32). It is still important to search other books, especially the recommended reading materials given to the students to cross-reference its veracity. Works Cited Torbati, J. (2007).

Exploring the Use of Outdoor Play to Support Children's Development in Essay

Exploring the Use of Outdoor Play to Support Children's Development in a Nursery in East London - Essay Example Bruce (1998) suggests that Outdoor Play allows a child to exercise what he has learnt and apply his teachings practically and develop not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well alongside employing the practice of making his own decisions. These are characteristics that are vital to his growth into adulthood. Children do not individualize the various academic subjects as effectively in their early years from birth to eight and tend to learn best when allowed to integrate all aspects of learning into one. Eden (2008) likens play to an experience of pleasure (p. 50) which allows a child to develop independently and in an environment he enjoys being in. According to her, play helps a child symbolize and build relationships which is a process intrinsic to the development of language (p. 53). She emphasizes that while primary and secondary education are important, neglecting the early years is simply not an option and play tends to be the best way of enriching that level. Fae gre, Anderson and Harris (1958) provide buttressing arguments to the same, acknowledging that a child groomed by varying and encouraging methods of outdoor play helps improve their decision making and mathematical skills along all years of development from birth through to college. According to them, the profound effects of enhanced Outdoor play allows a child to develop progressively in not just their physical attributes such as diet, combating illnesses and clothing habits but also allows them to indulge in self-discipline which is the core feature of adulthood moderation. Of course, this does not take away from the importance of family but highlights how Play is essential to the upbringing of the child. Play: A Historical Perspective Traditionally, Play has been a major part of early development highlighted by the concepts of camping with the family and playing in the park in the early years. The weight of play can be traced as far back as Plato and Aristotle. Plato highlighted t he fact that Play arouses and enhances a child’s curiosity and is an essential part of his development primarily because of that self-defined interest in the nursery years (3-6). According to Plato, a child’s development can be deemed into stages all of which have to be complemented by their own version of Play as according to him, a child learns most effectively amongst an environment he likes to be in. It was important to hone the child’s moral standards by teaching him tales of virtue at an early age (Frost 2010, p. 10) and at the nursery stage (3 to 6 years) such teachings were to be engulfed in Play as nursery formed the most important part of education (Plato 1952, cited in Frost 2010, p. 10). Similarly, Aristotle agreed with Plato’s theories and insisted that the first five years were dedicated to Play in order to offset any bad habits that a child may be prone to develop. He similarly believed that a child must find amusement in what he does and t he best way to arouse his interest in education was through Play. The medieval times did not consider childhood as a separate stage of life but considered all children to be young adults, a notion that lasted until the end of the Middle Ages (Frost 2010, p. 13). When childhood surfaced as a separate stage of life in the 19th century, scholars of late followed through with similar abbreviations of Play,

MGT 501 Case assign Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MGT 501 Case assign - Essay Example The case involves Linda Myers, an American national who takes a job as a human resource manager with SK Telcom, a multinational firm in South Korea. Myers had been involved in human resource development in the global set up, before her contract with SK, and perceived the SK opportunity as a career development opportunity that she had always desired. The environment at SK was however challenging because she was the only American among her peer and therefore had a different cultural approach. She was never oriented into the job or the organization’s culture and realized existence of conflicting opinion with her superiors regarding her work’s scope. Her two years with the organization was strenuous before she eventually left the company. She also noted that the organization had, through its recruiting agent, assumed her to be a male and even though she had experience in the global environment and had since her childhood been motivated by the international set up, she found it hard to adjust to the organization’s culture and expectations (Green, 2011). Problem definition The case identifies a problem of cultural barrier between Myers and the organization. Inability to break this barrier and establish a common ground upon which Myers could relate with other member of the organization was another problem as both Ms. Myers and the organization failed accommodate each other. ... s lack of significant involvement of American