Contrast and Stand in Contrast To

Contrast and Stand in Contrast To Contrast and Stand in Contrast To Contrast and Stand in Contrast To By Maeve Maddox The other morning I read an article about a man who has built a wonderfully detailed scale model of the Sultana, the steamboat that was the object of the greatest maritime disaster in US history. Note: On April 27, 1865, three of the Sultana’s four boilers exploded, killing nearly 2,000 people. Horrible as it was, the event received very little coverage because it occurred while the national press was occupied with the assassination of Lincoln (April 14) and the search for his assassin. (Booth was captured and killed on April 26.) Here’s the odd usage that caught my attention: His [the model-maker’s] attention to the details falls in contrast to the relatively little coverage that newspapers gave the Sultana’s explosion when it happened 150 years ago. It was the first time I’d encountered the phrase â€Å"to fall in contrast to.† The idiom â€Å"to stand in contrast to† is quite common. It means, â€Å"is strikingly different from.† For example: Struggling world economy stands in contrast to U.S. Detroit tent city stands in stark contrast to resurgent downtown The expression â€Å"stands in contrast to† is well represented on the Google Ngram Viewer, but â€Å"falls in contrast† makes no showing at all. I looked online to see if anyone else was using the strange construction â€Å"falls in contrast to.† Sure enough, I found examples: Clare’s ball dress is a classic example of non-habitual clothing; as she is not used to wearing it, it falls in contrast to her ordinary self through clothing. - 2007 book on fashion. The cheerful, hand-clapping sing-along falls in contrast to the more aggressive new singles from the band- Music review. This [humility of the matriarch] falls in contrast to the typical image of the patriarch, whose tool for survival is to consistently appear aggressive and dominating. - Review of True Blood. I found more examples in a variety of contexts that included fine dining, public transportation, golf equipment, and religious doctrine. Writers who wish to convey the information that one thing is extremely different from another can do it without using a noun phrase at all. They can use contrast as a verb: The commissioner’s latest observation that New York needs to hire at least 1,000 more cops contrasts with his earlier statements that 35,000 were enough. Orange contrasts with blue and harmonizes with red. Note: The word contrast is pronounced differently according whether it is used as a noun or as a verb. The noun is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable: /KON-trast/. The verb is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable: /kon-TRAST/. Some of the sentences above can be improved by replacing the â€Å"falls in contrast to† with â€Å"stands in contrast to† or by using contrast as a verb: Clare’s ball dress is a classic example of non-habitual clothing; as she is not used to wearing it, it contrasts with her ordinary self through clothing. - 2007 book on fashion. The cheerful, hand-clapping sing-along stands in contrast to the more aggressive new singles from the band- Music review. This [humility of the matriarch] contrasts with the typical image of the patriarch, whose tool for survival is to consistently appear aggressive and dominating. 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 Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†"Have" vs "Having" in Certain ExpressionsWriting a Thank You Note

Turkeys admission to EU Essay Example

Turkeys admission to EU Essay Example Turkeys admission to EU Essay Turkeys admission to EU Essay Essay Topic: Admission The main question to consider is whether Turkeys admission to the EIJ would be economically advantageous for the Union. I will start by giving you some information about the background of this debate, which is going on for quite some time now. Turkeys application to accede to the European Union was already made in 1987. But by doing this, Turkey was not yet an official candidate. It was officially recognized as a candidate for full membership in 1999. The real negotiations about this subject were tarted in 2005, and until this very own moment, the European countries have still not decided whether taking Turkey in would be the right thing to do or not. 1. + A first advantage of Turkeys membership would be the fact that it would open up a new and strong market for the European products. Turkey has a very large population, so a smoother trade with them would give some economic advantages to the other European states. And with smoother, I mean the fact that, due to its membership, there would be less troubles and paperwork at the Turkish borders. The first and also most important reason why Europe shouldnt let turkey enter the union, is the fact that the country is Just too poor: there are thousands of poor farmers, and they have to deal with very low living standards. Some areas are serious underdeveloped, and the country has still huge debts it has to pay off. When it becomes part of Europe, the other states will have to help their new companion to pay off his debts and make sure that the living standards will rise. 2. It would also create great opportunities for business: Turkey has a population of lmost 80 million people, and it has the right technical institutions. So when the country would be guided in a decent way, it would be able to create a qualified and expanding economy. And when I say guided in a decent way, I mean not like nowadays, because theres still a lot of cheating and corruption going on in the top ranks of the government. Those are not the only problems; as I said before, Turkey has immense economic problems: it has to deal with high inflation rates, public debts and a very high unemployment-rate. These factors caused the very weak economic structure of the ountry. Turkey has a rapidly growing population; in their culture, its a tradition to raise lots of kids. But this growing population would cause a lot of financial issues, and also the European instututions would face problems while dealing with this large population. The agricultural area from Europe would also grow, Just like the agricultural work force (like the amount of farmers), because in Turkey, a lot of people still make their living out of agriculture. The country, unlike the most other European countries, also contains a lot of precious natural resources. Another disadvantage is the fact that Turkish farmers still use a lot of products that are harmful for the environment, and by doing that, it causes major pollution. Lots of these products are even forbidden in the ELI. So in order to stop these bad habits, the union would have to invest a lot of money in the development of new farming methods. 4. Turkey is also situated in a turbulent area. It lies between Transcaucasia, Central Asia and the Balkans; this areas are very unstable because of poverty, economic underdevelopment and Islamic fundamentalism. By getting accepted to the Union, Turkey could play a key role in this situation: It would be an example to these areas that an Islamic country can also be a prosperous and modernized democracy. Turkish accession to the Union would force the European States to open up their borders. It is not proved, it is feared that the European countries would be forced to allow a flood of immigrant in their country. For this people, Europe is the paradise, and when Turkey would be a member of the Union, it wouldnt be that hard to cross the borders. Conclusion Out of these elements, I can conclude that Turkey, once accepted to the ELI, would ecome rather a beneficiary than a contributor. Money would be drained out of the Union to solve Turkeys problems, and the European investments would not be equal to the benefits they would get in return. Nowadays, now Europe weakened by the economic crisis, it is absolutely not the right moment to take in a country that needs lot of financial support in order to compete with the other states on European level. In my opinion, Turkeys admission will not be economically advantageous right now. Maybe once, but not in this situation.

Treaty of Sevres And The Founding of Modern Turkey Essay

Treaty of Sevres And The Founding of Modern Turkey - Essay Example On 12th February 1920, the Ottoman parliament was forced to shut down after their regular session ended. The parliament was thereby abolished a month later on 18th March 1920. Neither the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI Vahdeddin was able to ratify this agreement in parliament five months later, nor could the official newspaper (Takvim-i-Vakayi) publish its details. It was decided that the Ottoman Empire would be represented by four signatories during the signing at Sevres near Paris. However, prior to the ratification, the Turkish War of Independence forced the former wartime Allies to re-negotiate, re-sign and ratify the new Treaty of Lausanne 1923. The terms of the treaty broadly outlined changes to three different areas of land controlled by the Ottomans – Middle East, Anatolia and the Ottoman Empire. Armenia and Hejaz (now a part of Saudi Arabia) were given their independence. Kurdistan was to be given independence with Mosul (the Kurdish vilayet) joining independent Kurdistan. The wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement assigned Mesopotamia and Palestine to the United Kingdom as mandated states. Lebanon and most of Syria was given to France under a mandate as well. Nine-year Italian-occupied Dodecanese and Rhodes including portions of southern Anatolia were given to Italy completely. Greece was given Thrace and Western Anatolia including the crucial port of Izmir or Smyrna. The remaining Bosphorus, Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara were demilitarized and internationalized as part of the Sevres Treaty.

