Monday, December 23, 2019

The Colonization of Hawaii and Tourism Essay - 4434 Words

The Colonization of Hawaii and Tourism Since 1840 the Hawaiian Islands have been an escape to a tropical paradise for millions of tourists. People all over the world encounter alluring, romanticized pictures of Hawaiis lush, tropical vegetation, exotic animals, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, and fantastical women. This is the Hawaii tourists know. This is the Hawai’i they visit. However, this Hawaii is a state of mind, a corporate-produced image existing on the surface. More precisely, it is an aftermath of relentless colonization of the islands native inhabitants by the United States. These native Hawaiians experience a completely different Hawaii from the paradise tourists enjoy. No one makes this as clear as†¦show more content†¦They (discourses) operate in relation to power (Hall 205). In a post-colonial setting, such as Hawai’i, the knowledge and principles conveyed by the colonizing discourse dominates society and becomes a colonizing power. The effect is the suppression of native cul ture. Hall points out that discourses often contradict one another. Discourses conflict because they are produced by different societies that have different interests, and therefore, reflect different interests. For example, the native Hawaiian communal society does not place interest on the personal gain that is the foundation of capitalism. Therefore, it is not surprising that the native Hawaiian discourse of tourism is different from the United States capitalist discourse of tourism. To fully understand the native Hawaiian discourse of tourism, it is necessary to know how it has developed. The suffering produced by the tourist industry began with the emergence of the haole, or white settler. The first explorer to discover and colonize Hawaii was Captain James Cook in 1778. With him he brought capitalism, modern political ideas, Christianity, and the most devastating of all, diseases. The West (Europe) imposed its superior ideology on the native Hawaiian, primitive culture. Hall explains that when Europe brought its own cultural categories, languages, images, and ideas to the New World, it tried to fit the New World into existing frameworks, classifying it according to its (European)Show MoreRelatedEffects Of Colonization On The Hawaiian Environments950 Words   |  4 PagesT/Th 4pm 05/27/2016 The Effects of Colonization on the Hawaiian Environments Hawaii has always been a beautiful flourishing place, but since the first arrival of outsiders, the local flora and fauna have been greatly affected. Hawaii is located in one of the most secluded parts of the world, being thousands of miles from the closest land mass. For an excessive amount of time Hawaii lived in isolation. The arrival of Captain Cook in the 18th century impacted Hawaii instantly. Like any arrival of westernersRead MoreLovley Hula Hands1259 Words   |  6 Pages100 13 March 2014 The Prostitution of the Hawaiian Islands Lovely Hula Hands: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture written by Haunani Kay Trask was written in 1993. Trask wrote this paper to inform Americans about what she thinks of tourism, a â€Å"colonial imposition† towards the Hawaiian culture. Trask incorporates ethos, pathos and logos throughout her essay to show how tourism effects these three points in the Hawaiian culture: The homeland, the language and dance of theRead MoreThe Trans Oceanic Movement Of People Of The Pacific2452 Words   |  10 PagesAs we have learned throughout our semester from the many coursework assigned, we know the trans-oceanic movement of people of the Pacific coordinates hand in hand with native and settlers sexualities. We learned that the through past and current colonization, the Pacific has been conceptualized from Euro-Americans. As far as literacy, visual, and audiovisual from the media has helped create a representations of how the rest of the world acknowledge the P acific. Through, the countless articles, textbookRead MoreTrends In Technology1062 Words   |  5 Pagesinvestors. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has frequently released ambitious announcements in recent years regarding his plans for Mars. His latest aspiration is to send a Tesla Roadster into Mars’ orbit because it is an entertaining thought. Space colonization is not solely a race to make history for billionaires like Musk and Jeff Bezos, there is real research taking place in laboratories and on college campuses. Their research is turning an ideological trend into a future reality. Space robotics researcherRead MoreKnown To Many As The ‘Melting Pot,’ The United States Consists1770 Words   |  8 PagesFilipinos or Pinoys, as some like to call themselves. Due to its 400-year colonization by Spain and the United States, the Filipino American populace increased after the Philippines became a territory under U.S. control. The last Asiatic group to migrate to the United States, the Filipinos have contributed to the American society through a variety of occupations, such as sailors or nannies. Moreover, the U.S. colonization of the Philippines from 1900-1934, encouraged a mass of Filipinos to settleRead MoreImpact and Control of the Brown Tree Snake as an Invasive Species2679 Words   |  11 PagesTree Snake, and the impact this species has had on Guam. Potential ways to resolve and control the ecological and economic impacts of the Brown Tree Snake on Guam and efforts to prevent new invasions by this species on other Pacific islands including Hawaii will also be reviewed. Background and History The Brown Tree Snake is well-known for the intense ecological impacts it has had on vertebrate life with its postwar arrival on the island of Guam (Rodda, G. H., amp; Savidge, J. A., 2007). AroundRead MoreIlocos History2850 Words   |  12 PagesThe Ilocano history reveals his struggles and victories – in battles for colonial independence from Spain and America, to Philippine leadership. The new Ilocano searched for greener pastures towards new lands local and foreign - Palawan, Mindanao, Hawaii, the United States and Greece. Geographical Location Ilocos Norte is located in the northwestern part of Luzon and is geographically situated between 170-43’ and 180-29’ north latitudes and 1200-25’ and 1200-58’ east longitudes. It is boundedRead MoreTrobriand Islanders-Malinowski and Weiner10855 Words   |  44 Pagesmovement. Her main informant Vanoi was himself caught up in this struggle, shifting [pic] ― 41 ― his allegiance between the two main camps on several occasions. But this fight over Trobriand tradition and its relation to economic development and tourism is not a part of Weiners study, being seen primarily as a disturbing threat to her main lines of enquiry (1976, xix–xx; but see Weiner 1982b).[4] These conflicts deserve to be considered, however, since as Young suggests (1979, 19), tradition itselfRead MoreDefination of Globalisation12291 Words   |  50 Pagessocial status, cultural background, and ethnic and religious affiliation provide the background that determines how globalization is interpreted. In 1995, Martin Khor, President of the Third World Network 2 in Malaysia, referred to globalization as colonization. Concurrently, Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization (2001), stated that globalization: â€Å"is the process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertainsRead MoreMidterm Review Essay9272 Words   |  38 Pages | e) | were settled along the railroad lines of the Union Pacific. | | | 1 / 1 point | 12.) The economic development of the American West was based on: Question options: | a) | farming solely. | | b) | lumber, mining industries, tourism, and farming. | | c) | the continued reliance on self-sufficient farming. | | d) | transportation modes other than the railroad. | | e) | the cooperation of the Plains Indians. | | | 1 / 1 point | 13.) What did hunters shoot while

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Genetically Modified Organism Free Essays

