Five Factor Model Personality Inventory

1. Use the Five Factor Model Personality Inventory to rate yourself on the Big Five personality dimensions. Describe each factor of your Big Five Personality Inventory. Which factor shows the greatest value in predicting your behavior? Why does it? Select one of your friends. Identify the qualities that make that person substantially different from you. In what ways are you basically similar? Which dominates, the differences or similarities? You must attach the Five Factor Model Personality Inventory together with your answers. Answer: The Big Five Personality is broad categories of personality traits.While there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-factor model of personality, researchers don't always agree on the exact labels for each dimension. The Big Five Personality Inventory includes agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Emotion stability and Openness to experience. Agreeableness means that the person is a good natured, co-operative, softhearted a nd trusting. Agreeableness also has an interpersonal component. Agreeable individuals tend toward conformity in groups, toward modesty, toward not being demanding, and toward being sympathetic.These individuals might be motivated toward helping others and toward prosocial behaviour in general. There may be a link between the motivational processes operating within individuals in regards to this trait, such that agreeable individuals strive for intiacy and solidarity in groups they belong to, which provides emotional rewards. People scoring low on agreeableness place self-interest above getting along with others. They are usually more cautious about other's agendas; they may feel that others are out to better their own self-interest.Extraversion is â€Å"the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside the self†. Extraverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be enthusiastic, talkative, assertive, and gregariou s. They take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. Politics, teaching, sales, managing, brokering, and acting are fields that favor extraversion.An extraverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. They tend to be energized when around other people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves. Conscientiousness means that someone who are dependable, responsible, achievement oriented and persistent. Conscientiousness is related to impulse control, but it should not be confused with the problems of impulse control found in neuroticism. People high on neurotic impulsiveness find it difficult to resist temptation or delay gratification.Individuals who are low on conscientious self-discipline are unable to motivate themselves to perform a task that they would like to accomplish. These are conceptuall y similar but empirically distinct. People who score high on the trait of conscientiousness tend to be more organized and less cluttered in their homes and offices. For example, their books tend to be neatly shelved in alphabetical order, or categorized by topic, rather than scattered around the room. A considerable amount of research indicates that conscientiousness is one of the best predictors of performance in the workplace.Emotion stability is a state of an individual that enables him or her to have appropriate feelings about common experiences and act in a rational manner. The characteristics of a person with emotional stability include relaxed, secure, unworried, confident, easy going and steady. People with this personality will not easily get disturbed , will not get stressed out easily whenever he/she are facing problem and would not worry about things. He/she will have a positive thinking and try to solve the problem with the easy way.On the other hand, those who score lo w in emotional stability means that he/she is emotional instability or sometimes call neuroticism. They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional regulation can diminish the ability of a person scoring high on neuroticism to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress. Openness to experience is used to describe human personality.Openness involves active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity. A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these qualities are statistically correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together. Openness is associate d with tolerance of ambiguity (which means when something is not clear), a capacity to absorb information, being very focused and the ability to be aware of more feelings, thoughts and impulses simultaneously.The result is deeper more intense experiences. Open individuals are motivated to seek out the unfamiliar and to look for complexity. After rating myself by using the Five Factor Model Personality Inventory, the score that I get from all the five factor are extraversion=28, agreeableness=33, conscientiousness=26, emotional stability=27 and openness to experience=30. From the score that I get, agreeableness is the best factor to predict my behavior. Agreeableness, like what I mention above, is a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic toward others.Yes, I am not deny that I am a person like that. I am a compassionate person. I am cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic toward others. I choose to believe what my friend told me. I will never suspect about them. I also choose to be kind to my friend. I will try my best to help them as I can whenever they need me. I am also a softhearted person. Usually, I will forgive those who hurt me after they said sorry to me or maybe they not, but, I will also forgive them after sometime just like nothing happen before. Yet, I am also a person who conformity in group and toward modesty.No wonder what activity I joined, I am just the follower but not the incharge person. My friend, Lau Chen Ee also get his highest score in the agreeableness factor and lowest score in openness to experience factor. We know each other since Form 6, that mean we already be friend for about 4 years. In this 4 years time, I get to know him well. He is a friendly person. He is good to all his friend very well. He not the person that who have a finger in every pie. But, he will show his concern to you when he notice that you are having some problem.Besides that, he is also an optimistic per son. I still can remember that, I can always hear his laughing voice all around the school. He seem like does not have anything to fuss over. Exam problem- no, homework problem-no, relationship problem-no! All the qualities that I mention above about him are the quality that I am lack of. I am a person who like to have finger in every pie. I am not an attentive person. I am always think negatively and worried about this worried about that. That is what he are substantially different from me.But, we still have similarity. I will show concern to my friend when they are facing some problem like he does. I am friendly to all my friend like he does. I will take time out to others like he does. I am sympathize to others like he does. Moreover, I like to sing like he does. After doing this Five Factor Model Personality Inventory rating, I get to know all the five personality well and this will help me a lot in how to communicate and to get along with others. This inventory also let me to k now myself more deeply and so my friend.

A Woman In Berlin

It seems obvious that a civilian population would experience and have a perspective on warfare than members of the military, but for those who perpetrate warfare – mainly the multi-national moneyed corporate interests, the bankers and stockbrokers, and the politicians who ultimately give the orders while rarely – if –ever – suffering the direct consequences, it seems to matter little. It has been this way throughout human history, but up until the advent of mechanized warfare, it was primarily soldiers, whose job it is to carry out orders, who experienced the consequences first-hand. Civilian populations have suffered these consequences periodically throughout history as well, but it was after the development of mechanized slaughter that civilians became regular first-hand victims of the horrors of war. The American Civil War and the First World War had brought this to civilian populations on a wide-scale basis to some extent, but it was really the Second World War in which mechanized warfare had been perfected to the point that virtually any civilian population could be affected – including that of Germany. The Germans had been subject to humiliation and hunger following the First World War as well as major economic upheavals – conditions that allowed Hitler to come to power in the first place. Nonetheless, German villages, cities and infrastructure had survived the 1914-1918 conflict nearly intact. This was not the case during the Second World War. Germany, for a brief time had been the world’s great superpower, which seemed only fitting to its people – particularly after the country’s spectacular rise prior to hostilities, and the apparent ease with which German forces had secured lebensraum for the deutsches leute. The anonymous author of A Woman In Berlin, a day-by-day account of Berlin’s fall and subsequent occupation by Soviet military, gives us a vivid account of the subsequent disbelief, the initial clinging to hope in the face, the changed perspective on everyday life, and the various survival tactics employed. Mainly however, it is a story of the transition from feelings of power over one’s fate to powerlessness, and what issues, formerly trivial, take on monumental importance in the face of a struggle simply to survive: â€Å"Heart, hurt, love, desire – how foreign, how distant those words sound now. Evidently a sophisticated, discriminating love life requires three square meals a day. † 1 It is also an experience of life stripped to its bare essentials: â€Å"Once again, we see what a dubious blessing technology is. Machines with no intrinsic value, worthless if you can’t plug them in somewhere. Bread however is absolute. †2 In light of this, it is fascinating to see how people – at least in the beginning – grasp on to any semblance of order as civilization collapses about them. On page 13 is a stark example of the unique cultural traits of the German people of that time; cultural traits that had allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to seize the power that eventually led to the downfall: despite the lack of enforcement, despite the fact that the tram is nearly empty, the narrator walks alongside it in a pouring simply because she does not have the Class III ticket that would entitle her to ride. â€Å"Order. It’s rooted deep inside us; we do what we are told. 3 As the Russians enter the city, suddenly, they are no longer a distant, faceless enemy; they are humans like the German civilians, but unlike the Germans, they are predominantly young, male, relatively well-fed – and enraged. It is not always acknowledged that the Russians suffered far greater casualties than the U. S. , Great Britain and the free garrisons from countries such as France and Poland combined. According to the official Nazi party line, Slavs, i. . Russians, were little better than Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals. Despite ukaz Stalina (Stalin’s decree), repeated acts of rape and assault occur. As one Russian insists: â€Å"What did the Germans do to our women? †4 revealing that these are not acts of lust or sexual hunger; these are acts of vengeance. Ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, hunger and safety needs – the lowest needs on Maslow’s hierarchy – take priority as the vanquished adapt in order to survive. The narrator is willing to submit to â€Å"Only one† in order to avoid being gang-raped. Even during the act itself, she’s â€Å"only half present, and that half is no longer resisting. †5 Eventually, she must find â€Å"a single wolf to keep away the pack. †6 Ultimately, even the men â€Å"adapt,† surrendering and serving the conquerors; despite orders not to surrender, the desire to live wins out. One difference between Soviet combat troops and that of every other combatant is the presence of women: â€Å"We’re amazed to see so many woman soldiers, with field tunics, skirts, berets and insignia†7 It is unclear from the narrative if the presence of Russian women prevented the brutish behavior from being worse than it was, but it is noteworthy that eventually, victor and vanquished are on first-name basis, actually interacting on a human level. One stark difference between the civilian and the military perspective stands out in bold relief: in the military, there is usually a bond of brotherhood among the soldiers of a given unit. In the heat of battle, a soldier isn’t fighting for his flag, for geo-political advantage or territory; they’re fighting for their comrades. On the other hand, among the civilians, it seems to come down for every man or woman for his/herself: â€Å"I couldn’t care about the lot of them†¦all my feelings seem dead, except for the drive to live. †8 This story is a history of a little-known chapter of World War II, but it is more importantly a testament to the overwhelming power of the survival instinct.