To answer the past exam for sample exam,2002and 2003 Coursework

To answer the past exam for sample exam,2002and 2003 - Coursework Example e speed, flexibility in contrast, a more SE like T2 contrast (compared to FSE),   better slice efficiency (that is, more slices per TR),   and can be flexible with respect to resolution by using segmentation.   As you would have gathered by constructing the table in question 3, speed is of course the main advantage, and opens up the area of functional rather than anatomical imaging.    All sequences must be fat suppressed due to chemical shift, and the presence of geometric distortions are the two big potential problems.   Obviously if you want to image or measure fat, then EPI is not the sequence for you.   Also if the patient has braces and you want to image their brain with EPI that is also not going to work - either due to susceptibility distortions or B1 in homogeneities, depending upon what the braces are made of.   Also there are some areas where the susceptibility is so great that no degree of segmentation will completely remove the distortion - like the areas at the base of the brain close to the sinuses. 3.   Constant phase encoding EPI:   to obtain evenly spaced points in ky, data is split into two, 1D FT at each kx, phase shifted to a grid, 2nd FT at each ky, both halves added together applying the Fourier Transform Shift theorem. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Spiral scanning methods (square and circular):   Points in k space are also not collected uniformly in time (that is, in the line by line method we are familiar with).   The square method is, however, evenly spaced in k-space, therefore just needs reordering.   Circular spiral scanning points are separated uniformly in RADIAL space, but not in the 2D space we are used to.   Either a non-Fourier reconstruction is used (that means you dont need points on a 2D grid) or the data needs to be interpolated to fit a grid. Badwidth is inversely propotional to the sampling line. The number of Pixels reslting from a shift in phase error is dependent upon the phase per pixel of bandwidth. The change in frequency gives a rise

Fast Food Advertisements Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Advertisements Essay 1.Junk food advertising does not force parents to buy the food Just because junk food is advertised does not mean that parents should buy it for their children or give their children the money to buy it. It is important to recognise that parents have the final say, and also are ultimately responsible for what their children eat. We should place greater responsibility on parents, and if we are concerned that they are buying junk food for their children, we should attempt to address that problem. But, this has less to do with junk food advertising and more to do with informing the health decisions of parents. 2.If we apply the principle of individual responsibility, advertising is fine It is important not to hold businesses and advertisers responsible for the choices of individual consumers. If a consumer wants to purchase a good, the supplier should not be blamed for supplying it. The buyer wants to be pulled in by junk-food advertisements, and does not hold back their mind from unhealthy food. There are ads for health foods, buy consumers don’t want to buy vegetables or fruits, and therefore hold back their mind from buying them. It is solely how to consumers want to react to their own decisions, and has nothing to do with the supplier. If a producer advertises their good, they should not be blamed for the consumer finding their good attractive. There are people who don’t like junk food at all, and they control their minds like that. It is simple how the person controls their mind to think. Just like in movies, or in the real world, there is or always needs to be some components of good and bad. The people themselves decide on which group they want to be in. Sadly though, these days, majority of people decide to be in on junk-food. We must maintain the notion of individual responsibility, or people will start blaming each other for their own bad choices. 3.Parents must talk to their children about health eating habits The truth is that ‘there is certainly a place for junk food in every diet’. Elizabeth Berger, author of â€Å"Raising Kids with Character† says, â€Å"Parents must talk to their children about the healthy amount. In the real world, children will be exposed to all sorts of advertisements and their parents will not always be able to protect them. Therefore, their parents must begin to teach them while they are still children†. 4 .Children have little or no money It is not sensible to aim advertisements at children because they have little or no money, and can’t afford to buy the junk food anyway. Also, by the time children do have enough money, and are able to transport themselves to a fast-food place without their parents, they will have grown older and have the age to take the correct decisions for themselves. Even if they do take the wrong decision, then it is completely their own fault, as they are old enough and responsible enough to make their own decisions. Children that are much younger need their parents for help. Also, when you are growing older with some pocket money, learning to manage money for the correct causes and reasons is a part of growing up. 5.Discipline plays a big part Believe it or not, discipline plays a big part in this whole issue. Fast food advertising has no magical power to create unnatural desires for food. Children who nag are simply badly brought up. Poor parenting and undisciplined children cannot be solved by banning food advertisements during children’s television shows, as children have many other influences which can still stimulate these desires. 6.Children naturally like foods that are rich in fats, proteins and sugar. Their craving is not started off by advertisements. They give them the energy to play energetically and grow healthily. It is true that eating only such foods is bad for people, but this is again a problem of bad parenting rather than the fault of food advertisements. And off course, it advertising junk-food is banned, than children will grow naive, and as they enter into the real world, they will then become inundated with ads, because they will have not learnt the skills of ignoring ads when younger. 7.Fast food advertisements appear not only on TV, but you can also hear them on other sources, such as radios. Say the government does ban fast food advertisements during children’s TV shows. Children also watch many other programmes that adults also enjoy, but these programmes still have fast food ads during them, remember. Does this mean we should extend this ban to all television advertising? And, why stop at television when children are also exposed to radio, cinema, the internet and billboards in the street as well? But, any restrictions will be impossible to enforce, as television is increasingly broadcast by satellite across national borders and cannot be easily controlled – nor can the internet. 8.Banning advertisements is a severe restriction upon freedom of speech Companies should be able to tell the public about any legal products (such as fast-food). Children also have a human right to receive this information from a wide range of sources and make up their own minds about it. They are far from being brainwashed by advertisements, which form only a small part of their experiences; family, friends, school and other television programmes are much more important and all give them alternative views of the world.

Faulkner’s Exploration of the Human Spirit Essay -- Literary Analysis

William Faulkner accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in December 1950. During his acceptance speech, Faulkner proclaimed that the award was made not to him as a man, but to his life’s work, which was created, â€Å"out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before† (PF ). He felt that the modern writer had lost connection to his spirit and that he must reconnect with the universal truths of the heart—â€Å"love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice† (PF ). Through his characters voice and exposure of their spirit, Faulkner solidified man’s immortality by â€Å"lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past† (PF ). Although some critics have characterized his work as violet, dealing with immoral themes and the miseries and brutality of life; it can be argued that even his most sad and dep raved characters express positive virtues and personal strengths. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the portrayal and manifestation of the human spirit in a select few of William Faulkner’s literary characters, showing that they possess both human strength and flaws. So what is the human spirit and why is it significant? It is a somewhat indefinable concept. According to Faulkner the human spirit is the connection to the universal truths of the heart—â€Å"love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice† (PF). But more than that, he was concerned with the idea that man had become oblivious to the problems of the spirit; that he lost his awareness of the inner struggle of heart in conflict with itself. The human spirit can also be described in terms of surviving adversity, adapting to c... ...lkner. Ed. Malcolm Cowley. New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Viking Press, 1946. Falkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. J. Cape & H. Smith, 1929. Gwynn, Frederick L. and Joseph L. Blotner, eds. Faulkner in the University: Class Conferences at the University of Virginia 1957-58. New York: Vintage Books, 1959. Howe, Irving. William Faulkner: A Critical Study. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1975.Orig. 1951. Vintage Books, 1962. Meriwether, James B. and Michael Millgate, eds. Lion in the Garden: Interviews with William Faulkner 1926-1962. New York: Random House, 1968. O’Donnell, George M. â€Å"Faulkner’s Mythology.† William Faulkner: Four Decades of Criticism. Linda W. Wagner, ed. East Lansing, MI: MSU Press, 1973. 83-93. Teske, John A. â€Å"The Social Construction of the Human Spirit.† http://users.etown.edu/t/teskeja/schs.html

