Differing Cultures

One society that significantly differs from the United States in terms of values and beliefs are the Chinese. Possibly the most significant difference between the two is that the Chinese is generally a conservative society while the United States is more liberal-minded. This is best shown in their attitude towards sex and religion, among many others. Based on recent survey and studies, there were a lot of Americans who have had sexual intercourse in their teenage years.In short, most Americans, particularly the youth, view sex as more of a casual thing as compared to the Chinese who have strict prohibitions regarding sex. Moreover, the Americans are more vocal about sex as well as other sensitive issues regarding race and gender, among others while the Chinese prefer not to talk about these issues publicly. In addition, the Chinese are more superstitious than the Americans. This is shown in their popular practices such as feng-shui and various rituals during death and marriage, to na me a few.Furthermore, the Chinese has a more preserved culture than the United States as shown in their various traditions that are still being practiced today. They also maintain and practice their cultural beliefs and principles no matter where they go, which is shown in the various â€Å"Chinatowns† across the world wherein the population is predominantly Chinese. On the other hand due to the United States’ cultural diversity, it is hard to determine exactly what their practices are except during holidays.Basically, the vast differences between the two societies can greatly affect marketing strategies and decisions since commercial companies and businesses, particularly the international ones, would always have to ensure that their advertisements would not offend a certain society. For example, it would be hard for a liberal product to penetrate markets in China or in Chinese societies if its advertisements contain things that are offensive to them. In other words, this difference in culture would more often than not alter marketing decisions in a way that would be fair to all cultures and societies.

Outline: Assessing The Potential For Using Motivational Strategies Within The Military: Theory And Practical

Introduction Numerous studies have been conducted analysing the role of motivation in enhancing performance of an individual, organization, or a practice (Outgunned, 2012; Zbylut et al., 2007; Dadabhay, 2011). The term motivation is in most cases used when suggesting that failure or success in any event is as a direct result of an individual’s endeavour, involvement and enthusiasm (Wong et al., 2003; Chizek, 2003). Most issues that are related to motivation have a foundation of the aspects of the human mind. These issues are also the driving force in a person or a group of persons (Morrison et al., 2007). Simply put, if the reason for taking a certain action is relevant and strong, it merits making an effort or a sacrifice regardless of a person’s capability. Therefore, the concept of motivation and its application in the military is central to the success of an individual in effectively conducting the duties of military personnel. It is imperative for a military leader to be able to motivate the followers to accomplish hazardous and physically challenging task that is life threatening and dangerous, which is a common working environment of the military. This study intends to conduct an analysis on existing literatures on performance motivation and its application as a form of leadership strategy used for motivating soldiers. To be able to fully explore on this issue, it will be necessary to analyse the current theories of motivations and the actual motivation practice in the military environment. This is important in developing a foundation for expounding on the research issue exhaustively. Aims and objectives of the research This research aims to analyse the probability of adopting theoretical motivational strategies in the military. To be able to meet this aim, the following objectives will guide this study: To identify and describe the current motivational theories and techniques that have the greatest potential of increasing a soldier’s performance. To identify those principles, practices, and techniques from various motivational theories which could have potential use in a military unit environment To review the effectiveness of existing theoretical models and approaches of leadership and motivation in improving the learning and training capability of soldiers To identify the conditions and requirements for applying various performance motivation techniques in military environment To identify the practices that need reinforcement and also identify the processes and policies that require improvement in the process of fostering motivational levels of the military Research questions To be able to fully meet the above objectives, this study will attempt to provide response to the following research questions: What leadership tools and motivational strategies do military commanders use to motivate soldiers How effective are the methods and models used and are there areas identified for improvement What were the common areas that are deficient Literature review summary The concept of leadership and motivation as viewed from a military perspective has been analysed by various authors (Outgunned, 2012; Dadabhay, 2011). Various forms of leadership approaches for military have been suggested by different authors including Gardener-leadership (Wong et al., 2003), collaborative leadership (Zbylut et al., 2007; Chizek, 2003), servant leadership (Cook, 1999), strategic leadership (Morrison et al., 2007) among many other forms of leadership. All these forms of leadership will be scrutinised in this study in an attempt to addressing the research issue. Furthermore, other theoretical forms of leadership that are not applied in the military will also be reviewed to gather deeper insights into leadership approaches and their link to motivation of followers. The information gathered in the analysis of the theories and approaches will be central in developing a response to the problem statement identified above. Proposed methodology The fact that this study analyses a specific phenomenon in the current environment, collection of primary data was deemed the most appropriate for conducting the study. In this case, quantitative research methodology will be used to collect and analyse data. Specifically, an online case study will be used for gathering data from the participants in an attempt to address the research questions. The questionnaire will be designed with reference to the information that will be gathered from the review of the literature and the research questions of this study. These questions will then be posted to participants via their mail for collection of the responses. The collected data will be analysed using a statistical package of social sciences to be able to derive a social meaning in the data collected. Conclusion This study aims to provide updated information about motivation among the military and go ahead and develop the most appropriate method for promoting motivation among soldiers. This research is very important because its concepts will be important in developing pragmatic policies for leadership aimed at sustaining higher levels of motivation among soldiers especially the new recruits. References Cook, M. L., 1999. Moral Reasoning as a Strategic Leader Competency. Undated, . Chizek, J. G., 2003. Military transformation: Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE. Dadabhay, M., 2011. The Mediating Role of Workplace Spirituality on Perceptions of Transformational Leadership, Organisational Commitment and Employee Job Satisfaction within a sample of South African Muslim School teachers (Doctoral dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand). Morrison, J. E., Fletcher, J. D., Moses, F. L., & Roberts, E. J., 2007. The Army science of learning workshop. US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Outgunned, A. A., 2012. The Missed Opportunity p46. Military Review. Wong, L., Kolditz, T. A., Millen, R. A., & Potter, T. M., 2003. Why they fight: combat motivation in the Iraq war. ARMY WAR COLL STRATEGIC STUDIES INST CARLISLE BARRACKS PA. Zbylut, M. L., Metcalf, K. A., Kim, J. M., Hill Jr, R. W., Rocher, S., & Vowels, C., 2007. Army excellence in leadership (AXL): A multimedia approach to building tacit knowledge and cultural reasoning. ARMY RESEARCH INST FOR THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES FORT LEAVENWORTH KS.

David Carson: Renowned for His Inventive Graphics

He was born September 8, 1952 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Carson and his family moved to New York City four years later. Since then he has traveled all around the world but has maintained New York as his base of operations. Carson now owns two studios; one in New York and another in Charleston, South Carolina. Because of his father, Carson traveled all over America, Puerto Rico, and the West Indies. These journeys affected him profoundly and the first signs of his talent were shown at a very young age; however, his first actual contact with graphic design was made in 1980 at the University of Arizona on a two week graphics course. He attended San Diego St. University as well as Oregon College of Commercial Art. Later on in 1983, Carson was working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology when he went to Switzerland, where he attended a three-week workshop in graphic design as part of his degree. This is where he met his first great influence, who also happened to be the teacher of this course, Hans-Rudolph Lutz. He became renowned for his inventive graphics in the 1990s. Having worked as a sociology teacher and professional surfer in the late 1970s, he art directed various music, skateboarding and surfing magazines through the 1980s. As art director of surfing magazines and more famously style magazine Ray Gun (1992-5), Carson came to worldwide attention. His layouts featured distortions or mixes of ‘vernacular' typefaces and fractured imagery, rendering them almost illegible. Indeed, his maxim of the ‘end of print' questioned the role of type in the emergent age of digital design, following on from California New Wave and coinciding with experiments at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the later 1990s he shifted from ‘surf subculture' to corporate work for Nike, Levis, and Citibank. During the period of 1982–1987, Carson worked as a teacher in Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California. By the late eighties he had developed his signature style, using â€Å"dirty† type and non-mainstream photography. He would later be dubbed the â€Å"father of grunge. † Carson went on to become the art director of Transworld Skateboarding magazine. Among other things, he was also a professional surfer and in 1989 Carson was qualified as the 9th best surfer in the world. [1] His career as a surfer helped him to direct a surfing magazine, called Beach Culture. This magazine lasted for three years but, through the pages of Beach Culture, Carson made his first significant impact on the world of graphic design and typography with ideas that were called innovative even by those that were not fond of his work. Not afraid to break convention in one issue he used Dingbat as the font for what he considered a rather dull interview with Bryan Ferry. 2] (However, the whole text was published in a legible font at the back of the same issue of RayGun, complete with a repeat of the asterisk motif). From 1991-1992, Carson worked for Surfer magazine. A stint at How magazine (a trade magazine aimed at designers) followed, and soon Carson launched Ray Gun, a magazine of international standards which had music and lifestyle as its subject. Ray Gun made Carson very well-known and attracted new admirers to his work. In this period, journals such as the New York Times (May 1994) and Newsweek (1996) featured Carson and increased his publicity greatly. In 1995, Carson founded his own studio, David Carson Design in New York City, and started to attract major clients from all over the United States. During the next three years (1995-1998), Carson was doing work for Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban (orbs project), Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines and Levi Strauss Jeans, and later worked for a variety of new clients, including AT&T, British Airways, Kodak, Lycra, Packard Bell, Sony, Suzuki, Toyota, Warner Bros. CNN, Cuervo Gold, Johnson AIDS Foundation, MTV Global, Princo, Lotus Software, Fox TV, Nissan, quiksilver, Intel, Mercedes-Benz, MGM Studios and Nine Inch Nails. He acted as the original design consultant for the tourism magazine Blue in 1997. In 2000, Carson opened a new personal studio in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2004, Carson became the Creative Director of Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and designed the special â€Å"Exploration† edition of Surfing Magazine and directed a television comme rcial for UMPQUA Bank in Seattle, Washington. Carson became interested in a new school of typography and photography-based graphic design and is largely responsible for popularizing the style; he inspired many young designers of the 1990s. His work does not follow â€Å"traditional† graphic design standards. Carson is emotionally attached to his creations. Carson's work is considered explorative of thoughts and ideas that become â€Å"lost† in the subconscious. Every piece is saturated, but Carson still manages to communicate both the idea and the feeling behind his design. His extensive use of combinations of typographic elements and photography led many designers to completely change their work methods and graphic designers from all around the world base their style on the new â€Å"standards† that have distinguished Carson's work. Carson's work is familiar among the generation that grew up with Raygun Magazine and its progeny such as huH and xceler8, and in general, the visually savvy MTV generation, but his work still receives criticism from a generation that refuses to engage with his connotative excesses. Carson has been one of the greatest influences on modern graphic design in the last twenty five years. He took photography and type and manipulated and twisted them together and on some level confusing the message but in reality he was drawing the eyes of the viewer deeper within the composition itself. In November 1995, Carson published his first book the End of Print. It sold over 200,000 copies in five different languages and soon became the best-selling graphic design book worldwide. His second book, 2nd Sight, followed in 1997. It is said that this book simply changed the public face of graphic design (Newsweek). In 1998, Carson worked with Professor John Kao of the Harvard Business School on a documentary entitled â€Å"The Art and Discipline of Creativity. † The third book that Carson published was Fotografiks (1999) which earned Carson the Award of Best Use of Photography in Graphic Design. Carson’s fourth book, Trek, was released in 2000. Carson has also helped in the development of The History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs and The Encyclopedia of Surfing by Matt Warsaw.

