Critique of Movie The Insider Essay - 1016 Words

Critique of Movie The Insider A dramatization of 1995 events in which the tobacco industry allegedly covered up proof that nicotine is addictive and harmful. When Brown and Williamson executive Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) tries to expose the industrys cover-up, he is threatened into silence. He eventually gets his story to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (AL Pacino), but CBS decides against airing it due to political and economic pressures, and the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson. Before we start, I think its important that you know a little thing about me, and where Im coming from. I do smoke. But I believe that most of the lawsuits filed against the tobacco industry are unfounded, desperate attempts for people to put†¦show more content†¦After all, the guy has a family to look out for. But then Wigand is tortured over his passiveness, wondering if he should take a more aggressive stance with his potentially damaging knowledge. 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, sensing a big story in the works, tries to coax Wigand into talking. An energetic Al Pacino, who fights to get the story on the air, only to have it snuffed by CBS, plays Bergman here. Allegedly, the television network was possibly up for sale around the time of this story, and airing it might have damaged their image with controversy, making it less appealing to potential suitors. This, coupled with the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson, made CBS refuse to air the story. The Insider portrays these events as a crusade on the part of Bergman and Wigand to get the truth out there, against the will of Big Business and Bigger Tobacco. And while Bergman is never portrayed as much more than a journalist with an uncharacteristic amount of integrity, Wigand is a great character to follow as he tries to balance out everything around him. Tortured and sleepless, his reactions are what you would expect from someone forced to choose between the safety of his family with the gravity of what he knows. Most of it makes for edge of your suit viewing. Suspense abounds, and AL Pacinos confrontations with the evil corporate executives, censors, and whatnot are the centerpiece of the movie. He gets to climb up on the soapbox and beltShow MoreRelated Critique on Open City Essays1116 Words   |  5 PagesCritique on Open City â€Å"Open City† is a neo-realist film that followed the movement in Italy during World War 2. The film is neo-realistic because it has that ‘reality’ like feeling to it by following specific characters through their daily stressful lives that are screwed up from poverty and war. It has many qualities that make it in some ways ‘closer’ to the characters. While watching, the viewer is sucked into the story and immediately feeling emotional with the families and the other variousRead MoreDigital Piracy Essay1225 Words   |  5 Pagesof video cassettes, it required certain equipment and piracy behaviour was limited (Waterman et al., 2007). The rise of the computer and World Wide Web, however, simplified the unauthorised duplication and storage of copyrighted content and caused movie piracy to soar substantially (Fetscherin, 2005). Digital piracy can generally occur offline (through the copying of discs and files) and online (through the downloading and sharing of files). A recent study revealed that approximately 24% of globalRead MoreOliver Stone And Gordon Gekko : Strange Bedfellows1766 Words   |  8 Pagesof films that has since become ubiquitous in American popular culture. 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Coming on the heels of several other controversial actions by the rapper, the ensuing media storm prompted West to take a break from the music industry—and withdraw from the tourRead MoreAdidas Marketing Plan20779 Words   |  84 Pages...................................................... 52†© Social/Cultural†©Environment............................................................................................................................................. 53†© Overall†©Brand†©Critique†©and†©Recommendations...................................................................... 54†© Works†©Cited.......................................................................................................................... 61†© Appendix ....Read MoreAdidas Marketing Plan20768 Words   |  84 Pages...................................................... 52†© Social/Cultural†©Environment............................................................................................................................................. 53†© Overall†©Brandâ⠂¬ ©Critique†©and†©Recommendations...................................................................... 54†© Works†©Cited.......................................................................................................................... 61†© Appendix ....Read MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagespostmodernism anything new? 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Essay about Zara Case Analysis - 1522 Words

Zara is a retailing chain of Inditexthat specializes in high-fashion at reasonable prices. In the last 12 months, Inditex’s stock price has increased by 50% despite bearish market conditions. The 50% increase is due to the investor expectations of Inditex’s growth. Inditex’s growth can be contributed to the decisions it has made in creating a vertically integrated centralized process. The centralization of its vertically integrated operations in Europe provided it with its competitive advantage; however, I believe it will also make it fail if it decides to grow substantially into other markets. Financial Analysis compare to competitors In comparing Inditex financial performance against its competitors, it is apparent that Inditex is†¦show more content†¦Zarawas able to catch a trend while it was hot thus customers were willing to pay a higher premium for the product increasing their gross margin. In addition, Zara did not have to commit to its supplier s several months in advance of a season on the style and amount needed unlike its competitors. Zara was able to create in smaller batches, thus decreasing risk by limiting the amount of inventory on hand. The downside of owning and controlling production is that it often leads to higher costs of labor compared to labor in developing countries (south-east Asia). To lessen the costs, Zaradecided to outsource the main commodities of apparel such as the undyed fabric, buttons and zippers. Because these were basic ingredients to any apparel it did not affect the final product and cut down cost. Also, 85%-90% of their styles were standard across stores and countries which benefited from economies of scale. Lastly by playing both role of manufacturer and retailer Zara is able to get profits on both sides. The short-lead times provide flexibility to Zara; however, Zara needs to provide the consumer with the latest trends in order to increase profitability. Therefore, Zara invests heavily in their product development teams compared to their competitors. Extensive continual market research was performed on current trends from fashion shows, universities and key trendShow MoreRelatedZara Case Analysis1872 Words   |  8 PagesAlbert Sedaghatpour Individual Case Analysis-Zara 7/24/09 Introduction Zara is the flagship chain store of Inditex Group owned by Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega. The group is located in Spain, where the first Zara store was opened. Zara has opposed the industry-wide trend towards turning fast fashion production to low-cost countries. Possibly its most atypical strategy is its policy of zero advertising; the firm opted to invest a portion of revenues in opening new stores instead. At the end of 2001Read MoreZara Case Study Analysis1858 Words   |  8 PagesCASE STUDY ANALYSIS: ZARA Name Institution Professor Course Date Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Strategic Issues Underpinning the Buying Decisions at Zara 3 3. Zara’s Product Mix Strategy: Advantages and Disadvantages 6 4. Conclusion 8 REFERENCES 10 1. Introduction Zara is a successful retail clothing company that expanded over the years due to its elaborate supply chain and excellent product mix strategy. The company established in 1963 opened its first store in 1975Read MoreZara Case Analysis1564 Words   |  7 PagesZara is a retailing chain of Inditexthat specializes in high-fashion at reasonable prices. In the last 12 months, Inditex’s stock price has increased by 50% despite bearish market conditions. The 50% increase is due to the investor expectations of Inditex’s growth. Inditex’s growth can be contributed to the decisions it has made in creating a vertically integrated centralized process. The centralization of its vertically integrated operations in Europe provided it with its competitive advantage;Read MoreZara: a Marketing Analysis Case Study5929 Words   |  24 Pages my organization is ZARA. Based in La Coruna, Spain, Zara is Inditex’s main brand, (Fashion Forward -The Economist, 2012). Founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega Zara now has stores in 73 countries. With estimated annual revenue in excess of 7 billion Euro, Zara has over 1700 stores worldwide, (Wikipedia, 2013). Zara has been described by Louis Vuitton fashion director as â€Å"possibly the most innovative and devastating retailer in the world†, (Wikipedia, 2013). WHY ZARA? 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In 1975, founder Amancio Ortega opened the first store in La Coruna, Spain. Zara is the flagship chain store of the Inditex group (Industria de Diseno Textil), encompassing many self-designed differentRead MoreInnovation in the Supply Chain: Analysis of the Zara Case3796 Words   |  15 PagesInnovation in the Supply Chain: Analysis of the Zara Case Case Synopsis Zaras mercurial growth as the flagship enterprise of the Inditex Corporation is attributable to the companys expertise in logistics, supply chain management and its highly effective use of tacit, implicit and process-based knowledge. From both an epistemology of possession and practice, Zara has been able to attain formidable competitive differentiation at the process level of their business. This is exemplified in theirRead MoreZara Business Model (Case Analysis)2398 Words   |  10 PagesZara Case Quest 4/5/2011 Done By: Faisal Alsawaihan Zara case Quest What Business is Zara In? (Business model) Zara is one of the Inditex group, which they mainly in the apparel industry. It considers the most successful brand in this group and most of profit margin is coming from Zara stores that are widespread around the world (76countries) and their main products of apparel are for men, women, and kids. As we can see from the article (It for fast fashion) and Zara’s annual report in 2009, theRead MoreZara Case Analysis April 27 2014 Done By: Shamsa Salem 201030589 To: Laura Matherly College of2300 Words   |  10 Pages Zara Case Analysis April 27 2014 Done By: Shamsa Salem 201030589 To: Laura Matherly College of Businesses I. Company Situation Company’s situation can be determined by its external and internal indicators. The external data has been analyzed in the previous section, therefore it’s also necessary to cover the internal data to get financial status of the company. Financial analysis can accurately determine company’s performance in the market and its position among its rivals. In additionRead MoreBusiness Analysis Of Zara, The Leading And The Profitable Brand Of Inditex1592 Words   |  7 PagesExecutive Summary This case paper presents the business analysis of Zara, the leading and the profitable brand of Inditex. The case paper’s objective is to discuss whether to update the current DOS/IT infrastructure and evaluate the effects of the upgrade. It presents the IS implementation opportunities and evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation. It concludes by providing recommendations for updating the current OS along with its advantages. The approach to analysis includes looking into