Ikea Children Labour

KEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) In May 1995, Marianne Barner faced a tough decision. After just two years with IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, and less than a year into her job as business area manager for carpets, she was faced with the decision of cutting off one of the company’s major suppliers of Indian rugs. While such a move would disrupt supply and affect sales, she found the reasons to do so quite compelling.A German TV station had just broadcast an investigative report naming the supplier as one that used child labor in the production of rugs made for IKEA. What frustrated Barner was that, like all other IKEA suppliers, this large, well-regarded company had recently signed an addendum to its supply contract explicitly forbidding the use of child labor on pain of termination. Even more difficult than this short-term decision was the long-term action Barner knew IKEA must take on this issue. On one hand, she w as being urged to sign up to an industry-wide response to growing concerns about the use of child labor in the Indian carpet industry.A recently formed partnership of manufacturers, importers, retailers, and Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was proposing to issue and monitor the use of â€Å"Rugmark,† a label to be put on carpets certifying that they were made without child labor. Simultaneously, Barner had been conversing with people at the Swedish Save the Children organization who were urging IKEA to ensure that its response to the situation was â€Å"in the best interest of the child†Ã¢â‚¬â€whatever that might imply. Finally, there were some who wondered if IKEA should not just leave this hornet’s nest.Indian rugs accounted for a tiny part of IKEA’s turnover, and to these observers, the time, cost, and reputation risk posed by continuing this product line seemed not worth the profit potential. The Birth and Maturing of a Global Company1 To understand IKEA’s operations, one had to understand the philosophy and beliefs of its 70year-old founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Despite stepping down as CEO in 1986, almost a decade later, Kamprad retained the title of honorary chairman and was still very involved in the company’s activities.Yet perhaps even more powerful than his ongoing presence were his strongly held values and beliefs, which long ago had been deeply embedded in IKEA’s culture. Kamprad was 17 years old when he started the mail-order company he called IKEA, a name that combined his initials with those of his family farm, Elmtaryd, and parish, Agunnaryd, located in the ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Professor Christopher A.Bartlett, Executive Director of the HBS Europe Research Center Vincent Dessain, and Research Associate Anders Sjoman prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discuss ion. Certain details have been disguised. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. bsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) forests of southern Sweden. Working out of the family kitchen, he sold goods such as fountain pens, cigarette lighters, and binders he purchased from low-priced sources and then advertised in a newsletter to local shopkeepers.Wh en Kamprad matched his competitors by adding furniture to his newsletter in 1948, the immediate success of the new line led him to give up the small items. In 1951, to reduce product returns, he opened a display store in nearby Almhult village to allow customers to inspect products before buying. It was an immediate success, with customers traveling seven hours from the capital Stockholm by train to visit. Based on the store’s success, IKEA stopped accepting mail orders. Later Kamprad reflected, â€Å"The basis of the modern IKEA concept was created [at this time] and in principle it still applies.First and foremost, we use a catalog to tempt people to visit an exhibition, which today is our store. . . . Then, catalog in hand, customers can see simple interiors for themselves, touch the furniture they want to buy and then write out an order. †2 As Kamprad developed and refined his furniture retailing business model he became increasingly frustrated with the way a tight ly knit cartel of furniture manufacturers controlled the Swedish industry to keep prices high. He began to view the situation not just as a business opportunity but also as an unacceptable social problem that he wanted to correct.Foreshadowing a vision for IKEA that would later be articulated as â€Å"creating a better life for the many people,† he wrote: â€Å"A disproportionately large part of all resources is used to satisfy a small part of the population. . . . IKEA’s aim is to change this situation. We shall offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them. . . . We have great ambitions. †3 The small newsletter soon expanded into a full catalog. The 1953 issue introduced what would become another key IKEA feature: self-assembled furniture.Instead of buying complete pieces of furniture, customers bought them in flat packages and put them together themselves at home. So on, the â€Å"knockdown† concept was fully systemized, saving transport and storage costs. In typical fashion, Kamprad turned the savings into still lower prices for his customers, gaining an even larger following among young postwar householders looking for well-designed but inexpensive furniture. Between 1953 and 1955, the company’s sales doubled from SEK 3 million to SEK 6 million. 4Managing Suppliers: Developing Sourcing Principles As its sales took off in the late 1950s, IKEA’s radically new concepts began to encounter stiff opposition from Sweden’s large furniture retailers. So threatened were they that when IKEA began exhibiting at trade fairs, they colluded to stop the company from taking orders at the fairs and eventually even from showing its prices. The cartel also pressured manufacturers not to sell to IKEA, and the few that continued to do so often made their deliveries at night in unmarked vans.Unable to meet demand with such constrained loc al supply, Kamprad was forced to look abroad for new sources. In 1961, he contracted with several furniture factories in Poland, a country still in the Communist eastern bloc. To assure quality output and reliable delivery, IKEA brought its knowhow, taught its processes, and even provided machinery to the new suppliers, revitalizing Poland’s furniture industry as it did so. Poland soon became IKEA’s largest source and, to Kamprad’s delight, at much lower costs—once again allowing him to reduce his prices.Following its success in Poland, IKEA adopted a general procurement principle that it should not own its means of production but should seek to develop close ties by supporting its suppliers in a 2 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) 906-414 long-term relationship. a Beyond supply contracts and technology transfer, the relationship led IKEA to make loans to its suppliers at reasonable rates, repayable through future sh ipments. â€Å"Our objective is to develop long-term business partners,† explained a senior purchasing manager. We commit to doing all we can to keep them competitive—as long as they remain equally committed to us. We are in this for the long run. † Although the relationship between IKEA and its suppliers was often described as one of mutual dependency, suppliers also knew that they had to remain competitive to keep their contract. From the outset they understood that if a more cost-effective alternative appeared, IKEA would try to help them respond, but if they could not do so, it would move production. In its constant quest to lower prices, the company developed an unusual way of identifying new sources.As a veteran IKEA manager explained: â€Å"We do not buy products from our suppliers. We buy unused production capacity. † It was a philosophy that often led its purchasing managers to seek out seasonal manufacturers with spare off-season capacity. There were many classic examples of how IKEA matched products to supplier capabilities: they had sail makers make seat cushions, window factories produce table frames, and ski manufacturers build chairs in their off-season. The manager added, â€Å"We’ve always worried more about finding the right management at our suppliers than finding high-tech facilities.We will always help good management to develop their capacity. † Growing Retail: Expanding Abroad Building on the success of his first store, Kamprad self-financed a store in Stockholm in 1965. Recognizing a growing use of automobiles in Sweden, he bucked the practice of having a downtown showroom and opted for a suburban location with ample parking space. When customers drove home with their furniture in flat packed boxes, they assumed two of the costliest parts of traditional furniture retailing—home delivery and assembly. In 1963, even before the Stockholm store had opened, IKEA had expanded into Oslo, Norway.A decade later, Switzerland became its first non-Scandinavian market, and in 1974 IKEA entered Germany, which soon became its largest market. (See Exhibit 1 for IKEA’s worldwide expansion. ) At each new store the same simple Scandinavian-design products were backed up with a catalog and offbeat advertising, presenting the company as â€Å"those impossible Swedes with strange ideas. † And reflecting the company’s conservative values, each new entry was financed by previous successes. b During this expansion, the IKEA concept evolved and became increasingly formalized. (Exhibit 2 summarizes important events in IKEA’s corporate history. It still built large, suburban stores with knockdown furniture in flat packages the customers brought home to assemble themselves. But as the concept was refined, the company required that each store follow a predetermined design, set up to maximize customers’ exposure to the product range. The concept mandated, for ins tance, that the living room interiors should follow immediately after the entrance. IKEA also serviced customers with features such as a playroom for children, a low-priced restaurant, and a â€Å"Sweden Shop† for groceries that had made IKEA Sweden’s leading food exporter. At the same time, the range gradually This policy was modified after a number of East European suppliers broke their contracts with IKEA after the fall of the Berlin Wall opened new markets for them. IKEA’s subsequent supply chain problems and loss of substantial investments led management to develop an internal production company, Swedwood, to ensure delivery stability. However, it was decided that only a limited amount of IKEA’s purchases (perhaps 10%) should be sourced from Swedwood. b By 2005, company lore had it that IKEA had only taken one bank loan in its corporate history—which it had paid back as soon as the cash flow allowed. 