Vecchio 1 Genetically Modified Organisms Hayley Vecchio Here comes synthetic food, and their big money, and they want to control, our body and soul† — Ziggy Marley, from, â€Å"Tumblin’ Down† (Miller [4]). In 1988 Bob Marley’s son Ziggy warned us about synthetic foods, three decades before big corporations started commercially gene-gunning virus and hormone sequences into the DNA of seeds. The debate over genetically modified (GM) food, also known as genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), is vast. We will write a custom essay sample on Genetically Modified Organism or any similar topic only for you Order Now I believe that the use and creation of genetically modified foods should be banned until health effects are better understood. All the meanwhile the spread of genetically modified organisms has gone unnoticed by the majority of Americans, most have no idea that there are GMOs in their food, and may not even know what a GMO is. The people of America deserve to know what they are consuming (Barret). The graph above shows that 63 percent of processed food in the United States contains GM ingredients (Barrett). Soda and sweets are almost guaranteed to contain GM ingredients. Not only does the US government allow this overabundant and dangerous use of GMO’s, but they don’t require food manufacturers to disclose their use of genetically modified organisms. Vecchio 2 Looking at these statistics and that of America’s obesity epidemic, it’s quite obvious that there is most likely a connection between the two. Another reason I believe the use and distribution of GMO’s is wrong is because they have a plethora of known and unknown risks to humans and the environment. The non-GMO movement now has more than 60 groups actively concerned with the issue, all with a common goal of, at least temporarily, eliminating GMO foods from the market. On a national scale GMO’s have been forced upon the public by big companies without adequate oversight and regulation by the United States Government. Groups participating in the non-GMO movement are mainly concerned with a lack of information, and public participation. These groups believe that the agrobiotechnology problem is a violation of personal freedoms and democratic rights (Roff 513). Major concerns come from previous incidents in which unintentional contamination by GM and non-GM plants took place. The inefficiency of the US government has allowed GMO-related problems to go unchecked. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ignored the findings of many of its own scientists regarding genetically modified foods (Driscoll and Morley 1). I meditate that at a minimum, the USDA should be required to implement a food labeling system, so that Americans, like Europeans, will have a choice in whether or not to purchase genetically modified foods. So far, Europe has emphasized governance approaches in regulation of new technologies more than the USA. Studies show that when mandatory labeling became required in Europe, sales of a GM products dropped drastically (Roff 512). I contemplate the same effects would happen in the United States as well, because when given a choice, many Americans would opt out of purchasing GMO foods. Vecchio 3 Fortunately for the U. S, California has recently taken action by voting in favor of a GMO labeling law which could ultimately affect the rest of the U. S. California voters already have a record of being leaders in food reform; and because the state makes up almost twelve percent of the US population, food companies might well start unveiling GMO’s nationwide (Philpot [1]). Moreover I believe GMO’s need to be taken off the market until the health effects are better understood. In addition to this belief The Natural Society recently published an article releasing new information about Monsanto’s GMO corn. Revisions show that Monsanto GM corn is contributing to one of the country’s fastest growing problems. A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences shows that GM food is contributing to the obesity epidemic. It was reported that in a study using lab rats that were fed GMO corn and organic corn, the rats eating GM corn effectively proved the dangers of GMO’s and the risks go beyond weight increase (Driscoll and Morley 4). Gilles-Eric Seralini, an expert member of the Commissions for biotechnology Reevaluation indicates that in each study of GMO’s â€Å"the kidney and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems (Barrett). Needless to say, Monsanto’s GMO crops are causing other problems in our world. While contributing to weight gain, the company’s GM corn has been resistant to root worms; causing farmers to use more pesticides, paradoxically defeating the purpose of using GMO’s in the first place (Barrett). Not only are GMO’s wreaking havoc on human health, but these crops are known to cause damage to nature. Another motive to stop the sale and creation of GMO’s is its effects on our environment and the natural cycle of life. Scientists are beginning to see short-term consequences but the long-term are still unknown. Similar to air and water, food is an essential element of life. GM crops have the potential to change ecosystems. For example scientists have Vecchio 4 been engineering salmon, tilapia, carp and other fishes to promote faster growth and resistance to disease. The problem that arises is that these genetically engineered fish are escaping the nets and could possibly be breeding with natural fish. This scenario could eventually cause an instinction of natural born fish. Scientist refer to this as the â€Å"Trojan gene effect,† with the worry that it holds the risk of wiping out entire populations. Driscoll and Morley 4). The same effects are unfortunately occurring in crops all around the world. Due to cross contamination and pollen drift, very few products in the US are completely free of GMO’s (â€Å"Business News; Whole Foods†[2]). Any crop grown outdoors that is pollinated by the wind or insects runs the risk of cross-pollination. An additional reason to stop th e creation of GMO’s is the theory that many weeds have become herbicide-resistant after being cross-pollinated with GMO plants. The fear is that contaminated weeds will become super-weeds, over taking native plants, thereby taking over the ecosystem. A British study revealed that bird populations may be decreasing in certain areas due to the growth of GM crops. And companies do little to keep out wild life that come and nibble on their genetically recombinant crops, which have caused many animals to become sick. Many Animal Rights activists have taken initiative to stop the cloning processes used to alter the genetic structure of animals (Driscoll and Morley [4]). The biggest issue for me along with many others is that scientists are tampering with living, natural creatures. These changes are causing pain to the animals. For example science has increased the rate and size at which chickens grow so drastically that many come out mutated, missing eyes, beck’s, or other major body parts. Vecchio 5 Their genes are changed so that they grow and exceed their designed size and weight, which in turn breaks their legs causing them to suffer a short lived life. Not only is wildlife in danger but organic Farmers are facing troubles with cross-pollination. There are many cases in which cross contamination occurred with GM crops. The USDA is now regulating organic foods to be GM-free, but the farmers have no control over this natural process. Statistics collected in Spain show the twenty-five percent of their organic farms had been contaminated by GMOs (Driscoll and Morley[5]). Another major contributor to the contamination of plants by GMO’s occurs during transportation, and because of this the European Union now implements testing on all shipments. I will depict upon the theories that often claim that GMO’s are the solution to worldwide hunger; many supporters of this are involved in big companies who use GMO’s. But ironically enough even some of the poorest countries, including Zambia, Mali, Australia, Japan, and all of the European Union, have restrictions and bans on the production of GMO’s (â€Å"Business News; Whole Foods†[2]). Distribution is actually the main problem in feeding the world’s 700 million hungry people. When food is produced locally with better efficiency starvation rates decreases in many poorer nations, the hope is to do this in numerous places around the world and the numbers of hungry individuals worldwide can be decreased over time. Organizations such as the Center for Food Safety are largely concerned and actively involved in preventing the use of GMO’s (Driscoll and Morley [4]). The discussions of alternative solutions have been a hot topic. Many question whether or not improving water supply and soil be a better long term solution. These alternatives hold the potential to create jobs and could be a more effective way to end hunger, worldwide. Vecchio 6 Another valuable point to be made is whether or not cross-breeding and genetic recombination of different species crosses an ethical line that humans were not meant to cross. From a religious perspective, many disagree with scientists creations of genetically modified plants. My true opinion on the matter is that people need more knowledge. What is a GMO? Yes, GMO means genetically modified organisms, but what does that really mean. Well you can say that genes are combined into different links that in turn change the genetic makeup of an animal or plant. But even so, the public knowledge of GMO’s is very vague. In traditional ways of plants genetic makeup, the genes introduced into plant cells are chosen at random chromosomal positions. The new plant then copies a gene for the same enzymes, however in some cases due to DNA sequence differences a plant does not have an herbicide resistance gene. Genes are composed of DNA, which stores all of the information that maps out an organism’s structure and functions. Genetic engineering involves taking the genes of one organism and putting them into another, altering the genetic structure. This is when science has come in and located the specific chromosomal spot in which a plant needs a designed gene in order for it to be herbicide resistant. So one gene is knocked out and replaced by a man made engineered one. In scientific terms it doesn’t sound too bad, the question then is, what are these natural genes being replaced with? Well for one arctic fish genes were implanted into tomatoes and strawberries to produce a tolerance to frost, jellyfish genes were introduced into pigs’ DNA to light up their noses in the dark along with potatoes that glow in the dark (Anderson [1]), human genes were inserted into corn to produce spermicide, and corn was engineered with hepatitis virus genes (Miller [1]). This is only a microscopic view of what science has done, I believe that it is not safe Vecchio 7 and is still in the vast outer space of unknown, it’s also unethical but that if for each individual to decide for him/herself. GMO foods have been hurriedly pushed into the marketplace with inadequate testing and research, putting human safety in danger. Major corporations, such as Monsanto, DuPont and Novartis, see GMO products as a way to make potentially huge profits, without the slightest care for their consumers. Many of these companies producing GMO food products have poor track records regarding environmental and consumer safety. I believe one of the largest corruptions in businesses involved in genetically engineering today is the control GMO companies have over farmers. Farmers are finically stuck with these corrupt companies and legally obligated to them. For example in 2001 Roger Nelson fought a political fight with the powerful Monsanto. Monsanto claims the Nelsons infringed on its patent seeds. The case prompted the Legislature to pass what was known as the â€Å"Nelson bill,† which requires companies such as Monsanto to notify farmers when they suspect them of patent infringements. Nelson said â€Å"A farmer can go out and buy brand new, conventional seed and you can’t get any written guarantees that they’re GMO-free. † Another problem that was left unresolved after this court case is the fact that when farmers save some seeds for crops in 2002, if that seed contained Roundup Ready genes, farmers can be sued for infringing on Monsanto patent. This leaves farmers with no say what’s so ever in the way the grow crops or what crops they grow; they are modern slaves to the big businesses (â€Å"Farmer Gets Ready to Plant†). As perquisites off any market solutions, a non-GMO group has focused on the consumer’s right to know. Additionally, most customers do not have a choice in the food system. With no access to healthy and fresh foods, many citizens in urban and rural areas cannot afford Vecchio 8 the cost of healthy foods. Even when stores exist with good organic food the products are priced far beyond what the average citizen can afford. This dilemma is one that will shrink, when more privileged Americans begin to shop organically. This will set off a change in supply and demand, if the people begin to demand organic foods or GMO labeling companies will be forced to supply. In local and national scales it’s going to be the people of American that stop feeding the giants they wish to vanquish. In conclusion there are many serious questions regarding the safety of GMO products and their impact on our planet. So far, the US government has not done its job in overseeing the testing of these products before they become available to consumers. I can see in many ways how the world’s ecosystems, farmers, and consumers are guinea pigs in a dangerous experiment that ensures profits for biotech companies and potential disaster for the future of our food system. Someone needs to stand up to the big GMO corporations, it might not be drastic but over time we as humans have the power to impact the demand put on GM foods. The less of a demand the less creation and distribution there will be. Whether it is because it’s unethical, unhealthy, or immoral it’s time to take action against GMO production. Hayley Vecchio 4-1-13 Mr. Oliverio En 110 Position Paper Genetically Modified Foods How to cite Genetically Modified Organism, Papers Genetically modified organism Free Essays Good afternoon Ladles and Gentlemen. Today, the topic for our debate is on whether â€Å"the benefits of transgenic species outweigh the ethical considerations. † We, the negative team, believe that this statement is false. We will write a custom essay sample on Genetically modified organism or any similar topic only for you Order Now The first affirmative speaker has tried to tell you that transgenic plant species are a revolutionary new way to produce crops with dramatically Increasing yields and as a result, this will Increase the farmlands’ productivity. However, this Is wrong. In fact, as evidence suggests, the introduction of transgenic crops are doing very little to increase overall crop yields. The second affirmative speaker spoke to you on how transgenic animals provides a shortcut to the development of animals that have many desired traits and its products can be benefits of mankind. Examples Include animals such as transgenic pigs enriched with omega-3 fatty acids and cows that produce better milk. In our defense, animals do have their own rights. The creation of transgenic animals is morally wrong and the long-term effect on them and their consumers are questionable. Finally, the third and final speaker from the affirmative team made a point on how rearranges species will herald a new era of food production, Improving animal food quality and productivity. They may not be natural, but not everything natural Is good for us and not everything unnatural is bad for us. She argued that genetically modified foods have been on the market since 1996, we would know by now if they were an immediate health threat. However, this is wrong, Just because you don’t know of a problem, who is there to say that it doesn’t exist? Most transgenic products are still yet to be tested for safety and it may be most of these that are ending up In our grocery carts without us even knowing. From this, we can also see that more and more possible health risks associated with transgenic species are starting to show. First let us examine one of our case studies. The transgenic plant MOON 810 corn. This is a genetically modified crop developed by an American agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto. Bacillus Thirstiness, a bacterium which produces the BET toxin poisonous to insects, Is Inserted as a gene Into the DNA of MOON 81 0 corns. This plant has been purposely modified to combat crop loss due to Insects and Is now rowan on a large scale in USA. Despite it having been claimed that the insecticide will cause no harm to human consumers, However there is compelling evidence that shows the rates of chronic diseases have been increasing drastically since transgenic species products were introduced to public in USA. The chart on this slide show increase in Inflammation rate, such as chronic constipation, gastrointestinal reflux, In April 2009, the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety of the German government suspended the approval and banned the cultivation of any ore MAMMON maize. It also got banned in other countries around the world including Austria, Greece and France. Since July 12th its cultivation has been banned in Italy, in reaction to a scientific report sent out by the Italian Agricultural Research Council. Another example of a transgenic species is cows being treated with a genetically engineered form of Bovine assimilation, also known as BIG. BIG is a peptide hormone produced by cows that is shown to have kept their metabolic processes regulated, increased their milk yield and beef growth. Yet, while this is all happening, his was also slowly killing the cow. In 1937, the administration of BIG was shown to be increasing the milk yield in lactating cows. Until the sass, there was a very limited use of the compound in agriculture and during this time also, the knowledge of the structure and function of the hormone increased. Later, the gene had been separated, purified and was now being applied to cow through genetic engineering. Since then, it has been immersed in controversy and parts of the concerns were in regards to the potential effects this has on the animals’ health. A 1991 report by Rural Vermont revealed that BIG cows were suffering from serious health problems, including an alarming rise in the number of deformed calves and in mastitis, a painful bacterial infection of the udder that causes inflammation. Milk taken from these cows also now contained higher levels of GIF-I (Insulin Growth Factor-I). Although we, humans, naturally have GIF-I, elevated levels of it have been linked to the diagnosis of colon and breast cancer. Although there has been no direct connection made as yet between the two, some scientists have expressed concern ever the possibility of this relationship. Our first speaker spoke to you about how transgenic developed plants contains genes that have been artificially introduced into the plant’s genetic makeup through several biotechnology techniques. It is highly questionable if Monsanto did, in fact, deliver the crops as they had claimed according to Doug Guarani-grandfather’s book â€Å"Failure to yield†. After more than 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialism’s in the United States, it can be concluded that transgenic species crops have done little o increase overall crop yields. A report by researchers from the University of Wisconsin also suggest to us that transgenic developed plants have still a â€Å"long way from generating higher crop yields with fewer inputs. Our first speaker also spoke that one of the major factors that led to an estimated 125,000 cotton farmers taking their own life was that of transgenic cotton failing to yield. Our second speaker spoke to you about the ethical issues of animal rights and any value they have to humans and a right to be free of human use, cruelty, confinement and use. She also stated that biotechnology could be bad for animals with them possibly suff ering from painful side effects. These include animals such as the broiler chicken, which are being bred to grow too fast for their legs to support their way, causing them discomfort. Since â€Å"The Origin of Species† by Charles Darwin was published in 1859, we are gradually starting to understand life better and better. His theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the best-substantiated theories in the history of science, having been supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines. Since then, many scientists have contributed to the discovery and understanding of the structure of DNA. The development of powerful laboratory techniques, most of which came in after 1970, have enabled us to study and manipulate genes that have the potential to alter the path of evolution. While we celebrate our achievements on the advancement in scientific understanding and technology, we should ask our selves if we should manipulate the genes of species Just because it can be done. So Ladies and Gentlemen, in conclusion, we believe the ethical considerations outweigh the benefits of transgenic species especially in a commercial or massive scale to produce food. How to cite Genetically modified organism, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