Argumentativ essey on machiavelly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argumentativ essey on machiavelly - Essay Example Despite occasions of psychological imbalance, Hitler may be noted for his remarkable military exploits and knowledge of relevant martial tactics. As such, he received decoration with Iron Cross and promotion to a corporal rank after demonstrating bravery for the regiment or German army as a whole (Stokes). Machiavelli likewise proposed for the prince to acquire fighting skills since subsequent triumphs through militaristic pursuit enhance courage which is also a very essential characteristic of a prince. A Machiavellian prince lives by the image and behaves cautiously in order to remain in power and this combined nature of lion and fox is also symbolic of the approach used by Hitler in forming and securing control of the Nazi party (Stokes). By initially winning the favor of a large crowd who were drawn to his admirable manner of oration which sought pretentious publicity and propaganda (Stokes) overall, he found his way to earn more followers and influence over political subjects.

Occupational Health & Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Occupational Health & Safety - Essay Example In this similar context, workplace stress is fundamentally described as the physiological and the physical effect that is experienced by a particular individual or people while engaging with any sort of employment (Erickson, 1996). In this paper, a detailed analysis of workplace stress relating to OHS will be discussed. A Brief Overview of Workplace Stress Workplace stress is regarded to be a major issue in the organizational context. This is for the reason that this particular factor can broadly affect the heath of an individual by causing severe stresses. Workplace stress can generally take place in any place of work of different organizations if there lay inconsistencies between workplace demands and the ability of an individual to perform deliberate acts in order to comply with those demands. It has been apparently observed that stressful workers often remain less productive and incompetent and most significantly motivated, which further restricts the organizations to accomplish their desired business targets. Moreover, the organizations are not able to attain greater success in this competitive market due to the presence of stressful workers within the workplace. Another major reason of creating workplace stress is the incapability of the business managers belonging to any particular organization to provide greater support to the employees and controlling and motivating them for the accomplishment of organizational goals. Moreover, workplace stress can also occur due to the reasons such as unpleasant tasks, ineffective control and unsuccessful participation in decision-making process (Leka, Griffiths, & Cox, 2003). Managing Workplace Stress Workplace stress is considered to be a critical determinant that affects the health and wellbeing of a particular individual at a significant level. After acquiring a brief idea about the different causes of generating workplace stress, it can broadly be stated that there are several ways by which stress or workplace st ress can be minimized to a greater extent. In general, normal stress can be managed by taking proper care of oneself through performing regular exercise, consuming healthy foods on a frequent basis and sleeping properly. Similarly, workplace stress can be managed through maintaining a balanced schedule, evading performing multiple tasks at a time and making effective plans of availing short-term breaks while conducting work activities (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). Furthermore, workplace stress can be reduced by managing emotions in a constructive and positive way, meeting challenging situations and solving conflicting conditions through handling work pressures and staying focused on the activities that are needed to be performed. Furthermore, stress in the workplace might also be reduced through establishing and developing effective communication with every organizational member and preserving a healthy climate within the workplace (Help Guide, n.d.). Finally, it can be affirmed that workplace stress can be managed effectively with the application of a risk management approach. This approach can be measured by recognizing the hazards that are prevalent for causing detrimental effects to employees in the organizational context (Leka, Griffiths, & Cox, 2003). Workplace Stress in Relation to Occupational Health and Safety with Case Example With regard to determining the issue of workplace stress relating to OHS, it has been apparently observed that workplace

The Art Of The Rapanui Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Art Of The Rapanui - Essay Example Art has for a lengthy time, been used to make political statements among the Rapanui. The art of the Rapanui, in particular, the statues of Moai, are the last part of the ancient history of these people and because of this, they still have a special impact on then Rapanui. When the Spanish colonized the Easter Islands, they discovered the importance of these statues to the Rapanui and in order to make a political statement, these giant statues were toppled from their pedestals, to show that the Spanish were dominant on the islands. While this may have been the case, these statues have come to be recognized as a unique part of the Rapanui heritage and attempts have been made by the Chilean government, which governs the islands, to restore them. The Rapanui have made these statues their rallying point when agitating for political independence from Chile, which they consider an oppressive colonizer (Romero). A similar political statement was made in the past by the English in a bid to e stablish their dominance over the Scottish people. The English, after defeating the Scots in battle, took the important Stone of Scone, which was an essential part of the Scottish coronation ritual, from Scotland to England ("Stone of Scone due Back in Scotland Today" 5). This was used as a symbol of English dominance of the Scots, but in this instance, it does not seem to have worked since Scotland came to regain its independence later.  

International marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

International marketing - Assignment Example The Korean consumer class is able to purchase the product as it is affordable and consumable with 90% craving it and 50% consuming it each day. Its benefits have been found to be such as the reduction of blood pressure and dark chocolate has flavanoids that are good for ones health. The main companies in Korea are Orion, Nong Shim, Lotte confectionery and Crown Snack and they dominate the confectionery sector. However, there is potential for growth in this industry as the market is still small as compared to that of other countries providing Haigh’s a large market that has a great potential for expansion. This is further boosted by the fact that among the countries that Korea imports chocolates from, Australia ranks third and Haigh’s already has an established reputation in Australia. The fact that Haigh’s chocolate has been in business since 1915 gives them a competitive advantage that has equipped the company with the data and knowledge of how the industry works. More so, Haigh’s chocolate already has a reputation for manufacturing and selling high quality chocolates. Chocolate Business In Korea — Presentation Transcript, 2009. Chocolate Business In Korea, Immersion Week Program in 2009. [Online] Retrieved on 17th April:

Essay on American Revolution in Popular Culture - 1

On American Revolution in Popular Culture - Essay Example It was a bitter experience for those who lived then. This made the fight for freedom and the eventual freedom even sweeter. There is a lot of material in popular culture that seeks to re-create the events back then. One of these novels is Saratoga: A Novel of the American Revolution. The writer is David Garland. This novel was published in the year 2006. At the very beginning, the novel starts in May 19771. The colonies, which today make the United States, unilaterally declare their independence from the Crown. This is obviously not a situation to be treated lightly on the part of the British. They organize a military response that is less than effective. Their initial assumption was that they could easily crush the uprising by isolated groups of revolutionaries. However, they are met by more resistance than they anticipated. The main character in the novel is Captain Jamie Skoyles, a soldier attached to the 24th Foot of the British army. He is a seasoned fighter. One of the interferences of popular culture in as far as the factual depiction of this war in the novel is concerned is a love affair that Skoyles is embroiled in with Elizabeth Rainham who is already engaged. This is a constant feature in popular culture. The need to romanticize war is very prevalent in popular culture. It stems from the fact that romance attracts audiences that naturally would not be drawn to war. These might include women. The rigours of war when soothed by a strong love affair seem bearable. Skoyles is also depicted attending and even meting out floggings to errant soldiers and even enemy combatants. This is an image that has been invented by popular culture. There is the belief that the most effective soldier is the one who does not shy away from violence. This popular culture construct is alive and well today. There are soldiers to day who are rewarded with the nation’s highest honors’ for performing extraordinary and fearless acts. One that comes to mind is that of a

Inflation and Monetary Policy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Inflation and Monetary Policy - Term Paper Example The only time the US policymakers assume to think about the foreign exchange value of the dollar is if the dollar moves in acute fashion: if it avalanche as it did in the 1960s and 1970s (Mayer, p. 62, Truman Tally Books) or, for example, if the top amount of the dollar led Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to apathy the awry arresting that he was accepting from the M1 ambition in aboriginal 1985. The aforementioned attitude is axiomatic in the Fed's attrition to inflation targeting. There is an evolving accord that central banks care to ballast monetary policy with advancing inflation targets. Absolute inflation targets have been a lot of advantageous in countries that accept already accomplished some amount of value stability. Whether advised or accidental, the advantage of absolute inflation targeting seems to be that the accessible comes to accept that the ambition is a long run aim. Inflation targeting helps to access believability about continued run objectives. Outside the US, threats to believability are reflected a lot of acutely in the foreign exchange markets (Taylor, 2000). This paper discusses inflation and monetary policies in the United States of America as the main topic. The paper also three more subtopics, namely Monetary Policy and Foreign Exchange Policy, The Expectations Channel and Inflation and Interest Rate and Inflation Inflation and Monetary Policy Student Enter the Name and Code Number University/College/High School Name of the Professor 11th November, 2009 Main Topic Inflation and Monetary Policy Conventionally, monetary authorities are anxious with the control of inflation in about all economies- developed and developing alike. However, the attributes of inflation is altered for developing and developed economies. For accessible and arising economies, area assets are yet not absolutely utilized, and abounding application does not exist, inflation cannot be a abiding phenomenon, if it is advised deftly. On the contrary, an attack to barrier the annoyance of inflation may collapse bread-and-butter advance and as an aftereffect bread-and-butter development may take a back seat. Moreover, if the abridgement is aperture up and amalgam with the apple economy, inflation may get alien as well. In this sense, a multidimensional access of the monetary action is added relevant Economists and monetary action makers accede that the abiding ambition of the monetary action have to chronicle to abiding inflation, and this can be accomplished through acclimation the money supply (Stock, p.102,Washington DC). The implications of monetary action on advance of output, unemployment or absorption ante is about nil in the long-term, although in the concise these may be affected. This is added in case of developed economies area abounding application already exists and the absolute advance amount is absolutely abutting to the abeyant advance rate. However, in a developing abridgement like India, an access in money accumulation and adjustment through monetary action assuredly leads to college bread-and-butter growth, abridgement in unemployment and successful control of inflation. This is because a lot of abeyant for advance still exists in such an abridgement with affluence of assets that are