women in executive positions in South Korea identifies one of the manifestations of cultural differences that hindered her ability to integrate into the organization. The American women’s absence in the environment is indicative of the South Korean male chauvinistic perspective or a negative perspective towards American women and their ability to perform at executive positions. Myers’ perception of a different culture that she hoped to change in the organization also identifies cultural differences. She identified the organization’s culturally fixed perspective and wished to break this culture and expose the organization to a global culture that would be open to diversified opinions, but faced a high level of resistance. Even the scope of her job identified a conflict between her opinions and those of her immediate seniors. The organization’s poor management approach is another identifiable cause of the problem because it failed to orient Myers into its culture, a factor that facilitated impact of the differences between the two cultures (Green, 2011). Hofstede’s dimensions of culture also offer a basis for explaining cultural difference between American based culture that Myers represented and the Korean culture that SK Telcom and its management represented. Power distance is one of the cultural dimensions that explain the cause of the problem in the case. The dimension refers to society’s ability to accept inequality among its members. Those who are lowly place along the power ladders accept the status and do not fight for better positions and some of the dimension’s aspects are acknowledgement and appreciation of inequality, recognition of dependence on few leaders, privileges for the powerful member of the

Fernando Botero's Style of Art Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fernando Botero's Style of Art - Research Paper Example A particular artist may decide to focus on vegetation, animals or pictures with political thematic concerns and this becomes synonymous with their paintings. One artist that has a unique style is Fernando Botero; this paper will be a discussion of his style of art and an examination of other artists that influence his works. Any work of art with smooth inflated shapes and unexpected scales can easily be recognized as Fernando Botero’s. Botero always uses an innovative way to bring out unique proportions. When asked the reason behind his style of art, Botero replies, â€Å"No, I don’t paint fat people,† (Hanstein, 49). This is despite the fact that all the people in his paintings are well-fed, chubby and corpulent. All other things in his paintings including still works are voluminous and blown out of proportion in a desirable way. Deformation as is synonymous with Botero’s works may be outrageous when used naturally, however, for Botero; it enhances a sens uous quality in his pictures and paintings (Hanstein, 49). Various people have tried to come up with reasons behind Botero’s voluminous paintings. For example, Moravia sees some psychological factor as motivation behind the heavy limbs works of art. He feels that certain aspects of suffering were being expressed by Botero and the proportions that he employed were intended to make those sufferings painless. This may have been influenced by the revolution of Rivera and Orozco where there was declaration of war in a place where poverty, injustice, dictatorship and violence were prevalent (Hanstein, 58). Therefore, through his huge works of art, Botero may be trying to portray the world that had become ‘enormously fat and complacent’ with various regressive events. Moravia feels that this may be Fernando Botero’s view of the world and he always tries to express it in a discreet way. However, Botero insists that his works are motivated by great passion for shap es, color and volume (Hanstein, 58). In the creation of his works, Botero pays homage to other prominent artists who tend to influence his creations. One such artist is the French painter Eduardo Manet. Just like Manet, Botero used to make art for various museums in Europe. This is due to the fact that Botero wanted to be diverse; he was not only interested in the art of his own time but also the history of art (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). Latin-American folk art is also present in Botero’s art; this is evident in his use of flat, bright colors and forms that are boldly outlined. He is also famous for his formal portraits, emulated from his masters Francisco de Goya and Diego Velazquez (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 28). His portraits of the Spanish queen Maria Luisa and her corrupt court was able to bring out atrocities in the society (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). In the same way, he has done a number of his own portraits and they also exhibit his form of distortio n. According to Barnitz, Fernando Botero seems to have gotten a lot of inspiration from Enrique Grau, a Colombian artist born in 1920. Grau also engages in some form of distortion, a trademark in Botero’s works. In addition to this, they both involve in academic painting, Enrique has always been known to use brush strokes in his paintings and in the 1950’s, and Botero’s works were observed to be incorporating this style in his works (257). This