An Introduction to Ethical Theory Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Cybertechnology related Ethical Issues. Answer: Supreme Court sides with Samsung in Apple patent damages dispute Morality refers to the principles which create distinction between the right and the wrong actions. It is the standard of principles which are based on the philosophies, religion and actions of people which defines the code of conduct. In the business environment, several situations arise in which the managers struggle from ethical dilemma in which a certain course of action will breach the different ethical principles. The ethical dilemma is defined as a complex situation in which obeying one moral philosophy results in the transgression of other philosophies. In the recent years, several moral theories have emerged which have conflicting views. The most popular moral theories are utilitarianism, deontology, virtue and contract (Birsch, 2013). These moral theories or frameworks are based on different viewpoints and justifies different course of actions. However, the essence of all these theories is to distinguish right actions from the wrong actions and makes the world a better plac e. In this regard, the following essay examines the ethical issue of intellectual property rights infringement by Samsung of the Apple iPhones. Apple is a pioneer mobile manufacturing organization. The company is famous for manufacturing iPhones with exceptional features which has developed drastic fan following. Many companies are trying to copy the designs of the company; but, remained unsuccessful. Recently, Samsung was able to copy several designs and product features of iPhone and integrated them in the product design. It was a serious case of intellectual property theft and the stealing of the efforts of several product design engineers of Apple. When the company files a case against Samsung, it obtained large compensation amount in lower court, but the Supreme Court of Australia ruled that Samsung was not liable for all the compensation imposed. It was stated that the company was not liable for all the profits from the sales of the phone but from the profits of the components that infringe the copyright laws (Balakrishnan, 2016). According to the utilitarian theory, an action can be judged as right or wrong based on its possible outcomes. The theory states that a person should move beyond ones interest and takes into account the interest of other people. Utilitarianism states that any course of action is morally correct, which has better outcomes for the society (Shafer-Landau, 2012). During the evaluation of the ruling of the Supreme Court from this theory, it can be stated that the action is morally correct. Although, the action of intellectual property infringement is unjustified; however, imposing heavy penalty on the company will discourage other companies for incremental innovation. They will get skeptical if changes introduced by them will come under the category of copyright infringement (Garber, 2008). If the government will impose heavy penalty for the actions of management of the organization, it will be wrong for the shareholders of the company. They will suffer from decreased share value. Moreover, imposing penalty for the designs developed by the Samsung will be wrong to the company. The action is justified by the utilitarianism as it assisted in bringing the unique features and designs of iPhones to common people. It can be posited that the Apples iPhone are costly and can only be bought by affluent class. Samsung made the phones approachable to the middle class people and thus contributed to the welfare of the society (Timmons, 2012). The deontological philosophy of ethics state that the morality of action is based on a set of rules. The deontological ethics is based on certain obligations and not on their consequences. It states that if an action is right, then it is right regardless of it consequences. There are three basic principles of the deontological. Firstly, all the people must adhere to a certain morality standard or framework. If a person is following a different moral standard, then he cannot be held responsible for their actions. Morality should be distinguished to from the basic inclination or feelings. Thirdly, morality is derived from reasons or logic not from experience (Farrell, 2010). It can be reviewed that according to this deontological ethics, Samsung was a wrong doer in the situation and must be punished. Samsung copied the features of the designs of Apple iPhones. It has theft of the hard work of the Apples design engineers. According to deontological theory, a person or organization must not engage in ethically wrong actions regardless of the consequences. When the case is evaluated with this theory, it can be evaluated that although Samsung has done a good work of making technology more accessible, it cannot be considered as a morally justified action, as theft is considered as morally wrong in any morality framework (Waluchow, 2003). Virtue ethics refers to the normative ethical theory which states that an individuals character is important for ethical thinking. The virtue ethics emphasizes that an individuals character is essential in ethical thinking. It states that rather than rules or consequences, the virtues of people are important for ethical thinking. Samsung is a large multinational organization, which abides by the ethical principles and values. The business organizations follow certain ethical principles or code of conduct for ethical business (Melden 2013). They also need to abide by the government laws and legislations. However, Samsung did not follow ethical business practices. Copying the features of the Apples iPhones, the company stole the investment and the hard work of the company. Therefore, according to virtue ethics, the theft of intellectual property can be categorized as an immoral action. Social contract theory states that the morals of a person are dependent upon the contract or agreement which they form in the society they live. The contractual ethical theory is different from other normative theories as it states that an individual seek the public justification of moral principles through social contracts. It states that an individual shows or perform as particular action, principle or practice because other people are in favor of that action, principle and practice (Oxley, 2011). According to this theory, the action of Samsung is immoral as the company is operating in international markets. Therefore, it should be concerned regarding the welfare of the society. The primary stakeholders of the company are its customers which mean that the company should focus on developing positive relations with them. In this regard, it can be critiqued that the action of the company is moral when evaluated from the perspective of this theory. The company is making state-of-art te chnology more accessible to the customers. The people are able to use latest technology and derive benefits from it. However, it also encourages stealing and larceny. The people can get inspired by this action and disregard the intellectual property and labor of other people (Rawls, 2009). It can be concluded that the action of the company is immoral. Stealing the intellectual property of other people and organization is an immoral action as it disregards the financial and time investment in the development of technology. Although, some moral theories categorizes it as moral action because it makes technology more accessible to the general public, it is an immoral action as ethical framework cannot categorize stealing of others hard work as a legitimate action. Utilitarianism states that the morality of actions can be judged according to its consequences. However, the present action is spreading the value of disregard of the intellectual property rights. It can be critiqued from the essay that the action is immoral and government should impose penalty on the organization to control future intellectual property breaches in the company. References Farrell, M.E. (2010). Ethics: A University Guide. Progressive Frontiers Pubs. Oxley, J. (2011). The Moral Dimensions of Empathy: Limits and Applications in Ethical Theory and Practice. Springer. Birsch, D. (2013). Introduction to Ethical Theories: A Procedural Approach. Waveland Press. Shafer-Landau, R. (2012). Ethical Theory: An Anthology. John Wiley Sons. Melden A. (2013). Ethical Theories. Read Books Ltd. Waluchow, W.J. (2003). The Dimensions of Ethics: An Introduction to Ethical Theory. Broadview Press. Rawls, J. (2009). A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press. Timmons, M. (2012). Moral Theory: An Introduction. Plymouth: Rowman Littlefield. Garber, P.R. (2008). The Ethical Dilemma. Human Resource Development. Balakrishnan, A. (2016). Supreme Court sides with Samsung in Apple patent damages dispute. Retrieved on 3 may 2017 from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/supreme-court-rules-for-samsung-in-apple-patent-case.html

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Managing Human Resources free essay sample

