Monday, September 30, 2019

History of the Periodic Table Essay

Explain how scientific observations led to the development of, and changes to, the periodic table. -Dmitri Mendeleev- first periodic table, organized 63 known elements according to properties, organized into rows and columns and wrote name, mass, and chemical properties on each -Julius Lothar Meyer- independently worked in Germany, similar to Mendeleev -Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley- Worked with Ernest Rutherford, experimented with 38 metals, he found that the positive charge of each element’s nucleus increased by one from element to element as they were arranged in Mendeleev’s periodic table, lead to modern definition of atomic number (# of protons in atom’s nucleus) and the recognition the atomic number was basis for organization of periodic table. Describe the organization of the modern periodic table. Arranged from left to right in rows (periods) by increasing atomic number and top to bottom in columns (groups) based on similar chemical properties Lesson 03.02: Group Names and Properties Compare and contrast the properties of metals, metalloids, and nonmetals. -Metals- good conductors of heat and electricity and reflect light and heat, most luster (shine) and most are malleable (hammered or rolled into sheets) -Non-metals- poor conductors of heat and electricity, most are gas at room temperature, those that are solid are not malleable -Metalloids- a semiconductor (conduct electricity better than non-metals but not as good as metals), some characteristics of metals but more like nonmetals Identify groups and sections of the periodic table by group name and common properties. 3.02 notes Lesson 03.03: Periodic Trends Describe and explain the trends for effective nuclear charge, atomic radius, ionic radius, and ionization energy across a period and down a group. -Effective Nuclear Charge- the charge (from the nucleus) felt by the valence electrons after you have taken into account the number of shielding electrons that surround the nucleus. -Atomic radius- half the distance  between the centers of two atoms of that element that are bonded together -Ionization Energy- the energy required to remove one electron from an element, resulting in a positive ion. -Ionic radius- One-half the diameter of an ion. A positive ion is called a cation, and a negative ion is called an anion. Nonmetals usually become anions and metals usually become cations. Predict the properties of an element based on the known patterns of the periodic table. Use periodic table Describe and explain the periodic trends for electron affinity (honors). Electron affinity-The energy involved when a neutral atom gains an electron Becomes more negative (more energy is given off) for each element across a period from Group 1 to Group 17 because of an increase in effective nuclear charge. Becomes less negative (more positive) going down a group, because each electron is being added to a higher energy level farther from the nucleus. Explain the exceptions to the trend across a period for ionization energy (honors). Noble gases in Group 18 all have positive electron affinity values. The noble gases must be forced to gain an electron because they already have a full valence energy level. The alkaline earth metals in Group 2 and the nonmetals in Group 15 both have electron affinity values close to zero due to electron repulsion and effective nuclear charge. Nitrogen, in Group 15, does not form a stable -1 ion because when an additional electron is added to nitrogen’s valence energy level, it is added to a 2p orbital that already has one electron. The weak attraction between the added electron and nitrogen’s nucleus is why there is not much energy given off. Lesson 03.04: Valence Electrons and Bonding Define and compare ionic and covalent bonding. -Ionic Bond- A chemical bond that results from electrostatic attraction between positive and negative ions, electrons are given up by one atom and gained by another atom, and then those atoms are attracted to each other.  Between a metal and nonmetal. -Covalent bond- Electrons are shared between two atoms, neither atom completely gains or loses electrons. Between two nonmetals. Relate your knowledge of the periodic trends to the chemical bonding exhibited by various elements. Lesson 03.05: Ionic Bonding and Writing Formulas Determine an element’s ionic charge based on its location on the periodic table. Group 1- 1+ Group 2- 2+ Group 3- 3+ Group 4- 4+ Group 5- 3- Group 6- 2- Group 7- 1- Group 8- non-reactive noble gases Write the correct ionic formula when given two elements that bond ionically. Use question above and periodic table Lesson 03.06: Covalent Bonding and Lewis Structures Determine how many covalent bonds an atom needs in order to fill its valence shell, using the periodic table. Must get to 8 valance electrons. Ex. Group 17 needs one more valance electron; group 6 needs 2 more valance electrons Draw correct Lewis structures to model covalently bonded molecules when given the name or formula of the molecule. Describe your observations and conclusions from the virtual lab. Lesson 03.07: Intermolecular Forces Use VSEPR theory to predict the shape of a molecule based on its Lewis structure. The VSEPR theory is about geometry of compounds and electron location. Compare and contrast intermolecular forces (London dispersion, dipole-dipole, hydrogen bonding, and ion-dipole). London dispersion forces occur between all molecules and particles but are the only force of attraction between nonpolar molecules or noble gas atoms. These forces are the weakest of the intermolecular forces. The London dispersion forces are caused by the motion of electrons. Dipole-dipole forces are electrostatic interactions of permanent dipoles in polar molecules. The attractive forces that occur between the positive end of one polar molecule and the negative end of another polar molecule tend to align the molecules to increase the attraction. Hydrogen bonding is a particularly strong dipole-dipole interaction in which hydrogen is covalently bonded to a highly electronegative element, and attracted to the very electronegative element in another molecule. It occurs only in molecules containing N-H, O-H or F-H bonds. Ion-dipole forces are attractive forces that result from the electrostatic attraction between an ionic compound and a polar molecule. This interaction is most commonly found in solutions, especially in solutions of ionic compounds in polar solvents, such as water. Identify the intermolecular forces experienced by different compounds. Intramolecular Forces: The forces of attraction that occur between individual molecules. Lesson 03.08: Naming Compounds Correctly name covalent compounds, ionic compounds, and acids when given their formulas. A metal forms a positive ion (cation) and a nonmetal forms a negative ion (anion). The cation and anion combine to form an ionic compound, more specifically referred to as a binary ionic compound. Write the formulas for ionic compounds, covalent compounds, and acids from their names. Name hydrates or write the formula of a hydrate when given its name (honors). Same prefixes Lesson 03.09: Molar Mass of Compounds Calculate the molar mass of compounds from the formula. Determine empirical formulas from percent by mass or mass data. Empirical formula: The formula of a compound in which the subscripts represent the lowest whole-number ratio of the atoms. Determine the molecular formula from the empirical formula and molar mass of a substance. No clue Calculate the molar mass of a hydrate and determine the formula of a hydrate from experimental data (honors). H2O- 18.015 Determine the empirical formula of a compound from the mass of the products  produced in experimental reactions (honors).

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Stefan’s Diaries: Bloodlust Chapter 19

I ran past the shanties set up around the circus through the deep woods, following the tracks of the wagon until I lost the vehicles scent completely at the outskirts of the city proper. A drunk was leaning against a brick building, whistling tunelessly. In a blind rage, I roughly fell to my knees and grabbed him, biting into his neck and sucking his blood before he even had time to gasp. It tasted bitter, but I kept drinking, gulping it in until I could stand no more. Sitting back on my heels, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and looked around. Confusion and hatred coursed through my veins. Why couldnt I save Damon? Why had I just watched as Gallagher goaded the audience into placing even more bets, as the mountain lion pounced onto my brother? And why had Damon allowed himself to be captured and put me in this impossible position? I wished Id never insisted on turning him into a vampire in the first place. If he werent here and I were alone in the city, everything would be so much easier. Now I was trying to be a good brother, and a good vampire, and yet was failing at everything. I walked home, clomping up the steps to the house. I slammed the door, causing the hinges to rattle and one of the paintings in the parlor to fall on the floor with a clatter. Instantly, I saw Buxton glaring at me from the opposite side of the room, his eyes glittering in the darkness. â€Å"Is there some sort of problem youre having with the door?† he asked through clenched teeth. I tried to brush past him, but he blocked my path. â€Å"Excuse me,† I muttered, pushing him. â€Å"Excuse you,† Buxton said, crossing his arms over his chest. â€Å"Coming in as if you own the place. Stinking like humans. While Im not one to question Miss Lexi, I do think its time you show a little respect for her home, brother.† The wordbrotherawakened something within me. â€Å"Watch what you say,† I hissed, baring my teeth. But Buxton just chuckled. â€Å"Ill watch what I say when you watch how you act.† â€Å"Boys?† Lexi called from upstairs, her lilting voice a contrast to the tense scene. She glided down the stairs, her eyes softening with concern when they rested on me. â€Å"Is Damon ?† â€Å"Hes alive,† I muttered. â€Å"But I couldnt get to him.† Lexi perched on the edge of a rickety rocking chair, her eyes large and sympathetic. â€Å"Buxton, can you please get us some goats blood?† Buxtons eyes narrowed, but he shuffled out of the parlor and into the kitchen. In the living room, I could hear Hugo playing a lively French march on the piano. â€Å"Thanks,† I said, sinking into an overstuffed love seat. I didnt want goats blood. I wanted to gorge myself on gallons and gallons of human blood, drinking until I got sick and passed out in total oblivion. â€Å"Remember, hes strong,† Lexi said. â€Å"Im not worried about Buxton,† I said. â€Å"I meant your brother. If hes anything like you, hes strong.† I looked up at her. She came over and took my chin in her hand. â€Å"Thats what you have to believe. Its what I believe. The trouble with you is that you want everything done right away. Youre impatient.† I sighed. The last thing I needed was another lecture about how I had no sense of the way the real vampire world worked. Besides, I wasnt impatient. I was desperate. â€Å"You just need to think of another plan. One we can help with.† Lexi glanced over as Buxton entered, carrying a silver tray laden with two mugs. Buxton paused midstep. â€Å"Faut-il l'aider?† he asked in French. â€Å"Nous l'aiderons,† Lexi replied. Neither Lexi nor Buxton knew that Id learned French at my mothers knee; it was odd to listen to them speakabout whether to help me free Damon. I stared at my hands, which were still covered with crusted blood from my hunt earlier in the evening. Buxton banged the tray against the polished cherrywood table. â€Å"You will not put us in danger,† he growled, his fangs inches away from my neck. He shoved me with all his might against the wall, and the back of my head cracked against the fireplaces marble mantle. My Power took over, and I pushed his shoulders hard. But Buxton was older and stronger than I was, and he kept me pinned to the wall, his hands firmly against my chest. I could feel blood beginning to seep from my skull, where Id hit my head. â€Å"You selfish, ungrateful monster,† Buxton whispered, hatred dripping from his voice. â€Å"Ive seen vampires like you before. You think the world is yours for the taking. You dont care about others. You dont care who you kill. You give us a bad name.† I twisted and writhed, trying to escape his grip, when suddenly I felt the pressure release from my chest, followed by an enormous crash as Buxton fell to the floor. â€Å"Buxton,† Lexi lectured, staring at the prone body lying at her feet. â€Å"How many more centuries will it be before you learn how to treat a guest? And, Stefan, wont you agree with me that human blood simply doesnt agree with you? That behavior wasnt necessary.† Lexi shook her head like an annoyed schoolmarm. â€Å"Now, Ill drink my blood in peace. Be nice, boys,† she said as she glided out of the room, the mug of blood in her hands. How could she walk away so casually, knowing that my brother was out there imprisoned and tortured? I had come to depend on Lexi for many things, and support in finding and saving Damon was my only priority now. As if reading my mind, she paused at the archway to her quarters, glancing from one of us to the other. â€Å"If and when I say we help Damon, we will. Is that clear to both of you?† â€Å"Yes, Miss Lexi,† Buxton murmured as he slowly eased onto his knees then stood up. I nodded, barely containing my scowl.If? Buxton limped out of the room, but not before he threw one last glare in my direction. Suddenly the house felt too small, as though the walls, floors, and ceilings were pressing in at me from all sides. Letting out one last growl, I flew through the parlor, out the door, and back down to Lake Road.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The Da Vinci Code Chapter 4-6