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Chall enge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) expanded beyond furniture to include a full line of home furnishing products such as textiles, kitchen utensils, flooring, rugs and carpets, lamps, and plants. The Emerging Culture and Values5 As Kamprad’s evolving business philosophy was formalized into the IKEA vision statement, â€Å"To create a better everyday life for the many people,† it became the foundation of the company’s strategy of selling affordable, good-quality furniture to mass-market consumers around the world.The cultural norms and values that developed to support the strategy’s implementation were also, in many ways, an extension of Kamprad’s personal beliefs and style. â€Å"The true IKEA spirit,† he remarked, â€Å"is founded on our enthusiasm, our constant will to renew, on our cost-consciousness, on our willingness to assume responsibility and to help, on our humbleness before the task, and on the simplicity of our behavior. † As well as a summary of his aspiration for the company’s behavioral norms, it was also a good statement of Kamprad’s own personal management style.Over the years a very distinct organizational culture and management style emerged in IKEA reflecting these values. For example, the company operated very informally as evidenced by the open-plan office landscape, where even the CEO did not have a separate office, and the familiar and personal way all employees addressed one another. But that informality often masked an intensity that derived from the organization’s high self-imposed standards. As one senior executive explained, â€Å"Because there is no security available behind status or closed doors, this environment actually puts pressure on people to perform. The IKEA management process also stressed simplicity and attention to detail. â€Å"Complicated rules paralyze! † said Kamprad. The company organized â€Å"anti-bureaucrat week† every year, requiring all managers to spend time working in a store to reestablish contact with the front line and the consumer. The workpace was such that executives joked that IKEA believed in â€Å"management by running around. † Cost consciousness was another strong part of the management culture. â€Å"Waste of resources,† said Kamprad, â€Å"is a mortal sin at IKEA. Expensive solutions are often signs of mediocrity, and an idea without a price tag is never acceptable. Although cost consciousness extended into all aspects of the operation, travel and entertainment expenses were particularly sensitive. â€Å"We do not set any price on time,† remarked an executive, recalling that he had once phoned Kamprad to get approval to fly first class. He explained that economy class was full and that he had an urgent appointment to keep. â€Å"There is no first class in IKEA,† Kamprad had replied. â€Å"Perhaps you should go by car. † The executive completed the 35 0-mile trip by taxi. The search for creative solutions was also highly prized with IKEA. Kamprad had written, â€Å"Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes.The fear of making mistakes is the root of bureaucracy and the enemy of all evolution. † Though planning for the future was encouraged, overanalysis was not. â€Å"Exaggerated planning can be fatal,† Kamprad advised his executives. â€Å"Let simplicity and common sense characterize your planning. † In 1976, Kamprad felt the need to commit to paper the values that had developed in IKEA during the previous decades. His thesis, Testament of a Furniture Dealer, became an important means for spreading the IKEA philosophy, particularly during its period of rapid international expansion. (Extracts of the Testament are given in Exhibit 3. Specially trained â€Å"IKEA ambassadors† were assigned to key positions in all units to spread the company’s philosophy and values by educating their subordinates a nd by acting as role models. 4 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) 906-414 In 1986, when Kamprad stepped down, Anders Moberg, a company veteran who had once been Kamprad’s personal assistant, took over as president and CEO. But Kamprad remained intimately involved as chairman, and his influence extended well beyond the ongoing daily operations: he was the self-appointed guardian of IKEA’s deeply embedded culture and values.Waking up to Environmental and Social Issues By the mid-1990s, IKEA was the world's largest specialized furniture retailer. Sales for the IKEA Group for the financial year ending August 1994 totaled SEK 35 billion (about $4. 5 billion). In the previous year, more than 116 million people had visited one of the 98 IKEA stores in 17 countries, most of them drawn there by the company’s product catalog, which was printed yearly in 72 million copies in 34 languages. The privately held company did not report profi t levels, but one estimate put its net margin at 8. 4% in 1994, yielding a net profit of SEK 2. billion (about $375 million). 6 After decades of seeking new sources, in the mid-1990s IKEA worked with almost 2,300 suppliers in 70 countries, sourcing a range of around 11,200 products. Its relationship with its suppliers was dominated by commercial issues, and its 24 trading service offices in 19 countries primarily monitored production, tested new product ideas, negotiated prices, and checked quality. (See Exhibit 4 for selected IKEA figures in 1994. ) That relationship began to change during the 1980s, however, when environmental problems emerged with some of its products.And it was even more severely challenged in the mid-1990s when accusations of IKEA suppliers using child labor surfaced. The Environmental Wake-Up: Formaldehyde In the early 1980s, Danish authorities passed regulations to define limits for formaldehyde emissions permissible in building products. The chemical compoun d was used as binding glue in materials such as plywood and particleboard and often seeped out as gas. At concentrations above 0. 1 mg/kg in air, it could cause watery eyes, headaches, a burning sensation in the throat, and difficulty breathing.With IKEA’s profile as a leading local furniture retailer using particleboard in many of its products, it became a prime target for regulators wanting to publicize the new standards. So when tests showed that some IKEA products emitted more formaldehyde than was allowed by legislation, the case was widely publicized and the company was fined. More significantly—and the real lesson for IKEA—was that due to the publicity, its sales dropped 20% in Denmark. In response to this situation, the company quickly established stringent requirements regarding formaldehyde emissions but soon found that suppliers were failing to meet its standards.The problem was that most of its suppliers bought from subsuppliers, who in turn bought t he binding materials from glue manufacturers. Eventually, IKEA decided it would have to work directly with the glue-producing chemical companies and, with the collaboration of companies such as ICI and BASF, soon found ways to reduce the formaldehyde off-gassing in its products. 7 A decade later, however, the formaldehyde problem returned. In 1992, an investigative team from a large German newspaper and TV company found that IKEA’s best-selling bookcase series, Billy, had emissions higher than German legislation allowed.This time, however, the source of the problem was not the glue but the lacquer on the bookshelves. In the wake of headlines describing â€Å"deadly poisoned bookshelves,† IKEA immediately stopped both the production and sales of Billy bookcases worldwide and corrected the problem before resuming distribution. Not counting the cost of lost sales and production or the damage to goodwill, the Billy incident was estimated to have cost IKEA $6 million to $7 million. 8 5 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)These events prompted IKEA to address broader environmental concerns more directly. Since wood was the principal material in about half of all IKEA products, forestry became a natural starting point. Following discussions with both Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, formerly World Wildlife Fund) and using standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council, IKEA established a forestry policy stating that IKEA would not accept any timber, veneer, plywood, or layer-glued wood from intact natural forests or from forests with a high conservation value.This meant that IKEA had to be willing to take on the task of tracing all wood used in IKEA products back to its source. 9 To monitor compliance, the company appointed forest managers to carry out random checks of wood suppliers and run projects on responsible forestry around the world. In addition to forestry, IKEA identified four other a reas where environmental criteria were to be applied to its business operations: adapting the product range; working with suppliers; transport and distribution; and ensuring environmentally conscious stores.For instance, in 1992, the company began using chlorine-free recycled paper in its catalogs; it redesigned the best-selling OGLA chair— originally manufactured from beech—so it could be made using waste material from yogurt cup production; and it redefined its packaging principles to eliminate any use of PVC. The company also maintained its partnership with WWF, resulting in numerous projects on global conservation, and funded a global forest watch program to map intact natural forests worldwide. In addition, it engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Greenpeace on forestry. 10 The Social Wake-Up: Child LaborIn 1994, as IKEA was still working to resolve the formaldehyde problems, a Swedish television documentary showed children in Pakistan working at weaving looms. Amon g the several Swedish companies mentioned in the film as importers of carpets from Pakistan, IKEA was the only highprofile name on the list. Just two months into her job as business area manager for carpets, Marianne Barner recalled the shockwaves that the TV program sent through the company: The use of child labor was not a high-profile public issue at the time. In fact, the U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child had only been published in December 1989.So, media attention like this TV program had an important role to play in raising awareness on a topic not well known and understood—including at IKEA. . . . We were caught completely unaware. It was not something we had been paying attention to. For example, I had spent a couple of months in India learning about trading but got no exposure to child labor. Our buyers met suppliers in their city offices and rarely got out to where production took place. . . . Our immediate response to the program was to apologize for our ignorance and acknowledge that we were not in full control of this problem.But we also committed to do something about it. As part of its response, IKEA sent a legal team to Geneva to seek input and advice from the International Labor Organization (ILO) on how to deal with the problem. They learned that Convention 138, adopted by the ILO in 1973 and ratified by 120 countries, committed ratifying countries to working for the abolition of labor by children under 15 or the age of compulsory schooling in that country. India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention. 1 Following these discussions with the ILO, IKEA added a clause to all supply contracts—a â€Å"black-andwhite† clause, as Barner put it—stating simply that if the supplier employed children under legal working age, the contract would be cancelled. To take the load off field trading managers and to provide some independence to the monitoring process, the company appointed a third-party agent to monitor child labor practices at its suppliers in India and Pakistan. Because this type of external monitoring was very unusual, IKEA had some difficulty locating a reputable and competent company to perform the task. Finally, they appointed a 6IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) 906-414 well-known Scandinavian company with extensive experience in providing external monitoring of companies’ quality assurance programs and gave them the mandate not only to investigate complaints but also to undertake random audits of child labor practices at suppliers’ factories. Early Lessons: A Deeply Embedded Problem With India being the biggest purchasing source for carpets and rugs, Barner contacted Swedish Save the Children, UNICEF, and the ILO to expand her understanding and to get advice about the issue of child labor, especially in South Asia.She soon found that hard data was often elusive. While estimates of child labor in India var ied from the government’s 1991 census figure of 11. 3 million children under 15 working12 to Human Rights Watch’s estimate of between 60 million and 115 million child laborers,13 it was clear that a very large number of Indian children as young as five years old worked in agriculture, mining, quarrying, and manufacturing, as well as acting as household servants, street vendors, or beggars.Of this total, an estimated 200,000 were employed in the carpet industry, working on looms in large factories, for small subcontractors, and in homes where whole families worked on looms to earn extra income. 