Graphic Novel Deconstruction Essay

This essay will deconstruct Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel The Sandman Volume#1 Preludes and Nocturnes (1991), in order to gain an understanding of narrative is presented through the use of image. It will also comment on the codes and conventions within the chosen text. Preludes and Nocturnes is the collection of eight comics in the Sandman series, with Neil Gaiman writing for a regular series for the first time. As such Preludes and Nocturnes is somewhat a work in progress, as the creative team honed their work. If read from cover to cover you will see a marked improvement in the writing over the course of the volume culminating in a much more tightly wound climax than at the beginning. The first chapter Sleep of the Just is a good place to start looking at the panel construction of the narrative. On the page (Tab. 1) we see the first three panels over-laying the fourth panel. The first two panels are narrow and rectangular and the third is square. The gutters are very narrow and not a lot is happening in the panels. This indicates that panel-to-panel, not a lot of time has passed between transitions. However rather than use moment-to-moment transition the creators have used subject-to-subject as a method of keeping a moderate pace for the reader to become interested in what they are seeing on the page. This is continued throughout the eight panel page. Alternatively, the creators could have shown the first two panels as one, allowing the dialogue to take place straight away as the car pulls up to the mansion. The panel could then be expanded showing the mansion in more detail and allowing for the removal of panel three completely. We already know the man is here for a reason, therefore we make an assumption he will leave the car and knock on the door. ) This would potentially allow for the removal of Panel Four, going straight to the man knocking on the door and the door being answered. This would then clear up what is a relatively cluttered page and make the narrative much more direct. Dialogue and pacing are used to high degree throughout this chapter sometimes appearing cluttered and confused, and sometimes this is compound by the unusual panel shapes employed. However this has been used to great effect (Tab. 2) The thin oddly constructed/shaped panel’s one and two, are almost seen as though they are slices of Burgess’s insanity and obsession. Subject-to-Subject transitions are used to aid pacing in what otherwise would be a lengthy a page due to the amount of dialogue. Although the majority of the spoken word is short, there is a lot of it to read. A six panel page is probably right for this instance however more conventional panel shapes would probably aid the reader more. The caption box in the first panel is used in parallel to what is in the picture; the reader doesn’t actually see the words of the spell tolling in his head, but they are given a sense of the psychological effect it takes on Burgess. On the very next page closure is used perfectly. Burgess demands for the being to come forward and with each chant, that being becomes more corporeal with the end result, the creature arriving in the room. The dialogue used is interdependent to the imagery. Without one or the other the reader wouldn’t be able to pick up the full picture of what is happening. To speed this page up you could probably remove the panels with Burgess and just have the three panels of the creature appearing with the dialogue situated around him, as if surrounded by people. In (Tab. 3) we can see a classic example of moment-to-moment transitions, twelve panels depicting and old man dreaming of becoming young again as he walks along a dark corridor before realising he is in a nightmare of his own making. Twelve panels on a fifteen panel page seems like a lot, however it serves to really ramp up the tension in the terms of the narrative as this is a turning point for the whole story. Interestingly the transitions used serve as the opposite to what is actually happening; the de-aging process of decades in just a few seconds or minutes intensifies the dream/nightmare feel. For the sake of quicker pacing you could perhaps take a few panels out here and there, showing a larger passage of time between the transitions and the de-aging process, however you would then run the risk of losing the tension build up. An interesting point to note is the dialogue for Morpheus, his speech bubbles are jagged black items with white text, that serve the purpose of defining his character as not of this earth and more important than any other speaker. (Tab. 4) poses some interesting issues. Panel 1 bleeds in from the top of the page to the half-way point with the next two panels over laid. However here is where it can get confusing for a reader who reads from left to right on a single page. Panels 4-6 do not follow the traditional design of a comic book. Rather than continuing the dialogue under panels 1-3 they extend onto the next page and initially this is confusing as the readers first thought is to go down the page. It is almost as if the writer wants you to stop and think for a moment. This layout is continued through panels 7-13 and in panels 10-12 the structure becomes jagged indicating Cain’s fractured mind finally snapping and lashing out at his brother Abel, the word â€Å"IRVING † capitalised and coloured in red accents this. This section uses several different types of panelling ranging from aspect-to-aspect (panels 1-4 7-8) subject-to-subject (5-6 9-13. ) This unusual layout has been created because of the opening dialogue, Lucien the Librarian stating that â€Å"It has been a strange century. † The creators probably felt that they could accentuate this by creating this page layout. It would have worked much better if it had been done over a single A2 sheet but restrictions prevent this so readers would have to be careful to make sure they read the page right. It would flow better if the panels with Cain and Abel had been left out entirely or at least placed on a separate sheet. Again closure is shown on the final panel with blood spatter getting that message across loud and clear. (Tab. 5) brings good examples of word specific text in subject-to-subject panels, also note the colour change to black and white, given in context with each panel it conveys the message that all is well and the world is resting. The use of Morpheus’s coat as a panel enveloping Arkham Asylum is used to indicate that he is back in control of the dream realm and is repairing the damage done by his captivity. Throughout the Preludes and Nocturnes there has been a constant improvement in the way it is presented and written. In particular as the narrative continues, there are subtle changes in colours, from really quite dark to eventually ending up with a white background as Morpheus goes about his quest to right the wrongs done to him. The writers also moved to more traditional conventions of comic books in respect to panelling moving away from the sometimes claustrophobic and cluttered panels in the early chapters to the more familiar boxy panels that most sequential art uses, however that is not to say the gothic inspired artwork doesn’t have its place, in the early stages of the story, entrapment and imprisonment were key themes. As the creative team honed their skills the works became more coherent and easier to understand. It is easy to see why this series is so popular.

Civil Protection Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

Civil Protection - Dissertation Example There are also proposals and recommendations for the participation of the British society or community in civil protection. Bremberg (2010, p. 169) illustrates that these proposals emanate from the fact that government agencies and organizations cannot sufficiently manage crises without the help of the community. There is an evident need for research based recommendations on the most appropriate approaches or strategies for civil protection within the region. Furthermore it is notable that there is no defining legal framework which defines civil protection in Britain. State initiatives in the establishment of policies and procedures for the mitigation of disasters and threats within the region are a civil protection requirement which requires to be addressed immediately. The importance or coordination and collaboration of states and all stakeholders in the civil protection processes demonstrates a need for the establishment of a specific body which would be mandated for coordinating civil protection activities. Community participation has also been generally low in civil protection in Britain. Issues of funding and the involvement of nongovernmental organizations in civil protection are among other areas of concern. Aims and Objectives of the Study 1. To investigate the major disasters in Britain and their causes 2. To determine most appropriate risk assessment methodology for the major threats in Britain 3. To investigate the risk prevention strategies in civil protection and demonstrate the extent to which they are flexible and cost effective 4. To find out the effectiveness of risk management policies as implemented by Britain. 5. To define the role of various stakeholders in civil protection including the community, governing authorities and agencies and nongovernmental organizations 6. To evaluate the coordination and corporation of response groups in civil protection including the application of technology in enhancing collaboration and the associated eff iciency of civil protection processes 7. To discuss and recommend the most appropriate the disaster mitigation and recovery strategies Civil Protection Cook (2009, p. 29) defines civil protection as a collection of measures and processes of humanitarian intent which views to protect the society and the surrounding against possible threats, disasters and accident of various kinds. In civil protection, a disaster is a term which is used to represent any interaction of people with adverse events which puts the population at a vulnerable position of danger or harm. These disastrous events would either be manmade or natural occurrences which pose a threat to human life and security. Pasa & Benacchio (2005) explain that the degree to which disasters make people vulnerable to harm varies depending on the source, cause or the nature of the disaster. The most prominent characteristic of a disaster is the fact that it leads to a disruption of the normal processes of the community while threat ening the functioning of the society through the loss of lives, the environment and materials or property. The

Four Forces of Evolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Four Forces of Evolution - Essay Example Another force that results in evolution is gene drift and it is a result of alterations in the frequency of genes in a particular population. It is even recognized as allelic drift, this is because it even includes alteration in frequency of allele in a certain population as result of sampling that is random in nature. The force of genetic drift may result in the disappearance of allele and this may take place due to reduction in genetic variations. Offspring Alleles and Parent’s alleles may be similar to each other. The third force of evolution is gene flow which refers to the movement of genes from one specific population to another population. The process of this transfer is even regarded as migration of genes. The existence and absence of gene flow can alter the course of entire evolution. Gene flow may result in the introduction of variants of genes and characteristics that may negatively impact a particular population. Due to this, a population’s organisms may develop devices in order to conduct prevention of mating with species that may be distant genetically. If this process takes place it may occur in the development of new species and gene flow can even effect variations in one particular population or variation between different populations. Natural selection refers to the concept that states that genetic mutations that result in enhancement of reproduction should remain familiar in different generations of a population. The concept of survival of the fittest states that indivi duals who have the ability to reproduce along with survival should remain and should be responsible for the determination of quantity of contribution that is genetic in nature in succeeding generations. Variation can take place if natural selection occurs in genes and individual species. The term isolation mechanism is used to refer to a particular trait including