Artist's intention Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Artist's intention - Essay Example New Criticism is even more aptly applied to the fine arts because of the elevated level of abstraction involved which indicates that it is probably impossible to understand a work solely through the artistic intention. To assume that it is possible to understand a work of art solely by understanding the intent of the artist is to also to make a leap of faith that the artist is being completely honest about his intent. How many people every day do things for one reason, but say they did them for another reason. Jeff Koons, for instance, is famous for having a team of â€Å"assistants† who do much of his work for him (Avgikos 137). How many more artists do the same thing, or something else which can bring their honesty into question, without making it part of their artistic persona. Should one trust the stated intent of an artist more than a used car salesman? Are they not both, ultimately, in the business of selling their wares? Even when an artist is being utterly honest about his intent that intention must still be called into question. Freud’s theory of subconscious drives has long stopped being controversial; anyone who has ever thrown up their hands in frustration and said they couldn’t explain why they did something intuitively realizes the authenticity of subconscious urges and drives. The process of painting or sculpting is a process of the application of the mind to the hand and if the actions of the hand contains little mystery, it must be admitted that the landscape of the mind is fraught with mystery. The subconscious mind is littered with the memories that have been forgotten by the conscious mind; there is within the brain any number drives that are not realized by the conscious mind that can be interrupting that transmission to the hand. In very few cases do artists admit that they are working simply for money. In the capitalist system of the 20th century, especially, when the starving artist clichà ©

LAN & WAN Design Essay Example for Free

LAN WAN Design Essay A little bit of background follows. Crystal Limited is an award winning design consultancy with many years experience in creating hotel, leisure and retail environments for design led clients worldwide. The company is currently experiencing growth and is opening new offices in major UK locations. Funding has been released for improvements to its network services. A key requirement is the network design should provide a high level of reliability and scalability to meet the needs of future growth. Ethernet hubs are typically used to connect workstations to the network, and the Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Derby offices are equipped with a modern cabling infrastructure which is adequate for supporting a modern campus network. However the Manchester headquarters uses a legacy category 3 cabling infrastructure which was pre-installed in the building. Employees at the Manchester site report frequent problems with performance and network failures. Each site has a single flat IP address space. Currently, Crystal Limited has a contract with a single ISP. The current link is a 2 Mbps circuit provisioned to the Manchester headquarters. The ISP has assigned a subnet of 201. 19. 0. 0/29 for the internet connection. The Crystal router should be configured with the highest usable address within the subnet. The ISP router has been configured with the lowest usable address. Crystal uses the Internet connection for web browsing and corporate e-mail. The corporate e-mail server should be situated inside a separate subnet attached to the Crystal perimeter router. It should be reachable from the Internet at a fixed address. 2. Proposed Approach Crystal Limited requires a design for a major network upgrade. The solution should support current levels of staff and a projected increase of 25% over the next year. High availability is a key requirement, so it is expected that redundancy will be factored into the design of the solution. The design should include both LAN and WAN infrastructures, a network addressing scheme which covers the entire solution and routing protocols. There are some specific additional requirements which must be incorporated into the proposal. Crystal Limited are requesting you provide a Network Design Document for a solution which meets the requirements below. A good response like the one below not just say what or how, but it also states why. In other words it attempts to: fully explain and justify important design and implementation decisions; look at alternatives; and even explain why something does not work, and in a commercial context often, it is asked, why us? The element of explaining â€Å"why† implicitly provides one with a vehicle to demonstrate one’s expertise and knowledge. The response below will also set out important assumptions that have been made, identification of important limitations with the following solutions (e. g. requirements not met), and even unique features and additional advantages should be examined which are offered by these proposed solutions. The following is a narrative that provides easy traceability to customer requirements. †¢ The ability to: conceal the details of the customers’ addressing scheme from the internet, allow web browsing; allow for the corporate e-mail server to be reachable on the Internet. This will be achieved by making sure an effective plan is put in place so that customers’ information can be protected. The addressing scheme can be placed on a server on the Internet so that any information is password-protected. In this way, many people will be able to use the system without fear of retribution or having to worry that someone else will access their information. Many times what is necessary in order to protect a network is the ability to make sure that it is secure in every sense of the word. Firewalls should be used in order to ensure that there are no malicious malwares or annoying pop-ups on the server. This would allow for a decent amount of web browsing in a safe manner for all users who would be employed at Crystal. Safe web browsing is important in any kind of company structure. In order to proffer web browsing that is safe for the entire company, it is important to lay groundwork or rules as to how company Internet usage can be utilized. First of all, employees should be made aware of the fact that certain web sites are banned from being viewed, such as any web site which has pornographic or otherwise inappropriate content. Secondly, employees should be made aware of the dangers of opening attachments from any outside third parties. Many a computer virus or worm has been spread through one person’s opening of attachments. That is why it is important to stress to employees the necessity of not opening attachments. The corporate e-mail server will also be able to be available on the Internet through creating a LAN network that would be for the various corporate offices individually. Then, a WAN network would be created in order to unite all the LAN’s that would be created for the company’s individual offices. The corporate e-mail would be on a main server at some remote location. This would be so that if there were ever any type of problem, the server could be easily accessed. The difference between LAN’s and WAN’s will be discussed later on in the paper. †¢ A resilient wide area infrastructure which will allow each site to connect to the Manchester headquarters should there be a failure in the leased line network shown above. In the event of a link failure the network should be able to begin using an alternate link within 10 seconds. There should definitely be a link that the server could revert to should the main site being maintained should fail. †¢ A design for a cabling infrastructure which will solve the current problems within the Manchester office. A cabling infrastructure would have to be designed which would not be very invasive and addressed all the problems corollary to this type of set-up. †¢ The network addressing scheme should be based upon a class B network address which will not clash with existing addresses already used by organizations connected to the Internet. The addressing scheme should be adequate to provide addressing for the projected staff numbers mentioned above – however the customer would like the remainder of the address space to be conserved for future use. Please note that the addressing scheme must cover all local area segments and wide area links. The addressing scheme should be varied enough not to clash with other networks, but should be distinct enough so that the company’s addressing scheme is separate from the others. †¢ Traffic from each department should be logically separated from other departments. Your LAN solution should allow the movement of users from one physical location to another within their building. Such a move should not require IP settings to be reconfigured on the users’ workstation. IP settings should be discretely separated and used as needed. Web traffic should be encouraged but each office’s traffic should be separated. The LAN should be set up in such a way so that users are not confined to one place in the computer lab, but can actually move around without fear that their information will be compromised. †¢ Network diagrams which show the layer 3 topology of the WAN and LANs, (including active networking devices).

Trends Now Shaping the Future of Hospitality and Travel Essay Example for Free

Trends Now Shaping the Future of Hospitality and Travel Essay Early versions of this report predicted that the world’s population would double by 2050, and population growth has proceeded almost exactly on schedule. However, even this estimate may be too low. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, most official projections underestimate both fertility and future gains in longevity. Unfortunately, the greatest fertility is found in those countries least able to support their existing people. Populations will triple in the Palestinian Territories and Niger between 2000 and 2050 and will more than double in Yemen, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. In contrast, populations in most developed countries are stable or declining. The United States is a prominent exception. Assessment: Demographic trends such as this are among the easiest to recognize and most difficult to derail. Barring a global plague or nuclear war—wildcard possibilities that cannot be predicted with any validity—there is little chance that the population forecast for 2050 will err on the low side. Implications: Rapid population growth in the United States compared with its industrialized competitors will reinforce American domination of the global economy, as the European Union falls to third place behind the United States and China. To meet human nutritional needs over the next forty years, global agriculture will have to supply as much food as has been produced during all of human history. Unless fertility in the developed lands climbs dramatically, either would-be retirees will have to remain on the job, or the industrialized nations will have to encourage even more immigration from the developing world. The third alternative is a sharp economic contraction and lower living standards. A fourth alternative is the widespread automation of service jobs as well as manufacturing, to accomplish the work needed to support accustomed living standards. However, this requires development of a means other than wages to distribute wealth and to provide both a living income and a fulfilling  occupation for workers and would-be workers displaced by machines and software. Barring enforcement of strict immigration controls, rapid migration will continue from the Southern Hemisphere to the North, and especially from former colonies to Europe. A growing percentage of job applicants in the United States and Europe will be recent immigrants from developing countries. Implications for Hospitality and Travel: Rapid population growth, compared with other developed lands, will preserve America’s place at the top of the global economy, with China taking second place from the European Union. This will help to keep the hospitality and travel industries growing rapidly. 2. Population of the developed world is living longer. Each generation lives longer and remains healthier than the last. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, every generation in the United States has lived three years longer than the previous one. An 80-year-old in 1950 could expect 6.5 more years of life; todays 80-year-olds are likely to survive 8.5 more years. Life expectancy in Australia, Japan, and Switzerland is now over 75 years for males and over 80 for females. A major reason for this improvement is the development of new pharmaceuticals and medical technologies that are making it possible to prevent or cure diseases that would have been fatal to earlier generations. Medical advances that slow the fundamental process of aging now seem to be within reach. (This is a controversial issue within the medical community, but the evidence appears quite strong.) Such treatments could well help today’s younger generations live routinely beyond the century mark. Assessment: See the Assessment: for Trend 1.