CHAPTER 4 Captain Bezu Fache carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and preceded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters. Langdon followed the captain down the famous marble staircase into the sunken atrium beneath the glass pyramid. As they descended, they passed between two armed Judicial Police guards with machine guns. The message was clear: Nobody goes in or out tonight without the blessing of Captain Fache. Descending below ground level, Langdon fought a rising trepidation. Fache's presence was anything but welcoming, and the Louvre itself had an almost sepulchral aura at this hour. The staircase, like the aisle of a dark movie theater, was illuminated by subtle tread-lighting embedded in each step. Langdon could hear his own footsteps reverberating off the glass overhead. As he glanced up, he could see the faint illuminated wisps of mist from the fountains fading away outside the transparent roof. â€Å"Do you approve?† Fache asked, nodding upward with his broad chin. Langdon sighed, too tired to play games. â€Å"Yes, your pyramid is magnificent.† Fache grunted. â€Å"A scar on the face of Paris.† Strike one.Langdon sensed his host was a hard man to please. He wondered if Fache had any idea that this pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of exactly 666 panes of glass – a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan. Langdon decided not to bring it up. As they dropped farther into the subterranean foyer, the yawning space slowly emerged from the shadows. Built fifty-seven feet beneath ground level, the Louvre's newly constructed 70, 000-square-foot lobby spread out like an endless grotto. Constructed in warm ocher marble to be compatible with the honey-colored stone of the Louvre facade above, the subterranean hall was usually vibrant with sunlight and tourists. Tonight, however, the lobby was barren and dark, giving the entire space a cold and crypt-like atmosphere. â€Å"And the museum's regular security staff?† Langdon asked. â€Å"En quarantaine,†Fache replied, sounding as if Langdon were questioning the integrity of Fache's team. â€Å"Obviously, someone gained entry tonight who should not have. All Louvre night wardens are in the Sully Wing being questioned. My own agents have taken over museum security for the evening.† Langdon nodded, moving quickly to keep pace with Fache. â€Å"How well did you know Jacques Sauniere?† the captain asked. â€Å"Actually, not at all. We'd never met.† Fache looked surprised. â€Å"Your first meeting was to be tonight?† â€Å"Yes. We'd planned to meet at the American University reception following my lecture, but he never showed up.† Fache scribbled some notes in a little book. As they walked, Langdon caught a glimpse of the Louvre's lesser-known pyramid – La Pyramide Inversee – a huge inverted skylight that hung from the ceiling like a stalactite in an adjoining section of the entresol. Fache guided Langdon up a short set of stairs to the mouth of an arched tunnel, over which a sign read: DENON. The Denon Wing was the most famous of the Louvre's three main sections. â€Å"Who requested tonight's meeting?† Fache asked suddenly. â€Å"You or he?† The question seemed odd. â€Å"Mr. Sauniere did,† Langdon replied as they entered the tunnel. â€Å"His secretary contacted me a few weeks ago via e-mail. She said the curator had heard I would be lecturing in Paris this month and wanted to discuss something with me while I was here.† â€Å"Discuss what?† â€Å"I don't know. Art, I imagine. We share similar interests.† Fache looked skeptical. â€Å"You have no idea what your meeting was about?† Langdon did not. He'd been curious at the time but had not felt comfortable demanding specifics. The venerated Jacques Sauniere had a renowned penchant for privacy and granted very few meetings; Langdon was grateful simply for the opportunity to meet him. â€Å"Mr. Langdon, can you at least guess what our murder victim might have wanted to discuss with you on the night he was killed? It might be helpful.† The pointedness of the question made Langdon uncomfortable. â€Å"I really can't imagine. I didn't ask. I felt honored to have been contacted at all. I'm an admirer of Mr. Sauniere's work. I use his texts often in my classes.† Fache made note of that fact in his book. The two men were now halfway up the Denon Wing's entry tunnel, and Langdon could see the twin ascending escalators at the far end, both motionless. â€Å"So you shared interests with him?† Fache asked. â€Å"Yes. In fact, I've spent much of the last year writing the draft for a book that deals with Mr. Sauniere's primary area of expertise. I was looking forward to picking his brain.† Fache glanced up. â€Å"Pardon?† The idiom apparently didn't translate. â€Å"I was looking forward to learning his thoughts on the topic.† â€Å"I see. And what is the topic?† Langdon hesitated, uncertain exactly how to put it. â€Å"Essentially, the manuscript is about the iconography of goddess worship – the concept of female sanctity and the art and symbols associated with it.† Fache ran a meaty hand across his hair. â€Å"And Sauniere was knowledgeable about this?† â€Å"Nobody more so.† â€Å"I see.† Langdon sensed Fache did not see at all. Jacques Sauniere was considered the premiere goddess iconographer on earth. Not only did Sauniere have a personal passion for relics relating to fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the sacred feminine, but during his twenty-year tenure as curator, Sauniere had helped the Louvre amass the largest collection of goddess art on earth – labrys axes from the priestesses' oldest Greek shrine in Delphi, gold caducei wands, hundreds of Tjetankhs resembling small standing angels, sistrum rattles used in ancient Egypt to dispel evil spirits, and an astonishing array of statues depicting Horus being nursed by the goddess Isis. â€Å"Perhaps Jacques Sauniere knew of your manuscript?† Fache offered. â€Å"And he called the meeting to offer his help on your book.† Langdon shook his head. â€Å"Actually, nobody yet knows about my manuscript. It's still in draft form, and I haven't shown it to anyone except my editor.† Fache fell silent. Langdon did not add the reason he hadn't yet shown the manuscript to anyone else. The three- hundred-page draft – tentatively titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine – proposed some very unconventional interpretations of established religious iconography which would certainly be controversial. Now, as Langdon approached the stationary escalators, he paused, realizing Fache was no longer beside him. Turning, Langdon saw Fache standing several yards back at a service elevator. â€Å"We'll take the elevator,† Fache said as the lift doors opened. â€Å"As I'm sure you're aware, the gallery is quite a distance on foot.† Although Langdon knew the elevator would expedite the long, two-story climb to the Denon Wing, he remained motionless. â€Å"Is something wrong?† Fache was holding the door, looking impatient. Langdon exhaled, turning a longing glance back up the open-air escalator. Nothing's wrong at all, he lied to himself, trudging back toward the elevator. As a boy, Langdon had fallen down an abandoned well shaft and almost died treading water in the narrow space for hours before being rescued. Since then, he'd suffered a haunting phobia of enclosed spaces – elevators, subways, squash courts. The elevator is a perfectly safe machine, Langdon continually told himself, never believing it. It's a tiny metal box hanging in an enclosed shaft! Holding his breath, he stepped into the lift, feeling the familiar tingle of adrenaline as the doors slid shut. Two floors.Ten seconds. â€Å"You and Mr. Sauniere,† Fache said as the lift began to move,† you never spoke at all? Never corresponded? Never sent each other anything in the mail?† Another odd question. Langdon shook his head. â€Å"No. Never.† Fache cocked his head, as if making a mental note of that fact. Saying nothing, he stared dead ahead at the chrome doors. As they ascended, Langdon tried to focus on anything other than the four walls around him. In the reflection of the shiny elevator door, he saw the captain's tie clip – a silver crucifix with thirteen embedded pieces of black onyx. Langdon found it vaguely surprising. The symbol was known as a crux gemmata – a cross bearing thirteen gems – a Christian ideogram for Christ and His twelve apostles. Somehow Langdon had not expected the captain of the French police to broadcast his religion so openly. Then again, this was France; Christianity was not a religion here so much as a birthright. â€Å"It's a crux gemmata† Fache said suddenly. Startled, Langdon glanced up to find Fache's eyes on him in the reflection. The elevator jolted to a stop, and the doors opened. Langdon stepped quickly out into the hallway, eager for the wide-open space afforded by the famous high ceilings of the Louvre galleries. The world into which he stepped, however, was nothing like he expected. Surprised, Langdon stopped short. Fache glanced over. â€Å"I gather, Mr. Langdon, you have never seen the Louvre after hours?† I guess not, Langdon thought, trying to get his bearings. Usually impeccably illuminated, the Louvre galleries were startlingly dark tonight. Instead of the customary flat-white light flowing down from above, a muted red glow seemed to emanate upward from the baseboards – intermittent patches of red light spilling out onto the tile floors. As Langdon gazed down the murky corridor, he realized he should have anticipated this scene. Virtually all major galleries employed red service lighting at night – strategically placed, low-level, noninvasive lights that enabled staff members to navigate hallways and yet kept the paintings inrelative darkness to slow the fading effects of overexposure to light. Tonight, the museum possessed an almost oppressive quality. Long shadows encroached everywhere, and the usually soaring vaulted ceilings appeared as a low, black void. â€Å"This way,† Fache said, turning sharply right and setting out through a series of interconnected galleries. Langdon followed, his vision slowly adjusting to the dark. All around, large-format oils began to materialize like photos developing before him in an enormous darkroom†¦ their eyes following as he moved through the rooms. He could taste the familiar tang of museum air – an arid, deionized essence that carried a faint hint of carbon – the product of industrial, coal-filter dehumidifiers that ran around the clock to counteract the corrosive carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors. Mounted high on the walls, the visible security cameras sent a clear message to visitors: We see you.Do not touch anything. â€Å"Any of them real?† Langdon asked, motioning to the cameras. Fache shook his head. â€Å"Of course not.† Langdon was not surprised. Video surveillance in museums this size was cost-prohibitive and ineffective. With acres of galleries to watch over, the Louvre would require several hundred technicians simply to monitor the feeds. Most large museums now used† containment security.† Forget keeping thieves out.Keep them in.Containment was activated after hours, and if an intruder removed a piece of artwork, compartmentalized exits would seal around that gallery, and the thief would find himself behind bars even before the police arrived. The sound of voices echoed down the marble corridor up ahead. The noise seemed to be coming from a large recessed alcove that lay ahead on the right. A bright light spilled out into the hallway. â€Å"Office of the curator,† the captain said. As he and Fache drew nearer the alcove, Langdon peered down a short hallway, into Sauniere's luxurious study – warm wood, Old Master paintings, and an enormous antique desk on which stood a two-foot-tall model of a knight in full armor. A handful of police agents bustled about the room, talking on phones and taking notes. One of them was seated at Sauniere's desk, typing into a laptop. Apparently, the curator's private office had become DCPJ's makeshift command post for the evening. â€Å"Messieurs,† Fache called out, and the men turned. â€Å"Ne nous derangez pas sous aucun pretexte. Entendu?† Everyone inside the office nodded their understanding. Langdon had hung enough NE PAS DERANGER signs on hotel room doors to catch the gist of the captain's orders. Fache and Langdon were not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Leaving the small congregation of agents behind, Fache led Langdon farther down the darkened hallway. Thirty yards ahead loomed the gateway to the Louvre's most popular section – la Grande Galerie – a seemingly endless corridor that housed the Louvre's most valuable Italian masterpieces. Langdon had already discerned that this was where Sauniere's body lay; the Grand Gallery's famous parquet floor had been unmistakable in the Polaroid. As they approached, Langdon saw the entrance was blocked by an enormous steel grate that looked like something used by medieval castles to keep out marauding armies. â€Å"Containment security,†Fache said, as they neared the grate. Even in the darkness, the barricade looked like it could have restrained a tank. Arriving outside, Langdon peered through the bars into the dimly lit caverns of the Grand Gallery. â€Å"After you, Mr. Langdon,† Fache said. Langdon turned. After me, where?Fache motioned toward the floor at the base of the grate. Langdon looked down. In the darkness, he hadn't noticed. The barricade was raised about two feet, providing an awkward clearance underneath. â€Å"This area is still off limits to Louvre security,† Fache said. â€Å"My team from Police Technique etScientifique has just finished their investigation.† He motioned to the opening. â€Å"Please slide under.† Langdon stared at the narrow crawl space at his feet and then up at the massive iron grate. He's kidding, right? The barricade looked like a guillotine waiting to crush intruders. Fache grumbled something in French and checked his watch. Then he dropped to his knees and slithered his bulky frame underneath the grate. On the other side, he stood up and looked back through the bars at Langdon. Langdon sighed. Placing his palms flat on the polished parquet, he lay on his stomach and pulled himself forward. As he slid underneath, the nape of his Harris tweed snagged on the bottom of the grate, and he cracked the back of his head on the iron. Very suave, Robert, he thought, fumbling and then finally pulling himself through. As he stood up, Langdon was beginning to suspect it was going to be a very long night. CHAPTER 5 Murray Hill Place – the new Opus Dei World Headquarters and conference center – is located at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City. With a price tag of just over $47 million, the 133, 000- square-foot tower is clad in red brick and Indiana limestone. Designed by May & Pinska, the building contains over one hundred bedrooms, six dining rooms, libraries, living rooms, meeting rooms, and offices. The second, eighth, and sixteenth floors contain chapels, ornamented with mill- work and marble. The seventeenth floor is entirely residential. Men enter the building through the main doors on Lexington Avenue. Women enter through a side street and are ‘acoustically and visually separated' from the men at all times within the building. Earlier this evening, within the sanctuary of his penthouse apartment, Bishop Manuel Aringarosa had packed a small travel bag and dressed in a traditional black cassock. Normally, he would have wrapped a purple cincture around his waist, but tonight he would be traveling among the public, and he preferred not to draw attention to his high office. Only those with a keen eye would notice his 14-karat gold bishop's ring with purple amethyst, large diamonds, and hand-tooled mitre-crozier applique. Throwing the travel bag over his shoulder, he said a silent prayer and left his apartment, descending to the lobby where his driver was waiting to take him to the airport. Now, sitting aboard a commercial airliner bound for Rome, Aringarosa gazed out the window at the dark Atlantic. The sun had already set, but Aringarosa knew his own star was on the rise. Tonight the battle will be won, he thought, amazed that only months ago he had felt powerless against the hands that threatened to destroy his empire. As president-general of Opus Dei, Bishop Aringarosa had spent the last decade of his life spreading the message of â€Å"God's Work† – literally, Opus Dei.The congregation, founded in 1928 by the Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva, promoted a return to conservative Catholic values and encouraged its members to make sweeping sacrifices in their own lives in order to do the Work of God. Opus Dei's traditionalist philosophy initially had taken root in Spain before Franco's regime, but with the 1934 publication of Josemaria Escriva's spiritual book The Way – 999 points of meditation for doing God's Work in one's own life – Escriva's message exploded across the world. Now, with over four million copies of The Way in circulation in forty-two languages, Opus Dei was a global force. Its residence halls, teaching centers, and even universities could be found in almost every major metropolis on earth. Opus Dei was the fastest-growing and most financially secure Catholic organization in the world. Unfortunately, Aringarosa had learned, in an age of religious cynicism, cults, and televangelists, Opus Dei's escalating wealth and power was a magnet for suspicion. â€Å"Many call Opus Dei a brainwashing cult,† reporters often challenged. â€Å"Others call you an ultraconservative Christian secret society. Which are you?† â€Å"Opus Dei is neither,† the bishop would patiently reply. â€Å"We are a Catholic Church. We are a congregation of Catholics who have chosen as our priority to follow Catholic doctrine as rigorously as we can in our own daily lives.† â€Å"Does God's Work necessarily include vows of chastity, tithing, and atonement for sins through self-flagellation and the cilice?† â€Å"You are describing only a small portion of the Opus Dei population,† Aringarosa said. â€Å"There are many levels of involvement. Thousands of Opus Dei members are married, have families, and do God's Work in their own communities. Others choose lives of asceticism within our cloistered residence halls. These choices are personal, but everyone in Opus Dei shares the goal of bettering the world by doing the Work of God. Surely this is an admirable quest.† Reason seldom worked, though. The media always gravitated toward scandal, and Opus Dei, like most large organizations, had within its membership a few misguided souls who cast a shadow over the entire group. Two months ago, an Opus Dei group at a mid-western university had been caught drugging new recruits with mescaline in an effort to induce a euphoric state that neophytes would perceive as a religious experience. Another university student had used his barbed cilice belt more often than the recommended two hours a day and had given himself a near lethal infection. In Boston not long ago, a disillusioned young investment banker had signed over his entire life savings to Opus Dei before attempting suicide. Misguided sheep, Aringarosa thought, his heart going out to them. Of course the ultimate embarrassment had been the widely publicized trial of FBI spy Robert Hanssen, who, in addition to being a prominent member of Opus Dei, had turned out to be a sexual deviant, his trial uncovering evidence that he had rigged hidden video cameras in his own bedroom so his friends could watch him having sex with his wife. â€Å"Hardly the pastime of a devout Catholic,† the judge had noted. Sadly, all of these events had helped spawn the new watch group known as the Opus Dei Awareness Network (ODAN). The group's popular website – www odan.org – relayed frightening stories from former Opus Dei members who warned of the dangers of joining. The media was now referring to Opus Dei as† God's Mafia† and† the Cult of Christ.† We fear what we do not understand, Aringarosa thought, wondering if these critics had any idea how many lives Opus Dei had enriched. The group enjoyed the full endorsement and blessing of the Vatican. Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Pope himself. Recently, however, Opus Dei had found itself threatened by a force infinitely more powerful than the media†¦ an unexpected foe from which Aringarosa could not possibly hide. Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow. â€Å"They know not the war they have begun,† Aringarosa whispered to himself, staring out the plane's window at the darkness of the ocean below. For an instant, his eyes refocused, lingering on the reflection of his awkward face – dark and oblong, dominated by a flat, crooked nose that had been shattered by a fist in Spain when he was a young missionary. The physical flaw barely registered now. Aringarosa's was a world of the soul, not of the flesh. As the jet passed over the coast of Portugal, the cell phone in Aringarosa's cassock began vibrating in silent ring mode. Despite airline regulations prohibiting the use of cell phones during flights, Aringarosa knew this was a call he could not miss. Only one man possessed this number, the man who had mailed Aringarosa the phone. Excited, the bishop answered quietly. â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"Silas has located the keystone,† the caller said. â€Å"It is in Paris. Within the Church of Saint-Sulpice.† Bishop Aringarosa smiled. â€Å"Then we are close.† â€Å"We can obtain it immediately. But we need your influence.† â€Å"Of course. Tell me what to do.† When Aringarosa switched off the phone, his heart was pounding. He gazed once again into the void of night, feeling dwarfed by the events he had put into motion. Five hundred miles away, the albino named Silas stood over a small basin of water and dabbed the blood from his back, watching the patterns of red spinning in the water. Purge me with hyssop andI shall be clean, he prayed, quoting Psalms. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Silas was feeling an aroused anticipation that he had not felt since his previous life. It both surprised and electrified him. For the last decade, he had been following The Way, cleansing himself of sins†¦ rebuilding his life†¦ erasing the violence in his past. Tonight, however, it had all come rushing back. The hatred he had fought so hard to bury had been summoned. He had been startled how quickly his past had resurfaced. And with it, of course, had come his skills. Rusty but serviceable. Jesus' message is one of peace†¦of nonviolence†¦of love.This was the message Silas had been taught from the beginning, and the message he held in his heart. And yet this was the message the enemies of Christ now threatened to destroy. Those who threaten God with force will be met with force.Immovable and steadfast. For two millennia, Christian soldiers had defended their faith against those who tried to displace it. Tonight, Silas had been called to battle. Drying his wounds, he donned his ankle-length, hooded robe. It was plain, made of dark wool, accentuating the whiteness of his skin and hair. Tightening the rope-tie around his waist, he raised the hood over his head and allowed his red eyes to admire his reflection in the mirror. The wheels are in motion. CHAPTER 6 Having squeezed beneath the security gate, Robert Langdon now stood just inside the entrance to the Grand Gallery. He was staring into the mouth of a long, deep canyon. On either side of the gallery, stark walls rose thirty feet, evaporating into the darkness above. The reddish glow of the service lighting sifted upward, casting an unnatural smolder across a staggering collection of Da Vincis, Titians, and Caravaggios that hung suspended from ceiling cables. Still lifes, religious scenes, and landscapes accompanied portraits of nobility and politicians. Although the Grand Gallery housed the Louvre's most famous Italian art, many visitors felt the wing's most stunning offering was actually its famous parquet floor. Laid out in a dazzling geometric design of diagonal oak slats, the floor produced an ephemeral optical illusion – a multi- dimensional network that gave visitors the sense they were floating through the gallery on a surface that changed with every step. As Langdon's gaze began to trace the inlay, his eyes stopped short on an unexpected object lying on the floor just a few yards to his left, surrounded by police tape. He spun toward Fache. â€Å"Is that†¦ a Caravaggio on the floor?† Fache nodded without even looking. The painting, Langdon guessed, was worth upward of two million dollars, and yet it was lying on the floor like a discarded poster. â€Å"What the devil is it doing on the floor!† Fache glowered, clearly unmoved. â€Å"This is a crime scene, Mr. Langdon. We have touched nothing. That canvas was pulled from the wall by the curator. It was how he activated the security system.† Langdon looked back at the gate, trying to picture what had happened. â€Å"The curator was attacked in his office, fled into the Grand Gallery, and activated the security gate by pulling that painting from the wall. The gate fell immediately, sealing off all access. This is the only door in or out of this gallery.† Langdon felt confused. â€Å"So the curator actually captured his attacker inside the Grand Gallery?† Fache shook his head. â€Å"The security gate separated Sauniere from his attacker. The killer waslocked out there in the hallway and shot Sauniere through this gate.† Fache pointed toward anorange tag hanging from one of the bars on the gate under which they had just passed. â€Å"The PT Steam found flashback residue from a gun. He fired through the bars. Sauniere died in here alone.† Langdon pictured the photograph of Sauniere's body. They said he did that to himself.Langdon looked out at the enormous corridor before them. â€Å"So where is his body?† Fache straightened his cruciform tie clip and began to walk. â€Å"As you probably know, the Grand Gallery is quite long.† The exact length, if Langdon recalled correctly, was around fifteen hundred feet, the length of three Washington Monuments laid end to end. Equally breathtaking was the corridor's width, which easily could have accommodated a pair of side-by-side passenger trains. The center of the hallway was dotted by the occasional statue or colossal porcelain urn, which served as a tasteful divider and kept the flow of traffic moving down one wall and up the other. Fache was silent now, striding briskly up the right side of the corridor with his gaze dead ahead. Langdon felt almost disrespectful to be racing past so many masterpieces without pausing for so much as a glance. Not that I could see anything in this lighting, he thought. The muted crimson lighting unfortunately conjured memories of Langdon's last experience in noninvasive lighting in the Vatican Secret Archives. This was tonight's second unsettling parallel with his near-death in Rome. He flashed on Vittoria again. She had been absent from his dreams for months. Langdon could not believe Rome had been only a year ago; it felt like decades. Another life.His last correspondence from Vittoria had been in December – a postcard saying she was headed to the Java Sea to continue her research in entanglement physics†¦ something about using satellites to track manta ray migrations. Langdon had never harbored delusions that a woman like Vittoria Vetra could have been happy living with him on a college campus, but their encounter in Rome had unlocked in him a longing he never imagined he could feel. His lifelong affinity for bachelorhood and the simple freedoms it allowed had been shaken somehow†¦ replaced by an unexpected emptiness that seemed to have grown over the past year. They continued walking briskly, yet Langdon still saw no corpse. â€Å"Jacques Sauniere went this far?† â€Å"Mr. Sauniere suffered a bullet wound to his stomach. He died very slowly. Perhaps over fifteen or twenty minutes. He was obviously a man of great personal strength.† Langdon turned, appalled. â€Å"Security took fifteen minutes to get here?† â€Å"Of course not. Louvre security responded immediately to the alarm and found the Grand Gallery sealed. Through the gate, they could hear someone moving around at the far end of the corridor, but they could not see who it was. They shouted, but they got no answer. Assuming it could only be a criminal, they followed protocol and called in the Judicial Police. We took up positions within fifteen minutes. When we arrived, we raised the barricade enough to slip underneath, and I sent a dozen armed agents inside. They swept the length of the gallery to corner the intruder.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"They found no one inside. Except†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He pointed farther down the hall. â€Å"Him.† Langdon lifted his gaze and followed Fache's outstretched finger. At first he thought Fache was pointing to a large marble statue in the middle of the hallway. As they continued, though, Langdon began to see past the statue. Thirty yards down the hall, a single spotlight on a portable pole stand shone down on the floor, creating a stark island of white light in the dark crimson gallery. In the center of the light, like an insect under a microscope, the corpse of the curator lay naked on the parquet floor. â€Å"You saw the photograph,† Fache said,† so this should be of no surprise.† Langdon felt a deep chill as they approached the body. Before him was one of the strangest image she had ever seen. The pallid corpse of Jacques Sauniere lay on the parquet floor exactly as it appeared in the photograph. As Langdon stood over the body and squinted in the harsh light, he reminded himself to his amazement that Sauniere had spent his last minutes of life arranging his own body in this strange fashion. Sauniere looked remarkably fit for a man of his years†¦ and all of his musculature was in plain view. He had stripped off every shred of clothing, placed it neatly on the floor, and laid down on his back in the center of the wide corridor, perfectly aligned with the long axis of the room. His arms and legs were sprawled outward in a wide spread eagle, like those of a child making a snow angel†¦ or, perhaps more appropriately, like a man being drawn and quartered by some invisible force. Just below Sauniere's breastbone, a bloody smear marked the spot where the bullet had pierced his flesh. The wound had bled surprisingly little, leaving only a small pool of blackened blood. Sauniere's left index finger was also bloody, apparently having been dipped into the wound to create the most unsettling aspect of his own macabre deathbed; using his own blood as ink, and employing his own naked abdomen as a canvas, Sauniere had drawn a simple symbol on his flesh – five straight lines that intersected to form a five-pointed star. The pentacle. The bloody star, centered on Sauniere's navel, gave his corpse a distinctly ghoulish aura. The photo Langdon had seen was chilling enough, but now, witnessing the scene in person, Langdon felt a deepening uneasiness. He did this to himself. â€Å"Mr. Langdon?† Fache's dark eyes settled on him again. â€Å"It's a pentacle,† Langdon offered, his voice feeling hollow in the huge space. â€Å"One of the oldest symbols on earth. Used over four thousand years before Christ.† â€Å"And what does it mean?† Langdon always hesitated when he got this question. Telling someone what a symbol† meant† was like telling them how a song should make them feel – it was different for all people. A white Ku Klux Klan headpiece conjured images of hatred and racism in the United States, and yet the same costume carried a meaning of religious faith in Spain. â€Å"Symbols carry different meanings in different settings,† Langdon said. â€Å"Primarily, the pentacle is a pagan religious symbol.† Fache nodded. â€Å"Devil worship.† â€Å"No,† Langdon corrected, immediately realizing his choice of vocabulary should have been clearer. Nowadays, the term pagan had become almost synonymous with devil worship – a gross misconception. The word's roots actually reached back to the Latin paganus, meaning country-dwellers. â€Å"Pagans† were literally unindoctrinated country-folk who clung to the old, rural religions of Nature worship. In fact, so strong was the Church's fear of those who lived in the rural villes that the once innocuous word for† villager† – villain – came to mean a wicked soul. â€Å"The pentacle,† Langdon clarified,† is a pre-Christian symbol that relates to Nature worship. The ancients envisioned their world in two halves – masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and yang. When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced, there was chaos.† Langdon motioned to Sauniere's stomach. â€Å"This pentacle is representative of the female half of all things – a concept religious historians call the ‘sacred feminine' or the ‘divine goddess. ‘ Sauniere, of all people, would know this.† â€Å"Sauniere drew a goddess symbol on his stomach?† Langdon had to admit, it seemed odd. â€Å"In its most specific interpretation, the pentacle symbolizes Venus – the goddess of female sexual love and beauty.† Fache eyed the naked man, and grunted. â€Å"Early religion was based on the divine order of Nature. The goddess Venus and the planet Venus were one and the same. The goddess had a place in the nighttime sky and was known by many names – Venus, the Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarte – all of them powerful female concepts with ties to Nature and Mother Earth.† Fache looked more troubled now, as if he somehow preferred the idea of devil worship. Langdon decided not to share the pentacle's most astonishing property – the graphic origin of its ties to Venus. As a young astronomy student, Langdon had been stunned to learn the planet Venus traced a perfect pentacle across the ecliptic sky every four years. So astonished were the ancients to observe this phenomenon, that Venus and her pentacle became symbols of perfection, beauty, and the cyclic qualities of sexual love. As a tribute to the magic of Venus, the Greeks used her four-year cycle to organize their Olympiads. Nowadays, few people realized that the four-year schedule of modern Olympic Games still followed the cycles of Venus. Even fewer people knew that the five-pointed star had almost become the official Olympic seal but was modified at the last moment – its five points exchanged for five intersecting rings to better reflect the games' spirit of inclusion and harmony. â€Å"Mr. Langdon,† Fache said abruptly. â€Å"Obviously, the pentacle must also relate to the devil. Your American horror movies make that point clearly.† Langdon frowned. Thank you, Hollywood.The five-pointed star was now a virtual cliche in Satanic serial killer movies, usually scrawled on the wall of some Satanist's apartment along with other alleged demonic symbology. Langdon was always frustrated when he saw the symbol in this context; the pentacle's true origins were actually quite godly. â€Å"I assure you,† Langdon said,† despite what you see in the movies, the pentacle's demonic interpretation is historically inaccurate. The original feminine meaning is correct, but the symbolism of the pentacle has been distorted over the millennia. In this case, through bloodshed.† â€Å"I'm not sure I follow.† Langdon glanced at Fache's crucifix, uncertain how to phrase his next point. â€Å"The Church, sir. Symbols are very resilient, but the pentacle was altered by the early Roman Catholic Church. As part of the Vatican's campaign to eradicate pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil.† â€Å"Go on.† â€Å"This is very common in times of turmoil,† Langdon continued. â€Å"A newly emerging power will take over the existing symbols and degrade them over time in an attempt to erase their meaning. In the battle between the pagan symbols and Christian symbols, the pagans lost; Poseidon's trident became the devil's pitchfork, the wise crone's pointed hat became the symbol of a witch, and Venus's pentacle became a sign of the devil.† Langdon paused. â€Å"Unfortunately, the United States military has also perverted the pentacle; it's now our foremost symbol of war. We paint it on all our fighter jets and hang it on the shoulders of all our generals.† So much for the goddess of love and beauty. â€Å"Interesting.† Fache nodded toward the spread-eagle corpse. â€Å"And the positioning of the body? What do you make of that?† Langdon shrugged. â€Å"The position simply reinforces the reference to the pentacle and sacred feminine.† Fache's expression clouded. â€Å"I beg your pardon?† â€Å"Replication. Repeating a symbol is the simplest way to strengthen its meaning. Jacques Sauniere positioned himself in the shape of a five-pointed star.† If one pentacle is good, two is better. Fache's eyes followed the five points of Sauniere's arms, legs, and head as he again ran a hand across his slick hair. â€Å"Interesting analysis.† He paused. â€Å"And the nudity?† He grumbled as he spoke the word, sounding repulsed by the sight of an aging male body. â€Å"Why did he remove his clothing?† Damned good question, Langdon thought. He'd been wondering the same thing ever since he first saw the Polaroid. His best guess was that a naked human form was yet another endorsement of Venus – the goddess of human sexuality. Although modern culture had erased much of Venus's association with the male/female physical union, a sharp etymological eye could still spot a vestige of Venus's original meaning in the word† venereal.† Langdon decided not to go there. â€Å"Mr. Fache, I obviously can't tell you why Mr. Sauniere drew that symbol on himself or placed himself in this way, but I can tell you that a man like Jacques Sauniere would consider the pentacle a sign of the female deity. The correlation between this symbol and the sacred feminine is widely known by art historians and symbologists.† â€Å"Fine. And the use of his own blood as ink?† â€Å"Obviously he had nothing else to write with.† Fache was silent a moment. â€Å"Actually, I believe he used blood such that the police would follow certain forensic procedures.† â€Å"I'm sorry?† â€Å"Look at his left hand.† Langdon's eyes traced the length of the curator's pale arm to his left hand but saw nothing. Uncertain, he circled the corpse and crouched down, now noting with surprise that the curator was clutching a large, felt-tipped marker. â€Å"Sauniere was holding it when we found him,† Fache said, leaving Langdon and moving several yards to a portable table covered with investigation tools, cables, and assorted electronic gear. â€Å"As I told you,† he said, rummaging around the table,† we have touched nothing. Are you familiar with this kind of pen?† Langdon knelt down farther to see the pen's label. STYLO DE LUMIERE NOIRE. He glanced up in surprise. The black-light pen or watermark stylus was a specialized felt-tipped marker originally designed by museums, restorers, and forgery police to place invisible marks on items. The stylus wrote in a noncorrosive, alcohol-based fluorescent ink that was visible only under black light. Nowadays, museum maintenance staffs carried these markers on their daily rounds to place invisible† tick marks† on the frames of paintings that needed restoration. As Langdon stood up, Fache walked over to the spotlight and turned it off. The gallery plunged into sudden darkness. Momentarily blinded, Langdon felt a rising uncertainty. Fache's silhouette appeared, illuminated in bright purple. He approached carrying a portable light source, which shrouded him in a violet haze. â€Å"As you may know,† Fache said, his eyes luminescing in the violet glow,† police use black-light illumination to search crime scenes for blood and other forensic evidence. So you can imagine our surprise†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Abruptly, he pointed the light down at the corpse. Langdon looked down and jumped back in shock. His heart pounded as he took in the bizarre sight now glowing before him on the parquet floor. Scrawled in luminescent handwriting, the curator's final words glowed purple beside his corpse. As Langdon stared at the shimmering text, he felt the fog that had surrounded this entire night growing thicker. Langdon read the message again and looked up at Fache. â€Å"What the hell does this mean!† Fache's eyes shone white. â€Å"That, monsieur, is precisely the question you are here to answer.† Not far away, inside Sauniere's office, Lieutenant Collet had returned to the Louvre and was huddled over an audio console set up on the curator's enormous desk. With the exception of the eerie, robot-like doll of a medieval knight that seemed to be staring at him from the corner of Sauniere's desk, Collet was comfortable. He adjusted his AKG headphones and checked the input levels on the hard-disk recording system. All systems were go. The microphones were functioning flawlessly, and the audio feed was crystal clear. Le moment de verite, he mused. Smiling, he closed his eyes and settled in to enjoy the rest of the conversation now being taped inside the Grand Gallery.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Killing Us Softly 4 - movie review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Killing Us Softly 4 - movie review - Essay Example According to Hook, black women positively responded to Sapphire film which negated black female representation by showing how frustrated and violent black women are as well as terming black women as bitches? Interestingly, the black females instead responded to the movie by saying that it exactly portrayed what their characters and behavior are (Hooks 120-121) Women tend to copy perfection shown on the advertisements yet these flawless are not real and cannot be achieved by the advertisers themselves. Advantages portray models as people with slim perfect look hence making the audience to try to lose weight and gain smooth skin just like the image seen in the advertisement. It is interesting to note that failure for the audience to achieve or resemble the image of the celebrity is treated as let down (Kilbourne Film). The message Kilbourne communicates is that no matter how much we try to idolize other people, we can never be perfect at all. Women should just accept their normal looks without imitating others. Advertisement and the media do not show us reality and this is even evident when the celebrities portrayed as beautiful also dispute the media imaging. There is no photograph of a woman that is not photo shopped and beauty is depicted by a white ideal that includes light skin and straight hair (Kilbourne Film). Advertisements normally dismember women bodies by focusing only one part of the body such as breast, unlike men whose bodies are not scrutinized and criticized.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Porter Novelli or Southern Company Case Study Term Paper