Market Models Free Essays

The main objective of a private firm is to maximize profits and without the control over costs, they try to sell at higher prices. This is true if the operating industry has an inelastic demand schedule as a price rise brings in higher revenue. The Marginal revenue concept states that in order to increase revenues, firms need to lower prices if they are operating in a price-elastic industry but a fall in price in a relatively in-elastic demand adds a deficit to the revenue that so firms increase their prices in order to attain a higher profit. We will write a custom essay sample on Market Models or any similar topic only for you Order Now 2) The US airline industry operates in the oligopolistic structure. That is the big four firms namely American, Southwest, United and Delta have a combined share of more than 40% of the market which supports the fact that these firms can be classified as oligopolies. Further the firms do not react to price increases that sharply as it is a characteristic of an oligopoly to react more towards a price fall rather than an increase except for the case of a market leader. 3) No, the result will not differ whether we consider the entire domestic market or just the market for San Francisco and Seattle. The firms operating are same and customers are quite rational that is the service being offered is homogenous so it would not matter if we look at it as a whole or individually. Here a price rise in the case of a single market would mean that the competitor may gain an advantage and attain higher revenue. 4) There are many advantages of collusion or price fixing related to competitors. One of them being an equal share for all, this means that they can share areas among themselves and reduce competition. This helps reduce uncertainty as the market saturation is done and firms are bound by agreement to receive equal share. This would further give rise to profits and most of all this behavior is a very strong entry barrier as firms can unite in order to drive away an entrant. Collusive pricing also means a restricted supply therefore firms can ask higher prices as there is a quota in place thus creating an in-elastic demand. 5) No, an oligopoly operates in between both extremes of its demand schedule that is the elastic region and the in-elastic region. The reason that the firm rescinds from increasing prices is due to the fear of losing its market share as the products in this industry are homogenous and so the customers would shift easily to other airlines. The oligopolists must consider how their rivals will react to any change in the price, output, characteristics, or advertising. Oligopoly is thus characterized by strategic behaviour and mutual interdependence. By strategic behaviour we simply mean self interested behaviour that takes into account the reaction of others. So we can not associate that such advertisements or statements are for a fixture in price. Bibliography 1)Parkin, Michael. (2004) Economics. Addison Wesley Publishing Company How to cite Market Models, Essay examples

Reflect Critically on How Your Worldview Has Been Shaped free essay sample

Using the concept of a world view, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your worldview has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community. In your answer refer to Hobson (1996) and Samovar and Porter (2004) from the SSK12 Reader, and Chapter 1 in A Guide to Learning Independently (Marshall and Rowland, 2006, 1-18). Everyone comes from a different culture and has their own world view, based upon their upbringing and community values. Remnants of that world view will always remain throughout their lives and I am no exception. Throughout my own journey, I have formed outlooks and beliefs in respect to education, which I consequently bring to today’s learning. In this essay I will reveal those factors which shaped my current beliefs and attitudes towards education and learning, highlighted through the prism of my own experience and environment. I will start with my ever-changing world view. Then I will explain how my gender, age and the communities I lived in played a significant role in my decision making regarding education. What is a World view? In their book Samovar and Porter maintain that the word world view â€Å"†¦ is the common English translation of the German word Weltanschauung, meaning overarching philosophy †¦Ã¢â‚¬  With that the authors summarise all other explanations that may fit the description of a world view. They also state other factors which describe a world view, factors with which we are surrounded in everyday life. Those are our communities’ beliefs in God, questions about nature and the human race, the universe and everything about life, death and in general the perception of one’s world. 2004, 85) What the authors are pointing out here is that our world view is the basic foundation that is built and formed around our cultures and communities. Not only are we taught these world views but also they are shaped within us as a result of our experiences during our lives. Hobson also gives a good example with her own interpretation â€Å"By world view I mean a set of beliefs that we hold and through which we organise our understanding of ourselves and our understanding of others. † (1996, 30) She argues the importance of understanding the world views in order to gain nowledge about others and ourselves. Based on the understanding of my own world view, I am aware that the beliefs and attitudes I hold today about learning and education are influenced directly by my gender, age, background and my community. My values and perceptions about learning contain a large portion of that original world view. However, it has gradually changed during the course of time. My new country encouraged me to embrace new cultures, to meet people from different backgrounds and to respect their beliefs. Traveling, studying and constantly observing new behaviours around me have also played a role in reshaping my world view. Although I completed several certificates at TAFE as a contribution to my learning, I saw my gender as an obstacle to continue my education in university. As a woman and primarily a wife and mother, with my cultural world view philosophy in mind, I made a choice to exclusively devote my time to our children’s wellbeing and development. I believed that my education can take place later in life. This was not met with recognition and approval from the community though. If one understands a culture’s world view and cosmology, reasonable accuracy can be attained in predicting behaviours and motivations in other dimensions. † (Samovar and Porter 2004, 85) The authors point at the importance of being able to recognise and understand different culture’s world views. Communication in multicultural communities could be much more efficient if more people were open to learning how to read the signs of different world views. Nevertheless, I knew that my time to study would come and I dedicated myself to the task at hand. Attempting an education at university expects dedication and commitment. It also has to be the right time in one’s life. As Marshall and Rowland state â€Å"If you are studying because it is a cultural or social expectation and not because you want to, think about your alternatives. † (2006, 10) With that in mind I am confident in saying that I am studying now because I know that this is the right time for me and I know which career I am going to pursue in the future. Some of the world views, which I have adopted during my life, have a great impact on my understanding as a female. I am aware of the great change in world views through time in regard to a woman’s role in her community. Samovar and Porter’s statement illustrates how the Islamic world view sees the community’s perception of women. The role of the women is subordinate to the men’s role in their society. (2004, 85) Hobson also mentions the implications of the hotly debated topic in Medieval times whether women shared rationality or not. (1996, 31) A lot has changed since then. Had I lived in those times my world view would have been very different than the one I hold today. Thus, I feel fortunate to be born in a time where women are equal to men and given opportunities to excel. As a mature aged student, my ever-changing worldview has influenced the understandings and opinions I hold about education and learning in general. My immigration to Australia took place in my early twenties during the year of 1995. It took some time for me to realize that further education is an essential and valued goal in my new country. Having a world view, which was shaped while I was raised during a communistic regime in Bulgaria, influenced my thinking and held me back. I did not believe that I was capable of furthering my education at a university level. Having a flair for Art, I was not confident that a career in this field was achievable. The world views during my parents time assumed that only a small number of students were able to complete a university degree. Their formal education was limited to completing grade 7 and 8 respectively. Despite the changes in my time, I still lacked the courage to begin such an endeavour. It would be best if we made our choices according to our own values but very often those values are unclear to us. Sidney B. Simon cited in Marshal and Rowland 2006, 11) That fits well with my mindset at the time. I wanted an education but did not believe in myself. The decision to study or not to study after high school depended on the world view of the community in which I was living. The fact that not many of my relatives and friends went to university at that time played a significant role in forming my own decisions. Livi ng in Australia has opened my eyes to different truths and achievable goals. Gradually I have come to understand that learning is available to everyone. I realised that my background culture and my community are no longer an obstacle when it comes to furthering my education. In my view, engaging in study later in life is even more beneficial. My situation closely reflects Marshall and Rowland’s statement that the way we learn is affected directly by what we believe and value. (2006, 10). The authors here argue how our beliefs play an important role in the way we perceive learning and education. With my current world view in mind, I could not agree more. In this essay I revealed my beliefs and attitudes towards education based on my world views. Those views have continuously changed throughout my whole life. The key to my changing attitudes and beliefs towards education so far, is based on travel, embracing a new culture, engaging with people from varied backgrounds, observing new behaviours and belief systems and learning new ways of understanding the world. With my new realisation that education is available to everyone regardless of his or her age, gender and beliefs, comes the freedom to embark on my own pursuit of a fulfilling career path. That can be achieved only through learning, which can be facilitated through university.

Y2k Bug Essays - Calendars, Software Bugs, COBOL, Hazards

Y2k Bug David Eggleston Review of Literature 2/24/99 Teri Ferguson Y2K Bug The turn of the century is rapidly approaching. This should be a time of high hopes for the future; the United States has advanced in all sorts of technology. The United States has advanced a great deal with computers, which are able to automate many difficult jobs, calculate extravagant equations, and make life easier for most people. The computer is an amazing tool allowing the United States to excel in the world. But, computers can also be the loadstone of the United States in the year 2000. The computer bug commonly known as Y2K can cause this. Y2K will cause a computer's date registry to read ?00? in which the computer will interpret ?1900?. Many people have their own opinions about how this will effect the United States and to what degree it will be effected, if the United States will be effected at all. A writer for Time Magazine states that there are wide ranges of people that are being effected in different ways by the Y2K problem. The author describes how many people are preparing for the worst and that some of those people believe that the Biblical Armageddon will arrive in the year 2000. It was stated that the Y2K problem is just another thing to keep people entertained. This was described by how the movie industry moved from spy movies such as ?James Bond? at the end of the cold war to more sci-fi movies such as ?Godzilla? because there was no real world problem. The purpose of this article is to simply point out that there is an actual problem with the Y2K phenomenon in order to make people aware that there are dangers even if it is just in the form of doomsayers. These points of the author are strong enough and realistic enough to make the problem known to the people but does not display any idea one way or the other. A marketing organization known as Arial Marketing posted a contingency plan on the internet that gives a view that there is going to be a strong enough problem with Y2K that one must prepare for it. This argument is supported by a few quotes from officials and high-ranking people in their respective fields. Arial Marketing made this posting slanting toward the fact that there will definitely be a problem with Y2K. Arial Marketing has even posted bad and a worst case preparation table. The purpose of this site is to tell people that their will be a Y2K problem and that in order to help people prepare for a situation Eggleston 2 two. This opinion is a strong one that is well presented and cautious with the quotes from many people backing it up. In ?The Year 2000 Problem: The Year the Earth Stands Still? Written by a one Gary North, Gary North clearly argues his own opinion about the Y2K problem. He really does not support his case by any facts other than his strong determination to make sure that everyone knows his point of view. The point of view that he tends to support is one of terrible visions of the absolute worst case scenario of the Y2K problem. He does not have any other kind of opinion of anything less and is quite sure of the idea that the world will crash because of the Y2K problem. The purpose of this article is to display Gary North's opinion of the Y2K problem in order to get people to prepare for the worst. The argument that Gary North has presented is a weak one for he has only state opinionated facts and has not supported this argument with any hard evidence. In just under a year the year 2000 will arrive with many hopes but it will also arrive with a Y2K bug. This bug will definitely effect some things, and maybe effect major things. The only thing that the people can do is simply prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Many organizations and even the government of the United States are working and hacking at this problem. Many organizations are making headway and will be ready to great the new millennium; others will most