Exploring the Use of Outdoor Play to Support Children's Development in Essay

Exploring the Use of Outdoor Play to Support Children's Development in a Nursery in East London - Essay Example Bruce (1998) suggests that Outdoor Play allows a child to exercise what he has learnt and apply his teachings practically and develop not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well alongside employing the practice of making his own decisions. These are characteristics that are vital to his growth into adulthood. Children do not individualize the various academic subjects as effectively in their early years from birth to eight and tend to learn best when allowed to integrate all aspects of learning into one. Eden (2008) likens play to an experience of pleasure (p. 50) which allows a child to develop independently and in an environment he enjoys being in. According to her, play helps a child symbolize and build relationships which is a process intrinsic to the development of language (p. 53). She emphasizes that while primary and secondary education are important, neglecting the early years is simply not an option and play tends to be the best way of enriching that level. Fae gre, Anderson and Harris (1958) provide buttressing arguments to the same, acknowledging that a child groomed by varying and encouraging methods of outdoor play helps improve their decision making and mathematical skills along all years of development from birth through to college. According to them, the profound effects of enhanced Outdoor play allows a child to develop progressively in not just their physical attributes such as diet, combating illnesses and clothing habits but also allows them to indulge in self-discipline which is the core feature of adulthood moderation. Of course, this does not take away from the importance of family but highlights how Play is essential to the upbringing of the child. Play: A Historical Perspective Traditionally, Play has been a major part of early development highlighted by the concepts of camping with the family and playing in the park in the early years. The weight of play can be traced as far back as Plato and Aristotle. Plato highlighted t he fact that Play arouses and enhances a child’s curiosity and is an essential part of his development primarily because of that self-defined interest in the nursery years (3-6). According to Plato, a child’s development can be deemed into stages all of which have to be complemented by their own version of Play as according to him, a child learns most effectively amongst an environment he likes to be in. It was important to hone the child’s moral standards by teaching him tales of virtue at an early age (Frost 2010, p. 10) and at the nursery stage (3 to 6 years) such teachings were to be engulfed in Play as nursery formed the most important part of education (Plato 1952, cited in Frost 2010, p. 10). Similarly, Aristotle agreed with Plato’s theories and insisted that the first five years were dedicated to Play in order to offset any bad habits that a child may be prone to develop. He similarly believed that a child must find amusement in what he does and t he best way to arouse his interest in education was through Play. The medieval times did not consider childhood as a separate stage of life but considered all children to be young adults, a notion that lasted until the end of the Middle Ages (Frost 2010, p. 13). When childhood surfaced as a separate stage of life in the 19th century, scholars of late followed through with similar abbreviations of Play,

Fernando Botero's Style of Art Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fernando Botero's Style of Art - Research Paper Example A particular artist may decide to focus on vegetation, animals or pictures with political thematic concerns and this becomes synonymous with their paintings. One artist that has a unique style is Fernando Botero; this paper will be a discussion of his style of art and an examination of other artists that influence his works. Any work of art with smooth inflated shapes and unexpected scales can easily be recognized as Fernando Botero’s. Botero always uses an innovative way to bring out unique proportions. When asked the reason behind his style of art, Botero replies, â€Å"No, I don’t paint fat people,† (Hanstein, 49). This is despite the fact that all the people in his paintings are well-fed, chubby and corpulent. All other things in his paintings including still works are voluminous and blown out of proportion in a desirable way. Deformation as is synonymous with Botero’s works may be outrageous when used naturally, however, for Botero; it enhances a sens uous quality in his pictures and paintings (Hanstein, 49). Various people have tried to come up with reasons behind Botero’s voluminous paintings. For example, Moravia sees some psychological factor as motivation behind the heavy limbs works of art. He feels that certain aspects of suffering were being expressed by Botero and the proportions that he employed were intended to make those sufferings painless. This may have been influenced by the revolution of Rivera and Orozco where there was declaration of war in a place where poverty, injustice, dictatorship and violence were prevalent (Hanstein, 58). Therefore, through his huge works of art, Botero may be trying to portray the world that had become ‘enormously fat and complacent’ with various regressive events. Moravia feels that this may be Fernando Botero’s view of the world and he always tries to express it in a discreet way. However, Botero insists that his works are motivated by great passion for shap es, color and volume (Hanstein, 58). In the creation of his works, Botero pays homage to other prominent artists who tend to influence his creations. One such artist is the French painter Eduardo Manet. Just like Manet, Botero used to make art for various museums in Europe. This is due to the fact that Botero wanted to be diverse; he was not only interested in the art of his own time but also the history of art (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). Latin-American folk art is also present in Botero’s art; this is evident in his use of flat, bright colors and forms that are boldly outlined. He is also famous for his formal portraits, emulated from his masters Francisco de Goya and Diego Velazquez (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 28). His portraits of the Spanish queen Maria Luisa and her corrupt court was able to bring out atrocities in the society (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). In the same way, he has done a number of his own portraits and they also exhibit his form of distortio n. According to Barnitz, Fernando Botero seems to have gotten a lot of inspiration from Enrique Grau, a Colombian artist born in 1920. Grau also engages in some form of distortion, a trademark in Botero’s works. In addition to this, they both involve in academic painting, Enrique has always been known to use brush strokes in his paintings and in the 1950’s, and Botero’s works were observed to be incorporating this style in his works (257). This

Importance of Literature Essay Example for Free

Importance of Literature Essay 1 Introduction In this article we will talk about the importance of literature reviews as a way of summarsing the state of the art of a field. We will examine ways of constructing literature reviews and we will see in the links provided examples of literature reviews. 2 Definition of literature review A critical summary and an assessment of the current state of knowledge or current state of the art in a particular field. The ability to carry out a literature review is an important skill for any student. It will provide you with a context in which to place your assignments regardless of the module you are studying. Practically any assignment in any module you take will involve reading what other people have written on the subject of your assignment, gathering information to refute or support specific arguments, and writing about yourfindings. For small scale projects, (like module assignments), you will not be expected to provide a definitive account of the state of research in your selected topic. You will be required to provide evidence that you have read a certain amount of relevant literature in the topic, that you have understood that literature, and that you can summarize the material you have read in a coherent way. The literature review is precisely that summary. In order to do a literature review you will need to spend time reading the literature relevant to the topic you are researching. Understanding the literature in your research topic will prevent you from repeating previous errors, or redoing work which has already been done. It will also give you insights into aspects of your topic which might be worthy of exploration and future research. 3 Purpose of a Literature Review There are several purposes to writing a literature review. To provide the reader with an up to date account and discussion of the research findings in a particular topic. This might sound pretty esoteric but you will find that in writing a literature review you will learn about the ways other people have constructed their own research projects. Seeing what others have done might help you understand your own assignment. You might be able to see the methods that other more experienced researchers have used and you might decide to follow on their footsteps and copy their methodological approach. You might also be able to detect conflicting points of view expressed by different authors. These conflicting points of view might be the indicators of diverging theories within the same topic. You need to be aware of these conflicting theories as well as of the arguments supporting these theories in order for you to assess their value and make up your own mind on the topic. Being aware of the theories will help you later in your life as a student when you will have to design a larger research project like your dissertation. You might also be able to discuss relevant research carried out in the same topic. It is important to be able to discuss relevant research because very often it is very difficult (as students and as researchers) to keep abreast of everything that is published every year in a topic. The job of the writer of the literature review is to summarize and discuss the major documents published in that topic over a stated period of time. The discussion will take into account the methods and the results or findings of the most relevant research. The reviewer will assess whether the methodology is appropriate and whether the results seem valid. The reviewer therefore evaluates the quality of the research as opposed to merely listing documents. The reviewer may also discuss material published in other fields which are related to the main topic. This process is very important since very often research in the social sciences is multidisciplinary, i. e. knowledge gets generated from many disciplines and needs to be integrated. For example in order to be able to research and write a literature review on a question like ‘Why do teenagers smoke? ‘ The reviewer might need to read material from journals in psychology, medicine, and sociology. 