14 Children could be bonded—essentially placed in servitude—in order to pay off debts incurred by their parents, typically in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 rupees ($30 to $300). But due to the astronomical interest rates and the very low wages offered to children, it could take years to pay off such loans. Indeed, some indentured child laborers eventually passed on t he debt to their own children.The Indian government stated that it was committed to the abolition of bonded labor, which had been illegal since the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act passed under British rule in 1933. The practice continued to be widespread, however, and to reinforce the earlier law, the government passed the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in 1976. 15 But the government took a less absolute stand on unbonded child labor, which it characterized as â€Å"a socioeconomic phenomenon arising out of poverty and the lack of development. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 prohibited the use of child labor (applying to those under 14) in certain defined â€Å"hazardous industries† and regulated children’s hours and working conditions in others. But the government felt that the majority of child labor involved â€Å"children working alongside and under the supervision of their parents† in agriculture, cottage industries, and s ervice roles. Indeed, the law specifically permitted children to work in craft industries â€Å"in order not to outlaw the passage of specialized handicraft skills from generation to generation. 16 Critics charged that even with these laws on the books, exploitive child labor—including bonded labor—was widespread because laws were poorly enforced and prosecution rarely severe. 17 Action Required: New Issues, New Options In the fall of 1994, after managing the initial response to the crisis, Barner and her direct manager traveled to India, Nepal, and Pakistan to learn more. Barner recalled the trip: â€Å"We felt the need to educate ourselves, so we met with our suppliers. But we also met with unions, politicians, activists, NGOs, U. N. rganizations, and carpet export organizations. We even went out on unannounced carpet factory raids with local NGOs; we saw child labor, and we were thrown out of some places. † On the trip, Barner also learned of the formation o f the Rugmark Foundation, a recently initiated industry response to the child labor problem in the Indian carpet industry. Triggered by a consumer awareness program started by human rights organizations, consumer activists, and trade unions in Germany in the early 1990s, the Indo-German Export Promotion Council had joined up with key 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) Indian carpet manufacturers and exporters and some Indian NGOs to develop a label certifying that the hand-knotted carpets to which it was attached were made without the use of child labor. To implement this idea, the Rugmark Foundation was organized to supervise the use of the label. It expected to begin exporting rugs carrying a unique identifying number in early 1995.As a major purchaser of Indian rugs, IKEA was invited to sign up with Rugmark as a way of dealing with the ongoing potential for child labor problems on products sourced from India. On her return to Sweden, Barner again met frequently with the Swedish Save the Children’s expert on child labor. â€Å"The people there had a very forward-looking view on the issue and taught us a lot,† said Barner. â€Å"Above all, they emphasized the need to ensure you always do what is in the best interests of the child. † This was the principle set at the heart of the U. N.Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), a document with which Barner was now quite familiar. (See Exhibit 5 for Article 32 from the U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. ) The more Barner learned, the more complex the situation became. As a business area manager with full profit-and-loss responsibility for carpets, she knew she had to protect not only her business but also the IKEA brand and image. Yet she viewed her responsibility as broader than this: She felt the company should do something that would make a difference in the lives of the children she had seen.It was a view that was not universally held within IKEA, where many were concerned that a very proactive stand could put the business at a significant cost disadvantage to its competitors. A New Crisis Then, in the spring of 1995, a year after IKEA began to address this issue, a well-known German documentary maker notified the company that a film he had made was about to be broadcast on German television showing children working at looms at Rangan Exports, one of IKEA’s major suppliers.While refusing to let the company preview the video, the filmmaker produced still shots taken directly from the video. The producer then invited IKEA to send someone to take part in a live discussion during the airing of the program. Said Barner, â€Å"Compared to the Swedish program, which documented the use of child labor in Pakistan as a serious report about an important issue without targeting any single company, it was immediately clear that this German-produced program planned to take a confrontational and aggressive approac h aimed directly at IKEA and one of its suppliers. For Barner, the first question was whether to recommend that IKEA participate in the program or decline the invitation. Beyond the immediate public relations issue, she also had to decide how to deal with Rangan Exports’ apparent violation of the contractual commitment it had made not to use child labor. And finally, this crisis raised the issue of whether the overall approach IKEA had been taking to the issue of child labor was appropriate. Should the company continue to try to deal with the issue through its own relationships with its suppliers?Should it step back and allow Rugmark to monitor the use of child labor on its behalf? Or should it recognize that the problem was too deeply embedded in the culture of these countries for it to have any real impact and simply withdraw? 8 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) 906-414 Exhibit 1 IKEA Stores, Fiscal Year Ending August 1994 a. Historica l Store Growth 1954 Number of Stores 0 1964 2 1974 9 1984 52 1994 114 b. Country’s First StoreFirst Store (with city) Country Sweden Norway Denmark Switzerland Germany Australia Canada Austria Netherlands Singapore Spain Iceland France Saudi Arabia Belgium Kuwait United States United Kingdom Hong Kong Italy Hungary Poland Czech Republic United Arab Emirates Slovakia Taiwan Year 1958 1963 1969 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1978 1980 1981 1981 1983 1984 1984 1985 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1991 1991 1992 1994 City Almhult Oslo Copenhagen Zurich Munich Artamon Vancouver Vienna Rotterdam Singapore Gran Canaria Reykjavik Paris Jeddah Brussels Kuwait City Philadelphia Manchester Hong Kong Milan Budapest Platan Prague Dubai Bratislava TaipeiSource: IKEA website, http://franchisor. ikea. com/txtfacts. html, accessed October 15, 2004. 9 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) Exhibit 2 IKEA History: Selected Events Year 1943 1945 1948 1951 1955 1 956 1958 1961 1963 1965 1965 1973 1974 1978 1980 1980 1985 1985 1991 Event IKEA is founded. Ingvar Kamprad constructs the company name from his initials (Ingvar Kamprad), his home farm (Elmtaryd), and its parish (Agunnaryd). The first IKEA ad appears in press, advertising mail-order products. Furniture is introduced into the IKEA product range.Products are still only advertised through ads. The first IKEA catalogue is distributed. IKEA starts to design its own furniture. Self-assembly furniture in flat packs is introduced. The first IKEA store opens in Almhult, Sweden. Contract with Polish sources, IKEA’s first non-Scandinavian suppliers. First delivery is 20,000 chairs. The first IKEA store outside Sweden opens in Norway. IKEA opens in Stockholm, introducing the self-serve concept to furniture retailing. IKEA stores add a section called â€Å"The Cook Shop,† offering quality utensils at low prices.The first IKEA store outside Scandinavia opens in Spreitenbach, Switzer land. A plastic chair is developed at a supplier that usually makes buckets. The BILLY bookcase is introduced to the range, becoming an instant top seller. One of IKEA’s best-sellers, the KLIPPAN sofa with removable, washable covers, is introduced. Introduction of LACK coffee table, made from a strong, light material by an interior door factory. The first IKEA Group store opens in the U. S. MOMENT sofa with frame built by a supermarket trolley factory is introduced. Wins a design prize. IKEA establishes its own industrial group, Swedwood.Source: Adapted from IKEA Facts and Figures, 2003 and 2004 editions, and IKEA internal documents. 10 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) 906-414 Exhibit 3 â€Å"A Furniture Dealer’s Testament†Ã¢â‚¬â€A Summarized Overview In 1976, Ingvar Kamprad listed nine aspects of IKEA that he believed formed the basis of the IKEA culture together with the vision statement â€Å"To create a better everyd ay life for the many people. † These aspects are given to all new employees through a pamphlet titled â€Å"A Furniture Dealer’s Testament. † The following table summarizes the major points: Cornerstone 1.The Product Range—Our Identity 2. The IKEA Spirit—A Strong and Living Reality 3. Profit Gives Us Resources Summarize Description IKEA sells well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them. IKEA is about enthusiasm, renewal, thrift, responsibility, humbleness toward the task and simplicity. IKEA will achieve profit (which Kamprad describes as a â€Å"wonderful word†) through the lowest prices, good quality, economical development of products, improved purchasing processes and cost savings. â€Å"Waste is a deadly sin. † 4.Reaching Good Results with Small Means 5. Simplicity is a Virtue Complex regulations and exaggerated planning paralyze. IKEA people stay simple in st yle and habits as well as in their organizational approach. IKEA is run from a small village in the woods. IKEA asks shirt factories to make seat cushions and window factories to make table frames. IKEA discounts its umbrellas when it rains. IKEA does things differently. â€Å"We can never do everything everywhere, all at the same time. † At IKEA, you choose the most important thing to do and finish that before starting a new project. The fear of making mistakes is the root of bureaucracy. † Everyone has the right to make mistakes; in fact, everyone has an obligation to make mistakes. 6. Doing it a Different Way 7. Concentration—Important to Our Success 8. Taking Responsibility—A Privilege 9. Most Things Still Remain to be IKEA is only at the beginning of what it might become. 200 stores is Done. A Glorious Future! nothing. â€Å"We are still a small company at heart. † Source: Adapted by casewriters from IKEA’s â€Å"A Furniture Dealer†™s Testament†; Bertil Torekull, â€Å"Leading by Design: The IKEA Story† (New York: Harper Business, 1998, p. 12); and interviews. 11 906-414 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) Exhibit 4 a. Sales IKEA in Figures, 1993–1994 (fiscal year ending August 31, 1994) Country/region Germany Sweden Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland Belgium, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Norway North America (U. S. and Canada) Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia Australia SEK billion 10. 4 3. 9 7. 7 7. 3 4. 9 0. 5 0. 4 35. 0 Percentage 29. 70% 11. 20% 21. 90% 20. 80% 13. 90% 1. 50% 1. 00% b. PurchasingCountry/region Nordic Countries East and Central Europe Rest of Europe Rest of the World Percentage 33. 4% 14. 3% 29. 6% 22. 7% Source: IKEA Facts and Figures, 1994. Exhibit 5 The U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 32 1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development. . States Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social, and educational measures to ensure the implementation of the present article. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments, States Parties shall in particular: (a) (b) (c) Provide for a minimum age for admission to employment Provide for appropriate regulation of hours and conditions of employment Provide for appropriate or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of the present article.