This assissment is going to be about Human Resource Management and it’s going to contain information about different perspectives of human resources management and what the role involves. . HRM system is based on HR system , both work together to the same way. The example is HR strategies defining the direction in which HRM intends to go. We got few models of HRM , one I want to describe is Guest’s Model of HRM. David Guest’s model of HRM has 6 dimensions of analysis : HRM strategy HRM practices HRM outcomes Behaviour outcomes Performance outcomes Financial outcomes This model is prescriptive in the sense that it is based on the assumption that HRM is different from traditional personal management. How guest’s model is adopted in Harrods? In my opinion is adopted by having similar commitments for example the Guest model is prescriptive on the sense that it is bases on the assumption that HRM is distinctively different from traditional personnel management and rotted in strategic management. We will write a custom essay sample on Managing Human Resources or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Also the Guest’s model of HRM outcomes are fairly similar as Harrods engages employees to continues success of the business by committing to what they are doing and one of the outcomes that the Guest’s model states is commitment. David Guest’s analysis financial outcomes in his model of HRM and when looking at the financial outcome at Harrods, we can see that they are loosing money due to the employee turnover. When looking at the case study it shows that the research that has been done about the turnover indicates that the employee turnover has significant cost and performance effects to the business. For example the employee turnover at Harrods measures the rate at which employees leave their employer normally after one year. The claim of the Guest model that it is superior to others is partly justified in the sense that it clearly maps out the field of HRM and delineates the inputs and outcomes. But the dynamics of people management are so complex that no model (including the Guest model) can capture them comprehensively. P. 1. 2 The purpose of HRM is to ensure that the employees of an organization are used in such a way that the employer obtains the greatest possible benefit from their abilities and the employees obtain both material and psychological rewards from their work. Personnel management is the traditional approach to managing. It deals with the reactive side, which are rules, and regulations, wages, pension, and leave administration. It is administrative in nature. Human Resource Management are people oriented an treats employees as an asset. It is the modern approach to managing an organisation and people in the organisation. It is the proactive side of managing which puts people first. The term industrial relations has developed both a broad and a narrow meaning. Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations or employee relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Industrial relations has three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethical. In the science building phase, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. From this perspective, an industrial relation covers all aspects of the employment relationship, including human resource or personnel management and employee relations. The difference between personnel management and human resource management is that personnel management basically deals with the employees, for example they deal with payroll recruitment. Where the HRM deals with the management of the work force, training and the well-being of all employees. Also we can say that Human Resources is to incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, while at the same time seeking to create and develop teams of workers to the advantage of the organization. Personnel management comprises mainly of administrative tasks that are considered to be traditional and routine. The Human Resources management at Harrods helps to build a competitive edge by positively getting involving the employees. The HRM at Harrods use an appropriate leadership style and they use two-way communication, which is very effective as it allows information to be passed on correctly and quickly. Similar organization which adopted IR practice and Personal is NHS. The NHS UK practice managers work within the primary care sector, where they manage the overall running of general practices surgeries. Practice managers come from a variety of backgrounds and do not necessarily need to be a qualified healthcare professional. Industrial relations in the UK health care sector are characterised by high levels of social dialogue and joint regulation, particularly in the public part of the sector. P. 1. 3 At Harrods the role of the line manager is to encourage communication targets and advice to employees through face-to-face interactions. This might involve sitting down in the staff room, or in a more formal setting, to agree objectives and to give advice about improvements and new ways of working. Acting as a coach helps the line managers to develop their managerial skills, build relationships and reinforce trust at Harrods. Employees play the most vital role in HRM because they are the key advantage and we also must remember that high-performing and innovative employees are the foundation of productivity. Some major implications for HRM are, they can set direction and implement a company strategy, which builds commitment to what they do. Employees at Harrods help to develop performance metrics for on going improvements in the business. In order to increase the productivity at Harrods the line manager or HRM support their employees by communicating effectively and giving them regular feedback on their performance and by them doing that it decreases the errors and frustration caused to employees at work. Also an effective reward system for employees at Harrods motivates them towards better performance. Non-monetary factors like better status can motivate employees in addition.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Globalisation essays

Globalisation essays In the past few years, one of the most controversial economic issues has been global free trade. The proponents claim that nations engaged in open trade would experience a great deal of economic growth. Opponents think that giving foreign countries unrestricted access to American markets will cause a decrease in the number of American jobs, and will pose a threat to American sovereignty. It is the opinion of this writer that the latter is correct. The problem with global free trade is really fourfold. The first and foremost problem with such measures is, as stated above, the threat posed to American sovereignty. All free trade agreements set up international bureaucracies to govern the participants; to ensure that all parties comply with the terms of the agreement. Vice President Gore tried to allay the concerns of the opponents of GATT by claiming that the World Trade Organization would hold no authority over the U.S. He claimed that we would only be bound by those rules which we agree to and no others. However, in his very next breath, he claimed that other countries could be forced to comply with their "international trade obligations" (Gore). Clearly, this is a complete contradiction. No contry, except perhaps the U.S., would agree to so obvious a double standard. Newt Gingrich is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from the Vice-President. Of GATT, he once said, "... we need to be honest about the fact that we are transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization... I would feel better if the people who favor this would just be honest about the scale of change." ("How Can") However, despite his own concerns, and the victory he was handing his political opponents, he publicly supported and voted for GATT. Self-flagellation seems to be a hobby of these people. The second problem deals with the market size. How does the size of the market in the U.S. compare with ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