Business and Politics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business and Politics - Case Study Example As Lowi describes, politics makes it harder for the entire system to deal with power control since only part of the organizations are actually given actual hold of the situation. (Lowi 54) On the other hand, having the need to actually consider the political system of dealing with situations could actually be completed strategically for the better benefits of the owner and the whole staff that makes up a certain business group such as that of Smith's. Doing so could even strengthen the company's stand in dealing with the issues of differences that they are usually confronted with. In the case of Smith's Left Handed Widgets Inc. case, it could be noticed that a balanced political approach may appear to be the most useful and most effective approach to be used towards the instances when the need to be politically acquainted with becomes necessary. It is rather considered important though that the organization look at the process in a rather consuming way. Doing so would help them remember how the need of keeping things under the need of being balanced would rather keep them and their mission towards the application of such approach and how it should be kept in a balance to assure that its values and original standing to equal commercial systems remain undoubtedly unblemished by the ideas of being politically engorged in the system that they are embracing, likely one that is directly portrayed by the major ideas that suggest the existence of business as entity and not an interest group (Hart 65). Even though it is rather considered important for Smith's Left Handed Widgets Inc. to adapt to the political systems that are currently governing the commercial industry of widgets today, it is highly suggested that the company try to make mandated views as to how much they are clinging to the said approach to business; this has been strongly suggested in accordance to the description of Waitzkin regarding the fact that in business, the capitalist rule and their control and power affects those others that are under them making business politics a bit in line to those who have the resources(Waitzkin 34). Limiting the involvement of the business to the political forces that it needs to ride into at some point could help so much in protecting the thoughts and the idealisms of the whole business group as they battle the need to be competitive while striving to remain unbiased in assuring that their values remain intact besides all the possible changes that they may incur as they partly e mbrace the political culture of the business systems. c) The likelihood that this bill can be killed Even though the industry of widgets might have been getting negative considerations from certain clients who might have had different thoughts in having been able to use the said products, major changes suggested by the bill that has been

The Ku Klux Klan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Ku Klux Klan - Essay Example born terrorist organization, it is required for us to investigate the beliefs, rituals as well as the strategies of terror of the Ku Klux Klan. The faiths and beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan are fascinating and help delineate the motives and targets for their rituals and strategies of terror. However, there is a correct understanding of the history of the Ku Klux Klan and the United States that helps in understanding the origins of their faiths. By following the Revolutionary War, the United States was led by the main-stream of white Protestants who shared the old Puritan belief in their elite status (Horn, 2006). This group believed that the liability of self-government and the full liberties as well as civil rights profited from independence were in their fit in. many of the white Southerners possessed a long family history of owning slaves and felt supreme to the African Americans. The unshackled blacks living in the South were resented and observed to be inferior by most of the white Southerners. ... ality and democracy, the emergence of Ku Klux Klan followed the Revolutionary War against religious, ethnic, and cultural groups who were targeted as non-Americans (Kelly, 1998). The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the year 1866 by the retired Confederate soldiers who looked for a social group and the activity in order to fulfill their time (Horn, 2006). Firstly, the Klan targeted African Americans as a resource to imitate their humorous pranks on. Nonetheless, the Klan was soon organized in to a military ladder and profited of thousands of members who were politically and emotionally driven against the blacks and equality politics. in following the Reconstruction, Klan members delineated the purpose of their organization as a peace-maintaining organization which was targeted at self-defense. Most of the members feared the rise of independent blacks, thinking that they were becoming violent and threatened the security of the white Southerners. The second era emerged with Klan becoming as a secret organization. However, as noticed by Martin, in the third epoch the Klan grew as a glorified public organization with approximately four million members (Martin, 2006). The widespread recognition of the Ku Klux Klan came from the shared faiths in nativism and wistful ideas of a previous better America. Moreover, with the help of Ridgeway and Stalcup's view, the Klan emerged as an organization which was focused against the rapidly transforming world and the perceived threat to its being and value system (Ridgeway, 1995; Stalcup et. al,

The role of mediation towards conflict resolution (with examples) Essay

The role of mediation towards conflict resolution (with examples) - Essay Example The paper tells that in the todays fast pace world of utter competition, in order to accomplish the goals and objectives, team working has become a necessity. The team or the group of people works towards a common goal where all the members are proficient enough to make decisions, solve problems, and share responsibilities. However, when one or more than one person works on a particular task or activity, discrepancies, inconsistent views or conflict is likely to occur generally. This is because every individual not only belongs to different backgrounds but also have lived diverse and dissimilar experiences in their lives, and thus, it leads to have diverse and dissimilar perceptions even when working on a common goal. In some situations, the conflict is nominal and may cause lesser amount of stress, however, in other cases; it might prove to have worse effects. Therefore, the understanding of the temperament and nature of the conflict is of great importance, which can lead to the con structive solutions as to how the conflict can come under resolution in a beneficial manner in order to improve the relationships that come under its affection. Studies reveal the fact that numerous causes can add to conflicts. In fact, when a person or a group of people comes under employment to perform a particular task that is contrasting to their needs or interest, conflicts is likely to occur. In addition, when the group of people has exclusive and independent behavioral preferences with respect to their mutual actions can also give rise to conflicts. A number of people do not have the ability or proficiency to communicate effectively and efficiently. Therefore, poor communication skills between people are also one of the prime reasons that can cause conflict. It has also come under observation that inadequate skills and knowledge are also one of the imperative contributors for creating a conflict amongst the people (Pahl,  Richter &  Rohrschneider, pp. 3-10, 2009). This is due to the reason that if a person in a group of people lack special skills or knowledge, the goals is unlikely to come under execution, which escalates the probability of conflict. The mentioned were few of the instances that can lead to conflicts amongst people, however, conflict resolution provides various solutions that can eliminate the differences between the people and improve or enhance their bond or correlation (Pahl,  Richter &  Rohrschneider, pp. 3-10, 2009). It has come to notice that culture plays a dominant, leading, and sensitive role in conflict resolution whether it is on a professional practice or in academic field. This can come under well understanding with the notion that in Western civilization, people in general opt for and promote open communication among disputants, solves their issues and outline agreements on a mutual basis that meet the principal and basic needs of both the parties. This means that the conflict resolvers make both the parties agree t o have a win-win situation where all the people under conflict get an equal satisfactory circumstance. A win-win situation is essential in the non-Western culture as well, but the way of resolving the conflict is somewhat different in nature (Avruch, pp. 24-27, 1998). However, while looking at the other end of the spectrum

KKRs Acquisition of Alliance Boots Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

KKRs Acquisition of Alliance Boots - Case Study Example Besides the case which would be taken up for discussions, it is necessary to take up the case of KKR's purchase of RJR Nabisco, a food products manufacturing company. After the announcement of the deal being successful, RJR's stock price shot up from $ 55 to $ 77.25, a spectacular rise by any standards (Brigham & Ehrhardt, P.1000). During early times, the guiding principles for takeover were in terms of restructuring fully developed companies, acquiring them, and later on, disposing them at good margins, when they are able to provide profitable business. However, nowadays - these considerations are not taken into account, and what is merely important is the takeover of a larger company, preferably by a private equity, in order to utilize its assets for payment of creditors of the acquiring company. The method of experiencing acquisitions through LBO is widespread, and has given rise to private equity being termed as people who wish to liquidate the Company's production capacity, in order to pay off the post taken debts and obligations. Alliance Boots is being seen as the first FTSE Company to be acquired by private equity company, KKR, although earlier the latter had also acquired AFR Nabisco, a prominent food products manufacturer. On March 12, 2007, Alliance Boots was contacted by New York based private equality mogul, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., (KKR) for levered buyouts (LBO) for a record sum of 11 Billion. It is seen as the biggest European LBO deal ever struck and the underwriters even agreed to lengthen the period for Investor to stake claims in it. This move could be seen in terms of KKR's recent acquisition of the UK Retail chain, Alliance Boots, which was undertaken in conformity with the largest shareholder, Stephan Pessina on the condition that Mr. Pessina would just assume control in the newly acquired company. Modus operandi of LBO The mode of acquisition would be in terms of identifying companies, which had high cash flows, but lacked suitable avenues for investments. Through loans, these commercial debts would purchase majority interests in firms at higher than market rates. After this, the acquired company would have to take over the liabilities of the acquiring company, or the acquiring company would take loans by pledging the acquired company's assets etc. as security. Thus, it was possible to gain entry into very large corporations through the use of acquisition techniques. Over the years, it is seen that acquisitions now cease to have real value, since any company, however large, could be

Managed healthcare Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managed healthcare - Research Paper Example errors have been attributed to various factors including miscommunication, bad handwriting, and confusion in names, poor packaging, and other dosing unit errors. In most cases, the errors occur because of several complex factors throughout the health care system generated by both healthcare providers and patients. For example, we all have, at one time or another scratched our heads trying to figure out what a physician wrote on the prescription note. In this regards, the health information technological systems (HIT) have been introduced into the clinical setting to prevent and minimize medication errors occurrence but the menace â€Å"medication errors† still remains as a major problem and a danger to patient’s safety in the clinical care setting. One great milestone in the health care delivery and management system was the introduction of health information technology (HIT) to clinical care setting. An example of such solutions is the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, which has marked a great milestone in healthcare delivery. Despite such improvements, statistics still indicate a worrying trend in medication error incidents (Chaudhry et al., 2006). Looking at a report by CDC in 2010, it showed that more thanâ€Å"700,000 emergency department visits and 120,000 hospitalizations were due to adverse drug events (ADEs) annually†. In 2005, the report given by CDC on death and hospital mortality rates indicated medication errors as the sixth leading cause of patient mortality, eight years down the line in 2013, medication errors was identified as the third leading cause of patient mortality (CDC, 2005, 2013). This can be attributed to lack guidelines, measures and policies to enhance the utilization of the s ystems as well as lack of the relevant information of the associated benefits with HIT systems utilization. Medication errors is a current issue in healthcare delivery and management that needs to be addressed with great care and concern. The