Research Critique Essay

This paper will review a quantitative study comparing the outcomes of physicians that use sterile versus nonsterile gloves during simple soft tissue lacerations repairs in the Emergency Room. It will address the protection of human participants, their risks/benefits, and a review of the study’s data collection, data analysis, and problem statement along with an interpretation of its findings. Article The article is from 2004, and was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. It’s entitled â€Å"Sterile Versus Nonsterile Gloves for Repair of Uncomplicated Lacerations in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial†. Protection of Human Participants A random sampling of patients were taken from populations that presented to multi-center emergency rooms in the Toronto area, with simple soft tissue lacerations that required suture repair. Of the 1,100 people approached, 902 gave voluntary consent to participate in the study. Of those, 86 were excluded for a final total of 816. There were 245 patients who refused to participate, with 40% being children (the study enrolled any patient over the age of one). There was suggestion that the large amount of children who â€Å"refused† participation was related to â€Å"parental anxiety of entering their child into the study† (Perelman et al., 2004, p. 363). Specific physical, psychological, social or economic risks to patients were not addressed in this article, but a patient information sheet was given to participants before they signed the consent. The handout provided background information on wound management, infection, and the rationale for the study. There were no imm ediate or direct benefits for patients to be involved in this study. The protocol, patient consent form, and all other related information during  this trial were reviewed and approved by the ethic and review boards of all facilities involved. Data Collection Patients that arrived to one of three large community ER’s in the Toronto area, with a wound that was viewed to meet criteria, were provided written information on the rationale of the study and asked to participate. Inclusion criteria were addressed by a physician or resident that included assessing for complexity of laceration, location on the body, and if it had occurred within 3 hours from patient’s arrival. A signed a consent was obtained and data was collected through completion of a checklist noting the patient’s age, sex, site of laceration, type of injury, time of injury, time of injury from the time of repair, and technique of repair. The patient was given a self-addressed, pre-stamped envelope that was to be completed by the physician who took the sutures out. This physician filled out an explicit questionnaire using specific guidelines on wound assessment (pus, erythema, fever,) their clinical impressions (infection vs. no infection), and their management plan (topical/oral/IV antibiotic use, or need for referral to wound specialist). The follow up physician was unaware of which gloves were used in initial repair of the wound. The returned questionnaires where coded to collate with the initial assessment forms. There are several independent and dependent variables in this study. They include: not being able to run an equivalency trial related to the large sample size of the study, and the study was only partially blind (blind to the patients, not the physicians) because the sterile and nonsterile gloves are packaged differently. Also, the study could not 100% standardize the technique of wound repair by the physicians, although they did receive orientation on â€Å"ideal† wound repair techniques with irrigation, and a there was not a single follow up clinic site that could have provided more standardization in the evaluation of wound assessment during the follow up visit. No time period for data collection was specified in this article. Data Management and Analysis Statistical software was used in the analysis of data retrieved during this study. â€Å"Demographic and clinical data were presented descriptively as means, medians, or proportions with SDs where appropriate. The χ2 test was used to compare differences in infection rate between the 2 glove groups. A 2-tailed  P value less than .05 was considered significant† (Perelman et al., 2004, p. 364). There were 4 discrepancies noted in the data between the objective wound assessments and the follow up clinicians notions of the wound, with (2) being clarified by the researchers with the documenting physician, and the remaining 2 were placed in the â€Å"infected group†. Findings/Interpretation of Findings The researchers found that there is clear evidence to support that nonsterile gloves can be used in place of sterile gloves for simple laceration repairs in the Emergency Department, without an increase in wound infections. This writer believes that the findings are valid for several reasons. One, this study cites other previous studies that had similar outcomes in related topics such as: using tap water for cleaning/irrigating wounds, or the absence of gloves, caps or masks did not affect wound infection outcomes. Secondly, this has already become practice for many physicians in the United States. This is supported in the article by researchers when a preliminary survey of 18 ER physicians and 24 PCP showed 70% often used nonsterile technique in their repairs. Lastly, the study showed comparative infection rates of 6.1% for sterile glove use and 4.4% nonsterile glove use with a level of significance of 0.05. Limitations were defined above as variables. Implications for nursing are two-fold. One, nurses can help support this nonsterile technique and continue to ensure good wound cleansing and irrigation of wounds. Using this techniques can save hospitals up to $2000/year in ER’s that see an average of 10 suture repairs/day. Secondly, as previously mentioned, this study cites others that address wound care (ex: irrigating with tap water vs. sterile saline), so this research can be used in the future to study methods of successful wound management for nursing. Conclusion In conclusion, this was a successful study in showing that there was no increase in wound infections when nonsterile gloves are used while repairing simple lacerations in the Emergency Department. It is also showed that there can be economical savings for health care entities. References Grand Canyon University [GCU]. (2011). NRS433V.v10R research critique, part 2. Retrieved from: https://lc-ugrad1.gcu.edu Perelman, V. S., Francis, G. J., Rutledge, T., Foote, J., Martino, F., & Dranitsaris, G. (2004, March). Sterile versus nonsterile gloves for repair of uncomplicated lacerations in the Emergency Department: A randomized controlled trial. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 43, 362-370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annemerged.2003.09.008

Short on symbolism in Millers drama Death of a salesman

Short on symbolism in Millers drama Death of a salesman Many symbols are incorporated into the play 'Death of a Sales man' andthey in turn relate to both character and theme. The hose, tape recorderand the seeds are some of these symbols.The hose in Miller's drama directly relates to the theme of death.The hose is a line attached to the gas main in Willy's house which allowshim to snif f the gas. This action can be seen as Willy's suicide wish, andescape from the realities of life. As seen in the loss of his job and hisfailure to succeed. The hose also represents grief and deception. For whenLinda, Willy's wife, finds the hose, she is distraught over its in tendedpurpose. The deceptive nature of the hose is apparent when Willy isconfronted about it by Biff his son and Willy denies its existence. Asimilar denial is also evident when Willy is confronted with the taperecorder in Howard's office.Sony Tape RecorderThe tape recorder signifies the change in Willy's life throug h theadvancement of technology. It also represents the end of Willy's career.This is brought about when Howard, Willy's boss and godson, shows the taperecorder to Willy and appe ars to be more interested in the sound andtechnology of the machine instead of Willy, who i s fighting for his job.Howard no longer need s Willy's services and without concern fires him.This , to Willy, was like, 'eating the orange and throwing away the peel'.However, Willy is partly to blame, as he does not accept change and wantsto remain in the pas t. This is foreshadowed in the scene where Willy isleft alone with the tape recorder and is unable to shut it off. Willybelieves in using his old techniques...