Porter Novelli or Southern Company Case Study - Term Paper Example Southern Company aptly exemplifies the manner in which organizations triumph by adopting proper performance management strategy. Proper performance management strategy in turn is successful to the extent that its exercise will be centered on the welfare of the personnel. 1. Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Roles That the Strategic Leaders Played In the Formation of the Performance Management Strategy Goldsmith and Carter (2010) point out that strategic leaders for Southern Company have played effective roles in the formation of the performance management strategy, based on several yardsticks. One of the ways in which this success is visible is the manner in which the Southern Company has hired employees at the entry level and continued to promote individual employees internally, thereby helping these employees occupy leadership positions that are available within the organization. This is directly connected to the observation of proper management strategy since the intra-organizat ional promotion of individuals to higher offices is usually a culmination of employees' culture of meeting performance target. Similarly, the same is a culmination of proper setting of feasible yet dynamic performance targets, supervision and bridging of performance gaps. The same also demands the exaction of workshop drives, training programs, and mentorship programs. The setting of performance target, supervision, the bridging of performance gaps and the extension of rewards to outstanding performers [by giving promotions] are all very important facets of performance management strategy. According to Fegley and Society for Human Resource Management (2007), another indicator of the effectiveness with which strategic leaders have contributed towards the formation of its performance management strategy is the low turnover rate that the company has had. This characteristically low turnover rate has enabled the Southern company to possess older, more seasoned and more tenured personnel . It is against this backdrop that over the years, Southern Company has been able to nurture a group of leaders that are in possession of a profound depth of business knowledge and who are strongly aligned with Southern Company's organizational culture. The maintenance of a low turnover is in turn a complex result of performance management strategy. This is because performance management strategy involves proper determination of performance goals, correctional measures to seal performance gaps and the extension of incentives. All these factors are important in extirpating high turnover. The drawing up of proper performance goals ensures employees are provided with the right of amount of work [and therefore reducing the risks of overworking or underperformance] while the sealing of performance gaps have to be humane enough to inculcate both a sense of belonging and challenge. The extension of incentives such as promotions, higher emoluments, grants and acts of acknowledgement directl y dissuade employees from seeking greener pastures, and thereby abating high turnover. Another way in which Strategic leaders for Southern Company h