Global Financial Crisis in 2008 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global Financial Crisis in 2008 - Essay Example Precisely, some of the great organizations that succumbed to this crisis include Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac as well as Meryl Lynch. All these were recognized as brand organizations and as such, they had been nationalized effectively. In addition to this, these organizations had risk management systems entailing technical excellence. Irrespective of this, they still succumbed to the effect of the Global Financial Crisis. The question is: if they indeed had implemented a superior risk management strategy, then why did they go under? Therefore, this article aims at establishing what could be the corporate weakness that contributed to their failure.2 Despite the fact that these institutions had established the right risk management strategies, there must have been flaws within those systems. To establish and better understand these flaws, it is essential that one understand some various concepts: Interconnectivity between operational risk, credit risk and systemic risk Risk management strategies are usually established and implemented in an effort toward readying an organization for any eventual risk that may occur. There are three categories of risks that an organization faces depending on the nature of its operations. These are: Operational risks: These are usually described as breakdowns that occur internally within the control systems as well as the corporate governance and as such, it results in financial losses attributable to errors, fraud or even inability to perform timely. In addition to this, these risks cause the interest rates set by the financial institutions to become compromised in some way.3 Systematic risks: These are risks that occur within a certain market segment or within the entire market. According to financial analysts, the aftermath of systemic risks is that the value of the portfolio of an organization declines. Such risks arise due to political or even economical problems like the global financial crisis in 2008. Other factors that facilitate the occurrence of systemic risks include changes of interest rates, wars as well as calamities. Credit Risks: These are risks that arise out of uncertainty in credit worthiness of a borrower, that is, uncertainty on the ability of the borrower to meet his obligations. They usually take a variety of forms since the borrowers could be a range of parties including the sovereign governments. According to most financial analysts, all these risks are interrelated or interconnected and as such, they are the major risks that warrant an organization to establish risk management strategies. According to most financial analysts, both the systemic as well as the credit risks are commonly underpinned by the need for individuals within an organization to follow some stipulated work procedures as well as the need to engage in particular work related activities, which can be said to be strong human elements. This underpinning is what can be referred to as oper ational risks, and this is where the interconnectivity is underlain.4 These three types of risks can therefore be said to have caused the extinction of the aforementioned organizations that were major players within the economy. The most obvious reason for this is due to failed transactions. Whenever financial credit occurs, the approval of credit worthiness of any organization by the financial institutions is usually delayed. This is because during such times, credit approval must be

This Fleeting World A short History of Humanity Essay Example for Free

This Fleeting World A short History of Humanity Essay Humanity is consistently and always evolving to meet there needs and demands. Humanity will have to evolve to changes in the environment and society. It has survived many problems in the past and it has changed for the better from those experiences. Humans have lived extreme times in earth’s history such as the last ice age and the bubonic plague. And so they have adapted to these events and have gained experience and evolved for the better. One main ideas of this book is this book is that mankind is always changing to be more efficient and to adapt to different events. The author writes of many events in worlds history such as the world wars and epidemics that have killed millions of people. And because of these events humans have to find vaccines/cures to dieses and create new types of technologies. So we have found solutions and advanced for the better of mankind. This proves the idea that humans are consistently evolving and changing. This idea is connected to modern times for example we develop and release new techonologies such as phones and computers on a weekly basis. Another main idea of this book is that can not keep up with the demands of its all people consistently. And so will go through periods of collapse and great hardships. As stated in the text the historian says â€Å"Humanity will never be able to fulfill the demands of its entire people† This is true as we do have the resources to provide for all of the world’s people. And so we go through periods of collapse like the great depressions. During this time many people lost their jobs and many families went hungry. This was a horror but we were able to recover and prosper once again proving that mankind is always evolving to meet demands. And finally the last main idea of this book is that agriculture has allowed for people to focus on other things then food. The author writes about how once agriculture was discovered people were able to learn new things and have different jobs then to just all be farmers. This is because there will be enough food provided to people so they do not have to grow it themselves. This time period was called the agrarian era. So the time of the foragers was over and now was the time of the agrarians. And so mankind was able to advance and become much greater. This applies to us because we have learned more effective ways to farm so are able to produce more crop. In the book it is stated that humanity will never be able to keep up with the demands of its entire people. This is relevant in much of world like in Africa. Mostly of the people there live in extreme poverty with very little food and drinking water. The GPD per captia of Africa is 1,200 US dollars. This is very insignificant amount of money to be able to raise a family with. And there is little hope of a better future for many. Also in many other third world countries such as India is very crowded and the population of is plagued by lack of fresh drinking water. And so these modern day events are relevant to the idea that humanity will never be able to keep up with the demands of its people.