The battle of Gettysburg Essay

The battle of Gettysburg Essay The battle of Gettysburg Essay Orlando Arevalo Arevalo 1 1/24/14 The Battle of Gettysburg The American Civil War started in 1861because the Northern and Southern part of the United States fought for westward expansion and slavery. When Abe Lincoln was elected in the election of 1860, it caused seven states to secede or leave the South. Four more states joined them and left after the first shots of the Civil War. Four years of fighting took place in battles like Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. I stopped at Chancellorsville because the next battle is Gettysburg. I will be talking about this brutal battle. The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest and most famous battle in the American Civil War. This battle took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and last approximately 3 days (July 1 through July 3 1863). It was such an influential battle that it led to the result of too who won the Civil War. Before the fight had even started, cities like Baltimore and Pittsburg were under a threat of being attacked by General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army (Southern States). The Union and its new commander, General George G. Meade, were trying to stop the attack. June 30th, that morning, a whole bunch of Confederate troops headed toward the sweet town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The commander looked through his glasses and spotted Federal cavalry that were heading toward Gettysburg. The Confederate Army fled but would be back the following morning. The Union were also outnumbered and still managed to move the Confederates back. This was going to be a close battle. Arevalo 1 â€Å"The following morning, July 1 (start of the battle), divisions of Confederate Army were headed back to Gettysburg. They ran into Federal cavalry again. Events would quickly escalate but General Robert E. Lee fought with about 25,000 and General George Meade had less than 20,000 men.†(www.historyplace.com) The Federals and their cavalry were pushed back all throughout Gettysburg. After this, General Lee told General Ewell to take hold of high ground so that the Federals wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them. But General Ewell hesitated to perform the attack so the Union could possibly go along Cemetery Ridge and bring in reinforcements such as guns, cannons, and mortars. Instead during this time, General Meade was regrouping troops and supplies. He was able to total 100,000 men to arrive. Lee thought that his army was the best and could not loose and he was missing his cavalry which helps to see and hear during the movement of all of the opponent’s troops. â€Å" The cavalry leader had gone with his troops to harass the Federals.† So General Lee came up with a plan. The plan was to attack the Northern army’s defense position. The next morning, July 2nd, Robert E, Lee ordered General Longstreet to attack the Union’s defense position. Longstreet took so much time to gather his troops the he didn’t perform the attack until 4 p.m. â€Å"When the attack broke out, some of the harshest fighting of the Civil War had already taken place. In places like Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, and Peach Orchard. General Longstreet took over Peach Orchard but wasn’t able to go through Little Round Top because of a very observant General Warren for the Union that smelled General Longstreet’s attack plan. This fight lasted until dark and the Confederate’s were unsuccessful. Although the Union was able to hold their ground, they did lose some but managed to hold Cemetery Ridge (defense position). Arevalo 1 Both the Confederate’s and the Union regrouped and brought in more and more supplies and soldiers to fight. Although they were regrouping, the generals on both sides were planning for what they didn’t know was the last day of this historic battle. General George Meade

Health care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Health care - Essay Example The judge declared parts of Affordable Health Care Act inconsistent with the intentions of the constitution which guarantees all citizens the right to choose, therefore, according to the judge, the act was unconstitutional. In his ruling, Federal Judge Henry Hudson hinged his judgment on whether the government the mandate to force every individual citizen to purchase health insurance. Based on this opinion, the federal judge rejected the government's argument that to purchase health insurance was a form of tax. The judge noted that in putting in place the Affordable Health Care Act, the act’s regulatory scheme was conceived as an application of Commerce Clause powers. The federal judge rejected any attempt to stretch the Commerce Clause in order to allow the government mandate the insurance purchases, claiming that such a move would open the gate to unrestrained federal power. For the federal government’s penalty due to noncompliance to be effective under the law, the j udge opines that it must aim to affect a legitimate exercise of the Commerce Clause. Further, Federal Judge Henry Hudson sees the Affordable Health Care Act being about more that the issue of designing a scheme of universal health insurance coverage or regulation of insurance business. According to the judge, the core of the matter is an individual's right to choose to take part in the scheme. Support his stand, the federal judge notes that the Constitution had given congress specific powers. Therefore, the judge claims that power that the constitution does not give the federal government is reserved to the states while those not outlawed are reserved to the citizens. Even as Federal Judge Henry Hudson declared the Affordable Health Care Act unconstitutional, Judge George Caram Steeh found the act constitutional in the ruling of the Thomas More Law Center v. Obama case in which the judge gave an order denying plaintiff’s motion. In his opinion, Judge Steeh noted that a refusa l to get insurance amounted to an example of an activity that affect interstate commerce to a large extend. According to the judge, those who selects not to get insurance cover have in effect, made an active decision to pay for their medical expenses from their pockets. This decision, the judge added, had an impact on taxpayers, health care providers, and the insured citizens who will have to foot the bill for those who do not take insurance cover. Further, Judge Steeh claim although the matter on constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act presented an issue of first impression, there was a rational ground to make conclusions that decisions not to take insurance cover increased the cost of coverage, therefore affecting interstate commerce. From the point of views presented by Federal Judge Henry Hudson and judge Steeh, it is my opinion that Federal Judge Henry Hudson presents a better argument. The government should recognize its citizen’s right of choice. To penaliz e those that do not take the insurance cover is paramount to dictating to them the kind of medicine they should take when they get sick. People have the right to decide the kind of treatment they need and at what time. Although it is a noble effort that would guarantee medical service to many deserving citizens, the federal government, through the Affordable Health Care Act has no legal right to force citizens to take medical cover. If the

The Life of David Gale Death Penalty Movie Review

The Life of David Gale Death Penalty - Movie Review Example Proven perpetrators of heinous crimes should be tried in court exhaustively, and when truly found guilty – complete with all the circumstantial evidence to boot – should be convicted relative to the degree of the crime they committed. If a person is found guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping, torture and other similar crimes which could be categorized as â€Å"inhuman†, then immediately, he/she should be sent to the death penalty straight away. Otherwise, if there is some doubt to his/her personal involvement and/or active participation, then it should be lowered to a life imprisonment or a similar long-term prison sentence. David Gale’s arguments are as follows: 1) capital punishment is not a deterrent to the commission of crimes; 2) there is a sprouting of â€Å"phony ‘expert’ testimony† for the convicted felons; 3) it is possible to condemn/convict innocent men; 4) and a flawed justice system, among others, which are agreeable to a certain point. Yes, there is no proof that shows that death as punishment stops crime or the offenders. However, there is still that possibility that actually carrying out capital punishment can somehow instill fear among potential criminals and their devious plans. Fake testimonies are also achievable, and can lead to innocent people being incarcerated, but at the end of the day, this is still a subjective argument. Likewise, there are jurors and judges who could be bought or manipulated, hence, the final verdict can actually be flawed. Still, it all boils down to the right people being placed as part of the jury and how objective they can reall y be. The choice is still done by the judges themselves with a strict screening procedure so if the verdict is faulty, then perhaps, the people who did the selection are themselves unsound with their assessment. As a pro-Death Penalty activist, I would defend my standpoint by stating that even if human life is precious, as being asserted by the con-Death supporters or Abolitionists, it is something which was not respected by the crime offenders, hence, they no longer deserve to be given significance or distinctive worth. The flaws in the justice system cannot be avoided because no system can ever be perfect. The action taken by David Gale in orchestrating the death of Constance was a truly extreme act of proving his point to the Governor of Texas when he had this live interview pertaining to the numerous executions in the locality. Gale was somehow challenged by what the governor stated during this event â€Å"name one innocent man that Texas has put to death in my tenure†. I t is something that not every man can do or attempt to do – which is also related to the class lecture Gale delivered – stating that life should be measured â€Å"not by what you’ve attained in terms of your desires, but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrifice.† Self-sacrifice was the goal taken by both Constance and Gale in order to underscore the advocacy they were fighting for. Gale’s perspective is truly an idealistic way of looking at life, and this, he pushes to the ultimate when he fakes the death of

Write a discution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write a discution - Essay Example tough environment to retain or get the right skilled employees, and it is for this reason, that organizations are continuously seeking for the best skills in their HR teams. My experience in HR has been great; the feeling of identifying and managing talent has been the best and on top of my professional goals. I always feel proud to create a connection between the employees and management. I agree with you on the point that the most important resource an organization has are its employees. Therefore, having a good management system to attract and retain skilled employees really improves the performance of the organization. Finally, helping the employees get benefits and rewards for their efforts, while at the same time proving to the management that the organization is performing at its optimum point is an important task for the HR. I agree with you on the role of HR towards the employees. They should be able to address employee issues, and create a conducive environment that will allow the employees improve their performance. A happy employee is a positive sign towards a company’s performance and the HR should always be responsible in ensuring the employees are happy and