A Telephone Based Wireless Remote Controller

Data processing stages of the transmitter and receiver modules have been implemented using digital components, thereby avoiding possible use of conventional devices like monostable multivibrators. Due to the fully digital nature, the proposed design is less complex and hence the implementation is cost effective. I. INTRODUCTION With the advancement in science and technology, human beings have developed a tendency to make their everyday life amply luxurious with the aid of technology. This has led to the development of many sophisticated gadgets and equipments that assist them partially/fully in their daily activities. Operating all such electronic/electrical instruments in a modern house might be difficult for the elderly as well as disabled people. Our primary motivation to build a simple and low cost system which remotely operates all the home appliances stems from this point. We integrate our system with a standard telephone set so that the telephone can be used for the dual purpose of telephony and remote controller for various home appliances. The proposed system mainly consists of 3 modules, viz. , telephone interface circuit, transmitter and receiver. The transmitter module is in turn made up of a digital data processing block and a wireless (infrared) transmitter block and the eceiver module is made up of a wireless (infrared) receiver block, digital data processing block and a decoding block. In the scheme, a telephone receiver acts as a remote terminal to provide input Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals to the telephone interface circuit which converts them to corresponding 4 bit Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) codes. The transmitter generates an 8 bit frame using this BCD code to facilitate asynchronous communication . The receiver decodes the received signals after checking for any transmission errors (single bit) in the frame. These decoded bits act as control signals for the operation of home appliances. The system employs an asynchronous type of communication [1] in which the transmitter and receiver clocks are independent. The receiver clock does not have any prior information regarding the phase of the transmitter clock [2]. This leads to the problem of choosing the correct sampling instants at the receiver [3]. Hence the data is transmitted in the form of frames instead of individual bits. Each such frame consists of start bits, information bits, and stop bits [1]. This is explained in detail in the subsequent sections. When the system is idle, the data processing block of he transmitter gives constant logical high output. Since the transmitter consumes more power in transmitting logical high than logical low, the output of data processing block is negated before transmission to save power in the idle state. The receiver module also senses this and remains idle whenever the transmitter is transmitting continuous logical low. The reception of a start bit changes the state of the r eceiver from an idle to an active state. It then has to sample the remaining data bits in the frame at proper sampling instants. Most of the standard hardware schemes involve the use of monostable ultivibrators at the receiver to recover the data bits following the start bit. The monostable multivibrators commonly rely on variable components such as resistance and capacitance values, as well as they often account for a major part of the propagation delays associated with the receiver. We have extended this treatment to a fully digital design that presents more challenging tasks including a digital output feedback. Moreover, use of all digital components in the data processing stages reduces the propagation delay considerably. The complete design outline of all the modules of the roposed system is presented in Section II. Results and discussions are given in Section III. Finally, we present our conclusions in Section IV. II. DESIGN OUTLINE The block diagram of the proposed telephone based wireless remote control system is shown in Fig. 1. In the proposed system, the telephone set performs the dual functions of telephony and remotely controlling various devices. The remote control mode of the telephone can be activated by pressing ‘#’ from the keypad of the telephone. After the desired tasks are accomplished, ‘#’ should be pressed again to deactivate the control system. This is one of the functions of the telephone interface circuit, which is discussed next. A. Telephone Interface Circuit The telephone interface circuit integrates the designed system with the standard telephone system. As shown in Fig. 2, it basically performs the job of receiving the signals from the local loop and converting them to the standard digital signals in the BCD format. When any telephone button is pressed, a unique DTMF signal is produced for a short duration [4] which is converted to corresponding BCD code by a standard DTMF to BCD converter (KT-3170) [5]. The dual tone frequencies and the BCD codes associated with each dialed digit are shown in Table 1. The system remains in the idle state until ‘#’ button is pressed which sets the telephone to remote control mode. This mode remains activated until ‘#’ button is pressed again. This is realized in the hardware by using the BCD code corresponding to ‘#’ as the clock to toggle the J-K flip-flop (74112). The flip-flop output toggles whenever the ‘#’ button is pressed and this is directly used to control the mode of operation of the telephone. The DSO output of KT-3170 [5] is used to generate a start it for the system as it is logical high whenever a received tone pair has been registered and the output latch is updated. As the latched 4-bit BCD code is directly available at the output of KT-3170, it is given as such to the data processing block of the transmitter. These data bits are then processed to facilitate asynchronous communicatio n as explained below. B. Transmitter The 4-bit output of KT-3170 can not be directly transmitted as individual bits as the proposed system employs asynchronous mode of communication. The 4-bit BCD code is thus transmitted as frames for proper reception [1]. We have chosen an eight bit frame for our system which consists of a start bit followed by four data bits, a parity bit and two stop bits. Parity bit enables the system to detect any single bit error during transmission. Stop bits mark the ending of the frame. The frame is then transmitted using infrared (IR) transmitter. As shown in Fig. 2, the transmitter mainly consists of two blocks which are explained below. 1) Fully Digital Data Processing Block: This block performs the function of converting individual bits to 8-bit frames in order to carry asynchronous communication. First bit of the frame is the start bit (taken as 0) which is generated when any of the buttons is pressed. The succeeding 4 bits are the data bits (BCD code) generated by the telephone interface circuit as explained before. Next bit is taken as parity check bit generated by XORing the first 5 bits of the frame. Last 2 bits, termed as stop bits, are taken as 1. Following the generation of the start bit, the data bits are loaded in the parallel to serial converter (74165) using a D-type flip-flop (7474) and the frame is transmitted serially. 2) IR Transmitter Block: This module transmits the frames enerated in the previous section using an IR emitting diode. The data to be transmitted is modulated using Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) with a carrier square wave of 38 kHz. The transmission range of the system is thus highly improved over the case when data is transmitted without modulation. As the data processing stage gives logical high output in the idle state, it is negated before tran smission to save power. Thus, a logical low is actually transmitted whenever the system is in idle state. C. Receiver The receiver also has 2 working states, viz. , idle and active. It remains in the idle state until it detects a start bit. It then receives the frame starting from the start bit and checks for a single bit error. If error is detected, no action is taken and the information has to be transmitted again by the user. The received data bits are then decoded which act as control signals for the operation of various appliances. As is evident from Fig. 3, receiver circuit can be subdivided into 3 blocks which are explained below. 1) IR Receiver Block: This block receives the transmitted frames and converts the signal back to Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) levels. A standard 38 kHz IR receiver (TSOP 1738) [6] is used for this purpose. 2) Sampling Clock Generator: The main function of this block is to generate a sampling instant at approximately the middle of the transmitted bit interval. The start bit activates this block and loads counter 1 (4-bit up-counter) with value ‘0’. The clock frequency of this counter is 16 times the bit rate. When the output of this counter changes from 7 to 8, the most significant bit changes from ‘0’ to ‘1’ and this rising edge is used as the sampling instant for the data. Start bit also loads the counter 2 (4-bit down-counter) with the frame size i. e. , 8. When this reaches the value ‘0’, the whole block is disabled and is reactivated only when next start bit arrives. 3) Data Sampler and Decoder: The serial input data is sampled according to the sampling instant generated in the previous stage and is converted to parallel form using serial to parallel converter (74164). This data is then checked for any 1-bit errors by XORing the bits. If error is found, no action is taken and the data has to be retransmitted. If no errors are found, the data is decoded using 4-16 decoder (74154) and he signal is given to the appliance for the completion of the corresponding task. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The proposed system has been fully implemented and successfully tested in the standard telephone local loop. The transmitter, kept near the telephone set, taps the DTMF signal from the local loop and transmits the corresponding data frame wirelessly . This signal is received by the receiver installed at the switch board. It decodes the data and takes the corresponding action. At least ten control signals, corresponding to each digit from 0 to 9, can be generated using a standard telephone set. The transmitter was previously implemented without a modulator where the IR LED was kept ON for transmitting logical high and OFF for transmitting logical low. This limited the distance between the transmitter and receiver to a maximum of 30 cms for proper reception. The range of the wireless system has increased to several meters after modulating the data using 38 kHz square wave. This range also depends on the current flowing through the infrared diode which has to be properly tuned to maximize the range. A standard TSOP 1738 receiver is used in the proposed ystem, which requires a minimum burst length of 10 cycles for proper detection. This puts an upper limit on the data rate supported by our system which is practically observed to be 2. 8 kbps [5]. The IR transmitter is highly directional and requires the receiver to be in line of sight of the transmitter. The reception angle of the receiver is observed to decrease with increasing distance between the transmitter and receiver. T his is because of the fact that the power is not uniformly distributed and is concentrated in narrow transmission angle. Moreover, the signal power reduces when the distance between the transmitter and the receiver is increased. So, the receiver has to be highly aligned with transmitter when operating at some substantial distance from it. This problem is of not much concern for our system because the transmitter and receiver, being static in nature, can be properly aligned at the time of installation. The data processing blocks of both the transmitter and the receiver are fully digital in nature. This comprehensively reduces the propagation delays involved and increases the rate at which data can be processed in these blocks. Though, data rate is not very important in the present application but this feature makes the design of our data processing blocks suitable for high data rate applications which are commonly seen in wired communication. IV. CONCLUSIONS A wireless system has been proposed to operate the home appliances remotely using a standard telephone set. This has been successfully tested and is found to be working satisfactorily within a distance of 10 meters. The telephone receiver performs a dual-function of telephony and remotely controlling various devices with the help of its ‘#’ button on the keypad. The telephone interface circuit is easily integrated with the standard local loop thus avoiding any changes in the telephone set. Hence, the proposed system is compatible with any type of telephone working on standard local loop. The system employs asynchronous mode of communication which avoids the need to synchronize the transmitter and receiver clocks, thus making our system less complex and hence cost effective. The proposed fully digital innovative design of the data processing blocks reduces the propagation delay and makes them useful for even high data rate applications. Moreover, the system is capable of detecting the single bit errors occuring during transmission. The proposed system can be used in a wide range of practical applications such as speed control of motors, switching of appliances, control of robots, etc. The above discussed characteristics like simple design, high practical utility and easy installation makes our system highly marketable. REFERENCES [1] Gorry Fairhurst. Asynchronous Communication [Online]. Available: http://www. erg. abdn. ac. uk/users/gorry/course/phy-pages/async. html. [2] D. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets with Internet Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004. [3] A. Subramanian, V. P. S. Makh and A. Mitra, â€Å"A New Digital Transceiver Circuit for Asynchronous Communication†, Enformatika Trans. , vol. 8, pp. 237-241, Oct. 2005. [4] DTMF Background [Online]. Available: http:// www. ece. utexas. edu/mason/codesign/dtmf. html. [5] Samsung Electronics Datasheet. KT3170 Low Power DTMF Receiver [Online]. Available: http://www. ortodoxism. ro/datasheets/SamsungElectronic/mXuusvq. pdf. [6] Vishay Semiconductors Datasheet. Photo Modules for PCM Remote Control Systems [Online]. Available: http://www. vishay. com/docs/82030/82030. pdf A Telephone Based Wireless Remote Controller Data processing stages of the transmitter and receiver modules have been implemented using digital components, thereby avoiding possible use of conventional devices like monostable multivibrators. Due to the fully digital nature, the proposed design is less complex and hence the implementation is cost effective. I. INTRODUCTION With the advancement in science and technology, human beings have developed a tendency to make their everyday life amply luxurious with the aid of technology. This has led to the development of many sophisticated gadgets and equipments that assist them partially/fully in their daily activities. Operating all such electronic/electrical instruments in a modern house might be difficult for the elderly as well as disabled people. Our primary motivation to build a simple and low cost system which remotely operates all the home appliances stems from this point. We integrate our system with a standard telephone set so that the telephone can be used for the dual purpose of telephony and remote controller for various home appliances. The proposed system mainly consists of 3 modules, viz. , telephone interface circuit, transmitter and receiver. The transmitter module is in turn made up of a digital data processing block and a wireless (infrared) transmitter block and the eceiver module is made up of a wireless (infrared) receiver block, digital data processing block and a decoding block. In the scheme, a telephone receiver acts as a remote terminal to provide input Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals to the telephone interface circuit which converts them to corresponding 4 bit Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) codes. The transmitter generates an 8 bit frame using this BCD code to facilitate asynchronous communication . The receiver decodes the received signals after checking for any transmission errors (single bit) in the frame. These decoded bits act as control signals for the operation of home appliances. The system employs an asynchronous type of communication [1] in which the transmitter and receiver clocks are independent. The receiver clock does not have any prior information regarding the phase of the transmitter clock [2]. This leads to the problem of choosing the correct sampling instants at the receiver [3]. Hence the data is transmitted in the form of frames instead of individual bits. Each such frame consists of start bits, information bits, and stop bits [1]. This is explained in detail in the subsequent sections. When the system is idle, the data processing block of he transmitter gives constant logical high output. Since the transmitter consumes more power in transmitting logical high than logical low, the output of data processing block is negated before transmission to save power in the idle state. The receiver module also senses this and remains idle whenever the transmitter is transmitting continuous logical low. The reception of a start bit changes the state of the r eceiver from an idle to an active state. It then has to sample the remaining data bits in the frame at proper sampling instants. Most of the standard hardware schemes involve the use of monostable ultivibrators at the receiver to recover the data bits following the start bit. The monostable multivibrators commonly rely on variable components such as resistance and capacitance values, as well as they often account for a major part of the propagation delays associated with the receiver. We have extended this treatment to a fully digital design that presents more challenging tasks including a digital output feedback. Moreover, use of all digital components in the data processing stages reduces the propagation delay considerably. The complete design outline of all the modules of the roposed system is presented in Section II. Results and discussions are given in Section III. Finally, we present our conclusions in Section IV. II. DESIGN OUTLINE The block diagram of the proposed telephone based wireless remote control system is shown in Fig. 1. In the proposed system, the telephone set performs the dual functions of telephony and remotely controlling various devices. The remote control mode of the telephone can be activated by pressing ‘#’ from the keypad of the telephone. After the desired tasks are accomplished, ‘#’ should be pressed again to deactivate the control system. This is one of the functions of the telephone interface circuit, which is discussed next. A. Telephone Interface Circuit The telephone interface circuit integrates the designed system with the standard telephone system. As shown in Fig. 2, it basically performs the job of receiving the signals from the local loop and converting them to the standard digital signals in the BCD format. When any telephone button is pressed, a unique DTMF signal is produced for a short duration [4] which is converted to corresponding BCD code by a standard DTMF to BCD converter (KT-3170) [5]. The dual tone frequencies and the BCD codes associated with each dialed digit are shown in Table 1. The system remains in the idle state until ‘#’ button is pressed which sets the telephone to remote control mode. This mode remains activated until ‘#’ button is pressed again. This is realized in the hardware by using the BCD code corresponding to ‘#’ as the clock to toggle the J-K flip-flop (74112). The flip-flop output toggles whenever the ‘#’ button is pressed and this is directly used to control the mode of operation of the telephone. The DSO output of KT-3170 [5] is used to generate a start it for the system as it is logical high whenever a received tone pair has been registered and the output latch is updated. As the latched 4-bit BCD code is directly available at the output of KT-3170, it is given as such to the data processing block of the transmitter. These data bits are then processed to facilitate asynchronous communicatio n as explained below. B. Transmitter The 4-bit output of KT-3170 can not be directly transmitted as individual bits as the proposed system employs asynchronous mode of communication. The 4-bit BCD code is thus transmitted as frames for proper reception [1]. We have chosen an eight bit frame for our system which consists of a start bit followed by four data bits, a parity bit and two stop bits. Parity bit enables the system to detect any single bit error during transmission. Stop bits mark the ending of the frame. The frame is then transmitted using infrared (IR) transmitter. As shown in Fig. 2, the transmitter mainly consists of two blocks which are explained below. 1) Fully Digital Data Processing Block: This block performs the function of converting individual bits to 8-bit frames in order to carry asynchronous communication. First bit of the frame is the start bit (taken as 0) which is generated when any of the buttons is pressed. The succeeding 4 bits are the data bits (BCD code) generated by the telephone interface circuit as explained before. Next bit is taken as parity check bit generated by XORing the first 5 bits of the frame. Last 2 bits, termed as stop bits, are taken as 1. Following the generation of the start bit, the data bits are loaded in the parallel to serial converter (74165) using a D-type flip-flop (7474) and the frame is transmitted serially. 2) IR Transmitter Block: This module transmits the frames enerated in the previous section using an IR emitting diode. The data to be transmitted is modulated using Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) with a carrier square wave of 38 kHz. The transmission range of the system is thus highly improved over the case when data is transmitted without modulation. As the data processing stage gives logical high output in the idle state, it is negated before tran smission to save power. Thus, a logical low is actually transmitted whenever the system is in idle state. C. Receiver The receiver also has 2 working states, viz. , idle and active. It remains in the idle state until it detects a start bit. It then receives the frame starting from the start bit and checks for a single bit error. If error is detected, no action is taken and the information has to be transmitted again by the user. The received data bits are then decoded which act as control signals for the operation of various appliances. As is evident from Fig. 3, receiver circuit can be subdivided into 3 blocks which are explained below. 1) IR Receiver Block: This block receives the transmitted frames and converts the signal back to Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) levels. A standard 38 kHz IR receiver (TSOP 1738) [6] is used for this purpose. 2) Sampling Clock Generator: The main function of this block is to generate a sampling instant at approximately the middle of the transmitted bit interval. The start bit activates this block and loads counter 1 (4-bit up-counter) with value ‘0’. The clock frequency of this counter is 16 times the bit rate. When the output of this counter changes from 7 to 8, the most significant bit changes from ‘0’ to ‘1’ and this rising edge is used as the sampling instant for the data. Start bit also loads the counter 2 (4-bit down-counter) with the frame size i. e. , 8. When this reaches the value ‘0’, the whole block is disabled and is reactivated only when next start bit arrives. 3) Data Sampler and Decoder: The serial input data is sampled according to the sampling instant generated in the previous stage and is converted to parallel form using serial to parallel converter (74164). This data is then checked for any 1-bit errors by XORing the bits. If error is found, no action is taken and the data has to be retransmitted. If no errors are found, the data is decoded using 4-16 decoder (74154) and he signal is given to the appliance for the completion of the corresponding task. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The proposed system has been fully implemented and successfully tested in the standard telephone local loop. The transmitter, kept near the telephone set, taps the DTMF signal from the local loop and transmits the corresponding data frame wirelessly . This signal is received by the receiver installed at the switch board. It decodes the data and takes the corresponding action. At least ten control signals, corresponding to each digit from 0 to 9, can be generated using a standard telephone set. The transmitter was previously implemented without a modulator where the IR LED was kept ON for transmitting logical high and OFF for transmitting logical low. This limited the distance between the transmitter and receiver to a maximum of 30 cms for proper reception. The range of the wireless system has increased to several meters after modulating the data using 38 kHz square wave. This range also depends on the current flowing through the infrared diode which has to be properly tuned to maximize the range. A standard TSOP 1738 receiver is used in the proposed ystem, which requires a minimum burst length of 10 cycles for proper detection. This puts an upper limit on the data rate supported by our system which is practically observed to be 2. 8 kbps [5]. The IR transmitter is highly directional and requires the receiver to be in line of sight of the transmitter. The reception angle of the receiver is observed to decrease with increasing distance between the transmitter and receiver. T his is because of the fact that the power is not uniformly distributed and is concentrated in narrow transmission angle. Moreover, the signal power reduces when the distance between the transmitter and the receiver is increased. So, the receiver has to be highly aligned with transmitter when operating at some substantial distance from it. This problem is of not much concern for our system because the transmitter and receiver, being static in nature, can be properly aligned at the time of installation. The data processing blocks of both the transmitter and the receiver are fully digital in nature. This comprehensively reduces the propagation delays involved and increases the rate at which data can be processed in these blocks. Though, data rate is not very important in the present application but this feature makes the design of our data processing blocks suitable for high data rate applications which are commonly seen in wired communication. IV. CONCLUSIONS A wireless system has been proposed to operate the home appliances remotely using a standard telephone set. This has been successfully tested and is found to be working satisfactorily within a distance of 10 meters. The telephone receiver performs a dual-function of telephony and remotely controlling various devices with the help of its ‘#’ button on the keypad. The telephone interface circuit is easily integrated with the standard local loop thus avoiding any changes in the telephone set. Hence, the proposed system is compatible with any type of telephone working on standard local loop. The system employs asynchronous mode of communication which avoids the need to synchronize the transmitter and receiver clocks, thus making our system less complex and hence cost effective. The proposed fully digital innovative design of the data processing blocks reduces the propagation delay and makes them useful for even high data rate applications. Moreover, the system is capable of detecting the single bit errors occuring during transmission. The proposed system can be used in a wide range of practical applications such as speed control of motors, switching of appliances, control of robots, etc. The above discussed characteristics like simple design, high practical utility and easy installation makes our system highly marketable. REFERENCES [1] Gorry Fairhurst. Asynchronous Communication [Online]. Available: http://www. erg. abdn. ac. uk/users/gorry/course/phy-pages/async. html. [2] D. Comer, Computer Networks and Internets with Internet Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004. [3] A. Subramanian, V. P. S. Makh and A. Mitra, â€Å"A New Digital Transceiver Circuit for Asynchronous Communication†, Enformatika Trans. , vol. 8, pp. 237-241, Oct. 2005. [4] DTMF Background [Online]. Available: http:// www. ece. utexas. edu/mason/codesign/dtmf. html. [5] Samsung Electronics Datasheet. KT3170 Low Power DTMF Receiver [Online]. Available: http://www. ortodoxism. ro/datasheets/SamsungElectronic/mXuusvq. pdf. [6] Vishay Semiconductors Datasheet. Photo Modules for PCM Remote Control Systems [Online]. Available: http://www. vishay. com/docs/82030/82030. pdf