Effects of Hospital-Based Smoking Cessation Interventions

Effects of Hospital-Based Smoking Cessation Interventions The Effects of Hospital-Based Smoking Cessation Interventions on 10-Year Mortality  Among Adult Smokers 18-64 Eline van den Broek 1 Setting up the Research Designs Background Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States [CDC, 1]. It is estimated that cigarette smoking results in more than 480,000 premature deaths and approximately 8.6 million Americans live with a serious illness caused by smoking [2]. Research has established smoking causes various serious diseases such as cancers, lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and increases in the risk of heart disease, including stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and aneurysm [3-37]. Various studies, including RCT’s, cohort and case-control studies, concluded that adults who smoke die earlier than nonsmokers [3-37]. Reversely, researchers have also found that preventing deaths caused by smoking would lead to substantial gains in life expectancy [38-41]. While we have gathered extensive information about tobacco use as a major cause of many of the world’s top killer diseases, responsible for the death of about 1 in 10 adults worldwide [42], less is known about the effects of different smoking intervention programs on mortality and life expectancy. Successful smoking cessation interventions almost certainly result in major gains, both in reducing smoking-related illnesses and potentially in preventing premature deaths [43]. The more evidence we have on what type of programs are most effective in smoking cessation, the easier it would be to address the crucial public health and policy question whether these programs are desirable in the context of avoidable mortality. Also, since most studies have focused on comparing smokers to non-smokers, we need more evidence about the effect of different interventions among smokers only. In Colorado, over 900,000 residents currently smoke, with the highest rates among young adults aged 18 to 24 years (28.2%). In 2000, 52.8 percent of adult smokers in Colorado made quit attempts of at least one day. [44] Researchers in the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) have decided to implement a smoking cessation intervention, including bedside consultation with follow-up therapy and free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). [45] The objective of this study is to determine the effect of this UCH-initiated intervention on 10-year mortality. The aim is to implement hospital systems change to improve inpatient tobacco dependence treatment. [45] Most of the literature involving smoking cessation interventions is related to outpatient interventions. Some studies have focused on the effect of inpatient smoking cessation interventions and rehospitalization. [46] Our study will contribute to that body of literature, focusing rather on an inpatient smoking cessation intervention and it s effect on 10-year mortality. Research Questions and Hypotheses Research Question: Does a hospital-initiated smoking cessation intervention predict lower 10-year mortality rate? Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the hospital-based intervention to encourage tobacco using inpatients to quit smoking has a significant lowering effect on 10-year mortality rate. H0: There is no significant effect of the UCH inpatient smoking cessation intervention and 10-year mortality Ha: There is a significant effect of the UCH inpatient smoking cessation intervention and 10-year mortality Recall bias is a classic form of information bias: we will not collect the correct information, because the subjects in the study report past events in a manner that is different between the two study groups case-control. Since our study will be backwards in directionality, it would in general be more prone to information and recall bias. This happens, for instance, if our cases and controls will differentially recall intervention, related smoking behavior, or any other variables that we include in the model that are based on self-reported data, so that inaccurate recall is related to characteristics of the exposure of interest and of the respondents. Yet in our case, the most important information is collected using information recorded in the electronic medical record, so we will are less worried about this type of bias in our design. Interviewing technique and the study protocol, including the design of questionnaires and the motivation of respondents, play a central role and are under the control of the investigator. [130] Even though we think that our matching process will limit confounding bias, we still may deal with the issue that the influence of one intervention is mixed with the effect the other. For example, the intervention may have led to other healthy lifestyles, such as less alcohol use or more exercise. This would be less relevant in our case, however, because we are really interested in the effect of the intervention on mortality. If the intervention has positive effects on other healthy behaviors, that will not bias our conclusions. In case-control studies, selection bias can occur in the selection of cases if they are not representative of all cases within the population, or in the selection of controls if they are not representative of the population that produced the cases. [131] It could be that cases and/or controls are selected on criteria related to the intervention, for example they are selected differentially on the basis of their intervention or there may be differences in reporting of which intervention they received between cases and controls. We may have a concern with selection bias in our study design, because both the intervention and the outcome have occurred by the time the patient is recruited into the study. The (internal and external) validity of a case-control study depends on the representativeness of controls. [132,133] The controls need to be a representative sample of the study population from which the cases are drawn during the study period. Since we will use a computer generated pool of controls, they will be randomly selected to minimize bias. We do expect some issues with consenting the controls and expect that we will have to use second or third drawn controls to match with some of the cases. Generally, â€Å"hospital controls† are often more easily accessible and tend to be more cooperative than â€Å"population based† controls. [50] A disadvantage of drawing from a hospital population is that we will have an issue with the external validity of the study. The question remains whether we will be able to generalize the results from the UCH-based population to other inpatient interventions or even more broadly: a population based intervention. 4.8 Study Strengths Among the strengths of a case-control study are the fact that they are generally relatively inexpensive, they are short-term studies to conduct (so cheaper and quicker); they are efficient designs for rare diseases or for studies with a lagged outcome like mortality in 10 years; and they can be powerful with small samples of cases. While the 1:2 matching design is intended to eliminate confounding, the main potential benefit of matching in case-control studies is a gain in efficiency. We do need to note that since we currently design the study and the intervention(s) still need to take place, we will have to wait for 10 years to measure the effect on mortality. But as mentioned, another advantage of a case-control study is that they are typically feasible to obtain sufficient numbers of cases when studying rare diseases or diseases with a long latency period, like in our case: mortality in 10 years. We will thus require a smaller sample size than with other designs and we can still evaluate the effect of the different types of interventions. The fact that we have the ability to use multiple controls of the same type has the advantage of increasing the study’s power.

African Diaspora Essay examples -- African Diaspora Cultures

In simple terms, the Diaspora as a concept, describes groups of people who currently live or reside outside the original homelands. We will approach the Diaspora from the lenses of migration; that the migration of people through out of the African continent has different points of origin, different patterns and results in different identity formations. Yet, all of these patterns of dispersion and germination/ assimilation represent formations of the Diaspora. My paper will focus on the complexities of the question of whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return to Africa. This will be focused through the lenses of the different phases in the Diaspora. The historical Diaspora confirms pre-colonial global dispersion and resettlement of Africans. These communities of relocated Africans identified and maintained a connection with Africa, while still maintaining a "Loyalty to their adopted country" and making valid and positive contributions. This brings us to a new question, what exactly then are the identities of the African Diaspora and how was that identity forged under (in and after) slavery? Avatar Brah best illuminates the journey of identity formulation through the literature of the African Diaspora she wrote: "Diasporic identities are at once local and global. They are networks of the transnational identifications encompassing imagined and encountered communities (Brah, 1994)." An individual can activate any number of choices on the path to their identity, thus the context and historical processes must be investigated. The Diaspora originated from historical and cultural experiences of the Jewish and Greek people, ... ...s as a group and to effective resistance to oppression. There's no need in returning to Africa. "Despite Cesaire's construction of pre-colonial Africa as an aggregation of warm, communal societies, he never calls for a return. His concept of Negritude is future-oriented and modern. His position in Discourse is unequivocal and sterile attempt to repeat the past, but to get beyond. It is not a dead society that we want to revive. We leave that to those who go in for exorcismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦It is a new society rich with all the productive power of modern times, warm with all the fraternity of olden days."(Cesaire, 2000) James Aggrey said many years ago that there is a new Africa coming today and it is a challenge to civilization." Joseph Harris added that the new Africa today is the world of African people, of Africa and its Diaspora.

Atomic Bomb :: essays research papers

Atomic bombs were the first nuclear weapons to be developed, tested, and used. In the late 1930s physicists in Europe and the United States realized that the fission of uranium could be used to create an extremely powerful explosive weapon. In August 1939, German American physicist Albert Einstein sent a letter to U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt that described this discovery and warned of its potential development by other nations. The U.S. government established the top secret Manhattan Project in 1942 to develop an atomic device. The leader of the Manhattan Project was U.S. Army Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves. His team, working in several locations but in large part at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, designed and built the first atomic bombs. The first atomic explosion was conducted, as a test, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The energy released from this explosion was equivalent to that released by the detonation of 20,000 tons of TNT. Near the end of World War II, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It followed with a second bomb against the city of Nagasaki on August 9. According to U.S. estimates, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the Hiroshima bomb, called â€Å"Little Boy,† and about 40,000 by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, called â€Å"Fat Man.† Japan agreed to Allied terms of surrender on August 14th. These are the only times that a nuclear weapon has been used in a conflict between nations. Fusion bombs, also called hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs, were developed and tested in the early 1950s, but these have never been used in warfare. A thermonuclear device depends on a fission reaction to produce extreme heat that causes hydrogen isotopes of deuterium and tritium to come together, or fuse, but the main energy source for thermonuclear devices comes from the fusion reaction, not the triggering fission reaction. For more information on this type of bomb, see Hydrogen Bomb.

Essay --

The American people love fast food, but little do they know about what is really in their â€Å"hamburger† or â€Å"chicken nuggets†, and what damage the real ingredients in these foods can cause. Fast food has become a great part in many people’s lives today because you could get it fast and on the move and it’s also cheap. Everyone has eaten fast food at one point in their lives, unless of course they don’t eat meat, but they really don’t have a clue as to what they’re ingesting. This paper will inform you as to what scientists have found in these deadly foods and what can happen in the future if you continue to eat these foods. Since 1980 the total number of overweight and obese Americans has doubled. The fattest state in America is Mississippi, with 1 out of every 4 people being obese. Each day approximately one out of fourteen Americans eats at a McDonald’s, and each month about nine out of ten American children visit one (Schlosser and Wilson 7). There are more than 31,000 McDonald’s selling Happy Meals in 120 countries, when in 1968 there were only about 1,000 McDonald’s that were solely located in the United States (Schlosser and Wilson 7). Due to McDonald’s excessive advertising their â€Å"Golden Arches† of the â€Å"M† are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross (Schlosser and Wilson 8). One of the most important things people buy is food and yet most people don’t think, nor care where it comes from (Schlosser and Wilson 9). Fast food is sold everywhere all across the globe. Americans spent approximately $6 billion on fast food in 1 970; in 2006 they spent about $142 billion (Schlosser and Wilson 10). These number changes are astonishing and only increase by the year. What’s even more astonishing is that according to ... ...es telling them to not eat the company’s food. They had a list of diet suggestions on the website. A direct quote from the article was â€Å"Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced and readily available alternatives to home cooking, while convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight.† They inform their employers of the risks of their food, but push their food into the face of the public. In concluding this paper, there are many horrifying facts about fast food. I bet no one expected all of the damage these foods could actually cause. The sad thing is most people don’t know these facts, and don’t care to know they’d rather live in denial and enjoy their â€Å"delicious food† than help their bodies and feed them the proper, necessary foods.