Effects of Fungicide Iprodione and Nitrification Inhibitor

Effects of Fungicide Iprodione and Nitrification Inhibitor Effects of fungicide iprodione and nitrification inhibitor 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate on soil enzyme and bacterial properties Manyun Zhang a, b, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ , Weijin Wang a, c, Yaling Zhang a, Ying Teng b, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ , Zhihong Xu a, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚  a Environmental Futures Research Institute, School of Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia b Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China c Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, Dutton Park, Queensland 4102, Australia Abstract Agrochemical applications may have unintended detrimental effects on soil bacteria and soil health. However, limited studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of repeated fungicide applications and interactive effects of different agrochemical applications on soil bacteria. In this study, an incubation experiment was established to evaluate the potential influences of fungicide iprodione and nitrification inhibitor 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on soil enzyme and bacterial properties. Weekly iprodione applications decreased the activities of all enzymes tested, and single DMPP addition inhibited soil ÃŽ ²-glucosidase and urease activities. Compared with the blank control, bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance significantly decreased following repeated iprodione applications, but increased after DMPP application. After 28 days of incubation, the treatment of iprodione and DMPP applications had higher bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance than the counterpart with i prodione applications alone, and the similar trends were also observed in the Shannon index. Repeated iprodione applications significantlyincreased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, but decreased the relative abundances of Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria. The combined applications of iprodione and DMPP increased the number of members of Gaiellaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Nocardioidaceae and Methylobacteriaceae. Simultaneously, bacterial community structure was significantly changed by repeated iprodione applications, alone or together with the DMPP. These results showed that repeated iprodione applications exerted negative effects on soil enzyme activities, bacterial biomass and community diversity. Moreover, relative to iprodione applications alone, extra DMPP application had the potential to alleviate the toxic effects of iprodione on soil bacterial biomass and community diversity. Keywords: agrochemicals; soil enzyme; 16S rRNA gene; bacterial community diversity and structure Introduction Fungicides play important roles in ensuring the crop quality and yield in modern agriculture (Maltby et al., 2009; Sabatier et al., 2014). The infections and phytopathies caused by fungi are the major problems and threats in agricultural production, which leads to the intensification in applications of fungicidal agrochemicals (OMaille, 2015). Previous research has shown that in some developing countries, fungicide application dosages were as high as 8 kg ha-1 y-1 (Liu et al., 2015). Iprodione, as a broad-spectrum fungicide, has been widely used in the intensive agriculture to control phytopathies of cash crops, and iprodione residuals have already been detected in water (Goewie et al., 1985; Sauret et al., 2006), soils (Leistra and Arrià «nne, 2004) and vegetable and fruit (Picà ³ et al., 2004; Juanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Garcà ­a et al., 2005; Angioni et al., 2012). According to a report of the Pesticide Data Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (2014), the detected amount of iprodion e was the highest among all agrochemicals, and iprodione was the only fungicide detected in baby food. Besides the crop phytopathies caused by fungal pathogens, the lower utilization efficiency of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission are also worldwide problems in agricultural production (Clough et al., 2007; Menà ©ndez et al., 2012). As a result, nitrification inhibitors are sometimes applied to enhance the utilization efficiency of N fertilizer. The most widely used nitrification inhibitor in recent years is 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) (Menà ©ndez et al., 2012; Florio et al., 2014). The fungicide iprodione and nitrification inhibitor DMPP may be simultaneously applied into soils in some circumstances. Fungicides are designed to control fungal pathogens, but their lethal effects are not constrained to fungi only (Duah-Yentumi and Johnson, 1986; Muà ±oz-Leoz et al., 2011; Schnug et al., 2015). Once entering into agricultural soil, fungicides and their degradation metabolites may have detrimental effects on soil bacteria and, hence, the overall soil environment. There have been increasing research interests in the impacts of iprodione on environmental safety (Leistra and Matser, 2004; Verdenelli et al., 2012; Morales et al., 2013), because the iprodione is widely applied into agricultural soils at high dosages. Previous studies generally focused on the impacts of a single iprodione application, whereas few studies paid attention to the effects of repeated iprodione applications which occurs in intensively managed cropping systems. Furthermore, iprodione and other agrochemicals (such as DMPP) may be applied into agriculture soils simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, few stud ies have been conducted to evaluate the interactive effects of different agrochemicals. Researches are, therefore, required to better understand the effects of combined iprodione and DMPP applications on soil bacterial properties. In this study, the iprodione and DMPP were applied into an agricultural soil. Soil enzyme activity, bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance and bacterial community structure were determined. The main objectives were to (1) assess the effects of iprodione and DMPP on soil enzyme activities; (2) evaluate the impacts of agrochemicals on soil bacterial biomass via determining bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance; (3) reveal the responses of soil bacteria at different taxa to the agrochemical applications; and (4) compare the potential impacts of iprodione and DMPP applications on soil bacterial community structure. This study will improve our current understanding of the ecological risks of iprodione and DMPP applications, alone or together, on soil nutrient cycling and bacterial properties. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. The chemicals and soil samples A commercial wettable powder formulation of iprodione (Bayer Crop Science, Hangzhou, China) and a chemical reagent DMPP (purity > 97.0%; CIVI-CHEM, Shanghai, China) were used for soil treatments. Soil samples were taken from a farmland (36.78†² N, 118.67†² E) located in Shandong Province, China. The surface soil (0-20 cm) was collected, air-dried at room temperature, mixed thoroughly and sieved (< 2 mm) prior to use. The selected physical and chemical properties of the soil were as follows: sand (50-2000 ÃŽ ¼m), 31.4  ± 1.4%; silt (2-50 ÃŽ ¼m), 36.9  ± 0.8%;   clay (< 2 ÃŽ ¼m), 31.7  ± 0.6%; soil pH (in water), 7.19  ± 0.05; organic carbon (C) content, 10.0  ± 0.1 g kg-1; total N content, 0.93  ± 0.01 g kg-1; Olsen-P, 28.8  ± 0.2 mg kg-1;   NH4OAc-K, 69.9  ± 1.5 mg kg-1; cationic exchange capacity,   16.9  ± 0.4 cmol kg-1. All treatments were added with urea at 200 mg N kg-1 dry soil before the iprodione or DMPP application so that enough substrate ( NH4+-N) was available for soil nitrification (DMPP is generally applied with the urea in agriculture). 2.2. Experimental design Four treatments were used in this study: Treatment 1 (CK), without any iprodione or DMPP applications; Treatment 2 (IPR), weekly iprodione applications at 1.5 mg kg-1 dry soil (the frequency followed the instructions); Treatment 3 (DAA), nitrification inhibitor DMPP application at 2 mg kg-1 dry soil (equivalent to 1% of applied urea-N) at commencement; and Treatment 4 (I+D), weekly iprodione and initial DMPP applications as described in treatments 2 and 3. Each treatment was prepared in triplicates. The chemicals were dissolved in double distilled H2O (ddH2O) and then applied into the test soil. Sixty glass bottles (4 treatments 5 sampling time 3 replications) were filled with the treated soil at 150 g dry weight per bottle. Soil moisture was adjusted to 60% of the water holding capacity and was maintained by the additions of ddH2O. The soil samples were then incubated at 28  °C in the dark, and after 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of incubation, soil samples were collected after mixin g thoroughly in each bottle for analyses of soil enzyme and bacterial properties. 2.3. Soil enzyme activity and geometric mean of assayed enzymes activities Soil ÃŽ ²-glucosidase activity was determined using a soil enzyme assay kit (Catalogue No. HK000218, Toyongbio Company, Shanhai, China). The analytical method was based on that soil ÃŽ ²-glucosidase can hydrolyze p-nitrophenyl-ÃŽ ²-D-glucoside to generate p-nitrophenol. The determination method followed the manufacturers protocol, after treated with toluene, soil samples were incubated with the p-nitrophenyl-ÃŽ ²-d-glucoside and citrate-phosphate buffer (pH = 6.0) for 1 h at 37  °C. The reaction product (p-nitrophenol) concentration was determined with a spectrophotometer at 410 nm, and the results were expressed as ÃŽ ¼g p-nitrophenol g-1 dry soil d-1. Soil urease and phosphatase (acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase) activities were determined with the commercially available quantitative analytical kits (Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute, Nanjing, China). In the analytical kit of soil urease (Catalogue No. T017), urea was used as the substrate that can be hydrolyzed by soil urease to generate NH 4+-N. Prior to the urease determination, the test soils were treated with the toluene, and then they were incubation with the urea and citrate buffer (pH = 6.7) for 24 h at 37  °C. The concentration of NH4+-N generated from urea hydrolysis was determined via the indophenol blue method, and soil urease activity was expressed as ÃŽ ¼g NH 4+-N g-1 dry soil d-1. Soil phosphatase activity was determined with disodium phenyl phosphate as the enzyme reaction substrate. Soil phosphatase could hydrolyze the disodium phenyl phosphate at different pH conditions, and in the analytical kits of soil phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase (Catalogue No. T008 and T009), the buffers were acetate buffer (pH = 5) and borate buffer (pH = 9.4), respectively.   After 24 h of incubation at 37  °C, enzyme actions were terminated, and released phenol was determined at 660 nm. Soil phosphatase activities were expressed as ÃŽ ¼g phenol g-1 dry soil d-1. Soil arylsulphatase activity was determined according to the method of Floch et al. (2009) with minor modifications. P-nitrophenyl-sulfate was used as the reaction substrate, and the buffer was 0.5 M acetate (pH = 5.8). After 1 h of incubation, the reaction was halted by the additions of 0.5 M CaCl2 and 1 M NaOH, and the p-nitrophenol concentration was measured with a spectrophotometer at 410 nm. The soil arylsulphatase activity was expressed as ÃŽ ¼g p-nitrophenol g-1 dry soil d-1. The geometric mean of assayed enzymes activities (GMEA) was calculated to integrate data from variables that have different units and variation range. The calculations were made by following Hinojosa et al. (2004). where Glu, Ure, AcP, AlP and Ary were soil ÃŽ ²-glucosidase, urease, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and arylsulfatase activities, respectively. 2.4. Soil DNA extraction and real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) The genomic DNA of soil samples was extracted from approximately 0.5 g of soil with a Fast DNA SPIN Kit for Soil (MP Biomedicals, Cleveland, OH, USA). Soil bacterial biomass was revealed via determining bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance, and qPCR was performed to assess bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance with the universal primers 515F (5-GTGCCAGCMGCCGCGG-3) and 907R (5-CCGTCAATTCMTTTRAGTTT-3). The standard curve of qPCR was obtained by performing serial dilutions of the plasmid containing bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Each qPCR reaction was prepared in a 20.0 ÃŽ ¼L of solution consisting of 10.0 ÃŽ ¼L of SYBR ® Premix Ex Taqâ„ ¢ (TaKaRa Biotech, Dalian, China), 7.6 ÃŽ ¼L of sterile ddH2O, 2.0 ÃŽ ¼L of soil template DNA and 0.4 ÃŽ ¼L of universal primers. The thermocycling conditions were as follows: 95  °C for 3 min, followed by 45 cycles at 95  °C for 10 s, 56  °C for 30 s, 72  °C for 30 s, and then plate reading. The melting curve analyses were conducted by gradually heatin g the PCR mixtures from 65  °C to 95  °C with the determination of SYBR green signal. Negative control was run with sterile ddH2O as the template. After testing the diluted soil DNA suspension, there were no inhibitions detected for the qPCR, and the amplification efficiency of the target gene was 114.52%, with R2 > 0.995. 2.5. The Illumina MiSeq and sequenced data analysis At the end of incubation, soil bacterial community was also analyzed with the Illumina MiSeq platform. After amplifying the V4 region of bacterial 16S rRNA gene with the primers 515F/907R, the PCR products were purified and then subjected to the Illumina Miseq platform (Majorbio Bio-Pharm Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) to sequence nucleic acid bases of PCR products. The raw reads were de-multiplexed and filtered via the QIIME (version 1.17) with reference to the following standards: (1) The approximately 300 bp reads were truncated at the end side, receiving an average quality score of < 20 over a 10 bp sliding window, and shorter sequence reads (truncated length < 50 bp) were discarded; (2) raw reads with vague bases were discarded; and (3) only sequences with > 10 bp overlap were assembled with reference to the overlapped sequences, and the unassembled reads were unwanted. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were clustered within a 0.03 difference via the UPARSE (version 7.1 http://drive5.com/uparse/) for assessing community richness (Ace and Chao1 richness estimators) and community diversity (Shannon and Simpson indices). The richness estimators Ace and Chao1 were nonparametric and abundance-based estimators, which could predict the true value of taxa based on the proportion of rare taxa in a sample and were suitable for community richness ana lysis (Sogin et al., 2006; Gihring et al., 2012). The Shannon and Simpson indices were used for heterogeneity assessment, and the main difference between them was in the calculation method of taxa abundance. 2.6. Statistical analysis Two-way analysis of variance was conducted to detect significant differences among treatments, sampling times and their interactions, and Duncans multiple range test was used to compare statistical significances (P < 0.05) of the means among different treatments at each sampling time and among different incubation time in a specific treatment. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) method (http://huttenhower.sph.harvard.edu/galaxy/root) was employed to reveal biomarkers of soil bacteria among the treatments. The sequencing data were further processed to assess similarities and discrepancies of the whole bacterial community structure among different treatments using the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). 3. Results 3.1. Soil enzyme activities and GMEA Soil enzyme activities were significantly affected by the treatments, but the interactions between treatments and sampling time were not significant for the ÃŽ ²-glucosidase and alkaline phosphatase activities (Table S1). The ÃŽ ²-glucosidase, urease and arylsulfatase activities in the CK treatment increased significantly during the first 7 days of incubation (P < 0.05, Fig. 1). By the end of the incubation, the soil enzyme activity in the CK treatment rose from 1004  ± 51 to 1278  ± 133 ÃŽ ¼g p-nitrophenol g-1 dry soil d-1 for ÃŽ ²-glucosidase, from 60.9  ± 4.9 to 323.0  ± 19.6 ÃŽ ¼g NH4+-N g-1 dry soil d-1 for urease, from 698  ± 129 to 802    ± 76 ÃŽ ¼g phenol g-1 dry soil d-1 for acid phosphatase, from 2.21  ± 0.12 to 2.23  ± 0.13 ÃŽ ¼g phenol g-1 dry soil d-1 for alkaline phosphatase, and   from 20.9  ± 2.7 to 28.8  ± 2.3 ÃŽ ¼g p-nitrophenol g-1 dry soil h-1 for sulphatase. After 7 days of incubation, there were no significant differences in soil enzyme a ctivities between IPR and CK treatments, with the exception of acid phosphatase activity. However, soil enzyme activities in the IPR treatment decreased after repeated iprodione applications. DMPP application had no significant effects on phosphatase and arylsulphatase activities during the whole incubation period, but ÃŽ ²-glucosidase and urease activities were consistently inhibited by the DMPP application (89.8% and 76.5% % of the control after 28 days of incubation, respectively). It is interesting to note that, after 28 days of incubation, the activities of soil enzymes in the I+D treatment tended to be higher than those in the IPR treatment (Fig. 1). As shown in Table 1, the GMEA in the CK treatment increased significantly during the first week and remained relatively stable during the following three weeks of incubation. However, compared with the CK treatment, the GMEA was negatively affected by repeated iprodione applications, and the GMEA in the DAA treatment also tended to be lower than their counterparts from 7 days to the end of the incubation (88.9% of the control after 28 days of incubation). Consistent with the trend presented in Fig.1, the GMEA in the I+D treatment was significantly higher than its IPR counterpart after 28 days of incubation (P < 0.05). 3.2. Soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundances Both the treatments and sampling time could significantly affect soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundances (Table S1). The gene abundances in the CK treatment increased from 3.89-109 to 1.64-1010 copies g-1 during the 28 days of incubation (Fig. 2). A single iprodione application generated negligible effect on soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance after 7 days, but repeated iprodione applications significantly (P < 0.05) decreased soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance, relative to the CK treatment. At the end of the experiment, the bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance in the IPR treatment was 6.55-109 copies g-1 dry soil, which was the lowest of the four treatments. The gene abundances in the DAA treatment tended to be higher than those in the CK treatment, especially from 14 days onwards. Relative to the iprodione applications alone, extra DMPP application at the commencement increased the gene abundances, after 28 days of incubation, bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance in the I+D treatm ent was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that from the IPR treatment. 3.3. Soil bacterial community diversity A total of 624067 raw sequences (> 200 bp) was obtained from the four treatments, and the average length of valid sequences was 396.71. The similarities and differences among OTUs of the four treatments were demonstrated in a four-set Venn diagram (Fig. 3). The unique OTUs were 12, 16, 13 and 22 for the CK, IPR, DAA and I+D treatments, respectively, and the four treatments shared 1653 OTUs. After 28 days of incubation, the Ace and Chao1 estimators, and Shannon index of the CK treatments were 1863  ± 37, 1853  ± 24 and 5.55  ± 0.15, respectively (Table 2). The IPR treatment had the lowest estimator Chao1 (1772  ± 17) and Shannon index (5.40  ± 0.05) among the four treatments, while the I+D had the highest estimator Chao1 and Shannon index. The Simpson index showed no significant differences among the four treatments. Relative to the CK treatment, DMPP application did not exert adverse effects on richness estimators and diversity indices, and DMPP applications had the potential to increase the Shannon indices. 3.4. Soil bacterial community structure The OTUs could be assigned into 11 predominant phyla which were in the following ranking orders: Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Nitrospirae, Saccharibacteria and Verrucomicrobia, and the relative abundances of these phyla varied among the different treatments (Fig. 4A). The phylum Proteobacteria was the most abundant, comprising approximately 37.2%, 45.9%, 36.4% and 39.8% OTUs for the CK, IPR, DAA and I+D treatments, respectively. The phylum Actinobacteria was the second most abundant, and the proportions varied from 14.5% to 21.9%. There were no significant differences of relative abundances across all the predominant phyla between the CK and DAA treatments (Fig. 4B). However, compared with the CK treatment, repeated iprodione applications significantly (P < 0.05) increased the relative abundance of phylum Proteobacteria, but decreased the relative abundances of Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria. A t the genus level, the genera Micromonospora, Gemmatimonas, Haliangium and Bacillus accounted for large proportions in the twelve soil samples (Fig. 5). 3.5. Comparison of bacterial community structure LEfSe analysis demonstrated that there were significant associations among predominant bacterial taxa in the four treatments (Fig. 6). The predominant bacterial taxa were the Opitutaceae and Xanthomonadales families in the CK treatment, the Xanthomonadaceae, Erythrobacteraceae, Sphingomonadaceae Sphingomonadales and Rhodocyclaceae families in the IPR treatment, the Streptomycetales Order and the Gemmatimonaceae and Cytophagaceae families in the DAA treatment and the Gaiellaceae, Microbacteriaceae, Nocardioidaceae, and Methylobacteriaceae families in the I+D treatment. The results of LEfSe analysis further revealed that, consistent with the relative abundances shown in Fig. 4, the phylum Protebacteria increased following iprodione applications. A two-dimensional PCoA plot of bacterial community structure explained 68.2% of the total variance, with the PCoA1 having a greater power of separation (accounting for 57.7%). The two-dimensional PCoA demonstrated that the treatments without iprodione applications (CK and DAA treatments) resulted in a shift to the left along PCoA1 (Fig. 7A). There was no significant difference in the PCoA values (both PCoA1 and PCoA2) between the CK and DAA treatments, and this suggested that soil bacterial community structure was not significantly altered by the DMPP application. However, iprodione applications alone (IPR) or together with the DMPP (I+D), shifted the bacterial community to the right side along PCoA1. The IPR and I+D treatments were located in the opposite directions of the origin, with the I+D treatment having lower PCoA2 values. Consistent with the trends presented in the PCoA plot, four clusters could be grouped for these twelve soil samples (Fig. 7B): Cluster 1 contained the samp les of the DAA treatment, CK_1 and CK_2, but the CK_3 sample alone was classified into Cluster 2; Cluster 3 consisted of the samples of I+D treatment, and the samples of IPR treatment were all grouped in Cluster 4. 4. Discussion 4.1. Effects of iprodione applications on soil enzyme and bacteria As a soil xenobiotic, the fungicide iprodione displayed toxicity to soil bacteria on various aspects including the activity, biomass and community diversity (Duah-Yentumi and Johnson, 1986; Verdenelli et al., 2012). Previous researches have also revealed that the principal degradation metabolite 3, 5-dichloroanniline is more biologically toxic and stable than its parent compound iprodione (Athiel et al., 1995). Consequently, both the fungicide and its degradation metabolites have the potential to inhibit the non-target bacteria. On the other hand, the broad-spectrum fungicide could inhibit the flourish of fungi, which can also exhibit the indirect impacts on soil bacteria community (Muà ±oz-Leoz et al., 2011; Verdenelli et al., 2012). The ÃŽ ²-glucosidase, urease, phosphatase, and arylsulfatase are essential in the cycling of C, N, P and S in soil, respectively (Muà ±oz-Leoz et al., 2011). The activities of these enzymes tended to decline after repeated iprodione applications, highlighting the severe impacts of repeated iprodione applications and perhaps the accumulations of its metabolites on soil nutrient cycling. The fungicides could negatively affect soil enzyme activities as a result of: (1) directly reducing the biomass of soil microbes that produce enzymes, (2) competing for the active sites of enzymes with substrates, (3) decreasing the substrate bio-availability through the reaction with substrates, and (4) reacting with the enzyme-substrate complexes (Wang et al., 2009). In the IPR treatment, soil enzyme activities and bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundances decreased concurrently. We postulated that the declines of soil bacterial biomass caused by iprodione applications might have resulted in the decreases of soil enzyme activity. Soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene (both the abundance and community diversity) has been used as an important ecophysiological index for assessing soil contamination (Sipilà ¤ et al., 2008; Bell et al., 2014). In this study, soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance was not significantly affected by the first iprodione application, but decreased with repeated iprodione applications (Fig. 2). The result was consistent with earlier finding of Duah-Yentumi and Johnson (1986) that the impacts of iprodione on soil microbial biomass differed between single and repeated applications. The reasons for these phenomena might be that accumulations of the fungicides and perhaps their degradation products following repeated application increased its eco-toxicity (Trabue et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2016). Direct measurement of soil bacterial community could reveal shifts in the diversity due to fungicide applications, which might not be detectable by measuring overall bacterial activities and biomass (Lupwayi et al., 2009). Repeated iprodione applications resulted in consistent reductions in the values of bacterial alpha diversity (Table 2). The result was in agreement with the finding of Verdenelli et al. (2012) that iprodione application had significantly negative impacts on microbial community diversity in both agricultural and grassland soils. Moreover, repeated iprodione applications led to declines in the relative abundances of phyla Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria (Fig. 4). The Chloroflexi is associated with the second step of soil nitrification and plays key roles in soil N cycling (Sorokin et al., 2012). As decomposers in soil environment, Acidobacteria could degrade torganic matters derived from plants and soil animals, maintaining soil nutrient cycling and energy flow (Ward e t al., 2009). These changes in the relative abundances of functional bacteria indicated that iprodione applications might slow down soil organic matter turnover and soil nitrification.In this study, we found that repeated iprodione applications, alone or together with the DMPP, caused significant changes in the soil bacterial community structure. In contrast, Wang et al. (2004) showed that a single iprodione application at lower dosage was not detrimental to the soil bacterial community. Given that iprodione was often repeatedly applied at high dosages in intensive agricultural systems, shifts in bacterial community as observed in this study could lead to a series of alternations in soil microbial communities and soil C and nutrient cycling. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the long-term ecotoxic effects caused by repeated applications. 4.2. Effects of DMPP application on soil enzyme activities and bacteria Compared with the CK treatment, DMPP application resulted in significantly lower soil urease activity, (Fig. 1), which was largely responsible for the decline in GMEA in the DAA treatment. It is interesting to note that soil ÃŽ ²-glucosidase, as a proxy for soil organic matter mineralization capacity, was also negatively affected by the DMPP application. Maienza et al. (2014) revealed that DMPP application had adverse impacts on the growth of soil heterotrophic bacteria and fungi. All these results suggested that DMPP might have the potential to slow down soil organic matter decompositions, and this could get supports from previous research results that DMPP could reduce soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions (Weiske et al., 2001; Maris et al., 2015). The LEfSe analysis revealed that Gemmatimonadetes and Cytophagia families increased following DMPP application (Fig. 6). The Gemmatimonadetes containing photosynthesis genes could assimilate CO2 into organic material via phototrophic pathway and transform solar radiation into metabolic energy, which plays an important role in the increase of soil organic matter content (Zeng et al., 2014). Some strains of the Cytophagaceae family have the nifH gene and have the potential to increase soil N content by biological N fixation (Xu et al., 2014). Dong et al. (2013b) also reported that DMPP application could significantly increase soil nifH gene abundances. These results indicated that apart from inhibiting soil nitrification, DMPP application might have the potential to improve soil C and N contents via (1) decreasing CO2, CH4 andNOX emission;(2) slowing down soil organic matter decompositions; (3) promoting the flourish of some functional microorganisms; and (4) promoting activity of N-fixing bacteria. Consequently, although soil urease and ÃŽ ²-glucosidase were inhibited, the whole soil bacterial biomass increased following DMPP application (Fig. 2), and this is also one of the positive effects generate d by DMPP application. An increase in soil bacterial biomass is commonly found in parallel with increases in community diversity (Weinbauer et al., 2007; Torstensson et al., 2015). Based on the data presented in Table 2, we found that DMPP application promoted, rather than decreased, soil bacterial community diversity, which is consisted with the result of Dong et al. (2013a). Furthermore, both the PCoA and UPMGA indicated that a large proportion of soil bacterial community in the DAA treatment overlapped with that in the C