Homelessness Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homelessness - Assignment Example Progressive social change focuses on empowering the weak and defending them from exploitation by the strong community members. It also entails acquiring resources to eradicate human suffering and promotion of social equity and justice. These objectives are achieved through community progressive organizing that is dedicated to continual social change such as health care reforms, increased access to democratic processes and green alternatives to curb pollution. The primary focus of progressive organizing is effecting social change and thus makes the world a better place. Progressive organizing views equity within the community as natural and necessary (Browne, Bassuk & Dawson, 2007). It advocates for informal approaches to power sharing, so that all member interests are represented and power is shared equally especially when making decisions that address social problems. Therefore, progress organizing aims at continually improving the societies and empowering the weak so as to achieve social justice and equity and eliminate social problems. An organizer must have strong event organization and strong interpersonal skills. Social skills are necessary to facilitate interactions with community members in trying to understand their problems and devising ways to address them. In addition, interpersonal skills enable him to approach different people he might to bring social change through funding, policy formation and social education and training among others. Organization skills are a strength that enables him to organize social events aimed at obtaining funding, educating the community on social change and convince policy formulators to support social changing policies. Another strength is tenacity to assist him try new ways of effecting social change when faced with multiple challenges. Homelessness refers to a condition where people lack regular dwelling places. Homeless people are unable to get and maintain safe, secure and