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Career opportunities- Sports information director and Media relations Essay

Career opportunities- Sports information director and Media relations coordinator - Essay Example should possess good verbal and written communications, interpersonal relations, good presentation skills, and ability to work a flexible schedule (Gresham, 2015). According to Gresham (2015), to become a sports information director, one needs to pursue a degree in marketing, communication or sports. Further, one needs to get certification from the College Sports Information Directors of America to show that one has knowledge and acumen to succeed. The media relations coordinator acts as the principal point of contact for all public and media relations efforts. They engage in shaping and propagating the broad communication strategies that will influence the audiences (Loughborough University, 2010). The entry level of a media relations officer includes a bachelor’s degree in communication, public relations or any other related field. One also needs knowledge and experience with media monitoring software, online media databases, excellent attention to details, and proficiency in computer skills, ability to work independently, excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills and good networking skills (Marketing Schools.org., 2012). To become a public relations coordinator, one needs to go through the general education. The person should have the ability to communicate fluently both in writing and in speech. One should also get training in marketing, communications and writing. Additionally one should be networked by joining the Public Relations Student Society of America. One should also get to go for internships while in school to gain the hands-on knowledge (Marketing Schools.org.,

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Dwarf planet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dwarf planet - Essay Example sume the spherical shape and secondly, they have not yet established a debris free orbit in their solar system and thirdly, they must not be satellites for other planets. Further, if the celestial object in question is too small to take the rounded spherical shape, it would probably be classified as a comet or an asteroid. In our own solar system, there are several objects that fall under this category of planets. The introduction of this new category of celestial objects was prompted by the recent discovery of Eris – a disc shaped cluster of debris that was located far beyond the orbit of Pluto. The other notable dwarf planets in our solar system are Ceres and Pluto. Ceres was for previously recognized as the largest asteroid and Pluto is demoted to dwarf planet status considering that its orbit is not as well established as other planets. It is interesting to note that these three are only the most prominent dwarf planets in our solar system. There could be as many as 200 orbiting in the outer reaches of our solar

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Secondary School Essay Example for Free