Ethical Issues of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

Ethical Issues of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Identify a specific situation, from your own experience in practice, where an ethical issue arose. With regard to confidentiality, outline the situation and explore the issues involved. Using appropriate ethical theory/principles, analyse the situation and the action taken to resolve the problem. In this essay we shall consider the case of Mrs.P., a 39 yr. old married mother of three who attended at a gynaecology clinic with menorrhagia. She was investigated and was found to have, amongst other things, a chlamydial infection. She was horrified. On questioning, she was initially incensed and stated that the path lab must have made a mistake and that such a thing â€Å"simply was not possible†, she denied any knowledge of how such an infection could have been contracted and asked the staff if it meant that her husband had been unfaithful. It was about half an hour after the news had been broken and the rest of her problems had been dealt with, that the staff moved onto the delicate matter of contact tracing. It was only then that Mrs.P. eventually confided that she had had a number of clandestine relationships without her husband knowing. One of these relationships was with her husband’s best friend from his work (Mr. H). She was adamant that neither he nor her husband should be told, as she could not face the consequences from the inevitable fall out. The clinic staff were also told that Mr and Mrs H were desperate to have a baby and that Mrs H was about to consider going for referral for infertility investigations. There are many ethical issues in this small clinical encounter and they represent, as a generalisation, issues that are typical of many ethical difficulties that present to healthcare professionals in the UK on a daily basis. The subject of medical ethics has evolved over a huge length of time and is, in part, dependent on the circumstances and environment in which it is applied. (Veitch RM 2002). In this essay we shall consider these ethical difficulties as they pertain to Mrs.P., but before we consider them in detail, let us consider the overriding ethical principles that should guide the actions of those concerned. We can start with a historical note. If we consider Hippocrates’ often quoted dictum â€Å"first do no harm†, (Carrick P 2000), we will see that it underpins the first guiding principle of ethics, that of Non-Maleficence. This means â€Å"no malice†. It places an implied burden on any healthcare professional to not only avoid doing harm to a patient, but also to take active steps to make sure that harm does not occur through accident or negligence. The Principle of Beneficence takes the argument further with an expectation of doing good or â€Å"goodness† as a quality. As we have suggested earlier, this quality is variable and is judged in the circumstances in which it occurs. This is particularly relevant in questions relating to consent which again, is central to the case of Mrs.P. (McMillian J 2005) The third principle of ethics that is relevant to our considerations here is the Principle of Dentology which places an expectation on the healthcare professional to act in a way that means that decisions are made in the patient’s best interests and are not in any way influenced by other considerations such as cost or expediency. (Tà ¤nnsjà ¶ T 2005) There is then the consideration of autonomy. In the case of Mrs.P. this effectively means that she is allowed to make her own decisions based on her own free will and is not forced (either figuratively or expressly) into a situation where she feels pressurised into decisions against her will. She should be allowed to consider what is right for her, in her current circumstances, without feeling that she is being coerced by any form of outside influence.(Mill JS 1982) It clearly follows from this statement that Mrs.P. can only make such a decision if she is in full possession of all of the relevant facts relating to her circumstance and this then opens up another field of debate, one relating to the role of the healthcare professional as an information resource. It is incumbent on the healthcare professionals advising Mrs.P. that they would ensure that she has available to her (in a form that she can understand) all of the information necessary to allow her to make up her own mind on the issues presenting themselves. (Sugarman J Sulmasy 2001) Chlamydia In order to appreciate the full implication of the decisions and dilemmas facing Mrs.P., we should firstly consider the issues of the pathophysiology of chlamydia. It is commonly accepted that a large proportion of what was previously called NSU or even undiagnosed genital discharge, was probably infection due to chlamydia. It currently ranks as being responsible for numerically the greatest number of sexually transmitted diseases in the UK in the present day. (Duncan 1998) The actual incidence of detected chlamydia varies between different sociological groups and is dependent on the study. Adams (et al 2004) produced a huge meta analysis of UK data and suggested that the incidence varies from 8.1% of the under 20 age group to 1.4% of the over 30 group Equally it can be seen that other studies, (Piementa et al 2003), put the incidence in the under 20 group as high as 17% and in antenatal clinics (whole population) at 12%. There is no merit in debating the statistical validity of these figures, they are presented to underline the point that Mrs.P.’s dilemma is not a rare one. If we take an overview of the whole chlamydia issue we can cite the opinion of National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) who quote that, in their rationale for a national screening programme, chlamydia: Is the commonest Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) in England Is an important reproductive health problem ~ 10-30% of infected women develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). In a significant proportion of cases, particularly amongst women, are asymptomatic and so, are liable to remain undetected, putting women at risk of developing PID. Screening may reduce incidence of PID and ectopic pregnancy. These points are presented as underlining the argument that we will make later in this essay, that a diagnosis of chlamydial infection – although commonly asymptomatic (especially in men), is actually far from trivial and therefore should not be taken lightly or dismissively. Discussion With specific reference to Mrs.P. we should note that there are two important factors that should influence our discussions here. One is the relevance to Mr H. and his wife and the possible implications to their apparent infertility, and the second is effectively the contact tracing arguments and the degree that the healthcare professional should be involved in making Mr H. aware of the possibility that he may have the chlamydial infection. Let us begin by considering an excellent and informative paper by Cassell (et al 2003) on the issue of partner notification. The authors are of the opinion that, due to factors such as the explosion in the numbers and the evolution of the Health Service, that the thorny issue of partner notification, which had previously largely fallen into the domain of the GUM clinic nurse, had now evolved to involve General Practice staff, obstetric and gynaecology clinic staff as well as many others. The corollary of this is that this role has lost some of its efficiency in skill resources and time. (D of H 2002). The paper itself is very informative, but if we restrict ourselves to a consideration of those aspects which are directly referable to our considerations here. With regard to the issue of patient confidentiality and contact informing, only 40% of the healthcare professionals questioned thought that partner notification was actually their role. The remaining 60% took the view that it was their role to inform the patient of what they saw was their responsibility to inform their own partners. The reason that we make this point is that over at least the last two decades, there has been a noticeable and welcome shift to the general acceptance of evidence based medicine (Berwick D 2005). The point is therefore made that if this evidence is accepted, then we could assume that the majority of healthcare professionals believe that their responsibility to inform the patient’s partner ends with their discussion of the matter with the patient. This is relevant if one considers the Bolam principal which has been the foundation of the legal view of matters of medical negligence. The Bolam test, when applied to this type of situation states that: A healthcare professional is not negligent if he or she acts in accordance with practice accepted at the time by a responsible body of medical opinion. In other words, if one acts in accordance with the rules that govern normal medical and nursing practice. In these circumstances it would appear that the majority medical opinion is that one’s burden of responsibility is limited to telling the patient that they should tell their own sexual partners of their infection. To a degree, this view is at odds with other ethical considerations, as one might consider that one has an obligation both to Mrs.P.’s husband who may clearly be at risk from chlamydial infection and complications, and also Mr. H and his partner, who may even already be suffering from complications, as they are considering being investigated for infertility. In these eventualities one has to consider if one is breaching any or all of the three principles that we have already outlined above. On the face of it, it would appear that all three principles are being compromised by this course of action. Non-maleficence because of the implied failure to take active steps to protect Mrs.P.’s partners from potential harm. Beneficence because of Mrs.P.’s failure to agree to consent to anyone telling her partners on her behalf Dentology becaues it could be argued that a suggestion that the healthcare professional should tell Mrs.P.‘s partners means that decisions are being made on the grounds of expediency rather than necessarily in Mrs.P.’s best interest (as Mrs.P. sees it). The only principle that appears to be upheld with this particular view is that of Mrs.P.’s autonomy. We can explore this issue further. Mrs.P.’s refusal to inform her partners may be, at first sight, understandable. But there are other issues that we must consider before passing moral judgement on her. If we consider a paper by Duncan (Duncan B et al 1998). This provides a very informative insight into the issues that confront women in this situation and she cites a common finding of equating a perception of â€Å"being dirty† or promiscuity with a positive test. There is also the issue of both men and women feeling embarrassed to get tested, although, with the advent of General Practice based testing and testing away from the stigma of the GUM clinics, this may well be less of a problem. It also follows from this study finding that there is a major Public Health Education paradox here. If it is true that the majority of healthcare professionals actually believe that it is the responsibility of the patient to tell their partner and this fact is augmented by the discovery that another study found that nearly 20% of respondents actually chose to treat chlamydia with a dose of antibiotic which is less than the currently recommended therapeutic level recommended by the Central Audit Group for Genitourinary Medicine, (Stokes et al 1997), it is perhaps not a surprising observation that the level of chlamydial infection is apparently as high in the community as it is. It follows from this that the authors of another study in a similar area can make the comment: If testing in primary care continues to increase without adequate support for partner notification, much of the resource used in testing women will be wasted. (Griffiths et al 2002) To provide a balanced view on the subject we should observe that the converse of our argument so far is put by other workers in the field (EHC 1999), who argue for the enhancement of the contact tracing facilitators and facilities in order to â€Å"properly maximise a reduction in the risk of both personal re-infection and the level of infection in the community† The central importance of this argument is exemplified in an excellent paper by Patel (HC et al 2004). This looked at the reliability of contact tracing mechanisms. The paper itself is both long and involved. It followed up over 250 patients over a five year period. in short, the authors reported that if the infected patient had a regular partner, they were likely to turn up for treatment in about 53% of cases, whereas if there was an extramarital partner only about 13% would receive treatment. The implication is clearly (although it is obviously admitted that there are significant confounding factors), that an infected patient is far more likely to tell their marriage partner than an extramarital sexual partner. Conclusions and suggestions for practice. In order to help with such considerations we note that the main professional bodies issue their own comprehensive guidelines. They are issued jointly by both the BMA and RCN for all healthcare professionals(Dimond. B. 1999). The documents themselves are unsurprisingly enormous, and offer outline guidance on virtually every major issue and they follow the principles that we have already set out. They equally make the point that not every eventuality can either be predicted or catered for, and in these circumstances the healthcare professional is left to make their own judgement based on their interpretation of the underlying principles and circumstances. In our interpretation of these principles, it would appear that the overriding consideration in the case of Mrs.P. is that of autonomy. There may well be a substantial evidence base that we could point to which would suggest that Mrs.P.’s refusal to tell either her husband or sexual partner could have serious and possibly long lasting adverse effects on their health. But in the last analysis, Mrs.P. has the right of consent to her personal details being divulged – either explicitly or by inference and implication – to any other person. If that consent or permission is withheld then the healthcare professional would be expected to respect that right, even if they had personal difficulty with it themselves. There is an implicit obligation on healthcare professional not only to enhance the patient’s autonomy but also to take as many steps as possible to ensure that any decision reached by the patient is truly autonomous. The professional guidelines suggest that one of the best ways of doing this is primarily by the giving of as much information as possible, particularly that information which is judged to be of importance in assisting them in making their decisions (Williamson C 2005) This view seems to be echoed by the legal profession who have pointed to the fact ( in case law) that each adult has a right to their own autonomy. (Donaldson L 1993). The guiding pronouncement in this type of issue is that a legally competent adult has the right to agree or to disagree with any form of treatment or opinion offered by a healthcare professional and does not have to justify the reason for their action to anyone else. It is clearly incumbent on the healthcare professional to try to provide the Public Health information to help the patient make an informed and considered decision. It may even be considered acceptable to suggest or persuade the patient to â€Å"do the honourable thing†, but this clearly must not be interpreted as placing undue pressure on the patient otherwise all of the underlying ethical principles discussed so far will be completely undermined (Hendrick, J. 2000). We should also note that the same professional guidelines cited above also make the suggestion that the nature of the conversation and the topics discussed should be clearly recorded in the patient’s notes and if a decision is made to allow healthcare professionals to contact the other potential partners, then a consent form recording the decision should ideally be signed by the patient. In many instances we acknowledge that it is common practice to advise and take whatever action is perceived to be in the best interests of the patient, but in terms of our ever more litigious society, it appears to be good advice to get written consent for virtually every action however seemingly minor. (Yura H et al 1998), If we had to sum up the thrust of this essay in a sentence it would be that there is no excuse – either ethically, or for that matter in law – for making unfounded assumptions about what the patient wants or will permit. (Gillon. R. 1997). References Adams EJ , A Charlett, W J Edmunds, and G Hughes 2004 Chlamydia trachomatis in the United Kingdom: a systematic review and analysis of prevalence studies Sex. Transm. Inf., October 1, 2004; 80(5): 354 362. Berwick D 2005 Broadening the view of evidence-based medicine Qual. Saf. Health Care, Oct 2005; 14: 315 316. Carrick P 2000  Medical Ethics in the Ancient World  Georgetown University press 2000 ISBN: 0878408495 Cassell JA , M G Brook, R Slack, N James, A Hayward, and A M Johnson 2003 Partner notification in primary care Sex. Transm. Inf., June 1, 2003; 79(3): 264 265. Dimond. B. 2001  Legal Aspects of Consent  Salisbury.: Quay Books 2001 D of H 2002  Department of Health. The national strategy for sexual health and HIV: implementation action plan. London: DoH, 2002. Donaldson L 1993  in Re T (Adult: Refusal of Treatment) [1993) Fam 95 5 Duncan B, Hart G. 1998  Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis: a qualitative study of womens views. Prevenir 1998; (suppl 24): 229. EHC 1999  Effective Health Care. Getting evidence into practice.  York: University of York, 1999. Gillon. R. 1997.  Autonomy  London: Blackwell 1997 Griffiths C, Cuddigan A. 2002  Clinical management of chlamydia in general practice: A survey of reported practice. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2002;28:149–52. Hendrick, J. (2000)  Law and Ethics in Nursing and Health Care,  London. Stanley Thornes 2000 McMillan J 2005 Doing whats best and best interests BMJ, May 2005; 330: 1069 ; Mill JS 1982  On Liberty, 1982,  Harmondsworth: Penguin, p 68. Patel HC, Viswalingham ND, Goh BT 2004 Chlamydial ocular infection: efficacy of partner notification by patient referral. Int. J. STD AIDS 2004 Jul-Aug;5(4):244-7. Stokes T, Bhaduri S, Schober P, et al. 1997  GPs’ management of genital chlamydia: a survey of reported practice.  Fam Pract 1997;14:455–60 Sugarman J Sulmasy 2001  Methods in Medical Ethics  Georgetown Univeristy Press 2001 ISBN: 0878408738 Tà ¤nnsjà ¶ T 2005 Moral dimensions BMJ, Sep 2005; 331: 689 691 ; Veitch RM 2002  Cross-cultural perspectives in medical ethics Jones Bartlett 2002 ISBN: 0763713325   Williamson C 2005 Withholding policies from patients restricts their autonomy BMJ, Nov 2005; 331: 1078 1080 ; Yura H, Walsh M. 1998  The nursing process. Assessing, planning, implementing, evaluating. 5th edition. Norwalk, CT: Appleton Lange, 1998. ############################################################# 20.2.06 PDG Word count 3,184