Verb Tenses and Forms on ACT English Grammar Rule Strategy

Verb Tenses and Forms on ACT English Grammar Rule Strategy SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Knowing when to use different verb tenses and forms will be extremely beneficial to you on the ACT English section because these concepts are tested repeatedly on the ACT. Get excited for a fun-filled journey into the vivid, action-filled world of verbs. In this post, I’ll do the following: Define the verb tenses and forms that are tested on the ACT. Provide information about when to use different verb tenses. Detail how to construct verbs in different tenses. Explain and demonstrate how verbs are tested on the ACT. Provide practice questions to test you on what you’ve learned. Verb Tenses You Need To Know While you don’t need to know the names of verb tenses for ACT English, you do need to know when and how to properly use different verb tenses. Present Function The present tense is the verb tense you use when you're talking about things that are currently happening or things that are considered facts. Examples of verbs in the present tense are â€Å"jumps," â€Å"sings," and â€Å"explain.† Also, the present progressive is considered a form of the present tense. The present progressive is formed with the present tense of â€Å"to be† + the gerund (â€Å"ing†) form of the word. Examples include "am explaining," "is running," and "are laughing." Typically, words like â€Å"currently† or â€Å"now† indicate that you should use the present tense of a verb. Check out this example sentence: Currently, I am taking over the world. Construction Here is the conjugation of the verb "jump" in the present tense. Singular Plural I jump We jump You jump You jump He/She/It jumps They jump The present tense is not specifically tested on ACT English, but you do need to know how to properly conjugate verbs in the present tense for subject-verb agreement questions. Simple Past Function Generally, any sentence that describes a completed action should contain a verb in the past tense. Construction Typically the simple past tense of a verb is formed by adding â€Å"ed† to the verb. The past tense of â€Å"play† is â€Å"played.† The past tense of â€Å"listen† is â€Å"listened† and the past tense of â€Å"discuss† is â€Å"discussed.† Here's an example sentence with a verb in the simple past tense: Yesterday, George listened to Miley Cyrus songs for seven hours. Many verbs don't follow this construction and thepast tense is formed irregularly. For example, "buy" becomes "bought," "come" becomes "came," and "grow" becomes "grew." Present Perfect Function Use the present perfect tense for actions that began in the past but are still continuing in the present. Construction The present perfect is formed with has/have + the past participle. For regular verbs, the past participle is formed by adding "ed" to the verb. Examples of present perfect verbs include "has talked," "have done," and "has brought." Check out this example sentence: For the past seven hours, George has listened to Miley Cyrus songs. As shown in this example, the words â€Å"for† and â€Å"since† often indicate that the present perfect tense is needed. Be aware, however, thatthere are other instances when context determines that you should use the present perfect tense. Past Perfect Function When a sentence describes two completed actions, the past perfect is used for the action that came first. Construction The past perfect tense is formed with had + the past participle. Examples of past perfect verbs include "had talked," "had danced," and "had grown." Take a look at this sentence that shows the past perfect tense used correctly: By the time his mom came home from work, George had listened to Miley Cyrus songs for seven hours. The seven hours of listening werecompleted before George'smom came home, so we use the past perfect tense of the verb "to listen." The action that comes firstshould be in the past perfect tense. Now that we're familiar with these basic verb tenses, we have the necessary foundation to discuss exactly how verb tenses and forms are tested on the ACT. How Are Verb Tenses and Forms Tested on the ACT? Most of the verb questions on ACT English correspond with only a couple of rules. Proper verb tense or form is determined by the context clues given in the sentence and the surrounding sentences. Here are some of the specific ways in which verb forms are tested on the ACT. Consistency Most of the verb tense questions on the ACT English section have to do with consistency. The basic consistency rule regarding verbs is that verbs should remain consistent in tense or form throughout a sentence. Sentences that start in the past should stay in the past and sentences that start in the present should stay in the present. Here's an incorrect sentence that doesn't follow the consistency rule: Maria studies science and played lacrosse. The verb â€Å"studies† is in the present tense and â€Å"played† is in the past. The verb tenses should be consistent. This is the corrected version of the same sentence: Maria studies science and plays lacrosse. We could have corrected the sentence by changing "studies" to "studied". The important thing to remember is that the verb tenses should be consistent. Sometimes, however, you can have a shift in tense and the sentence can still be correct. This kind of construction is only possible if the verbs are in different clauses. Take a look at these examples: Justin bought a Honda and saves money on gas. Justin bought a Honda so that he can save money on gas. The first sentence is incorrect since "bought" and "saves" are in different tenses but the same clause. The second sentence, on the other hand, is correct. The tense shift takes place in a different clause and the two verbs are occurring at different times: Justin bought the car in the past, but he can save money on gas in the present. Justin rolls in style. On the ACT, the verb tenses of surrounding sentences can provide context clues for the proper tense to use in a given sentence to maintain consistency. Take a look at this example: Unsurprisingly, Suzanne likes frozen yogurt. It was delicious. The shift from the present tense, "likes," in the first sentence to the past tense, "was," in the second sentence doesn't make sense in context. The tenses should remain consistent. Here's the correct version of the sentences. Unsurprisingly, Suzanne likes frozen yogurt. It is delicious. Now, let's go over some tips for answering ACT questions that test verb tense consistency. Strategy Here's some strategic advice for you: if a verb is underlined and the answer choices are different tenses of the same verb, look at the surrounding sentences (a sentence or two before and after) for context clues about the proper tense to use. If there are multiple verbs in a sentence, identify the tenses to make sure they're consistent. If there's a shift from past to present or vice versa, determine if the variation is acceptable given the context of the sentence. Use these tips to answer the following example from a real ACT. Actual ACT Example Rely on your verb knowledge to figure out this actual ACT English question. Explanation: From the answer choices, we can tell that we're most likely dealing with a verb tense question because three of the four answer choices are in different verb tenses: "they were," "they would," and "they're." Whenever you have an underlined verb, check for possible verb tense errors. The verbs "continue" in the first sentence and "score" in the second are in the present tense. The shift to the past tense, "were," doesn't make sense given the context. Therefore, to maintain consistency, the verbs should be in the present tense. Immediately, we can get rid of answer choices A and B. Answer choice D is wrong because it unnecessarily adds the infinitive "to be."The correct answer is C. Here's another example of an actual ACT question that tests verb tense consistency. Actual ACT Example Go through the same process that we went through in the previous question to answer this ACT English question. Explanation: This is an obvious verb tense question. Only the verb is underlined and each answer choice is in a different tense. In the first sentence, the simple past tense verb â€Å"encountered† indicates that we’re referring to completed actions. However, the present perfect verb â€Å"have borrowed† can only be used for an action that is still happening. The context of the sentence implies that the sentence is referring to a completed action and the verb tenses in the two sentences should be consistent. Once you identify that this is a consistency question, you can immediately eliminate any answer choice that isn't in the simple past tense. After eliminating answer choices, we're left with J. Here's one final verb consistency example for you. Because tense consistency questions are the most common verb form questions, I want to make sure you fully understand them. Actual ACT Example Employ your verb expertise to figure out the correct answer to this real ACT question. Explanation: Once again, we're dealing with an obvious verb tense question. Only the verb "have" is underlined and the answer choices are all different verb tenses. The verbs â€Å"took† in â€Å"took part† and "conducted" are in the simple past tense. The first sentence is referring to completed actions that took place from 1942-1945. Based on context, we can imply that the verb â€Å"have† is referring to what happened before 1942. Therefore, we should use the past perfect tense because we are referring to the completed action that came first. Instead of â€Å"have been using,† the correct verb form is â€Å"had been using.†The answer is G. Even if you didn't recognize that you needed to use the past perfect tense, you could have recognized that you needed tochange "have" to the past tense due to verb consistency rules. Remember to keep verb tenses consistent. Would and Will Verb forms with "would" and "will" are less frequentlytested on the ACT English section, but they do occasionally appear. For the ACT, just keep in mind to use "would" in sentences with past tense verbs and "will" in sentences with present or future tense verbs. The construction of verbs with "would" and "will" are "would" + the verb, known as the conditional tense, or "will" + the verb, known as the future tense. Some examples include "would run," "would go," and "will talk." Use the conditional tense to describe things that could occur or things that haven't yet occurred from the perspective of the past. Use the future tense to describe things that have not yet occurred or could occur in the future. On the ACT, answer choices containing â€Å"will have† and â€Å"would have† are almost always incorrect because they tend to cause improper tense switches and make sentences unnecessarily wordy. The â€Å"would have† construction can only be used for something that could have happened, but didn’t. The â€Å"will have† construction describes an action in the future that will be finished before a second action. Check out this basic strategy for these questions. Strategy If â€Å"would have† or â€Å"will have† is underlined, assume it’s incorrect. These tenses can only be used in very specific situations. That's pretty much all you need to know. I'm not going into more depth because "would" and "will" questions very rarely appear and this is the only strategy you need to use on the ones I've seen. Most of them simply require you to pay attention to consistency rules. Here's one final type of verb form question that can appear on the ACT. It's the least common, but questions of this type have appeared on previous tests. Verbs That Don't Act Like Verbs Gerunds, infinitives, and participles are all verb forms that don't act like verbs. Gerunds and infinitives function like nouns. A gerund is formed by adding "ing" to the end of the verb and an infinitive is formed by adding "to" + the verb. A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective. Typically, participles end in "ing" or "ed," but there are irregularly formed participles. On the ACT, on rare occasions one of these types of words will be used in the place of a verb or vice versa. Strategy If a verb or one of these "verbs that don’t act like verbs† is underlined, make sure that it is being used properly. Each sentence must express a complete thought. Realistic ACT Example The extreme length of this article suggests that writing for an extended period of time. A. NO CHANGE B. the manner in which writing C. that I wrote D. which had written Explanation: The use of the gerund, â€Å"writing," makes the sentence an incomplete thought. The sentence needs to express a complete thought. Changing the gerund to a verb and putting in a subject (the person who did the action) corrects the sentence fragment without adding an additional clause. The answer is C. All of the other answer choices are sentence fragments. Here are some more general rules to keep in mind that will help you correctly answer all verb questions on the ACT. Remember these tips!! General Strategies for Verb Questions #1: If a Verb is Underlined and the Answer Choices are Different Tenses, Make Sure To Use the AppropriateForm of the Verb If the answer choices are different tenses of the same verb, thenyou're probably answering a question about verb forms. Make sure that the verb follows consistency rules and the tense is correct. If the answer choices are different conjugations of a verb in the present tense, you're most likely dealing with a subject-verb agreement question instead. #2: Look for Words/Phrases That Indicate Which Verb Tense Should Be Used Often, words or phrases elsewhere in the sentence or in surrounding sentences will let you know what tense to use. If a date in the past is referenced, you should probably use a form of the past tense. If the word â€Å"since† is written, there should probably be a present perfect verb. Context clues are placed around the verb to indicate the proper verb tense. Additional Practice 1. In the next five years, Jessica says that she will become a doctor and she would buy a house. A. NO CHANGE B. buy C. would have bought D. might buy 2. As the breakdancer effortlessly contorts his body, he was also smiling at the crowd of people watching. A. NO CHANGE B. has also smiled C. will also smile D. is also smiling 3. Last week, Olga participated in a charity event to raise money for autistic children. She was praised by the organizers of the event for her dedication to the cause. A. NO CHANGE B. has been praised C. will be praised D. praises 4. My brother claims that he will have become the president of the United States if he is able to raise enough money to run an effective campaign. A. NO CHANGE B. has become C. became D. will become Answers: 1. B, 2. D, 3. A, 4. D What's Next? Congratulations on taking the time to learn all about verb tense questions on the ACT English section. Check out this post for information on all the parts of speech you need to know for the ACT. For those of you who are debating between taking the new SAT and the ACT, read this article comparing the two tests. Before you take the ACT, make sure you know if you should send the four free ACT score reports. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this English lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Issues and Trends in World Politics - Redefining Security Essay