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 24

No peck on the lips was going to satisfy Damon, Elena thought. On the other hand, Matt was going to need outright seduction before he would give in. Fortunately Elena had broken the Matt Honeycutt code long ago. And she planned to be remorseless in using what she had learned on his weakened, susceptible body. But Matt could be far too stubborn for his own good. He allowed Elena to put her soft lips against his, he allowed her to put her arms around him. But when Elena tried to do some of the things he liked most – like running her nails down his spine, or touching her tongue tip lightly to his closed lips – he clamped his teeth shut. He wouldn't put an arm around her. Elena let go of him and sighed. Then she felt a crawling sensation between her shoulder blades, as if she were being watched but a hundred times stronger. She glanced back to see Damon standing at a distance with his Virginia pine rod, but she couldn't find anything unusual. She glanced back once more – and had to cram a fist into her mouth. Damon wasthere ; right behind her; so close that you couldn't have gotten two fingers between the front of her body and the front of his. She didn't know why her arm hadn't hit him. Her whirl actually trapped her in between two male bodies. But how had he done it? There had been no time to travel the distance of the clearing from where Damon had been standing to one inch behind her in the second that she had glanced away. Nor had there been any sound as he'd walked across the pine needles toward them; like the Ferrari, he was just – there. Elena swallowed the scream that was desperately trying to get out of her lungs, and tried to breathe. Her own body was rigid with fear. Matt was trembling slightly behind her. Damon was leaning in, and all she could smell was the sweetness of pine resin. Something's wrong with him. Something's wrong. â€Å"You know what,† Damon said, leaning forward even farther so that she had to lean backward against Matt, so that, even spooned against Matt's shaking body, she was looking straight into the Ray-Bans from a distance of three inches. â€Å"That gets you a grade of a D minus.† Now Elena was shaking as well as Matt. But she had to get a grip on herself, had to meet this aggression head-on. The more passive she and Matt were, the more time Damon had to think. Elena's mind was in feverish scheming mode. He may not be reading our minds, she thought, but he can certainly tell if we're telling the truth or lying. That's normal for a vampire who drinks human blood. What can we make of that? What can we do with it? â€Å"That was a greeting kiss,† she said boldly. â€Å"It's to identify the person that you're meeting, so you'll always know them afterwards. Even – even prairie hamsters do it. Now – please – could we move just a little, Damon? I'm getting crushed.† And this is just much too provocative a position, she thought. For everybody involved. â€Å"One more chance,† Damon said, and this time he didn't smile. â€Å"I want to see a kiss – a real kiss – between you. Or else.† Elena twisted in the tight space. Her eyes searched Matt's. They had, after all, been boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a while last year. Elena saw the look in Matt's blue eyes: hewanted to kiss her, as much as he could want anything after that pain. And he realized that she'd had to go through all that fancy footwork to save him from Damon. Somehow, we'll get out, Elena thought to him. Now, will you cooperate? Some boys didn't have buttons in the selfish sensations area of their brain. Some, like Matt, had buttons labeledHONOR or GUILT . Now Matt held still as she took his face between her hands, tilting it down and going up on her toes to kiss him, because he'd grown so much. She thought of their first real kiss, in his car on the way home from a minor school dance. He'd been terrified, his hands damp, his whole interior quaking. She'd been cool, experienced, gentle. And so she was now, drawing a warm tongue tip to melt his frozen lips apart. And just in case Damon was eavesdropping on her thoughts, she kept them strictly on Matt, on his sunshiny looks and his warm friendship and on the gallantry and courtesy that he had always shown to her, even when she broke up with him. She wasn't aware when his arms went around her shoulders or when he took control of the kiss, like a person dying of thirst who's finally found water. She could see it clearly in his mind: he'd never thought he'd kiss Elena Gilbert like this again. Elena didn't know how long it lasted. Finally she unwound her arms from around Matt's neck and stepped back. And then she realized something. It was no accident that Damon had sounded like a film director. He was holding up a palm-sized video camera, staring into the viewfinder. He'd captured the whole thing. With Elena clearly visible. She had no idea what had happened to the disguising baseball cap and dark glasses. Her hair was disordered and her breathing came quickly, involuntarily. The blood had risen to the surface of her skin. Matt didn't look much more together than she felt. Damon looked up from the viewfinder. â€Å"What do you want that for?† Matt growled in tones completely unlike his normal voice. The kiss had affected him, too, Elena thought. More so than her. Damon picked up his branch again and again waved the end of it like a Japanese fan. Pine aroma wafted by Elena. He looked considering, as though he might ask for a retake, then changed his mind, smiled brilliantly at them, and tucked the video camera into a pocket. â€Å"All you need to know is that it was a perfect take.† â€Å"Then we're leaving.† The kiss seemed to have given Matt new strength, even if it was for saying the wrong type of things. â€Å"Right now.† â€Å"Oh, no, but keep that dominant, aggressive attitude. As you remove her shirt.† â€Å"What?† Damon repeated the words in the tones of a director giving an actor complicated instructions. â€Å"Undo the buttons of her shirt, please, and take it off.† â€Å"You'recrazy .† Matt turned and looked at Elena, stopped aghast to see the expression on her face, the single tear running down the eye not hidden. â€Å"Elena†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He moved around, but she moved too. He couldn't get her to look him in the face. At last, she stopped, stood with her eyes down and leaking tears. He couldfeel the heat radiating from her cheeks. â€Å"Elena, let's fight him. Don't you remember how you fought the bad things in Stefan's room?† â€Å"But this is worse, Matt. I've never felt anything this bad before. This strong. It's – pressing on me.† â€Å"You don't mean we should give in to him†¦?†That was what Mattsaid and he sounded as if he were on the verge of being ill. What his clear blue eyes said was simpler. They said:No. Not if he kills me for refusing. â€Å"I mean†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elena turned suddenly back to Damon. â€Å"Let him go,† she said. â€Å"This is between you and me. Let's settle it ourselves.† She was damned well going to save Matt, even if he didn't want to be saved. I'll do what you want,she thought as hard as she could to Damon, hoping he would pick some of it up. After all, he'd bled her against her will – at least initially – before. She could live through him doing it again. â€Å"Yes, you'll doeverything I want,† Damon said, proving that he could read her thoughts even more clearly than she'd imagined. â€Å"But the question is, after how much?† He didn't say how much what. He didn't have to. â€Å"Now, I know I just gave you an order,† he added, half turning toward Matt but with his eyes still on Elena, â€Å"because I can still see you picturing it in your mind. But – â€Å" Elena saw the look in Matt's eyes then, and the flaming of his cheeks, and she knew – and immediately tried to hide the knowledge from Damon – what he was going to do. He was going to commit suicide. â€Å"If we can't talk you out of it, we can't talk you out of it,† Meredith said to Mrs. Flowers. â€Å"But – there are things out there – â€Å" â€Å"Yes, dear, I know. And the sun is going down. It's a bad time to be outside. But as my mother always said, two witches are better than one.† She gave Bonnie an absent smile. â€Å"And as you very kindly did not say before, I am very old. Why, I can remember the days before the first motorcars and airplanes. I might have knowledge that would help you in your quest for your friends – and on the other hand, I am dispensable.† â€Å"You certainly are not,† Bonnie said fervently. They were using up Elena's wardrobe now, piling on the clothes. Meredith had picked up the duffel bag with Stefan's clothes in it and dumped it on his bed, but the first time she picked up a shirt, she dropped it again. â€Å"Bonnie, you might take something of Stefan's with you as we go,† she said. â€Å"See if you get any impressions from it. Um, maybe you too, Mrs. Flowers?† she added. Bonnie understood. It was one thing to let somebody call themselves a witch; it was another thing to call someone very much your senior one. The last layer of Bonnie's wardrobe was one of Stefan's shirts, and Mrs. Flowers tucked one of his socks in her pocket. â€Å"But I won't go out the front door,† Bonnie said adamantly. She couldn't even bear to imagine the mess. â€Å"All right, so we go out the back,† Meredith said, flipping Stefan's lamp off. â€Å"Come on.† They were actually walking out the back door when the front doorbell rang. They all three exchanged glances. Then Meredith wheeled, â€Å"It could be them!† And she hastened back to the dim front of the house. Bonnie and Mrs. Flowers followed more slowly. Bonnie shut her eyes as she heard the door open. When there were no immediate exclamations about the mess, she opened them a slit. There was no sign that anything unusual had happened outside the door. No smashed insect bodies – no dead or dying bugs on the front porch. Hairs on the back of Bonnie's neck rose. Not that she wanted to see the malach. But she did want to know what had happened to them. Automatically, one hand went to her hair, to feel if a tendril had been left behind. Nothing. â€Å"I'm looking for Matthew Honeycutt.† The voice cut into Bonnie's reverie like a hot knife through butter, and Bonnie's eyes snapped all the way open. Yes, it was Sheriff Rich Mooseburger and he was all there, from shiny boots to crisp collar. Bonnie opened her mouth, but Meredith spoke first. â€Å"This is not Matt's house,† she said, her tone quiet, her voice even. â€Å"In fact I have already been to the Honeycutt house. And to the Sulez house and the McCulloughs'. Every one of them, in fact, suggested that if Matt weren't at one of those places, he might be out here with you.† Bonnie wanted to kick him in the shins. â€Å"Matt hasn't been stealing stop signs! He would never, ever,ever do something like that. And I wish to God I knew where he was, but I don't. None of us do!† She stopped, with the feeling that she might have said too much. â€Å"And your names are?† Mrs. Flowers took over. â€Å"This is Bonnie McCullough, and Meredith Sulez. I am Mrs. Flowers, the owner of this boardinghouse, and I believe I can second Bonnie's remarks about the stop signs – â€Å" â€Å"In fact this is more serious than missing road signs, ma'am. Matthew Honeycutt is under suspicion of assaulting a young woman. There is considerable physical evidence to support her story. And she claims that they have known each other since childhood, so there can be no mistake as to identity.† There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Bonnie almost shouted, â€Å"She? Shewho ?† â€Å"Miss Caroline Forbes is the complainant. And I would in fact suggest, if any of the three of you should happen to see Mr. Honeycutt, that you advise him to turn himself in. Before he is taken by force into custody.† He took a step toward them as if threatening to come through the door, but Mrs. Flowers silently barred the way. â€Å"In fact,† Meredith said, regaining her composure, â€Å"I'm sure you realize that you need a warrant to enter these premises. Do you have one?† Sheriff Mossberg didn't answer. He made a sharp little right turn, walked down the pathway to his sheriff's car, and disappeared.