Performance Analysis of One Dimension FDTD Code

Performance Analysis of One Dimension FDTD Code Performance analysis of One dimension FDTD code using Parallel Processing Technique P. GUNAPANDIAN, M.R.SUBASREE, B. MANIMEGALAI Abstract The requirement of longer processing time and larger memory makes FDTD method impractical for many cases. Implementation of parallel processing in FDTD method is proposed in this paper. The implementation depends mainly on computer architecture and programming libraries under different operating systems. In this paper a several performance tests of a one dimension FDTD code is tested in different platforms. The results shows that Parallel processing shows a linear decrease in time and larger data handling which makes it as a right platform for complex structures. Keywords:  FDTD, parallel processing, computer architecture, operating system, serial processing. Introduction Computational ability has advanced in the recent few decades. One of the most common methods to solve Maxwells equations on arbitrary configurations of materials and field sources is the Finite Differences on Time Domain (FDTD) [1]. There exist a number of techniques for enhancing the performance of the conventional FDTD, in order to obtain accuracy the conformal FDTD method which simulates the curved perfect electrical conductor (PEC) [2,3]. Sub-gridding technique is used to increase the mesh density in the local area in which the field varies quickly [5,6]. The Multi-Resolution Time-Domain (MRTD) and Pseudo-Spectrum Time-Domain (PSTD) techniques are used to reduce the dispersion of the conventional yee grid [7,8]. The above techniques mentioned are used to improve the conventional FDTD technique for the purpose of reducing either memory requirements or simulation time. The parallel-processing FDTD accelerates the FDTD simulation by distributing the job to multiple processors, so th at the available memory for large problems is virtually unlimited. At the same time, the simulation time is dramatically reduced compared to a single-processor implementation. On the computational point of view the parallel processing have an important advantage which makes the parallel executions strategies easier. Parallel processing in computers is based on dividing a computer code into a number of segments and distribution of the task among a number of computers/processors, which are then executed in parallel. This may be achieved on hardware-level, software level, or both. Hardware-level parallelization necessitates alternative processor designs. Software-level parallelization can be either on data level or function level, depending on the characteristics of the code [9]. In this paper one dimensional FDTD code is developed for parallel processing. The performance analysis of the code developed is compared with both serial and parallel. The code is simulated in different platforms and the results are obtained. The results shows the efficiency of the parallel processing in handling larger data and reduction of time compared to serial processing. FDTD METHOD The FDTD method is one of the well known approaches to solve Maxwell’s partial differential equations, because of its high versatility. FDTD algorithm is based on temporal and three-dimensional spatial discretization and it transforms the time-dependent Maxwell’s curl equations into a set of finite-difference relations [10, 11].Boundary conditions are needed on the edge of the simulation domain, among the several possible choices perfect matched layer (PML) boundary can be more accurate and the PML boundary is used in the developed code. One Dimension FDTD The one dimension FDTD starts with the formulation of the Maxwell’s equations, Where E and H are electric and magnetic field respectively. The one dimension equation for Ex and Hy are given, which denotes the Electric field with respect to x direction and magnetic field with respect to y direction. The update equations are given in (3) and (4). The FDTD update equations are used to develop the Matlab code and the code is excited with the Gaussian pulse and the results are obtained. PARALLEL FDTD According to the principle of FDTD algorithm, the electromagnetic field value at certain position can be decided by the value of last time step at this position and electromagnetic field value of this time step at nearby position. The electromagnetic field value has no direct relation to the values at position far from this point. So, the whole computational space can be divided into some sections that can be computed in some nodes of parallel computing system. The exchange of field values between nodes can be executed only at interface between sections. According to the basic concept, the computing between parallel nodes can be executed to simulate the serial computing in a single PC or workstation. This is the key point of our parallel FDTD algorithm. Fig.1 shows the methodology of serial and the parallel approach Figure 1. Serial and parallel approach PARALLEL PROCESSING TECHNIQUE The main idea of parallel processing starts with the updating the EM field components in each processor in the same instant. When the computation updates a field component on the border of the domain, some values belonging to the border of the adjacent domain are required to avoid communications during the computations each sub domain is surrounded by the border cells of the other domain. These border values are communicated after the updating phase. Thus the parallel processing is achieved. The first step of the FDTD modeling starts with the one dimensional method. A Gaussian pulse is generated in the centre of the problem space and the pulse propagates in the both the directions. The time step is taken to be 500 iteration steps and the total time required for the signal is 500fs. The time seconds are calculated by the time taken by the pulse to originate from the centre and to decay at the end. The Matlab code is developed for one dimensional FDTD for serial processing and the code is updated to parallel processing. The number of cells of the computation domain in varied by keeping the number of iterations constant and the time taken by the serial and the parallel processing is noted. The figure2 shows the comparison between the serial and parallel processing for different number of cells. From the figure 2 it is noted that the parallel processing code is able to process the large number of cells within the shorter period of time, thereby proving that the parallel processing can be used to process larger amount of data in shorter duration of time. Figure 2. Serial vs. parallel processing The parallel processing code developed has been simulated in various newer version Intel processors which is used to analyze the performance. The number of iterations are kept constant and the cell size is varied and the code is simulated in different Intel processors include i3, i5, i7 and Pentium processors. The results shows that the updated newer version i7 was able to process the data more quickly, so that the parallel processing can be used more efficiently in higher versions system which is easily available now a days. Figure 3 shows the Comparision with different versions of the processors. From the results it is observed that the i7 processor was able to process the code more efficiently than the others. Pentium processor which is one of the oldest among took larger time to process the code. Figure 3. Parallel processing on different versions of Intel processors The parallel code is simulated with different number of Matlab workers. Figure 4 shows the relation between the parallel code and the number of Matlab workers. In this code the number of iterations is kept constant and the time taken by the code to run with different number of cells is noted. The graph shows that parallel code works more efficiently when the number of workers is increased to be four. Figure 4. Performance with different number of Matlab workers The speed-ups increase with the problem size because of the better exploitation of CPU resources and parallel processing. Figure 5 shows the achieved speed-ups for with respect to the serial algorithm running on the CPU. Thus the parallel processing gives a better speed up for larger problems. Figure 5. Speed up comparison for serial and parallel processing From the figure 5 it is noted that the parallel processing gives a better speed up. With the previous results the number of iterations and the cell size is varied and the results are noted. For each cell size the iterations are changed and the values are noted. Figure 6 shows the speed up for different cell size at various iterations. From the figure it can be absorbed that larger the computation domain better the speed up thereby making the parallel processing very much suitable for larger computation domain. Figure 6. Iteration vs. Speedup CONCLUSION From the results it is observed that the disadvantage of the FDTD method can be overcome by using Parallel processing FDTD method. The performance analysis of this paper thereby shows that the parallel processing can be easily achieved efficiently by using modern CPU’s present today which can be used to do complex computations. REFERENCES [1]. Yee, K. S., Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving Maxwells equations in isotropic media, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 14, No. 5, 302-307, May 1966. [2]. Time Domain Maxwell s Equations Solver: Software and User s Guide, Norwood, MA, Artech House, 2004. [3]. W. Yu and R. Mittra, A Conformal FDTD Software Package for Modeling of Antennas and Microstrip Circuit Components, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, 42, 5, October 2000, pp. 28-39. [4]. W. Yu and R. Mittra, A Conformal Finite Difference Time Domain Technique for Modeling Curved Dielectric Surfaces,  IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, January 2001, pp. 25-27. [5]. W. Yu and R. Mittra, A New Sub gridding Method for Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Algorithm, Microwave Opt. Techno. Lett. , 21, 5, June 1999, pp. 3 3 0-333. [6]. B. Wang, Y. Wang, W. Yu, and R. Mittra, A Hybrid 2-D FDTD Sub gridding Scheme for Modeling On-Chip Interconnects, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging, 24, 4, November 200 1 , pp. 528-533. [7]. X. Zhu, T. Dogaru, and L. Carin, Three-Dimensional Biorthogonal Multiresolution Time-Domain Method and Its Application to Electromagnetic Scattering Problems, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, AP-51, 5, May 2003, pp. 1085- 1 092. [8]. Q. H. Liu, The PSTD Algorithm: A Time-Domain Method Requiring Only Two Cells Per Wavelength, Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett.,IS,1997, pp. 1 58- 1 65. [9] W. H. Yu, Y. J. Liu, T. Su, N.-T. Huang, and R. Mittra, †A robust parallel conformal finite-difference time-domain processing package using the MPI library,† IEEE Antennas Propagat. Mag., vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 39-59, 2005. [10] Almasi, G.S, and Gohlied, A, â€Å"Highly Parallel Computing†. Benjamin Cummings Publishing, 2a ed., 1994. [11]. Taflove A, Brodwin ME. Numerical solution of steady-state electromagnetic scattering problems using the time-dependent Maxwell’s equations. IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech. 1975,MTT-23(8):623–30. [12]. W. Yu, X. Yang, Y. Liu, and R. Mittra â€Å"Parallel FDTD Performance Analysis on Different Hardware Platforms â€Å",IEEE Int. Symp. Antennas and Propagation Meeting

Dr. Faustus Consumed by Pride in Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus E

Dr. Faustus Consumed by Pride in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus In this theoretic play, Christopher Marlowe presents a man that is well educated, but is in search of more than what education can give to him. Dr. Faustus is a man possessed by himself, blown up in pride, and blinded by his own intellect. This blind, self- centered man challenges the ideals of death and the Devil. The first scene opens with Dr. Faustus in his study, he is seated, and then he begins to speak in depth of what he wants to do. He talks of his graduation from the different levels of education. With his words there is an air of hubris, he wants all to notice him, and what he has accomplished. He claims that logic has overcame him, more of a pun or a sarcastic reach on his audience. He goes on to say, should logic be disputed or is it the main thought in the end. And without logic then what is there? So he finally contends that he has read it all and that he knows all the logic that he needs to know. A greater subject is needed now to fill the needs of Dr. Faustus. He wants something which will challenge his knowledge. So he looks to the medical field to fill his desires. But he has seen where the philosopher leaves off and the physician begins. Faustus in his vain wit says, I become a physician, to make lots of money, and to be known for creating some wondrous cure. But this does not fit for Faustus either. He states in the end there is medicine and it is only sustains our body to health. And then he asks himself, have not I obtained such knowledge, and isn't the common knowledge that he already has all that he needs? Once again he asks himself, I have cured whole cities and his work hangs on the wall in the form of a writing to show all o... ...nerals, is what is required to be a magician. He tells Faustus that he can not have any doubt, that he will be an expert in the craft, and all the oracle of Apollo will be his. What more could you want, than to have the power to dry the sea, and bring you every treasure from the wrecks that lay at the bottom of the sea. Faustus agrees and is now more convinced that he wants to conjure up the spirits so that he can have all that they have spoken. In the final part of scene one they conspire to find a place to perform the ritual and get all the things that they need to call up the spirits. But first Faustus wants to dine with them and before he will rest again he will bring forth the spirits that will give him all the power that he desires. Thus, we see now that Faustus pride has taken over completely and that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants at any cost.