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Business Plan on topic Launch Party TV Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business Plan on topic Launch Party TV - Essay Example The basic and primary business model of this web based TV channel is likely to remain the same. The company will generate its core revenue from subscriptions received. These subscribers will include both individuals and TV networks all around the world. The characteristic that will make the launch party TV channel a unique experience for the users and is likely to be a breath of fresh air in the market, is its exclusivity in providing behind the scenes footage of TV shows and movies. These behind the show footage will mainly include ‘bloopers’ a colloquial term for the mistakes made by the stars of the show during the shooting of the program and interviews with the stars, directors, producers and other related staffs. In addition, the contents of the TV channel will also cover the buildup events and the entire procedure through which a film or TV show is likely to go through before it is finally presented to the audience. The content of the channel will be spread from mo vies to TV channels, music and reality shows, sports, news and other high profile events. The main concept behind the TV channel is to make the viewers acquaint with the stars of the shows and what their true aura is behind the camera. ... ver, the survey also showed that people are more curious in obtaining more and more knowledge about these behind the scene footages, director’s cut and exclusive interviews with the celebrities. Based on this entire concept, the ‘Launch Party TV’ is based which will strive to eliminate the gap between the stars and the viewers and provide a unique experience to its viewers by acquainting them with the entire process of showbiz production. Although due to the uniqueness of the content of the channel, the TV channel is likely to have a target audience of vast demography, but the main chunk is likely to fall between the age group of 18-30 years. Teenagers are more curious about the pre-production process and are inquisitive about knowing how their ‘super and action’ heroes go by in their daily life and how they cope with the challenges and process of production. The main marketing event of the Launch Party TV Channel would be the launching party which wi ll be held in the headquarters of the company. The event will showcase the basic theme of the company and portray its entertainment philosophy. In order to grab the attention of the print and electronic media, a press conference will also be conducted before the start of the main ceremony in which all the major newspapers, tabloids and TV channel will be invited. This will give Launch Party TV a presence in the press and will likely to create awareness among the masses within a short period of time. The main event of the launch party will include performances by some of the current famous rock and alternate music band which will likely to drag teenage audience. In addition, it is also being planned to set up a stand up comedic act in order to lighten the mood and create more amicable environment. The rest of the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - Essay Example empts by researchers have also discovered his classy practices of literary work of genius and the extraordinary kinships which are there between Dantes Inferno and Invisible Man, and the two literary creations resonate with each other meaningfully. In the Prologue to Invisible Man, Ellisons protagonist comments that in jazz music he not only entered the music but descended, like Dante, into its depths. The contents of the book can be perceived as the creation of an intricate interaction of values, a journey mentioned by Dante into a nether biosphere and also a jazz concert. Inferno acts for the author as a legendary archetype for Invisible Man relating to its configuration and vision. Ellison may not be a religious man in the strict sense of the term, but he deeply cherishes the positive values of human life. Though he is not a fundamentally religious author, he is intensely impacted by Dante. The general arrangement of Ellisons novel is to detail a number of occurrences which are co mplexly circular in their perspectives. The chapters of human history contain abundant violent incidents related to whites and blacks. When the people of a particular race are discriminated from all ends, they develop acrimonious tendencies. Suitable avenues need to be generated for their ‘reformation’ and ‘rehabilitation’ and for their proper assimilation into the society. This is a tough assignment. The latent grudge of the blacks against the white race for the cruelties inflicted on them, which continued for centuries, has created psychological barriers that are difficult to break. Ralph Ellison in The Invisible Man explains the knotty race relations and its dynamics in the day to day living of the blacks vs. whites. The immediate issue with the protagonist is that he has to give a speech and the audience is the leading white citizens of the town. The â€Å"the battle royal† is an example given by the narrator to explain how such acts are meant to hurt the dignity of