Secondary School Essay Some kids act really scared or nurvice and others dont. The truth is, mostlPremium 464 Words 2 Pages The Last Day of High School the First Day of the Rest of My Life The last day of my high school career is fast approaching and I can only imagine how Ill be feeling when I step out of S.F. Austins grounds for the very last time. Throughout these four years, I have felt a lot of urgency about graduating high school. I didnt think that the time to graduate wouldPremium 336 Words 2 Pages Snapshot (First Day at Primary School) My snapshot is of my first day at primary school. Why did I choose this picture? Well, because it was a totally new experience for me, essentially different to my first day at primary school because I had only been to nursery before. There were a lot of things going through my mind when this was tPremium 1242 Words 5 Pages First Day in Secondary School First day in Secondary School In Hong Kong, moving from Primary school to Secondary school is an important step, it signify a child has grown into a teenage. My first day in secondary school had a lot of first time for me. September 1st, was always the first day of every school in Hong Kong. ThiPremium 614 Words 3 Pages The Infringement of the First Amendment in High School Theatre In the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent C zzzzzzzzzcMy First Day of High School The beeping of my alarm clock sounded like a countdown. The first day of high school was only two hours away. I was excited, but a lot more nervous. I got out of bed, got ready, and then was on my way to the bus stop. All I could think of are the stories I heard about high school being so horrible with all the strict teachers, the really hard tests, and of course being a freshman doesn’t help either. The bus ride to the school was only ten minutes, but it seemed a lot longer. When we finally got there, I was more nervous than ever. The day ahead of me was about to get a lot more complicated though with all the work, finding a seat at lunch, and getting lost. After already being late to my first period and all of the not-so-bad  classes afterwards, it was lunch time. I dropped off some books at the locker I shared with my boyfriend, and walked down with him. We were a little late when we got there so we ended up sitting somewhere we didn’t want to because the tables were already filled up. We went up to get our lunch and came back to find our seats were taken. We soon found out getting up meant risking your seat. The whole lunch period everyone was talking about how their day went so far. Most of them were complaining, including me. Then the bell rang and it was time to go to the next period. I really didn’t want lunch to end. But on the other hand, at least there were only about two hours left of the day. Finally, it was the end of the day. Finding my next class was easier. I still wasn’t in time, but neither were the other kids. When my 6th period ended, it was a huge relief. I thought the day was finally over. But I still had to get on the bus again to go home; therefore it still wasn’t completely over. I went to our locker, grabbed my take-home textbooks and checked to make sure I didn’t lock the combination in there again. I forgot which way to go, so I followed around my boyfriend.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Horny Goat Weed Essay -- Sexuality Disorders Treatments Essays

Horny Goat Weed One major issue in the world today is sexuality. Do I look good enough? I wonder if he or she likes me? While most of the world today is becoming increasingly sexually active, there are others are out there who are lacking in this field. Their bodies are no longer inclined to have or sex, or their sexual drive loses the battle between time and fatigue. Horny Goat Weed is said to be the cure of this "problem." Horny Goat Weed, also known as Epimedium, Yin Yang Huo, Inyokaku, and Herba Epimedii, was discovered around 200 B.C. Legend has it that an ancient Chinese goat herder noticed that his flock suddenly became sexually active after eating in a certain patch of weeds. Further investigation of this weed patch and a little leaf chewing resulted in the discovery of Horny Goat Weed (http://www.sobebev.com/healthyrefreshment/ productline/drive.htm). Purpose of Treatment There are many different claims as to what Horny Goat Weed actually does. Online stores and distributors, which are more focused on marketing the herb for increased sexual behavior, main claims are stimulating sex activity in both men and women, increase in sperm production, stimulation of the sensory nerves, and increasing sexual desire(http://nutrition-center.net/store/Pinnacle_Horny_Goat_Weed.html). Online sites, which appear to be more focused on health, make claims that Horny Goat Weed invigorates the kidneys and strengthens yang(for deficiency of kidney-yang manifested as impotence, emission, enuresis, frequent micturition, soreness of the waist and the knees, and sterility), strengthen tendons and bones, expel wind-dampness(which is otherwise known as flatulence, caused by the improper indigestion of food), and eliminate coughing and ... ...t/store/Pinnace_Horny_Goat_Weed.html http://homepages.infoseek.com/~huxuezhi/5-17.htm http://herbwalk.com/remedy/Epimedium_132.html http://advancedherbals.co.uk/herbs/div/epimedium_grandiflorum.html http://user.aol.com/greenmagik/stamina.htm WS, Lin, & XZ, Song. (1989). Clinical and Experimental research on a kidney-tonifying prescription in preventing and treating children's hearing lossinduced by aminoglycoside antibiotic ototoxicity. Chung His I Chieh Ho Tsa Chih, 9, 402-404. SY, Li, G, Ping, L, Geng, WK, Seow, and YH, Thong. (1994). Immunopharmocol-Ogy and toxicology of the plant flavanoid B-1. International Journal of Immunopharmacology, 16, 227-231. S, Yu, K, Chen, S, Li, & K, Zhang. (1999). In vitro and in vivo studies of the effect of a Chinese herb medicine on osteoclastic bone resorption. Chinese Journal of Dental Restoration, 2, 7-11.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Partners Healthcare Case Aanlysis Essay

Partners Healthcare had established several financial resources pools, such as the short-term pool (STP) and the LTP, so that they can satisfy different needs of the several hospitals in the network. In more detail, the STP was invested with very high-quality, short-term fixed-income financial instruments. The average maturity of these instruments is about one to two years. STP is always treated as the risk-free part of the hospitals’ holdings. On the other hand, the LTP is thought as the risky part of holdings. It consists of different forms of equity and a smaller fixed-income part. In order to diversify the risks of the LTP, the Partners Investment Committee introduced a new type of assets, real assets, into the original LTP during the past years. Both of the assets’ performance turned to be excellent during 2004. As a result, the Investment Committee was considering expanding the real-asset segment of the LTP. Michael Manning, the deputy treasurer of Partners Healthcare System, was asked to recommend the size and the composition for the real-asset portfolio contributed to the $2.4 billion long-term pool (LTP) in the Partners. Facts and Analysis Due to the fact that different Partners Healthcare hospitals might have different acceptable risk levels for their investment portfolio then the most reasonable solution would be to invest both in risk-free STP and risky LTP. By choosing different mixes each hospital could achieve their acceptable risk level. Since the STP has a nearly fixed rate of return considered to be risk free for each hospital’s own portfolio, the variation from LTP would ultimately determine the risk and return level of individual portfolio. Using long-term historical data, Manning and his staff calculated average annual returns, volatilities, and correlations for each of the asset classes (exhibit 3). Since real assets belong to LTP, there is no direct impact on the STP returns from investing in this category. Given the current mix of Domestic Equities (55%), Foreign Equities (30%) and LT Bonds (15%) and our expected return for each category (exhibit 3), the expected return of the LTP is calculated from the following formula: e.g. E(Rp)= 0.55(0.1294)+0.30(0.1242)+0.15(0.054) = 10.8% In order to find the optimal portfolio allocation, the group needs to find the portfolio structured with lowest risk under a given return. This can be achieved by applying Mean-Variance Theory and Markowitz model find the efficient frontier, which yields the most optimal portfolio under given returns. It can be expressed in mathematical terms and solved by quadratic programming. [Appendix A] In this case, the Partner’s Treasury Department has computed all the portfolios for minimum level of risk with different types of assets, more specifically, adding Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Commodities or both, from an undefined approach. Since the results are identical as calculated from Mean-Variance Theory, they should be the optimal portfolios for each target level of return. Therefore a graph with efficient frontier, which represents the optimal portfolios with different assets, is constructed based on Exhibit 5 to 8 for comparison. [Appendix B] Technically, any portfolio on the efficient frontier is an optimized portfolio and is indifferent from each other in terms of risk/return trade off. From the Risk VS Return graph, we can see that for any given return, the portfolio with both REITs and commodities would yield the lowest risk. Also, the portfolio with only commodities would outperform the portfolio with only REITs. For instance, if we invest in both REITs and Commodities, in order to obtain a return of 10%, the new proportion of the LTP will be portfolio 4 with approximately US Equity 14.3%, Foreign Equity 27.5%, Bonds 22.2%, REITs 13.8%, and Commodities 22.3%. It produces the lowest risk of 8.49%, comparing to original portfolio of 9.94%, REITs only portfolio of 9.69% and Commodities only portfolio of 8.49%. This is the basic concept of diversification, which means that the more assets with less correlation are introduced to the portfolio; the less risky the portfolio will be for any achievable rate of return. [1] For the overall portfolio, each hospital can allocate between the STP and the LTP. In fact, they can always construct the most efficient portfolio for their acceptable risk level with combination of LTP, which holds the risky assets, and STP, which holds the risk-free asset according to The One-Fund Theorem. [2] For example, if the shareholders want a total return of X, with a 3.2% return of STP and a 10% return of LTP, the proportion of STP and LTP can be obtained through X= w(0.032) + (1-w)(0.10) And it is guaranteed to be the optimal portfolio. Even though Mean-Variance theory can allocate the most optimal portfolio, there are several flaws with its assumptions. First of all, it assumes that assets returns are normally distributed. However, often times, it’s observed that asset returns are more like to be fat-tailed distribution, [3] instead of having thin tails like normal distribution. Second of all, it assumes there is a constant correlation between different assets. However, under certain conditions, for example, severe financial crisis like 2008, all assets tend to be positively correlated with decreasing rate of return. Depending on the total time period used for historical data, it can place an impact on the long term correlation. Aside from the assumptions, the time period of data can also affect each variable. In this case, the client uses data started from 1970 for the new asset classes, which might not be as representative as using long term historical data from 1926 as they did with the US equities and US long-term bonds. This can have some impacts on the returns, standard deviations, and correlations depending on the movement of assets from 1926 to 1970. Recommendation By comparing the data in the table of Exhibit 5a with the numerical results shown in Exhibit 6 and Exhibit 7, as well as the efficient frontier constructed, we can derive the conclusion that with the same expected returns, the most optimal portfolio is to add both REITs and commodities. In other words, we can control the risk of LTP by expanding the portion of real assets. If only one asset is allowed to be added to the real asset category, it’s more efficient to add the commodities than the REITs based on the position of the efficient frontier. Therefore, with a combination of risk free STP and the improved LTP, each individual hospital is able to construct the most optimized portfolio under any given risk level.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Gender Biologically Determined Essay