William Butler Yeats :: Biography

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865. He was the eldest son of a painter. In 1867 his family moved to London, but he frequently visited his grandparents in Northern Ireland. There he was greatly influenced by the folklore of the region. In 1881 his family returned to Dublin. Their Yeats studied at the Metropolitan School of Art. During school he became more focused on literature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yeats made his debut in 1885, with the publication of his first poems in The Dublin University Review. In 1887, his family returned to Bedford Park in London, and Yeats devoted himself to writing. In 1889 he met Maud Gonne, an actress and Irish revolutionary. He soon fell in love with her and she became a major landmark in his writing. She later married Major John MacBride and inspired Yeats's poem 'No Second Troy'   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yeats's early work did not reflect his Irish heritage but soon he turned towards his Irish culture for inspiration. Yeats studied many Irish folktales and in 1888 published a book of tales titled Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. He also published a less detailed version for children titled Irish Fairy Tales in 1892.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1897, Yeats's met Lady Gregory, an aristocrat and playwright, who shared the same interest in Ireland's past. In 1899 they formed the Irish Literary Theater. Yeats worked as a director and writer for the theater. Some of his most famous dramas were CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN and THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yeats later proposed to Lady Gregory, but she refused his offer. Again in the same year he proposed to her daughter but she also declined. Lady Gregory's passion for a free Ireland kindled Yeats's interest in the political struggles of Ireland.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1917, Yeats bought an old stone tower near Coole Park. After he restored the tower it became his summer home and a symbol in his writing. Also in 1917,Yeats married Georgie Hyde-Lee. Later they had a son and a daughter together, Anne and Michael. During their honeymoon they compiled their notebooks and formed the basis of A VISION.

Morals and Ethics of Cloning

Regardless of what our future holds, it will be based on the decisions we make today.   Those decisions can be made using the Utilitarian Theory which states that we are doing good for the greatest number of people.   Using Rule Utilitarianism â€Å"which maintains that a behavioral code or rule is morally right if the consequences of adopting that rule are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone. (IEP)† is justifiably noted that if a consensus is formed on the basis of rules that govern cloning, and these rules are broken, the appropriate punishment will result.This is because cloning a human will not benefit the society as a whole; it would do more harm than good.   We all have rules that govern our society over what is right or wrong and we know that these rules are set forth to maintain order.   We have laws because it benefits the majority of the people.Principles of Consequences state that when looking at the end result, the correct action will be the action that produces the greatest amount of happiness (Usury).   To decide if human cloning produces the greatest amount of happiness we have one question still in need of an answer is â€Å"Are human embryos really human?† Well, the term ‘human' proceeding the term 'embryo' should adequately answer the question.The embryo are cloned from human tissue, contain human DNA, thus there is likely a 100 percent chance that the embryos are indeed human, as opposed to being tadpole embryos. Therefore, biologically speaking a clone is no less a human than you or I. And using that human for tissue simply because he/she was cloned rather than conceived does not validate the notion, nor skip around the moral and ethical implications of taking the life of another human being.   Death is not a happy occasion therefore it does not produce the greatest amount of happiness to the majority of the population.Cloning is the process of taking cells from a donor, placing them in a culture dish where the nutrients are  minimal, so the cells stop dividing and switch their â€Å"active genes†. The cells are then put next to an unfertilized egg. The nucleus is sucked out of the egg leaving an empty egg cell containing all the cellular machinery necessary to produce an embryo. An electric shock is used to fuse the egg and cell together. A second shock is then used to mimic the act of fertilization and help begin cell division. After the egg has successfully moved to the stage of an embryo it is then placed in to the uterus of a surrogate mother. When born, all the genes are the same as the donor of the cell.In 1997 Dr. Ian Wilmut, a British scientist successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly.   This turned the scientific world upside-down. The success of the experiment is considered by all as an amazing achievement in science. However, ethics and morals must surface to regulate cloning. It is understood that individuality is the most important part of life. Individual ity is given to a person at birth and considered a right they will have for rest of their life.There is also a fear that the clone may only be produced to live the life of the clone, thus causing severe emotional damage as well pain and suffering for the clone. The progression of the clone may be limited, the advance in idea development will slowly die off. Evolution could come to a halt, because with clones, diversity will be limited and there will not be as many advances in society. The cells, in all humans, will all be the same and there will not be a process of natural selection and diversity.Another controversial question facing the cloning process is: How will the clones be treated? The emotions of the clones need to be taken in to consideration; after all they are humans too. â€Å"What is common to these various views, however, is a shared understanding that being a ‘person' is different from being the manipulated ‘object' of other peoples desires and expectatio ns†(Biomedical Ethics).   People, as clones, will be studied, prodded, and poked which in turn will cause much unwanted anxiety and emotional distress.There will also be problems with relationships between parents and the clone for understandable reasons.   It will bring up a lot of unwelcome stress for the clone when one â€Å"parent† is an anonymous donor of an egg and the other is Dr. Frankenstein. Some may argue that a child is a child and the parents should love their child unconditionally.   However, the bond between the clone and the parents who care for the clone may have awkward encounters.   The love and affection that is provided for most children will not be the same due to the fact that the clone is considered to be more of an experiment rather than a child. Another argument may be that artificial insemination has already taken the step of engineering babies.   However, artificial insemination is used for parents who can not have children but feel they could provide a loving environment for them.Despite the abundant differences and backgrounds of the world today all most people agree that coitus (sex)  is the naturally preferred way to conceive a child.   With the cloning process the necessity to have coitus will not be needed.   â€Å"Is there something about the individual that is lost when the mystical act of conceiving a person becomes standardized into a mere act of photocopying one† (Time)?The parent's will not have to conceive a child, just order one from a catalog and have it arrive next day air.   It will take away the personal feeling and romance   that having â€Å"a child of   your own† creates. Part of the bliss of having a child is the mystery behind it. Is it a boy? A girl? Who does it look like?   Cloning will take away from the pleasures that have been happening for countless years and the elements of surprise will fade in to mail order babies.Another very touchy issue is the ques tion of, is the medical world   taking to much control?   It is stated by scientists that if they are allowed to clone people, one won't have to worry about organ donations or blood drives in order for people to survive. The scientists will  simply clone an organ and replace the faulty one in the human. As simple as this seems, the issue of who they can use to clone comes up.   Finding the ideal person to clone is hard enough, now try to get one with the right blood type, size, and gender.The numbers decrease and it seems as if the scientists would have to clone someone for each person.   If this is true, would the clones be stored somewhere, or able to roam around the world until they were needed to fill their role?   Once again the rights of the clones come up and the thought of clone farms creates a sort of â€Å"yuck† factor for everyone.According to Time Magazine,   â€Å"Out of 277 tries, the researchers eventually produced only 29 embryos that survived l onger than six days† out of the remaining 29 only one survived and was born. The percentage is very low leaving people wondering if it is  even worth the time and effort put in.   â€Å"Some clones may indeed be growing old before their time†(U.S. News).   The research states that the clones will not live a whole life due to the one cell that has been cloned is older and effects the rest of the clones cells making them advance prematurely.  Ã‚   Instead of using science to lengthen the life of a human cloning will decrease the length of life by half.Scientists need to reconsider how they are manipulating the world.   Based on the information provided through the research, doctors should step back and take a look at the morals and ethics of cloning humans and evaluate if it is really worth the risk doctors are taking.The bad consequences out way the good, therefore we cannot assume that the benefit of human cloning will solve life's problems.   To this day we have yet to find a cure for the common cold.   This is because most diseases have a way of surviving, as did the human race during the ice age.   Everything finds a way to adapt to it's environment and if the benefits major benefit for cloning is to cure diseases, then we are at a loss.   The fight for life â€Å"survival of the fittest† can sum it up.If we result to cloning as a means for reproduction, then who is to say that our bodies might not adapt to this, only allowing for this type of reproduction?   Only then will we realize that in our effort to gain knowledge and power over every other living thing, did we fail.   Everything on this earth has to be in perfect balance, and when we continue to tamper with Mother Nature, she finds a way to fight back.  Ã‚   For example, the ozone layer is being depleted because of chemical agents produced and released into the atmosphere by man.   As a result, the ozone layer can longer protect our skin as it used too, causing more cases of skin cancer every year.   I believe that if you push someone, or in this case, something (Mother Nature) hard enough, she will push back.   We need to take things as they are given to us, the good and the bad.   When we try to beat the odd, sometimes the odds beat us.BibliographyBiomedical Ethics Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 1998 Cloning (1998).   How to Clone a Human (Version 1.1). [On-line] Biofact November 8, 1999. Available: http://www.biofact.com/cloning/human.html Cloning (1998).   Human Cloning Plans.   [On-line] NPR  Ã‚   November 8, 1999 Available â€Å"Dolly, Polly, Gene-send in the clones† Science News.   January 23, 1997.   pp.127 Cloning (1999).   Should Cloning Be Banned?   [On-line] Reasons  Ã‚   November 5, 1999 Available: http://www.reasons.com /biclone.html Kluger, Jeffrey.   â€Å"Goodbye, Dolly† Time  Ã‚   June 7, 1999. pp.70 Nash, J.   â€Å"The Age of Cloning†Ã‚   Time   March 10, 19997. pp.60-75 Macklin, Ruth.   â€Å"Human cloning?   Don't just say no†. U.S. News &World Report. March10, 1997. pp. 64 Couzin, Jennifer   â€Å"What's Killing The Clones?†Ã‚   U.S. News & World Report.   May24, 1999.   pp.65