Monday, September 23, 2019

Project Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project - Coursework Example This organization was founded back in 1902 and together with its subsidiaries; it engages is production, marketing and distribution of non-alcoholic beverages, most of which belong to the Coca Cola Company. The CCBCC trades in sparkling beverages like energy drinks, and still beverages such as bottled mineral water, tea, ready to drink coffee, juices, enhanced water as well as sports drinks. The beverage agreement under which it operates is the cola agreement and the allied beverage agreement that allows the company to produce distribute and market the sparkling beverage products of the COCA COLA Company in specified regions. This company sells and distributes its products directly to retail stores and other outlets. Food markets, institutional accounts, and vending machine outlet are some of the outlets served by this company. The bottling rights used by this company were issued to it directly by the Coca Cola Company to bottle in the area covering North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. It also covers some parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia. This company has fulltime employees that amount to 5,000 and part time employees amounting to 1,500. The total number of employees in this company is about 6,500. The top leardership of the company is composed of the Board of Directors whose members are together with; J. Frank Harrison (Chairman of the Board and the Chief Executive officer), Henry W. Slint (President, COO, Secretary and Director), William H Jones (Independent Director) , Morgan Harrison Everett (Director and Director Community Relations), and James H. Morgan (Independent Director) (Nasdaq, 2014). The Coca Cola Bottlers Consolidated operates under the consumable goods industry under the soft drink sector. This industry is filled with several competitors; some produce consumables that are not actually soft drinks; hence are in different sectors but within the same industry. At the

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Health Promotion Study Guide Essay Example for Free

Health Promotion Study Guide Essay Illness is an event that manifests itself through observable/felt changes in the body. Illness is the state in which the physical, emotional, social, intellectual or spiritual functioning is diminished or impaired compared with previous experience. It is NOT synonymous with disease and may or may not be related to disease. Illness is highly subjective. Wellness is the state of being healthy in both body and mind as the result of deliberate effort. Wellness is the state of well-being. It is an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases. Anspaugh et al propose 7 components of wellness: 1) Physical 2) Social 3) Emotional 4) Intellectual 5) Spiritual 6) Occupational and 7) Environmental. Well-being/Wellness is a subjective perception of vitality and feeling well which can be described objectively, experienced, and measured and can be plotted on a continuum. Dunn’s concept of high level wellness theorizes that wellness is the degree of illness/health modified by the environment. It says that it is an integrated method of functioning that is oriented towards maximizing the potential of which the person is capable. It requires that the individual maintain a continuum of balance and purposeful direction within the environment where he is functioning. The patient’s perception of health, wellness and illness must be considered by the nurse in order to provide individualized, quality care. Lifestyle factors that influence health: (PP Health Promotion and Disease Prevention) Internal and external factors influence health status. Internal factors include Age, Genetics, Physiologic, Lifestyle, Health habits (smoking, drugs, alcohol, eating habits, exercise and stress). External factors include: Environment (radiation, air pollution, H20 and sun exposure), Safety (seatbelts, riding on motorcycle), and Standard of living (less educated the poorer the health). How to take a patient’s temperature using different routes: (Lab Kozier PP. 532-537) There are a number of body sites for measuring body temperature. The most common are oral, rectal, axillary, tympanic and temporal artery. Normal adult temperature is 37 degree C and 98. 6 degree F. In older adults ( gt; 70), temp is usually 36 degrees C or 96. 8 degrees F. Newborns- 1 yr old are usually 98. 2 degree F and 36. 8 degree C. Oral: Most common route. Place thermometer underneath the tongue on either side of the frenulum. Do NOT take in someone with mouth lesions or if patient has had oral surgery. Be sure to ask if patient has had anything cold/hot to drink in last 30 minutes. Rectal: Most accurate route. Place Pt. in lateral or Sim’s position. Apply gloves and instruct patient to take a slow deep breath during insertion. Insert 1. 5 inches in adults. Do NOT take in Pt that has had rectal surgery, has lower GI problems, is immuno-suppressed, has a clotting disorder or Pt that has hemorrhoids. In some agencies taking rectal temps is contraindicated in patients who have had an MI. It is believed that this can stimulate the Vagus nerve which can cause myocardial damage. Tympanic: Temps measured in this site are usually 1. 1-1. 5 degrees higher than oral. These are non invasive and quick. To measure temp, pull pinna slightly upward and back( adults) and point the probe slightly anteriorly, toward eardrum. Insert the probe slowly using a circular motion until snug. Axillary: The least accurate route but safest route. Dry arm pit if moist. Place thermometer bulb in center of axilla. In order to obtain a more accurate reading it must be left in place for a long time. Temporal Artery: Safe, noninvasive and very fast. Equipment slightly more expensive, as it is a scanning infrared thermometer. The probe is placed in the middle of the forehead then drawn laterally to the hairline. If Pt has perspiration on forehead the probe is also touched behind earlobe. Levels of preventive health care: Three levels of preventative care are: Primary focuses on health promotion and protection against specific health problems or health risks. Primary prevention precedes disease or dysfunction and is applied to generally healthy individuals or groups. Examples include: Immunizations; risk assessments for specific disease i. e. iabetes; health education about injury and poisoning prevention. Secondary- focuses on early identification of health problems and prompt intervention to alleviate health problems. Goal is to identify people in early stages of disease process and to limit future disability. It is curative in nature. It emphasizes health maintenance for people with health problems (i. e. someone with diabetes who has it under control). This level includes prevention of complications and disabilities. Examples include: Encouraging regular medical/ dental checkups; Teaching self exam of breast; screening surveys hypertension). Tertiary- focuses on restoration and rehabilitation with the goal of returning the person to optimal level of functioning, within the constraints of the disability. This level of prevention occurs after an illness, when a defect is stabilized or fixed and determined to be irreversible. Examples include: caring for someone with a chronic disease; referring patient with colostomy to support group; teaching patient with diabetes to identify and prevent complications ( heart disease); referring patient with spinal cord injury to a rehab to receive training to maximize his remaining abilities. Understand who the older adult is and physiological/psychological changes: Successful psychological aging is reflected in the older person’s ability to adapt to physical, social, and emotional losses and to achieve contentment, serenity, and life considerations. The older adult continues to learn and problems solve and intelligence and personality remain as they have always been. A person’s social ability does not change during the course of their life: if you were a young extrovert/introvert you will be an old extrovert/introvert. Wisdom increases as we age. As a person becomes older they go through physiological and psychosocial changes. Some physical changes are visible and some are not. In general lean body mass decreases, fat tissue increases, and bone mass decreases. Intracellular fluid decreases which can cause dehydration. Skin becomes drier and less elastic and they become more susceptible to skin tears. Bony prominences may become visible. There is a loss of overall stature and osteoporosis can occur in people who have insufficient intake of calcium and in women who have been through menopause. There is a steady decrease in muscle fibers. Reaction time slows. There is loss of visual acuity and progressive loss of hearing and reduced elasticity and increased rigidity of arteries and an increase in blood pressure. Orthostatic hypotension is common. GI changes include increase in indigestion and constipation. There is increase in frequency and urgency of urination and incontinence in many older adults. Decreased immune response and lowered resistance to infection is normal. Many older people have decreased thyroid function and increased insulin resistance. Respiratory efficiency is reduced with age. Older adults may experience many health problems including physical injuries and chronic disabling disease, and dementia. Psychologically people have much to adapt to as they become older. Some of these things are 1) Retirement – this is often a difficult time of adjustment for people. Many have a sense of self worth from working and lose a sense of identity when they stop working. Income decreases sometimes by 35% during this time. 2) Economic Change- Decrease in finances related to retirement and lack of pension plans/savings. Health care costs skyrocket because of increase in illnesses. This decrease in monetary resources can cause older people to become less independent. This causes them to lose self esteem and become depressed. 3) Grand-parenting: At this time in life older people become grandparents and are able to provide support to younger family members in a number of ways. 4) Relocating- many people move closer to their children for general support and supervision. This is a very big stressor. Older adults can either live with their children; live in assisted living, live at home with adult day care, live in a long term care facility or in private group homes. ) Maintaining Independence and Self Esteem- This is a big one. Elders thrive on independence and it is important for them to be able to maintain their self esteem. The more they can do for themselves the better. 5) Facing Death and Grieving as people age the chance of their spouse dying increases. Friends and family members die and this is a period of adjustment and grieving. The older person has feeli ngs of loss, emptiness and loneliness during this time. According to Erickson the developmental task at this time is ego vs. despair. People who attain ego integrity view life with a sense of wholeness and derive satisfaction from past accomplishments. This is the time of life where many older people start focusing on their faith and spirituality. Most people start an internal life review and seriously start thinking about their own imminent death. Caregiver Role Strain†¦what is it? What nursing interventions would the nurse provide? (P. 137) Caregiver role strain is when they have physical, emotional, social, and financial burdens that can seriously jeopardize their own health and well-being. Nursing intervention would be to encourage caregivers to express their feelings and at the same time convey understanding about the difficulties associated with caregiving and acknowledge the caregivers competence. Through conversation with the caregiver assess areas where assistance may be desired or need. Identify possible source of help. Like volunteer (family, neighbor, friends, church, caregiver support groups) or agency sources (home health aide, meals on wheels, day care, transportation, and counseling and social services. Remind the caregiver of the importance of caring for themselves. Know about these nursing diagnoses: Coping Ineffective, Fear, Anxiety (PP. 1069-1070) NANDA diagnostic labels related to stress, adaptation, and coping: Anxiety: Vague, uneasy feeling of discomfort or dread accompanied by an automatic response (the source often nonspecific or unknown to the individual); a feeling of apprehension caused by the anticipation of danger. It is an alerting signal that warns of impending danger and enables the individual to take measures to deal with a threat. Fear: response to perceived threat is consciously recognized as a danger. Ineffective Coping: Inability to from a valid appraisal of the stressors, inadequate choices of practiced responses, and/or inability to use resources. Terms associated with assessment of pulse (CHP 29, PP. 538-540) Assessment of pulse: Terms Locations: Temporal, carotid, apical, brachial, radial, femoral, popliteal, posterior tibial, pedal (dorsalis pedis) Pulse: wave of blood created by contraction of the left ventricle of the heart. Cardiac output: volume of blood pumped into the arteries by the heart and equals Stroke Volume (SV) X Heart Rate (HR) per minute. Compliance: ability of the arteries to expand Peripheral pulse: pulse located away from the heart Apical Pulse: central pulse; apex of the heart (PMI) point of maximal impulse Palpation: feeling Auscultation: hearing DUS: Doppler ultrasound stethoscope Tachycardia: excessively fast heart rate ( over 100 BPM in an adult). Bradychardia: A heart rate less than 60 BPM in an adult. Pulse rhythm: pattern of the beats and the intervals between beats. Dysrhythmia/arrythmia: irregular rhythm. Pulse volume: pulse strength or amplitude, refers to the force of the blood with each beat. Elasticity of the arterial wall: reflects its expansibility or its deformities. Perfusion: blood flow to a particular area of the body Understand different tools for therapeutic communication: (P. 469-470 box 26-2) Broad opening statement General leads Reflecting/paraphrasing Sharing observations Acknowledging feelings Silence Giving information Clarifying Implied verbal communication Summarizing Focusing (from power point #18 in communication) further information can be found on pg. 469 and 470 box 26-2 Different domains of learning: cognitive, affective, psychomotor: (P. 89) Cognitive domain the â€Å"thinking† domain, includes six intellectual abilities and thinking processes beginning with knowing, comprehending, and applying to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Affective domain the â€Å"feeling† domain is divided into categories that specify the degree of a â€Å"person’s depth of emotional response to tasks†. Psychomotor domain the â€Å"skil l† domain, includes motor skills such as giving an injection. Know normal vital signs for the adult and older adult. Average range for adults: (P. 529) 96. 8-100. 4. Older adults (gt;75) are at risk for hypothermia ( temperatures