Witchcraft in Salem Essay -- Salem Possesed Witchcraft Witch Trials Es

Witchcraft in Salem In the past, the word Salem has always been somewhat synonymous with the infamous witch trials. Thanks to works such as Arthur Miller’s â€Å"The Crucible†, many people find it hard not to envision a community torn apart by chaos, even though Miller’s play was not so much about the witch trials but instead a commentary on the rampant McCarthyism going on at the time he wrote it. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, however, see a very different picture when the Salem witch trials are mentioned. Rather than overlook the â€Å"ordinary† people living in the towns in which they write about (in the case of Salem Possessed, the town of Salem, Massachusetts), they instead take the instance of the witch trials of 1692 and springboard from them into a detailed inquisition into the entire history of the small village of Salem; or, in their own words, Boyer and Nissenbaum have â€Å"exploited the focal events of 1692 somewhat as a stranger might make use of a li ghtning flash in the night: better to observe the contours of the landscape which it chances to illuminate† (xii). That is to say, the authors strive to show how the witch trials were not simply a completely spontaneous event, but rather a long, horrible process by which individuals were singled out, tried, and executed in order to vent emotions of hostility towards change. The way in which the authors go about this, however, is in a somewhat difficult to comprehend style that goes back and forth between the years, forcing one to rethink all the facts thus far each time a new chapter is introduced. In addition, the authors tend to focus mostly on the social and economic aspects of witchcraft, with little to nothing as far as further explanation of the actions of the women accused. In the year 1692, the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts saw a social phenomenon that would propel the village into the history books: the calamity that was witchcraft. The witch trials were initiated whenever three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam were caught performing fortune telling rituals in the woods, trying to gather information on what type of man would be best for them. Soon thereafter, the girls began experiencing hysterical fits, prompting Betty Parris’s father, Reverend Samuel Parris, to call in the authorities to confirm the cause of the girls’ symptoms. ... ...rought into the case would treat it as though it were a completely rational occurrence. But then again, this is perhaps more of a fault of my own than of the authors. In the end, Salem Possessed did indeed leave me with more of an understanding of the events that took place in Salem Village, even though that understanding did seem a little shallow, as I felt it only focused on one aspect of the whole. But regardless of my unpleasant viewpoint on said novel, Mr.’s Boyer and Nissenbaum have done an admirable thing by taking the Salem witch trials and examining them by today’s standards. By going strictly from church records and personal accounts, the authors have brought a whole new light to what was once percieved as a purely tyrannical act of prejudice against seemingly random people, letting the public know that it was in fact a calculated attack on many ‘radical’ individuals. And, while the book did occasionally fall short on offering a complete picture of the events, it was still a fairly succinct guide to the economic factors involved with the village of Salem and its â€Å"fifteen minutes†, as it were, a nd as such would be reccommended to history buffs around the world.

Body Fat and Eating Disorders Essay

Body composition is composed of lean tissues and fats in the body. Lean tissue includes muscle, bone, and organs, while fats include essential, non-essential, and storage. Obesity has environmental and lifestyle effects. Some effects include high availability of fast food and high fat content food. Advertisements for different types of foods are seen all over the television, and a lot of the ads are for unhealthy foods that are aimed at children. Many families are limited to buying the cheaper foods that are found in stores. Health foods are often more costly and low income families simply cannot afford them. Inexpensive foods are often served in portions that are well above the recommendations for servings. Families keep themselves so busy in this day and time, and this leads to buying foods that are convenient to make. Convenience foods can often be high in fat and calories, making them unhealthy choices. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that causes a fear of gaining weight. A person may feel fat even though he or she is extremely thin. Some of the health problems associated with anorexia are changes in brain chemistry, brittle hair and nails, weak muscles, bone loss, and fractures. Anorexia can also cause kidney failure and growth problems. Bulimia nervosa is when large amounts of food are uncontrollably eaten and then purged. A person with bulimia may use methods like abuse of diuretics and laxatives to get rid of the food that is eaten. Physical complications include irritation of esophagus, stomach, and throat from excessive vomiting. The teeth can become yellowed and damaged from the acid in vomit. Bulimia also causes lung irritation due to choking during vomiting. The choking allows food to enter the lungs. The loss of body fluids causes low potassium and sodium levels. Muscle spasms and weakness may also be experienced. Some of the health problems associated with it is low blood pressure, slow heart rate, bone loss, heart failure, or kidney failure. Bulimia nervosa is another eating disorder that can cause a lot of problems. Bulimia is actually a combination of anorexia and binging. Bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and anorexia nervosa can all be serious, life threatening eating disorders. Depression or stress can cause an individual to eat too much which causes an excess weight gain and if left untreated, can lead to serious health problems. Eating too little can cause an individual to be lacking necessary nutrients needed for the body to function properly. Binge eating leads to a loss of control over the binging and purging associated with this disease. Individuals afflicted with these eating disorders typically eat foods that are high in sugar and salt content. The foods these individuals choose are low in healthier nutrients. For this reason, these individuals are at risk for type 2 diabetes which is very serious. High blood pressure, high cholesterol and gallbladder disease are other health risks associated with bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and anorexia nervosa.