An Artistic Story of New York City in 1932

November 17, 2012 Essay II, Word Count: 2268 An Artistic Story of New York in 1932 The purpose of this essay is to discuss the ways Stuart Davis uses the elements of art and principals of design in his painting, New York Mural, 1932. In the beginning of this essay, there is a description of Davis’ biological information and what was happening in New York during the years preceding the painting. It will discuss three elements of art to include: line, shape and color. The principals of design that will be discussed are unity, balance, and variety.It will close with my personal reflection and experience that was gained from the analysis and research of the painting. Davis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1892 to parents that were artists. His father was a newspaper art director and his mother was a sculptor. His family moved to East Orange, New Jersey when he was nine years old. He attended school in New Jersey and left high school in 1909 before graduating to attend Hen ri’s School of Art in New York City. He became acquainted and formed friendships with mentors, John Sloan and George Luks. These men were all part of â€Å"The Eight†.These men were all part of the Realist Art Movement and focused on poverty and the realities of urban life for real people. He began exhibiting his art in 1910 and had his first exhibit in New York City. In 1912, he was employed by a left leaning journal that under the direction of Sloan. While he was there, participating in the groundbreaking Armory Show. His work still was in the realist mode until 1916 when he went on his own to become more of an abstract artist. He was drafted and stayed in United States as a cartographer creating maps for the US Army Intelligence Department.Fortunately, that was short-lived and he began using a Cubist style on his work. He made a series with this Cubist style of works based on a tobacco series. He began an eggbeater series while having Edith Halpert of New Yorkâ€⠄¢s Downtown Gallery of Art. This series began his journey away from European influenced Cubism to his own development of his own abstractive modernist style without human presence in his works. He went to Paris in 1928 and upon returning in 1929, he became fascinated and intrigued with the industrialism and post war architecture in New York City.His words were quoted by Karen Wilkin, â€Å"On my arrival I New York I was appalled and depressed by its gigantism. Everything in Paris was human size, here everything was inhuman. It was difficult to think either of art or oneself as having any significance whatever in the face of this frenetic commercial engine. † (Wilkin, 127). At this time, the Great Depression he created relatively few works, but he constantly changed scale, medium and method, making easel paintings, ink drawings, murals and lithographs (Wilkin, 127). His art reflected social issues and his works were pictures that tell a larger story.New York Mural was his mos t ambitious treatment of the city in which he touched upon the issues of prohibition, government corruption and the affairs of Al Smith (Weber, 10). His journals and historical data during these few years in the New York City political scene are confirmation of the journalistic story he told through New York Mural. It was an outrage that many foreign artists were commissioned to do work in the United States. The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized an exhibit of contemporary murals. This show is why Davis created the New York Mural.It stirred much controversy because of the story it told about New York’s economic, social and political climate. Davis wrote in his personal papers, now in collection at Harvard University: Modern art is a reflection of the advanced modern technology. Modern Art in turn has changed to industrial design (Weber, 10). In 1932, Davis painted the piece that is the topic of this essay, New York Mural. He used oil which did not dry quickly and gave him the ability to change and modify colors and lines days later. Oil paint is flexible and it was easy for him to achieve a rich luminosity while having smooth effects with a high level of detail. DeWitte, Larmann, and Shields, 186). His paintings were now made up of modern industry images with free association and with a decorative pattern that created an optical vibration (Weber, 13). The most dominant principle of design used in this piece is variety because of the artist’s use of various elements of art to include: line, shape, color, form and space. Each element has many purposes to hold the views attention. As you look at the picture, these elements are effective in bringing your attention to every detail as you look around the work of art.Variety makes this picture of the skyline diverse and like no other picture of New York City. The use of lines is complimented by the variety of color used in the painting. The oil provides a shiny surface that allows the lines to b e hard and well defined. Within each line are many colors hues of color. The solid primary colors give the lines true definition. Many of the colors are complementary which seems to help contract the objects while achieving depth, especially between the buildings. Some areas of the picture have both crossed-hatching and hatching and neutral solid spaces and shapes.This helps create darkness and lightness in the details of many of the objects. Along with solid black and white areas, the hatchings create shadows and make the picture appear three-dimensional. The buildings appear in the background and random objects in the foreground because of the black surrounding the bottom images in the picture. When you are standing back from the picture you know it’s a building facade but cannot see the defined shapes of the building. The cross hatching and neutrals colors help this happen as if you were in the city looking at distant buildings.The colors are all basic colors of the spectr um with the exception of black and white in the foreground and background to create a dramatic sense of depth and value. These hues are in different shades and saturations. For example the yellow in the banana and tigers’ head is close to its highest level of saturation. The yellow building is a lower saturated yellow because it is mustard in color by having brown mixed into the paint. The black used in the background, lines and inside the buildings help show the defined shapes of the objects in the piece.The white achieves many of the same things while this absence of color is used to show brightness and the feeling of daylight where it is in the background. There is an obvious contrast by the black and white that creates the symbolism of night and day. With these neutral colors there is no need for implied lines as your eyes wonder around the picture. The directional lines are used to bring your eyes upward in the painting to the tallest building in the center which could b e considered the main focal point. It is almost in the centerline of the piece which helps to achieve symmetry and balance.This building is recognizable as the Empire State Building, the newest and tallest building in New York in 1932. Horizontal Lines bring your eyes up into the skyline while the vertical and diagonal lines create depth and dimensions. The curved lines with both thin and thickness to them help you to notice various symbols that explain the story Davis is trying to tell of that time. The foreground has many shapes utilizing volume and space that take time to identify. These contour shaped images create volume and space in the foreground.While the yellow banana is recognizable, it has a an organic shape that makes you look closely to make sure that is what he is showing the viewer. The green banana is not as recognizable because of its dark hue of green even though it is analogous to yellow. There are mostly geometric shapes in the city’s skyline. The only cur ved line and shape is in the shape of a funny face with a hat at the top of the purple building to the right where the three orange circles look two eyes and a nose. Symmetry is achieved through a well balanced picture.Both sides are equally filled with positive shapes and vary with and same amount of negative space. There are concentric geometric shapes for the windows in the buildings, this creates contrast between the different buildings heights and widths. It also gives symmetry to each individual building. The six large rectangles behind the gas pump make it recognizable as a gas station with the garage door in front. The use of colors and lines help the entire picture to appear balanced. The principle of design, proportion, is used throughout this piece of art. The tiger’s head and tail are recognizable in a cartoon like image.If you did not have the research and narrative of what was going on in this time period of the artist’s life, you would not understand why it is randomly placed to the right bottom of the closest building in the foreground of the buildings. The entire painting has the cartoon like feel to it. Especially with the exaggerated proportions of the hats, bananas and what looks like a butterfly on the right side boarder. These things are not to scale with the rest of the parts. The scale is in different proportions and it is mostly dramatic between the foreground and the skyline which appears father away.The best example in the foreground is the proportion of the bananas, tire and hat. It would be a very small tire and hat or a very large banana in realistic. Davis uses scale to exaggerate some of the messages that he is trying to tell about the many things that were taking place during this time. Many of these images are defined further through many of Davis’ later paintings that are enlarged and elaborated versions of this original painting. In a genius way, Davis achieves unity through this picture when you view it as a whole.There is a direct message that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts (DeWitte, Larmann, and Shields, 121). He splatters various colorful shapes and organic images to tell the story. Upon first glance, the draw to this picture was because the noticeably recognizable skyline of New York City. I love New York City more than any other place that I have ever lived, worked or played. After gazing around it for a few moments, I could see many random objects beautifully tied and linked together through symbols made of shapes, space, lines and many bright, shiny colors.It was puzzling because I did not know specific facts of history. It was obvious to me that each thing placed in the painting was deliberate and told a story. I was very interested to hear why these random objects surrounding the geometric shaped skyline were of significance to the artist at that moment in time. It is very busy, but also balanced achieving unity and balance. After reading about the artist and his other works, I was fascinated by his ability to not only tell a story but to practically expose the negative and positive events and achievements of that time.His ego and boldness was obvious to me when I realized the offending nature of some of the references he was making representing specific people he knew and was around in New York City. I feel as though I have read a book about New York City’s growth and struggles after the crash of the stock market in 1929 through the early 1930’s. I am also grateful, to the authors of books and articles that explain what was happening and researches what the artist meant with different aspects of their pieces of art. I am a new fan of Davis because I love his bright shiny pictures depicting the city I love and am interested in.He loved New York and enjoyed it while noticing some of the growth and change making the city less intimate and large and filled with the potential and realities for corruption. I belie ve he admired and was impressed with the new buildings and infrastructure in the city while acknowledging that it had to come at a price of greed and a degree of coldness rather than prosperity and warmth. This essay makes me more interested in the stories behind the pieces of art and the artists that created them. The thoughts, history and personal situations are fascinating and give me a different appreciation for New York Mural.I am going to stay mindful and open to enjoy a piece of artwork just for its beauty and the talent that it took to create rather than the book of truth and theoretical information behind it. Works Cited Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larrman, and M. Kathryn Shields, Gateways to Art, 2012, Tharmes & Hudson Weber, Bruce. Stuart Davis’ New York, 1985. Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach Wilkins, Karen. Stuart Davis, 1987. Cross River Press, ltd. Davis, Stuart. New York Mural. 1932. Oil on Canvas. Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach. 84 inches x 84 inc hes, signed and dated Date viewed: November 4, 2012