Issues and Trends in World Politics - Redefining Security - Essay Example In addition, legislators find it uncomplicated to agree on military answers to external legal issues than to agree on the utilization of different methods of persuasion that United States can employ. Moreover, this false picture makes countries to focus on military risks and to assume other different and probably extra perilous hazards than the military risks. Thus it lessens the general safety of the people. Also, the false picture created by explaining national security in military terms plays a role in the persistent militarization of global relationships. This enhances the world wide insecurity in the long term (Ullman, 1983, 129). First, Ulham highlights the trade off with liberty. During a disagreement there are two specified values, each significant to the development of human beings. At its plain state, this decision depicts itself as the extent to which countries may go so as to safeguard themselves against rivals that that they perceive as oppressive, toward embracing barri ers that are similar to totalitarian towards the United States citizens. It is an issue that is evident in the everyday existence, hauling and pulling between the constitution, intelligence agencies and the police. A second choice entails association with countries whose code of conduct is different from those of United States. It raises the question whether the United States administration should establish an association of significant military relationship with the Republic of South Africa, and face the danger of racial disagreements in the American cities, or the United States should continue treating the Republic of South Africa as a rival and probably establish national racial peace (Ullman, 1983, 131). This is a significant feature of a stable community. A third choice includes military against financial help to needy nations. This choice pose the question, should the policy of the United States aspire at assisting administrations in the third world against the military danger s they presume to be coming from the Soviet Union and its collaborators, or at assisting citizens from the developing countries have better self-sufficiency so as to probably create extra healthy communities with decreased birth rates, thus reducing the increasing pressure on worldwide resources? Lastly, numerous choices contrast domestic and global priorities. The foremost source of national securities in the near future will be struggle for resources and territory. According to Ullman, a large number of violent disagreements throughout history have been caused by the struggle for resources and territory. He asserts that the future will see an increase in conflicts because of territory. The preservation of the idea of national autonomy has made the invasion of nations noticeably defunct. Ullman argues that the struggle for resources will probably increase because of the high need for a number of significant products and supplies. Nevertheless, these future struggles are perceived t o incorporate territorial aspects, but these territories will either be sparsely occupied or be unpopulated. Most of these territories will entail numerous resources that may be exploited, for example, oil. Also, he argues that these conflicts over resources will frequently be in the form of military battles whose combat periods will be short, instead of those prolonged wars. These wars will also be between countries that are neighboring each other, for

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 42

Marketing - Essay Example A personal touch with the customer, understanding his need, proper courtesy and a genuine smile is all that he longs for. It has something more to do with Max Weber bureaucracy or organizational pyramid (2) where everyone points a finger to the other one. In last two decade, the entire marketing scenario has gone through a paradigm shift and excellent customer service appears to be the deciding factor in this changing order. First of all, it is the sense of belonging, the proud ownership of the employees that literally change the face of the organization. The training of the employees that makes them serve the customer in a better manner plays the pivotal role. He should learn to communicate effectively, put a genuine smile in his face and be willing to serve his customer in every conceivable way. The stuffs should also know how to outmaneuver the customer without compromising the It is observed that a typical grocery shop stores 30,000 products and the owner answers same no of quarries. In supermarket the product listing may cross well past six digit marks but the product information which needs to be volunteered is surprisingly absent. The profit surges upwards if some subtle changes can be taken care of. For instance, Wal-Mart has a concerted return policy and a podium in every store where anyone can put a question regarding any service (3).The resultant outcome is a satisfied customer who returns again and again – to contribute to the profit of the organization. There can be multi pronged way to provide better customer care in a supermarket. Firstly, the proper motivations of the employees that work wonder. â€Å"At IBM, every one sells† as Buck Rodgers had put it in his best seller ‘The IBM Way’ (4) which should be the anthem of every supermarkets which aspires to make it big. From the doorman to the casher, every one needs to work in unison, compromising over everything except company ethics and profitability. The