4 Mechanics of Writing a Literature Review You need to read. You need to read because it will give you ideas, and because it might improve your writing style. You need to develop some basic reading strategies. You need to decide: †¢ where to read †¢ what to read †¢ whom to read †¢ how to find what you need to read. Your University or College library might be your first port of call in deciding where to read, but as you progress in your course you might need to read in other libraries. You might also chose to photocopy material from these libraries and read it at home. The advantage of using photocopies is that you can underline the material and make notes. The question of what to read is more tricky. Books, journals, reports, popular media, computer-based material, internal reports, letters, conference proceedings etc. You will probably need to read all these when you are constructing a literature review. When you try to determine whom to read you need to be aware that anyone can be mistaken in their interpretations or their opinions. It is therefore important that you can be able to ascertain how authoritative is the person that you are reading. You should also be able to ascertain their motivation in writing. This might help you determine if the person has a biased perspective on an issue. You should be guided on what to read (at least as a starting point ) by your module coordinator(s) and seminar tutors however, that is only initial guidance, after that you should be capable of finding your own material. Once you have set-up your basic reading strategies, you will need to be able to understand what you read. This is slightly more complicated than it seems because you will need to be able to develop tricks to scan a lot of documents very fast, and decide if a particular document is good enough to merit careful reading. It takes practice to be able to look at a document in the library and determine if it is good enough for you to spend serious time reading it. Have a look at the table of contents and index of the book. Look at the introduction and concluding chapter . Scan some of the topics from the index and determine if the material is adequate. These hints will give you a superficial knowledge about the content of a document, however you will not be able to write a literature review based on superficial knowledge. You will have to read enough to know enough about what has been written and summarize it in an intelligent fashion. In other words, you need to know enough to be able to be critical about it. Once you select a document for serious reading, you will need to summarize and criticize it.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Nutrigenomics

Advantages and Disadvantages of Nutrigenomics The word Nutrigenomics is a combination of nutrition and genomics. Nutrition is about the relationship between food and health; genomics is the study of entire genetic makeup of an organism and how they are expressed and regulated. Therefore, nutrigenomics is a field which concerned about the relationship between diet and gene expression by describing the approach to nutrition and human health that studies the implication of genetic differences in human response to food and how food alter the gene expression, biochemistry, metabolism and promotion of health (Elliot R, 2002). In other words, nutrigenomics is the study and application of gene and nutrition interaction. Besides, nutrigenomics also provides a basis for understanding the biological activity of food components (Rawson N, 2008). In addition, nutrigenomics has also been described by the influence of genetic variation on nutrition by correlate the gene expression with a nutrients absorption, metabolism and how it is eliminate d from our body. In nutrigenomics, nutrients are seen as signals that are detected by a sensory system in the cell that tells the body cells about its environment (diet). Once the nutrient interacts with such system, it alters the gene, metabolite production and protein expression in depending on the level of nutrient it detected (Afman and Muller M, 2006). Hence, different diets will elicit different patterns of gene, protein expression and metabolite production. Such patterns of effects have been referred to as dietary signatures, where they are examined to investigate how homeostasis is influenced (Afman and Muller M, 2006). There are many ways on how nutrigenomics is useful to improve quality of life. Firstly, nutrigenomics define the causality relationship