Banning whaling

Whales are the biggest animals that live on this planet, in the oceans. Depending on their species they can weigh up to 200 tons, the weight of around 12 elephants or 2000 people. It has also been studied that the brains of whales are developed which means they are intelligent creatures. Since centuries whales have been hunted down for their oil and meat. The process of killing whales for their meat and oil is called whaling. In the olden days only the slow moving whales were hunted.By the 17th entury the demand for whale 011 and meat rose and It wasnt until the 18th century when a new hunting weapon was invented. Since harpoons were invented, fast paced whales like blue whales could be killed but it is a very cruel way of hunting whales. Whales being the biggest animals of our planet and being driven to almost extinction, It becomes our duty to ban hunting whales and preserve them. Commercial whaling has driven so many whale species to near extinction. Not only that but other factor s like ocean noise, pollution, climate changes also threaten their existence.In 1 905, since whaler shifted to Antarctic waters, South Georgia became he Centre for whaling and between 1930-1931 30,000 blue whales were killed and processed 1 That nearly drove the blue whales Into extinction as they were hardly noticed ever Lohan 2 since. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission banned whaling all over the world to protect whales from being hunted but despite that, many countries still practice whaling either In disguise of research or to maintain the Industrial demand for whale meat and oil. Countries that still practice whaling are Japan, Iceland, Norway.Iceland has recently alone killed hundreds of whales and send tons of hale-meat to Japan whose market Is already so full of whale meat. In Japan whale meat Is a delicacy and on the pretext of scientific research It kills whales. Whales take time to mature and also reproduce slowly. They only have one young one in around 3 years and it takes time for a specie to recover after being hunted in masses. Hence its numbers decrease to extinction so easily that we don't realize the harm we do by killing whales that are so Important to our ecosystem.People all over the world consider commercial whaling to be cruel. Nowadays people all around the world love whales and whale watching trips have become opular. Many see whale watching as a better alternative to whale hunting -It Is a 1 OF3 whales popular amongst people2. â€Å"In the late 1980s, whale watching became popular outside the Ogasawara islands south east of Tokyo where they claim to have a 90% success rates for watching humpback whales by boats during the past few years. † Whale watching trips are offered there everyday at times for 2 hours or 6 hours.The types of Lohan 3 boats are diving boats, pleasure boats and commercial/sports fishing boats3. Humpback whales and right whales are making a comeback in their numbers due to protection organizations. This, being a success, shows that we should hold out more protection campaign for whales because many species are still fragile and cannot recover their numbers quickly. Many people consider that the method of killing whales is extremely cruel. â€Å"Although whaling fleets may be highly sophisticated, equipped with sonar, helicopters, long-range explosive harpoons and factory ships, the actual kill is horrific† 4.The way a whale is killed is through a harpoon, which is 90 kilograms in weight and is shot from a cannon. The head of the harpoon has a time fused grenade which when hits the whale, explodes and tears the internals of the hale apart. The whale still continues to suffer until hours of beating when it actually dies. Whales are smart creatures and it is not possible to find a humane way of killing them. People say killing whales is good because whales eat a lot of fish but what we don't realize is over-fishing is a bigger factor for decrease in fishes.Since whales hav e decreased in numbers fishes should have increased in their numbers but they haven't, hence we are only to blame for the diminishing of aquatic animals. Japan has killed hundred of whales even after the ban on whaling. They kill whales on the rounds of scientific research whereby when a whale is killed scientists recover parts of the whale, which helps them understand the age of the whale, its diet, Lohan 4 and birthing rate and the meat is packaged and sold in the market5.Japan's history has shown that it largely depends on whale meat for its source of protein and nutrition and thus still kills whales for food. â€Å"NRDC and over a dozen other conservation groups recently petitioned the Obama administration to take strong action against Iceland under the Pelly Amendment to the Fisherman's Protective Act† 6. Through this, the President can impose trade sanctions to a country that does not obey conservation agreements. The United States has been a leading global conservator for whaling.To sum everything up, Whales have been hunted for years to such an extent that many species of whales have been driven to extinction and it takes time for a specie to recover its numbers because of the slow rate of whale reproduction and maturity. It is more profitable to have whale watching than killing whales because whale watching serves as a source of income through tourism. Whale oil used to be in demand in the olden days but due to modernization and lternatives for whale oil , the profits from whaling has decreased because now a days whale oil is rarely used.The methods of killing whales are inhumane as they are When shot, they may take up to an hour to die but in the meantime suffer. Countries still practice whaling either through pretext of scientific research or commercial whaling. Consumptions of whale meat Lohan 5 can be harmful because the mercury content in them was found to be high as studied in Japan. Whales are significant to our ecosystem and without the m the marine ecosystem is vastly affected. Whales are magnificent creatures and are espected and loved all around the world.They are intelligent and also the biggest on our planet. Hunting them to extinction is Just another projection of how cruel and inhumane mankind can be. Banning whaling should be maintained all around the world but with stricter impositions.

Muralism and the Cosmic Affect

03/17/13 Muralism and The Cosmic Race In the Cosmic Race written by Jose Vasconcelo, Vasconcelo writes about the definition of Latin American people and their divine mission in America, while also briefly comparing them to other races such as the Europeans. Vasconcelo states that there are 4 racial trunks, the Blacks, the Indians, the Mongols, and the Whites, while expanding detail with the Whites who he described as organizing themselves in Europe, and becoming invaders of the rest of the world.Vasconcelo gives an example as the Spaniards conquered Latin American, however he believes that their role was just to reintegrate the red world, which he describes as a bridge which has brought the world to a state at which all human types and cultures can fuse together. According to Vasconcelo the faithful Latin-people are those called upon to this divine mission after they have gained freedom. It is safe to say Vasconcelo easily inspired and influenced several aspects of Diego Riveraâ€⠄¢s artwork.While Mexico was under similar circumstances after the Mexican Revolution as Latin America, Deigo Rivera used some of Jose Vasconcelo’s ideas to impart social and political messages. In Diego Rivera’s â€Å"El Hombre en Cruco de Caminos† located in Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, one can see a man who appears to be in control of the Universe with a variety of people in the backgrounds. At one point Vasconcelo states that every ascending race needs to constitute its own philosophy to get to its own success, rather than just learn and copy from the others.This idea is expressed in Rivera’s Mural by the man in the middle who is controlling what seems to be the entire universe. It seems that both of these men understood the ideathat it was time to control themselves. Although Diego was focused on the â€Å"spiritual† liberation of Mexico from its Colonial obsession, the idea of creating and controlling your own ideology and destiny is shared by Rivera’s painting and Vasconcelo’s, The Cosmic Race.