Saturday, September 21, 2019

What Is Sugar Sweetened Beverages Health And Social Care Essay

What Is Sugar Sweetened Beverages Health And Social Care Essay Sugar sweetened beverage means any nonalcoholic beverage Carbonated or noncarbonated, which is intended for human consumption and contains any added caloric sweetener. [1] In addition, it contains more than 10 calories per 8 ounce. These beverages include: sweetened water, non diet soda, fruit or vegetable drinks containing less than 70 % natural fruit or vegetable juice, sports drinks, energy drinks and sweetened bottled coffee or tea. Sugar sweetened beverages provide little or no nutritional value, but contain huge amount of sugar. [2] Ø ªÃƒËœÃ‚ ¹ÃƒËœÃ‚ ¯Ãƒâ„¢Ã…  Ãƒâ„¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾.. One 12-ounce can of sugar-sweetened soda contains 150 calories and 40 to 50 grams of sugar. If these calories are added to a typical US diet with no offsetting reduction in other caloric sources, one can of soda per day can lead to a 15-pound weight gain in a year. A better mechanism for weight gain could not have been developed than introducing a liquid carbohydrate with calories that are not fully compensated for by increasing satiety. Liquid calories are a relatively new addition to the human diet-perhaps the human satiety circuit has not yet adapted to register these calories for what they are. Dr. Caroline Apovian, Sugar-Sweetened Soft Drinks, Obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes, American Medical Association,2004; Emerging_ evidence_ also_ suggests_ that_ higher_ consumption_of_ sugar_sweetened_ soft_ drinks_ may_ raise_ the_risk_of_developing_type_2_diabetes_and_the_metabolic_syndrome._Soft_drinks_contain_large_amounts_ of_ simple_ sugars,_ which_ can_ induce_ higher_ glycemic_ and_ insulinemic_ responses._ Soft_ drinks_ are_ an_ important_source_of_glycemic_load_in_the_diet,_which_has_been_associated_with_the_risk_of_developing_ type_2_diabetes_and_cardiovascular_disease. Frank B. Hu MD, PhD, SUGAR_SWEETENED_SOFTDRINK__ CONSUMPTION_AND_RISK_OF_TYPE_2__ DIABETES_AND_CARDIOVASCULAR_RISK,CMR,2009;2,2,13-18 Health consequences of (SSB): In fact, sugar sweetened beverages cause health risks both because of what they include (mainly sugars, extra calories, and various additives) and what they replace in the diet (foods and beverages that provide minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients). SSB and Obesity: Obesity becomes the most prevalence public health problem that increases dramatically. The prevalence of overweight is tripled in children and adult. There are many environmental factors that associated with development of obesity due to change in food and beverage consumption. These factors that may influence children to consume soft drinks are different such as taste, preference, soft drink availability and television viewing. From the survey which was done for 560 American children, the researchers found that over 80% of respondent consume soda at least weekly, and 30% consume soda daily [3]. Also they found that these children who consume soft drinks, their parents and peers share them and they watched TV 3.5hday and have easily access to soft drinks in both home and school. Researchers also found that there is association between increased sweetened beverage and increase in BMI. Some studies show a clear relationship between consumption of sugar sweetened beverage, particularly soft drinks, and increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Knowing the factors that contribute to the consumption of soft drinks will aid in prevention and treatment of overweight in children and adolescent. Dietitian must increase parents awareness of unhealthy life style, behavior, help them to control familys eating habits, limit watching TV. For children who are at risk of overweight, limit access to soft drinks and decrease TV viewing [4]. In some point, families and their children may resist making life style changes, so addressing these factors may encourage them to make decision in their eating habits. Family can also develop a strategy to modify their life style and improve their health, so the results will be healthier children, families who can battle the epidemic of obesity [5]. Indeed a number of large scale epidemiological studies have found consistent positive associations between SSB consumption and long-term weight gain and risk of chronic diseases including metabolic syndrome (MetSyn), T2DM and CHD. SSB consumption is thought to lead to weight gain because of the high added sugars content and low satiety of these beverages and incomplete compensation for total energy at subsequent meals following intake of liquid calories. In addition, because of their high amounts of rapidly absorbable carbohydrates such as sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), coupled with the large quantities often consumed, SSBs may increase risk of T2DM independent of obesity as a potential contributor to a high dietary glycemic load (GL) which lead to inflammation , insulin resistance, and impaired beta-cell function. Hu FB, Malik VS, Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes: Epidemiologic evidence, Physiol Behav (2010), doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.0 1.036 Several recent studies suggest that increased abdominal adiposity and waist circumference (W_ C) is a strong predictor of all cause mortality [7]. The consumption of nonalcoholic carbonated beverages or soft drinks and sweetened juices by children has rapidly increased during short period displacing water and nutrient dense beverage such as dairy products. [8] As it stated before that obesity among children becomes a big health concern around the world. The prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst children in Qatar state has previously been reported between 37.5% and 41.6 % [9] males and females children respectively. In general, obesity presents an entirely new set of public health problem reported in Qatar, considering a major risk factor for non- communicable diseases. Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease [10], Diabetes [11] and certain types of cancer [12]. It can also be associated with non- fatal but debilitating illnesses such as respiratory difficulties, infertility and musculoskeletal disorders [13]. According to data available in previous studies, overweight and obesity among Qatari adolescents from both sexes are 23.6% and 36.5% [14] females and males respectively. Childhood corpulence is a predictor for adult disease [15]. In particular recent studies have shown that increased BMI in childhood may predict the occurrence of obesity in adulthood [16, 17]. In children as apposed to adults, the BMI values vary with both age and gender, thus the proffered assessment is BMI- for- age, in which children with body mass index (BMI) for age between 85th and 95th percentile are classified as being overweight and those in the à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 95th percentile are considered obese [18]. Excessive calorie intake in the form of a number of macronutrients has been associated with weight gain. energy intake from sugar- sweetened beverage (SSB) now accounts for a significant fraction of the total caloric intake of young people[19], and consumption has been implicated in promoting obesity in several ,but not all studies[20]. The World Health Organization has implicated the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) as probable contributor to the obesity epidemic. The National Food Survey in the United Kingdom documented a five fold increase in household consumption of SSBs between 1974 and 1999, from 180 to 976 g/wk. A similar trend was observed in the United States, where the average daily consumption of SSBs by children (6 to 17 y of age) more than doubled between 1977 and 1998, from 150 to 350 g/d (5 to 12 oz/d) [21]. Sucrose, fructose and glucose -sweetened beverage intake has been associated with poor diet quality and fast food consumption [22]. In a study published in United State, they include desire to drink DD scale which measure difference in the quality and frequency with which children want to drink. Behavioral correlate of DD: High scoreÆ’Â   more frequent desire to have drink but indication of type of drink. DD relates to thirstÆ’Â   scores should be associated to or with all consumption of all drinks. DD relates to liking for sweet things in mouthÆ’Â   high score would be expected to consume higher quantities of sweetened beverage [23]. Consumption of SSB and obesity in childhood Studies reviewed Several studies have been published examining the potential contribution of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to weight gain in children. There are many cross-sectional studies identified, some of these reported a positive association between the frequencies of intake sugar sweetened drinks and obesity while some found no association. Overall, there is extensive evidence that sugary drinks contribute to weight gain in children. Both baseline intake and changes in the intakes of these drinks are associated with an increase risk of weight gain in both children and adolescents Ludwig DS, Peterson KE, Gortmaker SL. Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective observational analysis. Lancet 2001; 357:505-508. A study conducted in United State on sample of 10,371 boys and girls aged 2-19 years from representative US sample. The results were positive linked that overweight children BMI > 95th consume a grater % of energy from soft drinks and total beverages than non-overweight children. Troiano RP, Briefel RR, Carroll MD, Bialostosky K. Energy and fat intakes of children and adolescents in the United States: data from the National Health and Examination Surveys. Am J Clin Nutr 2000; 72:1343S-1353S. Another study conducted on 185 Canadian children aged 4-16 years also indicated appositive association between high consumption of SSB and increase BMI and overweight. Gillis LJ, Bar-Or O. Food away from home, sugar-sweetened drink consumption and juvenile obesity. J Am Coll Nutr 2003; 22:539-545. The results of a study on 3048 multi- ethnic New Zealand children from both gender aged 5-14 years stated that children dinking soft drinks > 1 per day had higher mean BMI than those with intake Scragg R, Wilson N, Schaaf D, Fitzgerald E, Utter J. Risk factor for obesity in New Zealand children aged 5-14 years: results from the 2002 national Children.s Nutrition Survey. Australasian Epidemiologist 2004;11:23-24. Findings from small food consumption studies from various countries including South Africa, the Philippines and New Zealand are also indicative of high consumption levels of sugar sweetened beverages. A recent study was conducted in Saudi Arabia, a total study sample consisted of 9433 males and females aged 10- 19 years old participated in a designed Food Frequency Questionnaire. BMI and W_C measurements were obtained and correlated with dietary Intake. The results show that the overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 12.2% and 27.0% respectively, with boys having higher obesity rates than girls. W_C and BMI was positively correlated with sugar sweetened carbonated beverages (SSCB) intake in boys only. Kate S Collison, Marya Z Zaidi, Shazia N Subhani.al, Sugar- sweetened carbonated beverage consumption correlated with BMI, waist circumference, and poor dietary choices in school children, BMC Public Health, 2010;10: 234,2-12. Bones and osteoporosis People who prefer to drink soft drinks and or any type of sweetened beverages instead of milk or other daily products probable their intake of calcium will be low and this will lead to osteoporosis, which is a disease that cause bone fragile and broken . The risk factor of osteoporosis depends on how much bones mass is built up early in life. Girls build 92 percent of their bone mass by age 18, but if they dont consume sufficient calcium in their teenage years, they can not catch up later. Thats why experts recommend higher calcium intakes for youths aged 9 to 18 than for adults aged 19 to 50 [24]. Although osteoporosis takes decades to develop, preliminary research suggests that the lower calcium intake that may result for example from drinking soda pop instead of milk can contribute to broken bones in children [25]. Heart Disease Heart disease is the nations number- one killer. Some of the most important causes are diets high in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol. In many adults, a diet or beverage that is high in sugar may also be a modest contributor to heart disease [ 26]. A study of young adults (19 to 38 years old) in Louisiana found a strong association between consumption of sweetened beverages and risk factors for syndrome X [27]. Diabetes In fact, soft drinks are harmful for people with diabetes since one pack of them contain 33 grams of table sugars (sucrose) and this type of sugar is absorbed rapidly which will raise blood sugars quickly. This action impacts negatively on controlling diabetes [28]. Kidney stones Kidney stones consider as one of the most painful disorders to distress humans and one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract. Researchers had subjects consume large volume of cola drinks for one or several days. The next day, the subjects urine contained higher levels of oxalate and lower levels of magnesium and citrate, changes that could contribute to kidney stone formation [29 ]. SSB and Tooth Decay Scientists have noticed a connection between soft drink consumption and dental health. Like obesity (or any issue involving human health), tooth decay is a complex subject. It is the result of many factors, including the types of foods that are consumed and frequency of eating occasions. Foods that are sticky and cling to the teeth are more likely to cause tooth decay. The amount of time that sugar remains in contact with teeth is another important variable. Soft drinks and other sugar-containing liquids pass over the teeth very quickly. A recent study examined dental caries and beverage consumption among 1- to 5-year-old children and found an association between soft drinks and increased caries. Marr Barr,Longmont, Colorado, Soft Drinks, Childhood Overweight, and the Role of Nutrition Educators, Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2004; 36:258-265. In addition, drinking soft drinks between meals was found to increase the number of dental decay and caries in a twenty-year longitudinal study. As a result of an increasing consumption of soft drinks and commercial fruit juices, over the past years, the prevalence of dental erosion and decay has increased dramatically. Acids from the soft drinks have been known to induce the dissolution or erosion of dental enamel as well as caries lesion due to the combined effect of bacteria and degradation of carbohydrates present in the drinks [30]. Nationally, there is great concern about the effects of carbonated- beverages consumption on obesity, osteoporosis, heart diseases, tooth decay, and other health problems. Sites in blue is Okay  Ã…  