between specific nutrients and diet on human health by determining the mechanism of the effect of the nutrients or diet to human body. Besides, nutrigenomics helps to facilitate prevention through dietary modification when the diet-related diseases are detected in early stage. Nutrigenomics also allows the examination on how nutrients affect the genes present in the human genome. With all these reasons, nutrigenomics promotes and improves the understanding of people on how nutrition influence metabolic pathways and alter the homeostatic control in our body. Moreover, nutrigenomics is also able to demonstrate the impact of bioactive food compounds and its effect on human health, which should lead to the development of functional foods that will keep people healthy based to their individual needs. Then, this will further prevent development of chronic diet-related disease such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, nutrigenomics also involve in finding markers of the early phase of diet-related diseases. At this phase, intervention with nutrition approach can restore patients health. Once a marker has been found and measured in an individual, the stage of susceptibility of the person to develop the diet-related diseases can be quantified and personalized dietary recommendation can be then given to that particular individual and further improve his or her quality of life. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the lifestyle diseases and it is the most common cause of death all over the world. In Malaysia, about 30% of deaths are caused by CVD (WHO, 2009). There are many factors that can lead to CVD. For example, elevated low density lipoprotein (LDL) level, low level of high density lipoprotein (HDL) and high level of total cholesterol. Diet has a significant effect on CVD. However, long term health benefits can be obtained from dietary proteins and bioactive non-nutrients, called phytochemicals, which could be either integrated into the diet or be part of the food itself. One of the foods that can be used to reduce the risk of getting CVD is soybean. Soybean contain soy protein and it contains phytoestrogens which bind to estrogen receptors in the body. Besides, soybean also contains high level of Isoflavones. There are three major isoflavones in soybeans which are genistein, daidzein and glycetein. Isoflavones have a non-steroidal structure. However , they possess a phenolic ring that enables them to bind the estrogen receptor and act either as estrogen agonists or antagonists (Makela et al., 1995). One of the ways to prevent or reduce the risk of getting CVD is by lowering the LDL cholesterol level in our blood. The LDL is the major cholesterol-carrying lipoprotein in plasma and it is the causal agent of CVD and coronary heart disease. The major determinants of LDL cholesterol levels in the blood are depend on the number and activity of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR). These LDLRs are mostly found on the surface of the hepatic cells. The LDLR controls the uptake of LDL from the circulation and its intracellular degradation by a process known as the LDLR pathway (Anne K Sautar, 2010). According to Manzoni et al, 2003, the peptides formed by the digestion of soy protein up-regulate hepatic LDLR in the mechanism for the cholesterol lowering effects of soy protein. Based on several clinical studies and researches, Sirtori et al (1995) suggested that soy protein can up-regulates LDLR in human. By consuming soy protein with isoflavones, LDLR will be stimulated and increase th e uptake of LDL from the circulation and reduce the LDL level in the blood. This will further decrease the risk of getting cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, the number of LDLRs is regulated by a negative-feedback loop. An increase in hepatocyte cholesterol level will suppress the transcription of LDLR genes and retain LDL in the plasma. In contrast, a decline in hepatic cholesterol will stimulates the transcription of LDLR genes and then removes the LDL from the plasma (Elizabeth G, 2003). In addition, Baum et al, 1998, suggested that isoflavones may increase the efficiency to eliminate LDL from the blood by increasing LDLR densities in the liver. Besides, Anderson et al (1995) also suggested that level of total cholesterol and LDL can be lowered by consuming soy protein with isoflavones. A review of 38 controlled studies on soy and CVD concluded that soybean is definitely effective in improving the cholesterol profile. Interestingly, there are some studies shown that with low c oncentrations of genistein could up-regulate LDL receptor activity and increase LDL receptor gene expression (Kanuck and Ellsworth, 1995). However, there is also some evidence that isoflavones are the active compound in soy in responsible for lowering the LDL in blood and may offer protection against CVD. Therefore, the mechanisms by which soy modulates blood cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in order to prevent or lower the risk of CVD need further research. There are many advantages of nutrigenomics. One of the advantages is nutrigenomics helps to improve our quality of life by promotes an increase of understanding on how nutrition affects metabolism, homeostatic