American International Competitiveness

Since the beginning of the 1970s, the United States has experienced a virtual trade revolution. Trade has increased much faster than the economy as a whole. Both imports and exports expanded during the past 15 years. In the late 1970s, imports started outstripping exports by historically large margins. A merchandise trade deficit has been present every year since 1976. Moreover, this deficit has increased dramatically in the 1980s. What economic changes underlie the shift in U. S. competitiveness evidenced by the recent trade deficits?While economists who have addressed this question have employed different approaches, most have examined changes in macroeconomic variables to see if they generated the economic pressures that led to the recent trade deficits. Economists who have employed this approach have generally concluded that macroeconomic changes probably are the cause of the recent deficits. Although macroeconomic theory suggests that trade deficits may be associated with a wide variety of factors, two events in the late 1970s and early 1980s have received particular attention: the rise in U. S.aggregate demand relative to foreign aggregate demand and the increase in U. S. interest rates relative to foreign interest rates. Both may have been spurred by the U. S. government's budget deficit. The excess of spending over income provided a powerful expansionary fiscal policy while higher interest rates had to be used to attract foreign and domestic investors to finance the growth in debt. A relative increase in aggregate demand, whatever its source, is expected to lead to a trade deficit because a country's demand for imports is positively associated with the level of its aggregate demand.In this instance, the theory predicts that U. S. demand for imports will rise relative to foreign demand for U. S. exports as U. S. aggregate demand grows relative to foreign aggregate demand. A relative increase in U. S. interest rates can also lead to trade deficits by incr easing foreign demand for U. S. financial assets. The link between financial flows that respond to interest rate changes and trade deficits is evident in standard balance of payments accounting relationships.The accounting relationships used in defining trade deficits require that a nation's current account (comprised of the merchandise trade balance, the balance of trade on services, and net unilateral transfers) equals in size, but with opposite sign, the capital account. In other words, if there are capital inflows, then there must be a trade deficit. Given this accounting relationship, the inflow of foreign capital that is attracted by relatively high U. S. interest rates must lead to a trade deficit to satisfy the fundamental accounting identities that underlie balance of payments accounting (McCulloch, 1978).While explanations of recent trade deficits that are based on fundamental macroeconomic relationships are attractive to economists, many commentators have advanced alterna tive explanations that are rooted in microeconomic relationships. These commentators believe that the microeconomic characteristics have changed in ways that explain the relatively sudden substantial increases in imports and net imports. In addition, public opinion, for one reason or another, has not fully accepted the power of the macroeconomic explanations for the trade deficits.We shall therefore investigate these explanations that have been offered by various sources. The logical connections between these microeconomic changes and trade deficits have not been clearly drawn. In particular, supporters of these microeconomic-based hypotheses have ignored the fact that (absent macroeconomic adjustments) changes in the exchange rate could compensate for shifts in microeconomic relationships, leaving trade flows in balance (Tarr, 1985). While the link between alleged microeconomic changes and trade deficits is unclear, empirical analysis of the microeconomic explanations can still be very useful.Specifically, if we find that the alleged microeconomic changes in the structure of trade have not occurred, then we will be in a position to reject the microeconomic explanations directly. For advocates of the microeconomic explanations, this approach may be more convincing than one that evaluates the microeconomic explanations indirectly through the use of general equilibrium or macroeconomic models. The microeconomic explanations have focused on identifying three types of microeconomic changes. First, there may be technological changes that alter trade flows.For example, changes in an industry's technology may alter factor intensities so that particular inputs are less important to successful international competition. Second, policy changes may alter trade flows through their effect on the openness of U. S. or other economies or through their effect on the relative cost structure of U. S. manufacturers. Changes in tariff, quotas, or government subsidies clearly can h ave this effect, but other government policies may also be important. Third, the availability of needed inputs may change so that the competitive position of U.S. firms is altered. For example, when abundant mineral resources continue to be key for production, the U. S. position will change as the United States exhausts its relative supply of these needed resources. According to some commentators, any or all of these types of microeconomic changes might lead to growth in the manufacturing trade deficit. As a result, they have received substantial public attention. If changes in microeconomic factors are the source of recent trade deficits, we should observe a recent and major shift in the pattern of U. S.trade, since some industries will be more sensitive to changes in particular microeconomic factors than other industries or experience bigger changes in these factors. For instance, if relative U. S. wage rates have become more important in international competition, we should obser ve a particularly large rise in net imports in industries that employ relatively large amounts of high-cost labor or have experienced particularly large increases in labor costs. In contrast, if macroeconomic variables underlie the recent deficits, this type of structural shift in trade flows is less likely to be present (Drucker, 1985).As a result, we can reject many of the microeconomic explanations of recent trade deficits that have been advanced if we observe that economic relationships that traditionally have advantaged some industries over others in international trade have been stable and that key industry characteristics, such as labor intensity, have also been stable. In the case of U. S. wage rates, if the relationship between wage rates and imports has not changed over time, and U. S. wage rates relative to those in other countries have not changed significantly, then wage rates are unlikely to have contributed to the increased trade deficit.Of course, if we do find that the alleged microeconomic changes have occurred, the growth in the trade deficit can not be attributed to them unless logical causal relationships can be identified that are consistent with international trade accounting identities. Factors associated with U. S. competitiveness in trade appear to have been relatively stable throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Manufacturing operations located in the States retain their traditional competitive advantage in production that requires sophisticated know-how and continue to experience a competitive disadvantage in production that uses unskilled labour intensively.Moreover, it appears that, to the extent change has occurred, these relationships have strengthened over time (Marston 1986). Yet, as others have pointed out, the competitive performance of many U. S. industries appears to have declined (Landau and Rosenberg, 1986). Can these two observations be consistent? The competitive performance of U. S. industries can decline because of c hanges that do not affect the relationships between trade flows and the industry characteristics. First, the characteristics of particular industries, such as their factor intensities, may have changed so that net imports increased.The higher unionization is associated with more imports, thus if unionization increased and this relationship remained stable, then unionization could be one cause of increased imports. Shifts in the relative competitiveness of an individual industry may reflect adjustments in the characteristics of the industry, within the context of stable comparative advantage relationships. For example, if strong R&D efforts are associated with strong exports, but industries reduce their R&D expenditures, export performance would be expected to decline even though the relationship between exports and R&D was stable.Put slightly differently, when relative factor abundancies are stable, changes in industrial input requirements will be reflected in shifts in the trade ba lance of particular U. S. industries. The rankings of industries with respect to their trade flows have been quite stable. While there have been some shifts in position during the last decade, statistical tests indicate that the shifting has not been substantial. The rank order of manufacturing industries by the level of net imports in 1975 is highly correlated with the rank order that existed in 1984.Industry characteristics available in time series have also been quite stable. The values for industry characteristics in 1975 are highly correlated with their values in 1981. Moreover, the changes in mean values for these variables are relatively small, especially for the variables that are most directly related to the seven proposed explanations of the trade deficits that we analyze. The variables available in time series include the primary variables used in traditional trade models. Simple macroeconomic relationships suggest that the rise in the trade deficit is likely to be associ ated with changes in macroeconomic variables.If this is true, then one would expect that many industries experienced a rise in their trade deficits (Benvignati, 1985). Consistent with this prediction, nearly all U. S. industries experienced declining international competitiveness to some degree between 1981 and 1984. In addition to this general confirmation of the macroeconomic explanations for trade deficits, there is direct support for the view that recent inflows of foreign capital, attracted by relatively high U. S. interest rates, and increases in U. S.aggregate demand relative to foreign aggregate demand are responsible for recent trade deficits. Specifically, exchange rates rose during the period studied and this led to an increase in net imports, as the macroeconomic theory of international financial flows predicts. Also there appears to be a positive association between recent increases in relative U. S. aggregate demand and net imports, as the aggregate demand theory sugge sts. According to the macroeconomic theory of international financial flows, higher U. S. interest rates will attract foreign capital. Since U. S.financial assets are denominated in dollars, this will lead to an increase in the demand for dollars. Because increases in the value of the dollar make U. S. goods more expensive relative to foreign goods, there will be a reduction in the international competitiveness of U. S. manufacturers. This decrease in competitiveness is expected to be reflected in higher net imports, causing the trade deficit to equal the surplus on the capital account. There is empirical support for this argument. U. S. industries appear to have been under severe competitive pressure because of the relatively high value of the dollar.For example, in the automobile industry, it has been argued that about $700 of the roughly $2,000 cost disadvantage of U. S. automobile manufacturers in 1983 was due to the unusually high exchange rate (Detroit Battle, 1983). Similarly , in steel, machine tools, textiles, and many other industries, analysts have pointed to exchange rates as an important source of the U. S. competitive disadvantage. As a result, it is not too surprising that the increase in the value of the dollar between 1980 and 1985 was associated with a decline in the U. S. trade balance.While the adverse effect of the increased value of the dollar on the competitive position of U. S. industries seems to have been quite widespread, the effect has been larger in some industries than others. In particular, it appears likely that the effect will be largest for products where the demand for U. S. exports and imports was quite elastic, since these products are most sensitive to changes in relative prices. For example, estimates of price elasticities by Baldwin (1976) indicate that these elasticities are particularly large (between 3. 20 and 4.4) in the case of metal working machinery and office/computing machines. According to macroeconomic theory, imports are likely to vary positively with the level of aggregate demand, other things being equal. Specifically, as U. S. incomes rise, the U. S. demand for imports is likely to rise. Moreover, if U. S. incomes rise relative to foreign incomes, the U. S. demand for imports should rise relative to the foreign demand for U. S. exports. As a result, macroeconomic theory predicts that, during these periods, U. S. demand for imports will rise relative to foreign demand for U. S.exports and growing trade deficits are more likely. At the end of 1982, the U. S. balance of payments deficit appears to have been reduced by aggregate demand effects, since the U. S. demand was falling relative to foreign demand. However, in 1983 and 1984 the U. S. economy grew relative to the economies of its trading partners (Economic Report of the President 1986). The relatively strong U. S. recovery and the general worldwide recession were associated with a sharp rise in the U. S. trade deficit (Economic Rep ort of the President 1985). There is no conflict between the observation that U.S. trade deficits have risen and the finding that U. S. comparative advantage relationships have been relatively stable over the last decade. Evidently, there have been shifts in macroeconomic variables that have increased the level of imports in most industries, without shifting trade patterns across industries significantly. While other types of changes, such as shifts in omitted microeconomic variables or changes in the magnitudes of included variables, would also make the two observations consistent, these alternative explanations are not nearly as important.Moreover, simple macroeconomic theories and available empirical evidence suggest strongly that macroeconomic forces underlie the growth of recent trade deficits. Changes in most microeconomic variables have either been gradual or narrowly focused. As a result, they are unlikely to generate the large trade deficits that are observed. Only the chan ges in international capital flows (with associated changes in exchange rates) and, for part of the period, changes in the relative levels of aggregate demand, have been large enough and sharp enough to explain the sudden rise in net imports. The growth of direct foreign investment by U.S. firms during the last decade reflects, in part, the exploitation of their advanced technological and organizational know-how. This stability in the