Drawing upon ethnographic examples from 2-3 societies. Gender being ‘biologically determined’ means that whether gender is inherited or passed down by genetics. If a person is a man or woman, (which is usually called ‘The Sex’), that is biologically determined because they inherit the chromosomes to be born a man, or to be born as a woman. In the early 1970’s sex was described by â€Å"biology as: anatomy, hormones, and physiology† (West and Zimmerman 1987). Apart from gender being a biological factor, there are other things which are not biologically determined; â€Å"Gender was an achieved status, which was constructed through psychological, cultural and social means† (West and Zimmerman1987). Hence the answer to the question â€Å"is gender biologically determined?†Is no, Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon. Gender refers to a set of roles people perform in their communities, which are their values and attitudes that people have toward man and woman (Bonvillain 2006). In this essay, the topics which would be discussed to support this argument are Gender Identity with examples of how men and women are expected to act, walk, talk and dress in a certain manner which is suitable in their society, Gender and Sexuality with the examples of culturally in-built norms of sexual behaviour, along with existing issues surrounding sexuality, and finally Gender and Status with an example of male dominance in Traditional Chinese society. Gender identity is defined in terms of how people (i.e. men and women) are supposed to behave in the social category. Their attitudes and the way the dress, talk and carry themselves in the public are encoded â€Å"in a set of cultural assumptions† which are based on the culture’s values and roles and people are expected to learn these as they are a part of that society (Bonvillain 2006). Each culture has certain ‘norms’ for gender and these ‘norms’ vary from culture to culture, most of these norms have a universal common pattern and people seem to dwell on these social constructs as they make a living based on these ideologies. â€Å"Cultural constructs are models of behaviour and attitudes that a particular culture transmits to its members. These constructs are shared beliefs and values that become taken for granted guiding principles† (Bonvillain 2006). There are so many ways that these socially constructed behaviours are exhibited in different communities, the messages about how each man and woman should act depends upon several factors such as language and religious beliefs. Men and Women were distinguished based on their clothing, what they were allowed to wear as a man and woman, hence publically signalling their genders, men wore pants and had other bodily arts such as tattoos while woman adorned dresses, jewellery and make up. This made up the very basic structure of Gender Identity. Apart from, the basic examples of gender identity, there are several other cases where women and men have unequal identities, one such case is the, Identity inequality of men and woman in family farms. In today’s world, Gender revolves around being the fact that women are less recognised than men, and are subjected to work which are in the shadows of confinement. That being the generalised factor, the study of the ‘European family farm’ only made this issue recognizable to the world. Farms were considered to be the dominant agricultural production in the capitalist countries (Brandth 2002). The study used theories of gender role and identity, explaini ng the issue in the form of discourses. In the 1990’s questions were being raised towards identity of women and men in the rural farms, these questions eventually shifted towards feminism (Brandth 2002). â€Å"Discourses are forms of power. They constitute minds, bodies, identities of individuals as parts of wider networks of power relations† (Brandth 2002). It was used in the context of giving out a meaning towards the differences of men and women, there were three discourses formulated by Hirschman, called as the exit, voice and loyalty. Women, who didn’t want to be subjected to unequal status left the system, some used their voice to protest against it, while others simply were loyal and confined themselves to the household activities. The law stated that the ‘family farm’ should be passed on from father to son, since women were considered weak and have no access and knowledge of property and agriculture. Women only came into this, only by marriage. Hence, the male leads the family into it, he allocates what job has to be done, and he participates in forums decisions, and doing so he becomes publically recognised. Since women are adaptable and flexible, their tasks are confined to household chores, and these tasks are unpaid and not recognised as productive output from them. On the other hand, men’s identities were tied to their ownership of the farms, their occupation and the productive outcome which give them status and economic income. â€Å"Real work was equated with physical tasks and women’s self image is based on the absence of such qualities† (Brandth 2002). In recent days, with the improvement of farming technologies, the female work, such as milking cows, and so on are now being done by these improvised machines, making women less efficient and thus making farming a whole masculine activity (Brandth 2002). Hence with this example it is clearly pointed out that the social construct differentiates an d distinguishes men and women. Apart from gender being differentiated by a social construct, there are factors which raised questions and studies in the society, one of such being gender and its relation to sexuality. There is always a taboo when it comes to sex, and it seems to be a common pattern in the world. Even though, we have sexual feelings and we practice them as it being a part of nature, it is also deeply influenced by culture (Bonvillain 2006). Culture teaches people what is the right thing to do, in what way, when, where and so on. There are a lot of examples where culture intervenes and states the ‘norms’ under which the people in that society or community should behave sexually. For example, sexual relationship between members of a nuclear family or distant relations is prohibited in most cultures. There are other countries which have the legal age of having sex, which are usually the Americans and Europeans, where the legal age is 16, so if a person indulges in a sexual relationship wi th a person who is below 16 it is considered against the law and will be filed for statutory rape (Bonvillain 2006). Other regions such as India, sex before marriage is considered as sin based on the cultural beliefs, whereas in American society it is inappropriate to have sex if you’re not husband or wife (Bonvillain 2006). While in some countries where sex could be considered as normal, other societies, like Islamic countries for example, any adultery committed by a male or by a female is severely punished, or most commonly stoned to death (Bonvillain 2006). But this isn’t the only issue considering sexuality, the most recent yet shocking development, is homosexuality between men and woman. â€Å"Homosexuality was considered to be a violation of the natural law† (Bonvillain 2006). People were only meant to engage in heterosexual activity (between man and woman) to reproduce. During the 1980’s indulging in homosexual activity was considered in crime, people were imprisoned when caught doing so. But in 2003 some parts of the United States, suspended the law, and made hom osexuality legal, soon European countries such as Canada, Belgium, and Netherlands passed an act which approved of homosexual weddings (Bonvillain 2006). If one digs deeper into this issue, where these debatable, one can find that it roots back from religions. Most religion disapprove of homosexuality but in religions such as Hindu, for sexuality, scriptures of homosexual activity only stated that it was normal and natural, to be attracted to the same sex (Bonvillain 2006). But in today’s society the main issue is regarding the issue of males being attracted to each other, an example of this issue is ‘Homophobia of men’. Homosexuality is considered to be a cultural construct, which apart from the ‘lesbian identities’ gave rise to the ‘gay identities’ (Herek 1986). It is common for normal men, to avoid influencing with homosexual men, as they fear what the public might think of them being judged as not ‘masculine’, where as its more normal for woman to associate with lesbians or homosexual women, as they are not being judged by the rest of the females (Herek 1986). Studies showed, that the social construction of gay identities meant that there was something psychologically wrong with that person, it was never attributed to the fact that homosexuality is more of a social construct than something being wrong with the individuals mental state (Herek 1986). Gay men are more scared to come out, or feel comfortable about their sexuality in the public than gay woman. The reason for this is because, men look for other men’s approval to gain the status of being ‘a man’ (Kimmel). â€Å"We are under the constant careful scrutiny of other men. Other men watch us, rank us, and grant our acceptance into the realm of manhood. Manhood is demonstrated of other men’s approval. It is other men who evaluate the performance† (Kimmel). As mentioned earlier, men look for other men’s approval, and because of this gay men are subjected to stigma and discrimination (Herek 1986). As a result, they develop ‘defensiveness,’ an unconscious defence mechanism (defined in psychodynamic terms). This helps them avoid or repress their homosexual tendencies (Kimmel). To summarise, gender is not biologically determined because people have the free will to choose their sexuality (i.e. they are not born being homosexuals, it is clearly a social construct). Gender roles, is defined as a set of rules or rather guidelines towards the behaviour of men and woman. The rights and duties, attitudes and behaviours of men and women constitutes of how they are culturally associated with gender (Bonvillain 2006). The works of men and women are separate, as in, men carry on doing work which they are culturally supposed to be doing and women do their work, based on what the norms of cultures tell them to do. When these two norms interact with each other, they reflect a lot of differences and changes in status, prestige and power of men and woman this is called as ‘gender relations’ (Bonvillain 2006). It is obvious that men are thought to be more superior to women as they are more power driven and physically stronger than woman. While, men get more prestigious and leadership jobs, woman are confined to their homely duties of being a house-wife or in other words a care- giver (Bonvillain 2006). This brings about the inequality of men and woman. There tasks which categorize what woman are capable of doing such as, caring for children and their husbands, cooking food, making clothes and other homely chores, while men on the other hand do more physical and dangerous tasks such as, hunting animals, conducting warfare etc, this is called division of labour (Bonvillain 2006). Gender and status are the most recent conflict and the most studied topic in today’s society. Gender equality, happens when both the male and female agree to equal rights and behaviours. Gender inequality happens when the male and female do not agree to equal rights, attitudes and behaviour (Bonvillain 2006). An example of this, is male dominance in china, the male adult, was the head of the family and they expressed their dominance over their children and wives. Traditional Chinese cultures had more Patriarchal gender relations (Bonvillain 2006). In conclusion, the question â€Å"is gender biologically determined?† is incorrect, even though gender has a biological definition, gender is mostly socially defined in this context. The tasks or norms which each gender (i.e. male and female) is supposed to perform in the society, is based on a social construct. They are not born to be who there are, instead these social constructions are in-built within them since childhood. Since they taught to act and behave in a specific way which is culturally approved. They choose to be what sexuality appeals to them and what each individualistic gender they are taught to be. Hence ‘Gender’ is strongly driven by culture. REFERENCES: West,C and Zimmerman, Don. 1987. Doing Gender. Sociologists for Women in Society 1(2): 125-155 Herek, Gregory. 1986.on Heterosexual Masculinity. American Behavioural Scientist 29(5): 563-577 Brandth, Berit. 2002. Gender Identity in European Family Farming: A Literature Review. European Society for Rural Sociology 42(3): 181-200 Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Constructions of Gender Identity. Bonvillain, Nancy. 2006. Chapter 10, â€Å"Gender† from Cultural Anthropology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Pp. 251-282. ISBN: 0-13-045545-8