control and introducing the prevention of chronic diet-related diseases to the people. Nutrigenomics also helps in preventing or delaying the onset of diet and lifestyle related disease such as obesity, cancer, CVD and diabetes mellitus. Apart from chemical drug treatment and therapy, nutrigenomics also acts as supporting element to fasten recover and prevent further damage caused by disease. For example, an individual that are diagnosed to have CVD, with the knowledge of nutrigenomics, they can change their dietary intake to lower their low density lipoprotein level and increase their high density lipoprotein level in their body to prevent and minimized the impact of CVD to their body. In addition, nutrigenomics also helps a country to save cost in a long-term prospect. This i s because with the development of nutrigenomics, it can leads to prevention of diseases and thus reduces the cost of treatment, along with decrease in the countrys burden of disease, which then decrease the cost of the government that allocates for health therapy and health services to the community. When there are advantages, there will be disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of nutrigenomics is costly and time-consuming. Nutrigenomics researches need long-term intervention trials to determine the causal relationship between nutrition and ways of prevention, as well as the outcome of disease which is time-consuming and costly. The methods for measuring dietary intake are much more imprecise when compared to genetic or biochemical measurement. Another disadvantage of nutrigenomics is ethnical implication. Since nutrigenomics include genetic test by the usage of samples from identified populations, ethical and legal implication may appear. The management of genetic information, consent, confidentiality, non-medical uses of information by employers and insurers are some of the ethnical issues that may arise. Furthermore, nutrigenomics might misused by some companies. Recently, the interest of public in this field is increasing. As a result, in United States, some companies are t aking this advantage by providing nutrigenomics services to public. These companies may mislead the consumer by making health-related predictions that are medically unproven or asking their customer to buy costly supplement that they claimed to be developed according to an individuals unique DNA. Moreover, nutrigenomics tests and researches require a large study population of patients and controls to investigate combinations of genetic variants and impact of nutrients in relation to a disease. Thus, it is difficult to visualize the combined data and analyzed, and in an integrated manner, how multiple gene and multiple nutrients interact simultaneously. In conclusion, nutrigenomics has great potential to benefit medical science in the future. However, it is still only in its infant state and there are many uncertainties about its further development.

Text And Traditions: Work Requirement One Historical Reconstruction :: essays research papers fc

Text and Traditions: Work Requirement One Historical Reconstruction Major events in Jewish history to the first century AD 1250 BC Fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. 931 BC Divided Kingdoms. 721 BC Fall of Samaria. 587 BC Fall of Jerusalem, Babylonian captivity. 333 BC Jews under Hellenistic rule. 63 BC Jews under Roman rule. 70 AD Fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. Major events between 50 BC - 100 AD 63 BC - 40 BC Hyrcanus2 rules, but is subject to Rome. 41 BC - 30 BC Antony Caesar Roman Emperor. 40 BC - 37 BC Parathions conquer Jerusalem. 38 BC - 4 BC Herod rules as king. Subject to Rome. 37 BC Jerusalem besieged for 6 months. 32 BC Herod Defeated. 31 BC - 14 AD Caesar Augustus Roman Emperor. 19 BC Herod's Temple begun. 16 BC Herod visits Agrppa. 4 BC Herod dies; Archelaus succeeds. 37 AD - 41 AD Caliguta Roman Emperor. 41 AD - 54 AD Claudius Roman Emperor. 54 AD - 68 AD Nero Roman Emperor. The first persecutor of Christians. 66 AD Jews in Palestine tried to revolt. Were crushed by Titus. 69 AD - 79 AD Vespasia Roman Emperor. He continued the persecution. 70 AD Jewish temple destroyed. Small part of the wall left standing. 79 AD Titus Roman Emperor. Detailed analysis of major Jewish groups of the time Pharisees The Pharisees were a group of Jews, that believed strongly against the adoption of Greek ways. They wanted to uphold and protect their fragile Jewish culture, from the Greek influence that was flooding into Israel at the time. They developed as haters of the tradition Greek ways, because of their customs were related to idolatry and immorality. They joined up with a group know as the Hasmoneans and proceeded to conduct a rebellion against the Greek. After gaining religious freedom, they then separated from their new partners, and formed the breakaway party, known today as the Pharisees (meaning ‘the separated'). They had extreme power in the synagogue, and eventually turned it into the center of the Jewish faith. This didn't last forever, as it was finally replaced by the temple, erected by David. Saducees The Sadducees (Sons of Zadok) seemed to be a group of aristocratic priestly families, that were powerful within the High Priesthood. They held a monopoly over all the High Priesthood positions and were also powerful in the Sanhedrin. They came across as being a very selfish group that retained their rights and traditions, and also trying to stay on the good side of the Roman Empire. Unlike the Pharisees, they were rigid and closed in sect, and not open to change. When the Romans destroyed the temple, they disappeared and were never