fundamental comparative advantage relationships is inconsistent with widely held views linking microeconomic changes to the growth in the trade deficit during the 1980s. Macroeconomic models provide explanations that are much more consistent with empirical observations. We conclude, as have macroeconomists, that changes in macroeconomic factors, rather than any of the many microeconomic explanations that have been advanced, underlie recent U.S. trade deficits. The comparative advantage structure that determines a country's trade patterns changes only s lowly. For the United States, comparative advantage forces have meant, and still mean, that the country is a net importer of commodities that are efficiently produced with relatively large amounts of unskilled labour and a net exporter of commodities that require the relatively intensive use of skilled labour. These basic relationships have not changed significantly during the 1970s or early 1980s.Similarly, the United States continues to be disadvantaged in industries that are energy-intensive, use depleting natural resources, or are heavily unionized. Higher minimum efficient scale requirements and higher R&D intensity continue to be associated with both higher imports and higher exports. Only weak relationships exist between capital intensity or industry concentration and the strength of the U. S. trade position. The relationships between industry characteristics and trade flows are evident despite the presence of tariff and nontariff barriers and other government trade policies. Moreover, the effects of trade policies appear to be weak relative to the economic forces that result from differences in comparative advantage. Nonetheless, trade policies do have identifiable effects. As one would expect, U. S. tariff and nontariff barriers are associated with lower net import levels. However, the statistical findings for foreign trade barriers are less clear. We attribute this to the fact that U. S. exporters face different trade barriers in different countries. It may be the case that strong U. S.exports continue in many countries although these exports face substantial barriers in other countries. In addition, foreign trade barriers and industrial targeting efforts may arise as a reaction to U. S. export successes, yet not be strong enough to make a substantial reduction in U. S. exports in foreign markets generally. Analyses of U. S. imports and exports test the competitiveness of the States as a geographical unit. However, these analyses do not capture fully the competitiveness of U. S. -controlled firms, since many U. S.firms are multinationals. To measure the competitiveness of U. S. -controlled firms, output manufactured abroad using U. S. know-how must be considered (Marston, 1986). Similarly, U. S. output must be adjusted for output produced by foreign-controlled multinationals in the United States. To a large extent, the additional perspective offered by the analysis of the adjusted trade flow data simply confirms the findings based on the unadjusted data. The United States remains relatively strong in the same industries where it was strong in the previous decade.However, when the trade flow data are adjusted to reflect the presence of multinational corporations, some structural changes in trade patterns become evident. Basically, these changes evidence a strengthening of the relationships that have traditionally shaped U. S. trade flows. Apparently U. S. firms have increasingly exploited their more mobile competitive strengths b y investing abroad. There is some evidence that this effort has been undertaken to overcome historical comparative disadvantages associated with producing in the States.Most notably, there is some evidence that this foreign investment is increasingly prominent in industries that are heavily unionized. Together, the analyses of adjusted and unadjusted trade flow data indicate that U. S. firms are not losing their relative competitive strengths. The adjusted data suggest that some changes are occurring in international direct investment, but these changes have not been echoed in changes in the composition of U. S. net imports. The gradual nature of any changes that are occurring highlights the basic stability of the structure of U. S. trade flows.The structural stability that we observe is consistent with the view that shifts in microeconomic relationships are not an important source of recent trade deficits. Absent evidence of changes, there is no reason to believe that these potenti al microeconomic issues contend with macroeconomic factors as the real explanations for the large observed increases in the U. S. trade deficit. Turning to the first two microeconomic explanations (high labor cost explanation and union work rule explanation), traditional relationships between labor market variables and trade patterns still hold.The United States continues to be at a comparative disadvantage in labor-intensive industries. To the extent there has been change, it has been gradual and statistically insignificant. Moreover, the United States appears to be doing well, and has slightly improved its performance, in high-wage industries. Evidently, the advantage continues in industries where human capital is important. While union activities have affected the structure of U. S. manufacturing industries, this impact has been different from that suggested in the second explanation.No change in the relationship between unionization and U. S. trade flows has taken place. However , various studies do suggest that multinational corporations in unionized industries have shifted larger and larger shares of their output overseas. Apparently, this direct investment has added to U. S. -controlled output, rather than entirely substituting for exports from unionized industries located in the States. The third and fourth explanations (foreign government trade practices explanation and OPEC cartel explanation) involve actions taken by foreign governments.Foreign governments do not appear to have uniformly targeted â€Å"U. S. industries†Ã¢â‚¬â€œthat is, industries where the United States has had a competitive advantage. While foreign government interventions are evident, these efforts vary from country to country and do not appear to have a significant effect on overall U. S. trade patterns. This does not mean that particular foreign tariffs, nontariff barriers, or targeting subsidies could not disrupt natural trade flows. However, it does mean that currently t hese effects are limited among our major trading partners (Maskus 1981).Actions by foreign governments that may have supported OPEC's efforts to raise energy prices did not significantly alter the structure of U. S. manufacturing trade, as the fourth proposition contends. The increases in world energy prices during the 1970s were dramatic and clearly had a significant effect on the overall balance of payments. However, only when trade flows are adjusted to recognize the presence of multinationals is there a significant change in the comparative advantage structure across manufacturing industries. Turning to the fifth microeconomic explanation (declining R&D explanation), U. S.firms have not lost their comparative advantage in R&D-intensive products. While U. S. imports of high-technology products have increased over time, so have exports. Moreover, the overall structural relationships that determine U. S. comparative advantages with respect to R&D do not appear to have changed signi ficantly. To the extent change is evident; it appears that the growth of U. S. multinational firms has allowed them to exploit their comparative advantages in high technology through their foreign affiliates. The remaining explanations (inadequate investment explanation and antitrust explanation) involve policies of the U.S. government. According to these two explanations, high taxes on capital formation and overly aggressive antitrust enforcement efforts have undermined the competitiveness of U. S. firms. The notion that relatively high taxes on capital, and resulting lower U. S. investment rates, have led to a growing U. S. disadvantage in capital-intensive industries is not confirmed by the statistical tests. While some earlier studies using 1958 to 1976 data found that the United States had a growing comparative disadvantage in capital-intensive industries, this trend did not continue in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Maskus 1981).The United States was a strong exporter in indu stries where economies of scale (MES) are important. Moreover, we did not find substantial advantages of concentration beyond the levels associated with these plant- level scale economies. There also was no sign of significant changes in the comparative advantage relationships with respect to scalerelated or concentration-related variables. Conclusion Given the stability of U. S. comparative advantage relationships over time, why has the U. S. trade deficit increased by so much?For some industries, the rise in net imports may simply reflect the fact that the characteristics of the industry have changed, so U. S. firms no longer have a comparative advantage. In particular, when the know-how needed to produce a commodity becomes standardized and cheap labour becomes a relatively more important input, we should expect that U. S. manufacturers will lose share to foreign manufacturers. As is suggested by simple macroeconomic models, much of the rise in net imports appears to be attributa ble to macroeconomic forces that have more than offset the advantages that U.S. firms have traditionally had in some industries. In fact, most industries have experienced increased levels of imports, suggesting that economy-wide changes underlie the problem. Examination of macroeconomic variables that could produce this type of shift in trade flows confirms that the rise in interest rates with the associated increase in the value of the dollar and, during some recent periods, the relatively rapid growth of U. S. aggregate demand appear to have stimulated net imports generally.Generally, there has been relatively little shifting in either comparative advantage relationships or in industry characteristics that affect imports and exports. Indeed, the growth in direct foreign investment, which appears to support the most dramatic changes that have occurred, has been associated with the exploitation of traditional U. S. advantages. Moreover, the shift in the overall position of the Unite d States relative to its trading partners has been fairly general, which is consistent with the argument that individual microeconomic explanations are unlikely to explain much of the recent rise in U.S. trade deficits. Given this finding, it is probable that the U. S. recent loss in competitive position is largely attributable to macroeconomic forces. In particular, it appears likely that changes in relative interest rates and levels of aggregate demand best explain most of the recent increases in the U. S. trade deficit. Both of these may be related to large increases in the government's budget deficit. The rise in trade deficits during the 1970s and 1980s led to substantial concern about the competitiveness of U. S. firms.Many of the microeconomic explanations that have been advanced to explain the recent deficits do not appear to be supported by available empirical evidence. Because these microeconomic explanations do not explain the recent trade deficits, policy prescriptions b ased on shifting microeconomic variables are a poor bet to change trade flows fundamentally. In particular, wage restrictions, trade restrictions, subsidization programs, and policies that promote market concentration are unlikely to alter the trade deficit substantially. Indeed, efforts to implement these policies are likely to hurt U. S.competitiveness, as interest groups attach riders to legislation that promotes their special interests at the expense of the broader economy. Focusing the public debate on microeconomic factors rather than macroeconomic factors seems to be, at best, ill-advised. It tends to distract the public from the real, difficult issues of government deficits, international investment, and economic growth. More likely, it provides a convenient cloak in which to wrap the costly protections so fervently sought by special interest groups that ultimately increase costs, retard productivity growth, and harm consumers.Since the strategic use of trade policies can di sadvantage one country at the expense of another, it is better to view findings as indicating that care must be taken in responding to recent trade deficits. Specifically, policy makers must be careful that they are not so caught up in the dramatic deficits that they accede to special interest groups that have inappropriately linked their troubles to those of the economy as a whole (Krugman, 1986). History provides very little reason to believe that such objectivity is possible in trade policy. Failure to exercise caution has its risks.Not only can the improper protectionist policies cause sizeable immediate losses, but they may also lead to longer term losses as well. For example, it may be short-sighted to impose import restraints on products that are key inputs into subsequent production activities, since this can have adverse effects on domestic producers that use these inputs. Indeed, protectionist policies of this type may have long-run adverse effects on the protected industr y, since potential customers may choose to locate abroad and, as a result, not be well-positioned to purchase the input from U. S.suppliers even after protection is no longer necessary. In addition, poorly designed protectionist efforts can trigger trade wars, as foreign governments retaliate to unjustifiable U. S. trade restraints. Indeed, the threat of spiraling beggar-thy-neighbor policies continues to be a key reason for supporting free trade, even in a world that offers strategic opportunities. Reference: â€Å"Detroit Battle: The Cost Gap,† New York Times, May 28, 1983, pp. 35, 37. Baldwin R. , U. S. Tariff Policy: Formation and Effects,† study prepared for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U. S.Department of Labor, June 1976. Benvignati A. , â€Å"The Commodity Composition of U. S. Intra-firm Exports,† FTC, unpublished, 1985. Drucker P. , â€Å"Where Union Flexibility's Now a Must,† Wall Street Journal, September 23, 1985, p. 30. Economic R eport of the President, U. S. Council of Economic Advisers. Washington, D. C. : U. S. Government Printing Office, annual editions from 1972 to 1987. Landau R. , and N. Rosenberg (eds. ), The Positive Sum Strategy, Washington, D. C. : National Academy Press, 1986. Landau R. , and N. Rosenberg (eds. ), The Positive Sum Strategy, Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, 1986. Marston R. , â€Å"Assessing Japanese Competitiveness,† NBER Reporter, Winter 1986/ 1987, pp. 12-16. Maskus K. , The Changing Structure of Comparative Advantage in American Manufacturing, Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press, 1981. McCulloch R. , â€Å"Research and Development as a Determinant of U. S. International Competitiveness,† Harvard Economic Research Discussion Paper 609, March 1978. Tarr D. , â€Å"Trade Deficits, Trade Policy and the Value of the Dollar,† paper for conference, Trade Policy: Free or Fair? , November 19, 1985.