The Quest for the Best Word Ever

The Quest for the Best Word Ever The Quest for the Best Word Ever The Quest for the Best Word Ever By Mark Nichol Last year, an advertising executive named Ted McCagg embarked on a whimsical endeavor: Using a bracketing schematic like that employed to record the outcome of athletic tournaments in which, in each iteration, the number of selections displayed is reduced by half according to some criterion, until only one choice remains McCagg subjectively selected the best word ever. McCagg’s Final Four?: diphthong (two vowel sounds in one syllable), gherkin (a type of cucumber, or the vine from which it grows) hornswoggle (a hoax, or to hoax), and kerfuffle (a disturbance). Is there any practical use for this exercise? I see it as an entertaining vocabulary-building activity: Brainstorm any number of interesting words, whether you know their meaning or not. Subject them to match-ups, two words at a time, and select the one you favor on whatever merits definition, euphony, or some ineffable quality (I like euphony and ineffable). Repeat until you have a winner, then resolve to learn the word’s meaning if you don’t know it already, and use it in your writing. There are no losers in this game: The runner-up simply takes its place in line, followed by the favored term in the duel between the no. 3 and no. 4 seeds and then by the runner-up in that contest. Try to use each new front-runner as it is identified. Organize a tournament with a circle of friends (in real life or online), a writing group, or a class. Make submissions anonymous, match them up randomly, and have the participants vote on their favorite word in each pair, which then advances to a run-off with another favored word. Perhaps this activity seems silly. After all, maybe the writing you’re paid for is about finance or technology, or you produce marketing content. However, I doubt you work in a kerfuffle-free milieu, and hornswoggling may occur betimes (I like milieu and betimes), but you can apply your best-word-ever efforts to specific jargon and vocabulary. Oh, and McCagg’s best word ever? Diphthong. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Handy Expressions About HandsProved vs. ProvenWord Count and Book Length

How does Shakespeare present relationships Essays

How does Shakespeare present relationships Essays How does Shakespeare present relationships Essay How does Shakespeare present relationships Essay Essay Topic: The Taming Of the Shrew How does Shakespeare present relationships between men and women in The Taming of The Shrew? Shakespeare uses the relationships in the play in order to express his own views of society and the roles of men and women in the Elizabethan era. Through his portrayal of the two genders in the the Taming of the Shrew, in particular Petruchio and Katherina, Shakespeare demonstrates the idea that men are too dominant over the female race, and that women should be given a more contributory, and equal role in society. He does not explicitly show this, because it would have been seen as too diverse for 16th Century literature, but he does show parity as an underlying opinion in the play. A common motif in the play is the idea of money and wealth. This was seen as an important factor in life decisions such as marriage, particularly for men characters because, in the Elizabethan era, they owned all of their wifes belongings, riches and earnings, if any. Consequently marrying into wealth had a key part to play in happiness. In the Taming of the Shrew, this is apparent through Petruchio, and his marriage to Katherina. In the play, he is challenged to tame her, and agrees to it because she is rich enough. Katherina is referred to as shrewd and froward by the men, and is ridiculed by Hortensio who would not wed her for a mine of gold; Petruchio replies thou knowst not golds effect, suggesting that his determination to woo Katherina is not because of his love for her, but his lust of money. Shakespeare reinforces this when Petruchio is discussing his marriage agreement with Baptista, Katherinas father; he is keen to find out what dowry he shall have with her to wife? and by stressing his eagerness to find out, Shakespeare is showing a demonstration of Petruchios greedy character. The way in which Shakespeare has worded the phrase have with her to wife implies that Petruchio is seeing Katherina as a task he must complete and put up with in order to gain a prize. Hortensio is also used to strengthen this idea, as he is quick to give up his pursuit of Bianca for a wealthy widow. By doing this, Shakespeare is stating that men of his society did not value the relationships with their women and had little respect for their existence except for their bringing of wealth. This idea is furthered by Baptistas comment that is, her love, for that is all in all. On the surface he seems to be caring for his daughter and concerned with the fact that she falls in love with Petruchio, however, because he later adds well mayst thou woo, and happy be thy speed! suggests that he wants more for Katherina to be married quickly than to be happily in love, and perhaps Shakespeare may have used the first as a passing comment to appear interested in the well-being of his daughter, while ironically giving the impression that even fathers are uncaring and too concerned with themselves when it comes to relationships with their daughters as he wants to get them married quickly. Wealth imagery is used to present women also, as Bianca is referred to as a treasure, jewel and a prize, suggesting that women were seen as possessions that must be sold to merchants as assets. Baptista displays more of a fondness towards Bianca, the younger of his two daughters, and favours her over Katherina. For example, after breaking up an argument between the two, Baptista calls Katherina a devilish spirit which demonstrates his lack of care for her feelings, whereas Bianca is seen as a poor girl in his eyes as a result of the dispute. This favour is common in the sisters, as Bianca is described as meek and mild, an idyllic woman for men in Shakespeares time, and so people would have been more fond of this character. The contrast Baptista uses for his daughters could be seen as a high criticism of Shakespeares to his society in that they disregard the people, women in particular, that hold a fiery character or are unafraid to express their inner thoughts, but highlight those who comply with the social rules and fit in the boundaries set. He makes this clear toward the end of the play where it is Katherina, once rejected by the community, who is seen as the approving woman. Baptista still upholds his dominative role as a male by not letting Bianca marry until he has a husband for the elder. On the one hand, Baptista could be showing a concern to have both his daughters married because he wants them to both be happy, however, it could also be seen that he understood the importance of having his daughters marry, eldest first, for the sake of his own reputation, and also that it would create a motivation for someone to marry Katherina which looked unlikely otherwise. Shakespeare wants relationships in the play to be presented as important in terms of credibility and reputation, which perhaps is controversial to his own opinions. Shakespeare uses animal imagery, continuously throughout the play. These are mainly used in terms of portraying Katherina through mens eyes. She is viewed as intolerable curst by the people of her society and as a wildcat as Gremio says. In context of the Elizabethan era, women were expected to be polite and meek people who lived to play the role of a serving wife, and in view of Katherinas description, she clearly deviates herself from this norm. In describing her as a wildcat, Shakespeare enforces the idea of her undomesticated character that needs taming. Shakespeare constantly refers to Katherina in animal terms through Petruchio; he asks those who challenge him have I not in my time heard lions roar? This metaphor is used to compare Katherina to a lion, which is known for its danger, signifying again that she is the opposite of her expected role. While other men fear her, Petruchio is seeing her as a task for him to complete, which again implies the idea that men see women as a prize they must accomplish and win. Katherina is also referred to as a falcon, which is again is a fierce animal, however, it is classed as a bird of prey so Shakespeare may have wanted to use this description in order to give Katherina status in the play over the other women. The fact that these ideas of her does not change Petruchios mind implies that he may find it an attraction to her and that he may find it desirable for a woman to have a fiery personality. In which case, Shakespeare may be grounding his own implicit value of how he thinks women should be in a relationship.

Summary for the freedom writers movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary for the freedom writers movie - Essay Example There are students who are not of ethical or acceptable moral conduct and some even belong to gangs. Initially they are not willing to share information or personal things with her. However, with time Erin figures out ways in which she can engage them. She directs them to write regular journals and in this way they start sharing some information and personal experiences with her. â€Å"As Erin tries harder and harder to have resources provided to teach properly (which often results in her needing to pay for them herself through working second and third jobs), she seems to face greater resistance, especially from her colleagues, such as Margaret Campbell, her section head, who lives by regulations and sees such resources as a waste, and Brian Gelford, who will protect his "priviledged" position of teaching the senior honors classes at all cost. Erin also finds that her teaching job is placing a strain on her marriage to Scott Casey, a man who seems to have lost his own idealistic way in life.†

Mini case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mini case - Essay Example The assistance and training to be offered to Kay would be first to evaluate her performance based on the achievement of set goals. This evaluation would provide analysis for advising her on the next steps to take to improve. A review of the bonus remuneration to appreciate the efforts Kay puts in her work. A review of the rise in ranks in the company and recognition of the efforts Kay has put to place the company where it is currently. If I were Dave Parrett, I would simply sit down with Kay; explain to her the situation about the management and explain to her about the consequences of her recent performance. After this I would then advise her on the need and ways to redeem her reputation back at the company. I would advise her to consult with the younger salespeople in the company to get their views of their work, and get fresh new ideas on improving her work tactics. Salespeople, like any other workers, have a ‘work span’ in the company based on their performance. They many have great influence on the business based on their performance. The best thing to do with salespersons that are no longer great is to give them a consultancy role in the company so that they may aid decision making with their expertise and

Criminal Justice Compare and Contrast rationalism and determinism Essay

Criminal Justice Compare and Contrast rationalism and determinism. With reference to your readings, define these two approaches and study of criminal behavior - Essay Example Most of these theories are rooted on the natural instinct that leads to commitment of crime or forces that compel individual to develop crime traits. There have been studies that have been carried out suggesting that genetic factors and other biological harming aspects like head injury and exposure to toxic substances, and others may increase the chances of someone becoming a criminal by developing some criminal traits like impulsitivity and sensations seeking. This effect of biological harms on individual traits has been explained to be the effect on the central nervous system including sympathetic and parasympathetic system. Many of the researches that have been carried out in this area focuses on chemical messenger which is the neurotransmitters which relays signals between neurons and the brain, and the hormones regulating body urges like sex drives and response to stressors like testosterones. Other factors like skin conductiveness, level of brain activities, and others which af fects functioning of nervous system may lead to a dysfunction of the nervous system leading to development of crime traits. The general expression of these studies is that there are some natural factors that determine individual vulnerability to committing a crime. This means that some factors in the body and others in the environment that affects the biological status of the body can be responsible for criminal activities since they induce the development of criminal behaviors. Hence, there may be likelihood that criminals may be having a particular crime inducement gene that is not found in other people. Let us look at the postulation of the gene-based evolutionary theory. Gene-based evolutionary theory is supported by studies which suggested that crime is inherited in some genes. Although there has been no prove on crime genes as such, there is a likelihood that some individual traits like 'pushiness' or 'deception' may have some effect on development of crime traits. Studies have suggested that individuals with such traits can reproduce and pass on the traits to the next generation which may develop the same crime traits. However there has been much acrimony about the postulation of these genetic based crime theories with some arguing that they have not been able to explain some aspects of crime. It has also been argued that these theories give a postulation that we cannot control crime by the fact that we cannot change criminal behavior in the population since it is genetic. The theory wipes away the effects of the social environment on crime and supports the postulation that races and ethnic groups' view of crime may have biological backing. The two theories above can be explained by their postulation that there is crime traits in the individual is a functions of the biology of the body. This means that criminal traits in the individual can be inherited in the genes or it can result from change in the biological make up of the body as a result of exposure to harmful activities. They can be explained in a simple fact as their postulation that crime traits are determined by some factors beyond individual control. Determinism is supported by the earlier theories of crime which tried to explain the individual do not choose to engage in crimes