Free College Essays - Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter - Only God Should Judge :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Scarlet Letter: Only God Should Judge    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter many moral issues come to mind. For one, the book is about an adulteress trying to live her life in an old Puritan town. This is especially hard since the man who has committed this sin with her, known as Arthur Dimmesdale, refuses to confess his part in her crime. The town has many convictions of whom or what Hester is which makes it impossible for Hester to live a happy normal life. The thoughts on adultery were not very good at the time of the puritans. Many people were banished from society or even killed as a result of it. Hester’s punishment is relatively light because of her age and beauty. She is forced to wear a scarlet â€Å"A† on her breast for the rest of her life so that all can see her shame. But for Hester, Death would have been a much more welcomed punishment. As a result of her action and punishment she ends up a sad and shameful old woman that is never released from her shame. Seeing her bravery, Dimmesdale confesses to having committed adultery also and then dies of faintness of heart. Hester dies years later and not even in death is she released for on her grave only a dark gloom surrounds, never any light. The Scarlet Letter is a book that involves the perception of adultery, thoughts about it, and the result from it. To begin, the perceptions on Hester as shown throughout the novel are not at all good ones. Some people think she is a witch, this is shown when a true witch asked her if she will be joining them later that night in the forest for a witches gathering: â€Å"Hist, Hist Wilt thou go with us to-night?...†(pg.80). Other people think that Hester is somehow involved with Satan by directly relating the scarlet letter with evil or supernatural: â€Å" the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the passageway of the interior.†(pg.48) The women of the town also highly frown upon her action and when she is standing atop the scaffold they mock her by saying such things as â€Å"†¦before this brazen hussy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (pg.26) The town believes what she did is wrong and immoral, which it is, but what they don’t realize is that it isn’t because she is a witch or a demon of Satan and certainly not shameless. Free College Essays - Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter - Only God Should Judge :: Scarlet Letter essays The Scarlet Letter: Only God Should Judge    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter many moral issues come to mind. For one, the book is about an adulteress trying to live her life in an old Puritan town. This is especially hard since the man who has committed this sin with her, known as Arthur Dimmesdale, refuses to confess his part in her crime. The town has many convictions of whom or what Hester is which makes it impossible for Hester to live a happy normal life. The thoughts on adultery were not very good at the time of the puritans. Many people were banished from society or even killed as a result of it. Hester’s punishment is relatively light because of her age and beauty. She is forced to wear a scarlet â€Å"A† on her breast for the rest of her life so that all can see her shame. But for Hester, Death would have been a much more welcomed punishment. As a result of her action and punishment she ends up a sad and shameful old woman that is never released from her shame. Seeing her bravery, Dimmesdale confesses to having committed adultery also and then dies of faintness of heart. Hester dies years later and not even in death is she released for on her grave only a dark gloom surrounds, never any light. The Scarlet Letter is a book that involves the perception of adultery, thoughts about it, and the result from it. To begin, the perceptions on Hester as shown throughout the novel are not at all good ones. Some people think she is a witch, this is shown when a true witch asked her if she will be joining them later that night in the forest for a witches gathering: â€Å"Hist, Hist Wilt thou go with us to-night?...†(pg.80). Other people think that Hester is somehow involved with Satan by directly relating the scarlet letter with evil or supernatural: â€Å" the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the passageway of the interior.†(pg.48) The women of the town also highly frown upon her action and when she is standing atop the scaffold they mock her by saying such things as â€Å"†¦before this brazen hussy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (pg.26) The town believes what she did is wrong and immoral, which it is, but what they don’t realize is that it isn’t because she is a witch or a demon of Satan and certainly not shameless.