Friday, September 20, 2019

Case Study Business Ethics Marketing Essay

Case Study Business Ethics Marketing Essay In this essay I would like to consider personal and organizational ethics and provide my own behavior concerning this issue. To begin with it should be noted that personal ethics and morality are the actual core of human behavior.  It can be said that installation of our personal ethics are the guiding for our further actions.  In this context, it is important to understand two principally different systems of personal ethical behavior.  It can be said that one of the systems can be named as system of full personal responsibility.  It includes only human personal principles and ideals and, on its basis chooses different options of human actions and thoughts.  The opposite of this system is a system of strong subordination principle.  As a rule, these systems are distributed among such religions as Islam and Judaism.  Both these systems are very comfortable and have a number of advantages.  I presume that for me, the closest is the Catholic ethical system.  However, as a fact, I have my own principles and beliefs that form my own ethics and determine my actions and words. Nevertheless, all my personal views are corrected by certain higher value system a system of values à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹of the Catholic religion. According to Sayali Bedekar Patil (2010), it should be noted that business ethics is one of the most important, but at the same time the least studied areas of modern business life.  As a fact, scope of business ethics deals with issues how certain business practice is acceptable.  For example, does the vendor have the moral right at an organized presentation of products to hide information from the client about the low standards of a product safety?  Should the accountant report inaccuracies found in the audit, knowing that in this case, that the client is likely to cease cooperation with the firm?  Should car manufacturers use expensive new parts, providing security, knowing that for this reason that car becomes too expensive for the client? Despite the legality of such situations, decisions and actions, the latter should be evaluated in terms of various indicators, not just in the scale of true-false.  Business ethics is contradictory in nature.  Without any doubts, su ch questions relate to business ethics sphere of activity. As a matter of fact, business and ethics can not be considered separately from each other.  In their daily work and activity, people (at any level) will inevitably face the need to make ethical decisions.  As a rule, ethical issues arise in the field of management, marketing, manufacturing, research, human resources, financial management, business strategists, and many others. It can be said that ethical and responsible activity contributes to the creation of new competencies, because it draws its members within the entire organization and contributes to the future-oriented/ holistic approach to leadership style and better prepares the company to both external and internal changes, crises.  Hence, business ethics creates confidence, improves reputation, and helps to maintain good relations with various groups, including, customers, partners, owners, investors and organizations, as well as banks and the media.  I am convinced that ethical and responsible activity helps to impr ove the attractiveness of the company in finding good employees, to maintain the goodwill of members and enhance the value and reliability of an enterprise, to provide a consistent and constant development of the enterprise.  As a fact, ethical and responsible activity affects not only individuals and interest groups, but also the interests and profitability of the organization.  Thus, in other words, business ethics is a way to better manage the enterprise. Many experts have different definitions of what ethics  is. To find a common ground I would like to provide some of them, which in my opinion, characterize this concept the most accurately. According to Chris MacDonald (2002), ethics is a measurement of human thought and behavior that emanates from the principles of goodness and correctness. Ethics is an attempt to define the rules that should guide human activities and life values.  Ethics defines how people should treat each other. Ethics is a set of values à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹that are positive and correct. Personally I think that all these definitions bear in themselves the answer for the question what is ethic. For me, ethics is a set of behavior rules of a person or organization that create its image and attitude to the person or organization by customers, partners, investors, media, authorities and so on. According to Chris MacDonald (2002), there are following ethical values: Honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, caring for others, respect for others, responsible citizenship, pursuit for excellence and accountability. However, business ethics also include such concept like ethic dilemma. It should be noted that ethic dilemma is a problem of difficult choice between this or that way of behavior. Situations and conflicts that from time to time require making a decision in real life, often raises the ethical dilemma. As a fact, the two possible solutions of the ethical dilemma may involve behavior, which is not acceptable from the standpoint of morality. Ethical conflicts may occur in following cases: There is a significant conflict between different interests; Alternative solutions can be justified equally; The consequences are very important for those, who are concerned. I would like to provide two examples of business ethical dilemma, that in my opinion are of special interest. The first one: a client wishes to receive from a company any product or service, but when he heard the price, the client states that this price is unacceptable to him.  An employee of firm knows that the client can get the same service at competitors store.  Should the employee of the firm tell customer about the competitor or not? The second business ethical dilemma is following: my colleague tells me that he is going to leave the company and begin work on a new site, which is promised to him.  At the same time my boss gives me to understand that he will not give me a promotion, because he is going to give it to my colleague. Should I tell my colleague about it? Without any doubts it is hard to answer these dilemmas unequivocally. In my opinion, business ethical dilemma is always a compromise with yourself. On the one hand, everybody has own interests or interests of t he company. On the other hand, people should behave  themselves towards  others, as well as they  want  people to  behave towards  them. I think that that a person should decide for himself what is more important to him long-term image and honor or short-term benefit. In this part of the essay I would like to provide an analysis of my own work experience at Starbucks Corporation, where I used to work as barista. It should be noted that Starbucks believes and does business ethically and also strives to do the right things that are vital to the success of the company.  I presume that business ethics supports the mission of Starbucks and helps to protect its culture and reputation by providing resources to help partners make ethical decisions at work.   According to Kate McClelland (2007), Starbucks has its own program, which is aimed at comprehensive development of business ethics within  the company  and  as well as in  contact  with the external environment. The program develops and disseminates information materials, including business standards, promotes compliance and ethics training. Also Starbucks program explores sensitive issues such as potential conflicts of interest, and also provides additional channels for partners voice concerns.  Partners are required to report all types of questions or concerns to the program through their choice of communication channels.  As a rule, the majority of reports received on business ethics and compliance involve labor relations issues.  It can be said that Starbucks believes that company should conducting business ethically and always tries to improve its business ethical standards. According to Starbucks Ethical Sourcing (2011), Starbucks business ethics includes social responsibility and its component, among them are: Taking care about countries that produce coffee; Taking care about the environment; Taking care about communities; Taking care about employees. I would like to consider all these concepts more closely. As a matter of fact, taking care about countries that produce coffee is a very important ethical issue for Starbucks. It can be said that Starbucks takes serious measures to help coffee farmers improve their lives and protect the environment in which they grow coffee.  Starbucks has carefully studied many problems, which farmers are faced by today, including economic and environmental.  By taking care about countries that produce coffee Starbucks at the same time maintains a stable state of their plantations, pays attention to the protection of the environment and maintains high standards of coffee quality. Because Starbucks success depends largely on the stable supply of quality coffee, the company has taken steps to maintain the stability of coffee production with a simultaneous concern for the environment.  Starbucks also supports community projects to improve the welfare of families in coffee regions. The second element of Starbucks business ethics program is taking care about the environment. It should be noted that taking  measures to  reduce  waste  production and  processing  allow the company to  preserve  the natural  resources  and raise living standards  around the globe.  Starbucks actively  seeks out  opportunities  to minimize impacts on  the environment  and  contributes a lot of money and time to make our planet healthier. The third element is taking care about communities. As a fact, local Starbucks coffeehouses have become a central part of many neighborhoods, they serve as a place where people can gather, talk, talk, have a good time.  But Starbucks believes that by make their partners responsible neighbors and active participants in the events of those areas in which they live and work, together they can bring more benefits to local communities.  This is an important part of the business ethics and the culture à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â ‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹of the company. The forth element of Starbucks business ethics program is taking care about employees. More than 63,000 people work at Starbucks and all these people the company calls partners, who are a tool for success. And since Starbucks success depends largely on the dedication of the partners, the companys primary goal is to show them how much Starbucks appreciate and respect them, according to Tom Allen (2009). In my opinion, Starbucks has positive attitude to business ethics. However, I would like to say that even this business ethics structure needs some changes. First of all, there have to be made certain improvements in the sphere of business ethics because Starbucks is working globally and not in every country ethical principles are identical. That is why Starbucks can not permit to lose its image in the international business. Often, one of the ethical principles plays a considerable role in a customers decision whether visit Starbucks again or not. Good service and exemplary attitude of the staff in Starbucks Corporation always has to use ethical principles that will help the company to succeed. In order to provide the best service and unique products to the customers, Starbucks Corporation has to do everything possible to satisfy the customers needs. If I was a leader, I would create a plan of changes in business ethics and implementation of new approaches, I would take into consideration the analysis and evaluation of the current strategies, business ethical principles, newest technologies and innovative approaches that would have a company to succeed. As for specific steps, I propose the company to expand its presence in popular social networks and make a questionnaire survey in the coffee houses with the aim to improve its fairness and pursuit for excellence. I presume that open desire of the company to hear and take into account opinions and  suggestions of the customers concerning improving service quality will be the best way  to reflect its  business ethics  and  will have a positive impact  on  company image. I am convinced that this step will help Starbucks to gain more fans all over the world. This will show that Starbucks is taking care of people. To sum it up I would like to say that ethics is the humanity, honesty, respect, goodwill, fairness and trust.  It is not possible to provide effective management without business ethics, for the sake of success of the enterprise it is important to treat others with respect, appreciate other people and take into account what is happening in and around the enterprise.  Each organization is the part of the society and the wider environment, disregard for society and the environment can lead to a situation in which the company can no longer continue its activity.  Society and the environment can exist without any particular company, but the company without its environment and society will not survive.  It should be noted that people create the organization and the organization is created in the first place for the people.  All products and services that are produced and offered are created specifically for people and for their needs.   Without any doubts Starbucks Corporation has almost perfect business ethics standards. Although, if I would be a leader of the corporation I would propose the company to expand its presence in popular social networks and make a questionnaire survey in the coffee houses with the aim to improve such important ethical values as fairness and pursuit for excellence. I strongly believe that such step will help the company to hear and take into consideration opinions and  suggestions of the customers concerning Starbucks goods and service  quality and be the best way  to reflect its high  business ethics standards.