United States Economy since November 2004 to November 2007 Essay Example for Free

United States Economy since November 2004 to November 2007 Essay The distinction of the United States as the only remaining super power in the world may not only apply in their military force but in their economic might as well. But historically, according Bernard Baumohl, it was only during the early 1970s that the U. S economy was open to international market following the collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement, which was intended to establish a stable foreign exchange system. As a result, Baumohl said â€Å"currency values in the world financial market began to float freely, sometimes moving wildly up and down† (p. 240). The immediate impact of this is that the world trade grew faster than ever. Baumohl point out that this development resulted to the influx of cheaper foreign goods which were often of better quality and â€Å"increasingly found their way into the U. S market and started to pose serious competition for US producers† (p. 240). As this was the case, American companies responded by operating more efficiently, and lower their prices while also seeking new market overseas. Baumohl noted that since then, trade has evolved to become one of the most important forces shaping the US economy† (p. 240), the United States economy soared so high that in the short span of time they became one of the most if not the wealthiest economy in the world. Price stability in the United States As the US economy soar high in the international arena and the purchasing power of the US dollar remains strong against the euro, the US has maintained a stable price. The OECD economic outlook noted that inflation in the US has remained with in a desirable range through the help of the long-term household survey measures. Inflation, the OECD noted â€Å"have remained well anchored, even if indexed-bond have drifted somewhat† (p. 24). The article point out that this stability has helped â€Å"limit the second-round effects from the oil price and exchange rate shocks, but it is all the more important that further policy action validate the still serene expectation† (p. 24) In the OECD Economic Surveys United States 2004 article, it noted that in price stability, firmly anchored long term inflation expectations are especially important , not only to maintain public confidence in the durability of low inflation achieved over the past two decades, but also to limit the risk of a potentially self- reinforcing deflationary spiral in the face of hypothetical negative shock (p. 46). Unemployment . Nazimudeen Saleem stated that unemployment in the US soared to a record high in 2004 at 5. 6% reaching over the threshold of 5%. An internet article from entitled Unemployment noted that in April 2007 unemployed adult men stands at 4. 0 percent while adult women, at 3. 8 percent, Caucasians, 3. 9; Hispanic (all races, at 5. 4 percent; African American, 8. 2 percent, and teenagers with the highest number of unemployed at 15. 3 percent. Amadeo noted that the weakest year-by-year employment was 1. 2% in 2004 indicating a trend of decline since 2006. She point out that unemployment is not worsening at all, but it indicate declining trend as unemployment was up at 4. 7% from 4. 4% in October and only slightly up by one percent in May 2007 at 4. 5 percent. Indeed there is a trend of slight decline in the unemployment rate from 2004 to 2007. Healthy Economic Growth In the report to congress on International Economic and Exchange rate policies in December 2006, it cited that the United States has made substantial progress in reducing the federal fiscal deficit from 3. 6 percent of gross Domestic Product in 2004 to 1. 9 percent in fiscal year 2006 Gross Domestic Product, posting an improvement of 1. 7 percent. The report also cited that the United States economy has experienced continuous healthy economic growth in 2005 up to the third quarter of 2006, but during the last quarter economic growth slowed down up to the most recent quarter. From the first quarter of 2004, Gross domestic product or GDP stands at 3. 9% and slightly up by one percent during the second quarter of the same year at four percent. But it slowed down during the third and fourth quarter registering only 3. 1% and 2. 6 percent respectively. However during the first quarter of 2005 GDP was up again jumping to 3. 4% but down by 1% at 3. 3% on the next quarter. The third quarter of 2005 posted a highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2004, at 4. 2 but drastically fell to 1. 8 percent during the last quarter. According to the report of the U. S. Economic Recovery and resurgence as of march 2007, economic analysis of the GDP for the last quarter of 2006 indicates that growth rate has accelerated from 2. 0 percent on an annual basis to 2. 5 percent. The report further cited that although there were difficulties in GDP during the first, second, and third quarter of 2006 but the economy still registered a growth rate of 3. 4 percent, which is still in line with the real growth rates in past few years. According to an article entitled United States Economy 2007, GDP growth rate was under girded by the significant gains in labor productivity that despite of the damage caused by hurricane Katrina it had caused only a minor impact on overall GDP, which stand in 2005. Even the soaring oil price in 2005 to 2006 had only limited impact though it threatened inflation and unemployment. The Purchasing Power Parity GDP in2006 stands at $12. 98 trillion while official exchange rate GDP is $13. 22 trillion, Per Capita GDP $43,500. The graph at the bottom page of this paper shows the economic performance of the United States economy pertaining to the discussion above (see Figure 1). Healthy Balance of Payment (Export/ Import) Francisco Carrada-Bravo pointed out that the best way to learn about the country’s balance of payments statistics is to â€Å"take a careful look at them for a particular period† (p. 110). Bravo noted that the balance of payments of the United States, and other balance of payments from any country in the world, encompasses several main accounts†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 110). Bravo explained that the value of current account is determined, at large extent by the result of trade, service, and transfer of sub accounts. Bravo further explained that â€Å"the United States shows a current account surplus, when the sale of US goods and services to the rest of the world exceeds the US acquisition of these items from other countries. How ever, the United States has a deficit in the capital account when US corporations invest abroad in excess of what foreign multinationals invest in the United States. Translating the above explanation to the US balanced payment, Export promotion, which is managed by the Ministry of Finance, provides subsidies in forms of interest rate support, direct financial support, and export rewards and bonuses. In a report made by OECD staff, the total number of firms of exporting goods was 238,284. Out of the total number of firms, 97% percent of that is SME or small-medium enterprise (p. 365). The success of this export sector is through the assistance of government since it has assistance programs and overseas trade offices to help them their small business with â€Å"market research and local assistance (p. 365). Another factor for steady rising of the economy is a policy issued on November 19, 2004, which â€Å"blocked state and local governments from taxing connections that link consumers to the internet for the next three years (OECD, p. 367). This is because the Federal government believed that e-commerce is â€Å"a growth engine for exports and international expansion. Figure 2 of this paper (see bottom page) explains the balance of payment, which includes details on American economy that includes the year 2004, 2005, and 2006. Main Macro economic Policies by the United States John Atlee in his executive summary of the Macro Economic Agenda Recovery Now and Democratic Comeback 2004 outlined macro economic policies that the US government used during the last three years. First is the Analytical Policy Focus, which features an Adopt a growth trend standard of reference for economic policy and analysis. This policy also denies economic recession instead suggest that the country is just experiencing a mild recession. Significant recovery is yet to begin and maintaining structurally balanced growth with unemployment below 4% should be the aim of this policy with reference fro the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. Another macro economic policy, which the United States government employed during the last three years, is the Budget and Management. John Atlee noted that Bush economic policy is quite weak in its budget, and that this budget vulnerability must be understandable to the voters as well as to the investors who are demanding transparency in government. This policy also instructs that deficit projections and budget should not be based on ever changing and unreliable economic forecast. Furthermore it also to keep deficit close to zero, and eliminate economic forecasts, which is unreliable and ever changing. The government also used Social Security policy making it financially sound to effectively discredit the privatization campaign as this privatization mover promulgates falsehoods perhaps, against the capacity of the government. Taking Social Security (SS) can help finance non-SS deficits. Monetary Policy is one of the key macro economic policies of the government as this is where everything can be fluid. This policy is to recognize the creation of checkable-deposit money by bank, which finances GDP growth through eighteen to one monetary multiplier effect. The policy also aims to eradicate the pretense of interest rate control by increasing reserve requirements and direct control to the Fed. The government also used the Systematic Coordination of Monetary and Fiscal Policy over the last three years. Atlee reports that Fiscal policy is separate from budget management as it is mainly concerned with the over all effect on the economy of the budget. In Atlee’s executive summary of these macro economic policies, he pointed out that the main engine of recovery is the reformed monetary policy, which is facilitated by flexible fiscal policy. Tax Policy is another very important measure that the Bush government had utilized to encourage new businesses in the form of entrepreneurial incentives to new high tech industries and small businesses. This incentive is an exemption from the undistributed profit tax and some measures to avoid unsustainable and excessive stock price increases. These policies aim to sustain the momentum of economic growth experienced by the country since 2004 to 2007. Demand Policy and Supply Side Policy Demand policy is a government policy based on the extremity of the need of a certain sector of the government or society such as the labor sector or the energy sector. Demand policies in the labor sector is increasing the number of quality jobs Mark Rank noted that this policy approach â€Å"has assumed that the labor market by itself will generate enough jobs to meet the needs of those seeking work—that, as the supply of labor increases, the labor market will in turn respond by generating more jobs to meet the demand† (p 204). Thus, Rank suggested various labor demand policies are needed in order to generate a more â€Å"robust rate of job growth† (p. 204) Egbert Tellegen and Maarten Wolsink pointed out that supply-side policy and demand side management â€Å"require widely different abilities from the organization† (p. 184) They contend that the main challenge of supply-side management is â€Å"to develop and manage facilities of the highest technical quality at the lowest possible costs in order to fulfill customers’ needs under all circumstances† (p. 184). Conclusion/Summary American economy since November 2004 to November 2007 despite of ups and downs in the economic performance, yet it remained a steadily growing economy. The 2004 saw its drastic economic decline but it was able to rebound during the first quarter of 2005 to the third quarter of 2006; registering at steady GDP growth rate of three to four percent. Unemployment was also declining as more jobs opportunity is created each year. In general, the United States economy are performing strong up to the recent quarter of 2007 despite of their current internal debt of about 1. 3 trillion and about ten billion dollars in external debt. They remained economically powerful despite the current depreciation of the dollar against Euro and other foreign currencies. Moreover, US economy has purchasing power of about 12. 98 trillion while official exchange rate GDP is $13. 22 trillion, Per Capita GDP $43,500, which continuously grows in the preceding year.